Students demand repeal of SP-1, SP-2
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 16, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff African Student
Union Chair Karren Lane led student protesters in
demanding the repeal of SP-1 and SP-2 during the UC Board of
Regents meeting in Covel Commons Thursday afternoon.
By Linh Tat
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Lifting the ban on affirmative action may not have been on the
UC Board of Regents’ agenda Thursday, but students demanded
they address the issue nevertheless.
Starting from Royce Quad, more than 100 students marched to the
regents’ meeting in Covel Commons to demand the repeal of
SP-1 and
SP-2, policies the board set in 1995 prohibiting the use of race
and gender in UC admissions and hiring.
“You guys are here for a good cause and you should never
give up that cause,” Lt. Gov. Cruz Busta-mante told the
chanting crowd that wound around Covel’s staircases.
Student Regent Justin Fong also appeared before the students,
and led them in chanting, “Whose university?” to which
the crowd yelled “Our university!”
The rally was organized by the Affirmative Action Coalition,
which is comprised of such student groups as the African Student
Union, Asian Pacific Coalition and MEChA. It was the coalition that
organized the 1998 takeover of Royce Hall in protest of Proposition
209, a California ballot initiative voters passed in 1996.
The coalition is not affiliated with the UC Berkeley group By
Any Means Necessary, which gathered a smaller crowd to protest the
ban on affirmative action Wednesday.
Since the 1998 implementation of SP-1, SP-2 and Proposition 209,
the university has witnessed a drop in enrollment by
underrepresented minority students.
In 1997, the last year affirmative action was in place, 221
African Americans and 572 Chicano and Latino students enrolled at
UCLA. Those numbers dropped to 157 and 525, respectively this fall,
even though total undergraduate enrollment has increased.
Fifth-year Chicano studies and sociology student Juan Guzman,
who grew up in a predominantly Latino community, said the low
numbers almost drove him away from the university.
“I had a hard time getting acclimated,” he said.
“I almost dropped out my second year.”
Protesters submitted written demands to the regents, calling for
the reinstatement of affirmative action. They also presented
cardboard coffins containing dummy applications of minority
students who were denied admission to the university, but they did
not get to speak before the board.
“We hold the regents of the University of California
responsible for stunting the growth of communities across
California, by denying students, who have the potential to succeed
in higher education … admission to the University,” ASU
Chair Karren Lane read in a statement before the crowd.
Gov. Gray Davis, who is a regent by virtue of his office, is
responsible for appointing three new regents to the board this
academic year.
There is currently one vacant spot, and two more will open up in
March when terms of Regents Meredith Khachigian and Howard Leach
expire. Both members, who were appointed by former Gov. Pete
Wilson, voted in favor of SP-1 and SP-2 in 1995.
“The board is changing to a point where they believe SP-1
and SP-2 are poor welcome mats to students,” said Bustamante,
an ex-officio member on the UC Regents.
“The kind of people the governor will appoint will see the
policies have been divisive in the past,” he said.
Before marching to Covel, students gathered at Royce Quad and
listened to former Undergraduate Students Association Council
President Mike de la Rocha speak about how affirmative action
helped him get into UCLA.
“I came in 1995 as an affirmative action baby and I
graduated with honors as a product of affirmative action,” de
la Rocha said.
Though they will have to continue upholding Proposition 209
because it was passed by voters, Bustamante said the regents may
repeal policies they set themselves.
“We still have to comply with 209 ““ that’s the
law,” he said. “But it doesn’t have to be our
policies that are at the forefront of national effort to get rid of
affirmative action.”
Recent efforts to end affirmative action in Florida have been
prompted by UC Regent Ward Connerly, who advocated the passage of
SP-1, SP-2 and Proposition 209.
