In response to the Daily Bruin article “UCLA groups call for support in response to offensive flier” in News on Feb. 7:
We the professional and student staff of the Academic Advancement Program denounce the deplorable sexist and racist acts recently directed at the Asian Pacific Islander community. We support the call for UCLA and the University of California’s leadership to affirm their support for the Asian Pacific Islander community. Furthermore, we urge the administration to investigate and prosecute the individual or individuals who perpetrated this immature, sick and cowardly act of hate.
AAP supports diversity in all forms and has established an academic home for students to receive the support and encouragement to succeed at UCLA. In fact, the API community represents a significant number of AAP members and we are appalled that someone would commit such hateful acts against this or any other population on campus. We are sensitive and aware that students from diverse backgrounds, particularlystudents of color, are faced with various forms of destructive ethnic, racial, gender, class and sexual orientation based microaggressions on a daily basis. As a university community we are seeking to ameliorate the situation. Thus we call for the UCLA community to exercise the TRUE Bruin credo to show respect for all communities and for the UCLA leadership to vigorously pursue and appropriately punish offenders.
AAP wants our students to know that we are here for you. If you need to talk to someone about the effects these types of acts have on you, please know we are here for you. Acts like these are a huge setback to our university’s goal of making this a welcoming space for all, and we call on the UCLA community to denounce this blatantly hateful behavior and live up to the TRUE Bruin credo of respecting all communities.
On behalf of the professional and student staff of the Academic Advancement Program,
Charles J. Alexander,
Director, Academic Advancement Program