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In response to National Take Affirmative Action Day, members of Bruin Republicans sell cookies an

When she saw the signs for an “affirmative action bake sale,” third-year theater student Constance Reese just had to let her non-Bruin friends know.

Standing on Bruin Walk on Wednesday afternoon, she pointed her cell phone’s tiny camera lens at signs held by Bruin Republicans, one listing varying prices for cookies and cupcakes – 30 cents for Hispanics, $1 for white males, and, for gays, lesbians and Native Americans, the message said, “We pay you!”

SLIDESHOW Click here to see an audio slideshow with photos from this event.

On a day when supporters of National Take Affirmative Action Day used large signs, speeches and shouts – the usual stuff of protests at UCLA – to voice their support for affirmative action in a rally at Meyerhoff Park, other students used a more unconventional method to take action against affirmative action: protest via confection.

Bruin Republicans and Bruins Against Affirmative Action held an affirmative action bake sale Wednesday in protest of National Take Affirmative Action Day, for which students from a variety of other groups came out in support.

National Take Affirmative Action Day was created by the United States Student Association in 2001. The event takes place on campuses across the country, and each campus holds a rally to support affirmative action programs.

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At UCLA, where Proposition 209 has eliminated all use of affirmative action in admissions, student listened to UCLA faculty and students speak about their support of bringing back affirmative action and supporting it nationally.

But the bake sale organizers got a head start, setting up shop at 10 a.m. at a table on Bruin Walk. The sale had about four to five organizers working the table, while rally participants and passersby surrounded the table at times throughout the day to engage the organizers.

“We feel that race-based affirmative action ... is reverse racism,” said Bruin Republicans Whip Heather Gonzalez. “We do feel though that there are problems at the socioeconomic level, but they need to be addressed before the college admissions process.”

Throughout the day, they received what they called “suggested donations” – harsh words from those who found their display offensive and constructive discussion with others.

“A lot of the conversations have been kind of hateful toward us, and that’s to be expected,” said Thomas McKenna, a third-year aerospace engineering student and Bruin Republicans member.

But McKenna added that some of the discussions he had were “good, meaningful conversations” that were polite and informative for each party.

“We’re just here to get people talking, to get ideas flowing, and have other people understand us as well as us understanding them a bit,” he said.

The first affirmative action bake sale at UCLA was held by Bruin Republicans in February 2003 and received a great deal of media coverage, as well as criticism from students and major political figures, including Chairman of the California Democratic Party Art Torres.

Since the first bake sale, the event motif has been used at several college campuses across the country, with varying degrees of reaction from students and school administrations.

Many students who were involved in the rally, including third-year political science student Ashley Tucker, approached the bake sale and engaged in discussion with the organizers.

“It’s making the issue simpler than it is, (which is) more my problem with (the bake sale),” Tucker said in the presence of the bake-sale organizers, adding that she believes many misconstrue affirmative action as race-based quotas for admissions.

She and several cohorts argued with bake-sale organizers, and both sides spoke loudly and sternly at one another.

Just a few tables down on Bruin Walk, Kyle Kleckner, a third-year political science student and issues director for Bruin Democrats, said, as a result of overuse, the bake sale had lost novelty.

“Now it’s just become tired and offensive,” he said. “Trying to boil down the issue of affirmative action so simply, in such a way as to charge different races different prices for baked goods, has really a taint to it.”

“It’s not something that I think a lot of students appreciate, and it’s not something that I think adds to the real debate regarding affirmative action at all,” he added.

During the rally, speakers made small references to the bake sale, but for the most part, stuck to stating support for affirmative action and trying to spread the word about their cause.

By 1 p.m., the bake sale raised about $15 to donate to an organization called Asian Americans Against Affirmative Action, but in the end, there were no cookies or cupcakes on the ground.

“Ironically, I think (the bake sale is) a good thing, ... because it does bring up discussion and we need to discuss it even more, especially with the decline in minority students,” Reese said before snapping a few more pictures. “At the same time, I also view the bake sale as basically a slap in the face. ... I think they did it more in spite of (the affirmative action rally) instead of trying to inform the public.”