From the L.A. riots to black discrimination and the South African divestment campaign, student activism has created significant impacts across generations of UCLA students.
And student mobilization does not plan to decrease, said Deirdre Weaver, a fourth-year psychology student. Weaver, who helped launch the Effective Student Activism Collective, said the methods used to engage student action may need to shift their focus to cater to changing times.
To facilitate conversations and unite individuals from different contexts, the Effective Student Activism Collective and the Academic Advancement Program hosted the first annual “Activism at UCLA: Thinking Back, Looking Forward” panel on Wednesday. The event brought together various individuals involved in activism from the 1960s to 2010.
“We wanted to foster a space for authentic dialogue, so we can move past the “˜us’ and “˜them’ and get at the core humanity of the discussions and figure out ways to be effective,” Weaver said.
Individuals, such as history Professor Mary Corey and Berky Nelson, director of the Center for Student Programming, shared their experiences in past activism events at UCLA, including protesting the military draft and developing the Chicano studies department on campus.
Representatives from student groups, including Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success; the Muslim Student Association; and the Afrikan Student Union, also discussed their experiences trying to mobilizing the campus and shared their perspectives on events this year, specifically the November regents protests and the March 4 Day of Action.
Fourth-year philosophy student Guillermo Tellez said the goal of the event was to increase unity among activists pushing for different causes. Tellez said that while he saw many passionate student groups on campus, he noticed a lack of consistency and sustainability in their events.
“Every quarter, student groups try to put on an event, and they’re great people and they’re really talented, but they’re so focused on putting on that event that there isn’t time or energy to reach out to other groups and plan a distinct, concerted effort between them,” Tellez said.
The evening was divided into three panels examining the past, present and future of student activism. Panelists discussed and answered questions regarding the changing goals and methods of generating activism on campus.
Living in the context of a seemingly more accepting community, some felt the marginalization of certain student groups has been overlooked, said D’Artagnan Scorza, a doctorate student in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies who said he feels he was a victim of racial inequality in his college years.
“Although I do not believe that racism is ending because President Obama has been elected, President Obama has been elected,” Scorza said. “We need to approach the challenges that exist from a new lens, one that really acknowledges that these forms of oppression still exist.”
The conversations and perspectives offered by different panelists allowed participants to understand the greater picture of student activism on campus, said Jason Ball, a graduate student working with UCLA Fights Back and the Student Worker Front.
“We talk about issues, but there’s certainly lots of issues that we’re all unaware of that are affecting students right now,” Ball said. “The first thing we need to do is have a dialogue about what our differences are.”
Yet facilitating conversation must involve breaking students out of their comfort zones and instilling a new sense of purpose in their education, Ball said.
“We need to take time to ask ourselves why we are here,” Ball said. “And once we start asking that question, we can start to ask what the university is there for and how the university is not providing for us. And then we can start making real, tangible changes.”
The Effective Student Activism Collective plans to follow up on this event with a student organization summit in the fall to foster unit and generate large-scale action.