Cruz Bustamante’s active involvement in University of
California policies and education in general should earn him
UCLA’s votes today.
Because the Lieutenant Governor has a vague job description with
no wide-reaching powers, it is one of his primary responsibilities
to be a public figure who advocates on behalf of interests like
education.
In March 2001, Bustamante did just that at UCLA. He appeared on
campus to discuss SP-1 and SP-2, which banned affirmative action at
the UC, with then African Student Union chair Karren Lane. He
promised more than 1,000 Bruin protesters he would pursue the
repeal of the policies and actually followed through ““ they
were unanimously repealed by the regents at their May meeting that
year.
To his credit, Bustamante has also had a better attendance
record at regent meetings than any other elected ex-officio member.
Neither Governor Gray Davis nor Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson has
attended a single meeting this year.
Perhaps it is this experience with the regents that has led
Bustamante to challenge their political agenda. The regents,
especially Ward Connerly, have used their position as the heads of
one of the nation’s premier universities to turn their own
political agendas into state policy.
SP-1 and SP-2, for example, were used by Connerly to promote his
campaign to pass Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action
throughout all of California. Although Proposition 209 still
stands, Bustamante’s attempts to repeal the
university-specific policies, which helped give rise to Proposition
209, sent the message that he won’t allow the regents to be
used as a political tool.
Now, Connerly is trying to reinforce Proposition 209 by passing
the Racial Privacy Initiative (RPI), which would prohibit the state
from requesting race-related information on any official forms.
Bustamante has again challenged Connerly’s abuse of his
regent position by calling for an audit of the RPI’s
potential effects on university research, among other things.
One thing Bustamante could improve on is more vociferously
checking Gov. Gray Davis’ actions. When he does disagree with
the governor, he keeps it low-key. But it will be necessary for
Bustamente speak up if Davis is to be prevented from making another
slew of bad decisions if elected today.
Bustamante has made UC students and their concerns a priority
during his term in office. In turn, they should make his
re-election campaign a priority when they head to the ballot
boxes.