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Education

UCSD Minority Students Walk Out Of Teach-In

Students gathered outside of UCSD's Price Center on February 24, 2010 to stage a student-led teach-in in response to the 'Compton Cookout' racially-themed party and the administration's response.
Jessica Plautz
Students gathered outside of UCSD's Price Center on February 24, 2010 to stage a student-led teach-in in response to the 'Compton Cookout' racially-themed party and the administration's response.

An attempt to quell racial tensions at UC San Diego fell short today. Hundreds of minority students walked out of a "teach in" organized by university officials.

Several hundred students wore black T-shirts and held their fists in the air as they marched into UCSD's main campus auditorium for the teach-in.

The event was the university's response to the spate of racially charged incidents on campus. Officials were hoping the teach-in would help begin the healing process.

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In fact, Black Student Union Leader Fnann Keflezighi was invited to speak. She called on students to walkout of the room an hour into the event.

“We want to walk out of this university sponsored teach-in because a teach-in is not what is needed right now,” Keflezighi told the crowded auditorium. “Right now real action is needed. So please join me in our teach-in and follow me to march out of this room.”

Minority students leaders want administrators to implement a list of 32 demands immediately. They want officials to fix what they call a racial state of emergency. Students say the racially derogatory incidents speak to a larger problem of institutional racism on campus.

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