"Students block traffic in protest against 209"
Melissa Grace
Santa Barbara News-Press, November 13, 1996
Chanting, clapping and waving banners, more than 200 UCSB students marched through campus and blocked traffic on Ward Memorial Boulevard Tuesday demonstrating their opposition to Proposition 209 and to the UC president's decision to implement the law immediately.
What the students at UCSB and the eight other UC campuses have demanded in a series of protests is that Prop. 209-a state constitutional amendment-be ignored by the university.
"I'm surprised and disappointed that the president wants to implement at all," said protester Jenny Marone, a 21-year-old political science major at UCSB. Samantha Condello, 22, and a religious studies major, agreed, adding that UCSB is "not diverse enough as it is."
The initiative, passed by voters Nov. 5, makes affirmative action programs in public education, hiring and contracting illegal. At UC, it prohibits the use of race and gender-based policies in future university admissions decisions.
Without affirmative action, students fear there will be fewer blacks, Latinos and other underrepresented minorities admitted to the campuses. Women's chances may suffer too, the students worry.
Since 209 passed-by 54 to 46 percent-students and top administrators have held several meetings to talk about what the initiative means for UCSB. Administrators have stressed that they share students' worries about the effects of 209.
But Tuesday afternoon, students took action. They staged two sit-ins, stopping traffic on Ward Memorial for a half-hour and jamming the lobby of Cheadle Hall UCSB's main administration building Although students are angry, Prop. 209 isn't bringing new issues to the school. Rather, it speeds up a process that already was underway. The UC regents voted in July 1995 to end affirmative action policies throughout the 164,000-student university.
After ballots were counted last week UC President Richard Atkinson announced that Prop. 209's provisions must tee implemented right away. The regents ban on using affirmative action in admissions decisions wasn't due to take effect until 1998. Atkinson's statement left administrators and faculty at the 17,000-student Goleta campus flatfooted. "We're caught in a transition," said Bill Villa, director of admissions. He's working with a faculty committee to define new guidelines for UCSB admissions. Criteria developed to replace decisions based partly on race and gender in admissions. could include students' socio-economic status and whether they show academic promise even though they are attending a substandard high school. These are ways, Villa said, that UCSB might identify traditionally underrepresented students. But, he added, "These are the things that haven't really been worked out yet, we're still conceptualizing them."
Prop. 209 is being challenged in the courts. The student protesters and other opponents say the university should wait for a ruling before 209 is implemented. 'It seems that before we go about changing programs, we need to understand what it is we are doing," said Michael Young, vice chancellor for student affairs at UCSB. An opponent of the regent's ruling and the proposition, he marched on Tuesday and wore a green armband to support the opposition to 209.
"Do you want your children to grow up in a world that separates us or in a world that brings us together?" asked senior Tom Davis, speaking into an open mike set up at a Storke Plaza rally. "It's a tragedy that the university has become theirs," shouted Nadia Kim, 22-year-old English and sociology major. "But this university is ours, we pay a lot of money every semester to get an education. Bring the university back It is ours."
Certainly, not all students at UCSB are opposed to the measure. "We need to level the playing field,'' said Jamie Smith, a sophomore who didn't attend the rally, "but affirmative action favors some people." He added that he wasn't sure if Prop. 209 is the solution.
The student marchers, though, didn't hesitate. After the rally at Storke Plaza, they walked, clapping and chanting, to UCSB's east entrance and for about 30 minutes sat on Highway 217 blocking traffic. Police were on hand, but there were no arrests. From there, the protesters directed their energy at university administrators and headed for Cheadle Hall. The students crowded into the lobby and sat down, but did not disrupt university business.
Carl
Gutierrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106
E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu