Student Pressure

  Daily Bruin File Photo Students stage a sit-down in the
middle of a street during the Oct. 12, 1995 protest in Westwood to
show their disapproval of the regents’ approved policies to end
affirmative action at the university.

By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The regents’ two “standing policies” took 12
hours of deliberation to pass and six years of protest to bring to
a symbolic end.

On July 20, 1995, the UC Board of Regents passed SP-1 and 2 amid
protests by students, faculty, politicians and community activists
across the state. That day, the Rev. Jesse Jackson joined 1,000
demonstrators in the Laurel Heights area of San Francisco to
condemn the board’s repeal of affirmative action in
admissions, hiring and contracts ““ policies that had been in
place for more than 25 years.

“We are going forward by hope, and not backwards by fear.
No lie can stop us. No jail cell can contain us. No grave can hold
our bodies down. We are determined,” Jackson said to the
cheering crowd in 1995. “We need you to leave this place
mobilizing, galvanizing, organizing, and fighting back.”

And they did.

For six years, community activists, politicians and teachers
joined students in protesting the regents’ policies banning
affirmative action. A year later, affirmative action was banned
statewide with the passage of Proposition 209.

Year after year, everything from campus politics to media
attention and relationships with legislators contributed to the ups
and downs of student organizing. But students involved in the
movement agree they must carry on the torch.

“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for other
people,” said Portia Pedro, a former Undergraduate Students
Association Council external vice president. “People have put
in much more time and sacrificed much more than we are right now,
just so we have the opportunity to get here. And it would be
irresponsible for us just to go to this school and not work on
other people being able to get in.”

Students formed the Affirmative Action Coalition in 1995, in
response to the regents’ repeal that year. The group stemmed
from the Human Rights Coalition, formed between 1993 and 1994 to
combat Proposition 187 and the “three strikes” law,
which organizers considered a direct attack on California’s
minority communities.

The multi-ethnic coalition consisted of Samahang Pilipino,
MEChA, African Student Union, Asian Pacific Coalition and the
American Indian Student Association.

Mike de la Rocha, a ’00 alumnus who served as the 1999-00
USAC president, was among the 3,000 who marched through Westwood on
Oct. 12, 1995, protesting the end of affirmative action and halting
traffic at the intersection of Westwood and Wilshire Boulevards for
more than an hour.

  MARY CIECEK/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Students stage a
sit-it in Royce Hall after the March 14 meeting of the UC Board of
Regents. “That was probably what got me into
organizing,” de la Rocha said. “It’s amazing when
you are one in the middle of 3,000 and everyone is there because
they believe in social justice; they believe that education is a
right.

“We shut down the busiest intersection in the nation. It
was students who did that, and it was students who forced the
regents to repeal SP-1.”

De la Rocha, who entered UCLA that year, said it was through
MEChA that he got involved in the movement. He attributed his early
involvement to mentors within the group as well as the Chicano
community.

“My parents always told me I had a responsibility,”
he said. “We are rooted not only in our time here at UCLA,
but also in a history of activism.”

UCLA’s student movement has looked to the past to draw
inspiration for their actions today.

In the last few years, though the words “student
activism” and “student government” have became
nearly synonymous, it was not always this way. The Greek system
dominated the undergraduate student government in years prior to
1995, when Students First! candidate York Chang won the presidency
and his slate swept the elections.

In 1997-98, MEChA split from Students First!, and a year later,
APC broke off to form its own slate, called Mobilize 2000. Though
the M2K slate was short-lived, the coalition formerly known as
Students First! became Praxis, and student groups previously united
under one umbrella ran candidates against each other in student
government elections.

“The M2K/Praxis issue then was really personal
differences; it wasn’t so much organizational. But that rift
caused mistrust that took a little while to repair,” Pedro
said.

But because undergraduates only spend a few years at UCLA, such
rifts are often forgotten. Institutional knowledge is passed down
as word of mouth, through campus publications, and by a few faculty
and administrators who work closely with students year after
year.

Recently, the student movement has also received more help from
state legislators, which students say they will welcome in seeking
to overturn Proposition 209.

“A lot of times it can be as simple as calling them or
having a meeting with them,” Pedro said. “Over a while,
with that experience, they’ll start working for
you.”

One chronicler of student activist history saw the response to
the end of affirmative action as “too little and too
late.”

“There were forces gathering in the early ’90s that
people didn’t pay particular attention to. But when ’95
hit, it just hit. It was like nobody knew what hit them,”
said Terelle Jerricks, who has been the editor of Nommo
newsmagazine the past three years.

Student organizations attempt to pass down the torch of activist
history through workshops, teach-ins and discussions.

“The issue was kept alive largely by students, and
it’s remarkable because the entire student body has changed
since 1995 and yet the students today remain very much aware of
this just like their predecessors had been back in
’95,” said Jess Bravin, 1996-97 student regent.

Pedro, who entered UCLA in 1997, said she was confused at the
time whether she would be considered under affirmative action.
Proposition 209 took effect in fall 1997, after court cases that
sought to ban it failed. On Sept. 5, 1997, the Supreme Court
refused to hear an emergency request to block it.

But despite the fact that they would be the last class to enter
under affirmative action, Pedro said student organizers did not yet
feel defeated.

“We knew that within our precincts where we walked, 209
was defeated. People were still ready to go and really wanted to
keep the beat up,” she said. “It was still number one,
even though there were issues on council, but these didn’t
break apart the coalition.”

Pedro attributed the feeling of defeat in part to the shift in
media coverage of affirmative action. Except for campus newspapers,
she said, the media declared affirmative action a dead issue after
the court cases seeking to block Proposition 209 came to an
end.

For the students, the next step is two-pronged. In the long run,
they would like to see an end to Proposition 209. But for now,
students say the work to be done is with the UC’s admissions
policies.

“While we always have long term in mind, short term, we
can see the effects of having 50 percent fewer students of
color,” Pedro said. “Just in general, we need a more
holistic admissions process as it is. We shouldn’t have
students getting in when their essays haven’t been
read.”

But Pedro admits that people were somewhat surprised with the
repeal of SP-1 and 2.

“We were trying to figure out how to repeal SP-1 and 2 for
so long,” she said. “So it’s gonna take … a
little bit of a pause in action for people to strategize and figure
out how we can (repeal Proposition 209).”