UCI students discuss campus controversies

About 100 students gathered for a town hall meeting this week at UC Irvine’s Cross Cultural Center to discuss controversies related to race, religion and politics that have flared up on University of California campuses in recent weeks.

Eleven students were arrested Feb. 8 at UCI for disrupting a speech by the Israeli ambassador, and there has since been a series of incidents stoking passions, including the so-called “Compton Cookout” party, where UC San Diego students mocked Black History Month.

On Feb. 24, in reaction to the incidents at UCSD, a group of UCI students and staff held a sit-in at Aldrich Hall and asked for Chancellor Michael Drake to consider a list of 15 demands, including an increase in funding for ethnic, gay and transgender programs and a restructuring of the financial aid system.

Law enforcement locked down the building and arrested 17 for unlawful assembly and refusal to disperse.

Campus minority groups at UCI have been ignited by these events and felt the Monday night forum was an opportune time to voice their concerns about the treatment of minorities in the UC system.

TeKeyia Armstrong, a fourth-year African American studies major and co-chairwoman of the Black Student Union, spoke about the effect of the UCSD incidents on UCI.

“This is not an isolated incident,” she said. “This is system-wide in all UC schools. The time to act is now.”

She also asked for more awareness from fellow students: “It’s ridiculous that (at UCI) people go around their day as if nothing is wrong. Every year at this campus a person is called an ‘N word.’ We need to realize this.”

The discussion also touched on the 11 UCI students who were arrested for disrupting Michael Oren’s speech.

Shawn Hill, program coordinator at UCI’s Saturday Academy of Law, an outreach program for high schoolers, cautioned students to think about the ways they express their opinions.

“The challenge I pose for you is … you really have to understand racism in America,” he said. “Think [strategically] about everything. What you say now might come back to you again.”

Hill’s comment spurred discussion among students about whether to demand change or try to create dialogue.