‘Unofficial’ side of UCLA history revealed with political tour

Friday, October 23, 1998

‘Unofficial’ side of UCLA history revealed with political
tour

SIDEBAR: Walkout shows students sites of protest, Black Panther
deaths

By Barbara Ortutay

Daily Bruin Staff

An empty classroom greeted latecomers to Glenn Omatsu’s
investigative journalism class on Thursday.

Omatsu, like many other professors and teaching assistants, took
his classroom outside as part of the UC-wide faculty walkout
dealing with diversity issues.

"Education doesn’t have to occur within the classroom," Omatsu
said. "In fact, you may learn more by walking out."

To show the "unofficial" side of UCLA, Omatsu took his Asian
American/African American studies M195 class, and more than 50
other students who joined, on a walking tour of North Campus.

"The orientation I took when I was a freshman was very
superficial," said Christine Capacillo, a fourth-year history
student. "It’s good that Omatsu took his time out to do this."

Students learned about the history of ethnic studies at UCLA, as
well as the significance of buildings such as Haines Hall and
Campbell Hall.

In 1970, two members of the Black Panther party were killed on
the steps of Campbell Hall in a shootout, Omatsu said.

Standing next to Haines Hall, he asked students if they knew
about a cemetery on campus.

While most people would answer the obvious "no," one student
pointed to the building.

Omatsu explained that the building holds the remains of 2,000
Native American people. When the university wanted to relocate the
ethnic studies departments from Campbell Hall to Haines Hall in
1988, the American Indian studies department did not comply with
this decision. For many in the department, having the remains of
one’s ancestors in the same building was an irreconcilable
conflict.

The Asian American studies department decided to show solidarity
by staying in Campbell Hall.

"Now, the physical separation (from the Chicano and African
American studies departments) makes it harder to communicate,"
Omatsu said.

Later in the tour, members of the Affirmative Action Coalition
and the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) took
students to Royce Hall, the site of last year’s "Days of Defiance"
protests.

Those demonstrations, which protested the reduction in admission
rates for underrepresented minorities, included the takeover of
Royce Hall and the subsequent arrests of 88 students.

USAC General Representative Mike de la Rocha pointed to a piece
of duct tape still up on the wall of Royce from the protests.

"I get happy every time I walk by and see that piece of tape,"
he said.

Other classes participating in the walkout chose different ways
of discussing the event.

Terri Conley, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender studies
teaching assistant, held her introductory class behind Campbell
Hall.

The discussion focused on current events, but it also tied into
the regular topics of the class.

"I support affirmative action, and even though my students may
not, I still wanted to have a forum outside where we can discuss
issues of diversity," Conley said.

For other students, the day went by as usual.

"The classes that are doing the walkout are the classes you
assume would be doing it, with the people who are already aware of
this issue," said Juan Contrera, a first-year international
development studies student.

He added that while his Chicano studies class discussed
affirmative action and participated in the walkout, his Italian
literature professor never brought up the issue.

"We have to get all people together. Otherwise, the
administration thinks it’s all the same people who are protesting
all the time," he said.DERRICK KUDO/Daily Bruin

A student seated next to a large poster sponsored by the Social
& Public Art Resource Center watches the events unfold from the
faculty walkout beneath him from his perch atop Kerckhoff Hall.

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