Ten years ago, campus life at UCLA was in many ways different
than it is today ““ students didn’t have cell phones,
the dorms weren’t equipped with Internet, and the Spice
Girls’ “Wannabe” was climbing the charts.
But at the same time, many of the social and political issues
that were most dear to students in the 1990s are still relevant to
the campus today.
These include fees, financial aid, voter registration and
affirmative action, said York Chang, who was the external vice
president of the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council in
1994 and president in 1995.
Many of the student leaders who fought for these issues in
recent years are graduating this week and plan to continue with
advocacy efforts after they leave UCLA.
Anica McKesey, former president of USAC and chair of the African
Student Union, is finishing her time at UCLA but plans to continue
working with students in the future.
McKesey will spend the summer as a peer counselor and has
applied to several jobs and fellowships for the fall, all in
“non-profit and community based organizations … with the
youth.”
In the fall, McKesey will be applying to graduate school to get
her master’s degree in urban planning and, like many campus
leaders who have graduated before her, is planning to pursue a
degree in law.
“I want to own apartment complexes and manage them for
low-income families,” McKesey said of her plans for the
future, adding that she also hopes to start a charter school and do
rehabilitation counseling for youth in juvenile hall.
During their time at UCLA, councilmembers focused on organizing
campaigns in support of outreach programs and the diversity
requirement and fought against cuts to the university’s
budget.
Chang remembers advocating similar causes during his years at
UCLA.
“(We were) really involved in trying to stop fee hikes
“¦ bussing students up to (University of California Board of
Regents) meetings to meet with legislatures,” Chang said,
explaining one way in which he was active.
In light of the budget cuts and rapid fee increases in recent
years, the cost of education remains important for students at
UCLA. Leaders continue to fight against increases, as Chang and his
colleagues did, and look for alternate ways to save students
money.
Alongside fees, diversity on campus has been and continues to be
a primary concern for many past and present student leaders.
Mark Pulido, the student government president in the 1992-1993
academic year, said his primary concerns while at UCLA were to
diversify the curriculum, create an ethnic and gender studies
program and ensure all students had equal opportunity to attend and
graduate from an institute of higher education.
Pulido said he joined student government out of a “desire
to serve (his) community on campus … and to expand access to
higher education for underserved communities.”
When Pulido attended UCLA, affirmative action was a factor in
the admissions process. A few years later, the race-based
admissions policy was banned, which many students believe has had a
profound effect on campus diversity.
The admissions process is still an important issue for student
leaders, as many see the elimination of affirmative action as a
crucial factor in campus diversity, which some say is one of the
most valuable aspects of UCLA.Â
“I really enjoyed “¦ the amount of diversity that was
found at UCLA. UCLA is really a world leader where that is
concerned,” said Greg Bedard, who attended UCLA in the
mid-’90s.
Bedard was not personally involved in the campaign for
affirmative action, though he supported it, but his colleagues in
the Bruin Democrats were very involved with the issue, he said.
Darrin Hurwitz, former vice president of Bruin Democrats,
remembered affirmative action as one of his primary concerns while
at UCLA.
The goal of many of these students in the 1990s was to ensure
that UCLA remained accessible to students from all backgrounds.
Today, campus leaders still list access to education among their
top priorities.
During his campaign earlier this quarter, current USAC President
Allende Palma/Saracho said he supported affirmative action and saw
its elimination as the primary factor affecting diversity on
campus.
Other candidates and councilmembers do not necessarily advocate
affirmative action in particular, but believe in ensuring equal
access to education for minority students.
Specific issues aside, campus leaders both past and present said
they pursued politics on and off campus because they saw it as an
effective way to promote change. Many then carried this desire into
their professional careers.
After leaving UCLA and graduating from law school, Chang became
a civil rights lawyer for low-income communities, dealing with
issues such as health care and welfare rights, housing issues and
employment matters.
“I’ve always been an advocate for progressive
issues. “¦ I felt that this was a path where I could be
involved in helping people and fighting injustice in a different
arena,” Chang said, linking this desire to his work on
USAC.
After he graduated from law school in Washington, D.C., Bedard
went on to northern California to work in transportation. He is
currently running for the position of director of the Bay Area
Rapid Transit board, which is a primary means of transportation in
the Bay Area.
For many students who have graduated, the experience in student
government and other campus groups was both formative and valuable
to the work they have done professionally.
“A university is kind of a microcosm of larger society and
it’s a great way both to learn the political ropes but also
to make connections,” Bedard said.
With reports from Shaudee Navid, Bruin reporter.