Social movements have always been a powerful force in shaping the culture and direction of universities. At UC San Diego, a project known as Tell Us How UC It: A Living Archive for Student Activism is not only preserving the rich history of advocacy but also providing a living testament to the passion and dedication of the students who have fought and continue to fight for change. This project ensures that the voices of the past continue to echo into the future.
The Genesis
UC San Diego’s history of student activism spans seven decades and encompasses a diverse range of causes. From civil rights to environmental advocacy, these movements have left an indelible mark on the university’s identity. However, without proper documentation and preservation, these pivotal moments could be lost with time.
Tell Us How UC It started as a grassroots effort born from a collective desire to offer an alternative way to highlight awareness, provide a space for dialogue, and preserve and document the events related to student activism at UC San Diego. Spearheaded by a diverse group of women who work at the Library, the project was initiated in response to anonymous racist chalkings during the 2016 presidential election and concerns voiced by students at a race relations town hall co-hosted by the Black Graduate Student Association and the Graduate Student Association.
Students are impacted by their campus environment in different and unique ways based on various and intersectional aspects of their identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender, culture, religion or upbringing. Acknowledging this demonstrated need for conversations about students’ experiences at UC San Diego, the main project team — Tamara Rhodes, Gayatri Singh, Rachel Myers and Cristela Garcia-Spitz — along with support from other colleagues, started brainstorming ways in which the Library could support the campus community in building the necessary framework for this dialog.
“My intention was to offer an approach for libraries to evolve the way they think about one of their core missions, sharing and guiding access to infor-mation and facilitating learning,” said Tamara Rhodes, initiator of Tell Us How UC It and the Library’s Lead for Inclusive Design.
Cultivating Student Perspectives and Exhibit Feedback
As the project began to unfold in late 2016, the team sought to gather student reflections on UC San Diego’s campus climate at that moment in time. Their efforts included calls for submissions through campus flyers as well as engaging in direct outreach with faculty members, student community centers and the Residential Life offices at each college. The majority of submissions were received through two courses, Visual Arts (VIS) 105A: Drawing: Representing the Subject, and Culture, Art and Technology (CAT) 1: Migration Narratives in the Sixth College writing program. To show their support of the project, professors Katie Herzog and Amanda Solomon integrated student participation in the submission process into their final course assignments.
Tell Us How UC It debuted on February 1, 2017, with a physical exhibit in Geisel Library and a panel discussion on student activism. The exhibit included a history of student activism timeline, a selection of creative work from students expressing their experience of the campus climate and an area for visitor feedback. The accompanying panel discussion featured former UC San Diego student activists who were campus employees at the time of the panel, including Fnann Keflezighi (Thurgood Marshall College), Angela Kong (Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS)), Jorge Mariscal (Department of Literature) and Agustín Orozco (OASIS).
Preserving Voices
The heart of the Tell Us How UC It project lies in its meticulous efforts to collect and digitally archive student-submitted materials related to campus activism. The online archive offers the opportunity to view photographs from the initial 2017 exhibit, along with a diverse array of student creations that vividly depict their unique experiences and reflections of UC San Diego. This compilation encompasses musical scores, poems, artworks, photographs, personal narratives and more. Selected pieces from this collection are showcased.
Additionally, the project team conducted extensive research and collaborated with faculty members to construct a comprehensive historical timeline. Spanning from the 1960s to the present, this timeline spotlights a curated selection of events linked to activism on or involving the campus. It places a central emphasis on occurrences affecting students from historically marginalized communities, incorporating not only instances of contention but also moments of progress.
“This project was a culture change for our Library in that we were seeking out student voices and engaging with social movements on our campus,” said Cristela Garcia-Spitz, a founding member of the project and the Library’s Digital Initiatives Librarian. “It’s resulted in new partnerships and opportunities to collaborate with students, faculty and campus groups.”
Looking Ahead
Seven years later, Tell Us How UC It continues to promote awareness, provide a space for dialogue, and document and preserve events related to student activism at UC San Diego. It has widened its reach and impact through collaboration with Project STAND, a national archival consortium between colleges and universities that creates space for highlighting analog and digital collections emphasizing student activism in historically marginalized communities.
Tell Us How UC It has also served as a foundation of inspiration, leading to new local partnerships and student-centered initiatives on campus. Two notable examples include the conception of Generating and Reclaiming Our Wisdom (GROW): A Collection of Asian American and Pacific Islander Community Stories at UC San Diego (read more about GROW here), and a collaboration with OASIS for a future project focused on documenting and celebrating Black excellence at UC San Diego.
While Tell Us How UC It is accessible to a global audience online, its primary focus remains on serving the local UC San Diego community by preserving important moments in history through the eyes of its students. By connecting the voices of our current students with the history of UC San Diego, this living archive embodies a dynamic, ever-evolving narrative of the student experience during pivotal moments when, in the face of challenges, students come together to lead change.
The article above originally appeared in the Fall 2023 issue of Explore magazine, the Library’s signature publication. If you would like to view the students’ creative works, we encourage you to view the online version of this article. Read the full issue online here.