Students make demands of Carnesale in response to UCLA’s shortage of underrepresented minorities
From Daily Bruin Online
By Derek Lipkin and Saba Riazati
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
A few hundred students – from the Afrikan Student Union, other underrepresented communities and their supporters – marched to Chancellor Albert Carnesale’s office Wednesday in a rally to encourage reform of UCLA admissions policies and to address concerns regarding a lack of diversity at UCLA.
The march began at the base of Meyerhoff Park, where participants proceeded up to Murphy Hall’s second-floor hallway, lining the walls at first, then crowding the hallway as time went on.
Lack of diversity has been a concern of students and faculty for a long time, especially after statistics from this year’s admissions were released in April.
The report showed that the number of underrepresented minority students admitted has decreased, from 1,732 admitted students in 2005 to 1,669 in 2006. Black students made up 2 percent of those admitted to UCLA this year, down from 2.4 percent last year.
Karume James, a fifth-year Afro-American studies student and chairman of ASU, said he and others demanded the chancellor declare a state of crisis for black admissions at UCLA. They also called for him to maintain funding for outreach programs and reconsider the use of winter admissions for freshmen, with the goal of raising the percentage of black students to 9 percent, equal to that of blacks living in Los Angeles.
He led students in chants and songs throughout the march, which was also attended by faculty, staff and alumni. “(Diversity is) an issue that’s affecting everyone on this campus,” James said.
The group piled into the hallway, packed almost shoulder-to-shoulder, awaiting a response to their chants. Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Janina Montero arrived at the hallway shortly after and met privately with student leaders, including James and 2005-2006 Undergraduate Students Association Council President Jenny Wood.
While the meeting was going on privately, individual students outside addressed the crowd, which university police estimated to be between 200 and 300 people, as they fanned themselves with fliers. Many were wearing black shirts with “got black students?” printed in white lettering.
After the meeting, Montero addressed the rally participants, saying she was presented with many letters. Of them, 564 were from prospective students regarding concerns about the lack of diversity at UCLA; 110 were appeal letters from underrepresented minority students who were denied admission for fall 2006; and 73 were from teachers and counselors. She also received a petition with hundreds of student signatures.
Also, James said the student leaders demanded a meeting with the chancellor within the next week. “The chancellor plays a role in ensuring the diversity of this campus,” he said.
If Carnesale does not meet with students by the proposed deadline, James said he and others will take more action to agitate the issue of diversity at UCLA. Lauren Bartlett, a spokeswoman for UCLA, said the chancellor is out of town this week for a scheduled trip and plans to return Friday.
While Montero said she will try to communicate to Carnesale the information she was given, she could not guarantee a meeting would be possible, depending on his schedule.
She also expressed concern over the ability of administrators to find solutions to the lack of diversity through admissions, as Proposition 209, passed in 1996, made the use of affirmative action illegal in public entities such as the University of California. But she thanked the rally participants, with tears welling up in her eyes, for their continued concern regarding diversity at UCLA.
“Just because I tear up now doesn’t mean I care more than others,” she said after addressing the crowd, adding that many administrators have serious concerns about the issue of diversity.
James said the admissions at UCLA overemphasizes academic performance, de-emphasizing life challenges and adversely affecting students of color. He added that students will look to Carnesale to urge the chancellor search committee to find a new chancellor who will give priority to diversity and has a record of doing so in the past.
A community forum and press conference will be held by ASU next Thursday, in coordination with other student groups and underrepresented communities in South Los Angeles, James said, where a coalition will be developed to fight what he calls the injustice of admissions.
From Aljazeera.net
Chilean riot police have used water cannon and tear gas to disperse students marching and dancing in the streets to protest against bus fares, exam fees and poorly equipped schools.
Dozens of students were arrested in the capital and hundreds of schools closed all over Chile as more than 300,000 students occupied school grounds, calling for improved education in one of South America’s wealthiest countries.
An AP report said up to 600,000 people took part in the protests, which have put pressure on the government to back down from an earlier refusal to negotiate with the students.
Martin Zilic, the education minister, said he would meet student leaders to hear their demands and was “prepared to work on all topics”.
Protests began two weeks ago when students took over a few schools in the capital - sleeping overnight in classrooms and eating food brought in by sympathetic parents.
Law reforms
The movement spread all over the country, Chile’s biggest student uprising in decades and the first major street protests faced by Michelle Bachelet, the new president.
The demands expanded to include reforms of the country’s education law, which was issued by former leader Augusto Pinochet a day before he left office in 1990.
The law assigns responsibility for public education to municipalities, which critics say breeds inequality because of regional differences in resources available.
Javier Romero, a leader of the movement, said: “We want the state to be the only guarantor and administrator of public education. Only that would ensure equality.”
Subsidies
Jose Joaquin Brunner, the former education minister, said Chile’s poorest schools allocate an estimated $73 a month per student, compared with more than $385 at the richest.
The law also allows the virtually uncontrolled creation of private schools that are entitled to government monthly subsidies of $57 a student.
Critics say the schools’ owners are more interested in profiting from the subsidies than providing a high-quality education.
Students now pay the equivalent of $40 to take a college entrance exam and about 20 cents to take a bus.
Protesters say that both should be free, and also complain of a shortage of teachers and schools in disrepair.
“We are protesting on behalf of our school. The bathrooms are disgusting, you can’t even take a shower in the locker room, and they don’t do anything about it,” said Bernardo Ferrada, 15, his nose and eyes burning from tear gas.
Broad support
Ferrada said he and 25 other students from the Arturo Prats high school in the middle class neighbourhood of Puente Alto joined a march headed to the national palace before police sprayed them with tear gas from armoured vehicles.
“We want the state to be the only guarantor and administrator of public education. Only that would ensure equality”
Students in Valparaiso, Concepcion and other Chilean cities also held marches and college students stayed away from classes in sympathy.
Students at elite private schools went to school but held solidarity events on Tuesday instead of classes./p>
The well-organised student leaders in their grey-and-blue school uniforms have taken over the nightly news and the public agenda in the last two weeks.
Lagging quality
In recent decades, Chile has expanded school coverage to most of the population, but students say quality has lagged.
“We have not improved the quality of education as we wanted. The big new challenge for us is closing the quality gap,” Pilar Romanguera, the deputy education minister, acknowledged in a recent radio interview.
Students say they should benefit from windfall profits from a rally in prices for copper.
Chile is the biggest copper producer in the world and the government has a massive budget surplus and very low debt due to copper income.
“Copper sky high and education in the gutter,” read a banner at one school.
Students and parents also criticised what they said was heavy-handed police reaction to peaceful marches.
Victor Barrueto, Santiago city administrator, told TVN television that “the police did what they had to do to dissuade the students from marching, so that they don’t interrupt traffic and disturb the peace”.