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GUESTS: Virginia Myers, President of the American Indian Student Association, Lucero Chavez, MeCha of UCLA, and Mandla Kayise, AEOE and University Relations Chair of the UCLA Black Alumni Association.

It has been ten years since Californian voters passed Proposition 209 which banned affirmative action in the state’s institutions. Since that time, total enrollment for African Americans has dropped across the board at the University of California’s ten campuses. The decline has been much sharper at more selective universities. Locally, the University of California at Los Angeles has posted its lowest enrollment of African American students in decades. Of the 4,852 incoming freshman this year at UCLA, only 96 are African Americans. Comprising a paltry 2%, the enrollment numbers at the Westwood campus are the lowest since 1973. Furthermore, less than 700 Chicano and Latino students enrolled at UCLA this year despite comprising more than three quarters of students in Los Angeles’ K-12 school system. Yesterday, community groups and student activists held a march and rally to coincide with a meeting of the UC’s Board of Regents. Among other things, they demanded a non-compliance with Proposition 209.

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