Demonstrations have national scope

Current and pending decisions on the fate of affirmative action drew students from around the nation to take part in demonstrations at university campuses.

Students and faculty at the University of California at Berkeley showed one of the most enthusiastic response at their events in support of affirmative action as part of their versions of the 2 Days of Action.

Berkeley held a large rally and numerous student-led dialogues on a wide range of contemporary issues. More than 2,500 students and faculty took part in Wednesday's rally, which featured numerous Berkeley professors, including Barbara Christian, an African American studies professor.

Rallies at the University of Michigan drew crowds estimated at only 250 students and faculty.

"She was the first African-American tenured professor at UC-B," said Berkeley junior Preston Taylor, executive vice president of Berkeley's Associated Student's of the University of California.

After the passage of proposition 209, which outlawed the use of race-based affirmative action, in California three years ago, students have noticed a significant difference in the diversity of the student body.

Taylor said Christian revealed a powerful example of the consequences of taking away affirmative action in her speech. She said that in the class admitted 30 years ago, there were 88 black students and 110 Chicanos. Today there are 92 blacks and 116 Chicanos in the class of 2002.

The University of Washington's Student Activities Office hosted a rally Wednesday afternoon that centered around Initiative 200, which bans affirmative action based on race and gender at public universities. Washington is currently fending off a lawsuit similar to the two against the University of Michigan, which challenge the school's use of race as a factor in the admission's process.

The Student Activities Office hosted a rally that attracted more than 700 students and faculty to speak out against the initiative. Only about 10 people showed up to support it.

"We 're really bringing it to the forefront," said Washington junior Erin Lennon, a co-coordinator of the rally. "We focused on getting everybody out there."

Berkeley junior Jake Prendez spoke at the rally about his experiences as an ex-gang member and how affirmative action assisted his acceptance into Berkeley.

"All he really needed was the opportunity," Lennon said.

But students at universities where affirmative action is not directly under fire are still rallying for the cause.

The NAACP sponsored events at Johns Hopkins University. Local groups such as the Office of Multicultural Students Affairs and the Black Student's Union at Johns Hopkins gathered more than 100 students from the campus of 3,800 to affirmative action events during the two days.

Wednesday's activities at Johns Hopkins included a demonstration and a rally, where Adrianne Williams, a representative from the local NAACP chapter, spoke about the meaning of affirmative action at Johns Hopkins.

Yesterday, OMSA and BSU brought Fred Pincus, a sociology professor from the University of Maryland to the campus to give a speech entitled, "Affirmative Action: Just the Facts."

"For us mainly, this was an educational process." said Rose Varner-Gaskins, assistant director of OMSA.

In addition students and faculty took part in a walk out that morning. Although affirmative action is not officially a legal or political issue in Baltimore, it is still on the minds of faculty and students.

"There's discussions about some of the raced-based programs here," Varner-Gaskins said. "The biggest fear is the loss of at least a small portion to be even considered for jobs and schools."

Gaskins said the two days of action prompted a positive response from students.

"It really did wake students up. This really has gotten them charged to more," she said.

Rachel Deutsch, a junior at Yale University and the political action coordinator for the Women's Center, claims that "affirmative action is not under siege at Yale." But a small portion of Yale's student body came out to show their concern for the issue.

Yale's Women's Center sponsored two panel discussions Wednesday. The first panel, which included about 30 faculty members, discussed affirmative action's role in higher education. Yale's Women Center also featured a student panel which focused on the effects of the issue within minority groups.

Yale concluded its events yesterday with a rally that drew about 40 people.

"The march was a way of tying together affirmative action nationally with the campaign we've been working on at Yale, which is to achieve diversity in terms of women and minorities," Deutsch said.

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