Amid chants of “Knowledge! Power!” “Student
power!” and “Access granted!” more than 100
students gathered for a rally in Myerhoff Park on Wednesday.
The noon rally focused on the decreasing number of black and
underrepresented minority students being admitted to UCLA.
Students of different ethnicities chanted for increasing
underrepresented minority enrollment, which the protestors said is
unacceptably low.
See more photos from this event in a narrated slideshow.
“(Black student enrollment numbers) are the lowest they
have been since 1973,” said Douglass Johnson, chairman of the
African Student Union.
The number of black students and other underrepresented
minorities at UCLA has decreased since the passage of Proposition
209 in 1996. Proposition 209 prohibited the use of race, ethnicity
and gender in admission to public universities in California. The
number of underrepresented minorities in the University of
California as a whole has not declined since the passage of
Proposition 209.
Speakers at the rally said they believed the UC Board of Regents
as well as the UCLA administration and admissions office are at
fault for the low black admission rate because their policies deny
black students access to the UC.
They also used strong and inflammatory words to express their
opinions regarding the UC administration and UCLA.
“UC Regents, I see racists,” were among the
chants.
Johnson said at the rally that he believes UCLA lacks
underrepresented minorities and suffers from institutional racism.
At the rally he did not expand on what evidence of institutional
racism he has seen.
But Shaun Doria, the USAC Financial Supports commissioner, said
he has seen evidence against the claim that the regents are in any
way racist.
“To say (the regents) are racist is to go against all the
evidence of their actions and statements,” said Doria.
The regents, for example, have taken symbolic support for
affirmative action. In 1995, a year before Proposition 209 was
passed, the regents passed SP1 and SP2, which did away with
race-based admissions at the UC specifically.
In 2001, the regents retracted their decision, repealing the
UC-specific ban on affirmative action. By that point, however,
affirmative action was illegal statewide so the decision had no
solid effect on UC admissions policy.
Over the past months, UCLA administrators have said they are
concerned about the low number of underrepresented minorities
enrolled at UCLA.
Interim Chancellor Norman Abrams released a letter in the summer
saying that diversity is one of his major goals, and other
administrators have also said diversity is important.
Recently, UCLA has approved the adoption of a holistic
admissions process, in which an applicant’s entire
application is read by each reader. Though it is not aimed
specifically to increase diversity, Abrams said he hopes the move
will increase diversity.
“UCLA will work toward having more diversity because
it’s important,” Abrams has said. “It’s an
important part of the social learning experience. If there is one
thing I am intolerant of, it is intolerance itself.”
There is also some student support for the idea of a holistic
admissions process.
“The idea and principle (of holistic admissions) sounds
like a good idea,” said Doria, but said he wanted to see what
happens to admissions as a result of this change.
But the protestors said the move is not enough.
In the long run, Johnson said he wants Proposition 209 repealed
and for UCLA’s enrollment to reflect the population
demographics of California.
In fall 2005, black students made up 3.2 percent of
undergraduate enrollment, while the latest California census data,
2004, showed that 6.8 percent of the California population was
black. The number of other underrepresented minorities is also
below their representation in the California population.
Students, including members of the African Student Union, have
been protesting the drop in underrepresented minorities for some
time.
Karume James, former chair of the African Student Union, called
on the protestors to continue this tradition of students leading
revolutions.
“We must continue to fight. We must continue to struggle
until all our people are represented,” James said to the
crowd.
Tina Park, external vice president of the Undergraduate Students
Association Council, also spoke at the rally, saying some students
on campus do not understand that the admissions situation affects
everyone.
“Having 100 black freshmen in a class of 4,000 is not
acceptable. Education is a basic human right for everyone on
Earth,” Park said.
Students from other cultural organizations were also present at
the rally.
“I’m here in collective effort to push
administration to look at this issue of decreasing enrollment (and)
admission in a public university in an area that has the highest
population of urban Indians,” said Amber Crotty, a Native
American UCLA student.
Daniela Conde, chairwoman of MEChA, said at the rally that
bringing back affirmative action is not enough and that UCLA should
not put test scores and grades so high on their priority list when
considering applicants.
But some students believe there are merits to selecting top
students.
“We go to one of the 25 top universities in the nation and
any action taken by the UC Regents should maintain the prestige of
the university. If the competiveness of admissions were to be
lowered, the prestige of the university would go down,” Doria
said.
Some protestors feel the rally is a needed step in the work of
increasing minority enrollment.
“I’m really sad when I look around my classes that I
don’t see other people that look like me. (The rally) is
reassuring. It gives me hope in the future for black
students,” said Oya Kali, a senior Afro-American studies
student.