(from left to right)

“Superman, because he could actually save us.”
Nawat Bhasaeng-uraiporn
College ten, First-year
Undeclared

“Bono because of how peacefully he would run things.”
Giavana Mendoza
Cowell, Fourth-year
Psychology

“Wonder Woman because of how wonderful she is.”
Marisol Gomez
Merrill, Fourth-year
Feminist Studies

“I would pick the president from ‘The Fifth Element’ (Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister) because he seemed to be on top of his stuff.”
Daniel Reeves
Stevenson, Second-year
Legal Studies

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Compiled by Elsbeth Riley and Isaac Miller.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

When I was growing up, every Memorial Day I’d rise at the crack of 8 a.m. to the ringing of the doorbell by my grandpa Joe. Wearing his usual khakis and polo, he’d crack jokes about contracting diphtheria and wanting to see the funny papers. He would look and act his usual jovial self, except on this day, and only on this day, he’d have on his beige garrison cap — one of those old cloth army hats covered with patches of indeterminable insignia. I’ll always remember a certain sadness about him too, though he hid it well behind a smile and a twinkling eye. Something was amiss, but I, as wise as I was at 10 years old, couldn’t put my finger on it.

All I knew was that grandpa was a veteran. And on this morning we’d meander down to the town square (yes, my town has a town square), gather under the white stone war memorial arch, under an oak tree that must be 400 years old and still growing, waiting with the rest of the crowd — quite sizable for a holiday morning — for the ceremonies to begin.

Boy Scouts and Brownies would be dressed in full regalia, the fire and police departments, unoccupied as usual, turned out as well. The local chapter of the charitable Order of the Odd Fellows and the Elk Lodge membership bunched together in groups of four and five, talking about whatever it is that old men talk about. Moms and dads, kids free from school, and Grandpa Joe and I lingered on until a single trumpet silenced the din of neighborly conversation.

As if by magic, the crowd would quiet, and all eyes would turn to the dais under the arch where a lone veteran, surrounded by some of his aged fellow soldiers, would address the townspeople, reminding us all why this Monday mattered.

I’ll can’t recall any of the speeches — something about sacrifice and never forgetting. What I do remember is the striking up of the high school band, the hoisting of the American flag to half mast on the town’s central pole, and the crowd, like a herd of elephants, making its way up Oak Street (my street, I might add) towards the cemetery, about half a mile away.

The march was slow, as most of those walking were just shy of a hip replacement. We’d pass house after house, each with a flag fluttering in the breeze. My mom stood on our porch, having stayed home to watch my little brothers. Her dad, a sailor, saw action in the Pacific during World War II. He died when I was eight. I never thought of it until now, but my mom was probably thinking about him as we made our way up the hill. Thinking about the brave soldier in the sepia-toned picture on our mantle, shirtless, smoking a cigar and brandishing a semi-automatic, looking like a man who could do anything before breakfast, including save the free world.

Soon, we’d make it to the shady cemetery. Folded chairs lined up in neat rows would face a raised platform, where honored guests and the band, still playing, waited patiently for all to enter. Grandpa Joe and I never sat, but stood off to the side with a few others, some vets and some not, while old ladies and moms with squirming kids took their seats. More speeches followed, more songs with unsteady notes from the unseasoned high school musicians, and my grandpa, for a rare moment, was quiet.

Things ended when a dozen or so men picked up their rifles and fired a customary 21 shots into the sky, saluting the soldiers who laid in rest at this cemetery and cemeteries all over the country.

A long silence always followed — I can’t remember if it was a requested moment or not. Heads bowed, eyes closed in silent prayer, and only the rustle of leaves broke the reverent stillness. Some time later, quieter than we had entered, all would rise and find their way out of the hallowed ground, back into the world of the living and onto whatever they had planned for their day off.

Grandpa Joe and I stayed. Without saying a word, I’d follow him to the other side of the cemetery, weaving in and out of gravestones so as not to step on any. I don’t think I’d ever be able to find my way back to where we were headed, but I knew exactly where we were going.

Eventually we’d find ourselves in front of a simple marble slab. I’m ashamed I don’t remember my great-uncle’s name, but it’s etched for eternity in stone, just as it forever will be in my grandfather’s mind. My great- uncle, Joe’s older brother, was killed in World War II, a casualty of war and a fine Ohioan at that.

We never stayed at his grave long. Joe walked me home under the oaks and maples, smiling again, but still, the sadness would linger. I’d get home, eat pancakes and watch cartoons, forgetting until next year all that had transpired that morning.

By the time this is in print, Veteran’s Day will have come and gone, and most of us will have mentally moved on to the immediate stresses and joys of our lives. We’ll wait, until May and again next November, to really give the soldiers, dead and alive, still fighting and retired from active duty, the time of day they deserve.

Grandpa Joe is still alive and laughing, but I know his time is short. I’ve never thanked him for being the wonderful grandfather he is — or for enlisting in the army, flying to foreign soil and facing the greatest evil the world has ever known either. He’s part of that Greatest Generation that the history books always talk about, a generation that gets smaller every year.

We may not agree with the politics of our current battles. We may question the motives behind them and debate whether we should send more soldiers in or take more out. But we should never forget that the numbers we assign to troops represent men and women, boys and girls, sons and daughters and husbands and mothers, living and breathing and bleeding Americans who take up a cause greater than themselves and fight, bravely, for our country. They, like my Grandpa Joe, deserve our commemoration, gratitude and support every day for they are, perhaps, the greatest among us.

If nothing changes this year, part-time community studies field studies coordinator Florencia Marchetti will lose her position at the end of March this year. She plans on continuing her studies in social documentation. Photo by Nita Rose-Evans.

Mike Rotkin, the full-time community studies field studies coordinator will make plans for his retirement this June, once his pink slip goes into effect. He says that what the department can

Organizing can be frustrating for third-year community studies student Kit Rutter, one of the leaders of the Coalition to Save Community Studies. “We took a hiatus of the summer--something that we shouldn’t have done,” Rutter said. “There were only a few of us around and the communication was really poor.” Photo by Nita Rose-Evans.

Third-year Angie Espinoza is one of the 140 community studies interns on their six-month field study. She's interning for Barrios Unidos, a nonprofit in Santa Cruz that addresses gang violence. "I can't explain it, but I found this new love and dedication to peace work and social justice," Espinoza said. Photo by Valerie Luu.

Last spring, UC Santa Cruz felt the first blow of budget cuts when community studies (CMMU), an academic program centered around social justice and community organizing, received drastic cuts that forced students and faculty to mobilize in order save their own program.

It began when UCSC’s Dean of Social Sciences Sheldon Kamieniecki received an order from Chancellor George Blumenthal and Executive Vice Chancellor David Kliger to cut $1.4 million from the division budget. Word was leaked that the dean was “cutting” CMMU by laying off the administrative and support staff for the major.

In April of the same year that marked its 40th anniversary, the department received notice that Mike Rotkin, the field study coordinator, and his assistant, Florencia Marchetti, would be laid off 50 percent for the 2009 school year and laid off completely by the end of 2010. The CMMU department manager was laid off and consolidated with the sociology department manager.

Students quickly created the Coalition to Save Community Studies (CSCS) and held weekly protests and educational meetings.

The students and supporters cried foul. They rallied. Then they left.

Since the news about CMMU broke last spring, the Quarry has been silent. Pink slips have been issued to the field study coordinators (FSCs). Students are scattered around the country on their field study, and the department is now left figuring out what to do next.

Kit Rutter, a main organizer for Coalition to Save Community Studies and third-year CMMU student, says she and the small group of activists are ramping up their actions for this school year to dispel two prevailing misconceptions: that the major no longer exists and, conversely, that it’s completely safe and in the clear from budget cuts.

“It’s definitely still in crisis,” Rutter said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”

‘Like a Car Without Wheels’

CMMU requires its students to embark on a six-month field study, in which they work toward social change in a nonprofit organization, sometime during the summer or fall quarter prior to their graduation.

Rotkin and Marchetti’s roles as field study coordinators are to place students in internships, deal with any logistical issues and crises and read students’ daily field notes and term papers.

According to Rotkin, there has been a full-time coordinator since the program was started in 1969 and two coordinators for the past seven years. Rotkin finds the notion that CMMU could exist without a field study component absurd.

“Community studies without a field study is like a car without wheels,” Rotkin said.

Rotkin estimates it would require approximately $175,000 to fund his full-time and his assistant’s almost-full-time position. Currently, a portion of the coordinator salaries are being funded by fees paid from CMMU students who pay regular student fee amounts while doing their field studies.

The second set of pink slips will go into effect for Marchetti and Rotkin in March and June 2010, respectively, which means that at the end of this school year there will be no more field study coordinators, leaving the future of CMMU hanging in the balance.

Field Study: Foundations for Change

Currently, 140 students are interning full-time at nonprofits around Santa Cruz, the Bay Area and the nation for their CMMU field studies. Marchetti commented on the unique nature of the community studies program and its integrated field study opportunities.

“The students get the chance to go out in the world and test the knowledge they gained at the university against the reality, and use the knowledge they are learning to make something work better,” Marchetti said. “Like most professions, you learn by doing.”

A look at the field study students and organizations reveals an impressive network of graduates as well as many interns who go on to work at nonprofits that have been created by CMMU alumni.

One prominent example is Nane Alejándrez, who is founder and director of Barrios Unidos (BU), a nonprofit that addresses youth violence in Santa Cruz. He came to UCSC in 1977 to learn how to deal with violence after a tumultuous life marked by gangs, heroin addiction and serving in the Vietnam War. He found support in the CMMU staff, and Mike Rotkin in particular, who advised him as he started the organization.

“I can give credit to UCSC for being a part of Barrios Unidos,” Alejándrez said.

Since graduating, Alejándrez says he’s been “blessed” to have many CMMU interns come through BU and participate in the org’s six-month internship.

“It allows me to have someone to work with and [to] be able to mentor and teach what we learned the last 30-something years,” Alejándrez said.

One such intern is Angie Espinoza, a third-year CMMU major and education minor who has been working with BU since June of 2009.

Espinoza learned about BU when Alejándrez came into her Chicanos and Social Change class during her freshman year and talked about the organization and his experience with gangs.

This resonated with Espinoza, who “grew up in the madness” in Costa Mesa, California, where everyone she knew was in gangs and she had to deal with girls who verbally attacked her mother and tried to beat her up after school.

“I felt like I needed to come in here and see what Barrios Unidos was about,” Espinoza said.

At their office on Soquel Street, Espinoza works as an assistant to Alejándrez. But unlike many interns incessantly engaged in tedious tasks like copying and stapling papers, Espinoza has spent her time rubbing shoulders with national and international figures.

Espinoza recently prepared a BU fundraiser in San Francisco that boasted guests like actor and activist Danny Glover, California Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass, and Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers of America co-founder and vice president.

“It was unreal — I was chanting along with Dolores Huerta, the godmother of the Chicano movement,” Epinoza said.

A few weeks prior to the event, Espinoza and Alejándrez had dinner with Bernanrdo Alvaverz Herrera, the Venezeulan ambassador to the United States. She recalled a moment when she told a group of 15 people, including a Chevron Corporation executive and an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, Saul Alindo, about the crisis with CMMU.

“It was intense actually,” Espinoza said.

In addition, Espinoza works for the Prison Project, one of BU’s nationwide programs. She visits incarcerated individuals at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy and corresponds with inmates through letters.

“I get some crazy letters — poems expressing the madness they’ve been through,” Espinoza said. “Sometimes I’m left speechless by the powers in the words and it makes me try harder to keep youth out of there.”

The Fight For the Future

For current third-year CMMU students, it remains unclear whether they can embark on their six-month field studies during the upcoming summer and fall quarters.

“We’re going on [knowing] that in July, we’ll have nobody to manage the field study,” Rotkin said, noting that the program nonetheless admitted 50 new majors this quarter and will have a total of 120 new majors by the end of winter quarter that will need to complete field studies.

In light of these departmental changes, CSCS is changing gears this quarter as well. First, they’re choosing to break away from protests, which main organizer Kit Rutter said were liberating for some, but isolating for those outside the major.

In addition, CSCS is moving away from working with the administration.

“We tried that last quarter and nothing really came of that,” Rutter said.

Instead, Rutter and CMMU department chair B. Ruby Rich plan on utilizing the political sway of UCSC’s Academic Senate, a “shared governance” committee composed of faculty who, by design, are supposed to share responsibility with the administration for managing the UC system.

Additionally, the CMMU department has set up an endowment fund to raise money for the field study coordinators titled “40 by 40,” which encourages community studies alumni and nonprofit organizations who have used CMMU interns to donate $40 — which, compounded, might help extend the program for another 40 years.

Rich said that the department has raised about $7,000 thus far — a major monetary distance from the $500,000 necessary to generate enough dividends to achieve the 40-year continuation goal.

Second-year community studies and art major Alyssa Gutner-Davis works on the fundraising campaign. After witnessing the organizing around CMMU last spring, Gutner-Davis felt a sense of urgency to join CSCS because she didn’t want to see the major “destroyed.”

“The funny thing was I hadn’t taken any of the community studies classes yet, [but] hearing about the cuts [made me] upset because I liked what I heard and read about the major,” Gutner-Davis said, adding that she is worried about her future and is determined to find a way to complete a field study even if she has to do so outside of UCSC’s oversight.

“I’m not going to get it at the price everyone else is getting it at,” Gutner Davis said. “That’s really hard to hear.”

Among everyone from the CMMU department chair to CSCS organizers to the two field study coordinators, one thing seems agreed-upon by all: they are going to work their hardest to preserve the field study component as it exists right now while holding tight to a fervent belief in its educational and social value.

“It’s almost ironic that this is happening to community studies because we’re taught to be prepared for [things like this],” Rutter said. “It’s definitely a good test for us. It’s empowering in some ways and it’s just completely disheartening in other ways.”

Rutter explained that CSCS will look into a lawsuit in case the appeals to Academic Senate fall through, although exact details regarding such a lawsuit remain unclear.

Rotkin said Dean Kamieniecki has asked CMMU for an answer about how it will proceed by December. The department had its first meeting about three weeks ago, and Rotkin and Rich both reported that the discussions were inconclusive, but will continue as the field study season approaches.

Given that there is not and won’t be enough money in the budget in the future to fund the FSC position, the future of the field study will have to change.

“The only option is to do with a different kind of field study,” Rotkin said.

What it will look like, nobody knows.

Illustration by Kenny Srivijittakar.

Misinformation is the enemy of progress toward solutions that will preserve excellence and access within all 10 campuses of the University of California.

One troubling example is the claim by a UC Santa Cruz faculty union leader that educational fee increases are being implemented to allow the university system and campuses to borrow more money for capital projects.

It’s the kind of factually challenged distortion we’ve come to expect in partisan politics. What makes it troubling is that this and other misleading claims spread like viruses through the UC community. We hope students, faculty and staff recognize it for what it is: nonsense.

The educational fee — equivalent to tuition — supports university operations, including instruction and support activities. It’s counted as general revenue. But, while general revenue is pledged as security for bonds, educational fees are not used to pay debt service on our bonds.

So it’s misleading and inaccurate to allege, as [UCSC Politics]Professor Robert Meister has done in two open letters to students, that educational fees are the No. 1 source of revenue to pay back bonds issued for construction projects and that the purpose of tuition increases is to borrow more. And frankly, if he had taken the courtesy of asking my office about how our borrowing program is facilitated before he launched his misinformation campaign, we would have been happy to explain it to him.

Now he suggests that the University launch an expensive audit costing millions of dollars to pursue a wild-goose chase about whether or not student fees are actually used for construction, contrary to regents policy. And he’d have us waste this money without a shred of evidence that student fees are being misused in this way. Frankly, I’d rather see the monies go to things that help students pursue their education.

The truth is that pledging the University’s general revenue in no way necessitates student fee increases, but rather is a way of ensuring that the University can keep financing costs down. It has no relationship to student fee increases.

The fact is that we’re funding capital projects that are essential to the health and safety of the entire UC community — the buildings where students learn, the dorms where they sleep, and the many other places where they go for study, food and entertainment.

As a parent of a UC student, I know it’s painful to pay higher tuition. As both a parent and the chief financial officer for the university system, I want my child and other students to live and learn in a safe, sound environment. And I know that educational fee increases are a direct result of the state’s steady disinvestment in higher education. Every fee increase since 1990-91, with one exception — in 2007-08 — has been levied to make up for inadequate state funding. The two primary sources of funding of core educational costs at the University of California are student fees and the state.

Besides state funding reductions of more than $800 million over two years, the state is not funding increased costs for health benefits, utility costs, faculty merit pay, enrollment and other programs.

As a result, the UC is left in this fiscal year with a $1 billion budget gap that is being offset primarily by spending cuts, salary reductions, and debt restructuring, as well as revenue from student fee increases. This budget gap is projected to grow to at least $1.2 billion for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

While student fees have more than doubled over the last two decades (adjusting for inflation), that increase covers less than a third of the reduction in state funding during those years. As a result, it’s proposed that educational fees be raised by 32 percent over the next two years.

Meanwhile, there are ongoing capital needs financed by bonds and other borrowing, with general revenue funds pledged as security. The university’s general revenue pledge enables the UC to maximize financing flexibility, and that’s increasingly important amid deep cuts in state support of higher education.

Before we sell bonds, we require that an internal source of repayment be identified for each campus project. The primary sources of debt repayment for general revenue bonds are housing, parking and other auxiliaries, approximately 43 percent; indirect cost recovery (grants and contracts), approximately 35 percent; registration fees and student-approved fees that are not educational fees, approximately 10 percent. The remainder comes from a diverse mix of funds, including leasing income and extension fees.

Ultimately, our broad revenue pledge saves the University money: this year alone, our approach to bond sales will save about $29 million through our general revenue bonds, compared to project revenue bonds (based on approximately $5.8 billion in general revenue bonds currently outstanding).

The University of California gets high marks from ratings services, enabling us to issue bonds and short-term commercial paper notes, because of confidence that, in the words of a recent Moody’s report, “management and the board [of regents] will remain prudent and focus on utilizing debt strategically in a challenging economic environment.”

That’s something to applaud, not attack with unfounded claims.

Photos by Nita Rose-Evans. Illustration by Maggie McManus.

Photo by Nita Rose-Evans.

Two bodies fly through the air. Tense fingertips barely brush the edge of a spinning disc thrown from 50 yards down the field.

“That’s my favorite thing about Ultimate Frisbee,” said Alina Kagan, a third-year student and second-year member of the UC Santa Cruz women’s club team. “The feeling of flying through the air to get the disc over five other people who are beneath you — for those couple of seconds, it’s like you’re flying and nothing else matters.”

Anyone who does not consider Ultimate Frisbee a sport should talk to Kagan, who just returned from the Club Nationals in Florida, and whose devotion to the sport is apparent.

“Ultimate Frisbee is my life,” Kagan said. “As of now, [it] accounts for about 60 percent of my life, if not more. Other things include eating and pooping.”

Kagan is not alone at UCSC. There are hundreds of avid Ultimate Frisbee fans in the Santa Cruz community, most of whom affectionately refer to their sport simply as Ultimate. And, on a campus where recreational outdoor activity can often be more popular than NCAA teams, Ultimate is right at home.

UCSC hosts four Ultimate Frisbee tournaments a year, including the upcoming Sean Ryan Tournament on Nov. 14.

“There is no better place to come play Ultimate,” said Kevin “Skippy” Givens, the intramural and sports club supervisor at UCSC. “This is the greatest Frisbee town in the world. We have a champion disc golf course, it’s beautiful, the weather is great — we host the most overall tournaments than anywhere in the world.”

The rules of Ultimate are simple: at the start of each possession, one team of seven players ‘pulls’ the Frisbee, throwing it to the other team. The team that catches the disc then plays offense, advancing the disc down the field. If the offense drops the disc, the possession reverses. Players may not take more than three steps with the disc, and the person in possession of the disc has 10 seconds to throw.

“Ultimate has very quick turnovers from offense to defense,” Givens said. “It’s fluid and constantly moving. It is this flow that makes it so distinct. That’s the allure.”

Discs have been flying in this manner in Santa Cruz since the 1960s. UCSC first formalized a men’s Ultimate team in 1981. Not long after that, a women’s team was formed.

“Frisbee in Santa Cruz is as old school as it gets,” Givens said in his office in the UCSC recreation department, where Frisbee-related trophies and awards line the walls.

Givens started playing Ultimate Frisbee in 1976. He competed in college with the United Flyers of Sonoma and first came to UCSC to play in a Frisbee tournament in 1977. A Frisbee fanatic for the past 33 years, Givens is also the executive director of the World Flying Disc Federation.

Local Devotion

Two tier-one Ultimate teams are present on campus. The men’s team is known simply as the ‘Slugs’ and the women’s team calls itself ‘Sol.’ Both teams practice tri-weekly on the East Field, and attend both in-state and out-of-state tournaments, beginning in November and leading up to the competitive season in the spring.

Slug captains Max Finch, Russell Wynne and Cassidy Rasmussen say their team is all about playing hard to improve their ranking.

“We play our hardest, focusing especially on our defense,” Finch said. “But we always keep it fun, because we play much better when having fun.”

Some members of the Slugs played Ultimate in high school, but many of them were involved in other sports, which then led them to Frisbee.

Ari Klevecz, a member of the Slugs for the past four years, loves Frisbee for the non-stop sprinting.

“I was always a runner. I did track and cross-country in high school. I came and tried out and fell in love with it since I could run around as much as I can.”

Organized by coach Daryl Nounnan, the Slugs’ practice consists of a variety of throwing and catching drills, with scrimmaging and conditioning at the end. Last weekend, the Slugs won a tournament in Santa Clara, and their team was narrowed down to 24 players.

On the women’s side, there are over 20 devoted girls who come to practice to play on the Sol team. Captains Clare “Juke” Riesman and Jessica “Ninja” Seay-Klatt organize weekday practices, and coach Whit Scott drives from his home in San Francisco to coach Sunday practices.

Second-year player Lyuda Grigoriva, who played Ultimate Frisbee in high school, finds that physical fitness is just one of the many ways she benefits from playing the sport.

“A lot of [Ultimate Frisbee] is about improving myself and developing the leader in me,” Grigoriva said. “Another huge part of it is being in shape — there’s no limit to how athletic you can get. The game is athletic and quick, with a lot of sprinting and quick decisions.”

Spirit of the Game

Unlike mainstream sports, Ultimate is completely self-refereed. In this unique level of sportsmanship, players adhere to what is known as the “Spirit of the Game” (SOTG) by calling their own fouls and deciding the outcomes on the field, in the middle of play.

“You are accountable only to yourself for calls, so it fosters a greater self. It makes you more responsible for the decisions you play on the field,” Riesman said.

Deanna Bjorkquist, who has played on Sol for the last three years, said the unique spirit of the game brings competing teams together. The UC Berkeley ‘Pie Queens’ often bake apple pies with the word ‘Sol’ baked in the center, and the Sonoma team ‘D’Vine’ routinely sing songs at competitions that are composed specially for the other team.

“I played basketball, softball, volleyball and track and field in the past, but Ultimate is the only sport where you call your own fouls and hang out with the opposing team on time-outs or after the game,” Bjorkquist said.

The Ultimate Players Association website lists 10 things all players should know about the SOTG. One point on the list cautions players against losing their cool in the heat of competition.

“SOTG is about how you handle yourself under pressure: how you contain your emotionality, tame your temper, and modulate your voice,” the Web site reads. “If you initiate or contribute to the unraveling of spirit, the concept falls apart quickly.”

In the history of Santa Cruz Ultimate Frisbee, no one exemplified this spirit better than Sean Ryan.

Just under 20 years ago, UCSC alumnus Ryan was an outstanding player on the Slugs and a well-known OPERS recreation leader. The year he played, the team went to Nationals. Ryan was appreciated by his teammates, including Givens, who played on an intramural team with him.

“Sean Ryan was gracious, mature beyond his years, quiet, soft-spoken, but he had a burning intensity about him,” Givens said. “For Sean, the greatest achievement was that of the team, not the individual. That’s why he was well loved by his team — he would always do whatever was needed to be done for the team.”

Ryan graduated and went on to work for the National Park Service. On an official rescue mission on Mount Rainier in 1995, he and fellow rescuer Philip Otis fell 1,200 feet to their deaths.

“He was an outstanding student leader in the recreation department,” said Matt Brower, senior recreation supervisor of UCSC. “When he died, it made sense to do something in his honor.”

Since his tragic death, several awards and scholarships have been established in Ryan’s name. In addition to the upcoming tournament named in his memory, the Sean Ryan Most Inspirational Player award is given to a player who demonstrates his qualities of sportsmanship. A scholarship in his name also goes to a member of the recreation department towards a future trip with the program.

The Ultimate Sport

Participation in Ultimate in Santa Cruz ranges from casual pick-up games to the official club team, but there are still plenty of people who do not consider Ultimate Frisbee a real sport. The misconception that Ultimate may be similar to casual Frisbee tossing often fuels the stereotype.

“Before I knew someone on the Frisbee team, I thought Ultimate was just a bunch of lazy hippies sitting around smoking joints,” said second-year UCSC student Jordan Liebman.

Riesman knows the misconception all too well.

“Frisbee is as physically demanding as any other field sport and just as intense,” she said.

Sol coach Whit Scott has been playing Ultimate for almost a decade. Scott competed in the World Games in 2003 with his team, the Brass Monkeys, and now captains the San Francisco-based club team Air. He believes that the strong camaraderie among Ultimate Frisbee players gives the sport a unique quality that sets it apart from other team sports.

“I think the culture of Frisbee is stronger than other sports,” Scott said. “No one is paid to play, everyone is committed to it because they love it.”

The History of Ultimate Frisbee

Frisbees have been around since 1871, when William Russel Frisbie’s pie company in Connecticut threw the empty pie tins around like a modern-day Frisbee.

Almost a century later, Walter Frederick Morrison tried to emulate flying saucers, which were all in the rage in the 1950’s, by creating a butyl stearate blend that shattered if dropped.

The plastic version of the disc came about when Rich Knerr and A.K. “Spud” Melin from USC teamed up with Morrison to create the Wham-O in 1957. As they toured college campuses promoting their new product, Knerr heard the term “Frisbee” — they had been tossing pie tins around since the days of Frisbie’s pie company.

Ultimate Frisbee did not evolve until 1968, when Joel Silver invented the sport at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. The next year, the first game was played with a Wham-O disc. A school team was formed in 1969, and the year after Silver wrote an official set of rules.

The first college Ultimate game happened just three years later between Rutgers and Princeton. Eight teams participated in the first organized tournament in 1975, the National Collegiate Championships.

In 1983, the first World Ultimate Championship was hosted in Gothenburg, Sweden. The U.S. boasted two club teams that won the open and women’s divisions.

In 2001, ultimate was included in the World Games in Japan along with disc golf.

Today, an estimated 100,000 players in 40 countries enjoy the sport. The Ultimate Players Association has over 13,000 members in the US.

~~~~~

Information from the World Flying Disc Federation, http://www.wfdf.org

The Sean Ryan Invitational will be held November 14 and 15 at UCSC’s upper east fields from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and attendance is free of charge.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

The University of California (UC) Regents will vote Nov. 18 on whether or not to increase undergraduate educational fees by a total of 32 percent, or approximately $2,500, starting next school year. By raising fees, regents and the University Office of the President (UCOP) plan to make up for a loss of state funds.

For UC Santa Cruz students, this partly means paying more to support other UC institutions.

In a student media press conference held on Nov. 2, UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal told student representatives that “the last … six fee increases have generally not gone back to the campus where they’ve been collected.”

Educational fees, or base fees, are priced the same across the UC campuses by the UCOP.

Once collected, one-third of all educational fees are set aside for financial aid and the other two-thirds are used to support the operating budgets of each university. In the end, UCSC only gets back 82 percent of the income that it generates.

The remaining 18 percent is allocated to other UC campuses. The decision on where to allocate that money is made by the UCOP is based on actual enrollment levels.

“I don’t like the idea that students at UC Santa Cruz, by paying increased fees, are in fact supporting other institutions,” Blumenthal said.

Before 2007, only 67 percent of educational fees paid by UCSC undergraduates came back to the university.

That 67 percent increased to 82 percent after Blumenthal became an acting chancellor and was able to negotiate with the UC president.

If regents pass the fee hike next week, UCSC students will pay an estimated total of $10,280 annually in education and campus registration fees. After the funds are distributed, UCSC will lose approximately $1,850 per student, as opposed to the $1,400 lost now.

Out of the 10 schools within the UC system, three receive more money than they generate in educational fees. They are UC Davis, UCLA, and UCSF. Davis and UCLA receive approximately 105 percent and 110 percent respectively, while UCSF ends up with a 459 percent return.

UCSF is renowned for its medical facilities. The university’s medical school is ranked fifth in the nation and its hospital is ranked seventh, according to a 2009 US News and World Report publication. UCD and UCLA also have extensive research programs that are said to require the extra money.

One of the issues surrounding the idea of returning 100 percent of educational fees back to the UCs is that UCSF would no longer have the necessary funding to continue their high caliber research and care. President Yudof echoed this in an October press conference.

“On the one hand, grad and professional education is more expensive, so that’s a reason to claim more [fees],” Yudof said.

Chancellor Blumenthal disagrees, and has championed the idea that the UCs should get back all that they put in the pot.

“They can support themselves,” Blumenthal said. “UCSF gets … far more grant money than we do. They have hospitals, larger infrastructure and many of their faculty gets a significant fraction of their salary from clinical income. They have alternatives that we don’t have. We’re kind of wstuck with … state income.”

A budget process overview by UCSF published during the 2008-09 year said that even in these tough economic times it is important to remain a competitive institution with money to spend.

“Fee increases imposed by the UCOP have made it more cost-effective for many UCSF researchers to hire postdocs in lieu of graduate research assistants,” the overview said.

Both Yudof and Blumenthal agree that the model for how campuses are funded needs to be re-examined.

“It would go a lot better if we have more money,” Yudof said, “but we’re going to look at the formulas.”

~~~~~

For corresponding audio, tune into “On What Grounds?” next Thursday from 7:30 to 8 p.m. on KZSC 88.1 FM

Illustration by Kenneth Srivijittakar.

Next week, the future of UC students, faculty and workers could all change. The UC Regents will meet Nov. 17 to Nov. 20 at UCLA to vote on raising student fees by 30 percent.

This is after voting last summer to raise student fees by 9 percent. This is after implemented furlough days for UC faculty and staff, where they are required to take unpaid days off. This is after UCs experienced cuts to programs and classes, where students and workers all have to do and pay more, only to receive less education, services and compensation.

The Student-Worker Action Team at UC Berkeley called for a UC-wide student and teaching strike beginning Nov. 18, the second day of the regents meeting. The major demand is that the UC Regents vote no on the proposed fee increases. They also call for a stop to cuts and layoffs to UC workers. They want to continue the strike if the regents vote to pass the fee increases and continue with the furlough program.

“But to the extent that we call for an event with a predetermined end-date, we risk a purely symbolic action,” they wrote. “Walkouts, strikes, library sit-ins: these are powerful because they affect the university materially as well as symbolically.”

On their Web site, students, faculty and staff have signed a petition to pledge their support for the strike. The University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) union, made up of over 11,000 UC employees, also pledged to protest.

UC Santa Cruz students have shown tremendous support, following UC Berkeley in the number of signatures. However, the overall number of signatures at press time was about 1,500, a dismal number compared to the approximately 220,000 students in the entire UC system. Many professors at UC Berkeley and UC Davis have pledged online to cancel courses for the day. On the UCSC Web site, none have done so.

We’ re calling on the UCSC community to pledge and support the strike: it our last chance to show our united dissent, distaste and disdain for the regents’ actions.

In an open letter to UC students, Robert Meister, president of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, wrote that many people make excuses for not protesting. Maybe it’s because they have classes they don’t want to miss. Maybe it’s because they believe it’s a statewide budget issue and the UC crisis is a reflection of those times. Maybe it’s because this is not the time and place to address these issues.

Meister, who is also a professor of political and social thought at UCSC, gave a simple reply to those concerns. He wrote one “should not conclude that, if a problem exists everywhere, it can’t be confronted anywhere; nor should [one] conclude that if a problem is ongoing, it can’t be addressed now.”

We agree with him when he says the UC has “a large body of students, faculty and staff who are ready to be educated and engaged in action” and that this is the “place and time for us to confront a wider long-term problem.”

UCSC hosts many of these people. The spirit of activism runs deep at our campus. Even if you haven’t participated in a protest before, now is the time — the last chance to walk out and speak up before it gets worse.

Imagine what Nov. 18 could look like: Northern California students rallying at UC Berkeley, Southern Calfornia schools congregating at UCLA to protest the regents meeting. At UCSC, there will be a protest in the Quarry at noon, to be followed by a march down to the base of campus at 2 p.m.

On that day, we could stand by our fellow Slugs, UC students, faculty and workers to show — not just tell — the UC Regents that we want change.

In his infamous quote to the New York Times Magazine, UC President Mark Yudolf caused an uproar when likened his job to being a manager of a cemetery. “There are many people under [me],” he said. “But no one is listening. I listen to them.”

Here’s our chance to rise from the dead. We are no longer dormant. By walking out, we will let Yudolf hear us loud and clear that we do not accept more student fee increases.

~~~~~

Santa Cruz AIDS Project

Although food drives are not specific to the holidays at SCAP, food donations are more than welcome year-round. Volunteers keep a well-stocked food bank on site and available to all clients. Toilet paper, shampoo and other personal items are also appreciated.  SCAP will be hosting a food drive outside the downtown Santa Cruz Trader Joe’s on Saturday, November 21. Shoppers will be given SCAP’s wish list of items needed for the food bank. SCAP is located at 313 Front St., Santa Cruz, CA, 95060 and can be reached by phone at (831) 427-3900.

Second Harvest Holiday Food Drive

In light of the 20 to 30 percent increase in requests for food aid, food drive organizers at Second Harvest are hoping to collect 2 million pounds of food for this year’s annual Holiday Food Drive. Companies, organizations and groups are encouraged to pick up a barrel provided by Second Harvest and collect as much food as possible. Solo participants are welcome to make monetary donations online, where $1 can provide $9 worth of food, or a square meal for a family of five. The drive will benefit low-income families, seniors and disabled people all over Santa Cruz county, and will continue until mid-December. To apply for a barrel or for more information, contact Bly Morales at (831) 722-7110 x 226 or to make a donation, visit Second Harvest’s website at http://www.thefoodbank.org.

Alliance for Children: Give a Kid a Coat

A non-profit organization based in Santa Cruz, Alliance for Children focuses its generosity on keeping local kids warm. The group, which provides coats for low-income families and children who cannot afford warm outerwear, is hoping to exceed the 800 coats collected in last year’s drive. The drive calls for both cash and gently used coat donations for Santa Cruz children between the ages of 1 and 18, and will run until the end of the month. To donate a coat, contact Eileen Donnelly at leeniebug@hotmail.com or send check donations to Coats for Kids, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060.

~~~~~

Donation Centers in Santa Cruz

Click for larger image. Illustration by Maggie McManus.

There are many other donation sites around the city to remember as we embark on our holiday giving endeavors. These organizations accept food, coats and other goods all year long.  Happy donating!

New Life Center
707 Fair St. Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831-427-1007

River St. Shelter
733 River St. Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831-459-6645

St. Francis
205 Mora St. Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831-459-6712

Homeless Community Resource Center and Page Smith Community House
115 Coral St. Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831-458-6020

Santa Cruz Community Counseling Center
195 Harvey West Blvd., CA 95060
831-459-1700

Illustration by Joe Lai.

The UC regents may have reached a new low. Or high, rather.

In the proposed fee increase, set to be discussed at the upcoming Nov. 17 regents’ meeting at UCLA, resident undergraduate fees will more than likely experience another upward jolt, this time including a mid-year fee increase in addition to planned spikes for the 2010-2011 school year.

While it’s fair to say no UC student would happily invite a tuition increase, this merits more than a few grumbles. Resident undergrads can expect to experience a $585 increase mid-year, $633 for nonresident undergrads. Graduate students will be similarly affected. Assuming everything goes according to the regents’ plan, all student fees will exceed $10,000 by Fall 2010. The decision to lay this on us in the middle of November, a mere two months before the mid-year line, shines a light on a bigger, continuous problem with the regents: their relationship to students.

The regents make a big point of talking to the public, hinting at proposals and potential changes through impersonal e-mails and brief open sessions during their meetings. The problem is, there is currently no productive way for us to talk to them.  While we are always welcome to fire off an angry e-mail or elbow our way to the microphone during open sessions, these options represent little more to us than a running wheel to a hamster.  An e-mail is far too easy to ignore, and the typical schedule for regents’ meeting allows them to meet privately regarding each topic prior to opening the floor to the public — and even when the public finally takes to the floor, their time to speak is capped at a disrespectfully brief 20 minutes. Any exclamation of emotion during the open sessions is treated as an unruly interference and the offender, often a union member, teacher or student, is escorted forcefully from the room and barred from reentering.

It would be foolish to believe that what’s said by the attending public has any real effect on the regents’ votes. It’s far more likely that many minds are made up before we can even say a word.

This new fee hike proposal leaves us especially helpless. We’re already in school, close to having a third of this year done, and many of us are well into our long-term academic tracks. Proposing increases for next year is one thing, as it allows us to finish out our year and plan accordingly. But applying these fees mid-year feels like a trap: pay the increase or leave. And unless we want to stunt our well-earned momentum from this quarter, paying more seems to be our only real option.

The severity of this situation highlights the amount of harm the regents have caused to their would-be significant others: the students. Assuming these proposals do pass on Monday, which is practically a given, we will be stuck with a decision we have no venue in which to effectively react. These choices directly influence us and our ability to get a UC-caliber education, and yet reflect nothing of our voice. The reverberations from previous fee hikes have become more apparent, and yet, as we look ahead to further increases, we remain unable to influence regents’ future decisions.

As economy and budget struggles continue to hinder our university, it is imperative that we have more say in what happens to us. At the end of the day this is still our university.  It is an establishment which should be centered around our education and our needs.

No one knows our needs and thoughts better than we do, and until we are given a productive, effective way to express them, no one ever will.

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

American novelist Rita Mae Brown once said, “Sport strips away personality, letting the white bone of character shine through…[it] gives players an opportunity to know and test themselves.”

This quote essentially summarizes the 2009 season of the UC Santa Cruz men’s soccer team. Through strength of character and an ability to overcome obstacles, the team was able to secure a spot in the NCAA Division III postseason for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

Third-year midfielder and forward Clay Sorensen attributes the team’s success to a new style of leadership under coach Michael Runeare, who was the head coach of the UCSC women’s team for six years prior to becoming the men’s coach this year.

“Our coach has brought us an attitude of togetherness and brotherhood that we’ve never understood before,” said Sorensen. “I think a lot of it has stuck with the guys and it’s helped us develop as players and teammates, as well as friends.”

Sorensen also added that the team was able to learn and mature from last year, when they were “a pretty young team.”

The team finished this year with a record of 13-4-2, significantly improving over last year’s record of 8-7-2. They were undefeated through the first twelve games of the year and were at one point ranked as high as fourth in the nation, according to the NSCAA poll.

Coach Runeare says the team’s good start was what helped them continue to excel.

“We had some good results early in the season that gave us a lot of confidence,” said Runeare, citing to two overtime road victories against University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran as games that helped motivate the team.

The team encountered a significant problem, however, at the end of the regular season schedule. During a late October road trip to Southern California, several players were banned from the team for the remainder of the season due to an undisclosed breach of team rules. Subsequently, they lost their last two games of the season against Cal Lutheran University and Holy Names University, which accounted for half of their total losses this year.

“Seven of the players broke a team rule and were immediately released from the team, but all seven players are back [for the playoffs],” said senior co-captain and central defender Brendan Ward, who preferred not to elaborate on what led up to this decision by the coaches. “Our entire team had our backs and all the players talked to the coaches, [who] reconsidered and gave us a second chance.”

Sorensen feels that despite the obstacle the team had in playing with several teammates missing for the remainder of the season, it ultimately made them stronger and more united.

“Some players made a bad decision that affected the team but coming out of it, especially now all the players have been reinstated, it’s actually going to build our trust with each other and it’s going to benefit us finding out who we are as people and players,” Sorensen said. “If we could do it over I think everyone would’ve done it differently to make sure it didn’t happen, but in the end it has made us stronger and more of a team.”

The team hopes to take this mentality into the first round of the postseason, which begins this Saturday as UCSC will host Claremont Mudd-Scripps (11-7-2), a team they faced in one game during the regular season, and which resulted in a 1-1 tie. Chapman will also play Whitworth on the East Field shortly after this game, and the winners of these two games will face each other in the second round on Sunday (which will also take place at UCSC).

Sorensen believes the team learned from their matchup with Claremont Mudd-Scripps earlier this year and has a plan of attack in mind for this weekend.

“Last time we played them they definitely switched up … they’re a team that plays more direct like [in] Division I soccer and that took us off our game and we weren’t able to keep the ball,” explained Sorensen. “We really need to dictate the style of play … and if we play our game it’s going to come up with us on top.”

Meanwhile, Ward is confident that the team will come out victorious in the postseason.

“Without a doubt we’re the better team, and if we come with the right mentality I think we’re going to win.”

Members of the Cast of “Mixed Nutz,” a remixed version of “The Nutcracker,” show off their elaborate costumes. Audiences will be treated with a unique take on the classic story when the show opens November 20 at the Mainstage Theater. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Photo by Morgan Grana.

This holiday season, UC Santa Cruz presents a performance that puts a twist on a traditional holiday favorite, and gives student performers an opportunity to work with professionals from around the world.

“Mixed Nutz! The Nutcracker ReMixed” will open for the first time on November 20 at UCSC’s Mainstage Theater. Theatrics will include dancing, juggling, acrobatics, an acclaimed a cappella group and more in this collaboration of student and professional performers.

“Words can’t even describe how cool this show is going to be,” said Conor McClure, a second-year UCSC student who performs a waltz in the show.

“Mixed Nutz” features UCSC students, professional performers, local high school students and even local children from the Santa Cruz Gymnastics Center.

Tandy Beal, a UCSC theater arts lecturer and the director of the show, said she was excited for opening night and stressed the importance of the collaboration between amateurs and professionals.

“The best way to learn is working side by side with professionals,” Beal said. “This is an extraordinary opportunity for the students.”

About 30 UCSC students help make up a cast of around 65 to 80 total performers. The show attempts to create community and a learning experience for all individuals involved.

“I love watching the generational development and how one generation informs the next; it’s very deep,” Beal said about the performers from various age groups and talent levels coming together.

The show will present many different types of performers, including the former national gymnastics champion of Brazil. Another woman has come all the way from China to perform.

Though there are many UCSC students with years of experience involved in the performance, a number of the cast are first-time performers.

“This is my first faculty performance and I can really just taste the difference,” said Rose Bloomfield, a fourth-year UCSC student and dancer in the production.

Many students, like Bloomfield, have taken classes from Tandy Beal in previous years.

“It’s amazing working with Tandy, she reworks the show around us and what we give her,” McClure said. “She gives us an idea: we’ll do something and she’ll say, ‘That element of what you just did, let’s play on that.’”

The interactive method of directing that Beal uses leaves space for creativity as well as learning.

Charlie Nelson, a second-year UCSC student, said she was grateful to have the opportunity to work closely with professionals like Beal.

“Their energy comes from such a bright place,” Nelson said. “They are so meticulous, but they are so kind and they know that it takes both. They are so talented.”

“Mixed Nutz” has been performed by many groups outside of Santa Cruz in the past. Some of the professional performers coming to UCSC for this show have been a part of it several times.

“We’ve got costumes that we inherited from another performance, which is why they are absolutely amazing,” McClure said.

The costumes are a collection of colorful, flowing, shimmering fabrics that help to bring this show to life.

“There is one dance in particular that uses these shimmering pink capes that almost end the whole show, and it’s a special moment,” Bloomfield said. “There is acrobatics and waltz and ballet. A lot of joy went into this.”

The joyous show will run every weekend through December 6.

“I’m jealous that I won’t get to see it, it is such a treat for the audience,” Nelson said. “The magic of it is something you would never want to miss.”

Bloomfield expressed her similar excitement about the show.

“It is serious, spectacular holiday fun!”

~~~~~

Tickets to “Mixed Nutz” can be purchased by phone or in person at the UCSC Ticket Office (831) 459-2159, the Santa Cruz Civic box office (831) 420-5260, or online at http://santacruztickets.com.

Barrios Unidos representatives take part in the first public peace forum at the Louden Nelson Community Center. The event was organized in response to widespread concern over recent acts of violence in Santa Cruz. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Last week inside the Louden Nelson Community Center, concerned citizens gathered for the first of many “Unity in our Community” public peace forums. The Community Center seemed hardly large enough to hold the group of at least 120 people that attended. Prospects for seats looked grim before the welcome ceremony even began.

“The response has been so overwhelming that we might be looking into a larger venue to do at a different date,” said Vivian Levine, an employee at Barrios Unidos, one of the four organizations that helped put together the event.

Local organizations CoAction, Yes! and Youth in Action also helped coordinate the forum. Organizers hoped to foster a community discussion about violence in small groups. The forum also included several presentations by notable speakers from the community, including City Council members Don Lane and Lynn Robinson.

The event was put together in less than two weeks, partly in response to the deadly stabbing of Santa Cruz High School junior, Tyler Tenorio, on Oct. 16 of this year. The forum was also organized in light of the fact that incidents of larceny, homicide and rape have all increased more than 50 percent in the city of Santa Cruz in the past year, according to the Santa Cruz Police Department.

“People want an answer. People want something to be done, and in order to do that we have to come up with a game plan to do it,” Levine said. “In a forum over these events that have happened recently, people come together in fear and anger and want results immediately and it’s not going to happen that way, it has to be a process.”

Levine feels that there is a disparity between generations when it comes to violence awareness, and she hoped this event would help families, adults and youth talk about difficult issues and ultimately curb violent crime in Santa Cruz.

Before the event, Lauren Parker from CoAction also stressed that she expected intergenerational and interracial discourse from the forum.

“We began to organize [the forum] in response to the lack of community dialogue. We all wanted there to be a place where youth could drive the conversation as much as adults,” Parker said.

After everyone settled in chairs, discussions began. The crowd transformed into a number of small circles of people eager to talk. They exchanged personal accounts of their various violent and non-violent pasts and their hopes for the future. Most came to create a safer community, some for their children and still others in order to break down racial and class barriers — a move they felt might help create a path to nonviolence.

“We need to help stop violence and build bridges to a safer community,” one woman said. “Open dialogue with people you love will help it stop.”

An African-American man in one circle talked about racial barriers within the community.

“People automatically judge you because you are Latino, because you are black, because you look ethnic,” the man said. “Barriers need to be broken down.”

Mamel Amijo, who works with the Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism, was also frustrated with barriers to education and barriers to wealth in Santa Cruz. She suggested that while “there are more people of color in the police force [and] as judges,” many authorities still lack empathy towards those of different classes and backgrounds.

Several people in the discussion called for targeting this systemic problem of societal barriers with increased community economic development. Many participants expressed the belief that a fairer, more equal community would make for a safer, less violent future.

One man pointed to another woman’s children playing on the floor before turning to address his group.

“This is our future. We need to invest the money in our children, and we need unity and intervention. That’s the only way to solve this.”

The UCSC chapter of Global Brigades, founded by fourth-year students Ida Shahidi and Daniel Truong, addresses problems such as medical care, access to clean water and microfinance in developing countries. Photo by Devika Agarwal.

Heather Nicholson wouldn’t have predicted two years ago that she’d spend a week of summer pulling out teeth — but she did.

Nicholson, a fourth-year community studies major from College Eight, had the chance to provide medical care to residents of Honduras last June along with other student members of the UC Santa Cruz chapter of Global Brigades.

Global Brigades, the world’s largest student-led international development organization, is a nonprofit with chapters in many states. Global Brigades is the overarching name for nine types of brigade, each of which addresses different issues that face rural communities in Central America.

The UCSC Global Brigades chapter took its first trip to Honduras last year with the Medical Brigades, but this year it has expanded to include Public Health, Water and Microfinance Brigades as well.

With Medical Brigades, students set up a temporary health clinic and get the chance to actually treat incoming patients and administer medicine. Students also fundraise for medications and recruit doctors before leaving.

“A lot of people you’ll see have never been to a doctor or have to walk far distances on foot,” said Ally Barnes, a member of the Global Brigades Empowerment Team who came to speak at UCSC.

Thirty percent of Hondurans receive no health care, and 53 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the World Health Organization.

“You really see the impact you’re making … They really care that you’re there,” said College Eight fourth-year Ida Shahidi, co-founder and co-president of the UCSC chapter.

The UCSC chapter of Global Brigades was founded last year at by fourth-year College Eight students Shahidi, a bioinformatics major, and Daniel Truong, a neuroscience and behavior major.

Shahidi first learned about Global Brigades when she missed her plane ride home from a vacation in Costa Rica. On the next flight she sat next to the president of the UC Santa Barbara Global Brigades chapter and learned about the organization. Shahidi was immediately interested to see if Global Brigades existed at UCSC.

“I checked and we didn’t have it, so we started it,” she said. “If I hadn’t missed my plane this never would have started.”

Shahidi asked Truong if he would be interested in co-founding the organization at UCSC, and he agreed.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun,” Troung said of leading the group.

Together they are responsible for organizing fundraisers, recruiting students and doctors and making travel arrangements.

“It’s one of those experiences you never forget. The group of students who went got along really well. Everyone worked really hard,” Nicholson said of last June’s trip.

Global Brigades focuses on bringing sustainable solutions to impoverished communities, while respecting local culture.

“It’s important that the people are a part of these changes and they’re educated to continue them. It’s a process of development,” Nicholson said.

Each brigade provides resources and education to address various problems that result from poverty. While students in Public Health Brigades work with individual families and build things like concrete floors, latrines and clean burning stoves, Water Brigades work to sanitize water and provide water storage systems. Global Brigades is hoping to start an environmental chapter soon at UCSC, and increase student involvement this year.

Global Brigades also provides education about sanitation practices. According to Global Brigades participants, many diseases that plague developing countries like Honduras are preventable and are a result of parasites from lack of clean water or flooring.

“Public Health addresses the issues that cause the problems that are seen in Medical Brigades,” Nicholson said.

The Microfinance Brigades provide donations to a community credit union that then makes a “micro-loan”, sometimes as small as $100, to an entrepreneur to fund their business. Often, successful entrepreneurs donate money back to the credit union, providing other community members with start-up funds.

Microfinance has been successful in other developing countries, including many in South America and Africa. It is seen as a sustainable, long-term solution to poverty, as it funds businesses that can provide a person with a livelihood forever while teaching accountability. Students involved in Microfinance Brigades use their own money as loans and choose who they want their funds to go to.

Katrina Luna, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology major from Cowell College, plans to participate in Medical Brigades this summer.

“Global Brigades provides an outlet for college youth to do something positive in the world,” Luna said. “More specifically, I think it’s great that Global Brigades is not only providing help, but providing the tools to maintain that needed infrastructure.”

~~~~~

Non-students and students from any major are able to participate in the June trip to Hunduras with the UCSC chapter of Global Brigades. For more information about the trip and the organization, go to http://gmbslugs.weebly.com.

(from left to right)

“This year classes are bigger, there are less TAs, less teachers and less classes — it has affected me majorly.”
Jen Small
Fourth-year, Merrill
Language Studies

“Not really for my major, but I am really sympathetic to my friends in the community studies major.”
Travis Merrill
Fourth-year, Kresge
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

“I don’t get as much one-on-one time with my BME professor.”
Mike Pattison
Second-year, College Nine
Business Management Economics

“They have raised fees in production classes, especially with all of our expensive equipment, and there are less TAs for my major classes.”
Vartuhi Ambartsomov
Third-year, Stevenson
Film and Media Studies

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Compiled by Ben Gevercer and Rosario Serna.

Men’s Soccer
11/4 at Holy Names (away) 1-0 (loss)

Women’s Soccer
11/1 at Chapman (away) 5-0 (win)

Women’s Volleyball
11/3 at Dominican (away) 3-1 (loss)
11/6 vs. Mills (home) 3-0 (win)

{Upcoming Athletics}

Men’s Soccer
11/14 vs. Claremont Mudd-Scripps (home) at 11 a.m.*

Women’s Soccer
11/14 at Claremont Mudd-Scripps (away) 11 a.m.*

Men’s Basketball
11/11 vs. SF State (home) at 7 p.m.
11/14 vs. Alumni (home) at 6 p.m.

Women’s Basketball
11/17 vs. William Jessup (home) at 6 p.m.

*Indicates NCAA postseason game

Casey Chisolm (left) and Shannon Young (right) are the founders of Acension Recordings and Publications, a nonprofit production company and music label that serves as an alternative to the mainstream music industry. Photo courtesy of Shannon Young.

In a small living room towers a black mass known as the “wall of sound.” It is compiled of four 15-inch speakers and a half stack. And in front of the wall stands a fiery redhead named Shannon Young.

Young is a fourth-year business major at UC Santa Cruz. Her fiancé, Casey Chisholm, attended Columbia College for video production. Together they make up Ascension Recordings and Publications, a production company they refer to simply as Ascension.

“This is what we want to do. It’s what we want to be our life’s work,” Young said.

Ascension has already signed over 10 artists, and the list continues to grow. Chisholm and Young see themselves as a part of a grassroots movement in the music production industry that brings the focus of music back to sound. Young works on the business side of the label, while Chisholm handles the more musical aspects.

Ascension is entirely nonprofit, and attempts to find new and innovative ways to produce music at the lowest cost. Via Ascension, Young and Chisholm dream of giving musicians a substantial reason to produce music for the sake of music. These goals were initially backed entirely by out-of-pocket funds, but following a successful summer it began to rely on raised funds as well.

“Summer was great. We had the first annual fundraiser. Fourteen bands played at House of Nostromo,” Young said.

The label, however, is just the tip of a musical endeavor in which Ascension plans to partake. Young and Chisholm are working towards a goal of making Ascension a registered nonprofit music label so that they can receive grants to fund larger projects. They also eventually plan to open a music store.

The label has released five artists thus far — Jonathan Sarenana, Travis Brooks, Good Man, Samuelroy and Chisholm himself. The list continues to grow and Ascension has high hopes for the remaining artists signed to the label but still unreleased.

Most of the Ascension artists are local, but plans are in the works to release an album for a band called Loser Superhero out of London, with members originally from Spain and France.

“Ideally we would eventually sign two artists from every city,” Young said. “We want to have artists all over to help network and distribute — basically set up an infrastructure nationwide and then internationally.”

Ascension released its first compilation CD in March of 2009, comprised of songs from the already-released artists.

“Everything on the compilation was good,” Chisholm said. “We have signed and gotten to play with some really talented people.”

“The compilation has gotten an artist recognition on a radio station in Portland,” Young said. “Feedback has been very positive from listeners and artists alike. It has brought some artists together, and shows that might not have happened.”

A second compilation CD is already in the works and Young said they are looking into doing a show at UCSC on April 20 as a fundraiser.

Ascension’s sound is a mixture of eclectic artists, ranging from electronic to acoustic sounds and with a multitude of stories behind their various melodies.

“We will work with anyone who has talent and is motivated and wants to do this,” Chisholm said. “The compilation was a good way of testing the water. It wasn’t about making money and shining attention on ourselves, it was about planting seeds and giving people a reason for doing what they’re doing.”

Chisholm and Young do not require any of the artists who sign with Ascension to produce a profit for the label, nor are any of their contracts obligatory.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and just say ‘I don’t have time for music,’” said Chisholm. “We want to give artists a reason to keep going with it. What they put in with us is really what they get out.”

Today’s mainstream music industry, Chisholm said, is too focused on selling a product.

“I think in the modern industry someone like Bob Dylan would have been swept under the rug. He wasn’t pretty, and his voice wasn’t perfect by any means. The leading bands in today’s industry are total products.”

Ascension hopes to establish a venue for today’s many musicians who are genuinely concerned with the music and the sound they produce, but do not want to “sell out” to the mainstream music world.

“There’s this untapped market of amazing musicians and that’s what we’re trying to get into. We’re not trying to make money at this point,” Young said. “It’s really rewarding to do this and to know it’s not capitalism you’re helping. You have someone like Casey who’s being creative all day, and then you have someone like me who is a business major. It’s a good creative outlet for us.”

Young said the overall goal of their label is to help musicians in any way they possibly can, while experiencing the creative process hands-on.

“If our artists can make fans because of this, or book shows because of this, then we consider it a complete success.”

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Free downloads from Ascension artists are available at http://cllct.com/family/ascensionrecordingsandpublications. To learn more about Ascension and its artists, go to http://www.myspace.com/ascensionrecordingpublications.