Oral History Program Krystal Orantes Interviewed by Marina Kenner 27 January 2025 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Krystal Orantes Interviewed by Marina Kenner 27 January 2025 Copyright © 2025 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description Connecting Weber: History of the Cultural Centers oral history project documents the memories and history of the various cultural centers that were open at Weber State University. These centers included the Multicultural Center (later called the Center for Belonging & Cultural Engagement), Women's Center, Native American Cultural Center, Asian American and Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Pan-Asian Cultural Center, Black Cultural Center, and the LGBTQ Resource Center. The centers were closed in July 2024 due to state legislation. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Orantes, Krystal, an oral history by Marina Kenner, 27 January 2025, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections and University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The Following is an oral history interview with Krystal Orantes, conducted on January 27, 2025 in the Stewart Library with Marina Kenner. Krystal talks about her experiences being an international student at Weber State University and her involvement with the student Senate. She also shares her memories of the cultural centers and their importance to the Weber State community. Also present is Kendall Hallberg. MK: Today is January 27, 2025. We are in the oral history conference room at Weber State University. This is Marina Kenner doing the interview. Kendall Hallberg is on video tech. How do you say your last name? KO: Yeah, it’s Orantes [Or-an-tiz]. MK: Orantes [Or-an-tiz]? And Krystal Orantes— KO: Yeah. You can say Serano; I have two. Whichever is easier. MK: Okay, perfect—is our interviewee. I'm gonna start with when and where were you born? KO: Yes, oh gosh, so I was born November 1, 1997. I was born in Vancouver, Canada. I lived there my whole life, and up until recently, I moved to Utah. MK: Did you move to Utah for school? KO: Yeah, I did. MK: That's fun. What brought you to Weber State? KO: There's not a lot of forensic programs back where I'm at. The CSI program here at Weber has a lot of really good reviews. I mean, I am almost in my third year at this point, and I've loved it so far. 1 MK: Okay, that's cool. So, where in Vancouver did you grow up? Was it like Vancouver proper? KO: Yeah. Vancouver, Vancouver. MK: What was that like? KO: It's a big shift, I won't lie. A lot of my friends would consider me a city person. I didn't really understand that until I moved here, so I would consider Ogden a little small compared to where I'm from in Vancouver. Really diverse, late night food option. A lot of different aspects. I grew up in an area where it was like relatively poorer Vancouver up until I moved out of my mom's house. For my last year before I moved here, I lived in downtown, which was a beautiful experience. I lived in the LGBTQ area, which is a part of downtown. It was probably the best experience, frankly. Like, I never felt in danger going out at night. I'd always see the local drag queens going, you know, wishing me get home safe. A lot of the homeless population that lives there, I actually befriended quite a bit of them. I figured out if you interact with them a lot, a lot of them will actually like, take care of you. You know, if they see something sketchy, they’ll be like, “Hey,” they'll say something. So, like definitely a different experience from what most people would probably discover in downtown, but do I miss it? Oh yeah. MK: That's cool. That's really cool relationship with that community. KO: Oh, for sure. I truly loved it. Like, the area in downtown I lived was maybe two blocks from the sketchier area of downtown. So, like, that area was always lively no matter what day it was. 2 MK: That's cool. I'm glad you have great memories of that. Sorry, just trying to think of how I want to progress this. You came to Weber State because of the forensic science program. What was your first year at Weber State like? KO: Okay, that was, I won't lie, a little rough. I was the only international student from Canada, so I didn't really make friends at Weber until quite recently. My first semester was pretty lonely, I won't lie. Kind of just, you know, come to campus, go to my classes and kind of go home. My first year was a little bit more tame compared to what I'm doing right now, I would say. Overall, really good experience. My first year was a lot of interactions with Professor Mitch, who's the CSI director, my program. Lovely teacher, made me realize why I loved CSI and why I was like, "This is what I want to do." MK: Okay, That's cool. KH: What year would've your first year been? Is it 2022? KO: Yes, spring 2022. MK: Were you in Canada during the pandemic? KO: Yes. MK: Okay, what was that like? KO: I know it was better than most of you guys had it here. I got it pretty lucky, I won't lie. I was let go from my job because of the pandemic. I worked at a tattoo parlor as the front desk, so obviously contact with people, we couldn't do that. If you were let go from your job for that reason, you got money, which was really nice. Quite a bit. The relief was really good for a lot of us. Obviously can't work, how will you pay rent? So, I got, like, about two to three grand for like four months. 3 It's actually how I met a lot of my online friends, which was really great. What are you going to do at home? Not much, so I kind of learned how to play on my PlayStation a little bit more, befriended a whole bunch of people. I've been friends with a lot of them for like, the pandemic ones, about five years, but some of my other ones about eight years. MK: What games where you playing? KO: Okay, don't judge me. I was playing Fortnite. MK: That's fair. It made a resurgence. KO: Okay, I'm playing that right now. I think it's great. I don't know if you know who Hatsune Miku is? She's a legend, I won't will lie. I bought her skin, so I had to replay her. KH: Incredible. KO: Yes, right? Iconic. KH: I don't game and I'm not really into her like… KO: But you know the queen. KH: But I know her. KO: Yeah, you know. KH: Because she is... KO: Icon. KH: She just is whatever you want her to be. KO: Yep, I love her. I was playing a game called Wildlands. It's like an open world game. Rainbow Six Siege, which is—a lot of my guinea pigs are actually named after those characters. Then I was playing Dead by Daylight a lot. Yeah, so not a 4 lot to do. Maybe go on walks some days during the pandemic. A lot of reading, really. I had a lot of downtime, which was really nice. MK: Yeah, that was 2020. KO: I know, right? KH: But I just wondered about when you came here, 'cause like, 2022 things were still only warming back up, so having a very isolating experience isn't necessarily super surprising to me, but yeah, it’s unfortunate. KO: Yeah. I would say, 'cause my boyfriend lived here; we're still together. His experience was so different compared to mine. At the time, he went to Utah Tech, and a lot of that area was like open way before a lot of stuff in Canada was open. I think when you guys were having more like in-person interactions at like the grocery stores, in my area of Vancouver, the way you would go buy your groceries would be like you either did a mobile order or you waited outside in a line, and like maybe five people at a time were allowed to go grocery shopping. Keep everybody safe. I would say you guys were moving a little bit more faster than we kind of did in Canada. MK: What shifted that perspective of, you said you're doing a lot right now versus your first year. What kind of did that look like? KO: Actually, so this kind of goes back to, I'm not sure if you've ever met him, Professor Brent Warnock, communications teacher. Vividly remember him. Lovely professor. My first day in my first semester, I had communications, and I'm a pretty anxious person. Very timid, I would say, and we had to do like, a group project together. I noticed my group wasn't really interacting, so I was like, "Hey 5 guys, I'll take charge." I was like, “What's this?” Then I would try and like, interact. I'd be like, "What do you think? What do you think?" Just kind of have like the ball rolling, have us interact. He pulled me aside after class. He was like, "Hey, can I talk to you?" I'm like, "Dang, my first day here and what am I doing?" He told me that he sees me as a leader, which was at the time I was like, “No?” I was like, I'm not quite sure. But I actually had a meeting with him a couple of days ago because I was asking for a letter of recommendation. Within like that little transition of then until now, I wanted to get more involved with my community. I've been in HAC, the Hispanic Area Council. That's kind of how I wanted to involve myself more. I eventually ran for Senate, and then, I'm part of leadership for my disability club. So, quite a bit has changed from being like, I'm on campus just for my classes to being on campus for like my other activities. So, I would say a big change. MK: Yeah. Lorrie was saying that you are a current student senator? What's your position? KO: Yeah, I am currently called the senator of engagement, but I applied for the senator for students with disabilities. MK: Okay, and is this your first term serving? KO: This is technically my first year, but this is my second semester serving it. MK: Okay, that makes sense with all that. Was it just that conversation with your professor that interested you in serving with the Senate, or how did you get involved? 6 KO: Yeah, I think I just wanted to interact with more people on campus. I didn't really know where to go, where I felt like I could belong, and I really wanted to advocate for people. As someone who takes disability accommodations, a lot of people don't really know how to like work how to get those accommodations. Some people might just give up, and I wanted to make it a more smoother process for them. I won't lie, I went from like a C-minus, C average student in high school, and coming to Weber I'm a 4.0 student now with my accommodations. I feel like those barriers shouldn't stop students from being able to succeed. MK: Okay. How did you get involved with the Disabilities Office on campus? KO: Yeah. I have borderline personality disorder, so it does interfere with my life often. I have agoraphobia, which is the fear of leaving my house. That had to do a lot with my first year, you know, transitioning from being around my family, being around my friends, to being like, just me on campus kind of thing. Sorry, could you say your question one more time? MK: I was just wondering how you got involved with the Disabilities Office? KO: Right. So, before I left, my psychiatrist was like, "Hey, I saw these. Let's get you rolling," 'cause they wanted me to succeed. So, we prepared all that I think two or three months before I left in December. Then I had everything involved. I got accommodations. My original advisor at the time was Sarah, and then, yeah, I've been getting accommodations basically every semester since. MK: We know a lot about the impact of the new senate bill on the cultural centers. KO: Right, HB261. MK: It's been a little vague with the Disability Center. What's been your experience? 7 KO: Yeah. So, I am the chair of my committee for senate students of engagement. A lot of people in my committee are now called senators of engagement, right? Because of the HB261. To keep those positions, we had to rename them to make sure, you know, people are still advocating for these students on campus, but just tweaking it a little bit. So, you know, those positions are still available. Like, at the time, my name technically wasn't allowed. My name wasn't allowed, the veteran senator wasn't allowed, Hispanic, North Pacific Islander, and all those groups basically had to tone down their names, which was very difficult, I would say. My committee, I had brought it up to them that I wanted to invite Jessica Oyler to kind of, you know, ask some of those difficult questions of why these changes were made, why the information that was being relayed wasn't as loud as some of the other information. It was, I would say, a very finicky thing to definitely navigate. Right? You're putting yourself out there. But I mean, as a Canadian, a lot of this just wouldn't fly in Canada. It was a definitely a very eye-opening experience for me to have, you know, these positions that help represent students and their communities and kind of have them be removed, to me was very shocking. I know in Canada we wouldn't do that. It was like I wanted to do my best to, you know, not just advocate for ourselves, but get some answers going around of what are the next steps to be taken. MK: Okay. I heard that your position and the veterans is going back to it's original? KO: Yeah. Maybe two or three weeks ago we joined a Zoom call and I was let know that my position’s coming back, and then the veterans is coming back and the 8 international students is coming back, which is awesome. I brought it up during that conversation with Jessica Oyler that, you know, disability and veterans are both ADA protected classes. When I read over the bill, there was nowhere on the bill that said we could not have these positions. We did a little bit back and forth between, you know, Jessica Oyler, legal, Tara, to kind of see how we can navigate it, and yeah, we got the awesome news that we could get those positions back, which is great. I love it. I find it a little bit difficult for sure to not have proper names for everybody. When you go on the WSUSA page, it just says about 12 positions of senators of engagement, and that's about it. You don't know who you can talk to, you don't know who represents who. I found that definitely hard to navigate through the semester. But I would say despite those challenges, I feel like my whole committee and every other senator of engagement truly put their heart out and did their best with what we were given, frankly. Yeah. MK: You were leading the students of engagement? KO: Yeah. I am the chair of my committee; Lawrence is my liaison. A good chunk of us in there were senators of engagement. Not all of them, but, before we presented the questions to Jessica Oyler, I sat down all of Senate, read them the questions we have, and got some feedback from some of the other senators, just because not a lot of them might not even know what was going on. I always want their input, you know, something that maybe I didn't think of that they might have greater ideas or greater questions than I did. I always appreciate their input to 9 like, you know, they might think of something better than I might not even thought of. That engagement with the senators has truly helped us all for that day. MK: [To Kendall] Do you have any questions you want to ask? Okay. How have you interacted with the cultural centers on campus? KO: Yeah, so I was part of HAC I would say my third semester here. I wanted to get more involved, you know, kind of get out of my shell a little bit. I was always in that area, you know, the new Student Success Center. It allowed me to begin to expand my circle of friends, which was really awesome. I was always specifically in the Hispanic area. In Canada, the part of Vancouver I lived in, there was not a lot of Latino people, and the ones who I did know were already related to me. It was a really beautiful experience to get involved with my community. It's something that I actually always thought about. Moving to the States is like my community is so much bigger here, which was really awesome. I participated with everything we could do, which was really awesome. My last semester I couldn't, just ‘cause I had to work during that time, but this semester I'm in the club again and really working through the challenges that we can with all the changes. But you know, having all of those changes and having some of these communities kind of like be taken away from us was definitely difficult for sure. MK: Okay. Is HAC a part of—was it a school-sponsored club, or is it kind of student led? 10 KO: It's student led, yeah. But we have our advisors from that office and everything. We weren't technically a club. That's how I was kind of told, that it wasn't a club, but it was a Hispanic Area Council. MK: That makes sense. There's so many different types of clubs. KO: I know, right? So, they didn't go under a club; they said they went under council. MK: Okay. That makes sense. How was the HAC, or how has your experience with it changed with the bill? KO: Yeah. I think funding was a big issue. Literally coming back into the semester, Hispanic Heritage Month was coming up, so the club did the best that they could, and frankly, they did an amazing job with all the events they did. I know for a lot of the clubs, a lot of the issues were funding, right? The funding for those things wasn't as big as it was previously before the bill. I would say HAC gave it their all, and truly they're are a group of people who are so passionate about our committee. I mean, all our clubs are very passionate about it, but like, I might be a little bit biased because I'm Spanish, but like, yeah, we have some fire in us when it comes to wanting to advocate for ourselves, for sure. MK: I would agree with that. What are some of your favorite memories with the cultural centers or with HAC? KO: Yes, just being able to interact with my community, really. Back home, my friends are predominantly Asian because Vancouver is very predominantly Asian. Being able to interact with people who have like more of my experience of, you know, what it's like to live in a Latino household, some of the rules that we had, was 11 something I've always wanted. It's different when you're talking with your cousins and your sisters, right? But being able to talk to other people who are, like, for example, I'm Salvadorian, my parents are from El Salvador. Being able to interact with like people who are from Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, those type of places. It's like, we're all from different places, but the experience is the same, you know? So, I loved it. Which is one thing I think about, ‘cause once I graduate, I probably will go back to Vancouver. I think that's something I will definitely miss for sure, having that community that supports us and, you know, understands the struggles that a lot of us face in the day-to-day life. KH: Do you think when you go back to Vancouver you'll do anything to create this kind of community there? KO: Oh, I would love to. My aunt currently does a shelter that helps provide for battered women in the community. A lot of those actually deal with Indigenous people, and that's something I've always been passionate about. The Indigenous relationship in Canada has always been a little bumpy over the years, right? That's something I knew that I wanted to be passionate about before. I knew I wanted to do something criminal justice. I wanted to be a voice for those who couldn't be a voice for themselves, which is why I kind of picked CSI. My mom thinks it's a little morbid, ‘cause she's like, "You're going to see dead people." I'm like, "Yeah, but I get to bring potential answers and closures to families.” You know, regardless if you're a good person or a bad person, I think 12 the greatest pain for anybody is not knowing what has happened to their loved ones. I think that's where I definitely want to start back home in that area, just 'cause, I'm not sure if you guys are aware, but the Indigenous women who go missing, a lot of those cases do not get as much coverage as they should. I would like to go back home and work for the Cold Case Foundation. I feel like no matter how much time has passed, someone needs to know what has happened or, you know, give some answers, potentially put something to rest for their family. The Indigenous community, especially the Hispanic community—if there's more, I would love to start, but unfortunately the area I live in, not a lot. I would have to go maybe like three cities out of Vancouver. Some of the Latino population live a little bit closer to the border in a place called Surrey in Vancouver, which is about a two-hour drive from me. MK: [To Kendall] Do you have any other questions? KH: No, I was just curious about that. It's interesting about the missing and murdered Indigenous women. I know that is something that's getting a lot more push more recently. KO: For sure, yeah. The indigenous community in Vancouver is very big, actually. There's a lot of resources for them. Whether they're good resources or bad resources is really up to you. Right? KH: Whether they're supported enough. 13 KO: Right, right, right. I think that something like, you know, the Highway of Tears goes by in Canada, right? That is, to me, like, horrible, you know, just to have your loved one snatched like that and what is called horribly, the Highway of Tears, you know, because of how long it's been going, how often it's happening and how often they're unanswered. MK: Back onto the cultural centers. Sorry, little bit of a shift. KO: You are good. MK: What are your feelings about the closing of cultural centers? KO: Okay. Definitely upsetting for sure. I for sure felt some type of way, having them closed in the summer when it was during a time where not a lot of people are on campus. Not a lot of people got to mourn as much as, you know, other students who were still. To be fair, we did have a funeral not that long ago that was held by students just recently, which was beautiful. You can tell that, you know, it is definitely left a big hole on campus. Losing that sense of community, like you still have each other, but to have a very structured place in the institution that you're going to matters quite a lot. Yeah, there are other services on campus, but having these specific cultural areas, not everyone will have the same experience. Having somebody that will kind of have an idea of what your experience is makes a lot. It really does matter. Not everybody will understand. Like my white friends when we were younger, they'd be like, "Just tell your mom that you're leaving." I'm like, "Who do you think my mom is? She told me to go home. I got to go home now." 14 They're like, "You're 20." “Not in her eyes. I got to be home right now.” Yeah, definitely taking those away and having the bigger part of the community kind of be taken away was definitely very real. Definitely very heartbreaking. MK: What was the funeral for? Was it for the cultural centers? What was that...? KO: Yes, it was interesting. I think it was last semester, just before the semester had ended. We had someone tell us about it on Senate, and a lot of us were like wanting to go, of course. They told us there was going to be a casket and I was like, I got to be there. It was definitely very beautiful. It just shows that, you know, considering from summer until around that November time, that pain hasn't gone away. I can tell that the students are doing the best with what we have, but the fight doesn't stop. I can tell that for sure. You know, Weber has international students that come here; that definitely hit them quite a bit. I am an international student, so, you know, for those of us who are coming here like myself, alone and not having these centers now, I can't imagine what that interaction is with those students now not having, you know, a place on campus that they can go to. Like, the Student Success Center exists, but it's definitely different compared to what they were before, in my opinion. MK: Yeah. Was there a casket? KO: I couldn't tell you. MK: That's fair. Unknown. How do you feel you are serving your community in your position on campus? 15 KO: Yes. My disability is not necessarily a physical one. I'm fully mentally disabled back in Canada. Being able to serve my community has been one of my best things I have done so far. Currently, we're trying to learn how to advocate on campus. My club is a little bit smaller compared to other clubs, and a lot of people are really passionate about it. I'm currently working this semester with Miriam. She is the disability awareness chair on the Advocacy and Unity Team. Currently this semester our big project is getting the school map reworked. There are a lot of places on campus that are not disabled friendly, or there are certain places on campus where students don't know that these are disability accessible. A lot of the people in my community are either wheelchair users or cane users, and, you know, having to navigate certain parts of campus is very difficult for them. I know that's something we want to work on. Last semester we did a disability survey that's still kind of in the works, but that was mainly last semester. This semester, my club is just focusing on advocating quite a bit. Then I'm on the other side, you know, doing some more reworking around the school. My advisor currently is actually Angela, who's the director of the Disability Office, so we'll be working alongside her, ‘cause she totally agrees. She's very open with wanting to help students succeed on campus, which is really awesome. I think with, you know, everything, my community is doing the best that they can with what little I would say we have, truly. MK: Okay. Why is community important? 16 KO: I love this. It's a sense of belonging and knowing that you're in an area where there are people who have gone through what you've gone through. Everybody's experience is different. But along the lines, you might find someone who's like, “Wow, our life. Are we the same person?” type of thing. Losing that can make it hard for other people to strive with the loneliness pandemic is what I would describe it as. Not having that sense of community truly hurts everybody. Not having an area of, you know, where can I start, is really impactful. It just shows how much community matters. It's not just like the, “Oh, we get to talk.” It's the bigger things. Like, we're in it together. Even though we don't have these centers, the communities there, they're fighting, they're advocating, and they're doing the best that they can with what we got. You love to see it. MK: I like to see the passion. KO: Oh, yeah. The passion, it's like, you know, we are what most will assume will be future leaders, right? So, seeing everybody be as passionate, it just shows me like the fight’s still going. We're not stopping. MK: [Talking to Kendall] Do you have anything you want to ask? [Recording stop] [Recording resumes] MK: What do you think we as individuals can do to foster relationships and meet the needs of the underserved communities of Weber? KO: I don't know if this is the right answer, but like, be loud is the best way I can describe it. Being silent and not doing anything will not change anything, won't reverse everything, you know as much as we want it to. Us continuously being 17 loud and being passionate and, you know, saying why these things were important to us will hopefully ignite others to be like, "Yeah, let me join this fight." You know, I feel like especially a lot of parents, like I work at the Admissions Office, you know, they talk to us and they're like, “Yeah, I like Weber because they talk about community,” and a lot of them don't really know what's going on within the university itself. Being able to connect with each other even if it's off campus, advocating outside of school is somewhere we can start. For example, the student who held the funeral, like, that is something they're doing on their own time. They're not being paid or sponsored to be doing this. This is just pure passion. Pure, you know, pure drive is what I would say. Us continuing to do that will hopefully rebuild the stepping stones that we had before. Yes, it might be small for now, but I truly believe that we'll get back to where we were, you know, whether it be a year from now, two years from now, the fight doesn't stop. I have noticed that the students at Weber State are very passionate. I've interacted with a lot of the staff that were in there, and these are people who are like, they’re passionate about what they do. They truly care about what's happening with their students. My advisor, Jessica Fisher, was, you know, very involved with the LGBTQ Center, and someone who myself is also part of that community, it's devastating, truly devastating. Like I mentioned, I grew up in Vancouver, right? Being able to live a year in the LGBTQ area, it's like it is devastating to see that taken away. The Women's Center. Gosh, I could never imagine something like that. 18 Yeah, we have Safe@Weber, which is really awesome, but having these individual centers was like a genuine experience, truly. I think for us to continue, you know, fostering community, we just got to keep pushing, truly. We got to be the voice and we got to be the change that we want to see. Nothing will be done if we don't start somewhere, you know? MK: Okay. [To Kendall] Do you have any other questions? I don't either. So, thank you so much for your time today. KO: Yeah. Thank you. 19