a 0 S 0 8B TheStatement Wednesday, December PERSONALSTATEMENT that world as a set of aesthetic choices. now? Why did they leave these posses- Interviews became a mental exercise sions?Whydoes arotting trophy main- in monitoring various technological tain its glow? How long does it take for devices. Every room turned into a scav- a ceiling fan to wilt? enge for the mostpragmatic and pleas- No longer was I able to hide behind W EH W A RD H RO U G H A Aing light, every rotting house a series my craft. For the first time I gazed at of textures for my miod to manipulate the glowing screen and experienced BY SAM WOLSON and my camera to mimic. the humanity of the images. I experienced every person mediat- Back to school. Books, coffee, ed through an electronic screen. They familiar faces, football, binge drink- were not real. Their stories of Katrina ing, routine. My first week back I was T hings only became real in the the French Quarter, a block from the for Make It Right, an organization were only levels to be adjusted for opti- removed, estranged, trying to align my Lower 9th Ward after we left. infamous Bourbon Street. The apart- that is building affordable, safe, green mal sound quality. Their tears of past summer experiences with a place that Last summerI worked in New ment was lush and intimate, with homes for residents of the Lower 9th horrors were only pixels resembling had previously been second nature. . Orleans with a small group of students strategically placed candles dotting Ward. The ambitious project compris- the qualities of water. As the weeks passed this fire to from various universities through the the apartment, lit as if only to show es just a few blocks of the Lower 9th; The camera became a defense consolidate my past present and non-profit organization Students of the their authenticity. There were two the rest is still vacant lots, abandoned against the very reality that I was hop- future lulled into a flickering ember. World. We were tasked with creating a bathrooms and a metal-framed bal- ing to capture. The routine of school, the familiar video that focused on the rehabilita- cony, complete with wicker chairs thatri When we got faces, the same old same old clouded tion work being done in the city, spe- looked out onto the constant zoo that is They were not real. Their stories of back to Austin my desire to incorporate that foreign cifically in the Lower 9th Ward where Bourbon Street. -lwe had gath- land into my everyday, butI still main- the devastation was the greatest. When we made our way to the Katrina were only leveIs to be adjusted ered more than tained one thing that time can never The summer started in Austin, Lower 9th for the first time - leav- for optimal sound quality.' 40 hours of raw change. Texas for training and orientation. We ing the tourist utopia of the French material. In in the same way that a family album whuld sit around in Dr. Strangelove- Quarter - the scenery changed like order to whittle enables us to embalm time through the esque conference rooms, the eight of the way a dream can quickly shift from homes or the occasional family hold- this down into a five-minute video, we photograph, no matter what routine us, listening to descriptions of what one environment to another without ing their ground. MIR homes are dras- had to upload and watch every tape. formulates my everyday privileged sounded like a foreign country. "These warning. The Mardi Gras beads and tically modern, outshining the barren Removed from their native environ- existence, my images will forever people are different," we were told. Art Deco banisters gave way to fenced remainders of a past life. ment, the images changed. I no longer remind me ofthe voyeuristic resilience "They will have a strange dialect. They in convenience stores and abandoned As I filmed the images of destruc- viewed the screen in order to maintain and horror that I witnessed in the eat different foods. They come from churches. Like walking into a war zone tion, reconstruction, resilience and a visual standard. For the first time I Lower 9th Ward. different economic backgrounds." fewthings still stood their ground, and hope, the world of the 9th Ward was became an observer. We drove 500 miles to what would those that did looked ready to give-up. no more real to me than its images dis- The gravity of the images set in. - Sam Wolson is the Daily's leour home for the next month in We were to make a 5-minute video played on my LCD screen. I viewed Whose house was this? Where are they co-managing photo editor. ARMSTRONG From Page 5B what," Armstrong said. As Armstrong tried to remain unaf- fected by the attacks, he said he was humbled by the student body's out- rage. Many students and organizations on campus took it upon themselves to rally for Armstrong and cry out against Shirvell. #Seeing campus rally around bully- ing and LGBT issues the way that they did in reaction to the situation really showed how strongthis campus is and showed how strong our values are," Armstrong said. Armstrong acknowledges that he was simply the focal point of a much larger issue. He says he found the cgopus's attitude regarding bullying toward the LGBT community a testa- ment to the University's commitment to diversity and acceptance. "In a lot of ways, despite some of the issues that became national, I think for this campus, the pros have outweighed the cons," Armstrong said. While the Shirvell incident raised awareness for LGBT issues on campus, Armstrong said he doesn't want that to be the only aspects of campus his administration improves. "I wouldn't say promoting LGBT issues is my main goal. That's my back- ground," Armstrong said. Armstrong said that his favorite part of the job is not furthering his own issues, but rather being able to help all types of groups on campus fur- ther their owngoals. "This University is so much bigger than you and the community you asso- ciate with. There's a Michigan nation and there are so many different sects and parts of that," Armstrong said. "Really the big challenge I've faced, and really enjoyed, is being able to be that face for as many of those issues as possible." Harper said Armstrong has inten- tions of making sure his sexual ori- entation doesn't define himself, his agenda or his leadership. "He could lead in such a way that one would think the only thing that matters are those things related to LGBT students but that has not been his leadership at all," Harper said. In fact, Armstrong said he hopes he is not just remembered for his work on LGBT issues. Armstrong laughed as he said the most impressive accomplish- ment that came to mind was the prog- ress his administration made with the MSA website. Last March, MSA was heavily criticized for spending more than $9,000 on a website that didn't function properly. "The fact that we were able to revise the website after the whole debacle was such a.motivating experience," Armstrong said. Armstrong has implemented a lot of changes during his 3-and-a-half years on campus - many of which have been overshadowed by the Shirvell incident. In January 2009, Armstrong was integral in creating a task force that oversees organizations on campus and offers recommendations on how they can improve. In February 2010, Armstrong was also the driving force on the assem- bly behind getting the University an offer to host the 2011 Midwest Bisex- ual Lesbian Gay Transgender and Ally College Conference, that it had been denied the previous year. In October 2009, Armstrong helped plan a large event on the Diag to kick off National Coming Out Week. The event had a makeshift closet on the steps of Hatcher Graduate Library and people that attended the event were able to come out of the closet - liter- ally and figuratively - and speak about their personal experiences. This past March, Armstrong helped push through a resolution supporting Saturday night dinner in the dining halls on campus. He also helped to plan a trial run in three dining halls to demonstrate its effectiveness and spread awareness about the proposal. But Armstrong and his staff's big- gest project to date has been working to get University Housing to adopt a gender-neutral housing option for students. The proposal, which was re- named the Open Housing Initiative, has made progress in recent months. The resolution was passed by MSA in December 2009. The Residence Hall Association passed a resolution in sup- port of the option in April 2010. "I'd say we're right on our timeline. We set up goals that we would com- plete the proposal by a certain dead- line and we met that deadline and now it's being considered by administra- tors," Serwer said. Last week, the Open HousingInitia- tive submitted a proposal to severalrel- evant administrators to be reviewed. According to Serwer's understand- ing, there are many administrators, in addition to housing officials, who have jurisdiction on the issue. The Open Housing Initiative won't know any more details until they sit down with these representatives next week. "The Open Housing Initiative and administrators have told us that stu- dents have done everything that pos- sibly could have been done to show that there's support behind this issue and logically argue for the implemen- tation of open housing," Serwer said. "The responsibility fully lies within the administration to implement this policy." " So while it remains unclear if the option will be ready to implement this coming fall, Armstrong is working dil- igently to ensure it is put into effect as soon as possible. "I have been devoting a lot of my time to open housing and it's certainly been a struggle. And I want people to recognize that that issue made a lot of strides this year and emerged from some small conversations with hous- ing to a large campus debate," Arm- strong said. And Armstrong is working hard to ensure that these debates are not over- shadowed by the Shirvell incident. Armstrong said that he hopes to take what he has learned from the incident and apply it to his life and the assem- bly. "It's certainly unfortunate that (the Shirvell incident) is the onlythingthat will be highlighted in some people's eyes," Armstrong said. "But I also think even though it was an unfortu- nate situation, I don't think the out- comes were unfortunate."