Student Groups Preserve Their History With UCLA’s New Archive Projec

STUDENT GROUPS PRESERVE THEIR HISTORY WITH UCLA’S NEW ARCHIVE PROJECT

Daily Bruin, UCLA, CA
April 10 2015

By Kartik Kolachina

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.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress