An Inclusive Litany

10/13/97

When Alvero Cardona applied for a $9.61-an-hour tutoring job at UCLA's Academic Advancement Program, he was prepared to talk about his academic honors, his previous experience tutoring at another college, and how his immigrant background might help him tutor "historically under-represented students." But he wasn't prepared for a loyalty oath. During his job interview, Cardona says, he wasn't asked a single question related to his subject. Instead the interviewer asked him, "How do you feel about affirmative action?" and "Do you believe that there is institutional racism at UCLA?" Cardona said he hadn't experienced racism when he attended UCLA and told the interviewer that he was ambivalent about affirmative action, believing the policy "can be carried too far." Cardona says he didn't get the job because he "couldn't understand the needs of AAP students."