In the shade of the trees by Moore Hall, Tony Dunbar’s
one-man show ““ complete with plywood backdrop draped in black
fabric, handheld camera mounted on a tripod, and blue-and-gold GSA
signs posted in the bushes ““ made its debut on campus this
week.
Dunbar, director of communications for the Graduate Students
Association, launched GSA’s newest project, an on-going
“Speak Out” campaign to guide the search for
UCLA’s new chancellor.
The goal of the campaign is to gather input from UCLA’s
graduate student body on important issues and relay the concerns
““ in video form ““ to both the chancellor search
committee and the new chancellor himself.
Last month, University of California President Robert Dynes
enlisted the help of a 17-member search committee to replace
Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who is due to step down in June.
Dunbar, who is working toward a doctorate in information
studies, hopes to have a finished product by early March to present
to the search committee at its meeting.
“It’s a real opportunity to be seen and be
heard,” he said, while manning his booth at a corner of the
Court of Sciences yesterday. Dunbar plans to set up his equipment
in several locations frequented by graduate students during the
next week and a half. He has only collected the opinions of a few
people so far, but said he is not discouraged.
“I think just the fact that we’re doing it makes it
a success,” he said. “Even if we were here and nobody
came, at least people had an opportunity to show up.”
Dunbar’s own opportunity came during the meeting of UC
officials and student leaders regarding the search for the new
chancellor, where he pitched GSA’s idea to compile a video of
graduate student input.
UC Vice President Linda Williams approached him afterward and
gave him her endorsement, saying she would help get the video
distributed, Dunbar said.
“She gave me a card, shook my hand and said, “˜Go for
it.’ I was amazed somebody was willing to listen and get it
heard,” he said.
Once the “buy-in” was secured, Dunbar said the
project was only a matter of organizing graduate students’
input and “giving somebody more than the GSA cabinet and
officers a voice.”
However, encouraging widespread participation within the
graduate student body has its difficulties.
“As graduate students, we live more isolated lives and
have to strive to operate as a community,” Dunbar said.
He said that while students are interested, they may be
apprehensive. “They are not aware they can get their voices
heard, but they should know that this is a genuine
opportunity,” Dunbar said.
GSA President Jared Fox also acknowledged the obstacles of
mobilizing 11,000 graduate students.
“Graduate students are very busy. It’s hard to get
grad students to take the time out to talk about the things that
impact them,” Fox said.
Beyond his chancellor “Speak Out” project,
Dunbar’s long-term goal for GSA is to unite the graduate
student body, both as a community and a constituency able to
influence decisions.
To do this, however, Dunbar said the traditional ways of
communicating information may not be enough.
Most students at universities are Internet-savvy, he said, and
new forms of communication should take advantage of this.
“The resources for creativity are here,” Dunbar said.
“It just takes a person to show the possibilities.”
Filling a brand-new position as communications director, Dunbar
works with no budget, saying he started last October with only a
head full of ideas. However, Fox and the GSA cabinet felt that was
all he needed.
“We created (the position) and weren’t really sure
where to go. Tony took it in a lot of directions we hadn’t
anticipated,” Fox said.
In addition to the “Speak Out” campaign, one of
these directions is GSA-tv, Dunbar’s own invention.
He also hopes to incorporate “dynamic multimedia”
into the GSA Web site and has begun uploading GSA-tv video clips of
GradBar events. Also, he is working on creating a “virtual
orientation” for new graduate students by the spring.
Dunbar has enlisted James Ramsey, general manager of BruinNews
29, to help expand GSA-tv. BruinNews 29 is a branch of Student
Media, which also includes the Daily Bruin.
Ramsey said GSA-tv’s goal is “eventually to make it
a forum for (graduate students’) own content and start a
dialogue among themselves.”
Dunbar said he does not have high expectations beyond building a
foundation for further activism.
“We’re trying to provide the underneath-support
infrastructure,” he said. “The true measurement is a
year or two from now, whether or not grad students have realized a
consciousness of what they want to express.”