Editorial
Young’s vocal affirmative action stance is much-needed
With affirmative action debates well underway and heating up at
UCLA, Chancellor Charles Young’s plans for a campus-wide
affirmative action education campaign come as welcome news this
week.
In a campus climate threatening divisions on issues of race- and
gender-based preferences, Young’s defense of affirmative action
attempts to open up debate and to inform students, faculty, alumni
and staff about how affirmative action works, who it benefits and,
in particular, what UCLA would be like without it.
We at the Daily Bruin welcome this move. By making this
statement in support of affirmative action programs, Young once
again places himself at the forefront of the campus debate and
clarifies his stance on an issue of growing relevance to the
university community.
The importance of Young’s ideological stance on campus issues
cannot be underestimated, because his leadership position affects
everyone in the campus community. And because in recent years,Young
hasn’t taken much of a vocal stand, not even when students demanded
he do so during the Chicana/o studies debates in spring 1993 or in
the days leading up to the Proposition 187 vote last fall.
His defense of affirmative action harkens back to his early
years as chancellor, when  in the midst of controversy Â
he came out in vocal support of Professor Angela Davis. He has
always fought for affirmative action, which he has said is too
often built around the false premise that affirmative action
benefits only disadvantaged and minority students.
In vocally reaffirming these beliefs, Young’s statement may
signify new possibilities for the university community. By severing
some of his ties with the UC Regents  particularly with
Regent Ward Connerly, who wants an end to race-based preferences
 he may point to a new kind of independence: As the most
experienced chancellor in the UC system who is no longer in the
running for UC president, Young may be less encumbered by politics
and potentially better able to take a strong stance on issues
affecting the UCLA community, to focus on the issues that matter
most, to the students, in particular.
The challenge is his.
Our support of his statement does not come without skepticism,
however; his position will only be truly significant if he
continues to take an active concern in promoting intelligent,
informed debate in the campus and university community in the
future.
As Young was quoted as saying in the March 3 Los Angeles Times,
were it not for affirmative action programs, "We’d be in a
battleground … If we had not been doing what we have been doing
for the last 25 years, this place would be a shambles."
And he’s right.
Again, we welcome Young’s vocal defense of affirmative action.
But we hope it signals a new kind of leadership role for the
chancellor, one that signifies the beginning of improved
communication and, when the time comes for decisions to be made
regarding reform and policy-making, a more responsible debate.