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Administrators at UCLA acted on Monday to take down a handful of fliers that promoted a "UCLA White Students Group." UCLA spokesman Todd Tamberg told CBS 2 that "three or four" fliers were removed after a campus-wide search conducted by a maintenance crew. It remains uncertain who had posted them up.
A photo of the alleged flier was posted on Twitter on Monday morning. The advertisement says that "Recent rhetoric and ongoing riots have highlighted a danger to white Americans" and presents the group as one "pursuing an agenda that is in the best interests of white Americans." At the top-right corner of the flier, there's a symbol that's been associated with the alt-right movement. In particular, the symbol has been used as part of the branding at alternativeright.com (on the website, you can buy a T-shirt with the logo on it). The site is edited by Richard B. Spencer, head of the National Policy Institute, which, per the organization's website, is "dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States."
In a statement sent to LAist and other outlets, UCLA says it believes that it's "unlikely that the flyers were posted by members of the UCLA community, due to the fact that the social media links included in the flyer were not UCLA-linked and did not mention UCLA, UCLA students, Los Angeles or higher education in general." The statement adds that, "divisive and racist language do not reflect the ideals that we set for ourselves on this campus."
In November of 2015, administrators acted to shut down a Facebook page belonging to the "UCLA White Student Union." Janina Montero, then vice chancellor of student affairs, said in a statement that it was likely that people unaffiliated with UCLA managed the Facebook group. A message on the Facebook group, however, denied this claim, saying that "the [White Student Unions] as far as this writer knows are autonomous and run by students of the University." The Facebook page has since been deactivated.
In the statement responding to Monday's incident, administrators said, "There is no white student group at UCLA."
Messages sent by LAist to the email address included on the flier went unanswered. It should also be noted that the website listed on the flier is weird and non-sensical, so take that for what it's worth.
