The weekend after the elections, approximately 1,600 Chicano students met at California State University at Northridge (CSUN) for the regularly scheduled fall statewide MEChA conference.
But what began as a conference turned into a huge protest and rally against the recently passed Proposition 209, otherwise known as the California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI).
Students at the MEChA or Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan) conference resolved to counter CCRI — which outlaws the use of race, ethnicity or gender in state hiring, contracting and college admissions — through a campaign of resistance and organized civil disobedience.
While the conference dealt with many issues relevant to the Mexican/Chicano community, the freshness of the election served to focus the attention of the students on Proposition 209. On the other hand, the California State University system, has decided on a course of generally continuing to operate in the same manner until told to do otherwise by the courts. The University of California (UC) announced earlier in the week that it has decided to comply with Proposition 209.
As expected, a number of groups have already challenged the legality of the proposition in court. Both proponents and opponents of Preposition 209 expect that, similar to Proposition 187, which restricts services to immigrants, CCRI will be tied up in the courts for several years.
Prior to the MEChA conference, students at UC-Berkeley had already staged a rally and protest, including 28 students taking over the tower on campus, in response to action by the University of California. In a Nov. 6 memo sent out by the US system, UC President Richard Atkinson stated: “We are well along in this process [of complying with Proposition 209] as a result of the Regents action last year eliminating race, gender, and ethnicity as factors in admission, hiring, and contracting.”
In an accompanying letter from the University of California system, C. Judson King, UC provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, sent out guidelines which say that “No further action need be taken.”
