Student groups preserve their history with UCLA’s new archive project
By Kartik Kolachina
April 10, 2015 5:11 a.m.
Several student groups are starting to document their history in public UCLA library archives, which anyone can contribute to or view.
The archives are being created with the help of UCLA’s official archivist Heather Briston, who took up her position in June 2014 and works at the Charles E. Young Research Library. The archives, which will hold items such as photos, fliers, articles or resolutions, will serve as additions to the University Archives.
“The voice of the students is very important, and we must preserve all of these articles and documents for future research, especially because there is a great deal of turnover these days,” Briston said.
UCLA has previously archived the activities of various student organizations, such as the Nikkei Student Union and Samahang Pilipino, Briston said. All officially registered student organizations and clubs are allowed to have their own archives free of cost.
Briston said she wanted to continue this practice and reached out to other organizations such as the Armenian Students’ Association, Muslim Student Association, Students for Justice in Palestine and Bruins for Israel, so they could also record their pasts with the university.
The Students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA Alumni Association is creating its archive as a dedication to the history of the group and the Palestine solidarity movement, said Dana Saifan, a UCLA alumna and former Students for Justice in Palestine president.
“Right now, we are at the peak of the activism and we decided to pool together all the resources we have because there isn’t any former documentation available,” Saifan said. “We want to collect documents of all kinds which would help future generations understand what the activism is like.”
The Armenian Students’ Association is also using its alumni association to create their own archive, said Natalie Kalbakian, a third-year political science student and group member.
“This archive holds special cultural importance because we believe that it is necessary for us to solidify and for future generations to learn our history,” she said.
Sarah Rahimi, a fifth-year international development studies student and member of the Muslim Student Association credits Briston with taking the initiative in creating the archives. She said the group did not know about the archive process before Briston reached out to them.
“It is a great initiative because 30 years from now, students might want to know what MSA was doing and the answers will be in this archive,” she said.
Any individual can contribute materials to the archives by contacting the respective organization he or she wants to provide information for. Physical documents will be stored at the UCLA research library under Briston’s care.
