Exhibiting Anteater Spirit

How Primary Sources Showcase Worldbuilding

Anteater Spirit exhibition display in Langston Library, UCI. University in Flux (1965 - 1980), Early Student Organizing, Expanding Identity, and Student-Led Protests and Strikes in the 1990s. The remaining sections are Ring Road (1967 - Present), Establishing Wellness Centers, with Wayzgoose and Student Identities Today (2010 - Present)

With colorful posters, pamphlets, buttons and stickers displayed directly in front of the Langston Library entrance, the Anteater Spirit exhibition immediately captures a library goer's eye, and aims to show a history as diverse and vivid as the media displayed. The material featured on this wall concerns stirring accounts of student activism, grouped in four categories: "A University in Flux (1965 - 1980)", "Early Student Organizing", "Expanding Identity", and "Student-Led Protests and Strikes in the 1990s". This foregrounding of student activism, such as anti-war protests, hunger strikes, and advocation for African- and Asian-American educational courses, proudly supports the efforts of past students and the changes that have been made. While it's great to celebrate the progress made by students, it did surprise me that so much ephemera protesting the practices of the university was saved by UCI.

The curators of the exhibition as UCI digital archivists, librarians, and library assistants likely intended to present UCI in a favorable light, but they didn't always shy away from student criticism. For example, inside the "Wayzgoose" case in front part of the exhibit is an article entitled Celebrate UCI Fails to Showcase Unique Campus Culture, a disapproving review of UCI culture's portrayal without Wayzgoose. These showings offer a subtle impression that UCI is all right with acknowledging criticism against it. Seeing as everything in the exhibition was chosen and placed with purpose, its clear that by including critique against the university, the exhibition is intended to seem nonbiased and progressive.

The remaining four sections of the exhibition, presented on pedestals in the center of the space, are Ring Road (1967 - Present), Establishing Wellness Centers, with Wayzgoose and Student Identities Today (2010 - Present). At the very front is a glass case on Wayzgoose, UCI’s old renaissance fair. As a student who never experienced this and doesn’t have much significance tied to this tradition, it didn’t feel like the best category to be displayed at the forefront of the exhibition. Instead, the pedestal behind Wayzgoose, Student Identities Today (2010 - Present) felt like a much more relevant topic to have in the spotlight. Perhaps this is a move to cater to alumni, because at this point none of the current students of UCI would have experienced a Wayzgoose fair. This exhibition is focused on the history of UCI, so by placing emphasis on the fair, it could be trying to kindle nostalgia for older viewers.

All photos taken on site of Langston Library and Anteater Spirit exhibition.

Ring Road

Depicts instances of physical worldbuilding in UCI's remarkable and useful circular campus design. Offers old photos of campus maps and architecture, and descriptions of how students have campaigned for and created physical and environmental changes.

Establishing Wellness Centers

Worldbuilding in creating food insecurity and mental health services, and in establishing values of equity and support for students. This section shows both worldbuilding in both material and ideal terms.

Wayzgoose

An ode to a once iconic campus tradition that both caters to nostalgia, and tries to acknowledge the problematic Eurocentric ideals behind the fair. At the very front of the exhibition, this category seems to have been given a special spot of honor.

Student Identities Today

Exhibition section with the most recent media that discusses ideological protests such as Black Wednesday, further Black Lives Matter activism, and the Irvine 11 that used "civil disobedience." Further covers how students' right to protest and engage in activism has been defended.

A University in Flux

Characterizes UCI students as politically active from the beginning, working in solidarity with students from other UCs. Covers most early history of UCI and context of world events. Also a strange juxtaposition of mascot history and striking history.

Early Student Organizing

Most visually interesting section of the display, filled with hand-illustrated posters and colorful pamphlets. Primarily details Black and Indigenous student organizations, and recognizes changes in how organizations and students have decided to name themselves.

Expanding Identity

Continues to explore Latine, female, and LGBTQ+ identities, but also places emphasis in the physical resource centers provided for different groups. Once again a combination of idealistic and physical worldbuilding.

Student-Led Protests and Strikes

First section to include Asian American student activism. Unlike past two sections focusing on organizations or physical spaces, this category emphasizes student actions and protests, such as hunger strikes and protests for Asian American studies.

I was surprised by some of the media available at the exhibition. While photos of old protests and strikes were expected, I didn’t anticipate columns of relatively new UCI News articles, stickers from old campaigns and of Petr, and flyers for events like the Chinese Association’s night market that happened over ten, sometimes even fifty, years ago. Additionally, I liked that the exhibition included QR codes to welcome videos and documentaries; because of this, I’d say that the exhibition managed to incorporate both modern and old ephemera quite well.

However, there was one type of ephemera that interested me, and I'm sure many other students, above the other displays: the Petr stickers. As an avid collector, it felt good to have a part of my UCI experience officially recognized by the university, no matter how ridiculous a tradition it is. On a more serious train of thought, I though the stickers' placement in the exhibition was strange. I understand that as a part of UCI's identity and mascot, the Petr stickers would be placed in "A University in Flux", but its still odd, and kind of flippant, that they are displayed so close to more serious ephemera for Vietnam War protests, the arrest of the UCI 11, and various student strikes.

What I will say is that it certainly draws younger students into the exhibition. As I mentioned in concern to Wayzgoose, nearly all of the material in Anteater Spirit is older than the students that attend UCI now, and might be meant for an older audience with more nostalgia for the university in the past couple of decades. A homage to the relatively recent Petr tradition is a fun aspect of the exhibition that appeals to the young adult audience.

Display of student made Petr the Anteatr stickers. Photo taken on site of Anteater Spirit.

Free German Youth movement, a communist organization connected to East German ruling party. Credits: Prof. Robertsons'sTania: From Havana, With Love lecture.

Display of Shantytown Protests in 1990. Photo taken on site of Anteater Spirit.

If we recall Prof. Robertson's lectures about communism and activist history, it is interesting to note that the activism seen in both UCI and mid-century communism and is meant to be engaged and lead by young adults. Prof. Robertson especially emphasized this in the youth labor brigades in Cuba and the Cuba Revolution, and the role of young Red Guards in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Of course, student activism in Irvine was not as large, and certainly not as violent, as these examples, but collectively they all show the collective energy and idealism of young people. Further, the activism of both UCI and communism had focuses on ethnic and gender diversity, (granted this is only if you don't include UCI's pro-LGBTQ+ activism versus communism's generally homophobic regimes). Even the push to add more racial history courses is comparable to the equal opportunity national education intended by communist regimes.

Yet, I want to consider the temporality of UCI's activism and communism's. Change affected at UCI is contained within the campus, because as we discussed last semester in Where is Worldbuilding Possible? UCI is a separate environment from the outside world, built with a different intention than say UTC or a business center. University activism can be across UC campuses, as seen with the Solidarity Strike with Berkeley in 1969, and many times it can change the world off-campus, but it can't be denied that UCI and the Irvine community are the ones primarily affected by activism at this university. Communism, with its international network of politicians and youth activists, not to mention its lengthier history, is clearly a much larger worldbuilding project. Because most students at UCI will leave the university within four to five years, whatever change they bring isn't quite long-lasting for themselves; progress is made not just for current students, but for future UCI undergrads and grads. Many organizations on campus have had to be open and flexible t change, because it is such a constant with a revolving community. Communism, being considered "real life", has a much longer impact on one's life, but the way it became a young-adults centered movement over time as young people decided to renew and radicalize old European communist ideals mirrors the flux of ideals that youth-powered activism faces everywhere, including UCI.

Works Cited:

“Exhibit: Anteater Spirit: Student Activism That (Re)Shaped UCI, 1965 to Now.” UCI Libraries Mobile Site, Nov. 2022, https://www.lib.uci.edu/exhibits/anteater-spirit#:~:text=1965%20to%20Now-,Anteater%20Spirit%3A%20Student%20Activism%20That%20(Re)shaped%20UCI%2C,spaces%2C%20curriculum%2C%20and%20culture.

Robertson, James. “Tania: From Havana, With Love.” Humanities Core Lecture, 13 February 2023, University of California, Irvine. Lecture.

Robertson, James. “Zhou Enlai: Afro-Asian Friendship” Humanities Core Lecture, 15 February 2023, University of California, Irvine. Lecture.

All photos taken on site of exhibition by Brianna Smith.

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