Student-initiated outreach aims to increase minority presence

By Michaele Turnage
Daily Bruin Reporter

When the first class admitted without affirmative action in 1998
saw a dramatic decline in the number of underrepresented students
admitted, angered students channeled their energy into creating
student-run outreach centers.

Today, students manage six such outreach programs, operating
with a budget of more than $179,000 and 150 volunteers and paid
staff. They serve about 500 Los Angeles students.

“Underrepresented students developed outreach programs to
holistically empower students to go on to higher education,”
said Li’i Furumoto, director of Xinachtli, MEChA’s
outreach project.

In 1998, the African Student Union submitted a proposal for its
outreach program, Students Heightening Academic Performance through
Education, or SHAPE, to the University of California Office of the
President.

After seeing the proposal, UCOP awarded each UC campus $10,000
to launch student-initiated outreach projects. UCLA matched the
money, so a total $20,000 was available for projects.

In May 1999, students passed the Community and Retention
Empowerment Referendum, which allocates $5 out of each
student’s registration fees to campus retention, student
initiated outreach and community service projects. The university
agreed to match these funds as well.

Money provided by CARE enabled the Student Initiated Outreach
Committee to fund additional outreach projects, making it possible
for projects like the American Indian Recruitment to begin paying
students who served as tutors and peer advisers.

Student-initiated outreach programs at UCLA and Berkeley
recently became the subject of a review after Berkeley outreach
employees declared they would discourage prospective students from
enrolling at the university. But employees at UCLA’s programs
said the review is not warranted.

The university’s programs, which restrict services to
students with a minimum 3.0 grade point average and who, by their
freshman year of high school, are enrolled in three college
preparatory courses, focus on preparing students academically.

Meanwhile, student-initiated programs serve all students and use
the holistic empowerment model of education. This model advocates
that education should consider a student’s entire life
situation, including cultural history, personal life and political
awareness.

Jack Sutton, executive officer for UCLA outreach, said
legislators and educators created university outreach with the
explicit goal of increasing diversity on campuses by increasing the
number of applicants who are competitively eligible. Thus, the
focus is not on students who have no chance of UC eligibility, he
said.

“We target a particular group of students because
that’s what the money was allocated for,” Sutton
said.

But employees of student-initiated programs disagreed with this
practice.

“University-run outreach is just perpetuating students not
being able to come in because of the restrictions they impose on
the applicants to be in the outreach programs,” said Patty
Salcedo, a third-year sociology and Chicana/o studies student who
has worked with Xinachtli for three years.

Student-initiated outreach programs educate people via peer
advising, tutoring, field trips and workshops for students and
parents. Workshop topics include admissions requirements, financial
aid, cultural history, study habits, identity and affirmative
action.

“We use the holistic empowerment model in order for them
to think critically about their situation in life as opposed to
having tutors and counselors spoonfeeding them how to get the
answer,” said Jerry Gonzales, director of Samahang Pilipino
Advancing Community Empowerment.

Participants in student-initiated projects say they appreciate
this approach.

“It enables me to open my mind a little bit more,”
said Nallely Gutierrez, a senior at Santa Monica High School who
will be a first-generation college student. ” It helps me a
lot within my academic work.”

Sutton said university and student-initiated programs are not in
competition, but each exercise different approaches which all serve
to help students. Additionally, university officials see value in
the holistic empowerment approach.

“I think what SIOC is about is important,” Sutton
said.

“The SIOC programs add dimension that we are not able to
add,” he continued, citing funding restrictions.

For UCLA students who work there, outreach programs provide a
way to stay in touch with their communities.

“When I started working with SPACE I began to realize how
lucky I am to be here,” said Elizabeth Estrada, a third-year
biochemistry student. “It’s helped me develop ties to
the community downtown.”

Some students said university outreach policies and admissions
policies as insensitive to the hardships many aspiring colleges
students face.

“GPA isn’t showing what you’re capable of
doing. It’s just a way of socially reproducing what their
parents have gone through where you’re trying and trying each
day but you would never be able to get there,” Gutierrez
said.

GPA and SAT scores don’t take into account the fact that
schools often don’t have books, are subject to drug raids,
and lack Advanced Placement or honors classes or effective guidance
counselors, some students said.

“UC admissions policies are so stringent that they make it
hard for students who face such adverse conditions at their high
school to go on to a UC school,” Furumoto said. “Unless
outreach programs are coupled with strong affirmative action
policies and changes to the UC admissions policy, we will not have
equal representation of communities of color in the University of
California.”