A single, clenched fist thrust from a sea of white ivory.
That’s the symbol of equity in higher education.
It’s the sigil black students wear when they rise up to challenge an institution that has abandoned them. It’s the rallying cry of union workers clad in bright green, protesting unlivable wages under the sharp Southern California sunlight. It’s the defiant display of solidarity victims signal to each other in the face of rampant faculty sexual harassment and discrimination.
It’s the sign of struggle.
And struggle we have.
Marginalized communities have struggled to fight for more representation in their administration, faculty and student body despite a culture of reluctance and theatrical politics. Students with drastically unmet needs such as housing and food insecurity and mental health concerns have struggled to get help from a university with few resources and markedly fewer for those in need. Underprivileged campus members have struggled to change a system that gravitates toward serving only those with the savings to spare.
A century in, UCLA is still a campus of barriers.
Like other higher education institutions, it’s an ivory tower: It falls short in promoting a diverse campus body, cannot claim to include and retain everyone, and lacks momentum in dismantling structures that hinder equity in the work and academic space.