Policy Tensions of Institutionalized Student-Initiated Outreach at UCLA for Communities of Color: A Historical Ethnography

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Memory as Method in Education: Policy Histories, Community Pedagogies, and Liberatory Futures

Abstract

Objectives
University of California (UC) admissions was transformed in the 1990s due to California’s Proposition 209, UC’s Standing Policy 1, and UC’s Standing Policy 2. These state and university-level policies prohibited the use of race and gender in employment hiring and UC admissions (University of California Board of Regents, 2001). Consequently, the number of students of color admitted to UCLA sharply decreased. Communities of color at UCLA responded by advocating for the creation of the Student Initiated Outreach Center (SIOC), a student-led, student-initiated center under UCLA’s Community Programs Office (CPO). Ultimately, students institutionalized the SIOC through drafting and signing of a Statement of Understanding (SoU), which outlines the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders needed to execute student-initiated outreach. Institutionalization of the SIOC established formal channels of outreach for communities of color amid state and university-level policies dismissing the impact of race and racism on the educational trajectories of students of color. Therefore, this piece explores the execution of student-initiated outreach work within an institutionalized context. This piece examines simultaneous de jure and de facto policies informing the implementation of this work for communities of color.

Theoretical Framework
Informed by Lee (2017) and McCarty & Halle-Erby (2023), this historical ethnography positions policy as a process that is shaped by formal and informal policies in a top-down and bottom-up approach. Particularly, this orientation underscores that policy interpretation and implementation is not fixed. Instead, it emphasizes that policy is dynamic and shaped by social, cultural, and historic discourses that impact various populations differently. More particularly, this orientation helps us understand the symbiotic nature of policy implementation and interpretation and its impact on communities of color within educational institutions.

Methodology & Data Sources
This investigation is conducted through a combination of document analysis and oral histories. Specifically, documents from CPO, student-of-color organization archives, and Daily Bruin articles are used to understand de jure and de facto interpretations of policy within this time frame. Additionally, two oral histories were conducted with a part-time student coordinator and full-time project coordinator of community-specific outreach projects to triangulate the trends regarding policy interpretation and implementation found in documents.

Study Findings & Scholarly Significance
This work highlights the tensions between de jure and de facto policies within the institutionalization of grassroots efforts, such as student-initiated outreach. This institutionalization enables the establishment of formal channels, resources, and accountability measures to ensure greater support for marginalized communities. Contrarily, the intent of these policies can get misconstrued due to informal interpretations of policy deviating from their original interpretation due to the loss of intergenerational organizational memory of original intentions of policy. Consequently, this transforms once social-justice oriented, altruistic efforts into institutions that end up reproducing harm. Ultimately, this historical ethnography urges the importance of intergenerational memory concerning policy implementation and interpretation. Particularly, this conservation ensures de facto policy is in alignment with the origin of de jure policy. This ensures the constitution of student-initiated spaces as ones that are meant to disrupt harmful norms and practices within higher education institutions.

Author

• Michelle Velasco, University of California - Los Angeles