Westside : UCLA Students Camp Out in Support of Affirmative Action
About 40 UCLA students are showing their support for affirmative action with a tent encampment dubbed “Freedom City” on the Westwood campus.
The students are members of the UCLA Affirmative Action Coalition, which is made up of several minority groups on campus. By calling attention to themselves with the camp-out, the students hope to educate people about the need for affirmative action programs, said John Du, vice president of the UCLA Undergraduate Student Assn. Council.
The 10 tents will be at UCLA’s Schoenberg Plaza on the campus until Thursday, Du said. Meanwhile, several professors have agreed to teach classes at the encampment, and speakers have signed up to make presentations on affirmative action.
The camp-out is part of an affirmative action education campaign by UCLA students.
The long-term goal is to rally students against the California “civil rights initiative,” Du said. The voter initiative, scheduled to appear on the 1996 ballot, would ban ethnic and gender preferences in state hiring, contracting and college admissions.
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