CSUN Student Follows Controversy With Win

Vladimir Cerna, the Cal State Northridge student who sparked a controversy when he revealed he was an illegal immigrant at the height of a political battle over Proposition 187, was elected president of the student body this week.

Cerna said in an interview Friday that his victory is all the more poignant given the renewed debate over illegal immigration triggered by the recent beatings involving Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

The election, the 22-year-old sociology major said, “proves that people can overlook superficial labels that some of us have been given and are instead able to look at someone’s qualities and ideas and overall potential.”

It was in October 1994, in the midst of a bitter debate over illegal immigration, that Cerna acknowledged that he entered this country illegally in 1986 after leaving his native El Salvador. After the interview was published in The Times, Cerna found himself the target of outrage in numerous hate letters by pro-Proposition 187 forces.

The initiative, which passed but is currently tied up in court, prohibits illegal immigrants from receiving public education, health care and many social service benefits.

Since making the revelation, Cerna and his family have attained legal resident status. He has also stayed active in school affairs, most recently becoming a rally organizer in the movement to protest attacks on affirmative action.

But he topped those accomplishments Thursday when he was voted student body president. Cerna and his vice presidential running mate, Parag Vaish, beat out their opponents by garnering 54% of the votes. . . .

*

HIV EDUCATION: A series of multilingual HIV-prevention public service announcements aimed at women will be unveiled Monday at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood.

The campaign, dubbed “Women Need to Know,” will include such recognizable faces as Cookie Johnson, Magic Johnson’s wife; Native American actress Elaine Miles of “Northern Exposure,” Asian American actress Elizabeth Sung of “The Joy Luck Club,” Latina TV host Maty Monfort of “The Mike & Maty Show” and African American actresses Queen Latifah and Kim Fields-Freeman, both of “Living Single.”

The public service spots--to be aired in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Hindi--stress the importance of disease prevention and include an 800 number for information and referrals.