Assemblyman praises CSU program
By Kristopher Hanson
Daily Forty-Niner
State Assembly speaker Antonio Villaraigosa,
addressing more than 100 people packed into a campus conference room Wednesday
afternoon, praised Cal State Long Beach's long-running Educational Opportunity
Program and decried the end of affirmative action.
"I'm a poster child [for affirmative action],"
said the 46-year-old UCLA graduate.
"I was a kid who dropped out of high school,
put on tattoos and was considered ëon the edge.'"
Villaraigosa's visit marked the 30th anniversary
of the Educational Opportunity Program, a California State University program
that provides counseling, job placement, financial assistance and other
services to needy students.
"I'm here to celebrate the birthday party
of opportunity," he said.
"But we must contemplate on where we are
and where we need to be."
The program has been active at CSULB since
1967, said Alan Nishio, associate vice president of Student Services.
"We [CSULB] were one of the initial pilot
programs for EOP, so we actually began before the statewide program did
in 1968-69," Nishio said.
"The program is open to all studentsÖnot
only minorities or particular groups."
The speaker brought up the demise of affirmative
action via Proposition 209 several times during his 45-minute speech, calling
it a "mean-spirited" law.
"When you look at [CSU] campuses across
the state, they don't look like the high schools and grammar schools,"
Villaraigosa said, referring to the lack of diversity on CSU campuses.
"Everyone of us has a responsibility to
open up the doors for the next generation," he said.
However, "we need to also demand that the
university open up its doors [to all students]."
Villaraigosa, whose wife Corina is a CSULB
graduate, said he feels students, educators and community members need
to do more through volunteerism to promote and encourage higher education
among the state's underprivileged populations.
Villaraigosa also addressed issues concerning
public school funding.
"By 2010, there will be a 35 percent increase
in California's higher education enrollment," he said. State legislators
"need to make universities a priority again."
He later said, "We've got to turn around
the public schools.
I've got schools in my city that look like
prisons.
We need more money for modernization [and
to] build the infrastructure," he said. |
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