It was my first regents meeting. Not knowing where to go, I
went in through the public entrance. After passing through the
metal detector, the UCPD patted me down and I entered the
room. There was a velvet rope that separated the University
officials from the public. When I tried to cross this velvet
rope to join the Board, I was immediately stopped by a UCPD
officer, who warned me in a stern tone, “You don’t
belong there.”
Indeed, thinking about who my “colleagues” were to
be ““ they were the social elite, political heavyweights,
probably worth more than the GDP of a small country ““ I
didn’t belong on the Board. As a middle-to-working class
Pilipino suburban “kid,” I knew what I was getting into
but didn’t know if I could handle it. I was obsessed
with the question, “How can I push an agenda here?” I
felt this intense burden to get something done with the time I
had. With over 160,000 UC students, and only one on the Board,
it would be a disgrace and disservice if this university remained
unchanged on my watch. My only assets were my wits, an intensely
supportive family and network of friends, and a commitment to my
three core values: service, justice and community.
Now, at the sunset of my term, I look back and know that these
past two years have been immensely successful. But I am cautious
not to take the credit because I know that this success was not a
product of my action. Rather, it was the community that took me in,
the grassroots networks that let me join them; it was this
collective action that made these last two years incredibly
dynamic.
My part was to assure people that we could make change and to
dedicate every fiber of my being to carrying the vision forward.
And we achieved a tremendous amount of progress.
We were able largely to protect funding for outreach,
particularly student initiated outreach. We pushed a successful
campaign for Pilipino American Studies in response to the
non-existence and downsizing of the discipline on several of the
campuses. We also pushed to pass a Green Buildings and Clean
Energy policy ““ resulting in the adoption of the most
comprehensive policy of its kind for a research
university. The highlight of the past two years was when the
regents adopted a resolution in opposition to Ward Connerly’s
Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color and National Origin
(CRECNO, formerly known as the Racial Privacy Initiative). These
are products of our collective action.
What I appreciate about your campus, UCLA, are the dedicated
students. Your campus is one of the most politically engaged
campuses. You know the issues. You know how to push an
agenda. But what I am most in awe of is your ability to take
care of one another in a university that forces you to
compete. You fight not for yourselves, but for others ““
for the students who otherwise would be denied access to this place
of privilege; for those who are in danger of dropping out; for
those who do not have the privilege of attending a UC campus. It is
this commitment to community, I believe, that is your greatest
asset as you move into the larger world.
I am not only proud of the goals met these past two years, but I
am also proud of the fact that I became a part of something greater
than I am alone.
Ligot-Gordon was the 2002-2003 student regent.