UCLA debates what to do about video rant on Asians

[March 15, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Officials at the University of California, Los Angeles, are evaluating what to do about a white student who posted a video on YouTube mocking her fellow Asian classmates and criticizing them for calling family members in the library following the tsunami.

Alexandra Wallace issued an apology through the campus Daily Bruin newspaper for the video called "Asians in the Library," which first surfaced Friday and drew national attention.

In it, the UCLA student criticized the school for accepting "these hordes of Asian people" who she said have no manners and disrupted her studies by talking loudly on the phone in the library.

"I'll be in, like, deep into my studying, into my political science theories and arguments and all that stuff, getting it all down, like, typing away furiously, blah, blah, blah, and then all of a sudden, when I'm about to, like, reach an epiphany, overhear from somewhere: 'Oh ching chong ling long ting tong, ooohh," she said.

Wallace could not immediately be reached for comment. She apologized in a statement to the campus newspaper, saying she could not explain what possessed her to make the statements.

The UCLA chancellor condemned the video Monday. A spokesman for the university said officials are evaluating whether the student violated the student code of conduct and what sanctions, if any, might be appropriate.

"I am appalled by the thoughtless and hurtful comments of a UCLA student posted on YouTube," Chancellor Gene D. Block wrote. "Like many of you, I recoil when someone invokes the right of free expression to demean other individuals or groups."

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.