Illustration by HINGYI KHONG/Daily Bruin
By Karen Albrecht
Daily Bruin Reporter
University campuses with strong political activities have
historically been catalysts for change.
At UCLA, political organizations from CalPIRG to Jews for Jesus
shower pamphlets on unsuspecting Bruin Walk travelers and
vigorously attempt to recruit new members.
With years of exposure to campus politics, some graduating
students say their political views have broadened and changed, but
others maintain that campus ideologies have hardly influenced their
opinions.
Marc Pilotin, a fourth-year political science and psychology
student, said his political views have not changed drastically
since entering UCLA, but that the campus environment has made him
more informed about political issues.
He also said he has become more liberal at UCLA because of the
constant activism on campus.
“I’m leaving UCLA dedicated to equal education
opportunities, largely due to my experiences with people
here,” he said.
For fourth-year political science student Erik Stern, campus
influences have not significantly impacted his political views
since high school.
“I think I am pretty well informed about many issues and
am pretty set in my ways,” he said.
Regardless whether one actually wishes to engage in campus
politics, some students find it difficult to get involved due to
the large student population and many organizations.
“If I wanted to get involved in a political group on
campus I wouldn’t know where to go,” said Jennette Cha,
a fourth-year political science student.
Because so many political groups promote themselves on campus,
it is difficult to tell what each represents, she added.
In college, Cha said, people are no longer afraid to express
their views, and students form their own opinions regardless of
their affiliation with campus groups.
“I’m more interested in politics now in college, but
I think it is just because I have become older and have matured,
not because of external factors at UCLA,” she said.
“But students exposed to new political issues on campus
discuss them among friends and ultimately formulate their own
opinions,” said Ohki Murai, a fourth-year economics
student.
Exposure to new political views, both in the classroom and on
Bruin Walk, helps students become more accepting of other
opinions.
“The collective conversations that I have with peers may
have gradually swayed my thoughts from one side to another, and I
believe I have become more liberal politically in the
process,” he said.
But some say a few campus groups are disruptive at times.
Cam Truong, a fifth-year chemical engineering and applied
mathematics student, said she was annoyed with the March protest,
when students rallied for the repeal of SP-1 ““ a policy the
University of California Board of Regents passed in 1995 that
eliminated affirmative action in admissions ““ because she was
trying to study in Powell Library at the time.
“Protests can help to get the word out about issues, but
this was disruptive and was just making people more
irritated,” Truong said.
The loud protests, she said, reaffirmed her opinion against
affirmative action, rather than recruited her support.
Stern said, many campus protesters portray the idea that they
represent the sentiment of all UCLA students.
“They say “˜UCLA students feel this or that’
when they should be using “˜I,'” he said.
In addition to campus politics, the presidential election in
November sparked strong emotions in many students, some of which
launched a protest shortly after the preliminary results were
announced.
While the presidential election glitches may have increased
interest in national politics among students, some question the
level of enthusiasm for campus politics this year.
The May Undergraduate Students Association Council elections,
which saw a drop in voter turnout this year ““ from 24 to 20
percent ““ were not well coordinated, Truong said.
“It was hard to tell what platforms the candidates
represented, and it wasn’t worth my time to vote this
year,” she said.
Pilotin, who finds national politics more intriguing, said
university politics only cover a narrow range of issues.
“The small number of issues student government focuses on
are important, but it is more difficult to get involved when they
are the same issues all the time,” he said.