For many students, college is a time of expanding world views
and increased involvement in the issues that resonate with
them.
During their time at UCLA, graduating students may have
witnessed or taken part in campus demonstrations against fee
increases, for the use of affirmative action, against the war in
Iraq or for divestment of university holdings from Sudan.
But student activism in today’s terms is starkly different
from that of activists in the past.
John Sandbrook, special assistant to the executive dean, was an
undergraduate at UCLA in the late 1960s and said he does not
consider recent student demonstrations to be representative of the
type of student activism he saw when he was a student.
Demonstrations against the military draft and other prominent
issues made activism in 1960s and 1970s more extreme, he said.
“This is peaceful and serene compared to what I went
through as an undergraduate,” Sandbrook said. “What has
occurred in the past four years has been a healthy exchange of
ideas.”
Though student activism is often rooted in personal convictions,
several issues have remained prominent in the demonstrations of
recent years.
Four years ago, at a time of passionate demonstrations on the
part of some University of California students for the use of
affirmative action in UC admissions, the UC Board of Regents
repealed SP-1 and SP-2.
The two measures, originally passed by the board in 1995, banned
the use of affirmative action at the UC a year before Proposition
209 outlawed affirmative action for all state agencies.
Justin Fong, a former UCLA graduate student and the student
regent in 2001, led numerous protests against SP-1 and SP-2.
But with Proposition 209 still in effect, the repeal of SP-1 and
SP-2 was a largely symbolic measure.
Sandbrook said there was more focus on affirmative action four
years ago because it was closer to the passage of Proposition 209,
but it remains an important issue for many students.
In some cases, students’ efforts with regard to the issues
they consider important may have a direct effect on university
policy.
George Blumenthal, chair of the UC Academic Senate and faculty
representative to the regents, said students who spoke during the
public comment period at last month’s regents meeting made
“very sound, logical” arguments against raising
graduate student fees.
The regents could not come to a consensus on the issue and have
yet to decide whether to increase fees.
“In that case, public comment may have actually played a
very important role in a regental decision,” Blumenthal
said.
An issue that has recently brought out student demonstrators is
the systematic killing of the Sudanese in the country’s
Darfur region.
Sarah Novick, a graduating fourth-year sociology student, is a
member of the Darfur Action Committee, which was formed last
November. She attributes recent campus interest in the
group’s activities to the group’s goal of ensuring
human rights.
“It’s an issue of right and wrong, and there’s
little ambiguity,” she said.
But student activism often takes more shapes than just protests
and other public events.
Yousef Tajsar, who, as a graduating fifth-year student has been
a member of the UCLA Muslim Students Association, Students for
Global Peace and Justice and the Affirmative Action Coalition, said
his work with underprivileged high school students was among the
most rewarding activist work he has taken part in.
“It has changed me a lot ““ completely,” he
said.