Group rallies for action

African Student Union members rallied Monday in Bruin Plaza,
asserting that though segregation was officially banned 50 years
ago in the Brown v. Board of Education decision, it still has yet
to be effectively implemented.

The rally consisted of about 60 students and featured student
speakers from ASU as well as Mandla Kayise, the president of the
Black Alumni Association.

Though ASU originally planned to lead the rally in a march to
Murphy Hall, they decided to remain in Bruin Plaza for the entire
event.

Loud chanting from the crowd grabbed passerby attention as
students called out, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, segregation’s
got to go,” referring to low admission numbers for black
students this year.

Students held a large sign behind the speakers that had the
numbers of minority students admitted to UCLA in both 1995 and
2003, which showed dramatic decreases. The population of black
students admitted went from 693 in 1995, to 295 in 2003. For 2004,
the number of admitted black students was 199 out of 8,500 total
admits.

These record-low numbers caused ASU leaders to express their
concerns.

“We are still segregated,” said Na’shaun Neal,
ASU chairman.

Planning and executing a rally “was a first step in taking
an active role,” Neal said.

And speakers and participants stressed the importance of further
activism.

“Just putting on rallies is not enough. Numbers are still
declining,” ASU member Mesha Wallace said.

To retaliate against such low admittance, ASU has created a list
of demands that they intend to submit to the university.

These demands include making changes to admission policies,
outreach services, the curriculum and demographics of faculty
members, as well as pressuring the state to repeal Proposition 209,
the measure passed in 1996 that prevents admitting students on the
basis of race, gender or ethnicity.

ASU feels that implementation of the diversity requirement is
pivotal and that students should participate in its execution.

They also support the University Neighborhood Learning Outreach
Coalition demands “to ensure outreach is fully funded to the
funding level of 2002-2003.”

Outreach was cut by 50 percent for 2003-2004, and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger plans to provide $12 million for outreach for
2004-2005, a total cut of about $21 million.

Admission policy reform has three specific goals. First, ASU
wants the university to create a task force on admission policy
with student, faculty and community leaders and ethnic alumni
representatives. Second, it supports the admission plan to increase
to 12.5 percent the Eligibility in the Local Context, which grants
automatic acceptance into the UC system to the top designated
percentage within each high school’s graduating class. The
current percentage is 4 percent. Third, ASU wants UCLA to accept 75
to 100 UC-eligible students who were denied admission for 2004.

ASU speakers stressed that without admission to higher
education, the racial inequality will only continue. “If we
don’t ask for change, it’s not going to happen,”
Neal said.

Kayise agreed with ASU that higher education is mandatory for
employment; he believes denying admission to blacks is harmful to
racial stratification.

Not only are denied applicants missing out on education, Kayise
said, but the entire campus lacks the knowledge of black
history.

“We need to take responsibility for the total education of
this campus,” Kayise said. “Our education has to be
accessible and meet the needs of our people.”

To spread the education of black history, Kayise and ASU are
urging the university to adopt the Ethnic Studies Center Faculty
Diversity Plan, which would ensure a diverse demography of faculty
members.

Attendees of the rally spoke positively about the
experience.

“The rally was effective. We need to be active in trying
to implement change,” Wallace said.

Allende Palma/Saracho, current Undergraduate Students
Association Council internal vice president, noted that the rally
strongly emphasized the long-term effects of admission
policies.

“Less blacks will be able to be teachers, doctors and
lawyers. If we don’t do something, we will face the
extinction of black students,” Palma/Saracho said.