UC President Janet Napolitano discusses the lack of diversity at UCLA on KQED Newsroom
UC President Napolitano admits that lack of diversity is a problem not just at UCLA, but at UC campuses in general.
Two weeks ago third year Afrikan American Studies student Sy Stokes released a video which highlighted the considerable lack of diversity at UCLA. The video, which currently has almost 1.6 million views on YouTube, immediately went viral and captured the attention of major news companies nationwide. Yet, when UC President Janet Napolitano was interviewed on KQED last week, she admitted that she had not watched the video.
“I read about the video. I haven’t actually seen the video,” Napolitano said. The UC President went on to make a general and vague statement about the video, saying, “I think it is a way to illustrate, you know, a real issue which is the percentage of Afrikan American male students at UCLA, and I would say at our university generally.”
Napolitano referred to what the UCs “Should be doing to help … make sure that Afrikan American students, male and female, believe in the university environment, [and that] they have a welcoming and supportive environment.”
Identifying financial barriers as one reason for UCLA’s small number of Afrikan American students, Napolitano said that she believes one obvious step that UC needs to take in order to help increase its number of minority students, is to raise awareness among students and their families about the financial aid that can be made available to them.
Referring to the fact that, at a young age, many students disregard the University of California as a realistic option for them, based on their low family income, Napolitano said that in order to increase the UC’s diversity, prospective students need to know “That if [their families] make $80,000 a year or less, they pay no tuition at the University of California.” She continued, “What that means is that when eighth-graders and ninth-graders are beginning to select their courses they’re selecting the right ones that will enable them to gain admission.”
In a more direct response to the “Black Bruins” video, UCLA’s Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, Janina Montero, issued a statement saying that, “As a public institution that values a diverse student body, we share their dissatisfaction and frustration. Although we have made some progress…it remains both modest and slow.”
Montero also drew attention to the fact that, without affirmative action, increasing UCLA’s diversity will be no easy task. She said, “We certainly recognize that the low numbers of Afrikan-Americans and other underrepresented students on campus does lead to a sense of isolation and invisibility. It is difficult to eliminate this painful imbalance without considering race in the admissions process.”
Napolitano only recently became president of the University of California, taking office in September this year. It remains to be seen what she will do, if anything, to help tackle the significant lack of Afrikan American students both here at UCLA and at other UC campuses.
If you have not already signed Sy Stokes’s petition you can do so here:
Author: Greta Tugwell
Nommo Staff