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More than three hundred people attended the educational event, Underground Undergrads: Teach-In on Immigrant Students and the California Dream Act, on March 1, 2008, on the UCLA campus. The teach-in was cosponsored by the UCLA Labor Center, the UCLA student association, and by IDEAS, a multicultural support group for undocumented students. The purpose of the event was to educate the community about the California Dream Act, which would allow undocumented AB 540 students to apply for state and institutional financial aid. Current law does not allow undocumented students to qualify for any financial aid, regardless of economic need.
The Underground Undergrads Teach-In was part of an undergraduate course, Immigrants Rights, Labor, and Higher Education, taught by Kent Wong and Janna Shadduck-Hernández, through the UCLA labor and workplace studies minor. The students formed committees to outreach to and mobilize the university and broader communities; to develop a dynamic program including elected officials, faculty, and student speakers; to organize informational workshops; and to execute a media plan to explain the California Dream Act to the broader public.
The plenary session included presentations by Assemblymembers Mike Eng and Anthony Portantino, Professor Abel Valenzuela, and several undocumented students. The workshops at the teach-in focused on the California Dream Act, the various college and high school organizing efforts around undocumented student issues, and the opportunities that exist in higher education for immigrant youth and students. The Teach-in focused on one of the most important civil rights issues of our time; the right of students to gain educational access and an opportunity to achieve the American dream.
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