A KSBW Channel 8 cameraman tries to film the occupiers inside Hahn Student Services, as a protester prevents him from doing so. Occupiers were still voting on whether or not to let media cameras inside. Photo by Pierce Crosby.

After preventing entry into the Hahn Student Services building on the morning of Nov. 29, students found an open window. Around 3 p.m. they let themselves in, beginning a 21-hour-long occupation.

The Hahn occupation follows the November 2009 Kerr Hall occupation, where 35 students were initially charged $972 each for property damage and trespassing, and the March 2011 occupation, where around 30 students stayed the night outside the ethnic resource center.

Around 30 people stayed the night at Hahn, and 70 filled the building at its peak.

Comparing Hahn to previous actions, fifth-year Hayden Kreiling said Hahn felt more valid because of its part in the greater occupy movement.

“We have general assemblies,” Kreiling said. “We’re using not a consensus method but a highly democratic method. This is the method that has been taught at Zuccotti Park at Occupy Wall Street that has spread throughout the country.”

3When voting on decisions, the students borrowed from the larger movement’s voting practices, Kreiling said.

“I personally, as a white student, get privilege,” Kreiling said, “and one of the ways to check that is to give other people privileges that I would just be afforded … We have a students of color working group and we’ve talked about how that’s something we want to prioritize in our space … when you have a student that’s of color, you put them higher, because if the speakers list gets closed or you put it off, those voices won’t get heard. It’s something that happens in a lot of the Occupy movements around the country.”

After entering Hahn, the community agreements were one of the first topics voted on, said Mary Virginia Watson, graduate student and teaching assistant. The students agreed to not damage property, respect workers’ spaces and not use substances.

“Students were respectful of workers’ spaces, and at the same time able to accomplish civil disobedience,” Watson said.

Nora Hochman, representative of the Coalition of University Employees (CUE) Teamsters Union, which represents UC Santa Cruz clerical employees, said occupiers stood by their pledge to not disturb anything in the building.

University administration employed at the Hahn Student Services building were not forced to take paid leave and were reassigned elsewhere.

“Our union is very proud to be in coalition with those students,” Hochman said. “We are very appreciative on how they treated our workplace.”

In late afternoon, a few UCSC administrators asked to enter Hahn to close and remove sensitive documents. The occupiers voted to allow three administrators to enter with three escorts for 20 minutes.

As the three administrators entered Hahn, director of student judicial affairs Douglas Zuidema also tried to enter, but students forcibly blocked him.

Zuidema deferred comments to the student information office. Director of university relations Jim Burns could not be reached regarding this matter.

During the general assembly meeting at 7 p.m., the seated occupiers lined a corridor, and more spilled onto the outside balcony. The occupiers deliberated for 30 minutes before deciding to let the media to photograph them. KSBW Channel 8 cameraman tried filming the meeting, but students responded by trying to cover his camera with scarves and sweaters. The occupiers voted early on that no photographs be taken inside Hahn, only outside.

Third-year Adam White said students wouldn’t want their face in photos or video since media footage could be used to identify and cite students, as with the Kerr Hall occupation.

“We asked them several times not to film,” White said. “They were being very rude to the people outside … technically, they’re allowed to, but we were asking them not to.”

A KSBW Channel 8 representative said the students should know the media will come when 100 people are allegedly breaking into a building.

“We’re just out there trying to get their message out and they’re preventing that,” the representative said.

Fourth-year Chris Cuadrado said media coverage of the Hahn occupation differed from the media coverage of the Kerr Hall occupation.

“When the police came to raid [Kerr Hall], they made sure there was a media blackout by preventing news vans at the base of campus,” Cuadrado said. “All individuals with cameras outside were moved out of sight of where the students were barricading, so the police made it invisible.”

No police were present at Hahn throughout the night, and UCSC chief of police Nader Oweis said the police actions were not influenced by what happened at UC Berkeley, UC Davis or Kerr Hall.

“Our actions from the police department and the university itself [have] been to keep an open dialogue and really work with the students that are here, and to make sure everything remains peaceful and safe,” Oweis said.

Alison Galloway, campus provost and executive vice chancellor, and Oweis remained at Hahn for the majority of the occupation, leaving only at night.

Galloway wanted to keep dialogue open, and said it was best if she and Oweis were there, rather than use a system for relaying communication.

“It’s easier to take a direct approach so we understand what the situation is for the student protesters,” Galloway said. “It’s a philosophy both the police chief and I have. I think this is probably very similar to the approach we would’ve taken, no matter what.”

In a second general assembly at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, the occupiers voted to completely clear the building at 11:30 a.m. and gather at Quarry Plaza one hour later to declare their purpose for occupying the building and present a list of four demands. They demanded the disbanding of the UCPD, and instead the installation of a committee of students, faculty and staff that will assign community safety responsibilities to unarmed campus safety groups, place a greater emphasis on violence prevention and refund related resources, and establish a protocol for inviting “outside agencies … onto campus.” Also among the demands was a refusal to implement any fee hikes, layoffs or budget cuts to departments further than 2009 levels, and that no disciplinary actions be taken against protesting students and allies who occupied the building.  They further demanded the list of demands be forwarded to all of the campus community via the UC Santa Cruz email server.

Additional reporting by Jacob Van Der Wilk and KellyAnn Kelso

Illustration by Louise Leong

His house was marvelously crafted, constructed neatly between two ancient evergreens and overlooking a vegetable garden, orchard and sweeping fields and forests. Through the heavy oak door, the smell of stale, sweet smoke enveloped the entryway.

“Are you going to use my face for this? As long as you keep me out of the spotlight I’ll tell you the whole story — otherwise, you’ll get the PR version.”

That’s Rennold Mare, a retired real estate agent, who recently retired from another profession as well.

“I was a grower for 24 years, but I never considered myself one until the latter half of it,” Mare said. “It was always kind of a lie. I was passing the time making money, but trying to go elsewhere. I quit because it wasn’t worth it anymore. Profits are over.”

Mare wasn’t just any type of “grower”: He grew marijuana and sold it to friends and buyers across the state, first illegally and then legally under Proposition 215. Mare was one of many in Northern California’s so-called “Emerald Triangle” (the triad of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity County, dubbed the “Emerald Triangle” in the 1960s) that provided financial stability for themselves or their families through this trade.

“We had the bare essentials,” he said, “and would make just enough to get through the year.”

Mare lived through an era of social transformation. As unemployment hit 10.8 percent in early 1983, many looked for alternatives to the deteriorating job market. One such alternative was black-market activity — a “very profitable niche,” Mare said.

The laissez-faire marijuana market has indeed had benefits — such as this unrestricted profit — but in recent history the unregulated cash crop has taken a toll both on the value of the industry and on the ecosystems that host cannabis production. To combat the economic downturn, marijuana-related businesses have sprung up to keep products competitive in an over-saturated market. Marijuana testing laboratories, regional collectives and brand-name labeling are new tools producers use to maintain price competition in the increasingly stagnant market.

But while some find strength in outsourcing consumer appeal, a campaign is taking hold of consumers in a different way, asking them to be conscious of what they smoke and reconsider eco-friendly products over energy-consuming cannabis.

“We’re trying to — on a statewide level — launch an education platform, because there’s a lot of misinformation about this [medical marijuana] movement,” said Alec Dixon, director of client relations at SC Laboratories, a new testing company based in Capitola, Calif.

SC Laboratories tests medical marijuana for various ingredients like pesticides, herbicides, plant growth regulators, molds and cannabinoid potency. There are over 80 different types of cannabinoids, a type of chemical compound, found within the cannabis plant. The most famous of these is tetrahydrocannabinol, better known as THC.

“People know very little and will often unknowingly smoke pesticides or mold,” Dixon said. “Some aren’t bad for your health — like powdery mildew, for example — but others like Botrytis [commonly known as bud rot] is a human pathogen, and Aspergillus, which is unseen to the human eye, can cause pulmonary aspergillosis [an organ fungal infection], which can be fatal.”

“People want to know, and are fascinated by the truth,” Dixon said. “Now that we have an audience, there is a podium to speak about the progress of this flower [cannabis]. We’re trying to say, ‘You should care,’ especially if you’re a conscious consumer, because many growers use carcinogenic plant growth regulators and toxic chemical additives to maximize yield.”

Testing labs have broadened the discussion on cannabis, replacing the “one cure for all” approach with distinct prescriptions for patients. The cannabinoid known as cannabidiol (CBD), has proven to be an anxiety suppressant, whereas THC is an anxiety agitator. The Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research has classified CBD as an anti-inflammatory for those with arthritis or fibromyalgia, and an anti-psychotic for those with schizophrenia. But the variation in potency is a subtext to the main concern.

“If we’re going to truly call this medicine, then obviously we need to remove the toxicity from cultivation,” Dixon said. “Basically, we’re trying to clean up the industry. We’re working to educate collectives, educate patients and educate growers so there is a higher standard of treatment. Just like strawberries, if you’re taking something, putting it in your body, you should know what’s in it, chemically.”

Kyle Noland* is a resident of Humboldt County who has taken up this same task of saving the industry’s lucrativeness. With a handful of growers, Noland, a cultivator himself, has created an awareness campaign he hopes will connect consumer understanding of grower practices in order to better reflect ecological awareness. Noland sticks mostly to business. As a 46-year-old married man with a 15-year-old daughter, he has a responsibility to provide a steady income for his family.

“I feel we need far more unbiased and up-front education out there to somehow have a positive impact on this uncontrolled industry,” Noland said. “In short, most folks [growers] are over-watering and over-feeding plants without much thought of where the resources are coming from to grow their crop, or where the potential pollution is going.”

When actually analyzed, some of the products commonly understood by growers to be organic often reflect a large carbon footprint and unhealthy choice.

“There are growers who are trying to make a case for toxic amounts of heavy metals like mercury and cadmium in soil additives,” Dixon said. “How that may actually affect the product that patients are buying and smoking will be interesting to see.”

Illustration by Louise Leong.

Defining what constitutes as an organic product has been a large debate among growers, Mare said. But he ensured “growing anything under synthetic sunlight is not healthy — it’s using huge energy consumption for profit.”

“Bio-mimicry, looking to nature for a more efficient design, gives us ideas for growing more sustainable,” said Robert Sutherland, a Northern California environmental activist and blogger. “Production efficiency is how we get to professionalism.”

When asked what they actually understood about the science of medical marijuana, out of a handful of smokers most couldn’t answer basic questions beyond the potency of “indoor or outdoor.”

The lack of producer awareness for unsustainable practices, Noland said, isn’t just laziness but consumer ignorance of the unhealthy practices they buy into with every purchase.

The scope of these sustainable practices is immense, which may be daunting to buyers. The issue of water consumption is but one serious example of many malpractices, including soil usages, resource localities, environmental pollution, pesticide/herbicide exposure, and commercialization.

“The consumer doesn’t understand the immensity of the industry, the variation in product as well as production,” Noland said. “This is where we hope to enlighten people, because healthy choices will shift the producer’s ideas about how to grow their stuff more consciously.”

With the use of actual hard-hitting facts, said Dixon, SC Laboratories director of client relations, the scientific aspects of the reconsideration may be the game changer for patients.

“Ultimately, indoor cannabis production is unsustainable because of the use of fossil fuels,” Dixon said. “And with scientific research, we’ve found outdoor cannabis to have two distinctly unique terpenes which may actually justify the medical benefits of outdoor-grown products.”

Terpenes are what you smell in every plant. A combination of many terpenes gives a distinct flavoring and potency to each variety of cannabis. The significance of the two new terpenes being discovered in marijuana grown outdoors may very well confirm the health impacts the drug has on patients.

But until little-known facts like these are widely disseminated among consumers, the indoor market will continue to thrive, Dixon said.

Mare, a socially active community member, has seen his fair share of new generations come into Humboldt County and stressed the lack of concern “diesel dopers” had for environmental protection. Mare said newer generations are less concerned about production of clean pot than generating large revenues, something he thinks is unfortunate for the quality of cannabis production.

“This is where it gets interesting,” said Robert Lott, a transport-certified middleman between producers in Northern California and Santa Cruz dispensaries. “We [middlemen] do the networking, the driving, but we don’t sell anything but the product. It’s not really a concern for us because it’s not our fight.”

“Sometimes buyers want to know the background of the stuff they’re getting,” he continued, “but it’s pretty basic stuff: indoor, outdoor, hereditary strains, markup prices. But they don’t care about how the plants were grown. It’s kind of too bad.”

When asked about the lack of consideration from middlemen, former grower Mare said, “A lot of these people are in it for the simple outcome: money. Kids today just want the bottom line, the straight shoot. Middlemen especially. Some think it’s a full-time job.”

The lack of consideration by large sellers won’t change until the demand for organic production is formally made by consumers, Dixon said. In a separate interview Mare agreed; middlemen or dispensaries “don’t get paid to preach.”

Julian Palms*, a 32-year-old medical marijuana grower, has been growing indoors for more than three years. He finds interest in growing organic product, but admits it is not easy.

“I have tried to avoid it, but I use plant health regulators (PHRs) to keep up the steady growth,” Palms said. “It’s like any immune system. If it gets sick or weak you can boost the health by adding some chemical or biological agents to the food. With antibiotics, you’re boosting defense by usually strengthening white blood cells. These PHRs boost energy and bloom.”

Though Palms is concerned about his impact, he admits many growers don’t care about ecological damage because of the profit turnaround.

“To a lot of my friends there isn’t any problem with running a 100 kW generator for 12 hours a day,” Palms said. “They still make bank on their cycles, so who can blame them?”

The argument is being justified by all sides, whether it’s indoor grower or local distributor. The reaction, whether concerned or not, depends on the consumer.

“Clubs don’t care, the drivers [middlemen] don’t care, and the buyers don’t care, but if they knew the amount of energy going into this stuff and the pollution coming out of it, and the unethical means [i.e. spraying plants with pesticides] by which people are producing this medicinal drug, it might change their minds,” Noland said. “You really have to consider who’s buying your product. Our personal market isn’t uneducated yuppies. They are usually conscious consumers that understand the value in sustainable products. But this concern isn’t reflective of most.”

This lack of concern was significant to Mare as well when he grew marijuana.

“Hopefully people start to get it,” Mare said. “The campaign is hard to get moving because there isn’t an advertising business for pot yet. But the facts are already there — they just have to be used properly.”

Illustration by Louise Leong.

The campaign is amassing a database from respected individuals in the local community and from institutions of objective, rather than subjective, standing. But numbers are just numbers for Noland, the campaign leader, as he argues in order to make an impact, “you have to make things relative.”

Both consumer and commercial retail suppliers see this as reasonable. Local dispensaries see little salience in mudslinging against indoor marijuana, but do like the idea of putting science into their sales.

Humboldt grower Noland’s campaign work incorporates these databases of grower practices into digestible facts and pamphlets in order to get consumer attention.

One of the headings on a campaign flier reads “70 Gallons of Diesel Fuel = 1 Pound Indoor Pot”; a product statistic generated by Evan Mills, long-time energy analyst and staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. Mills has done extensive work on the energy consumption involved with medical marijuana production.

“From the perspective of individual consumers, a single cannabis cigarette represents two pounds of CO2 emissions, an amount equal to running a 100-watt light bulb for 17 hours assuming average U.S. electricity emissions (or 30 hours on California’s cleaner grid),” Mills said.

Studies like these, done in a professional environment, have given concrete support to the fight against energy-consuming marijuana production, and with the combination of health problems presented by toxic additives, it may give campaigners what they need to change consumers choices from indoor to outdoor.

“Facts like that hit hard, man,” Mare said as he rolled a cigarette for himself. “If every time someone lit one up, they thought about — what, 17 light bulb hours? They would probably start to think about their buys, right? That’s why I think the indoor market is so damn powerful. It’s not natural, it’s not organic — it’s ‘pollution pot,’ but the buyers don’t really know that, and that ignorance is actually keeping prices up.”

But today, even with new scientific education about environmental impact awareness, will there be time to save this export market before the economic collapse? The three counties’ economies rely heavily on the production of cannabis and the steady generation of revenue, but with industrial production becoming more prevalent, profit-per-pound will drop.

It is hard for any person to forecast the market, but there is still joking and comedic speculation among community members. The future of Humboldt County is not, however, solely dependent on the success of the cannabis market, said Noland.

“In my opinion, I feel that it is important that we [Humboldt County] as a community try to diversify our economies and not only hold onto the marijuana monoculture mindset to follow this so called ‘Napa model,’” Noland said.

The Napa Model reflects the industry in the county southeast of Mendocino County, which grows solely wine products. Instead, he argues, through farming specializations, small communities can diversify their agricultural practices and limit the requirement of imported goods through sustainable alternatives such as livestock, energy collectives or large scale community gardens.

By choosing more sustainable alternatives, growers avoid direct negative feedback loops. These alternatives include importing products, growing cannabis and producing pollution.

Sustainable practices, according to Keenan and Mare, allow for a redirection of outcomes, serving more environmental benefit, in balance with crop profit.

Sutherland reiterated the slim market that existed for sustainability.

Illustration by Louise Leong.

“Don’t get me wrong. I know there are some people out there that do store water for their crop [lowering impact on streams during summertime droughts], but they are an extremely small, small minority,” Sutherland said.

Compared to the sheer mass of production, Sutherland doesn’t think small action is enough.

“I learned from the drug task force in Eureka that last year 168,300 pot plants were confiscated, [and] when I asked what percentage of total production in the county they thought that amount represented, they answered 1 percent,” Sutherland said. “That means that last year there were an estimated 16,830,000 marijuana plants planted in Humboldt County, both indoor and outdoor.”

The numbers were shocking to hear, Sutherland said.

“Keep in mind, Humboldt’s production is in rivalry with Mendocino County, with Trinity County in close proximity to these numbers as well. And although population in Humboldt County hasn’t grown much in the last 20 years, the amount of water consumption is vast in comparison. Shifting cultivation outdoors virtually eliminates energy use (aside from transport), although

when mismanaged, the practice imposes their own environmental impacts.”

Dixon however is hopeful for a reconsideration of the market.

“If we’re just dosing our products with toxic chemicals,” he said, “how different are we from the pharmaceutical industry?”

The campaign will slowly continue, trying to bring consumer and producer closer together. Bringing light to the benefit that organically grown products can offer.

Michael Pollan, a renowned critic of the agricultural industry, champions the power of the consumer in any industry. The viral campaign “Vote with your Fork,” produced in the New York Times, shows that with every healthy choice made, the industry will adapt to serve the buyer. Cannabis activists like Mare have asked patients to “Vote with your Joints” in order to accomplish this same transition.

Noland continues to work on agendas for upcoming cannabis conferences.

“In short, this is a very complicated situation we are facing here in our community and we can only speculate on the future,” Noland said. “For the sake of the environment, the industry must change.”

*Names have been changed.

(from left to right)

“I’d just bring a fucking hatchet. The kind you cut wood with.” 
Justin Kader
Third-year, Crown
Astrophysics

“A mace — It’d be a good way to move people.”
Zach Millington
Fourth-year, Cowell
Politics & philosophy

“A cricket bat because I don’t want to kill people.”
Zach Chinn
First-year, Cowell
Physics

“I don’t need a weapon, I would just use my muscles.”
Thomas Hua
Fifth-year, Oakes
MCD biology

Photo by Toby Silverman.

Photo by Prescott Watson.

Swimming and Diving heats up next quarter as the men’s and women’s teams host the Finis Winter Invite in South Gate, Calif.  This is a lead-up to the National DIII Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. from March 21-24.

Women’s Golf is a spring sport, but the team has already placed in three tournaments. Charlotte Gibson took second place and Alice Trisri tied for fifth place at the Lady Bulldog Fall Classic in Texas. The team will grow in spring with the return of Sharlene Dahlstrom.  March 26-27 the team will be hosting the UCSC Spring Invite, taking place at the Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz.

Cross Country

Men’s cross country had its first season as an NCAA sport at UCSC. Both the men’s and women’s teams raced six different meets, including the Shoreline Open in Mountain View, Calif. and the Willamette Open in Salem, Ore. Slug women’s placed seventh while men’s placed ninth

at the San Francisco State Gator Invite. In their last race of the season, Slug women’s placed 14th overall at the Bronco Invite in Santa Clara.

Volleyball

Led by coach Todd Hollenbeck, men’s volleyball will open their season on Jan. 7 at University of the Pacific.

The women’s volleyball team finished 8-8 in Division III competition, with a total record of 14-9. Despite the winning record, the team missed out on qualifying for the Regional Championships, bringing their season to an end.

Basketball

The men’s basketball team is currently 1-3, with losses to Division I UC Davis, Whitworth and Whitman.

UCSC men’s basketball has been playing at a high level. Despite a record of 1-3, coach Gordie Johnson expects big things from his team.

“They took Division I UC Davis to the limit,” Johnson said. “We should have beat them.”

Johnson noted UCSC’s ball movement is better this year. In UCSC’s four games, there have been four different leading scorers.

“They share the ball really well,” Johnson said. “This year our players fit the offense better.”

This week men’s basketball will play in the University of Redlands tournament. Coach Johnson believes UCSC will make a splash.

“We have an easier schedule and there’s no one close to the teams we lost to,” Johnson said. “Our ultimate goal is 20 wins.”

The women’s basketball team is off to a slow start, losing their first three games. They will look to rebound their way to the National Championship in February. This week, the Slugs will have a two-game home stand against Whittier at 6 p.m. in the West Gym on Friday, and against University of Redlands at 2 p.m. in the West Gym on Saturday.

Tennis

After the departure of Bob Hansen, former head coach and founder of men’s tennis at UCSC, Bryce Parmelly will lead the team starting in January. The team will begin their season against Santa Clara University on Jan. 15 at Santa Clara.

Led by coach Erin Ness, the women’s tennis team will begin its season in January, opening against Santa Clara University at Santa Clara.

Soccer

The men’s soccer team finished 9-8. The team missed the playoffs this season, ending their season with a 3-1 away win against Cal Lutheran.

Slug women’s soccer was successful this season. The team finished with a 10-8-2 record for the season and a visit to the NCAA regional semifinals. The team beat Cal Lutheran in the first round of the playoffs. Junior forward Brooke Atkinson said the last loss to Concordia-Moorehead was most memorable.

“It definitely stung a little,” Atkinson said. “I mean, we beat them [initially] in the season 1-0.”

Coach Josh Schelhorse will be stepping down at the end of the season and assistant coach Emily Scheese will be taking over. Atkinson said the team was an underdog this season. She feels the team can improve despite Schelhorse leaving.

“Hopefully we will get further than we did last year,” Atkinson said. “It’s going to be interesting.”

Illustration by Louise Leong.

Those involved with or sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street cause might think that Black Friday represents everything they loathe — greed, mindless consumerism and corporate monopolies. But for Black Friday shoppers, the sales mean something entirely different. They mean equal footing.

It was a comparison begging to be drawn, a contradiction pleading to be exposed. This year’s Black Friday drew mobs, riots and even pepper-spraying — much of what the Occupy movement has come to be known for in popular media. And yet these two groups were fighting for such seemingly different causes and with different tactics. What Occupy wants, in a nutshell, is a political and financial overhaul in this country, as well as the right to protest peacefully in public space. All Black Friday shoppers wanted was a new Xbox. Black Friday shoppers broke out the pepper spray, while Occupy demonstraters had pepper spray used against them.

But even if they’re fighting for vastly different things, their fervor comes from the same place: the desire for justice.

The myth of the American Dream has been dead for a while. When the stock market crashed in 2008, its downward momentum managed to hammer the nails into that coffin. For many Americans, it doesn’t matter how hard they work, or how committed they are to finding a job — there’s still a chance they won’t be able to provide for themselves or their families. There’s still a chance their kids won’t get the top item on their Christmas lists. And it’s all because of the selfishness and irresponsibility of people at the top.

But on Black Friday, or as I like to call it, Occupy Sales Rack, there is an odd sense of fairness. Insane deals don’t go to people because of what families they were born into or what schools accepted them, but because of how hard they are willing to work, even if it means camping out three days before Thanksgiving or creating a 24-hour itinerary of different stores to hit up. Not everyone succeeds, but everyone has the chance to.

That sounds awfully similar to the type of society the United States erroneously prides itself in being, as well as to the demands Occupy Wall Street protesters make. Black Friday may financially support Wall Street, but ideologically, it has a little more of a progressive bent.

And not to be ignored are the deeper implications of deal-hunting. The excitement of buying something on sale is essentially the thrill of knowing that there is justice, because a discount tag is nothing more than the store admitting an item is worth less than they originally tried to pass it off as. Trying to cheat someone out of a few extra dollars isn’t going to work — at least not this time.

That is the joyful mania of Black Friday, the satisfaction that comes with cheating corporations out of a few bucks. It’s also the reason shows like “Extreme Couponing” exist — it’s alluringly subversive to watch a shopper somehow manage to not pay for $200 worth of groceries, and sometimes even get cash back.

There’s one thing almost all Americans can agree on these days, and it’s that something in the system doesn’t quite add up. From the Tea Party to Occupy, and for everyone somewhere in between left scratching their heads, discontentment is the new consensus. And everyone has their own form of resistance.

The main difference between Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Sales Rack is the former works outside of the corrupted system, while the latter works within it — indisputably supporting it in the process.

But that doesn’t mean it’s wise for protesters to scoff at or belittle deal-seekers. Because for all their faults, Occupy Sales Rack is just a group of people doing what they can to better their lives and find justice amid a sea of contradictions. Which sounds a lot like how one might describe Occupy Wall Street.

(from left to right)

“It showed solidarity with the rest of the Occupy movements, especially Occupy Education. But it doesn’t sound like it was very effective. It would have been more effective if there were more protesters.”
Kendra Yoshinaga
First-year, Kresge
Undeclared

“It was symbolic because it is Student Services, but I’m confused [about] why Hahn was occupied when they are not the people in charge of making the tuition. “
Rose Greenberg
First-year, Kresge
Undeclared

“It put pressure on administrators to be aware of the students’ demands and to take them seriously. It also raised awareness of the UC-sanctioned pepper spraying of students at UC Davis.”
Andrew Kunz
Third-year, Porter
Music

“Not much. It didn’t raise a noticeable concern from the other parts of campus and it didn’t have much efficacy in raising student awareness.” 
Hannah Monday
Fourth-year, Kresge
Neuroscience

Photo by Nick Paris.

Picketers surrounded Hahn Student Services building at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 28, in conjunction with a rally at Quarry Plaza to be held that afternoon. They aimed to shut the building down and prevent people from going to work.

A small initial group of organizers were quickly joined by more protesters, growing from 20 to near 100 in half an hour.

Dividing to stand in front of each entrance into Hahn, picketers held signs protesting cuts to education and fee increases. Several donned bandanas as well as swatches of iridescent cloth to denote their support of the students at UC Davis. By 6 a.m, they erected three tents in front of the south, east and second-story entrances.

Third-year Courtney Hanson said the group’s general assembly chose Hahn as the center for demonstration.

“This is the place where people come to write their checks to this entity called ‘The Board of Regents,’’’ Hanson said. “We chose this building for various reasons—some tactical and some legal. The people who work inside this building are not our enemies, but we have to disrupt the system.”

Associate Vice Chancellors Jean Marie Scott and Michelle Whittingham approached the building at 7:20 a.m.

Scott explained Hahn employees had not been instructed to abstain from coming to work that day, and would instead be deferred to the Bay Tree Bookstore after arriving at the building. She noted the building was considered “occupied,” and asked for cooperation to avoid confrontation.

Around noon, protesters used Quarry Plaza as a forum of discussion about fellow occupations’ hardships, most notably the action taken against UCD students on Nov. 18.

UCD second-year Kitty Bolte, who is studying agriculture at UC Santa Cruz, announced a message from UC Davis at the rally.

“We’re all one campus,” Bolte said. “We’re the same student population, all fighting the same struggle.”

In preparation for her rally message, Bolte called friends at UCD, who talked to UCD Occupy.

“For Davis, we’re just getting started,” Bolte said. “Everyone is waking up and we’re not backing down … before this, Davis was an apathetic campus, and now a tenth of the campus is coming out.”

The rally saw approximately 300 people, but the turnout wasn’t reflective of what third-year Mark Goodman expected to see.

“Before break, the protest was way bigger,” Goodman said. “When they marched to the bottom of campus it looked much larger than it does today. There is a good chance it’s because people are still home for vacation.”

Sociology professor Herman Grey did not view the size of the rally as important as its meaning.

“This action is great,” Grey said. “You can’t judge it by numbers because the message is being sent. If it’s on the students’ minds, they are making an impact. The fact that this place is given to this kind of discussion shows what’s on students’ minds. Size as an index won’t change why the protest matters.”

Various campus officials were also present at the protest, monitoring the progression of the discussion and agenda demands.

Alison Galloway, campus provost and executive vice chancellor, agreed there should be changes around various campuses, but some demands wouldn’t be in the interest of the students.

“Police forces need greater communication with the students, and the admins need to work closely with the police,” Galloway said. “If UCPD ends, the university is subject to city and county police — the UCPD was originally established to be more or less lenient on students. If the university were subject to city/county police, the administration has less control.”

UCSC chief of police Nader Oweis discussed the use of force.

“Our actions are really dictated by what happens, and our level of force or non-use of force is really determined by what happens at the protests or rallies, or by the individuals who attend,” Oweis said.

Though the need for greater student physical safety was a counterargument to the deconstruction of UCPD, other staff regarded this as a subtext to the potential of a larger reconstruction.

Susan Gillman, senate chair and literature professor, said there was an “implicit hierarchy” in the UC system.

“Most of the UC campuses believe in 10 UC campuses, one university,” Gillman said. “We’re all basically in the same boat. The budget is the great equalizer. We need to reevaluate our efforts for equal per-student funding to all UC campuses.”

While discussion contined throughout the crowd, the rally ended at 1:45 p.m., followed by a  general assembly. Students seated themselves to discuss the future goals of the movement, as well as vote on the continued support of the closure of Hahn Student Services.

Pierce Gibson Crosby, Laurel Fujii and KellyAnn Kelso contributed to this report.

Additional reporting by Chelsea Hawkins

Forrest Robinson, a humanities professor at UCSC, said American studies “was dumped by its faculty.” Photo by Toby Silverman.

Michael Cowan sits with the American studies founding documents in McHenry Library. Photo by Toby Silverman.

“American studies was dead in the water before anybody knew it.”

UC Santa Cruz humanities professor Forrest Robinson made this assertion, his voice heightening in pitch as he reached the end of the sentence. He was recalling what it was like when the American studies faculty’s decision to dissolve their own department and suspend admission into the major was made public last September.

“For several years, we have sustained our major with fewer permanent faculty than is desirable,” department chair Eric Porter wrote in an email sent to all American studies majors and proposed majors around that time. “It has become clear to us that we cannot permanently sustain a high-quality major on current faculty resources. We have therefore concluded that the best way to support the teaching and research in our scholarly areas and to ensure our own professional development as faculty is to seek homes in other campus departments.”

Porter and others involved in the decision stressed the point that everyone who was already declared or proposed as an American studies major, as well as many first-years who could get in under the wire, would be able to carry out their education as planned. But no new majors after the class of 2014 would be admitted, and the future after that point remained decidedly unclear.

In public meetings held in the weeks after the email was sent, and in the rest of the academic year, it remained uncertain what the department’s status was, whether it would ever come back and why exactly the faculty voted to end their own department. Monica Deebs, a UCSC alumna who was in her final year as an American studies major at the time, remembers confused students “attacking” Eric Porter with questions.

“This meeting [after the announcement of suspension] was packed,” Deebs said. “Everyone showed up — American studies majors, non-American studies majors, faculty. The tone was very much like, ‘What’s happening? Why is this happening?’”

American studies’ confusing end came in the wake of community studies being cut a year earlier, yet the student and faculty responses differed greatly between the two cuts. Both Robinson and Deebs believe the reason there was no public protesting from American studies students was because they took the faculty’s lead in accepting the department’s end as a foregone conclusion, an inevitability.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of students who are very confused,” Robinson said. “There’s a feeling of bafflement, of ‘How can this happen? Why wasn’t more being done to protect the program? Why didn’t I know about this? Why weren’t there meetings [before the decision was made]?’ And the answers were not forthcoming. It was pretty much stated as a fact. So maybe people were baffled into a kind of acquiescence.”

The American studies faculty’s vote to dissolve the major begs a few questions.

Is the department’s end really all about the budget? If not, what else played a role? Does the major stand a chance of resurrection, and if so, what would that look like? What does this mean for the future of interdisciplinary education at UC Santa Cruz? What can the rest of the campus stand to learn from the story of American studies? And what role does the possibility of a critical race and ethnic studies program play in all this?

These questions were brought to various past and present faculty members involved in some way with the department. Although there was some overlap in their answers, the faculty had varying viewpoints.

For Robinson, losing the major on campus is particularly troubling, given the wide range of opportunities and creativity it allows students.

“There is nothing at all like American studies now that American studies is gone,” Robinson said. “You design your own programs. It is the study of the United States in any way that you can make coherent. In a way, you get to shape your own education.”

Or as Michael Cowan, UCSC’s American studies department founder and professor emeritus, put it, the major allows students to “pursue a whole range of interests, and at the same time, focus on things they are particularly interested in.”

For Cowan, 2005 marked the “beginning of the end” for American studies at UCSC.

Cowan founded the major, which was officially proposed in 1977 and approved in 1979, although students had been pursuing independent majors called “American studies” for years already by that time.

He described starting the independent major out of Merrill College in 1970 and watching it grow, of spending the 1975-76 school year at Yale to learn more and eventually develop a core course for the major, and of the exciting early days with a limited faculty.

“It was a rather ambitious project, and when you have only a few faculty you can’t do everything,” Cowan said. “So we agreed that some of the most critical things were to see if we could agree on some of the big questions we wanted to ask.”

Cowan said he sought to tackle issues of citizenry and society in a way political science and sociology could not. For him, the American studies major was to serve as a nexus, linking a cascade of social, historical and political issues in fashions otherwise ignored by their respective departments.

“That was our goal,” Cowan said, “and we felt that the faculty had to remain dedicated to talking to each other, not just go off and teach their own courses, but also modeling civil discourse, often with sensitive materials, because that’s what we hoped the students would be doing.”

For a long time, that was how the department worked, graduating around 2000 majors to date. There has always been a small amount of faculty within the department, but because American studies is interdisciplinary, the department could rely on outside faculty to both teach American studies courses and make classes in their own departments available to American studies students.

“What always struck me,” Cowan said, “was how successful the major was with such a small number of courses that we ourselves could control.”

After the undergraduate department was established, Cowan and the rest of the faculty set their sights on a graduate program. There was some support and interest from the humanities division, and in 2003, prominent American studies scholars George Lipsitz and Tricia Rose came to UCSC, adding fuel to that fire.

“We were this close,” said Cowan, holding his index finger and thumb less than an inch apart.

For department chair Eric Porter, obtaining a graduate program and holding onto faculty members was a matter of life or death for the major. The small faculty model had been successful up to a point, but a growing campus with limited resources posed danger to smaller departments.

“The previous dean of humanities had basically sent this message that the division can’t really support as many departments as it has, and certainly can’t rebuild them to the state that they wanted to be at,” Porter said. “We had this sense that if we had 10 faculty, and were moving towards a graduate program, then we’d be in pretty good shape.”

But an issue with spousal hiring — the school refused to hire new professors’ spouses despite their qualifications and chose to continue the usual faculty search  — prompted the new additions to quickly leave in 2005, and, as Porter remembers it, “then it became clear that the support was not going to be forthcoming.”

Porter calls the lack of a graduate program a catch-22 for the department. He acknowledges it made American studies less influential and valued, but also that there was some resistance from other departments who depended on TAships with American studies to fund their own graduate students. The departures of Tricia Rose and George Lipsitz fit into a “pattern of inconsistent support” within the humanities.

As current humanities dean William Ladusaw sees it, the desire within American studies for a graduate program came more out of necessity than over-ambition. The University of California requires its professors to engage in both graduate and undergraduate education, and for American studies professors, that can be difficult. The decision to disband the department came after the realization that, as Ladusaw put it, “The only way they were going to be fully integrated into graduate education was to move to other departments.”

The failure to start a graduate program was both a symptom and a cause of American studies’ decline at UCSC. Michael Cowan and other professors within the department soon retired or transferred to other departments, making it difficult to sustain the major. Adding to the difficulty were financial limits that made crossover teaching and courseloads less feasible.

“On campus, we have a lot of people who do American studies, and who are active in the American studies organizations, some of whom are really well-known,” said professor Kim Lau, who recently moved from American studies to the literature department. “But they have so many things going on in their own department that they can’t just come teach for us in the way that they need, and the budget exacerbates that problem because departments can’t just loan one of their professors out to teach one of our courses, or to even teach an elective that’s cross-listed. It’s not because they don’t want to, but because of administrative structure and budget constraints.”

Dean of humanities William Ladusaw made the point that this lack of availability was not fair to the students, and cited as proof a survey conducted by SUA last year to determine how difficult it was for students to get into the classes they need. It turned out majoring in something that requires interdisciplinarity can leave students somewhat lost when enrolling for classes.

“If you don’t organize it well, then the people who are not part of the major that is the same name of the department can feel like stepchildren,” he said. “What the class survey showed is that the two majors in humanities that were having the most trouble getting the courses that they needed were feminist studies and American studies, and those are the two majors who use very frequently courses in social sciences, where the courses are very impacted.”

The dean added that general growing pains for the university didn’t help matters.

“Right now, with the number of faculty we had in the mid-nineties, we’re trying to teach twice as many undergraduate students and five times as many graduate students,” he said. “I’ve been here since 1984, and we never really did feel lavish, but the faculty is shrinking in size, and therefore there are lots of things people do want to do, but they have to make choices, and that’s forced on it by the budget.”

The American studies department’s budgetary problems and absence of extra-departmental support has disconcerting resemblance to several other UCSC departments. Community studies was the first to go in 2009, and there are other departments both within humanities and elsewhere facing similar problems. History of consciousness faculty have a mirror image crisis right now — because it is only a graduate program, they are having trouble finding ways to involve themselves in undergraduate education, according to both Eric Porter and Ladusaw. Environmental toxicology, a department within the sciences division that draws on chemistry, biology, and environmental studies, is suffering from a limited faculty. And critical race and ethnic studies — the much buzzed-about potential major — will inevitably need to be interdisciplinary in order to give its area of study justice. But how, when American studies failed, will these programs flourish?

For some UCSC faculty, it all comes down to a matter of semantics.

American studies didn’t start out as a department — it started out as an inter-disciplinary program. The difference between an interdisciplinary academic program and a department is a department houses faculty who must teach that department’s courses, while a program is an academic pathway students can take that involves classes from various departments. Classical studies is an example of one such program — there are no courses or professors designated under classical studies, but students can major in it by taking courses from the literature, history and language departments.

For humanities dean Ladusaw, this is an absolutely crucial distinction.

“A department doesn’t have as much to do with what the program is as it does with the mechanics of building a faculty and making money flow through the system,” he said. “If you’re a department, then you have all of the responsibility of running academic programs, and also a lot of other activities having to do with both faculty assessment and budgetary distribution.”

From Ladusaw’s perspective, it was being a department that killed American studies, and that could pose danger to other fields.

“We’ve got interdisciplinarity all over the place, but creating new little departments is not a smart thing to do,” he said. “That’s one of the things American studies showed. When I first came here, there was no American studies program, but they, from their departments, formed an interdisciplinary program. Later, they got the bright idea of creating a department instead of just having a program. If we knew then what we know now,” he concluded with a chuckle.

Ladusaw says he could see American studies and other departments being brought back to life as academic programs, though proper planning would be important to ensure students could still get into the classes they needed.

“In getting rid of the department, we don’t have to get rid of the program,” he said. “Part of the trouble is that when faculty were moving into these other departments, they felt that they were unable to promise, in perpetuity, that they would be able to teach the courses that they needed to teach in order to keep the American studies major going.”

But department chair Eric Porter doesn’t quite see the feasibility of existing that way, though he said he’s considered it.

“There was actually a quite long conversation that went on [before the decision was made to dissolve the department]” he said. “What were our options? Should American studies become a program in another department? Or we could merge with another department. Then there was also this idea of reconstituting as an interdepartmental program, and there’s some versions of that in the division, like Jewish studies and classical studies, but we’re significantly bigger than them, so it’s still unclear how that would happen.”

Literature professor Susan Gillman sees blurring the lines between departments and even between divisions (such as humanities and engineering) as a possible bright future for UCSC.

“Santa Cruz, for all its interdisciplinarity, has a very fixed set of divisional structures which make it harder to talk across them,” said Gillman, who is also a faculty member affiliated with American studies. “There is this horrible cliché, ‘let no budget crisis go to waste.’ That’s the idea — you can think the unthinkable much more easily.”

This is how Gillman envisions critical race and ethnic studies working, which brings up a whole new issue. One of the biggest arguments thrown around for keeping American studies has always been that it offers a path for students to pursue ethnic studies. If American studies is eventually brought back, it’s unclear how the two would coexist.

What role ethnic studies plays in American studies has long been a point of contention both on campus and on a national level.

Today, humanities professor Robinson teaches classes that he says are intended for American studies students, but his business card identifies him as a “humanities professor.” He made this switch a few years ago, after realizing that the American studies department at UCSC was going in a direction — towards more ethnic studies — that he didn’t agree with.

“I always thought of American studies as the study of the United States in all its dimensions,” Robinson said, “with attention to race, class and gender, but certainly not exclusively. I never thought of American studies as an ethnic studies program. I see them as entirely different.”

Michael Cowan, too, pointed out that American studies is not solely about the issue of race, but rather that race plays a role in American studies. He also speculated that Executive Vice Chancellor Alison Galloway’s motivation for supporting an ethnic studies major as a replacement for American studies, rather than building on American studies’ own long-standing successful focus on cultural diversity, might be in part that she believed it would “solve some political problems.” But Gillman pointed out American studies’ approach to race at UCSC was not always fulfilling to all professors on campus.

“We wanted to be more global, and it was difficult to do that in the way the program was set up,” she said. “One of the courses was called ‘The African-American Experience.’ Experience was singular, as though it were all homogeneous. That model of ethnicity came to be questioned. American studies had long had an uneasy relationship with ethnic studies.”

If American studies makes a comeback and ethnic studies is born on this campus, then what roles would they play with each other? UC Berkeley has both an American studies program and an ethnic studies program, while the University of Southern California combines the two into one.

It remains unclear what could happen at UCSC. Despite Ladusaw’s insistence the American studies major will return in one way or another, others are unconvinced. Professor Robinson expressed doubt, and Porter said American studies coming back might be “an impossibility at this point,” though he said he is optimistic for critical race and ethnic studies.

But for the next three years, American studies remains, though it is being phased out. After the class of 2014 graduates, an entire area of study will, at least for a while, be leaving with them. A lot of reasons have been given as to why, but still some questions remains. One from Cowan, the man who made this major possible, feels particularly relevant.

“Once the horses were out of the barn, once the faculty had left, it was virtually impossible to pull them back together,” he said. “To switch metaphors, my sense is they wanted to avoid remaining on what they saw as a sinking ship. The question is whether, at some key moments, if there had been the right leadership at several campus levels or more conversations, especially with students … that might have changed.”

Illustration by Christine Hipp.

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted to place a moratorium on marijuana dispensaries within unincorporated areas of the county in a meeting on Nov. 15.

Dana McRae, county lawyer, wrote a letter to the board on Nov. 9 suggesting the moratorium in reaction to a recent appellate court–published opinion. The Los Angeles County Superior Court decision ruled local governments in California are not allowed to authorize medical marijuana permits.

Federal and state laws regarding marijuana use are in conflict. Further, local regulations are sometimes in violation of state laws. District One county supervisor John Leopold said the decision to implement a moratorium was made to prevent breaking California law.

“Rather than opening more [cannabis dispensaries] without a clear set of rules, we decided that a moratorium was important until we get clarity about what we can and cannot do from the California Supreme Court,” Leopold said.

The tenth amendment to the Constitution states powers not granted to the federal government are within the jurisdiction of each state.

Leopold said over 74 percent of Santa Cruz County voters voted in favor of the Compassionate Use Act, or Prop 215. The 1996 measure, passed with 56 percent of the statewide vote, allowed for medicinal use of cannabis.

“We’re trying to fulfill what the voters asked us to do and we don’t want that right being taken away,” he said.

Santa Cruz County is joining the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit to defend local jurisdiction over medical marijuana regulations. District Three supervisor Neal Coonerty said in an email local regulations in the county are worthy of support.

“Our ordinance has been described as a model for how jurisdictions can regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in a reasonable and responsible manner.”

Supervisor Leopold said the moratorium can be lifted at any time, but the Board of Supervisors is waiting to see how the Supreme Court addresses the issue.

“There have been other rulings that seem to contradict the Long Beach ruling,” Leopold said. “If the Supreme Court takes [the case], we will keep the moratorium in place until they rule. If they decide not to take it, we would probably make a decision on whether it was our best strategy or not.”

Both Leopold and Coonerty said they support medical cannabis like the majority of their constituents. Coonerty said he doesn’t want the law to keep people from their medicine.

“I have supported safe access for medical marijuana patients for many years,” Coonerty said, “and I remain committed to ensuring that patients will continue to have access to their medicine in Santa Cruz County.”

Illustration by Jamie Morton.

A recent corruption scandal has been discovered in AFSCME local 3299, a branch of the largest UC labor union that represents nearly 20,000 patient care and service workers. According to recent reports, corruption charges have been directed at newly elected AFSCME local 3299 president Kathryn Lybarger and other staff members, including executive vice president Jessica Agost and financial secretary Ruben Santos.

Charges being brought against members of the newly elected administration include allegations of racial discrimination, election tampering and mismanagement of union funds.

“Based on what we know to be factual, the evidence is compelling,” said Kat Bedford, chair of the AFSCME 3299 Election Committee, in a report recently released to UC student media outlets. “This may be one of the worst corruption cases in AFSCME history and I hope the national union takes action before its too late.”

Lybarger, a UC Berkeley groundskeeper, was sworn in as local 3299 president on Oct. 27 after receiving a reported 66 percent voter approval rating, soundly defeating incumbent president Lakesha Harrison. However, after recent allegations, some are calling for the newly-elected president to step down.

“Its very saddening that in their desire to control the union, these individuals have caused great harm to the members of our union,” said Jannet Pascual, AFSCME 3299 recording secretary, in the report. “The claim is that they stole and misused our union’s resources for their personal gain. Union members from all across California demand that Lybarger and co-conspirators resign and that our parent union steps in immediately.”

In light of the corruption allegations, calls have been made for AFSCME international president Gerald McEntee to place the union under a trusteeship, which would allow the parent union to take control of local 3299 in an effort to stabilize the union’s finances and protect union member assets from possible corruption.

Bill Pool, a maintenance worker at Merrill College and AFSCME union member, is opposed to the idea of placing local 3299 under a trusteeship, as he claims it would allow the international union to assume power for up to 18 months.

Pool said he feels charges against recent president-elect Lybarger were brought about by ex-president Harrison and her supporters, who could not accept defeat in the recent election.

“I think that Lakesha [Harrison] is a sore loser, and that she ran the union for her own benefit, not for the people,” Pool said.

Pool recalled past instances where Harrison called on local 3299 members to strike, seemingly in an attempt to only benefit her own political aspirations within the union.

“We went on strike three and half years ago in the middle of summer when no one was here, we marched up from the base of campus in blistering heat waving signs at each other, it was basically pointless,” Pool said. “It only made sense if Lakesha Harrison was running in the next election, in which she actually was and elected to international board.”

Pool said he fears placing local 3299 under a trusteeship could help Harrison, as she has connections in the AFSCME International Board. He is calling on union members to speak out against the plans to place AFSCME local 3299 under a trusteeship by contacting international president McEntee.

President Lybarger and ex-president Harrison were unavailable for comment.

Illustration by Matt Boblet.

‘Tis the season for hot chocolate, holiday parties, lots of shopping and going to the movies. This holiday season is prime time for the world of cinema, with over three dozen films being released between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. From Oscar contenders to action blockbusters and romantic comedies, here is a small taste of some of the films that will be opening during winter break.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Director: Stephen Daldry
Stars: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock
Release date: Dec. 25
Genre: Drama

Based on the 2005 novel of the same name, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” tells the story of nine-year-old Oskar Schell (Horn), whose father died in the 9/11 attacks. Oskar finds a mysterious key in his father’s closet two years after his death and is determined to find the lock that matches this key. Through his journey searching the five boroughs of New York City to find the lock, he meets people and goes places that shed light on his father’s life, his own, and the complex world that is post-9/11 New York. The movie touches on the difficulty of grieving when the audience sees Oskar and his mother (Bullock) disconnect from each other in the midst of mourning their father and husband (Hanks). Movie adaptations of books are known to rarely live up to the reader’s expectations, but with an outstanding cast and director, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” may be an exception.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris
Release date: Dec. 16
Genre: Action-adventure

Sherlock Holmes is back, and this time he’s not the the only mastermind in the room. The ruthless Professor Moriarty, who matches Holmes in intelligence but lacks any kind of conscience, becomes Holmes’ prime suspect in his investigation of the death of the crown prince of Austria — although the cause of the prince’s death is supposedly suicide, Holmes suspects the prince was killed by Moriarty. More importantly, Holmes discovers the murder is only a small part of Moriarty’s secret plan, which will shock and destroy the world. The sequel continues as Holmes (Downey Jr.) and his loyal sidekick Dr. Watson (Law) chase Moriarty through visually impressive period violence. One part mystery, one part epic, one part bromance, this film is sure to transport you to a more exciting place.

The Adventures of Tintin

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig
Release date: Dec. 21
Genre: Animation/family

Whether you grew up reading the comic books or your parents read them, most people remember “The Adventures of Tintin,” coming to theaters this December. Young reporter Tintin (voice of Bell) and his dog companion, Snowy discover a ship with an astonishing secret. Escaping the gambit of classic Tintin villains, Tintin and Snowy travel around the world to find an important artifact that holds the ancient curse on the ship. Following the trend of big-name directors remaking classic children’s books, the film takes Tintin out of the panel and puts him on the screen in 3-D, sure to complement Spielberg’s cinematography nicely and add to the adventure.

New Year’s Eve

Director: Garry Marshall
Stars: Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Robert de Niro, Ashton Kutcher
Release date: Dec. 9
Genre: Comedy

Remember the 2010 holiday film, “Valentine’s Day”? Well, imagine it took place on New Year’s Eve. Garry Marshall has once again gathered an ensemble cast of stars to celebrate forgiveness, love, new beginnings and other typical feel-good themes of the holiday. Set in the Big Apple and shot entirely on location, the audience is able to see much of the city following the criss-crossing plot lines and experience the excitement of New Year’s Eve in the one and only Times Square. Lighthearted and funny, “New Year’s Eve” is an appropriate holiday pick.

Young Adult

Director: Jason Reitman
Stars: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt
Release date: Dec. 9
Genre: Comedy-drama

Director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody reunite again in this black comedy after working together on the 2007 hit “Juno.” Theron stars as literature writer Mavis Gary, also known as the girl that everybody hated in high school. She comes back to her small town to win back her now-married high school sweetheart (Wilson) but realizes her conquest is not as easy as she thought it would be. Gary is newly-divorced and unhappy, while her high school boyfriend is happily married with kids — a strong contrast and interesting play on gender roles. While she tries to win his affections, she befriends a former nerd (Oswalt). Gary remains an immature, mean person despite everybody else in the film, which proves that some people never really grow out of high school.

Other movies coming out during winter break

The Sitter
Director: David Gordon Green
Stars: Jonah Hill
Release date: Dec. 9
Genre: Comedy

I Melt With You
Director: Mark Pellington
Stars: Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe
Release date: Dec. 9
Genre: Thriller

Carnage
Director: Roman Polanski
Stars: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly, Christopher Waltz
Release date: Dec. 16
Genre: Comedy

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Director: Mike Mitchell
Stars: Jason Lee, Anna Faris, Justin Long, Christina Applegate
Release date: Dec. 16
Genre: Family

The Iron Lady
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Stars: Meryl Streep
Release date: Dec. 16
Genre: Drama

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Director: David Fincher
Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara
Release date: Dec. 21
Genre: Thriller

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Director: Brad Bird
Stars: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner
Release date: Dec. 21
Genre: Action

We Bought a Zoo
Director: Cameron Crowe
Stars: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Patrick Fugit
Release date: Dec. 23
Genre: Comedy drama

The Darkest Hour
Director: Chris Gorak
Stars: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby
Release date: Dec. 25
Genre: Action

War Horse
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson
Release date: Dec. 25
Genre: Drama

Illustration by Matt Boblet.

Have you ever recorded a cover of a Lady Gaga song and published it on YouTube, captioned a “Downfall” (aka “Hitler Reacts To”) video, or created a Harry Potter-related meme?

If Texas Rep. Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio) has his way, you will be considered a criminal.

If it sounds too ludicrous to be true, think again. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was proposed by Smith in the House of Representatives in October, would make it a felony to stream copyrighted work that would cost more than $2,500 to license. This means the average college student posting memes for noncommercial purposes could face a five-year jail sentence if convicted.

While it is understandable on the surface that the federal government would want to combat online piracy, doing so through these overbearing means would hurt their cause more than help it. Not only would it affect persons who may post copyrighted content for purely entertainment purposes, but it would also negatively impact the many people who view these videos and images every day. It would undermine an entire cultural current, interfere with our right to free speech, and, as opponents to this bill have stated, break the Internet.

The demise of free music-sharing corporations like Napster shows big business and politicians alike consider piracy a significant problem. Forty billion music files (or 95 percent of worldwide music downloads) were shared illegally in 2008, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Still, there’s a big difference between someone who downloads hundreds of songs illegally and two friends lip-synching to their favorite Britney Spears hit.

SOPA doesn’t acknowledge this obvious distinction, however. It would allow copyright owners to ask banks and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to shut down websites that contain pirated content and block funds for that company if they don’t remove said content within a five-day period. That means some of the most popular websites — like YouTube, Facebook and eBay — could be at risk if this bill were to pass. Those companies and six others wrote a letter to the Committee on the Judiciary to voice their concerns about SOPA, citing that the bill poses threats to job creation and cybersecurity if passed.

Consider the trickle-down effect it would have on consumers if websites from AOL to Zynga were forced to restrict material for fear of lawsuit. By default, the government would be restricting content published by news entities and average citizens alike, thereby interfering with two different sections of the First Amendment in one fell swoop.

This bill should not be passed as currently constructed and should be rewritten to only include those who are infringing copyright laws for truly malevolent purposes, like selling counterfeit medicine, an example that has been cited with this bill. In the meantime, taking the old-fashioned “write your representative” approach by signing the “Stop the E-Parasite Act” petition would be a good place to start.

Illustration by Christine Hipp.

The trouble with mobilizing the 99 percent is the “few bad apples” syndrome.

Just over two years ago, UC Santa Cruz students rallied, bearing signs asking students to “raise hell” over the 32.5 percent fee increase voted on by the UC Board of Regents. On Nov. 19, 2009, approximately 150 students occupied Kerr Hall, eventually barricading themselves inside in protest. When police raided the building and removed the student occupiers, UCSC faculty and students alike were aghast at the reported cost of damage to the facility: nearly $35,000 — an arbitrary and  perhaps conflated amount — was charged to 35 students.

The Kerr Hall incident marked a peak in a brief series of occupations fueled by student angst, administrative indifference, and to some extent, a sense of abandon. An earlier occupation of the Graduate Student Commons had mixed results. Similar to the Kerr Hall occupation, four students were charged with $532 a piece for damages incurred.

While the protest itself was a testament to UCSC student activism, former Executive Vice Chancellor Dave Kliger pointed out in a 2009 email the drawbacks to occupations:

“Unfortunately, occupying buildings — a library last week, an administrative building this week — does little more than divert precious resources while denying others their rightful access to campus facilities and services,” he wrote.

As students, we all feel the brunt of the blow when fees get hiked up and cuts come down. Student movements like these and subsequent occupations should and have drawn attention to these facts. When instances of vandalism occur, it detracts from the overall sincerity and effectiveness of what is trying to be accomplished because it validates skeptics’ criticisms. Simply put, it distracts from the message. We would like to commend the students who occupied Hahn Student Business Services Center for recognizing this.

The Nov. 28 occupation is particularly praiseworthy for seizing control of the administration’s workday while simultaneously being considerate of the student body at large.

As the occupation’s media relations spokesperson, third-year Adam White described the occupation as “really organized” and “very civil compared to Kerr Hall.”

“We all made an agreement that we weren’t going to fuck shit up,” White said.

The Hahn building is both one of the best and worst places for the Occupy movement to have taken place. In solidarity with UC Davis occupiers, the UCSC student body shut down the campus bank. Yet the building also houses other critical resources, including the Disability Resource Center and the Student Financial Aid Office.

But by clearing out of their occupation Tuesday morning, the occupiers show that they remain mindful of the student body at large.

This latest occupation proved student activism will not be a rope for the administration to hang us with. It is about showing students care about student issues, and we’re not going to pay for it.

Angie Wootton, volunteer coordinator at the Santa Cruz AIDS Project, pins the universal red AIDS ribbon to her shirt. The Santa Cruz AIDS Project will commemorate World AIDS Day Thursday, alongside AIDS awareness groups from around the world. Photo by Prescott Watson.

It is estimated that globally 34 million people are currently living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Thursday, Dec. 1 marks the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day, a day to commemorate those living with or who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza, the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP) invites the community to attend the World AIDS Day Remembrance Celebration to honor the millions of lives worldwide affected by the disease.

The program will consist of musical performances, lighting of remembrance candles, words of compassion and the reading of names of those in Santa Cruz County who have lost their lives to AIDS/HIV. The ceremony will conclude with the opportunity for the audience to share the names of family and friends who have passed, followed by a reception.

“HIV affects some of the most vulnerable people that don’t necessarily have any sort of visible presence that people see,” said Angie Wootton, SCAP volunteer coordinator and a former UCSC student. “Because they don’t have that [visibility], there’s a stigma. It keeps people from speaking up for themselves. That’s why it is important to have these events where the community gets together.”

In light of federal budget cuts, in 2008 SCAP terminated their education prevention program. Since then, SCAP has had volunteers reach out to the community as best as they can.

Wootton said approximately 25 of 38 volunteers are UCSC students.

UCSC student Rachel Hastert explained why she chose to volunteer for SCAP.

“It’s an important issue, and [it] affects so many people,” Hastert said. “I wanted to do something in the community and I like working with people.”

Volunteers is vital to continuing SCAP’s work.

“There’s been funding cuts, so we have a harder time going out to spread our message about HIV testing, spreading free condoms and our information about services,” Wootton said. “This is one of those ways we can create more community recognition about SCAP and let people know that we exist and that we have services.”

Patricia Castagnola, SCAP director of client services, addressed the lack of proper education about AIDS/HIV.

“They talk briefly about it in school,” she said. “Maybe for sex education, like a sentence.”

Due to the lack of funding for outreach, SCAP representatives say there is little education on how a person can contract AIDS/HIV.

“There’s a stigma since it’s less public and people are talking about it less,” Wootton said. “[People think] if you got it, it was completely your fault. There’s a lot of blaming for people who are positive, for their choices or their lifestyles or for something about them that people think inherently makes them not worthy of making good decisions.”

SCAP members stress the importance of being informed about AIDS, and remind the public of its existence.

“I think our younger generation feels that ‘people aren’t dying as they did in the 80s,’ and maybe they feel that they can’t get it,” Castagnola said. “That issue is still out there and people aren’t having safe sex and they’re sharing needles and doing things that they aren’t being careful of.”

Due to the lack of education, public awareness and resulting stigmas, many SCAP clients do not attend the annual event. While a current SCAP client will speak at the ceremony, Wootton said many are still too uncomfortable to attend.

“Even on the one day of the year dedicated to remembering those who have passed from HIV and honoring those who are currently living with HIV, there’s still so much stigma … We can’t expect our clients to come out for themselves,” she said.

SCAP encourages individuals to get involved outside of World AIDS Day and provides various opportunities for people to contribute to the effort to fight AIDS.

“We’re always looking for volunteers and we take donations,” Castagnola said. “We have a food pantry here and different groups here do food drives for us. We had a church … that instead of going trick-or-treating, they went trick-or-treating for canned foods for us. They do that every year and it’s a great way of helping our clients.”

SCAP encourages supporters to wear the red ribbon, the international symbol of AIDS, in honor and remembrance of this day. They will be handed out during event.

“The whole point is to have a visible symbol,” Wootton said. “When you walk around, people ask you what it is or if they know it, they’re reminded of it.”

My mom is a flight attendant who travels to a variety of places on a schedule that is not very consistent. Recently, I got to accompany her on a layover in Seattle, Wash. When I met her in Washington, she showed me Pike’s Market, the Space Needle, the wharf, and the shopping district in the city. As the day ended, we went back to the hotel for the night, but my mom did not get to relax. Instead was preparing for a trip to Fairbanks, Ala. and would return to Seattle in the same night.

Through what my mom showed me in Seattle, I captured part of the flight attendant experience. As flight attendants travel they evolve into unique transient locals to the cities they visit, with knowledge of the hidden treasures and treats. However, sometimes after a long flight it’s appealing to spend the day relaxing in a hotel room and catching up on missed sleep. The flight attendant lifestyle is about the all too short layovers that introduce a city, but never give enough time to get completely comfortable in one place before departing for the next.