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Sunday, July 21, 1996

By Michael Angell

Summer Bruin Contributor

At 9 a.m. on Saturday, most students would still be in bed. Not Margarita Gonzalez, though. The fourth-year Chicano studies/history student was out of bed, ready to wake up the neighborhood.

"We're going to wake some people up this morning," Gonzalez said.

What she was going to wake people up to was Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). Gonzalez and about 40 other UCLA students spent Saturday morning learning and practicing that 1960s-era strategy of precinct walking ­ going door to door registering voters and informing them about the issues on the November ballot.

Members of the Students for Social Justice walked neighborhoods in Palms, Mar Vista and Venice in conjunction with other efforts across the state to inform voters about the initiative.

"What we're trying to find are the people in the middle, the swing vote," said Liz Ryder of the Metropolitan Alliance, an organization of union and activist groups including the UCLA Affirmative Action Coalition.

"(Those are) the people who, if we share some information with them and show them the right way to vote, will vote against CCRI," she said.

The Metropolitan Alliance has staged other precinct walks against CCRI throughout Los Angeles.

The key task for the canvassers was not only to inform people about the initiative but also to make sure that those people actually went to the polls. Ryder believes that low voter turnouts have helped other controversial initiatives succeed.

"We have to motivate them to get to the polls because the key in this is that most people do not make it to the polls," Ryder said. "There are not enough people voting. We are the majority and if the people were out voting then we wouldn't have a Proposition 187," she added.

"We're targeting towns that have communities that would be affected by the passage of CCRI. Palms has a lot of students. Mar Vista has an ethnically diverse population. Venice, the same thing," Ryder said.

The California Civil Rights Initiative was drafted by University of California Regent Ward Connerly to eliminate gender and racial bias from all state hiring practices.

But its detractors insist that the initiative's seemingly neutral language is simply a way to erode affirmative action policies in businesses and schools.

One example cited by the walk organizers occurred a year ago when the Board of Regents voted to end affirmative action guidelines for student recruitment.

Precinct walks took place in other cities across California as a way to commemorate the event as well as to prevent what walk organizers believe to be another attack on their civil rights.

Current attacks on affirmative action motivated students for Saturday's precinct walk, said incoming undergraduate student President John Du.

"(It's) not at all hard to get people motivated to precinct walk," Du said. "We turned out about 40 people. I think a lot of it has to do with the hard work that the Affirmative Action Coalition laid out last year. We were able to plug in people who have already been active and some of the new people who have already heard of what we've done."

For the most part, students were cold calling on voters in different precincts. Du predicted that the vote solicitors would meet with voters on all sides of the issue.

"We're going to get people that don't know what the hell is going on with CCRI," Du said. "We're going to get people that are for CCRI and people that are dead set against CCRI."

For the most part, Gonzalez and her partner, second-year undeclared student Gabino Arreondo, found people who were registered voters yet had very little knowledge of the California Civil Rights Initiative.

The two vote solicitors worked two quiet streets south of Venice Boulevard, where the mostly white, middle-class residents were receptive to the message Gonzalez and Arreondo gave them.

After Venice resident Tamie Smith heard the students' pitch, she said, "I didn't know about this initiative. I'll definitely vote against it."

Stewart Oscars also had little knowledge of the initiative before he heard Gonzalez's argument.

"The state of the world is such that now everyone is trying to get back all these things that they think they have lost," Oscars said. "Everyone's competing for fewer opportunities and they perceive others as a threat. I'm for opening doors for all people even though I'm a white male."

One Venice resident heard Gonzalez's argument against CCRI, yet may still vote for it. Ken Diashyn said that he wants to look at the initiative more closely.

"They were very polite. It was good that they are trying to educate the voters, but I'm leaning towards voting yes," Diashyn said. "Somebody's got to stick up for the white male."

SHAWN LAKSMI

Margarita Gonzalez (left) and Gabino Arreondo (right) ask Venice residents to vote against CCRI.