OPINION
HALCYON DAYS By Christie Yi
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Graffiti Hall Closure Stifles Student Voices
Our Campus Should Not Lose Another Student-Run Business ▶ CHE CAFE, from page 4
eral financial insolvency. But these troubles only increase the need for leaders that can realize the pressing need to cut expenditure. We do commend the Che’s staff for making a sacrifice and operating on a volunteer-only basis — this signifies at least a concerted effort on the part of the management to break even, but they will also need to start making better business decisions if they want to right the ship and stay open. If the student management fails to keep the Che going, there remains the possibility of the Che becoming a regular for-profit business. Although this would likely make Cafe namesake Che Guevara roll over in his grave, it might be the only way for
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revenue stability. But should the current leadership depart, however, it would mean one less independent, student-run operation on campus. Price Center is already filled to the brim with big chain companies like Subway and Burger King. And with Starbucks already likely to displace the Espresso Roma Cafe, the last thing we need is another corporate conglomerate throwing its 1-percenter shadow over what could be an opportunity for students to gain meaningful experience operating a business and making decisions about how it is run. For all its money mishaps, the Che is a wonderful — and popular — place for music and food, not to mention an occasional hotbed of political activism. Given that the only compa-
rable place nearby is the rather boring Loft, the Che is worth preserving, even at a cost. Given that it has operated for decades under the banner of fierce independence and general anti-establishment fervor, selling out to corporate interests would be a sad way to go. We hope this is not the only possible course of action, but it may be if the finances don’t add up. Despite Cafe members’ complaints that the university administration has a vendetta against them, those running the Che will only have themselves to blame if they do eventually go under. They need to get their act together, get help or hand the reins over to someone with more fiscal acumen. Fewer than 30 days remain for them to decide which it will be.
Dear Editor, UCSD Vice Chancellor Gary C. Matthews’ yearly base salary is $275,000. His newly enacted policy on Graffiti Hall — which resulted in the arrest of Dean Burdeaux, a psychology major from the senior UCSD class, among other things — shows Matthews to be overpaid since no reasoning was involved beyond the “Intrusive, Safety Hazard” parameters. In part, because of the dramatic expansion in the ranks of non-faculty campus administrators, colleges have enacted stringent codes. These codes are sometimes well intended, but, outside of the ivory tower, would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. From protests and rallies to displays of graffiti, students have been severely constrained in their ability to demonstrate their ideas. I used to read classical poetry in English on a weekly KCST radio show. Back in 2012, I read the complete poems of English poet John Milton and American poet Walt Whitman. Eventually we KCST disc jockeys were informed that surveillance cameras would be installed to catch malefactors in the studio (The stated purpose was to
catch wine imbibers). So I resigned. The speech codes are at times intended to enforce civility, but they often suppress free of expression. Burdeaux’s transgression was documented by security cameras, and he was taken off to county jail on the cold evening of Sept. 27, 2013. Were he still alive, Albert Einstein’s response to the painting over of Graffiti Hall would probably have been, “Vey iz mir” — “Woe is me.” Einstein’s work in his “miracle year” (1905) eventually led to the discovery of X-ray crystallography, the photoelectric effect and transistors. On April 6, 1914, Einstein moved to Berlin, and it was there that he gave his inaugural speech to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Less than six months later Germany declared war on Russia. The Einsteins’ street address throughout the Great War was No. 5, Haberlandstrasse, Berlin. A court in Germany has ruled that Germans today are allowed to stick their tongues out for their passport photos. The plaintiff (after being emphatically told not to do what he did) gave his reasoning: “I brought it before the court as a tribute to my hero, Albert Einstein.” Go Tritons! — Richard Thompson Alumnus ‘83
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