KTLA News: "Chicano student grievances against Pepperdine" (1971)

you know we have these grievances it is fact that we have 1% Cho on Pepperdine campus it is fact that we have no Cho administrator no Cho full-time teacher it is fact also that the P that Pepperdine returned $35,000 in work studies program us we the chos are asking for money they tell us we don't you know that pepperine does not have money but yet they return all this money Dr Scott what are your reactions to the Coalition of uh black and Cho students as to a proposed boycott against Pepperdine College well I would like to know the basis of the reason for the boycott really uh what what specifically did they feel warranted a boycott of the college well they feel that there should be a 16% increase of Cho registration within 5 years and also there are no Cho studies programs on the campus right now well number one there is a Cho studies program on the campus we offer at this present time in our ethnic studies department at Cho study cores and we'd be very happy happy to increase those number of courses as student interest demanded it have you made an effort to communicate this fact uh as to the lack of chano studies and Cho participation to the dean of the school or to the campus officials we have done this all last all last year we worked our asses off excuse me but we we worked to get uh Cho studies going and um we kept being told well eventually we'll get to Chico studies eventually we'll get to Cho studies eventually we'll recruit chos and uh we feel that time has coming we can't be continually told that we eventually get there either we get there now or else we're going to boycott and see what happens in other words you're asking for an end to the discriminatory policies that have existed at Pepperdine yes we're also trying to make the community of whereare what's Happening pepperine pepperine aware of the community Dr Scott what are your reactions to the proposed boycot by a combination or a coalition of black and brown Saturday night you kind Community which consisted of many political associations with from the southwest walked out of an ethnic studies banquet the reason we walked out was because of perine's discriminatory practices against Cho and the racist attitude towards chanos therefore we are issuing the following proposed boycott that all pepperine activities be boycotted whether it be political event or sporting event that all political groups of larasa pressure their administrators to cancel all events with Pepperdine until pepper shows some awareness or an attitude of helping larasa this boycott will go into effect immediately all organizations of larasa have been notified ever since you know pepper Dy was established has been doing a good job in avoiding the Cho Community you know we're trying to establish some type of urban center at perine you know they tell we ask for money they tell us they don't have money it is fact that a foundation offered Peron a large amount of money to establish an eight-story high-rise urban center to be staffed by minorities pepperine refused it saying it was not ready for it peon is moving now to Malibu you know it just it's more evident that pepperon does not want to commit itself to this you know Community the med Cho studies program oh we're coming right to that right now us on term under EOG work study or scholarships the school be 16% chono within 5 years we wish to see the beginning of the 26 classes and Cho studies that we submitted in 1970 out of which no classes have been offered yet we want Cho counseling which can be students to help other chos as they come into this school we want a review board of two students two faculty two administrators and one representative at large to be elected by the students to to review all Cho staff and classes to see if they are relevant to Cho student we want a budget for ethnic studies Department to be split in half between black studies and Chicano studies want chano studies to be comparable to Black studies we want Cho students in the dean of students office and in the ethnic studies Department to work with the school in recruitment of chano staff and students want a chano consultant in administ and the emissions office we also want SAT scores to be thrown out as a criteria for Cho's because the SAT scores are nothing but middle class white orientated and chos are not middle class Senator Montoya has agreed to lead a federal investigation into pepperdine's misusage of federal funds according to the Cho Prine was given $150,000 to help the mediate Community this was to start a program for high school students to more or less introduce them to the field of business again the community has broken down 30% chos not one single penny went to the Cho why I asked that question there any question is uh in terms of student interest well do you feel that there has been a heavier concentration on black studies than on chano studies at the campus at the present time yes because our present enrollment is 18% black students we're located of course in South Central Los Angeles and for that reason we have a very active uh black studies program and certainly we're interested in the Cho student I might point out to you that in the past few weeks we have been in correspondence with over 315 Chico students which we've offered some financial aid in order to come to Pepperdine we are of course a private college and therefore we must charge tuition and uh many PE many students cannot attend for that reason but we receive the names of some rather outstanding students from Mr Felix C asro in the youth opportunities program and we've written letters to these students indicating our interest in their attending pepperine University we be very happy for them to come why are there no Cho faculty members at the present time well we do have of course in our particular Cho course we have a Cho faculty member and we have a large number of black faculty members and certainly we have uh faculty members from a variety of ethnic backgrounds because of our location as I stated our black studies program is uh in a greater degree of advancement than our Chico studies program but it's not because of of the fact that uh you know we have uh one particular interest more than another but when one finds uh itself in a location such as ours we obviously want to relate most effectively to those students who come to our campus thank you very much our fac I think that's uh that's kind of a generalization is have no sympathy for Cho people uh I think that uh you know we have our faculty members are drawn from all parts of the nation and we do have faculty members who who originally were from Texas but I I think that those faculty members would have an interest