By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Reporter
The chanting hordes of students who stormed Royce Hall after the
UC Board of Regents refused to vote on a repeal of SP-1 and SP-2
Wednesday was reminiscent of the 1998 protest attacking the initial
drop in minority admissions that resulted from the policies.
Only this time, there were no riot-gear clad LAPD officers lined
up around Royce ““ and no arrests were made.
“The difference between now and then is that there was not
a heavy police presence,” said USAC Internal Vice President
Elias Enciso.
He said this was what led to the peaceful end to
Wednesday’s rally.
“At the other one, there were police in riot gear ““
that’s why students were arrested, that’s why students
were hurt,” he said.
“Everyone felt safer, there was no reason to be violent or
defensive,” Enciso continued.
At the 1998 protest, students barricaded themselves inside Royce
Hall in response to the drop in admissions of underrepresented
minority students that resulted from the ban on affirmative
action.
Then-Undergraduate Students Association Council President Kandea
Mosley led the protest, which culminated in the arrest of 88
students as the evening drew on.
Veterans of the 1998 march said Wednesday’s protest was
indicative that current efforts are built on the foundation of the
past.
“I see the same outrage, the same commitment, dedication
and sense of community that was around (three) years ago,”
said Albert Retana, a 1998 UCLA alumnus and former USAC external
vice president. “It’s empowering to see that there are
roots in the student movement that run deep in UCLA’s
history.”
For the past six months, campus organizers networked with both
students at other universities and community leaders to build
strength in numbers. Karren Lane, ASU chair and Affirmative Action
Coalition organizer said the sit-in at Royce was unplanned, it was
a strategy that came about after all other options had been
exhausted.
“The last protest was based upon the understanding of what
might happen, whereas here, it’s about the realization of
what has occurred,” said attorney Jon Caldwell, who
represented the students who were arrested at the 1998 protest.
“The chancellor has said his greatest regret is the fall in
minorities. In an ironic way, it seems the students and chancellor
are on the same page.”
Caldwell, acting once again as the students’ legal
adviser, notified Wednesday’s crowd of the ramifications of
their presence in the building should they decide to stay in the
building. In the end, no students were arrested.
As the former chair of the UCLA Black Student Union, the
equivalent of today’s ASU, Caldwell said the struggle for
rights is cyclical.
The history of the struggles ““ from the U.S. Supreme
Court’s 1978 Bakke decision to the focus on SP-1, SP-2 and
Proposition 209 today ““ are bound by the struggle of students
fighting to win access for themselves and generations to come, said
Mike de la Rocha, a 2000 alumnus and last year’s USAC
president.
“It’s good to see students stepped up and learned
from the past,” he said. “The student organizations
have a legacy that is carried on from generation to
generation.”
In the 1978 case Bakke v. UC Regents, the Supreme Court declared
racial quotas unconstitutional, while upholding the use of other
forms of affirmative action.
“There is a definite continuity that predates me and
continues today for underrepresented minorities,” Caldwell
said. “At the last protest the government was Republican.
Now, Gray Davis has been elected the governor of California and the
state is in a more Democratic orientation.”
Since Gov. Gray Davis is a Democrat, he is more likely than his
predecessor to appoint regents who would vote to repeal SP-1 and
SP-2. Currently, there are two openings on the board.
Though the Los Angeles mayoral debate that was scheduled to take
place in Royce Hall was cancelled, candidates Antonio Villaraigosa
and Xavier Becerra offered their support to the protesters
Wednesday evening.
“Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr. are probably
looking down and saying the next generation is standing
tall,” Becerra said. “What you’re doing is one
more step in the process.”
As Becerra stepped off Royce’s stage, students turned
their attention to the fleets of television cameras and news
reporters shouting, “This is what diversity looks
like!”
ASU’s Lane affirmed the feelings of many of the
protesters: “We already have a victory here.”