Thursday, May 18, 2023

Munger Hall first pitched at CalTech, USC; dorm awaits changes at UCSB

Nonprofit law firms back CBC & The Sweeps residents resisting eviction

Mark Alfred University News Editor

Executives and attorneys with two nonprofits — the Legal Aid Foundation of Santa Barbara County and Housing & Economic Rights Advocates

— argued in a May 6 letter that the eviction notices delivered by Core Spaces to CBC & The Sweeps residents are null under a new county ordinance.

The law firms are working

with the Core Spaces Tenant Association (CSTA), a group of around 70 residents dedicated to fighting the evictions. CSTA members, as well as an unknown number of other residents, plan to fight the evictions facing hundreds of tenants at the building by refusing to move out, according to CSTA organizer and fifth-year biopsychology major Sam Szepesi.

Mark Alfred University News Editor

Leo Herbstman Reporter

Before pitching the concept of a massive, largely-windowless student dormitory at UC Santa Barbara in the mid-2010s, billionaire philanthropist Charles Munger sought to build similar dorms with the same architect at the University of Southern California and the California Institute of Technology, financial records and sources at both

campuses show.

Members of the Munger Hall project team believe both universities are interested in the project as of late and wish to convince Munger to build the dormitory at their respective campuses, a UCSB employee familiar with the team’s thinking told the Nexus on the condition of anonymity.

This comes as UCSB’s plans for Munger Hall are effectively in stasis as the design team awaits updates from the billionaire while he reviews potential changes

Academic Senate to vote on pass/no-pass deadline extension

Holly Rusch

Lead News Editor

The UC Santa Barbara Academic Senate plans to vote on a proposal to extend the deadline to change class grading options to pass/no-pass to the end of Week 10 of each quarter.

According to Interim Dean of Undergraduate Education Michael Miller, the proposal will most likely be voted on by the full faculty legislature in the fall, meaning it could go into effect beginning Fall Quarter 2023 if passed.

Currently, the pass/no-pass grading option deadline is the end of Week 7. This change would offer students “a little bit more flexibility in the choices that they have to make,” Miller said in a statement to the Nexus.

“We could not find a good rationale for why the deadline was set for the end of the 7th week to begin with. In checking the other UC campuses, we found that the P/ NP deadlines are all over the place, some earlier and some later than our existing deadline - although no other UC campus sets the deadline for the last week of the quarter or semester,” Miller said.

The proposal — originated by 2022-23 Associated Students

President Gurleen Pabla’s office — is currently being reviewed by Academic Senate committees.

Miller said that although some faculty expressed concern about lowering academic standards, he generally sees the proposal as a way to alleviate student stress with little negative consequence.

“We had extended the deadline to the last week of class on a temporary basis during the pandemic in order to give students a little more flexibility, and we never really encountered any negative consequences because of it. We had talked about doing this on a more permanent basis, but we had not acted on it. So, I really appreciated the Associated Students considering this as well and bringing it to my attention,” he said.

According to Miller, the Academic Senate is continuing to look for ways to help students balance the stress of the fast-paced quarter system with high academic standards.

The Senate will also vote in June on a proposal that would allow students in their first three quarters of matriculation to retroactively change failing letter grades to a “No Pass” in classes that offer a pass/ no-pass option.

to the dorm’s proposed design, the source said. UCSB has been planning and revising Munger’s dorm for nearly a decade as the university struggles to house students amid record enrollment rates.

For over 20 years, Munger has retained the services of the architecture firm Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh (VTBS) in his endeavor to make the UCSB dorm, and other initiatives, a reality. Financial records show he paid VTBS and another firm, Gruen Associates, in 2010 as he

sought to fund a dormitory at the USC Gould School of Law. The law school’s dean at the time, Robert Rasmussen, confirmed to the Nexus that there were preliminary discussions for a dorm hall with Munger, but they did not lead to a final agreement. The discussions were not advanced, according to Rasmussen, who was unable to provide further details regarding the ultimately-scrapped USC dorm.

UCSB dining hall employees campaign to unionize amid poor conditions, low pay, harassment

the past year to gauge community interest, receive support and legal advice from local union chapters and establish a plan of action to file for unionization. Nearly 100 dining hall student staff members became involved in private union discussions over the past year, according to him.

“We are looking to significantly improve our wages and working conditions at the campus dining halls. We work everyday to provide students with meals and keep the university running smoothly, and we deserve fair treatment as a result,” SDLU wrote in an @sdlu_ ucsb drafted Instagram post.

Each student emphasized low pay and limited potential for raises, despite performing physically demanding labor, as a primary concern. Hourly wages start at $15.75 and cap at $16 unless students hold a manager position, according to the employees.

The Student Dining Labor Union at UC Santa Barbara publicly launched its campaign today to unionize student employees across all four campus dining commons, demanding better pay, working conditions and treatment.

UCSB Residential Dining operates four dining commons —

Carrillo, De La Guerra, Ortega and Portola — that serve over two million meals a year and employ a part-time student staff of 500.

The Nexus spoke to five Student Dining Labor Union (SDLU) organizers, including second-year sociology and history of public policy double major and lead organizer Cole McCarthy and second-year financial math and statistics and data science double

major Christopher Pang. The other students spoke on condition of anonymity.

The push for unionization quietly began in April 2022 with the meeting of a small cohort of Ortega Dining Commons workers. McCarthy said the effort “developed rapid support” and expanded to the other three dining halls. McCarthy said organizers used

“There’s a lot of on-campus jobs that start at higher than that and are not as physically taxing,” a Carrillo employee said.

“Something that a lot of us struggle with is how much the work strains us throughout the shifts and the lack of accommodation that we tend to get for it.”

The issue of wages extends to difficulties with scheduling and the lack of a differential pay rate for overtime hours. Pang

CSTA members plan to fight the evictions facing hundreds of tenants at the building by refusing to move out.

UCSB’s plans for Munger Hall are said to be effectively in stasis as the design team awaits updates from Munger.

COURTESY OF UCSB

MARK ALFRED / DAILY NEXUS

The Ortega Commons offers a continuous grab and go meal service for students on weekdays.

MARK ALFRED / DAILY NEXUS

Munger Hall p.4

Nisha Malley County News Editor

Veterans & Military Services

discusses entrepreneurship Veterans & Military Services is hosting an entrepreneurship event on Thursday, May 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Veterans Resource Center.

The workshop will discuss state and local resources for starting a business, invite local veteran business owners, create networking opportunities and more. Lunch is included.

African diasporic Cultural Resource Center presents cooking demonstrations

The African diasporic Cultural Resource Center (AdCRC) is hosting a cooking tutorial and a cultural meal on Thursday, May 18, from 5-7 p.m. in the AdCRC. The offered meal is shrimp and grits.

“Join us [at] the EOP’s African diasporic Cultural Resource Center for a cooking tutorial and a fresh, cultural meal,” the Shoreline description read.

RCSGD and Health & Wellness discuss LGBTQIA+ sexual health education

In collaboration with Health & Wellness, the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (RCSGD) is hosting a discussion on LGBTQIA+ sexual health education. The event will take place Thursday, May 18, from 8-9 p.m. on Zoom.

ONDAS Student Center talks about time management for first-generation students

In collaboration with Campus Learning Assistance Services, Opening New Doors to Accelerating Success Student Center is hosting a “Overcommitted & Burnt Out: Time Management for First-Gen Students” workshop on Friday, May 19, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Kerr Hall room 1150.

The workshop will discuss the struggle first-generation students face with time management, burnout and overcommitting. Chia seed pudding will be provided.

Women in Media hosts annual conference

Women in Media (WIM) is hosting its annual Women in Media Conference at the Mosher

Alumni House. The conference will begin Saturday, May 20, at 9 a.m. and end on Sunday, May 21, at 3 p.m.

“Each spring, WIM organizes the annual UCSB Women in Media Conference featuring distinguished women in roles from across the entertainment industry,” the Shoreline description read.

“At this weekend-long event, students have the chance to hear insight directly from our speakers and build a lasting network of professionals and peers.”

A.S. COSWB offers free bike items and services

The Associated Students (A.S.) Commission on Student Well-Being is hosting a “Fix It!” bike event, featuring free bike accessories and services for students. The event will take place Monday, May 22, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lot 22 lawn.

Items and services include free quick fixes and installations of baskets, bells and reflectors.

Black Women’s Health

Collaborative hosts first ever

Black Queer Prom

Black Women’s Health

Collaborative is hosting its first ever Black Queer Prom on Saturday, May 20, at 7 p.m. at The Hub. The event is DIY- and denim-themed. The event will also have a raffle and money prizes.

Women’s Center hosts workshop on birth control

Titled as “Public Cervix Announcement,” the Women’s Center is hosting a workshop and discussion on birth control. The event will take place Monday, May 22, from 3:30-5 p.m.

“There are so many types of birth control options nowadays, what’s the difference between them? What else can birth control help besides preventing unwanted pregnancies? How should I know which to choose?” the Shoreline description read. MultiCultural Center opens art exhibit on abolition movement

Continuing its Activist Scholar in Residence series, the MultiCultural Center (MCC) is hosting an art exhibit titled, “together we abolish: envisioning a world without prisons & borders.” The exhibit is available for viewing on Monday, May 22, from 6-7:30 p.m. in the

MCC lounge.

“Join us for a transformative art reception featuring zines around the abolition movement and how we can work together as a community to bring peace, love, & safety,” the Shoreline description read.

LGBTQ Staff & Faculty Collective hosts spring luncheon

In collaboration with RCSGD, the LGBTQ Staff & Faculty Collective is hosting a spring luncheon on Tuesday, May 23, from 12-1 p.m. at the Student Resource Building multipurpose room.

“Free lunch will be provided by the Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity, and you’ll learn about opportunities to get involved on campus through the Collective,” the Shoreline description read.

MENASARC, ARC, RCSGD host annual QT-API-SSWANA cultural potluck

The Middle Eastern, North African, South Asian Resource Center, RCSGD and Asian Resource Center are collaborating for their second annual QT APISSWANA Cultural Potluck in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. The event will take place Wednesday, May 24, from 12-2 p.m. in the MCC lounge.

“Taking place during AAPI Heritage Month, our Second Annual QT Asian, Pacific Islander, South and Southwest Asian, North African Cultural Potluck celebrates the contributions and accomplishments of QT API-SSWANA folks,” the event description read. “People at these intersections have unique experiences that are often overlooked, so we hope to honor these folks and help foster community over a celebratory meal that represents our diverse cultures.”

Attendees must respond through an RSVP form to attend the event.

Community Financial Fund hosts workshop on CalFresh, on-campus resources

The A.S. Community Financial Fund is hosting a workshop over Zoom about CalFresh and on-campus resources on Wednesday, May 24, at 2 p.m.

“This workshop will focus on

newspaper, published on Thursdays during the academic year, with articles published online daily. Opinions expressed in the editorial pages, News

the various ways students can ‘eat on a budget’, strategize to build their own food/grocery budget, and how campus and community resources can be used to make eating affordable,” the Shoreline description read.

MCC hosts two-day art exhibit about trauma, healing and social justice

The MCC is hosting a twoday art exhibit titled, “Mirror Memoirs: Trauma, Healing and Surviving as Tools for Social Justice,” on Wednesday, May 24, from 5:30-9 p.m. and Thursday, May 25, from 12-1:30 p.m.

Wednesday’s event will begin with a film screening of “Transmutation: A Ceremony” at the MCC theater from 5:30-7 p.m., followed by a dinner and healing circles from 7:30-9 p.m. at the MCC lounge.

“This theater project breaks secrecy and isolation, and uses storytelling and survivor leadership to illuminate the needs and wisdom of survivors and help viewers imagine a different world,” the Shoreline description read.

KCSB hosts open discussion about free speech

KCSB-FM 91.9 is hosting an open discussion with students, staff and community members about free speech on Wednesday, May 24, from 6:30-8 p.m. in the Isla Vista Theater.

“Hear what our panelists have to say during an hour-long conversation facilitated by KCSB News, and share your thoughts and questions with them afterward during our 30-minute Q&A,” the Shoreline description read. “Join us as we work together to define free speech and envision a campus that fosters both safety and expression.”

Asian Resource Center celebrates APIDA graduating seniors

In collaboration with the Office of International Students & Scholars and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, the Asian Resource Center is hosting an Asian Pacific Islander Desi American graduation ceremony. The event will take place Wednesday, May 24, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Corwin Pavilion. Light snacks and refreshments, as well as goodie bags, will be provided.

A week in UC student news

Antisemitic vandalism found in UCSD dorm bathroom

A bathroom in the Kaleidoscope building of UC San Diego’s Sixth College faced vandalism with swastikas written in feces, the UCSD Guardian reported.

StopAntisemitism, a watchdog organization dedicated to exposing antisemitism, posted an Instagram video of the vandalism on Tuesday, May 9.

Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Residence Life at Sixth College Anthony Jakubisin said in an email to Kaleidoscope building residents that the antisemitic symbols were quickly removed and that the university police have launched an investigation into the vandalism.

“Sixth College Student Affairs and Residence Life offer our support to anyone who may have been impacted by this unfortunate incident. Acts of racism, intolerance, and bigotry are not accepted in our community,” Jakubisin said in the email. “We uphold the UC San Diego Principles of Community and expect our community members to do the same.”

The Office of the Chancellor released a university-wide statement condemning the incidents, as well as antisemitism on campus as a whole.

“We were greatly disappointed to receive reports of antisemitic behavior and vandalism on our campus,” the statement read. “The incidents aimed at our Jewish students not only hurt them deeply, but also hurt our entire community and undermined our shared commitment to inclusive excellence.”

UC Davis researchers collaborate with UC Berkeley, UCSF to reduce cows’ methane emissions

Researchers at UC Davis, alongside UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, recently received a $70 million grant to fund a project aiming to reduce methane emissions from cows, The California Aggie reported.

The funding for the project comes from The Audacious Project, an initiative that shapes projects into viable multi year plans, according to the organization’s website.

The goal of the project is to reengineer the genome of gut microbes — organisms that ferment the food that cows eat — to minimize the methane that cows emit in their digestive processes and consequently reduce cows’ impact on climate change.

“We will basically be developing tools that will not only allow us to hopefully solve the problem of methane emissions from livestock but really allow us to reverse-engineer microbes in the environment,” UC associate professor of animal science Matthias Hess told the Aggie.

UC Berkeley researchers Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield will conduct the genome-editing portion of the project, while Hess will test the edited microbes in a laboratory setting.

UC San Francisco researcher Sue Lynch will also work with Doudna and Banfield to apply the microbes to relieve childhood asthma and generally improve human health.

“It will be this whole interconnection between tool development, animal health, human health and ecosystem health,” Hess said. “So really it’s a great project in many different dimensions.”

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The Daily Nexus is an independent, student-run

Students for Justice in Palestine set up a symbolic apartheid wall on Monday, May 15, as part of its Palestine Liberation Week. The wall is erected outside of The Arbor, standing for the second year in a row.

Slated from May 15-19, Palestine Liberation Week focuses on education and activism around the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“It’s a way for students to have to look at the wall and to have to learn about Palestine because it’s something that’s so big that you can’t ignore it anymore,” said third-year sociology major and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) President Jwan Haddad.

The wall presents a variety of panels regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. The leftmost panel provides greater context to Palestinian history, speaking to points in history like the commemoration of Nakba.

“Palestine has been continuously inhabited since the earliest periods of human history by the Indigenous population, going back to the Canaanites,” the wall read. One of the panels also displayed information regarding Zionism in connection to the conflict.

“Zionism emerged in the late 19th century as an international and political movement founded by Theodor Herzl, the establishment of a homeland for exclusively Jewish people in the historic land of Palestine,” the wall read.

The wall has sparked controversy, including a whiteboard displayed from across The Arbor with alternative perspectives on the conflict.

Reactions have reached social media as well, with United Gauchos, a student organization publishing its first Instagram post on Tuesday titled “What the Anti-Israel wall at the Arbor won’t tell you.” The post describes the wall’s alleged fallacies and it “eras[ing] Israeli voices and experiences.”

“It takes a supremacist approach that frames Palestinians as the only ones with a legitimate connection to the land, instead of recognizing the humanity and rights of both groups,” the post read.

United Gauchos alleged the wall’s explanation on Zionism to be misleading.

“Anti-Zionism generally supports stripping those basic rights away from Jews and forcing them to live as a stateless minority,” the post read. “You can be a Zionist and also support Palestinian rights.”

Discussion around Israel and Palestine has historically been a contentious topic at UCSB, particularly regarding proposed Associated Student Senate resolutions that call for UCSB and the UC Regents to divest from companies that profit off of alleged human rights violations by the Israeli government against Palestinians.

UC Santa Barbara activist group

Mauna Kea Protectors continues to advocate for the University of California to divest from the Thirty Meter Telescope project, set to be built on sacred Indigenous land on Hawai’i’s Big Island. Building on efforts that began in 2019, the group is organizing events educating the UCSB community and connecting with the broader UC community through the UC Student Association.

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is an ongoing endeavor to construct a scientific telescope on Mauna Kea — a summit sacred to Hawaiians. The project is partially funded by the UC, and UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang has served as the project’s chair since 2007, drawing controversy and dissension from communities across the UC system.

Mauna Kea Protectors’ activism this year expanded through the UC Student Association’s (UCSA)

Students Enacting Environmental Defense (S.E.E.D.) campaign, advocating for the UC to divest from the TMT project and invest in Indigenous communities.

Third-year political science

major, MKP Chair and External Vice President of Student for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA)-elect

Vero Caveroegusquiza praised the support the campaign has provided in bridging gaps across the UC system.

“It’s been a big help in not only making sure actions are happening regularly but also making sure actions are happening regularly across campuses,” Caveroegusquiza said.

These actions include statewide strategy meetings, educational events on respective campuses and outreach to the UC Regents and TMT entities via letters and public statements. MKP has connected with student groups from UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC Davis and UC Berkeley in its organizing efforts. Contacts for the S.E.E.D. coordinators of each branch are linked on UC S.E.E.D.’s Instagram.

The S.E.E.D. campaign was initiated by 2021-22 UCSA president and former UCSB External Vice President for Statewide Affairs

Esmeralda Quintero-Cubillan during their term and carried forth at UCSB by former MKP chair and

UCSB alum Honu Nichols, who served as S.E.E.D. coordinator for the campus last year.

The TMT project has never appeared on the UC Board of Regents’ agendas for discussion, and MKP sent representatives to speak out against the project at the Regents’ Sept. 21, 2022 and Jan. 18, 2023 meetings. Most recently, outgoing External Vice President for Statewide Affairs Marvia Cunanan spoke against the project at the Regents’ May 16 Investments Committee meeting.

“As the investments committee, I urge you to understand the harm of the TMT project. It disrupts Mauna Kea’s unique ecosystem and desecrates sacred land,” Cunanan said at the meeting’s public forum.

“UC funds are being poured into a telescope that will not be built. Meanwhile, Indigenous students, undocumented students and more continue to be underserved. As students we need you to step up and divest from TMT, and I hope to see this on your next agenda.”

Direct discourse with Regents is uncommon, and public forums of the Regents meetings allot less than five minutes for students to voice their concerns. However, Caveroegusquiza said that MKP received rare support from Alumni Regent-designate Keith Ellis after speaking with him following the Regents’ September 2022 meeting.

“I remember that really well because [former MKP chair and UCSB alum Honu Nichols] ended up calling him a sheep,” Caveroegusquiza said. “That incited him enough that later he ended up calling UCSA to speak to the UCSA president about TMT, so it’s nice to see that there are some Regents making that effort to ask ‘What is this issue and why is there this student movement around it?’”

Ellis confirmed to the Nexus that he spoke with the MKP, but he did not provide official comment.

In February, MKP met with the TMT staff working in Hilo, Hawai’i to discuss their objectives in campaigning against the project — joined by delegations from UCLA, UCR and UC Irvine — but reached no compromise. In a statement on the MKP Instagram account, the group said its testimony was met with “vague answers, deflecting anecdotes, and identity politics undermining their stated intentions.”

MKP’s organizing efforts this year have been broad in scope, ranging from tabling at events such

as the Isla Vista Earth Day Fair to speaking with high schoolers and middle schoolers at El Congreso de UCSB’s Latine College Day.

“It was really cool to think, ‘Oh my gosh, these are students that can be activists,’” Caveroegusquiza said. “They can go change their school board and they can change the future of their schools and their high schools already, and we were able to help plant that seed.”

Additional campus events this quarter included discussions in the MultiCultural Center Lounge and a film screening on May 10 of “Act of War,” a 1993 documentary about the American takeover of the Hawaiian Islands.

After the film screening, Nichols, now living in Hawai’i after graduating from UCSB, discussed the film’s prevalence in Native Hawaiian activism.

“The taking of Hawai’i was not just an overthrow, it was done by force,” Nichols said. “When this film started it was just a topic, and being an activist and speaking for Native Hawai’i rights was not common, and it was a little bit shameful in society … now we can be proud of our identity.”

Nichols then spoke about their experience and involvement in the movement to divest from TMT.

“For me, the Mauna Kea movement is a livelihood. We are fighting for our right for selfdetermination,” Nichols said.

Mauna Kea is considered the creator of all of the people, not only across Hawai’i but also across Polynesia, according to Nichols.

Now that mobilization of the Divest TMT movement has expanded across the UC system through the S.E.E.D. campaign, Caveroegusquiza said she hopes to see an MKP branch at each campus. UC S.E.E.D. launched a survey to assess students’ needs and experiences regarding reinvestment into Indigenous communities and plans to compile the results into a report to present to the Regents.

Entering next year as EVPSA, Caveroegusquiza said she plans to bring an Indigenous justice perspective to their work and continue helming Divest TMT activism efforts through the outreach of the EVPSA office and UCSA.

“I want to ensure we can connect to communities [across the UC system], see an MKP branch at every campus and help connect organizing efforts on a statewide level,” Caveroegusquiza said.

The Office of the External Vice President for Local Affairs revived the University of California Isla Vista Volunteering program this year to provide non-police-affiliated safety resources to the Isla Vista community.

External Vice President for Local Affairs (EVPLA) Hailey Stankiewicz, a fourth-year sociology and political science double major, spearheaded the effort to bring back UC I.V. Volunteering (UCIV), a community-based policing alternative that formerly existed from 2014-18.

“The mission of UCIV is to be that public safety organization for community members who might not feel comfortable using the police, and a lot of times that’s minoritized and marginalized students,” Stankiewicz said.

UCIV Board Member Lily Macmillan, a fourth-year political science and communication double major, said the program’s intent differs from that of local law enforcement, prioritizing an “uplifting approach” aimed at providing community care.

“Our support is nonpunitive. We are not there to report anybody. We’re not there to punish anybody. We’re there to just support,” Macmillan said.

Beginning Week 1 of spring quarter, UCIV members set up a station in I.V. with food, water, overdose prevention kits and other resources for local residents. The station operates weekly on Friday and Saturday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight at Little Acorn Park.

Members on shift also walk two mapped patrol routes, one which snakes from the 65 to 68 blocks of Del Playa Drive and back along Sabado Tarde Road. The second route is near a series of fraternity houses in between Embarcadero del Norte and Embarcadero del Mar.

“They never patrol alone. They never sit at the station alone because that is not safe,” Stankiewicz said. “They should always be in buddies because that also keeps accountability and transparency with the UCIV members as well.”

Macmillan described the positive reactions she heard from community members who approached the station and learned about the program’s mission.

“Being non-police affiliated and being a community initiative really seems to garner a lot of positive feedback from people who come,”

Macmillan said. “I’ve seen, probably off the top of my head, 20 people that have come by during my shifts that clearly look like they could use a snack and some water and are very grateful and surprised that they’re free and they’re just there for them.”

UCIV also serves as an alternative to I.V. Safety Stations, a service operated in partnership with UC Police Department and I.V. Community Services District. Community Service Officers (CSO) — unarmed UCSB students employed through the UCSB Police Department — work the station from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., also located in Little Acorn Park.

Stankiewicz affirmed that the decision to locate UCIV at the same park was made with intention to benefit community members who are uncomfortable engaging with a police-affiliated entity.

Macmillan expressed how students seem more comfortable being “open” and “honest” with UCIV members, which she credited to their ability to “blend” with partying crowds as students not wearing full uniforms.

“If I were to be approached by a police officer, and they asked me if I was okay, it would not be out of concern for me and my safety. It would be to determine whether or not I was breaking a law,” she said. “And so I feel like a really big difference between our engagement with the community and police-entity engagement or CSO-entity engagement is that we are a nonpunitive source of support.”

UCIV originated in 2014 as a community-led, volunteer initiative formed in response to a succession of local violent crimes and community tragedies. At its peak, over 70 people joined as volunteers and went out on weekends with a party presence to provide community resources, according to Stankiewicz.

The program slowly dissolved in the 2018-19 school year and failed to recover its community participation during the COVID-19 pandemic, which Stankiewicz attributed to poor structuring.

“While it was a good resource for the community, it didn’t have the structure to last or have any longevity,” Stankiewicz said.

The former version of UCIV was made up of volunteers who lacked specific training and was overseen by a member of the Associated Students (A.S.) Commission On Public Safety, an entity that currently has no members and no longer operates.

In restructuring the program, Stankiewicz adopted UCIV under her office’s jurisdiction to ensure its stability and future, working with A.S. Senator Adam Majcher to draft legislation updating A.S. legal code regarding UCIV. The bill, which passed on Jan. 18, brought the UCIV liaison position from the Public Safety Commission to within the EVPLA office.

“It’s hard to say that I brought back UCIV when I took the name of UCIV and the mission, but I transformed it into something else that will last longer and have more support,” she said.

The revamped version of the program now functions with a board of 18 students, 16 of who have been hired, chaired by UCIV Liaison Owen Meyers.

Stankiewicz also identified available funds for UCIV and allocated the money toward equipment and resources: t-shirts, polos, walkie-talkies and backpacks, along with bulk orders of Narcan and fentanyl test strips and a UCIVdedicated cell phone in the works.

“I found out that there was $45,000 sitting in a budget for UCIV that had not been touched since 2018,” she said.

So far, UCIV members have received overdose prevention, Stop The Bleed and implicit bias trainings, with plans to add bystander intervention and mediator training in the future.

“Having such specific and relevant training really made us feel more capable. More than just a volunteer, we felt like a resource,” Macmillan said.

The program’s first and most hectic weekend coincided with Deltopia, an annual unsanctioned street partying festival that saw 15,000 people in attendance this year. UCIV members worked at Camino Pescadero Park from noon to 3 p.m., equipped with water, snacks, electrolyte drinks, naloxone and fentanyl testing strips.

“For Deltopia, they were extremely, extremely helpful to the community. They had called first response at least seven times for community members who needed it for EMTs and medical professionals. They gave out water and helped students and community members when they were passing out literally on the floor,” Stankiewicz said. “They distributed Narcan for Deltopia to make sure everybody was okay.”

“It made my heart so happy to hear how much it helped the community and how rewarding it was for the UCIV members.”

Anushka Ghosh Dastidar contributed reporting. The wall presents a variety of panels regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict.

HANZ HERMAN / DAILY NEXUS

Through the Alfred C. Munger Foundation — a philanthropic organization of which Charles Munger is the CEO — Munger gifted over $130,000 to the USC Gould School of Law for the services of VTBS and Gruen Associates as a potential dormitory was explored.

VTBS Architects is the principal architectural company for the planned UCSB Munger Hall and has a longstanding relationship with Munger. Other than working with him on the UCSB, USC and Caltech projects, the firm worked with him on the Stanford Munger Graduate Residences that were completed in 2009.

After the USC dorm failed to make it past preliminary discussions, Munger took the project to Caltech, where he pitched a windowless dorm project, according to a source at Caltech who asked to remain anonymous.

Public tax filings for the Alfred C. Munger Foundation detail a number of donations between 2012 and 2014 to the Caltech Associates — the university’s donation vehicle — for a dorm project.

In 2012, the foundation donated to the Caltech Associates for the services of Navy Banvard, the principal architect, and one of the founders of VTBS Architects, according to public tax filings for the foundation. The amount totaled around $30,000.

Around $50,000 was further donated to the Caltech Associates in 2013 for VTBS Architects, Navy Banvard, “housing” and “dorms,” according to the filings. An additional $300,000 was donated to fund a mock-up of the dormitory, according to the filings.

The last donations for the Caltech dorm project through the foundation were made in 2014 and valued at around $100,000, according to the filings. The donations went toward funding

“dorms” and Navy Banvard. The windowless dorm design at Caltech did not advance past a study and a dorm mockup, according to the source at Caltech. The source said the fire marshal’s preliminary opinion on the design found it not acceptable. Munger refused to change the design, so the project fell through, according to the source.

Around the same time, UCSB was preparing a series of traditional student apartments, dubbed Mesa Verde, planned to be constructed at the campus’s current facilities management site. To facilitate the relocation of operations at that site, UCSB purchased a sizable warehouse in Goleta for $12.5 million in 2013.

After UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang and Munger entered into talks to construct a student dormitory of his design in the mid-2010s, plans for Mesa Verde were scrapped and the newly purchased Goleta warehouse became a testbed for various designs of Munger Hall throughout the years, opening for student tours in June 2022.

Mesa Verde, or a similar project with traditional student apartments, is UCSB’s fallback option, should the Munger Hall project fall through, the UCSB source said.

Munger initially pitched the idea of two 6-story largely windowless dormitories at the site of the Channel Island 5 residence halls and De La Guerra Dining Commons. Schematics and physical models were made, and the idea was presented to the UC Regents on March 24, 2016.

Destroying the existing dorms would have lowered the number of campus bedspaces by over 2,700. Yang cautioned Munger against pursuing construction of the dorms at the proposed location, according to the UCSB source, convincing the

Dining Hall Unionization

said he worked dozens of shifts longer than eight hours and the occasional 12-hour shift, neither of which provided an overtime differential pay rate.

“The fact that we still make 25 cents over minimum wage is pretty absurd, especially how relative to their total workforce, it’s not a lot. It wouldn’t take that much to give us a decent living wage,” McCarthy said.

An Ortega employee further explained that students have been expected to fulfill a higher volume of takeout orders — with management increasing the amount from seven orders every two minutes to 20 orders — with no additional benefits or compensation.

“We spend more time constantly working trying to fill orders. There’s not a moment to rest,” they said. “The entire time we haven’t gotten any kind of raise for this increased amount of work that we’re doing, which also means that the university is making more money from the dining halls because they’re filling out more orders, but our pay stays the same.”

Students cited personal and coworker complaints of foot, back and wrist pain and repetitive stress injuries from the constant physical motions of running, lifting items and crouching to complete tasks.

The Carrillo employee said that managers have a “lack of consideration for the wellbeing” of their employees, working them to the point of exhaustion.

“There was one time last week where I was doing four people’s jobs because not a lot of people were coming into work,” she said. “I feel like I wasn’t even accommodated; I didn’t get to finish my break.”

SDLU is looking to demand improvements to hourly wages, overtime pay, work breaks, sick leave benefits and scheduling, according to internal meeting notes dated March 5.

Dining hall employees are fully

billionaire that the project ought to be situated at the facilities management site once slated for Mesa Verde.

When the project was reintroduced in June 2021, it faced enormous public and private backlash centered around the dorm’s largely windowless design. The outcry prompted the creation of an Academic Senate panel, which outlined a number of changes it contended would be necessary for the project to move forward in a blistering report it issued nine months after its formation.

Now, members of the project team wait to hear what changes are to be approved by the 99-year-old billionaire, who continues to hold the ultimate say over the project’s design, the UCSB source said.

Yang told the Regents during a Jan. 18 meeting that UCSB will return over this summer with an updated dorm design that takes into account the recommendations made by the Academic Senate panel.

A great deal of work needs to happen before then, with the project team still waiting to hear from the billionaire about what changes will or won’t be implemented, according to the source. Significant changes to the dorm are expected once that happens, furthering the already extensive delays the project has faced, both since its announcement seven years ago and its reintroduction in June 2021.

The impending rework effectively renders the multimillion dollar mock-up and accompanying building designs — both of which have been retrofitted a number of times over the years — outdated, the source said.

The latest iteration of the dorm was a nine-story structure that would house around 3,500 students. That design was ready to go pending approval from the

California Coastal Commission in Fall Quarter 2022, but the panel’s recommendation has negated any planned starting dates, the source said.

Munger is also the designer of dorms at Stanford University and the University of Michigan, the latter of which features some windowless bedrooms. Munger told CNN in November 2021 that, while he expects the UCSB dorm design to be copied across the country, he doesn’t plan to bring his namesake residence hall to any other campuses.

“No, I won’t do it. I’m ready to die very shortly,” he told CNN.

UCSB’s central motivation behind the pursuit of Munger’s dorm over traditional housing is the significant gift the billionaire is expected to contribute, the source said.

The windfall is expected to be in the hundreds of millions, set to aid a campus lacking significant funding for new student housing.

Former Academic Senate Chair and economics professor Henning Bohn outlined the financial struggles the campus faces in constructing in the panel’s final report, lamenting the slow pace and rent increases the campus would need to facilitate further traditional housing.

Even as UCSB reports record income in recent years, the dorm is expected to cost more to construct than the university spends to fund the entire campus in a calendar year.

Although the $1.5 billion structure would cost significantly more per bedroom than the Mesa Verde traditional housing project, Munger’s donation is expected to offset the difference to the extent that it is in the campus’s fiscal interest to pursue the controversial project, the UCSB source said.

Munger Hall remains deeply unpopular with students who continue to protest the project even as updates from UCSB have been scant in recent months.

Evictions

If and when residents refuse to heed the evictions order, the complex’s new landlord, Core Spaces, vowed to “pursue legal recourse.” The company would likely file an eviction case — called an unlawful detainer — that puts the matter before a judge who would determine the eviction orders’ legality.

The law nonprofits contend that the eviction orders will be deemed invalid in any unlawful detainer case, as Core Spaces has yet to deliver all permits needed to evict residents for remodeling purposes, as is required under new regulations passed by the County Board of Supervisors on April 6.

Core Spaces’ local legal counsel, Thyne Taylor Fox Howard, LLP, argued in an April 18 letter to residents that the legal strategy put forward by CSTA is “incorrect,” and Core Spaces Director of Communications Kim Lyons told the Nexus in an email statement that the company wishes to “avoid litigation if possible.”

The nonprofits delivered followup letters to residents on May 6, claiming that Core Spaces’ prior communication to tenants “misstated the law” and that “CORE does not have permits so cannot terminate your tenancy for ‘substantial remodeling.’”

Lawyers working with CSTA on the matter are in agreement that the eviction orders will be deemed invalid, according to Szepesi. Both nonprofits continue to collaborate with CSTA as eviction dates for many residents draw near.

“They’re both firms dedicated to helping lower-income marginalized classes, which is a lot of what CBC & The Sweeps is; we have a lot of Section 8, we have a lot of disabled, elderly, families [and] students,” Szepesi said.

In recent weeks, Core Spaces

repeatedly urged residents to pick up relocation checks in letters delivered to residents in both English and Spanish, which were also seen in a number of emails obtained by the Nexus.

“They’re basically making tenants think that they have to pick up their checks now, or like within 15 days, or they won’t get it,” Szepesi said. “There’s no time limit; you can have that check at any time before you move.”

Core Spaces told the Nexus last week that 70% of residents picked up their checks already. Szepesi warned that even though residents may have collected the money, that does not constitute an agreement to move out, and tenants who have done so can still resist their eviction.

“When people are picking up their checks, they are not signing an agreement to move out,” Szepesi said. “So people that have picked up their checks and cashed them, if we get to stay, they would just pay that money back. There’s no signing agreement to move out, that’s not what picking up the check means.”

CSTA is also lobbying Santa Barbara County supervisors to pass a renoviction moratorium that would ban evictions such as the ones affecting CBC & The Sweeps residents that are predicated on a desire to renovate apartments to raise rents.

“We’re trying to preserve and protect this low-income housing and other low-income housing in the county,” Szepesi said. “We want to stay in our homes. If a giant multibillion dollar company with old ex-Goldman Sachs executives and Blackstone executives want to buy it, then they should allow us the right to return out our previous rent and give us temporary housing.”

Continued from p.1

responsible for finding covers for their shifts in the case of illness or the need for personal time off — a point of stress for many workers.

“There is full responsibility on the students to find the cover,” Pang said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re sick. Even if someone has COVID, they’ll ask you to find the cover.”

During the pandemic, managers expected dining hall employees to find a person to cover their shift if they tested positive and needed to isolate or quarantine, according to students. McCarthy added that managers sometimes “encouraged [them] to come in anyways” if sick.

Another key demand for SDLU relates to improvements to substandard working conditions. The issue stems from the UC Regents’ legal designation as a “public trust,” exempting it from labor statutes regulating the wages and benefits of California public employees.

State regulation Order No. 4 governing minimum wages, overtime pay, rest periods, sick leave, workplace temperature and other worker benefits and protections does not apply to the UC Regents. The California Court of Appeal upheld this exemption in its 2021 ruling Gomez v. Regents of the University of California. Inadequate ventilation and temperature control plagues all four of the dining commons, and dehydration and passing out due to extreme heat is a recurring experience among workers, according to employees.

“Most of the time, you don’t have AC. They’ll have the heater on, on already hot days while you’re working in the kitchen, which is itself hot,” the Ortega employee said. “There are people who have passed out during work, especially when you’re working in the dish room because it is extremely hot there.”

They said the boiler for Ortega did not work for about six months, and students were “absolutely

freezing” while working during winter quarter.

“There’s just absolutely no regulation of the environment to where it is bearable to work in,” they said.

Pang said that the temperature control was broken for a year and a half at Ortega, and the room where hot entrees are packed for take out lacks adequate ventilation.

“It gets extremely hot back there because there’s almost no ventilation,” Pang said. “Very recently, they’ve finally installed this little fan on the top corner that does help a little bit but does very little in regards to actually getting the hot air out, and so people back there are sweating. They’re trying to try and just survive without melting.”

Due to the UC Regents’ exemption from Order No. 4, dining hall workers also “do not have the right to sit down at any point during work,” the Ortega employee said.

“As soon as a manager comes around, everyone gets up because if they catch you doing that, then you’ll get in trouble,” they said.

Order No. 4 states that “All working employees shall be provided with suitable seats when the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats,” and that when the nature of work requires the employee to stand, seats should be placed close by the work area for employees to use, “when it does not interfere with the performance of their duties.”

McCarthy said that the issue became “contentious” between workers and managers after many instances where students were denied seating at or near their workstation.

“I think it just lends to the way in which our managers tend to view us as tools to get things done rather than as people with needs,” they said.

Pang said that there are rampant health issues across all of the dining halls, from relaxed handwashing policies and unclean

surfaces to unsanitary handling and preparing of food.

“The health inspectors went to all the dining halls, and then we, from what I understand, just failed at Ortega and we had a week to desperately clean up the area,” Pang said.

Students also said that inappropriate behavior and harassment is a known, prevalent problem that has gone unaddressed by the university.

“We can experience harassment from management,” McCarthy said. “Most of our relationships with the the full-time chefs there are pretty good, but many of us have experienced sexual harassment from the chefs.”

Pang said that rather than the university actively addressing the problem by terminating perpetrators of sexual harassment, he was directed as a student manager to reassign femalepresenting employees from certain positions, such as janitorial staff.

“I’ve been implicitly asked to only send male-presenting people to work in that position. ‘Just don’t send female-presenting people,’” Pang said.

McCarthy expressed his frustration over the university’s inaction.

“It often makes those malepresenting people feel targeted toward those positions because

it’s not typically a fun position to be in, but it also speaks to the question of, why can’t they just stop the harassment? Why can’t they deal with the harassment? They know it exists. They have spoken on it, they know it exists,” he said.

McCarthy noted that students working in residential dining predominantly come from lowincome backgrounds and take on the burden to afford college expenses and the high cost of living on campus and in Isla Vista.

“A lot of the people who are working there are not well-off by any means,” McCarthy said. “A lot of these people are forced to work alongside their schooling to pay for tuition, to pay for housing and so on, and I think it would be a testament to the university’s commitment to care for those people if they were to treat them fairly and make up for what they have to lose by having to do this job in the first place.”

The Ortega employee said they work around 16 hours a week to afford high rent costs in I.V. and other basic expenses. They rely on EBT for groceries and previously lived off dining hall food and Associated Students Food Bank resources.

“I know that I am definitely not unique in this situation,” they said. “There are a lot of us who

are working, trying to survive and keep up with the cost of living, and it’s negatively impacting our school performance and our prospects after school.”

SDLU is planning its first rally for May 24 at 1 p.m. by the Arbor to generate publicity of the dining commons’ substandard working conditions and launch its campaign for unionization.

“We hope to inspire autonomy and democratic values within both our workplace and in others across campus through our efforts,” SDLU wrote in the drafted Instagram post. “Please fight alongside us as we push to make conditions on campus more livable.”

McCarthy said the campaign will serve as a “litmus test” for the public’s support and hopes to file as a union with the California Public Employment Relations Board within the next school year. He added that SDLU anticipates pushback from the university.

“They are almost certainly going to contest our unionization effort whenever we do file,” McCarthy said. “They likely will refuse to recognize our efforts for a prolonged period of time, in which case we are at the ready to engage in whatever legal battle we need in order to recognize ourselves, both legal and on the ground.”

The Carrillo Dining Commons sits in Manzanita Village near the ocean bluffs.

CHRISTINA DEMARZO / DAILY NEXUS

UC Santa Barbara’s Nikkei Student Union hosted its third annual Culture Night on Saturday, May 13, in Campbell Hall. The event showcased an original student-written play titled “Blossom: Sadako and the Thousand Cranes,” individual talent acts, and performances from the UCSB Kendo Club and Soran Bushi team.

The Nikkei Student Union (NSU) — UCSB’s Japanese American social and cultural organization — hosts an annual culture night to present topics relevant to the Japanese American campus community and spotlight the community’s heritage through various performances.

Culture Night’s theme this year featured Asian American identity and visibility as well as generational trauma, according to third-year economics and accounting major and NSU Culture Night producer Owen Wong. Many of the themes were based on club members’ personal experiences growing up as Asian Americans.

“We sat down and decided themes that capture the Asian American experience,” Wong said. “We wrote a bunch of things down and picked the ones that were our favorite based on our own personal experiences and what we feel comfortable writing about because it’s something that we’ve dealt with ourselves.”

Second-year psychological & brain sciences major and Culture Night Director Hanna Abe wrote

the play’s script based on her own experiences dealing with her identity as an Asian American growing up in a small, predominantly white town.

“Almost everything in the script is completely based on real experiences that happened to me, because I grew up in a very white neighborhood in a small town in northern California where racism was pretty common. No one really spoke up about anything,” she said. “All those conversations that were in the play were real conversations I had. So it’s just like writing down my memories.”

Abe said she had struggled with balancing her identity within her household, her community and herself, constantly asking herself if she was “Japanese enough.” She said Sadako, the main character of the play, was a reflection of her own insecurities in high school, like questioning the culture behind her name and heritage or her own position in her family household.

“Asian American identity is something that’s really hard to develop because there are a lot of standards, not just based from society and in the media, but also a lot of Asian parents tend to be very strict and want you to follow a certain box,” she said.

Throughout the play, Sadako struggles with her identity as a Japanese American. Through her interactions with various characters like her grandfather, Jichan, and her college best friend, Akari, she begins to explore the different aspects of her heritage.

“There are a lot of external

pressures on who you want to become and, like, the type of person that you wanna be versus how the media perceives you,” Abe said.

Third-year biology major and Culture Night Producer Brandon Chan said Culture Night is a space for the community to showcase different parts of their heritage to people who are not familiar with Japanese American culture and may not have known about it before.

“The overall purpose [of Culture Night] is to highlight Japanese American identity as well as Asian American identity and to show this campus that we exist and we want to share our culture and our history. So by putting on a night of culture, we’re able to show the beauty of our culture and also let people explore aspects of it that probably weren’t known before, such as Soran Bushi, the traditional dance, or Kendo club,” Chan said.

Wong added that the performances also served as a space to educate the campus community on the individuality of Asian American experiences and to debunk the “model minority myth” — a social phenomenon that generalizes Asian Americans as an economically successful and lawabiding group.

“There’s that whole model minority myth, and the way to deconstruct that myth is to show this sort of individuality within Asian American communities because we’re not all the same. We have different values, different talents, and I feel like having a space to express that is really important,” he said.

He explained that the performances allowed individuals to share their own connections to their cultural heritage and further define the Japanese American identity outside of the generalizations people may have from the media.

“If we show how distinct Japanese culture is, people will understand that Japanese Americans are a distinct group within the Asian or Asian American category,” he said. “When people talk about Asian Americans, it’s a broad category that makes generalizations about every single group in that category, so creating these distinctions is really important.”

Abe said that people who are not part of the Japanese American or Asian American communities could connect and reflect on their own cultural heritage at the event, because their identity should be something that they can love and cherish, not feel ashamed of.

“Regardless of what your ethnic background is, I know everyone has some sort of insecurity within their identity,” she said. “So I hope that after watching the play, people feel more comforted in the way that they’re not alone with their insecurities.”

Abe offered a piece of advice to those who may also deal with the insecurities showcased at Culture Night.

“You’re not alone. You should be proud of your background,” she continued. “I hope that it inspires them to find something that brings comfort in who they are and find the beauty in themselves.”

As the 2022-23 school year comes to an end, the Isla Vista Community Services District is preparing for the amount of waste generated from students moving out.

Every year, year-end moving out generates about 1 million pounds of waste to be collected, the Isla Vista Community Services District (IVCSD) said in a press release. The waste largely consists of items such as clothing, unwanted and reusable goods, furniture, and pounds of canned and packaged goods.

“I have lived through several ‘move-outs’ here in Isla Vista. I know firsthand how disruptive, stressful, and wasteful this time of year can be,” IVCSD Isla Vista Beautiful Program Manager Jenna Norton said in the press release.

IVCSD will pilot a variety of new projects to address the waste generated by move out in I.V., according to a press release.

Such initiatives include a

community-wide yard sale set to take place on May 27, a doorstep pick-up service of any unwanted items and a food drive to collect unwanted non-perishable items to donate back into the community. To facilitate further waste pickup, the County of Santa Barbara partnered with MarBorg, a waste collection and management company. Starting the week before graduation and continuing for about two weeks, MarBorg trash trucks will be in I.V. daily to collect bulky items and other discarded materials from the curbside as well as empty trash and recycling bins.

“While we may not see immediate change, I believe that consistency in education and the opportunity to rid of unwanted items throughout the years will change the culture of ‘move out,’” Norton said in the release.

IVCSD has a webpage dedicated to all information and other move-out resources, including local storage facilities, donation sites, how to dispose, sustainable move-out tips and local contact information.

member Yu performs

UCSB Kendo Club conducts a kendo sparring demonstration as a guest performer.

NSU member and soloist Sakamoto plays “Merry Go Round of Life” on the piano.

NSU

lyrical dance solo.

CLAIRE VOSSLER/ DAILY NEXUS

The UC Santa Barbara Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities hosted its annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Week from Monday, May 8 to Friday, May 12.

Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA)

Week is a five-day event where students showcase their various research and creative projects. The week includes a digital and poster colloquium, conference panels and a final fast-paced slam presentation.

“URCA Week is a great opportunity for students across the university to present their [research] project that they’ve been working on all year,” URCA Director Anita Stahl said.

The poster colloquium took place on May 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Corwin Pavilion. Over 185 students presented the results of their year-long research, with topics ranging from cancer cell research to racial prejudice analysis.

Along with the poster colloquium, over 50 students presented at the conference panels from May 10-12. Each panel was open to the public and featured each student explaining their methodology, experimental design and results to their audiences.

“A lot of the [topics] for the humanities students don’t work very well as a poster,” Stahl said. “It makes more sense to do a 10-minute conference presentation about it. For S.T.E.M. fields that have a lot of graphs and need data visualization, the poster is a good medium to communicate.”

While science and math make up the majority of the research project’s topics, URCA offers opportunities for all majors to participate in the event.

“Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities also includes

those creative activities,” Stahl said. “So there’s also students who are getting funding to work on their art projects, whether that be them buying canvas oil paints, but also software subscriptions to work on music or a student who developed a computer game to publish on Steam. Just really whatever students need to finish and share their work.”

The final component of URCA week was the Slam competition, where each participant had three minutes and three slides to give a presentation on their research in an effort to win a cash prize.

The qualifying round for the Slam was held online, and the finals — consisting of the top 10 submissions — took place on May 11.

“It’s going to be competitive,” Stahl said. “We have someone from feminist studies, biochem and CCS [College of Creative Studies] doing presentations about their work, competing for $500.”

Most students who participated at URCA week received an independent research grant worth up to $750 to fund any travel and equipment expenses, according to Stahl.

Milla Wu, a fourth-year Black studies and English double major, showcased her project at the Slam competition. Her project related to Black and Chinese relations in Los Angeles’s China Town to examine the perception of racial violence within capitalistic frameworks.

“I needed funding [from URCA] to be able to interview them instead of looking at other people’s interviews. It’s important to be able to go out into the field,” she continued.

Wu felt that she needed to give back to those who she interviewed due to the vulnerability of those she talked to.

“Because I was working with

University of California President Michael Drake issued a statement on behalf of University of California in response to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s revised 202324 budget proposal. Published on May 12, the statement praised the proposal maintaining funding for the University of California system.

The revised budget is focused on continuing support for the multiyear compact between University of California (UC) and the state legislature. The revision regarding higher education outlines fiscal increases toward increasing California undergraduate and graduate student enrollment rates, expanding on-campus resources, building additional student

housing and hiring more faculty and staff.

“I am grateful that Gov. Newsom’s revised budget proposal maintains critical funding for the University of California,” Drake said in a statement. “This budget reflects our strong partnership with the Governor and his recognition of the University’s role in maintaining the state’s economic competitiveness and solving California’s most urgent issues.”

The initiative will require funding adjustments, as outlined in the budget document.

Newsom plans to shift $498 million in current and planned General Fund state support toward UC-issued bonds for various projects done on UC campuses, including UC Berkeley and UC Merced. He also presented an increase of $30 million to the ongoing

General Fund support to cover debt services on bonds for UC affordable student housing grants. There will also be a one-time increase of $2 million to create an entrepreneur-in-residence project for UC immigrant students, along with a $1.2 million increase for a statewide grant program.

Drake noted his approval toward the various adjustments made to the state budget.

“The University of California looks forward to working with the Governor and state legislative leaders to achieve a final budget that maintains this critical funding,” he said in the statement.

“This state support will allow the University to continue educating the next generation of leaders, producing cutting-edge research for the benefit of our communities, and delivering high quality health care to Californians,” the statement continued.

a lot of vulnerable populations, I wanted to be able to give them something like buying them a meal or giving them money. I didn’t want to be like ‘I’m going to exploit your story’ without being given anything in return,” Wu said.

Gaucho Racing, a student-run club that competes nationally in Formula 1-style car racing, received around $8,000 from URCA distributed across five projects that covered different aspects of automobile engineering, according to second-year mechanical engineering major and Gaucho Racing member Thomas Yu.

Three projects were presented at the poster colloquium and the other two presented in conference panels.

‘The whole car costs around $30,000 to $40,000,” Yu said. “[URCA] was a huge help because we get no official funding from the school just as a racing club.”

At the URCA conference panel located in the UCSB Center for Innovative Teaching, Research, and Learning, Yu and his team explained how they tested the strength of welds on the car’s chassis while checking for weak points at the joints of the tubing.

“To actually be able to say, ‘Oh, I built that car’ is very rewarding.” Yu said.

URCA research is a highimpact educational practice that develops critical thinking, presentation, communication and collaboration skills that are supposed to be trained throughout the undergraduate level, according to Stahl.

“It’s amazing what UCSB students are doing and the people who attend these conferences and colloquiums are amazed at what everybody is up to,” Stahl said. “Getting to present in that context, I hope, is giving students confidence in their work that they can bring into the classroom but also into their future careers.”

Students present their work during URCA Week conference panels.

“Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More” — The bread lover’s best friend

Abigail Monti

On the Menu Asst. Editor

A little over a year ago, I found myself desperately typing “chocolate bread recipes” into the Google search bar. As an admitted chocolate fanatic with a knack for making bread, I felt like there simply had to be a recipe out there that was missing from my baking repertoire. Thankfully, chocolate babka filled that void. Not even a minute after I came across a picture of a braided babka loaf with a decadent chocolate cinnamon filling, I was already pulling out my flour. That first month, I must have baked at least three loaves.

But I didn’t stop with babka. Next, I learned about rugelach, and the month after that, I tackled bagels. Thus began my obsession with Jewish baked goods. But it wasn’t until recently that I picked up “Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels &

More” by Shannon Sarna, which features a complete collection of traditional and modern Jewish recipes. Sarna attributes her inspiration to her uniquely mixed Italian-Jewish heritage. In the cookbook’s introduction, she explains that she sees traditional Jewish baked goods as an invitation to merge old and new in creatively diverse ways. The result? Bakeable heaven.

The modern aesthetic of Sarna’s cookbook perfectly reflects the simplistic beauty of the recipes inside. The front cover, featuring three beautiful babka loaves on a dark surface, immediately caught my attention and set the tone for the rest of the pages. Nearly every recipe is accompanied by a mouthwatering photo, making them all the more enticing and easy to follow.

Sarna carries that theme of simplicity through the book’s organization as well. The recipes are neatly divided

into seven distinct sections: challah, babka, bagels, rugelach, hamantaschen, matzah and pita bread. Each section begins with a foundational recipe, followed by a handful of innovative flavor combinations, such as balsamic apple date stuffed challah, spicy pizza rugelach and coconut cheesecake hamantaschen.

In celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month, I set off to replicate as many recipes as I could before my housemates literally grew sick of bread and cookies.

I decided to start with challah.

I’d made plain challah before — a white enriched bread that tastes similar to brioche — but I’d never tried adding mixins before. Thinking I’d begin with something simple, I chose to make the cinnamon raisin challah. Or, I would have, if I had any raisins on hand. Following Sarna’s recommendation, I used chocolate chips instead. Quite

honestly, I’m convinced the recipe should permanently include chocolate chips because it was delicious. Sweet, chewy and with the perfect amount of spice, this loaf was an immediate hit in my house. The next morning, I followed Sarna’s fantastic advice and turned the remaining slices into French toast. There’s nothing quite like dessert for breakfast to motivate you out of bed in the morning.

Next up, I tackled Sarna’s raspberry chocolate rugelach (are you seeing the chocolate theme yet?). If you’ve never heard of rugelach, let me put you on: it’s pastry dough made with part cream cheese and part butter that is rolled up around a sweet or savory filling. Flakier than a shortbread cookie yet denser than a croissant-style pastry, rugelach is the perfect middle child. I am not exaggerating when I say that these jammy chocolate cookies were one of

the most delicious desserts I’ve baked in years. The tart and sweet raspberry jam balanced the bitter dark chocolate like a dream. However, be warned: you should use less jam per cookie than you think! I filled each rugelach with the suggested 3 teaspoons of jam, and most of it ended up erupting out the sides and burning onto my sheet pan. While they may not have turned out as the most aesthetically pleasing cookies, trust me, they’re worth your time. And remember, there’s nothing a heavy sprinkle of powdered sugar can’t fix.

Lastly, because I decided that I probably should try a savory recipe for a properly balanced review, I whipped up a loaf of Sarna’s savory babka. Babka is another braided white bread that is usually served with a cinnamon filling and syrup. But unlike challah, which includes eggs and oil, babka dough contains eggs, butter and milk, making

it more airy, shiny and smooth. Per the recipe’s suggestion, I also included a savory filling of pesto and shredded parmesan cheese, which really elevated the simple bread. The end result was garlic bread’s classier, more intricate older cousin.

“Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More” truly opened my eyes to a world of new flavor combinations that I normally wouldn’t have considered. Her unique recipes push the boundaries of tradition in all the best ways. The only thing I would warn you about is Sarna’s chosen portions. Each bread recipe yields three loaves and each cookie recipe yields over two dozen cookies; if you aren’t planning to bake for a small army, have your calculator on hand. I highly recommend

“Modern Jewish Baker: Challah, Babka, Bagels & More” for anyone interested in expanding their baking portfolio.

A beloved family-owned gem of Isla Vista: Roger’s Tacos

Isabel Hiestand Reporter

Walking down Del Playa Drive on one of its quieter nights is one of my favorite things to do. People bike by, the sunset is harnessed in the beautiful sky, the waves rumble on the beach and the birds sing … What more can one ask for? While on my routine hot-girl walk, I was greeted by a familiar, welcoming scent. Seeping into the air in front of me was the beautiful aroma of Roger’s Tacos, set up in the driveway of a house one block over.

Roger’s Tacos has been setting up its grill and tables under a tent in the driveways of several homes in Isla Vista since 2019, bringing their intensely delicious food to the Isla Vista community. However, their story did not start with the pop-ups that Isla Vista has grown to love. Owners Mac and Rogelio Ochoa said the operation started as a happy accident after a friend’s graduation party.

“There was leftover meat,” and following some advertising to the Isla Vista community on Instagram they “started selling and a lot of people gathered and asked when [they] were going to return.”

Following their debut, Ochoa says the business received a lot of support from students in the community.

“A student made our Instagram and then another five students made ‘Roger’s Tacos’ logos; then a student made us the price menu,” Ochoa said.

Since that fateful day in 2019, their popularity has exploded. The number of pop-ups have been increasing rapidly, as clubs and organizations invite them to cater for fundraising efforts. During my recent visit, the line reached almost to the end of the block and grew as unsuspecting passersby and intentional patrons joined. The nearly hour-long wait was well worth it.

Finally reaching the front of the line, I ordered from their menu options of tacos, burritos, mulitas, quesadillas and side dishes including rice and beans. The choice of a burrito, quesadilla and mulitas allows for you to also choose add ons ranging from rice, cheese and beans, along with your choice of protein. There is no wrong choice. Their choices of meats include al pastor and chicken, as well as vegetarian options, meaning there

is something for everyone. Each protein is well flavored and has excellent consistency. The chef recommends the al pastor, which is arguably life-changing.

Receiving your order straight from the grill is not the end of the journey — don’t forget to add sauces and toppings. They have a choice of three salsas, cucumbers, onions, cilantro and limes that you can add to your dish. If you order a burrito, they’ll wrap it up for you after you add your desired toppings. If you want to be a full-fledged patron of Roger’s Tacos, order a sweet, creamy horchata to accompany your meal.

Roger’s Tacos has grown from Isla Vista’s little secret into a fullblown cult classic. Ochoa says she does not have any concrete plans for the future of Roger’s Tacos and only wants to continue supporting the students of Isla Vista. So, if you want to plan a fundraiser, try someplace new or simply support a small business with amazing food, check out the gem of Isla Vista: Roger’s Tacos.

Follow @rogerstacos on Instagram for information about their next pop-up! The menu and contact information are in the bio.

The cookbook includes several bread recipes, including this cinnamon raisin challah. The cookbook’s cookie options include rugelach with raspberry jam and chocolate shavings.

Protein options for burritos, quesadillas, tacos and mulitas include al pastor (pictured), chicken, vegetarian options and more.

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UC Santa Barbara’s Associated Students Program Board announced the lineup for this year’s Extravaganza, set to be held on May 21 at Harder Stadium.

The much anticipated lineup was revealed at Storke Lawn on Thursday, May 11, exactly at 1 p.m. during A.S. Program Board’s Tea Party, where they celebrated

ARTSWEEK

the lineup announcement. The lineup has received mixed reviews and reactions from students. This year’s Extravaganza has the theme of “Tea Party” and is free to all students with an access card.

Similar to last year’s event, a total of three artists are confirmed to take the stage this Sunday, but the poster that revealed the lineup teases the possible addition of more performers.

“It sounds like it’s a lot more

indie than the school is used to,” said Maddie Pierce, a first-year biopsychology major. “But I feel like that might be a good thing.”

Set to headline the event is Grammy-nominated EDM duo Galantis. Traveling all the way from Sweden, the group consists of Christian Karlsson and Linus Eklöw, who both previously worked as co-writers and producers in the industry.

Karlsson is noted for co-writing

Britney Spears’ smash-hit song “Toxic.” The other member of the duo, Eklöw, both co-wrote and produced Icona Pop’s 2012 track “I Love It,” featuring Charli XCX. Galantis signed to a label in 2013 and received a Grammy nomination for Best Dance Recording for their track “Runaway (U & I)” back in 2015. “I’ve only heard of Galantis, but I’m really into EDM music, so that sounds interesting to me,” said

first-year actuarial science major Brielle Deocampo. The second act revealed is singer Remi Wolf, who is fresh off playing both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Wolf defines her music as “funky soul pop” and is known for her viral single “Photo ID,” which is also a collaboration with fellow artist Dominic Fike, who was a headliner for UCSB’s 2021’s virtual Extravaganza. Wolf played the Santa Barbara Bowl last May when she was featured as one of the openers for Lorde’s Solar Power Tour, and she also hosted a free noon show at Storke Tower in 2019. Her return to UCSB is highly anticipated by many students.

“I think [the lineup is] good because I know Remi Wolf and Galantis,” second-year computer science major Raina Kakani said.

“I don’t know a lot of their work, but I’m a fan of live music in general. So I think it’ll be fun.”

The final artist announced for Extravaganza is 21-year-old Atlanta-based rapper Destroy Lonely. His debut studio album “If Looks Could Kill” was released on May 5 and made headlines for topping Spotify’s Top Albums Global Debut Chart — beating Ed Sheeran’s newest album “Subtract.” “If Looks Could Kill” features 26 tracks, including a

feature with fellow rapper Ken Carson.

Still, many students expressed a desire for the A.S. Program Board to book more popular and well-known artists for future Extravaganzas.

“I don’t know any of the people who are performing, which I feel is kind of sad compared to past performances. It’s just not as interesting,” first-year history major Vincent Calvillo said.

Students referenced past Extravaganzas, such as 2010’s performances, which featured Drake as its main headliner.

“I’m hoping in the next four years there’ll be better lineups compared to what I’ve seen in the past. I’ve heard about Drake coming in the past … and I’m just waiting for one of the people that come for us to be up and coming or be a big deal,” said Anushka Vijay, a second-year computer science student. “I just want to be able to say in my college experience [that] I saw someone who’s now a really big deal.”

While this year’s Extravaganza lineup has received mixed reactions from the UCSB student population, it goes without saying that they are all highly anticipating the event this Sunday to see if it truly does live up to the hype.

Indie-rock singer-songwriter

Indigo De Souza performed a toned down, acoustic set at The Hub, in UC Santa Barbara’s University Center, on May 11.

Known for her unique instrumentals and introspective lyrics, the North Carolina-born artist rose to fame in 2017 with her debut EP “Boys.” Since then, she has released three studio albums, her most recent being “All of This Will End,” which was released April 2023.

The concert opened with musical artist Billy Lemos performing his first show in four years. Lemos is an accomplished producer who started out collaborating with SoundCloud artists and working his way up to working with performers such as Omar Apollo and Still Woozy.

As his set opened up, the crowd seemed unfamiliar with his work. People stood apprehensively and voiced their confusion amongst each other as Lemos bobbed his head to the opening beats of his set, with an audience member asking, “Who is this guy again?”

The moment of hesitancy was brief. Standing behind a table and equipped with just a laptop and soundboard, the Chicago-based artist successfully won the audience over.

Lemos delivered a unique set with bold tracks and digitally-engineered mixes. The set was accompanied with a captivating light show, flashing in time with the technorhythmic beat. His showstopping performance concluded with a roar of applause from the audience, making his name known amongst the Santa Barbara community and perfectly setting the stage for the main event.

As the stage crew began adjusting the platform set-up, there were murmurs of excitement amongst the audience. Fans exchanged what songs they hoped would be performed, singing their favorite

lyrics with each other and tiptoeing to get the best view of the stage.

De Souza walked on stage and the crowd went wild.

As the cheers slowly faded, De Souza approached the mic and shared to the crowd that she was currently fighting a sinus infection and would be playing a tuneddown acoustic set as a result. While tuning her guitar, she playfully said, “I’m here for an hour, so if you guys have anything you wanna talk about … I’m here.”

That offer perfectly captured the vibe of the intimate set. The hour-long performance was filled with moments of pure connection between De Souza and the audience, displayed through short conversations between songs.

De Souza opened with “Not My Body,” a track from her album released earlier this year titled “All of This Will End.” This was the perfect start to an incredible set list, almost hypnotizing the audience.

As she delicately sang, “I want to be a redwood tree / Feel desert sand below my feet,” members of the crowd swayed in unison.

The acoustic rendition of “Kill Me” was hauntingly beautiful. This was the first time De Souza had performed the song without her band and she only performed it due

to a request from the crowd. With the track stripped down to just her and her guitar, it was clear that her sinus infection wasn’t hindering her incredible vocal ability. De Souza powerfully belted into the mic, capturing the emotional complexity the song inhabits.

Her genuine love and respect for her music made for an intimate connection between artist and audience. Despite begs from the audience for her to play “Take Off Ur Pants,” arguably De Souza’s most popular track, the artist refused. Her reason was incredibly introspective, revealing “I feel kinda weird playing it because I was sixteen when I wrote it and now I’m 25.” Her comment offered a moment of selfreflection for both De Souza and the crowd.

She also had many moments of self-disclosure, deepening her already-close relationship with the fans. When she mistook a cheer for a boo, De Souza silenced the crowd and sheepishly asked why, adding “I’m so fragile; you’re gonna break me down.” After the audience member reassured her of their adoration, she smiled with a sense of relief and said, “We’re okay. We’re both okay. We’re alive. Everything’s chill.”

After much pleading from the

audience, De Souza gave in and ended the night with her first ever solo performance of “Younger & Dumber,” which also serves as the closing track to “All of This Will End”. The performance felt raw and personal. Before playing, she asked the crowd not to record. “If it’s embarrassing, let it be our secret.”

Yet, the finale was the opposite of embarrassing and was actually the highlight of De Souza’s performance. Fans sang along with the artist as she delicately revealed “Sometimes, I just don’t wanna be alone / And it’s not ‘cause I’m lonely / It’s just ‘cause I get so tired of filling the space all around me.”

When the song came to a close, the crowd erupted into wild applause. De Souza shyly smiled and remained still for a moment, facing the crowd full of diehard and new fans as they celebrated her performance before unplugging her guitar and exiting the stage.

De Souza didn’t hold back from the crowd or attempt to woo them. She was simply herself, something emphasized with the absence of her band and just the electric guitar accompaniment. De Souza’s night of introspection, revelation and reflection will go down as one of the most intimate performances in UCSB’s The Hub.

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De Souza serenades the crowd during an acoustic version of “Not My Body.”

Armchair QB

After decades of dominance, the San Antonio Spurs looked like they had fallen down to Earth with a subpar season. However, the trajectory of the franchise changed this past Tuesday when they won the draft lottery and the right to draft Victor Wembanyama of France.

SPORTS

UCSB baseball falls into third place in Big West after series loss to CSU Long Beach

After returning home for the one-game series against Loyola Marymount University, in which the Gauchos secured their third win in a row, they headed down south for the weekend for a three-game series against the Cal State Long Beach Dirtbags. The first game of the series was anything but an offensive battle between the two heavyhitting teams as the Dirtbags took Game 1 with a final score of 1-0, the first time the Gauchos have been shutout since their matchup against Cal

State Fullerton back in early April.

Graduate pitcher Nico Zeglin was named the Big West Pitcher of the Week after his memorable night for the Dirtbags, recording an impressive 10 strikeouts and allowing just 3 hits.

Zeglin pitched all 9 innings for the Dirtbags to which he would surpass the 100-strikeout mark for the year and record his fourth double-digit strikeout performance of the season.

Sophomore pitcher Matt Ager of the Gauchos also had himself a night after nearly topping his season-high of 13 strikeouts, finishing the day

retiring 10 Dirtbags in his 7 innings pitched and allowing just 4 hits and 1 earned run.

After a poor offensive performance from the night before, the Gauchos completely turned things around in Game 2 as four Gaucho players went the distance and managed to shut out the Dirtbags with a final score of 8-0.

The Gauchos started the second inning with back-toback home runs by sophomore outfielder Ivan Brethowr and junior catcher John Newman Jr.

Multiple errors committed by the Dirtbags resulted in additional runs for the Gauchos.

A fielding error by redshirt junior pitcher Graham Osman resulted in sophomore outfielder LeTrey McCollum reaching first, who eventually crossed home plate along with sophomore infielder Zander Darby after a wild throw by junior first baseman Jonathon Long that also resulted in junior infielder Nick Oakley reaching first.

UCSB headed into the bottom of the second inning with a comfortable 4-run lead.

Another home run by Brethowr in the top of the fifth inning brought home sophomore designated hitter Aaron Parker, who had previously walked, extending the lead to 6-0.

Redshirt junior outfielder Jared Sundstrom and redshirt senior outfielder Christian Kirtley added to the score after Sundstrom homered to left field in the top of the seventh and Kirtley hit one into center field in the top of the ninth.

Junior pitcher Mike Gutierrez started things off for the Gauchos in Game 2 having pitched 4 innings and finishing the day with 4 strikeouts,

allowing just 1 hit.

Freshman pitcher Hudson Barrett managed to put away the Dirtbags the rest of the game by tying his season high of 8 strikeouts and allowing just 2 hits in his 5 innings pitched.

Coming off a dominating performance both offensively and defensively in Game 2, the Gauchos looked to take the series in Game 3 by opening up the first inning with a 2-0 lead.

An RBI single through the left side by freshman infielder Ty Borgogno put the Dirtbags on the board 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning.

The Dirtbags went on to take the lead the very next inning after junior catcher Connor Burns skyrocketed one into left center to bring home Long and sophomore infielder Alex Champagne, finishing the inning with a score of 4-2.

After starting off the following inning with backto-back singles by Borgogno and sophomore outfielder Kyle Ashworth, a single to right field by junior infielder Nick Marinconz brought Ashworth across home plate to extend the lead to 3 runs.

Burns would put the Dirtbags up by 5 runs in the bottom of the seventh inning after recording his second home run of the day, to which he brought home Long who previously singled up the middle.

UCSB went on to score just 1 run the rest of the game after initially starting the game with a 2-0 lead in the first inning. With the series loss to CSU Long Beach, UC Santa Barbara has fallen into third place of the Big West behind UC San Diego. They look to reclaim their second place position after they face the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs this weekend.

UCSB track and field wins three gold medals at Big West Championship

The UC Santa Barbara track and field team competed in the Big West Championships, hosted by Cal State Fullerton. The Gauchos won three gold medals with 12 other athletes reaching the podium.

On day one of the meet, redshirt freshman thrower Amanda Spear took the day’s best performance. Spear took the podium twice, finishing in second for discus and hammer. Spear almost broke her personal record in the hammer throw but was just shy as the throw went 54.53 meters. Her discus throw was 50.16 meters.

Spear’s teammates did not walk onto the podium but did place high enough to earn points for the team score. Sophomore jumper Emma Barthel placed No. 5, sophomore multi Eitan Goore placed No. 6 in the pole vault and sophomore thrower Jackson Trimble got No. 6 in the discus, while sophomore thrower Jared Freeman placed behind him at No. 7.

UCSB scored in distance running for the 3000-meter steeplechase, as junior runner Sierra Ransweiler placed No. 7, junior runner Madeline Franco placed No. 8 and sophomore runner Zane Golpariani placed No. 4.

In day two of the meet for the

track events, many Gauchos gave themselves a chance to make it on the podium and help the Gauchos in points to take home the Big West Championship.

Only the top 10 runners in the prelims can qualify for day two of the meet. For the qualifiers, sophomore runner Lauren Lum in the 1500, sophomore hurdler Tyler Holl in the 110 hurdles and 400 hurdles, freshman hurdler Dario Rock in the 110 hurdles, junior sprinter Deonne McCrary and sophomore sprinter Brendan Fong in the 400, sophomore multi Mariana Lanz in the 400 and 400 hurdles, sophomore runner Advait Krishnan and sophomore runner Isabella Abusaid in the 800 and freshman sprinter Finn Andrews in the 400.

On day two of the meet, junior thrower Malia Benson made her presence known, as she was the first Gaucho to earn gold. Benson did not need any extra throws, as her first throw was the furthest throw out of everybody. Benson threw the javelin 50.08 meters while her opponent threw it 47.60.

Benson was the first to earn gold, but freshman distance runner Ethan Godsey was the first to earn gold for the men. Godsey was crowned, as he placed first in the 5000. Godsey did not push the pace too early, staying in the middle with all the other runners. At the end, Godsey made his move on the last 5 laps to

put himself first. Godsey inched out the other athlete behind him, winning by 0.81 of a second.

The final Gaucho to take gold was freshman jumper Leon Gillis for the high jump. Gillis’ highest jump was marked at 2.14 meters. Gillis was busy with other events, missing his first attempt at 6 feet, 9 inches but came back to clear it and cleared two more heights to

win gold.

At the conclusion of the competition, the men’s team placed No. 4, accumulating a total of 90 points, whereas the women’s team achieved No. 5 with 85 points. This marked the culmination of the Gauchos’ 2023 season, as they eagerly await to determine if any of their athletes will qualify for postseason play.

According to ESPNU, UCSB sophomore pitcher Matt Ager recieved an invite to the USA Collegiate Baseball team. It will be a great opportunity for the underclassman as he gains experience in hopes of moving to the next level.

Softball struggles continue against CSUN

The UC Santa Barbara softball team has been in a slump, winning only one of their last six games in the month of May. Three of those losses came from the Cal State Northridge Matadors.

In UCSB’s first game against CSUN, the Gauchos were slightly outmatched, resulting in a very close loss.

In the top of the first, the Matadors gained an early lead, as they scored 2 runs off of 3 hits. Later in the third, the Gauchos brought in a run due to hits by junior infielder Madelyn McNally, senior outfielder Sam Denehy and junior catcher Ashley Donaldson, which cut the lead in half.

Throughout the next 5 innings, junior pitcher Camryn Snyder did not allow another run and kept the Gauchos within the game.

In the top of the fourth inning, a triple from freshman outfielder Makayla Newsom brought in another run for the Gauchos to tie the game.

In the next few innings, UCSB couldn’t find success offensively, giving CSUN the chance to win it in the bottom of the seventh. With a couple of hits in the seventh inning a single by CSUN drove in the winning run where the Matadors outlasted the Gauchos 3-2.

In the second game of the series, the Gauchos started off with a 1-0 lead after hits from McNally and Denehy brought in a run.

Freshman pitcher Malaya Johnson got out of some trouble in the first 2 innings and gave up no runs to CSUN to maintain the Gauchos’ lead. The lead quickly disappeared as CSUN scored big in the third.

In the bottom of the third, CSUN brought in 5 runs while the Gauchos committed 1 error, giving the Matadors a commanding 5-1 lead. In addition,

Johnson gave up 4 hits, which allowed for the Matadors to gain a strong lead.

Later on in the fifth, the Matadors took a 8-1 lead after scoring another 3 runs. Additionally, the Matadors did not give up another run, holding onto their lead. CSUN took back to back games, winning this one 8-1.

In the last game of the series, UCSB once again was outperformed and struggled to find any success at pitching.

In the top of the first, McNally led it off with a single to be followed up with a triple from Denehy. McNally scored on the triple to make it 1-0 Gauchos. Then, Donaldson’s deep fly ball allowed Deheny to score, giving UCSB a 2-0 advantage over the Matadors. Later in the inning, CSUN brought in a run to cut the lead in half.

The Gauchos got on base in the second inning with a sacrifice bunt from senior infielder Hannah Damore moving freshmen second baseman Jazzy Santos into scoring position. Newsom soon drove in Santos with a double, extending the lead. Not too long after, Newsom and McNally both scored from a single by Donaldson.

In the bottom of the third, the Matadors tied up the game at 5 a piece by bringing in 4 runs.

Much later, in the bottom of the eighth, the Matadors, with bases loaded, hit a grandslam to give them a 9-5 lead which they held. winning them the game and sweeping the series.

After these 3 losses, the Gauchos finished their season with an overall record of 26-22. In conference, the Gauchos went 13-14, which is a huge improvement compared to last year. The Gauchos did not get selected for regionals, but they exceeded expectations and improved drastically compared to last season.

Andrew Tannourji Staff Writer

Isaiah Ochoa Asst. Sports Editor

Anthony Gil Staff Writer

UCSB softball player fields the ball and attempts to get an out.

UCSB track player leaps forward.

Broc Mortensen makes contact but only hits a foul.

CAROLYN LI DAILY NEXUS

CAROLYN LI DAILY NEXUS

SCIENCE & TECH

A glimpse into the 2023 UCSB Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities Week

Kaitlin Lee Staff Writer

Macrophage cellular nibbling

Macrophage cells are on the front lines when the immune system kicks in. They’re a type of white blood cell that phagocytize — or fully engulf — foreign cells.

Moreover, scientists have observed another macrophage behavior, in which they “nibble” on pathogens by biting off small chunks at a time.

This behavior, called trogocytosis, is quite common in interactions between macrophages and cancer cells.

Scientists studying the behavior have identified a potential application to cancer immunotherapy treatments.

First-year biology and English double major Kathleen

Zhang worked under UC Santa Barbara faculty member, Meghan Morrissey of the Morrissey Lab, to investigate

why macrophage nibbling is only sometimes lethal and how the manipulation of cancer cell gene expression might make them more prone to death from trogocytosis.

Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, Zhang knocked down specific genes to compromise cellular functions and produce internal stress.

The induced stress may cause cells to be more prone to death when encountering trogocytosis by macrophages. In order to further investigate this process and its effectiveness, Zhang will be measuring trogocytosis by using time-lapses and fluorescence markers.

This will quantify the nibbling done by the macrophages, allowing them to analyze the proportion of cell deaths due to trogocytosis. Because macrophage nibbling may increase cancer cell death, this has important applications for developing more effective

cancer immunotherapy treatments.

Function of neural-like proteins in single-celled eukaryotes

The post-synaptic cells in our neuronal synapses have receptors that are secured in place by a scaffolding protein called postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD-95).

Although single-celled eukaryotes have no nervous system, these organisms also possess the PSD-95 protein.

Second-year biology major Riya Nilkant worked with Principal Investigators Kenneth Kosik and Soojin Yi of the Kosik Lab to discover the unknown function of PSD-95 in singlecelled eukaryotes and whether it can provide any insight on the origin and evolution of the synapse. Nilkant, having found that there are nine amino acid residues involved in binding within PSD-95, produced a matrix by calculating every

Looking back from Campus Point

Zelinda Strell Staff Writer

Living Tissue

Dillon J. Cislo, a researcher in the UC Santa Barbara Physics Department, studies the orientational arrangement and the necessity of order in the development of organs. Cislo and his team have demonstrated how an orientationally ordered phase is first established and then maintained during the early stages of embryogenesis, the initial developmental stage of an embryo following fertilization, even when the cell multiplication process occurs. This research is derived from the process of morphogenesis, which is the development of body parts by so-called “direct developers” — animals that are capable of assembling a miniature version of the adult body during embryogenesis. Specifically, the researchers focused on understanding how order and orientation arrangement play an important role in morphogenesis. They investigated how living systems, specifically those developing tissues, are able to generate and maintain order when cell divisions are present.

This study addresses the interplay occurring between order, morphogenesis and thus cell proliferation within developing tissues. It fills the knowledge gap in understanding how nonequilibrium mechanisms in living systems are able to generate while maintaining the necessary order to specify the body plan. The study’s methodology involved live imaging of transgenic Parhyale embryos, embryos that have been genetically modified to introduce foreign DNA using a custom-built microscope. The researchers then carried out processes of data analysis, cell tracking and quantitative analysis to study the developmental dynamics of the embryos. They concluded that the developmental

dynamics of transgenic Parhyale embryos show characteristics of hydrodynamic components. For future studies, they highlighted the importance of enhanced imaging techniques and larger datasets.

Better Batteries

A recent study led by UC Berkeley researcher Juhyeon Ahn and contributed to by researchers in UCSB’s Materials Department found that a disordered rock salt (DRX) cathode material that is rich in the element manganese undergoes major structural evolution, a process known as electrochemical cycling. This leads to the formation of plateau-like features in the voltage profile, which improves the battery’s discharge capacity and energy density, meaning it can deliver a consistent quantity of energy over a longer period. Researchers were interested in developing advanced lithium-ion batteries with increased performance levels and safety measures. The study advances the field by providing an in-depth analysis of the structural evolution in manganese-rich DRX cathode materials. It also addresses gaps from previous research by providing insight into lithium-ion transport pathways, revealing reversible phase transformations and providing guidance for designing highperforming cathodes.

DNA Gene Editing

Hannah Ghasemi, a researcher in the UCSB Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, has found that incorporating interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) into template DNA improves nonviral gene editing efficiency, thereby providing a crucial contribution to the field of gene editing.

ICLs are defined by Ghasemi as “substrates for the FA DNA repair pathway.” This research has implications for enhanced laboratory techniques, the development of remodeled strategies for treating diseases and a more nuanced understanding of DNA repair mechanisms.

Previously, nonviral gene editing was not highly efficient, particularly in homology-directed repair (HDR) processes, a repair process occurring naturally in cells that can be harnessed within gene editing techniques. This study used a combination of molecular biology techniques, data analytics and gene editing workflows to investigate and establish the effects of incorporating ICLs into template DNA on nonviral gene editing outcomes. A comparative analysis provided important information in regard to enhancing homology direct repair efficiency, all the while keeping detailed tracking of the gene editing processes.

possible distance between atoms within the binding site.

Hydrophobic regions and phi and psi angles were identified to distinguish the protein’s orientation in space.

This is also the first known study to quantify the binding pocket of the PSD-95 protein with these methods.

Nilkant plans to further observe the function of PSD-95 in the lab.

A part of the PSD-95 protein will be inserted into a plasmid, a circular piece of DNA, which will be placed into a neural cell.

Comparing areas that fluoresce to PSD-95 protein in its natural state can help determine the protein’s function.

This research may have important applications in understanding the neurological basis of conditions such as Alzheimer’s and autism.

Detection of pathogenic eDNA in soils

Amphibians, like frogs and

salamanders, are threatened by a pathogenic fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a disease caused by zoospores that infect the skin. Bd can be detected through environmental DNA (eDNA), DNA that organisms deposit into the environment.

However, eDNA is susceptible to degradation due to different biotic and abiotic factors.

Fourth-year ecology and evolution major Kathryn Koo worked with UCSB doctoral student Caitlin Nordheim of the Cherie Briggs Lab to investigate whether storage duration at 4°C, soil type, or initial Bd dose affected the detection of Bd eDNA in soil samples.

A “Field-Control Comparison” experiment was conducted where soil from the East Bay, California was cultured with Bd strains from the same site.

In the “Methods Validation” experiment, artificial soil was used as the control and the

same Bd strain was used. DNA was then extracted from these samples using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, which is a technique used to copy and amplify target sequences of DNA in real time. The method was found to accurately detect the presence of Bd in soil samples but was not sensitive enough to accurately identify the quantity of Bd. The researchers also found that the factors of storage duration, soil type and initial Bd dose did not significantly affect the presence of Bd. For future investigations, Koo and her team recommend that a greater range of initial dosage treatments should be done to gain insight on comparisons of Bd eDNA between field and artificial soil. This research could help develop accurate methods of detecting Bd eDNA in soil, as well as a greater understanding of the spread of Bd.

SIMPLY STATED

What exactly is a superbloom?

Anushka Ghosh Dastidar Staff Writer

You have to be living under a rock to have not noticed the sudden surge in greenery and flora throughout the state of California since around midFebruary. Even if you haven’t heard of it, you’ve definitely seen the effects of the superbloom around you. Whether you’re driving up the 101 or making your way onto campus, masses of wildflowers have arisen all around!

So what exactly is happening?

A superbloom is a rare natural phenomenon known to predominantly occur in the desert regions of California and Arizona and, occasionally, in the wetlands of South Africa.

Superblooms are rare because there needs to be extremely precise weather conditions present in order for the botanical population to thrive.

bromes and prevent flowers from surfacing. The majority of rainfall should happen during the season of autumn starting in October and be substantial enough to soak all the way into the soil. For the best growth, rains should last through April.

This is the only way that the seeds of inactive flowers beneath the ground will have access to sufficient rainfall to grow.

The exact right amount of water should reach the flowers in order to keep them from either flooding or becoming dehydrated. This typically means about 200% more rainfall than in an average year. Once the proper water conditions are secured, the flowers must have the right amount of cloud coverage to prevent them from baking under the sun.

most abundant flowers in California include purple sky lupines, Catalina mariposa lilies, pale yellow tidytips, Santa Ynez false lupines and of course the iconic California poppies. Superblooms only occur about once every 10 years, with the number increasing in more recent years despite the ongoing drought experienced in California due to climate change. The last superbloom observed in California happened in 2019. Since then, the California climate has been steadily gearing up for the next one.

This paper shows that when crosslinks are combined with DNA molecules, there is an improvement of homology-directed repair, revealing a significant improvement in nonviral gene editing workflows. The researchers observed an increase in mediated gene editing when using template DNA molecules in comparison to uncrosslinked templates. This study provides important information to developing improved nonviral gene editing techniques, in addition to expanding the applications of HDR in laboratory settings and potential therapeutic interventions.

The right amount of rain must be present for the native flowers of California to be able to grow. The area must begin relatively dry to prevent the growth of certain types of invasive grasses. Bromes is one type of grass that, if left unchecked, can wreak havoc on ecosystems by sucking up the nutrients and space necessary for flowers to thrive.

Too much rainfall early in the year will lead to an overgrowth of

The final thing to ensure a superbloom is a lack of harsh winds. When wind speeds become too fast, there runs a risk of flowers being blown away and uprooted.

These specific conditions are only met on very limited occasions. After the droughts, fires and flash floods, we find ourselves in the spring of 2023, with conditions ideal for another superbloom. Some of the

If you find yourself with a free afternoon, be sure to check out the budding florals by visiting one of the many local viewpoints or hiking locations where the flowers can be viewed in their full form! You’ll find some of the best views at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve and Carrizo Plain National Monument.

The Nexus’s Campus Point column covers the discoveries, collaborations and publications from the scientific community at UC Santa Barbara.

Desde la apertura de una nueva café en Isla Vista hasta demostraciones de cocina gratuitas de Salud y Bienestar de UC Santa Bárbara y la migración de una Goleta emergente en el centro, la escena gastronómica de Santa Bárbara continúa creciendo y evolucionando.

Restaurante Los Altos abre su segundo local en Old Town Goleta

Varios restaurantes de Santa Bárbara han escogido abrir segundas ubicaciones en Old Town Goleta, incluso Panadería De Avena y ahora Los Altos Restaurant. Las renovaciones están casi completas en la segunda ubicación de Los Altos Restaurant sobre 5892 Hollister Ave. Su menú incluye platos tradicionales como sopes, tortas y tacos, así como especiales del día; los precios van desde $9.50 por artículos como tostadas, hasta $35 por un plato de mariscos completo con pulpo, camarones, ostras y calamares. A pesar de que

no se ha establecido una fecha de apertura, los comensales pueden disfrutar de la comida mexicana en su ubicación original en 318 N Milpas St. Goodland Waffles & Melts abre en el centro Después de acoger varias publicidades emergentes en los establecimientos de Goleta durante los últimos meses, Noozhawk reportó que Goodland Waffles & Melts ha encontrado su hogar permanente en Mosaic Locale en 1131 State St. Goodland Waffles & Melts vende creaciones de waffles dulces y salados, como el waffle Dirty Chai con mousse con especias chai y jarabe de arce espresso, así como variedades de queso a la parrilla, incluido el Mosaic Melt, un sándwich a la parrilla con pollo al pesto, mozzarella, queso cheddar y untable de pimiento rojo. Los precios de los waffles y los derretidos oscilan entre $10 y $14. A pesar de que ahora opera en Mosaic Locale, Goodland Waffles & Melts continúa presentando ventanas emergentes, que se anuncian en su Instagram, en Old Town Coffee y Draughtsmen Aleworks de Goleta.

KOZY Craft Coffee abre a mediados de mayo y contrata baristas

El sitio web de Kozy Craft Coffee anunció que su gran inauguración tendrá lugar el 19 de mayo. Su menú incluye bebidas clásicas de café y té, así como un extenso menú de repostería. Según los volantes publicados en UCSB e Isla Vista, KOZY Craft Coffee ahora está contratando baristas experimentados para su cafetería de Isla Vista en 6560 Pardall Rd. Para aplicar, envíe un currículum a contact@kozycraftcoffee.com.

UCSB Health & Wellness

lanza “UCSB Feed Your Future Cookbook” Health & Wellness de UCSB compartió recientemente el “UCSB Feed Your Future Cookbook”, un libro de cocina gratuito en línea creado por el estudiante de UCSB y el pasante de UCSB Health & Wellness Food, Nutrition, Basic Skills & Health Equity, Tait Salzman. El libro de cocina comparte recetas de cocción baja y sin cocción, así como una sección dedicada a delinear los recursos de necesidades básicas disponibles para los estudiantes que podrían

estar experimentando inseguridad alimentaria. Se puede acceder y descargar el libro de cocina para uso a través del sitio web de Health & Wellness de UCSB.

UCSB Health & Wellness organizará un evento de cocina para acampar Únase a Salud y Bienestar de UCSB el 4 de mayo de 12:30 a 2:00 p. m. en el Salón de Usos Múltiples del Edificio de Recursos para Estudiantes para aprender cómo cargar combustible de una manera ecológica cuando acampar. El

evento incluirá demostraciones de cocina y degustaciones de ensalada de garbanzos y tacos vegetarianos. No se requiere experiencia en cocina o campamento para participar en el evento.

Los participantes pueden registrarse de forma gratuita en Orilla.

Sunkissed Pantry acogará un taller de maridaje de trufas de chocolate y vinos

La tienda de repuestos y esenciales de cero desperdicios Sunkissed Pantry anunció en su Instagram

que la tienda organizará un taller de maridaje de trufas de chocolate y vino en su tienda en 31 E Canon Perdido St el 6 de mayo de 3 a 5 p.m. Este evento con todo incluido presentará trufas elaboradas por la chef crudivegana Dana Crowley y los correspondientes maridajes de vinos presentados por Wine Cult Club. Con un precio de boleto más alto de $88 por persona, esta clase sería un regalo de cumpleaños o aniversario considerado. Reserve su lugar en el sitio web de Sunkissed Pantry.

La Unión de Arrendatarios de Santa Bárbara anunció la formación de una Asociación de Arrendatarios de Core Spaces en respuesta a la empresa de propiedad entregando noticias de desalojo a cientos de personas residiendo en CBC y The Sweeps en una declaración el 9 de abril.

“Puede ser que tu empresa Core Spaces y ejecutivos como Scott Stager, Christine Richards y Marc Lifshin no entiendan la crisis humanitaria que están causando.

Muchos de nosotros tenemos niños pequeños y familiares de edad bajo el mismo techo,” la carta anunciando la formación de

la unión de inquilinos leyó. El anuncio del 16 de marzo del desalojo masivo dejó a decenas de familias y estudiantes apresurados a encontrar nuevos alojamientos en las semanas que vienen.

Líderes locales condenaron los desalojos y desde entonces han apoyado la protección para inquilinos por todo el condado.

“Aquellos de nosotros forzados a las calles padres, por ejemplo, corren riesgo de que nos quiten a nuestros hijos,” leyó la carta.

“Para aquellos ejecutivos de Core Spaces con familias e hijos, les preguntamos qué harían ustedes si nosotros les estábamos desplazando y faltaban la habilidad económica de asegurar alojamiento alternativo para sus familias.

¿Qué harían?”

La Asociación de Arrendatarios de Core Spaces (CTSA) supuestamente Core Spaces aumentó el número de guardias de seguridad en el complejo siguiendo su compra, causando que los residentes se sientan menos seguros.

“Ahora los guardias de seguridad siempre nos están vigilando, siguiéndonos, tomando fotos de nosotros y de nuestras posesiones, viendo dentro de nuestras ventanas, vigilándonos en las reuniones de inquilinos semanales, quitando nuestros volantes informativos,” la carta afirmó.

Katy Darnay, la directora de marketing y comunicación de Core Spaces atribuyó el aumento de seguridad a las amenazas hechas hacia los miembros del

personal después de que los desalojos fueron anunciados, y dijo que las declaraciones hechos por CTSA fueron investigadas y encontraron una falta de pruebas de tal circunstancias.

“Mensajes amenazantes han sido mandados a nuestros empleados y empresa, la cual nos llevó al aumentar la presencia de seguridad allí mismo como la seguridad de nuestros residentes y personal es de suma importancia para nosotros,” dijo Darnaby en una declaración al Nexus.

CSTA presunto más que Core Spaces mandó una carta de cese y desistimiento en represalia a un miembro de la Unión de Arrendatarios de Santa Bárbara después que un miembro “[dijo] la verdad sobre las acciones [de Core Spaces] hacia sus organizaciones

benéficas asociados como las Fundaciones Tony y Chriscross.”

Darnaby dijo que la carta de requerimiento fue enviada a un individuo que repetidamente acosó a “un empleado, su cónyuge y las organizaciones sin finalidades de lucro en que este empleado involucrado sin relación a Core Spaces.

“Ellos inapropiadamente compartieron información de contacto personal de los empleados al público, incluyendo información sobre sus cónyuges y sus hijos, alentando qué acciones suplementarias sean emprendidas contra este individuo,” dijo Darnarby.

“Nosotros encontramos este comportamiento a ser inapropiado y estábamos preocupados que incitará violencia contra el

empleado o su familia.”

CSTA describió los desalojos en la carta como un acto de gula y lamentaron los esfuerzos que familias y estudiantes tienen que enfrentar como resultado del desplazamiento.

“Nosotros creemos su valor fundamental es maximización de beneficios a costa de comunidades actuales que entorpecen su paso,” la carta continuó, “Muchos de nosotros somos estudiantes quien tendrán que abandonar la universidad por esto; muchos son trabajadores esenciales que trabajan en hospitales, talleres mecánicos, paisajismo, restaurantes y tendremos que dejar nuestros trabajos. Si usted cree en una comunidad y valora la gente, paren este desalojo masivo.”

El restaurante Los Altos está abriendo una nueva ubicación en Old Town Goleta.

STEPHANIE GERSH EL NEXO DIARIO

OPINION

Meaning in meter: the importance of poetry and why it’s here to stay

Haley Joseph Staff Writer

We live in a world of soft apocalypses. You have to dodge them like children side-stepping cracks in the pavement — hop over the COVID-19 pandemic, big leap over the looming economic crisis and cross your fingers as you cross the street to avoid global warming, a crack too large to make over with simple hopscotch techniques. In a world such as this, it is easy to submit to the constant reminders that things are bleak and we are ephemeral. Poetry, in the face of all that decay, seems an insignificant pursuit — a nightlight against a sea of crushing black.

Humanity seems to disagree.

In an article by The Washington Post, it was recorded that younger generations have doubled their consumption of poetry since 2012, and since 2020, National Public Radio notes that every generation’s interaction with poetry has increased by 30% compared to the previous year. When the end threatened, people turned to poetry, and it’s little wonder why.

Poetry is a picture frame that captures the abstractions of emotion and gives people an outlet to the otherwise unnamed. As an article by the MIT Press reveals, when reading poetry, the mind is engaging both the control and default networks of the brain. The control areas of the brain are associated with hard, critical thinking, while the default networks deal with introspective and abstract thought, akin to daydreaming. The process has been studied extensively in a field known

as “neurocognitive poetics,” as termed by neuroscientist Arthur Jacobs. Poetry allows the brain to wander, even as it engages it in active contemplation. It at once allows for escape and connection. There’s more to poetry than just daydreaming though, and in such uncertain times, the security of connection seems to draw people into poetry as much as the

the UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures program, U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón filled an entire auditorium full of students, teachers and community members alike. To be in the room was to see an entire sea of people lean forward in their seats to listen to Limón read out her poetry and the inspirations behind it. The

what people are feeling to provide comfort. Aren’t all poems about love? Aren’t all poems about heartbreak? Aren’t all poems just a little bit undecipherable? And while it is true that there are love poems and sad poems and truly bad poems, the beauty of poetry is that it encompasses the entire spectrum of human emotion and experience. Whatever one is feeling,

lives. Poets like Mary Oliver delve into nature to find a simple hope and joy in the world to sustain them. Poets like Richard Siken, as his introduction in “Crush,” co-written by Siken and Louise Glück, points out, detail a spiraling, all consuming panic that chases the reader from page to page. Limón writes with a saturated, piercing voice that seeks to cure existential terror (a common side effect of being alive in the world). For those that want the heartbreak and the love and the holding-on-whiletrying-to-forget, Pablo Neruda writes with a crushing vividness that sweeps out to pull the reader in like the tide. Even if you care nothing for the emotional aspect, E.E. Cummings redefined the grammatical and linguistic structures of poetry so that even the most data minded individual has an avenue for scientific examination of structure and verbal presentation within the craft.

The Signs as famous writer things

ARIES

MARCH 21 - APRIL 19

JRR Tolkien: Offering false teeth as payment

TAURUS

APRIL 20 - MAY 20

Ernest Hemingway: Surviving two plane crashes in two days

GEMINI

MAY 21 - JUNE 20

Agatha Christie: Disappeared long enough people thought she was abducted by aliens

CANCER

JUNE 21 - JULY 22

James Joyce: Writing in big blue crayon

LEO

JULY 23 - AUGUST 22

TS Eliot: Responsible for Cats (2019)

vignettes of human experience that connects not only our brains but us to each other. Ilya Kaminsky, a Ukrainian American poet in an article from The New York Times, points to hundreds in Ukraine who attended a poetry reading over Zoom as an example of how poetry ties ribbons from one person to another. Even in the midst of war, people are coming together to share something that they cannot find on their own, and poetry is the conduit.

Closer to home, as part of

audience chuckled, smiled, clapped and, during a poem about Limón’s mother, cried. It was a room of perfect strangers who for a few hours that night were perfectly understood. It is a phenomenon that poetry was made to facilitate, but there are still those who see poetry as something inconsequential.

Poetry in the modern age has often been dismissed as being too fanciful or intangible or perhaps just too far removed from

U-MAIL: New message

that occasion, that feeling, that secret that you thought no one could ever understand. Poetry, at its best, as it was made to be, is a conduit for emotion in whatever form it takes. Perhaps said best by Limón herself in an interview, “One of the biggest things about poetry is that it holds all of humanity.” She could not be more correct.

Every poem has a source of inspiration that translates across the page and brings something meaningful into people’s

S <s@umail.ucsb.edu> To: Subject: New beginnings, old sonnets, same college town

Dear S,

When rain comes to Isla Vista, it always feels symbolic to me, like somehow the torrential downpour signifies the end of something old and the beginning of something new. Last year, this new beginning arrived on the first day of spring quarter, which — for my roommate and me — started at 6 a.m., thanks to the timely tsunami warning. Rain drops as big as marbles flung against our fragile window panes, and thunder periodically punctured the silent dawn in Isla Vista. Last spring was also, coincidentally, the quarter that I met you. So maybe it’s not just a feeling after all, maybe it’s just my personal, fortunate omen.

As all quarters are prone to feel, winter in Isla Vista started off in an

unorganized scramble for any available spots in the English courses offered. And in my scramble for any open spots, I slipped into a small lecture taught by my favorite professor and listened to him recite a John Keats sonnet to the class: “The moving waters at their priestlike task / of pure ablution round earth’s human shores.” That’s how Keats described the ocean, which I thought was very fitting during a week when everything — dirt, debris and old vomit on Del Playa included — seemed to be washing down the drain. I bet he wasn’t imagining our humble college town when he wrote that line, but every time I heard the rain start up again, I kept thinking about I.V. Pure ablution round earth’s human shores — or, in other words, a storm strong enough to wash I.V.

anew and bring about fresh beginnings.

It must have been the storm and the Keats poem that made me think about leaving I.V. for the first time. And not just in a “Well, one day I’ll graduate” kind of way, but in a more permanent, looming sort of way. One day, just like Keats had picked up his pen for the last time, I’ll imagine I.V. for the last time. Do you think that I.V. will be one of the things you think about on your deathbed? I think it will be, for me at least.

I’d want to remember it just like this: the feeling that something new is on its way. All the cracks and crevices that people like to gloss over in favor of their new gentrified apartment buildings with heinous rent rates and perfect beaches with beautiful students lounging around. I know

that people will always remember the UC Santa Barbara lagoon (whose waters might be a biological hazard, but it’s darn pretty anyway!), but what about the broken-down car that I pass every day on the way to the dining commons? Whose tire has eroded the sidewalk beneath it and created a mini-pothole, filled up with rainwater that the birds will take baths in.

And what about the storm drains that sound like rushing rivers? The worms that come out in the storms that I spend an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to pick up with a stick in order to move them to safety (L always behind me, impatient and shivering from the rain)? Or the bucket L and I accidentally left face up, accumulating rainwater, until a week later

Poetry is not a relic of a bygone era. It has never been more necessary. Poetry gives a deeper understanding of ourselves, of others and of the planet. It dedicates our entire brain to looking inward and weaves silk-thread connections between strangers and neighbors alike. In an age of isolation and splintering divides and looming threats on the horizon, embrace poetry and all that it offers. It is, after all, here to stay.

Haley Joseph reflects on how poetry can be a guiding light during dark times and why it has a place in everyone’s lives.

we notice a little ecosystem growing in the still water. Who will remember it and its disgusting, ecological glory?

Or, perhaps, more thematically relevant to our college towns and its inhabitants: who will remember the vernal pools behind Carrillo that fill up after rainy days and become homes for a variety of egrets, hawks and amphibians? As sacred as they are scraggly, giving life to something temporary … just like Isla Vista!

I’ll talk to you soon. I miss you always. Wish me luck for the next quarter!

Yours faithfully, Mindy

VIRGO

AUGUST 23 - SEPTEMBER 22

Mary Oliver: Hid pencils in trees to write on walks

LIBRA

SEPTEMBER 23 - OCTOBER 22

Percy Shelly: Veganism

SCORPIO

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Edgar Allan Poe: Gambling to make money for college

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Shel Silverstein: Beard

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Emily Dickinson: tiny writing desk

AQUARIUS

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Agatha Christie: Eating apples in the bath

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FEBRUARY 19 - MARCH 20

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Founding a transcendental commune and left because the manual

was

AUDREY KENYON / DAILY NEXUS