UCSC’s Mardi Gras-themed queer prom held March 2, sold out, giving all students the prom experience they might not have had in high school. Photo by Sal Ingram.

In a transformed Porter/Kresge Dining Hall, under a glittering disco ball, students gathered for the second annual Queer Prom.

Bodies swayed to the music in a sold-out room where students attending the Mardi Gras-themed event danced on the floor, main stage, and on top of chairs and tables, until 1 a.m.

Queer Prom, held March 2, was hosted by the Queer Student Union (QSU) and Delta Lambda Psi (DLP). Nestor Rivera, QSU media coordinator, helped organize the event and discussed the purpose of the QSU.

“The QSU is here to build a better union with queer students on campus,” Rivera said. “We try to bring a safe environment to educate students with and around the queer movement.”

After last year’s large turnout, Rivera had high expectations for this year’s event.

“Queer Prom is a safe zone where students can be themselves, free of judgment,” Rivera said. “It’s a way to give students the prom experience they may have wanted but couldn’t receive in high school.”

Although the administration is helpful in providing the Cantú Queer Center at Merrill College, Rivera said, they can still meet the needs of queer students in other ways. For example, the university can push for queer studies, which he said was a course of study recently added by San Diego State University.

Along with QSU, Delta Lambda Psi helped coordinate the event. Delta Lambda Psi is a unique, all-inclusive queer Greek organization founded at UC Santa Cruz in 2005. It is the first queer, gender-neutral Greek organization in the nation.

Ryan Austin, a member of both QSU and Delta Lambda Psi, said the event was “absolutely successful.”

“Events like Queer Prom increase visibility for the queer student body,” Austin said. “And I think it’s representative of a larger notion that we shouldn’t deny the personal expression of others, whatever their form may be.”

Anna Sidorchuk spoke at the event about her experiences as a bisexual student.

“Being bisexual, I think it’s important for me to attend and represent my sexuality as well as that of others,” she said. “I’ve never been in a large participative queer community like this, so it’s cool for me to get involved.”

Many ally students also came out and enjoyed the night’s festivities.

“It’s going really well. There’s a lot of people and I’m having a good time,” said Patrick Davis, a chemistry major. “I came to the event because it was something to do, and I’m glad I came. There’s a very positive vibe.”

When the clock struck 1 a.m., students of all orientations and genders exited the dining hall with their fingers intertwined, heads on one another’s shoulders, and a quiet Saturday morning awaiting them after a long night of celebration.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

In an attempt to foster dialogue between the university administration and student activists, executive vice chancellor Alison Galloway and other members of the UC Santa Cruz Demonstration Advisory Group (DAG) will be hosting a forum in the Porter Fireside Lounge on June 3. The forum is designed to provide a venue for students to share their experiences in past protests.

The function of the DAG, headed by Galloway and College Nine and Ten provost Helen Shapiro, was detailed in an email sent to the student body in April of 2011. The group is staffed by a mixture of administration, faculty and students on an entirely volunteer basis.

Though partially a response to last year’s Kerr Hall occupation, Shapiro said that the group has been in the wings for a few years.

“The former EVC was interested in starting this, but it’s been a combination of a new EVC, a push from students and faculty, and general dissatisfaction about what happened last year with Kerr Hall,” Shapiro said.

Galloway’s intent is to allow students to openly communicate with the administration about protest management and policy.

“[The DAG] is here to look at the policies we have in place to interact with demonstrations, how they’re regulated, how they’re surveilled, what sort of limits are set, how the police are involved,” Galloway said in an interview during the early stages of the group’s formation. “Essentially, we’re asking, ‘How do we help the people who are forming the demonstration and help them get their message to the people who need to hear it?’ If the message does not get through, then everyone’s time has been wasted.”

As the year draws to a close, the DAG stated in an email that the group will be hosting the June 3 forum to gather student input as it reviews university policies with regard to demonstrations and protests.

According to the email, “[the] DAG would like to have this information because we’re reviewing campus policies and procedures, in part because we see problems with them. We want to be sure we hear from students about their concerns and receive their recommendations for how to revise current practices.”

In an earlier interview, Shapiro expressed her wishes for the decision-making process involving protest regulation to be more transparent and inclusive.

“The hope is to not simply react. We want to have people who are concerned about the campus sitting down and working towards a better community,” she said. “That does not mean there won’t be differences, but our goal is to have a clear, fair procedure.”

Some have expressed their concern with the methods adopted by the DAG. Noah Miska, a College Nine second-year and member of the DAG, feels that the DAG fails to address the underlying problems inherent in student protest.

“The group’s focus is on how to address demonstrations, rather than how to address the structural issues that motivate students to organize those demonstrations,” Miska said.

A May 27 email to the campus community informed students of the June 3 forum and said that those who share and participate can choose to be anonymous.

“Neither any information you give at the meeting, nor your presence at it, will be given by any member of [the] DAG to anyone in Student Affairs or the campus police, nor would it ever be allowable in any judicial affairs procedure,” Galloway said in the email.

Scheduled for the last weekend before finals, the timing may be less than optimal, but the email explained that there are many more meetings to come.

“We realize that the timing is not ideal by any means,” the e-mail said. “This forum will not be the last formal opportunity that students have to give input to DAG, but it will be the only formal opportunity this school year.”

Illustration by Bela Messex

Emotions filled the Merrill Cultural Center as an audience waited eagerly to learn Paula Bonilla Flores’ story about “feminicide.”

The Chicano Latino Resource Center held an event May 19–20 to highlight the issue of feminicide.  Almost 100 students attended.

Feminicide is a phenomenon plaguing countries throughout the world. Initially recognized in the Mexican cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, it is a stream of gender-based sexual violence that includes the murder of women and girls. Families of victims often face the denial of local authorities as a major obstacle toward attaining justice against the murderers, and often experience discriminating attitudes such as victim-blaming. Sagrario Gonzalez Flores, the daughter of Paula Bonilla Flores, was a victim of feminicide.

“I’m going to continue to fight for my daughter’s case and [I’m glad] that the students were made aware and sensitized to the issues at hand,” Flores said. “I appreciate them for being so young and so involved with these issues.”

Sagrario was brutally murdered by drug trafficker Jose Luis Hernandez in 1998. Although others were suspected to be involved with the murder, Hernandez took full blame to bring a hasty close to the case in 2005. To this day, the Flores family is still struggling to bring to justice all of the people who were involved.

The first day of the event included a showing of the documentary “La Carta.” The film followed the 12-year struggle of finding justice for Sagrario’s family.

The second day of the event, the book “Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas” was presented to an audience. The book is a collection of essays written by feminists, human rights activists, scholars and attorneys from Latin America and the United States. It contains testimonials by relatives of women who disappeared or were murdered as examples of feminicide.

Cynthia Bejarano is a professor of criminal justice at New Mexico State University and co-editor of the book. She said it was important to educate the general public about feminicide in order to create a larger connection between audiences.

“I hope that this event triggers some continuity with the issues from afar,” Bejarno said. “I hope that it bridges connections with the violence in cities such as Ciudad Juarez and drug consumption in the U.S. I’m happy to see that people were very engaged, and hopefully [they] will make broader connections.”

Hector Dominguez, a traveling professor of Latin American literature and culture from University of Texas in Austin, also spoke at the event.

Dominguez said people should be aware that the actions of the United States have impacts elsewhere.

“The problem in Ciudad Juarez is not due to Mexico, but it is due to the problems here in the United States, [like] criminalization of immigration and drugs,” Dominguez said.

He said student involvement was important in the wake of these crimes.

“Awareness is already there [in the affected countries],” Dominguez said. “The news is around and there are a lot of stories [of such crimes]. It is all the matter of the combination of grassroots activism [that exist in these countries] and the activism of the students.”

Paula Bonilla Flores said she was happy with the success of the event.

“I thought that this event went well overall,” said Flores. “Some girls commented on the inspiration I gave them. This serves to them as a message to move on when hard things happen to them.”

Dr. Cornel West speaks at Classroom Unit 2 on Friday, May 6. SUA and E2 coordinated the event. Photo by Michael Mott.

The atmosphere inside Classroom Unit 2 was tense.

Opening remarks had been made at UC Santa Cruz’s Speaker Blowout, and the stage was set for the main attraction of the evening: Dr. Cornel West.

Suddenly, a hush fell over the room and the side door on stage right opened. In strolled West, and up shot the audience. Approximately 400 people were on their feet, clapping and cheering with the same enthusiasm college students usually reserve for movie stars and rappers.

But West is a different kind of celebrity. Holding degrees from both Harvard and Princeton, West is an internationally known philosopher, author, orator and civil rights activist. He is best known for his work in social justice related to race, gender and class in American society.

Speaker Blowout is an annual event that aims to provide a space for students to be educated and informed about issues directly affecting access to institutions of higher learning.

Taking the podium, West began his speech with a question.

“The most important question we can ask ourselves is, ‘What does it mean to be human?’”

This kind of Socratic questioning was a frequent theme in West’s speech. Touching on issues of race, class, the legacy of white supremacy, gender and modern politics, West’s speech highlight- ed the progress that still needs to be made for social justice in America, and the importance of critical inquiry.

“We must come to terms with all forms of suffering,” West said. He urged the audience not to be satisfied with the status quo, and to remove themselves from the pursuit of material happiness. “Become misfits maladjusted to the indifference of the main-

stream,” West said. “From ‘bling bling’ to ‘let freedom ring.’”

West drew upon elements of African American culture in his discourse about social justice, referring to himself as “a blues- man in the life of the mind” and to the true nature of human existence, complete with its beauty and atrocities, as “the funk.” West called those who work for social justice “participants in the funk.”

Before beginning his speech, West acknowledged SUA chair Tiffany Loftin in front of the crowd, calling her “the visionary leader.” Loftin, along with Engaging Education (E2) program coordinators Kalwis Lo and Sahira Barajas, were the driving forces behind booking West. Loftin

said securing such a high-profile speaker was not an easy task.

“There were a lot of hurdles we had to jump over,” Loftin said. “But it was something I had my heart set on.”

Loftin said the main obstacle to bringing West to UCSC was money. The total cost for the event was $30,000, and the SUA and E2 had to fundraise over half the cost after donating $12,000 out of their own operating budgets. E2 program coordinator Kalwis Lo described the trio’s fundraising strategy.

“We wrote a letter to every administrator and college provost, telling them about our event and what our intentions were,” Lo said.

While some people Lo, Barajas and Loftin reached out to did not provide financial support, others

offered use of facilities or moral support. Colleges Nine and Ten provost Helen Shapiro was one of the event’s biggest financial supporters, donating a total of $2,000.

“I think Cornel West is an important voice, and the timing was good given [issues with graffiti] that have happened on campus,” Shapiro said.

Lo said their selection of West was partly in response to the rash of discriminatory graffiti been found on UCSC’s campus this year. The organizers of Speaker Blowout were hoping to use West’s prestige as a professor of African American studies at Princeton to further the movement for the creation of an ethnic studies program at UCSC, Lo said.

West emphasized that no matter what major, issues of social justice affect all students.

“Everything is at stake,” West said. “This has to do with what type of person you want to be, what type of society you want to have, what type of university you want to have.”

In closing, West encouraged all those who work for social justice to retain hope.

“Blues is about hope because the evidence always looks overwhelmingly bad,” West said. “But when you are a participant in the funk, all you’re looking for is movement.”

Haluan dancers perform Saturday at the Womyn of Color Conference. Photo by Michael Mott

“I am mixed, I am beautiful and I am proud,” said UC Santa Cruz student Alana Duvernay in a spoken-word poem at this year’s Womyn of Color Conference.

Delegates from UCSC, San Diego State, UCLA and other schools met on Saturday at the UCSC’s Oakes lower lawn to empower women of Latino, African, Native American, mixed-race and Asian roots.

The first keynote speaker, Dylcia Pagan, spoke on her experience as an activist in the fight for Puerto Rico’s independence. At the event, stories like Pagan’s were celebrated, as well as other struggles women have overcome.

Sponsored by the Student Union Assembly (SUA) and several other campus groups, the Womyn of Color Conference is an annual event that is normally held at a different UC campus every year. Before last year, it hadn’t been held for four years. After the hiatus, the event was brought back at UC Santa Barbara in 2010.

The UC Student Association (UCSA) decides when and where the conference will occur. The UCSA is a coalition of the individual UC student governments, such as UCSC’s SUA.

Omar Villa, the SUA commisioner of diversity, said the theme of this year’s Womyn of Color Conference was “Celebrating our Stories.”

“It’s a two-day conference. We did it because it didn’t look like the other UCs were going to,” he said. “By talking about our struggles, we’re trying to empower women and focus on their achievements.”

With workshops, keynote speakers, caucus spaces, spoken word and dance troupes, the conference was an all-day event. Chairs were filled by students and faculty of all ethnicities, men and women.

UCSC’s African American Theatre Arts Troupe performed, as did the Haluan Hip-Hop Dance Troupe, Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas and Sabrosura Dance Troupe.

Villa said men were encouraged to attend. He led a workshop with a friend.

“It’s called ‘Letting Your Inner Vagina Out,’” he said. “Mine’s all about actively speaking out about sex without barriers and degradation. It’s a healing workshop, and it’s important to have men here as allies. They’re important to this space, and it’s one way we can all participate.”

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, a Brooklyn-based spoken word artist, also attended and led a workshop called “Living Poetry Outloud! Writing & Performing Spoken Word.”

“I’ve really enjoyed talking and learning about all the different communities here,” she said.

In a spoken word performance called “Real Women I Know,” she commented on gender equality and the struggles of women.

“Real women I know aren’t women at all, but are tranny boys, gender queer, gender fluid, with short hair and button-down shirts — genitalia are only one tiny part of the puzzle when the world offers so much more,” she said. “Real women I know are driven into the ground eternally, never given rest, take on everybody else’s problems, never allow ourselves to give up.”

Three workshop sessions were held, with 26 different workshops to choose from. One workshop was held by Shannon Gleeson, a UCSC assistant professor of Latin American and Latino studies. She got involved with the event because she wanted to learn more about different student groups, she said in an email.

“I do think that it is important for faculty to participate in student programming,” she said. “However, especially in a tight budget climate with decreasing resources and increasing demands on faculty, it is not always possible to do so.”

Maya Wagoner, a UCSC student of mixed race, said it is important for these events to happen so people come together and have an open dialogue.

“It’s more open here,” she said. “There’s a wall up in the white community where people don’t often talk about racial issues. [This event] is a safe space to discuss issues of race in our communities.”

Photo by Molly Solomon

The Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) workshop is cluttered with stacks of wood, dismantled computers, multi-colored wires, prosthetic limbs, empty cans of Mountain Dew and couches manned by fitfully sleeping graduate students.

For DANM’s ten participants, this represents two years of work coming to fruition. This year’s Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) new media exhibition, entitled “Permutations,” will be open to the public this Thursday through Sunday.

Those in the DANM program study digital media and the cultures they have created. According to the program’s website, faculty and students from a variety of backgrounds “pursue interdisciplinary artistic and scholarly research and production in the context of a broad examination of digital arts and cultures.”

“This is a very non-traditional program,” DANM student Andrew Pascoe said. “It crosses the boundaries of art by employing different types of technology.”

The yearly MFA presentation began in 2006, but has only been able to move onto campus since the completion of the new digital arts facility. Ten projects will be on exhibit, each with their own twist on DANM’s inventive sensibilities.

Pascoe composed a musical piece for “Permutations” entitled “God: The Opera,” which will be performed in the Digital Arts Media Center on Friday at 8 p.m. UCSC alumnus Jacob Cribbs wrote the libretto for the piece.

“I avoid spectacle. I avoid the dramatic. But my opera involves a wide variety of things,” Pascoe said. “Instrumentalists and singers will be reading the opera. I have a soprano, alto, baritone and bass all performing. I also have an oboe, string quartet and a piano playing. Then I employ computer electronics along with those.”

Exploring the relationship between art and technology can create varying theories, as the DANM participants illustrate through their unique works. Pascoe’s research has led him to a conclusion that might be inflammatory to some involved in the musical world.

“Music has no meaning,” he said. “My opera is based on the Book of Job. The piece parallels Job’s search for meaning in suffering by examining the search for meaning in music. Job doesn’t find any answers, and there are no answers in music.”

Pascoe said this doesn’t undermine the value of music.

“Music is still a worthwhile pursuit,” he said. “Stripping it of its meaning does not strip it of its beauty.”

Other DANM students chose to express their research through similarly unconventional means. Phoenix Toews wrote a programming language entitled “Palimpsest,” which he has used to create an augmented reality presentation for both iPhones and iPads.

“The type of program I’ve created places virtual objects at real GPS locations,” Toews said. “We’ll be loaning out iPads, and when you look at the screen you’ll see the camera’s view of the real world. But when you approach my virtual objects, they’ll appear as if they’re actually there.”

Toews’ augmented reality scavenger hunt may seem like a video game fanatic’s dream come true, but there are other elements as well.

“With this particular piece I’m talking about memory and place,” Toews said. “I’m collapsing space into the moment, taking a single space and making it a multiplicity. This is a way to tell many stories about a single location.”

Levi Goldman, another DANM student, created an interactive exhibit entitled “Completion Inc.”

“My piece represents a fictitious corporate entity,” Goldman said. “I have a fantastical collection of human parts, presumably ready for sale.”

Cameras will sense the movement of viewers and a variety of different body parts will move and shift accordingly.

“Subtle movements and heartbeats represent the life within the objects we consume,” Goldman said. “Commodity items try to fit the average body, but when people use those products, their identities meld and become average. It produces homogeneity, or monoculture.”

But monoculture is nowhere to be found in “Permutations.” These ten demonstrations of creativity are made all the more impressive when compared to the unorganized and chaotic corner of the digital arts building in which they were produced.

Queer Fashion Show, hosted at Porter/Kresge Dining Hall, will feature several fashion lines and performances created by students. Photos by Molly Solomon.

One of UC Santa Cruz’s premier events has returned for another year. The Queer Fashion Show will be presenting “The Media in Rainbow Vision” at Porter College this Friday and Saturday. Not only does the event promise to be some of the most ambitious student theater on campus, but the sexy charity show will also donate all proceeds to the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center, Planned Parenthood and the Diversity Center.

Fourth-years Zackary Forcum of Oakes College and Jasmine Fernandez of Porter College will be directing this year’s Queer Fashion Show. The two former dancers have each been involved in the show’s last three performances, and share a passion for the causes advanced by the queer community.

“I love that there’s a night to celebrate queerness in performance,” Forcum said. “[During] my freshman year I saw the show, and it looked like so much fun. I immediately wanted to get involved.”

Queer Fashion Show has long been a part of UCSC culture. Forcum discussed some of the history behind the event.

“No one knows for sure when it began,” Forcum said. “The Queer Fashion Show started with queer individuals emptying out their closets and parading around the Porter quad.”

The UCSC university library documentary project “Out in the Redwoods” puts the origin of the show in the late 1980s, when it was known as the Alternative Fashion Show.

Since then, the show has become a mainstay at UCSC, and is emblematic of the school’s identity as a queer-friendly campus.

“We’ve come a long way in the last few years for queer representation,” Forcum said. “UCSC is one of the most openly queer schools in the U.S.”

The show has since grown from its humble beginnings. This year, in addition to the usual festivities, there will be a gallery showing before the performance. The show’s directors provided a few other glimpses of what to expect.

“You’re going to see four different fashion lines, each student-designed and all of them very different,” Forcum said. “We will be having spoken word, dance and comedic skits, all performed by a cast of more than 60 people, and it will be very, very sexy at times.”

The show’s reputation for being provocative is aided by the work of its designers. College Ten fourth-year and student designer Juliana Findlay discussed the inspiration for her fashion collection.

“My line focuses on a stripped-down version of the tuxedo,” Findlay said. “I took it apart, made it sexier, and did it in the vein of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ and ‘Smooth Criminal’ music videos.”

The entire production is student-run, from the creation of advertising campaigns to the choreographing of dance routines, and students participate on a volunteer basis.

“Our actors don’t get material things or any sort of monetary value from the Queer Fashion Show,” Forcum said. “They only get a great experience. When you think about how busy life has gotten, it’s really beautiful that people commit so much time to put on a show for charity. The students get involved in this event because they care and because they love it.”

But supporting charity isn’t the only goal the Queer Fashion Show plans to accomplish. The directors also hope to help advance the queer community.

“The show is ‘Media in Rainbow Vision,’ and we’re basing it on the media’s portrayal of the queer community,” Fernandez said. “We want to break their perceptions. Instead of putting people in little boxes, we want to celebrate queerness and diversity. This is an opportunity to learn more about the queer community here at Santa Cruz and the student body as a whole. Hopefully we’ll open some minds.”

Carl Wilkens speaks to students about his time spent in Rwanda during the genocide. The event was put on by the UCSC chapter of the anti-genocide organization STAND in the Merrill Cultural Center. Photo by Sal Ingram.

Carl Wilkens was the last American to stay in Rwanda during the mid-1990s genocide. Now he dedicates his time to spreading awareness about genocide to students and supporters as a full-time speaker. Earlier this week, Wilkens spoke at UC Santa Cruz’s Merrill Cultural Center about his experiences.

Wilkens was invited to UCSC by STAND, a national anti-genocide coalition with over 850 chapters. The group spreads awareness about Darfur and other genocide-afflicted regions of the world, including Southern Sudan, Burma and the Congo. STAND, which also has an international division that extends to more than 25 countries, has a chapter at UCSC.

Passionate about bringing awareness to places like Santa Cruz, Wilkens shared his experiences in Rwanda with the hopes of not just educating students, but getting them involved in a more direct way.

“If I can just encourage five, six, a dozen [students] to go [to Rwanda], maybe that’s my role right now,” Wilkens said.

In 1990, Wilkens moved to Rwanda and did not return to the United States until 1996. It was eight years before he got involved in anti-genocide work and became an adventist pastor. He was interviewed by PBS’ Frontline for a documentary called “Ghosts of Rwanda” in 2003, and since then has spoken at many events. In January of 2008, Wilkens decided to become a full-time speaker.

Wilkens’ speech included stories about near-death experiences and relationships he built with Rwandans during the genocide. He spoke about how the Rwandan genocide gained attention for a short time and then gradually faded out of people’s minds.

He disagrees with the idea that war or genocide can be viewed as simply a fact of life.

“People think it was inevitable, Wilkens said. “I don’t want to live like that. I would rather live with false optimism. We settle for less, we get less.”

Chiara Cabiglio is the co-president of the STAND chapter at UCSC. Two years ago, Cabiglio saw Wilkens speak at Pledge to Protect, STAND’s national convention, and earlier this year asked him to speak at UCSC.

Carl Wilkens speaks to students about his time spent in Rwanda during the genocide. The event was put on by the UCSC chapter of the anti-genocide organization STAND in the Merrill Cultural Center. Photo by Sal Ingram.

“He sounded really enthusiastic to come,” Cabiglio said. “It was perfect.”

Cabiglio and her co-president Mollie Murphy coordinated Wilkens’ stay in Santa Cruz to include speeches at Pacific Collegiate School — a local charter school — and a UCSC psychology class called Children and War, along with his presentation at Merrill.

Wilkens’ presentations were funded by a donation from the national STAND organization, of which financial advisor Nicole Pokojny was in charge.

“We put on events so that people will become more aware and maybe get involved themselves,” Pokojny said. “It’s an outlet for people who are interested in anti-genocide movements.”

The local chapter of STAND holds weekly meetings consisting of a group of eight to 10 regular students. Last year the chapter was inactive, but this fall, co-presidents Murphy and Cabiglio started it up again.

To conduct outreach for this event, STAND at the UCSC campus made flyers and banners, created a Facebook event page and talked to local newspapers.

Sangetha Komar, a second-year student at UCSC, attended the event and has been trying to become more engaged with STAND’s organization.

“A lot of the members are graduating seniors, and I hope to get involved,” Komar said. “Coming out and spreading awareness is key.”

Third-year Yaneli Torres also attended the event. Both Komar and Torres planned to “like” Wilkens’ Facebook page for his organization, World Outside My Shoes.

“I wanted to learn more,” Torres said. “I learned a lot and I’m really happy I came.”

Photo by Kyan Mahzouf.

“Free food — no strings attached!”

Armed with this offer, two members of the Student Environmental Center (SEC) brought students into this year’s annual Earth Summit, which was held at the College Nine and Ten Multipurpose Room last Friday.

Capping off Earth Week at UCSC, the 2011 Earth Summit drew together students, faculty and campus and community organizations.

Those who entered found themselves flung into a nexus of vegan food, sustainability, performance and education. Besides the food, tables, slides and lectures, Earth Summit featured several booths that allowed participants to offer input for “the blueprint” — a long-term plan designed by the Campus Sustainability Council (CSC) to create a more-sustainable future at UC Santa Cruz.

The blueprint has 11 different topic groups, including Food, Energy and Transportation. CSC will use ideas and suggestions pitched at the event to use in the blueprint, and will put them into practice throughout the campus.

Sophie Garret, a second-year Crown representative of the CSC, explains the different types of ideas that could be implemented by the blueprint.

“There are goals set for 10 years in the future, and there are those that are more concrete,” she said, “but any can be funded if they are sustainable.”

Members of the 2011 Earth Summit drew in people from all over. Linda Furuto, an associate math professor at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu, said that her school sent her to UCSC to learn and share ideas.

“I’m really fascinated with the intersections of sustainability, environmental conservation and mathematics,” she said. “UH-West Oahu is here to bring back some of the knowledge and wisdom to our students in terms of math.”

She said that math is crucial to a more sustainable future.

“I think what you guys have here is really special,” she said. “And I think math can be a tool to preserve the culture and backgrounds that we come from.”

Co-chair of SEC Gabi Kirk said that community is a large factor in SEC’s mission.

“A lot of environmental issues are deeply ingrained into community issues,” she said. “It’s not just the culture on campus, it’s the culture of Santa Cruz. This open forum is for anyone to walk in and participate.”

Though the attendance matched the projected estimates set out by SEC’s event advertisement, Kirk admits that she hoped more would come.

SEC publicity intern Goldie Mitton said that it can be difficult to gather a large amount of campus and community members.

“Some don’t think we do as much as we say,” she said, providing a reason for the disparity between the 300–350 that showed up and the potential attendance of an event lasting for six hours.

Joyce Rice, program manager for both SEC and CSC, pointed to a traditional level of non-interaction between those inside and outside campus.

“There’s a lot of people in town that don’t work up here,” she said. “So they don’t understand some of the issues [that have been around] since UCSC was built. Water, energy and transportation [to name a few].”

Not in the least affected by this perceived division, Gary Harrold made his way from Soquel to be a part of the campus sustainability endeavor. Harrold went to College Nine and Ten to participate in Earth Summit, enjoying the food and discussing the aims of the event.

“It’s so enriching to see all these young people organizing and being so creative — the cooperation and the lack of dissent are so impressive,” he said.

“As a faculty,” Furuto said. “being able to learn from students is like reaping the fruits of your labor.”

Goldie has an optimistic view of the relationship’s future.

“They’re one of our biggest strengths — they’ve been around since long before us,” she said. “Sustainability is something we can all come together for.”

Curator Shelby Graham watches as gallery manager Leah Hanson prepares to arrange a Picasso illustration on mat board. Volunteer Carly McGaugh said, “I never really thought about how things are packaged and transported.” The careful creation of an exhibit is itself a learning experience for students. Photo by Prescott Watson.

Four decades, endless boundaries of creative expression. The Sesnon Gallery at UC Santa Cruz celebrates its 40th anniversary this month with an art exhibition, Time Lapse. To commemorate the event, the gallery will exhibit its vast collection of art pieces to the students of UCSC. The show began April 5 and runs through May 7, showcasing a range of artists from Ansel Adams to Jack Zajac. Decades of art are celebrated as the gallery takes its viewers through years of its selection.

The operation of Porter College’s Sesnon Gallery is a joint effort between volunteer students and Shelby Graham, the curator and director of the gallery. Because it is an anniversary show, the selection for this exhibition is compiled from a list of artists who are familiar to the gallery, and the pieces are never-before-seen.

Graham spoke about the careful selection and curation process.

“I like it when artworks have a dialogue with each work, and it’s because they are curated together. Together they tell a story,” she said. “Anytime you curate a show, it’s a new composition. Works have a dialogue with each other when they’re in a gallery. And that’s the beauty of a curated exhibition.”

Designed in chronological order, the pieces range from the 1970s curated works of the gallery’s first director, Philip Brookman, to the present. With the rapid advancement of technology in the past four decades, the Sesnon has evolved as well.

“The biggest changes have been theoretical, with the spark of postmodern thinking blowing apart the tenets of modernism that we were taught to embrace in the early 1970s,” Brookman said in an email. “And the shifting importance of the photographic, technological image — along with the exponential growth of digital media — has introduced entirely new definitions of art.”

While art majors are more familiar with the Sesnon Gallery and its exhibitions than other students are, Graham emphasized that the gallery invites students of all majors to stop and reflect for a minute.

“A goal of any art gallery or museum is to interrupt your day and remind you to either reflect, take a break, analyze or shift your thinking, because art can do that for you,” Graham said. “It might make you appreciate something, to understand something to a different level, or just reflect on who you are.”

The gallery challenges definitions and meanings of art as it displays a range of pieces, from conceptual work all the way to paintings done by elephants.

“We can learn from history. Just because there’s new technology out there doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road,” Graham said. “Art can really push your boundaries and make you figure out what your stereotypes are, or your judgment when you define ‘What is art?’”

Like many campus resources, the gallery has not been immune to UC budget cuts. Losing internship and work-study programs posed a challenge in curating the event.

“Budget cuts happened, and then I made it as best as I could,” Graham said. “So that’s where I felt like I could have done a lot more, but I did the perfect amount considering the space and time and budget that we had.”

While the curation of the gallery now depends on student volunteers due to budget cuts, Graham has used the situation as a learning experience for students interested in curation.

“I never really thought about how things are packaged and transported. There’s a lot of bubble wrap, lots of tape,” said fourth-year volunteer Carly McGaugh. “I think [the gallery] helps students to be more aware of art.”

Brookman stressed the importance of the Sesnon Gallery in the Santa Cruz community.

“It’s so connected to the fabric of the university, and the Sesnon Gallery is one of the only places in Santa Cruz that students can have a firsthand experience with exceptional works of art,” said Brookman, who is not only the first director of the gallery but also a UCSC alumnus. “That’s so important in learning about how to experience art and art history.”

The exhibit will be on display until Saturday, May 7. Directions to Sesnon Gallery are posted on UCSC’s online campus map.