Taking care of two young kids would keep any mother’s
hands full and away from other activities. But throw in two jobs, a
thesis to work on, films to edit and screen ““ and
you’ll get a glimpse of Victoria Irigoyen’s life.
As a graduate student in the School of Theater, Film and
Television and a mother since her undergraduate years, Irigoyen is
all too familiar with the daily demands.
She works endless hours editing her films. In order to stay in
school, she also spends over 30 hours per week working at the
Scholarship Resource Center in addition to screening two movies per
week as the current director of Melnitz Movies in the Graduate
Student Association.Â
Amid these responsibilities, Irigoyen has found time to advocate
for the continuation of state grants for child care services, one
of the student services suffering from the current budget woes.
State funding, she said, has made it possible for her son and
daughter to get a decent education. Yet, even as she fights now
against cuts in child care services, the state grants she currently
receives for her three-year-old son might soon disappear
altogether.
“(Child Care Services) wants to discontinue my grants no
matter what happens because they said they wanted to enforce the
state’s five-year limitation,” she said.
Irigoyen said because she had also spent her undergraduate years
at UCLA, the center calculated in the years she had received grants
for her daughter, who is now nine years old. She had already
appealed to the Department of Education to review her case, she
said.
Just two weeks ago, Irigoyen lobbied in Sacramento with the
California Association for the Education of Young Children. As a
representative from UCLA, she met with several state assemblymen
and senators, trying to convince them of the importance of
continuing state grants for child care services.Â
“I told them to imagine two starving students near exam
week with dishes piled high and, on top of that, toss in two
toddlers,” she said.
Irigoyen, who was elected to become next year’s GSA
internal vice president, has already stated child care services as
one of her platform issues.
“It comes down to the issue of student access,” she
said.
Though she considers the child care services offered by UCLA to
be excellent, she said having the center close at 5 p.m. prevents
students from taking evening courses.
“In my program, for example, most of these (evening)
courses are also the most professional because they are taught by
industry experts,” she said.
Instead, Irigoyen proposes to extend the hours of services
already offered by the university, as well as to establish a day
care service at the center of campus. Student parents would then
not have to worry about rushing out of class to pick up their
children from traditional child care centers, which are on the
outskirts of campus.
During her undergraduate years at UCLA, Irigoyen said both she
and her husband Daniel McGrath had to balance class schedules with
taking care of their five-month-old daughter. She found it very
difficult to meet with her professors or attend study group
sessions.
“It’s a draining process trying to make sure that my
children have a decent education while I’m trying to finish
an education myself,” she said.
Irigoyen said entering an industry as demanding as film has also
inspired her to work even harder on the issue of child care.
Female filmmakers, she said, “should not have to choose
between having a family or a career in Hollywood.”
Her department, she said, expects her to focus solely on her
film work, but that is a luxury she can’t afford.
“I worry that when my department hears that I’m
fighting on this child care issue that they would think I’m
not focused on my work “¦ but I think part of being a
filmmaker is to look at the environment around you, the issues
affecting individuals, and have it reflected in your film
work,” she said.
Despite the daily demands of her film work, children and jobs,
Irigoyen said the routine helps stabilize her life.
“The consistency of having a GSA office and the
Scholarship Resource Center to go into and also the kids’
schedules … actually helps to keep my life very stable,”
she said.