Rock for the cause

Thursday, February 18, 1999

Rock for the cause

FORUM: Pro-affirmative action protests have taken many forms
over the years at UCLA, and tonight, activists take

to the stage and use music

to fight for change

By Cathy Collins

Daily Bruin Contributor

UCLA students will join a chorus of protesting voices tonight at
a forum meant to add a musical element to the fight to bring
affirmative action back to the University of California admissions
process.

Titled "Music for the Mind," the forum, which is sponsored by
several student advocacy groups, will feature performances by four
Los Angeles-based bands and speeches by activists from UCLA and the
surrounding community.

"The goal of this event is to bring back focus on admissions
policies and the diminishing number of students of color every
year," said Jose Urias, a fifth-year sociology and history student
and event organizer.

"We want to make it informative and also a fun event," he
said.

Organizers hope to call attention to issues surrounding the
removal of affirmative action from the admissions process and the
declining percentages of minority applicants to UC schools.

"The gutting of affirmative action has had a drastic impact on
African American and Latino enrollment, especially at UCLA and UC
Berkeley," said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center.

Wong is one of four people who will speak at the forum, which
will take place in Moore 100 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. He will describe
the history of affirmative action and how it was dismantled at UC
schools, according to Irene Vasquez, a history graduate student and
event organizer.

Other speakers at the event include Mandla Kayise of the South
Central Community Coalition, who will speak about the importance of
affirmative action to working class communities. UCLA student Faith
Santilla will present a spoken word performance.

Zuhairah Scott, Undergraduate Students Association Council
academic affairs commissioner and affirmative action coalition
member, will inform students about efforts on campus to revive
affirmative action. There will be a meeting after the forum for
students interested in becoming involved in the issue.

The bands Slow Rider, Blues Experiment, Medusa and Feline
Science will perform between the speakers at the forum.

"These particular bands have been at the forefront of social
movements in Los Angeles," Vasquez said.

Activists said they hope the bands and speakers will motivate
students to become involved in the issue.

"I think that if you look at the history of affirmative action
and changes in admissions policies, students have historically
played an important role," Wong said.

Students will be signing postcards addressed to Gov. Gray Davis
and state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, D-Los Angeles,
asking them to help repeal the UC’s measures SP-1 and SP-2, which
eliminated affirmative action throughout the UC system in 1995.

"With new appointments to the UC Board of Regents and the
support of Gray Davis and Antonio Villaraigosa, we would have a
strong support base," Vasquez said. "We want to them to see that
students on UC campuses see this issue as an important one."

The forum comes in the midst of a recent a lawsuit against UC
Berkeley dealing with the measures. Vasquez said the forum will try
to foster student support for similar movements across the
state.

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