Photo by Prescott Watson

UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal and executive vice chancellor Alison Galloway sat down on April 14 with student media organizations to discuss issues facing the university. City on a Hill Press, KZSC, SCTV, TWANAS and The Fish Rap Live! touched on the topics of decentralization and the $500 million cut to the UC system.

City on a Hill Press: At the UC Board of Regents meeting in March, you said if the state legislature ends up cutting $1 billion from the UC system, “some fundamental assumptions have to be thrown out.” In regards to UCSC, what assumptions are you referring to?

Blumenthal: I really don’t believe that the campus can responsibly take cuts of that magnitude and still maintain the kind of student experience that you’ve come to expect. I think that the responses will have to be systemic — there will have to be a major effort to bring additional money into the system, and that’ll have to be done on a systemwide basis. I think in the short run, it’ll probably lead to significant fee increases. I don’t see any other choice … A billion-dollar cut to UC really is Armageddon, and the way you deal with Armageddon is with really radical solutions.

SCTV: On April 5 [Gov.] Jerry Brown said “the university is an engine of wealth creation.” I’d like to get your response to that idea.

Blumenthal: I completely agree with that. Let me limit my response to California. California is a knowledge-based economy — there’s a lot of farming, but a lot of California’s economy has a lot to do with intellectual property, creating things, whether it’s Hollywood or IP. We really need an educated populace in order for that to happen. It’s true that for every dollar invested in UC, the long run repays that investment many times over. It’s a great investment for the state of California. The reason they don’t do it is because they need the money now, and they’re not so worried about the future. I think it’s short-sighted.

CHP: Regarding the decentralization plan, where all the campuses will pay a flat tax to UCOP instead of paying them funds and getting funds back — this will probably be more beneficial to smaller campuses rather than larger campuses. Could you comment on that?

Blumenthal: It’s a little more complicated than that … For every different color of money that came to the system, like the mafia, they would take a piece of the action off the top, and it was a different piece and percentage based on the color (health, lab, state, student, federal money). They used a complicated formula to do that. Generally, they took more money from state general funds than from medical centers. But if you look at the total budget for UC, the total state funded budget for UC next year under Jerry Brown is $2.4 billion. But the total budget of UC, if you include medical centers and all that, is closer to $20 billion. A flat tax on all expenditure is going to be advantageous to campuses like Santa Cruz, which are more dependent on state funds, as opposed to campuses like UCLA for example, where a large part of their operation is a huge medical center.

KZSC: With the increase in student fees, what is the outlook for incoming freshmen next year? There’s the possibility that they won’t be able to apply because they can’t pay, and with the removal of more grant programs, how can they enter a UC?

Blumenthal: First the good news — Cal Grants have been preserved in the budget at the federal level, although as you probably know from reading the papers, there was a push by some to severely limit them … We have at UC the Blue and Gold Program, which guarantees that students with a household income of less than $80,000 don’t pay fees. They should not be concerned. The people who are really hurt by fee increases are people in the middle class.

KZSC: Just going off availability for classes, there was a proposal to cut the class time to 60 minutes, down from 70. Is this correct … [and] was the purpose to save revenue or to increase availability?

Galloway: It was largely to increase availability, because it would give us an extra slot in the day in which students could get a class. One of our problems is we have so few large lecture halls, so it’s difficult to have the large classes which preserve the smaller classes. Another slot would help us move enough students through so they could all get into a class.

KZSC: What do you think the potential benefits and downfalls are to this plan?

Galloway: Benefits would be students getting into classes that they need. Less delays in their progress to their degree. Downsides are pretty obvious — if you have less time in class, you’re going to get less out of the class. It’s frustrating as a faculty member when you have a certain amount of material you have to get through. We’re teaching a semester’s worth of material in a quarter. It’s hard to do in the first place.

Thursday, April 21
Speaker series: New Directions in Feminism and Human Rights.
Charles E. Merrill Lounge. 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“Right Wing Populism and the Crisis of Organized Labor”
A lecture with Bill Fletcher Jr.
4/21 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Humanities 210

Earth Week 2011 Keynote Speaker: Osprey Orielle Lake
4/21 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Oakes Learning Center

Spring Emeriti Lecture featuring: Harry Berger Jr.
Caterpillage: Small-scale violence in 17th Century Dutch Still-Life Painting
4/21 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Music Center Recital Hall

Pilipino Cultural Celebration 20: Anak
4/22 and 4/23 7:00 to 9:00 Theater Arts Mainstage
Adults-$16, UCSC students- $12 , General Students, Child, and Seniors – $14 , Limited View – $9

Top 10 Herbs to Grow in an Herb Garden
4/23 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Farm
Friend of the Farm and Garden – $15, General Public – $20 , UCSC students $5 pay upon arrival

Film and Digital Media Visiting Artist Series – Wynne Greenwood
4/25 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Communications 150 (Studio C)

Lecture – Paul Horwich: Wittgen
4/26 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Humanities 1, room 210

Film Screening : Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up
4/26 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. College 9 and 10 Multi-purpose room

Disability Awareness Fair
4/27 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Quarry Plaza

Music Within Film Night/Discussion
4/26 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. College 8 room 240

“When Human Beings Become Illegal” Lecture by Alicia Schmidt Camacho
4/28 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Humanities 1, Room 210

City

2nd Stanley Flatte Memorial Lecture in Physics
What is the World Made of? Answers (And Questions) from Particle Physics and Cosmology
4/25 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. University Inn and Conference Center 611 Ocean Street

Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, Bryn Loosley and the Back Pages, The Railflowers
4/22 8:00 p.m. 320-2 Cedar Street
$12 in advance at Streetlight Records or on www.brownpapertickets.com , $14 at the door

Neil Kelly Quartet
4/23 7:30 p.m. 320-2 Cedar Street
$15 online at www.brownpapertickets.com and at the door

Strunz and Farah
4/25 7:00 p.m. 320-2 Cedar Street
$23 in advance, $26 at the door

Husalah, Bobby Brackins, Balance, DJ Quest
4/22 8:00 p.m. Catalyst Club 1011 Pacific Ave.
$20 in advance, $25 at the door; 16 and up

Afroman
4/27 8:30 p.m. Catalyst Club 1011 Pacific Ave.
$18 in advance, $22 at the door; 16 and up

Tartufi, Slow Trucks, Beaver Fever
4/22 8:00 p.m. The Crepe Place 1134 Soquel Ave.
$8

Bellydance Community Showcase
4/23 1:30 p.m.  The Crepe Place 1134 Soquel Ave

The Afro Funk Experience
4/23 8:00 p.m. The Crepe Place 1134 Soquel Ave
$8

The Crepe Place Movie Nite:  Serial Mom
4/25 9:00 p.m. The Crepe Place 1134 Soquel Ave

The Reach Around Rodeo Clowns, Culo A Boca
4/27 9:00 p.m. The Crepe Place 1134 Soquel Ave
$8

Help Japan Relief Concert
4/23 7:00 p.m. Rio Theater 1205 Soquel Ave.
$20 in advance, $25 at the door

The Felice Brothers
4/27 8:00 p.m. Rio Theater 1205 Soquel Ave.
$15 at Streetlight Records and www.ticketweb.com

Marcia Ball
4/21 7:00 p.m. Kuumbwa Jazz Center 320 Cedar St.
$23 in advance, $26 at the door

Vagabond Opera with Janelle and Desert dream Belly Dance Company
4/21 8:00 p.m. Moe’s Alley 1535 Commercial Way
$12 – 15 , 21 and up

“A Number” by Caryl Churchill
4/22 8:00 Broadway Playhouse 526 Broadway
$12 – 15

Ramana Darshanam
4/22 8:00 p.m. Society of Abidance in Truth 1834 Ocean St.

59th Annual Rock Show
4/23 10:00 a.m. Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium 307 Church St.
$4

Santa Cruz Dance Presents: Flex
4/23 8:00 p.m. Motion at the Mill 131 Front St.
$12-20

DJ Tom LG’s Sides Speakeasy Time Portal & Swing Dancing at the 515
4/25 9:00 p.m. 515 Kitchen and Cocktail 515 Cedar St.
21 and up

Illustration by Bela Messex

The United States military is taking its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy to new and egregious heights, and it has nothing to do with keeping the lid on the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian service members.

No, this has to do with recent reports that bring to light the assertion that military leadership and Pentagon defense officials have been ignoring and covering up allegations of sexual assault and rape of service members by fellow military members.

These claims are being publicized thanks to a lawsuit filed in February by 17 United States military members, all of whom say that they were sexually assaulted and raped during their time of service but were not taken seriously by their superiors when they tried to report the attacks. The defendants in the lawsuit are former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and current defense secretary Robert Gates.

Plaintiff Panayiota Bertzikis alleges that she was raped in 2006 by a fellow Coast Guard shipmate, but when she tried to report the assault to Coast Guard personnel she was told to keep quiet and called a “liar” and a “whore” who would have to “pay for snitching.” Even the Coast Guard’s victim’s advocate encouraged Bertzikis not to try to press charges because she would be seen as “difficult.”

And this proliferation of sexual assaults and rape isn’t exclusive to women serving in the military. Nearly 50,000 male veterans screened positive for “military sexual trauma” at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs last year, up from just over 30,000 in 2003, according to the April 3 Newsweek article “The Military’s Secret Shame.” In addition, the lawsuit against Rumsfeld and Gates includes two male plaintiffs. Overall, the Department of Defense estimates that 19,000 service members were raped or sexually assaulted in 2010, but only 13.5 percent of them reported these incidents.

While the military has reportedly striven to recognize this issue of sexual assaults, this lawsuit makes it evident that there is much more that needs to be done.

In 2005 the Pentagon established the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office and trained 1,200 military officers on how to handle incident reports. But despite the office’s existence, the Pentagon says less than one in four military rape cases is ever prosecuted.

Additionally, a 2008 report from the Government Accountability Office says that as many as 43 percent of trained people at a given base still didn’t know how to report such an incident.

The judicial system within the military branch of government should be well versed in handling accusations of sexual assault and rape. It’s unfathomable to think that there are so many military officials who either don’t understand how to report these cases or simply blame the survivors.

Congress needs to make sure the commission they mandated in 2004 to oversee the military’s review and prosecution process of reported sexual assaults is actively serving as a watchdog of the military judiciary. It’s also necessary that pressure is put on defense secretary Gates, who has not yet implemented a database — mandated by Congress over a year ago — that would centralize all reports of rape and sexual assault in the military.

At least one member of Congress plans to bring this matter to the attention of other politicians. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) has pledged to speak out on a weekly basis on the floor of the House of Representatives about the military’s overlooking of sexual abuse until Congress acts on it.

Speier should be lauded for her dedication to this cause, and with her at the helm there is hope that those who hold the pens and the purse strings in government will do something about this problem.

If no one in this administration heeds Speier’s call, they will continue to stand idly by as the lives of men and women are traumatized every day, continuing to live in fear and shame without the support of their home country’s government.

In the April 14 article “Saving Campus Culture,” the Measure 49 referendum was sponsored by a petition signed by at least 10 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Sophomore Cameron Ferguson discusses how Bay Area collegiate orienteering is hindered by a lack of support and the difficulty of getting to the remote locations for tournaments. Photo by Prescott Watson.

“Can you see the control from here?” asked UC Santa Cruz second-year Cameron Ferguson.

Standing on a knoll overlooking the sun-blasted valleys and hills of Pacheco State Park, Ferguson wiped the sweat from his face and scanned the landscape. After a moment broiling under the sun, Ferguson — oblivious to the heat — pointed to a tree a kilometer from his position. Squinting, Ferguson noted the tree’s position on his topographic map.

“It’s right there,” Ferguson said. As if on cue, three runners in the distance loped through the high grass toward the tree. Ferguson, already jogging down the knoll, called over his shoulder, “See?”

The sport is orienteering.

In a wilderness setting, participants use a topographic map and a compass to find “controls” — small markers that have an electronic register to record the time when a runner locates it. The controls can be placed several hundred meters to several miles apart. The goal is to find all of the markers in the correct order as fast as possible.

Half cross country racing, half wilderness survival, orienteering combines all the physical rigors of endurance athletics with the mental acuity of a chess game.

But despite an enthusiasm for racing and the wilderness, Americans have yet to make orienteering popular in the United States. Given the sport’s widespread popularity in Europe, enthusiasts wonder: What’s keeping orienteering off the map?

Jay Hann, an event coordinator for the Bay Area Orienteering Club (BAOC), said that it is sometimes difficult to explain the appeal of orienteering.

“It’s what you get when you cross mathematics and P.E.,” Hann said. “It’s hard to explain what’s fun about it — it’s a lot easier to explain when you’ve experienced it.”

The BAOC is one of 74 clubs in the United States that belong to the International Orienteering Federation. Each year, there are a multitude of international championships held for different types of orienteering, but the biggest ones are trail and skiing. In the United States, individuals compete in A-level meets to qualify for a spot on one of the U.S. championship teams.

On Saturday, Hann was organizing the second day of a three-day meet in Pacheco State Park for the U.S. Intercollegiate and U.S. Interscholastic Championships, which the BAOC was hosting.

Despite the swarms of participants streaming in from Seattle to West Point, Hann said this event’s numbers were nothing compared to those in Europe.

“In the big European events, they’ll have camera crews out in the field taking pictures of the runners,” Hann said. “They’ll have a big display board in their arena and have 1,000 or 2,000 people watching the video footage coming across.”

Gavin Wyatt-Mair, another event coordinator for the BAOC, said that because of the sponsorship given to orienteering in Europe, Europeans tend to dominate the United States in international orienteering competitions.

“We usually have some people go over there, but they kick our butts,” Wyatt-Mair said, laughing. “They are so much better than we are!”

However, Wyatt-Mair is the father of a successful navigator. His son, Malcolm Wyatt-Mair, is a U.S. orienteering champion and UCSC graduate who competed in Australia and Sweden for the Junior Orienteering World Championships in 2007 and 2008.

For Gavin — who has been orienteering for 24 years — orienteering has practical value off the course as well.

“When you are in a job, you have to make decisions quickly,” he said. “Orienteering teaches you how to make quick decisions. It also teaches you to focus on a goal — your next control — teaching you to focus on it and get there in the most direct way.”

For the few college students who do orienteering on the West Coast, the benefits of the sport are outweighed by the logistical troubles of reaching a meet.

“You have to get to these different state parks around the Bay Area, and most college kids don’t have cars,” Ferguson said. “If it were big in the states, it would be big among college kids, because then colleges would take buses to the events.”

BAOC coordinator Hann said orienteering has the potential to catch on as a popular sport in the United States, but that would require teaching orienteering early on in schools.

“We’re trying to figure out ways to make it easier for P.E. teachers to do it,” Hann said. “It’s kind of a mind sport, and there are a lot of things about it you can’t tell people through photographs.”

Taking a break from helping a few dozen latecomers register for their races, Wyatt-Mair described the philosophical benefits of orienteering.

“One of the things that occurs in life is that you’re going to get lost, and it occurs in every aspect of your life,” Wyatt-Mair said. “Orienteering teaches you to relocate. And when you do that, it’s a wonderful experience because you say, ‘Yeah, I was lost, but I’m going to find my way out.’”

Illustration by Muriel Gordon.

The death penalty, a hot-button issue to say the least, has been prominently featured within the news circuits. Some may remember Joey Bien-Kahn’s feature that City on a Hill Press ran last quarter, entitled “Killing Them Softly,” about the recent controversy of the drug sodium thiopental. The drug, normally used as a rapid-acting general anesthetic, is also administered in large doses as a key component of the lethal injection cocktail. California’s remaining supply of sodium thiopental has expired, and Hospira Inc., the only company within the United States to manufacture the drug, has decided to stop selling it. Hospira spokesperson Dan Rosenberg said in Bien-Kahn’s feature, “The drug is used for improving life …We never condoned its use for capital punishment.”

As a result, some states have begun to consider drastic and inhumane efforts to continue carrying out capital punishment. Importing sodium thiopental is extremely restricted under federal law, and it doesn’t help that earlier this month Keyem, an India-based pharmaceutical company that had supplied Nebraska and South Dakota with the drug, decided to discontinue selling it for lethal injection purposes.

The company said on its website, “In view of the sensitivity involved with sale of our Thiopental Sodium to various Jails/Prisons in USA and as alleged to be used for the purpose of Lethal Injection, we voluntarily declare that we as Indian Pharma Dealer who cherish the Ethos of Hinduism (A believer even in non-livings as the creation of God) refrain ourselves in selling this drug where the purpose is purely for Lethal Injection and its misuse.”

Texas has quickly reacted by trying to institute pentobarbital for use in the case of death row inmate Cleve Foster, despite the fact that the drug is used predominantly in the euthanizing of animals. The drug is heavily regulated — the dosage is determined by the weight of the animal, only a licensed veterinarian can administer it and even the light in the room is regulated at the time of injection.

Pentobarbital isn’t intended to be used for human executions and has never been used in conjunction with the other drugs used in lethal injections.

The Supreme Court stayed Foster’s execution, due greatly to the questions surrounding the use of pentobarbital.

This entire situation should really force Americans to re-examine the entire concept of the death penalty — its use, its legitimacy and its ethical implications. How does the death penalty act as a form of justice? Is it effective? Are we truly able to carry out that justice in a humane and decent manner, respecting the standard that we set up for ourselves?

It should be obvious that pentobarbital and sodium thiopental should not be used for lethal injections, if only because that is not what they were intended to be used for. Can we really trust that a drug intended and created to euthanize animals to react the same way in humans? This brings up a whole different concern of what it means to create a drug to help kill people “humanely” — how does one even run trials to prove that?

There’s no easy answer to this problem. Yet, if it has thus far been difficult to create a death penalty process that both science and society can agree is humane and not cruel or unusual, is that not some indication of how inherently cruel, unusual and possibly inhumane the practice of taking a life is?

Mandatory 40 percent water rationing. Hotel closures. Water lines shut off when consumption exceeds the limit. Businesses reliant on tourism struggling to make it through the summer months — their most lucrative time.

The City of Santa Cruz Water Department (SCWD) foresees this future if no alternative water source is integrated to forestall what it characterizes as “catasrophic” potential impacts of compounded drought years.

“The consequences of doing nothing are dire. I don’t think people understand how bad it could be,” said SCWD water director Bill Kocher.

The SCWD has spent two decades examining how to mitigate the impact of compounded drought years. After determining roughly 30 various projects to be insufficient or nonviable, SCWD concluded that bringing a desalination plant to Santa Cruz to cover the gap during drought years was the only way to prevent dramatic consequences of critical droughts.

“Desalination is the best alternative,” said public outreach coordinator Melanie Schumacher. “We have been looking at alternatives, but they have to meet the water needs of the community.”

Four-minute showers. City government invests in providing lawn replacement for Santa Cruz homes and equipping them with rain catchment devices. Instruments to support greywater reclamation — the process of recycling wastewater generated from laundry, dishwashing and bathing for landscaping and irrigation usage — become a popular feature in Santa Cruz homes.

Proponents of desalination alternatives envision this future for Santa Cruz — a future where no new water source is needed, due to a capitalization on further conservation measures.

“Money is just a tool, and we could use this tool to conserve and live within our means rather than bringing in the desalination plant,” said Ellen Murtha, co-chair of the Santa Cruz branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), which is pro-conservation.

Numerous individuals in the Santa Cruz community are mobilizing against the potential introduction of the plant, saying that such a drastic step to ensure water provision is unnecessary, because conservation and curtailment efforts could be expanded, and the potential unknown ramifications of bringing in such a facility.

“There are some major environmental impacts,” said Rick Longinotti, cofounder of Desalination Alternatives. “It uses a lot of energy … it is a guess as to the impact on the ocean, it is just not clear how much of an impact it will have.”

This has been the bone of contention between the two fronts, as proponents argue that desalination is the only alternative and it is environmentally sound, and opponents argue that conservation efforts have not been capitalized on and the plant would bring negative environmental implications.

This contentious engagement was typified at last week’s debate forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters at the First Congregational Church on April 14, where the opponents and proponents of the desalination plant were able to engage in direct dialogue in front of the people of Santa Cruz for the first time.

The debate forum included two individuals each from the Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District and Santa Cruz Desal Alternatives, representing the opponent and proponent sides to the issue, respectively.

Longinotti, co-founder of Desal Alternatives, and James Bentley, retired city water production manager, represented the opposing side. Mike Rotkin, former mayor and city council member, and Toby Goddard, SCWD water conservation manager, represented the proponents of desalination. More than 100 members of the community attended last Thursday’s meeting to express their investment in the future of Santa Cruz’s water supply.

“It is important for the community to understand the need for desalination,” Schumacher said. “It creates a level of transparency. I think that the agencies are being responsible in the way that they are pursuing the desalination plant and I hope that we are presenting that to the public — that this is not a silver bullet solution [and] we are continuing to evaluate and address concerns about the short and long term water supply.”

Illustration by Louise Leong.

The Logistics of Water Storage

SCWD serves a population of 98,000 people. The city’s source of water consists mainly of the San Lorenzo River, various North Coast diversions, a few wells and Loch Lomond Reservoir. Currently, Santa Cruz’s water supply consists of 95 percent surface water and only 5 percent groundwater, making Santa Cruz particularly susceptible to periods of drought.

Due to low annual runoff, during periods of drought Loch Lomond Lake Reservoir becomes Santa Cruz’s only source of fresh drinking water, which poses a problem — it isn’t enough.

“We can’t bring water from anywhere else,” Kocher said. “When we run out, we run out.”

The city has been grappling with this looming threat for two decades. The Santa Cruz City Council began evaluating alternative new water source options specifically for provision in periods of drought back in 1997.

In order to ensure that Santa Cruz will have the infrastructure to withstand compounded years of drought, SCWD has undertaken the more than two decade-long project of identifying possible new sources of water. After determining new source after new source nonviable, desalination eventually became the only remaining possible new source for water left on the district’s drawing board.

“I’m convinced that we need some kind of additional supply, and as one project after another fell by the wayside, this is what we have left,” said Terry McKinney, SCWD superintendent of water production.

The desalination process involves converting seawater to potable water, or drinking water. Sodium is removed through a process of reverse osmosis, whereby the water is separated into two parts: the freshwater and the high-sodium concentrate, brine.

WILPF co-chair Murtha said that this two-decade-long investment by the city may be more of a motivation for the SCWD pushing forward with the desalination plant than the plant’s necessity.

“A lot of it is this investment they have — it is very hard to slow that down,” Murtha said. “There must be something very exciting about making a plant.”

In 2005, the city of Santa Cruz Integrated Water Plan (IWP) was developed and utilized. The IWP took into account background evaluations on water demand, conservation, curtailment and alternative water supplies, assessed from 1997 up to the plan’s inception. The plan included a background on the status of water demand, consumption and provision, and looked toward new sources of water supply. The IWP recorded the two decade-long process of examining the viability of various potential resources.

“The IWP first of all looked at conservation, then looked at how much more could be curtailed, then came up with supply plans that could make up the difference,” Kocher said.

Before the 1990s, SCWD knew surface water was always going to be the district’s primary source of water. In 1989, Luhdorff & Scalmanini, an environmental consulting firm employed by SCWD, concluded that groundwater sources were scant at best. The firm investigated potential groundwater sources, including wells at both Harvey West Park and Thurber Lane, and assessed that they could yield only 550 acre-feet of water annually, an inadequate amount considering SCWD annual water production hovers around four billion gallons a year.

In the early 1990s, the Brackish Groundwater Wells Project was considered the most viable groundwater option, but residents in the site area were concerned that the pumping could eventually negatively impact their wells. As a result, the city abandoned the project.

Waterman Gap Reservoir, Kings Creek Reservoir, Yellow Bank Creek Reservoir and Loch Lomond enlargement were four surface storage projects on the table, but the city determined these alternatives were not viable due to the fact that an immediate source of water is needed and such projects would be too lengthy an undertaking.

By 1997, only two projects remained on the drawing board: Reclamation/Coast Groundwater Exchange and Desalination.

Reclamation/Coast Groundwater Exchange would have been a two-part construction undertaking. One part of the project would have been a four-to-five million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant, located either on the existing wastewater treatment plant site or another location. Treated water would be delivered to area farmers for irrigation, and the city would have access to farmers’ current groundwater supplies. The second part of the project would therefore involve the wells and associated facilities necessary to extract this groundwater.

This alternative also faced obstacles. In a 2009 letter to SCWD water director Kocher that was cited in the IWP, Jonathan Steinberg of Route 1 Farms said using reclaimed water and turning over his well were not an option.

“Our customers expect the very best, very purest produce — I cannot in good faith give them produce grown in wastewater,” Steinberg wrote. “I also have concerns regarding giving up the autonomy of my water supply … I am in no way shape or form, interested in reclaimed wastewater being used in my farming operation nor am I interested in signing over my well to the city.”

Larry Jacobs, CEO of Jacobs Farm, echoed similar sentiments in a 2002 letter to Kocher, also cited in the IWP. Jacobs said he supports using reclaimed water, just not its use in growing food.

“We are in favor of recycling reclaimed water on golf courses, car washing, commercial landscaping, and home landscaping,” Jacobs said, “but not on plants grown for food, and especially [not] on plants that are eaten uncooked.”

Illustration by Louise Leong.

What Could Be

According to the evaluations of water demand in Santa Cruz listed in the IWP, SCWD said that Santa Cruz’s current demand for water “exceeds the estimated available yield from its existing sources during drought conditions, even with mandatory curtailment requirements.”

The city conducted the Water Curtailment Study (WCS) in 2001, which is cited in the IWP, to better understand how customers would reach usage restrictions and how such actions would impact agriculture, business and resident customers.

The WCS analyzed six levels of water shortage severity, ranging from 10 to 60 percent shortages, and assessed the impacts of necessary curtailment on the three prioritized types of usage, health and safety, business and irrigation.

According to the results of the study, households issued a 40 percent system shortage would have “serious” implications “with important lifestyle changes.” Catastrophic shortages, however, where households would be issued 50 to 60 percent system shortages, would result in residents’ concern for daily water usage reaching “an unparalleled level.” The IWP stated that this level of shortage “would also impose major and burdensome lifestyle changes, some of which could well affect basic health and safety.”

A 50 percent systemwide shortage would result in 30 percent annual revenue shortages, which would be “catastrophic,” with hotel and motel closures. In the business sector during an extreme drought where residents would have to cut water usage by 42 percent, businesses would have to cut usage by 50 percent and irrigation would be eliminated.

“The economy in Santa Cruz that depends on water would shut down, and the tourist industry would all be out of business,” said SCWD water director Kocher.

Chirag Mehda, general manager of the Comfort Inn on Plymouth Street, corroborated the conclusions in the IWP, saying that for his inn, 40 percent rationing would impede business.

“It definitely would affect the business, because customers need to shower and use the pool and spa. They might not stay,” Mehda said. “I would fear that I would go out of business. The economy is already not good, [so] if that happened it would make it worse.”

Desalination

In both operating and constructing the desalination plant, the SCWD has proposed and moved forward with partnering with Soquel Creek Water District (SqCWD). The city will be partnering with Soquel to lessen the fiscal burden of undertaking such a project, and to maximize each entity’s attributes.

“It would be good to have a money partner. We have tried to partner with Soquel to have a way to exchange with each other,” said Terry Tompkins, deputy director/operations manager of Graham Hill Road Treatment Plant. “It would be good to have a partner that has ground water supply, and vice versa.”

According to the IWP figures drafted in June 2003, desalination funded by the city would be a $77 million undertaking. At that point, if responsibility of funding the plant falls on residents, it would be $7.32 per month. If SCWD partners with Soquel Creek, the project would be a $40 million undertaking and cost $3.84 per customer per month. However new estimates place the cost of the desalination plant over $100 million.

For opponents of desalination, these million dollar figures are cause for alarm.

“The potential cost is going to be a burden, not just for us, but for generations to come,” said WILPF co-chair Murtha. “This is a city that does not have a lot of money.”

The construction cost would be split between agencies. Santa Cruz Water Department would pay 59 percent of the construction cost, and Soquel Creek Water District would pay 41 percent. Operational costs would be split 50-50.

Where the funding for the desalination plant will come from is still to be determined. Both SCWD and Soquel Water District are pursuing grants, but the project will likely become a bond measure reliant on rate increases.

“This thing is for the public and will be owned by the public,” Kocher said. “We shouldn’t be doing stuff the public is concerned about if we don’t have good answers. This has to be paid for by the people — if the voters want to put it on the ballot and shoot it down, sometimes they get it right and sometimes they get it wrong. I am advocating for continuing to research ­— it is my duty and job — but it is not my job to convince voters.”

There are four main concerns both agencies must mitigate with desalination — impingement on the intakes, proper disposal of the brine leftover, city population growth and the amount of energy desalination requires.

Kocher said that by managing the intake velocity to compliment the natural velocity of the surrounding waves and utilizing a small screen size, the threat of impingement is all but eliminated.

The treatment process — separating saline water into treated fresh water and a high saline concentrate (brine) though reverse osmosis — requires a significant amount of energy. Where current methods of water production require 2-4 kilowatt hours per thousand gallons of water, desalination requires 12-16 kilowatt hours per thousand gallons.

Even in years of drought, the plant would only be used 180 to 200 days out of the year. Kocher said the infrequency of use alleviates the issue of energy consumption.

The concentrate left over from the process will be sent back to the ocean after being mixed with the treated wastewater, effluent, from the water treatment plant. Currently, Santa Cruz’s effluent is sent back to the ocean. The treated wastewater sent back to the ocean is essentially freshwater, so mixing the effluent with the brine is closer to the natural salinity levels in the ocean.

“The freshwater and brine mixture would actually be an enhancement,” Kocher said. “Everything is a trade, but I think it can be mitigated better in the ocean than in our current usage. This one seems to have the best chance to meet our needs in an environmentally responsible way.”

For some in the Santa Cruz community, despite the SCWD’s statements that the environmental impacts can be successfully mitigated, the integration of a plant that would require triple the energy to produce the same quantity of water and would tamper with the marine sanctuary would be an affront to the values of the community.

“I think [the SCWD] is not giving us enough credit,” Murtha said. “We are a community that really cares about the environment. This desal plant would make us hypocrites. I mean, if I ride my bike to work, I am still contributing to the desal plant.”

Environmental concerns continue to be a sticking point with community members. At the debate forum last week, this sentiment was echoed by the opponents of desalination and audience members alike when cheers erupted after speakers brought up the potential environmental impacts of the desalination plant.

Opponents of desalination have also consistently argued the SCWD has not capitalized on conservation efforts, and this point was not omitted from the debate. The opponents said the city, rather than investing millions into the desalination plant, should allocate those funds to further conservation efforts, among them composting toilets.

Upon the proponents of desalination’s response that such conservation efforts would not come to fruition, audience members shouted simultaneously: “I’ll take one!”

Longinotti pointed out that until the SCWD exhausts all conservation efforts, their assertion that desalination is not “a silver bullet” solution but the only remaining alternative is contradictory.

“If you value desalination as a last resort, please have your spending priorities reflect that,” Longinotti said.

Mike Rotkin, former mayor and city council member, countered that to depend on conservation as a method of water supply insurance is “irresponsible planning.”

“Conservation [alone] cannot do it,” Rotkin said. “Emotionally I am opposed to desalination, but we have reached a point where we don’t have any other alternatives.”

Contributing to skepticism of conservation as a solution is the degree to which Santa Cruzans already conserve. City residents use 66 gallons of water per person per day — compared to the 150 gallons used per person per day statewide — the lowest per capita use in California.

Bentley and Longinotti, representatives in the April 14 debate of those opposed to desalination, commended the district for their efforts to engage with the public and their conservation efforts up to the present. Bentley asserted that despite dissent and skepticism mounting around the desalination plant in particular, he still believes “the city will take care of us.”

Opponents of desalination argued that the environmental implications of the desalination plant outweigh the difficulties that would come from relying on conservation efforts to solve a water shortage crisis.

“Nature has its limits, and we are going to have to live within them,” Longinotti said during the debate forum. “If it is a tradeoff between our needs of today and our grandchildren, then it is no contest.”

(from left to right)

“I support it, but at what cost? It affects local surf spots, fisheries, all that good stuff.”
Chris Falbo
Third-year, College Eight
Legal studies

“It’s really hard to decide. I feel we should preserve water more, because we’re already doing a lot of things to stress the environment. People take advantage of our resources too much.”
Louise Hsu
First-year, College Eight
Biology

“Maybe we need more education on the water shortage problem in general.”
Laurel Bollinger
Third-year, Cowell
Psychology

“I feel like it’s a viable option, and if we could find more eco-friendly ways to produce drinking water, I’d prefer that.”
Ashley Overhouse
Third-year, Kresge
Literature/history

Photo by Prescott Watson.

Lexi Stephenson’s mother likes to say, “No one can take your education.” But after Stephenson switched from community studies after it was cut last winter, only to see the suspension of her current major, American studies, it seems like someone is trying very hard to do so.

Stephenson fell in love with community studies as a second-year when she took an introductory course taught by Sean Burns. Although a self-proclaimed science and math student by nature, she said she felt inspired by that class to make a difference.

“Walking out of the classroom, I felt like change really could happen and that I could be a part of it,” Stephenson said. “That was one of the greatest feelings I have ever felt in my entire life.”

Stephenson decided that she wanted to provide educational opportunities for immigrants and the children of immigrants. So after declaring the community studies major, Stephenson focused her courses in education.

Studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain during her third year, Stephenson met a fellow community studies major from UCSC in a dive bar. Learning of her peer’s field study orchestrating a needle exchange program for sex workers, Stephenson became increasingly excited about her own field study. However, when she returned to UCSC for winter quarter last year, she found her major had been cut and the courses she intended to take were no longer offered.

“It was just sad,” Stephenson said. “When you believe in something and [the university] decides it isn’t valuable, it’s very disheartening.”

She scrambled to redefine her interests to fit course offerings, but eventually decided she was unwilling to compromise her education to remain in the major.

“I was trying to change what I wanted to do just to get into classes,” Stephenson said. “That defeated the purpose for me. Community studies is supposed to be about finding a passion and then figuring out a way to use it to make a difference.”

After debating her options, Stephenson declared the American studies major. In January, faculty in the American studies department voted to suspend admission to the major starting July 1. They cited as the primary reason for suspension the dwindling resources that significantly reduced the capability of the program to provide a quality educational experience for students.

Stephenson said programs like American studies are the reason many students come to UCSC, and eliminating these options degrades the value of the university.

“Santa Cruz attracts a certain type of student,” Stephenson said. “A lot of us come here to get the alternative education offered at UCSC. Unfortunately [budget cuts] are changing that.”

Stephenson said she and fellow American studies majors are angry about what is happening, but are unsure of how to act. For a while Stephenson had been considering utilizing public art to make her frustrations heard, but decided that might not accomplish anything.

“I wanted to make signs that say, ‘Fuck UC’ really big and put them all over campus. But that is not very mature,” Stephenson said. “If you do that, no one is going to listen.”

Stephenson says American studies majors should not be left to fight for social sciences and humanities programs.

“I think it is the responsibility of students and teachers to do something about this,” Stephenson said. “A lot of students come here with the false notion that they will be able to take these classes.”

Despite her frustrations, Stephenson feels lucky to have been a part of the program before it was suspended.

“I think the [American studies] major is the best education I could have gotten at this school,” she said.

Illustration by Bela Messex

In light of the federal government’s last-minute budget compromise, many Santa Cruzans are concerned that the California state congress is going in the same direction — toward a budget stalemate.

The Santa Cruz Democratic Party hosted a forum to discuss California’s budgetary problems on April 13 in the Police Deparment Community Room.

At the forum, community members were able to engage with a pannel comprising Santa Cruz mayor Ryan Coonerty, who led the forum and county treasurer Fred Keeley.

Cynthia Matthews, city of Santa Cruz chamber of commerce board member, acted as moderator.

The majority of the topics addressed involved proposals to balance the state budget and encourage compromise in California’s legislature.

“We are all feeling the rotten economy magnified by the state budget crisis,” Matthews said. “There aren’t quick fixes and easy solutions.”

Keeley proposed two major changes that would help resolve tensions in the state legislature and accelerate the budget planning processes: open primaries and public redistricting.

These proposals would allow for greater inclusion of political moderates, Keeley said. Currently, in the state of California 20.4 percent of voters are registered as having “no party preference,” a 5 percent increase since 2003.

Keeley said the growth of the middle gives Democrats “a negotiating partner who can give and take” and “doesn’t laugh, but listens.”

Diane Le, a fourth-year politics major and president of College Democrats at UCSC who was at the forum, was intrigued by open primaries.

“Open primaries are a really interesting idea because it brings forth a more moderate source for candidates to go to, so Democrats aren’t completely leaning on the left or Republicans leaning on the right,” Le said.

Some, however, oppose Keeley’s other proposal — public redistricting — because of the possible implications for the Democratic Party.

Le said that as a representative of the Democratic Party, she did not agree with the idea of public redistricting.

“[Democrats] are the party in power right now, and letting us draw the lines keeps the politicians where they are,” Le said.

Public redistricting, some people — including Le —
believe, would threaten the power balance that currently favors the Democratic Party because it would allow district lines to be drawn by the people, and could result in a change in legislature seats.

Keeley saw the fear of losing power in the legislature as unfounded.

“There’s not a shred of evidence that [public redistricting] will hurt Democrats,” Keeley said. “These are the same voters who elected Jerry Brown governor, who elected Barbara Boxer to another term in the Senate last year, who said no to Meg Whitman, who said no to Carly Fiorina, [and] who said no to repealing the California climate change law.”

While Keeley focused on the state level, Coonerty stressed the importance of maintaining a balanced city budget and the relationship between state and local power.

“[The city and its residents are having] a much more honest conversation than Sacramento is having with the state of California,” Coonerty said. “We simply say, ‘We cannot provide you with all these services that we once did, and we have to raise taxes,’ but that’s what it takes to balance our budget.”

Santa Cruz’s general fund has dropped from over $70 million to $55 million. As part of the city’s pledge for a balanced budget, it has reduced social service programs by 48 percent in the past two years, Coonerty said. The city also raised taxes four out of the last five times it presented proposed tax increases to the community.

Coonerty said it “hurt” to make such decisions but that they were fiscally responsible.

Like Coonerty, Keeley reiterated throughout the night that the solution to the California budget crisis lies in “targeted cutting and temporary tax increases.”

The speakers stressed the importance of including political moderates in the discussion, especially with the necessary two-thirds majority vote needed to pass a budget.

“California has a democracy problem,” Keeley said. “We have set a game where it is impossible to win.”

“It’s not a good combination, but I love cheese and I love ice cream so I guess cheesy ice cream.”
Natalie Mastick
First-year, College Eight
Marine biology

“Sushi wrapped around a California burrito.”
Cory Knudson
First-year, Kresge
Literature

“A breakfast burrito — but instead of a tortilla [around it], a waffle.”
Lauren Dike
First-year, Stevenson
Linguistics

“Tortellini wrapped in bacon.”
Aaron Gonzales
Third-year, Porter
Theater arts

Photos by Kyan Mahzouf

Santa Cruzans protested in front of Bank of America on Monday, declaring that corporations should pay taxes to the government like individuals do.

Around 40 people protested outside the Bank of America on River Street and later moved the protest to the downtown clock tower. Santa Cruz’s local chapter of MoveOn.org — a family of political organizations that sponsor campaigns for federal issues like the Iraq War, as well as presidential campaigns — sponsored the event.

Organizers picked Bank of America because of the bank’s previous bailout of $1 trillion, according to a list entitled “Guide to Corporate Freeloaders” by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt).

In the 2011 U.S. federal budget, corporations like Valero Energy Corporation, Carnival Cruise Lines and Bank of America were exempt from paying taxes. Businesses paying their taxes would alleviate the state financial deficit, said Pat Arnold, president of the Santa Cruz United Nations Association and Bay Area organizer of political activism group Raging Grannies.

“If the corporations just paid their fair share, all of the states’ debts would be accounted for,” Arnold said.

In “Guide to Corporate Freeloaders,” Sanders listed corporations that do not pay taxes to the federal government but received a federal bailout or large IRS refunds. The list includes Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Exxon Mobil, among others.

The number of corporations that do not pay taxes prompted MoveOn.org organizer Sara Bassler to help coordinate the rally outside the Bank of America.

Bassler and other MoveOn.org organizers manned the megaphones, took down names and passed out signs for those who turned out. Arnold said the Santa Cruz Bank of America protest was part of a campaign in 450 cities nationally to fight the budget’s tax exemption of major corporations.

“I want to give corporations more of a sense of responsibility,” Bassler said. “While it is lawful for their corporations to make money for their shareholders, they forget their shareholders are part of society.”

Protesters passed out signs bearing slogans like, “Close your B of A account,” and “Fat Cats are stealing our future.” Many were heard shouting, “Cut from the top, not from Mom and Pop,” and “1, 2, 3, 4 — pay your taxes like the poor.”

Protesters centered most of the blame for the national budget crisis on congressional Republicans. This includes Sen. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who proposed the new budget that passed after much deliberation and hesitation by Congress — deliberations that almost led to a full government shutdown.

“The Republicans say the country is going broke and they’re making cuts to the bottom,” Bassler said. “We’re broke, yet they give huge tax breaks to companies that can really help out our financial crisis.”

Bassler feels that the money the U.S. government is not collecting from corporations like Bank of America can be put to better use in American social programs.

“Politicians need to wake up,” Bassler said. “We need to work together to help keep our society what it is now, and help the less fortunate and build libraries.”

To illustrate the impacts of budget cuts on national programs in comparison to those of corporate tax breaks, a child spoke at the rally about how she would be affected by the cuts.

“I want to stop the budget cuts so that teachers can come back to work and kids can learn,” said Julia Knight, a student of Montclair Elementary School in Oakland and a “MoveOn granddaughter,” according to her grandmother.

Santa Cruz political organizations like Organizing for Santa Cruz, the community organizing arm of the Democratic Party in Santa Cruz, turned out at the event. While the rally was pronounced a success by many protesters, some organizers, like Arnold and Bassler, said they were disappointed with the lack of UC Santa Cruz students in the crowd. They said the fight for more funds to be appropriated to basic services is relevant to all students, including students in higher education and their budget needs.

Bassler and Arnold want UCSC to be represented in protests rallying for corporations to pay their taxes, or to host the next rally on campus.

“We need a sister rally at the university,” Arnold said. “There are 450 of these [rallies] happening in American cities and it’d be great to have one at the Bay Tree Bookstore.”

Despite the rain, swarms of UCSC students and campus visitors hiked up and down from Porter Meadow on April 20. Courtesy of Pierce Crosby.

Fog and rain did not prevent thousands from flocking to Porter Meadow on Wednesday.

4/20 is an unsanctioned UC Santa Cruz event where large groups of students gather on campus and smoke marijuana. It is not unlike Picnic Day at UC Davis and Floatopia in UC Santa Barbara, in that it draws students from other schools.

Floatopia is an unofficial annual student day party, which started as a gathering on the beach where students “floated” on the ocean. In 2010, the event was moved to Del Playa Drive due to Santa Barbara officials’ restriction of access to the beach that day.

After the move the event became “Deltopia,” and according to the 2011 Floatopia Facebook event, this year’s gathering had over 11,000 confirmed guests.

The official Picnic Day, UC Davis’ open-house event families and the public attend. Students celebrate with an unsanctioned day party that attracts numerous partygoers.

According to a report in the Davis Enterprise, there were 54 arrests during the Picnic Day enforcement period at this year’s event, from Friday evening, April 15 to early morning Sunday, April 17.

Crimes and injuries are common at Floatopia as well. 2009′s Floatopia resulted in two deaths, as well as 13 arrests, according to a report released by the UCSB vice chancellor for student affairs Michael D. Young.

Safety is also a concern at UC Santa Cruz’s unsanctioned day party, 4/20. Jim Burns, a UCSC campus spokesperson, said that the administration was concerned about safety this year in particular, due to the recent graffiti threats found in a men’s restroom in Porter College.

“Whenever we discover graffiti of a threatening nature — and, to be sure, some of it we probably don’t discover — we are concerned,” Burns said in an email.

Despite possible risks to safety, students continue to participate. First-year Lauren Dike attended Picnic Day and said the police and campus security presence didn’t affect her decisions to drink and smoke.

“Any security seeing me drinking out of a bottle of wine or smoking a cigarette didn’t say anything,” she said.

Burns said 4/20 brings many people with no affiliation to UCSC to the campus and is an inconvenience for those who are in the campus community and choose not to participate.

“The event impacts our neighbors,” he said. “The event impedes the ability of our students, faculty and staff to get around campus that afternoon.”

Burns said that there are numerous issues with the event besides its illegality.

“We have plenty of issues with this activity aside from the obvious,” he said.’’

First-year Alexa Romero travelled to Santa Barbara to see her friends and party at Deltopia. She was not concerned by the presence of alcohol and drugs.

“[Deltopia is] already a tradition,” she said. “You can’t put a judgment on it.”

Like Dike and Romero, who travelled to see their friends, Haley Riddle flew from Woodland Hills, near Los Angeles, to UCSC for 4/20 and to visit her friend.

Even though safety concerns have been present in the past at events like Picnic Day and Deltopia, Riddle said she wasn’t worried.

“I don’t get how it works,” she said of the relaxed atmosphere in Porter Meadow on 4/20. “It’s so peaceful.”

(Left) Roark and Kirk (right) campaign against the selling of bottled water on campus. Photo by Morgan Grana.

Third-year UC Santa Cruz students Gabi Kirk and Lindsey Roark are on a mission to bring plastic water bottle sales on campus to an end.

City on a Hill Press: Can you tell me about the project you are both a part of?

Kirk: Take Back the Tap is a campaign to end the sale of plastic water bottles on the UCSC campus, and eventually, the UC systemwide. We want to build long-lasting behavioral change. We want to be teaching the people who are going to lead our nation and our future that these are the social values that we hold dear, that water is a right for everyone.

CHP: Would you consider Take Back the Tap a green movement?

Roark: Our campaign is more about the fact that water is privatized, that water is commoditized, and it is something that should be available to everyone. It’s great that there will be less plastic consumption, but that’s not what our campaign is about. We’re trying to make this also a community-based marketing scheme, [instead] of an information-based marketing scheme …What we’re trying to do is find out exactly why people buy bottled water [and] how can we modify that behavior to be more sustainable.

CHP: How is the project going?

Roark: Hopefully by mid-May there will be two spigots, one in the foyer at OPERS and one in the upper floor of the Wellness Center. They’ll just be little push-back spigots where you can fill your water bottles. And if that goes well, then we are hoping to install spigots at all of the high-usage areas that we find around campus, so probably around 25 more spigots. We’re hoping to have the rest of the installation done next year [since] they don’t have the capacity [this year].

Kirk: We actually got grants from Measure 43 and Measure 44, which were passed last year on the ballot.

CHP: Any other future plans for the project?

Kirk: We want to identify the “deserts,” as we like to call them, areas without an accessible water source, and maybe make it into a map for a phone, where someone can ask, “Where is the water fountain near me?” and then later on, “Where is the recycling bin near me?” [or] “When does the next bus come?” And we want to build a website with a transparent budget, so that people can track it. If we’re going to be spending student fees, we want to make sure it’s in a way that’s going to engage the student body.

CHP: Have you received support from the administration?

Roark: What’s cool is that we’ve noticed in this project that every administration, staff [or] faculty [member] that we’ve approached about this has been so stoked, and so as far as administration support, I feel like the administration supports us full-heartedly.

Kirk: There’s a great sustainability community here and we’d love this to be a big part of it. Right now it’s a small group of people doing it, but we’re slowly getting more and more, so we really want people to come out to Earth Day and find out how they can get involved with this effort.

RIvera Sun Cook portrays every character in the one-woman show, “A Star Called Love; the Freedom Stories of Lala.” Photos by Molly Solomon.

When I first stepped into the studio of the 418 Project to preview “The Imagine-a-nation of Lalachild,” the first play of the trilogy of The Rising Sun Dance Theater’s “A Star Called Love; the Freedom Stories of Lala,” and looked to the stage to find nothing but two prop blocks and a sparkle-eyed, red-headed actress, I was a bit taken aback.

Throughout the entire performance, the stage remained startlingly simple: no other actors and no new props. However, I was not prepared for what those two blocks and that spirited redhead had in store for me. At precisely 7 p.m. that Sunday I sat down in the 418 Project studio, and by 7:15 p.m. I was in another world: a world of rain, dust, laughter and tears.

Told from the perspective of Lala, an incredibly imaginative and spirited African-American girl in the all-black town of Lovely, Kan. in the 1890s, the play captures the innocence and rapture of childhood while also centering on topics of race, gender and love. The story follows Lala’s experience when a mysterious Chinese man named Longshoe rides into town on a dust storm, bringing new perspective and change to a dull town. The wise teachings of Longshoe and the town’s reaction to the change that Longshoe brings sparks questions of race, religion and the beauty of life.

Directed by Robin Aronson and written and performed by Rivera Sun Cook, “The Imagine-a-nation of Lalachild” is a wondrous, inspiring one-woman show. Though there was only one woman present on stage, Cook portrayed not just one, but many other characters. Three plays, 30 characters, one actress. There were no costume changes, no props and certainly no jubilant orchestra. For a split second, I had even half-expected Cook to crack a joke about a priest and a rabbi, as the set-up of the play reminded me so much of a stand-up comedy performance. However, Cook was gone the minute the lights dimmed, as she transformed into Lala, Mama Lu, Longshoe, the preacher and the rest of the town of Lovely.

This play was beyond the average imaginative caliber of a performance and chased away any trace of reality. Through large amounts of research on heavy accents and movement, Cook transported the audience to the dry, dusty, enchanting world of Lovely, Kan. She perfected southern accents ranging from the young to the old, which were enhanced by original and traditional music. Evident in the title, the play has a mystical, marvelous, imaginative appeal to it — the childlike enthusiasm and sheer appetite for life that Lala displayed had transported me to my own childhood, anxious for what the world might bring. Full of giggles and wide-eyed wonders, Lala made me leave the studio that night seeing the world as the giant playground that I once viewed it as. While I am surely not in Kansas anymore, after seeing the imagination and beautiful hopes that Lala had for her world, I looked around the world that I live in and saw it slightly prettier than remembered.

Illustration by Matt Boblet.

“Hanna”
Review by Hanna Toda

“I just missed your heart,” whispers a young, pale-blond, piercingly blue-eyed girl, leaning over and gazes into the eyes of the person she just killed.

Meet Hanna. She is a child-assassin trained by her father, an ex-CIA agent, to be the perfect killer for one mission. With a chillingly beautiful performance by Saoirse Ronan, director Joe Wright presents not just your average action movie, but a moving drama of humanity as Hanna leaves her isolated home in the forest to experience humanity for the first time in her life.

Hanna is by far the most frightening killer I have ever seen. With a doe-like innocence in her face and a lean, graceful body, she resembles a ballerina, ready to dance to Tchaikovsky. However, the minute she kills four men in a few swift moves, blood speckling her porcelain complexion, even the fiercest of black swans have nothing on her. The juxtaposition of her dangerous nature with her innocent façade is the movie’s ultimate weapon — it will leave you clinging to the edge of your seat, anxious to see what this little girl is capable of.

When Hanna first begins her mission, her cold, blank stare provides the intrigue. Breaking necks without a blink, Hanna resembles a robot, clearly defining the movie as an action film. However when Hanna, leaving her isolated training grounds, hears music for the first time and discovers what a kiss is, the movie turns from an action film to a drama. Hanna’s stoicism disappears, and the deeply embedded “adapt or die” motto slowly fades away.

The film impressively depicts not just the superficial shock factor of a child-killer, but also the psychological complexities of a young girl torn from a normal society. Similarly to Mary Shelley in “Frankenstein,” director Wright explores a fascinating concept of humanity, as Hanna discovers what it means to be human.

With an original score by The Chemical Brothers, the film’s whimsical music phenomenally complements both sides of Hanna’s personality — a young girl and a killer.

Although the film is a major production, the unique cinematography and camera angles echo the mood of an independent film.

This movie was surprisingly different from what I would have imagined. Supported by a star cast including the unsurprisingly suave Eric Bana as Erik and a beautifully manipulative Cate Blanchett as Marissa, this film is truly one-of-a-kind and a definite must-see before the string of terribly cheesy summer movies hits theaters.

~~~~~~

“Win Win”
Review by Mitchell Bates

Wrestling is relatively funny to watch, but that’s not the only thing that dramatic comedy “Win Win” — the newest offering from “Meet the Parents” director Thomas McCarthy — has to offer.

Paul Giamatti, known for his performance in the Academy Award-winning film “Sideways,” stars as struggling attorney and wrestling coach Mike Flaherty, while Amy Ryan, co-star of 2007’s “Gone Baby Gone,” plays his passionate and oblivious wife, Jackie. The two are surprisingly believable as a couple, but as I was sitting in the Del Mar Theatre scrutinizing “Win Win,” I found it incredibly difficult to shake the feeling that I was watching Holly Flax cheat on Michael Scott with Paul Giamatti. Despite this “Office” -induced confusion, the relationship between Mike and Jackie creates an excellent foundation for the film.

Mike accepts the responsibility of caring for an older client struggling with dementia, so that he can net a small monthly stipend. But he encounters problems when the man’s grandson suddenly comes to visit. The 16-year-old, played by Alex Shaffer in an incredible breakout performance, is fleeing from his drugged-out mother and her abusive ex-boyfriend. When the kid turns out to be a champion wrestler, Mike takes him in and puts him to work wrestling for his losing team. As assistant coaches, Bobby Cannavale and Jeffrey Tambor provide excellent comic relief and are allowed enough character development during the film to successfully avoid falling into the typical roles of goofy and unsubstantiated sidekicks.

Life is improving for Mike, until his new star’s mother shows up to claim the stipend he received earlier in the movie. The conflicts that follow are relatively predictable and could have felt tedious, but instead they seemed genuinely emotional because of the excellent chemistry among Giamatti, Ryan and Shaffer.

While a very endearing film, the abrupt and unresolved ending of “Win Win” may leave some viewers unsatisfied. When the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but think, “This is it? They couldn’t have added one more scene?”

However, even considering its less than stellar finish, “Win Win” was a superb movie, equally funny and uplifting.

~~~~~~

“Nine Types of Light”
TV on the Radio album
Review by Mitchell Bates

TV on the Radio lead singer Tunde Adebimpe intones, “You threw your hands up and walked away, so it’s strange I should feel this way,” in “You,” one of the band’s new songs.

Though he is likely singing about an ex-lover, the lyrics are applicable to the band itself. After the group chose to go on hiatus in 2009, it might have been easy to forget about them, but I at least could not. For those of us who have truly missed TV on the Radio for the last year-and-a-half or so, the release of “Nine Types of Light” has been a long-anticipated event.

Considering the high expectations for this album, it’s perhaps a miracle that it doesn’t disappoint. “Nine Types of Light” demands attention from the first seconds of album opener “Second Song” and doesn’t let go until the record’s only uninspired track, “Killer Crane.” When compared to TV on the Radio’s previous albums, “Nine Types of Light” is perhaps more laid-back, but the change is enjoyable and helps to bring the gloss and refinement of Adebimpe’s vocals to the spotlight. However, they haven’t completely abandoned their edge, and tracks like “Caffeinated Consciousness” and “Repetition” serve as a helpful reminder that the band still knows how to write vivid and original rock songs.

When viewed through the concerns of the average UC Santa Cruz student — rising tuition, decreasing standards of education, an abysmal job market — the song “No Future Shock” registers as especially relevant. Backed by a catchy beat, Adebimpe commands, “Oh dance, don’t stop, do the no future, do the no future,” and it’s hard to ignore the correlations with last year’s graduate student commons occupation.

TV on the Radio’s most recent effort may not outshine 2006’s “Return to Cookie Mountain” or 2008’s “Dear Science,” but “Nine Types of Light” accompanies relaxation sessions perfectly. It’s smooth, sexy, smart and easy to like.