KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Jason Conrad, a member of a pro-life group called "Survivors," is led off Bruin Walk Thursday by a University police officer after being arrested for failure to comply with a univer-sity official.

By Robert Salonga
Daily Bruin Staff

University police arrested two non-UCLA students on Bruin Walk Thursday for failing to leave the campus after officials informed them their anti-abortion signs exceeded the maximum size allowed for display.

Future Redlands University students Danielle White and Jason Conrad, who will attend Redlands next semester, were charged with failure to adhere to a university official's instructions, according to UCPD Sgt. James Vandenberg.

Conrad and White were booked for unlawful entry upon the campus, then released. They are scheduled to appear at 141 Los Angeles Municipal Court, Airport Branch, on Oct. 29.

"I have as much a right to be standing there as the other students," White said after being released.

Conrad and White are members of Survivors, a Christian anti-abortion youth ministry that, among other projects, travels to college campuses advocating against abortion.

White said Survivors will pursue legal action for the arrests.

Berky Nelson, director for the Center for Student Programming, said the content of the signs had nothing to do with Conrad and White's arrests.

He said he asked the group to remove their signs because they were larger than the maximum 4-by-3 foot allowable size set by his office, a rule which applies to all campus organizations.

"We can't have a non-campus entity defy regulations that are set for students," Nelson said. "Otherwise, any outside group can put up a 10-by-10 sign anywhere they want."

Thursday afternoon, Conrad and White were on Bruin Walk with large signs portraying the title "Choice is Abortion," accompanied by a picture of a decapitated baby's head held by a pair of silver tongs.

They displayed another sign that contrasted "Germany's Holocaust," in which Jewish victims were portrayed, with "America's Holocaust," with a picture of an aborted fetus.

"We're not trying to create a huge fight or riot," White said. "People understood that we were trying to educate students of UCLA about abortion."

The other six Survivors members complied with Nelson's request, surrendering their signs to police. According to White, she and Conrad were told to leave campus or risk facing arrest.

"We asked for proof of what rule we were breaking, and they didn't show us," she said.

White said to both Nelson and police that until she was presented with documentation outlining the regulation she violated, she would not leave, and Conrad concurred. Both were cited at 1:15 p.m.

According to university regulation IV.A.2, "all persons on University property are required to abide by University policies and regulations," and it is a violation to "fail to comply with the directions of a University official acting in the performance of his or her duties."

Survivors Director Dan McCullough said he had cleared the displays with the CSP and had spoken with a student in the office. Nelson disputed this claim, saying he is responsible for final determination of rules and regulations in his office.

McCullough said Survivors has been to as many as 20 college campuses and never experienced an arrest.

"We're a free country, supposedly, but it seems those laws don't apply on the UCLA campus," he said. "The First Amendment today was censored."
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?ID=16441