2008 Woodie Awards
Brevard Era Ends
Outgoing ASU President hopes to continue activism in film world.
Michael Ordoña
Issue date: 5/26/04 Section: News
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Outgoing ASU President James Brevard is on his way to UCLA after being accepted to the prestigious School of Film and Television. That's not all he hopes to transfer: he intends to infuse his film work with the commitment to "being an agent for social change" that he developed at Valley College.
"I wanted to test myself as a leader. Coming in as president, I was concerned with the low transfer rate of black students, somewhere about 4 percent," Brevard said.
Sadly, those numbers have not significantly changed. But during his three years at Valley, Brevard demonstrated his commitment to social activism by serving not only as president but also as Commissioner of Fine Arts and as a peer mentor, as well as being active in the Black Student Union.
Brevard looks back ruefully at some goals left unfulfilled, such as dramatically increasing the commissioners' number of legislative visits to discuss student issues with senators and other government officials. And communication with the student body, it seems, is a problem that every ASU administration faces.
"There are still people walking around not even aware of the ASU," he said. "And those are the same people who don't know that there are $80,000 in scholarships available."
He also regrets missing an opportunity to empower students for the recent statewide election.
"We dropped the ball on the March 2 election by not having a town hall meeting to inform students on the issues," he said. "Our role is not only to inform students but to take their issues back [to the government]. Some propositions affected the students directly [but most didn't realize it]. ... Some students didn't even know there were elections being held."
He did feel there were accomplishments to be proud of during his administration, such as the work of the "Fab Four" - he, Eric Iniguez, Igor Kagan and Lalo Vasquez - on the Work and Space, Cafeteria and other committees.
"Disabled students approached me regarding cafeteria hours," Brevard said. "'There's nowhere for us to go once those doors are closed.' Not only were we able to get the hours extended, but they changed the menu and dropped prices by 20 percent."
He pointed to the combination of mentoring and serving in student government as permanently changing his priorities. He now frequently repeats the Brechtian mantra, "Become an agent of social change."
 Media Credit: Tammy Abbott Brevard moves on to bigger things. |
"I wanted to test myself as a leader. Coming in as president, I was concerned with the low transfer rate of black students, somewhere about 4 percent," Brevard said.
Sadly, those numbers have not significantly changed. But during his three years at Valley, Brevard demonstrated his commitment to social activism by serving not only as president but also as Commissioner of Fine Arts and as a peer mentor, as well as being active in the Black Student Union.
Brevard looks back ruefully at some goals left unfulfilled, such as dramatically increasing the commissioners' number of legislative visits to discuss student issues with senators and other government officials. And communication with the student body, it seems, is a problem that every ASU administration faces.
"There are still people walking around not even aware of the ASU," he said. "And those are the same people who don't know that there are $80,000 in scholarships available."
He also regrets missing an opportunity to empower students for the recent statewide election.
"We dropped the ball on the March 2 election by not having a town hall meeting to inform students on the issues," he said. "Our role is not only to inform students but to take their issues back [to the government]. Some propositions affected the students directly [but most didn't realize it]. ... Some students didn't even know there were elections being held."
He did feel there were accomplishments to be proud of during his administration, such as the work of the "Fab Four" - he, Eric Iniguez, Igor Kagan and Lalo Vasquez - on the Work and Space, Cafeteria and other committees.
"Disabled students approached me regarding cafeteria hours," Brevard said. "'There's nowhere for us to go once those doors are closed.' Not only were we able to get the hours extended, but they changed the menu and dropped prices by 20 percent."
He pointed to the combination of mentoring and serving in student government as permanently changing his priorities. He now frequently repeats the Brechtian mantra, "Become an agent of social change."
