THE HIGHLANDER
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE
#sayR’names #sayR’names #sayR’names #sayR’names FOR THE WEEK OF TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2019
VOL. 68, ISSUE 06
est. 1954
UCR students hold protest over proposed commencement changes AMANI MAHMOUD Senior Staff Writer
On Monday Oct. 21, MeChA De UCR, a community organization on campus, organized a protest to voice their opposition to the announcement by UCR administration that commencement would be relocated from UCR’s campus to the Toyota Center of Ontario and that names would not be called during the ceremonies in order to shorten their duration. In an ASUCR meeting held on Oct. 16, Christine Mata, the dean of students and associate vice chancellor of student affairs and Jorge Ancona, assistant vice chancellor of alumni and constituent relations, stated that while commencement usually takes place on Pierce Lawn, uneven ground and obstructed sight lines makes crowd management difficult. He said that holding
commencement ceremonies outdoors in the summer time presented issues, as it is often too hot for guests. Ancona added that with UCR’s growing number of students, the length of commencement ceremonies was also presenting issues. In order to address these issues, Ancona and Mata announced that the ceremony would be moved from UCR’s campus to the Toyota Arena in Ontario. The names of graduating students would be flashed on a banner-like screen as they walk across the stage instead of being announced. After ASUCR members and students expressed their opposition to this plan, ASUCR President Julian Gonzalez released an official statement opposing this plan while also creating a petition on change.org that, at the time of writing has approximately 31,000 signatures. On Oct. 18, MeChA De UCR posted a
flier on Instagram organizing and promoting a UCR commencement protest. The flier asked students to join them in protesting the relocation of commencement to the Toyota Arena and to demand administration say student names during commencement. Approximately 50 students gathered by the Bell Tower with most students wearing all black in solidarity. The protest officially began at approximately 9:30 a.m. Students then marched from the Bell Tower to Hinderaker Hall while chanting things such as “say our names.” After chanting outside of Hinderaker Hall, protestors then began to march into Hinderaker Hall and up the stairs to Chancellor Wilcox’s office. Thomas M. Smith, interim provost and executive vice chancellor, was there to greet students and address their concerns. ► SEE COMMENCEMENT PAGE 4
f UCR Highlander Newspaper @UCRHighlander HighlanderTV NEWS 4
OPINIONS 7
FEATURES 12
RADAR 18
SPORTS 22
KUCR 88.3 FM