Fliers declaring "There is a Hole in your Education" were placed around campus, and students lead petition drives all over the 5-C campus. Within two days, over 1300 petitions were signed.
V. Barbara Bush, then the Dean of Students at Scripps College, was concerned for student welfare during the teach-in. Because of this, she was the first administrator to begin to call for more ethnic studies classes and resources.
Because Bush stood up for the Asian American Studies program--and the students who were demanding it--the other administrators started to listen and realize that something had to be done about this "hole" in the ethnic studies department.
Therefore, a little over a year later, IDAAS was created, and its opening ceremony was held in August, 1998.
James Nguyen wrote his senior thesis about the Balch Hall Teach-in and the push for the IDAAS. For more information from his point of view, please click here.
Affirmative action backers called cowards; Ward Connerly says politicians,
ethnic federalism contribute to racial divide (4/25/97)
Dion Nissenbaum, The Press-Enterprise
America faces a "widening racial and ethnic divide" that has been exacerbated by cowardly politicians, the man who led last year's campaign to roll back affirmative action programs in California government said Thursday. Ward Connerly, chairman of the Prop. 209 campaign, told students and faculty at Claremont McKenna College that American democracy would collapse under such pressures unless citizens reaffirmed their commitment to equal opportunity.
"We can't build a democracy on the concept of ethnic federalism," said Connerly, the black University of California regent who is now leading a nationwide campaign to eliminate affirmative action programs that use race and gender preferences. Connerly blamed the racial gulf in part on what he called "Rodney King politics" and said America has "more cowards per capita" who profess to favor equality, but use race and gender to bolster their support.
"Some of our leaders are captive of identity politics," Connerly told about 150 people in a speech that was closed to the public. "They hide behind slogans designed to blur sensitive issues and to allow them to maintain support of some groups while not offending others. 'Mend it, don't end it' is such a slogan. "
While Connerly appeared to leave the impression that President Clinton fell into such a camp because he coined the term 'mend it, don't end it' to defend affirmative action, the Sacramento businessman said after the speech that he was not calling the Democratic leader a coward.
"I am simply saying that there are those who use slogans that are cowardly, but I am not suggesting that the president is a coward," he said.
During the event, more than 125 students from adjacent colleges held a teach-in and demonstration outside the hall to protest Connerly's stand against affirmative action and the decision to bar the public from hearing the speech.
Clarence Griffin, a senior at Pitzer College, told the demonstrators that racism and sexism had not been wiped out in the nation. "Prop. 209 is based on the lie that we have equality," Griffin said. "It's not time to get rid of affirmative action. "
The ballot measure, approved by 54 percent of the voters last
November, bars the use of race and gender preferences in state contracting, hiring and higher education. Civil rights groups have blocked implementation of the initiative, but a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month upheld the measure's constitutionality.
Opponents of Prop. 209 asked the full court this week to review the decision and the issue is expected to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Before the speech, Connerly told reporters that he thought the legal challenge "could very well overturn what I have spent two years trying to complete" unless he continued with his efforts to defend the measure.
While Connerly spoke to Claremont McKenna students, demonstrators chanted outside the hall and held signs reading "segregated event. " Geoffrey Baum, a spokesman for the college, said they had decided to close the event to prevent any disruptions. When another Prop. 209 supporter spoke at the hall last fall, the college allowed some of the public to enter, but some protesters became angry when they could not get in and began banging on windows, Baum said.