The crowd size, the chants cried and the campus presence seen
during Wednesday’s student walkout were a throwback to a
campus protest two years earlier, showing that some things
don’t change with activism at UCLA.
With an estimated turnout of over 1,000, the anti-war walkout
paralleled the size of a March 2001 protest against
anti-affirmative action policies in the University of California,
which had been the largest protest in recent memory.
Certain similarities between the two protests were typical
““ besides crowd count, both efforts included widespread
participation, cross-campus marching, and organization by many of
the same students who put together the 2001 rally.
But while the anti-war crowd on Wednesday dwindled after a march
on Murphy Hall, two years ago protesters took over Royce Hall and
prompted the cancellation of a mayoral candidate debate.
Also, the goals of the two events, besides having obvious
disparities in scope, differ substantially in the significance of
their achievement.
In 2001, students had been protesting for several years against
SP-1 and 2, policies passed in 1995 that eliminated the
consideration of race and gender in UC admissions and hiring. But
despite the subsequent repeal of the policies that May, the effect
was considered to be largely symbolic because Proposition 209
““ which ended race and gender consideration in
state-supported hiring and contracting ““ superceded them.
Conversely, if Wednesday’s anti-war protesters achieve
their broader goal of averting war, the effects would be
historically anomalous.
But some student leaders said the effort of organizing is
valuable even if protesters don’t change the nation’s
current path toward war.
“Its effectiveness, I don’t know about … I
certainly think it’s healthy for the UCLA campus,” said
Adam Harmetz, general representative for the Undergraduate Students
Association Council.
The campus had also been hard-pressed for an issue powerful
enough to rally around ““ since the repeal of SP-1 and 2,
student activism has been markedly docile. The pending U.S.-led war
on Iraq has noticeably stirred on-campus debate among students.
A similarity between the two demonstrations was the absence of
arrests made by police, though the visible presence of police
Wednesday paled in comparison to the anti-SP-1 rallies, when dozens
of UCPD and California Highway Patrol officers were deployed.
The 2001 protest revolved around a UC Regents meeting, extending
concerns beyond crowd control.
“It was a very different event. (Officers) were ensuring
that the regents’ meeting wasn’t disrupted,” said
UCPD press aide Nancy Greenstein.
In both cases, Greenstein attributed the peaceful turnouts to
students, “who basically monitored themselves.”