To the students that reside in Isla Vista:
What makes UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College such incredible places to study is the synergy of receiving a world-class education, with world-class scenery, in the midst of a world-class social scene. We have relinquished many of the things that we treasured and have allowed for the constant infringement upon our various rights and the self-proclaimed “right to party.” But, there is a threshold. Do not forget the student activism that has taken place within this community over the course of its inception.
I, as the author of this letter, encourage Isla Vista Residents to remain steadfast in your commitment to express yourselves in however you deem sufficient, whilst upholding appropriate safety precautions that are needed to ensure the wellbeing of others. Furthermore, the “out-of-towners” that are negatively spoken of during conversations regarding Isla Vista are invited by us into our community. Because of this, we need to exercise greater influence on who we solicit to come to I.V. or at the very least, what we allow them to do while they are here. They will eventually leave, but it is the Isla Vista community that ultimately pays the price for their actions, largely by way of the police exercising militant force.
Deltopia does not have an official day (unlike Halloween); it is not set in stone. Because of this, students should think of creative ways to out-maneuver law enforcement in this game of cat and mouse. If Deltopia gets ruined this weekend then have it again the following weekend, or better yet, have Floatopia. I assure you, the urge to rage will long outlast the budget of Santa Barbara to keep sending in large numbers of police. It should be noted that 85 percent of complaints received about noise, music and disturbing the peace are called in by law enforcement themselves, in order to “justify” the dissolution of social gatherings in Isla Vista.
They treat the UC students as if they didn’t have to work hard to get here, and they treat the CC students like they’ll never amount to anything of substance. Contrarily, SBCC and UCSB are beacons of the educational process in their own respects. We work very hard and deserve the freedom to relieve stress in a celebratory manner with likeminded individuals. COME ON I.V.! We pay tens of thousands of dollars to sit in overcrowded classrooms, pay overpriced rent, get harassed by law enforcement and have the various administrations and authoritative bodies bully and patronize us. Do not let this community turn into a police state. They can do only to us what we let them do.
To the Administrations of UCSB and SBCC, Isla Vista Foot Patrol and all other entities invested in the suppression of social gatherings within Isla Vista:
I am pleading with you, as the author of this letter, to not underestimate the efficacy and resolve of the 20-30 thousand students residing in Isla Vista. Everyone agrees that we would like Isla Vista to be safe. However, we will not allow it to be a pyrrhic victory. When UCSB and SBCC want to coax us into acquiescing to their interests then they leverage every resource and network to reach us. Yet, when there are meetings, votes and changes to the laws that govern our day to day lives, we are kept in the dark and silenced.
The young adults that live in Isla Vista do not wish to be governed in a way that lightly channels neo-fascism. We have some of the brightest minds in the country within our zip code, why not try to work with us rather than against us? After the burning down of Embarcadero Hall (formerly known as Bank of America), thousands of incidents of police brutality and the tensions between residents and enforcers, you should welcome the idea. Holding open office hours (IVPD) only works for people who have an ideology that is in line with that of the policing authority in I.V. Dissenters have been arrested, brutally beaten and even slaughtered (R.I.P. Kevin Moran). So I’m certain you understand our reluctance to trust you, although we would like to. There should be greater dialogue between those that would like to take away the social aspect of Isla Vista altogether and those that wish to preserve it. Deltopia is more than just college kids partying; Deltopia is ONE DAY that signifies the final stretch of a hard years work through the expression of dance and the amplification of community. Imposing stricter noise ordinances to virtually not allow any music is very heavy handed.
The I.V. community should not resent the presence of law enforcement, however, we are left with no choice. College, in an abstract sense, is supposed to support the varied manifestations of expression, not the preclusion of it. We would gladly like to work with the enforcement arms of the UC System, such as IVFP and UCPD to establish some middle ground with regards to Deltopia, Halloween and the social scene in its entirety. We are entitled to seats at the table, especially when the discussions directly affect us. Yet, it would seem that you are more invested in the abuse of college kids in the name of safety, than working with us educated students on effective safety measures that we do not have to side step.
TO ALL WHO HAVE READ THUS FAR:
This is a letter not only in defense of Deltopia, but also in the defense of preserving a social scene that has evolved over the years. This is a letter encouraging students to critically think about what they are willing to relinquish and what they are willing to fight for. Partying may be the focus of this letter at its face, but partying is not the focus of this letter in terms of its content. Think of what we pay, what we receive and what we are entitled to. Likewise, to those lobbied against the students, you should definitively decide how much animosity, brutality and prejudice you are going to harbor and exert on the students who call this place home.
This is an open letter from an author named “Isla Vista.”
World-class idiocy. I wouldn’t hire these dopes to mow my lawn.
This was written by a college student? It reads more like something done by an 8th-grader with an inflated opinion of his vocabulary and inadequate education in grammar and composition. Give up on college, son, your parents’ money has been wasted – but then, wasted would seem to be the right word to describe your college experience.
Lol…some of the brightest minds in the world go to UCSB and want to run around drunk and we should realize how hard they worked to get there…what a complete joke! Entitled spoiled brats too many rich parents or too many scholarships to undeserving welfare slobs.
Funny how the brightest minds are devoid of any common sense. Hey Anonymous, when you start paying for your brilliant mind to be there you can have your sense of entitlement.
Lets put 100 of these Dis-Dopia Protesters in a room with 100 Ukrainian Student Protesters and see who writes a better essay on What A Protest Means To Me.
We’ll see who can walk the walk as well. I put my money on the Ukranian protesters…
I read that open letter and thought, “the 1960s really are alive and well in California”! No wonder y’all need to fall off and slide into the ocean!
Grow up.
Anonymous wouldn’t last 30 seconds in Ukraine…. BAhahaha….what a self important fool.
Isla Vista looks alot like Crimea under Russian occupation on the weekends. Cops everywhere with no accountability.
“Isla Vista looks alot like Crimea under Russian occupation on the weekends.”
You’re a walking, talking joke. YOU have NO idea what goes on in other parts of the world, and I’m willing to bet that you have never even left this country, other than perhaps a drunken excursion to TJ or two…
do they teach elementary writing courses anymore? it appears they are badly needed.
Poorly written, pseudo intellectual pablum from the addled adolescent mind of a future (current?) ward of the state. ‘Murica!
Sounds like a typical spoiled, libaturd kid who thinks they are the only people on the planet. My bet is they will be living on welfare by the time they drop out of school.
town versus gown conflict: as old as universities
” the urge to rage will long outlast the budget of Santa Barbara”
Given that the letter and the phrasing could be seen as an incitement to riot, the author should be sure that he’s catching up on his legal studies. He might need some civil suit protection should anyone be injured in a follow-up event. Not the smartest egg in the basket.
This sounds like it was written by one of the “I’m in community college to save money, but I’m going to transfer to Harvard…” students (entitled narcicistic brat). “World class scenery” (the beach) meets “world class social scene” (drunken parties fueled by cheap beer, booze, and weed….)
This is the contact info for the Executive Dean of the esteemed institution known as UCSB:
Oliver, Melvin
Executive Dean, Letters & Science/SAGE Sara Miller McCune Dean of Social Sciences
ssdean@ltsc.ucsb.edu
893-8354
“College, in an abstract sense, is supposed to support the varied manifestations of expression, not the preclusion of it. ”
Really? I haven’t read that much about UCSB, to be sure, but at Berkeley and other branches of UC, they have been quite open about repressing certain manifestations of expression, e.g. pro-life, or pro-Israel, and etc. Do only drunken manifestations count?
Berkeley had its share of intolerant nutcakes for sure, but there were actually quite a few students willing to speak up and counter the foaming lefties, which always seemed to surprise them a bit. Most of them of course came from the math, sciences and engineering majors, and there was definitely a marked schism between those groups and the liberal art/humanities types at the south end of the Cal Campus.
It’s true, you gotta fight for your right to party.
Couldn’t be helped…I sang that as I read it…
Or in this case…potty. They all need their didies changed
Right to party ? Your right too party continues to get out of hand more than year before. Count yourselves lucky no one has been killed or homes burned down. The future of our country in hands of students who demand right to party. Your all a bunch pathetic individuals who only care about themselves.
It’s more of the right to live in a county that is not a police state. Freedom, even if that freedom is to “party” and only care about themselves, needs to be fought for.
Yeah man!! It’s like …this is the UCSD Spring man…. just like in Egypt, or Syria or wherever those other foreign dudes stood up for their right to party.
LOL… Children like Jon N with his faux machismo would crap in his pants if he had to spend any time in parts of the world where there is anything APPROACHING a “police state”.
Exactly, which is why he wants to head off the issue! Jesus man, just because you served, or say you did or whatever, doesn’t let you monopolize the use of faux machismo in the anonymous online debates.
???
I didn’t know Embarcadero Hall had been burned down…oh wait. It’s atill there. just a piece of confused writing by “one of the bright minds in that zip code.” Of course it was the Bank of America that burned, so why would the author of this letter add that an after the fact in parenthese? And how about this…. “I am pleading with you, as the author of this letter, to not underestimate the efficacy…” Another piece of poor writing. The “you” appears to be the author of the letter, not the letter writer himself. And finally, the use of… Read more »
I too was educated in the UC system, well enough to know a right from a privilege.
Yes I am a full generation removed so perhaps my opinion should be dismissed; however, the underpinnings of your argument; expense, crowding etc. do not persuade.
Unfortunately, we someday realize that we are just as special as that other person – and no more.
Oh, ask those students at Chico State how their once(long standing)annual raves are going before you predict the future of your idealistic Deltopia.
Honestly I wish you success with your academic goals-good luck!
Sack up Wimmpy. If you disagree with the punks, say it without apologizing over and over and over….
As soon as you are willing to foot the bill for the vandalism and law enforcement, hospital bills, paramedic and fire costs and take the suffering of those hurt you will have a right to party – grow up punk.
The lost generation.
In 1970 there was a riot in IV protesting the Vietnam War.
In 2014 there is a riot over… nothing.
Pathetic.
They were rioting over the police state that is emerging in this country. More people should do it.
i’m 40 years old and other than a minor car accident last year, i haven’t had an interaction with a police officer in over 20 years. and i live in miami. so “police state” isn’t something i’ve experienced…
According to Jon N. there is a police state. But it’s the same ‘police state’ that all of the college students complain about.
Here’s something to note: when you have a sit-in, a protest, a ‘kegger’ or any other ridiculous college show of stupidity, the police *will* show up to control things. That’s not a police state – it’s a civilized reaction to disruptive behavior. If you get pepper sprayed, that’s YOUR fault for being disruptive. It wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t have a narcissistic view of your own self worth.
Total BS – sociopaths like you use anything for an excuse to misbehave.
Bingo! Narcissistic sociopaths.
Sociopaths no less than police officers in NYC and Albuquerque literally murdering unarmed and nonresisting civilians. There is a growing abuse of authority in this country and an expectation that undereducated officers of the law with no legitimacy (no legal training, for instance) will responsibly wield that authority. Factor in the growing privatization of prisons and cyclical poverty in inner city and rural areas and the concept of the police state starts looking more realistic. This is not an argument where the loudest voice is correct and there are in fact two sides to the question of police authority.
“Sociopaths no less than police officers in NYC and Albuquerque literally murdering unarmed and nonresisting civilians. ”
JFC – talk about total hyperbole to justify behavior of a bunch of spoiled out-of-control children.
You sound like a sociology or rhetoric major trying to impress us with your ability to memorize concepts from your classwork.
Yeah man….like…. we were drinking one night, and like my one bud was puking in the street, and the cops man, they hassled us man….
Or like those outlaw bikers who were just cracking skulls and dealing meth. They hate the pigs because they always come along and harrass them for no reason at all.
Wally, had to laugh about the 1% bikers comment. Just remember rest of us bikers are having safe & sane fun on 2 wheels.
Looks like we have 2 Bill’s posting.
While they simultaneously support those who impose it, those who want to control the people through government dependency and mandates.
What did you think the expansion of the state would do to individuals’ rights?
Not that I for a second agree that “freedom of expression” is absolute, as anonymous’ letter implies. It should be subject to cultural and indeed some legal restrictions, if the word “society” is to mean anything. Speech is one thing; annoying others through adolescent debauchery is another.
I see there are two us posting as Bill….
Dope. If you and your buddies want to “party” go ahead and do so. Just don’t ask the taxpayers and business owners to pay for the damage that you cause and the havoc that you wreak because you want to get drunk and have some fun.
The IVFP and County of SB are out of control. Everything they do to curtail partying backfires. Deltopia only exists because they thought Floatopia was out of control. Let these adult students do what they want to do. When an actual crime is committed, then the cops can come in and do something. Of course, in my experience at UCSB, the IVFP doesn’t do anything except arrest drunk students, all of whom they force into the streets at the same time every night per the very restrictive noise ordinance. For example, we once got out house broken into and needed… Read more »
Want some cheese with that whine….
I guess Jon you’ve never been sexually assaulted or hit my a drunk driver or been the victim of a drug related theft or had to study for a final or had your door broken in by a drunk burglar…or… wait a minute… I guess they police must assume that taking drunk people of the street prevents crimes, criminals, and victimizations. Hmmmmm…I never thought of that until now. Weird huh? It’s such common sense too! Maybe if we didn’t act like assholes when we’re drunk then perhaps their would be less crimes.
The gentleman with the first reply nailed it: “self-indulgent and illiterate.”
I feel sorry for the thousands of students at both UCSB and SBCC being thrown under the bus by this buffoon – those who actually do value their education and a genuine work ethic, don’t have their parents footing the bill for the right to party, have overcome legitimate obstacles to be admitted and stay enrolled, and had no part in the mayhem.
Todd Capps, UCSB 1989
Go ahead and fight for your right to party. Get drunk, riot, vandalize property, spend class time hung over (or in jail), and make sure prospective employers know what the name of your school stands for. You can rest assured that your police records and drug tests will ensure that your career will be filled with days answering “Yes Sir!” to more studious community college graduates.
Spend more time in class. Learn how to write.
How little do the “Powers that Be” in Isla Vista remember their own youth!No doubt they were all Perfectly behaved young people Who always followed the “Rules” and never did an impulsive or foolish thing! these paragons of virtue should look in the mirror to see what a hypocrite looks like. TJ Harvey above has it right in his 4th Gen ideas, grill the bosses, the ones who are truly to blame for oppression.For the rest of you,I remind you that your permit for assembly is in the National Archives in Washington – the First Amendment. Go on u-tube and… Read more »
BWAAAahahaha…oh man…hahahahaha….stop…please…BAAaahahaha…oh man…you’re killing me….
I never attended USBC (I earned my engineering degree at an obscure institution known as Cal Berkeley a few hundred miles north) but when I was in my early 20’s I wasn’t hanging around with a bunch of sociopathic children. I was an aircrew member on a C-141 Starlifter cargo jet hauling military cargo, passengers, paratroopers all over the planet. We drank more than our far share of beer, had more of our share of fun, saw and did thing you will never do. If your pathetic ass ever had a girlfriend worth looking at, you would have lost her… Read more »
Speedstan. Thanks for your service. The 141 was the best work horse the USAF had. Had them come in to our base Saudi in 91 with max loads day after day.
“grill the bosses, the ones who are truly to blame for oppression.”
I have to laugh at that one, as I can’t imagine that any of you have actually had jobs, much less held ANY type of position of responsibility whatsoever, in your short pathetic lives to date…
Ad hominem for the win, love it. “most 20-something girls prefer the company of GROWN MEN with paychecks, good physiques, who have traveled the world and have far more interesting stories” and “I can’t imagine that any of you have actually had jobs, much less held ANY type of position of responsibility whatsoever, in your short pathetic lives to date”… so much insight into you as a person in these two statements.
Do you care to point out anything that I have said that may be factually incorrect?
All of the quotes I cited here are conjectures and therefore cannot be factually correct.
Sorry, but I’m not impressed with your desire to offer obtuse and obfuscatory comments as a substitute for reasoned discussion. I prefer to make my point in the most clear and concise manner as possible, but that just how I roll…
The human brain doesn’t mature until about age 25. College kids are still just that–kids. This one in particular shows immaturity. He should go do his homework.
Shelly – First, the human brain does not “mature.” It continues to change, and remains quite malleable even into old age. I encourage you to research this point. Second, did you know that there was no word for “teenager” or “adolescent” until the 1950s? Those terms reflect a new and strange state in social evolution, when people who would have been seen as adults in nearly every culture for the past few thousand years get a pass on having to act responsibly. Third, saying that college kids “are still that-kids” completely white washes the fact that these “kids” are engaging… Read more »
The author displays a sense of entitlement that is so previlant in so many Americans there days. That town doesn’t owe you JACK! I’d like to be a police office there and show this douche bag what militant means.
Nothing more than the rantings of a spoiled narcissistic sociopath. Google “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” and you will get a good description of this clown…
Lest anyone need a refresher…
Definition of Sociopath: a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.
I, as writer of this comment, do point out the Anonymous, the writer of the column, is a child going to a college that promotes adolescence. As such, we, the readers of this comment, should make sure our offspring attend a private college in another country. We, citizens who pay for the academic achievement as found in the article, should vote everyone out of office, remove your children, and never contribute. If not, your children should sue you for endangerment.
A better solution is not to pay for your child’s college education, but to let him figure it out for him and herself. There is an alternative approach to financing one’s education, and it starts with a bus ride that arrives shortly after midnight in a recruitment depot where a bunch of big guys with Smokey Bear hats and spit-polished size 12 shoes tell you to get your lazy asses of the bus and on the yellow footprints on the double. Anyone like this spoiled child who is inclined to assert his “right” to act like a fool will receive… Read more »
Speedstan. Classic response. I might add the writer signed it as “Anonymous” If he wants defend his right to be annoying, put your name too it.
I agree with 100% of Speedstan’s comment. “Bill”, you might want to practice what you preach.
“Michael,” you seem to insinuate Bill is lying about his name and that he is disagreeing with Speedstan. He is reiterating both of their shared frustrations and there is no reason to assume he is lying about his name. You might want to practice the contextualized interpretation of people’s thoughts.
I assumed there was no fundamental disagreement, merely a discussion of style points and semantics.
My name is indeed Stan, and if you ask any of my fellow Chem E students from Cal in the early 1990’s, they will know exactly who I am…
Speedstan & Michael Becker,
I was agreeing with you Stan. Hey Michael I do practice what I preach.
Understood, no problem there.
Well said..of course there will be a few that disagree because they are too good or too smart for that and unable or unwilling to take personal responsibility.
Thanks. Sorry for the typos, but this site apparently has no provisions for editing posts.
Bring back the fire hoses and dogs. Then we’ll see how really dedicated to Freedom these woosies are.
Entitlement is strong with this one.
Wow. If that letter doesn’t sum up the neo-hippie, entitled Millennial, I don’t know what does. “It should be noted that 85 percent of complaints received about noise, music and disturbing the peace are called in by law enforcement themselves…” What? Care to provide some support for that? And what does “Holding open office hours (IVPD) only works for people who have an ideology that is in line with that of the policing authority…” mean? Ideology has nothing to do with it…DISORDERLY CONDUCT DOES. Please, spare us the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and “vibrant social scene crap.” Get back to… Read more »
Mommy and daddy sent you there to get an education, not get drunk and destroy private proprty.
“The young adults that live in Isla Vista do not wish to be governed in a way that lightly channels neo-fascism.”
Young adults is the epitome of stretch. You mean children
I can’t believe people are still making excuses for adults acting like idiots. When I was 22, I was married with a kid, a salaried job, a house, a bank account, and clean record. My nephew was 20 when he rescued six men off the battlefield in Ar Ramadi after being shot in the leg, we buried him two weeks later. Both My sons and my daughter were in the military, Marines, and Air Force when they were 18 years old. Served in Kosovo and Iraq respectively. Thank God there are still some men and women who act like adults,… Read more »
I had a chance encounter with one of those little entitlement punks when attending Cal Berkeley, where six years in the USAF had resulted in a bit of an attitude problem towards these overgrown children. An encounter with a frat boy vandalizing a message board who then told me to “do something about it, faggot” ended with him running to the campus police crying like a baby because his first swing at me was a couple of microseconds short of the time it took to slap him upside the head with an open palm. I made a point of living… Read more »
Sounds a little like the encounter my son – a SpOps Marine vet – had with a punk who was about to slash the flag outside of the veterans’ support office at UC Santa Cruz.
Fortunately for the punk, he didn’t swing the razor at him.
The problem with the UC system is that the administrators are are so indoctrinated into Political Correctness and the Nanny State mentality that out-of-control students, professional agitators, and the usual selection of malcontents that attach themselves as leeches to the campus community are treated with kid gloves. Kids run amuck simply because they can, and the UC system lets it happen…
Absolutely.
Out-of-control, entitled, pin-heads. Including a large segment of the faculty.
After three combat deployments my son said UCSC was the first place he ever experienced real, white hot, hate directed at him.
Berkeley is bad enough for left-wing a-holes as it is. Can’t imagine anyone with any grip on reality going to “Scruz”, which prides itself on trying to out-Berkeley Berkeley.
My son made it through because he only spent two years there. He also embedded himself in the military community and ignored the idiots.
Liberals spend a lot of time trying to convince others of their own superiority to cover their own inferiority. They are actually scared to death of people who are competent and confident of themselves.
What a bunch of bullshit. “Deltopia is ONE DAY that signifies the final stretch of a hard years work through the expression of dance and the amplification of community.” This is only the 2nd weekend of Spring Quarter. UCSB students just returned from Spring Break. Don’t tell us this is all about blowing off steam. Call it what it is, an excuse for a hedonistic party thrown on the dime of the county. I lived for four years in IV, the author will look back on this in the next year or two and realize what an entitled brat he… Read more »
from experience, i know that alcohol and kids don’t mix well. unless really supervised (as they should be) there should be stricter laws in regards to under age drinking. I don’t know how many times i have read another college party story where a kid dies from alcohol or the use/abuse of it. i would rather see kids smoking hooch then drinking. i have never heard of someone dieing of an overdose to smoking. i don’t hear to often that a family driving on the road were run off or hit and all died due to someone smoking but rather… Read more »
Lord of the Flies
or perhaps, Tilda Swinton in “The Beach”
Back in the 60’s-80’s disorder broke out during protests for social causes,…..today kids cause riots simply for fun and the cause of getting stoned and having sex….
This reads like a PJ O’Rourke parody. Maybe it is. What it displays is the cultural divide that will bring down this country…the Left takes, expects and threatens, while the Right pays the bills.
This reads like a PJ O’Rourke parody.
Or maybe an Onion editorial?
Laugh and call these rioting frat boys ignorant if you will, but in fact they have learned their lessons well. They know that just like ghetto blacks, illegal Mexicans, wacko feminists and (last but not least) fundamentalist Muslims, all they have to do is come up with a bunch of real or imagined grievances, and it gives them carte black to go off like a bunch of crazed apes on the loose.
America’s Future on Parade
Yep. I wonder how many Chinese and Indian students were involved in rioting, given that those cultures have some funny ideas about what constitutes a college education. Partying and drinking in excess is probably not one of their higher priorities…
These partying college students will be living in Mommy and Daddy’s garage 10 years after they graduate, wondering why they can’t get a job anywhere. College students aren’t all smart. Some of them are the most stupid people on the planet.
I’m a current ucsb student who commented on this article on April 6th at 12:35 am. Anyway, after rereading this I found it ironic that the author mentions Kevin Moran. Yes, he was a victim of police brutality. But he was killed after working to put out the fire in that radicals had set in the temporary Bank of America. Doesn’t seem like the type who would have supported disorder, destruction, and Deltopia.