Members of activist group BAMN and UC Berkeley applicants occupied the campus Office of Undergraduate Admissions on Friday in an effort to appeal their rejections and demand greater acceptance rates for minority students.
The demonstration followed up on a previous occupation of the registrar’s office by BAMN and the Defend Affirmative Action Party on April 6.
BAMN national organizer Yvette Felarca said they were told at the previous occupation that the reason the number of minority students is low is because there are not enough qualified students from those communities, which she said is “a big, fat lie.”
On Friday, about 25 protesters led by Felarca flooded the admissions office and began chanting and making statements about their right to attend UC Berkeley. Felarca said they would not leave until they were given “real answers.”
According to UCPD spokesperson Capt. Margo Bennett, officers cited the 10 remaining protesters for trespassing and released them. Bennett said the eight protesters who are not UC Berkeley students were issued seven-day stay-away orders.
One of the purposes of the protest was to demand the number of minority students accepted to UC Berkeley and UCLA be doubled.
According to a BAMN press release, black, Latino and Native American students make up about half of California’s high school graduates, yet only comprise 21.9 percent of the campus’s California-resident freshmen this year.
“We are occupying to demand an end to UCB’s Jim Crow admission policies and for the admission of these students now,” Felarca said in the press release.
High school and community college students who were rejected by the campus spoke about their experiences as minority students and the difficulties they have had to face.
Berkeley High School senior Hannah Albaseer spoke about her experience as a Yemeni-American female and her desire to be the first in her family to attend college.
“I’m occupying because I’m representing the thousands of voiceless women and minority students who fight every day for their education, to give them hope to want to achieve better,” Albaseer said in the press release.
Albaseer also passed out a copy of her appeal letter at the occupation, which further described some of the challenges she has faced growing up, including having two parents who do not speak English.
Jackie Partida, a student at Pasadena City College, also spoke at the event. Partida — who said her father was deported to Mexico when she was young — said she hopes to attend UC Berkeley and one day become a lawyer so she can help people with struggles similar to her own.
“Let us in because we deserve to be here,” Partida said. “Let me help my community.”
Felarca also spoke about the issue of using only numbers like grade point averages and SAT scores to determine admissions policies.
“Regardless of what an SAT score or an ACT score says, we’re all determined to be here,” said Berkeley High School senior Donovan Hernandez.
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There’s always Irvine…
BAMN national organizer Yvette Felarca said they were told at the
previous occupation that the reason the number of minority students is
low is because there are not enough qualified students from those
communities, which she said is “a big, fat lie.”
Yes, the deeply racist people in charge of admissions departments are committed to keeping out minorities. Do these people have a clue? The left-leaning types running universities would love to have a reason to let in more minorities. Perhaps the comment at the end is meant to suggest that the measures they are using to evaluate applicants do not accurately determine which are qualified. Nevermind the substantial predictive usefulness that has been consistently demonstrated for these tests. I can understand why these people do not like them though – far more difficult to game standardized tests if you only have half a brain. I’d be happy to never see these scum in a class at Berkeley.
BAMN are racists. Shouldn’t matter what ethnicity a person is.
Apparently the protesters were told there were not enough “qualified” student applicans from minority communities. We have heard this argument made by the University before in the 1970′s. It was not true then and it is not true now.
With Berkeley accepting a record number of foreign students from other countries outside of the United States, it has violated its obligation to educate Americans within its border. Why should we as taxpayers be paying the University to educate people not even in our own country? Get rid of these UC administrators and fire them now!
> Apparently the protesters were told there were not
> enough “qualified”
student applicans from minority
> communities. We have heard this argument
made by
> the University before in the 1970′s. It was not true
> then and
it is not true now.
Any proof to back up your assertions, or is this merely your usual bullshit?
The obviously racist comments given shows the necessity for restoring affirmative action and increasing the numbers of Black, Latina/o and other underrepresented minority students.
There aren’t any “racist” comments, so take your lies elsewhere.
typo: BAMN and the BSU should call for the elimination of the time and resource wasting Black Studies Department…
BAMN has to be told you don’t end discrimination by discriminating (vs non-blacks in this case). Moreover, after BAMN provided support for the invitation of Louis Fart-His-Can to campus, they and the BSU can’t seriously expect assistance from tolerant non-blacks for any cause they espouse. For unacceptable actions, there are consequences.
Finally, if BAMN really wished to help those African American students who are admitted to Cal, it should call for the waste of time Black Studies Department which squanders the learning experience of blacks who attend the university and wastes precious financial resources as well…
CAL has nothing but whites and asians then some middle eastern people. The school almost has no blacks and if they are and barely hispanics. It is a shame really. However, we don’t know if the admissions committee is discriminating against minorities or not. Personally, I feel they need to admit more minorities to diversify the student body, but admitting minorities might lower the value and the prestige of the school…you know what they say. In any event, CAL is the chinatown for the City of Berkley. End of the story.
“One of the purposes of the protest was to demand the number of minority students accepted to UC Berkeley and UCLA be doubled.”
Yo, dawgs, that sounds like a race-based quota.
Poor BAMN, their position got trounced as lacking merit by the Fed 9th Circuit.
http://www.dailycal.org/2012/04/02/court-upholds-affirmative-action-ban/
If you read the opinion itself (and not just the DC’s reporting), you will see that ‘trounced’ might not be strong enough, perhaps ‘annihilated’ would be better.
And notice that NONE of the appeal letters are mentioning grades or achievements, just their pity party reasons. Boo freakin’ hoo.
And when Jackie Partida becomes a lawyer, I can just see her in a courtroom: ”You’re honor. If you don’t let my client win, I will hold my breath until I turn blue and die.” Too bad that day can’t come earlier.
Well, it’s not like Felarca could get a date for a Friday night, so she might as well sit in Sproul.