Students Rebuffed in Efforts to Meet Wilson

Four student hunger strikers wheeled their protest to the state Capitol on Tuesday in hopes of pressuring the University of California to restore affirmative action programs slashed over the summer. But they ran into a stone wall of rejection.

The strikers, hunkered in wheelchairs as they entered the 15th day of a liquids-only fast, were rebuffed in their efforts to meet with Gov. Pete Wilson--who was out of town--and engaged in a vitriolic debate via telephone with an assemblyman who authored anti-affirmative action legislation.

Although a fifth hunger striker dropped out Monday because of health and family reasons, the others remained undaunted as they rallied on the steps of the Capitol.

“Why is [Wilson] afraid of four students in wheelchairs?” asked Cesar Cruz, a 21-year-old UC Irvine student participating in the hunger strike. “You know why? Because he does not care about higher education; he does not care about the people of California.”

A spokesman for Wilson accepted a written list of demands from the hunger strikers, all of whom are Latino, but rejected the notion that Wilson or the UC regents would ever backtrack on their historic vote in July to eliminate race and gender as factors in admissions, hiring and contracting in the 162,000-student, nine-campus system.

“The taxpayers can’t be held hostage,” said Paul Kranhold, Wilson’s spokesman. “These kinds of things happen every day. They’re doing this of their own will. And I don’t expect it will sway the governor’s decision.”

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Kranhold said the regents’ vote came only after a tortured debate. “We think the voters support it,” he said. “Should the taxpayers be subsidizing an admissions policy that makes decisions not solely on the qualifications of the candidate but instead on their race? The answer is no.”

Ward Connerly, the UC regent who pushed the affirmative action ban, suggested that the students’ hunger strike was akin to “a temper tantrum.”

“It’s like a kid saying, ‘I’ll hold my breath and turn blue unless father and mother give me what I want,’ ” said Connerly, an African American conservative. “The effect of that is zero. We’re not going to be stampeded and blackmailed by a handful of students who resort to these sorts of methods when they don’t get their way.

“If we were to be held hostage to this kind of behavior, we might as well disband the Board of Regents,” Connerly, a Sacramento businessman, added. “It makes a mockery of the democratic process.”

The hunger strikers did not fare any better when they tried to debate Assemblyman Bernie Richter (R-Chico) during a telephone conference call.

Richter, who was in his district when the four young men arrived at the Capitol, expressed concern that the strikers were endangering their health. But the assemblyman said that he personally is “willing to die or go to the ends of the earth” to do away with preferential policies, and he cited Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a colorblind America as he rejected their demands.

The strikers were left rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in disagreement.

“I want to do away with preferential treatment that has occurred over the past 200 years,” Cruz responded. “We know Anglo males have historically been the ones who have received preferential treatment.”

Meanwhile, the protesters were getting support from a variety of other quarters.

Sen. Richard G. Polanco (D-Los Angeles) applauded the protesters on behalf of the Legislature’s Latino Caucus and blasted Wilson, “who should not have picked on young Californians as his newest sacrifice on the altar of his ambitions.”

Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) dispatched a letter to University of California President Richard Atkinson urging him to enter negotiations with the student protesters. He also called it a “medical and moral mistake” to arrest the students.

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Atkinson said he would only consider such negotiations if the protesters made the request themselves, which he said had not yet occurred. He also expressed sadness over the protest. “I don’t think it’s working in their interest,” Atkinson said. “I’m sad they’re involved in this approach to the issue. I think there are better ways.”

Their day in Sacramento punctuated a busy week for the hunger strikers. On Sunday, the protesters were arrested as they held vigil at UCI.

The arrests over the weekend drew national attention to their protest. Campus police clad in riot gear arrested the strikers after they failed to honor an agreement with university officials to abandon an encampment set up in front of the administration building. They were arrested on suspicion of failing to obey a police order to shut down the encampment, which is a misdemeanor. They were taken to Orange County Jail and released the same day.

By Monday, one of the menManuel Galvan, 21, a biology major at UC Irvine--had decided to quit the hunger strike for health and family reasons.

Pledging to continue their fast, the remaining strikers--three UCI students and one from Claremont Colleges--shifted their focus to Sacramento.

On Tuesday, they boarded an early-morning flight for Sacramento in hopes of meeting with Wilson to push for reversal of the regents’ decision.

Seemingly emboldened by the media attention their protest has generated, the strikers on Tuesday called for a statewide day of protest today at universities throughout California. Last month, the affirmative action vote prompted widespread walkouts and protests by thousands of students at UC campuses across the state.

“If we have to shut down the campuses, we will do so,” Cruz said Tuesday during a noontime rally on the steps of the Capitol attended by throngs of mostly Latino students. “That is what will make the legislators care. That is what is going to make the governor react.”

Cruz said the strikers also hope to go to Washington to voice their pleas to members of Congress, but he would not say when they might make the trip.

The strikers view the regents’ decision on affirmative action as the final insult in a series of what they consider racist attacks on minorities, particularly Latinos. The strikers have denounced Proposition 187 and the Republican Party’s “contract with America” during their two-week protest.

After their trip to the Capitol, the hunger strikers headed for UC Davis for an afternoon rally. Earlier in the day, they met with Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna.

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Throughout the ordeal, each striker’s medical condition has been extensively monitored. But one of them, 21-year-old UCI student Juan Cazarez, has slipped into the early stages of a condition that could lead to serious liver and kidney damage. Cazarez has lost more than 25 pounds from his 350-pound frame and could require emergency hospitalization as early as this week.

All the strikers have complained of symptoms associated with starvation, such as headaches, stomach pains, dropping blood pressure and heart rates, and extreme fatigue. Medical experts say the body’s organs begin to fail after 30 to 50 days without food.

The other hunger strikers are Angel Cervantes, 23, a graduate history student at Claremont Colleges, and Enrique Valencia, 21, a business and Spanish major at UC Irvine.