When votes came in a few weeks ago for new student senators at California State University Northridge (CSUN), most of the winners were students of color. While that shouldn't seem unusual for a multi-ethnic campus where minorities constitute 62 percent of the 27,000 students, it was a noteworthy departure from past elections.

True, previous student body presidents at CSUN have included people of color. But historically, these leaders have been surrounded by cabinet members and senators who have been White. The 1998 governing body is the first at CSUN to dramatically deviate from that model.

The CSUN experience is exemplary of what students across the country are learning about the power and pain of using multicultural political coalitions as the nation's urban and suburban campuses become more diverse.

CSUN sits in the heart of Lost Angeles's San Fernando Valley. Its president, Dr. Blenda J. Wilson, is one of four African Americans to head a Cal State institution. Some say recent campus elections for the Associate Students at CSUN mirror the region's demographic shift in real-world politics, particularly with the growing number of Latino voters and activists in Los Angeles. Recent estimates reveal that CSUN's student body is 38 percent White, 22 percent Latino, 14 percent Asian American and Pacific Islander, and 8 percent African American.

"Racial politics definitely has its place in certain settings," says student body president Joaquin Macias, who describes himself as both Black and Chicano. "If you are underrepresented in the government that is dictating social policies [and elected officials] are ignoring the cultural implications in the community, that is a problem."

Macias is used to talking about race and politics. Under his leadership, the school is experiencing its first academic year governed by an all-minority Associated Students (A.S.) cabinet. But the election of his administration did not come easily.

Last spring, incumbents and challengers, the latter of whom were led by Macias, became embroiled in five weeks of name-calling and accusations of voter fraud. The verbal assaults escalated racial tensions on campus, pitting students, faculty, and administrations against each other. A student council advisor later commercial it was the most rancorous and draining conflict in his thirteen years on campus.