Protest by Black Students Wins
Reprieve of Decision on Student Union
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Black students at the University of North Florida rallied for the preservation of the African American Student Union after a student government agency decided the organization was unconstitutional.
The decision last month to dissolve the African American Student Union was made by a 2-to-1 vote of the four-student judiciary court. The student body president then froze the union's budget and ordered it to leave its campus headquarters.
But about an hour after the beginning of a student protest, student government leaders agreed to stay the course until the matter can be resolved.
The African American Student Union receives about $47,000 a year for programs aimed at 1,200 African American students who comprise about 10 percent of the university's population and are the largest minority group on campus.
By comparison, groups that focus on other minority cultures, such as the Vietnamese and Hispanic students, will receive about $400 this year.
North Florida's president, Dr. Anne Hopkins, met with student leaders and asked them to try and resolve the conflict themselves. The administration, she said, would help if requested.
"The whole idea behind student government is letting them learn," she says.  Student Senator Michael Wright contends the existence of the African American student union violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which requires racial classifications must serve a compelling government interest.
A formal appeal of the student judiciary opinion willl give the union about a month to make its case. LaShawn Woodburn, the director of the union, says the challenge will succeed because union events are open to all students.

UCLA Law Students Protest Against Admission Policies
LOS ANGELES  —  About 200 students and professors staged a walkout here late last month to protest admissions policies at the University of California-Los Angeles where only two Black students are among the law school's freshman class.
Protesters at the two-hour teach-in urged law school admissions officials to do more to recruit ethnic minorities, especially in the wake of Proposition 209, the statewide ballot measure that bars ethnic and gender considerations in state hiring, contracting and public university admissions.
"It's very difficult — there are times I feel isolated and excluded, an outcast from my classmates," says Crystal James, one of the two African American students admitted among all the 286 new students this fall.
The university's incoming law school class has 126 Whites, 66 Asian Americans, 17 Hispanics students and one American Indian. The ethnic background of the remaining 74 students was not known.
In 1996, the class that enrolled before Proposition 209, there were 19 Black students, 45 Hispanics, 48 Asian Americans, five American Indians and 188 Whites or those whose ethnicity was unknown.
Fewer ethnic minorities are being accepted but many of those who are eligible choose to attend a different college, law school officials say. Of the 233 Black students who applied this year, 18 were admitted but just two enrolled. In 1996, 399 Black students applied, 104 were admitted and 19 enrolled.
"The real world has people of color in it. You can't teach in a segregated atmosphere — it just can't be done," says professor Gary Blasi.
Protesters urged the university to subsidize law school admissions test preparations for disadvantaged students and recommended minority students be given "significant decision-making power" in evaluating law school applications.
University of California system rules prohibit students from voting on the admission of other students, says law school dean Jon Varat, adding that he, too, is unhappy with the lack of diversity.