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Looking down on the Quad atCal State University, Northridge.(Photography by William Watkins)Doctoral recipients from UCLAwho go on to faculty positionsat CSU campuses are expectedto be natural bridge-buildersbetween the two institutionsDiego State, and San Francisco State.“Our most effective partnership todayis with Cal State Northridge,” says Assistant Dean of the Graduate Division GlenT. Winans. In 1999, a Northridge graduatestudent, Cedric Hackett, developed the Advancement to Graduate Education (AGE)initiative on that campus as part of his master’s degree thesis in education. Each year,Northridge faculty and administrators identify 300 to 400 undergraduates and master’sdegree candidates who are good prospectsfor graduate studies. A delegation of UCLAGraduate Division professionals plus currentgraduate students spend a day at Northridgeto describe successful pathways to graduatestudy and to talk with individual studentsabout opportunities they can pursue.“It’s a marvelous event because thestudents are so focused,” Dr. Winans says.“We’re not just handing out brochures andfree pencils. We’re having substantive conversations about different career paths andsubstantive steps students can take to preparefor, and be successful in, graduate school.”The Northridge model may be used in a proposal to seek foundation funding for similarprograms linking other UC-CSU partners.6G RA DUA TE Q UA R T E R L YMeanwhile, UCLA has developeda Graduate Education Forumat Cal Poly Pomona based onthe successful Northridge experience, andthe relationships with Cal State Long Beach,San Francisco State, and San Jose State aregetting fresh attention. At Cal State LosAngeles, successful National Institutes ofHealth- and National Science Foundationfunded Bridge Programs with UCLA in thelife sciences create close collaborationbetween faculty at both institutions. As aresult, more than a dozen underrepresentedstudents from Cal State Los Angeles havesuccessfully enrolled in doctoral programsat UCLA.“We’re not just handingout brochures and freepencils.”These efforts are part of a larger CSUOutreach Project designed to establish orstrengthen ties between UCLA and CSU campuses, particularly in the Southern Californiaarea. The Graduate Division participates ina program that brings CSU students to UCcampuses for summer research projects,and UCLA faculty are encouraged to spendtime with potential recruits from CSU .Small groups of CSU students in specialacademic advancement programs, such asthe Ronald McNair Scholars Program, CSUPre-Doctoral Program, and the PresidentialScholars Program, also are invited to attendworkshops and meet with faculty and graduate students—either at their home campusor at UCLA.Dr. Winans is building networks withCSU systemwide administrators and campusfaculty, encouraging them to identify students who are good candidates for graduatestudy and to connect them with faculty atUCLA. Examples include a historian at SanFrancisco State, a chemist at San Jose State,a political scientist at Cal State Northridge,and an engineer at Cal Poly Pomona, allof whom have established ties with UCLAcolleagues and passed along promising students. Doctoral recipients from UCLA whogo on to faculty positions at CSU campusesare expected to be natural bridge-buildersbetween the two institutions, and efforts areunder way to encourage greater involvementof these UCLA alumni in building pathwaysto graduate education for CSU students.To support the CSU Outreach Project,the Graduate Division hired two graduatestudent researchers to help gather and assessinformation about the experience of CSUstudents enrolled in graduate programs atUCLA. Linda DeAngelo conducted structured interviews with CSU alumni who arenow in PhD programs at UCLA. Karen Kimheld similar conversations with CSU alumniin master’s degree programs at UCLA and updated and analyzed quantitative data that hasbeen gathered over the last decade. Studentswere asked about their experiences at theCal State campuses and at UCLA and invitedto describe the pathways that led them intograduate studies and to this campus. Theresults are now being analyzed for presentation to academic administrators in the UCand CSU systems. UCLA also has been invitedto share the findings and recommendationsat a CSU systemwide Faculty DevelopmentRetreat for 150 new faculty this spring.At the same time, Linda and Karenare using their contacts with CSU alumni indoctoral programs to recruit participantsfor panels at outreach events on their former campuses and volunteers to meet withCSU students visiting UCLA to learn aboutgraduate programs. In November, a reception was held on campus for CSU alumniinterview respondents, Linda says, “to continue to make them feel welcome.” Theevent was a first step in building a uniquecommunity of CSU alumni at UCLA acrossvarious academic disciplines. Participantswere open about sharing experiences andmaking themselves available to mentor andassist others.This winter and spring Linda and Karenwill survey UCLA alumni currently holdingtenure track faculty positions at selected CSUcampuses to better understand their perspectives on identifying and encouragingCSU students who are likely candidates forgraduate education and helping them prepare for graduate work. The combinationof this input along with student experiencesfrom the recent interviews will allow theGraduate Division to respond with moreappropriate services and better informationfor CSU students.Karen KimWhen Karen Kim saw the GraduateThrough explorations on the Internet, KarenDivision’s posting for a graduatelearned about the Higher Education Research In-student researcher to work on proj-stitute at UCLA and the Graduate School of Edu-ects related to CSU students at UCLA, she ap-cation and Information Sciences, where she wasplied right away. “I didn’t even consider it a job—Iaccepted as a doctoral student in higher educa-was personally committed to this,” she says. “Ition and organizational change. Her courseworkcame from a CSU, and I wanted to help othernow complete, Karen is beginning dissertationCSU students who want to come to UCLA.”research on collaborations between academicDuring the summer, Karen helped to updatefaculty and corporate professionals. She’ll visitand analyze statistics about CSU alumni whothe sites of four new California Institutes of Sci-come to UCLA and the effect they have on theence and Innovation, joint projects between thedemographics of the graduate student body. SheUniversity of California and corporate sponsors.also interviewed dozens of CSU alumni who areHer goal is to see what kind of culture is createdpursuing a master’s degree at UCLA.when people from different professional environ-Karen’s own story has much in common withwhat she heard—career goals brought her toments work together and how this affects—ordoesn’t affect—the science they do.UCLA after a period in the working world. Karen’sWhen it comes time to find a new job, Karenfirst round of higher education focused on phi-wouldn’t mind at all if it included the kind of out-losophy, an undergraduate degree from Loyolareach work she’s done at UCLA. Besides herMarymount University and a master’s degreeGSR position in the Graduate Division, she’sfrom Cal State Long Beach, where her thesisalso been a teaching assistant in a course thatexamined Nietzsche’s philosophy of music.prepares undergraduate education studentsBy the time she finished, she was directorto participate in outreach programs to under-of research for the Directors Guild of America,represented high school students in Southernkeeping track of where movies are being madeas well as copyright and corporate informa-California.Karen knows from personal experience thattion. Because she “loved doing research,” sheerroneous conceptions can influence decisionswanted some formal education in “how to doabout graduate education. “I never thought oflarge studies, how to do quantitative analysis,applying to UCLA for a doctorate in philosophyhow to do qualitative research.” Moreover, shebecause I didn’t think I would be accepted, com-saw that “I had pretty much maxed myself out”ing from Cal State Long Beach,” she says. Herat the Directors Guild, she says. “I couldn’t seesummer job, Karen says, “was an opportunity formyself doing the same thing for the next thirtyme to help UCLA help students to think aboutyears, even though I absolutely loved the job.”graduate school. I think it’s wonderful that UCLAwants to build these partnerships with CSU.”WINTER 20037

Meet the CBD postdoctoral fellowsWarning SignsIT WAS A CHALLENGING ASSIGNMENT: De-sign a sign that would warn futuregenerations about the perils of aproposed national repository for radioactivewaste in the desert under Yucca Mountain,Nevada. Design Media Arts faculty Jennifer8G RA DUA TE Q UA R T E R L YSteinkamp and Gail Swanlund asked theirstudents to do a proposal as their first project in a class on Tangible Typography.Then they asked their students to submit the proposals to a contest, “UniversalWarning Sign: Yucca Mountain,” sponsored by the Desert Space Foundation, aAshok Sukumaran’s proposal, which won "bestof show", illustrated a site thickly planted withgenetically engineered, cobalt blue yucca plants,whose unnatural color would contrast starkly withthe surrounding desert.nonprofit organization that promotes thearts, humanities, and education in Nevada,partnered with the University of NevadaLas Vegas (UNLV). Competing in contests“gets students out in the world, and also it’sa great line for their resume,” says Professor Steinkamp. In the case of the YuccaMountain project, Professor Swanlund says,the judging panel included “some of the bigthinkers in the art world today . . . I thoughtit would be good exposure for the studentsto get their work into an arena like that.”The contest drew 150 entrants fromaround the world. Two members of theSteinkamp/Swanlund class walked awaywith prizes: Ashok Sukumaran as best ofshow and Fabian Winkler among the honorable mentions. Both men are second-yeargraduate students in the Design Media ArtsDepartment.Rather than creating a conventional sign,Ashok and Fabian submitted proposals thatturned the whole Yucca Mountain site intoa symbolic warning. Ashok envisioned a sitethickly planted with genetically engineered,cobalt blue yucca plants, whose unnaturalcolor would contrast starkly with the surrounding desert. Ashok sees it as “putting twodemons together,” nuclear waste and geneticmutation. The blue yucca is a meta-metaphor,he says, one mutant marking the other.Alternatively, Fabian imagined coveringthe site with huge reflectors and “thumpers”similar to those used in the movie, Dune, tocreate a warning on several sensory levels:heat, light, sound, and vibration. “When I firstheard about the plans to bury nuclear waste atYucca Mountain, I thought, is this real or amI just in the wrong movie,” Fabian says. Thus,he hopes people who think his proposal is“unreal” will understand that the reality ofthe situation is still more incredible.The contest was intended to promotepublic awareness rather than to provide anactual plan for the nuclear repository. However, the entries have appeared in severalpublications, and fifteen were displayed atUNLV’s Marjorie Barrick museum in LasVegas, “a setting where you ask yourselfis this reality or just a movie—it wasperfect,” Fabian says. As “best of show,”Ashok took home 1,000, not a bad pricefor something that started out as a homework assignment.The project was well-suited to Ashok,who hopes for a career designing “publicspace rewired, reconstituted, re-imagined.”He was working as an architect when hewas drawn to media art because “I wantedmore forms of expression than walls anddoors.” UCLA’s program was appealing because he found it more art-based than somealternatives.Fabian was drawn to UCLA because theprogram gave students “more freedom tocome up with your own ideas, to conceptualize as well as realize work.” Connectionsto other UC campuses have extended theFabian Winkler and Adriana deSouza e Silva’s strike database strike installation uses a printer, video camera, and database to question the meaning ofcomputer interfaces.opportunities to present his work. Besidesthe Yucca Mountain project, Fabian submitted another work, in collaboration withAdriana de Souza e Silva, that has receivedhonors. The strike database strike installation uses a printer, video camera, anddatabase to question the traditional meaningof computer interfaces. Papers describingtheir work were presented at a conferencein Brazil and at ACADIA 2002.Working with Adriana, “was fun becausewe both came from very different backgrounds,” Fabian says. “My background isinstallation art and interactive real-time environments whereas Adriana has strengths intheory.” Fabian says he “completely dislikesthe competitive model of contests, the ideaof outdoing others, especially in the fieldof the arts. What is important to me is tobuild up a network of persons, institutionsand ideas. . . In attending conferences orexhibiting work I ideally enlarge this network by connecting to others and by seeingand hearing other ideas while presenting myown ideas.”To learn more about theDesign Media Arts program at UCLA, goto www.design.ucla.edu, which also provides web space for students. To learn moreabout the Yucca Mountain contest, go towww.desertspace.org.Ashok Sukumaran and FabianWinkler, Design Media Arts StudentsWINTER 20039

the performance began—no yelling Cut!’and making adjustments either for the actors or for the lighting/sound board operators,” Miranda explains. “So the processinvolved the building of a different kindof trust in each other, one where I had tolet the play slip out of my hands once theshow began.”LOSING CONTROL IS NOT ALWAYSMarlene Shelton and Maureen (Mo) Perkinsoutside of MacGowan Hall. Marlene says of Mo,"She understood that play on so many levelsthat this has been one of the most satisfyingcollaborations I have ever had with a director.THE POWER OF COLLABORATIONThe Francis Ford Coppola One-Act Marathon"WORKING WITH ACTORSIS WHEN THE MAGICAPPEARS," ACCORDINGto graduate student playwright MarleneShelton. “Once I have tinkered with thescript and come up with a final draft, thenit’s all about the actors. They conjure upthese characters I wrote for them,” she says,and—with the director as a guide—“theybring them to life.”10G RA DUA TE Q UA R T E R L YIndeed, while the Francis Ford CoppolaOne-Act Marathon was established fiveyears ago to bring together student playwrights from the Department of Theaterand student directors from the Departmentof Film, much of its power comes fromthis third connection: bringing writers anddirectors from the MFA program togetherwith actors, who are mostly undergraduates.In this case, the graduate students are theones doing the learning.“Working on a Coppola One-Act gaveme an opportunity to dive in and get myhands dirty with the actors—do some really in-depth, intense dramatic work,” saysdirecting student Miranda Yousef. “Whenyou can’t get a close-up, you have to findother ways to achieve the same effect.”Theater and film provide different challenges. “I could not stop the actors onceeasy. The playwright on Miranda’sproduction, Ben Lamoso says, “I was oftenshocked by the choices our actors wouldmake with line readings. I had a certain ideain my mind of what the actors would look,act, and sound like on stage when I wrote theplay. . . . [The actors] would often go places thatI never intended the characters to go—whichwas sometimes exhilarating and other timesterrifying.”Working with actors provided some important lessons. As a writer, Ben learned toestablish a consistent tone, “a unified worldso that the actors could connect with thewavelength of the piece.” His directingpartner, Miranda, learned “how to generate something authentic inside of the actorsthat will inspire them to re-create genuineperformances in accordance with your vision.” Playwright Rose Martula worked tofind “that common language when talkingabout the actors’ characters or what youmeant when you wrote this certain line orcertain point.”Of course there are practicalities, too.“I learned how valuable clarity and brevityin writing can be when actors have only afour-week rehearsal process,” Ben says.That four-week rehearsal and the performances came at the end of a quarter-longcourse called “Script Development Workshop.” Playwriting students had writtentheir one-act plays as part of a first-yearcourse. The student directors learned theatrical techniques in a class offered in springquarter, and four were selected to participatein the Coppola program. When writers anddirectors came together this fall, they pickeda cast, rehearsed scenes, talked with designstudents, and got ready for the workshopproductions presented in Macgowan Halljust before and after the Thanksgivingbreak. Design students and actors also getcourse credit for their work.The Coppola program was devisedby faculty and administrators in film andtheater, inspired by film director FrancisFord Coppola’s insight. He has said thathe learned his cinematic skills not only asa graduate student in film but also as anundergraduate in theater at UCLA.“He liked the idea of the film-directingstudents being challenged by having to direct a play in regular time and in sequentialorder,” says Edit Villarreal, chair of the playwriting program. Coppola lent the programhis name but does not fund it. Other goalsof the course are a cross-pollination amongtheater and film students, along with opportunities to network that might lead toother projects.EACH YEAR, ONE OR MORE WRITER/director pairings decide to continuetheir collaboration. “One of the concernsevery playwright has is that the directorwill not understand the play and will takeit in a direction that doesn’t work,” saysMarlene. “This was never the casewith Mo [Maureen Perkins]. Sheunderstood that play on somany levels that this hasbeen one of the mostsatisfying collaborationsI have ever had with adirector.”Even if no longterm partnership isformed, student playwrights and studentdirectors learn abouteach other’s techniques. “In film you tellthe story through visuals, and in the theater,you have to tell the story through language,”says Jose Luis Valenzuela, part of the facultyteam that taught theater techniques to thestudent directors last spring.WORKING WITH HIS DIRECTINGpartner, Miranda, Ben says, “it wasimportant that we were always aware of thatdistinction and that we talked about it.” Inreturn, Miranda says she “enjoyed workingwith [Ben] and helping him to refine his playto reflect his visi

faculty have a highest degree (usually a PhD) from UC campuses. UCLA is the big-gest single contributor (773), with its alumni accounting for nearly 8 percent of CSU fac-ulty. UCLA's dominance covers several fi elds: humanities and the arts, social science and psychology, education, and business. The closest competitor is UC Berkeley, with 626 alumni on CSU faculties. Looking at CSU .