Stolen sign draws concern over policies

Thursday, February 25, 1999

Stolen sign draws concern over policies

GROUPS: Bruin Republicans group questioned for taking LGBT
property

By Andy Shah

Daily Bruin Staff

The Center for Student Programming (CSP) is currently trying to
arrange a meeting to clarify a policy dispute between the Bruin
Republicans and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Mentoring Program, after the Republicans took a signboard last fall
belonging to the program.

The incident caused some members of the program to question the
center’s policies.

"We want both sides to understand what happened and the feelings
involved," said CSP director Berky Nelson.

In October, the Bruin Republicans took a signboard on Bruin Walk
belonging to the program for their own use. According to CSP
policy, all signboards must be removed by 5 p.m. each Friday;
otherwise, the center is not responsible for them.

The center encourages groups to remove their signs by this time
because they are irrelevant to visitors of the campus.

"The signboards are meant for students, staff and faculty,"
Nelson said.

Nelson said the program’s signboard was taken a few hours after
5 p.m. While CSP does not encourage groups to take other groups’
signboards after 5 p.m. each Friday, it does not reprimand those
groups that do.

In fact, it’s not unusual for one student group to take another
group’s signboard and use it as its own. This often occurs before
the time set by CSP.

Charles Ku, Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC)
campus events commissioner, said that seven of the commission’s
signs have been taken this year, each one costing from $40 to
$60

"They were all apparently taken before 5 p.m. on Friday," he
said. "People do consciously go out there and steal these
things."

Lillian Climaco, a board member of Samahang Pilipino, said that
her group’s signs have also been taken before Friday evening.

"They were stolen twice within two weeks," she said. "I don’t
think ours is an isolated incident."

Members of the Bruin Republicans said they took that specific
signboard because of its high quality.

"It was the largest sign there," said John Strelow, chairman of
the Bruin Republicans. "It was one of the two best signs."

But some said it was ironic that the group which took the sign
was the Bruin Republicans.

"Because it was the Republicans, it would leave some to believe
that there was maliciousness behind the act," said Ronni Sanlo,
director of the LGBT Campus Resource Center.

Sanlo said she believes the primary reason the sign was stolen
was because it was designed well.

"It was an expensive and obviously well-built sign," she
said.

The sign was made by Steven Leider, a first-year graduate
student in education, who made it in memory of his deceased
brother. Leider is a mentor with the program.

Leider is asking the Bruin Republicans to pay for the new sign,
Sanlo said. The sign was eventually reclaimed by the mentoring
program.

Strelow said that he felt his group should have taken into
account that many people perceive Republicans as having an anti-gay
stance.

"We probably shouldn’t have taken the sign knowing that
(perception existed), but that wasn’t our motivation," he said.

Strelow said that two years ago a banner his group put up on
Bruin Walk supporting Proposition 209 was vandalized.

"It’s not quite the same because the banner was not supposed to
be stolen, whereas groups are encouraged to take signboards after 5
p.m. on Friday," he said.

But Nelson said that the center does not advocate groups taking
each other’s signboards.

"The policy doesn’t mean that it’s open season and that at 5:01
the signboard can be absconded," he said.

The same policy applies to this situation, Nelson said, even
though the mentoring program is a university program and not a
student group.

"It’s a different situation, but a sign is a sign," he said.

Nelson said that not many signboards are taken before 5 p.m. on
Friday.

"That might happen, but nothing has been brought to my
attention," Nelson said. "But I’ve heard of some signs getting
broken and trashed."JESSE PORTER

Signboards on Bruin Walk have become controversial lately
because an LGBT mentorship program’s sign was taken by the Bruin
Republicans.

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