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Friday, May 1, 1998

Community Briefs

Congress to debate affirmative action

The Riggs Amendment, a proposed addition to the Higher Education Act prohibiting preferential treatment in university admission procedures nationwide, is up for debate before the U.S. House of Representatives this week.

Introduced by Rep. Frank Riggs, R-California, the amendment would prohibit all federally funded universities from mentioning race, ethnicity or gender in the application and admissions processes.

Jenny Simon, coordinator of Associated Students of Madison's Higher Education campaign, said that if passed, Riggs' amendment would prohibit schools from achieving their diversity goals. "We could recruit minorities, but would also have to give the same treatment to white students. So it wouldn't increase diversity at all," Simon said.

In a letter to Wisconsin's nine U.S. representatives, UW System President Katherine C. Lyall urged them to oppose the amendment.

"Adoption of Rep. Riggs' amendment would set back our efforts to provide equal educational opportunity on UW campuses," Lyall wrote. "Federal legislation stating that we cannot consider race, gender, national origin or ethnicity in admissions practices could effectively mean majority students attending our institutions would be denied the educational benefit of being exposed to diverse cultures."

Brian Campeau, secretary of the College Republicans, said he supports the banning of racial preferences proposed under Riggs' amendment, but believes it should be left up to the state or individual universities to decide whether or not to implement the legislation.

Community board expands

The UCLA School of Public Health's Advisory Board recently expanded its commitment to the community by adding four new members.

Gerald Factor, Carolyn Katzin, Walter Oppenheimer and Constance Whitney are the new members of the community-based advisory board responsible for various fund-raising projects on campus.

While the new board members are of communities ranging from Beverly Hills to Brentwood, each of them will help to fulfill the $15 million commitment the School of Public Health has made as its part in Campaign UCLA.

Cal grad students

consider strike

UC Berkeley's Association of Graduate Student Employees began voting on Wednesday on whether to strike next semester, likely late in the fall.

Because voting is scheduled to take place through the remainder of the week, results are not yet available. But several members said a graduate student strike is bound to happen next fall if AGSE members vote to approve the strike proposal.

During a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, AGSE members discussed the parameters of the strike. One member, who declined to give his name, said the strike would coincide with other UC campuses.

During the last school year, AGSE went on strike for three consecutive days in the fall and spring semesters.

The strike before that was in Nov. 1992, when graduate student employees picketed for more than one month.

Members of AGSE said they are hoping to achieve collective bargaining rights with the university in order to negotiate better working conditions and wages proportional to the value of their work. But the university feels that GSIs are primarily students who learn from teaching the classes, members said.

Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.