SCA terminates Internship Coordinator position

The first time Heidi Atlas heard the news about School of Cinematic Arts Internship Coordinator Joe Brukner’s termination was from her mother.

Atlas, a sophomore majoring in cinema and media studies, received a low-resolution screenshot of an unofficial SCA Facebook group post, which read, “My daughter … has learned that they are losing the SCA internship coordinator for next year because the position is being eliminated and the coordinator terminated as a result … Has anyone else heard about this?”

The Internship Program office — a subset of SCA’s Industry Relations run by Brukner and two student workers — offers an online database of available internships, known as the SCA Job Board, as well as one-on-one advising appointments, workshops and career events. Brukner’s contract expired Thursday and was not renewed.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, SCA said Brukner’s position was a “one-year fixed position that was set to conclude on March 31, 2022,” and that the school “will continue to provide students with information about internship opportunities through the SCA’s Office of Industry Relations.” 

Cami Smith-Dahl, one of the Internship Program’s student workers, said Brukner was a “great benefit to the program.”

“[Before Brukner, SCA students] would get emails every two weeks …and every email would have 10 to 20 internships,” said Smith-Dahl, a sophomore majoring in film and television production. 

When Brukner joined, Smith-Dahl said he expanded the Job Board — created by the previous internship coordinator, Caroline Fraissinet — to be over 167 pages long.

Smith-Dahl said that as of last Monday — three days before Brukner’s termination — she had not received official communication as to how Brukner’s responsibilities would be delegated following his leave. According to an SCA statement released to the Daily Trojan Monday, students received communication on Friday about “servicing of internship opportunities moving forward.” Lisa Fox, Director of First Jobs at SCA, would “be overseeing and advising on internship opportunities.”

“He’s assured me that I will [still be working there],” she said. “But a lot of the details are still very unknown. Even [on Monday], I was talking to him during my shift about who’s going to be checking the email … for when students have questions and when companies need to communicate with us about postings, and he was like, ‘Yeah, we still don’t know who’s going to do that.’”

Atlas said she believes Brukner’s termination was part of a larger culture of elitism and marginalization at SCA.

“This change will disproportionately affect people who happen to be low-income [or] people of color,” Atlas said. “Despite all this talk about inclusivity and diversity, [SCA doesn’t] really practice what they preach … SCA doesn’t give a fuck about us. So we’re not going to just sit here and take it quietly.”

Atlas reached out to Gabriella Diaz, an SCA Undergraduate Production Council representative, asking if Diaz could “do anything about this.” Diaz said she reached out to schedule meetings with some of the production chairs at SCA, which were postponed due to scheduling conflicts. Unable to speak with administration, Diaz — along with Atlas and Smith-Dahl — started a Change.org petition to reinstate Brukner. 

“We feel like we have no power over our education at this point,” Diaz said. “We can’t talk to anyone … without making a big stink about it.”

Within the first 24 hours of its release, the petition garnered more than 400 signatures. At the time of publication, 675 people have now signed.

“It’s also just interesting that the three of us were all women of color,” Atlas said. “We’re the ones who had to carry this burden of trying to save a resource that is for people like us.”

Diaz said that without Brukner, attending SCA would “be a waste of time.”

“He’s the only one in SCA that I can say that has the most communication with students,” she said. “Just the way that he’s able to respond so quickly, and set up so many things to help us out, is instrumental in helping people like me who have no connections.” 

Diaz forwarded the petition to SCA Dean Elizabeth Daley, writing that Brukner’s termination would disproportionately affect minority students, and that it was “unprofessional and insulting” to remove Brukner on such short notice. A response on behalf of Daley arrived Wednesday, inviting her to a closed-door discussion about the internship coordinator that will take place Monday.

Diaz said she hopes for “a rehire or a reconsideration of reinstating the Internship Coordinator position.”

“Ideally, we get [Brukner] back, because we all love [Brukner],” Diaz said. “But, realistically, based on the short timeline that they’ve hidden behind closed doors, those are the best things we can hope for.”

Brukner declined to comment regarding his termination.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Joe Brunker, created the original internship document. The previous internship coordinator, Caroline Fraissinet, created the document. The Daily Trojan regrets this error. 

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 9:51 p.m. on April 5 to include a statement from the School of Cinematic Arts.