Associated Students Pardall Boards

In the wake of the violence, UCSB staff member Aaron Jones who was working for Associated Students at the time, came up with the idea of making large wooden A-frame boards with chalk paint so that students and community members could write messages in chalk on the boards. Aaron Jones reached out to the Home Depot in Goleta and the business agreed to donate all of the labor and supplies. They made 8 boards total. The front of the boards allowed for writing in chalk, and the back of the boards were made of cork board and students were able to write messages on quarter sheet pieces of paper and thumbtack them to the cork board. At first the boards were all general, but eventually a student grabbed a step ladder and decided to write the name of each victim on each board. The other two boards remained general, and focused more on those who were injured. The fact that she personalized the boards made it so that people began writing messages in memory of specific individuals on the front and the back of the boards. The boards had caster wheels which allowed them to be wheeled inside the AS Pardall Center in the evening to protect them from the ocean moisture overnight. Once they were filled in, the boards were preserved through the application of a lacquer that sealed in the messages. As deeply meaningful one-of-a-kind artifacts they have been carefully maintained and stored by Associated Students. For display in the exhibit we had professional movers transport them to our exhibit and mount them to the walls, and then store them again afterwards. We had photographs of the boards from 2014 displayed between each set of boards to tell the story of their creation.