Students walk out of UC San Diego teach-in

Posted by the ghetto intellectual 2/27/2010

Dig it!

Students rally Wednesday at UC San Diego, where administrators hosted a packed gathering to promote understanding after two racial incidents. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times / February 24, 2010)

[See also: Noose found in campus library.]


By Larry Gordon
February 25, 2010
Reporting from San Diego


A student walkout Wednesday disrupted a UC San Diego teach-in that was intended to promote tolerance in the wake of two recent racially charged incidents. Many of those involved said the protest showed how difficult it will be for the beachside campus to overcome long-standing concerns about the small number of African American students enrolled there.

More than 1,200 students, faculty and staff packed an auditorium in the student center for the teach-in, which campus administrators organized in response to the incidents, including an off-campus party Feb. 15 that mocked Black History Month.

But halfway through the planned two-hour session, hundreds of students walked out.

The students, who were joined by many others during the afternoon, held their own noisy but peaceful rally outside the building, calling on UC San Diego leaders to improve conditions for minority students and boost their numbers.

Administrators may have thought the teach-in "would make us quiet," said Fnann Keflezighi, vice chairwoman of the Black Student Union. But she said minority students do not believe that the university will take significant steps to improve the situation. The controversial party, she and others contended, was just the spark that ignited long-simmering ethnic tensions on the campus.

According to UC systemwide data, UC San Diego enrolled the smallest number of black freshmen last fall of any of the nine undergraduate campuses, 46 students out of a class of 3,749. Overall, officials say, about 1.6% of the campus' 23,143 undergraduates are African American, among the lowest percentages in the UC system.

On Wednesday, many students wore black and white T-shirts -- "Real Pain, Real Action, 1.3%" -- that noted the low enrollment figures, although with a slightly different calculation.

Read entire story @ the LA Times


tags: dissent, racism, education, compton, san diego