Staff of the Issue
Amalia Mesa-Bains
Elaine Schumacher, Staff Reporter
eschumacher@csumb.edu
Amalia Mesa-Bains retired in the fall semester of 2009 as the Director of the Department of Visual and Public Art (VPA) at CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB), but she will be remembered as one of the pioneer faculty staff members who helped pattern the interdisciplinary approaches to learning where all learn, teach and respect each other.
One of the things Mesa-Bains taught her students was to get in touch with their own histories. One of these traditions is the construction of altars, or ofrendas, which are dedicated to friends and family members who are being remembered.
“If an altar was constructed to reflect my time at CSUMB, it would have the symbols of the “vision statement,” which means a great deal to me, it would also have the symbols of social justice, service to the community, an image of diversity, interdisciplinary learning and activism,” said Mesa-Bains.
She began teaching at CSUMB in 1996, when the classrooms were in the barracks and the few art tools they had, over-powered the fuses.
As one of the early staff members, Mesa-Bains misses the passion of the early days at CSUMB, when the students were experimenting with a new form of service learning where the curriculum of CSUMB is student and society centered to meet the needs of the regional needs of this area.
Even though she does not have to be at work at a specific time, do not expect her to put out the “gone fishing” sign. She just returned from Baltimore, where she attended the National Arts Education Association and she is active with the Los Angeles Museum of Art where she displays her art work. Retirement does not mean she will not stop working, but she will have the time to write and continue grant work for the (VPA) Department at CSUMB.
“I am honored to have been able to work at CSUMB toward the common goal of the Vision statement. These 15 years have been some of the most productive and creative of my life. Working with colleagues who are leaders in their field to build programs that reflected the best new ideas for education in the 21st Century has been a joy. To have the opportunity to teach students committed to a vision of social justice, creative arts, interdisciplinary learning and multicultural and ethical communities has given me a sense of pride in our campus. Yet, as I retire I feel it important to also share my concern for the future of our university. Despite its utopian vision I think we all believe that the nature of this just and balanced society is still a realistic goal worth pursuing and demands a visionary education. We are in the midst of major changes in our curricular model of general education and I hope that whatever changes occur that we protect the vision as a guide for our decisions and our future. This time of economic crisis, immigration turmoil, global shifts, environmental risk, community struggle and educational need requires a new generation of students prepared with skills in ethics, social justice, creative arts, environmental responsibility, global languages and the lived experience of cross-cultural understanding. Our commitments to service learning, interdisciplinary learning, community partnerships and competencies in business, science, social sciences and humanities lead the way toward the CSUMB vision. I believe that we need to direct even more of our curriculum energies to uphold the original vision through our classes, our community based projects and our interdisciplinary teaching. We imagined a future in the early planning of CSUMB that has now come true, but with even more complexities than we could have expected. I look forward to knowing that CSUMB will continue to meet this challenge and I am happy to have made some small contribution toward that future,” said Mesa Bains.
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