The Michigan Daily, Thursday, September 10, 1987- Page 3 What to expect -AML. Prominent minority groups descibe fall protest plans By LISA POLLAK Editor's note: Although there are many more than five active minority groups on campus, this story deals only with the largest and/or the most vocal. By excluding other groups, the Daily hopes it is not insulting any particular organ - ization. Minority students seemed to have had the majority last year only when it came to being outspoken campus activists, translating frus- trationand anger into solid demands for administrative change. Last winter acts of racism and discrim - ination on campus culminated in the formation of new student groups fighting for minority rights within the University community. When gays, Hispanics, Asians, and other minority groups joined Blacks in challenging the Univer - sity last year, their demands were often similar- to erase stereotypes and increase minority recruitment and retention. But so were their provocations: racist attitudes and publications, harassment, and empty adminis - trative promises. For the first time since the '70s it was impossible for non-minority students to ignore these sentiments. As one student put it, "You cannot help but be shocked by the (discriminatory) "limited victory." In fact, these groups still wait for most of their demands to be accepted and set into action. But they do not wait passively. Many activists spent the summer plan - ning for the fall term, when the fight for minority rights will 'Since the agreement for the (orientation) anti-racism workshop was pushed into the margins, there is a definite question on whether the administration will follow up on other demands.' - Barbara Ransby, University graduate student Doiy rnoto University graduate student Barbara Ransby speaks at the rededication ceremony of the Free South Africa Coordinating Committee's anti- Apartheid shanty on the Diag. Ilansby speaks out on campus incidents. You cannot help but notice the protests." B UT while lists of demands were presented to University President Harold Shapiro and the Board of Regents by at least four minority groups, the conclusion of winter term brought what Black activist Barbara Ransby called a continue. Here is a summary of the accom - plishments and plans of five minority groups: The United' Coalition Against Racism (UCAR) was formed early last February in response to racist incidents including fliers circulated in. several residence halls. In addition to protesting racism through rallies, teach-ins, and a sit- in at the Fleming administration building, UCAR demonstrators pre - sented the administration with 12 demands in March. AND while the administration agreed to establish a vice provost of minority affairs position and in - crease Black enrollment, other de - mands - including an orientation workshop on racism and tuition waivers for disadvantaged minority students - remain unmet. Pursuing those initial 12 demands, UCAR leader Ransby said, will be the group's immediate fall term goal. "Since the agreement for the (orientation) anti-racism workshop was pushed into the margins, there is a definite question on whether the administration will follow up on other demands," she said. r Yet she added that UCAR's activism shouldn't mislead new students. "Those who have only seen us in the media images might * have the wrong idea . . .having rallies is not all we do," Ransby said. UCAR will try to set an "anti- racist agenda" for the campus by being "proactive" as well as "reactive." U C A R also plans to devote time to educating students about racism and minority culture in order to demonstrate "that not everything we do has to be confrontational," she said. The Black Action Movement (BAM) III, also instrumental in instigating last winter's adminis - trative resolutions to increase min - ority enrollment, staged its own pickets, rallies, strikes, and boy - cotts in trying to implement their 11 demands - including a $35,000 See UNMET, Page 6 By LISA POLLAK To recognize University graduate student Barbara Ransby as the prominent leader of what she calls "the new student activist move - ment" is to contradict her philo - sophy of grassroots, multi-level leadership: "I haven't aspired to be a leader, and I don't like the word 'hero'," she said. But it is hard to deny that in applying her sense of practicality and optimism to the fight against racism, Ransby has acquired a widely accepted reputation as a woman who epitomizes today's spirit of student activism. Ransby's experience as an acti - vist forms a lengthy resume. Since she arrived on campus as a Columbia University graduate in 1984, Ransby's name has appeared at the center of nearly every study group, workshop, and campaign to 'ombat racism. Her experience on the steering committee of Colum- bia's Coalition for a Free South 'Africa led her in 1985 to found the University's Free South Africa Coordinating Committee (FSACC) with University graduate student ,Hector Delgado. SHE HAS written numerous articles, including a racism column in the Ann Arbor news monthly Agenda, and was the only student speaker at last April's Washington D.C. National Mobilization Again - st U.S. Foreign Policy in South Africa and Central America - an event attended by over 250,000 people. But the majority of University students came to know Ransby last year through her work as a leader of the United Coalition Against Racism (UCAR), a group formed to protest campus racism. For Ransby, UCAR represents not only an activist group of "tremendous potential," but an influential one as well. At least four of the minority groups that .formed last winter credit UCAR's protests as their inspiration. "Freedom is one of those contagious notions - once people start complaining it spills over until other groups start to see a need for doing the same things, " Ransby said. "Some people degrade this bandwagon effect, but I like to think it legitimizes UCAR." RANSBY sees her anti-racism efforts as representative of a nat - ional trend in student activism - a new student movement with racism as its focal point - evident in the "pretty militant" responses to racist attacks on campuses across the country. "Racism is something that all progressive activists are dealing with right now as racism is connected to most progressive issues - Central America, South America - both of these are racist foreign policies that students and others are involved in opposing," she said. T T" A) Dc nnpnka 10oA D ne,, contributions. This (new move - ment) is going to be different from the '60s, but getting students react - ivated and re-educated are some hopeful signs," she said. RANSBY was initially inspir - ed to fight racism by personal experience. She grew up in a Black, working class Detroit neighborhood and said the "disparity between the way my parents lived and a lot of middle class people lived didn't seem to be very fair." But her individual efforts to "change society" by doing social work for five years after high school proved frustrating, event - ually convincing Ransby to return to school to study history, "the study of change, to learn how to change things." At the University she has continued studying history while also teaching classes, caring for her three-year-old son, Jason, conduc - ting research for the Center for Afro-American Studies, and, of course, leading activist groups. IN TWO years she hopes to complete a dissertation on the women of the civil rights move - ment, women - particularly Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer - who Ransby calls "tremendous examples, spiritual mentors who were fearless and on the right side." Baker's philosophy of grassroots leadership has been read aloud at UCAR meetings, and Ransby said, "UCAR empowers people to give leadership on all levels, as should happen in all organizations." Reluctant to offer personal advice to other student activists, Ransby said, "I'm afraid of personalizing our cause and efforts." Ransby does approach her anti- racist work in a manner both practical and aggressive. Though admitting that large scale rallies are the prominent form of campus protest, she advocates that students work for their own beliefs as a lifelong form of activism. "EVEN when students hear racist remarks in class.. .they have to speak up when they know those things are wrong. If that challenges a professor, well, that's what it means," she said. She also said that not only should students treat political involvement as educational and productive, but "they have to accept struggle as a lifelong choice as opposed to a semester fling." But even with all the success that UCAR has had, Ransby is still occasionally frustrated. She cited the administration's failure to hold anti-racist workshops during sum - mer orientation as an example. "What, were they just trying to shut us up?" she asked. 'Innovative' code protests planned By LISA POLLAK A statewide referendum that would establish a student regent at each of Michigan's public univer - sities and a surprise, "innovative plan to get more people visually and physically involved" in pro - testing a code of non-academic conduct are among the fall tactics planned to prevent the University from implementing a code, ac - cording to Mike Phillips, chair of the Michigan Student Assembly's (MS A) Student Rights Committee. Phillips, an LSA senior, said that a resurgence of student protest against a code in the fall is crucial to prevent the University's Board of Regents from overuling a regental bylaw allowing students to veto code proposals and implementing a code - which would set up a University court system to punish with academic sanctions offenders of a code - without student approval. Last year a student poll showed that 88 percent of students oppose a code, fearing that it would allow protests and free speech to be punishable by suspension or expulsion. But although Phillips calls it "the only issue that University students are really united on," fewer students attended code demonstrations last year than were hoped for. An anti-code rally at the end of winter term produced a disappointing turnout. In the past student opposition has prevented a code. University President Harold Shapiro in 1984 created the University Council - composed of students, faculty , and staff- to write a code only after vigorous student protest defeated numerous other code drafts. Phillips hopes to collect enough signatures in the fall to place a referendum for student regents - changing Article Eight of the Michigan Constitution - on the November 1988 ballot. "A student on the Board of Regents would allow multilateral decision making...and prevent the implementation of a code," Phillips said. Phillips would not elaborate on his "innovative" fall plans for fall protests, saying "if you were protesting this thing for three years you'd get tired of doing the same old things, too." MSA President Ken Weine said that the usual "no-code" rallies, forums, and educational residence hall workshops will also continue in the fall. $5,00 OFF Any Service with Gwen or Cathy IN ANN ARBOR 313/662-2544 HAIR DESIGN STUDIO 11 119 E. AN DUNHAM WELLS Finally . a Business Consultant you can tell what to do. 407 N. FIFTH AT FARMERS' MARKET Offering a wide selection of Wines, Liquors, Breads, & Speciality Foods 0 662-5166 o 4 M- fj-t.fv=rence a B7 maiey Compare the Leading Edge Model "D"' to the lBMr PC and you'll find some not-so- trivial differences. 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