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CSUN professor to offer video messages to next president
By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 10/26/2008 11:16:04 PM PDT
CSUN video professor Geri Ulrey stands in front of the... (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)
NORTHRIDGE - In a tiny house on wheels, Geri Ulrey is trying to capture democracy in action.
Inside the house in a compact living room stocked with a plush suede chair, Ulrey, a professor of cinema and television arts at California State University, Northridge, is taking video confessionals from students.
They pour out their thoughts to a camera on everything from the economy and health care to education. Ulrey is streaming the videos on the Web and after Election Day will send them to the next president of the United States.
"The idea here is to create a space where people can enter, tell their story and speak their ideas to the next president," Ulrey said.
The Dear Mr. President project, as Ulrey has coined her endeavor, was born eight years ago.
A film student then, Ulrey was disappointed with the apathy of her peers who failed to vote or be involved during the presidential election in 2000.
But a lot has changed since then. Young voters are a key demographic this election cycle and Ulrey said she sees dozens of students sporting candidates' shirts and buttons every day. Still Ulrey felt compelled to apply for a grant for her project.
During one recent taping session, CSUN freshmen Areli Morales and her friend Consuelo Cisneros sat together in front of the camera and said they hope the next president can fix the economy, while also better representing the people rather than Washington insiders.
"I want to say, welcome to the office, Mr. President." Morales said. "And can you please take care of our country a little more?"
Cisneros added: "I hear a lot of promises and they're a little scary. ... I hope everything's not just talk. Just like the last president."
Albert Aguilera, a 21-year-old television production student, said he wanted to use his time in front of the camera to talk about the economy.
"I am about to graduate, about to enter my adult life, my career, starting a family," Aguilera said.
"I want to know if I am still going to have Social Security, if my parents will have benefits, will gas be affordable, will I get a mortgage," he said.
Like Aguilera, most of the students that Ulrey has recorded are from the era of reality television, YouTube and Facebook. They don't get shy behind the camera.
But project volunteer Roxanna Sandoval, 19, said some students don't believe their voices will be heard.
"They laugh and say the next president will probably trash any videos we send them," she said.
To make students comfortable enough and get them to be honest in their videos, Ulrey and a team of art and television students carefully chose every piece of decor inside the trailer that was converted into a house.
The Victorian-style house even has a front lawn made of Astroturf.
"At the end of the day, this is about thoughtfully thinking about what you would say to the leader of your country, the country you sometimes love and sometimes are angry with," Ulrey said.
Lawrence Becker, a political science professor at CSUN, said he is also skeptical that the video experiment will create changes in policy.
"But the impact is more on the individuals who choose to participate," Becker said.
"By talking about the issues on their mind, even if it is in a confessional format, it may make them more involved and it may force them to think more carefully."
Ulrey is hopeful that the next president and his staff will find value in the hundreds of videos that she'll compile by Election Day.
But even if the videos fall on deaf ears, the professor said she'll be proud of the end result.
"It's a release. It allows folks to think about what's happening around us," she said.
"That person may not have had that opportunity before ... I hope this is something that transcends the moment."
connie.llanos@dailynews.com 818-713-3634
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For Original Story: http://blogs.csun.edu/news/2008/10/20/dear-mr-president/
‘Dear Mr. President’ Project Gives CSUN Community a Voice
Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler
carmen.chandler@csun.edu
(818) 677-2130
(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Oct. 20th, 2008) ―
Do you have something you want to say to the next president of the United States of America? Do you have a personal story or concern you want to share about this historic election? Faculty, staff, students and community members have until Thursday, Nov. 6, to visit Cal State Northridge’s own version of the MTV-styled “confessional” booth.
The confessional booth is part of cinema and television arts lecturer Geri Ulrey’s project: Dear Mr. President. The project involves the use of a mobile video booth located in a miniature house that travels around campus. Faculty, staff, students and visitors to campus are invited to record a video message addressed to the next president of the United States of America. Participants are encouraged to share personal stories, feelings and thoughts about their lives. The video messages will be organized, streamed from the project’s Web site and mailed to the White House.
“My desire is to engage with young people regarding the political process,” said Ulrey, who collaborated with the Art Department and several student organizations in designing the project and the house. “I believe that it is really important for people to hear themselves speak.”
The video house is open now through Nov. 6 at various locations on campus. Ulrey, the project producer and director, said the project is nonpartisan. She plans to send the footage to the campaigns of both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, no matter who wins on Nov. 4.
The project was funded through a grant from CSUN’s Judge Julian Beck Learning-Centered Instructional Projects. Beck grants are awarded to faculty to provide students with opportunities to actively engage in and ultimately become responsible for their own learning. Projects must be completed in one year and all faculty and staff are eligible to submit projects, either individually or as a group.
Ulrey said students are involved at all levels in the project, from inviting visitors to taping messages and editing and uploading the messages.
“This is an opportunity to bring art to large numbers of people who wouldn’t ordinarily have the opportunity, and to involve students on all levels,” said Kim Abeles, professor of art. She said art students helped design the Victorian style miniature house as an on-campus public art piece. The idea for the house design came out of the notion that individuals are most comfortable talking about issues in cozy chairs in their own home, she added.
“It’s portable, yet it’s also a cozy place,” Abeles added.
So far, nearly a hundred students, faculty and staff have taped messages with themes ranging from concerns about the economy to health care.
During his taped message, student Shahar Aframian said he was concerned about taxes, gas prices and the economy.
“I think those issues are more important than Iraq and the war,” he added.
For more information about the project, visit www.dearmrpresident08.org.
Geri Ulrey, Cinema and Television Arts Department lecturer, instructs student Kemi George on how to balance the lighting for the camera used to record Dear Mr. President project letters. The project will be recording messages on campus at various locations until Nov. 6.
DAILY SUNDIAL, Thursday, October 23, 2008
For Original Story: http://sundial.csun.edu/1.843101
Students get opportunity to address future president
PAULA MUÑOZ / STAFF REPORTER
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Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008
Updated: Thursday, October 23, 2008
PAULA MUÑOZ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Amandeep Singh, 23, an electrical engineering graduate student, prepares for his message to the future president in the mobile video booth going across the CSUN campus on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
For those who have ever wanted to deliver a message to the future president of the United States, perhaps an eloquent rap conveying his or her innermost thoughts about the state of the country in syncopated rhyme, the chance has finally come—no rapping actually required.
A mobile video booth is traversing the Calif. State University Northridge campus, recording messages directed to either John McCain or Barack Obama from students who have something to say to their would-be president. The booth, which looks like a house with a living room, broom and flowerpot that have been zapped by the laser from “Honey I Shrunk the Kids,” is the brainchild of Geri Ulrey, a professor of production and editing in the department of Cinema and Television Arts.
The concept, titled “Dear Mr. President,” was developed last year when Ulrey was awarded the Judge Julian Beck Learning-Centered Instructional Grant. The grant supports—you guessed it—learning-centered instructional projects.
“I was trying to think of a different way to bring people into the political process,” said Ulrey. “Politics is something young people feel powerless in and I wanted to engage them and give them a voice.”
Ulrey, along with more than 40 students from CTVA and the Art department, built and are operating the booth, which began Oct. 6 and will run through Nov. 6. It has already recorded the musings of more than 100 students, with 40 of those uploaded onto the program’s website.
Ulrey said the project is non-partisan and she hopes to take it to the fundraising events of both campaigns, as well as Venice beach and local high schools.
Jesse Wilkes, a CTVA senior, helped construct the booth including the roof, brackets, the Astroturf and some of the painting. Wilkes said he did not expect the response he has received from students who approach the miniature abode.
“People have been very friendly and surprisingly willing to volunteer,” Wilkes said.
One of those students is Amandeep Singh, a 23-year-old electrical engineering graduate student. Born in India, Singh said he sees a parallel between the government of the United States and that of India, also a large democracy.
“I just want to give a message to the (future) president,” said Singh. “We all are here for a better future. We want (the United States) to remain a superpower. I want the U.S. to grow so the rest of the world will follow.”
Students who choose to participate can do so in privacy (until of course their words and faces are put online) and are urged to share their personal stories and feelings. Ulrey said that the project is not only intended to get students involved in politics, but also with one another.
“CSUN is a commuter campus,” Ulrey said. She realizes that often times, students do not have much opportunity to interact. “Students are working on people skills and interacting with peers. We are creating a space for political discourse and engagement.”
To view CSUN students’ messages to the next president and to learn more about where to track down the opinion shack to share your own thoughts, visit www.dearmrpresident08.org.
