Student group unites to fight Prop. 209

Tuesday, October 15, 1996

USAC:

The Educational Crew educates students about affirmative
actionBy Ryan Ozimek

Daily Bruin Contributor

It’s 4 o’clock on a sunny afternoon in Westwood, and while most
students are either busy studying for the week’s upcoming classes
or basking in the sunshine of the great outdoors, a group of
undergraduates meet at the Undergraduate Students Association
Council (USAC) President John Du’s house to discuss affirmative
action and its effects on both entering and current UCLA
students.

The Educational Crew, created under the Students First! platform
as a branch of the Affirmative Action Coalition during last year’s
undergraduate government elections, began meeting regularly last
month to discuss plans to defeat Proposition 209 and educate the
student population about the November ballot.

The newborn group divided its first quarter goals into two
categories: registering students to vote in the upcoming election
and also informing students of the different ballot items to be
voted on this year and how these may affect the student body as a
whole.

The group dedicated the first three weeks of this quarter to
registering students to vote by setting up registration tables
across the campus. Now that the deadline to register has ended, the
group has spearheaded precinct walks through Venice as well as
on-campus advertising to educate people on ballot items.

During last year’s USAC election campaign, then-External
Vice-President Du promised to create programs that would affect
students in the most direct matter possible.

"This was part of our idea to create a direct service relative
to students in their daily lives," said Du.

The Educational Crew consists of 15 students from different
on-campus organizations, including Samahang Pilipino, Asian
Students Association and the Latino American Students Association.
Du commented that a diverse group of students such as this would
help the organization reach out to more members of the UCLA
community.

"USAC derives its strength from students," Du said. "The crew
has a very diverse representation of students, (and) that’s exactly
what we need for the message to get across to the students."

Others in the Educational Crew agree that students teaching
students about ballot issues is the best way to get their message
across. After working on the Death of Education campaign last week,
fourth-year political science student Raj Jayadev said that the
best people to tell students about issues such as Proposition 209
are other students, not professors and administrators.

"Students should be the educators of other students because
messages get across much better through peers," Jayadev said.

Formed to extend what the group calls an "educational arm for
USAC," the committee hopes to focus on educating UCLA students on
such issues as Proposition 209 and affirmative action, topics that
Du feels strike at the heart of the student body.

"We need to make sure that Proposition 209 doesn’t pass, and I
don’t think it will pass if people really knew what it does," he
said.

Others in the group, such as fourth-year psychobiology student
and the Korean Students Association Vice President Dale Kim, agree
with Du’s observation that many students don’t really understand
many of the complex issues that are on this year’s ballot, and that
educating them on the issues will allow students to make an
informed vote.

"A lot of Asian-Americans I know aren’t exposed to the issues,
or just don’t care, but hopefully we’ll be able to let people know
what these measures do," Kim said.

Though the group’s main focus is on Proposition 209, Du said
that the group is concerned with more than just affirmative
action.

"We’re tying in the different attacks against education and
we’re dealing with the politics of the state directly. We’re
educating students on the issues that affect all of them."

… the group has spearheaded precinct walks through Venice
…