Bruins protest naming of new Hill commons
By Kristen Taketa
Oct. 17, 2013 1:13 a.m.
About 20 students rallied in the front of the new Carnesale Commons Wednesday afternoon in support of repealing California’s affirmative action ban, Proposition 209.
The students protested the naming of a new building on the Hill after Albert Carnesale, who became chancellor of UCLA in 1997, the year after Proposition 209 was passed.
“Today is a coalition of underrepresented communities,” said Brittany Bolden, a fifth-year sociology and Afro-American studies student, chairwoman of the Campus Retention Committee, and former Daily Bruin video contributor. “Proposition 209 took diversity away from us and we’re here to reclaim it.”
Carnesale said in a phone interview Wednesday with the Daily Bruin that when it was passed he had no choice but to uphold the proposition and obey the law.
Carnesale said that he was discouraged when he learned Proposition 209 passed and added that he would prefer that affirmative action be legal.
“Our task was to do the best that we could to achieve diversity in the light of the law,” Carnesale said. “I was, have been and continue to be a staunch supporter of diversity, but … you can’t have a chancellor that doesn’t obey the law,” Carnesale said.
Carnesale said he launched an initiative called “UCLA in LA” after the passage of Proposition 209 that reached out to disadvantaged students to encourage them to apply to college even with a ban on affirmative action in place.
Carnesale’s decision to not oppose Proposition 209 is what inspired students to relaunch protests on Wednesday, said Devin Murphy, a third-year political science student and chief of staff for the Undergraduate Students Association Council Office of the President.
“We want students to become educated about these issues, to hear the root of the issues and develop their own opinions,” Murphy said.
Leading the band of students as they made their way from the Bruin statue to Carnesale Commons was Kamilah Moore, a fourth-year political science student and chair of the Afrikan Student Union.
“Students of color on campus face psychological, emotional and educational effects that largely go unnoticed,” Moore said. “To name a building after a man who was not an active advocate for racial diversity sends an alarming message that racial diversity is not a priority.”
The University of California has reiterated its support for affirmative action multiple times.
In August, the University filed an amicus curiae brief in support of affirmative action in Michigan, whose affirmative action ban proposal is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court.
