Dorothy Sewe was recalling the harshness of her life as a Kenyan refugee when members of her audience’s eyes began to well up with tears.

“There were tribal clashes in Kenya, where I lost my sister and her husband,” Sewe said. “They left seven children. I had my eight children and I raised their seven.”

She went on to speak of the terrifyingly poor water quality that gave one of her daughters typhoid, meningitis and malaria. She told the story of how she fled to Tanzania and then to the United States with her family of 15.

Sewe (pronounced “seh-way”) now resides in Grand Rapids, Mich. and plans to attend law school while working with the Red Cross to link African refugee families back together.

She was one of the five notable speakers present at the Children of War Symposium at College Nine’s Namaste Lounge last Friday.

Also present was Meghan Frank, a high-school senior, who organized “Operation Pen and Pencil” for her Girl Scouts silver award. The program organized the deployment of donated school supplies to Frank’s father, a member of the armed services stationed in Afghanistan. He then turned around and supplied many schools in need. Frank was a sophomore in high school when she began this project.

“It’s really easy to make a difference,” Frank said. “And that’s what I want to encourage you all to do.”

Additional speakers included Dr. Ashis Brahma, a physician who lives and works at a Darfurian refugee camp in Sudan; Michael Khambatta, a representative for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); and Marc Sommers, professor of humanitarian studies at Tufts University.

The symposium focused on the plight of African children who are forced to become child soldiers in the many conflicts of Africa. The speakers sought an end to this horrific practice.

Sommers, who has studied and worked with many of Sudan’s displaced “Lost Boys,” said that 80 percent of rebel soldiers in Africa are between the ages of 7 and 14. Children are at high risk of being forced into this lifestyle because they are “replaceable.”

“Well, what do these children under 18 do?” Sommers said. “Obviously they are frontline soldiers, but they are also terrific spies — particularly girls. Nobody would suspect a 12-year-old girl of being a spy, and that’s why they are used in that way.”

Sommers explained what other roles children are used for.

“They’re messengers, they’re sentries, they’re guards, porters, servants, sexual slaves, decoys, trainers, cooks, domestic laborers, and they lay and clear landmines,” Sommers said. “Again, if they step on one, so what? You go get another one. This is war and the children are resources.”

Yet despite all the sorrow, despair, and violence that ravage their land, an overlying theme of the symposium was that victims of war, especially children, are extremely resilient — such as Dorothy Sewe and her 15 children.

“The refugees show to me that they are the real heroes,” Brahma said. “They take it all on, and they look for solutions and for peace.”

“People ask me, ‘How can you work in Africa?’” Brahma said during his slide show.

He stopped at a picture of three smiling children.

“How can you not?” he said, pointing to the picture. “That’s the reason.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Stories From Africa’s Frontlines

A class with the Sierra Institute is not your normal class. This 30-year-old program, offered to UC Santa Cruz students through Humboldt State, takes learning out of the classroom and into the wilderness.

At the quarterly meeting on Monday night, the camaraderie was palpable. The meeting, which included a locally-grown, home-cooked meal, brought together former participants as well as people interested in the program.

Since the late 1970s, the Sierra Institute has been offering classes in the wilderness for small groups of students. Participants earn a quarter’s worth of transferable credit by backpacking in places like Patagonia and the California backcountry for approximately nine weeks.

“The compelling thing is the synergistic effect of three major components besides the academics,” said Skye Leone, former director of the program. “Students are in unbroken natural environments. They’re with a group of like-minded students, so it becomes a close-knit community. And we offer an unbroken chunk of time where you’re living out of your backpack.”

According to Leone, these components make for an unforgettable and unparalleled educational experience.

The program is not funded by the university, so it is dependent on its participants.

“The tuition is roughly the same as a quarter at UCSC. But if you add up everything, it’s cheaper than a quarter here because you’re living out of your backpack,” Leone said.

While hiking in the wilderness, students discuss topics such as sustainability and nature philosophy.

“Academics come in different flavors. When we’re learning about the outdoors, we tend to learn best when we’re outdoors. Often people report that they learn more in that one quarter than they do all year at UCSC,” he said.

The next program begins April 1 and runs through June 1. The class, titled “California Wilderness: Nature, Philosophy, Religion & Ecopsychology,” is taught by Walker Abel, co-director of the Sierra Institute.

This program will explore the questions: what are humans, what is nature, what is their relationship? It begins in Death Valley, followed by a trip to Big Sur, the Yolla Bolly Mountains, and finishes on the Lost Coast, one of the few remaining wild stretches of Pacific shoreline. Students who participate earn 15 credits.

“It’s a little bit like summer camp,” Abel said. “But it’s school. It combines an immersion in the natural world. It’s for anyone who wants a real immersion in the wilderness.”

Other programs take students to Patagonia, Guatemala, Alaska, Baja California, and Hawaii, as well as other places.

A trip with the Sierra Institute is not “for the faint of heart,” Leone said.

In Patagonia, for example, it’s half a day’s journey by horseback to get cell phone reception. And the backpacking element of the program is often physically demanding.

At the meeting, students shared their experiences, many describing the program as “life-changing” and “amazing.” The energy in the room was very positive, and students were eager to participate in the program for the first time, or for a second or third time.

Damien Young, a fourth-year psychology major, had one word for his experience.

“Great,” he said.

The program he attended in the California wilderness “emphasized sustainability and purposeful living.”

Bryce Winter, UCSC graduate and teaching assistant for the program, emphasized the idea of deepening an understanding of the world around humans, and humans’ relationship with the world and each other. He said the Sierra Institute provides this understanding to its participants.

“I see the Sierra Institute as an opportunity for students to answer the question ‘What is my ecological consciousness?’” Winter said. “It’s up to each individual recognizing that we have to take care of the earth and take care of ourselves. It’s all intertwined.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Students Earn 15 Units in the Wilderness

After suffering extensive budget cuts campuswide, UC Santa Cruz is feeling the squeeze as every academic unit tightens the belt another notch. The most recent casualty of the budget is a library service, the existence of which is considered imperative for many faculty members.

The document delivery service, which makes research more feasible for faculty with time constraints or physical impairments by delivering requested documents to faculty mailboxes, will end with the quarter.

After finalizing their decision to dissolve the service, campus librarians Ginny Steel and Elizabeth Cowell met a show of resistance from staff and faculty.

The issue is especially complicated due to the fact that the decision was reached in what many consider to be complete disregard for a precedent of shared governance.

“The bigger story,” Bill Domhoff, professor emeritus said, “is if the library has failed to consult with that Committee [of the Libraries], they have violated shared governance.”

Domhoff uses the service often for his research in the social sciences.

Due to budget cuts, the library has reduced working hours and employment. According to the librarians, there are currently 12 vacant positions at the library, and no money to fill them.

To avoid cutting more hours, the librarians said, document delivery was eliminated.

“We wanted to balance the cuts among all of our users,” said assistant librarian Cowell.

She and head librarian Steel agree that the decision is justified in light of the new budget.

“It’s a very rare luxury service,” Cowell said. “In hard budget times, perks go away.”

However, the implications of terminating this program could include creating inaccessibility and inconvenience for physically limited faculty members.

The Academic Senate’s Committee of the Libraries (COL) is a body of governance that exists to consult with the administration and represent faculty interests.

Earth and planetary science professor Elise Knittle serves as chairperson.

“On our campus, as on all UC campuses, the academic senate and the administration try to work together on a system we call shared governance,” Knittle said.

In the case of document delivery, the library did not consult with the committee before making a decision.

The lack of consultation with the committee struck a nerve for many faculty and committee members.

“Normally I would expect, I would hope, that the library would feel it necessary and appropriate to consult with the committee of the libraries,” Knittle said.

COL member and associate professor of history Brian Catlos is an avid user of the document delivery service and advocate of its preservation.

Catlos was concerned about the library’s decision to act without consulting the COL.

“We were simply told that this was happening and we’d better deal with it, and it’s completely inappropriate for the library to behave that way,” he said.

The dissolution of document delivery was first announced at a Jan. 27 meeting, when assistant head of access services Sarah Troy met with a few members of COL.

Sources from COL recollect that “COL discussed the cancellation announcement during the Jan. 27 [meeting] and expressed our opinion that, if there was ever an issue that might require consultation between the library and COL, this was it. Sarah [Troy] seemed clear that the decision was made.”

Although the library projects that the dissolution of the service will save them $40,000, Catlos said that the extent to which faculty would be inconvenienced makes the decision inequitable.

However, both Cowell and Steel insist that the number of faculty who currently use the service are a minority.

Steel cited campus statistics, saying that there are 5,537 people eligible for the service and, according to library records, less than 200 people regularly make requests each year.

The library receives a total of 3,000 requests annually.

“It’s not intended to be a value judgment,” Cowell said. “There was no attempt to say that the library is more valuable than faculty.”

Deanna Shemek, Cowell co-provost and literature professor, is another benefactor of the service. She is also skeptical about the legitimacy of this decision.

“[Document delivery] was money very well spent given the value of faculty time,” Shemek said. The dissolution of the service “is a denigration of the value of faculty time,” she said.

Domhoff said that, in addition to disrespecting shared governance, cutting the document delivery service compromises the campus’s capacity to facilitate research.

“[It’s] a seemingly small thing that hits at the heart of research for the social sciences and humanities,” Domhoff said.

Still, the way the decision was made is only part of the conflict, as many are concerned about the ability of the library’s most mature patrons to access the site.

However, Cowell promised that the library is working toward increasing accessibility.

“In terms of solutions we can provide,” she said, “we’re having to advocate for physical changes as far as parking layout.”

Despite these promises, many of those affected by document delivery’s elimination remain unsettled by the inconvenience the absence of the service will cause. A primary concern is the ability of geriatric faculty to access the library.

“They are going to be effectively shut out from the library even if they provide two or three more parking spaces,” Catlos said.

The dissolution of the document delivery service is not a solution to the budget problem, Knittle said. Instead of eliminating a cost, it reallocates the responsibility to the faculty.

“While you can pose it as a luxury service to the users, it is another shift of work to faculty that takes away time from their teaching and research,” she said. “The larger issue for many people who work here is that one unit’s budget cut becomes another unit’s problem.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Faculty Protest Elimination of Document Delivery Service

Vandana Shiva commanded the attention of a large audience of students, environmentalists and activists as she returned to UC Santa Cruz last Friday to speak about her work and new book, “Soil Not Oil.”

The lecture marked the beginning of the Education for Sustainable Living Program’s (ESLP) spring speaker series, a student-run course that will be offered through College Eight during spring quarter.

Shiva, an environmental and social activist from India, is the founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, which promotes research through participatory action that engages local communities.

She first gained notoriety during the 1970s through her work in the Chipko movement, in which women in the Himalayan region of India resisted the destruction of the forest by hugging trees.

“Women were defending the forest but also defending their rights,” she said. “The primary gifts of the forest are water, soil and pure air.”

Shiva’s long career of activism has been centered on issues of sustainable agriculture and ecofeminism. She has rallied against the use of genetically engineered crops, the patenting of natural life forms such as seeds, and the growing of monoculture cash crops that result in the loss of biodiversity.

Shiva’s message fits in with the broad goal of community and activism that ESLP’s organizers seek to promote, said Katie Landeros, a fourth-year environmental studies major and ESLP facilitator.

“She makes connections between local community activism and the greater food systems,” Landeros said. “One of our action research teams is focused on GMOs, so it fits perfectly with their vision and mission.”

Shiva has worked in India for the rights of farmers who cannot make a living from their land because of industrial farming and corporations, such as biotech giant Monsanto. Shiva promotes the re-emergence of small-scale, local and organic food as the way to feed communities and face the climate crisis.

“The nonviability of farming is part of the industrial and agribusiness model,” Shiva said. “If there’s one thing that shouldn’t be unviable it’s agriculture — it’s primary production.”

Since the late 1990s, in what Shiva refers to as the “decade of seed monopoly,” 200,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide because of their inability to pay the tremendous debt they owe from using corporate seeds. Not only are these seeds massively expensive to obtain, they also offer no sustenance to the farmer because they are cash crops grown for export. Shiva has successfully put this tragic phenomenon on the national agenda in India.

“Ninety percent of the farmer’s suicides were from drinking pesticides,” Shiva said. “Globalization has ended up looking like genocide for some people.”

Shiva discussed the current global financial crisis and its connections to globalization’s destruction of the natural world.

“We’ve forgotten that the real economy is nature’s economy,” Shiva said. “Mr. Obama needs to realize that the real stimulus package needed is the stimulus for local, organic economies.”

Max Harrison, a second-year environmental studies major, said that Shiva’s message inspired him to keep working toward a more just, sustainable world.

“She inspired me with the way she connected so many things that previously seemed unconnected,” Harrison said. “She made me realize that when I am working for the cause of local and organic food I am working for the rest of the world.”

When asked by a member of the audience if she maintained any sense of hope about the direction of the world, Shiva said she remains optimistic.

“We should not panic because so many crises are happening,” she said. “We should celebrate because it is such a wake-up call that we cannot sleepwalk our way through it.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at World-Renowned Environmental Activist Visits UCSC

The UC Board of Regents has only one elected member, and his time is almost up.

On June 30, student regent D’Artagnan Scorza will pass the torch to Jesse Bernal, the student regent designate, who in turn will be replaced by a student from one of the 10 UC campuses.

The road to confirmation takes four months, and all but the final leg of the race is entirely conducted by students.

All applications from Southern California UCs are reviewed in Northern California, and vice versa. On March 7, the Student Union Assembly (SUA) chairs of the five northern universities reviewed UCs Riverside, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Irvine applicants at the Berkeley campus.

After an eight-hour process, a pool of only 65 applications was narrowed down to no more than 10, reported UC Santa Cruz’s SUA chair Kalwis Lo.

“Just reviewing the applications is really hard, because they all want to be the student regent,” Lo said. “What I personally am looking for is what plans applicants have for the office, and why they feel that in this day and this time they need to be in this position.”

A second conference and a few interviews later, this number will be reduced to three, and the student regent for the 2010-2011 school year will be declared at the July regent meeting. Applicants are ranked on a scale of one to three before leaving student hands, and although the student recommendation is usually accepted, the Board of Regents has the final say.

Being the only student on the board can be a difficult road to walk, Bernal said, but one that is well worth it.

“It’s been difficult, but we’ve found allies in some of the regents,” Bernal said. “The most difficult thing has been, as students, still having to take the university as a whole. We have to look at issues affecting faculty, administration, and we have to take into account state issues.”

As of 2009, UC Santa Cruz has never produced a student regent. Victor Sanchez, SUA vice chair of external affairs, said this fact could be attributed to on-campus student services.

“If you look, we have over 100 clubs and organizations,” Sanchez said. “But if you go to Berkeley or UCLA, which are kind of the flagships of the UC, you’ll see all the programs dedicated to students, and they leave us in the dust.”

According to Sanchez, providing students with the services they need to successfully enter the regent arena is the most important thing the university can do for prospective applicants, and was also an area that he felt UCSC was lacking in.

“There is no administrative commitment to student services,” Sanchez said.

The next regent meeting will run from March 17 to 19, and Bernal said that fee hikes are more than likely to take place in future conferences. In the past, Bernal and Scorza have fought to keep them manageable, but will be up against increases that may top out at around 12 percent.

“Last year we negotiated down, we were able to get it down to 7 percent from a proposed 15 percent,” Bernal said. “We ended up compromising a lot to get fees down.”

Bernal contacted City on a Hill Press from Sacramento, where he was pushing state legislators to support the recent College Affordability Act. If passed, the act will place strict caps on fee increases and provide an annual increase in state revenues of roughly $2 billion by way of a new 1-percent tax on high-income individuals.

“We have a democratic majority in the state, but not a supermajority,” Bernal said. “Republicans made a promise not to increase taxes, and that’s been holding up, so its going to be a struggle to get even one or two of them to vote for it.”

Despite past accomplishments, the student regent has only one vote of 26. His or her powers of persuasion notwithstanding, this person represents the only student voice in a council that makes decisions affecting 200,085 students.

“I definitely don’t think one student on the board is enough,” Sanchez said. “But it was a really big fight to even get that one voice.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at With End of School Year Near, Regents Search For New Student Member

The Academic Senate voted last Friday to reform general education (GE) requirements with a new system that will take effect fall 2009. Students who are not incoming freshmen have the choice to adopt the new GE system.

The new GE system will replace the traditional 10 to 15 classes with nine to 10-plus “specialized” classes. The changes, according to the Committee on Educational Policy (CEP), come in response to the fact that the GE system has not been reformed for over 20 years.

The proposal, crafted by the CEP, is based on faculty and student feedback.

“Today we made one of the biggest decisions that is going to affect the campus in the future, which is the GE reform,” said Michelle Romero, a third-year literature major representing the Student Union Assembly (SUA). “This is going to affect thousands of students coming into the university. The breadth is a set of courses that we determine would give students a well-rounded perspective of a certain kind of world issues.”

The diminished set of requirements, a key difference from the old GE system, consists of classes with more specific objectives that will not allow for the overlapping of classes.

With no overlapping, a student will not be able to fulfill multiple GE requirements through one course. The Academic Senate discovered through student feedback that some students only enroll in a class based on the number of requirements that class fulfills.

For instance, the math requirement, a requisite for all students who wish to graduate, is traditionally fulfilled through two Natural Science and Engineering classes (IN) and one quantitative course (Q).

While some courses at UCSC allow for a student to fulfill both an IN and Q with just one class, new changes will require students to take three separate classes: “Mathematical and Formal Reasoning” (MF), “Scientific Inquiry” (SI), and “Statistical Reasoning” (SR), each designated to one requisite.

Carolyn Martin Shaw, an undergraduate professor in the department of anthropology, was concerned about the new GE system.

“CEP is going to want me to give evidence whether or not I am meeting the goal of the GE my class is dedicated to. Will my syllabus now be sufficient for that?” Shaw said. “When we slice and dice our courses in the way we do, we leave ourselves open to accountability for the part that should be an integrated experience.”

The nine to 10-plus specialty classes will require incoming students to enroll in seven classes designated to math, science, and social science, as well as one “perspectives” course and one two-credit “practice” course. The amount of requirements a student’s core class fulfills determines the total amount of requirements.

The “practice” requirement, a completely new category, can be fulfilled by a class on environmental awareness, on human behavior, or on technology and society.

The “perspectives” requirement, also a new requirement, can be fulfilled through “Collaborative Endeavor” — a course that teaches students to work in groups — “Creative Process,” or “Service Learning.”

Some faculty members were concerned that there are not enough faculty members within certain departments to teach the new classes the GE reform requires.

One of those members was Paul Koch, a professor of earth and planetary sciences and department chair.

Koch said he did not vote because the proposal was not presented with an analysis of whether or not the university has enough faculty to teach such courses. He also wondered whether the new GE system would require the university to hire more teachers.

“I support the academic objectives. I think it is a good proposal. I don’t think the university should make such a large change to the way it offers its GE requirements without any analysis of impact,” Koch said. “You would have hoped that either the administration or the committee on planning on budget would have done some analysis of whether we have classes in each of the general areas that could accommodate the students, and if we don’t, then how many do we need.”

David Draper, a professor of applied math and statistics, said he was confident that his department’s capacity could handle the new change and urged the Academic Senate to vote positively for the motion to reform GE.

“I have no concern whatsoever about capacity on the topic of statistical reasoning. I think we can start this requirement today,” Draper said. “This is the combination of two years of thoughtful deliberation and consultation, and we risk ending up doing nothing in attempt to do this perfectly. “

Chancellor George Blumenthal said he was “excited” that more courses are being created.

“I don’t think that all the courses that we now have will map into the new requirements, and that is because they are new requirements,” Blumenthal said. “Some courses will have the same designations and in some cases we may have to create new courses and I see that as a good thing. The amount of courses we have to satisfy the new GE is no more than what we have to satisfy the old GE. I am sure we can do it.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Academic Senate Votes to Reform General Education

“Gay, straight, black or white — same struggle, same fight!”

The phrase echoed down Pacific Avenue through chants and a candlelight vigil on the night of March 4, when hundreds stood in solidarity against Proposition 8, the constitutional same-sex marriage ban that passed in California last November. The vigil took place on the eve of the state Supreme Court hearing on March 5, which challenged the validity of the controversial proposition.

Ahead of the pack marching through downtown Santa Cruz was City Councilmember Tony Madrigal, with a bullhorn, chanting in support of the overturn of Proposition 8.

“There was a lot of strength, unity and solidarity tonight, which is essential to the community movement across the state to overturn Prop. 8,” Madrigal said after the vigil.

Santa Cruz was just one of 35 cities that participated in the Eve of Justice candlelight vigil, when Californians worked to send a unified message the night before the Supreme Court hearing.

The following day, thousands poured into San Francisco from all over the state to voice their opinions on the issue. Students from UC Santa Cruz made a significant presence at the rally — numerous Slugs gathered amid the crowd in front of the state’s Supreme Court headquarters.

First-year Angie Wootton traveled by train with her girlfriend in order to make a visible presence at the rally.

“I decided that being part of this huge movement in history was more important than going to my classes today,” said Wootton, who carried a “No on Prop. 8” sign.

The main arguments for the court case to overturn Proposition 8 are that the popular vote does not have the power to revise the state constitution, since a revision to the constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote from each house of the state legislature.

The lawsuits over Proposition 8 also argue that the same-sex marriage ban defies the Bill of Rights because it strips away the rights of minority groups.

However, 52 percent of voters approved the proposition in November. Supporters of the measure say they’re angry that the majority vote is being challenged.

Many Californians who supported the ban traveled to San Francisco on March 5 to rally in favor of it. Emily Smit, who traveled from Sacramento, held a sign that read “Marriage — 1 Man, 1 Woman.”

“By legalizing gay marriage again, it is taking away our freedom of speech as voters,” Smit said. “What’s the point of voting, if what we vote on is just going to get overturned?”

Other “Yes on 8” supporters, like Chauncey Killens of Salinas, fear that recognizing same-sex marriage again will lead to inappropriate behaviors of sexuality.

“If the constitution allows every citizen, if you’re over 18, the right to marry, then it opens the doors for polygamy and incest,” said Killens, who works as an associate minister for the Church of God and Christ in Salinas.

The decision to overturn or uphold Proposition 8 now lies in the hands of the Supreme Court justices, who have within 90 days of the hearing to make a decision.

While there is a great amount of uncertainty when it comes to the overturn of Proposition 8, it is highly plausible that the 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred in 2008 will remain valid, as the majority of Supreme Court justices are in agreement that those marriages should be upheld.

Wade French and Brent Lok had been a couple for 30 years before they were married at San Francisco City Hall in June 2008. The two men are happy their marriage is still being recognized by the state, but remain disappointed with the slow pace of change when it comes to gay rights.

“This is just one step in a long civil rights struggle,” Lok said. “We would love to see things change faster, but there will be change over time. There’s no doubt.”

On both sides of the spectrum, protesters said they were impressed with the amount of solidarity that has come out on the issue. Pollo Del Mar, a Proposition 8 opposer and Bay Area drag queen, said she would not give up her experiences of protesting for the world.

“When we were out protesting Proposition 8 and rallying against it, in those days shortly after the vote last November, I met so many amazing people,” Del Mar said. “It really enriched my life by bringing some truly fantastic and dynamic people into it, that I may never have met otherwise; which I guess is finding the silver lining, really.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Prop 8 Battle Continues on Streets of SF

It’s all about the dress.

With spring around the corner, high-school students across the country are finding dates and buying tickets for one of the most memorable occasions of adolescence: prom.

But some teenagers find themselves unable to attend this rite of passage because of the expense.

In order to address this issue, Santa Cruz City Councilman Tony Madrigal started a prom dress drive this year to collect donated dresses. The dresses will go to girls who would not be able to get a new dress otherwise.

“My general feeling is that across the United States, across California, and across Santa Cruz County, unused or gently used prom dresses are resources waiting to be used by people who don’t have the good fortune to be able to afford a prom dress and aren’t even lucky enough to have family that can give them a hand-me-down dress,” Madrigal said.

Madrigal brought in Classic Cleaners and the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center to help organize the dress drive.

The dresses are being collected and cleaned at the Classic Cleaners locations until the end of April. Then, they will be taken to the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center for girls to try on.

“I know that there are families out there who have lost their jobs and lost their homes,” said Mary Rivera, the center’s office manager. “This will benefit the girls of these families because they’ll be able to go to prom and have a pretty dress.”

The Walnut Avenue Women’s Center is working with guidance counselors, homeless shelters and foster children projects to distribute coupons that would allow girls who need a dress to pick one out and take it home.

“There will be a three-day event that’s very anonymous,” said Pamela Whittington, owner of Classic Cleaners. “We’ll actually have some professional stylists who will help the girls with fittings and choosing the right dress for their skin tone and body type.”

The drive has grabbed the community’s attention, and several other local businesses have asked to join in the effort by collecting other prom accessories such as shoes and jewelry.

“[The drive] has ballooned into more than just the prom dresses,” Madrigal said. “The Elks Lodge called and said they wanted to collect the shoes, jewelry stores want to collect jewelry, and some people have actually gone to the store and bought a new dress just to donate it.”

In addition, dresses are being collected at Yvonne, a women’s boutique in Capitola Village, and at Comerica Bank in Watsonville.

“I think it’s really awesome how the community is coming together,” Rivera said. “There’s already lots of dresses that are being donated from previous proms.”

Approximately 1,500 girls in Santa Cruz County have been identified as needing a prom dress either due to the economic situation or for personal reasons. According to Whittington, two hundred dresses have already been collected in the two weeks the drive has been active.

“Prom is an important event in a person’s life,” Whittington said. “Everybody remembers who they went to the prom with, and with [the economic] situation that we’re going through, we could all do something for everybody. I’m just awestruck at the number of dresses we’ve gotten so far. These are not just dresses — these are memories.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Dressed For Prom With Love

For many poets in this city, Santa Cruz represents more than the home of a liberal university –– it also represents the embodiment of innumerable poetic efforts with a culture that embraces verbal artistry. In the eyes of many established poets both local and nationwide, the city of Santa Cruz stands strong as a formidable West Coast center of poetry.

In the words of poet and Cabrillo College English teacher Debra Spencer, “You can’t throw a dead cat without hitting another poet in Santa Cruz.”

Along Pacific Avenue, art seeps into the community. People roam the streets armed with guitars and djembes, sculptures spring from sidewalk planters and trashcans display colorful paintings from local artists.

What one may not notice upon first glance is the display of poems in the windows of vacant buildings. Large white backgrounds and plain black font grace the windows of empty businesses downtown, displaying the products of the Storefront Gallery Project: Santa Cruz’s answer to the nationwide My Favorite Poem Project, the initiative of poet laureate Robert Pinsky.

To Dennis Morton, president and founder of the nonprofit Poetry Santa Cruz organization, the city’s efforts with the Storefront Gallery Project serve to further promote the connection between people and the works they love.

“This incarnation of the Favorite Poem Project is truly moving,” Morton said. “It becomes not only about the literary merit of the works, but it takes us to an emotional level as well. We’re sharing what we love.”

For one year, Pinsky called for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to submit their most cherished works of poetry. The selected works were compiled into a series of video documentaries of participants reading the works, as well as into a book collection.

City arts program manager Crystal Birns said that the Storefront Gallery Project’s use of vacant window space allows displays of innovative visual art and poetry. In a press release, Birns asserted the opportunity existing within these refurbished windows, once forlorn and empty.

The displays showcase the works of various poets, including locals Ellen Bass, Joseph Stroud, Gary Young and high-schooler Jesus Velasco Morales. The program strives to emulate other artistic endeavors of cities such as New York, which often showcases poetry on its buses.

The Storefront Gallery Project is a large point of interest in this poetic community, but it only begins to scratch the surface of the innumerable outlets and events for poets in the area.

“Poetry Santa Cruz started as a way to bring poets to town, but it has grown into so much more,” Morton said. “We’re a hearty, broadband organization. We pursue the kind of craziness all communities should have.”

March marks eight years since the birth of Poetry Santa Cruz. Throughout its time in the city, the foundation has organized a number of poetry events in the community and the greater Santa Cruz area. Bookshop Santa Cruz is home throughout the year to frequent poetry readings put on in conjunction with Poetry Santa Cruz. The readings draw crowds including high school seniors and senior citizens, all patrons of poetry who come together to hear the spoken word.

Poetry Santa Cruz also administers the 27-year-running, all-female poetry event “In Celebration of the Muse,” often referred to simply as “Muse.” Organized in 1981 as a benefit for the National Festival of Women’s Theatre by Gael Roziere and Patrice Vecchione, Muse is the longest-running literary event in Santa Cruz County. Muse was founded as a response to the lack of female voices in the poetry community, a traditionally male-dominated world that often failed to include women in its readings and publications.

“[Muse represents] the development of a strong community of women writers in Santa Cruz, who take their work seriously, are used to appearing in public, publishing and reaching out to each other,” according to members of Poetry Santa Cruz.

Through events and organizations such as Muse, Poetry Santa Cruz attempts to bring together the writers and admirers in town with those on the UCSC campus.

“With our events we’re hoping to break this invisible barrier that exists between the university and the rest of the Santa Cruz community,” Morton said. “We want to get students to come to our events, and the rest of the community to come up to UCSC.”

Morton went on to hail the ability of these events to achieve the uncommon honor of assembling so many distinguished poets in such a concentrated area.

What is the pull toward Santa Cruz as such a center for poetry? How is it that a little West Coast town could give artistic boroughs such as Brooklyn a run for their money?

Morton suspects the influx of poets coincided with the building of UC Santa Cruz. As students graduated, they recognized the beauty of the town and opted to stay. As these graduates grew up, they became the influential members of the town who turned it into this cultural, literary haven.

An Outlet for Student Poets

“Prepare to be riveted!”

Danny Sherrard stands underneath florescent stage lights and shouts at the silent room.

The only thing in his hands is a crumpled piece of notebook paper, which looks like it has been bleeding ink. Quickly, as he glances at the dying paper scrap, he clears his throat and launches into a smooth serenade of wordplay as the audience falls silent.

Sherrard is a member of the critically acclaimed SpillJoy Ensemble, a spoken-word and poetry group that participated in the ever-growing, ever-popular Kinetic Poetics Project festival, housed in the Porter Dining Hall for one week each year.

UCSC alumna Natalie Ashodian, a founding member of the Kinetic Poetics Project, recognized the unmistakable influence of poetry on the town early on.

“I’ve seen the poetry scene in Santa Cruz being fed by a combination of rebellious artistry, young liberalism, and the awkward juxtaposition of open minds and limited experience that yearns to grow,” Ashodian said.

Ashodian should know. As an original member of Kinetic Poetics, she has helped bring poetry to an entirely new level for UCSC. This student-founded, student-run organization has made slam poetry mainstream for UCSC students, encouraging a new style of writing and pushing local poets to share their works with an audience.

The Kinetic Poetics Project started when a group of Rainbow Theatre members discovered the Hitchcock Grant, which funds student literary projects. The students applied for the grant, and upon receiving funding, built a new outlet for poetic expression.

“The Hitchcock Grant really inspired us,” said alumnus Jeremy Karafin, another Kinetic Poetics founder. “We realized the power of poetry and then saw we could reach out to a community that hadn’t fully explored it yet. It was a chance to connect, put it together and see what would happen.”

For four days every February, the Kinetic Poetics Project brings together poets, lyricists, activists and those who merely wish to watch in a multi-round poetic tour de force. Student poets battle to gain a spot on the UCSC slam poetry team, while distinguished groups such as the SpillJoy Ensemble entertain crowds between competition rounds.

Kinetic Poetics’ 2009 producer, third-year Jack Rusk, has been involved with poetry since high school and embraced the Santa Cruz scene fully.

“One thing is that, especially at school, we live our lives pretty anonymously. It’s easy at UCSC to get lost in the crowd of other students,” Rusk said. “Slams and spoken word fests like Kinetic Poetics create something very powerful for people used to anonymity, who see this power of expression. It inspires them that they can get up and stand out from the crowd. It’s a great way to process and work through a lot of heavy things.”

Kinetic Poetics also incorporates activist groups into its lineups, allowing them to table during intermission. People are allowed to get up during the breaks and learn more about PETA, the Vagina Monologues, and the Long Range Development Plan (LDRP) Resistance Campaign, while also purchasing Kinetic Poetics merchandise and picking up bounties of free swag.

“It’s a natural fit,” Karafin said. “Santa Cruz is an open-minded community with lots of ideas, lots of beliefs, frustrations. Poetry is an artistic, powerful, effective way to express this. Having this large stage and format where people can take their ideas off paper and express it out loud is powerful.”

The efforts of Ashodian, Karafin, Rusk, and innumerable others have promoted the growing poetry scene on campus, which hosts weekly slams and open mic nights at most of the different colleges. This student community often expands into the town readings and slams, allowing many poets to chip away at invisible social and emotional barriers.

“There’s nothing like coming back two years after graduation and seeing that in no way has the show even dwindled, but exploded,” Ashodian said.

Santa Cruz has become a center for an often-overlooked artistic practice, one whose beauty many have found and fought to deliver to the public.

“Especially with Kinetic Poetics, everyone walks away with something different,” Rusk said. “It’s raw emotion. It’s a freedom of expression. Really, today, so many ways that we interact are removed, like with Facebook and texting. Here there is no screen, just a poet with a message. It’s so integral to what it is to be human.”

The written word is an art form that the citizens of Santa Cruz have chosen to keep alive, and with tremendous resources and outlets for writers, many describe Santa Cruz as on par with the venerably poetic boroughs of the East Coast.

“Poetry is everywhere,” Morton said. “Now it’s up to us to light the spark.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Prose, Rebellion & Beauty

Click here to view the embedded video.

On a daily basis, students on their way to a literature class or the Owl’s Nest café pass by a hidden gem. This space is often occupied by people conversing over Yerba Mate tea on its huge wooden deck as melodies of Bob Dylan and the Beatles float out of the black double doors.

The Kresge Natural Foods Co-op, simply known as the Kresge Co-op, is a student-run grocery store that has existed at Kresge for decades. Run entirely by 19 members, the co-op works to bring healthy, local, and organic produce and groceries to the Kresge and UC Santa Cruz communities — without looking to make a profit.

Situated across the street from the Porter apartments, its blue awning sticks out from red brick walls, with a “co-op” sign written in Rastafarian-colored graffiti letters. Adorning the interior walls are paintings of giant ants and a unicorn-mermaid, with poetry proclaiming love for bagels and breast milk.

Footprints and handprints mysteriously meander across the ceiling. Three guitars sit, waiting to be played, propped against a worn-in couch where people sit studying with open notebooks and steaming cups of tea.

People are warmly greeted, dancing, hugging and indulging in conversation. Students are frequently seen dancing to music while putting together a salad using mixed greens and vegetables from the co-op or creating a “co-op bagel”— topped with Earth Balance spread, nutritional yeast and Melinda’s Hot Sauce.

“It’s very bohemian. It’s not yuppie and gaudy like the dining hall and food establishment, all concreted up and square,” said second-year Ryan Abelson, a environmental studies major who hangs out at the co-op every day. “Good food makes happy people. Happy people make good vibes.”

The co-op offers a welcoming environment that is appetizing in more ways than the typical grocery store, Abelson said, a place where students can hang out and establish a personal relationship with co-op members. “You can’t hang out in a grocery store and do your homework and make up random conversations,” Abelson said. “[At the co-op] there’s no lines, no mess of shopping carts and a bunch of people in the way. It’s smaller but it’s more open.”

In the early ’70s, the Kresge Co-op had its humble beginnings as a teepee in Porter meadow, created by a small group of students who decided to use their collective power to purchase food in bulk. The co-op was shut down, however, when it was discovered that illegal substances — namely marijuana — were being sold out of the back flap of the teepee.

“It’s really difficult to fully know the history because it’s not written down anywhere. Just like a lot of things in the co-op, it’s passed down orally,” said Dorota Szuta, a former co-op member. “It’s like the Bible — you don’t know how accurate it is because it was passed down through so many people before it’s written down.”

Regardless of the origins and accuracy of the stories members share about the co-op’s beginnings, the original ideals of buying healthy, bulk food and using collective power to fuel the co-op is unwavering.

Also steady over the years has been the distinguishing feature of the Kresge Co-op as a student-run cooperative that uses a consensus process to make decisions on what and where to buy products, how to hire employees, and how to function on a daily basis.

It means all core members — those who made a year-long commitment to work six hours a week and attend a weekly meeting — have to agree on potential decisions or actions. If an agreement isn’t reached, members must negotiate in order to go forward.

“It’s about finding a way to make decisions in which everyone has a say, balancing our needs and desires with other people,” said Bey Sharpe, a core member and fourth-year literature student.

This consensus-based community model is one that Kresge College — originally known as College Six — was founded upon. As an experimental college, founding provost Bob Edgar emphasized the use of a participatory and consensual democracy, as he wanted to leave as many decisions as possible to the newly forming college community.

Darien Rice, a groundskeeper for Kresge for the past 18 years, is on the Kresge Co-op’s board of directors, an advisory committee. She explains that the university has tried to distance itself from its experimental nature over the years and does not think the co-op could be started in today’s university.

“It couldn’t happen now,” Rice said. “It’s only out of that original vision, where students had a lot more to say about how their total experience here was, that allowed it to get started.”

Karen Rosewood, one of the College Administrative Officers (CAO) of Kresge College, said there was a time where students and faculty would gather at Kresge Town Hall to make decisions on who to hire and discuss other college issues.

“There is vitality in this college community that does have to do with that,” said Rosewood, who began working at Kresge College as a proctor in 1991.

Aside from the food co-op, Kresge College houses a garden and music co-op that also keep the tradition of community and cooperative alive.

“College themes sometimes get neglected, but that’s actually enacted in how the co-op leads their business,” Rosewood said. “Deciding by consensus, that’s a tough thing to do.”

The bumper stickers on the co-op’s walk-in fridge say it all: “Co-op, We Own it,” “Support Organic Farmers,” “Food Not Bombs,” “Eat More Kale,” and “Organic for Life.”

The co-op’s main mission is to provide access to healthy, organic, and local foods and members mark up products in accordance with this aim: 30 percent for local and organic, 40 percent for either local or organic, and 50 percent for neither.

“We try and steer customers to pick the better products, and give them incentives to buy things that are good for them,” said Julie Arnez, a core member and first-year environmental studies student.

Arnez, who has large blue eyes and often wears a feather in her hair, feels that it’s important to let customers know what they’re supporting and what they’re not supporting. She works as the ethical investigator who collects data on business practices and corporate ownership.

“I want to make it more obvious to the customers that they’re coming here and supporting better forms of growing food, distributing food and better working terms for people,” Arnez said earnestly.

Essentially, this means buying from the little guys rather than the big guys. The co-op recently stopped selling Dagoba chocolate, an organic chocolate company that was acquired by Hershey’s — a distributor too large and impersonal for the co-op’s preferences.

Instead, the co-op strives to support the most local businesses. Arnez explained how they buy their avocados from a local farmer who uses avocados as his source of income.

“We have avocados from a guy named Bruce, he’s just a local avocado farmer. He owns this little tiny farm and it’s his way of supporting himself,” Arnez said. “It’s not supporting a larger farm that’s local, it’s supporting a single person and we know him.”

Since the co-op works on a volunteer basis, many current and former members liken working at the co-op to having a serious boyfriend or girlfriend.

“Sometimes you’re just too busy in your life to give as much as attention as it needs or wants,” said Marnie Sehayek, a first-year Kresge student who recently became a core member. “It takes consistent input. Everyone has their own tasks and that takes effort.”

Sehayek’s tasks include managing the tea and herbs, for which she uses her crafty, self-described clutterbug tendencies to create tea scoopers out of bottlecaps and Popsicle sticks. Other members take upon tasks, which include the grocery buyer, outreach coordinator, and the “bureau slayer,” the co-op member who deals with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Core member Sarah Hieber, the co-op bookkeeper who has a paying job in addition to the co-op, says she doesn’t see a need to be paid for her work.

“I really value that I work at the co-op because I love it,” said Hieber, a second-year environmental studies major. “And not because I’m motivated by money.”

Despite the love many members have for the co-op community and the fact that many, like Sehayek and Hieber, say they don’t mind not being paid, the lack of salary has caused some problems for the co-op in the past.

Sharpe is the oldest member of the co-op, having worked there since he started at UC Santa Cruz in 2005. He explained that member turnover — due to students graduating and lack of monetary compensation — sometimes plays into the inconsistency that characterizes the membership.

“People get busy with their other things — busy with school or have to get a job. It’s such a commitment and takes up so much time without monetary payback,” Sharpe said. “It’s hard to sustain it for some people.”

The large and frequent turnover with co-op membership recently brought about tax problems for the organization. During a shift in new employees in 2005, a tax form that declared the organization’s nonprofit status wasn’t filed with the IRS, a technicality that cost them $3,000 in late fees and froze their bank account, leaving them unable to place orders.

The co-op organized a series of fundraisers, including a “Fuck the IRS” party held at Kresge Town Hall, which raised about $1,000 — enough to continue business. The organization is still working to pay off the debt and concurrently trying to secure an abatement that would essentially waive the fees.

“We’re buying our time until we get abatement. If we don’t get it, we might not ever pay it off, [with] the rates of interest it’s incurring,” Hieber said. “It’s not completely back where it was, but the most important thing is that we have so many customers that come into the store and are stoked to buy our products and [are stoked on] what we do.”

In an effort to connect more with the community, the co-op catered Kresge College Family Day and holds weekly potlucks on Tuesday evenings. Aligning with their values of social justice, they switched to Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association Farms (ALBA), a program in Watsonville that trains and assists farm workers to own and grow on their own plots.

To increase the quantity of food, they have received a $10,000 grant from the Campus Sustainability Council to purchase a new produce refrigerator to replace the broken one, which ended up being converted into a consignment shop last year.

The co-op continues to be, in accordance with their mission statement, a place where “politics and good food meet at the check-out line.”

Sharpe said the Kresge Co-op symbolizes a place that has maintained its liberalism — being an alternative food source with its nonprofit nature — despite the direction of the university, which he describes as becoming more like a prestigious research university and less like a radical liberal arts college.

“The main thing I love about the co-op is that it’s an experimental space. Students come together without a manager, hierarchy, bureaucracy and try and run a store,” Sharpe said. “We’re so used to have someone tell us how things are supposed to be, and to just come together, a hodgepodge group of kids that try to keep something afloat. We decide on our own how things should be.”

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Kresge Co-Op

In the summer of 1967, Sgt. George Skakel began writing to City on a Hill Press (CHP) from the treacherous frontlines of the Vietnam War.

A former UC Santa Cruz student, Skakel was drafted against his will after his freshman year and forced to put his education on hold. Deeply opposed to the war, and having seriously considered jail time or fleeing to Canada before accepting his fate, he found refuge in correspondence with fellow classmates at UCSC. Many UCSC students avidly followed Skakel’s faithful series of letters as they graced CHP each week, opening many eyes to the horrors of war.

Skakel was set to finish his tour of duty at the end of April 1968, with a discharge expected a few months later in June. But on March 6, 1968, he was killed in action while leading a squad in Quang Tri, a northern region of Vietnam.

Forty years later, James Clark, a former UCSC literature major, politics minor and CHP reporter, withdrew from the campus at the end of his sophomore year in 2008 to pursue a career of combat correspondence. This position represents a highly respected branch of the U.S. Marine Corps, requiring correspondents to bridge the dual roles of journalist and soldier.

While many changes can be seen in Santa Cruz and the nation since the Vietnam era, the demand for brave young people yearning to fill combat correspondent positions remains as high as ever.

In the years that George served as an unofficial correspondent for CHP, the media served to bring the war into the homes of the American people. Many Vietnam War journalists took on the task of closing an assumed credibility gap between the media and the military.

This sudden drop in the public’s confidence occurred following a surprise attack by the Viet Cong known as the Tet Offensive, during an agreed cease-fire for the Vietnamese holiday of Tet.

Army Major Robert T. Jordan, a retired combat correspondent who served in Vietnam and now teaches at an Army information school, said the Tet Offensive caused widespread feelings of shock and tension to settle over the American public in ways the war had not yet seen.

“In Vietnam, there was actually a lot of support toward the beginning of the war,” Jordan said. “The Tet Offensive changed that. Even though the United States was victorious, and the Viet Cong was severely decimated, the U.S. media portrayed it as a great defeat for the U.S. military. We lost the confidence of the American people.”

Skakel’s letters brought this sense of lost confidence to the forefront. His sister, former UCSC student Nancy Skakel, said that her brother’s expressed animosity over the war fueled a productive purpose.

“George felt the war was a political and moral mistake,” Nancy Skakel said. “Part of the reason George wanted to correspond through the paper was because he wanted to do anything he could to encourage young men not to submit to the draft, and not to be swayed by the propaganda.”

While present tensions between the media and the military have seen downgrades since the Vietnam War, new problems within that relationship face each new generation. Today, advanced communication technology represents a sector of news media that some, like Jordan, see as too advanced for our own safety, especially when it comes to military issues.

“Now with 24/7 communication, everything is instant and accessible,” Jordan said. “Anyone can make a blog with information from our side or the other side, and have free access to release it.”

Although this instantaneous communication makes news coverage of our country’s two overseas wars faster and more accurate, Jordan said that it brings a dangerous potential for manipulation.

“This is an ideological war targeted at the hearts and minds of people. Insurgents are using propaganda and distorted images of the truth to sway people,” said Jordan, noting that images of injured babies, dead bodies or elderly people at known explosion sites have been distributed, in some cases, to give the public false portrayals of U.S. brutality.

“Because of this, [Marine Corps] Public Affairs now has three audiences,” Jordan continued. “There’s the external audience, which is the American public, the internal audience, or military personnel and their families, and now a third audience, which is the enemy. That’s one of the main differences since Vietnam. We now have reporters on both sides of the fence.”

This addition of “the enemy” as a spectator has come to mean increased responsibility and expectations for combat correspondents. The more effort the enemy puts into defacing the U.S. military, the more pressure there is for correspondents to present the truth to the public.

Despite difficult and altogether new challenges facing combat correspondents today, Clark views his prospective duties as bearing some resemblance to the Vietnam-era role of soldier-journalists to bring human representations of war into American homes.

“What I like best about combat correspondence is that it serves as a window into the lives of everyday service members,” Clark said. “It shows the real, human aspects of the military, instead of just nameless officials. It puts people in their shoes, gives them faces, and makes them more than just numbers. I wanted to pursue this so I could give a face to service members, give credit where credit was due.”

Clark, currently stationed at Maryland’s Fort George G. Meade Army base, said that although he left in the middle of his Santa Cruz experience, he owes much of his success to time spent as a part of the UCSC campus.

“I think it was the open-minded and passionate culture at Santa Cruz that led me to pursue becoming a combat correspondent,” Clark said. “[The] campus really encourages you to be passionate about things, embrace those passions, and then go out and do it. That’s one of the greatest things about UCSC — I was at one of the most liberal colleges in the country, and now I’m [in the military]. I think that’s a real testament to how unique Santa Cruz is.”

Current UCSC student Joel Inman felt a similar military tug as a young adult. After initially wanting to follow an academic track post-high school, Inman was inspired by the threat of terrorist activities to join the Navy, serving as an operations specialist from 2000 to 2004.

“Terrorism was becoming more of an issue. There were fewer good guys,” Inman said. “I wanted to make a change and I thought maybe I could go to school or do charity, but I decided to go straight to the problem and join the military. I wanted to be part of a positive foreign policy.”

During his service, Inman was deployed to the Persian Gulf twice. Post-military, though, Inman’s yearning for academia led him to UCSC, where he enrolled in 2005.

“I had always planned to eventually go to college,” Inman said. “I had tried out for the SEALS program, but started asking myself, ‘What do we really do? Is this what we’re really expecting of ourselves?’ I didn’t know it at the time, but these are the sort of questions that philosophers ask of themselves. So instead of becoming an officer, I decided to go to school where I could study philosophy.”

Despite taking an unusual route through school, Inman never regretted his decision to put higher education on momentary hold. In fact, Inman said his time spent in the military was essential to his successes at UCSC, among them a philosophy degree he expects to complete in June.

“I am so grateful for my military experience,” Inman said. “I don’t think I would have had the sophistication to really appreciate college right out of high school.”

When asked how, as a former Navy serviceman, he was received by a UCSC student body sometimes characterized as war-hating, hemp-wearing and dreadlocked, Inman sighed and gave a slight chuckle.

“You learn very quickly that it’s not the first thing to say when you meet someone,” he said.

Even with “Free Tibet” and Obama posters adorning most buildings on campus, the modern-day liberal activism of UCSC is foiled by the original hippies and flower children of Vietnam-era Santa Cruz.

Like Inman many years after him, Skakel felt the weight of his enlistment in the UCSC students he left behind.

“I fear returning to America … because of the dishonor, the quake in confidence my fickle behavior has generated,” Skakel wrote in a July 1967 letter to CHP. “I told a lot of people that I wouldn’t fight and now I am and that’s a hell of a thing to go back to. … If I survive this mess, I will go back to UCSC and try to pick up where I left off a year ago. Because of the way I have mismanaged this whole thing, it will be harder back at UCSC. Yet, as an informant, I can find a sense of service in giving UCSC guys the straight dope from one who knows.”

Nancy Skakel said that her brother’s astuteness and dedication to learning helped him to have a significant impact on those who read his letters.

“George had always been a very avid student,” Nancy said. “When he was in Vietnam, he was very anxious to get back and pick up his education. He was very ambitious. … [The letters] were not so much a personal thing, but an attempt to create something with a lasting impact.”

Skakel graduated six months ahead of his high-school class, his sister explained, and spent the next year and a half traveling the world. Because of this lapse in his education Skakel was drafted, due to his not having followed “normal educational progress.”

Don GerBracht, Skakel’s childhood neighbor and self-described “blood brother,” explained that Skakel exhibited qualities of leadership and autonomy from an early age.

“George was exceptional,” GerBracht said. “He was so independent and free-thinking, and really ahead of his time. I remember in sixth grade, when we all first heard about Sputnik, George got a bunch of us together and said, ‘Somebody’s gotta build this rocket. And if [the government] won’t do it, dammit, we will.’”

Rocket science never surfaced as Skakel’s calling, but the same energy GerBracht saw in him then re-emerged with Skakel’s desire to present UCSC students with the truth about Vietnam.

However, his letters did, in fact, have a significant effect on Santa Cruz students, said Blair Cooper, fellow UCSC student and close friend of Skakel’s.

“His published letters deeply affected those on campus.” Cooper said. “George conveyed the idiocy, futility and brutality of war. He described sleeping in the mud, [moving] through the jungles, killing ‘gooks’ — the camaraderie, the fear. I can’t see how his view of reality wouldn’t affect anyone who read it.”

While every generation of combat correspondents must deal with new issues in new ways, there nonetheless exists a vital element of continuity in the job, spanning each and every American era, said Jack Paxton, executive director of the United States Marine Corps Combat Correspondence Association (USMCCCA).

The USMCCCA itself exemplifies this fact, priding itself on being the only organization in the armed forces that includes both former and active members of the military. It allows former combat correspondents to provide the wisdom of experience to active correspondents, creating a unique relationship.

“Tradition is a very important part of being a Marine. Much of what current combat correspondents learn, we learned the hard way back in ’51 and ’52,” Paxton said.

Jordan noted that regardless of age or experience, top correspondents share certain personal traits.

“All good combat correspondents have a spirit of adventure and a great sense of patriotism,” Jordan said. “You have to be willing to sacrifice a lot of comforts — no running water, no utilities, going weeks or months without a shower or with holes in your underwear.”

Fortunately, potential correspondents with this drive and passion are not hard to come by. Jordan said that the majority of his students at the Public Affairs Leadership Department of Fort Meade’s Defense Information School are ambitious, with a healthy dose of curiosity.

“Of the students I’ve seen, the combat correspondents are always a bright, inquisitive bunch, and most of them would be successful at anything they did,” Jordan said. “They have that thirst to get into someone’s head, see what they see, feel what they feel, and translate that to the public. They understand their role, that they have a duty to protect the public’s right to information — and ultimately, an unabridged truth.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Voices from the Front: Bringing the War Home

“Undead corpses” in pale, blood-splattered aprons staggered about rooms adorned with grotesque paintings and blaring music to serve the especially jam-packed crowd at Caffé Pergolesi last Saturday night.

Artists and admirers with mangled makeup and garb laughed, ate and drank amid those clad in mortal attire. All admired diverse mediums of zombie art that dotted the walls of the venue for the zombie-themed art show “Organize Before They Rise.”

The show, arranged by Samuel O’Reilly’s Tattoo Parlour on Mission Street in Santa Cruz, was the second of its kind hosted by Caffé Pergolesi. A few years ago the café hosted a monkey-themed art show for the tattoo shop entitled “Chongo Loco.”

Robert Klem, owner of O’Reilly’s, said his goal was to outdo the previous show.

“I think for that show we received around 60-some paintings, and for this one we received I think 125,” Klem said. “I’m honestly a little tired from putting the whole thing together, but I think it was a resounding success.”

O’Reilly’s assembled artistic friends and colleagues for the zombie show from such far-off destinations as Florida, Kansas, Missouri and Germany, just to name a few. Artists from all over California also participated.

One white-faced, red-soaked Pergolesi employee serving the art-show attendees on Saturday evening was Sam Saarni. Although Caffé Pergolesi has hosted many an art show in its day, Saarni said this one stood out.

“It was easily the best show we’ve ever had,” Saarni said. “It was by far the busiest night I’ve ever worked. Zombies are kind of ‘so hot’ right now, but … it’s such a broad theme. The way people managed to capture it with all different sorts of media — just the range was a favorite aspect of mine.”

Klem said the idea for the zombie theme was a collaborative effort on the part of the O’Reilly’s staff.

“All of us are just kind of fans of zombie movies and zombie books in general,” Klem said, noting especially the works of author and screenwriter Max Brooks.

While the zombie party raged and gallery observers “ooh’d” and “ahh’d,” beers in hand, at the disturbed images peering out from the walls with yellow eyes, four or five die-hard regulars studied as usual at the large tables of the café’s back rooms, absorbed in books of history and mathematics.

Artist Sara Jane stood over a man with earphones scribbling problems on graph paper as she explained her black-and-white painting, which depicted a beautiful woman with her head tossed back and an open chest revealing a beating heart.

“I wanted to do a hot zombie chick because I thought everyone else was going to do something grotesque,” Jane said. “I wanted to keep it true to myself.”

Amid the many tattoo-style paintings and drawings that adorned the walls of the café gallery, a few atypical creations loomed. Scotty Weeks’ sparkling green-metal statue — depicting a skeletal zombie figure with a single eye and brains exposed to passersby — groped its own heart in its hand.

Grady Gordon superimposed graphics and drawings across everyday candid photographs of friends eating and relaxing to create the effect of zombie features. Stained-glass zombies and a tooled-leather creation also stood among the notably original mediums of the night.

The idea of taking everyday images and turning them into zombie images played into the show’s theme that the undead are among us, Gordon said, and created an obvious contrast.

“O’Reilly’s told me about this event,” Gordon said. “I love zombies anyways, so the theme was just a perk!”

Although the party is over, the zombie art gallery will hang on display in Caffé Pergolesi until the end of the month.

“I think my favorite part about the theme show is just to see the variety, not only the variety of mediums, but also the variety of approaches,” Klem said. “There is a kind of unifying theme, but just to see how everyone’s brain works and how they came up with all different kinds of stuff. It was a lot of fun.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Artistic Homage Paid to the Living Dead

If your vagina could talk, what would it say?

This was one of many questions posed at a run-through of “The Vagina Monologues,” a benefit presentation that will play this weekend in the Porter Dining Hall.

“The show has such an array of vagina wisdom that I don’t think really gets talked about in other plays or in our society in general,” said actor Kiana Reeves, who plays The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy.

The Vagina Monologues, an Obie-award winning play, will be performed by UCSC women. Their performance seeks to open up discussion about female sexuality on a local sphere, while benefiting a larger cause. The play will donate 10 percent of its profits to V-Day, a global movement founded by “Vagina Monologues” playwright Eve Ensler, to end violence against women and girls.

The other portion of the play’s revenue will benefit the local organizations Defensa de Mujeres in Watsonville and the Survivors Healing Center in Santa Cruz, each of which provide women’s crisis support to rape and assault victims.

Jordan Menashe and Akiva Levi are co-directors of the production. “It’s a good show — it’s really entertaining, the girls are all talented, but it does something for the community,” Menashe said.

This year marks the eighth annual presentation of “Vagina Monologues” at UCSC, and the 11th anniversary of the play itself.

The “Vagina Monologues” crew is an all-female cast whose collaboration and enthusiasm for the production saturate the performance.

During a Sunday evening run-through, one cast member stood on stage waiting for lighting adjustments as another called to her “You look good!” The cohesive, supportive nature of the cast comes together in a comedic and evocative production. As the show ran through, cast members in the audience giggled at the puns, pleasures and humorous anecdotes performed onstage.

At opening night of the show on Friday, March 13, “vagina-pops” will be sold for audience members to snack on and information about sexual assault help will be available. “We have worked on the production process altogether for about a year,” said co-producer Sarah Steer. “All of the people on the cast are amazing.”

As characters of all ages and origin share stories of sexual woe and wonder, the show sends a message to audiences that fear of the unknown is all that keeps women — and humanity in general — from expressing openness and feeling comfortable with personal sexuality.

“I think we consider ourselves a liberal campus, but there are still these women who have issues with their gender roles and bodies,” Menashe said. “We’re lucky to have these talented women telling these stories.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Speaking on Behalf of the Vagina

Armed with pillows, hoodies, and backpacks full of processed snack foods and enough caffeine to successfully fuel a rocket, UC Santa Cruz students and Santa Cruzans alike filed into the Del Mar at midnight last Saturday for 12 hours of movie mystery.

The ultimate testament to movie buff endurance, the Secret Film Festival has joined events like the weekly midnight movie as a staple in Del Mar Theatre tradition.

The concept of the Secret Film Festival is simple. Participants are shown five to seven movies, which are played consecutively within the span of roughly 12 hours. As they enter the theater at midnight, moviegoers are unaware of what movies will be playing, and throughout the show, only given subtle hints as to the content of the upcoming show.

Some are easy. When Scott Griffin, organizer of the event and emcee for the long night, stood up and said “I will give you three words: Neil. Patrick. Harris,” The audience shouted back with glee, “Dr. Horrible! Dr. Horrible!”

Other hints, such as “big hair, the onion dance and robbery,” were a bit too complex for the puzzled and sleep-deprived crowd. But the common consensus is that guessing was half the fun.

Del Mar Theatre employee and self-described popcorn-popper Natalie Shell had never worked the Secret Film Festival before, but was excited for the night ahead of her.

“I am working the night shift from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m., so I’ll be able to see the first and last shows,” Shell said. “I’m working to make sure nobody pirates the films so that we can continue having a film festival every year. Oh, and that set list is not a secret to me,” she added.

In the main theater, excited moviegoers wriggled in their seats with anticipation, waiting for the affair to begin. After waiting in a line that wrapped around the corner, they dove for seating like scavengers in the desert. In good spirits, through speculation and swigs of soda, audience members prepped each other for the night ahead.

“I came to the film festival to challenge myself to stay awake for 12 hours, and see new movies with friends,” said first-year UCSC student Westley Littleton. “We watch movies at all hours of the night back at the dorms, so this atmosphere is just making something familiar that much better.”

Films shown at the yearly Del Mar event are ones that have not been shown anywhere in Santa Cruz before. This year’s lineup ranged from the inspirational kung fu epic “Chocolate,” to touching family dramedy “Sunshine Cleaning,” to slasher flick “All The Boys Love Mandy Lane,” to the new quintessential summer comedy, “Skills Like These.” Fan favorite “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was played between movies to keep spirits high.

“We have an amazing mix of films,” Shell said. “There’s comedy, sci-fi, some action, horror. Really we have something for everyone to keep it interesting.”

In total, the night hosted seven films — five shown in the main theater, and two as alternate options in the upstairs region. In addition to those already mentioned, the lineup included foreign films “Los Cronocrimenes” (“Time Crimes”), a Spanish psychological thriller, “Big Man Japan,” a satirical Japanese monster movie that pokes fun at the exploitation of advertising and poorly-made action series, and “Let The Right One In,” a Swedish vampire flick.

“I was hoping for less subtitles this late in the night,” Littleton said. “I feel like my brain has shut off and I’m just absorbing information. But at the same time, I’m eight hours in and it is a great feeling.”

As the night wore on, and enthusiasm wavered with each passing hour, the audience stood strong and vowed to stay awake until the clock struck noon. The Del Mar staff helped sustain the masses by providing an extended snack bar, far from the usual movie-theater fare. At reasonable prices, one could purchase sandwiches, cereal and milk, coffee, soda, energy drinks, fresh fruit and pastries. In the morning hours boxes of Tic-Tacs were also sold in case of breath desperation.

The Secret Film Festival is an event unlike most movie theater experiences.

“I was initially dragged here,” third-year UCSC student Laura Cody said. “I had no clue what to expect, but I think it’s awesome. And I think I am definitely tired.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Secret Film Festival Surprises Audiences for Another Year

For any UC Santa Cruz student savvy in all things fabulous, the annual Queer Fashion Show (QFS) is infamous for raising queer awareness while singing, dancing, stripping and strutting all the way. While glitter and lingerie once again adorned the runway, the directors and performers hoped to tackle serious issues facing the queer community with this year’s whimsical theme, “Come Out and Play.”

“The theme is sort of a play on the phrase ‘coming out’ because it’s heard so often in the community,” said Avital Wolf-Prusan, one of the show’s directors. “It’s not so much about physical playing as it is coming out and playing with who you are, and QFS has always been a safe place to do that.”

The show’s theme was brought to life by an array of pieces ranging from stand-up comedy and clowning to hardcore hip-hop and, of course, student-designed fashion. This year’s show featured three different designers who played with the themes of fetish, the symbolic Japanese days of the week, and boredom. The gay mélange was led by two “aggressively awkward” emcees donning plaid and bottlecap specs while striving to create a dance routine worthy of this year’s repertoire.

One of these pieces, performed by Zachary Forcum and Jonathan Tristan, utilized the show’s lascivious reputation to address the emotional aftermath of sexual relations within the gay community. The piece, titled “Not Enough,” depicted the “strictly sexual” relationship between two men, eventually resulting in a realization that sex is not enough for a fulfilling relationship.

“I was starting to get really disturbed by all the men on campus, and around the world really, that just want to have sexual relationships,” said Forcum, who choreographed the piece. “I know there are a lot of men on campus, in California, and around the world who go out just looking for sex because having anything deeper is not accepted.”

A first-time QFS participant, Forcum hesitated at first to perform in the notorious venue, but said he was pleased with his decision.

“I’m really glad this piece was in QFS because it shows a different side of sex,” Forcum said. “I think QFS has so much going for it, and I hope this piece encourages people to explore what sex is. I think we need to talk about sex. It’s important to show sex not just for sex’s sake, but for how it relates to us in multifaceted ways.”

Fellow performer Bradley Tomy also felt addressing sex was an important part of the show’s responsibility to the community.

“Sexuality is an integral part of [the show], and of being part of that community,” Tomy said. “To be queer is to be a sexual person. You can’t be queer and proud of it without knowing yourself sexually.”

While cast discussions after intense late-night rehearsals effortlessly conjured up such revelations, relaying them to the audience could be a challenge. According to audience member Kayt Ahnberg, it seems the show was successful.

“I felt the sex in the show was effective in saying that these are the pairings that happen behind closed doors,” Ahnberg said. “It’s here, it’s on stage, and it’s OK.”

Wolf-Prusan shared this opinion, and hoped to encourage intelligent conversation about sex with the skits that were chosen.

“The pieces we included were more than just sex onstage,” Wolf-Prusan said. “They’re about relationships and intimacy. There’s sex in the pieces, but that’s not the main point. That’s not what the audience takes away.”

One of these pieces, titled “Karma Sutra,” featured artful sex onstage, presenting different sexual positions performed by dancers in unisex costumes who switched partners and positions like clockwork. Ahnberg said she was particularly affected by the piece’s blatant use of sex as well as the message she took away from it.

“At first I thought ‘Karma Sutra’ was really shocking because it put sexuality in such an interesting place,” Ahnberg said. “But I thought it talked about gender and sexuality in a very nondiscriminate sort of way. It was just people having sex with people. It placed a lot of emphasis on acceptance. It went past the aesthetic aspects of sex and took on larger themes concerning gender and relationships.”

Despite the heavy issues that the pieces alluded to, Ahnberg left with a satisfied smile and an extra skip in her step.

“I walked away with a very celebratory message,” Ahnberg said. “You should be happy and proud of who you are and never look at it as a burden. Live it, express it, love it.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at QFS Proves More Than Just Sequins and Sex

Ten broken records, 1,496 points, zero regrets.

In the four years that Kayleigh Calandri has played for the UC Santa Cruz women’s basketball team, she’s made a name for herself as one of the greatest players in the history of the program. She’s achieved about as much success as an individual can have in the sport, writing in her name next to virtually every record in collegiate basketball, except for one: a winning season.

But now, after hanging up her Slugs jersey for the last time, Calandri, the team’s captain for two years, is looking back on her four years without any feelings of regret. As she walks away with a smile on her face, she does so feeling confident that her choice to play for the Slugs was completely worthwhile.

“I decided pretty early to come to UCSC,” Calandri said. “But it took me visiting three different times. I wasn’t really a big fan of the trees, honestly, but I came back again and met the team and that’s when I decided.

“It was so great because I was with such a passionate group of people,” she said. “In Division III you don’t always get the top athletes, but they’re the ones with the most heart and passion.”

Recruited with the intention of rebuilding a struggling program, Calandri was not able to find the team success that she might have been able to find at other universities.

“We wished we could have produced more wins for her,” women’s basketball coach Nikki Turner said, “but I think she’s getting out of it what she wanted to get. She had a personal impact and was really a part of something, and for her that was more important.”

Teammates agreed, recognizing that while Calandri’s talent stood out in DIII, it was the best place for her to make a difference.

“If anything, I think it helped her in the long run,” sophomore Mikaela Medeiros said. “It’s hard to go through seasons where you don’t win as many as you should have, and playing with teammates that didn’t get the opportunity to go to the DI level, but it made her better. It’s hard to lose and to build a program, but she would have had success wherever she went.”

Before making the decision to come to UC Santa Cruz, Calandri considered many other options that ranged from other DIIIs to Ivy League schools like Brown University, and some with historically strong programs like Gonzaga, a DI school.

“I think she could have [played DI or DII], but I think that’s why we became such a good fit,” Turner said. “She didn’t have all these expectations and I knew she’d be successful. In DI it’s so much more work and effort and in DIII there’s still a lot of that work and effort, but here she was able to feel more accomplished.

“She knew she could make a name for herself in this program,” Turner continued. “You can’t help but respect her game and she just seemed to mesh so well with this team.”

During her junior year, Calandri broke one of the most coveted records in basketball. At an away game in Texas, she clinched UCSC’s all-time scoring record, becoming the first Slug, male or female, to pass 1,000 points.

“They told me before the game how many points I needed [which was 14],” she said. “And at halftime, I had two points. It was just stressing me out. But in second half, I got a lot of points and everyone on the bench cheered for me. It was really exciting.”

On Feb. 28, Calandri ended her athletic career at UCSC, carrying the team to a 79-47 victory against La Sierra. In that last game, Calandri scored an astounding 38 points and added two records to her name.

“She’s surpassed [my expectations],” Turner said. “For the first few years, we knew she was doing well, but then in this last year, she did a lot of things that completely broke the mold and she really ended it in the best way possible.”

Now with graduation on the horizon, Calandri is exploring her options for a post-college career. While she wants to pursue graduate school, she will first be looking into playing professional basketball overseas, and hopes to play for a team in Italy.

Until then, she will continue to work out with the Slugs, the team that she worked four years to help build.

“A lot of people knew about Santa Cruz because of Kayleigh and now they’re going to want to step up,” teammate and freshman Jen Marquez said. “We don’t want to do less than she did, though we may not be able to fill her shoes. But I think we can only go up from here, thanks to what Coach Turner and Kayleigh did for this program.”

Turner couldn’t be prouder of what Calandri, her first four-year recruit, has accomplished.

“I hope she knows that she put this program on the map and the impact she had on other people,” Turner said. “Now people can look to that and try to accomplish what Kayleigh did and know that it is possible to do all those things.”

And despite the limited success of the team, to Calandri, joining the Slugs and being able to lead a team — forming lifelong friendships and achieving so many personal goals in the process — was undoubtedly a success.

“I think for a lot of high school girls, they think they need to go DI and if they don’t they might think it’s the end of the world,” Calandri said. “But this has been the best experience I could have asked for, and despite the fact that we were undersupported, this was absolutely 100 percent worth it.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Star Athlete Ends Career on High Note

Take a brief walk through the East Field on campus, and you’ll be more than likely to stumble across a vibrant and active scene of runners traversing the jogging track, while soccer balls get kicked across the field and a dozen or so other activities simultaneously occur.

However, several miles away from the hustle is a fleet of small yet sturdy boats bobbing up and down in the calm, gentle waters of the Santa Cruz Harbor. In an office in the middle of that collection of boats sits Rusty Kingon, the current head of the UC Santa Cruz sailing team and the UCSC boating club.

This Tier II club of over 150 members, about a dozen of whom are also on the sailing team, survives on little school funding. This could make the club all but impossible to run for a hobby as expensive as boating, in which a simple repair could easily cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars. As a means to cover the many demanding expenses associated with sailing, Kingon organizes and operates a year-round boating school, available to anyone from children to UCSC students to community members.

“We let them go out on the bay and really learn the nuts and bolts of sailing,” Kingon said. “It’s considered a P.E. class, so it’s available at $45 for UCSC students and $100 for nonstudents. It would cost $150 for the same class at Stanford.”

This money, along with covering other events and expenses, allows the UCSC sailing club to continue competing, Kingon said. The team regularly challenges schools such as Stanford, USC, UCLA, and CSU Monterey Bay and remains a respected opponent against such teams.

In addition to having a rich history of traditional competition against West Coast schools, the club also hosts its own annual trip, in which several members board one of the club’s yachts, donated by former UCSC student Peter C. Adam, and sail away to a far-off destination. The club has been fortunate enough to venture off to Hawaii, Florida and the Bahamas in previous years, among other locations.

Phil Vandenberg, a 34-year veteran of the UCSC boating program, has had his fair share of experiences with the sailing team since retiring. Throughout his days teaching at the UCSC boating center, Vandenberg has introduced well over 10,000 students to the nautical life, and is a well-respected member of the Santa Cruz boating community.

“It’s a lot of fun. It’s a real chick magnet,” Vandenberg said with a chuckle. “It started as a family activity for me. My dad got me into it when I was a child, and as I got into it, I met a lot of families from around the harbor.”

UCSC’s boating program was started in 1971 by Fresno State tennis instructor Dick Murray. The club had a rough start, and was struggling to operate with donations and volunteers. What the club lacked at the time was consistency. Two years later, in 1973, Vandenberg was hired to step in and take control of the program, and was able to give the club the stability that it needed in order to operate properly. Ever since Vandenberg entered the picture, the club has flourished.

Sailing competitions take on a variety of different forms, the most common of which is a course ranging anywhere from half a mile to a mile marked by buoys. A typical college race can sometimes see as many as 20 13-foot boats, known in the world of sailing as dinghies. These dinghies carry two occupants: the skipper and the crew. While the skipper controls the sail, essentially driving the boat, the crew is responsible for maintaining the trim of the vessel and preventing it from falling, primarily by shifting his or her body weight as necessary.

“I love being on the ocean and water in general,” co-captain Alex Belmont said. “I grew up sailing in Lake Michigan with my family, and I really wanted to get back on the water out here.”

Despite being an active member of the UCSC sailing team, Belmont’s love for the sport doesn’t end there. Several years ago, Belmont and a couple other active members of the team pooled their money together and purchased an inexpensive boat. Together, the crew patched up the minor dings and repairs, and now benefit from taking the boat out for a frequent sail. This is something Belmont and his friends in the club can’t seem to get enough of.

“It’s really amazing going anywhere I want on the water,” Belmont said. “I love being at one with the ocean. It’s amazing being able to go out with friends, and blow off some steam.”

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Drift Away with the Boating Club

The UC Santa Cruz men’s rugby team squared off against UC Berkeley last Saturday in a friendly, but fiercely physical game that saw no end to the kind of aggressive hits that made fans from both sides wince and players gasp for air.

Cal, which used a lineup comprised mostly of freshmen and sophomores, showed spectators why its team is No.1 in the nation, scoring 13 tries throughout the game. But the Division II Slugs refused to let down against the DI Golden Bears and came out stronger in the second half, scoring an unconverted try and kicking a penalty.

After the runs and tackles were over, the Slugs ultimately lost 87-8. Despite the score, the Slugs were proud of the effort they made against the Bears, who have been a dominating force in collegiate rugby for nearly 130 years. “That’s why we played them,” UCSC men’s rugby coach Robbie Bellue said, “to raise our game.”

The Slugs are currently tied for second place in their conference as they near the end of their season. They will be taking on a touring team from Pennsylvania at home on St. Patty’s Day, March 17, at 4 p.m. on the East Field.

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Hard Knocks: Slug Rugby Takes on No.1 Cal

Daniel Petric, a 17-year-old from Ohio, shot his parents and killed his mother in October 2007.

The reason? She refused to let him play Halo 3, which he would regularly spend 18 hours a day playing.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case.

Over 5 million children may be addicted to video games, according to a 2007 American Medical Association report.

Addiction is clinically defined as when a person needs more and more of a substance or behavior to keep him or her from being irritable and miserable, according to WebMD. Compulsive gaming absolutely follows this definition and has the potential to increase violent behavior.

In the past few years, more and more violent crimes related to video games have been increasingly reported in the media.

In July 2007, Jahmir Ricks, 13, of Pennsylvania stabbed his 16-year-old brother to death with a steak knife after a dispute over whose turn it was to play a video game.

But it’s more than just teenagers committing these kinds of murders.

While most studies are concerned with children playing video games, adults are also at risk of addiction. The Entertainment Software Association reported that the average American video game player is a 33-year-old male. According to its data, 44 percent of all players are between the ages of 18 and 49.

Tyrone Spellman, 27, of Philadelphia beat his 17-month-old daughter to death in September 2006 after she pulled down his Xbox console, accidentally breaking it. Spellman often played six to seven hours a day, according to an assistant district attorney.

As incidents like these continue to appear in the news, the inevitable question of blame comes up: Who and/or what is at fault — the individual, the parents, or the game?

Usually when someone blames violence on video games, I’m one of the first to defend this beloved pastime.

My 16-year-old brother loves to annihilate my dad in Halo or Call of Duty. But rather than isolate himself in a fantasy world, he started a paintball team with some friends to bring the video game experience to life in a harmless way.

This was an effective outlet to prevent addiction, because he found a social activity that didn’t deprive him of the excitement that video games offer.

The Center for On-Line Addiction lists some warning signs for video game addiction: gaming to escape from real-life problems, lying to friends and family to conceal gaming, and feeling irritable when trying to cut down on gaming.

An addiction to anything is obviously a problem, and the international community is slowly discovering that compulsive gaming deserves to be treated like alcoholism or anorexia. The Smith and Jones clinic in Amsterdam has even founded the world’s first and only residential video game treatment program, complete with a 12-step system.

There are also groups like On-Line Gamers Anonymous, a support group created by Liz Woolley after her 21-year-old son shot himself in 2001 while playing an online game.

Battling people in an online multiplayer game does not provide the same effect as playing with real friends, since it is distanced and impersonal. That detachment makes it easier to spew racial or homophobic slurs at opponents. After enough game play, it can be easy to forget how to deal with actual human beings and not just avatars of them.

And that’s the scary part.

Abstaining from video games is not reasonable in such a technological society. They can be a fun, healthy hobby, as proved by consoles like the Nintendo Wii.

But no matter how exhilarating it is to slaughter Nazi zombies, without social interaction a person will only become lonely or destructive to themselves or others.

And regardless of how much we love video games, the danger that they can carry must not be denied — there have been deaths to prove it.

As the media recently proved with these numerous tragedies, video game addiction is a growing, worldwide issue that needs to be taken seriously. If we can just put down the controller more often, we can regain control of our lives.

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Violence and Video Games

<i>Just before print time last week, we were approached by the editor of the Daily Cal – UC Berkeley’s student paper – to sign onto a letter of solidarity for the student staff of the Daily Emerald. Due to the time constraints of a weekly print schedule, we were unable to print the letter in last week’s issue, and today, at time of press, the Emerald’s staff had agreed to move into arbitration with the board of directors. However, City on a Hill Press stands wholeheartedly behind the Emerald staff, and we have decided to print the letter in its entirety as it was written last week. The following has been signed by the editorial staffs of 34 student papers across the country, including eight UCs.</i>

Standing Behind Student Press

On Wednesday morning, the entire editorial staff of the Daily Emerald—the student-produced newspaper at the University of Oregon—went on strike in protest of the attempts of its board of directors to install a publisher with unprecedented control over the newsroom.

Today, college newspapers across the United States and Canada stand in solidarity with the editorial staff of the Daily Emerald in support of the independent collegiate press and student-controlled editorial content. We are deeply dismayed by the short-sighted actions of the Emerald’s board of directors and strongly support the strike until the staff’s demands are met, and independent student journalism can be safeguarded from such attacks at the Emerald and on college campuses nationwide.

On Thursday the board of directors had the audacity to publish their own version of the Oregon Daily Emerald using content from The Associated Press and a front-page statement from the board. This move is as offensive as it is unwise.

In November, the board of directors hired Emerald alumnus Steven A. Smith as a consultant, and he drafted a plan which included a call to hire a publisher. Smith then authored the publisher’s job description as well as his own terms of employment for the position, which the board approved without negotiation. On Feb. 24, the board voted to hire Smith as the Emerald’s publisher, and to give him unprecedented control over the full paper’s operation, including supervising the editor in chief. Smith could also have been concurrently employed by the university, creating a clear path for the university to control what should be student-produced editorial content.

In the face of the strike, Smith has decided to withdraw his decision to accept the position. Today the Emerald staff demands a nationwide search for a new publisher, whose authority would not extend over the editor and who would not be employed by the university.

Since its inception, the Oregon Daily Emerald has served as an invaluable learning resource for its student journalists, but if the board continues to wrest control from students, the Emerald’s mission and legacy will be invalidated. Without objectivity and independent content in the newsroom, the paper cannot properly train its student reporters and the campus will lose an irreplaceable source of information, outside of the influence of university public relations efforts.

The Emerald, like many papers across the country, is in dire financial straits and faces the possibility of closure. This financial reality, however, should not force the staff to compromise their guiding ethics as journalists or to sacrifice the paper’s autonomy. The decision to give a publisher sway over journalists would in no way solve the paper’s financial crisis; as such, this seems to be a callous overreaching by the board and the university, and an attempt to take advantage of a financially struggling, but influential student organization while the time is right.

We are living in a tough time for the newspaper business. Now more than ever, we must stand strong and stand together to maintain our editorial independence—any measure of overarching interference in content undermines our journalistic standards and is unacceptable, no matter the financial situation. Practicing journalism under the possibility of censorship and the meddling influence of an administration undermines the purpose of a free press—we hope that the Emerald’s board will recognize this undeniable fact and immediately meet the staff’s demands. Until then, we stand with the Oregon Daily Emerald.

The Brown Daily Herald, Brown University

The California Aggie, UC Davis

City on a Hill Press, UC Santa Cruz

Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech

The Cornell Daily Sun, Cornell University

The Daily Aztec, San Diego State University

The Daily Bruin, UC Los Angeles

The Daily Californian, UC Berkeley

The Daily Cardinal, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Daily Evergreen, Washington State University

The Daily Iowan, University of Iowa

Daily Kent Stater, Kent State University

The Daily Lobo, University of New Mexico

The Daily Nexus, UC Santa Barbara

The Daily Northwestern, Northwestern University

The Daily of the University of Washington

The Daily Pennsylvanian, University of Pennsylvania

The Daily Princetonian, Princeton University

The Daily Reveille, Louisiana State University

The Daily Targum, Rutgers University

The Daily Texan, University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Wildcat, University of Arizona

The Gateway, University of Alberta

The Highlander, UC Riverside

The Independent Alligator, University of Florida

The Martlet, University of Victoria

The McGill Daily, McGill University

The Michigan Daily, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

New University Newspaper, UC Irvine

The Stanford Daily, Stanford University

The State Press, Arizona State University

The Ubyssey, University of British Columbia

The UCSD Guardian, UC San Diego

Washington Square News, New York University

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Standing Behind Student Press

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek) introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act on March 3, legislation that would overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a federal law that bans gays and lesbians from serving in the military.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” established in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, states that gays and lesbians should be barred from the armed forces because they are considered “an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”

Since 1994, 20,500 servicepeople have been dishonorably discharged from the military because their sexual orientation was revealed.

The real dishonorable act is the policy that discharges the men and women who work in the military as invaluable soldiers, linguists and intelligence officers.

Similar to Clinton, President Barack Obama promised in his presidential campaign to repeal the ban. In response to a question asked on Obama’s Web site Change.gov regarding Obama’s plans to repeal the policy, spokesman Robert Gibbs replied in a YouTube video, “You don’t hear a politician give a one-word answer much. But it’s, ‘Yes.’”

If yes, then when? Tauscher’s new legislation is a call to Obama to uphold his campaign promise to repeal the discriminatory policy. In November 2008, Obama advisers said actions to repeal the policy would be delayed as late as 2010 because Obama wants to reach a consensus with military leaders before he presents legislation to Congress. His spokesperson also said that the president is going to concentrate on the economy before doing that.

Despite other pressing issues like the economy, Obama must uphold civil rights in our country and keep his campaign promise of change to reflect shifting attitudes in our country.

Based on a Washington Post-ABC News poll in 2008, 75 percent of Americans said that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military, compared with 62 percent in 2001 and 44 percent in 1993. As for military personnel, the 2006 Zogby International poll found that 73 percent of respondents said that they felt comfortable in the presence of gay and lesbian colleagues.

Colin Powell, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had a hand in drafting “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” wants Congress to re-evaluate the measure. “It’s been 15 years and attitudes have changed,” Powell told CNN in December.

In response to Tauscher’s proposed legislation, Obama’s camp released a statement that says the president supports changing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” but does not specify how or when.

Obama should take a more decisive stance. Gay rights legislation has been divisive for politicians, such as Bill Clinton when he proposed repealing the ban in 1993. However, as president he must protect the rights of the estimated 65,000 gays and lesbians currently serving in the U.S. military and those that will join the military in the future. The rights of gays and lesbians in the military has been sitting on the back burner long enough.

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at To Hell With “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Time flies when you’re having fun.

For the past three years, City on a Hill Press has been my life. But now, as I face my imminent separation from the driving force of my college career, I can only offer one piece of advice to my fellow students: get involved.

Get involved in anything. Make an investment in an organization, in a project, in people. Put yourself out there, be a little vulnerable, face the outside world. You’ll be glad you did.

I joined the paper as a copy editor in the spring quarter of my freshman year simply as an excuse to read the paper each week. I immediately caught “the bug,” passing up sleep, staying up until the late hours just to see and know and feel that I was part of the news process.

From that day on, I knew what I wanted to do. I knew that I was in a special place.

CHP has given me so much. I’ve had access to locations, conversations and information I would completely miss otherwise. I’ve been able to ask questions, hear and share stories, all the while gaining a deeper understanding of this community.

But if that was it, it wouldn’t feel like this to leave.

I will miss everyone terribly, that much is obvious.

But CHP is more, much more. And though it’s an uphill battle to convince people I do not, in fact, work for the California Highway Patrol, I see great things in the paper’s future. The staff is full of imaginative, intelligent, passionate people who will champion the cause of journalism.

But the really odd part will be next quarter: seeing an unfamiliar cover for the first time, realizing that the paper can and will continue without me.

Recently, I’ve been trying to put words to the page for my final contribution to the paper’s content, finding myself utterly lacking the words to describe what my “legacy” will be to the paper.

Now it’s clear: I am confident that my legacy will lie in my successors, and I hope that I was able to inspire even a fraction of the extent that I was, and continue to be, inspired.

-Daniel Zarchy

Co-Editor in Chief

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As the quarter comes to a close and students pack their bags for break and write furiously in their blue book finals, I close out my career at City on a Hill Press with a few final words.

Three years with this publication have gone too fast, but thinking back on what’s been printed on our pages, I’m astounded at the change that I’ve not only seen but also been lucky enough to report on. Now, it all flashes through my mind as a collage of cover stories, columns, countless images and quotes.

I’ve been able to view change in our country, state, city and campus through the stories of UCSC students. It’s in these newspaper clippings that I find a pathway back through the blur that has become my college memories.

So for all these unique stories, I thank the students of this campus and members of the Santa Cruz community who have been willing to share their words and have allowed me the pleasure of weaving them together and putting them into print. Thank you to all my friends and family hundreds of miles away from this city on a hill who went out of their way to read every story looking for my byline and offered endless encouragement. And thank you, finally, to every single member of this publication who never let me forget that I had their support, even if it meant sticking it out until dawn to be sure that the paper got on the stands the next day. It is because of all these people that I’ve been able to take so much from this experience, which has so defined my college career. Thank you. I had the time of my life.

-Samantha Thompson

Co-Editor in Chief

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Editors’ Notes

Had you tuned in to 88.1 FM from March 5 to 13, in between the regularly scheduled programming of underground hip-hop and indie rock, you’d have heard the disc jockeys’ voices a little bit more than normal.

As much as KZSC’s DJs like to talk about music news and their views on the latest tracks, for the last nine days they were soliciting listeners not for requests, but for donations.

Three times a year, KZSC, our college radio station, holds a weeklong pledge drive that raises most of its funding. Listeners call in and pledge a certain amount, all of which goes toward the station’s broadcasting budget.

Beginning Thursday, 89.3 FM, or KUSP, will dive headlong into its spring pledge drive, an eight-day marathon in which the station’s employees implore listeners to donate any amount they can to support one of the only public radio stations on the Central Coast.

Their programs include Democracy Now!, nightly classical and jazz shows, and programs pertaining specifically to the local community.

Without listener support, neither of these stations could survive.

And without these stations, the only voices coming through our speakers would be on commercial radio.

Years of privatization have left over 90 percent of mass media outlets under the ownership of five corporations. That’s 90 percent of all newspapers, TV stations, wire services, magazines, and radio.

Not only is the integrity of content called into question by this fact, the homogenization of media outlets excludes artists and news stories that aren’t profitable for these megacorporations.

Terry Green, the program director for KUSP, said that his station has two objectives. The first is to provide “an independent news service not directly influenced by corporate interest.”

The second objective the station strives to achieve is to play music that is artistically important, but not necessarily commercially successful. Presenting all underrepresented sectors of the artistic, social, and political community is one of the cornerstones of public radio.

KZSC is the university’s radio station and broadcasts as far as San Benito County. Here, like KUSP, listeners hear a wide range of music and programming, from spoken-word poetry to death metal to reggae to radio dramas. They also broadcast UCSC events, lectures and anything else worth sending over the airwaves that commercial radio would shun.

Corporate media and pathetic governmental support threaten to drown out independent public radio for good, leaving us with whitewashed, censored and incomplete coverage and biased content.

We need public radio, and independent television and print, to keep us completely informed and thoroughly engaged in the world around us.

At its inception, the intent of radio was to facilitate a dialogue between broadcaster and listener, promoting community and conversation. Green said that while the station does get 55 percent of its funding from its pledge drives, just as important is the feedback volunteers receive when they take pledges from listeners.

One of the beautiful features of public radio is that it is truly open to the public. Not only are stations beholden to the very listeners who give them funding, a constant and relevant dialogue keeps stations providing exactly the kind of programming that listeners want.

KZSC’s purpose is to train UCSC students who want to go on to professional broadcasting. Their dedication in presenting alternative viewpoints and serving the school and community through their varied and independent programs is invaluable.

Pledge time is a flurry of activity, and then it’s over. But the money raised allows these stations to keep broadcasting in the interim until next pledge season comes around.

To preserve these bastions of integrity and public service, support public radio. And after you pledge, stay tuned and stay informed.

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---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Rally for Radio

Dear Editor of City on a Hill Press,
Another beneficial component of re-legalizing cannabis (marijuana) that doesn

---- (C) 2011 City on a Hill Press. All Rights Reserved. View online at Letters to the Editor