Pay attention: you’ll learn something

Two years ago, the summer before my first year at UCLA, I had a
million different thoughts and emotions running amok inside my
head. I felt nervous, inspired, ambitious, hopeful, worried, happy
and sure about only one thing: my undying hatred for USC.

Since that chaotic time, I have come to realize that this campus
is an amazing place where you can step outside yourself and grow,
change and learn. But it is not always an easy process: my first
two quarters at UCLA, I was often torn among feelings of
enthusiastic excitement and feelings of loneliness, displacement,
and a nagging fear that I would never figure out what I was
supposed to be doing in college. It wasn’t until after I
became involved that I realized my feelings were normal. More
importantly, my involvement helped convince me that I had a real
purpose here on this campus.

Of course, going to parties and football games helped too.
Meeting friends in the dorms and in classes, taking courses that
would never have been offered in high school, and trying to figure
out my major occupied a great deal of my time during my first
months here. There were days when I felt like the only person that
had not yet declared a major, the only student struggling to find
Hershey Hall, and the only girl without a date for Saturday
night.

In spite of all these feelings, or perhaps because of them, I
decided to really get involved in the spring of my freshman year.
That decision has been the single most influential factor in my
college career and has helped me to realize that I was never alone
on this campus. As you prepare to enter this university, I am here
asking you to make the same decision, for your own sake.

But UCLA is full of paradoxes. On the one hand, it is an
enormous university, with over 30,000 students, 500 student clubs
and organizations, countless majors, and a million different
opportunities for involvement. Yet somehow, when you look for a
place to start your UCLA career, it seems as if there is nothing
for you to do and nowhere to go for guidance.

As someone who has felt all of these things, I am going to try
to make life easier for you and reveal the secrets of involvement
at UCLA. First of all, start listening. In your time here at this
university, listening to the students around you will be your
greatest tool, teaching you more than you could ever learn by
taking a test or reading a textbook. Students here are motivated,
outspoken and dedicated, and by listening to your peers you will
begin to understand some of the most pressing issues on our
campus.

Secondly, look around you with a critical eye. What do I mean?
Here’s an assignment: as you sit in your orientation
sessions, look around and ask yourselves how many underrepresented
students of color (including African Americans, Latino/as,
Chicano/as and Pilipinos) you see at UCLA. If you can’t find
many, don’t be surprised. Despite its claims of being one of
the most diverse universities in the world, UCLA’s entering
class of 2000 includes a minuscule number of underrepresented
students. For example, of a total admitted population of over 3,000
students, this fall’s entering class includes fewer than 30
African American men.

I must be kidding, right? Wrong. On the contrary, the number of
underrepresented students of color at UCLA has dropped by over 50
percent over the past 5 years. How can this be? In 1995, the UC
Board of Regents, the governing body of the University of
California system, passed Standing Policies 1 and 2 (SP-1 and
SP-2), which eradicated the use of affirmative action in university
admissions and hirings. The following year, Californian voters
passed ballot measure Proposition 209, and eliminated the use of
affirmative action in California’s public sector. Since then,
diversity at UCLA has plummeted, and tensions and misunderstandings
on campus have skyrocketed.

When I first came to UCLA, I had only a minimal understanding of
how affirmative action affected college admissions and
demographics. I did not understand then that affirmative action was
originally intended to be a partial solution to help bridge the gap
between the opportunities available to underprivileged students and
the capacity of these students to excel. Not all students are given
the same opportunities in their communities to take Advanced
Placement or honors courses, pay for expensive SAT preparation
classes, or receive college-track counseling in high school. These
disadvantages directly affect a student’s ability to enter
competitive universities like UCLA, and are not in any way a
reflection of individual intelligence or capacity.

How did I figure all this out? By asking questions. When I
entered UCLA I thought I was continuing my education. When I
started asking questions, I slowly came to realize that I was
starting from square one. As a university student, there are two
broad types of knowledge available to you. The first is the
information you will receive in your classes through lectures,
notes, readings and assignments. The second is the awareness you
can gain by asking questions, listening to your peers, and looking
critically at your surroundings.

As an entering freshman, you have deep reserves of information.
College is our chance to begin increasing our awareness. This is
our opportunity to push ourselves beyond what we think we know, to
learn to act in solidarity with the struggles of others, and to use
our privileges as college students to better the communities
surrounding us. It is our opportunity to put the diversity of Los
Angeles back into UCLA.

As you read this, I ask you to remember that many of the issues
on this campus are painful and difficult. If, however, we push
ourselves to become aware and arm ourselves with the truth no
matter how hurtful or disappointing it may be, we can empower
ourselves to take action and to alter reality to reflect our
ideals. Our actions may manifest in hundreds of different ways,
from protests to tutoring to art exhibits to teach-ins to writing.
The important thing is that we do whatever we can to learn about
and change UCLA’s existing injustices.

Margaret Mead once wrote, “Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it
is the only thing that ever has.” As you enter the college
experience, look around, take a deep breath, and allow yourself to
grow. Give yourself the space to ask questions about what you
don’t understand. Most importantly, get involved. Contact
student organizations or one of the many offices of the
Undergraduate Students Association Council, such as the External
Vice President’s office, the Cultural Affairs Commission, or
the Academic Affairs Commission. Attend teach-ins and rallies. Take
interesting classes that you don’t “need” to get
a degree. Engage in conversations with people different from
yourself. In these ways, we can change the world. Welcome to
UCLA.