Spring Dance Season has come with a flourish to Santa Cruz. Local dancers are honing their craft and preparing for upcoming performances. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Without the glamour and security of metropolitan dance companies, local Santa Cruz dancers have struggled to find a home and voice in the city, operating independently and thriving on quiet ambition. Now, with a little creative collaboration, local dancers have created an empire, joining together to get the word out and help the spring season in Santa Cruz boast yet another unique aspect — a season of dancing.

SantaCruzDance.com

This season begins with Abra Allen, a local community dancer with an eye for networking and creating opportunities. As Allen did more and more work in Santa Cruz, she began to notice not only the abundance of talented dance artists, but also the senseless categorization of local dance groups.

“We have somewhat of a segmented dance community here, from UCSC to independent dancers to Cabrillo students and even studio dancers,” Allen said. “People who have been dancing in Santa Cruz for 10 to 15 years were never coming into contact because they were in little subcultures. I wanted to bring the dance community together and help alleviate the segmentation that was going on.”

In response, Allen created SantaCruzDance.com, a Web site for dancers seeking publicity and a dance community. The site boasts Santa Cruz’s first official dance season, in which local and visiting performers will perform at various local venues.

The season kicked off in February with a performance and workshop by Scott Wells and Company from San Francisco. This headed off the winter/spring dance extravaganza, showcasing the works of nine different artists. The season will close on June 28 with a performance by a group of local aerial dancers. While this year marks the premiere of the organized season, many of the featured artists have been producing themselves for years.

 “We all do this anyway, we’re all performing all the time,” said Karl Schaffer, whose show “Imaginary Numbers” will grace the season on May 15. “[The season] is just a way for us to be more organized and cooperative.

“The season is really an expression of what goes on in our dance community, an acknowledgement of the things we already do,” Schaffer continued. “It gives both the artists and the public a sense of community.”

Through this sense of community, dancers hope to widen the local dance spectra. Allen envisions that SantaCruzDance.com will double as a forum and spark conversations with the public.

“I would like the Web site to be a place where we can create a language around dance in Santa Cruz,” Allen said. “I think contemporary dance really lacks a language here. Not many people are aware of it, people don’t understand it, and my hope is that SantaCruzDance.com is going to create a space where conversations can be had. I think more people will seek contemporary dance if there is a better understanding of it.”

Allen expects these conversations to transform Santa Cruz into a base for the local dance scene.

“The dance community is thriving and well on its way to becoming more prosperous,” Allen said. “I want to build a community where there is a desire for dance, where dancers can make a living and where dance is highly supported.”

Cid Pearlman, a dancer based in Santa Cruz and an instructor at Cabrillo College who presented her show “Emotional Geographies” in March, believes that the season has been well represented in the community.

“I’ve noticed there’s a lot more interest from the press since Abra [Allen] ganged us up as a season,” Pearlman said. “There’s been something about dance [in local papers] almost every week. It has given us a single voice and I think it brings great visibility to dance in Santa Cruz.”

Having danced in Los Angeles and San Francisco prior to Santa Cruz, Pearlman was concerned about the availability of dance in the quaint beach town. So far, she’s felt no obligation to leave.

“Santa Cruz is an exciting place for dance. There really are wonderful, creative dancers here,” Pearlman said. “While we don’t have access to funds, we have access to each other. In a town this small, you really have to figure out ways in which we can all support one another.”

Lisa Christensen agrees that collaboration has been the name of the game, as many artists have assisted one another with funding, show openings and other various forms of support. Christensen’s group of aerial dancers will close the current season with “Red Wine and Frivolous Things.”

“It’s a close-knit community and there’s a lot of support for our work,” Christensen said. “I hope we can have another season. So far I’ve seen really incredible performances, very provocative and well-attended, which I’m happy to say.”

National Dance Week

Along with the stream of artists decorating the Santa Cruz dance scene, Allen is also using SantaCruzDance.com to produce and promote National Dance Week, an event celebrated in Santa Cruz for the past 15 years. A prominent part of this year’s celebration will include open dance classes free to the public, collaborations with local artists and galleries, and spontaneous performances in restaurants, bookstores, sidewalks and other unlikely places.

A nationwide event established in 1981, National Dance Week was created to recognize and foster appreciation for dance across the country. Although Santa Cruz has acknowledged and participated in the holiday for the past 15 years, Allen has a fresh and ambitious outlook for this year’s celebration.

“My goal this year is to make National Dance Week Santa Cruz its own nonprofit, so it’s more sustainable in the future,” Allen said. “We’re hoping to be working with public arts in the future, especially since this is such a community-oriented event.”

For Allen, National Dance Week lends itself to a diverse program, including Balinese, Brazilian, aerial, contemporary and various other dance styles.

“National Dance Week will have a huge range of movement this year,” Allen said. “For its size, Santa Cruz has as much diversity in movement as any metropolitan area. We have a lot of specific groups who are really big here.”

This aspect of the event reflects many values locals have about dance in Santa Cruz. Tandy Beal, an instructor at UC Santa Cruz who has been involved with the local dance scene since the school’s opening, is especially appreciative of the community’s diversity in dance.

“The dance community here in Santa Cruz is small, but there’s an enormous focus on world dance,” Beal said. “It’s one of Santa Cruz’s great gifts — you can take a salsa class, a tango class, or an African dance class any day of the week. It’s really wonderful.”

For Marcea Marquis, whose Brazilian dance classes will be performing on the streets of downtown, the openness gives dance in Santa Cruz a unique flavor.

“There’s a lot of freedom of expression in Santa Cruz,” Marquis said. “That’s why people come here. I think that transfers very well into the art we create here.”

Marquis said that National Dance Week’s intimate relationship with the outside community is also a vital part of making dance palatable for everyone.

“I think bringing dance out into the community really educates the public,” Marquis said. “It encourages people to get involved with things they might not have normally. National Dance Week is a perfect opportunity to collaborate and create a visual for the public. It’s going to be fabulous.”

Random with a Purpose

While the city’s dancers work to create a solid community with SantaCruzDance.com and National Dance Week, UCSC dancers have also caught the collaborative vibe. As Santa Cruz remains one of the few UCs without a specific dance department, many of the university’s best movers and shakers feel the school’s support for dance education leaves something to be desired. However, for the past 17 years, these rootless dancers have collaborated to create “Random with a Purpose,” a student-produced dance show and saving grace for the restless dancing Slug.

Fondly referred to as “Random,” the annual show is put on by UCSC’s theater arts department and will conveniently nestle in with National Dance Week. The directors of Random plan to present select pieces in the festivities downtown, hoping to create a bridge between the city and the university.

“Our vision from the beginning, besides creating a great show, was to bring dance on campus out into the community,” said first-year Charlie Nelson, one of Random’s three student directors.

“We want to start networking so that people in Random know about all the dance opportunities in Santa Cruz,” Nelson said. “We also want people in the community to know about what the students are doing here.”

In past years, Random has sold out night after night and generated a contagious buzz among campus dance buffs. Nelson said that the enthusiasm of past audiences highlights a void in UCSC’s recognition of the arts.

“I think the show is so well-known because people want more dance,” Nelson said. “I think it gets that attention because it’s the only thing of its kind that’s done every year and that there should be more.”

Dancers with Random have found strength through collaboration and sheer numbers, with a production of 22 dance pieces and a cast 96 strong. Second-year Kaylie Caires, another Random director, hopes the show will help gain visibility for dancers on campus.

“In this theater department, dance is not recognized as much as other forms of theater, so having something collaborative like Random really brings that awareness,” Caires said. “It shows that there really is a large group of dancers here.”

Natasha Dadour, a fourth-year health sciences major and proud Random cast member for the past three years, is considering spending a fifth year at UCSC for the chance to perform in the show one last time. Dadour said that the lack of an organized dance department, although unfortunate, has led dedicated dancers down a common path.

“When you’re placed somewhere like Santa Cruz, where there is no [official] dance community, we just attract each other like magnets,” Dadour said. “We support each other, we encourage each other, and that’s how we become better. Every year I’ve gotten something out of Random. It’s one of the highlights of my college career.”

Students like Dadour are happy to see that they are not alone in their commitment to art. While arts funding still remains somewhat amiss, it seems that dancers across Santa Cruz will continue to pop up like daisies this spring. For dance instructor Tandy Beal, this is as good a time as any.

“This really is a fabulous time for dancers across the university and the community to celebrate dance together,” she said. “It’s going to be wonderful.”

Oaxaca City’s spirit is written on its walls.

Its cultural reality is painted, sprayed, and plastered on almost every vertical surface the city has to offer. Written messages scream phrases like “Democracia para Oaxaca!” and “Presos politicos, no! Politicos presos, si! [Political prisoners, no! Imprisoned politicians, yes!]” And about 10 feet from a caricature of Oaxaca’s governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz being lynched is a looming government-painted warning — a message to anyone and everyone that those who paint and stick posters on this wall will be denounced.

During the span of the past few years, the state of Oaxaca has seen social movements and large-scale cultural resistance. Throughout the city and countryside, many people from different social sectors united, marched and protested in order to denounce policies reflecting governmental corruption and Mexico’s growing dependency on the United States.

“The dependency is so great on the U.S., you could say Mexico is living an economic, political and even military occupation from the U.S.,” said Miguel Angel Vasquez de la Rosa, co-founder of Services for an Alternative Education (EDUCA).

VISITORS CAN SEE this powerful message as they drive on a Oaxacan highway. The message translates, “Political prisoners no! Imprison politicians yes!” Photo by Toan P. Do.

Some History

Since World War II, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has loaned money to countries, including Mexico, for development projects. When debt spiraled out of control, the IMF became central in implementing Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) meant to cushion fiscal woes.

However, SAPs usually implement programs and policies that include privatization, deregulation and lifting trade barriers, all of which become problematic for countries involved.

The people of Oaxacan communities were hit hard on January 1, 1994 when the United States, Canada and Mexico entered into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a treaty that was designed to foster trade between the three countries.

In the decade following the implementation of NAFTA, America watched its corn industry soar while certain business juggernauts like Wal-Mart exploded to epic proportions. Conversely, citizens of Oaxaca, Mexico’s second-poorest state, suffered deepened poverty rates, cuts to social programs, and the destruction of one of its main sources of income: corn.

Corn flooding into Mexico from the United States was aggravated by the Mexican government’s withdrawal of subsidies and monetary assistance to small corn farmers, catalytically producing a spike in the rate of migration from the area.

Those most affected by these policies were and still are the indigenous communities. Of the 3.4 million population of Oaxaca, about one-third to one-half are members of 16 indigenous groups, according to Witness For Peace (WFP), a political organization that advocates nonviolence in Latin America.

“For the last 25 years, we can see that the politics and policies of the IMF have been adapted here in Mexico,” Vasquez de la Rosa of EDUCA said. “There has been kind of a double effect here. One is the decrease of public spending on food, health, education — and then the increase in the matter of economic sense. You can see that not only has poverty increased, but inequality has increased by a tremendous amount.”

Photo by Toan P. Do.

Artistic Revolution

All over the city political messages are scrawled with black, red, and white spray paint, silently yelling and challenging the higher authorities.

Randomly dispersed throughout, blocks of white, grey, and other neutral-toned paint solemnly cover up these challenges, suppressing the voice of resistance.

Privatization policies hit the education sector hard, leaving those in rural areas — who are mostly indigenous — especially underfunded.

The Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) movement was born when a teacher’s union protested in the zocalo, or town square, of Oaxaca City on the morning of June 14, 2006.

While the teachers peacefully demanded funds for school supplies, infrastructural repairs, and higher wages, government forces quickly moved in and attacked the unarmed protesters — igniting a movement of social resistance.

Millions of southern Mexico’s most marginalized people marched the streets, led by APPO, in protest of the far-reaching effects of policies like NAFTA that were taking over every aspect of daily life. During this time, APPO sought to unite people from various social sectors, and called upon artists to form a collective expression of the voice of the people. This came in the form of the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca (ASARO).

“In 2006, during the movement, during the confrontation, there was this discontent in the population that was not being expressed in the media or the mainstream news,” said Julio*, co-founder of ASARO. “We chose to have our art fill that void. The media wasn’t expressing the cultural reality of Oaxaca.”

In its early days, ASARO often created artistic works that represented direct responses to government suppression witnessed during the APPO movement in 2006.

Today, the uprising is but a mere whisper in the wind, yet remnants of its effects are still scarred on the walls of the country like shrapnel left on a battlefield.

“We really came out of that moment to organize artists in that movement,” said Mario*, another co-founder of ASARO. “During the beginning our work was really around what was happening with the movement in Oaxaca. So during the first few months, we were creating work to respond to the repression, or to respond to the people that had been killed or disappeared.”

Jesús is among a small population of children who remain in San Juan Sosola, Oaxaca. Photo by Toan P. Do.

Forced Migration or Natural Phenomenon?

Although it is only two hours from the politically aggravated streets of Oaxaca City, the community of San Juan Sosola could not feel farther away.

One of many agricultural communities scattered throughout the Oaxacan countryside, the land of San Juan Sosola is dry and unforgiving, the sun relentless during the day. It’s quiet in this small town, despite the hustle and bustle of packed streets and smog-filled air. Hills roll as far as the eye can see with scattered towns visible in the distance, golden in the sun.

San Juan Sosola is eerily empty; the presence of adults between the ages of 25 and 40 has become scarce. In the time span of the past few generations, these agricultural laborers, mainly of indigenous descent, have seen many traditions lost as their children migrate from the unfertile land.

This little countryside community is a perfect example of the wide disparity between urban and country life.

“We see, especially in the indigenous communities of Oaxaca, an important aspect of community and how community is built,” said Father Fernando Cruz Montes of the Center for the Orientation of Migrants (COMI).

COMI is a small migrant sanctuary in Oaxaca City that provides a safe space and much-needed shelter during the trek to the United States that often finds migrants exploited and abused.

“Migration patterns have begun to break these social structures,” Montes said. “And so what happens now? We see these communities are just left with elderly people. There are barely any children or young people and there are houses that are abandoned. There are ghost towns in these areas. I am personally from a town in the Mixteca region, where when I was growing up there were a lot of children, but now there are only five left.”

The roots of migration in Oaxaca — and Mexico — date back to the early 1900s. However, since the passage of NAFTA in 1994, Oaxaca has seen approximately 400,000 migrants choose “a journey of death,” as Montes calls the path of migration to the United States.

Most farmers in Oaxaca are small subsistence farmers. Once NAFTA opened the floodgates for American corn to saturate the Mexican market, these farmers went out of business. Their small-scale production could not compete with U.S. agribusiness.

“In terms of corn, one of the reasons why Mexican farmers can’t compete is the subsidy disparity,” said Randy Hinthorn, co-founder of COMI. “In 1994 Mexican farmers received 30 percent of their yearly income from the Mexican government in various forms of subsidies and credits.”

However, Hinthorn said that from 1995 to 2001 it decreased to 13 percent as a result of NAFTA wiping out programs like National Company of Popular Subsistence (CONASUPO). Prior to NAFTA, CONASUPO bought corn, stored it, subsidized the price and distributed the corn to 2 million poor families each year.

Faced with no options except to leave their homes and their lands, young adults from all over the countryside migrate to different cities in Mexico or to the United States. In the process of this forced migration, families are left behind.

Dona Garcia-Velasco lives in San Juan Sosola. Like many other mothers and grandmothers in the community, she has children who have migrated to the United States.

“I want to give a greeting to my children that are out there in Los Angeles. Remember us, because it’s been years since I’ve seen you,” she pleaded as she began to cry. “Please take care of yourselves.”

The Revolutionary artists call themselves ASARO for short, and create art that represents the cultural reality of Oaxaca. Photo by Toan P. Do.

Don’t Forget About Us

Back in the city of Oaxaca, the APPO movement has faded, leaving the graffiti tags behind as a reminder of the government suppression that took place. However, the spirit of Oaxacan resistance remains among many teachers and organizations alike.

The Coalition of Teachers and Indigenous Promoters of Oaxaca (CMPIO) is an organization made up of 1,070 indigenous teachers, who provide indigenous youth with an alternative education that puts value on maintaining the various aspects of indigenous culture.

“The irony in such a huge country that is very diverse, both linguistically and culturally, is that the same programs are given to all children without really recognizing these differences,” said Fernando Soberanes, teacher and co-founder of CMPIO. “So facing this problem, we’ve tried to respond by bringing programs and activities that more accurately address the needs of these communities.”

On the other side of town is EDUCA.

“It was in the midst of everything happening in 1994 that a group of us, a group of activists with connections with the progressive aspects of the church, decided to set up this organization,” co-founder Vasquez de la Rosa said.

EDUCA was founded on the principle idea that in order to push forward social and political transformation in Mexico, the marginalized communities would need to be educated and organized.

Vasquez de la Rosa said that one of EDUCA’s main purposes is to inform indigenous adults about their rights, making sure they are equipped and know how to demand them effectively.

Father Montes of COMI echoed the same sentiment.

“Our governments have a lot of work to do,” Montes said. “They need to pay attention to the situation and create laws that will support migrants and recognize that these migrants have rights as well.”

Photo by Toan P. Do.

Coachella’s main stage hosted Paul McCartney, the Killers and the Cure, among others. Photo by Hilary Khteian.

It all started in 1969.

Thousands upon thousands, and then a few thousand more, journeyed to the town of Bethel, N.Y., sitting through hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic, all for the love of music.

Billed simply as “Three Days of Peace & Music,” the Woodstock Art and Music Festival defined the 1960s counterculture, allowing for both freedom of expression and freedom from authority. 

Woodstock was the godfather of the music festival, with attendees projecting their idea of how a Vietnam-focused world should be — not filled with lies and war, but flooded in peace and devoid of violence. A micro-nation where the minds were open, the people were countless, the drugs were constant and the love was free.

In fact, Woodstock’s three-day-long music, substance and sex binge paved the way for modern events which include everything from Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo, Bummershoot, and most recently, Coachella.

Three months after the disastrous Woodstock ’99 — an attempt to recreate the original event on its 30th anniversary — ended in violence, fires and riots due to unhealthy environmental conditions, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival kicked off on Oct. 9 and 10.

This weekend marked the 10th annual Coachella festival, with acts that included Paul McCartney, the Cure, Atmosphere and M.I.A. — lightyears away from Woodstock’s Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

And while the essence of the Woodstock formula was still present at Coachella, many things have changed since that historic weekend in 1969. The peace that ran rampant throughout the Woodstock lifeline was traded here for conveniently-placed ATM machines. Attendees that once sought solace from a Vietnam-drenched reality were instead replaced with twentysomethings desperately searching for a way to charge their phones. And if the $6 pizza slices were any indication, it’s doubtful that even the love was free.

It’s the simplicity that’s gone missing. These festivals represent more than just a three-day pass to a seemingly endless stream of live performances. What was once a celebration of music and minimalism is now simply a fashion show reminiscent of Halloween and a David Bowie house party gone terribly wrong. 

Hipsters and wannabe hippies whipped out their feathered headbands and glittered fanny packs, stopping at nothing to stand out in a crowd of thousands. The only problem was that in the process of trying to look original, everyone looked exactly the same: confused, clichéd, and hoping to get even a taste of the simplicity that ran rampant nearly 40 years ago. 

While tickets for Woodstock once cost $24 at the door, a single day at Coachella cost $99 alone, resulting in a whopping $300 for all three days. Counterculture chic, this is not.

With ticket prices like that, how could Coachella be anything but a pretentious indiefest? Woodstock’s essence was being comfortable in what it was — whatever that was. It was beautiful without being commercial, important without knowing, and original without trying.

It seems as if the music festival provides an accurate depiction of our current generation: While the love of music still prevails, this love has turned slightly sour and materialistic.

There were, however, kernels of something so much wiser within certain moments of musical nirvana. Each night’s headliners brought with them an entirely different generational feel. Paul McCartney’s generous helping of Beatles classics helped make the heat-drenched night feel like the 1960s. The Killers’ pop-operatic stage show was reminiscent of the Bowie-influenced glam rock of the 1970s. And the final night was 1980 incarnate, when the Cure reminded us that they’re still the Cure.

But there was no meaning to any of the weekend’s seemingly epic events. Every once in a while, an artist would make the obligatory “praise Obama” plug, lamenting the end of any possible Bush-bashing lyricism, followed often by a single female asserting her independence in a male-dominated media world. Note to all future faux-feminist performers: threatening to “punch a man’s balls off” is neither comical nor anatomically correct. But those moments were few and far between.

Coachella is an experience, and in essence can’t be anything more than what it is. Perhaps trying to emulate Woodstock is itself a fool’s errand; the beauty of events as seemingly important as those lies in their inability to predict their own vitality. And maybe we’re just not in the place anymore to need an escape that also serves as a message. With no draft and a president many adore, maybe the days of message-heavy festivals are long gone.

Coachella may be more superficial than its politically-fueled counterpart, but those three days represent something else now: they represent the excess of experience, just not the willingness to matter.

That was how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez often referred to former President George W., along with characterizing him as a dictator, a fascist and a cowboy he couldn’t talk to since he felt Bush was a “Texan who walks around shooting from the hip.”

Relations between the Republican Bush and socialist Chavez were like two boys on the schoolyard: taunting each other with name-calling and finding ways to outdo each other.

Chavez incurred Bush’s wrath with boldness and pronouncements of South American autonomy, while Bush-era critics accused the brash president of seizing dictatorial control of the equitorial country.

Many would agree that the real threat posed by Chavez was not necessarily to democracy, but to American oil interests in South America. Chavez, along with Evo Morales of Bolivia, has been leading a resurgence of transnational Latin American solidarity, nationalizing both nations’ oil reserves and adopting a “go it alone” attitude unseen south of the border for decades. 

When Obama took the oath of office, he too ushered in an era of accord, this time with the rest of the world.

Latin America, a pariah under the Bush admistration, is now finding open, though tentative, arms in the United States.

Chavez has changed his attitude toward the United States as well, evident at the Americas Summit last week when the presidents were photographed shaking hands and smiling. As he extended his hand, Chavez told Obama, “I want to be your friend.”

This moment is a symbolic gesture to the beginning of Obama’s foreign policy and the changing attitudes of Latin American nations responding to America. 

Unlike his predecessor, Obama is rekindling relations with countries that Bush refused to cooperate with.

Calling them friends might be a stretch, but Obama has created a more diplomatic atmosphere.

Aside from more cordial relations with Chavez, Obama recently took steps to change America’s relationship with Cuba. Although Cuban President Raul Castro was not invited to the summit of Latin America’s leaders, Obama declared last Monday that he would lift a 50-year ban on restrictions that limited the amount of money Cuban-Americans could send home and the frequency with which they could visit their families in Cuba.

Lifting the entire embargo is not in Obama’s plans, but his move presents a give-and-take situation rather than a frozen one. He says the next step Cuba can take is to free political prisoners, reduce its tax on money sent to Cuba, and grant new freedoms to its citizens as a next step in thawing relations with the United States.

In response, Castro said he’s willing to talk about “everything, everything, everything” with President Obama, including issues regarding “human rights, press freedom [and] political prisoners.”

Obama’s actions represent the broader theme that the United States is open to relationships with countries that don’t necessarily agree with American ideals, quite the opposite of the Bush doctrine. President Obama said that he wants to lead, rather than lecture, about democracy.

We agree that this is a better approach to foreign policy. By creating less hostile relations, or loosening trade embargos, Obama is establishing crucial relationships with the Latin American countries that Bush isolated over the years. 

And for that, we give him a hand.

UCSC Students from all across campus came out on April 22 to show support in the rally against budget cuts. Speakers stood up and engaged the crowd as they prepared to march to Kerr Hall. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Drs. Susanne Jonas and Guillermo Delgado, UC Santa Cruz lecturers for 23 and 20 years respectively, are battling the university for their jobs.

On Wednesday, April 22, Jonas and Delgado joined various UCSC community members in Quarry Plaza to speak out against the university’s attempts to cut integral programs. The group then marched to Kerr Hall to redress executive vice chancellor David Kliger for his lack of transparency with regard to the budget cuts. 

The rally largely consisted of supporters of the Latin American and Latino studies department, which Jonas and Delgado are affiliated with. Students also came out to support the community studies department, the Engaging Education (e²) program, and several student groups invested in protecting student services and university divestment.

A hoard of students marched their way from the Quarry Plaza to Kerr Hall on Wednesday to protest the budget cuts throughout campus. Rhyming chants were yelled and repeated the entire way and could be heard throughout campus. Photo by Alex Zamora.

Pickets, chants and a series of speeches conveyed the frustration felt by many of those in attendance. Cries of protest rang out, and many students staked their claim to the university, demanding the right to a voice. 

John Williams, a third-year student and American studies major, led the first of several rounds of chants, challenging attendees to protest the budget deficiency.

“They say cutbacks,” Williams called. “We say fight back!” the crowd responded.

Even students pursuing studies in departments that are not in imminent danger came to show their support at the event. 

“I’m here to try to protect the quality of the school,” said Joe Donavan, a fourth-year Cowell student majoring in sociology.

Lecturer Susanne Jonas, Williams, and student union assembly (SUA) president Victor Sanchez were also among those who took turns pleading through a megaphone for students and faculty to stand up to the university.

When protestors of the budget cuts across campus reached Kerr Hall on April 22, 2009 students were met only by two gentile moderators and closed doors. The cheers and chants of the crowd reverbereted against the glass doors of the main entrance as they gave more speeches awaited a reply. Photo by Alex Zamora.

“Education is a fundamental human right for each one of us here today,” Sanchez said.

He proceeded to demand that each student and student organization take responsibility for educating themselves and each other about the budget crisis and the antics of the university administration. 

Sanchez also criticized student media coverage for allegedly failing to prioritize campus issues. “Elephant seals are not as important as my student services,” he said.

Williams reminded attendees of their rights as students.

“UCSC is a public university,” he said. “Students are entitled to a voice and we will be heard.”

On what was possibly the hottest day of the year thus far, an ever-growing crowd gathered at the Porter Meadow for one of UC Santa Cruz’s most infamous traditions — 4/20. 

A quick look at 4/20 shows a huge gathering of people celebrating marijuana. Yet there are many different ways this yearly occurrence affects the city of Santa Cruz. People from all over the country came, and there was not an empty parking spot to be found near campus, with the license plates ranging from New Mexico to Nebraska.

A 2004 Rolling Stone magazine article by Vanessa Grigoriadis entitled “The Most Stoned Students on the Most Stoned Day on the Most Stoned Campus on Earth,” earned Santa Cruz a reputation as the place to be on April 20.

Estimates of the 4/20 crowd varied from several hundred to the several thousands. Vladimir Kozyrev, a second-year, said he felt the numbers had diminished since last year. Bella Ferro, a first-year who was walking back from the meadow, had a different estimate. 

“There were 5,000 people last year, so you know there must have been more this year,” she said. “It gets bigger every year.” 

The influx of people and their appetite-stimulating activities had a unique, but perhaps expected, affect on some close-to-campus food services.

Kent Bailey, the assistant director for UCSC dining, was on his way to the College Eight dining hall as the clock struck 4:20. 

“Last year, we experienced a huge upsurge at College Eight,” Bailey said. “It was overpacked and students were shoulder-to-shoulder in the dining hall.” 

To make matters worse, this year both Cowell and Porter dining halls are closed due to construction.

“Our principle concern is the number of people on campus. We’re trying to provide a safe environment,” Bailey said. “So we’re going to be careful in not allowing too many people into the dining hall.” 

Despite how careful they were, the College Eight dining hall was indeed hectic all afternoon.

Candace Hoppe, a fourth-year literature major, cashed in on the increased snack demand on 4/20 by selling munchies to hungry smokers in Porter Meadow. 

“We’re raising money for the teen center downtown, which is having financial difficulties at the moment,” said Hoppe, while exchanging two Fruit Loops for a buck with a tie-dyed stoner. “We’ve made over $200 so far.”

The way Hoppe sees it, the idea is to take advantage of this extremely popular event to bring money into the community.

Just off campus, at the Cardiff Street 7-11, assistant manager Ron Rabdeau was swamped. 

“I probably ended up with a thousand more people than on a normal day,” Rabdeau said. “I used to work at the 7-11 on Ocean and Broadway, and it gets a lot more business than this one. But today, I can guarantee you that we made six times what they make. And most of it was Swishers.” 

Overall, Rabdeau said the clientele was cordial, with no outstanding “idiots or assholes” — just a lot of people “high as kites.”

“At least they were all smart enough to keep hydrated. Lots of water, Gatorade and Slurpees. Oh my God, the poor Slurpee machine nearly had a breakdown.”

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

Fresh from a trip to the Northern Mariana Island (NMI) of Saipan, linguistics professor Sandra Chung is already hard at work in her office. Her quiet demeanor underscores the importance of her work updating and adding to the existing Chamorro-English dictionary, originally compiled by Donald M. Topping.

Chamorro is spoken in Guam and the NMIs, located east of the Philippines. According to the CIA’s 2000 census, the Chamorro population in Guam and the NMI is 72,127. 

Starting in September of last year, Chung, who is not Chamorro herself, teamed up with a group of Chamorro educators and community members to begin working on an extensive update of the Chamorro-English dictionary. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the project will continue for at least the next three years. The overall goal of the project is to better document a language in threat of endangerment. 

Chung, who has studied Chamorro since 1977 and has been at UC Santa Cruz since 1986, cites a survey conducted four years ago, which reported that only 15 percent of children under the age of five in the NMI speak Chamorro at home. 

Although Chung is hesitant to say the language is in immediate jeopardy, she said that “endangerment is a continuum,” meaning that it starts subtly and progresses through the generations.

“The Chamorro language has come under enormous pressure in the last 20 to 30 years because of the overwhelming presence and pressure of English in the educational system,” linguistics department chair Jim McCloskey said in an e-mail.

Chung said that because English is used in school, younger Chamorro might have a harder time maintaining use of the language. 

“The bilingual education classes have been replaced by culture classes,” Chung said. “Those are good, but they don’t exactly preserve the language.”

 With the help of representatives from the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota, that is precisely what Chung is doing. 

To achieve their goals, the group Chung leads with Elizabeth D. Rechebei from Economic Development Research, LLC and Rita H. Inos, commissioner of education for the Commonwealth of the NMI public school system, adds to the original dictionary’s 336 pages with words previously overlooked. 

According to the NMI Council for the Humanities’ Web site, which offers updates for the Chamorro community after each meeting Inos and Rechebei conduct, there are six primary teams of native speakers contributing to the dictionary. Additional teams are organized by themes culturally relevant to the Chamorro community like fishing, agriculture and religion. 

Chung wanted to stress the importance of teamwork in the project.

“It’s the community that’s doing the revision,” she said. “[There’s] a group negotiation of every word’s meaning.”

Chamorro people are encouraged to participate by proposing entries, Inos said. 

“Everyone on [the island of Rota] is pretty versed on what is going on with the dictionary through the television airing on our public channel,” she added.

Inos said that updating the dictionary has resulted in tremendous excitement among both islanders and speakers.

In addition to the many new entries in the dictionary, the words’ parts of speech will now be listed. Examples for many of the words will also be provided in a culturally relevant way. This, and the accompanying video documentation Rechebei will provide, has larger implications both for the Chamorro people and their language. 

Chung anticipates the benefit that a new, more comprehensive Chamorro-English dictionary will have for Chamorro speakers in the Mariana Islands, saying that she hopes it will encourage them to think more analytically and critically about their language.

To McCloskey, a revitalized dictionary “represent[s] one thread in a much larger transnational project to document, preserve, and revitalize small local languages and the cultures that live and breathe through those languages.”

As Inos put it, “Chamorro is not just a language — it is a way of life, [and that] way of life is threatened when the language is threatened.”

DRUM CIRCLE MEMBERS, playing recently at the downtown farmers market, earned the right to take down mesh fences that have separated them from the market since October. Photo by Catie Havstad.

The usually laid-back vibe at the downtown farmers market became even more relaxed recently, as the previously erected barricade separating the long-standing drum circle from produce shoppers was taken down.

The green mesh fencing, which was first put up in October of last year, was meant to block out the drummers who congregate each week in the parking lot at Cedar and Cathcart streets. It came in response to complaints by business owners, citizens and the merchants in the market.

Sgt. Michael Harms of the Santa Cruz Police Department reported that the complaints he received were mostly about illegal activity taking place within the circle.

“The concern was toward the drug sales of known and convicted crack and meth dealers who hid in the anonymity of the crowd and the road blockage for emergency vehicles,” Harms said.

The police department decided to back down from enforcing the use of fences due to the behavioral change in the drummers since the complaints were issued. 

Drummer Brent Adams posted a code of conduct on various trees in the parking lot to avoid animosity and promote cooperation. The list asks drummers to allow free flow of traffic, to not sell drugs or drink alcohol, and to take breaks between drum sessions. 

“I can’t do much about the volume or the quality of drumming, but I realized that I could create a mimetic self-policing program where everyone would help and teach others to help,” Adams said. “This way I don’t have to run around being a little deputy.”

Adams sought to remind drummers that they should follow a few peaceful rules in order to keep the police and farmers satisfied, he said, and the list will make it easier to reach all of the drummers.

David Redden, a drum circle participant and self-proclaimed Santa Cruz “yocal,” explained that drum circle participants do not intend to negatively affect the merchants’ sales or to offend citizens.

“There is a downturn in the economy, and people are looking for scapegoats,” Redden said. “Some of the merchants will blame us for a loss in sales, but we always try to understand where the merchants are coming from and listen to their concerns.”

Eva Stevens, a UC Santa Cruz student and vendor for Zipcar, takes pleasure in being able to work near the drum circle every Wednesday. She supports having the unique and lively work environment, she said.

“I absolutely enjoy the drum circle,” Stevens said. “It is a cultural and social thing that has been going on in Santa Cruz for quite some time and I do not see any harm in it.” 

The gates have been down for five weeks, and police and citizens are content with the results.

“I’m very happy that it was relatively easy to build a compromise once we realized that it was something we wanted,” Adams said. “I commend Sgt. Harms for having the fences removed as an act of good faith that he intends to find other alternatives.”

SENIOR CO-CAPTAIN COLIN MURPHY concentrates intently on trying to strike out a UC Davis player. Photo by Phil Carter.

THE FRUSTRATION WAS VISIBLE on Mathew Hayashi’s face as the Slugs went down 8-0 to UC Davis on Fri. April 17. Photo by Phil Carter.

The stands of the Harvey West baseball field were uncharacteristically packed with a large crowd of students and parents who all came out to watch the showdown between division rivals UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis. 

“There was just so much build-up for [the game],” said senior George Williams III, a third baseman and the team’s co-captain. “Each week we’d check the site. We’d win our three games and they’d win their three games. We hadn’t played them, but we knew that was the game we were looking forward to all year. They finished second last year, they won the division the year before that. They’ve always been our top competition.”

Once again, the Slugs found themselves facing off with their rivals for a coveted place in the division playoffs. 

Going into the game, Davis and Santa Cruz stood neck-and-neck for the division leadership with overall records of 11-1 and 10-2 respectively. 

For UCSC players, this was a long-awaited series versus the team they had beaten the previous season.

Despite the build-up and palpable excitement from the eager fans, the game quickly turned sour for the Slugs as Davis pulled ahead and kept their lead for an 8-0 finish.

Although the score alone tells of a shutout, the game itself dicatated a different story. 

“I didn’t think they played poorly,” said Jessica Lum, a fourth-year environmental studies major, who has attended most of the Slugs’ home games.

“I just thought the other team was really good,” she continued. “[The Slugs] did have a few little mishaps here and there, but the other team played really well.”

For the first four innings, both teams kept pace with each other, Davis arduously working up a 3-0 lead over the Slugs’ defense. 

However, as the bottom of the fifth inning rolled around, the Slugs, who still hadn’t scored, faced one of the longest innings of their season. 

Davis lashed out with an offensive outburst when their first two hitters doubled. Both men would eventually score. Add to that a couple defensive breakdowns for the Slugs and by the end of the fifth, Davis had ballooned the score to 7-0.

“A huge thing in baseball is momentum,” Williams III explained. “When you have to take those specific turns scoring, you always have to go one inning at a time. When it’s that slow of a game, and when you haven’t scored by the fifth inning, you start to get tense. We were just in a position that we weren’t used to. In the previous games we had such a potent offense.”

Senior Colin Murphy agrees, but also takes responsibility for the loss as co-captain and star pitcher of the team.

“I didn’t make good pitches and they just found holes,” Murphy said. “That happens in baseball and you have to tip your cap to them. They put the ball in play. They put up four runs but it wasn’t an impressive four runs. The balls would literally just find a hole.”

This offense that the Slugs exhibited the entire season was non-evident against Davis. The team struggled to hit on Davis’ pitcher who, according to Williams III, was one of the best they’d seen all season. 

The Slugs only managed one hit the rest of the game when junior catcher Jon Grinnel doubled and then stole third in the seventh inning.

The Slugs unfortunately failed to take advantage of this opportunity to score and gain back momentum, however.

Regardless of the disappointing loss, the Slugs’ playoff hopes remain alive. Although UC Davis has officially won the conference, it is divided up into three regions, the Slugs belonging to the Southern Pacific (SP) region. The SP region is then divided into three divisions, and the winner of those three divisions (Davis) gets to go to the playoffs. 

But “there is an at-large wild card,” Williams III said. “The people who run the [National College Baseball Association] get together and decide, based on winning percentage and the quality of opponents, which team is the next-best team of the region, and they get to go to the playoffs. At this point, we just have to win.”

Illustration by Maggie McManus.

One hundred fifty-two UC Santa Cruz and local high-school students recently put their pens to paper to compete for first, second and third-place cash prizes as part of McHenry Library’s annual essay contest. 

The competition, now in its 42nd year, was sponsored by the Friends of the McHenry Library, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the welfare and growth of UCSC’s main library.

According to the contest rules, entrants were to “imagine a collection of books and other written or recorded sources on a subject of global importance,” and write up to 1,500 words describing the collection and its impact.           

This year’s topic was chosen by Astrid von Soosten, director of library development, and Letitia Bennett, associate director of library development. 

Bennett said they chose the topic after watching Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. 

“We both felt more hopeful and wanted to encourage our students to think more globally,” Bennett said. “What’s dumped in the ocean in Hawaii ends up here on the mainland. The air quality in China affects the air quality here in California … We have also realized recently that economic activity is not isolated by any means.”

The top three finalists in the college category are third-year Jesse Wilkie for her essay “Forget the Industrial Revolution,” fourth yearSean Dudas for “Achieving a Multicultural Global Perspective,” and second-year Celeste Noche for “The Importance of Understanding.” 

The finalists were chosen on the basis of which contestants best articulated the intricacies of today’s globalized world and the problems facing it. 

Three judges worked together to select the strongest essays before announcing Wilkie, Dudas and Noche as the finalists on April 15. The first, second and third-place assignments will be announced today, April 23, at 5 p.m. at McHenry Library.

At its inception in 1967, the contest was intended as a way of honoring students for extensive book collections in their specific areas of interest. 

Prize money for the contest winners is sponsored in part by funds donated by Ethel Curtis, a longtime donor and one of the friends of the UCSC library. Curtis started the fund in 1994 in memory of her late niece, who worked at the library.

The contest is divided into three sections with one level for ninth and 10th-graders, one for 11th and 12th-graders and one for college students. 

Reference librarian Ken Lyons was a judge for the group of high-school students and said he was impressed by the scope of topics and ideas in the essays he read.

“Some people wrote about [the] guitar and guitar history,” Lyons said. “If there was one general theme that students wrote about, I would say it was about music.” 

Each writer in the college section of the contest had the additional requirement of submitting with each essay an annotated bibliography with at least 25 sources. 

Wilkie, a College Ten student, said that with globalization, “the world is becoming a lot smaller, and we have to work together. Whether it’s poverty or global warming or disease, it affects everyone in the long run because we’re all connected. It’s important to understand the global community now. We’re global citizens.”

Noche echoed the importance of a more sympathetic global community. 

“I don’t think that any issue that people think is important can be solved without understanding,” Noche said. “No one is going to empathize with world hunger if they don’t understand what’s going [on] and they don’t put themselves in that position. They’re not going to help because it’s not important to them.”

Bennett expressed gratitude to the Santa Cruz community for showing so much support for the contest. Many donors — including Capitola Book Café, the Literary Guillotine, Bookworks, Logos Books and Records, Borders and Bookshop Santa Cruz — provided gift cards to the high schools of the winning students.

Bennett says she is happy to be in an academic setting working with the students she loves.

 “Students offer a fresher approach to problems and may be more likely to bring solutions,” Bennett said. “Students do have the opportunity to think about things differently.”

Camille Stevens and Sarah Dooley, local high-school students, browse the racks of dresses at this year’s prom dress giveaway at the “Prom Dress Boutique” downtown. Photo by Isaac Miller.

While prom is now merely a distant memory for most collegiates, high-school students are knee-deep in the action of making plans for the big night. 

However, hunting down a beautiful, affordable dress remains a challenge for many.

In recognition of the need for affordability in a financially depressed economy, City Councilmember Tony Madrigal and Classic Cleaners sponsored their first prom dress giveaway last weekend to help high-school girls tackle the daunting task cost-free. Free dresses were offered to any girl who needed one for her big day, no questions asked.

“Attending your high-school prom is a great American tradition,” Madrigal said. “High-priced proms with all the expenses, including clothing and accessories, can very easily make a prom feel out-of-reach, leaving some students feeling left out.”

Over 2,000 dresses were collected through donations from citizens of Santa Cruz County over recent months. Community members were recruited to bring new and gently used dresses to any Classic Cleaners location, as well as other spots around the county set up for the drive. Armfuls of dresses were dished out at three “prom dress boutiques” on Saturday and Sunday in downtown Santa Cruz, Felton and Watsonville.

Aleen Raybin, a youth advocate at the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center (WAWC), expressed appreciation for the generous donations.

“People in Santa Cruz really responded to the drive,” Raybin said. “The community of Santa Cruz really came through.”

Jenn O’Brien-Rojo, the resource development director at the WAWC elaborated on the success of their outreach.

“When they got there to open there were already 10 to 15 girls lined up,” O’Brien-Rojo said of the Felton location.

Girls arrived consistently throughout business hours, bringing along a valued second opinion in the form of a friend or mother. 

Camille Stevens and her friend Sarah Dooley, two local Santa Cruz high-school students, giggled and chattered about their plans for prom while sorting through the silk and satin hanging on garment stands. 

“I’ve been looking forward to prom for many years,” Stevens said. “We’ve had plans to go together since middle school.”

Racks were hung with a rainbow of gowns in all styles, and tables displaying glittering jewelry were stationed next to shelves of high heels awaiting their new owners. 

Some girls had visions of what style they were looking for before they hit the racks. Stevens had a clear thought of what her prom dress would look like.

“My perfect dress would be something similar to a strapless, 1950s formal cocktail dress,” she said.

Others simply knew they wanted something fabulous.

“I really don’t have criteria, it’s really about what makes me feel good,” Sarah Dooley said.

Shoreline Cosmetology School is offering girls free make-up and hair for their special day, one of many local vendors who are donating time and resources. Classic Cleaners contributed much time and effort into making this event happen as well.

“Classic Cleaners have been amazing with all of this,” Raybin said. “They cleaned every single dress before [the giveaway].”

“Elected officials who have a good idea [still] need a team of community volunteers,” Councilmember Madrigal said. “I feel blessed for all the people who made this possible.” 

The organizers and volunteers of the first-ever prom dress giveaway don’t have a definite count yet of how many dresses were handed out, but they are confident the event was not just a success in numbers.

“This will reach way beyond the girls that showed up,” O’Brien-Rojo said. “It will let people know they live in a community that really cares about them, and cares about something as basic as the prom.”

Writer and director Cary Fukunaga talks about his debut feature film, “Sin Nombre,” which won the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award at this year’s Sundance. The film opens Friday. Photo by Conner Ross.

Sitting in his socks, on an ottoman in a Ritz Carlton suite in downtown San Francisco, Cary Fukunaga speaks modestly about his film “Sin Nombre.” 

“My first film, my first script,” said the 31-year-old UC Santa Cruz alumnus. “It is what it is in its own little imperfect way. I mean, I could have kept working on it forever, but you just got to stop at some point.”

Fukunga’s efforts won him the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award for the film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Excellence in Cinematography Award. 

After graduating from UCSC in 1999 with a B.A. in history, Fukunaga went on to attend film school at New York University, where he would perfect his dual crafts of writing and directing. For his second-year project, Fukunaga focused on the real-life plight of a group of Mexican immigrants who were deserted in a locked truck and suffocated after illegally crossing the border. The short film, “Victoria Para Chino,” won more than two dozen international awards, as well as a Student Academy Award at Sundance in 2005.

“‘Victoria’ floored me,” said Rosalee Cabrera, director of the Chicano Latino Resource Center. “The way he communicates the reality of people is very harsh. You can’t watch it and not have your humanity jarred.” 

Following the success of the short, Fukunaga was asked to submit a script to the Sundance Lab. This intense workshop program led him to create “Sin Nombre,” his NYU thesis and first feature film.

“Sin Nombre,” written in Spanish, tells the story of Sayra, a Honduran girl who migrates with her uncle and father to Tapachula, Mexico. There she meets Casper, a Tapachulan gang member. Seeking a better life in the United States, the two join other immigrants as they migrate through Mexico atop trains.

To research for the film, Fukunaga traveled alongside immigrants on trains through Mexico, an experience he says he couldn’t have written or directed the film without.

“Some bandits attacked our train the first night,” Fukunaga said. “I found out much later that they killed a Guatemalan immigrant on the train and threw him off.”

Fukunaga and his cast and crew spent a total of four weeks in Mexico City and over two weeks on the road heading south to the Guatemalan border to shoot the movie. 

“It was really cool for the towns to have a film shoot come there where real immigrants were traveling, and for the crew to see that what we were doing was so close to reality,” Fukunaga said. “People confusing cast and crew for real immigrants was a funny, curious event.” 

While the film focuses on immigration, Fukunga insists that “Sin Nombre” was not made with a political agenda in mind. Instead, he said that his intent was to create empathy for both the good and bad characters in the story while sharing the experience of a journey with viewers.

“It is a human story about immigration,” said Maurice Peel, the advertising and publicity manager at the Nickelodeon Theater. “It didn’t feel like it had an imposed political message.” 

Despite his reservations about attaching any political commentary to the film, Fukunaga did voice support for the UC system’s practice of allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition under Assembly Bill 540. 

“I used to mentor kids in L.A. and there were so many issues with them not being able to get any kind of financial aid to go to school, even though they lived their entire lives in L.A.,” Fukunaga said. “They definitely weren’t Mexican anymore, and then suddenly they found they couldn’t get financial aid to go to school. Where else can they go?” 

Fukunga said his next film will probably depart from the socially conscious nature. He spoke of a desire to do something in an entirely different genre — even sci-fi.

He also hinted at the possibility of doing a musical with Zachary Condon of Beirut, describing the story as a “two guys in love with one girl — classic love triangle.” Additionally, he is currently writing an “unrequited love story” that was inspired by his life in the College Eight dorms during his first year at UCSC. 

Fukunaga, whose mother is Swedish and father is Japanese, hopes he will be able to make movies around the world. 

“I’m not opposed to doing another Spanish-language film,” said Fukunaga, whose third language is Spanish — French, which he studied at UCSC and while studying in France his third year, is his second. “I just don’t even think about the borders really. I mean, if I see a cool story taking place somewhere, I do my best to learn the language.” 

—–

“Sin Nombre” opens at the Nickelodeon Theater this Friday.

A Town Hall Meeting was held April 15 at the College Nine/Ten Multipurpose Room to address the $3 million budget cut to the Division of Student Affairs. Though turnout was low, those students in attendance expressed concerns and shared ideas on how to deal with decreased funding. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Though budget cuts have recently been a major point of contention between students and UC Santa Cruz administration, that fact was hard to discern at a recent town hall meeting held in response to the statewide budget crunch.

Turnout was underwhelming, with many seats in the room vacant.  Nonetheless, those who were in attendance made sure to voice their opinions.

The current state budget requires that UCSC’s Division of Student Affairs cut funds by an estimated $3 million. Town hall host Felicia McGinty, vice-chancellor of student affairs, invited students to share concerns, opinions and ideas about how and where funding should be cut from student services in the open-forum. 

“There [are] going to be some cuts,” McGinty said, standing in front of a PowerPoint presentation that projected the words “We want to hear from you!”

“Your feedback is important to helping us make decisions down the line,” McGinty said. 

Some students stood up in defense of the student organizations they believed should not be cut, and those who attended the meeting had ideas on what to consolidate. 

However, none of the suggestions involved the elimination of any student programs. 

“It’s really hard because students are being asked to cut back again and again,” first-year Gabi Kirk said. “And we are not even talking academics — we are talking about what it means to be a fun university.”

“After this meeting I felt less hopeful, because everything that could have been cut already has been,” Kirk continued. “If they are talking something as miniscule as towels at OPERS, if we are getting into that small of details, the state has a budget crisis that is outside the hands of 18- to 22-year-olds, and there are some other people that need to get in shape.”

Kirk suggested raising fees for campus parking permits. 

“The buses run and the bikes are great,” Kirk said. “There is no need for a car in Santa Cruz. I think it’s funny they give so many parking tickets, because it’s actually a really good source of revenue. If people are parking in the meters when they’re out, it’s legal to ticket them.”

McGinty’s PowerPoint presentation set the stage for discussion. Vice chancellor of business administration Sue Matthews followed McGinty’s introductory speech with a discussion on the current state and university budgets. 

“If you were standing in Felicia’s shoes, from your experience, what program would you consider for potential consolidation or elimination?” Matthews asked.  

McGinty said the concepts on Matthews’ slides represent  things important for students to understand.

“This is very complex,” McGinty said, emphasizing the word very. “Look at the big picture — we all watch the news every day and we hear this is a ‘crisis,’ but now you see how it plays out at the state level, and it is pretty alarming.”  

Concluding slides in the presentation endeavored to explain how the $40 billion state deficit affects the state’s budget for public education. The UC system alone is being forced to cut $448.6 million. 

McGinty said that UC Santa Cruz is facing an estimated $13 million total budget cut that is likely to increase. 

“You know, I can’t help but take note that we are talking about a deficit in the billions,” McGinty said of the state deficit. “[It] is really hard to fathom.” 

McGinty said the forum was designed to provoke a dialogue about reducing the cost of projects sponsored by Student Affairs. Students were given the opportunity to defend the programs they want to preserve.

Gabi Kirk was joined by athletes, future residential advisers (RAs), representatives from student organizations and others who gathered to voice their opinions on what they see as indispensable to the university. 

Abolishing the towel service at OPERS and cutting back on the number of campus shuttles were just a few suggestions of how to reduce costs. 

First-year Malavvika Kulasheker came to represent future RAs, who may see a cutback on event funding. 

“Our entire class showed up,” Kulasheker said. “We all have our personal issues that we are representing. We are hoping that our house budget doesn’t get reduced.”  

The house budget money is used to fund events like open mic night, Kulasheker said. She sees college nights as vital to building unity within the various colleges on campus.    

Future RA Joshua Swedberg approached McGinty after the meeting to suggest that student affairs consolidate the budget of various colleges. 

“Sister colleges should share one big pot of money,” Swedberg said, referring to the five pairs of colleges that share dining halls. “I think we should have lump sums of two or three colleges to do things together. I don’t think each college should be given their own spending money.”  

Swedberg thinks that by combining the spending budget for sister colleges, the events would have a greater turnout.

McGinty encouraged Swedburg, along with other students, to visit her during her office hours to discuss further concerns and ideas. 

“What I don’t want to do is cut something that is the very reason students come here,” McGinty said after the meeting. “I don’t want to cut things — none of us want to. But the reality is we have to arrive at a $3 million cut. Everything is important.”

Illustration by Joe Lai.

After a three-day, 27-mile trek up the edge of the northernmost coast of California — aptly called the Lost Coast — during which they were forced to overcome obstacles such as untimely tides, bears, bugs and poison oak, a small group of backpackers found themselves overlooking a beautiful ocean panorama among a sea of black sand and grassy knolls. 

This ragtag group of hikers, self-proclaimed on their Web page as UC Santa Cruz’s “best-kept secret,” is a student-organized backpacking group dedicated to exploring the finest parts of nature. Averaging around two to three hikes of varying difficulty each quarter, the backpacking club is known for its free admission and affordable trips, each one costing only $30 per student.

“It’s cheaper than OPERS, and you get to discover the landscape more,” said Jonathan Kinnear, a second-year ELP exchange student. “We go to the places the tourists don’t go to.”

During weekly Wednesday meetings, students come prepared with backpacking trail ideas. Meetings are open to student input, reflecting the laid-back approach the club prides itself upon.

Tamsen Peeples, a second-year marine biology major and current leader of the backpacking club, emphasized the casual style in which the group conducts itself.

“The logistics of the trip involve people shouting out ideas,” Peeples said. “The backpacking club is a really low-key kind of club. People come and go every quarter.”

Many suggestions for trips this quarter have also been discussed among its members, including a hike through southwest Lake Tahoe, a trip to Yosemite’s Half-Dome and possibly another visit to the Lost Coast in Humboldt County. Though many ideas have been mentioned, the trips are often dependent upon the availability of its members and whether or not the group can get a permit.

“Permits can be limiting,” Peeples said. “If you don’t have a permit, you can’t get in [to the trail].”

Few plans have been finalized this quarter, but the backpacking club has activities and events in mind for their next trip, including T-shirt making and a “make your own trail mix” contest. They also have hopes for a night hike, preferably on a night with a full moon.

Though Peeples expressed her joy for hiking, she said that it is being with fellow backpackers and friends that she considers the most fun part of the club.

“They’re a great group of people,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun to be with them.”

Torsten Wendav, a fourth-year physics major and transfer student, joined in the conversation to add his opinion.

“It’s a cool group,” he said. “Not many kids hear about this.”

As a few members of the backpacking club talked about their hiking experiences together, Kinnear expressed his gratitude toward the club.

“We found it from the start, we were really lucky,” he said. “There’s no way we could have done [these hikes] without it.”

The backpacking club is open to all students regardless of experience. Though some hikes, including the Lost Coast, can be quite strenuous, Peeples said, the pain is worth it in the long run.

“It’s all mental,” Peeples said. “You know how fast and far you can go. Cherish the scars.” 

—–

The backpacking club meets Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. above the OPERS office.