As UCOP continues to cut services and students become more reliant on measure money to keep those services, the regents are considering stealthily taxing new fees. For every new measure that gets passed, UCOP plans to take 2 percent of the fee. Measure fees are usually student proposed and are voted on by students.

For example, when the regents cut UCSC’s budget last year, the library was forced to trim its hours. Students passed a measure to pay extra and keep the resources available.

On Feb. 8, student regent-designate Alfredo Mireles Jr. said he didn’t even know about the tax, so obviously nothing has been done at the regent level on our behalf thus far. He did say, however, that the tax was unfair and that he would fight against it in the future. He has consistently brought the student voice — and vote — to discussions at the regents’ table, but the regents have still decided to increase fees.

If taxes are necessary — although fees have been raised enough — they should be kept within their local university and be used for projects that are tangible to the students paying them. If a UC Santa Cruz student has to pay more as a result of raised taxes, then why should those funds be used to save jobs or build new research centers at UC Irvine or UC Berkeley?

They shouldn’t. Taxes raised on campus should be kept on campus.

The Daily has been getting a lot of attention lately for being the first newspaper produced solely for tablets.

Here’s what the Daily does right: It uses links, videos, and graphics to enhance the reading experience, as well as provide more information. It also maintains its own staff of professional writers, meaning it isn’t just feeding off more legitimate sources to make a profit.

Speaking of profits, it charges readers 99 cents per issue. The method of each issue being “delivered” to tablets is far more seamless than that of news websites, which try to charge for reading certain stories but not others.

But it also has its fair share of problems. For starters, it is only available on iPads, the most expensive tablet on the market, which means it promotes the idea of news as an elitist commodity. And behind all the bells and whistles, the content is more lifestyle than news. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except that it brands itself as a newspaper.

The recent merger of AOL and Huffington Post, which coincided with the leaking of documents revealing that AOL placed website traffic far above quality reporting, shows that in the Web’s free-for-all environment, serious content is too often missing — even in supposedly serious news outlets.

But just because the Daily has drawbacks does not mean there is nothing to learn from it. The future of journalism is in new technology, and there’s no reason not to use all resources that are available to give readers the most information and insight. The ideal would be a tablet newspaper with the functionality and sleekness of the Daily and the investigative and intensive reporting of the New York Times. According to online user reviews, the NYT’s iPad app has problems with crashing and isn’t very intuitive or user-friendly, but hopefully it can work towards being improved.

Just because the physical newspaper might soon be a thing of the past doesn’t mean journalism will be, too. With the rise of newspaper apps, the future is looking a little brighter — and well-informed.

Illustration by Muriel Gordon.

Illustration by Muriel Gordon.

Illustration by Muriel Gordon.

Story updated on 2/16/2011 at 9:00pm

Dawn Davidson doesn’t live her life by Disney standards.

When you have more than one Prince Charming, fairy-tale clichés go out the window.

“In our culture, the only acceptable, long-term relationship style is monogamy,” said Dawn Davidson, relationship coach and veteran in the polyamory community. “We’re taught that literally from childhood. What happens when the prince rescues the princess? They ride off into the sunset, and they live happily ever after. Just the two of them. Except she leaves behind her seven vertically-challenged, very hard-working housemates.”

Davidson laughs at this allusion and continues, “That seems like it might be kind of a light example, but it’s just the beginning.”

Davidson is one of the estimated half a million Americans who identify as polyamorous. Polyamory is having romantic relationships with two or more individuals simultaneously. As of 2005, there were an estimated 2,000 poly people residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. In Santa Cruz alone, 238 people participate in an online group that meets regularly to discuss polyamory.

In recent years these numbers have received significant media attention — notably, Newsweek described polyamory as “the next sexual revolution.” Poly books such as “The Ethical Slut,” by Dossie Easton and Janet Hardy, have achieved mainstream success, bringing new faces to poly community groups in large cities throughout the country. As polls show younger generations growing more accepting of all lifestyles and non-hetero-normative relationships are in and out of federal courtrooms, polyamory is becoming more high-profile.

The poly community has received some negative attention. Conservative groups like Focus on the Family have publicly denounced polyamory as immoral, and a threat to the current federal marriage laws. A pamphlet released by the Family Research Council describes a polyamorous home as “a frat house with revolving doors.”

“This nebulous, free-for-all model of the family looms ahead for our society unless a bulwark is created in the form of a constitutional amendment protecting marriage,” according to the pamphlet.

Davidson said people in polyamorous relationships have similar motivations as those in monogamous ones, and they face similar challenges, just in greater numbers. As the number of members within a relationship increases, so does the potential for common dating and familial problems.

“Socially, it’s very similar,” she said. “We still have to negotiate around who gets to see whom, Thanksgiving and Christmas, ‘Are we driving to so-and-so’s this year? Are we getting together, and is there a big enough place to hold us all?’ It’s not an uncommon discussion. It’s just in a very different context.”

Many conservative groups wouldn’t agree with Davidson. Publications on the Family Research Council website warn that “the rising polyamorous culture is out to get your children.” Stigmas like this drive many poly people to keep their relationships relatively private.

Santa Cruz County resident Steve Jones* said he is openly polyamorous around his friends, but he chose to remain anonymous in this story to avoid becoming the subject of “malicious gossip.”

“If I’m close enough to people to talk about dating, then they probably know,” he said. “If we just have a business relationship and don’t talk about personal stuff, then I’m not going to talk about that any more than anything else that’s personal.”

The roots of polyamory, originally referred to as “responsible” or “ethical” non-monogamy, can be traced back to the 19th century. The term was not used with its contemporary meaning until 1990 and was not included in the Oxford English Dictionary until 2009. In the early ’90s, prominent figures in several poly communities used the Internet, which was still in its infancy, to organize networks of poly people and create resources for people interested in consensual non-monogamy.

Though Davidson has been in polyamorous relationships for more than 30 years, she “didn’t have a name to put on it” until the mid ’90s, she said. Since then, she has married, had children and become a prominent figure in the Bay Area polyamory community. Davidson also teaches classes for the local poly community at Pure Pleasure, an adult store located in downtown Santa Cruz.

Polyamorous relationships are not unlike monogamous ones, Davidson said.

“A lot of families are doing polyamory-style relating,” she said. “We just call it divorce and remarriage. There are a lot of people who have two moms and two dads.”

As the number of people in the relationship increases, so does the potential for common dating and familial problems, Davidson said.

“We tend to have more relationships, so the opportunity for all kinds of feelings comes up more in terms of sheer numbers,” Davidson said.

Jealousy is a common concern of people outside the community. But the issue is less common than many think, she said.

“I would actually say that the context of monogamy tends to generate some really strong jealousy behaviors,” Davidson said. “Again, it’s condoned and even supported by our culture — ‘A real man will protect his woman’ kind of thing, and it gets into that patriarchal property kind of stuff. Or conversely, you’ll hear about women using jealousy to get their man to pay more attention to them. It’s my take on it that at least the ideals of the polyamorous community, based on openness and honesty, everybody really has to be on board with what’s going on.”

Having multiple partners is common among people who identify as monogamous as well. “Open relationships” and “friends with benefits” arrangements remain common, as does infidelity. A recent study at Oregon State University of 434 young heterosexual couples found that, even among those with an explicit agreement to be monogamous, almost 30 percent had broken the agreement, with at least one partner having had sex outside the relationship.

While some might assume polyamory and cheating are the same, members of the poly community are quick to differentiate between the two.

Polyamorous relationships usually include primary and secondary partners. Primary partners often function in a spousal role, and there is less expectation for serious commitment and partnership in secondary relationships.

“A lot of men cheat — and a lot of women do too — but they sneak around, and that’s not what polyamory is all about,” said Santa Cruz County resident and polyamorist Pat Smith*. “If you really want somebody in your life, you need to work it out with your primary partner. Quite honestly, if you look at the original tenants of polyamory, the primary partner gets a veto. If this doesn’t work for them or they’re threatened in any way, you shouldn’t go there. They have to accept what’s going on. If they don’t … it’s considered cheating, to me.”

The differences between what some poly people see as undefined polyamory in monogamous relationships and open polyamory in multi-person partnerships can come down to semantics.

“There are a lot of cases where two people, often close friends, have mutual attraction but don’t act on it because of their agreement of monogamy with their primary relationship,” Larry Colen, a Santa Cruz County resident and long-time polyamorist, said in an e-mail. “These people are often lovers in everything but the sexual consummation. Since polyamory is, in theory, more about the emotional attachment rather than the physical expression, one could argue that these are, in reality, polyamorous relationships.”

Davidson says mainstream reluctance to accept polyamory is because of societal pressure.

“A lot of people just don’t realize it could be called that,” she said. “We have a really strong monogamous cultural assumption.”

While many people interested in polyamory seek out local and online groups, Jones guesses there are many more people who are not active in the community. These unaccounted-for polyamorists may fly under the official radar simply because they do not consider their relationships polyamorous.

“I know a lot of people of a younger generation who just don’t identify it as polyamory,” Davidson said. “But if you ask them if they are monogamous, they’d say no. They might call it responsible non-monogamy. They might call it open relationships … One group I used to know used to say their relationships are ‘in the flow.’”

People within the community say the term “polyamory” encompasses many different approaches to non-monogamy.

“In the poly community you’ll find everything from people having a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ arrangement, where it is OK to have other relationships as long as you don’t talk about it,” Jones said. “That’s on one extreme. The other extreme would be a group marriage, where you have people living together and pooling their resources and doing all of the things that a family does together.”

Jones and his wife are friendly with each other’s partners and discuss their relationships, he said, but their relationships are separate. They only have two people in their marriage, he said.

While every relationship is unique, the poly community has terminology to distinguish between the more common types of polyamorous relationships. Relationships can be primary, secondary and casual. A primary relationship is mostly comparable to a traditional monogamous relationship and may be prioritized over secondary relationships.

“Often, people will only have one primary relationship, and that person takes priority,” Colen said. “A secondary relationship is very important to the person but usually not the person you live with. A long-term mistress could be a classic example of a secondary relationship.”

Smith and her husband have been in polyamorous relationships since they moved to California more than 30 years ago. Both had been previously married, and monogamy had not worked, she said. After listening to a lecture by polyamorist author Deborah Anapol, Smith and her husband began to consider multiple partners.

“We kind of looked at each other and thought, ‘That might work,’” she said. “It wasn’t about sleeping around — it was about needing more in a relationship. Not everybody can give everybody everything. And we had tried to work within the paradigm we were raised to acknowledge, [and] it wasn’t working.”

Smith is open about her relationships to her friends and family, and while she has received much support, she acknowledges that her traditionally-minded relatives do not understand her lifestyle.

“My sister is still married to the first man she ever went to bed with, and she doesn’t want to castigate me, but I’m sure she thinks I’m awful,” she said with a laugh. “They sort of consider me the batty aunt.”

Though polyamory may not be mainstream, the community is not small.

Pure Pleasure co-owner Janis Baldwin said Davidson’s classes have met a need for many Santa Cruzans, who used to drive to San Francisco for poly classes and resources.

“No one was teaching classes like that,” Smith said of Davidson’s poly workshops. “The last class was standing-room only.”

Davidson teaches Polamory 101, which is intended to be an introduction to polyamory. Participants learn definitions and terminology, and discuss basic issues that do and do not work in polyamorous relationships, like the importance of time management and how to deal with jealousy.

Amy Baldwin, who owns the store with her mother, said there is “definitely” a large poly community in Santa Cruz that utilizes this resource.

“Some people come who have been in poly relationships for years, and others are just dabbling in [polyamory],” Amy said. “Everyone leaves with something different.”

One of the most important things to take away from investigating polyamory, Davidson said, is that love is the same, regardless of how many people are involved.

“Honestly, poly relationships are just relationships,” she said. “We just have more of them.”

~~~~~~

*Name has been changed.

Click to expand. Illustration by Matt Boblet.

Santa Cruz is a town with a lot to offer. But despite the wide array of options, students often end up scratching their heads over what to do each weekend. With Valentine’s Day weekend coming up, the City on a Hill Press city reporters took it upon themselves to suggests activities, beaches, stores, and restaurants worth checking out.

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Fantastic Eats and Cinematic Feats

By Nikki Pritchard

There’s no date more classic than dinner and a movie for Valentine’s Day. In Santa Cruz, there are four movie theaters to choose from, but the Nickelodeon and Del Mar theaters are locally owned gems that all UCSC students should be familiar with before they graduate. Both theaters have an old-time charm reminiscent of an era before illegal movie downloads.

Originally opened in 1969, the Nickelodeon Theatre (210 Lincoln St.) is known for its dedication to independent art and foreign films. Wednesday nights are the prime time to catch the student rate: $7.50. Restaurant options are abundant in Santa Cruz, but in the interest of affordability and proximity, check out Jack’s Hamburgers (202 Lincoln St.) next door when visiting the Nick. During happy hour (3 to 4 p.m. daily), Jack’s patrons can grab one burger and get the second one half off. A local favorite, Jack’s burger joint provides affordable, filling food that will satisfy your craving for all-American grub.

The Del Mar Theatre (1124 Pacific Ave.), opened in 2002. It offers weekly “midnight movies” for $6.50 every Friday and Saturday night. Owned and operated by the folks who brought you the Nick, the Del Mar stays true to the independent flavor Santa Cruzans love. Its quirky staff raffles off door prizes before the movie begins, and there are often trivia questions or movie quote competitions. This Friday and Saturday night’s midnight movie at the Del Mar will be “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.”

Pizza My Heart (1116 Pacific Ave. #B) is a great place to eat before viewing a movie at the Del Mar. A chain originating in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pizza My Heart sells pizza by the slice until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. For $6, you can purchase a slice and grab a Pizza My Heart shirt for your sweetie.

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Reinventing Valentine’s Day for Singles

By Chelsea Hawkins

As Valentine’s Day weekend rolls in, if you suddenly find yourself without a date and annoyed by the onslaught of couples on the bus making you all too aware you’re going solo once again, remember to step back and recognize the freedom that comes with being single.

Embrace it.

For those of us not held up by a relationship, there are some noteworthy Santa Cruz singles options for making a memorable night.

Singles might consider paying a visit to the El Palomar Ballroom, located downtown on Pacific Avenue.

On Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights, the Palomar offers both drop-in dance classes and dance parties. Drop-in classes start immediately before the dance parties and range in style from West Coast Swing to Latin, giving people the opportunity to learn various styles of dance and try out their new skills later that evening.

There is no need to pre-register for classes or even commit to a class. The entire evening can cost as little as $10.

El Palomar dance parties last from 9 to 11:30 p.m. and cost $5 at the door.

If a night of dancing isn’t exactly what you’re looking for, there are several other places where singles might hit a few high notes.

The Boardwalk Bowl, near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, offers more than bowling — it is also known among students for its rowdy karaoke nights.

Karaoke nights at the Boardwalk Bowl are notorious for the local characters who get behind the microphone. There is no need to be part of a duet to enjoy a pop ballad or two.

Unlike other places in town, the Boardwalk Bowl does not have a minimum party size or minimum purchase requirement, but after 9 p.m., karaoke is closed to people under 21.

The Bowl is not the only place in town that offers singles the opportunity to test their courage behind a microphone. With easy access from downtown, local restaurant I Love Sushi has become a staple for the university crowd. It’s not just the menu that draws a crowd — the atmosphere and friendly demeanors of the staff make I Love Sushi a student favorite, and the owner is known for challenging customers to sake bombs.

If you’re able to assemble a small group of eight, you can easily reserve a table in the karaoke room, order drinks and sushi, and spend the evening reveling in the somewhat questionable vocal stylings of locals.

Although this is only a taste of the things offered throughout the Santa Cruz area — cafés, theaters and beaches to name a few — they are sure-fire ways for the young and the unattached to get out of their comfort zones and have a little fun.

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Save That Money, Honey

By Stephanie Meade

Valentine’s Day, with all of the expenses it can incur, can be a dreaded day for poor college students across the nation. But some creativity can keep you and your heart from going bankrupt.

There isn’t anything more intimate than grocery shopping with your sweetheart. Santa Cruz has many different grocery stores to choose from: Safeway (2203 Mission St.), Trader Joe’s (700 Front St.) and New Leaf (1101 Fair St. or 1134 Pacific Ave.), to name a few. See what’s on sale and bust out your club card when applicable. Pick up some fresh, organic fruit, cold cuts and cheese to enjoy with a baguette and butter. This simple meal makes for a perfect picnic. Plan a nice outdoor activity — perhaps a hike around Natural Bridges or a beach-side bike ride, and then settle down somewhere pretty with a blanket and your grocery store treasures.

If you or your sweetheart prefer indoor activities, try taking a fresh spin on the old “dinner and a movie” date. You can cook up something romantic for dinner. Pasta is tasty, cheap and easy to make. Make it a little more romantic with some red wine, like Trader Joe’s infamous Two-Buck Chuck. Lay down a makeshift tablecloth. Your roommate’s sheets will look great, but make sure to wash them first. Light a few candles for ambience.

Trips to the movie theater can cost upwards of $40 with snacks for two people. Instead, you and your date can rent a movie together and snuggle up under a blanket. Pop your own popcorn to save money. Plus, you won’t have to deal with crying babies, ringing cell phones and chatty moviegoers interrupting your mid-movie make-out sessions.

If everything you touch in the kitchen burns, and you think it would be safe to dine out instead, try taking your darling out for lunch instead of dinner. Many restaurants offer the same or similar menu items for cheaper lunchtime prices. Sabieng on Mission Street offers an excellent lunch special. Diners can get the soup of the day, an entrée and rice for under $7.

If you’re on a first date and you don’t want your date to think you’re cheap, you have options. Try going out for sushi. It’s delicious, often affordable and incredibly adorable to share. Taco platters, another classic dish to share, can also be affordable. El Palomar Taco Bar all the way at the back of the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company on Pacific, offers tasty tacos and burritos for relatively low prices, plus free chips and salsa. The small dining area can get very crowded and loud, but the staff at the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company usually doesn’t mind if you bring your tacos and sit and eat in their much quieter café.

Have fun this Valentine’s Day, and remember to show love to your sweetheart as well as your wallet.

~~~~~~

Want a Sandy Romance? Go to the Beach!

By Michael Mott

Santa Cruz is well known for its wealth of sunny sand. Even in February, you can traverse the beaches with your sweetheart like a true local.

If you don’t mind crowds, then a day at the Main Beach by the Boardwalk is sure to be fun. After getting an ice cream at Marini’s, head down to the volleyball courts and spike a ball. Or relax and unwind under the pier if it gets too hot. The wharf and boardwalk can be expensive for food, so bring lunch. Picnics are a time-honored guarantee to impress your date.

The Boardwalk itself is an old-fashioned, classic place that has enchanted friends and lovers since 1907. Stroll hand-in-hand down past the arcades and the mini-golf course to the rides, where your date will be sure to lean in on the roller coasters.

If you and your valentine scoff at the tourists, try Seabright Beach just south of the Boardwalk. This beach has fewer people and more sand.

You can find some East Side locals and even a cave to write your lover’s name in. You might not want to show off your body-boarding skills just yet here, because the waves can be vicious. Set up an umbrella and feel free to people-watch, and you two will be bound to come up with some funny stories.

Like the sand? Instead of taking a long awkward walk, woo your date with your castle-building and hole-digging skills. After the day is done, set up camp and have a bonfire, because this beach is one of the few in Santa Cruz that allows them.

After a few hours of spelling each other’s names in the sand, head over to the delicious Betty’s Burger on Seabright Avenue, where you can get such romantic ground beef as the “Big Betty.” This half-pound patty and Betty’s secret lube, or “The Duke,” a half-pound island-style burger with grilled pineapple, bacon, cheddar and sweet teriyaki lube will tantalize the taste buds.

If you’re feeling daring, head east of the wharf for some surfing at Cowell’s Beach. Unlike in ice skating, however, your partner will not think it’s cute if he or she falls down and gets obliterated, so keep it safe.

Got sand in your pants after your beach date? Just one more reason to head back to your place and shower.

Illustration by Louise Leong.

I felt weird and out of place Friday night at Colleges Nine and Ten’s Third Annual Speed Dating event.

The colleges’ multi-purpose room, which has served for dining hall overflow and career fair exhibitions in the past, was transformed into a soft-lit meeting place, complete with chocolates, overly strong mints and flickering candles.

I had harbored reservations about coming there that evening, mostly out of pride. To me, speed dating symbolized a shameful inability to engage with women in a social setting. Beyond bruising my cowboy ego, however, there was little else to lose in going.

Admittedly, I also harbored a nagging desire to be there. I was single, and there would be hundreds of other singles there. But this didn’t stop me from trying to convince myself, those who would ask, and even those who didn’t, that the only reason I had to be there was to write this column.

I wasn’t alone.

Everyone had their reasons why they felt forced to be there: to support a friend, because they had nothing better to do, and — my personal favorite — because their significant other doesn’t go out much.

Everyone would have had you believe they didn’t care to be mincing words, but that didn’t stop the hundreds of them from showing up — a mob of denial if I’ve ever seen one, and me at the front of the line.

Here are the rules of the game: Every two minutes, you shuffle seats, introducing yourself to the next person in line. If you liked how things went with any one person, you write their ID number on an index card that is turned in at the end of the night. In the days to follow, the event organizers e-mail contact information to the pairs of people who wrote each other’s numbers down.

Simple. Controlled. Safe.

In practice, I found the time element to be the biggest issue of the night. Maintaining polite and interesting conversation — oftentimes the same, repackaged conversation — with a new person every two minutes for three hours proved to be exhausting.

There was too much time when conversation fell short, too little when it got interesting, and none at all with at least two-thirds of the room, who I wasn’t able to meet within the three hours I was there.

How I was expected to describe who I am and get a sense of who I was talking to in such a limited time frame, I’ll never know. To be frank, having two minutes means I only had enough time to decide whether I’d like to date someone based on their looks and their passion for art,

if that.

Perhaps a veteran speed dater might know a more efficient means of shooting the breeze, but then again, who would trust the advice of a “veteran” speed dater?

Yet, despite my initial hesitations about speed dating and the monotony of some of the conversations, I did end up enjoying myself. In the handful of instances when conversation escaped the awkward boundaries of introduction, I found myself engaged, interested and attracted to the ladies I was speaking with.

Even though the speed dating event made it easier to interact, the daters still seemed too wary to take a leap.

Who are you fooling — besides yourself — by saying you’re content to let your dream date pass you by without a word? You have to meet them halfway.

Dating implicitly means straying outside of your comfortable boundaries. But we are so preoccupied with abiding by social rules and maintaining proper public appearances that it becomes far too easy to simply not introduce ourselves to a beautiful stranger.

Even in a setting as solid and secure as the colleges’ speed dating event, people piled on excuse after excuse, convincing no one.

Look, while I may have been writing a column and you may have been there to support a friend, we both stood in the same line, talked to the same people, and did the same old song and dance. I’m not going to kid myself — I’m anxiously awaiting an e-mail or two.

Be it a bar or dining hall, party or speed date, we can’t choose when and where that special someone will drop into our lives.

We just have to talk to them when they do.

Students gathered for the third annual speed dating event. The event, put on by the Colleges Nine and Ten Community Programs office on Feb. 4, drew in over 200 people throughout the night. Photo by Ryan Tuttle.

Photo by Ryan Tuttle.

“At speed dating: male, black hair. You were No. 17. You are so my type. So cute and interesting. Kinda shy, but you know how to open up. Hehe, I really hope we meet again. ^_^”

This submission joined hundreds of other posts on the new website Like a Little on the afternoon of Feb. 5. The site has recently gathered a following at UC Santa Cruz.

Similar to the missed connections page on Craigslist, Like a Little is a way for people to anonymously post about someone who has caught their eye around campus. Evan Reas, creator of the site, launched Like a Little in October 2010. He saw the website as a way for shy people to put themselves out there more without having to identify themselves.

“[Like a Little] lets people break the ice and flirt with people around them in an extremely easy way,” Reas said in an e-mail. “Because it is anonymous, it gets rid of all the awkwardness, and there is no downside of telling somebody how you feel.”

Like a Little is just one example of some of the new ways in which people look to find a significant other, a date or just a friend. People have branched out from the usual small talk at parties to anonymous posts on the Internet and dozens of first dates at the College Nine and Ten speed dating event.

Every two minutes a bell chimes over the sound of hundreds of voices at the Colleges Nine and Ten Multi-Purpose Room. Over 200 people got to experience multiple first dates in one night as they circled the 30 or so tables that filled the room. Each table, which seated six, was adorned with a little candle surrounded by chocolate kisses and sugar sweethearts.

Jessa Rabanal, an undeclared first-year from College Nine, was one of the 209 people who attended. In the line of women crowding the entrance waiting to be seated, Rabanal’s hopes were not exclusively to look for romance, but to meet new people as well.

“[My hopes are] to probably find someone at least to say, ‘I hope to see you around sometime,’” Rabanal said. “Maybe an add on Facebook.”

These kinds of connections are what Nick Margarite had in mind when he started this event at UCSC three years ago. Margarite, a class of 2010 alumnus, worked at the Colleges Nine and Ten programs office and decided to bring speed dating to UCSC after hearing about it at a conference for residential advisors.

Margarite started the event hoping that it would create a safe and inclusive space for students to meet new people in a less intimidating environment.

“It gives them an opportunity to meet people that they’re comfortable with,” Margarite said. “They don’t have to feel shy.”

Tables labeled “Boy Meets Boy,” “Girl Meets Girl” and “Boy Meets Girl” provided an opportunity for speed-daters to interact with whomever they wanted to.

It’s useful to have the chance to meet people outside of the typical college lifestyle of beer pong parties every Friday night, or classes every Monday morning, Krystinne Maica said. Maica, the current advisor for the Colleges Nine and Ten community programs office, advocates for speed dating as a way for people who choose to abstain from the stereotypical college lifestyle to go out and meet people.

“There are not a lot of outlets for people to meet that don’t involve drinking and that kind of stuff,” Maica said.

The speed dating event brought together both students looking for romance and those looking to get out of their rooms and meet new people.

These unconventional ways of meeting people have become more popular in recent years. In 2006 Charles Whyte started the CruzDate website, an exclusive UCSC dating site. Whyte, a class of 2006 alumnus, started the site after hearing about other students’ idea to potentially start a dating club. The dating club had all the elements of an online dating website, but was being conducted by hand, so Whyte had the idea to expand it exponentially through the Web.

Whyte is an advocate of online dating, as he sees how the average ways in which people meet can be troublesome.

“I feel good about the increased popularity of online dating, as it’s a great way to meet new people without having to feel too awkward,” Whyte said in an e-mail.

Ultimately, these means of meeting new people are picking up steam because people enjoy the combination of a wide selection and a less intimidating environment. Sites like CruzDate and Like a Little as well as events like Speed Dating create a space for all students with a variety of intentions to seek out new friends and possible suitors.

His sentiments, as well as those of the organizers of speed dating and the users of Like a Little can be summarized in a short statement seen on the home page of CruzDate:

“The campus is big, and it is sometimes hard to meet the right people.”

sports injuries can cause athletes to take time off from their sport. Women’s soccer captain senior Erica Wheeler-Dubin (not pictured) was anxious to return to playing soccer after recently recovering from a foot injury. Photo by Nick Paris.

Senior Erica Wheeler-Dubin put down her crutches last week. The women’s soccer captain is slowly recovering from the foot injury she sustained this past July.

She played through her injury for the first part of the season, under the impression that the pain in her left foot was just a minor injury.

“I would just avoid kicking with [my left foot],” she said.

However, during a game against the University of Puget Sound, she was forced to clear a ball using her left foot, causing further impact injury to the ligaments in her foot. After Wheeler-Dubin sought medical attention she had to wear a cast for six weeks. She faced a recovery period of almost one year. She not only struggled with the physical effects of her injury but also with the consequences of putting her athletic career on hold.

“When I first arrived at school as a second-year captain, I had a mindset of being on the field and leading the team,” she said. “I had to switch my mentality from being supportive on-field to being supportive off-field.”

Wheeler-Dubin chose not to quit the team. Instead she kept her role as captain and continues to lead the team from the sidelines.

Although she went to almost every game, Wheeler-Dubin still found it difficult to be a part of the team with her injury.

“I had to let go of being in control, not scoring goals, to have trust in my team,” she said. “I had to emotionally let go.”

Men’s rugby team captain senior Michael Richtik has also been forced to overcome a serious injury. This will be his first season playing since recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) his second year.

Like Wheeler-Dubin, he maintained a leadership role from the sidelines during his rehabilitation period.

“Even though I was injured I went to practice and I went to all the games,” he said. “I promised to be captain senior year and promised to prove it to [my team].”

Richtik tore his ACL in a preseason game against San Francisco State when an opposing player smashed into him, twisting his knee to the side. At that time he did not know the severity of the injury, and he continued to play for the rest of the season.

“I would play in the games, but after, my knee would be swollen, so I wouldn’t be able to practice during the week,” he said.

After his injuries, Richtik struggled to obtain respect from the teammates he could not play with. He suffered a drop in self-esteem during his recovery.

“I always felt invincible playing rugby, but to feel so vulnerable and fragile is scary,” he said.

Despite these feelings and the swelling in his knee, Richtik decided to continue playing in games.

“It was up to me,” he said. “The coaches have a lot of respect for me, the final decision [to play] came down to me.”

Tim Baldwin, one of the three athletic trainers employed by the UCSC athletic department for the Division III teams, understands the challenges an injured athlete faces.

“It’s never easy to tell an athlete they can’t play, but it’s all about what is best [for the athlete],” he said.

Baldwin has spent two years at UCSC and has worked with many student athletes who find it difficult to take time off from sports due to injury.

“I have to evaluate them individually and explain the consequences of continuing [to compete],” he said. “I also tell the coach. It’s very cooperative here at Santa Cruz. The coaches want what is best for the athletes too.”

For Wheeler-Dubin, the desire to play in the future is what kept her off the field. With nearly 14 years of competitive soccer on her record, this injury will not be the end of her athletic career.

She wants to begin running in three months and, after finishing her credits for graduation in Costa Rica, her plans are to play abroad.

“My dream is to play in Italy,” she said.

Wheeler-Dubin went through an extensive and painful rehabilitation. She began the recovery process with a cast and crutches, then slowly transitioned to an air cast.

She is now able to participate in low-impact activities like biking and swimming.

Unlike Wheeler-Dubin, who missed her whole season and is still recovering, Richtik has finished rehabilitation and will play again for UCSC. Richtik has missed his senior year pre-season, but is now rejoining the team as a starter.

“When you miss that much time recovering, it’s nerve-wracking to return,” he said. “But all those butterflies go away after the first game.”

Participants from UCSC work furiously to design a game in 48 hours for the Global Game Jam. At the end of the competition, games are rated on the Global Game Jam website. This year marks the biggest Jam thus far, attracting 6,500 participants from 44 different countries. Photo by Nick Paris.

The Baskin Engineering lecture hall is filled with 69 students, brought together by their passion for game design. The room grows quiet as the students discover what they will be spending the next 48 hours creating.

“This year’s theme is extinction,” UCSC event organizer Teale Fristoe said.

So began Global Game Jam 2011.

Global Game Jam is a worldwide game design and creation event. Now in its third year, the contest attracts students from universities around the world, with participating countries including China, New Zealand and Denmark. Students compete to create the best original game — either video or board — in just 48 hours.

The Game Jams are becoming increasingly popular. Participants this year doubled in number from past events. UCSC entered 13 teams, adding to the 6,500 participants from 170 locations in 44 countries that produced some 1,500 games.

Among the veteran game designers speaking at the opening ceremony on Jan. 28, was British programmer Graeme Devine. Devine, an experienced video game enthusiast, offered words of encouragement for those embarking on the 48-hour design challenge.

Devine encouraged the designers “to scope your designs — focus on the play mechanic you most treasure — your passion, if you will.”

As the 48-hour deadline drew closer, students grew fatigued.

The students, fighting off sleep by downing whole cans of energy drinks, huddled around glowing computer monitors. In the background, the sound of people arguing over whether or not to include pirates, ninjas, zombies or space-marines in their games made the air buzz. Slowly but surely, finished designs began to appear.

Reproduction — a single-screen, brightly colored strategy game — featured a small herd of pixelated moose competing for meat, mates and survival.

Tower of Corpses set the player to the task of creating and climbing a tower of alien corpses. Despite being the brainchildren behind the game, even the creators had no idea what truly lay at the top of the tower, just that defeating it would somehow save the Earth.

By 4:30 on Sunday afternoon, 48 hours after they had begun, the 13 teams met to demonstrate their products in the hope of being crowned the winner of the UCSC 2011 contingency.

All present were allowed to vote for their three favorite UCSC games.

While some games grabbed the attention of all, some voters were critical.

“Some [games] are really impressive — some are just a step away from another game,” said graduate student and spectator John Murray.

Murray was critical of many of the titles he reviewed, saying some of the content was overly outrageous, and “pushed the boundaries of what can be considered a game.”

On a global scale, four of the 10 grand winners were Finnish, with others from locations like China and New York City. Despite not making the top 10, the UCSC team Sock Puppet Cabaret took solace in winning the local prize, a gift voucher for the Bay Tree Bookstore.

The winning title, computer game Generate Exterminate, in which two players compete to first nurture planets, before destroying them and dragging what remained into constantly moving wormholes.

“Think of it as a tug-of-war with planets,” one of the team’s programmers said.

One of the team’s five programmers, Ryan Loeb, was stunned, saying that it was his first time participating in Game Jam. Loeb said his team recognized sleep as a critical aspect and tried to get a lot of it. Their tactical move, along with general collaboration, resulted in their winning the contest.

In just 48 hours, 69 UCSC students proved just what could be achieved with small teams of developers who come together through their passion for game design.

As the contest came to a close and the tired programmers began to return to their lives, former contestant Kevin Meggs reflected on the event.

“I did it last year — it was a lot of fun,” he said. “If it’s something you’re passionate about, when the weekend rolls around you can step back and say ‘I helped
create this.’”

Students and community members participated in the Everyday Hero Bike Ride on Feb. 6. The event was meant to show biking as an option every day of the year. Organizers expected rain but were surprised by sunshine. Photo by Sal Ingram

“With most bikes my butt starts to hurt,” said engineering lecturer Karen Groppi, showing off her unique bicycle — and its cushioned seat, set low to the ground, the pedals directly in front of the seat — to the rest of the Everyday Heroes. “But I can sit on this bike all day.”

At 10 a.m. on Superbowl Sunday, 20 people — a collection of students and faculty — biked into the OPERS parking lot in the pleasant 70-degree weather. Some wore People Power T-shirts, and some wore reflector vests. Some wore helmets, some didn’t bother.

The Everyday Hero Bike Ride, sponsored by UCSC Transportation and Parking Services, was deliberately scheduled to commence on the rainiest day of the year. The goal for the ride was to educate cyclists about rain gear and encourage students to bike safely in all types of weather.

“It’s ironic that they wanted it to be rainy and it turned out to be gorgeous,” said second-year earth sciences and anthropology major Rachel Dailey. “They want to help us be prepared to bike in the rain, and instead they have to demo rain gear in the warm California winter weather.”

When a similar bike ride sponsored by OPERS and People Power was offered fall quarter, it poured rain. The students and faculty who showed up that day earned their stripes as “Everyday Heroes.”

Tawn Kennedy, who graduated from UCSC in 2007, usually leads bike rides for middle school students through People Power, a Santa Cruz county grassroots program that works to promote bike riding as a viable alternative to driving. Kennedy said he relishes the chance to share his knowledge of Santa Cruz bike routes with fellow riders.

“There are so many hidden bicycle [trail] gems in Santa Cruz,” he said. “There is so much to discover.”

Frank Proulx, fifth-year environmental studies and physics majors at UCSC and the unofficial bike mechanic of the ride, became an intern for People Power at the beginning of fall quarter through the environmental studies department.

“I know more about cities than most people,” Proulx said. “Biking connects you to the world more than you would surrounded by a box of glass and metal. I’m going to try to never own a car.”

Proulx, who bikes to school every day no matter the weather, said that one of the goals of People Power is to get every type of person on a bike.

“This is for everyone,” he said. “We have Zoe and Zach, our high school interns, and then we have Takashi in his 70s. [Students] should be encouraged. You never want to get in a car for something under three miles.”

Pamela Whittington, the owner of Classic Cleaners, shows a few of the donated prom dresses in this year’s prom dress drive. The drive provides for high schoolers who cannot afford them. This annual event will be accepting donations throughout the month of February until March 31. Photo by Molly Solomon.

As the warm February sun shines in through the shop door, local business owner Pamela Whittington enthusiastically points out the rack of dresses near the front of her store, Classic Cleaners. A spectrum of brightly colored dresses await cleaning and sorting. These prom dresses will then be given to high schoolers who cannot afford a dress.

The third annual prom dress drive aims to give out prom dresses to local students who cannot afford one. The Santa Cruz and Watsonville areas grappled with 13.8 percent unemployment at the close of 2010, up 0.5 percent from December 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Organizers of the annual prom dress drive hope to reach more students across the Santa Cruz and Watsonville areas by holding two different shopping dates in March and April.

Council member Tony Madrigal, who brought the event to Santa Cruz after hearing of its success in other areas, explained that his goals for this year’s drive are “to do better outreach, reach more of the students and more of the schools.”

Classic Cleaners, on Soquel Avenue, offers free cleaning for all the donated dresses. Whittington’s shop, as well as the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center, Comerica Banks and Bailey Properties offices are all dress drop-off areas.

“[Prom] is … a milestone,” Whittington said. “It’s going to the next level of your life. The economy cannot let this rite of passage go away.”

Bridal Veil Fashions in Capitola has already donated new dresses to the event, despite the resulting loss in its own sales.

“This is competition [for Bridal Veil Fashion], and what do they do? They send brand-new dresses,” Whittington said as she pointed towards a row of dresses, many of which still had tags. “It just shows how much they value their community.”

As local support floods in, many people donate more than dresses. Whittington smiled and lifted up several bustiers that have been donated, explaining that the drive receives everything from shoes to makeup and jewelry.

Whittington said that the committee did not “solicit for the shoes, or the makeup, or the bustiers,” but still, community members took the initiative and brought unopened makeup, as well as accessories.

Cita Rasul, who works for the Walnut Avenue Women’s Center and serves on the committee for the dress drive, has seen firsthand the effect such generosity has on individuals. Rasul personally knew a young woman who received a dress the first year of the event. She now works on promotions, giving back to the community and the event that gave her the opportunity to fully experience her prom.

For those involved in the dress drive, a major concern is making sure the event is comfortable and accessible for the high schoolers who participate.

“We make sure this is a fun and exciting time and there is no shame at all,” Rasul said, “It’s really exciting to see the gratification on the girls’ faces when they put on a dress.”

Upon receiving a dress, students are asked only their name and their school affiliation so that volunteers can determine which schools are being reached and what can be done to make the event inclusive to all high schools in the area.

As the event grows, the organizers hope to better involve university students in collections and donations. Currently there is not a drop-off station at UC Santa Cruz, but council member Madrigal hopes to eventually include one in the drive.

Madrigal, who had gone to Whittington with the idea to start the drive several years back, said that he is “just trying to have better, out-of-the-box thinking [and] creative ideas to help people in our community.”

Whittington said that her history as a “Salvation Army baby” and the fact she was unable to attend her own prom are why she hopes to offer local high schoolers the chance to attend prom without the financial burden.

Whittington said: “[We’re] putting the call out to clean out your closets and donate that dress.”

Illustration by Rachel Edelstein.

UCSC Faces $31 Million Cut

The university will need to cut $19 million from the current 2011–2012 budget, executive vice chancellor Alison Galloway announced in an e-mail to the campus community on Feb. 7.

The University of California will face a $500 million budget cut under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget. Galloway estimates UC Santa Cruz’s share will be about 6 percent, or
$31 million.

UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Davis will all contend with larger cuts. UCLA faces the largest shortfall, at $99 million, with UC Berkeley and UC Davis close behind at roughly $80 and $70 million, respectively.

Last year, the university made permanent cuts rather than relying on temporary funds, which decreased the actual shortfall UCSC will face to $19 million.

“The [$31 million] cut is roughly equivalent to cutting the entire division of physical sciences,” Galloway said.

Though no specific program cuts have been made, preliminary cuts have been assigned by division. The academic divisions face 6 percent cuts, and all other units have been asked to make 16 percent reductions.

These numbers may change, pending the outcome of Brown’s proposal to extend current personal income and sales taxes for five years. If the measure does not make it on the ballot or is not passed by voters, Galloway said, the UC will face larger cuts.

The proposed cuts are also dependent on tuition stability, said Peggy Delaney, UCSC’s vice chancellor for planning and budget.

“These numbers are based on an assumption that there won’t be a student fee increase,” she said.

Though there hasn’t been any formal discussion among the UC regents about further increasing tuition, which will increase 8 percent in the 2011–2012 school year. Higher student fees would lower the amount campuses would need to cut.

Students who want to take action can encourage their representatives to put Brown’s proposal on the ballot, Galloway said.

“The bottom line is, if the ballot measure doesn’t happen, we’re looking at the scale of about a $62 million [cut],” she said.

Galloway and Chancellor George Blumenthal will hold two town hall meetings in March to discuss the cuts with the campus community.

~~~~~~

UC EAP Students Evacuate Egypt

Amid protests in Egypt, UC Education Abroad Program (EAP) students at the American University of Cairo were evacuated on Feb. 1.

The group of 19 students, a team of archaeologists, faculty members and a parent of a student were moved to Barcelona, according to the University of California Newsroom website.

The decision was made to transport the group when protests regarding Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation from office became violent, potentially jeopardizing their safety.

As of Feb. 9, the students are transferring to different study abroad programs, including ones in Israel and Europe, or are resuming classes at their respective colleges.

Many of the students were from UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. UC Santa Cruz did not have any students in the Egypt program.

Students were evacuated according to established protocol for such instances. Similar measures have been used to ensure the safety of members of the UC community, such as following recent earthquakes in Chile and Haiti.

Alicia Ochsner, a junior at Tulane University, was supposed to be studying abroad in Egypt this semester.

Ochsner, not an EAP student, arrived on Jan. 1 but left a month later due to the travel advisory. Classes had been pushed back, but she never attended any.

She said the Egyptian students were excited and inspired by the political climate in Tunisia.

“They were like, ‘That’s great that they can do this. Let’s do it now,’” she said.

(from left to right)

“Doggie style and reverse cowgirl. But missionary is a classic, because that’s how everyone starts out.”
Nahuel Bella
Third-year, College Nine
Environmental studies

“Doggie style because it’s really intense. I got a nosebleed doing it once.”
Jenny Simeone
Second-year, College Ten
Environmental studies & anthropology

“Doggie style. It’s powerful.”
Rex Scott
Third-year, Cowell
Politics

“Doggie style. The reach-around is a must.”
Sam Major
Third-year, College Eight
Psychology & neuroscience

Believed to be 13.2 billion light-years away, this image shows one of the earliest and farthest galaxies in the universe. The image was created through an ultra-deep-field exposure taken with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Leiden University), and the HUDF09 team.

UC Santa Cruz astronomers have detected what may be the most distant galaxy ever found by scientists. This galaxy is the closest in age to the Big Bang and helps astronomers understand how the universe grew into the solar system we know today.

“[These galaxies] are actually so far away that the light has taken most of the life of the universe to reach us,” said Garth Illingworth, professor of astronomy and astrophysics. “We’re looking back through most of the life of the universe—we’re looking back through 13.2 billion [light-]years.”

Looking this far into space requires a powerful tool: the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope orbits around Earth, taking far-reaching pictures of the universe.

Scientists used this telescope to obtain the biggest picture of the universe ever taken. The infrared image was then combined with the deepest optical image of the universe, which created a vast visual reaching far into outer space.

The discovery of this galaxy allows astronomers to make data-driven statements about the universe’s early growth. Looking at the star formation in galaxies such as this enables astronomers to assess how rapidly or slowly the universe was forming during its youth.

This image is provided by a 500-pound camera, Illingworth said. The astronomers that captured the image looked at one spot on the sky for 87 hours.

“[In] the photograph, because it’s so far away, the galaxy image is so small … This object is about 2,000 times smaller than [your pinky finger],” said UCSC astronomy professor Raja Guha Thakurta.

The discovery of this galaxy pushed Hubble to its limits. So the recent breakthrough leans against the boundaries of technology.

Hubble’s new camera is responsible for its recent reach into the previously unseen depths of the universe.

“It’s just like when you go and buy a digital camera now,” Illingworth said. “It’s way more sophisticated.”

UCSC astronomer Rychard Bouwens credits Hubble with much of the success.

“These instruments really allowed us to do this,” he said. “Looking back through all of cosmic time is not so easy, so you’re going to need a very good camera.”

The galaxy candidate formed 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang, a time when the universe was only 4 percent of its current age. Being able to view this galaxy is like finding a picture of outer space as a toddler, an unprecedented addition to the universe’s photo album.

Deeper discovery into the universe will have to wait for The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2014.

“It always inspires wonder in your mind that we can use this instrument to go back to the beginning of time,” Bouwens said. “To be on the cutting edge, you just feel like you’re exploring for the rest of humanity and reporting back what you can see.”

Student regent Alfredo Mireles met with a handful of UCSC students Tuesday afternoon and gave his thoughts on the California state budget, UCSC’s closure of the American studies department and his experiences as a regent. Photo by Prescott Watson.

Student regent-designate Alfredo Mireles Jr. visited UC Santa Cruz on Tuesday to encourage students to apply to be a regent. He discussed the issues currently affecting the UC and his role on the UC Board of Regents.

As part of his day-long schedule of meetings, Mireles met with the press and students interested in applying to be a student regent in the University Center Alumni Room. Student regent Jesse Cheng was also expected to be there but was not able to attend.

Mireles explained why he finds his role as a student regent worthwhile.

“You really get to feel like you have a say in the university,” he said. “We oversee the 10-campus, five-hospital, three-national laboratory university system that has about a $21 billion budget. Because of a constitutional autonomy, what we say goes, so we have a lot of authority.”

Of the 26 members of the UC Board of Regents, 18 are appointed by the governor for 12-year terms. Seven are ex officio members, such as the governor and the UC president, and two are student regents. Student regents are appointed for a two-year term.

After the application process, the student serves the first year as regent-designate, participating in all the regent meetings, but not voting.

The next year, the student gains the right to vote on policy and introduce measures before the board.

With the exception of UC Merced, UCSC is the only campus that has not produced a student regent since the position was created in 1975.

Because of the lack of diversity among student regents in recent years, Mireles is hoping for a wider array of applicants.

“It’s been five male student regents in a row,” he said. “And Jesse is the first undergraduate in eight years. The student population is 80 percent undergraduate, and I think it’s majority female too. I’m not saying, ‘Men, don’t apply,’ I’m just saying I’m encouraging undergraduate females to apply because I think their voice has been underrepresented.”

There were about 10 students at the meeting, a low count according to Mireles, who said he encountered a crowd of 50 at his recent trip to UC Irvine.

One of Mireles’ two main goals is a tobacco-free UC.

“I’m the first health sciences student to be a student regent, and I wanted to make sure my policies reflect that,” Mireles said. “I think people are entitled to the cleanest air possible.”

His second goal is to better educate students about private scholarships.

“I like to feel like I have ownership of my own financial circumstances,” he said. “We can go to the state and ask for money, but unfortunately those tactics haven’t worked almost ever.”

Mireles said the UC cannot follow the trend of increasing fees.

“As a conservative regent told me, we are close to a billion dollars underfunded,” he said. “The fee increase brought in about $116 million. Year after year after year, eventually they’re going to be like, ‘Enough is enough.’ Even conservative members believe that.”

He ended the meeting by describing what it takes to be a student regent.

“You have to be able to sit at a table with a millionaire on one side and a millionaire on the other side and advocate for the UC.”

(from left to right)

“People just follow movies and advertisements and see what they’re being shown in the media, and really adapt to that.”
Shoshie Kupferman
Third-year, Stevenson
Psychology

“No, it’s still old-fashioned. Even with media, you’re still meeting people out in public, so I don’t think the media has anything to do with it.”
Cameron Sefton
First-year, Cowell
Health sciences

“Yes, of course it has. I’m in a long-distance relationship, so we don’t rely on letters and phone calls — just go online, Skype, just look at posted pictures of me and him and just be able to know that it’s there, just having those types of outlets.”
Angelica Alamo
Fourth-year, Kresge
Art

“It’s sort of taken out a lot of the personal connection involved in relationships, because a lot of people now communicate over the Internet and figure out facts about each other from reading their Facebook page, instead of just sitting down for a cup of tea and talking. Yeah, I don’t like that.”
Darrow Feldstein
Third-year, Stevenson
Environmental studies