Peaceful dialogue and education coexist in campus
coalition
Thumbs up to the students participating in the UCLA Coalition
for Coexistence last week, an event sponsored by the United Arab
Association, Jewish Student Union and Hillel Jewish Students
Center. The forum sought to provide a peace-oriented environment to
discuss the conflict in the Middle East.
Groups on both sides of the issue have boldly taken the
initiative not only to educate the campus about the Middle Eastern
conflict, but also to be receptive to each other’s
perspective on the problem. This is particularly important in
dispelling myths and stereotypes associated with the Jewish, Muslim
and Arab communities.
In the past, tensions in the Middle East manifested themselves
on the UCLA campus, often resulting in counterproductive
finger-pointing and name-calling. This forum steered clear of these
types of actions and instead provided for meaningful dialogue among
students.
Though we understand the conflict in the Middle East is far from
solved, we recognize and commend the students in the coalition who
are making an effort to coexist and understand each other in a
peaceful manner in these weeks preceding the anniversary of
Israel’s independence.
New federal aid guidelines shows clear bias against
low-income youth
Thumbs down to President George W. Bush’s administration
for their continuing efforts to deny financial aid to students
convicted of drug related offenses. Currently, question 35 of the
Free Application for Federal Student Aid asks all applicants
whether or not they have a drug conviction; answering
“yes” to this question jeopardizes a student’s
chances of receiving federal financial aid.
Though these measures have been in place since the Clinton
administration, the difficulties in dealing with students who left
the question blank led to a lenient enforcement of this law ““
but President Bush says that this will change and that the law will
be more thoroughly enforced during his term. This has many negative
implications.
For one, the law blatantly promotes inequality. It discriminates
against students from low socioeconomic communities who depend on
financial aid to attend college ““ a stark contrast to those
from affluent backgrounds who commit the same crimes but can still
afford to pay for college themselves.
It also punishes people in an unnecessarily harsh manner for
“youthful indiscretions.” This problem is further
exacerbated in California, where Proposition 21 increased access to
juveniles’ crime records.
Along with these problems comes an increase in bureaucratic
hassle when dealing with law enforcement as well as with students
who don’t answer the question.
While the Bush administration may consider it important to curb
drug use among youth, doing this by promoting gross inequality and
keeping people from receiving an education because of a minor
mistake is completely unacceptable.
Graduate student elections turnout, though higher, still
too low
Thumbs up to the students voting in the Graduate Students
Association elections last week. This year’s elections were
the first time in 12 years that students had over a 10 percent
turnout, the threshold needed for voter-approved referenda to take
effect.
It’s commendable that turnout for the GSA elections
improved by 7.7 percent this year and that elections were scheduled
differently to encourage students from different professional
schools to vote. Still, low voter turnout, which has made it
impossible for GSA to pass referenda over the last decade, is still
disappointingly low ““ as it is for all elections on
campus.
Graduate students are a critical part of our campus. Since
undergraduate students are only here for about four years, graduate
students who stay longer have an opportunity to make long-lasting
changes on our campus. In recent years, GSA has focused on problems
that affect students’ daily lives, such as graduate student
housing and transportation programs.
If graduates reach out to undergraduate groups helping carry out
similar goals and also working on larger issues such as affirmative
action, they will directly impact our campus on a grander scale and
change it for the better.
Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down represents the majority opinion of the
Daily Bruin Editorial Board. Send feedback to [email protected].