Activists around California will launch a week of demonstrations
and rallies today to remove Ward Connerly from the University of
California Board of Regents.
The campaign organizers, the national and UC Berkeley chapters
of By Any Means Necessary, say Connerly, a long-time critic of
affirmative action, has used his position as UC regent to further
his political agenda.
“Ward Connerly has abused the name of the University of
California,” said Hoku Jeffrey, a BAMN spokesman. “We
want to deprive him of his ability to promote racism and
segregation using the University of California name.”
Connerly is the chief sponsor and co-author of Proposition 54,
which would have banned the state from classifying an individual by
race or color. Proposition 54 was defeated by a wide margin in the
Oct. 7 recall election.
Connerly also supported Proposition 209, which passed in 1996
and outlawed the consideration of gender and race in state
contracting, housing, hiring or education.
Connerly said in a Nov. 11 statement that BAMN was attempting to
stifle free speech and denounced the organization’s
“thuggish, bullying tactics.”
Connerly also questioned BAMN’s support of democracy,
citing the fact that Proposition 209 passed with a majority
vote.
“If they support democracy, why do they not accept the
democratically expressed will of the people of California, who
voted overwhelmingly to reject racial preferences in 1996?”
Connerly said.
Members of BAMN, along with other students, will be speaking and
rallying Wednesday on the UCLA campus in front of Covel Commons,
where the regents’ meeting will be held. BAMN will present
the regents with a petition, signed by over 11,000 people, for the
removal of Connerly.
“(The regents) need to bring an end to this absolutely
disgraceful misuse of the name of the University of
California,” said Yvette Felarca, a BAMN member and a senator
in the Associated Students of UC Berkeley. “They need to
demand his removal.”
Felarca and other BAMN members also contended that Proposition
54 could have prevented research and deterred prestigious
professors from teaching at UC institutions.
“Ward Connerly is actively seeking to destroy the
reputation and mission of the University of California, not only to
represent the broad diversity of California, but to also be an
institution actively seeking knowledge,” Jeffrey said.
Connerly and advocates of Proposition 54 say research would not
have been affected by the initiative because of an exemption clause
in the text.
In response to BAMN’s efforts to remove Ward Connerly, a
new student group, The Coalition to Defend Ward Connerly, formed
last week. The Coalition includes the UCLA and UC Irvine chapters
of Students for Academic Freedom, Bruin Republicans and College
Republicans of Los Angeles.
Kendra Carney, president of UCLA Students for Academic Freedom,
said the coalition is defending Ward Connerly because it believes
he has a right to have his own political opinion.
“(Connerly) has been at all times deserving of his
position. … There is no reason why the university shouldn’t
be open to a more conservative view,” she said.
Coalition members, Carney said, will speak during the public
comment period of the regents’ meeting, though she said they
may not stage a counter-protest because they are concerned for
their personal safety.
In his statement, Connerly also attacked the validity of
BAMN’s arguments to remove him from office and accused BAMN
of using violence to express their views.
“Their very name is a threat of physical violence. They
claim to support democracy, but their tactics say otherwise,”
he said.
On Tuesday, BAMN is launching a boycott of Coors Beer because of
a donation they said the corporation made to the “Yes on
Proposition 54″ campaign.
Connerly and his supporters say the money was donated by Joseph
Coors, a former director of Coors Beer, as an individual and not as
a representative of the corporation.
This week’s events also include demonstrations at Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s inauguration as governor today, where
protesters will request Connerly’s removal from the regents
board.