Friday, September 26, 1997
Community service, outreach may retain UCLA’s diversity
CONFERENCE: Students back continued aid for disadvantaged
people
By Stefanie Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
In the wake of Proposition 209 and its possible threat to the
diversity of UCLA, the Undergraduate Students Association Council
(USAC) has increased its focus on community service and outreach
for this year.
During a Student Affairs-sponsored conference Wednesday,
university administrators and student leaders met to discuss
various issues, including the use of community service and outreach
as a short-term solution to the negative effects Proposition 209
might have on the university.
"UCLA has a long history of having viable student-initiated
community service programs. It’s very important that these programs
are given special consideration when UCLA is given money to do
outreach," said USAC President Kandea Mosley said.
The overall opinion during the conference was that the abolition
of affirmative action would decrease the diversity of UCLA.
Many university administrators, including Chancellor Albert
Carnesale, discussed the importance of diversity and how it adds to
the educational value of UCLA.
Increasing both community service and outreach, however, is
being viewed as a short-term solution to a potentially long-term
problem of declining diversity. Other plans are therefore being
discussed.
To help alleviate the problem of Proposition 209’s
implementation, UCLA has been allocated an increased amount of
money it can use toward outreach and community service
programs.
However, Mosley and other members of the council hope that some
of this additional money will be given to students, so that they
can use it to fund and support the already-existing
student-initiated community service and outreach programs. The
administration has not yet decided whether students will get some
of the additional funds.
"Regardless of Prop 209 and any other legislation, it’s about
time that the university take further measures to support
successful student community service programs," Mosley said.
The administration is looking forward to working closely with
students in some of the new community service and outreach programs
that will be created.
"I think it’s essential (that students and administrators work
together) and I think the administration thinks it’s essential,"
said Associate Vice Chancellor of Student and Campus Life Bob
Naples. "This is not an initiative we (the administration) can do
on our own.
"We’ve always believed that students are the best people to be
doing outreach, and I think it’s consistent with a lot of programs
that have been developed," he added.
One of those programs is BruinCorps, an administrative-run pilot
program designed to combine the community service efforts of
students and the administration.
Currently, BruinCorps administers the America Reads Challenge, a
national program focused on teaching students to read independently
by the third grade.
Although the administration plans to include students in
designing future outreach efforts, Community Service Commissioner
Abi Karlin-Resnick stressed that the two groups should collaborate
on the planning stages as well as implementation.
Not being involved in the planning of a program "doesn’t help
our learning process, and it takes away the student voice in the
community service programs," Karlin-Resnick said.
To rally support for student-run community service programs,
council members circulated petitions during freshman convocation
Wednesday afternoon.
Mosley also handed one to Chancellor Carnesale, hoping that the
faculty and administration present at the event would lend their
support. Carnesale has not yet signed the petition.
"As students, we can only hope that the administration will work
with us, and we can work with them, to expand community service,
which has been a vital part of life at UCLA," Mosley said.
Students at convocation agreed that helping to provide resources
to disadvantaged communities would help ensure diversity at
UCLA.
"I think there should be some affirmative action, but it should
be based on (socioeconomic status) and not necessarily race," said
Lisa Wada, an undeclared first-year student.
"So if there are more resources for people who are
disadvantaged, the outreach would be helping," she added.
But other students were not as convinced that the problems
created by the abolition of affirmative action could be solved by
community service.
"Just outreach won’t help. It’s not enough to solve the problem,
but it won’t hurt," said first-year undeclared student Kareen
Akry.