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By Marcelle Richards

Daily Bruin Reporter

The chanting hordes of students who stormed Royce Hall after the UC Board of Regents refused to vote on a repeal of SP-1 and SP-2 Wednesday was reminiscent of the 1998 protest attacking the initial drop in minority admissions that resulted from the policies.

Only this time, there were no riot-gear clad LAPD officers lined up around Royce – and no arrests were made.

“The difference between now and then is that there was not a heavy police presence,” said USAC Internal Vice President Elias Enciso.

He said this was what led to the peaceful end to Wednesday’s rally.

“At the other one, there were police in riot gear – that’s why students were arrested, that’s why students were hurt,” he said.

“Everyone felt safer, there was no reason to be violent or defensive,” Enciso continued.

At the 1998 protest, students barricaded themselves inside Royce Hall in response to the drop in admissions of underrepresented minority students that resulted from the ban on affirmative action.

Then-Undergraduate Students Association Council President Kandea Mosley led the protest, which culminated in the arrest of 88 students as the evening drew on.

Veterans of the 1998 march said Wednesday’s protest was indicative that current efforts are built on the foundation of the past.

“I see the same outrage, the same commitment, dedication and sense of community that was around (three) years ago,” said Albert Retana, a 1998 UCLA alumnus and former USAC external vice president. “It’s empowering to see that there are roots in the student movement that run deep in UCLA’s history.”

For the past six months, campus organizers networked with both students at other universities and community leaders to build strength in numbers. Karren Lane, ASU chair and Affirmative Action Coalition organizer said the sit-in at Royce was unplanned, it was a strategy that came about after all other options had been exhausted.

“The last protest was based upon the understanding of what might happen, whereas here, it’s about the realization of what has occurred,” said attorney Jon Caldwell, who represented the students who were arrested at the 1998 protest. “The chancellor has said his greatest regret is the fall in minorities. In an ironic way, it seems the students and chancellor are on the same page.”

Caldwell, acting once again as the students’ legal adviser, notified Wednesday’s crowd of the ramifications of their presence in the building should they decide to stay in the building. In the end, no students were arrested.

As the former chair of the UCLA Black Student Union, the equivalent of today’s ASU, Caldwell said the struggle for rights is cyclical.

The history of the struggles – from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1978 Bakke decision to the focus on SP-1, SP-2 and Proposition 209 today – are bound by the struggle of students fighting to win access for themselves and generations to come, said Mike de la Rocha, a 2000 alumnus and last year’s USAC president.

“It’s good to see students stepped up and learned from the past,” he said. “The student organizations have a legacy that is carried on from generation to generation.”

In the 1978 case Bakke v. UC Regents, the Supreme Court declared racial quotas unconstitutional, while upholding the use of other forms of affirmative action.

“There is a definite continuity that predates me and continues today for underrepresented minorities,” Caldwell said. “At the last protest the government was Republican. Now, Gray Davis has been elected the governor of California and the state is in a more Democratic orientation.”

Since Gov. Gray Davis is a Democrat, he is more likely than his predecessor to appoint regents who would vote to repeal SP-1 and SP-2. Currently, there are two openings on the board.

Though the Los Angeles mayoral debate that was scheduled to take place in Royce Hall was cancelled, candidates Antonio Villaraigosa and Xavier Becerra offered their support to the protesters Wednesday evening.

“Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr. are probably looking down and saying the next generation is standing tall,” Becerra said. “What you’re doing is one more step in the process.”

As Becerra stepped off Royce’s stage, students turned their attention to the fleets of television cameras and news reporters shouting, “This is what diversity looks like!”

ASU’s Lane affirmed the feelings of many of the protesters: “We already have a victory here.”