Members of at least seven student organizations protested oncampus Saturday against “racist university policies” and the numberof students of color that attend campus as thousands of prospectivestudents and their parents walked by.
More than 30 students joined together on the Free Speech Steps atthe beginning of Future Aztecs Day, an annual event that opens thecampus to high school seniors and their families. This event isgenerally viewed as a time when students decide whether to attend SanDiego State.
Protesters held signs and shouted, “Know the real side, not thepresident’s side” and “Don’t be fooled by the school,” as they passedout fliers outlining their concerns.
“We want to get the word out to these newer students,” MannyLieras, Native American Student Alliance chairman and candidate forAssociated Students executive vice president, said. “We want them toknow the policies that the university is practicing.”
The protesters are part of a new coalition, Students Together forActivism and Racial Equality that utilizes about 70 students to fightfor more students, faculty and administrators of color, a retentionand multi-cultural center, more funding for recruitment efforts andthe elimination of human images to represent the campus.
“(We want to) let everyone know that they’re not future Aztecs,”said Lieras, speaking on behalf of NASA. “They may be future SDSUstudents, but they are not future Aztecs in the sense that they willnever be members of the Aztec nation.”
Organizations at the protest included Movimiento EstudiantilChicano de Aztlan, Asian Pacific Student Alliance, Andres BonaficioSamahan, the Afrikan Student Union and the Women’s Resource Center.Throughout the demonstration, supporters wore yellow bands aroundtheir arms.
Psychology freshman Marcelle Alvarado said she rallied to educatefuture students about the percentage of students of color on campus.
“We’re trying to make them aware,” she said. “Future Aztecs Day isjust a show. The music? I don’t see this every day on campus.Diversity is not like this.”
Mike Vidrio, who brought his daughter, Christina, to campus, saidhe thought the demonstration seemed disorganized.
“I don’t even know what they’re protesting for,” he said. “They’reall shouting different things. It seems like they don’t want whitepeople at this university.”
According to STARE’s flier, the group also wants UniversityPresident Stephen Weber and Provost Nancy Marlin to stop racistpractices that impede students of color from attending theuniversity.
Lieras said he believes the localization of SDSU is one of thesepolicies.
“The majority of students who come here are lower-income students– students of color — and basically what this is doing is shuttingoff this school to those people and letting different people comehere from out of state, which the majority of those students arewhite,” Lieras said.
Lieras is referring to SDSU’s new enrollment policy, which limitsthe university’s service area to below State Route 56. Studentswithin the local area need only to meet California State Universityrequirements to be admitted; students out of the area must meethigher requirements.
Lieras said the protesters received some intervention byUniversity Police, who told the group they couldn’t hold up a banneron the steps or fly a sign over Student Services. Alvarado said shereceived complaints that the demonstrators were rude. Mostly,protesters said students and their parents approached the group toinquire about their demonstration.
“One guy came up to me and said it shouldn’t be a black/whiteissue,” liberal studies senior Kindra Kindred said. “I told him it’snot — it’s a minority versus majority issue, and if the majority isnot listening, then what are we going to do?”
Dozens of students protested in the early morning. By noon,however, only a handful remained. Marivic Tolentino, APSA vicepresident and candidate for A.S. vice president of external affairs,said students in her organization left because their message wasbeing lost in the protest.
Tolentino said she wasn’t aware that the group would be advocatingcertain things. The coalition, she said, was divided.
“Coming together and advocating student concerns could have beendone more peacefully,” she said. “When we have prospective studentshere who don’t exactly know what’s going on, it’s a sad story thatthey have to see this.”
