Photo by Prescott Watson.

Despite the steady drizzle of rain and the cool winter winds, bonfires crackled and students eagerly lined up to jump over the orange flames, their faces glowing from the fire’s light. Leaping over the burning firewood, men and women sung out in Farsi a simple phrase:  zardi-ye man az to, sorkhi-ye to az man.

Roughly translated to mean, “you take my sickness and I’ll take the good,” it was a call for a new year and new beginning.“As a kid, I always would be scared to jump over the fire,” said Payam Shaaf, second-year Cowell student. With a grin he added, “But after you do it, it feels awesome.”

As part of Chaharshanbeh Soori, the Persian celebration of the spring equinox, the Iranian Student Network (ISN) hosted a traditional celebration this past Tuesday night, March 13.

Chaharshanbeh Soori traces its roots to the Zorastrian religion, the dominant Persian religion prior to Islam.

Determined to keep the festivities ablaze and the participants undaunted by the gray Santa Cruz weather, about 30 students gathered to commemorate the Persian new year — a holiday traditionally spent with family.

Amin Ronaghi, an organizer of the night’s events, said with an undertone of humor that Chaharshanbeh Soori is never cancelled.

“I grew up in Sweden,” Ronaghi said. “It would be raining, it would be snowing, but there would still be soccer fields filled with 40-50,000 people, all jumping over fire.”

As students trickled in, escaping the rain for a brightly lit kitchen and warm company, hallways and rooms filled with laughter and happy chatter.

Bardia Keyoumarsi, a third-year student originally from Iran, said that having only lived in the United States for a few years, American celebrations at the end of December still feel foreign to him.

“In Iran, [Chaharshanbeh Soori] is everywhere. You really feel it in the air, everyone’s mood brightens up,” Keyoumarsi said. “With it comes happiness.”

Typically a two-week long celebration, the new year festivities are centered on family and community. For example, in Iran, Keyoumarsi explained, people visit the surviving family of the deceased to pay their respects and show support.

Yalda Yekta, a fourth-year and member of ISN, said she has always found ways to celebrate Chaharshanbeh Soori, even if it was only with local friends. The holiday, she said, has always been important to her and she looks forward to it every year.

“I have very distinct memories of being a kid and being together with my family. Everyone is just eating, talking, enjoying each other’s company,” Yeleta said. “It was a fun time of the year where we could celebrate and be together … it’s a time of new beginnings.”

Because Chaharshanbeh Soori typically falls near the end of the winter quarter, many Iranian students have to bypass the celebrations in order to prepare for exams. But the small celebration ISN put together was, for now, enough to quell longings for home.

Second-year Shaaf said he was initially hesitant about coming to ISN’s celebration. Originally from Iran, Shaaf said he valued the time he spends with his family on Chaharshanben Soori and wasn’t really sure what to expect from the night’s celebrations.

He conceded with a nod, however, that “it looked pretty good.”

Yeleta said she has always wanted to bring her culture and Chaharshanbeh Soori to the UCSC community — without the typical politically drenched rhetoric often trailing behind the mere utterance of the word “Iran.”

“What we’re doing here isn’t about politics or religion,” she said. “I really try to make [ISN] non-political … I want this to be a place to celebrate our culture.”

As the night began to wind down, electronic-heavy Iranian beats blasted from speakers and men and women stood up, swaying and dancing to the music.

But while the fire had died out, the smell of smoke still clung to clothes. A reminder that the new year had started.

The men's volleyball competes against Hope International at there last home game on March 9. The team won their last home game and are now preparing for the rest of the season. Photo by Morgan Grana.

In the middle of their sweep of Hope International, the UC Santa Cruz men’s volleyball team was hitting the ball hard enough that it could be heard outside the West Field House and in the neighboring dorms. With every deafening shot, the 230 attending students erupted, adding to the noise of ball hitting hardwood. These fans had reason to cheer: The Banana Slugs are now the best Division III men’s volleyball team in the nation.“It’s great to get the recognition we deserve,” senior libero Darren Tsai said. “It’s a great stepping stone for where we want to be.”The Slugs (9-4) have been on a tear since prevailing over Fontbonne University and taking the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC) Tournament in St Louis by storm one weekend ago. In tournament play, they defeated Fontbonne, Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), Mount St. Joseph’s and previously top-ranked Carthage on their way to victory. In their streak, the Slugs have lost one of out of 13 sets played.The game against Hope International was the team’s fifth sweep in seven games played since Feb. 17.UCSC volleyball coach Todd Hollenbeck was pleased with the win but is looking ahead to the MSOE CVC Tournament. The Slugs will have to defeat four teams in two days to get a second round bye for the CVC championship, held on April 13-15 in Greenville, Pa. Should the Slugs win out, they will receive an automatic bid to the first-ever NCAA Division III Men’s National Volleyball Championship tournament. Hollenbeck said their Milwaukee trip may be this season’s turning point.“As much as it’s nice to win, it’s not big on our schedule,” Hollenbeck said.  “Next up for us will be Milwaukee. Our results there will really shape the future of our season.”In particular, Hollenbeck anticipates playing a rematch against third-ranked Carthage, which he believes will be their toughest test of the tournament. Carthage is the lone team to win a set against the Slugs since the beginning their streak.

“Carthage is our biggest opponent,” Hollenbeck said. “It was a battle last time. They’re a great program with a lot of talent. This will be a great match to beat them in.”

The game was men’s volleyball’s last home game of the season. After their win, the team honored seniors Paul Leon, Thomas Davidson, Darren Tsai, Jake Dietrich,  Bryce Mayer and Shane Yablonka. Each player received a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd.

“No matter what we’ll do, we’ll be champs,” senior captain and setter Paul Leon said. “Playing with this team has been very special to me.”

Despite the recent victories, Hollenbeck is targeting areas for improvement. The coach will focus on sharpening their serves to better meet their challenges. Hollenbeck said improved serving will force opposing teams to counter the Slugs’ blocking and defense, which he identified as key to their victory over Hope International.

“We could definitely improve on our serving,” Hollenbeck said. “We served well, but we are capable of doing better. The more serves in, the more chances we get to use our strengths.”

Captain Leon has been impressed by the team’s chemistry on and off the court. Leon identified teamwork as the reason the team currently sits atop the national polls.

“We have each other’s backs both in the gym and out of it,” Leon said. “We’re not just playing for a team, but for a great school that has supported us so well.”

Tsai, who plays in the position of libero, finds the team is making great strides, but shares Hollenbeck’s view that more work is needed to finish as champions. Tsai believes their ranking will be irrelevant without a championship trophy to end the year.

“We don’t worry about that — we just go one point at a time,” Tsai said. “The ranking only matters if we’re No. 1 at the end of the year. That’s what we all want.”

The Slugs will play against University of the Pacific in Stockton on March 23 before entering the MSOE CVC Tournament on March 29.

Global Cities, a sociology class taught by Miriam Greenberg, is held at the base of campus during the March 1st protests that shut down campus.

For video coverage of this event, check out City on a Hill Press’ section on the website: www.sctv28.com. 

Despite the rain drenching the gathered crowd of between 100-200, spirits were high. Occupy Education strikers gathered at the entrances of UC Santa Cruz since 4:00 a.m. Student and faculty protesters congregated on March 1 for the state-wide Day of Action, hiding from the rain between tents and a truck bearing blaring speakers.

“It is our expectation that the participants will remain respectful of the needs of the broader campus community and that the day will unfold in a safe and positive manner,” according to the announcement.

At 8:30 a.m., a Ford Mustang attempted to break through a student barricade. Some students were knocked over by the car, but were rescued by other protesters.

“We were just standing there, trying to keep warm,” said Abby Edwards. “Next thing I knew I was on top of the hood and then on the ground. We weren’t even on the front line.”

UC Santa Cruz police chief Nader Oweis said that this incident was of concern to the UCSC police. They are still interviewing witnesses, and charges have yet to be pressed.

Students brave the cold and rain, blocking off the Glenn Coolridge Dr. UCSC entrance as part of the March 1st protest which shut down campus. Photos by Toby Silverman.

“Having that car attack, it worried us. Our goal is to keep everybody safe. We just don’t want any altercations,” Oweis said.

Oweis said that the top priority of the UCSC police department was safety.

“At 5:00 p.m., there are going to be a lot of families trying to get off campus with their kids,” Oweis said. “I’m worried about when it gets dark. We just want to make sure nobody gets hurt.”

Graduate student Omid Mohamadi had a similar appraisal of the situation.

“The guy who hit the protesters was angry from the beginning. We kept the line and stayed peaceful,” Mohamadi said. “I think there is a silent agreement between us and the police to keep things peaceful.”

Besides this and other incidents, the protest otherwise remained relatively calm. But some students were disappointed by the relatively low turnout.

“What has it come to?” asked an unnamed female protester. “More people show up for 4/20. Things shut down completely for 4/20. I expected a lot more.”

Mohamadi thought that the turnout was acceptable, given the weather.

“Despite the rain, people are still out here,” he said.

Speakers blaring Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” obscured the voices of some protesters and it was difficult to spot clear leaders, but protesters made their opinions heard nonetheless.

Students surround the "University of California Santa Cruz" sign at the front entrance of campus on High Street during the March 1st protest that shut down campus.

“I’m here because I don’t think there’s any other way for students to be heard,” said another protester. “I think we relate to certain services in the wrong way–health care, public education. These are for the public good, and should be treated as such. My little sister wants to come to [the] UC, and my family isn’t going to be able to send her.”

Some UC workers empathized with the protesters’ grievances. Union worker George McCombie of AFSCME 3299 (the UC worker’s union) wasn’t able to work on campus due to the blocked entrances, but took the opportunity to attend the protest.

“I’m out here to support the students. When I started working here ten years ago, tuition was just over $3000; it’s doubled twice since then,” McCombie said. “I have a nine-year-old son– at this rate, by the time he’s university age, it’ll be over $50,000. It’s not sustainable.”

McCombie said the UC needs to take budget cuts in administrative departments.

“Faculty is the brains, unions are the brawn, and administrators are the fat. That’s where we should cut–administrator salaries, UCOP,” McCombie said. “We should spare faculty and keep class sizes down.”

The protest is slated to run until roughly 8:00 pm–at time of publication, the protest is still ongoing. The protest is scheduled to move to Sacramento on March 5th.

UCSC Professor David Swanger is Santa Cruz County's new poet laureate. Photo courtesy of David Chesluk.

City on a Hill Press sat down with Santa Cruz’s newly-appointed poet laureate David Swanger  (and his dog Choco) to talk about poetry, what the post means to him, and the changes he has seen in his 40-odd years at UC Santa Cruz.

CHP: When and how did you decide you wanted to become a poet?

Swanger: I’m not sure there was a decision point, but I began as a short story writer when I was living in England on a one-year fellowship, which I took as a year off from college. I went there and the conditions were ideal for me to become a writer: I was alienated a bit from my surroundings, the weather was damp and clammy, I didn’t know many people, and I had a lot of time on my hands. Then I found myself in graduate school, and emotionally distraught over love affairs. And I started writing poems late in the night, staying up late and writing these poems, which always look good to me at night — but they didn’t look so good in the morning.

Technology is continuing to change the way humans live and interact with each other on a daily basis. UC Santa Cruz alumna Rupa Dhillon has contributed to this change in a way few others have done before with a video game for both blind and sighted gamers.

Dhillon designed “Rock Vibe,” accessible both to the sighted and to the blind. Dhillon came up with the idea when she noticed a “Rock Band” controller while brainstorming for her thesis in a human-computer interactions course, part of her master’s program at UCSC.

“To play the game, you put on a wearable device that contains four or five vibrating motors,” Dhillon said. “Each motor would represent a color band you would respond to if you were playing Rock Band. So if you felt a vibration on the far left side of the device you would know that you would need to press the far left button on the guitar controller or keyboard.”

Research for the game was published by the Association for Computing and Machinery after Dhillon presented the game at their national conference.

Rock Vibe Belt Prototype

Sri Kurniawan, UCSC computer engineering professor and former instructor for Rupa’s human-computer interactions course, said “Rock Vibe” is an inclusive gaming model.

“‘Rock Vibe’ is a much bigger scheme,” Kurniawan said. “We are looking to modify mainstream games that interact with both sighted and blind people.”

Kurniawan’s research is in games for health and healthy living, including assistive technology for people with disabilities and people with low social economic and educational backgrounds.

“There are quite a number of games that can be played by people who are blind,” Kurniawan said. “However, there are fewer games that a blind person and a sighted person could play together.”

Traditional board games like chess and Battleship allow sighted and visually impaired players to interact together, she said.

While there are options, Dhillon said they are limited and not attractive to the average player.

“Most games are really simple — they don’t do much, and aren’t very fun,” Dhillon said. “There are many games available for both sighted and blind people, but again, they’re too simplistic to be taken into the mainstream.”

While the game has only been played by game testers, Dhillon is hoping to give access to the community through centers for the blind and visually impaired.

Sharon Hudson has been working as an associate director and teacher at the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired for 28 years. Hudson said current technology hasn’t been as inclusive of the blind community as it can be.

“Things like the iPhone and computers have been great in general, but they continue to make them more visual,” Hudson said. “They’re producing more devices with icons and touch screens … things that aren’t accessible to the visually impaired.

Hudson said “Rock Vibe” could be something her students will enjoy.

“I know a lot of our students are interested in music, so anything that would make them connect with others would be great,” she said.

“Rock Vibe” is hoping to receive most of its funding from the online pledge website, Kickstarter. Kickstarter opens a pledge system for projects to raise funds and sets a goal the project must reach in order to receive any of the pledge funds. Dhillon has until Feb. 25 to raise $16,500 or the project won’t receive any funds. As of Feb. 1, over $12,000 has been pledged toward the project. The Kickstarter project can be found here.

“It is possible to create games that can reach a wide range of people, regardless of their capabilities,” Dhillon said. “It is possible to bring people together, no matter their differences. And I hope that ‘Rock Vibe’ can show people that.”

Illustration by Jamie Morton.

Twitter announced last week in its blog post, “Tweets still must flow,” that it will begin censoring its users’ tweets on a country-by-country basis, which in a way is contradictory.

The announcement means that, at the request of United States law enforcement officials, the company will delete any post from the eyes of viewers in a specific country, leaving those posts available to other countries.

Before this controversial move, content on Twitter could still be censored, but the censored information or tweets would be erased completely and disappear worldwide.

Some may see the step to censor individual countries from others as a liberating one because it doesn’t completely erase the censored tweets, but that would be misguided.Twitter will be setting a bad precedent if it continues, as an extension of the U.S. government or otherwise, to censor information. Twitter is a tool that has brought about revolutions, but it is becoming more and more subject to the hand of government rather than serving as a platform for freedom of speech.

For an American-based company, freedom of speech should always apply, even if the majority of users are outside the United States.

Some say the Internet cannot and should not be entirely free and open, and applaud Twitter’s announcement. This opinion comes most forcefully from the countries of Thailand and China, which both censor their citizens. China’s state-run newspaper, Global Times, published an editorial in the wake of Twitter’s announcement written by Xu Ming that states, “It is impossible to have boundless freedom, even on the Internet and even in countries that make freedom their main selling point.”

This is not true for Twitter. If the company wants to survive, grow and remain accessible to all people across the world, it needs to step back from censorship.

But it is true Twitter wants to look out for its financial standing. This is evident in the case of J.P. Morgan. Twitter failed to mark J.P Morgan’s Twitter feed as trending when it was being targeted by Occupy Wall Street last year, and in so doing, effectively cut other Twitter users off from important information. The explanation: J.P. Morgan is a major shareholder in Twitter.

As a newspaper that uses Twitter, we can say that censorship in any form inhibits our business and our freedom, as well as that of our readers. Neither Twitter nor the United States government has any business hindering freedom of information.

Illustration by Leigh Douglas

A thinktank of students at UC Riverside have taken on the perennial problem of tuition hikes with a revolutionary funding model.

Released to the public on Jan. 10, FixUC’s Student Investment Proposal outlines a tuition plan under which students would no longer pay up-front tuition costs. Rather, upon entering a career, graduates would instead pay 5 percent of their annual salary to the university for a total of 20 years.

According to the FixUC website, this will generate “nearly three times” the revenue of the current tuition system, and “allow the University of California to reduce its dependency on unreliable state funding.”

Drafting began last April, when editorial board members of UCR’s student-run newspaper The Highlander decided they had had enough of the consequences of California’s budget crisis.

“Every week, we published an editorial [about the state cutting from UC ] … we called on the regents and the student body to change their response strategy,” said FixUC president Chris LoCascio. “Ultimately, it got to a point where we ended up meeting one to two times a week to brainstorm and come up with a plan ourselves.”

The proposal was initially kept under wraps to prevent premature criticism.

“Once we had the core ideas, we essentially poked holes in it, and kept thinking about how it wouldn’t work,” LoCascio said. “We spent a lot of time coming [up] with solutions for [the complexities].”

Although the group initially didn’t present the plan to the general UC Riverside student body, the group approached several administrators and professors for input, and pursued research of their own.

Alex Abelson, a FixUC Data analyst and fourth-year economics major, obtained statistics from UC, IRS and U.S. Department of Labor records, and used some of his own field data.

“I took the core idea of [a fixed-percentage graduate contribution] and found the numbers,” Abelson said. “I went through what the university was making, and what would be a reliable amount of contribution that would sustain the university.”

Erik Green, UCSC’s Graduate Student Association president, said he supports students looking for solutions.

“’I’m really encouraged to see a truly radical funding model,” Green said. “Rather than the system we have now, which is based on the assumption that students will graduate and get jobs … It moves towards actual statistics and data.”

Repeatedly referencing a “worst-case scenario,” the proposal assumes a mere 60 percent employment rate at $50,000 annual salary for the first 10 years of employment.

“If you look closely at our figures, you will see we were very conservative,” LoCascio said.

Stephen Lee, Riverside’s Associate Student Body president, teamed up with FixUC in the fall to help with outreach. He arranged a meeting with Chancellor Timothy P. White, and has contacted the student leadership of other campuses. All, he said, have been very encouraging and have urged them to “keep going.”

“I can’t say I support every detail in the proposal,” said UC student regent Jonathan Stein in an email. “But it’s awesome that students have begun to think outside the box about budget solutions at the UC, and have stopped waiting for the administration to come up with all the answers for them.”

The proposal has already met scrutiny and skepticism, but its authors stress the importance of open dialogue and honest compromise.

“I think this is really the highest level of student that UC was created for,” Lee said, “to not only be very educated … but to really understand all of that knowledge, and stand up for it and fight.”

My friend Echo and I recently explored Cave Gulch, the steep ravine behind Porter and Kresge colleges. This is a great hike for those new to UC Santa Cruz’s ‘backyard’, and provides some great, laid-back adventure for those more familiar with the area.

Porter Meadow's main field. Head straight and to the right!

Start at Porter Meadows and take any of the trails heading northwest towards Empire Grade. You will enter a hillside descent leading towards Empire Cave, also known as Porter Cave.

We spelunked in the cave, but if you would like to go straight to the gulch, take the tunnel below Empire Grade and head west, parallel to the length of campus. The gulch winds all the way down to Hwy 1 and the ocean, although we got hungry and decided to turn back after covering about 3 miles.

All trails West of the Empire Cave tunnel head in the same direction (downstream/downhill leads you away from campus towards the ocean and vice versa takes you back home), making it difficult to get lost. There’s also a high degree of biodiversity in the gulch, including a few species endemic to the Cave Gulch area.

Empire (Porter) Cave

Empire Cave is the largest known cavern in Cave Gulch, and entering it feels a bit like descending into a bomb shelter. After taking a few moments to

Entrance to Porter (Empire) Cave.

gather some gumption, I swung my camera over my shoulder and we took the 25-foot ladder into the darkness. Adjusting to the starchy silence of still, cool air, we turned right and climbed upwards into the second and third rooms. The cave has a fair amount of stalagmites, which are cool to look at and also have several varieties of fungi growing on them. In fact we were surrounded by a startling amount of plant life—complete with aphids—and I wondered if some of the spindles we saw on the lower walls were the far-reaching roots of plants above.

Photos by KellyAnn Kelso

Wriggling up into the next room was a squeeze, and we were grateful we’d worn durable clothing and headlamps. Echo was getting a bit out of breath from the lower oxygen content, so we decided to rest where we were. In this room (squatting room only) were dozens of mud sculptures—cats and trolls and fairies and skulls and slugs, to name a few. They rested in the tiny pockets formed by acidic rainwater. Upon looking closer, we also noticed faint yellow paint on the walls — glow-in-the-dark-paint. We entertained ourselves for a good fifteen minutes “charging” the stuff with our flashlights and then switching them off to gaze at the spectacle. I felt like we were sitting in the night sky: tiny dabs of paint spread everywhere, accompanied by slightly larger, more flashy looking ‘stars’.

Cavematt Harvestman

There was a single word painted amongst the array, which I didn’t think to record. It wasn’t English, and I’m still curious about its significance. Sitting there, in the moist clay of that room, breathing cave air and gazing at the work of who knows who was an experience I will keep of my time here at UCSC. There are no pictures of this area, you’ll have to experience it for yourself. I’m definitely going back to find that word again.

The Empire Cave Spider

We left reluctantly, descending back (I only slipped four times) towards the mouth of the cave. We detoured into a crevice just beside the ladder, and saw a Triphosa moth (they hang out in the cave during the day and leave to feed at night), several red centipedes, and a banana slug, the first of several spotted that day.

Turning around, Echo found himself face to face with a horde of really, really big daddy long-legs, or Cavemat Harvestmen. I felt they belonged underwater, moving their two front legs like a lobster moves its antennae—slowly, languidly and eerily. In truth, these spiders are all bark (or quiver?) and no bite. They carry no fangs, venom, or silk glands, and are harmless to humans.

It was then that I spotted a much more formidable creature—the endangered Empire Cave Spider, which is found only in Cave Gulch. A predator of the Cavemat Harvestmen, it is indeed related to the Black Widow, and was far too much for me. I credit Echo with the photo in full; after staring at the obviously man-eating arachnid for thirty seconds, I started shrieking like a lunatic. Needless to say, we were quite happy to be above ground after that encounter. A brief note on the absurd amount of trash we found in some parts of the cave: spelunkers, please mind your chip and candy and condom wrappers! They’re a deflating ‘discovery’, and threaten the health of the already endangered Empire Cave Spider.

Out of Empire and into the Gulch

The graffiti-strewn tunnel next to Empire Cave, underneath Empire Grade Road.

Back in the signature smell of drying Bay leaves and Redwood bark, we headed towards the graffiti-covered tunnel below Empire  Grade.  I love the tunnels in Santa Cruz—it’s as though some head contractor  said “You kids wanted a tunnel and we built you a frigging tunnel! You never said anything about lighting the damn thing!” As it was daytime, this was not the  most opportune moment to run screaming bloody murder through the tunnel — I recommend trying it at night. Just past the road, a sign marks the “Fred T. Willbanks Inspirational Grove”.  We weren’t very inspired by the roadway–but another cave just beside the  tunnel proved to be enjoyable. A significantly tighter crevice than Empire  Cave, Echo was able to wedge himself into the mouth while I took several badly focused photos (for shame, Kelso…). Hiking further in, we settled in for a healthy bushwhack session and kept a close eye on some very friendly poison oak. During a rest I seized the opportunity to bite into a raw Bay nut; they are quite tasty when roasted but can be gag-inducing raw (see recipe).

The beautiful canopy of trees above Cave Gulch.

All in all, we traversed three miles over the large rocks — an interesting three miles for a six foot male and a five foot female indeed. My already squat legs were no match for Echo’s sure-footedness, and in the end we settled into a mutual respect for slingshot hiking — as in, one person goes on ahead while the second person ambles at a significantly slower pace, and at a certain point person one decides to wait up for said slowpoke, then darts ahead again just as person two rounds the bend. I was grateful that he wasn’t the world’s biggest gentleman about it; the embarrassment of it all pushed me to negotiate the awkward terrain more and more fluidly as time went by.

Along the way, Echo and I encountered several interesting life forms, including an artist’s conk on the underside of a fallen tree. The fungus makes a nice sketchpad to any hiker with a small scraping instrument. We drew a sun on its white underside, which would have grown over a few days later. There were other varieties of mushrooms along with the medley of plants and animals. In the springtime, Cave Gulch is the place to go for seeing California Giant Salamanders, in their juvenile stage, along the streambed.

Dry for the couple of miles, the streambed abruptly began gurgling for no apparent reason. Taking a closer look, we discovered another feature of Karst topography: underground chambers and tunnels collect rainwater, occasionally releasing it back above ground in a gentle geyser.

Coming up on a third and fourth cave further down in the gulch, we discovered that some smart guy had decided they wanted to change the general hiker’s orientation of Hell Hole. The faux hell hole had a nice chest of treasures tucked below its mouth; in it we found a deck of cards, some drawings, a few marbles and colored pencils.

Not Hell Hole. Hell Hole is located closer to the ocean than this cave. The name of this cave is unknown.

Hell Hole

The slender entrance-way of Hello Hole a ‘fitting’ initiation into the cave’s passageways. As both of us were pretty tired at this point,  we didn’t venture in for fear of getting stuck down there. Hell Hole is aptly named for the ill-prepared spelunker; do not venture into this cave without somebody who either knows its passageways or who will agree to stay above ground and make sure you find your way out (and bring a reliable flashlight).

THIS is the entrance to Hell Hole!

Both caves are located uphill on the Northern side of the gulch. A bit of internet research may lead you to various maps about where their exact loci are, but I’ve left their discovery to your own spelunking discretion.

Log bridge.

Shortly after Hell Hole we wandered towards a stream junction. Beyond this point, the water ran consistently, so we hopped the stream and took the biking trail. There was an interesting foot bridge, and I walked across it several times feeling very sophisticated.

If we had gone fishing, we would’ve see one trout — just one stinkin’ trout. But we’d gone hiking — so we saw a trout! It darted behind a rock when we came trundling through, however once we stopped and gave it a few moments of peace, it cautiously skittered out and hung around for a bit. It struck me that this is pretty much all a fish has to do in their life, besides eat and avoid being eaten. I’d still enjoy being a fish.

One of our last encounters was with a small organic hut erected beside the stream. I instantly coined the hut “Dragon Lair,” per the painting, but beyond that I was happy to leave it be. Hope you find it!

We hiked back in relative silence, partly because we were engrossed in our surroundings and mostly because we were really hungry.

It had been overcast when we set out that morning, yet as we came up out of the meadows the campus gleamed like a jewel.

Additional Resources

Roasted Bay nuts recipe/tasting experience: http://feralkevin.com/?p=295

A map from the UCSC Natural History Museum: http://www2.ucsc.edu/mnhc/ucscnh/podcasts/podcast_stuff/cg_map.pdf

The "Dragon Lair"

(We wandered far past what this map captures, but it’s a great reference point for finding Empire Cave near Porter and the crossing underneath Empire Grade. There’s also a podcast tour, which covers several of the critters you might find — and a very fun fact about our mascot).

Karst topography of the region includes several caves and other oddities: http://www.cancaver.ca/docs/karst.htm

Cave Gulch’s documented biodiversity (I don’t understand a lot of it, but some ENVS majors out there might appreciate this): http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/734/files/cavebio.pdf

A virtual 360º of the gulch: http://www.virtualparks.org/scenes/ZyWNi46FmAI9IYdP_IkBHwQ.html 

A close up of the traditional Mayan art now be shown at the Felix Kulpa Gallery in downtown Santa Cruz. Photos by Toby Silverman.

Tucked away in the highlands of Guatemala, rural San Pedro La Laguna is severely impacted by poverty. But students like Elizabeth Herrera will now have the chance to make a positive difference within the community through an internship with“Ayudame A Pintar Mi Futuro” (APMF), which means “Help Me Paint My Future.”

Herrera, a UCSC student majoring in community studies and legal studies, interned abroad in San Pedro and worked with APMF, a nonprofit organization that provides free art classes to impoverished children.

Through her field study, Herrera advocated for increased student involvement.

“My cause is education,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s here in Santa Cruz or abroad. It’s about you wanting to make a change.”

Miranda Pope, a sponsor of APMF, said that although interning with the project is fairly new, APMF is seeking to inspire a range of students through quarter-long internships or volunteering opportunities.

Interns would be tutoring children in their English classes, helping with arts and crafts, and more. There is also the possibility for UCSC students to have a home stay, where they can live with the children’s families and assist them with local activities.

At the moment, there is no program or class at UCSC that is affiliated with APMF, but students can become involved by doing an independent study for credit with their department’s approval.

During a recent visit to UCSC, APMF cofounder Jose Mendez showed slides of children interacting with art and explained how APMF has been able to alleviate poverty in his community.

“The problem with [Guatemalans] is we do not have a voice in the government or a voice of the children. Who will listen?” Mendez, who only spoke Spanish, said. “The one thing we can do now is do what we are doing here today [raise awareness].”

Not only does APMF teach children to draw and paint, it teaches their families to learn along with them. Many mothers of participating children are illiterate and only speak the native Mayan language, Tz’utujil. However, through working with APMF, families can increase their knowledge of spoken Spanish.

Mendez began APMF with his brother, Henry Mendez, by opening a small art gallery in 2008. When two curious children came into the gallery, Mendez asked the boys if they would like to paint. The oldest showed an interest in painting, but could not afford supplies. 

Eventually more children with similar stories began to show an interest in APMF. Mendez felt compelled to do something.

“Little by little I realized that when someone is interested in their community or in the problems of a village or nation, you come to terms with the necessities of people,” Mendez said.

Mendez said that the Guatemalan government has not taken initiative to make a difference or educate the nation’s youth, which is a grave problem in Guatemala. It brings into light a much larger issue into context that affects the lives of not just Guatemalans, but addresses poverty and its causes.

APMF also provides monthly rations of food to their students’ families.

“It is a real honor to have a teacher and artist, who is able to highlight the issues of his country,” said UCSC student and Chicano Latino Resource Center intern Gemma Givens.

The Felix Kulpa Gallery downtown hosted an art exhibit following Mendez’s presentation at UCSC.

Mendez left Santa Cruz elated — even though many of his paintings were not sold, he was extremely happy with the community response.

As the author of “Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White,” Frank Wu offers a unique perspective on racial identity.

“It’s a prank. It’s trivial to him. He doesn’t know how traumatic it was for me when I was a little kid,” Wu said. “It’s not just that I was offended as an Asian-American. I’m offended as someone with a sense of humor. This thing has been done before so many times, and it’s been done better. There needs to be new material.”

On November 17 Wu discussed race and the subtle forms of racial discrimination, inviting people of all backgrounds to see what is between black and white. He acknowledges that race is a widely talked about subject, but he will offer a new paradigm of thought about race.

“We talk as if everything is about villains and victims when it’s not,” Wu said. “I’d like to expose the shades of grey in the way in which races are subtle and complicated.”

Joy Lei, the coordinator of the YELLOW event, explains the significance of Wu’s ideas for the UCSC campus.

“Dean Wu will guide us through an examination of race in the U.S. that complicates the traditional ways race has been understood in our society,” Joy Lei, coordinator of the YELLOW event said in an e-mail.

Looking back on his encounter in San Francisco and experiences growing up in Detroit, Michigan as the only Asian-American, Wu discussed bullying and its detrimental effects on those subjected to it.

“What’s striking is that Asian Americans face that issue in being bullied more than anyone else. Even though that kid doing the karate moves isn’t really doing anything, it is because sometimes it leads to bullying in a way that is really horrific and causes permanent psychological damage,” Wu said. “It starts with a little thing. What does it mean when you’re a kid and you face this every day? It sends you a signal that you don’t belong.”

For the recent event, Wu hoped to have engaged in dialogue rather than lecture, explaining that democracy is based in dialogue and on the ability to give and take.  As an individual with a career in education, Wu stresses the importance of the participation of youth and describes its power to create change.

“Young people are the greatest force of change possible. Young people can interact in a form that can transform our understanding of race on a daily basis” Wu said. “It’s not enough to say that racism is bad. It’s important for us to see that it is not enough to just acknowledge. There’s a problem and there is so much more to do and young people have the right and responsibility to play a central role.”

Specifically on youth in education, Wu sees a college campus as a positive circumstance in terms of student diversity.

“It’s crucial because that interaction as equals, as friends in a place where you’ve come to learn, you don’t find that anywhere else,” Wu said. “This is what ultimately brings about change.”
Wu stresses that his proposal of a new paradigm is not centered on blame or negative feelings.

Frederick Chung, a fourth year student, attended the event and describes it as a positive experience.

“It was inspiring and reassuring in that diversity is still happening and that there’s no real end to it,” Chung said.

In light of diversity issues afflicting the campus over the last year, Wu’s discussion was a gateway to a bigger campus conversation.

“This is important to the UCSC community because we need an open and on-going dialogue about race and the various ways it affects the campus climate and students’ experiences,” Lei said. “A more complicated and better understanding of race will inform such a dialogue.”

Wu deviates from the blame and resentment often seen in most attitudes on race.

McPherson said local government is “by and large the most efficient” and thinks his community leadership experience, whether it was as editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel or as state assemblyman and senator, qualifies for the “knowledge and experience” the job requires.

“I’m running because people have encouraged me to run,” McPherson said.

A California state assemblyman from 1993 until 1996, McPherson moved on to become a state senator for two terms until 2004. In 2005, he was nominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to become secretary of state as Kevin Shelley resigned in the middle of his term.

Not the only one to go from a interest in state to local politics, state senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) is planning to run for a seat on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors at the end of his term next year.

Other candidates have announced to run or have expressed interest in entering the fifth district race. They include former Boulder Recreation and Park District chair John Abel, San Lorenzo Valley contractor Eric Hammer, Lompico County Water District board member Bill Smallman, and former San Lorenzo Valley school board member Susan Weber.

While there is support for McPherson’s candidacy, some community members are skeptical of him. John Glass, a supporter of local contractor Eric Hammer, expressed concerns regarding McPherson’s voting record.

John Glass, supporter of local contractor Eric Hammer. Photo by Sal Ingram.

“Eric is environmentally responsible, environmentally aware,” Glass said. “I can’t say the same thing for McPherson. He’s supposed to be a moderate Republican, but I don’t think he’s ever supported a labor law or gay rights.”

“I think the county has a great labor force,” McPherson immediately retorted in a phone interview when Glass’s comments were brought up.  “Small businesses are gonna get us out of this job-drought … and that’s what they mostly have in the fifth District.”

McPherson said he expected such criticism but was surprised to hear it so early in the race.

“The last thing I want to do is get this to be a partisan office, and if that’s where this is going, I think this is a big mistake,” he said.

McPherson said he knows he has name recognition, but that he is running because he believes in public service, which is something he said he is very passionate about.

Candidate Eric Hammer said his “qualifications come from being a community advocate for the past 16 years.” He emphasized the important role UCSC students play in making decisions regarding county services.

“There are a huge amount of students that live off-campus,” he said. “Many commute to campus from the Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley area. Transportation and water issues are very important for students.”

Hammer doubts McPherson’s ability to represent residents of the fifth district because of his recent acquaintance with the area.

“A supervisor’s position should be grassroots,” Hammer said. “It should be filled by someone from the community who understands it. Bruce is a well-know legislator. He just recently moved into the district four months ago. I don’t think he clearly represents this community.”

A lone cheese straw. Photos by Emily Wolper

This blog is slowly becoming less and less healthy– we’ve gone from quinoa to chocolate cake in just a few weeks. However, I think this week’s entry offers an important caveat. By learning how to make these, you may well free yourself from ever feeling the need to purchase snack foods again. Or at least Cheeze-Its and other such nibbles. We’ve got to start somewhere.

These are cheese straws. You should get to know each other, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time together. For all intents and purposes, these are glorified cheese crackers, whose ilk haunt the isles of every grocery store ever (especially late at night, when your impulse control is…hindered). There are important differences though. These taste like cheese. They are buttery and flaky. And you can put spicy bits in them, which may be the only deterrent from eating all of these in one go.

You’ll need a food processor to make these, but otherwise they’re really low-tech.

Ingredients.

1 1/2 cups (about 6 ounces) grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 2 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into  pieces
3/4 cup flour, plus more for dusting
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon half-and-half (or milk)

Directions.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a food processor, combine cheese, butter, flour, salt and red pepper flakes. Pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Add the half-and-half and process until it resembles dough. Pull out the dough and form it into a ball with your hands.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough. Using either a knife or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into strips (6 inches long seems to hold up the best).

Place these strips onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake on the middle rack for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until slightly browned at the ends.

You can make any shape really, but they’re called cheese straws and so straws are what was made. Enjoy in excessive quantities.

Recipe credit given to Smitten Kitchen @smittenkitchen.com.

Illustration by Matt Boblet.

People across Santa Cruz voted with their wallets on Saturday, closing their checking and savings accounts and transferring their money to new accounts at local credit unions and community banks.Elizabeth Carr, CEO of Santa Cruz Community Credit Union (SCCU), said that “credit unions nationwide have opened up 650,000 new accounts from Sept. 29 to Oct. 29, and in California that’s about 92,000.”

Rick Hofstetter, President and CEO of Lighthouse Bank, a community bank in Santa Cruz, made sure that his bank, which is usually closed Saturdays, made a special exception for Bank Transfer Day. From  9 a.m. to 1 p.m., their doors were open to people who wanted to transfer their money to Lighthouse Bank.

“Most people who had come in had closed their accounts at Bank of America,” Hofstetter said.

Bank Transfer Day, which took place last Saturday, was taken up by many of the Occupy movement’s protesters, although the event is not officially related to it. However, the event has remained popular with the movement because many protesters see national banks as part of the 1 percent. Protesters feel that the banks on Wall Street have stolen tax dollars from the American people and blame Wall Street for many of the nation’s economic problems.

Protesters and non-protesters alike are calling for more regulation on Wall Street and a separation between investment banking and retail banking. Bank Transfer Day was intended to inspire people to go through the hassle of changing their bank and opening a new account for a cause: to support their communities and take away investment power from the national banks.

By Tuesday morning, people were still going into Lighthouse Bank to open new accounts with the money they had pulled out of the larger banks, Hofstetter said.

In October alone, Lighthouse Bank opened 70 new accounts.

That’s the “biggest month we’ve had since we’ve opened,” Hofstetter said. “We opened half a dozen new accounts, but they were large accounts … between a half and three-fourths of $1 million.”

Hofstetter said large national banks pushed their customers too far. Speaking about the monthly debit card fees that banks like Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo were going to charge their customers, Hofstetter said, “I think that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

In September, Bank of America announced a plan to charge customers $5 a month for debit card usage.

“It got to the point where they were feeling bad for not having done so,” Hofstetter said as he described how his new clients felt. He said customers remarked that banking local was better for their community, but they did not want to go through the hassle of closing and opening accounts.

Bank of America, Chase and Wells Fargo dropped their plans of implementing a debit card fee, but some of their customers still closed accounts Saturday.

Santa Cruz community members who closed their accounts at the national banks on Saturday joined hundreds of thousands of people who have taken the same action over the past five weeks. According to the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), a Washington, D.C. based advocacy group, Americans have moved $4.5 billion into the nation’s 7,000 credit unions.

Bank Transfer Day began when a 27-year-old small business owner in Los Angeles, Kristen Christian, made an event page on Facebook for “Bank Transfer Day.” Three days after Christian created the page, 8,000 people had clicked the “attend” button, and within a month’s time almost 80,000 people had indicated they would do the same.

Reports from across the country of people lining up at banks and standing in line for hours to open accounts at their local credit unions and community banks have flooded the Internet. Exact tallies on how many new accounts were opened and how much money was transferred into local banks are not currently available, but one thing is clear: More people are finding alternatives for where they put their money.

In Santa Cruz, protesters marched to Wells Fargo, Chase, Citibank and Bank of America. Casey Livingood, a former account holder who closed his account with the bank, said he closed his account at Wells Fargo a month before Saturday, but did not open an account anywhere else until Saturday’s Bank Transfer Day.

“I went to Wells Fargo [to close the account],” Livingood said, “and opened an account at the credit union.”

SCCU CEO Carr is ecstatic about the people-powered movement. On Saturday, SCCU stayed open until everyone who came to open an account was taken care of, Carr said. She explained that 35 new accounts were opened for customers who had been planning to switch to a credit union for a long time.

“[It was a] tremendous amount for us in one day,” Carr said. “That’s not at all typical. It’s probably five to 10 times what we would normally see. I have to say that I was amazed [by] the power of this movement … started by somebody here in California on Facebook… [It has] created this incredible change.”

Photos by Emiliano O'Flaherty Vasquez

It’s too bad that by the time most of you read this, our glorious Halloween Monday will have come and gone. Alternatively, this cake may make a great hangover cure, and we all know there’s nothing easier than seizing initiative and cooking something while you’re seeing the world through a red mist of hatred and dehydration. Plan ahead is what I’m saying, I guess.
Here’s the great thing about this cake. The concept is ridiculously simple and genius in its execution. Instead of milk, you put red wine in it. That’s really all it comes down to. Yes, it tastes a little boozy, so don’t put anything in it that you wouldn’t drink yourself;
you may have to give Mr. Charles Shaw a miss on this one. Still, it’s not going to get you drunk. My professional medical opinion (sidenote: I’m a Politics major, and haven’t taken a chemistry class since high school) is that this cake will alleviate all of your ills, including self-inflicted ones. Have at it.

All humor aside (serious cake time now), this cake is pretty cheap to make. And as it’s a cake, assembly is as standard as can be expected. I think it keeps really well too, but it was only in my apartment for three days after my girlfriend and I made it so that’s just idle speculation.

Also, one bowl and one pan, people. This is so low maintenance, you don’t even know. Also, this cake is easily one of the best uses for leftover bottles of red wine. Don’t laugh, it happens sometimes. This is a judgement free zone.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
3/4 cup red wine, (you can be picky and look for a red that has chocolate overtones, or you can use two-buck-chuck. This is a recipe for the masses)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup and 1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Making le cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper, and either butter or nonstick spray the interior of the pan. In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy. Add the yolk and egg and beat well, then add the red wine and vanilla. The batter might look a little janky here; don’t worry about that.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt over your wet ingredients. If you don’t have a sifter, just pour these in incrementally and carefully; it makes a difference (the cake will be lighter and won’t have weird clumps). Mix together until mostly combined, then fold the batter with a spoon (or preferably a rubber spatula).

Spread batter in a prepared pan, then bake for 25-30 minutes. The top of the cake should be shiny and smooth when you pull it out. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then flip it out of the pan and cool it on a rack or a plate.

You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top, or you can make/buy whipped cream (you should make it, you’re already on a roll here). However you choose to approach this cake, you can’t really go wrong. Happy-post Halloween everyone. Enjoy.

Credit given to Smitten Kitchen for the recipe, and to my girlfriend Emily, who saves me from lumpy cakes. Seriously, this could have gotten real ugly.

Illustration by Ramille Baguio.

Hundreds of cyclists will take off Sunday, racing to raise funds for the Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP). The tenth annual ride kicks off at San Lorenzo Park, where there will be live music, food and HIV/AIDS education booths.

The Surf City AIDS Ride, which has been under the direction of SCAP for five years, has revamped the event to attract a diversity of attendees.

“Our intention is not just to attract people who can ride 60 and 100 miles; it is to attract people in the community,” said event co-chair Trevor Davis. “My best-case scenario is that a family who has never been on a bike before will drop by.”

The ride began in 2000 with a group of cyclists who created the event, originally called the Santa Cruz Century Ride. After five years with nearly 700 cyclists participating and fundraising, the cyclists who started the ride decided to turn it over to Santa Cruz AIDS Project (SCAP).

When the ride came under SCAP control the group took a one-year hiatus, and as a result of the break and a higher participation fee, the number of riders declined. However, each year since, the ride has gained more riders and SCAP Executive Director Merle Smith expects that there will be a turnout of between two hundred and four hundred riders on Sunday.

The increase in participants comes at an important time for SCAP. Two years ago, the program was dealt a crushing blow when funding for HIV/AIDS education and prevention was cut completely from the state budget after California slashed $85 million from AIDS programs.

Event organizers changed the venue of this year’s ride in hopes of attracting a larger and different crowd than in years past. By bringing the event to downtown Santa Cruz from Cabrillo College, where it was previously held, and making it an all-day festival, SCAP expects that attendance and awareness will increase. The group has focused its efforts on making the day a family event in the hope of attracting a more diverse audience.

“We want to get the families involved,” Smith said. “While the riders are out, the family can be involved in the festival.”

The group wants to reach a younger audience with their message by making the event more family-oriented. SCAP hopes to become a trusted resource in the community for condoms, information and HIV testing.

Registration cost for the event varies – participants must pay $20 to race in the 12 mile ride, $60 for the 30 mile ride and $90 for the 60 and 100 mile rides. Riders can choose to fundraise and pay a reduced registration fee. Online registration closes at 12 p.m. Friday, but riders can register on the day of the event.

Resolution Censuring Collective Punishment and Guilt

WHEREAS, The Student Union Assembly (SUA) supports peaceful and nonviolent protest to raise awareness and address the cuts to the services and programs that are vital to our education and,

WHEREAS, the Student Union Assembly (SUA) firmly believes in due process as well as every individual’s right to fair inquiry into any accusations made, so long as evidence is provided and responsibility proven and,

WHEREAS, this past year has been marred by budget cuts and fee increases greatly diminishing access and affordability, further deteriorating the quality and diversity at the University of California and,

WHEREAS, on the days following the 32% increase in fees levied November 19th at UCLA by the Regents, students at the University of California, Santa Cruz occupied Kerr Hall, the main administrative building on campus1 and,

WHEREAS, hundreds of students gathered throughout the two days to protests the fee increases along with budget cuts across the state and at UCSC and,

WHEREAS, police in riot gear subsequently forced protestors out of Kerr Hall and no arrests were made2 and,

WHEREAS, following the occupation administration officials declared the building in disarray3 and allowed it to remain closed for clean up and repairs and,

WHEREAS, 46 students were summonsed and investigated for their involvement in the Kerr Hall occupation by UCSC officials4 and,

WHEREAS, on April 7th, UCSC administration sent out sanction notices charging 36 students $944 each in restitution for their involvement in November’s occupation of Kerr Hall5 for damages being claimed to total $34,000, and

WHEREAS, seven of the students will be dismissed, suspended or placed on probation, while 29 others received a disciplinary warning6 and,

WHEREAS, disciplinary action should be handed down for those responsible, but such a decision should be made on an individual basis, where clear evidence and responsibility can be proven and,

WHEREAS, the UCSC administration has bundled responsibility, merely dividing the $34,000 estimated damage costs amongst the 36 protesters, charging them collectively without grounds for providing evidence on an individual level to allow for independent due process7 and,

WHEREAS, in order to proceed with disciplinary action, there must be sufficient evidence, beyond reasonable doubt, of personal responsibility for illegal actions, property damage and,

WHEREAS, the administrations inability to provide such individualized forms of evidence is in direct contradiction to American jurisprudence, where the notion of collective punishment and guilt is absent and,

WHEREAS, UCSC administrative decisions are subject to following state and federal law, not immune because of “privacy rules”8 here at the University of California and,

WHEREAS, disciplinary actions like these only serve to affect future protests and instill a culture of fear within the activist and UCSC community, inhibiting our ability to take ownership of reclaiming our education and further becoming engaged world citizens and,

LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Student Union Assembly (SUA) censures the collective punishment and guilt levied by the administration to the 36 students protestors being that no sufficient individual evidence has been provided to administer responsibility and,

LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Student Union Assembly (SUA) will work to ensure a fair and transparent process so that our fellow students are afforded due process and clear evidence,

LET IT FINALLY BE RESOLVED, that the Student Union Assembly (SUA) will continue to support all forms of peaceful protests and uphold the individual rights and protections granted by our country to students participating in actions that promote student voice, student power, and student action.

###
Drafted by:
Vice Chair of Internal Affairs Tiffany Dena Loftin
Vice Chair of External Affairs Víctor George Sánchez Jr.

To garner awareness for a week of actions against cuts to higher education, the group “Take over UCSC” planned a dance party that took place last Friday, Feb. 26. Organizers classified the event as “a night of mayhem and debauchery” on their Facebook page. The event was to build momentum for the upcoming week of action, which includes lobby day on the first and the march on the capitol on the fourth.

“Take over UCSC” is a student group that is skeptical of the UC budget crisis, and opposes budget cuts.

The dance party began at 9:00 p.m. in Porter quad. Around 60 individuals danced on the raised stage in the quad and various people spilled from the stage out into the quad smoking cigarettes and talking.

At around 10:30 p.m., the dance party began its trek around the campus that went from college to college, attempting to pick up students along the way.

In Porter, an ambulance was called because one student was dangerously intoxicated. Among the traveling dance party were various Campus Security Officers (CSO) who ensured student safety and monitored the presence of any open containers of alcohol.

“We look out for student safety,” said a CSO who preferred to remain anonymous. “We want to make sure no one gets hurt.”

After leaving Porter quad, the procession moved to Kresge classroom 327, and then after about a half hour, to the courtyard of Owl’s Nest Café, across the Kresge Bridge, and slowly up to Colleges Nine and Ten, flooding into the street on McLaughlin Drive. Music was played from a cart that housed a laptop computer and speakers, which three to five individuals picked up and pushed down stairs and up ramps.

In College Ten, a large group, including those pushing the cart blaring music, went into Building R6 for about 10 minutes, going up the stairwell briefly. Next, they headed to Cowell College, and at this time the crowd had swelled to around 250 participants. The group traveled down McLaughlin Drive and spent another half hour behind Cowell Coffee Shop. The dance party then moved to Quarry Plaza, where the other dances had been held, as its final destination.

By the time it reached Quarry Plaza the crowd was back to its original size, with around 60 students dancing in front of Joe’s Pizza and Subs. One student, who was dancing in the quad, described her opinions on the dance party, yelling over a blasting song by French electronic duo Justice.

“It shows that people come together and do something about [the budget cuts] in a fun productive way,” said third-year Erin Souders, a psychology major from Cowell College.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

The windows of the Covel Commons building pounded in sync with the impassioned chanting of the crowd. Inside, 26 individuals pondered a decision that will deeply impact the lives of over two hundred thousand students in the UC system. The indirect results of the decision may ultimately affect millions of Californians.

Over 300 students, workers, faculty and community members converged in solidarity at the entrance of Covel Commons on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus yesterday to make one last stand against UC Regents proposed 32 percent fee hikes. To keep the crowd from forcing entry into the Regents meeting taking place inside, UC Police Department had a strong presence in the course of events. In a police clash with the crowd, batons and Tasers were used leading to several student injuries. Fourteen arrests were made.

Imari Thomas, a third-year UCLA student, was among those arrested.

“All of us who got arrested had totally clean records, we were willing to get a police record to show the regents how serious we are,” Thomas said.

The 14 students were arrested in two phases, after they stood singing “We Shall Overcome” with linked arms. The first group was cited with Penal Code Section 409, or failure to disperse from a space deemed unlawful. The second group was cited with disturbing the peace. Both groups were later released.

Officers, who were previously providing support in the arrests during the Committee of Finance, ran down the four flights of stairs geared up in the lobby with Tasers, helmets with facemasks, and some with compressed paintball guns.

Chants of “Whose university?” were answered with a resounding “Our university!” by seas of people hoping to make their voices heard to the administrators inside of the building.

An oval barricade of fencing supported by officers equipped with riot gear who stood on the inside kept protestors from entering the building. As the time to make a final decision neared, the crowed pushed and began throwing various objects, including plastic bags filled with vinegar soaked bandanas, hot dogs, carrots, and their declarative signs.

Because students were no longer being admitted to the public session riotous activity broke out.

“When students realized that they were starting the vote and they weren’t letting students in, some students made a decision to force their way in,” said Richard Stevenson, a fifth-year UCLA student who was hit with a baton on his arm and in the chest several times, leaving a mark on his arm. “It was not the initial intent, but a reaction.”

A few students made it to the doors and were among those who felt the hand, or rather baton, of the law.

“It wasn’t pleasant,” said Stevenson of the baton usage. “But everybody was so into it, and we knew what we wanted to do, we wanted to be inside.”

Another fifth-year UCLA student, King Adjei-Frimpong, who was observing the chaos from planter boxes situated near the front of the Covel Building, described how once the batons were out, Tasering broke out as well.

“One officer had malice on his face, aimed his Taser, and went at it,” he said. To push back the imposing crowd, officers struck the individuals pushing on the barricades with batons. A number of officers stretched over the barricades, extending their Tasers to hit a few students. Some officers threw the items back at the crowd. Adjei-Frimpong stated that the girl next to him was hit in the face with a can of soda.

UC President Mark Yudof, expressed his support for the protests.

“I regret any violence, people have the right in a democracy to express their opinions,” said UC president Mark Yudof. “I don’t have any problem [with the protests].”

Soon after, officers outside announced that the protest was as of that time in violation of California law, and threatened arrest for anyone who did not disperse within five minutes.

Student organizers encouraged the group to move to a different side of the building, away from the entrance. In the new location several student and union leaders spoke out encouraging those present to continue the fight through the night and the following day, when the Regents would make the final vote on the fee increase.

People of all ages from all over the state held picket signs with messages such as “Debt: My Grad Present,” “Education, not Incarceration” and “Last generation college student” made visible above the bobbing heads of the crowd.

“My daughter won’t be able to attend a UC if this [fee increase] passes,” said Evangelina Nevarez, a representative of the American Federation of State, City and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union who attended the action.

Cindy Amobi, a third-year journalism student at UC Irvine, felt a personal motivation to oppose the fee hikes.

“I can’t afford to pay for school anymore,” she said.

UCLA fourth-year Spencer Soo attended the protest even though he will be graduating this year.

“I’m doing it for future students,” he said.

Shahida Bawa, Internal Vice President for Undergraduates at UCLA, addressed the crowd.

“We want to be able to support the student regent, who was the sole negative vote [on Wednesday’s fee vote]. This will allow students to see that this is a struggle across the state,” she said.

Although the UC community has predicted that the fee increase will pass regardless of student actions, many students felt that this was no reason to stop voicing their opinions.

“Even though they pretty much already decided on the vote, it’s important to still come and show our displeasure,” Cindy Amobi said.

Brian Malone, a Graduate Student in literature from UC Santa Cruz who traveled to UCLA yesterday, hoped that the protest would influence the bigger picture, if not the Regent’s actual vote.

“At a certain point, whether the Regents pass it or not, they’re supposed to be voting with our consent — when it becomes apparent that they are acting without our consent, they lose legitimacy with the citizens of California, and even with the state legislature, which does have some power over the Regents,” he said.

Victor Sanchez, the president of the UC student association and fourth-year student at UC Santa Cruz, was disappointed that a speech he gave on behalf of students, and the student presence outside, didn’t seem to affect the Regents when they voted to move forward the fee measure yesterday.

“For them it’s practical on paper, but for us it’s a real life experience,” he said.

Thousands more individuals gathering in protest of the decision have been predicted to arrive at UCLA today.

Photo by Alex Zamora.

From the minute I hailed down this particularly bright yellow cab in San Francisco, I knew the weekend ahead would leave me satiated.  Supplied with it’s renowned undulating streets, incessant visual delights and the opportunity to walk into any number of bookstores and witness a poetry reciting would definitely leave a novice to this city satisfied.  San Francisco is one big visual orgasm for the fervent photographer, and encountering it for the first time was climactic.

I have selected a variety of photos documenting my journey from Santa Cruz to San Francisco.  There is combination of portraiture, still life and architectural photography all approached in an innovative and artistic manner and were shot with a Canon E05 400D SLR.

These photos are a rough chronological journey to illustrate my travels throughout NSW, Australia. It begins with entering into Sydney on a ferry and meeting with our host Javier. It then follows our departure, leaving our host’s flat in beach town of Manly, to entering the great city of Sydney and touring the University. The photos then show the transition away from metropolitan Australia, and into the outback, full of both magnificent views and vibrant wildlife. The areas covered include Katoomba, on the Three Sisters Trail, as well as the area surrounding the youth hostel on Scotland Island and my subsequent departure from the area.

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Photo credit, Jose Pantoja; Copyright 2009 UC Regents.

Students are justifiably angry over my recent proposal to raise their fees by nearly a third over the next two years. I’m angry too. As an educator who has dedicated my career to the incredible promise of public education, it pains me to see this uniquely American institution under assault. This country’s land grant institutions – of which UC is the finest– represent a contract between the states and their namesake universities to educate outstanding students, regardless of their ability to pay, so that they may go on to serve the public and advance society’s interests.

We at the University of California have upheld our end of the deal: giving students of all backgrounds a world-class education, generating life-changing knowledge (we earned our 56th and 57th Nobel prizes this month), providing medical care and contributing to our state’s cultural, scientific and economic life. Meanwhile, our partner, the state, has been systematically divesting from the University. In 1990, we received the equivalent of $15,860 in today’s dollars from the state per student: that figure is now $7730. In other words, we have half as much in state funds to spend per student as we did twenty years ago.

This long-term trend, on top of current fiscal crisis, leaves us with a poor set of options. The one thing I am not willing to allow is for this great University to slide into mediocrity and devalue the degrees you work so hard to earn. For that reason, as painful as it is, I have asked all members of the UC community to share the burden brought on by our state’s crisis. It’s only the only fair way out. You, regrettably, are being asked to shoulder part of the load through increased fees. Our faculty and most staff are enduring salary cuts, increased workloads and for too many, the loss of their jobs through layoffs and restructuring.

I have a plan to get us out of this mess and to put our University on the road to recovery.

We start with a commitment not only preserve, but to enhance our financial aid program. At least a third of the revenue generated from the proposed fee increases will be set aside to ease the impact on students with financial need. Next month, I will ask the Regents to expand the number of students who qualify for our Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, which covers all system wide fees for students with family incomes under $60,000.

For families with incomes under $180,000, the federal stimulus package provides for each student tax credits of up to $2,500 for four years. Nearly three-quarters of all undergraduates whose parents are in this income category will be able to cover the total 2009-10 fee increase, including the proposed mid-year hike, through increases in UC grants, Cal Grants, federal Pell grants, and federal tuition tax credits.

We will also dramatically increase the amount of money available for scholarships and I’ll have more to say about that very soon. UC serves more low-income and first-generation students than any research university in the country, and I intend to keep it that way.

There are other steps as well. In the coming months, we will aggressively lobby our lawmakers in Sacramento to have nearly a billion dollars of our funding restored. We will press increasingly on the federal government to take an enhanced role in supporting higher education. We will continue to cut costs wherever and whenever we can do so without harming excellence.

And, through our UC Commission on the Future, we will tap the best minds in the UC system and beyond to imagine what the 21st century university should look like, yet another way we can save costs and promote quality.

You can help. I hope to be able to count on your passion, intelligence and energy so that together we can work to bring to safe harbor this University we all love. In the coming months, I want to assemble an army of a million UC advocates who will fight with us for our fair share of the pie. There are more than 1.5 million of us who are connected to each other through the University of California – students, faculty, staff and alumni. What a mighty force we will be if we can only stick together. Anybody game for a march on Sacramento?