Colleges / Campus scene

A group of 13 college students has demanded time at the next meeting of the North Orange County Community College District Board to ask trustees to refuse to implement Proposition 209.

With about half a dozen police officers following closely behind them, the students, holding hands, disrupted Tuesday night’s board meeting at Cypress College to make their request. Trustees agreed to give the students a spot on the agenda for the board’s Nov. 26 meeting.

“Our fight is to make sure that 209 is not implemented,” said UC Irvine student Cesar Cruz, 22.

District officials told the students that the anti-affirmative action initiative, which bans gender and ethnic preferences in public education, as well as hiring and contracting by state and local governments, is tied up in litigation.

The district does not plan to implement Proposition 209 unless it is upheld in the courts, officials said.

Student organizers said the purpose of their peaceful demonstration was to call attention to the opportunities that would be eliminated should the initiative be enforced. It was supported by 54% of voters statewide in last week’s election.

“Proposition 209 is a very controversial issue,” said Luis Valencia, the district’s Cypress College student trustee. “Issues such as these have brought down a society.”

The 24-year-old single father said he is successful in school because of programs that help women and minorities on campus. “I couldn’t have done it without those programs.”

Tuesday’s demonstration was the latest in a series across the state.

Twenty students were arrested Monday after taking over UC Riverside’s administration building. And last week, students at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State also rallied against the measure’s enforcement.