I was just at a rally on Sproul to eliminate the SAT. The rally claimed the SAT was biased and a tool of discrimination to keep low income people and minorities out of college. Organized by BAMN, By Any Means Necessary, it was a standard rally of theirs. All of the usual BAMN suspects were there, like Ronald Cruz who has been around as long as anyone can remember and Yvette Felarca, who graduated two years ago after a ridiculously long time here.

In the words of Ronald Cruz, standardized tests are “degrading and anti-human.” He said they do not measure his leadership, his Filipino heritage, or the struggles he faces as a gay man. What Cruz should know is the SAT does not measure those things for anyone who takes it. No one is awarded an advantage or disadvantage for those factors only how well they can do on the test.

There are two things that mystify me. If BAMN really wants high school students to do well and get into college, why do they hold rallies on a college campus in the middle of the day and encourage high school students to come? Going to a rally in the middle of a school day will not help any student learn any of the subjects necessary to do well in school.

Secondly, why were they chanting in Spanish? With the exception of language classes, all classes at this University are in English. If they want students to get into college and be successful they should be encouraging and using the English language. Yelling “Yes we can” in Spanish is pointless.

BAMN does not have a history of doing what is helpful to anyone but itself. If anyone wants an example of how far BAMN has gone to get what they want, check out what happened three years ago when they took the ASUC to court.