Victor Ornelas Recalls the March on Burns Tower

Victor Ornelas Recalls the March on Burns Tower

Black Student Union (BSU) and MEChA protest at Burns Tower

In 2009, the alumni magazine editors at the University of the Pacific called for memories of what it was like to have R. P. M., a 1970 American drama by Stanley Kramer, filmed on campus. While many wrote in with comments about the production, Victor Ornelas, who was then a regent but had been, as a student, active in athletics, MEChA, and student life, noted he was a football extra in the film but then redirected the question to 1969 as a year of protest. “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.”

Victor E. Ornelas

Alumni Association of the University of the Pacific, "Pacific Review Winter 2009" (2009). Pacific Review. 19.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/pacific-review/19

1969

University of the Pacific

University of the Pacific

Black Student Union (BSU) Demands

Magazine

English

Student protest at Burns Tower

1969

Victor E. Ornelas quote about the 1969 Burns Tower student protest

Magazine. The editor’s note indicates that editors sought quotes about the 1969 filming of Stanley Kramer’s “RPM” on the Pacific campus. Ornelas (a regent in 2009 when he wrote) recalled the protests instead. "The story sparked many memories for Pacific alumni," the magazine records.