Students picket regent’s office

By Kim Nguyen

Most UC students and faculty scatter during the summer, but more
than 50 of them gathered under the punishing August sun Thursday to
protest the University of California Regents’ decision to end
affirmative action in admissions and hiring.

Protesters circled Regent Tirso Del Junco’s Sunset Boulevard
medical office in response to a call for action from a coalition of
individuals and groups associated with UCLA.

Students from UCLA, UC Irvine and Los Angeles City College
joined alumni, staff and administrators in chanting, brandishing
signs and waving their fists. Drivers honked as they whizzed by,
onlookers applauded and a gaggle of journalists recorded the
event.

The march was the first Southern California response to the
Regents’ decision, an organizer said.

"Our immediate goal is to let the Regents know how much they
have disrupted education … particularly at UCLA," said Connie
Razza, a second-year graduate student in the English department and
organizer for the coalition, No Action Without Affirmative
Action.

"We want to demonstrate to Regent Tirso Del Junco the kind of
disruption that he is bringing to our lives, and disrupt his life
professionally as well," Razza said.

The action succeeded in disrupting the vascular surgeon’s
medical practice. Del Junco neither appeared at his office nor
scheduled patients that day.

Why students targeted him bewildered Del Junco, he said. Neither
he nor any individual regent represents the entire board.

Taking to the streets was an inappropriate way of dealing with a
university problem that he saw as purely internal, he said.

But Del Junco, a close friend of Gov. Pete Wilson, symbolizes a
board more concerned with politics than with education, coalition
organizers said.

A staunch opponent of Del Junco and fierce defender of
affirmative action, UCLA Chancellor Charles Young joined him in
condemning the protest, however.

"To go to a person’s office, a place where medicine is
practiced, is not an appropriate way to solve things," Young
said.

This is the second time that UCLA agitants have targeted Del
Junco’s office. The UCLA Alliance for Equal Learning Opportunities
picketed the site in January. The group formed in response to
Regent Ward Connerly’s proposal to end affirmative action,which led
to last month’s vote.

The July decision makes the University of California the first
college system in the country to formally scale back its
affirmative action program.

"The UC system has set the entire agenda for education across
the country for fair and non-discriminatory education," said
Gregory Jackson, a protester and graduate student in English. "To
have this decision is to turn back things more than 25 years,"

The coalition leadership drew its members mostly from within the
UCLA English department to plan an immediate response to the
Regents’ vote, said protest organizer Joanna Brooks.

UCLA’s Graduate Students Association, the undergraduate
students’ association, the African Student Union and the Asian
Pacific Coalition officially announced their full support of the
demonstration.

"We want to strike while the iron is still hot," Brooks said.
"We want people to know that as students, we care about what is
happening to our lives and education."

This sentiment of urgency was shared by John Shapley, president
of the Graduate Students Association. He viewed the protest as a
way to sustain the momentum that students had created during the
vote.

Many protesters shared the notion that the July 20 decision to
end affirmative action was a result of a shifting political climate
and pressure from Gov. Wilson.

Marchers voiced dissatisfaction with the politicization of
educational policy and wielded signs reading "Pete Wilson & Del
Junco are partners in crime," and "Pete Wilson makes me sick."

Ramiro Palamo drove from UC Irvine to fight for diversity, which
he believes is the most important aspect of the UC system.

"Affirmative action was fought for 30 years ago, and since then,
the UC system has thrived on diversity," Palamo said. "To say that
there is no longer a need for minority programs is totally
hypocritical."

Such diversity has improved the lot for women, said members of
The Feminist Majority Foundation,whose members marched in
solidarity.

"Affirmative action is not just a race card," said Eleanor
Mason, a representative from the foundation. "Anyone who has been
oppressed should be out here."

Students should fight such oppression in the ballot box, said
Heather Boerner, who had traveled from UC Santa Cruz to join in the
action.

"Last year only 7 percent of students voted," she said while she
lathered her face with sun screen to protect it from the hot
sun.

The very lack of accountability to the voters was a prime cause
of frustration to protest organizers. The governor appoints the
majority of regents, who therefore remain unaccountable to
students, faculty and administrators of the nine UC campuses.

"Without a voting structure, and without an accountability to a
constituency, the regents are able to spend billions every year
without listening to the people who give their lives to these
places," said Brooks.

The prime goal was to defeat the California Civil Rights
Initiative (CCRI) if it comes to the the ballot in the November
1996 election, said Alyssa Kang, a member of the Asian Pacific
Coalition and the Affirmative Action Coalition, an undergraduate
student group.

The CCRI would outlaw race, gender, ethnicity or national origin
as a reason for discriminating against or giving preferential
treatment to any person or group in public employment, college
admission or government contracting policies, said Joe Gelman,
director of the measure’s campaign. Gov. Wilson fully supports the
measure.

Although almost 700,000 voters signatures are required to
qualify the initiative as a constitutional amendment, election
officials predict that this will be easily accomplished.

The measure already has been submitted to the attorney general
for legal review, and supporters are gearing up to collect
signatures.

With reports from Tatiana Botton

Students picket regent’s office