Speakers David Talbot and Hector Tobar discuss their experiences working in media and where they think it is headed. Photo by Daniel Green.

Two UC Santa Cruz alumni recently spoke about being involved in two media worlds: a mainstream and a progressive, a digital and a print, a formulaic and a free.

In “Transforming Medi(a)ocrity,” an event held on April 12 sponsored by UCSC’s SOAR/Student Media/Cultural Arts and Diversity center, students, members of student media and faculty had the opportunity to discuss ongoing and contemporary media issues with alumni Héctor Tobar and David Talbot.

David Talbot and Héctor Tobar both wrote for local publications while attending UCSC — TWANAS for Tobar and an underground paper for Talbot — and went on to do groundbreaking work in the media.

As founder of Salon.com, Talbot stressed the need for more than “one-dimensional” media and invoked UCSC students’ ability to rethink what’s possible. Tobar, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times, said that no pressure — to meet a deadline, to appeal to the online community’s hyper-short attention span, to tell the story people want to hear — can compare to the voice inside that urges media makers to get the story that resonates beyond pomp and circumstance.

The atmosphere was focused, the discussion fruitful.

The Student Media Council meets throughout the year to allocate funds to the various student organizations, granted through funding provided by Measures 13 and 34. These funds go toward projects that benefit all of the organizations within Student Media. KZSC Radio is housed in Campus Life, however, representatives attend Student Media meetings as well.

The newly developed www.sctv28.com provides a platform for several Student Media organizations to host their video content on.

Print Publications

Photos by Prescott Watson 

KZSC is the student-run radio station on campus. The non-commercial station features DJs hosting their own shows. A recent article by the Huffington Post ranked the station fifth in the country. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Photo by Morgan Grana.

The No. 1 most listened to college radio station in the country is run by Banana Slugs.

UC Santa Cruz’s campus station, KZSC, was recently ranked fifth on Huffington Post’s list of the top nine college radio stations in the nation. This notability may be due in part to the station’s No. 1 ranking on radio station search engine radio-locator.com.

The Huffington Post cited as its inspiration the recent College Radio Awards at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City last month, where KZSC music director Tyler P. Wardwell was a best newcomer award nominee.

Wardwell said that regardless of the recent attention the radio station has received, the accomplishment that matters most was the continued financial support of the campus community.

“The real recognition that I’m most appreciative of and proud of is that we managed to reach our fundraising goal in one week during our fall pledge drive,” Wardwell said.

Supporters keep the station going, since KZSC is not directly funded by the university.

“People continue to pledge out of their pockets,” Wardwell said. “As much as a widely read blog linking our website is great recognition, what we really strive for is the recognition of our listeners.”

The student-run radio station has been recognized by both the media and its listeners in the past, winning Metro Santa Cruz’s Goldie award from 2003 through 2008 and the Democratic Media Award from 2002 though 2005. The Huffington Post listed these awards in its reasons for including the station in its top nine.

One reason why KZSC has received so much recognition is its unique broadcast content.

“KZSC works very hard to not have a specific identity and to bring progressive and challenging and eclectic and diverse programming,” Wardwell said. “I think that we really let our DJs run with any idea that they come up with.”

Wardwell recalls a Balkan gypsy music show last summer and an Eastern European exercise dance music show as examples of the station’s unique programming.

As one of the few non-commercial radio stations in the nation — a rarity among the airwaves — KZSC DJs are unbound by advertisers, which adds to the station’s unique voice.

“We don’t want them to sound like DJs that are getting paid,” Wardwell said of the reasoning behind keeping KZSC advertisement-free.

While creativity is the core of the DJs’ success, an audience of over 1 million listeners makes this creativity extraordinarily accessible. The station has come a long way since its inception in 1967 as KRUZ, when it broadcasted from the basement of Stevenson Dorm 2 and could only be heard as far away as Dorm 7.

To become a DJ, students must volunteer at the radio station for 20 hours a quarter, as well as take a film and broadcasting class while volunteering and spending time with a KZSC mentor.

Shira Bogin is the current teaching assistant for the film and broadcasting course. She became involved with KZSC as a first-year, like many of the veteran broadcasters.

For Bogin, KZSC functions as a speaker-lain haven.

“KZSC really serves as a good getaway place from the rest of the world and a really good place to just kind of deconstruct my mind and just de-stress and relax a little bit,” she said. “It’s something that’s kind of completely separate from the rest of my life.”

Bogin’s position as class TA is one of the many opportunities to get involved at KZSC. Students like Bogin have the option to run for executive positions upon the completion of the film and broadcasting class.

Lauren Bell now holds the position of volunteer coordinator at the station.

“I had no idea I’d be interested in radio when I first came to college,” Bell said.

For Bell, part of the station’s appeal is “the experience of meeting so many diverse people who are interested in the same thing.”

The station’s staff is a collection of students from different academic backgrounds. KZSC staff includes anyone from anthropology majors to economic majors.

“[KZSC] has nothing to do with other interests except for loving music and wanting to voice that,” Bogin said.

Music director Wardwell is an American studies major, but radio is where he indulges in his passion.

“For me, the answer’s pretty straightforward,” Wardwell said. “It’s the reason I’m still here. I wouldn’t be a student at UC Santa Cruz if I hadn’t found the radio.”

Both students and community members participate in the station. Twenty percent of KZSC programming is run by community members.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a product of the community adopting our style or our style being reflective of the community,” Wardwell said of the ties between the two groups.

The nationally-ranked campus radio station’s personality has earned a massive listenership at UCSC and beyond, in part due to the efforts of its dedicated staff members.

For Bogin, the KZSC experience is unparalleled.

“It would be kind of fruitless to pursue something like [KZSC] after college,” she said. “I don’t think there would be something like it.”

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.

Marlene Olson, Director of Student Media, was laid off June 16. She has been at UCSC for 20 years. The majority of her salary come from Measure 7, a student referendum. It will now be redirected to the realignment of Student Media with Student Organization Advising and Resources (SOAR).

Director of Student Media laid off, organization loses independence.

July 20 marks the end of UC Santa Cruz Student Media as recent memory knows it.

Marlene Olson, Director of Student Media and a UCSC media adviser of 20 years, was laid off June 16 by Associate Vice Chancellor/Dean of Students, Alma Sifuentes. Sifuentes oversees the Office of Student Life, which includes Student Media.

The given reasoning behind Olson’s layoff was budgetary necessity. Olson said she was blind-sided by her lay-off and is confused about its logic even in the harsh fiscal climate confronting the university.

“The budget cuts are tremendous,” Olson said. “However, this is not a budget move because my salary is Measure 7.”

Olson was referring to the over 80 percent of her salary that comes from student referendum Measure 7, a campus fee created and passed by students in 2003 that supports a broad spectrum of campus organizations. According to the 2008-2009 UCSC Per Capita Report, $72,600 of Measure 7 goes towards the operating budgets for the  offices of the Vice Chancellor and the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

Olson’s shock over her unexpected lay-off was amplified by the revelation that the money originally designated for her salary is now going towards the incorporation of Student Media with Student Organization Advising and Resources (SOAR), effectively ending its organizational independence.

Neither Sifuentes, who returns to work on Monday after six weeks of medical leave, nor her stand-in, Sue Matthews, were available for comment. Lucy Rojas, Special Project Manager for Student Affairs, spoke with City on a Hill Press about Olson’s lay-off and the realignment.

“The [Measure 7] money is not going away,” Rojas said in response to student concerns that the redirection of Olson’s salary is equivalent to a cut of measure money. “That money is staying with the organization. As of today there have been no cuts to Measure 7.”

From her perspective, Olson has seen alternating periods of budget plenty and want, but she noted that the tactics recently adopted by the administration to deal with the university’s fiscal crisis are out of the ordinary.

“I know of no other redistribution periods of time with Measure 7,” she said. “Certainly there is a precedent of budget cuts that effect these decisions. I suspect what has happened is that as Student Affairs cuts those permanent budgets — the registration fees and state funds — they’re trying to shore up those positions that they prioritize with the redistribution of Measure 7.”

In the language of Measure 7, the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC), a student-appointee advising committee that makes recommendations to top-level administrators regarding funding allocations, technically has “purview”- a term meaning a range of authority- regarding how the measure money is allocated. However, Rojas did say that it is also the only measure over which the administration can make spending decisions.

Furthermore, Matthew Payne, Chair of SFAC, said that the committee only makes recommendations regarding new money coming from registration and campus fees.

“As of right now, we’ve been working only on the margin of the increase in moneys,” Payne said. “When there’s new students coming in and it’s a good year, and we have an increase in the amount of money in the registration fee and the Measure 7, then we look at that or we say where to allocate that. We don’t do any reallocations. It’s just not within our scope.”

As far as the decision to lay-off Olson and realign Student Media with SOAR, SFAC was not consulted for a recommendation.

Given the various budget struggles that have become a norm this year, it was not deemed necessary to consult SFAC on the reassignment of Measure 7 money from Olson’s salary to the realignment efforts. Payne has noticed a drop off in administrators seeking SFAC recommendations pertaining to university budget decisions. He attributes this practice to the lack of faith the administrators have in students to think of what will be best for the campus in the long term.

Rojas confirmed that SFAC was not consulted on the reassignment of Measure 7 money.

“Student Media is staying intact so there weren’t any changes to be consulted,” she said.

As far as the absorption of Student Media by SOAR, no specifics of how that relationship will look have been outlined.

“At this point, it’s going to be an integrated process with students involved, and from my perspective, a new advisor role will be created,” Rojas said.

How the creation of a new position replacing Olson’s will save money remains unclear.

Olson said that a reorganization of Student Media with SOAR has happened in the past, in addition to onerous decisions regarding Student Media’s budget, but the various organizations involved were always given a say in how the reorganization and cuts would look.

“As far as Measure 7 goes, all measures are voted on and approved by students, and then they are assigned to a unit and that unit is where the funds roll up,” she said. “I think students, given the information and the time, are capable of very smart decisions about budgets and how to spend them.”

—–

To see Measure 7, the 2008-2009 Per Capita Report and the Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC)’s Charge,  follow these links:

http://elections.ucsc.edu/archive/winter2003/measures.html

http://www2.ucsc.edu/sfac/docs/08-09_Per_Capita_Report.pdf

http://www2.ucsc.edu/sfac/docs/08-09_Charge.pdf

Students danced to Latin American music at the 30th anniversary celebration for TWANAS on April 21 at Oakes. Photo Courtesy of Evelyn Lara.

Students crammed into the Oakes Learning Center last Thursday to dance, eat fresh Mexican food, watch a film about resistance, and discuss the importance of having a Third World voice in UC Santa Cruz’s student media.

The event was held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Third World and Native American Students Press Collective (TWANAS).

Key coordinator Pedro Espinosa said the press collective considered not publishing this quarter.

“It was a matter of getting people to join the staff,” said Espinosa, a fourth-year community studies major and Latin American and Latino studies (LALS) minor. “Money was not a problem.”

Third-year Zassmin Montes de Oca, a community studies major, is one of Espinosa’s recruits. She decided to join to gain experience in writing.

“I wanted to write about topics that matter to me,” Montes de Oca said. “I also wanted to try something new. I have never written for a paper before. It’s cool to know that other people are going to pick it up and read it.”

TWANAS content consists of artwork, essays and photography involving issues that affect students of color.

Montes de Oca heard about TWANAS when Espinosa made an announcement at a Students Informing Now (SIN) meeting about a month ago. SIN is an on-campus organization that advocates for immigrant rights. 

“He asked everybody at the meeting to come out,” Montes de Oca said.  

TWANAS was not only successful in recruiting staff members, but also in getting people to attend the party held for the publication’s 30th birthday. 

“Considering how many showed up for the celebration, it makes the work that we do for the issue worthwhile,” Espinosa said. “This is what UCSC needs to see and we will continue the work.”

Because of the high turnout, Espinosa is not worried about getting people to sign up next year, he said.

“[The high turnout] means there is a possibility that more students will join the staff, that there is an audience out there that reads TWANAS, and that there are students who are willing to do something.” 

After the audience watched the dance group Sabrosura perform, students chowed down on food from Taqueria Santa Cruz and danced to San Jose-based band La Colectiva. The band played a style called Son Jarocho, traditional music from the Mexican state of Veracruz, until 11 p.m. 

“The students don’t usually get the opportunity to dance to this type of music at UCSC, so they loved it,” Espinosa said. “They kept playing a good 30 minutes after the event ended because of the students’ reaction.”

Before the dancing took place, students engaged in an open dialogue on how a voice for students of color is vital to the local media. 

Second-year Natalie Ramirez, a LALS major, referenced Cohn Hallinan, the founder of the now-defunct UCSC journalism minor. Hallinan was a guest speaker in Ramirez’s journalism workshop earlier that week. Ramirez said that Hallinan’s words “A revolution will not and has never happened without the press” stood out to her.

“None of our mediums are being used too effectively,” Ramirez said about press collectives outside TWANAS. “We need to collaborate with the media so it can really take effect on this campus.”