Officials to set criteria for campus groups
By Nancy Hsu
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Officials charged with establishing a set of criteria to
distinguish a cultural campus group from a religious one said they
have met their March 1 deadline, but won’t comment further on their
decision until it is reviewed by other administrators.
"I have something in mind that I’m going to do, but I would
rather not talk about it or have it published yet because I have to
get it up to (the vice chancellor of student affairs’ office),"
said Berky Nelson, Center for Student Programming director.
"Whether it gets accepted or not, I don’t know. Hopefully, it will
address the issue in mind."
The decision to define what separates a cultural group from a
religious group came after the Catholic Students Association and
the Hindu Student Council applied for affiliation with the
university last fall. Members of both groups said, regardless of
their names, their groups are more cultural than religious.
"It’s not exactly a religious group," said Seema Mattoo, a
first-year graduate student in molecular biology and co-founder of
Hindu Student Council. "It’s more of a cultural group. We talk
about ideas; we’ve provided a forum for talking about Indians
living in the States and we’ve talked about Indian history, like
certain misconceptions. It’s not like if you come into our group,
you have to become a Hindu."
Currently, the Hindu Student Council is registered as an
independent organization with hopes that once the distinctions are
drawn, its status may change. There is already a Jewish Student
Union and a Muslim Students Association on campus.
Any campus group may become an independent organization, but
they are not entitled to special services, office space or support
from the university. They may also not use "UCLA" in their club’s
name, according to the UCLA activity guidelines handbook.
As affiliated group’s "purposes and activities must be directly
related to the purposes and activities of the University and their
sponsoring Unit, and may not be political or religious in nature,"
the handbook states.
Affiliated groups may also receive student government funding,
office space and use "UCLA" in their name.
The controversy has raised some eyebrows in the community.
Jeevan Anand, a 1991 alumnus and member of the Indian Heritage
Center in Pasadena said he called members of the Hindu Student
Council after seeing the Bruin article on the group’s situation
last month.
"There’s very little distinction between Hindu religion and
Indian culture," Anand said. "I got in touch with (one of the
members) and asked him if we could offer any help. L.A. is a really
multicultural place and there’s room for everyone."
The distinction between religion and culture is made because
UCLA, as a public school, may not legally sponsor any group that
espouses a religious or political agenda, said Joseph Mandell, vice
chancellor for legal affairs, in an interview last month.
Other faculty said they disagree. Eugene Volokh, a professor in
the UCLA School of Law, tried to contact members of the Catholic
Students Association last month to offer his encouragement. He said
he finds the situation troublesome.
"It seems to be that a policy that distinguishes between Jewish
and Muslim groups and Christian and Hindu groups is
unconstitutional," said Volokh. "How is it that you decide if one
is cultural and one is religious? A university can no more
discriminate on the basis of religion than it can on race."
Officials at the Center for Student Programming hope to have a
response from Vice Chancellor Winston Doby’s office sometime next
week, Nelson said.
"The university is working on it as we speak and there are some
ideas that will be put forward," Nelson said. "I don’t want to say
anything prior to Vice Chancellor Doby, but it’s something that
will get us out of the impasse that we’re in right now. It’s a flag
I’m putting up and I’ll see whether it gets shot down."