For the small number of students who do use Umail accounts, Yonie Harris. The dean of students, informed us that the parental notification system will be put in place this upcoming fall. Just as several other students have expressed in the Daily Nexus, I disagree with this program and believe in no way will it improve safety or lower the amount of “binge drinking” that occurs at UCSB.

I differ from those students in one way; I am going to do something about it. After the recent A.S. elections many students expressed that A.S. representatives don’t represent them, or they can’t see what they actually do for them. Well, right now I am calling out every member of Associated Students. Forget what party you belong to and what happened in the recent student elections. There is a larger issue than name-calling and bickering at each other at Legislative Council meetings on Wednesday nights. It is that the students, their opinions, their beliefs and voices were not valued during the formulation of the parental notification process.

I am concerned with the safety of the inhabitants of Isla Vista, yet I believe that instituting the Parental Notification Program will be a step backward. UCSB has extended jurisdiction into I.V. and all off-campus housing, which allows them to use our tuition fees to retrieve arrest records from IVFP and mail letters home to parents. Yet, instead of sending letters home, the administrators of UCSB should realize that the overcrowding of students in I.V. magnifies problems related to alcohol. Now that UCSB has jurisdiction over I.V. and wants to get involved in student life, why doesn’t it help protect students from the slumlords or build more on-campus housing? Also, a program that works even better than threatening students with punishment is providing alternatives to the Del Playa scene.

After speaking with Debbie Fleming, the associate dean of students, I found out that a program of alternates would work but would cost the campus anywhere from $25,000-$400,000. Due to this financial burden it makes the parental notification an affordable last-ditch effort to make I.V. safe.

I believe it is time to do something. I am writing this letter to the editor as an open invitation to all students to help me in my cause to stop the implementation of parental notification and propose other alternatives to help improve the safety of students in I.V. If it means raising $25,000 then we will find a way to raise it. I am creating and heading an organization/group/faction/cause or whatever to signal to the UCSB administrators that the people affected by their programs do not agree with them. I need help to do this, and I hope that the members of A.S. and the Daily Nexus see this as an important and salient student issue.

I don’t have a cool name or acronym for this group yet, but if you disagree with the implementation of parental notification, I desperately urge you to join me. This is an opportunity to get involved in a campus issue that affects all of us. If you would like to join, please e-mail me at . Also, if you would like to constructively express your views to the administrators that are involved in this, feel free to contact these people: Chancellor Henry Yang at ; Yonie Harris at ; Debbie Fleming at . Let me please reiterate that these comments and concerns must be in a constructive manner. Anything less than constructive will only undermine our argument and opposition to the Parental Notification Program.

This is your college experience! You can either have the administrators decide what is best for you, or you can get involved and express what you think would help improve safety at UCSB.

Randall Wright is a junior political science, international relations major.