Daily Bruin File Photo Students from across the state protest
SP-1 and 2, UC bans on affirmative action, at UCLA on March 14,
2001.
By Sophia Chakos-Leiby
Daily Bruin Contributor
On March 14, 2001, more than 1,000 people swept across the UCLA
campus protesting the statewide university ban on affirmative
action. Their protests ended when a couple hundred students staged
a sit-in at Royce Hall ““ disrupting the mayoral debates
scheduled for that night.
In light of the one-year anniversary, students and faculty
reflect on the current status of university affirmative action
policies and the state of political activism on campus.
Student activism has become more fragmented as individual
student groups pursue a variety of issues, such as outreach and
tolerance after Sept. 11.
“There has not been an issue that a broad base of students
feel they can unite around,” said Li’i Furumoto,
director of Xinachtli, a program that mentors underrepresented high
school students in Santa Monica and Venice.
Though access to education remains a hot issue, the protests are
more individualized ““ as opposed to last year’s
collective campus effort against the ban on affirmative action.
This year, there is less activism since SP-1 and 2 has been
repealed, said policy studies professor Andrew Sabl. These two
policies, adopted by the UC Board of Regents in 1995, banned racial
preference in admission and hiring decisions.
Two months after last year’s protest, the regent’s
unanimously rescinded both resolutions.
Ryan Smith, a third-year political science student, said the
repeal of SP-1 and 2 reflected the influence of last year’s
protest on the regents ““ as well as the power of student
activism in general.
During the protests, students and community activists gathered
from across the state to show support.
“The rally was not only symbolic of what needs to change,
but also what happens when people unify for a cause that’s
greater than themselves,” Smith said.
But the repeal actually exhausted student activism on campus,
Sabl said.
“It was a symbolic victory, but that does not mean this
issue is over,” Sabl said.
Proposition 209, passed by California voters in 1996 to outlaw
public institutions from using race in admission and hiring
decisions, still governs the state.
“UCLA has an incredibly rich history in student activism
that dates back to the 1960s,” Smith said. “It did not
start, nor will it end, with affirmative action.”
Instead of SP-1 and 2, students this year rallied in favor of
Assembly Bill 540, which would decrease “long term”
California resident fees for undocumented immigrants and
out-of-state students who graduate from a California high
school.
Another approach students are focusing on to increase
accessibility is the development of programs that serve
underrepresented communities, Furumoto said.
“The university is currently servicing the elite of
California and Los Angeles, but our purpose is to service
everyone,” she said. “The system is supposed to be
equal, and they are not fulfilling their responsibility in this
educational process.”
There has not been any event as big as last year’s
protest, but neither has there been a decrease in students’
fight for social change, Smith said.
In their outreach to L.A. communities, programs like Xinachtli
““ which works out of the Community Programming Office ““
provide mentoring services and academic tutoring for
underrepresented high school students to counteract the educational
imbalance that exists within California’s public school
system, Furumoto said.
Muslim Students Association political action coordinator Ghaith
Mahmood said the events of Sept. 11 also changed the issues tackled
by student activists on campus.
“This school year, the focus has shifted to Sept. 11 and
the war. There is a lot going on at UCLA to humanize each
other’s struggles,” Mahmood said.
Students participated in forums such as “Miseducation of a
Nation,” co-sponsored by MSA and other organizations, to
discuss stereotypes and racism post-Sept. 11.
This year, there has also been less opposing activism between
the MSA and the Jewish Student Union ““ who held many
counter-rallies about Palestine and Israel, respectively, last
year.
“There is a different vision as a step to address world
issues … and now many communities are reaching out to each
other,” Mahmood said.