UC Berkeley students, professors join protest

Thursday, October 22, 1998

UC Berkeley students, professors join protest

ACTION: Events nationwide focus on decision of regents

By Dennis Lim

Daily Bruin Contributor

BERKELEY “¹ Over 300 professors, faculty, students and
staff walked out of their classrooms Wednesday, continuing a legacy
of protests following the decision by the UC Board of Regents to
end the use of affirmative action in admissions.

Affirm With Action, a two-day nationwide walkout, expects to
attract tens of thousands of supporters on 17 campuses across the
nation by its conclusion on Thursday.

"The protest has enough campuses involved with it where that
number isn’t just optimistic. It seems very realistic," said
Heather Bergman, chairwoman of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative
Action By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

The board ended the use of race, gender or ethnicity in the
admissions process at UC schools when it approved decisions SP-1
and SP-2 in July of 1995. Proposition 209, approved by voters in
1996, eliminated the consideration of race or gender in state
hiring.

Protesters said the decision to eliminate affirmative action
came unjustly and has politically crippled minorities across the
state.

"(The Regents) are trying to impose their ideals on a situation
that’s absolutely not ideal," said Preston Taylor, the executive
vice president of the Associated Students of the University of
California.

"We don’t live in a color-blind society; there is a gap between
the different high schools across the state and minority students
predominantly are the ones attending the worse schools," he
added.

"Now we’ve taken away the tool they’ve been using to improve
their conditions. We’ve made a bad situation worse."

Some walkout observers disagreed with the message of the
protest, claiming those involved with the walkout were only looking
at one side of the argument, while failing to look at other
evidence against affirmative action.

"I thought it was a very good presentation of the usual rhetoric
that most people in support of affirmative action say," said Tyler
Roscoe, a second-year UC Berkeley student.

"I didn’t think that there was enough substance to what they
said. They just cited the usual facts and statistics that we all
know, but they didn’t talk about what we can do for the future of
affirmative action," he said.

"That would have made me really look at their side of the
argument."

Organizers scheduled daylong events to educate students about
affirmative action, including two symposiums, eight teach-ins, and
a mass rally at Sproul Plaza.

Among issues discussed were the state of affirmative action,
simplifying the legal rhetoric behind it and the impact of SP-1,
SP-2 and Proposition 209 on various minority groups.

Such events will continue Thursday.

UC Regent Frank Clark, Jr. who voted for both SP-1 and SP-2
called the walkout "premature," claiming the protest would have
little impact on the future of affirmative action.

"This is strictly a legal matter," Clark said.

"The Supreme Court will be the one deciding the future of
affirmative action. Until they decide, I have no answer for what
the protesters did today…. They can go out and walk around all
they want, however, it will not have any impact on the opinion of
the Supreme Court," Clark said.

Protesters drew parallels between the protests and those of the
1960s, claiming this movement for affirmative action continues the
struggle that began 30 years ago.

"In the ’60s they opened a crack in the door to let some of us
in, but now they’re trying to close that door completely," said
Connie Wen, vice-president of external affairs at San Francisco
State University.

"They’re scared about the growing power we’ve gained in those 30
years and they want to close the door, but we’re not going to let
them."

This walkout comes less than two weeks before the Nov. 3
election, where the governor’s seat will be up for grabs.

Both speakers and protesters stressed the importance of voting
in the election, but said, more importantly, students need to stay
involved after Election Day.

"Nov. 3 is going to be a great, important day, but the days
after are going to be even more important," said Josh Diosomito,
coordinator and projects leader for Pilipino Academic Student
Services (PASS).

"I don’t want this movement to be a whirlwind that comes in very
quickly, gets everyone’s attention and when it leaves everyone
forgets about it," he said.

"I want this to be something that we don’t forget tomorrow and
keep doing after Election Day."MICHAEL ROSS WACHT/Daily Bruin

Brenda Castellanos, a public health student, watches speaker
Carlos Muñoz speak on affirmative action on Sproul Plaza at UC
Berkeley.

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