As local rapper Vdah performed his original song about
affirmative action, individuals who crossed Bruin Plaza on Thursday
were greeted with events featuring the current state of affirmative
action as students across the country came together for a day of
advocacy.
Vdah was out to attract students to National Take Affirmative
Action Day 2005, an advocacy event hosted by the Undergraduate
Students Association Council and the Student Initiated Outreach
Center.
“I wrote my songs based on what I know, my own
experiences, what I’ve seen in the world. Students need to be
aware about the issues surrounding affirmative action,” Vdah
said.
Though the passage of Proposition 209 outlawed affirmative
action programs for hiring and admissions in California’s
public institutions, including the University of California,
organizers said they wanted to spark debate about the issue on
campus.
Underneath a mass of black balloons, Vdah, who shared a stage
with a long line of community leaders and affirmative action
advocates, played to a crowd quick to supply applause at each
dramatic pause. A variety of minority advocacy groups handed out
balloons and fliers about the declining statistics of minorities in
public higher education to UCLA and visiting high school
students.
In the center of the plaza, students from Bruin Republicans
stood with signs and debated the adverse affects of affirmative
action programs. Members of the group came out to talk to students
about why they believe advocates of affirmative action blame the
wrong people for the declining populations of minorities on
campus.
Rather than changing admissions practices, the dissenting
students said primary-education teachers and schools are to
blame.
“Despite an increase in funding per student, there has
been a decline of accountability for the K-12 schools and
teachers,” said David Lazar, vice chairman of Bruin
Republicans.
In response to the statistics and trends documented by the
affirmative action advocates, Lazar said the current admissions
numbers should not focus solely on the race of applicants.
“Education and admissions is a zero-sum game. When
minority students get in over white or Asian applicants, then those
student are also being denied access due to race,” Lazar
said.
Kent Wong, a spokesman for the UCLA Labor Center, spoke , along
with UCLA professors and community officials to a crowd of more
than 100 students about the lost funding and opportunities for
underrepresented students that result in dwindling diversity on
campus, as affirmative action advocated claim.
“Our students are being cheated; qualified students are
not gaining access. It’s time for us to take action,”
Wong told the crowd.
Program planners said it is crucial for current UCLA students to
stay aware and be educated on the state of affirmative action
nationwide.
“Our students need days like this to learn and understand
why students are not on equal levels,” said Martin Tolosa,
coordinator for the event. “Students need to know that there
is solidarity on this issue.”
The group at UCLA joined over 50 other campuses in a national
effort to continue long-running campaigns for affirmative action in
14 different states, said Irene Schwoeffermann, national organizer
of the Take Affirmative Action Day 2005.
“We encourage campuses to make a continuous campaign.
We’ve seen a trend (in) programs for affirmative action and
diversity. … Their policies and programs are being cut,”
Schwoeffermann said. “If we’re not addressing these
issues annually, more could be lost.”
The declining number of minorities in higher education has been
detrimental to public education in California, said Sylvia Hurtado,
a professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information
Studies who consulted for the lawyers defending a 2003 Supreme
Court case that lead to federal support for maintaining affirmative
action programs.
“It maintains stereotypes, as the numbers of minority
student decrease, because students don’t have the opportunity
to see them as peers,” Hurtado said.
Bruin Republicans members said that while they agree diversity
adds to educational opportunities at UCLA, educational training and
intellectual experiences contribute more to the campus atmosphere
than ethic background.
“Race is not a proper proxy,” said John Ellis, Bruin
Republicans treasurer.
Hurtado said supporters of the ban on affirmative action
programs are ignoring the declining numbers of minorities in public
universities.
“(Opponents of affirmative action) are trying to deny that
there are differences, that not all students begin on an equal
footing. We are really seeing racial and economic
stratification,” Hurtado said.
She said underrepresented populations are growing in California,
but their populations in public schools are not keeping pace.
“The state is becoming more diverse. There should show
equal representation in schools. That is just not happening,”
she said.