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By Jennifer Joe Race Relations on the UCLA Campus The University of California, Los Angeles, is made up of a largely diverse student body. Walking down Bruin Walk, you can see an array of different students. No one student is exactly the same. Everyone is unique, whether this uniqueness is nationality, gender, height, or weight. The UCLA campus is lucky to be diverse, and also to be able to offer ethnic studies courses -- such as African-American, Asian-American, Native-American studies and so on. I have taken four Asian-American studies courses here at UCLA. As a third generation Chinese-American, ethnic studies classes have taught me a lot about my culture that I would not have otherwise known. Ethnic studies classes are positive in that they promote cultural awareness, but it is also important for us to learn more about other cultures as well and not only our own. During the Spring 1997 quarter the UCLA campus was divided on the issue of Proposition 209. Prop. 209 called for the removal of affirmative action. The most vocal opposers of Prop. 209 were African-Americans, gays and lesbians, women's rights groups, and so on. Advocates of Prop. 209 didn't understand the need for affirmative action, while opposers didn't understand the advocates' point of view either. Even though UCLA is a very diverse campus, it still seems as though different racial groups tend to stick together. Just walking around campus, I see that there are groups of Asians, African-Americans, Cauasians, etc.. There are hardly any groups that consist of mixed students. This may be because we feel we have more in common with people of the same ethnic background. In order to bring students from different backgrounds together, it is important to have more courses like Asian-American studies M163 -- Investigative Journalism and Communities of Color (also crossed listed under AfricanAmerican studies). Classes like this bring different students together to learn about each other and understand what their culture and beliefs are. Learning more about other students is definitely one step in the direction of forming positive race relations on the UCLA campus. (Jennifer Joe is a senior majoring in Economics.)