Illustration by Kiri Rasmussen.

After five months of digging through what would eventually become a 2.5-inch-thick binder full of ballot language, fee allocations, and budget policy, one thing becomes clear: getting hold of public records is one thing, but making sense of it all is a whole other story.

On Feb. 22, Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Alma Sifuentes addressed UCSC’s Student Union Assembly to inform students of several concerns that have been raised on campus-based fees collected from summer session students.

“In Student Affairs — during summer session, there has been referenda money that has been identified and withdrawn and then allocated into areas that perhaps may not have been appropriate,” Sifuentes said. “ … We are actually collecting money from a referendum that was not authorized to be collected in that particular quarter [summer session].”

Students vote on measures, or referenda, to create campus-based fees to support campus programs and services. Although the ballot language of each measure specifies which programs the fee will go to, the rate the fee will be assessed at and when it will be charged, it was not applied in determining the 2007-2009 campus fee level and the distribution of those funds.

Setting the Fee Level

At UCSC, measure ballot language began including a charge for summer session students in 2003.

According to a section from the UC Office of the President (UCOP) November 2000 University of California Fee Policies Related to Expanded Summer Instruction document, “Each campus should determine whether services not now provided are needed during the summer. … If additional services or programs are necessary, the campus should calculate an appropriate prorated fee level to be charged during the summer term.”

Each campus-based fee is set by the language of its measure. However, the UCOP policy grants each campus the authority to determine the amount that will be charged for each fee in the summer.

UCSC administrators did not take into account ballot language when determining the fee level for the summer campus fee.

Free Moini, principal budget analyst for the Planning and Budget office at UCSC, said in an e-mail to City on a Hill Press, the ballot language is “difficult to interpret.”

“In many cases since the old [referenda] make no reference to summer and back then whenever anyone talked about the academic year, the meaning was fall/winter/spring,” Moini said in the e-mail. “Even the newer referenda that do mention summer may have been developed at times before the campus figured out how summer would operate.”

Victor Sanchez, external vice chair of SUA, said the university has taken advantage of the policy to the effect of misleading students and inappropriately distributing funds.

“It is in direct contradiction to the intention of the initial referenda, and it goes to show how the vagueness of a policy can be manipulated, and how that opportunity can be used in a manner that is just not justifiable,” he said.

Lack of student consultation is also a point of contention for many student leaders. Robert Singelton, chief of staff to the SUA chair, said that students were not consulted in this process.

“That is the biggest problem,” Singleton said. “We have a student fee advisory committee (SFAC) for just this purpose — it’s not like there aren’t students who could have been consulted, [campus administration] just chose not to. Finding out the intent of the choice not to consult students is really what I’m interested in.”

While in previous years there was a summer fee to support OPERS, transportation, the libraries and computer labs, 2007 was the first year UCSC began assessing campus-based fees.

The amount of campus-based fees that will be charged to summer session students must be set and published on the summer session website before students begin enrolling. When the deadline came to set the fee level for 2007, there was no time to review and establish a process so it was set at an increased rate of $150.

“No decision had been made by the time the summer 2007 fee level needed to be published, so the vice provost [Ladusaw] who oversees summer session set the level at $150,” Sifuentes said.

In 2008 the campus adopted a new model for assessing fees. William Ladusaw, vice provost for undergraduate education, oversees summer session for the campus, and works with the Planning and Budget office to determine what the fee structure should be.

In an e-mail, Ladusaw explained that the new fee structure was designed to keep summer session more affordable by assessing a fee that is lower than other quarters while still being able to collect revenue for the campus.

The new process was to assess students the full transit fee in addition to half the cost of the other campus-based fee. From undergraduates in 2008 this brought in a total of $738,504. Of this total, $24,177 went to return-to-aid, a UCOP policy which requires at least 25 percent of all new fees or increases to existing fees after 2006 to go to need-based financial aid, as required by UCOP policy. The remaining $679,463 went to measure funding accounts.

Distribution of funds

Once the fees are all collected, the next step is to distribute the funds to the appropriate measures. According to Sifuentes, in 2007 the $150 campus fee was distributed with $82.50 to the transit fee, $30 for OPERS, and the rest split — minus return-to-aid — within Student Affairs between Student Organization Advising and Resources (SOAR) and Judicial Affairs.

In the Judicial Affairs budget for 2008 there is an entry, an adjustment in fiscal terms, for $13,353 from Measure 7 funds. Measure 7 is a $51 per quarter fee that supports a wide range of student programs and services within Student Affairs.

The ballot language of the fee states that “the funds generated by the fee will fall under the purview of the student fee advisory committee.” However, according to students on the SFAC, the committee was not consulted in the decision to allocate funds to Judicial Affairs. The unit had not previously received funding from any campus-based fee and had not been included in the ballot language of Measure 7.

The allocation of funds to Judicial Affairs is highly concerning to some SUA students.

“Frankly, I don’t know how that’s not illegal — Judicial Affairs just randomly got that money one year, basically at the expense of students not knowing what is going on,” Singelton said.

Victor Sanchez of SUA said that with steep budget cuts pulling funding away from student programs, it is important that all funds brought in by campus-based fees go where students have specified they go through voting on measures.

“It is not justifiable for us to see that money go to [Judicial Affairs]. We have resource centers being cut, our programs are being cut, outreach programs are being cut — there is a need for [campus-based fees] to go where they are intended to go,” Sanchez said.

In 2008, funds were distributed to non-Student Affairs units. According to documents released by information practices $304,274 went to transportation, $3,847 to renewable energy, $3,419 to theater arts, and $320 to the Seymour Marine Discovery Center.

The remaining funds, $367,603, were given to Student Affairs as a lump sum for distribution.

“When allocating the proceeds, Student Affairs has discretion (within some limitations) to direct more or less to individual fees [rather] than using the straight 50 percent formula. The 50 percent figure is just how we come up with the total amount students will pay,” Moini said in an e-mail.

The responsibility of distribution decisions fell to Sue Matthews, acting assistant vice chancellor of Student Affairs Business and Administration, and AVC Sifuentes, with final approval from Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Felicia McGinty.

“Whether you’re a student during the summer or the regular year, you’re a student,” Sanchez said. “For that money to be lumped into one pot and then distributed at the discretion of someone who is not a student is not the way we should be moving.”

This is complicated through the fact that some of the measures that received no funding had been voted upon by students to be paid for in the summer, while other measures that received funds were not.

“I think it is an irresponsible mismanagement of funds,” said SUA Chair Kalwis Lo. “Students decided how they want referendum money to be spent, and if it’s not spent the way students have intended for it to be spent then I think that it’s illegal. And it is something that I definitely do not support.”

Programs whose measures recieved summer funding were SUA, College Student Governments, Engaging Education, and the Campus Sustainability Program.

Measure 7, the student programs fee, received a higher allocation of funds than any of the other measures, collecting extra funding through the fact that some other measures received none of the collected funds. The student fee advisory committee was not consulted in the distribution of the $147,406 allocated to the measure.

At the discretion of Sifuentes, Matthews and McGinty, $11,735 went to SOAR, $73,264 to address deficits in the Student Affairs divisional collection center, and $62,406 to offset a deficit in the Student Affairs employee benefits pool. The collection center funds are used to support merit increases and other salary increases.

Amanda Buchanan, Oakes representative on the student fee advisory committee (SFAC) first heard about the summer fee process while attending the SUA meeting at which Sifuentes initially presented the issue. Buchanan was concerned that the SFAC had not been informed about these fee allocations.

She said the university is responsible for consulting students on financial decisions regarding student fees.

“It’s outrageous when huge decisions like this are made by administrators,” she said. “It baffles me that they think they are above the students.”

Sifuentes said continuity issues resulting from changes in staff, paired with a misunderstanding of the fees, led to the problems with collecting and allocating the fees.

“There was a lot of turnover in the division [Student Affairs], and I think that Planning and Budget saw the money as being green, not necessarily student money or other money, and people jumped on making decisions,” Sifuentes said.

In 2007-2008, at the height of a transitional period among staff that saw Elise Herrera-Mahoney replaced by Matthews, McGinty was commissioned to take over for interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Jean-Marie Scott.

Sifuentes has asked for SUA and SFAC students to begin working with Student Affairs to review issues regarding the summer campus fees.

Kalwis Lo of SUA said that in rectifying the budget problems, those units should receive funds that were instead distributed to other areas.

Many units did not receive summer funds. These included resource centers, Student Media, Learning Support Services and OPERS, which are supported by measures whose ballot language states that the fees will be assessed to summer students.

“I think the money these units have lost should be recovered somehow, and I would support giving them the full amount back,” Lo said. “Our campus did not have any intentions of this happening, but the fact is it happened, and we need to address it appropriately.”

Sanchez said that steps should also be taken on a systemwide level to eliminate vagueness in student fee policies that may lead to questionable fee allocations.

“Ultimately this is a new chapter in this struggle for accountability and transparency,” Sanchez said. “We can keep saying this, but something needs to be done.”

Photos by Rosario Serna.

In Ocean View Park on a Sunday afternoon, the high lilting tones of fiddle, banjo, guitar and singing voices can be heard floating on the breeze. Four circles of musicians face each other furiously plucking, strumming, and sawing the strings of their instruments. Some of the children playing in the park stop what they are doing and come to dance. It is a bluegrass and old-time jam session, and everyone who has a thing for folk music is welcome to join in.

Santa Cruz has a thriving bluegrass community made up of those who have assembled this Sunday. They are an eclectic and welcoming bunch, having come together simply through the love of playing with others. They talk about their favorite bands and songs, make good-natured banjo jokes, and adjust their circles to let others in and make sure no one gets a fiddle bow in the eye.

Jessica Evans, who helps organize the jam, is impatient to start playing. She suggests a song to a banjo player, who knows the tune but can’t remember exactly how to play it.

Evans smiles and says jokingly, “Suck it up, this is bluegrass!”

The Roots

Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, once described his brand of music saying, “It has a high lonesome sound. It’s plain music that tells a good story. It’s played from my heart to your heart, and it will touch you. Bluegrass is music that matters.”

Some of these songs are as old as the hills and hollers where the music made its home. The tunes may have been passed down through the generations or rediscovered from an old Alan Lomax collection. Bluegrass encompasses a great body of music — from “Soldier’s Joy,” a toe-tapping fiddle tune, to “Little Sadie,” a haunting murder ballad. The names of the original authors of these songs have been lost to time.

Jeff Place, musical archivist for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, explained that bluegrass finds its roots in old-time music as well as the folk traditions of many different groups of people.

“With old-time music you have to go back to the beginnings of the country. People had to make their own music, and oftentimes people would even make their own instruments,” Place said. “There was a combination between the African instrument, the banjar, which became the banjo in the United States, and the European violin, which of course, is the fiddle.”

Bill Monroe took inspiration from folk songs, old-time string bands and baptist hymnals to create his entirely new genre. The name “bluegrass” comes from the name of his band, the Blue Grass Boys, which he founded in 1939.

Place explained the tremendous impact Monroe had on American folk music.

“Bluegrass is interesting because you have an entire genre of music basically coming out of one person, who is Bill Monroe,” Place said. “He had been playing old-time string band music with his brothers, which is a whole different tradition … and kind of made this string band music that went into hyperdrive.”

Currently, bluegrass comes in many different forms, as musicians perform the songs with their own style and bring them to new audiences. Nirvana’s “In the Pines,” Feist’s “Sea-Lion Woman,” and Dolly Parton’s “Silver Dagger” are all examples of how diverse artists find inspiration in old folk songs and reinvent them to keep the music relevant.

Place explained that despite having firm roots in the past, bluegrass is constantly evolving.

“[With] a lot of these old-time jams and even bluegrass, you have the song, but everyone puts their own stamp on it,” Place said. “Bluegrass nowadays has gone off in all different directions to create sort of hybrid forms. … A lot of this stuff comes from jam sessions and people playing together. It definitely has its audience, and that is as big as it has ever been.”

Play It By Ear

In the third and final class of the Mountain Music Workshop, 10 students file into Harvey West Club Room and begin tuning their banjos, fiddles and guitars. This is no average music class — the students have learned all that they know not by rote, but by simply listening and playing together.

“Some of them are brand new to their instruments!” Leslie Abbott said excitedly.

The Mountain Music Workshop is taught twice a year by the Abbott family, and tonight Leslie Abbott and her son Luke lead the lesson. Luke is confident that his protegés are ready to lead the jam while he sits back and facilitates.

“Who wants to lead the first song?” Luke asks.

Some of the students are clearly uneasy at this prospect, and his question is met by nervous laughter and glances around the room.

“The worst thing that will happen is that it will all fall apart, and that will be fun,” Luke assures them. “Don’t be shy, play nice and loud!”

One brave woman with her guitar steps up and suggests playing “Handsome Molly” in the key of G. In bluegrass, breaks between the singing give the instrumentalists a chance to showcase their talent and style. The first break in “Handsome Molly” is quiet and timid, but by the second round, the melody shines through. The voices get louder as the musicians gain confidence, and after a few more verses and breaks, the leader kicks out her foot to signal the end of the song.

The Abbott family is clearly onto something. In only three two-hour sessions, the students — most of them brand-new to their instruments — are now able to play multiple songs while singing. It’s no easy feat for bluegrass veterans, let alone newcomers.

Luke Abbott is only in his 20s, and when asked how many instruments he plays, he shrugs and smiles.

“Oh, I don’t know. Guitar, banjo, piano, fiddle and mandolin regularly.”

Remarkably, Luke has never taken any formal lessons. Instead he is self-taught, learning by ear and intuition.

After attending the Good Old-Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in 1997, the Abbotts, a local Santa Cruz family, fell in love with mountain music and never went back. Over the years, they recognized the benefits of learning music by ear collectively, and developed a method to share their discovery and teach others to play. They call it the “Toneway Project.”

Luke explained the Toneway method.

“When a child learns to walk, when a child learns to talk, they don’t understand what they’re doing,” he said. “As adults, we think that we need to understand it before we can do it. … Our goal is to get it so that you can hear a song, and then you can play it. We are helping your brain to make the connections between the sound and what your fingers do.”

Luke added that those who are convinced they have no musical ability can still benefit using the Toneway method.

“It’s kind of crazy how many people think that they don’t have it,” he said. “Half of the people in the workshops think that they can’t sing, that they can’t carry a tune, that they don’t have a voice. Most people severely underestimate their abilities.”

The Mountain Music Workshop is proof that the Toneway method works. In the course of only three classes, the Abbotts have given their students the tools they need not only to play music, but to jam with others.

The Jam Session

Those playing in the park this Sunday were drawn to bluegrass for different reasons. Some felt a calling, others were raised around it, some learned by rote, others by ear. All of them know that in order to continue learning and growing as musicians, playing with others is essential.

In 2008, Jessica Evans, a local musician and board member of the Northern California Bluegrass Society, organized a monthly jam session in Ocean View Park that takes place on the fourth Sunday of every month. Along with a little help from her friend Shirley Tudor and the Abbott family, Evans coordinated the jam to include any Santa Cruz musicians who were interested in playing together.

“We decided to try to create a jam that would be really big and inclusive and try to get the entire Santa Cruz musical community together,” Evans said. “The park is so big, it really is a venue for anyone who wants to come and play music. People can kind of go from circle to circle and find what they are interested in doing.”

Mike Bell, with his wolf-shirt and custom guitar strap, is a regular on the jam session circuit. He attends jam sessions three days out of the week as well as on the first and fourth Sunday of each month. Bell talked excitedly about up-and-coming bands and artists, praising the talent present at jam sessions.

“My roots are in rock ‘n’ roll, but I found a lot of talent in country and bluegrass music,” Bell said. “I have had to step up from the level that I was to try and be as good as these people.”

Bell experiences a real joy from playing with others. To him, music is central to living a happy, well-rounded life.

“It fills you up,” Bell said. “The most important thing in your life is spirit and soul, and bringing it from the ground up. You feel it. It’s medication, music is.”

Chip Curry is the editor of The Fiddler’s Rag, a monthly magazine produced by the Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers’ Association. He grew up in a musical family listening to bluegrass and old-time songs. It is his first time playing at the Santa Cruz jam session.

“My father used to play this kind of music, and he was born and raised in southwest Missouri in the Ozarks,” Curry said. “Someone came to the house [who was] dating my sister and left a banjo behind, I started playing the banjo and the rest is history. I had listened to it for so long that I knew how it had to sound.”

At the jam session, many of the artists play more than one instrument. They switch between them, depending on which one they are in the mood to play during each song.

Curry explained this trend.

“There is always another instrument to learn, there is always another chord to learn, [and] there is always a new level that you can improve,” he said. “So if you get on that train early, it will take you from now until forever.”

The shadows begin to grow longer at Ocean View Park, the day grows colder, and the sun begins to set. The musicians pack up their instruments, leaving with the promise to meet at the next jam.

Bell puts away his 12-string guitar and says, “It always ends too soon.”

Rosie Spinks’ “Culture Shock Confessions” (published March 9) provides valuable insights for all students considering education abroad.

Becoming a member of another university, culture, and society is an exciting, and many say life-changing, opportunity. More than touring a great city or cruising to port, UC Education Abroad Program participants are learning to independently negotiate new experiences and different cultures that will allow them to meaningfully contribute to a global society.

To assist students as they move through various stages of cultural adjustment, our local staff members introduce and orient EAP students to local daily life, academic and institutional norms, and help them prepare to keep themselves safe and healthy while exploring their new environment. As Rosie aptly puts it, “the ‘real’ education you aren’t receiving” on campus will likely require street-smarts and the ability to cope successfully with and take advantage of the differences between life on a UC campus and life abroad.

We’re pleased that the vast majority of the 4,500 students who participate each year on an EAP program enjoy what they often call a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are making an investment that will reward them not only academically but beyond the classrooms in their personal and professional life. I encourage all your readers to consider the benefits of the kinds of immersive experiences Rosie describes, and to meet with their campus EAP representatives to explore the over 200 programs throughout the world offered by EAP.

Sincerely,
Michael Cowan
Executive Director
University of California Education Abroad Program

~~~~~~

We are eager to hear your opinions, so please e-mail editors@cityonahillpress.com. Letters should be around 250 words, and ideally will have to do with recent CHP content. We reserve the right to print, or not print, anything we receive.

~~~~~~

{City}

Man paints police car and downtown buildings

March 6, 12:05 a.m. — A SCPD officer was investigating an incident of graffiti in the Red Restaurant and Bar when they stepped outside to investigate another incident. The officer found a man vandalizing the patrol car with yellow spray paint. The man was found to have large silver markers matching the color of the marks in the restaurant bathroom. The yellow spray paint and tags found on the car have been found on various parts of Pacific Avenue and Laurel Street. The suspect was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on felony vandalism charges.

Suspected robber arrested

March 6, 5:55 p.m. — SCPD stopped and arrested a man wanted for several robberies in a parking lot at Mission Street and Younglove Avenue. On March 2, the suspect entered Sylvan Music with a gun and forcibly took a vintage electric guitar. SCPD believes that the same suspect is behind several other recent robberies and thefts, including one at the nearby Valero gas station. While searching the suspect’s car during the stop, officers found a replica handgun that fit the description of the weapon seen by the armed robbery victims. The suspect was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail for armed robbery and grand theft.

Domino’s Pizza driver robbed at gunpoint on Westside

March 6, 9:50 p.m. — Officers responded to the 500 block of Woodland Way after a Domino’s Pizza delivery driver was robbed at gunpoint. The 21-year-old victim reported being approached by three men as he got out of his car with his delivery. The men demanded his cell phone, wallet and pizza, all of which he handed over. The victim was not hurt. The three robbers remain at large, and are described as being about 25 years old, between 5’10” and 6 feet tall, and wearing ski masks.

{Campus}

Student punched after taking pictures

March 4, 12:36 p.m. — A Crown student was punched in the face after taking pictures of protesters on the bike path near the Music Center.

Reports of mentally challenged man sexually battering female students

March 5, 1:32 p.m. — Female students at various on-campus residences reported that a mentally challenged man hugged and groped them. He also attempted to engage them in inappropriate, sexually suggestive conversation and tried to find out where they lived. The same man also gained entry to student residential buildings and approached female students in their rooms. The man is described as 6 feet tall, African-American, and approximately 20 to 25 years in age. He was recently seen wearing khaki pants, brown loafers, a striped button-down shirt and a navy beanie, sometimes carrying a large backpack.

Car has window smashed, door dented at Family Student Housing

March 6, 1:22 p.m. — A car parked at Family Student Housing was found with the driver’s side window broken and a dent in the rear passenger door.

(from left to right)

“It was inconvenient, but if you look at the main cause, overall it was worth it.”
Pierre Vu
Third-year, Crown
Psychology

“I see the reasons that these protests need to happen, but it frustrates me when I can’t go to classes I’m paying for.”
Caitlin Frazer
Fourth-year, College Eight
Business Management Economics

“Shutting down the campus for one day probably won’t do as much as I would hope, but protesting is a long processs. It’s better to do something than nothing.”
Jeff Morton
Fourth-year, Stevenson
Politics

“I was proud of what the student population did. I thought it was pretty effective.”
Citlali Herguera-Acosta
Second-year, Kresge
Ecology and Evolution

Compiled by Elizabeth Englund & Isaac Miller

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

Dear UCSC students, staff, faculty, administrators and the wider UC community:

It has come to our attention that serious misconceptions regarding the conduct and intentions of protesters across the state have manifested (in many cases) into ill-will or callousness toward this noble and ambitious cause. It is not appropriate to pass judgement on the efforts of an entire enterprise based on rumors of misdeeds of a select few. Administrators’ allegations — that UCSC protesters wielded clubs and knives, denied people the right to exit campus or acted in any way that was disruptive, intimidating or destructive — were untrue, and caused unnecessary panic and concern.

It would be ignorant as well as erroneous to say that the administration was caught unawares by the March 4 actions. Organizers of the campus shut-down informed Student Services and other campus departments well in advance of the event. There is no denying that every faculty member on campus was aware of the imminent shut-down, and most planned the week’s courses accordingly.

Administrative responses that disrespect student actions, to the point of circulating misinformation and evoking irrational concerns, are reprehensible and do nothing for the already precarious student-administration relationship.

That being said, responsibility does not lie solely with the administration, legislators, etc. Organizers must conduct themselves appropriately and in accordance with First Amendment limitations if they want to gain the respect of authorities.

An example of protesters legitimately crossing the line happened last week at UC Davis, where students attempted to block traffic on Interstate 80. This action not only put students and commuters in danger, but was executed in conjunction with several other disruptive activities on campus as well. Fire alarms were falsely triggered at least 16 times, agitating students and faculty who were attending classes or studying in the libraries.

Not only does this type of behavior cause resentment among inconvenienced campus community members, it is also counterproductive, because it costs the university money for the fire department to investigate these false alarms. Additionally, this activity endangered the Davis community by diverting emergency services from real potential dangers.

The California Faculty Association (CFA) and local organizers did not spend months preparing themselves and the public for the day of action hoping for ridicule. It only takes one negative incident, one irresponsible, thoughtless act to define a movement. The efforts of a thousand (or more like 35,000) proactive individuals can be erased from the public’s living memory with little more than a mention of one bad egg.

Regardless of Davis students’ disconcerting rally tactics, the cause is vital for many students, faculty members and workers statewide. It’s about time the UC and Sacramento sat down to tell us exactly where they stand on issues of privatization of education, the resegregation of education, progressive taxation to raise revenues, and Schwarzenegger’s plan to privatize prisons, and stand behind those claims through direct action and support of public education.

At UCSC, March 4 actions were well-executed. It is not unreasonable to expect the support and blessing of the administration.

March 4 was an opportunity for state, campus and system policymakers to address the concerns of people across the state and push for change. In the future, UCSC’s administration should consider taking advantage of the opportunities provided to them by students to participate in, or at the very least endorse student action instead of passing up an occasion to repair faltering student-administrative relations.

Sincerely,

City on a Hill Press

Men’s Tennis
2/21 vs. American River (home) (did not play)

Men’s Volleyball
2/26 vs. Holy Names (home) 3-0 (win)

Women’s Tennis
3/10 vs. Gonzaga (home) 6-1 (loss)

{Upcoming Athletics}

Women’s Tennis
3/11 vs. University of the South (home) at 2 p.m.
3/20 vs. Whitman (home) at 3:30 p.m.
3/22 vs. Whittier (home) at 10 a.m.
3/24 vs. UC Riverside (home) at 2 p.m.
3/26 vs. Occidental (away) at 4:30 p.m.
3/27 vs. University of Redlands (away) at 2 p.m.
3/28 vs. Claremont Mudd-Scripps (away) at 9 a.m.

Men’s Tennis
3/11 vs. University of the South (home) at 2 p.m.
3/20 vs. Cal Lutheran (home) at 9:30 a.m.
3/21 vs. Pomona Pitzer (home) at 9:30 a.m.
3/21 vs. Whitman (home) at 2 p.m.
3/23 vs. Middlebury (away) at 9 a.m.
3/24 vs. Whitworth (away) at 9:30 a.m.
3/24 vs. Occidental (away) at 3 p.m.
3/25 vs. Claremont Mudd-Scripps (away) at 6 p.m.
3/27 vs. University of Redlands (away) at 10 a.m.

Men’s Volleyball
3/13 vs. Philadelphia Biblical (away) at 1 p.m.
3/13 vs. Cal Baptist (away) at 4 p.m.
3/19 vs. Cal Baptist (home) at 7 p.m.

Photo by Kathryn Power.

Photo by Kathryn Power.

Photo by Kathryn Power.

Thousands gathered at the Capitol, on campuses and in the streets — more specifically the freeways — across the state last Thursday. Students, parents, educators and administrators from K-12 public schools, California community colleges, California State University (CSU) campuses and the University of California united to protest cuts to California public education.

UC Berkeley students Meegan Brooks, a fourth-year political science major and Eden Amans, a first-year English major, said they made the trip from their campus to the Capitol to join the group of 2,000 advocating for public education alongside the California Faculty Association.

“We’re really just showing support,” Amans said. “That’s what’s really going to get the most attention — the fact that all of us are here from all over and we’re all united in this one cause.”

The actions at the Capitol and on individual campuses garnered the attention of national media like “Saturday Night Live,” the San Francisco Chronicle, and CNN.

UC Davis specifically was criticized for extreme actions taken by protesters on campus. An estimated 300 protesters attempted to march onto Interstate 80 after gathering on the UC Davis campus. More than 120 campus, city, county and highway patrol law enforcement officers resorted to the use of force in an attempt to halt the crowd’s progress onto the highway. Officers wielded batons and fired pepper balls at the advancing crowd. They arrested one student.

On campus, protesters pulled fire alarms, disrupting classes and library patrons.

Julia Ann Easley, senior public information representative for the UCD News Service, said March 4’s events were extraordinary for the Davis campus.

“For the most part, our campus protesters are peaceful and law-abiding,” she said.

Easley, who has served on the UCD campus for more than 12 years, said the administration’s primary concern on March 4 was student and community safety.

“It’s the first time I’ve known students to try to lock up the interstate,” she said. “It made my heart sink out of the danger.”

Although rumors of violence and disruptive behavior at UC Santa Cruz circulated on Thursday, it has been determined that the protest was nonviolent, and reports by the administration of destructive behavior were misinformed. The rear windshield of a single car was broken when the vehicle attempted to forcibly cross the picket line, and, contrary to initial reports from the UCSC administration, thus far no police reports have been filed indicating the use or presence of weapons at the demonstration.

In Sacramento, representatives from the California Faculty Association and members of the legislature and state Senate addressed the crowd on the north steps of the Capitol building. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico was one of several politicians to speak at the podium, but he was the only one scheduled to do so.

Torrico focused on promoting Assembly Bill 656, an oil severance tax that would fund public education. Torrico, who authored this bill, is an advocate for higher education.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg also spoke, and applauded the protesters’ actions as a means of protecting California’s economic future.

“If we are going to create jobs, if we’re going to improve our economy, if we’re going to have a better budget, the last thing in the world to do is to cut public education,” he said.

Reid Milburn, president and regional senator representing Sacramento for the Student Senate of California Community Colleges (SSCCC), also addressed the crowd at the Capitol. Reid and members of the SSCCC are organizing a second march on the Capitol for March 22, and expect around 8,000 participants from across the state.

“I highly encourage any and all UC students — and any students or educational supporters from across the state — to join us,” she said in an e-mail to City on a Hill Press. “It is about time students stood up and helped California understand that the first priority in a fiscal crisis such as the recession should be to educate its people.”

Steinberg encouraged students on March 4 to continue their involvement in actions like the March 22 rally.

“You have already made a huge difference,” he said. “You have already changed the debate, but there is a long way to go. Let this be the beginning, and let this — once again, because of your activism, your advocacy, your stubborn unwillingness to take no for an answer — let this be the year that we begin restoring the California dream of public education.”

(from left to right)

“‘Depends on the weather. If it was sunny, it would show its skin.”
Lejf Hansen
Third-year, College Ten
Economics & Philosophy

“‘I think granny panties are always comfortable, and sequined short shorts.”
Naomi Daniel
Second-year, Merrill
Psychology

“‘Nothing. I would like it to be fully exposed.”
Ben Dang
Third-year, Crown
Biochemistry

“It would wear designs, like sparkly hearts and peace signs and little stars and stuff, so when you’re getting boneage people can look at it and it’ll be really colorful.”
Elena Brown
Fourth-year, Oakes
Community Studies & Marine Biology

Compiled by Kim Zhang & Devika Agarwal

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

I came to UC Santa Cruz in the fall of 2008. I was a junior transfer from UC Santa Barbara, looking for something more meaningful than getting drunk and stoned on balconies and beaches every day. Not to knock UCSB — I had a phenomenal time, met some friends for life, and needless to say, had a freakin’ blast. But I wanted more, needed more, and hoped UCSC would give me what I craved.

So, up the coast I came. I spent the first two weeks here on my friend Heather’s couch, cruising town looking for a job and familiarizing myself with what has, since my childhood, been my favorite place on earth.

I’d come up with my homie Alex, who’d also transferred from UCSB (trust me, it can be a gnarly place to live) and together we found a baller house on Sunnyslopes Court that was probably the nicest place I’ll ever live in for $600 a month. Things were good — our housemates were eclectic, a perfect sampling of who makes up the Santa Cruz community, and we were meeting people left and right. I thought things were going to be all right in SC.

A few months in, however, I became really depressed. I missed my friends in Santa Barbara. I missed walking around campus and seeing people I recognized. I missed the carefree laziness of a SoCal afternoon. I felt out of place, out of touch, and very, very off-kilter.

When I first got into town, I stopped by Westside Coffee to drop off an application. Hell, I’ll get a latte, I thought. I plopped down at a table with an oversized paper that’d caught my eye at the newsstand, a little rag called City on a Hill Press. On the cover was a hand manipulating marionette strings, and the cover story was an in-depth look into the clandestine privatization of UC Santa Cruz. ‘Damn, that was a good story,’ I proclaimed internally after absorbing the kicker.

Weeks of tears and endless bouts of loneliness and frustration later, I set up an interview with CHP to see about writing for the paper. I’d never done any sort of journalism before, save for two columns (bordering more on rants) that I’d written in high school. I didn’t know shit about interviewing or writing a news story, but desperate for some sort of purpose, I successfully found my way to the UCSC Press Center — the first of many challenges I’d endure in what became two years and one quarter with the paper — and met two students who’d forever change my life.

Daniel Zarchy and Samantha Thompson, newly minted as editors-in-chief, talked to me for about 20 minutes. Two days later, I got a call asking if I’d like to join the City News desk. Yes! Of course! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Zam, as we fondly hybridized their name, took a chance on me, and I don’t think they’ll ever know what it’s meant.

The rest is my history. I’ve written about everything from afros to zoning laws, state elections to 4/20 to public education to the degradation of the English language. Along the way, I talked to countless individuals, people yearning for their voices to be heard and their stories to be told. Santa Cruz opened up before me like a treasure chest. Its gems were always there, I just didn’t have the right key.

I’ve seen amazing talent blossom right before my eyes, and my peers find their voice through their pens and lenses. It still blows my mind that City on a Hill Press is completely student-run. We fund ourselves, we design ourselves, we fill it with professional-grade pictures and luminous content, and we nearly have conniptions when we see someone reading the paper. Above all, we teach ourselves because of the shameful lack of a journalism department at UC Santa Cruz.

I led this paper for two quarters with the lovely and talented Carley Stavis, sometimes hating the hell out of my life but always feeling the deepest satisfaction at putting out a paper every single week. I learned to love words (ephemeral, nefarious, somnambulant, loquacious, poppy — say them. They are delicious). One of my fondest memories is driving home on Empire Grade at 7 in the morning after pulling an all-nighter with former production manager Blake Chiao. We’d just sent off Primer, CHP’s summer magazine, the paper she, Carley and I had been putting together all summer, to the printers. I’ll never forget the morning light or laughing at absolutely nothing because we were so blissfully delirious.

City on a Hill Press has given me my passion, my greatest joy, and steered me toward the profession I want to do for the rest of my life. I’ve been honored to know every staffer who’s passed through our paper’s too-quickly-turning doors. I’ve learned the transformative power of information and marveled at the willingness of a dedicated group to get it out to the all-too-often reluctant public.

So, to Susan Watrous, a mentor, friend, and the wisest woman I know; to my whistle, C.B.; to Carley and Rod and Alex and Rachel and Rula and Hilli and Blake and Katie and all the staffers of City on a Hill Press, past and present, who fill my life with sunshine; to the Press Center, the only place I’ve ever been able to really work; and to you, dear reader, for having faith that we will tell you the truth and tell it well — from the deepest depths of my humble heart, thank you. You’ve given me something to live for.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

If you’ve followed UC Santa Cruz student media at any time in the last 20 years, you probably never expected to read this editorial.

The Fish Rap Live!, UCSC’s humor-based alternative newspaper, has always been at odds with City on a Hill Press. None of us can remember an issue of FRL! printed during our time here that didn’t feature several CHP burns, some that we could appreciate and some that hit too close to home. Yet today we find ourselves in the interesting position of wanting to commend and applaud the publication, which has recently come under fire for printing racially charged content.

Make no mistake — we at CHP believe that Fish Rap should be held accountable for printing offensive material. It’s one thing to push the envelope, but another thing entirely to print statements and images that make many UCSC students feel hurt, targeted and marginalized. And it’s not just the race humor — past issues of Fish Rap have featured sexist, classist and homophobic content, which we must also condemn.

What we wish to applaud is the reaction of Fish Rap’s editorial staff following the barrage of criticism that greeted their most recent issue. The editorial team, headed by fourth-year creative writing major Erin Schmalfeld, has been working day and night for the last two weeks to make significant changes in the way FRL! is produced, edited and governed, with the goal of addressing past mistakes and preventing future offenses.

Starting next quarter, Fish Rap’s staff will shrink from 70-plus to about 30. Content will be “fiercely edited,” as Schmalfeld phrases it in a special apology issue that hits UCSC newsstands the same day as this paper you’re holding. Applicants to the staff will be interviewed rather than blanket-accepted, and all will attend a sensitivity seminar with Santa Cruz Mayor Mike Rotkin, who also happens to be both UCSC’s community studies field coordinator and Fish Rap’s faculty adviser.

Schmalfeld’s apology letter in this special issue strikes us as the most genuine tone we’ve heard from a Fish Rap staffer, ever. The paper’s editors have really listened to the students they’ve hurt, and are making every effort to change their publication for the better. Schmalfeld writes, “I believe that Fish Rap can improve and learn from our mistakes and not only avoid hurting people in the future, but make people laugh in a more awesome way.”

Now compare this with the reaction of The Koala, a UC San Diego student media outlet that calls itself a humor publication. Following the backlash that was caused by the now-infamous “Compton Cookout” party at that university, the Koala’s writers have only amped up their race humor, commenting on their UCSD TV show that reactions to the party were overblown and printing an entirely race-themed issue (you can see it, and marvel at their insensitivity yourself, at TheKoala.org).

If you ask us, the Koala’s actions are an example of exactly how not to respond to a situation like this. Schmalfeld, on the other hand, is doing everything right at this point. She and her team are meeting with offended students and administrators, encouraging feedback and criticism, making sweeping changes to their organization’s policies, and even printing a special issue to apologize to everyone who has been hurt by FRL! content. We would like to recognize and applaud these actions — basically, to give credit where credit is due.

We hope that by implementing these changes, the Fish Rap Live! will evolve and endure for decades to come, providing UCSC with a more elevated humor that all can appreciate — or at the least, not feel harmed by. Whether we read it to entertain ourselves between classes or use it to line our hamsters’ cages, we want to see the Fish Rap on campus newsstands long into the future.

In 2008, then-Mayor Emily Reilly approved a Fish Rapper’s petition to declare April 27 “Fish Rap Live! Day” in the city of Santa Cruz. And with the third annual holiday approaching next month, this year we feel there is a reason to celebrate.

A Santa Cruz player forces her Davis opponent to quickly pass the ball. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Eyes on the prize; Santa Cruz finishes the weekend 3-1 to tie Berkeley and Davis for first. Photo by Kathryn Power.

Last weekend, UC Santa Cruz was host to a series of club-league women’s water polo games as the Slugs were sent to do battle with several teams, including rivals UC Davis and UC Berkeley.

UCSC opened the weekend with a tough loss against the Davis A team 8-5, a team that UCSC head coach Brian Fischl considers to be a big opponent.

“They’re our biggest rival, definitely one of the better teams here today along with Cal Berkeley,” Fischl said.

Team president Nila Ward was hopeful that the weekend was not lost.

“It was pretty rough — we were really amped for that game because we were basically playing for the first-place seed, which I think we can still end up with by the end of this weekend,” Ward said.

The team bounced back with a commanding victory over Davis’s B team 16-5 later in the day.

“This last game was really great, we got all of our players in — it was an easier team though, too,” sophomore Laura Rudolph said. “A lot of different people scored goals, and it gave us a chance to work on our plays and get our shots in.”

However, Rudolph knew that the team shouldn’t become overconfident.

“You never know how the game is going to be. You’ve just got to go in and play your hardest, and have to work for it,” Rudolph said. “We can’t get cocky.”

The team continued its dominating streak into Sunday, defeating both CSU Maritime and CSU Fresno handily by scores of 14-1 and 13-2 respectively. Overall, UCSC finished tied for first with UC Berkeley and UC Davis, a result that didn’t surprise many considering that the women’s water polo team used to be an National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III team on campus, but was cut by the athletic department due to budget constraints.

Head coach Fischl, who played for the men’s water polo team for three years before it was cut, says the difference in play between NCAA and club level can easily be distinguished.

“It’s almost a night-and-day difference between the game, the speed, the pace, the overall competitiveness of it — at the club level [it’s] a lot less significant,” Fischl said. “At the NCAA level every team is looking to win. It’s serious.”

Senior Kelley Gentry has seen the team play at both levels and also noted the differences.

“It’s a lot different — we’re student-run now, we organize all the tournaments and all the games, and the level of play is so different,” Gentry said. “There are a lot of dirty moves in the water that you wouldn’t normally see as much at the NCAA level.”

Gentry also said that there are certain expectations that come with being a former NCAA team.

“I feel like a lot of teams are really gunning for us because we’re ex-varsity — we kind of walk around and wonder ‘Why does everybody hate us?’” Gentry said, and laughed.

The team members are looking to push themselves with their next games, taking place at a tournament at the University of Pacific (UOP). Fischl looks forward to seeing his team be challenged by the NCAA teams.

“We are going to go play a couple of NCAA teams at UOP in two weeks,” Fischl said, “which will give us a taste of what it’s like to play a more competitive team, because despite us being a club team we’re still good enough to be a Division III team.”

Meanwhile, Gentry believes the team has what it takes to continue their winning ways.

“We have a talented team, and it’s nice to think that we’re number one, but we do have to keep working at it,” she said. “But I absolutely believe that we’ll be number one by season’s end.”

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

The phrase “stand up for what you believe in” may have never before proved so true.

Last Sunday, March 7 at 3 p.m., a group of about 100 people gathered to march across the Water Street Bridge in Santa Cruz in the name of peace for women across the globe.

On International Women’s Day, at 80 locations around the world stretching from San Francisco to London, supporters gathered to advocate for women in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They participated in a global campaign led by Women for Women International called “Join me on the Bridge.”

Women for Women International announced the event in a blog last January. They called for women to “stand together on a bridge between Congo and neighboring Rwanda to demand peace and development … collectively saying no to war and yes to peace and hope.”

In the last 10 years in the Congo, there have been 5 million deaths and hundreds of thousands of rapes. Women for Women International and other organizations are pushing for peace in the region.

Santa Cruzans joined the campaign locally, garnering support and organization from local groups such as Women with Wings, a local ensemble whose members helped with the music for the event.

Heather Houston, director of Women with Wings, participated in the event because Michelle Stroet, the event coordinator for Join me on the Bridge, is part of her ensemble and also sponsors three women internationally — two from Bosnia and one from Rwanda.

Houston said both she and Stroet are very passionate about the organization.

“I am really a believer in the power of women coming together,” Houston said. “That prayerful energy really uplifts the planet in many different ways. That’s why I wanted to get involved.”

Stroet also had personal reasons for being a part of Women for Women International and organizing this event. She and her mother are both victims of sexual abuse.

“Watching my mother suffer after being raped has definitely shaped my life view on women’s societal roles,” Stroet said. “My mother never really recovered her life. Although my mother’s and my story might seem sensational here, it is rampant in war-torn countries. How can anyone in freedom not reach out to help?”

The group of marchers met in San Lorenzo Park and then walked to the Water Street Bridge, where the marchers split off onto either side. As the scene commenced, the two groups began walking to the center, singing a gathering song from Ghana and banging on various percussion instruments.

As they met in the middle, they threw a sign over the side of the bridge for everyone to see. The sign said, “Building a Bridge to Peace in Santa Cruz.”

The group then marched back to the park and began singing and dancing in a drum circle led by Women with Wings. One man carried a sign that read, “War is expensive. Peace is priceless.”

After the march, people gathered in the park to hear from the event’s guest speaker, Reverend Deborah L. Johnson of Inner Light Ministries. Johnson believes greatly in the importance of women gathering around the world.

“We are standing in solidarity,” she said. “What happens to women and children during war is unspeakable, which is probably why we don’t hear about it. Women are standing up around the world to say, ‘I am somebody. I am somebody.’”

She went on to say that 45 cents of every dollar spent on war globally is spent by the United States, while the nation only makes up 5 to 6 percent of the world’s population. Johnson added that she does not believe in power being shown through the ability of destruction.

“All war is a crime against humanity,” she said. “War is obscene. I have the audacity to believe in peace.”

Friends, family and fellow students of Benjamin Quaye came to a memorial service held at Oakes on Sunday afternoon. Photo by Morgan Grana.

A small display was created in honor of Quaye at the memorial service. Photo by Morgan Grana.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon this past weekend, the Oakes Learning Center filled up with childhood and college friends, family, professors and men’s rugby teammates. All of them came to say their final goodbyes to UC Santa Cruz fourth-year Benjamin Quaye.

Quaye died one month ago to the day of the memorial, sustaining severe head trauma after hitting his head along the railroad tracks beside Almar Avenue in the early morning hours of February 7.

In front of a picture slideshow backdrop, various members of the UCSC community and beyond stepped up to the podium to share stories about Quaye and how he impacted their lives. Among the speakers was Quaye’s best friend Raul Chavarin, who grew up with him in the Southern California town of Altadena.

“I found out from [his] parents because I was housesitting for them, and they called and told me,” Chavarin said. “I couldn’t accept it. I was in denial [and] I was very angry because I didn’t know the details yet.”

Sociology professor Wendy Martyna, who was one of Quaye’s teachers the past two quarters and described him as a “very intelligent and engaged” student, said her class was equally shocked upon hearing the news.

“There was a real sense that it could’ve been them, a reminder of life’s unpredictability and a real commitment to make good use of their life as a result,” Martyna said.

Quaye’s mother Beverly credits the university with being supportive and forthcoming immediately after hearing about her son’s death.

“They were very engaging from the beginning,” Beverly Quaye said. “No one had an issue with addressing this. The university was extremely understanding and genuine.”

Oakes College Provost Kimberly Lau says that many people at Oakes and UCSC as a whole have responded in the wake of Quaye’s death, which led to the planning of an on-campus memorial.

“There have been a wide array of responses and this memorial tribute is a testament of one way they’ve come together to celebrate his life,” Lau said.

Amid the memories of Quaye as a men’s rugby teammate, student and friend that were shared throughout the memorial service, many honed in on Quaye’s intrinsic passion and desire to help others, which led him to decide to pursue a career as a social worker.

“Ben was my brother and he was a good person before he came [to UCSC], but coming here heightened his social awareness and he was a better man for it,” said Quaye’s older brother Josh. “He wanted to help people before he came here, but UCSC gave him the tools to put his desires into action. He was well on his way to becoming a social worker and influencing others’ lives.”

Beverly Quaye also believes her son’s time at UCSC helped shape his post-graduate goals.

“This school experience had a very big impact on him,” she said. “… The university is more focused on developing the human personality and individual, and I think that was very fitting for Ben and his values. … He was committed to doing something meaningful for society.”

Meanwhile, many at UCSC are planning ways to permanently commemorate Quaye on campus. His rugby teammates are currently looking into establishing a scholarship in Quaye’s name or renaming the Lower East Field after him, and Oakes College administrators plan to plant a tree in the Oakes Garden in his honor.

“We’re going to plant a tree in his honor to memorialize him,” Provost Lau said. “… We just want to have something as an ongoing symbol of his presence.”

While his friends and family agree that Quaye will be remembered for his big smile and infectious personality, his brother Josh says Quaye’s lasting impact will come down to one thing in particular — his inherent desire to help others.

“For those who knew Ben best and truly loved him, we’ll all be more keenly aware of what’s going on in our society,” Josh Quaye said. “Ben really wanted to help people who couldn’t help themselves. I’ll always remember him because he always wanted to put people first.”

~~~~~~

In lieu of flowers, the Quaye family is asking for donations to Hillsides, a center for foster care and special-needs children who have been abused, where Quaye volunteered this past summer. Donations can be made at www.hillsides.org.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Racial tensions across the UC system over the past few weeks have been no laughing matter.

And now editors of The Fish Rap Live! (FRL!), a student-run publication focused on humor and alternative news, are planning to restructure their organization in response to the current controversy over racially charged content published in past and recent issues.

By interviewing new applicants, implementing different editing processes, and creating new governing documents, Erin Schmalfeld, the current editor-in-chief of FRL!, said the organization can better monitor the content it publishes.

“Now we can look at things from multiple perspectives so we can better understand the impact our content has, and make sure it’s polished, acceptable, and that it’s not going to hurt anybody,” said Schmalfeld, a fourth-year creative writing major from Stevenson.

After The Koala — a student publication at UC San Diego that focuses primarily on race humor — came under scrutiny for making racial slurs toward students protesting a “Compton Cookout”-themed party, students of color at UC Santa Cruz began speaking out against some of FRL!’s content.

Fourth-year Erica Terrell, an intern for UCSC’s African-American Resource Center and former chair of the African Black Student Alliance (ABSA), took offense to a recent FRL! centerfold that portrayed stereotypes of each college on campus.

“I hope they understand that the images that were being published in the paper were offensive. The material was racist, sexist and prejudiced,” Terrell said. “They can’t come out with these things and try to be a legit paper. … If they are trying to make these changes, I celebrate them.”

FRL! currently has a staff of about 70, a number that has grown markedly since past quarters. Out of the 70 people on staff, about 50 receive course credit through the community studies department.

Funded mostly by staff donations and advertisement sales, the organization does not directly benefit from measure funds, or funds students pay to support student services and organizations. However, all student print media organizations receive faculty advising, as well as access to UCSC’s Press Center — both of which are financed by measure funds.

While in the past there have been no requirements to become a staff member, FRL!’s editors now plan to hold interviews before accepting applicants.

Schmalfeld said this new application process is necessary for producing appropriate content.

“We are changing the way people are invited onto staff,” Schmalfeld said. “We are doing interviews now just so we know their personalities, their working style, and their sense of humor.”

In addition to holding interviews, FRL! editors plan to edit content more extensively.

“We are going to have a lot more people reading every article that comes in and it’s going to be considered a lot more seriously and on a deeper level,” Schmalfeld said. “We are going to have editors look at each article more closely and see what the social implications are.”

Fourth-year Sabrina Sierra, one the few students of color on FRL!’s staff, wrote an open letter to other members that addressed her concerns about the publication.

“The people who are protesting FRL! are understandably angry. FRL! has been insensitive,” Sierra said. “I wanted to write a letter to mediate the situation, in a way … because I felt like I was in a position where I could empathize with both sides.”

Sierra went on to say that the racial makeup of FRL!’s staff is similar to that of UCSC, where Caucasian students account for most of the campus population.

“I think that is why Fish Rap has gotten away with making racist jokes for so long,” Sierra said.

A 2008 campus profile, published on the university’s official website, reported that about 50 percent of UCSC undergraduates identified themselves as white.

In her letter, which will be featured in a special apology issue, Sierra wrote, “I want Fish Rap to keep pushing the envelope in print publications, but we have to ask ourselves, to what ends? I believe that adopting a more socially conscious approach and pushing ourselves to keep setting higher standards of work will only make the paper more funny and intelligent, and better received by the community.”

Schmalfeld expressed similar sentiments regarding improvement within the organization.

“We want a dialogue and we want to have a conversation about these issues and about what is right and wrong. We want to become a better paper,” she said. “We want to keep going. … We want an opportunity to change.”

~~~~~~

A special FRL! Apology Issue will hit newsstands on Thursday, March 11.

Illustration by Joe Lai.

Illustration by Joe Lai.

You walk into the circular restaurant space, and that’s when it hits you: the walls are painted fluorescent pink and adorned with sparkles, the windows full of various stenciled planets glowing under dim-lit lights. Hippies, college kids and families fill booths and converse while busy employees rush around filling up water glasses and taking orders. It’s 2 in the morning. This is the Saturn Café.

When customers open the menu, they are hardly surprised to find all of the typical American diner must-haves ready to order. They are hardly surprised, that is, until their eyes follow the bolded asterisk to the bottom of the page and discover that everything served in this restaurant is meat-free. But “the Saturn” wasn’t always like this.

Don Lane, original co-founder of Saturn Café and current Santa Cruz City Council member, explained his initial intentions for starting a restaurant.

“We started it not with vegetarianism at the center of our thinking,” he said. “It was really the desserts that were our starting point. We had this idea that if we were going to have really good desserts but we were trying to be health-conscious, then it would make sense to have relatively light vegetarian meals as a kind of good balance to that, really to reduce people’s guilt.”

In 1979, when Lane and a couple friends began the business, “vegan” was hardly in people’s vocabularies. There were only a handful of businesses that catered to the alternative style of eating.

“There were a lot fewer places that were conscious of it back then,” Lane said. “So we were pretty early in the game.”

Ernesto Quintero, current co-owner of the Saturn, said that now it’s a different story.

“Certainly vegan and vegetarian food has moved more into the mainstream over the past five years,” he said. “You’re seeing it pop up in all sorts of places that you wouldn’t have seen it popping up before.”

Quintero has co-owned the Saturn Café for five years now, and said that one of the reasons alternative eating has become more mainstream is because there are more extensive food options available to vegetarians and vegans now than ever before.

However, Quintero also said that the message behind the food has remained constant these past 30 years.

“The original Saturn owners had a commitment to community, they had a commitment to social environmental justice, and that’s something that has stayed true throughout all of the owners,” Quintero said. “The one piece that I think has stayed the most consistent is the concept of being a socially responsible business.”

In fact, two of the main reasons people pledge to eat less meat, no meat, or opt out of animal products altogether are environmental implications and animal cruelty. To Quintero, being a socially responsible business means addressing both.

According to Erik Marcus, founder and monitor of Vegan.com and author of several books including “Meat Market: Animals Ethics & Money” and “Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating,” many people are simply unaware of these implications, and therefore fail to address them.

Now a vegan for 20-plus years, Marcus said he only began thinking about changing his diet in the beginning of his college years when he was accidentally introduced to veganism.

“I was a pretty big meat-eater growing up — you know, almost every meal had meat in it,” he said. “Then one day, halfway through my freshman year, I walked into this room and they had on a videotape showing slaughterhouse footage. I was just appalled.”

Marcus said that he had never even met a vegetarian in his life up until that point. He then started reading books on the subject and looking more into a vegetarian lifestyle.

“I didn’t really know it was an option,” he said. “It was really a very different world then.”

After becoming fully vegetarian halfway through his sophomore year in college, Marcus transferred to UC Santa Cruz from his previous college in New Hampshire. He researched more about the egg and dairy industry, and began realizing that animal cruelty could be found there as well.

“It became clear to me that the abuses in the egg and dairy industry were every bit as extreme as the abuses in the meat industry,” Marcus said. “[It’s a] given that the only difference … is that meat comes from animals that have been killed, and milk and eggs come from animals that will be killed, guaranteed.”

Marcus explained that if the egg and dairy industries were more animal-friendly, he would consider switching back to vegetarianism. But at the efficiency rate that factory farms operate currently, it would be close to impossible for cage-free eggs and organic milk to be cost-competitive.

Factory farms use technology like tilted-wire cages and conveyor belts — which reduce the labor costs that would be going toward collecting eggs and cleaning up feces — to be efficient and use the least amount of labor possible, thus cutting costs.

“There is no other system that can compare in efficiency,” Marcus said. “There is also no other operation that could compare in cruelty.”

Another issue goes back to the impact that the meat, egg and dairy industries have on the planet.

Rebecca Thistlethwaite works with the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) on campus, and is a social science researcher for innovative and sustainable business models. She explained that the United States is trying to keep up with demand for meat and dairy, and that’s why it is hard for sustainable farmers to compete with factory farms.

“If Americans ate the amount of meat that the rest of the world did, maybe once a week for a special occasion, then I think the whole planet could eat grass-fed, humanely raised animals,” she said. “But if we’re going to eat meat two or three times a day, then we are going to need about four planets to do that.”

In addition to her full-time job and raising a 4-year-old daughter named Fiona, Thistlethwaite owns her own sustainable farm, the “Tastes Like Chicken” or TLC Ranch. She and her husband keep the business sustainable by owning open-pasture grass-fed cows, creating their own fertilizer, and practicing minimum tillage on their land, but Thistlethwaite admits that it is very hard to keep up.

“The demand’s there, it’s just hard to catch up with the supply,” she said. “It’s not like sticking a lettuce seed in the ground and 30 days later, boom, you have a head of lettuce.”

Before she began her own farm with her husband, Thistlethwaite was a vegetarian for 12 years. She became a vegetarian for environmental reasons, but once she owned and operated a farm that was completely environmentally friendly, it became possible for her to eat meat again.

“Back in the ’90s … there weren’t a lot of options, even if I did want to eat meat that was raised in more environmentally sustainable ways,” Thistlethwaite said.

According to Marcus, most vegetarians today even find it hard to trust cage-free and organic labels seen so often in local grocery store aisles.

“If you don’t actually visit the farm, you’re taking someone’s word for it,” he said. “You’re taking the word of somebody who has a financial incentive to cut corners.”

Cost is, in fact, a huge issue.

“It would be nice if everyone could afford and opt into eating sustainably, and it wasn’t just rich people who could,” Thistlethwaite said.

This small-time farmer is not the only one in Santa Cruz feeling the hurt of the cost of sustainability. UCSC’s own Dining Services is having trouble switching out their battery-cage liquid eggs for cage-free liquid eggs.

In mid-October 2009, Dining Services promised to do just that by January 2010, but the deal fell through when cage-free egg costs rose and the large demands were not met with equal supply by farmers.

Candy Berlin, program coordinator of Dining Services, explained the catch-22 situation.

“We have to look at two factors: cost and volume,” she said. “Some farmers had good prices, but then couldn’t supply us the amount that we needed.”

Thistlethwaite did not feel that this problem was difficult to overcome.

“If the university would just commit to it, maybe sign a contract with a farmer who can then be assured the income, then the university is assured supply and I think it would move the whole industry in a better direction,” she said.

According to Thistlethwaite, large investment is what small-scale farmers need in order to keep up with demand, and this is UCSC’s opportunity to join UC San Diego and UC Irvine, which have already made the switch.

“The other UCs don’t have the volume we have here,” Berlin said. “You’re not comparing apples to apples. You’re comparing small volume to big volume. When the price goes up, we have to suck it up.”

According to Berlin, other UC campuses only support about half the number of students on meal plans compared to UCSC, which currently has 7,000 students signed up.

Dining Services is taking steps to reduce its carbon footprint, however, by holding events like the first-ever meatless day this past January, held at the Crown/Merrill Dining Hall. Clint Jeffries, unit manager of the dining hall, expressed his optimism that the event was a success.

“We actually had really good feedback from non-vegetarians and non-vegans who appreciated what we did,” Jeffries said.

Berlin and Dining Services plan to hold another meatless day in April, in conjunction with Earth Day, at the College Eight-Oakes Dining Hall. Eric Deardorff, a nine-year vegan and co-founder of Banana Slugs for Animals, worked with Dining Services in planning the meal choices for the meatless day. He was optimistic about the outcome.

“The number-one cause of global warming, according to the United Nations, is animal agriculture and meat production,” he said. “This was the single best way the school could reduce its carbon footprint.”

However, some people are still concerned that Dining Services is not taking all of the steps possible in the cage-free egg debate. Marcus, who has been working on the issue with Dining Services Director Scott Berlin since 2006, expressed his disappointment with the situation.

“You can always use [cost] as an excuse, but I don’t think that’s logical … given the outrageous amounts of cruelty,” he said. “Especially since this is not a brand-new proposal. It’s been more than three years of foot-dragging.”

Also, with the 63 percent majority passage of Proposition 2 in 2008 — which banned battery-cage eggs altogether by the year 2015 — many are skeptical about the reasoning behind not switching, especially since the university is a taxpayer and state-supported institution.

Berlin stated simply, “I can’t say when the UC system is going to move toward following that. That I can’t answer.”

Thistlethwaite believes that the switch should be made sooner rather than later.

“Prop. 2 passed, so UCSC should go along with the voters of California,” she said. “They’re going to be banned anyway in a few years, so why not start that transition now and get people used to paying more for it?”

Deardorff and Marcus have done research looking into how much it would cost per meal-plan holder per month to use cage-free liquid eggs. Their estimate comes to about $3. Scott Berlin, however, said this number had no concrete foundation.

“We don’t count the cost that way,” he said.

Berlin added that because of inflation, the university is trying to cut any costs they can avoid, at least for the time being.

“After utilities, water, etc., we’re looking at about $1 million inflation, and 70 grand more for eggs,” he said. “… It’s just not a realistic picture.”

Many still believe, however, that the dining halls should switch based on public opinion. Santa Cruz residents passed Proposition 2 in the county with an overwhelming 73 percent majority.

“I think that’s really inexcusable,” Marcus said. “For UCSC to be serving battery-cage eggs in a state that has already voted to ban them for cruelty, that’s just inexcusable.”

Marcus admitted that things might not change as fast as he hopes they will. He is optimistic about practice changes coming about eventually, but for now, there is an easy short-term solution.

“There’s a surprising amount of cruelty and suffering embedded in virtually every animal product, and so moving toward a vegan diet or becoming vegan or vegetarian can eliminate tremendous amounts of suffering,” he said. “… And it’s just ridiculously delicious.”

Photo by Rowan Byers.

Despite opposite seasons, (two) different oceans, and a different way of life, Cape Town — known as the ‘Mother City’ of Africa — still bears a resemblance to my home in Santa Cruz.  This series chronicles one banana slug’s attempt to make sense of life at the University of Cape Town.

The previous entry in this series is available here.

~~~~~~

Euphoria.  Irritation.  Understanding.  Acceptance.   These are the four stages of culture shock.  As many an EAP participant could probably tell you, myself included, these four words seem pretty silly and irrelevant when you’re sitting in your pre-departure orientation two months before you leave.  At this point, all you want to do is get on the plane, start your whirlwind life-changing semester, meet an incredibly exotic foreign boy (or girl) with a sexy accent, indulge in all your Travel Channel street-food fantasies, and finally receive the ‘real’ education you aren’t receiving from your over-priced UC.

And yes, I fully admit to scoffing at the idea of being in over my head, particularly as I’ve traveled quite extensively in my 20 years on this planet.  But today, six weeks since I arrived in the beautiful, dynamic city of Cape Town, I type in frustration.  I have reached stage two.  However, I write not with the frustration of being a traveler in a foreign land, but more specifically, being a college student in one.

The University of Cape Town, where I am currently enrolled, is an interesting institution.  As a columnist in the campus’ student-run newspaper, Varsity, so aptly put it, “UCT’s situation as a university offering ostensibly first-world education in a third-world country is delicate.”

Let me tell you, an institution with beautiful neo-classical buildings designed to look like the ‘Oxford of Africa’ and a ranking in the top 200 universities worldwide definitely does not mean that the wireless network is going to work when you need it to.  And don’t expect to be able to check your online-only assignments when you get home either, because internet access in South Africa is kind of like a house party in Santa Cruz — hard to find and always getting broken up.

Then there’s the Jammie.  Essentially the campus shuttle, these cute little powder blue buses are loved and loathed by students for being overcrowded and never on schedule.  Trouble is though, that unlike when you miss the Metro bus in Santa Cruz, hitching a ride in Cape Town is not such an intelligent way to get home.

In all seriousness, safety concerns are a major part of campus life at UCT, and probably the biggest challenge to international students like myself. Recently, UCT students gathered on campus to mourn the death of a student who was stabbed after a robbery attempt in the early morning hours of the weekend, after attending a party with friends.  In what was the biggest campus protest in 10 years, students and UCT representatives were demanding a stop to the violence that plagues the community.

It sounds sinister, and at times it is.  Crime in Cape Town is rampant and exacerbated by the stark and highly visible contrast between rich and poor in post-apartheid South Africa.  In response to gross inequality, many people use opportunistic crime and theft as the go-to method to get out of poverty.  As an American student used to the relative freedom and safety I have at home, it comes down to accepting a loss of independence; of considering the necessity of carrying things around daily that make me vulnerable (i.e. laptop, blackberry, ipod); and of never, ever letting my street smarts falter.

The words I write are not meant to be complaints.  I didn’t travel thousands of miles to have everything be exactly the same as it is at home.  The challenges, fears, and obstacles of living in and adjusting to life in South Africa are why I will undoubtedly view the world differently when I return home.  So, for now, I’m ready to move onto to stage three and hopefully (fingers crossed) find a decent internet connection.

Album art from Petrychor's EP, Dryad, available to listen to and download at petrychor.com.

It’s been cloudy around the campus lately, which makes the fact that I’ve been listening to Petrychor’s Dryad EP, a gem of a black metal album, all the more appropriate. Petrychor is a one-man band out of California shrouded in mystery; the sole member, simply known as “T” according to the band’s Myspace page, plays all the instruments. “T” recently put this EP up on his website, accepting donations from listeners willing to give. Not much else is known about the band except what is found on his website, which details the band’s goal and sound: “This is music for meditation, for frustration and anger, for beauty, and above all for communication. Petrychor seeks to expand on and enhance those focuses typically associated with black metal by staying open to outside influences.” It’s these influences that set this short DIY demo apart from the crowd.

The EP opens with the title track “Dryad (I Make My Home),” a 10-minute journey from rain-spattered windows to dissonant and distorted riffs, played as if cutting through the very fog I found myself surrounded by; haunting and unseen. There’s melody throughout the song, it’s just hidden beneath the screeches and banshee cries. Petrychor plays the typical tremolo picking style guitars with crashing cymbals and blast beats, but the guitar solos stand out for their melodies. The end of the song really keys in on the themes of melancholy and isolation found in black metal. Mysteriously beautiful, the atmosphere and acoustic sections of “Dryad” manage to resonate the most within the songs.

“Gamma Leonis” and “…of Salt and Sky” continue the EP’s intimate nature. “Gamma Leonis” opens with sparse piano, setting a tension that is quickly released with such aggression and passion and build-up that you would think that post-rock gods Mono were playing. “…of Salt and Sky” whisks the listener to the ocean, watching the ebb and tide of the water, nature, and even life; an acoustic guitar and twinkling piano play alongside the sea.

Dryad leaves you craving more, fitting in perfectly within the black metal genre. Containing only three songs and clocking in at 22 minutes, Dryad could be longer. However, the proceeds of this EP go toward the creation of a full-length album, which is already in the works according to Petrychor’s Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/petrychor). Despite this EP’s short length, it succeeds in making the listener crave more, and does so without sounding incomplete.

I would give Dryad 4 zombie babies out of 5.

~~~~~~

You can get the EP from http://www.petrychor.com. Also look for news on the full-length album currently in production.

Rain and cold weather did not deter the Slugs, as they soundly handled Holy Names (from Oakland), beating them 30-17, 30-20, and 30-23. Santa Cruz’s win against the Hawks is the first of three meetings between the two teams this year. The next meeting, on April 2, will be Santa Cruz’s Senior Night.

Inside the West Field House, the lights shone brightly as fans gathered to watch the boys quickly defeat the Hawks.

During the first set, the players moved systematically, easily drawing first blood. In the second set, however, Holy Names kept tight with Santa Cruz early, holding their ground and matching the Slugs point-for-point until Santa Cruz broke the game open, increasing their lead to more than five. Most of Santa Cruz’s starters remained for the second game, but setter Mauro Salinas took over.

By the third set, the Hawks started fighting to stay alive. Holy Names started the third set following up each Santa Cruz point with one of their own, but eventually the Slugs were too much to take; Santa Cruz pulled ahead yet again and finished the match with a tip from Alex Merutka.

Starring at the top of the stat sheet was Justin Lam with an impressive 13 kills out of 17 attempts, Austin Einhorn with 9 kills out of 13 attempts and Austin Kress with 9 kills out of 10 attempts. Salinas contributed heavily to the Slugs’ win as well, with 31 assists in two games.

“I think we did a great job of bouncing back from our loss on Wednesday. It was definitely a good win to have going into our last regular season DIII game,” Salinas said. “Our strongest quality was to be able to rebound and side out – basically what we did the whole game, and we came out on top.”

Earlier in the week on Feb. 23, the boys played second-ranked Division I Stanford in Palo Alto, but unfortunately lost 3-0. However, after their second loss of the year the to nation’s then second-best college program, Santa Cruz rallied together to face their next opponent with a certain fierceness and authority.

“We played great, everybody stepped in, the team passed amazing and passing is the first key to volleyball,” outside hitter Austin Kress said. “We hit well as a team – nothing that night was a very big let-down. We lost a few points here and there but really came together as a team to get the next point.”

Photo by Rowan Byers.

Despite opposite seasons, (two) different oceans, and a different way of life, Cape Town — known as the ‘Mother City’ of Africa — still bears a resemblance to my home in Santa Cruz.  This series chronicles one banana slug’s attempt to make sense of life at the University of Cape Town.

~~~~~~

Last month I traveled nearly 10,000 miles.  It took two flights totaling 22 hours, three crying babies, two viewings of “The Hangover,” and six sub-par meals to arrive in Cape Town, South Africa.  As my father reminded me before I left, I couldn’t have picked a further location to study abroad, even if I tried (EAP does not offer a program in Antarctica).

In preparing for my time abroad, I received many different responses when I divulged to friends, family, professors, and neighbors where I had chosen to study.  These reactions ranged from tones of envy to confusion, as well as concern for my well-being in crime-ridden Cape Town.  In fact, more than a few times during these conversations, I detected a look made up of equal parts skepticism and surprise.  A look that seemed to say, however silently, “they actually have universities in Africa?”

Indeed they do.  The University of Cape Town, where I am attending this semester, is the largest and most highly ranked university on the continent of Africa, with over 23,000 students.

Despite the odyssey-like journey it took to arrive, the similarities between UCSC and UCT are striking.  As is custom in the Redwood forest and beaches of Santa Cruz, shoes are entirely optional at UCT.  The hairstyles du-jour seem to include dreads as well as the “never have, never will own a hairbrush” look.  The weather can change faster than you can say “should I bring a sweater” and copious amounts of hills and stairs mean you’ll arrive to class looking like you just walked from Oakes to Merrill.

Lucky for me though, the panoramic view of the entire city of Cape Town serves as a more than adequate stand-in for Santa Cruz’s beautiful view of the Monterey bay.  And, just like at UCSC, laid-back students bypass the question of ‘should I go to class,’ and ask instead, ‘what beach should I go to instead of class?’

Despite these welcome similarities, there are a myriad of differences that I continue to negotiate.  Attempting to understand the many different kinds of accents and slang in South Africa — there are 11 official languages here — is no easy feat, and nothing makes you feel more like a ‘fresher’ (first year) than trying to decipher academic lingo.  Quick lesson: convener means professor, prac means lab, tut means section, meridian means lunch break, and Jammie can be loosely translated to the 16 Laurel bus route.

Interestingly though, some American students have even expressed disappointment that their experience and impression of Cape Town thus far has not measured up to the ‘authentic’ Africa they were expecting.  Well, if I’ve learned anything from past travel experiences and in the short time I’ve been here, it is that expectations will often lead you astray.  You can expect not to be mugged living in an all-white, affluent suburb, but you would be wrong.  You can expect that a major institution founded in 1829 would have implemented an online enrollment system by now, but three to five hours of ‘qeueing’ for paperwork to register for classes will tell you otherwise.  You can also expect to understand apartheid and the racial composition of Cape Town and South Africa by studying it before you arrive, but you will still be floored by the complexity of race relations demonstrated in all parts of life here.

As the University of California’s least diverse campus, UCSC could learn a thing or two from UCT, where diversity isn’t a concept or goal, but rather a way of life, good or bad.  This diversity certainly makes UCT and Cape Town as a whole a fascinating place.  A place where, each and every day, you’re sure to run into stark contrasts between rich and poor, black and white, incredibly friendly and frequently hostile.  My only expectation while I’m here is to learn more about it.

~~~~~~

Check out the SlugLife blog on Tuesday for Part 2 of Rosie’s Travel Log from Cape Town, South Africa.

SANTA CRUZ, CA – Protesters at the base of campus on Thursday discussed the possibility of continuing protests on Friday at UCSC.

“If you want anything to change… we need to disrupt business as usual for as long as possible,” said an anonymous protester to the crowd at the General Assembly meeting on Thursday evening.

At this time, it is unclear exactly what shape protests will take tomorrow, and whether campus traffic will be again restricted.

Afterwards, a crowd of protesters marched Downtown from the base of campus, taking over the intersection of Water and Pacific around 7:20pm.

Jennifer Cain contributed to this report.

In an effort to gain more support for higher education, students, teachers, workers and members of the Santa Cruz community came together today as one voice.

As a result of the action, some campus services were reduced, while others were made completely unavailable, including transportation and dining services.

Campus shuttles were not operational and all cafés and dining halls other than College Eight/Oakes and College Nine/Ten remained closed throughout the day.

Felicia McGinty, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, sent a mid-day email to students addressing the situation.

“We understand these disruptions are inconvenient and frustrating,” the email said.

Jim Burns, a UCSC spokesman, commented on protestors actions that shut down campus.

“We salute people who want to call attention to the issue … we just don’t believe students should be deprived the right to attend classes if they wish to or need to,” Burns said.

Students arrived at the base of campus as early as 5 a.m. this morning and then began moving to other entrances to block access to the campus.

Graduate student Adam Hefty showed up with a core group of protestors bright and early.

“I’ve been here since five this morning,” Hefty said. “It’s gone great thus far, we have people at several different entrances and have stopped business as usual around here.”

Hefty said that those who do not endorse the protests should look to reactions from state legislatures.

“Look at what state leaders are saying. Governor Schwarzenegger in his state of the state address proposed changes to the state budget and a constitutional amendment,” said Hefty. “We are having an impact and our voices are beginning to be heard.”

Literature professor Carla Freccero was among several professors in attendance.

“I work with the faculty organizing committee, and a lot have shown up today,” Freccero said. “We’re all involved in what’s going on with the budget crisis.”

Freccero, much like many of the teachers on campus, has had her pay cut and has had to see her students deal with these troubling times.

“I think when the students are affected, I am affected, I’ve gotten my pay cut, much like everyone else,” Freccero said. “What’s been bothering me now, for close to a decade is the privatization of the university; I’ve been here for almost 20 years and it’s just become more and more noticeable.”

Environmental studies and economics student Matthew Viponde arrived at the event at nine in the morning, and was excited to see how the rest of the day went.

“Hopefully more and more people will show up throughout the day, the more speakers the better, it mobilizes the crowd and energizes the people,” Viponde said.

“I think it’s really important to show everyone across Santa Cruz, across the county, the state and the country that student activism is not dead.”

Viponde empathizes for all students who are feeling the squeeze from recent fee increases and budget cuts.

“I’m an autonomous student, and I make so little money that I get financial aid for school,” Viponde said. “I’m more concerned with middle class families, it’s a difficult time to be a student here … I just hope that this day becomes a turning point for people’s access to quality education at the public level.”

Jennifer Cain contributed to this report.

Illustration by Joe Lai.

Racism is wrong. We all know this.

But the events of the past weeks, which culminated in the discovery of a noose in UC San Diego’s library, have reminded us that not all acts of hatred stick out like white hoods and color-coded seating.

You’ve probably already formed an opinion about the students from UCSD hosting a “Compton Cookout” and revelers at UC Santa Barbara throwing a “Gangsta Party,” calling them wrong, ignorant, backward, and straight-up stupid. But have you taken the time to ask yourself: How can we take action to prevent behavior like this from happening again? How can we create a university that is more diverse, more open, and more welcoming to minorities?

According to the Census Bureau, California is home to the largest numbers of the fastest-growing racial groups, in the country, Latinos and Asians. Fifty-seven percent of the state’s population identifies as a minority.

Looking at UC Santa Cruz, you wouldn’t know this. We remain one of the least diverse campuses in the UC system, with an undergraduate ethnic makeup of 51 percent white, 16.6 percent Asian-American, 4.7 percent Latino/a (the largest minority in the state), and the now infamous figure of 2.6 percent black.

At Berkeley, 4 percent of the undergraduate population is black, and 12 percent is Latino/a. And because it is a larger campus, that 4 percent and 12 percent accounts for many more people. At UCSD, where students threw a party that poked fun at Black History Month, the total fall 2009 undergraduate population was just 2 percent black — the lowest figure of any UC campus.

Look at our own Latin American and Latino studies department: hacked to pieces, its most talented and dedicated professors handed pink slips. Look at the fact that we lack an ethnic studies department, and the picture of UCSC as an all-inclusive, colorblind institute of higher learning begins to deteriorate. Look on the bus, and you’ll see a campus severely lacking in ethnic diversity. Look into yourself at what prejudices and stereotypes you hold about your fellow students, regardless of the color of your own skin.

There are institutional and economic factors that play heavily into the racial realities at the UC, and now, in a very public way, students’ social activities have turned on their classmates and peers.

But students have not remained silent. Anger and pain has erupted at just about every campus, a likely unanticipated reaction to some thick-skulled partiers’ twisted sense of humor. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came out Monday and condemned the “intolerable acts of racism and incivility” at the state’s sites of higher learning.

What he did not do, and what no chancellor or regent has done, is ask: why? Why did this happen at schools that host Nobel laureates, schools that graduate lawyers and teachers and reputable members of society, and for the most part, house the brightest minds in the country?

The University of California should be the last place racism occurs. We are better than this. We are smarter and kinder than to even allow an under-the-breath crack at a person of an ethnicity other than ours to slip by unchided. Racism is wrong, but standing by and doing nothing is all that is needed for evil to triumph on our campus. And no one, no matter what their ethnic makeup, wants that at our schools.

Illustration by Kiri Rasmussen.

Open up the books already. Seriously.

After years of hiding numbers, snickering, and insisting that everything is fine (“why don’t you just trust us?”), the University of California is finally increasing its transparency to the public. Now that California’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee has voted unanimously to authorize an outside audit of the UC, the state can finally begin to trust the financial operations of the university system. The financial review will be handled by the California State Auditor, the external auditor for California’s state agencies.

The California public deserves to know where its taxpayer money is going. It deserves to see which path the system’s private and state funds will take. Students deserve to rest assured that their fees are being spent efficiently.

The idea that we have been throwing money at the UC and trusting it sends shivers down the spine of any self-respecting taxpayer. It brings to mind the image of a hesitant donor trying to decide whether or not to give a dollar to someone smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, asking for a couple bucks to spend on “food.”

With the amount of money it costs to run a public university system, it is baffling that this external audit is only being mandated now. As taxpayer money is pushed toward public education and students try to figure out how to handle a 32.5 percent fee increase, it’s about time. Both taxpayers and students deserve to know how the money is being spent.

State Sen. Leland Yee from California’s 8th District, which represents San Francisco and San Mateo, expects the audit to uncover fraud and waste at the university system.

Yudof insists that there isn’t any substantial amount of waste happening at the UC, and that this audit will not produce any groundbreaking findings. He is not expecting to see any easy solutions or quick fixes that should have been implemented years ago. He probably hopes for a crystal-clear report without any easy suggestions that money can be saved.

But looking around at the skyrocketing fees, mounting layoffs, and dwindling resources, we sure don’t. If this audit brings wasteful spending to the public eye, perhaps that money can be used for other valuable expenses. UC campuses will be forced to cut that much less from their resource centers, dining halls and employee salaries.

Really though, this isn’t about whether or not California’s nonpartisan auditor will uncover the fraud and waste that Sen. Lee anticipates. It’s about the transparency and accountability that Californians should be able to expect from their public institutions.

Can you imagine if a public business laid off thousands of workers, cut services, raised prices, and then tried to keep its finances a secret from its shareholders? People would be furious. This audit will hold the UC accountable to its “shareholders” — the California taxpayers and students.

It comes late, but we’re happy to hear about California’s plans to provide an honest audit of the UC. We expect it to be thorough, and we expect it to be complete.

So please, administrators, before you reach into our pockets any further, open up your books.

Sophomore Serena Shen rushes downfield toward the net, protecting the ball from her teammate during a practice scrimmage. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Like a nomadic clan trekking across desert plains and harsh climates, the women’s lacrosse team has moved throughout the UC Santa Cruz campus, playing lacrosse wherever they go as they try to find their way as an independent team on campus.

“We’ve tried to practice at so many different places, but we always get kicked off,” freshman center Laura Harris said. “We’ve practiced on the tennis courts … got kicked off by the tennis team; basketball courts, got kicked off because supposedly they don’t let the men’s lacrosse team practice there [either]. We’ve even practiced out here at the College Eight fields.”

On this day the team is practicing at the basketball courts of College Eight in the pouring rain and howling wind. Lacrosse is a winter sport, so a little rain isn’t anything new to the team — however, not being able to hold practice due to the location issue is one of several ways that the team is negatively affected by its lack of an official affiliation with UCSC.

“It doesn’t help that we’re not actually associated with the school,” Harris said. “So we literally have no support from the school, which makes it difficult for us to use the fields and the facilities.”

The process of becoming affiliated with UCSC and OPERS, however, is a hefty task.

“We have been told that there is a cap on the number of club teams allowed, which has been reached, so they are not accepting any more right now,” first-time head coach Cara Couture said. “We would have to petition the whole school, get signatures saying how people want more club teams, and then that gets reviewed. … It’s just a long process.”

Women’s lacrosse was considered a club team until 2008, when a lack of interest ultimately led to disbandment.

“The team just kind of fell apart, lost interest unfortunately, for a couple of years,” Couture said. “No one kept the team going.”

Sophomore Janine Sung, the club’s president and team captain, came to UCSC in the fall of 2008 when there was no women’s lacrosse team.

“I came here freshman year and I was really disappointed to find that the school did not have a women’s lacrosse team, despite advertisements on the OPERS website,” Sung said.

As a result, Sung went out and began recruiting any girls she saw with lacrosse gear.

“I ended up talking to anyone I saw with field hockey sticks, helms, or gear from previous teams,” Sung said. “We now have a roster of 30 girls who are extremely dedicated with lots of talent, and it just makes me excited for these next couple of years.”

The team is currently 1-4, but its members are trying to keep this season in perspective considering it is their first year back.

“The season hasn’t been that bad for us, despite having four losses and a win,” Couture said. “It’s our first season back, so we are still rebuilding and just striving to revive this program.”

Regardless of how the rest of the season goes, Couture is planning to return as the team’s head coach next year.

“I would like to come back next year,” she said. “I have no plans for leaving Santa Cruz, so I would love to come back and coach these girls again.”

Meanwhile, Sung continues to work toward reinstating the team’s official club status.

“We’re going to keep talking and trying to gain back our status,” she said. “We’re going to keep bugging them and hope that they will let us come back on as a UCSC-affiliated club team.”

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

A knock on the door can mean many things: the arrival of a friend, the delivery of a package, the surprise of a novelty check. But in 2010, you can expect the census to come knocking as well.

This March, a census questionnaire will be sent to every household across the country in order to quantify growing population areas and redraw district lines for the succeeding decade.

Santa Cruz’s Complete Count Committee is working on ensuring a more accurate count than in past decades. City Councilmember Cynthia Mathews said the committee is performing an important service for the city.

“It’s the Complete Count Committee that’s doing the community and grassroots work to get the word out,” Mathews said.

Santa Cruz is one of many communities across the country, including Watsonville and Live Oak, to introduce the Complete Count Committee for this year’s census.

The committees meet monthly to discuss outreach to “hard-to-count groups” like the homeless, college students and immigrants.

Santa Cruz’s committee meets monthly and is composed of members from a variety of different organizations around the area, including the Familia Center, Homeless Services Center, Americorps, and the Santa Cruz Bible Church. Currently, nine people sit on the committee, with over 30 people working under them in subcommittees and organizations.

It’s important that every area gets its numbers right, especially during hard financial times. Every person counted guarantees $1,476 a year toward the community.

“There are billions and billions of dollars at federal and state level that are dispersed to communities on a basis of the census,” Mathews said. “That’s money being used for housing, education, growth and proper transit. So we want to get a complete count so we get our fair share of money.”

The other reason cities and counties strive for a complete population count is so that growing areas of population are represented accurately in Congress. California is in danger of losing a seat because of waning growth in the state. That vote may have to be given up to a state that has larger population growth, like Texas.

“It’s so important,” said Kymberly Lacrosse, coordinator of the Complete Count Committee. “It’s used on so many different levels. For long-term planning your local officials are using census data to figure out your highways or school systems. That’s why getting an accurate count is so important.”

Lacrosse was hired to coordinate the committee in July of last year. She said that a major difference between the last census and this one is that the city started outreach early.

There are hurdles to be jumped, however, when it comes to getting a complete count this decade as compared to the last.

“Ten years ago, money was coming in from the state and federal levels, and it was used for outreach, and now there is no money,” Lacrosse said. “Zero.”

Despite this financial shortfall, the U.S. Census Bureau continues to work toward getting a complete count. The bureau prints the census questionnaire in six different languages including English, provides language assistance guides for 59 languages, and hires partnership staff capable of addressing problems in 101 languages across the United States. This is to ensure that immigrant populations are being addressed properly.

“There is a cultural difference from 10 years ago,” said Karen Mallory, partnership specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau. “There are more people working for the census to overcome these cultural boundaries. It’s really fantastic, having people looking at the issue from all different angles.”

Mallory started doing census outreach in July 2009. The partnership she works for labored during the last census to get a 3 percent increase in responses, and Mallory is looking for even better numbers this time around.

One of the main groups she targets are immigrant populations.

“There is a lot of anti-immigrant propaganda out there that makes people feel like they aren’t wanted in the country and in the census,” Mallory said. “But especially for people who can’t vote … it’s so important. It’s your voice and it’s being counted.”

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, fundraiser! Photo by Rosario Serna.

Alcohol has often been known to heal wounds, especially wounds of the community.

As of last year, even domestic abuse programs felt the sting of statewide budget cuts, giving local nonprofits like the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center (WAWC) a reason to fight back.

Their weapon of choice? Some good old-fashioned tequila.

Felicita “Cita” Rasul, associate development director for the Women’s Center, explained why the organization is holding the March 6 event, appropriately named “Agave Agape” — Agape meaning love that is spiritual rather than sexual in nature.

“We need money to stay open. Right now we’re still furloughed on Wednesdays, so we can’t provide services on those days,” Rasul said. “My assistant director said we needed to do something like wine tasting, but she said ‘I don’t like wine, I like tequila!’”

And although tequila is famously paired with its partners in crime, salt and limes, Rasul explained that this event is all about experiencing the drink from a wine taster’s perspective.

“It’s not for doing shots or getting drunk or crazy, it’s really about tasting the tequila and enjoying it,” Rasul said. “It’s not about encouraging drinking, it’s about learning more about a drink that you already enjoy.”

This past July, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger clipped the remaining $16 million from the state’s Domestic Violence Program, causing groups like the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center to stand up and toast to the fundraising cause.

“We’ve been running on this promise of money,” Rasul said. “We’re applying for lots of grants and just working on gaining support from the community, and people have been very generous.”

Lisa Melloni, a UC Santa Cruz student and intern at the center, is one of many people putting the event together and running the center daily.

“I’ve been organizing all of the donations that have been made, and making phone calls and serving people at the event,” Melloni said. “It seems like I could learn a lot from here.”

Rasul discussed tequila’s origin from the agave plant, and the various types of tequila that will be available at the event.

“The three basics are blanco, anejo, and reposado,” she said. “Some of them are aged in whiskey barrels or bourbon barrels, so that’s where the different flavors come in. There are so many tequilas out there — they have their own nuances just like different wines, and a lot of people don’t really know that.”

Melloni is a fan of the Don Julio brand, which will be available at the tasting. She said that there will be about five companies in attendance, each serving two or three different kinds of tequila.

Rasul explained that along with tequila tasting, Agave Agape will offer wine and beer as well as Nuevo Southwest Grill catering, a silent auction and raffle prizes.

“We have a basket of Newman’s Own Organics, we have movie passes, and a lot of the local companies that have supported us are donating items as well,” Rasul said.

Rasul said that initially, the idea of a fundraiser centered on alcohol spelled trouble to the Women’s Center administrators. Recognizing the thin line they walk, the organizers are making an effort to keep the event as comfortable as possible.

“We had a lot of conversations about the appropriateness of having a tequila-tasting event, or any event including alcohol, aligned with the services we offer,” Rasul said. “The center of a lot of people’s trauma stems from alcohol abuse.”

Rasul stated that they plan to make the event as safe as possible, with car services available to take people home if they end up having too much fun.

The fundraiser’s projected 100-plus turnout helps Women’s Center staff members see the benefits of working in this environment even with a withering budget.

Melloni described the priceless feeling of helping women in the community each and every day, and said resources like the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center need as much support as possible.

“I’ve talked to some of the women that come in here. It really makes a difference in their lives,” Melloni said. “These women help them when they come in here and make them feel understood.”

And even though the fundraiser promises a good time, what it really boils down to — for Rasul and others associated with the nonprofit — is the ability to keep the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center running strong even on its shaky feet.

“Right now we are just raising money to keep the doors open and make sure that our services are available,” Rasul said. “It’s really important to support our families that we serve.”

~~~~~~

The event will be held at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) at the McPherson Center on Saturday, March 6. Cost is $75 per person. For more information, please call (831) 426-3062.

Hundreds of students rallied on the north steps of the Capitol building in Sacramento on Monday. Chanting could be heard for blocks. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Third-year Tiffany Loftin, internal vice chair of the UCSC Student Union Assembly, was one of many speakers who commanded the attention of the large crowd of students gathered in solidarity at the Capitol building. Photo by Alex Zamora.

“Are you fired up?”

Hundreds of demonstrators on the north steps of the Capitol building echoed a response to this galvanizing inquiry: “We’re fired up!”

As the 66th California State Assembly speaker was sworn into office on Monday, student protesters literally made their voices heard in the halls of the state Capitol.

“While we appointed a new assembly speaker we could hear you,” California Labor Federation secretary and treasurer Arch Palaski told City on a Hill Press in reference to the demonstrators. “Your voice is being heard.”

Monday, March 1 was Lobby Day at the Capitol, where chancellors and students advocated for higher education. This day kicked off a week of action in defense of public education, and was a precursor to a statewide strike on Thursday, March 4.

The March for Higher Education on Thursday is a “K through Ph.D.” action that will include University of California students as well as all members of the California education system.

UC President Mark Yudof and UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal accompanied student lobbyists to meetings with members of the legislature throughout the day.

Though Monday’s activities were focused on lobbying, student demonstrators rallied both inside and outside the Capitol. One demonstration, a sit-in at the office of Assemblyman Jim Neilson (R-Yuba City), resulted in the arrest of five UC students.

Second-year Gabi Kirk, one of three UCSC students among the five UC students arrested, described the scene as nonaggressive.

“The coolest thing for me was how beautifully calm and peaceful it was,” Kirk said. “Protests don’t need to be loud and in-your-face — sometimes they can involve students sitting in business suits in an office reading books.”

The five students were arrested for assembling without a permit, and were charged with an extra misdemeanor for disrupting state business, according to Kirk. Because the state Capitol is under the jurisdiction of the California Highway Patrol (CHP), the students arrested were taken by van to CHP headquarters, where they were cited and released.

The demonstration inside began when several students — independent of any organization — gathered outside the offices of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assemblyman Nielsen, intending to present them with a letter containing two demands.

According to a narration provided by Kirk, the demands were: first, a commitment of nonapproval for a budget that does not increase funding for higher education; second, guaranteed funding for “student-initiated outreach and academic preparation, yield, and multicultural student development programs.”

“We need to see some real results, now more than ever,” said UCSC second-year Claudia Magana, who was among the five students arrested. “We need to hold our legislatures accountable.”

Steinberg met with a group of students and arranged for a follow-up to discuss their concerns on March 25. Nielsen, however, declined to speak to students.

The sit-in began when 11 students refused to leave Nielson’s office until they were allowed to meet with the assemblyman. After asking them to vacate the office, CHP officers zip-tied the wrists of the five individuals who had decided to stay and escorted them to CHP headquarters.

“These actions were taken by individuals to take it to the next level and push the envelope of prioritizing higher education,” UCSC first-year Natan Tietz said. Tietz was among the group of about 100 students gathered outside the offices in support of the sit-in.

Present at the protest for a short period of time was Dolores Huerta. Huerta is considered by many to be a significant figure in the history of grassroots activism, due in part to her role as co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association with fellow civil rights activist Cesar Chávez. A building at Oakes College is named in her honor.

“[Dolores Huerta] is an amazing figure in terms of activism and support for education,” Magana said. “To have someone who is so historically significant in social activism support your issue is very empowering.”

In the hours preceding the sit-in, students and members of the legislature spoke to the crowd of hundreds of supporters on the north steps of the Capitol. Many students spoke to the importance of rallying for public education.

“From all across the state, we’ve come together to say that education is a right and not a privilege,” said Victor Sanchez, UCSC’s Student Union Assembly (SUA) external vice chair. Sanchez also serves as president of the University of California Student Association (UCSA), whose members organized the day’s events.

On the north steps, over the noise of another speaker, Democratic Assemblyman Warren Furutani explained his reasons for supporting the student mobilization.

“We need to circumvent the legislative process,” he said. “Grassroots is the way to go.”

Furutani went on to discuss the significance of bringing the struggle to the Capitol.

“On my desk I have a green light and a red light,” he said about the process of passing legislation. “Often we forget that we are voting on people’s lives. When people come to Sacramento it puts a face [to that]. It humanizes it and makes it about the people.”

Students protest beneath the canopy of a handmade banana slug. Photo by Soraya Danesh.

While college students in Sacramento lobbied legislators, some UC Santa Cruz students began the week with protests featuring a giant paper banana slug.

Manning a 12-person slug puppet and a rolling stereo sound system, about 40 students marched throughout the UCSC campus on Monday, March 1 from noon to 2 p.m.

Written on the giant yellow slug: “No fees, no furlough and no cuts to classes.”

One organizer, who asked not to be named, described the protesters’ motives.

“We are trying to raise awareness about March 4,” he said, “and the racist acts on UC campuses.”

The students, their faces covered by bandanas and sweatshirts, began coalescing in Quarry Plaza around noon.

They then marched, in the middle of the street, up Hagar Drive. Making a left onto McLaughlin, they marched up the right-hand lane. Many cars were left stranded in the middle of the road between students, and one campus bus was forced to let students out on the edge of the road.

On McLaughlin Drive, some masked protesters moved construction signs from both the Cowell Student Health Center and Biomedical Sciences Facility sites into the road, blocking traffic going both ways.

Students then turned onto Science Hill, making their way to the Science and Engineering Library.

From there, the protesters entered the College Nine and Ten Dining Hall, calling for awareness of the March 4 protest. Many students cheered and some took pictures of the larger-than-life slug.

Dining hall employees seemed amused by the marchers, but became angry when masked students began streaming up stairs toward Terra Fresca restaurant.

Police detained one student as protesters, standing outside the dining hall, began drumming on windows yelling “Let him go!”

Once the student was released, the protesters left the dining hall. Many pushed over dining hall signs, angering workers who were outside.

University administrators observing the march said that the protest would not be stopped unless it disturbed other students or workers inside buildings, or damaged property.

Michelle Whittingham, an associate vice chancellor who followed the march around campus relaying the student’s actions to other administrators, enjoyed the sight of the yellow construction-paper slug.

“It should be reused for school spirit,” Whittingham said.

Walking back down McLaughlin Drive, protesters stopped at the Humanities buildings, entering the large lecture hall and adjacent buildings. They then attempted to enter the Cowell-Stevenson Dining Hall but were blocked by dining hall workers.

As they made their way out of Cowell College, Gary Roe, a groundsperson at Cowell, gave the protesters some advice: “Go to Sacramento, talk to Schwarzenegger,” he said.

“It’s a great cause,” Roe said, “[but] time can be better spent going to the source.”

The protesters attempted to enter many lecture halls, including Classroom Units 1 and 2, but were forced out by professors and students.

“There is an incredibly disturbing level of antipathy [among UCSC students] toward protesting,” said Leo Ritz-Barr, a third-year politics major from College Nine.

Barr, who held up the head of the puppet slug, said it took four hours to build.

Jim Burns, the director of public information at UCSC, said the administration approves of protesting state budget cuts to the University of California, but not of tactics that disrupt learning and working at the university.

“People have the right to be concerned about the state’s divestment in higher education,” Burns said, “[but] to the extent that [demonstrating] is infringing on other people — that’s not so great.”

For Thursday, March 4, the protesters said that they had two more giant yellow paper slugs ready to snake around campus in a march for higher education.