UC class melds photography, protest

Think of it as a crash course in the culture of protest at UC Berkeley, or as an antidote to teenage apathy.

A new freshman seminar that combines photojournalism with political awareness was inspired by recent conflicts on campus over rising tuition and funding cuts. It is designed to teach students about the role of photography in political activism.

Tianyu Guan, an 18-year-old from China, said she was awestruck as she took photos of students rallying and staging a sit-in on Oct. 7 to protest fee hikes, staff layoffs and course cutbacks.

"There are no protests in China," she said. "So this is a new way for me to look at America."

The photography students prepared to shoot the October protest by studying the issues behind a series of steep jumps in tuition that have led to a year of student protests.

The class evolved from a straightforward photography class Professor Brian Barsky taught for seven years in the freshman seminar program. Last year, he noticed his class discussions were increasingly focused on the conflict around UC funding issues. So Barsky decided this year to formally turn his students' cameras and attention to the social upheaval taking place around them.

"It's unfortunate that some critics dismiss the protests as spoiled students complaining about higher fees when it is really much more profound than that," he said.

"The lack of financial support for public education is a reflection of our society and its values at large," said Barsky, who wrote a resolution before the Academic Senate last year to reduce campus funding of intercollegiate athletics. "The protests are not only about a crisis of funding, but also about a crisis of priorities."

If Barsky wants his students to understand current events as well as they do a camera's shutter speed, it seems to be working.

Nicholas Chang, 19, said he didn't know there would be a political element to the class when he signed up. In high school, he didn't pay attention to politics and avoided the news. But that changed when he got to Berkeley.

"The class has inspired me to be more informed, think more independently and not be afraid to ask questions," Chang said. Though his roommate had no interest in the recent election, Chang said he watched the debates, studied the issues and voted.

Berkeley is an appropriate campus to offer his Photographing History in the Making class because of its reputation for free speech and innovative thinking, Barsky said. The one-credit course is part of UC Berkeley's freshman seminar program, which offers small classes to explore a topic of mutual interest to the students and faculty member.

"If I were at a more conservative place, I don't know if this would fly," Barsky said.

Barsky, who has been a professor at UC Berkeley for three decades, said there has not been this level of social unrest on campus since the 1960s.

"This feels deeper and more widespread," he said.

Chang said there was no apparent dissent on campus when his sister attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate between 2005 and 2009, so he was surprised by the turbulence he encountered on campus this year.

"We might be getting more of Berkeley's legacy than the people who came before us," he said.

Because of the class, Guan said she finds herself caring more than her American friends about the issues confronting the university. Even though she can't vote in the United States, she said she is gaining political insight.

"As an international student, I enjoy this class especially because it offers me a chance to learn what democracy means to America," Guan said. "This seminar lets me know that to make one's voice heard is important."

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This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle