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UCLA funds radical Mexican-American student group

Stephen Elliott Contributor
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UCLA gave radical Mexican nationalist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) over $100,000 in funding last year.

As first reported by Campus Reform, the university administration gave MEChA $103,312.48 as part of the Student Retention Center Budget, which totaled $700,000 for academic year 2011-2012.

UCLA earmarks the funds for the Student Retention Center in an effort to encourage retention by targeting students with low GPAs, according to Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life Robert Naples. The other groups funded by the $700,000 included the American Indian Student Association, the African Student Union, Samahang Pilipino and the Vietnamese Student Union. All of the groups except MEChA are local UCLA student organizations with no obvious radical political activities.

MEChA, on the other hand, is a national student organization with a long history of radical ideologies and actions.

According to MEChA’s stated primary objective, “Chicano nationalism is the key to taking our people forward.” The group also aims to reclaim “the land of our birth,” in reference to the American Southwest.

Members of the same UCLA MEChA chapter caused $500,000 worth of damage during protests in 1993.

In 1995, the University of California, San Diego chapter of MEChA published an editorial praising the murder of Luis Santiago, a Mexican-American killed while on duty as an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent. The editorial repeatedly called Santiago a “Migra pig.”

At a July 4, 1996 protest of illegal immigration, MEChA members were videotaped attacking protesters.

The National Council of La Raza, the leading Hispanic advocacy group, refuses to support MEChA, presumably due to their radicalism.

In a comment posted in response to Campus Reform’s article, UCLA spokeswoman Claudia Luther said, “the MEChA student retention program known as MEChA Calmecac must submit to ongoing and frequent assessment. Any programs that are not delivering are subject to being placed on probation and/or not being allocated future funds.”

Luther did not respond to a Daily Caller request for further information about the assessment process.

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