The creative hands of Eliza Chan
Showing Laney some perspective
Angelica Carapia
Issue date: 9/4/08 Last update: 9/5/08 at 10:24 PM PST
Section: Features
On a sweltering Friday morning, Laney's new public information officer, Eliza Y. Chan, walked briskly to the corner of 10thSt. and Fallon Ave., with bright pink potpourri-scented Windex in hand. Under her arm was a green-and-white foam board map of the Laney campus. "It's a little funky," she said, "but it works."
"Most public information officers don't walk around campus cleaning graffiti and putting up maps," she said, "but it needs to be done, so I'm doing it." This hands-on (and rather unorthodox) method of getting things done isn't new to Chan, who inferred that her way of working has always been askew to what her colleagues were doing.
"I also have a habit of asking questions," she said. "Like, why do you do it this way? Why can't we do it that way?"
Since undertaking the position of public information officer at Laney in March, Chan has kept chiseling at the mold of the institutionalized way of going about a PIO's duties. Instead of just changing dates on all flyers and other media, she has been creating revamped versions of the informative, visual content dispersed around campus. By working on everything from the school's website to the aforementioned maps, Chan is hoping to make a Laney student's initial weeks into the semester as tractable as possible.
Still, says Chan, with all that her title requires her to produce, there are some obstacles to overcome. The hardest part of her job, she said, has been being able to fully grasp the idea of working with Laney's tight budget. Most recently, Chan has worked for IBM and Hitachi, both high-tech industries where the communications departments may often work with million-dollar budgets. But, she said, she has dealt with the situation through her new favorite word: repurposing. The limited resources have called for a single expenditure to serve many purposes, Chan said.
"I am always looking for creative ways to do things," she added. "And that presents a challenge [at Laney]. But every time there's a challenge, there's an opportunity."
"Most public information officers don't walk around campus cleaning graffiti and putting up maps," she said, "but it needs to be done, so I'm doing it." This hands-on (and rather unorthodox) method of getting things done isn't new to Chan, who inferred that her way of working has always been askew to what her colleagues were doing.
"I also have a habit of asking questions," she said. "Like, why do you do it this way? Why can't we do it that way?"
Since undertaking the position of public information officer at Laney in March, Chan has kept chiseling at the mold of the institutionalized way of going about a PIO's duties. Instead of just changing dates on all flyers and other media, she has been creating revamped versions of the informative, visual content dispersed around campus. By working on everything from the school's website to the aforementioned maps, Chan is hoping to make a Laney student's initial weeks into the semester as tractable as possible.
Still, says Chan, with all that her title requires her to produce, there are some obstacles to overcome. The hardest part of her job, she said, has been being able to fully grasp the idea of working with Laney's tight budget. Most recently, Chan has worked for IBM and Hitachi, both high-tech industries where the communications departments may often work with million-dollar budgets. But, she said, she has dealt with the situation through her new favorite word: repurposing. The limited resources have called for a single expenditure to serve many purposes, Chan said.
"I am always looking for creative ways to do things," she added. "And that presents a challenge [at Laney]. But every time there's a challenge, there's an opportunity."
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