Labor Center plays vital role on campus
In “UCLA has no place funding labor center’s
political agenda” (Nov. 3) David Lazar attacks the UCLA
Center for Labor Research and Education.
But labor studies is an important discipline that deserves a
role within the university.
The Labor Center is an asset to the UCLA community, providing
research and educational opportunities that cannot be found
elsewhere on campus. It offers a minor in labor and workplace
studies and provides classes in partnership with many other
departments.
Organizers have arranged for veteran civil rights leader the
Rev. James Lawson Jr. to teach at UCLA and have brought labor
leaders such as United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta to
speak on campus.
The Labor Center also provides internship opportunities with
some of the most innovative labor and community organizations in
the greater L.A. area. It sponsors an annual job fair that connects
students with summer internships and career options. Many of these
internships have led to careers for UCLA graduates.
The center also conducts important research. This past spring,
they published the first student book on Asian American workers in
the L.A. garment industry that has received favorable national
media coverage and has been distributed nationally. A group of nine
UCLA undergraduate students spent several years conducting research
and writing the book, a significant accomplishment of their
undergraduate career. This winter and spring, the center is working
on yet another student publication on immigrant students in higher
education.
Finally, Lazar’s attack on the Labor Center is an attack
on academic freedom. If he does not wish to take the courses
offered by the Labor Center and does not wish to attend the
educational events they sponsor, that is his right. But for him to
advocate the elimination of the Labor Center, he would prevent
other students from pursuing educational opportunities within labor
studies.
Gregory Cendana, Third-year, sociology and Asian
American studies USAC internal vice president