Soliciting organizations bombard Bruin Walk with flyers

Monday, September 28, 1998

Soliciting organizations bombard Bruin Walk with flyers

HANDOUTS: Diversity

of student interests lures commercialism to UCLA

By H. Jayne Ahn

Daily Bruin Contributor

Even students on-campus during the summer cannot escape from the
infamous "flyer people," those who stake out Bruin Walk and hand
out information about their respective organizations.

Rather than targeting regular UCLA students, those solicited
include students taking summer classes, freshmen attending
orientation sessions, and other visitors and tourists arriving
daily.

Indeed, being exposed to zillions of commercial and
informational literature is an inescapable part of university
life.

Woo Yun Lee, a second-year biochemistry student, remembered the
first few weeks of her freshman year.

"There were so many people waiting to hand out flyers on Bruin
Walk. It was such a hassle to pass through them," she said.

Gene Lee, a second-year political science student, agreed.

"I think they can add pressure on the incoming students because
they’re already kind of overwhelmed by everything else that’s
happening. Having people shove flyers in your face probably doesn’t
help much," he said.

Often, students do not let themselves get absorbed in the scene.
"I usually just walk by them. I tell them with my hand that I don’t
need any extra papers," Woo Yun Lee said.

Caroline Oak, a fourth-year micro-biology student, has another
strategy.

She tries not to make eye contact and walks fast to avoid them.
Even with free movie passes, she just slips by, unless it’s a movie
she’s interested in watching.

"But most of the movies aren’t blockbuster hits," Oak said.

Sometimes students are more open to the "flyer people."

"I normally take the flyer and look at it later," Gene Lee said,
"But if they try to talk to me, I normally try not to talk to them
because I usually have some place to go."

Even Woo Yun Lee, who usually tries to bypass the people, said
she takes her time to read the ones that are shoved into her
hands.

Others are more responsive. "I’ll pick up the flyer and see what
their purpose is or what their clubs and organizations are," said
Katherine Jankew, a second-year microbiology student.

"If I’m interested, I’ll even get back to them," she added.

UCLA, with its huge and diverse student body, attracts a host of
organizations and interest groups seeking to promote their causes
and ideas.

One of the organizations frequently seen on campus is Sojourn
Services for Battered Women in Santa Monica.

Elizabeth Jones, the shelter’s community education and outreach
coordinator, said they seek volunteers and try to get people
interested at colleges "because there may be students who are
wanting to get experienced in this area, and it’s a great way to
recruit those students."

Aside from the thousands of people that roam the campus daily,
groups are drawn to solicit on the UCLA campus because of the wide
variety of interests students have.

"College campuses are public forums and almost like a
marketplace for ideas. There are a whole slew of different
organizations, groups and opinions that are kind of thrown out
there as seeds," said Joshua Sofaer, a staff worker at Jews for
Jesus in Westwood.

Handing out pamphlets is like offering an "invitation to
students to interact with the message that my group has to
offer."

"College-aged people are more mobile and because of that, I
think it opens them a little bit more to consider accepting such
invitations," Sofaer said.

In addition to non-profit organizations and self interest
groups, a bulk of the leaflets on campus are representatives of
some 600 student clubs, local advertisers and commercial groups,
recruiters from government institutions and job markets, and event
coordinators.

Things were slightly different in the past, however.

Two years ago, only informational literature could be passed out
and no commercial literature was allowed to be handed out on Bruin
Walk.

Since then, though, a supreme court ruling declared that
"commercial literature is free speech and can be disseminated as
well," according to Berky Nelson, director of the Center for
Student Programming.

As a result, anyone is permitted to hand out flyers "as long as
they do not obstruct with traffic and they do so on the walkways of
the university," Nelson added.

Some students expressed their displeasure over the pushy
leaflets.

"I don’t like the ones who go on a rampage. I get seven flyers
on the same day from the same club or organization," Jankew
said.

She also admitted that she tries to avoid solicitors. "Once I
donated money in the beginning of the week and they were there the
whole week and kept on asking," she said.

Students’ thoughts vary on whether the "flyer people" are useful
in guiding them to organizations and groups in which they are
interested.

"If you really wanted to find an organization or a cause, you
would find it yourself because you wouldn’t wait around until
someone came up to you," said Joyce Lau, a second-year undeclared
student

Woo Yun Lee said she is not easily influenced by ideological
literature she receives from leaflets on campus.

"I don’t get it from people passing out flyers. I research on my
own," she said. Like Lau, she searches for clubs on her own or she
gets information and recommendations from her friends.

Others disagreed.

"Some people just have a hard time looking things up or finding
things on their own. I think it’s a good thing that so many groups
are out there," Oak said, who cited Outdoor Adventures as an
example of a group that quietly tables on Bruin Walk.

Many student clubs and organizations choose to hand out flyers
to attract students to get involved with their activities.

Leena Kasmahara, third-year communications studies student,
president of Golden Key National Honor Society, says that promoting
themselves with flyers on Bruin Walk is one of the ways she gains
her "club base." But she also acknowledges that it is not an easy
job.

"It’s like a speed race down the Bruin Walk. People are so busy
going where they need to go that they aren’t really willing to
listen if you get up in their face," she said. Yet, she points out
that alternative ways such as setting up sandwich boards with
flyers on them lacks "human touch."

"If you have someone who’s in the club and knows a lot about it
or excited about it, that enthusiasm will carry over and encourage
the other person to join," she continued.

"I think it’s a good way of contacting a lot of people," Oak
said. "It does get their name out," she added.

But Oak said from her experience that it can be a hard task due
to lack of interest from students.

She also mentioned the difficulty of advertising on posters.

"I tried to advertise for an apartment by putting up a couple of
flyers. The next day, someone came with 20 copies of their flyer
and wallpapered the whole board," she said.

"In some cases, handing out flyers is effective," Lau said. "If
people are actively coming to try to get you to do something or
notice something, it’ll (draw) more attention than if it were stuck
on a side of a building," she added.

Advertising on Bruin Walk is also one of the ways some of the
smaller organizations make themselves known.

"I remember I wanted to get all the numbers for all the Korean
clubs (on campus) because I wanted to contact all of them. I called
the East Asian studies office, and they weren’t very helpful," Oak
said.

Jankew agreed that tabling and leafletting generally helps
smaller organizations the most, since they might not be heard as
much.

She also said flashy and redundant tactics can have a reverse
effect and irritate bystanders.

Overall, literature given by groups on campus can provide
different angles and opinions on issues.

"They have their right to say what they want to. I guess they
are doing the right thing if they are that passionate about it and
try to educate students," Jankew said about leaflets for protests
and rallies.

"It keeps your options wide open. Maybe you will find something
interesting," Oak said, "You never know what you might find."

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