UCLA daily bruin Monday, February 17, 1969

Title without an identity?

Munoz: quiet reformer

By Vicki Nadsady

DB Staff Writer

Rosalio Munoz, ASUCLA president, has been conspicuous by the silence of his administration. Seldom seen among or involved with students, he seems to most of them a name and a title without an identity.

In an interview in his Kerckhoff Hall office, Ross seemed surprise that students regard hi in this way.

"you know I had planned to get out more; I hope to when I first took office. But it just hasn't panned out. I have organized a couple things at Meyerhoff. I introduced the speakers from Berkeley and San Francisco State-I asked them to come down here-and sponsored those rallies," he said.

"First quarter I did a lot of work with te Housing Commission and the Educational policies Commission. I had to learn my way around, learn how to get things done," he explained.

Asked what his administration had been doing for the students here, Munoz eagerly talked about reforms in the structure of the University which he and his Officers have been working to effect.

He referred to proposals drawn up by the Academic Research Council, which call for revision of breadth requirement, reduction of course loads, extension of pass/fail, freshman seminars and a special lower division teaching staff.

"Now we are going to try and get out more. We should start going out next week, speaking to classes to start discussing these proposals and get students feed back on them.

"This is the first serious try at something like this. I think we have sophisticated proposals. We've had students doing research through the Academic Research Council, seeing what's being done at other schools throughout the country," he said. "We're going to try to work through channels-with individual students, with the faculty, setting up symposiums for discussion.

A member of UMAS, Ross was asked to explain his part in the Brown Power movement and its relation to his position in the University. "The movement and my office are not related-it's a symbolic thing…that a Chicano can get that far," he said. "My main feeling towards the movements is to get people-Chicanos organized around Chicano issues; to open lines of communication and organization for political action-demonstrations, confrontation-and education."

AS for his personal goals, Ross admitted, "I'm frustrated. I hoped to get Mexican-American things, issues, on campus. This was something I could help and participate in. But UMAS decided to spend its time with the community. It's been a great disappointment to me."

He explained UMAS position by explaining the relation of college education to the Mexican American community. "The trend has been that college trained people have left the community. They become The Man, the welfare person, the people who deal with the community I a bureaucratic way, imposing restrictions, working in ways that Chicanos don't understand and may not agree with.

"What the people want is workers that will spend their time in the community. UMAS develops the commitment ot the community, and the use of education to benefit the community," he noted.