Burns Tower

In 1969, University of the Pacific students protested at Burns Tower to force the administration to increase diversity on campus.

Protest at Burns Tower - March 26, 1969

In 2009, the alumni magazine editors at the University of the Pacific called for memories of the 1969 filming of a Hollywood blockbuster on the Stockton, California campus near the iconic Burns Tower. Alum and regent Victor Ornelas responded to the call. He acted as an extra in the film, but he redirected the question to 1969's protests: “We marched on Burns Tower and held a demonstration to bring attention to the lack of diversity, particularly Latino and African American (although we called ourselves Chicanos and Blacks then), on campus and ‘encouraged’ the university to rectify the situation.” 

A wave of student protests swept across the U.S. in the late 1960s.  Northern California was an epicenter. At University of California, Berkeley, students protested when the University administration limited their right to protest so-called off-campus issues. At San Fransisco State University, students shouted, “On strike! Shut it down!” as they demanded an end to bureaucratic racism, increased representation for students of color, and Black Studies and Ethnic Studies departments. University of the Pacific, regarded by many as an apathetic, white, wealthy, private college in California’s Central Valley, was not immune.

A 1970 issue of the student newspaper asked Chicano students about their experiences at University of the Pacific. T

Pacific Review announces fraternities giving up Confederate flags.

The Racial Climate in the 1960s

In the 1960s, the University of the Pacific was becoming a more diverse campus ethnically, racially, and in terms of class. In March of 1969, Pacific's student body of nearly 1,000 counted 45 Black students, 44 students with Spanish surnames, and 121 Asian students. Sixty percent of these students were receiving financial aid.

Stockton’s population in 1970 reflected the diversity of California’s agricultural industries. This San Joaquin County seat was home to many migratory agricultural workers. The 1970 census recorded a majority white city with sizable  Hispanic or Latino (17.5%), Asian (8%), and Black (11%) populations. The campus, then, did not reflect the local population.

Tensions ran beneath the surface.  A 1970 Pacifican, the student newspaper, asked several students, "How does it feel to be Chicano at UOP?"  Students responded candidly about racial tension on campus.  One explained, "Sometimes one feels like a loner, being one of a few Chicanos on campus. But this happens only when a bigoted person tries to strike you down with a racist remark. I say this because I have seen racism and prejudice in this “nice” university. Don’t let anyone tell you those things don’t exist here because they do. Apart from these few overt racists, the majority of people here are rather nice.”

A few months earlier, an alumni newsletter pointed to progress on race relations: "Confederate flags, hazing, marching, shouting slogans; all are rapidly disappearing as symbols of the fraternity spirit at Pacific as students with wider interests join the Greek letter groups." The announcement reveals the presence of white supremacist symbols and the slow shift away from them.  

Victor Ornelas describes confronting fraternity members who used racist symbols.

Victor Ornelas, Senior Photo, El Camino High School, 1966

Student Action

Such changes did not happen without action.  Black Student Union (BSU) members and their allies walked into fraternities that year to urge the removal of racist symbols.  Victor Ornelas, a Latino student and a linebacker, recalls going with the Black athletes who were founding members of the BSU. 

Victor Ornelas: "I remember there was one evening when the Black ball players. . . . Well, they were kind of the founders of Black Student Union. So there's the members of the Black Student Union led by many of the Black football players, [they] said . . .  I can't remember exactly which fraternity, but they still had the Confederate flag flying above their house. And so I was invited to join this group of players, and we went over to the fraternity house to have a conversation with them about why it was in their best interest just to take down that flag. It was pretty straightforward. I was just there observing and listening, but I was right there with them. They said, that it’s incredibly humiliating and shameful. And maybe it's their fraternity roots, but not something we felt they should be proud of. And so yeah, it was a pretty tense situation. I mean we literally walked into the fraternity house and said that we thought it was a good idea for them to take it down. I can't remember if they did take it down immediately. I think they did. Maybe posted inside the house, but yeah, that's one of those memories."

John Stanton, head of the BSU, spoke at the protest at Burns Tower.

Stockton Record announces the Community Involvement Program in 1969.

Rev. John Diamond, an assistant professor of religious studies, was the Black Studies Programs first director.

Ornelas remembers the demonstrations and their successful outcome.

The March Leads to the CIP (Community Involvement Program)

On March 26, 1969, students from the BSU, what was soon-to-be MEChA, and their allies marched on Burns Tower. President Robert Burns's office was inside, served by one staircase up and the same route down.  BSU leader John Stanton spoke, and the students presented demands.  They pressed the university to be accountable to the local community, urging the addition of 500 students of color from low-income backgrounds with scholarships to UOP in the fall of 1969. They also demanded a Black Studies major with a Black professor as director.

The students got much of what they wanted. President Burns called an emergency meeting of the Executive Policy Committee, which moved on the students' demands by creating the Community Involvement Program (CIP), a need-based scholarship and retention program for first-generation college students from the Stockton community. Although administrators had been discussing such a program, Burns "admitted that their announcement of the program was hastened by the students' action," the Stockton Record reported. 

With the birth of the CIP, the university would admit 200 low-income students from the local area in the fall: 150 transfer students from Delta College in Stockton and 50 first-year students.

In addition, a Black Studies program was launched with Rev. John Diamond, an assistant professor of religious studies, as its director.  Several institutes ran in the upcoming summers, the first on Black Studies and a second on Mexican-American Studies. A Mexican-American Studies major would be developed in the School of Education the following year.  UOP also signed on to Upward Bound, a high school equivalency program, and expanded its participation with Teacher Corp, a federal program to expand the pool of teachers in low-income areas.

Ornelas recalls the demonstration and the outcome:

"I mean, we were in this lily-white university, and it wasn't going to change unless we did something, you know, pretty earth-shattering, if you will, something very impactful.  It's the best word. I know we were associated with it, in line with it. I don't remember if we [MEChA] spoke. When did the demonstration occur? What date? [Spring of 1969, March 25 [actually 26].]

Yes, I remember being there. I don't think I was an active speaker. I wasn't a speaker, but I know I was there. I was told by the Black Student Union members that because I wasn’t an African American, I couldn't be a member, but I could be an ally, I guess, or something like that. And so that meant a lot to me and I wanted to be one of the allies. So I was treated like one of their brothers. And so, I was there observing. I remember John speaking, and I remember the University finally, yes, saying, “We will do something.”

And as I recall, it wasn't just for people of color, students of color, which I thought was pretty visionary. They said it really is around income as well, so at a certain income level, they could get scholarships. And so, of course, that was opening the door for not just African Americans, but Latinos, and even, people of low-income means of whatever race or ethnicity. Now, I believe, just that the fact that I was associated in some way is one of my proudest moments of being a student at Pacific, that we opened doors. I don't know how many thousands have graduated since then." 

By 2017, over 1,500 students have graduated from the CIP program since its inception. They include Mary Lomax-Ghirarduzzi, UOP's inaugural Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; NASA astronaut José M. Hernandez; Leticia Robles, a regent and president of Pacific Homecare Services. Outgoing ASUOP President Ismael Gomez and incoming Vice President Cynia Manning are also CIP scholars.

Sally Miller remembered how important the CIP was for UOP.

Sally Miller talks about the importance of CIP.

Judith Chambers served as assistant to the president and then dean of students for 27 years.

Judy Chambers remembers the demonstrations and the importance of CIP.

Faculty and Administrators Remember the Protest and the Community Involvement Program

Sally Miller, the first tenured female professor in the social sciences at University of the Pacific, recalls how CIP shifted the look of the university and aided local students.

Judy Chambers, who was assistant to President Burns at the time, remembers both the tension and the way that President Burns moved quickly to meet the reasonable demands of the students.

Chambers: "Well, during my early years at Pacific I think the most significant program that the university became involved with is the Community Involvement program and I believe that the year would be 1969. That would be easy to check. But you know it was a time of great unrest and there were a group of students on the campus who felt that we were seriously underrepresented in the area of minorities. And so they had this demonstration and those of you who know the tower know that there‘s only one way in and one way out, so they wanted to be sure they got President Burns‘ attention and also very much involved in negotiating all of this was our academic vice-president Jack Bevan. The negotiations resulted in the development of a Community Involvement program and I think it was for two-hundred students back then, it is less now. But it was from certain areas of Stockton where most of the minorities were primarily in the south and it was based on certain zip codes and it was first-generation minorities. It was a very successful program. Part of the challenge was that the students didn‘t live on campus and they weren‘t always real supported by their parents to move in this direction, so there were special support services, a whole office of special services set up to help these students succeed and that program exists to this day and there have been literally hundreds of students, many of them very successful who have gone through that program. In fact I think they have their twenty-fifth reunion not too long ago and it was very successful. But I think at that time there wasn‘t another program like that in any private university in the country because it was funded entirely from university dollars, from tuition dollars, from the tuition of other students."