In the sea of faces that will crowd campus this weekend to
celebrate 2002 commencement, you may be sitting next to Brendan
Raher.
Raher lived out of a car during his first few weeks at UCLA
because students in the “Winter Bruin” program
weren’t guaranteed housing. Even though he was deferred
admission, and even though his space would make his classmates in
triples and study lounges feel like they were living in penthouses,
Raher was excited to be a part of UCLA’s tradition. To your
left might be Keschia Potter, a fifth-year music student who is a
budding jazz musician. Her path to Westwood came through Washington
High School, in South Central Los Angeles, where resources are few,
and the number of black females accepted to a school like UCLA are
fewer. You will be in the crowd, as well, fulfilling one of the
most challenging and meaningful goals of your life. You may have
entered the university expecting rigorous academics, late nights
shared with new friends, rushing the court at Pauley when the
basketball team won another NCAA championship, performing on stage,
or challenging the system through political activism. And those
things may have happened. Certainly some didn’t. But after
having lived through four (or more) years at UCLA, you’ve
probably come to some sort of understanding. In some ways you got
what you expected, sometimes more, and sometimes less. But in the
end, it was all about preparing you for what’s next. That
preparation took many forms. It was both teaching you to specialize
in your major, and exposing you to the hundreds of extracurricular
UCLA offers at the same time. “You have to learn to
“˜peel an onion,’ so to speak,” said Chancellor
Albert Carnesale. But “depth” doesn’t get it done
on its own. “You also have to have breadth, so you realize
not everything is an onion.” In their time here, students
definitely got breadth. It was more like a vegetable platter. They
took advantage of the many opportunities UCLA has to offer spanning
campus politics, athletics, community service, academics, social
life, employment and the arts. In fact, many students dabbled in
all of those categories. Shiraz Khalid, a transfer student and
political science student from Mission Viejo, Calif., joined the
Student Alumni Association, the Muslim Students Association, the
Indian Student Union and Delta Phi Beta co-ed fraternity. He also
attended every basketball and football game during his two years
here, as well as cultural shows and religious ceremonies. “I
didn’t want to just go to classes. You learn more from people
than you do from classes,” Khalid said. His classmate Erin
Rech, an economics and political science student, joined the Bruin
Leaders Project, Model United Nations, Bruin Partners, and Alpha
Phi sorority. She will receive a Chancellor’s Service Award
for her efforts. But more impressive than resumes full of
activities and awards are the motivations behind student
involvement. People should not be complacent in who they are,
Khalid said. “I admire people who go after things. My friends
are all going to grad schools, learning new things, meeting new
people, getting new jobs and seeing the world.” And
it’s attitudes like these that will take successful college
students and make successful adults of them in their lives after
UCLA. In fact, when asked if they were nervous about the future,
most of these students said “no.” Potter, who has
already begun her career as a jazz musician and has appeared on
national radio and in festivals, says she has already built a solid
foundation. “I just have to keep building now,” she
said. But even without steady work lined up, her classmates exude a
confidence about their future. Said Raher, “To an extent,
I’m nervous. But I try not to be. I try to keep a clear head
because whatever happens will happen.” Were these students
always so confident? Not exactly. “When I came here I was
shy. Now I am ambitious,” Potter said. “Being here
helped me develop strong character, and made me who I am.”
The change Potter experienced is not uncommon among undergraduates.
It might even be characteristic of college years, especially in
light of all the things this year’s graduating class faced
during their time here that challenged their thinking and ways of
life. In addition to the standard experiences of living on your
own, making new friends, and learning new things in class, students
also had to grapple with some difficult social and personal issues,
like the Sept. 11 attacks, and a heated and sometimes painful
campus debate regarding access to education across race and class.
Khalid, a Muslim, said some students gave him funny looks, or made
odd comments after Sept 11. And even though he was able to handle
it, some of his friends and family were not. “I can escape it
in a big place like UCLA, but my little brother is at a small
junior high. He can’t get away from it. I just tell him
people who do those things don’t know the religion,” he
said. Marlene Elias, a Canadian student who will receive her
master’s in geography, said the weeks after the attacks
turned her off from American politics. “They showed me power
in America is in the wrong hands,” she said. But Sept. 11 was
not the only political issue students faced. Chancellor Carnesale
acknowledges that access to education post-Proposition 209, which
banned the use of affirmative action in state institutions, was
(along with the attacks) the most marked thing in the last four
years. “Both of those events can be seen as tests for this
community, and both have brought us together in a greater degree of
common cause,” he said. For a majority of the time this
year’s graduates spent on campus, student government and
activists were either protesting in favor of or debating the use of
affirmative action in university admissions and hiring. The debate
focused primarily on former UC policies SP-1 and SP-2, which
forbade all nine campuses from using affirmative action. And
although the policies were overturned in spring quarter of last
year, UCLA is still healing from the scars of division. In fact,
sometimes the tension was so great that students who were
interested in government chose not to participate. Rech, who served
as associated student body president of her high school, said she
did not join the Undergraduate Students Association Council because
it seemed so divided across race and ethnicity. “I
didn’t get involved because I think people should work
together, not against each other,” she said. Rech
wasn’t the only one. Only 20 percent of this year’s
student body voted in elections, indicating that even though major
political events were happening both on and off campus, student
attention was focused elsewhere. The elsewhere was probably in
academics, socializing, at sporting events, in the arts, or working
to pay for an education. In addition to the time he spent on the
crew team and as an orientation counselor, Raher was the leader of
the Bruin Yell Crew, which leads cheers with the spirit squad at
sporting events. He held the position the last two years, during a
time when Bruin athletics were heavily criticized. Neither the
football team nor the men’s basketball team won a national
championship during the graduating class’ tenure, and their
respective coaches were often criticized for failing to meet the
university’s expectations. Likewise, this last year was the
first time in years that UCLA hasn’t won a single national
championship. Even go-to teams like men’s water polo,
softball, women’s gymnastics, and track and field
didn’t finish first. But Raher remains a fan anyway. “A
lot of people put their whole mind, heart and soul into the UCLA
tradition. They expect to win, and it’s just heartbreaking
when that doesn’t happen. But you have to be there for both
wins and losses.” Khalid also enjoyed team sports, because
they encourage pride in your school “Except during
scandals,” he added, in reference to the numerous NCAA
investigations into violations and extra benefits, like the
handicapped parking permits used by members of the football team in
2000, DeShaun Foster’s infamous SUV, Cory Paus’ drunk
driving arrest, Ja Ron Rush’s dealings with agents and
Kristee Porter’s violations. Not to mention the resignation
of men’s soccer coach Todd Saldana, who had a fraudulent
bachelor’s degree. And even though it wasn’t an
integral part of her time here, Rech said going to football and
basketball games was a fun way to experience campus unity. She
didn’t make it to all of them, however, because she spent 20
to 35 hours a week working at the UCLA Medical Plaza, and various
other places. “I had to work to be here, and it was
difficult. But I was still able to participate in other
things,” she said. One of those other things was her
sorority, Alpha Phi. “It was a good way to meet people, and
it made the campus smaller for me. I also got to do a lot of
community service. But it also means people stereotype you.
“Sometimes it’s deserved,” she added. But the
best experience she had was studying abroad at the London School of
Economics. And, like many other people who study abroad, Rech found
it hard to return to business as usual on campus. “When
you’re gone, you change. You come back and things are
constant. And then you realize, no one else went through what you
did. They just don’t know.” While Raher, Khalid and
Rech were at games and other functions, Potter was busy promoting
her band and playing gigs at Farmer’s Market, the JazzReggae
Festival, the Playboy Jazz Festival, and on the radio. “I
started playing the saxophone at age 14. I got a lot of support
from my mother. I love music, and I’m happy I spent my time
at UCLA performing,” she said. Potter also joined the African
Student Union and participated in many of their activities before
work just took over too much of her time. “It was fun being
in a club, but I just got too busy,” she said. Business is
definitely a factor to participation, echoed Elias. As a graduate
student, she knows firsthand how hard it is to balance a demanding
academic schedule with other responsibilities. “People with
families and full-time jobs have other things that take priority.
They can’t stay on campus until nine o’clock,”
she said. Elias is a member of the Environmental Coalition and the
Graduate Students Association Cabinet. She left her long-term
boyfriend and family members behind in Montreal, Canada to study at
UCLA’s geography department. “It was hard to leave
them, but it’s not the first time I’ve gone. I just try
to talk to them on the phone every day, and I see my boyfriend
every two months,” she said. Leaving Montreal was also
difficult because Elias heard “horror stories” about
Los Angeles. “I heard about driving, pollution, and the
general image of plasticness.” But L.A. isn’t fake, she
says. “Certainly there’s the movie stars and such, but
to only look at that aspect of it is to ignore the
“˜little’ people who make it diverse and
cultural.” “I love the weather in California, and
there’s a lot to do,” she added. In all of this social
and extracurricular activity, one might start to wonder about
academics. But they weren’t forgotten, simply part of a
bigger picture. “I learned about critical thinking. I learned
to really get beyond the surface, to delve deeply into a
subject,” said Khalid of his political science major.
“Oh, and how to write a paper.” As a graduate student,
Elias delved even deeper. She spent her two years studying West
African globalization and gender dynamics, and is considering
returning to UCLA to complete a Ph.D program. But few students
could say that academics alone completed their time at the
university. Education happens in many places. It happens on Bruin
Walk, when you see someone of another race or ethnicity. It happens
when you hunt for an apartment in Westwood. It happens when you
stay after class to talk to your professor, or when you attend a
guest lecture or performance. And if you did things right here,
education happens for the rest of your life, with each new path you
venture down. Somewhere in the sea of faces this weekend, these
students will float between flying caps and beach balls. Someone, a
stranger perhaps, will read their name from a card and announce
their graduation from the University of California, Los Angeles.
And somewhere from the even larger sea of folding chairs looking on
at the festivities, a burst of cheering and celebration will erupt.
It’s hard to remember that each face is a story. It’s
hard to remember that each face came to UCLA with so many
expectations, but not knowing what to expect at all. They only
hoped. They hoped that this university would prepare them for
something. What is that something? Is it a beginning, or an end?
The truth is it’s probably in the middle. As Potter said, she
already built a strong foundation. And like most UCLA students,
what comes next will be a realization of hard work, just as
attending the university in the first place was. The details of how
the next step will work out may still be unclear, but one thing
isn’t. The university prepared them.