Near the height of a civil rights movement centered in the south in the 1960s, a mini-revolution was transpiring on the campus of UCLA.

The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African-American Studies, founded in 1969 as the Center for Afro-American Studies, was the result of Black students lobbying to have their history and culture recognized by the university as a legitimate course of study. For a group of panelists who gathered Jan. 21 to mark the center’s 40th anniversary, reflection on the events of that time brings bittersweet memories of a time when African-Americans had to fight for even the slightest recognition.

With racial upheaval in cities across the nation, there was a sense on campus that “America was burning up and that something had to be done,” said Virgil Roberts, who transferred to UCLA from Virginia College in 1966. When he arrived in Westwood, there were roughly 150 Black students on campus. About 50 were from Africa.

After completing a postgraduate internship, Roberts returned to UCLA to find that not much had changed. He and other Black students began trying to figure out how they could deal with urban America. To be more specific, they asked themselves how they could begin to get UCLA to focus on what was happening in Black America, as it pertained to economics and education in communities of color.

Knowing that climate impacts policy, they started the Black Student Union, with the idea that they were going to become activists.

It would not be an easy feat. As they began their efforts, they were met with strong opposition. Many of the faculty and staff believed there was no such thing as Black science or Black history; there was just history, he said. The notion of Black studies was seen as an illegitimate academic pursuit.
It would now be up to them to prove their case. They did so by creating a course, CSES 102: The Black Man in a Changing American Context, which demonstrated there was intellectual content to study that was of importance to the Black community. The course attracted a number of well-known Black scholars who were eager to lend their knowledge.

This was the jumping off point, said Roberts, that led to the creation of Black Studies programs. An organized research unit was preferred as opposed to a department because “there was fear that if you had a Black studies department, it would become the ghetto department,” he said.

It, however, worked to their benefit. By having an organized research unit, they could recruit faulty and spread them across the university so that they would be in every department, therefore allowing Black influence and presence in every area on campus. With the aid of then-chancellor Charles Young and former vice chancellor for Student Affairs C.Z. Wilson, they established a faculty development program through which a record 42 African-American faculty members were hired within two years.

The African-American studies center was established soon after.
“The African-American studies center grew out of that need to concentrate and study African-Americans and their accomplishments,” said Mary Jane Hewitt, former student and program coordinator at UCLA’s Extension division from 1955 to 1969.

But then the unfortunate happened: Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and several months later, Black Panthers Alprentice ‘Bunchy’ Carter and John Huggins were gunned down on the UCLA campus. The events caused Black scholars to pour in with the intent of furthering the Black presence on campus and changing the dynamics.

By 1970, the Black student population on campus ballooned, reaching upwards of 2,000. These figures remained steady until about 1985, said panelists. But they drastically declined thereafter.

Though 1985 represented a high mark, retention was much lower. Data showed that of the Blacks enrolled in the freshman class of 1980 only 22 percent graduated five years later.

Retention strategies would be the answer. But those efforts were thwarted in 1996, when the passage of Prop. 209 banned the use of affirmative action at public universities.

“At the same time that we did away with affirmative action, UCLA was becoming much more popular as a campus, to the point where UCLA is now the most popular campus in the country, we get more applications than any other campus,” said Darnell Hunt, current director. Last year, only about 5,000 out of about 50,000 applicants were admitted.

“So,” Hunt added, “Black students that do apply are competing with an enormous amount of students.”

Other factors, he said, were and have been increasing tuition and fees. In addition, UCLA chooses its students by seeking those who have the highest GPAs.

“So, you can imagine African-American students going to inner city high schools that only offer a few AP courses or come from families that are economically challenged, they are going to have a hard time developing a GPA that is sufficient enough to get them into UCLA,” said Hunt. “And if you can’t use affirmative action because of Prop. 209, then their chances of getting in is very slim, which is one reason why African-American’s are admitted at a rate lower than any other group.”

In 2006, the situation reached a new low, when reports surfaced that only 100 African-American students were set to enroll in the freshmen class. As a result, the center began working with an alliance of African-American organizations — including the NAACP and the Los Angeles Urban League — for weekly meetings on increasing Black enrollment. New student-initiated outreach programs and mentorship programs were developed, all aimed at making Black students more applicable.

“UCLA got pressure from the alliance,” said Hunt. “After all of that pressure UCLA changed its admission procedures the next year and in one year, Black enrollment in UCLA went from less than 100 to over 200 in 2007. We held onto that number and even went a bit [higher] in 2008. We’ve held that number, more or less, ever since.”

Today, retention rates — as they relate to students — have increased, ranging in the 70 percentile and the admissions process is considered more equitable. Due to pressure from the alliance, the admissions office now takes into account where a student went to high school and how they ranked among their peers. If students attend a school with fewer resources than an affluent suburban high school and they are at the top of their class, they are now given more of an edge.

“The new students that have been admitted to UCLA under the new admission process have done just as well as students in the past,” said Hunt. “So, it’s not like we are letting in students who can’t compete — no. These students are doing very well. In fact, they are graduating at the same rate and they performing at the same level in terms of their GPAs.”

One issue they will have to face is making African-American students feel more included on campus. The Wave asked several panelists how Black students can feel more included on a campus that is seen as predominately White and Asian.

“I’ve gotten more cynical as I’ve gotten older,” said Roberts. “There are some things that are not for everybody. … There are excellent Black colleges in this country so maybe they should go to Hampton or Howard or somewhere else. Going to school is like going to work, you have to have an attitude that you’re at the place for an education.”

Roberts also talked about the university’s lack of a diverse faculty and staff, and how those low numbers contribute to students’ feelings of alienation.

These statements seemed to cause a shift in the mood among members of the audience.

“You are saying that [these] students should find themselves a Black institution in order to feel comfortable on a campus, that is totally unacceptable,” said Ernest Smith, a community activist. “It is the kind of leadership that we have that tolerate those kind of conditions. … All Black students are asking for is to be treated with dignity and respect in a classroom. They do not want to be degraded in a classroom, pointed out as being separate or being looked at like, ‘Why are you here? What have you contributed to our society?’ They don’t know our history, we don’t challenge that. We should demand respect, our students should not have to go to school anywhere else.”