Hundreds of students of color at the University of California-San Diego declared a “racial state of emergency” on campus Monday, following a fraternity party that flaunted racial stereotypes and a video on student television attacked the party’s condemners. The students have already made some headway with the administration, and have prompted a formal internal review of the campus TV station.

The Black Student Union (BSU) created a list of 32 demands of the University, most of which are aimed at a far-reaching improvement of the racial climate on campus. Demands ranged from a close examination of the University’s admissions policy, to a safe space for African American students on campus, to a formalized outreach and retention program for faculty of color.

David Ritcherson and Fnann Keflezighi, co-chairs of the BSU, outlined the demands in a letter.

“They called us niggers, and called us ungrateful and ghetto and dumb,” said Ritcherson to the San Diego Union Tribune. “This is an unsafe environment.”

Chancellor Marye Ann Fox answered the letter by granting several of the BSU’s demands on the spot in a meeting with about 200 students Monday. One of the demands the Chancellor granted was to secure funding for an African-American Studies minor and for ethnic studies programs.

The letter also announced several upcoming forums, teach-ins, and meetings to address what they bill as long-standing racism and bigotry that the University has condoned through negligence.

The Feb. 15th party, billed the “Compton Cookout,” was hosted by members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Hosts sent out an email mocking Black History Month, inviting attendants to drink “Dat purple drank,” and encouraging women to “have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes.”

Afterwards, the student-produced show “Koala TV” mocked black students’ outrage. A search in the TV station for footage of the video yielded a piece of cardboard that referred to the party as the “Compton lynching.”

Pi Kappa Alpha members at other campuses have been involved in similar incidents in the recent past. The Union Tribune reports that in 2004, members of the fraternity showed up in blackface to a “Straight Out of Compton” party at Georgia State University.

At UCSD, the BSU says racial tensions have become urgent and dangerous.

“Students do not feel safe on this campus and it is affecting their everyday lives,” read the BSU’s letter. “We need direct action from the University immediately.”

The letter also addressed the video.

“The SR-TV is funded by the University so in fact, it is using taxpayers dollars to degrade and demoralize the African-American students and other underrepresented backgrounds as well.”

Utsav Gupta, president of the Associated Students, shut down the campus TV station last Thursday night after he heard about the airing. He said that the channel will remain off air until a task force has re-written rules for student media.

The UCSD administration has taken a firm stance against the party and the TV show.

“The actions over the last couple of days have stunned us,” Fox said at the meeting. “They’re outrageous and will not be tolerated.”


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