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June 2, 2016

Vol. 50 Issue No. 30

A Matter of Choice
Starting June 9,
End of Life Option Act
will give terminally ill
people the decision to end
their life on own terms
Page 10

COFFEEHOUSE

Serving Student Voice

ALI ENRIGHT

Survey released for feedback on controversial dining takeover

BY ALLISON HOLLENDER
The newly formed Coffee Shop Advisory Committee
released a campuswide survey on May 24 for input about the
controversial takeover of the historically college-run Cowell
Coffee Shop and Stevenson Coffee House by UC Santa Cruz
Dining Services.
They are set to be absorbed by dining to address consistent
deficits for both coffeehouses that have been covered by the
two colleges over the majority of the past 20 years. But there
is significant pushback from faculty, staff, students and alumni
who fear one of the oldest and most unique spaces on campus
will be homogenized.
Our goal is really just to gather feedback and use that as
vision-making as we continue to move forward, said Carolyn
Golz, college administrative officer for Cowell and Stevenson
Colleges, who put together the committee including two
students, two staff and four faculty members.
She said the ideas for the committee and survey were born
from suggestions during the April community forums for
Stevenson and Cowell students to provide feedback on the
absorption.
But students, especially at the forum, condemned dinings
takeover of the Stevenson Coffee House that has been a part

of campus for over 40 years and called for the facilities to be


student-run.
Ultimately, the primary concern from students is that they
want a definite say over their space, said Gabriella Cory, who
was elected by the Stevenson Senate to serve on the committee
as the Stevenson student voice.
She said shes passionate about saving the Stevenson Coffee
House because its where she and her friends hangout, but its
also where her mom worked 30 years ago.
Cory serves alongside fellow UCSC student Sarah Adler, who
was elected by the Cowell Senate.
We are trying to bridge the gap between the administration
and the students, Adler said. To find, if dining takes it over,
how we are going to make the students most comfortable.
The survey will stay up for two weeks and close around June
7. It was published on UCSCs Tuesday Newsday and sent out
to Stevenson and Cowell students as well as multiple graduate
academic departments to increase accessibility.
The goal of the survey is ... to gather more specific feedback
about what are the things that people appreciate about the
coffeehouses, what are the things that they would like to see
changed, what kind of menu items would they like to see, what
do they want to use the space for, Carolyn Golz said.

ABOUT CITY ON A HILL PRESS

SPRING 2016 STAFF

City on a Hill Press is produced by and for UCSC students. Our primary goal is
to report and analyze issues affecting the student population and the Santa Cruz
community.
We also serve to watchdog the politics of the UC administration. While we
endeavor to present multiple sides of a story, we realize our own outlooks influence
the presentation of the news. The City on a Hill Press (CHP) collective is dedicated
to covering underreported events, ideas and voices. Our desks are devoted to
certain topics: campus and city news, sports and arts and entertainment. CHP
is a campus paper, but it also provides space for Santa Cruz residents to present
their views and interact with the campus community. Ideally, CHPs pages will
serve as an arena for debate, challenge and ultimately, change.
CHP is published weekly in the fall, winter and spring quarters by the City on
a Hill Press publishing group, except during Thanksgiving and academic breaks.
The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
the staff at large, or the University of California.
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LETTERS
UCSC Press Center
1156 High St.
Santa Cruz, CA 95064

2 JUNE 2

Within the first 24 hours, there were 176 responses to the


survey, said Caren Camblin, Stevenson faculty member and
member of the advisory committee.
Transparency is an important part of this process, and that
was the whole reason for doing this survey, said Camblin, an
avid proponent of making the independent coffeehouses either
student or college-run.
She worked with lecturer Bruce Thompson to create a
petition signed by over 50 faculty, staff and grad students in
March to contest dinings takeover of the Stevenson Coffee
House. Camblins petition cycled in conjunction with an online
campaign created by Stevenson Coffee House staff that reached
over 2,500 signatures.
When I talk to students about their experiences, what really
defines Stevenson what makes them feel like Stevenson
students and have a sense of belonging and a sense of home
it is the core course, the coffee shop and the knoll, she said.
Camblin is working with the Stevenson Faculty Executive
Committee to create a plan to return the two coffeehouses to
college control if Student Union Assembly (SUA) President Julie
Fosters plan to make the shops student-run falls through.
Camblin supports SUAs ideas and says the committee is
waiting on a few endorsements before submitting their plan
B option. The reason that we are calling it Plan B is that we
really like the idea of students running it ... But if that is not
satisfactory to the administration, then we want to have another
way that the coffeehouse can stay college-run, she said.
Student committeemembers Gabriella Cory and Sarah
Adler, who interns for Foster, are both proponents of a studentowned and operated space. However, because of the success of
the committee, they feel less concerned about the university
absorption of the coffeehouses.
Seeing John [Hadley], the current manager, and Bill
[Prime], the head of dining, talk is really comforting to me,
Cory said. To see that there is an open dialogue and its not just
a cold harsh takeover. We are all doing our best to handle it.
To take the survey and input your feedback, you can go to
www.surveymonkey.com/r/ucsccoffeeshops

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Editors-in-Chief
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Jasper Lyons
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Managing Editors
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Amaral,
Arthur Zhu
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editor
Owen Thomas
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Entertainment
Copy Editing
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Marcos
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Advertising
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FONG
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Alex Wilkins

ARCHIVES

Celebrating
50 Years of
the Grateful
Dead
Dead Central continues
to commemorate
bands legacy
BY MARWA SAFI
PHOTOS BY CASEY AMARAL
Halloween 1965, Soquel Avenue a Victorian house filled
with college students experienced two seminal 60s moments.
Not only was it Ken Keseys first Acid Test, but it was also the
Grateful Deads first house show. This was the night that began
the bands legacy in Santa Cruz.
The legacy has continued through Dead Central, the bands
public exhibit in McHenry Library. The tribute is built heavily
from exclusive archival photos donated to UC Santa Cruz, and
last month archivist Nicholas Meriwether reopened the space
after a month of renovations for its latest exhibit. This is the fifth
installment in Dead Central since its opening in 2008.
Named Imagining the Dead: Photographs and Photographers
in the Grateful Dead Archive, 1965-1995, the exhibit contains
more than 200 objects and artifacts, celebrating the bands 50th
anniversary.
The archive includes never before seen footage of [the] band
collected over the last 50 years of their career, Meriwether said.
Meriwether has collected over 1,000 photographs related
to the Grateful Dead, a band known as the godfathers of jam
session music. Founding members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Bill
Kreutzmann, Ron McKernan and Phil Lesh are credited with the
psychedelic sound associated with the hippie movement in San
Francisco.
Their fans, known as deadheads, are known for their
extreme devotion. Deadheads followed the band, created
specific lingo and dressed in tie-dye. The intense relationship
formed between fans and the band allowed unprecedented
access to the rise of the Grateful Dead. While some bands shied
away from photographers, the Dead embraced and encouraged
rock journalism.
Dead Central has been a part of UCSC since the band itself
chose to display their memorabilia here. Bob Weir stated at a
press conference announcing the exhibit, We looked around
and UC Santa Cruz seems the best possible home.
Even though the Grateful Deads prime was before most
UCSC students were born, their legacy has touched many.
I guess Dead Central played a part in me choosing to attend
UC Santa Cruz, said third-year student Camille Halley. I was
really into them my senior year of high school and thought the
exhibit was super cool and wanted to work there.
Last year, Halley got a tattoo with the signature Grateful Dead
roses along with the words, Rambling Rose, to remind herself of
the impact the Dead has had on her life.

Anatomically correct marionettes of Garcia, Mydland and Kreutzmann


from their Touch of Grey music video stand near the entrance of the
Grateful Dead exhibit (above). Various photographs taken over the years
by rock photographers documenting the Grateful Deads 50 year career
(right). Pictured is the Grateful Deads eponymous debut album cover,
released in 1967 (below).

The new exhibit is similar in organization to past ones but


has a completely new collection of memorabilia. Arranged
chronologically, the exhibit begins with black and white
photographs from 1965 and ends with full color photos from the
bands last show together in 1995.
Fans of the Dead will be pleased to see the actual marionettes
of Garcia, Mydland and Kreutzmann used in their 1987 music
video, Touch of Grey, in the center of the room.
Some of the earliest copies of Rolling Stone are also included
in a case far back in the room. Since the magazine was originally
based in San Francisco, it included the band in its first issue. They
became a favorite of the publication, and Dead Central contains
two original copies of Rolling Stone with the Grateful Dead on
the covers, the first shot by Annie Leibovitz and the second by
Jim Marshall.
Theres also a display dedicated to the bands 1978
performance in Egypt in front of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
UCSC alumnus Don Defenderfer donated his photographs and
essay. His essay embodies the spirit of the era as a student, he
realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so he took his
camera to Egypt to document the show.
The exhibit ends with photographs from 1995 the year
Jerry Garcia passed away.
Former Grateful Dead members, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Bill
Kreutzmann have joined with singer John Mayer to form Dead
and Company. The band is touring around the U.S. this summer,

with its final show on July 30 at The Shoreline Amphitheatre in


Mountain View.
A brightly lit plaque in Dead Central reads, In the spirit of
the Grateful Dead and Grateful Dead community honoring that
we are all one family in music, love, and joy, regardless of race or
family composition.
The Grateful Deads legacy prevails because of their power
to bring people together. The bands music isnt limited to the
baby boomers, members of the Dead or professional rock
photographers. Students today are still discovering its music and
new artists still cover their music and turn it into their own. The
community surrounding the Grateful Dead is welcoming and
continuously growing, cementing its role in Santa Cruz.

CITYONAHILLPRESS.COM 3

Heartwork
2016 Irwin Scholars
inspire faculty and
students at the Porter
Sesnon Gallery
BY GABRIELLE GARCIA
PHOTOS BY ALI ENRIGHT

Gracias por tener fea en m. Los quiero con


todo mi corazn. Thank you for having faith in
me. I love you with all my heart.
Jairo Banuelos, Irwin Scholarship recipient

4 JUNE 2

A pair of attendees exchanged


looks of discovery as they balanced
on a teeter-totter. Jairo Banuelos
interactive sculpture at the Irwin
Scholars reception on May 25
demonstrated the balancing of self
within a Chicanx identity.
Like Banuelos, the other 11
recipients of the annual Irwin
Scholarship are dedicated to art
with an underlying narrative of
identity, politics, myth, daily life and
infrastructure, among many other
themes.
The William Hyde and Susan
Benteen Irwin Scholarship fund
was established in 1986, with an
endowment check of $10,000.
Students are nominated and
chosen by faculty for the prestigious
and extremely competitive $2,500
merit scholarship. The award also
includes a feature in the Mary Porter
Sesnon Gallery, the Porter College
Faculty Gallery and the Sesnon
Underground.
The arts faculty community
came together for the event, where
they shared tear-jerking expressions
of love. The UCSC arts department
community honored award winners
Jairo Banuelos, Haley Belenis,
Thomas Fallis, Andrea Furtado, Jesse
Huynh, Jordan Krauss, Erick Medel,
Sarah Ploenzke, Caetano Santos,
Rachel Smith, Luigi Villanueva and

Chloe Yantis.
With
a
highly
moving
combination of concept and
execution with a humanitarian
focus,
each
piece
captured
onlookers. During the awards
ceremony at the Sesnon Gallery,
the artists thanked their mentors,
loved ones and audience members.
Banuelos thanked his peers and
parents with a poem in Spanish.
Gracias por tener fe en m. Los
quiero con todo mi corazn. Thank
you for having faith in me. I love you
with all my heart, Banuelos said.
Students arranged their works
alongside Sesnon Arts Gallery
manager Mark Shunney. Associate
professors
Dee-Hibbert
Jones,
Enrique Leal and Norman Locks
and staff research associate Bridget
Henry were among those thanked
onstage by students for pushing
them to their full potential.
We encourage the Irwin Scholars
to stay in touch with the Sesnon
Gallery and UCSC after graduation,
said Shelby Graham, Sesnon Art
gallery director and curator.
We send the scholars gallery or
job opportunities and encourage
them to go to graduate school if they
are interested, Graham said. We
stress the importance of networking
with other artists and to continue to
build a strong creative community.

GALLERY

Students, faculty, staff and


family members gathered
to celebrate the opening
of the Irwin Scholars
gallery at Porter College
last Wednesday (scholars
shown bottom left). The
event featured the work
of student artists and
provided the scholars with
gallery space to showcase
their work and a platform
to thank those who
supported them in their
creative processes. Artists
and event participants
interacted with various
art pieces including those
that featured karaoke,
film and a teeter-totter
among others. The Irwin
Scholars artwork is on
display in three galleries
around Porter College
until June 11.

Recipient
Caetano
Santos
thanked his mentors and did a roll
call of his friends, main supporters
and family. Santos is widely known
in the arts community and often
participates in off-campus art house
shows. As his work has evolved
from graphic print style, his new
pieces demonstrate more than just
craftsmanship.
Thematically,
Santos
work
deals with loss and memory while
exploring a new method he learned
from professor Leal a glass etching
made by silk-screening photographs
onto glass with asphaltum.
I was thinking about my aunt
and the fragility of memory, of the
glass, of peoples lives, Santos said,
referencing his aunt who recently
died and meant a great deal to
Santos.
Santos is proud to pay homage
to what matters to him most a
family member who contributed to
and shaped his bicultural identity,
since he has family in both Brazil
and California.
With this piece, you need
distance between the glass and
the wall in order to document the
shadow that it casts, Santos said.
And thats sort of this distance
between my aunt and me. You have
to maintain these relationships and
be very active to keep up with your

family. They may not be immediately


around you, but they help you grow.
Fourth-year
environmental
studies student Elise Scheuermann
walked past the artwork with a shy
smile. She was supporting a friend
but became immersed in a sculpture
of a sunken boat with small
hands reaching out of the ocean.
Scheuermann was touched by the
closeness of the arts community.
Some of the peoples stories
were very touching with their
experiences, she said. I thought
it was really important how they
emphasized how supported they felt
within the art department.
William Ladusaw, interim dean
of the arts, spoke on behalf of the
faculty and proudly dared attendees
to examine each work with intricate
detail. He reminded all audience
members to walk around with open
hearts and immersed eyes.
What you see around you is a
great representation of the quality
and character of the arts community
in Santa Cruz, Ladusaw said. I
hope youll be provoked to think,
[be] appalled maybe.
Sesnon
Gallery
hours
are
TuesdaySaturday, noon to 5 p.m.
and Wednesday until 8 p.m.

CITYONAHILLPRESS.COM 5

HOUSING

New Trans-Inclusive
Housing Option Introduced at UCSC
All-Gender Housing Task Force adds two inclusive spaces

BY WENDY RENTERIA

Cy Dollente, first-year student

6 JUNE 2

IT H
SM

When you put all 43


different genders [and
sexualities] as other then
its really horrible, and
you generalize an entire
[group].

EN

Housing Task Forces recommendation in June


2015 and will be the first housing community
specifically for transgender, gender-fluid or
gender nonconforming students and their
allies.
We endeavor to provide a range of options
that may appeal to transgender and gender
nonconforming students, Matthews said
in an email to all students living on campus.
Trans-inclusive housing areas ... are intended
to create safer and supportive spaces to live
for transgender and gender nonconforming
students, and their allies.
She also commented on frustrations felt by
Dollente and Stradleigh who couldnt select allgender housing on the online application.
We wish to acknowledge this limitation
of the online system and the negative impact
it had upon some transgender and gender
nonconforming students, Matthews said in the
email. We have begun a review of this element
of our housing assignment process and intend
to explore potential means of making the online
process more inclusive for all students.
To be a part of the trans-inclusive housing
options students will have to complete a
supplemental application, but will be able
to request a specific roommate or will be
assigned one based
on their application
preferences.
First-year students
who request transinclusive
housing
will be housed on
a singular floor of
Merrill College that
will
accommodate
about 35 students,
said Brian Arao, the
Associate
College
Administrative Officer
and member of the
task force. Continuing
and transfer students will have the same
option at the Redwood Grove apartments,
where there have been 12 students admitted
so far.
Arao said he will assist students in
identifying housing options that best suit
their needs and explained that new options
are meant to create a stronger sense of
community.
The trans-inclusive housing option is
focused specifically on creating safer and
supportive living spaces for trans-identified
and gender nonconforming students, Arao
said in an email.
UCSC isnt the only university working
to address this issue. UCLA offers gender
inclusive housing in a Gender, Sexuality
and Society floor in one of its residence
halls which houses 30 students, but this is a
significantly more expensive housing option
because its a plaza style housing option
rather than a standard dorm. UC Berkeley
provides gender neutral housing, including

ILE
KA

All Cass Stradleigh wanted was to live in a


gender nonconforming place in their second
year at UC Santa Cruz. But when they tried to
apply for housing at Porter College for fall 2016,
the online application didnt give them the
option.
The problem is with the way the system
works, Stradleigh said. ... By the time that
your appointment opens, and you realize that
you cant get a place [in the online system] and
you have to talk to someone about it all the
spots are going to be taken up.
Stradleigh wanted to live in a Porter
apartment with a group including cisgender
students and their current transgender and
gender nonconforming roommate Cy Dollente.
But they were unable to join the apartment
without going to a housing official first, who
would manually edit the system.
For trans and gender nonconforming
students, the hoops to jump through when it
comes to housing feel infinite. Students who
change their gender identity and arent officially
registered as unknown, not specified, which
categorizes any student who falls outside of the
gender binary, may face a technical error when
applying for housing.
Like
many
gender
nonconforming
students,
Stradleigh
and Dollente were
frustrated about the
lack
of
accessible
information
and
started
posting
fliers and statuses
online
saying
the
housing system was
transphobic and a
form of segregation.
These actions were met
with harsh criticism,
including hate speech
online and on the fliers
themselves.
Everyone keeps asking us [what we are
upset about], Dollente said. But the problem
is that there are so many little parts to the
problem that its hard to pin down.
UCSC has offered LGBTQIA+ themed
housing for nearly 50 years, and since 2009
students have had the option to select allgender room options which allow students to
live together regardless of identification.
[The LGBTQIA+] community, theyre all
very unique, Dollente said. When you put all
43 different genders [and sexualities] as other
then its really horrible, and you generalize an
entire [group].
In an effort to address the limitations
and difficulty transgender and gender
nonconforming students face during the
housing process, Associate Vice Chancellor of
Colleges, Housing and Educational Services
(CHES) Sue Matthews announced that
beginning fall 2016, students will have the
option to select trans-inclusive housing options.
This action is a direct result of the All-Gender

the Unity House which provides mixed gender


roommate assignments for 230 students.
UCSC housing staff anticipates that not
all transgender or gender nonconforming
students will want to live in the two inclusive
communities, so each college and residential
community is prepared to find appropriate
housing assignments for students on an

individual basis.
The trans-inclusive housing option was
never meant to be the be-all, end-all solution
for every trans-identified student, Arao said
in an email. We know that trans and gender
nonconforming students are a diverse group,
and thus have equally diverse housing needs.

Uncharted Waters

CONCERT

Underwater concert to take place at OPERS pool next week

BY MIKAELA MARCOS
When professor Anna Friz
saw that UC Santa Cruz had an
underwater speaker, a 50-meter pool
and creative students, she figured
why not put on an underwater
concert? With the film and digital
media department, she created the
show Submerging Artists.
Submerging
Artists
was
conceptualized in March after Friz
discovered that UCSC also had a
hydrophone, a microphone that
can record underwater sounds. As a
teenage synchronized swimmer, Friz
has extensive experience listening
to music underwater and is excited
to bring the first-ever underwater
concert to UCSC on June 7.
Art and artistic expression
can take place in a lot of unusual
and everyday settings, said Friz,
a film and digital media assistant
professor. Its sort of unusual to
have a concert in a pool, but its also
this setting that is very everyday. [I
want students] to think of any site as
a possibility for performance or for
more extended listening.
Water as a medium for sound
works differently than air. Sound
waves move faster in water, making
the time between when sound hits
one ear and then the other virtually
nonexistent. Though this brings the
listener closer to the sound because
we are used to listening in air, we
hear things underwater as distorted.
This distortion allows performers to
create sounds they wouldnt be able
to make above water.
The show features graduate
and undergraduate students from
film and digital media and digital
arts and new media who are
interested in water as a space for
creative performance. Most of the
pieces were composed with the
underwater element in mind, using
mermaids, whales and ship horns as
inspirations for the pieces.
Graduate
student
Isabelle
Carbonell
incorporates
ocean
acoustic tomography into her piece
Tomo/veillance. Ocean acoustic
tomography measures temperatures
and currents across the ocean and
is one of the most reliable ways to
track climate change. This technique
was originally developed in the Cold

War to track enemy submarines.


Tomo/veillance
samples
interviews
with
tomography
scientists,
ocean
acoustic
tomography
recordings,
and
formerly classified Navy LPs, which
were used to train submariners in
underwater listening.
I wanted to try and create
this sonic evolution using this
technology, Carbonell said. This
technology, in some ways, has not
evolved at all. In some ways its
extremely similar to when it was
first invented, but its application is
completely different.
Most pieces like Carbonells are
pre-recorded and will be played
back on the underwater speaker at
the concert. But two of the pieces
will be performed live. Using the
underwater speaker and a poolside
speaker, graduate student Ryan Page
will shift the sound above water
and below it to create a two-part
experience for listeners.
Electricity and water theyre
not supposed to mix, Page said.
As a listener, youre engaging
with this thing that is potentially
dangerous But because we have
this technology that you can do this
with, were creating this experience
that you wouldnt normally have.
Audience members are safe from
electrocution, as electrical currents
are kept far from the water. While
listening to music underwater
poses danger, audience members
may notice how separation from
electronics during a concert can be
refreshing.
Its not simple to sit underwater
and listen in the same way that its
simple to walk into a concert hall
and pull out your cell phone and not
pay attention, Page said. ... When
[sound] is sent through a physical
medium like water, youre more
connected to the physical sensation
of it.
While
performers
were
concerned with the audiences
mindset during the performance,
professor Anna Friz is paying
attention
to
the
audiences
experience of the performance.
She noted how it could change the
way audience members think of
listening.

COURTESY OF ISABELLE CARBONELL

Our listening experiences are


always immersive, Friz said. But
somehow in water theres a new
piece of information because were
in a different medium, one that
we cant breathe in but we can still
see and hear in When youre
swimming and in water, youre
still listening. A change of material
doesnt mean suddenly our senses
are not useful.
The underwater concert will take
place at the OPERS East Field Pool
from 1 4 p.m. on June 7. The event is
free and open to the public.

Its not simple to sit underwater and listen in the


same way that its simple to walk into a concert hall
and pull out your cell phone and not pay attention.
Ryan Page, film and digital
media graduate student
CITYONAHILLPRESS.COM 7

RALLY

Sanders in Santa Cruz


Kaiser Permanente Arena at
capacity for Bernie rally

BY KATHRYN PALMER
& ARTHUR ZHU
PHOTOS BY CASEY AMARAL

JASPER LYONS

8 JUNE 2

There is an earthquake going


on here, proclaimed Democratic
presidential
candidate
Bernie
Sanders as a crowd of over 3,000
rallied in the Kaiser Permanente
Arena last Tuesday.
Santa Cruz locals and UC Santa
Cruz students queued up as early as
5 a.m. to witness Sanders talk about
income inequality, affordable health
care and accessible higher education,
among other issues. The sea of
faces that filled bleacher seats were
predominately young people.
I think [Sanders] represents all
the ideas we are concerned with
as students, said third-year UCSC
student Marlet Andaya.
The line to the rally stretched
about a mile long from the arena to
Third Street and Riverside Avenue as
4,000 to 5,000 people waited to get
in. Sanders 1 p.m. start was slightly
delayed, as he addressed thousands
of overflow supporters at the
entrance with a concise rundown of
his speech that would be elaborated
in the arena.
Recent UCSC graduate Anna
Coloma spends her free time
volunteering for Sanders campaign.
She said she supports Sanders
platform for affordable higher
education, including making tuition
free at public universities, cutting
student loan interest rates and

Even if he doesnt win the election, he is


setting an everlasting precedent for the
future generations to get more politically
involved. That is what the political
revolution is all about.
Faisal Fazilat, UCSC fourth-year

implementing a tax on every stock,


bond and derivative.
Being a poor student, growing
up and getting some aid from the
government but not enough
and having to work 50 plus hours a
week just really sucks throughout
school, Coloma said.
Shes in debt along with millions
of other Americans and says she
regrets the decision to go straight
to a four-year university instead of
taking the less expensive community
college route. UCSC graduates in
2014 left campus owing an average
of $22,583, with 63 percent of the
graduating class in debt.
For the next 20 years Ill be
paying off my student loans, given I
have a steady income, Coloma said.
As Sanders stepped up to
the podium, audience members
immediately became a deafening
symphony of stomping, applause
and cheers. For an hour, Sanders

vocalized the ideals that have defined


his campaign as anti-establishment,
progressive and for the middle class.
Sanders said he wants to fix the
problems of what he calls the rigged
economy, where people are working
multiple jobs to sustain basic living
standards.
The Democratic Party has got to
be the party of the working class, not
the 1 percent, Sanders said.
He reiterated the concept of
political
revolution
multiple
times by criticizing the corrupt
election system. With recent polls
showing Clintons 13-point lead in
California, Sanders urged the crowd
to vote to neutralize the influence
of superdelegates. Clinton currently
has 543 superdelegates compared to
Sanders 44.
Despite Sanders emphasis on
his strong points, some students felt
as though he didnt address some
important topics.

Last Tu
Perman
attendi
long sp
The pre
speech

I w
policy,
Franks.
new tha
thoroug
and it is
for in a n
UCS
believes
simultan
the San
rallies c
ideologi
Cruz th
harassm
I
polariza
Raschke
by and
a pro-T
insults a
Desp

uesday between 4,000 and 5,000 people gathered outside of Kaiser


nente Arena in a line stretching about a mile long in the hopes of
ing the Bernie Sanders rally (lower left). Sanders delivered an hourpeech in front of a crowd of over 2,000 people in the packed arena.
esidential candidate was met with cheers and applause during his
h.

want to hear more foreign


said UCSC fourth-year Kyle
That will be something
at he hasnt really addressed
ghly. Hillary talks about it a lot,
s just something that we look
new commander in chief.
SC student Alice Raschke
s the rally has the potential to
neously fragment and unify
nta Cruz community. Political
carry the potential to magnify
ical groups, and in Santa
hat took the form of verbal
ment by political rivals.
definitely
saw
some
ation when we were in line,
e said. People were driving
they were angry, and we had
Trump guy yelling personal
at people.
pite instances of vehement

debate and verbal harassment,


student attendees expressed their
hope in Sanders and his platform.
This enthusiasm for Sanders took
on an air of defiance when speakers
Erik Eriksen, a core member and
delegate of Santa Cruz for Bernie, and
Watsonville Mayor Felipe Hernandez
discussed the candidates low
delegate count.
Even if he doesnt win the
election, he is setting an everlasting
precedent for the future generations
to get more politically involved,
said fourth-year UCSC student Faisal
Fazilat. That is what the political
revolution is all about.

CITYONAHILLPRESS.COM 9

FEATURE

A Matter of Choice

Starting June 9, End of Life


Option Act will give terminally
ill people the decision to end
their life on own terms
BY ALEX WILKINS

A HISTORY OF OPPOSITION
Medically-assisted death has gained positive traction
in recent years, helping to pave the way for Californias
End of Life Option Act. But the legislation didnt come
easily. In addition to the usual bureaucratic difficulties,
authors of the End of Life Option Act had to grapple with
the uncomfortable reality of death.
Our culture now is averse to talking about dying,
said assemblyman Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay), who
co-authored the bill. Its uncomfortable for people to
even talk about it. To pass a bill like this you have to talk
about the fact that people are dying.
In 1994, Oregon became the first state to legalize
medically-assisted death after passing the Death With
Dignity Act, after which Californias End of Life Option
Act is modeled. Though Oregons legislation marked a
turning point in the national debate, setting the stage for
what end-of-life legislation might look like in the U.S., it
took almost 20 years for California to pass a similar law.
Two years before Oregon made national headlines,
Californians voted against Proposition 161, the Aid-InDying Act. The initiative failed 54 to 46 percent, after a
well-funded opposition campaign led by the Catholic
Church. Advocates tried five more times to pass similar
measures in 1995, 1999, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
But the debate was galvanized in 2014 when 29-year-

10 JUNE 2

OWEN THOMAS

athy Rock swam three miles every week.


She spent hours walking her American
pitbull, Stella Blue, in Delaveaga Park near
her Santa Cruz home. Camping trips in
Yosemite were a regular occurrence, where she would
sleep next to the Merced River at nightfall. Sprightly
beyond her 65 years, Kathy went rockhounding in the
day, collecting mineral rocks that caught her eye.
The rocks she collected adorned the surfaces of her
well-kept home. Countless medals hung from the ceiling
as mementos from her days as one of the top professional
dog show handlers in the country. Reminders of nature
were everywhere, from the aquarium in her room to the
posters of national parks that decorated the walls.
But Kathys spirited lifestyle was forced to a halt
when she was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of
bile duct cancer cholangiocarcinoma in January
2016. Though the typical duration of survival is less
than 12 months, Kathy remained characteristically
optimistic. But as the disease progressed, conversation
inevitably turned toward end-of-life scenarios with her
close friends and family.
For people in a similar position to Kathy, end-of-life
options are currently limited to palliative care, oriented
around pain management. But soon, there will be an
alternative.
Starting on June 9, the End of Life Option Act will give
terminally ill patients the option to take medication to
end their life, giving them the choice to decide where,
when and how they will die. Six weeks before she would
have been eligible for the end-of-life option, Kathy
passed away. The bill is the first of its kind passed in
California and raises ethical questions of suffering,
mortality and human control.

old California native Brittany Maynard traveled to


Oregon to use its Death with Dignity Act after being
diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She created a
YouTube video explaining why she wanted the right to
control the way she died. The video has been viewed
nearly 12 million times.
Around the time of Maynards death, an opinion poll
conducted by HealthDay/Harris showed that 74 percent
of surveyed Americans supported the right of terminally
ill patients to end their lives. Following this, the End of
Life Option Act was proposed in a special legislative
session called by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2015.
He signed the bill into law a month later, on Oct. 5.
Though medically-assisted death is now legal, it still
has vocal opposition from some medical professionals
and religious groups, both in California and nationally.
Nearly 28 percent of Californias population is
Catholic, one of the most notable religious groups to
oppose the bill.
We dont see hastening someones death as the right
way to deal with someone whos in pain we should
treat the pain, said Deacon Warren Hoy, director for
the Diocese of Montereys Family Life and Social Justice
ministries.
Two groups, the Catholic Conference and the Alliance
of Catholic Health Care, have spent nearly $200,000
combined per fiscal quarter on lobbying in California
since 2013. Opposing bills concerning medicallyassisted death was high on their lists of priorities.
Its a basic tenet of Catholic faith [that] we respect all
life from beginning to end, said Hoy, who also oversees
Santa Cruz parishes. The dignity of life is the key to a
moral society. When we start recognizing exceptions to
that, then it becomes a slippery slope.
Despite the Catholic Churchs official opposition,
support for end-of-life legislation among California
Catholics still polls at 55 percent, only 10 percent below
the general statewide level of support.
Valerie Corral, co-founder of the Wo/Mens Alliance
for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), which provides
chronically and terminally ill patients with medicinal
marijuana, has had many conversations with WAMM
members who are close to death. Kathy Rock was a
WAMM member, who used medicinal marijuana to
manage her pain.
There are people for whom suffering is so great

inside their bodies, Corral said. Its not that life is


not precious, its that the suffering is so great that it
overpowers every piece of their existence.
While religious groups provide the bulk of opposition
to end-of-life legislature, some medical professionals
also find the ethical consequences of physician-assisted
death troubling.
The American Medical Association (AMA) is
the largest association of physicians in the U.S. For
them, physician-assisted death is fundamentally
incompatible with the physicians role as healer, saying
procedures would be difficult or impossible to control,
and would pose serious societal risks, according to the
AMA.
However, defining a physicians duty can be
problematic. Dawson Schultz, a medical ethics
consultant and former lecturer at UC Santa Cruz,
became interested in end-of-life issues after his wife
developed a brain tumor while he was in graduate
school.
The goals of medicine have not simply been to
save lives but to also provide patients with a reasonable
standard of care, Schultz said. If you think about it,
providing a reasonable standard of care certainly can
include assisting the patient in ending his or her life, as
well as saving it.
The AMAs official position stands against physicianassisted death. But a national 2014 poll, conducted by
Medscape, found 54 percent of doctors supported the
practice.
Even with a rising level of medical support, California
legislators were careful to consult doctors in writing the
End of Life Option Act. To pass the bill, policymakers only
needed support from the California Medical Association
(CMA), which has over 41,000 members. And even then
they didnt need full support, just neutrality in other
words, non-opposition.
We did this process in such a way that we got the
doctors to be neutral, Assemblyman Mark Stone said.
That was one of the biggest steps that allowed it to be
passed.
Ensuring neutrality meant removing doctors from
the active process of death, which resulted in a number
of protections for physicians. These include giving
individual health care providers the option to opt out of
prescribing lethal medications and legally requiring it to

NO RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE - 78%

CATHOLICS - 55%

REPUBLICANS - 55%

DEMOCRATS - 70%

TOTAL STATEWIDE - 65%

PERCENTAGE OF APPROVAL
OF END OF LIFE OPTION ACT
BY DEMOGRAPHIC

DETAILS OF THE END OF LIFE OPTION ACT


Patients must be at least 18 years old and have a terminal
illness that will lead to death in six months.
Two doctors must approve a voluntary request. An attending
physician will write the prescription and a consulting
physician will confirm the diagnosis and patients capability to
make an informed decision.
A doctor doesnt have to be present at death.
Patients must make three requests to a physician, two verbal
and one written. There must be at least 15 days between the
two oral requests.
Two witnesses are required for a patients signature on the
written request.
Before ingesting the drug, patients must sign a final
attestation form indicating they are fully informed of the
consequences and alternatives.
Patients must be able to administer medicine themselves.
SOURCE: SAN JOSE MERCURY

SOURCE: THE FIELD POLL

be self-administered.
Removing physicians from the act
of administering the medication was an
essential detail. But, critics say, the absence
of a medical professional at the time of
death raises the potential for coercion, a
criticism leveled at physician-assisted dying
since its inception.

POTENTIALS FOR ABUSE


As Kathy Rocks cancer progressed, she
was admitted to Santa Cruz Hospice care.
Nurses would visit her home on a regular
basis, helping manage her pain, giving
emotional support and assisting her around
her apartment when needed. Between her
son Erich, the hospice nurses and close
friends, Kathy had a support system. But not
all terminally ill patients are so fortunate.
In 2010, Medicares total spending on
hospice care was $13 billion, with an average
cost of approximately $10,700 per patient.
This doesnt include the cost of medication,
which can amount to hundreds of dollars
per month.
The costs add up quickly. And often its
family members, not the patient receiving
the care, who are left to pay the bills. Some
opponents to the End of Life Option Act
argue that if an individual believes recovery
for a family member is nowhere in sight,
these high costs may be an incentive to
coerce the patient into seeking end-of-life
options, putting an end to the expenses.
The two end-of-life medications
commonly used are Nembutal and Seconal,
which cost about $1,000 and $3,000,
respectively a relative drop in the bucket
compared to the cost of months of hospice
care. In Oregon, Medicare does not cover
these medications. There is no guarantee
that Californias MediCal will cover them
either, but some might still consider end-oflife options a cheaper alternative to hospice
care.
Anyone who is on the margins is always
going to be more vulnerable, Deacon
Warren Hoy said. Its easier to convince
them that this is the only way to go because

they dont know what options are available.


Its easier to pressure them because they
dont feel they have the power within our
society to speak up or argue.
But the bill leaves little room for coercion.
It requires that patients have a prior
psychological examination and be deemed
capable of making medical decisions,
by their attending physician. The patient
must also be able to ingest the medication
on their own a doctor or other person
who administers the lethal medication may
face criminal charges. These requirements
are similar to those in Oregons Death with
Dignity Act.
These safeguards to make sure theres
no abuse were really well thought out, said
Mike Milward, CEO of Santa Cruz Hospice,
which provides palliative care for people
with a life expectancy of six months or less.
Some of these concerns about abuse are a
bit sensationalist.
With all these protections in place, some
opposition groups are still convinced the
California act could allow for abuse. But
since Oregons law went into effect in 1997,
reviews have found no evidence of coercion.
We know from other states, like in
Oregon, it doesnt happen, Milward said.
We have a lot of history of this law. We just
know that these fears havent come to pass
in the states where this has been the law for
a while now.
The similarity in language between
California and Oregons laws suggests that
the possibility of abuse should be similar
between the two states, but California and
Oregon are vastly different. Oregon has a
population of 4 million while California has
a population of 40 million, and it cannot be
assumed that what happened in one state
will happen in the other.
The potential for coercion certainly
exists, but many predict that given the
number of people it will affect, the
probability for abuse remains low. Out of
34,160 people who died in Oregon in 2014,
only 105 used the Death with Dignity Act.
Of those 105, 95.2 percent were white, 47.6
percent held at least a bachelors degree and

the median age of death was 72 years.


We have to realize the End of Life Option
Act only speaks to a very small percentage
of the population, Milward said. What Im
hoping is it raises interest in the whole area
of how we care for older, seriously ill and
dying people.

HAVING THE OPTION


Midway through reporting this story,
Kathy Rock passed away in a Santa Cruz
hospital in the company of her son Erich and
close friends. Erich was reading his mother
Facebook comments of condolences just
after midnight on April 27 when she took
her last breath. For Kathy and her family, the
End of Life Option Act came too late.
In her final weeks, Kathy and Erich
discussed what they would do in the event
her cancer became intolerable. They
discussed worst-case scenarios of ending
Kathys life at home or even driving up to
Oregon to use the Death with Dignity Act.
These kinds of conversations arent unique
to Kathys situation, either. Cases of assisted
death, by either family or physician, have
occurred in states where it is both legal and
illegal.
People already do it, it doesnt matter if
the law says whether you can do it or not,
said Valerie Corral, co-founder of the Wo/
Mens Alliance for Medical Marijuana. What
are you going to do, chase someone past the
portal of death and go get them? You cant.
Proponents hope the new law will stop
scenarios like the kind Kathy and her family
discussed or what Brittany Maynard had to
do. Rather, they hope it will provide a safe
and legal manner in which terminally ill
patients can pass away peacefully.
I believe we all should have the right to
choose, on all levels, Erich said. Whether
we want different treatments, whether we
decide to have life support, whether we
decide to have our last days in the hospital or
at home, or we decide to end our lives early
it should be a choice for the individual
and the family.

CITYONAHILLPRESS.COM 11

SPORTS

SKIPPY
RETIRING
THIS
SUMMER

BY JAVIER GUTIERREZ
When Kevin Skippy Givens
came to UC Santa Cruz for a national
Frisbee freestyle tournament in 1979,
he didnt expect it to be his home
for 28 years. Givens, an avid sports
fan, knew he wanted to pursue a
career in sports but never imagined
he would manage the largest sports

12 JUNE 2

club program in the UC system with


49 competitive and non-competitive
organizations.
For nearly three decades, Givens
has played a crucial role in the Office of
Physical Education and Recreational
Sports (OPERS) department, working
closely with students to establish a

STEPHEN DE ROPP

After 28 years as
OPERS competitive
sports supervisor,
Kevin Skippy Givens
will retire Aug. 1

competitive atmosphere for nonNCAA athletes. He advises 24 sports


clubs, 24 intramural clubs and
Sammy Slug summer camp. But on
Aug. 1, Givens will retire from his role
as UCSCs intramural and club sports
supervisor.
To be successful at this job, you
have to put in a lot of time, Givens
said. Ive been doing this job for a
long time, and I am at the point in my
life where I want to enjoy my family
before my kids go off to college and
embark on their journeys.
OPERS will form a committee
in the coming weeks to search for
Givens replacement. The department
hopes to select a new candidate
before the next academic school year
begins in September, allowing about
four months to find his replacement.
He will remain in Santa Cruz after his
retirement and serve as a volunteer or
adviser to OPERS in some capacity.
Givens works seven days a week
with an occasional day off. His
wife Andrea is a UCSC alumna and
a DeLaveaga Elementary School
teacher, and his sons Kenny, 17, and
Earl, 15, attend Harbor High School.
Givens, known as Skippy
around campus, was given the
nickname by a friend for an
intermission show during the World
Disc Championships a national
Frisbee tournament. Though he grew

up playing basketball, baseball and


football, Givens excelled in Frisbee
after taking up the sport when he was
22. In his 16 years playing, Givens
won 14 personal national freestyle
titles as a renowned independent
player.
A lot of people dont know that
Skippy is a really good Frisbee player,
said former UCSC associate director
of recreation Mark McCarroll. The
man was arguably one of the best
Frisbee players in California.
Givens attended Sonoma State
University and played recreational
sports while teaching a Frisbee
physical education class. After
establishing close relationships with
Sonomas athletic department, he
helped initiate Sonomas intramural
sports program and was named
intramural supervisor after he
graduated in 1986.
He said it was difficult running a
program with no prior management
experience. After visiting Santa
Cruz for a Frisbee tournament
in 1987, he sought advice from
UCSCs intramural sports director
Terry Warner, who had 20 years of
experience.
Under Warners guidance, Givens
crafted Sonomas absent intramural
programs by establishing leagues,
officiating games, keeping stats and
records, recording standings and

creating a playoff system. When


Warner accepted the role as OPERS
pool manager after its establishment,
Givens succeeded him as UCSCs
intramural sports supervisor in 1988.
He started the intramural
program for Sonoma State as a
student and that drive is what I
thought would make him a good fit to
run our program, Warner said.
Givens provides UCSC students
with similar opportunities he had
at Sonoma. Fourth-year student Joe
Spota has worked with Givens for four
years as an intramural coordinator
and sports club administrative
student assistant. Spota met Givens
at a freestyle Frisbee tournament in
Santa Barbara before beginning his
college career.
Skippys vibrant personality and
love for athletics has shown me that
you can combine your lifes passions
with your career, Spota said. If you
truly love what you do, it will feel like
youre not working a single day of
your life, and he embodies that.
Givens said hes most proud of
giving thousands of students an
opportunity to play their favorite
sports and helping to establish an
athletic scene on campus.
Everyday I wake up and I cant
believe just how lucky I am to have
my job, Givens said, Its been my
dream job since day one.

The Clinton Disconnect

Presidential hopeful struggles to define campaign

STEPHEN DE ROPP

OPINION

Hillary Clinton and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom greet rally attendees in San Jose on May 26.

BY MICHAEL KUSHNER
Growing up, Hillary Clinton inspired me. I
loved the former first lady who defied traditions
by running for public office and becoming
a serious contender for the first female
president. I admired her moderate ideology
and willingness to cross party lines in a highly
polarized government.
But as she stood across the room from me at
a campaign event, I struggled to connect with
her at all.
This is Clinton Country! repeated like
a broken record at former Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clintons rally on May 26. But
Clinton couldnt even fill the venue. The free
public event at Parkside Hall in downtown
San Jose, which holds 3,000 people, had an
estimated 2,000 attendees. A Bernie Sanders
rally held the week before in Sacramento
filled Bonny Stadium with as many as 20,000
enthusiastic followers.
The rally began with praise for her
commitment to diversity and inclusion. San
Jose city council member Magdalena Carrasco,

who introduced herself as the proud daughter


of Mexican immigrants, said Clinton wants to
give us hope and opportunity.
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsoms sentiment
made me further question whether the diverse,
collective us was actually present.
Hillary Clinton understands we are all
better off when we are all better off, Newsom
said. She understands what Dr. King talks
about so vibrantly, right? That we are all bound
together by a web of mutuality. We are all in this
together.
Looking around the room, the diversity
the secretary claimed to represent was hardly
present. The disconnect between Clintons
claims and the audience turnout is worsened
by the many Latinx people and organizations
that protest against her presidential bid. Some
Latinx have been critical of Clintons pandering
to their community, her conflicting opinions on
immigration reform and her foreign policy.
The Brown Berets, a Chicanx activist group
in Watsonville, protested her event in Salinas
holding signs reading not my abuelita and
blood on her hands, in reference to her
involvement with the 2009 Honduran coup and
the recent death of indigenous environmental
activist Berta Cceres. Her campaign garnered
similar reception at other stops like her East Los
Angeles Cinco de Mayo event and a rally at La
Escuelita in Oakland earlier this month.
The same communities she claims to
represent are the ones that often protest against
her.

In the speech I witnessed, Clinton also


claimed to represent the interests of millennials.
She preached her commitment to lowering
costs of higher education and expanding
opportunities for Americas youth.
Before the event started, I watched as
they scrambled to find college students in an
audience of baby boomers. This happened after
the main stage was at maximum capacity and
older individuals were turned away. Despite the
stream of top 40 pop hits, many of the audience
members were 50 and over.
Perhaps most problematic were the blatant
contradictions in her own speech. That day,
Clinton embraced a federal $15 minimum
wage. Yet following a contested April 14 debate
with Senator Bernie Sanders, her campaign
claimed she has supported raising the federal
minimum wage to $12, and believes that we
should go further than the federal minimum
through state and local efforts, and workers
organizing and bargaining for higher wages.
Thats not exactly the same as a federal
minimum wage of $15 an hour.
Later, Clinton trumpeted her support of
overturning Citizens United, a Supreme Court
decision which upheld that corporations
cant give money directly to campaigns but
can persuade voters through other means.
Meanwhile, her campaigns contribution list
features corporations like JP Morgan, Goldman
Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley. A UC
Santa Cruz student, Jon Cho, called her out
for accepting these donations but was swiftly

removed by secret service.


The former secretary did offer some goals for
her potential presidency. She spoke on the need
for infrastructural improvement, investment in
education, relieving student debt and protecting
the environment. Her discussion on investing
in clean energy to stimulate the economy and
protect the environment reminded me of her
pragmatic progressivism.
But so much of her 30-minute speech was
spent contrasting herself with the presumptive
Republican nominee Donald Trump and
justifying that, unlike him, she supports the
working class. Yes, Clinton is a better option than
Donald Trump. Trump is wildly inexperienced,
racist, misogynistic and promotes violence.
However, I dont want to settle for the lesser of
two evils.
As a Hillary Clinton supporter, I respect her
experience in politics. Shes the only candidate
with strong foreign policy experience, a crucial
skill to being a commander in chief. Of the
three candidates, her experience and bipartisan
efforts will make her the most likely to pass a
meaningful agenda.
But last weeks rally disappointed me. Her
speech made me question what her platform
was. Many of the ideas she did introduce
contradicted previous statements. While I
still support her candidacy, its apparent that
Ms. Clinton has work to do in defining her
presidential goals.

CITYONAHILLPRESS.COM 13

EDITORIALS

Louisiana Bill Changes Definition of Hate Crime

Blue Lives Matter legislation is reactionary and statistically unfounded


Hate crimes are a problem in America.
Theyre a problem anyone marginalized in
our society for their religion, race, gender,
sexual orientation or ability. But they are not a
significant problem for police officers.
Last week, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
extended the states hate crime definition
to include the targeting of law enforcement
officials and first responders. House Bill 953
is the first in American history to include
occupation something chosen by an
individual and not an immutable characteristic
as a determining factor in a hate crime.
While this bill only affects the state in which
it was passed, it has garnered opposition across
the country and for good reason. Legislating
against offenses based on actual or perceived
employment as a law enforcement officer or
firefighter is statistically unfounded, and this
law does nothing to address the core of hate
crime incidents.
By including occupation in their statute,
Louisiana legislators confuse the true meaning
of a hate crime, which is defined as any crime
committed because of an unchangeable
characteristic of the victim. HB 953 belittles
the importance of hate crime legislation for all
other affected groups.
Hate crime law is based upon a history
of discrimination against certain groups of
people, said Ernest L. Johnson Sr., president of
the Louisiana NAACP. A bill like this just tries
to water down that reality, because there is not

14 JUNE 2

a history of discrimination against police and


firefighters.
Nicknamed the Blue Lives Matter law, HB
953 was drafted and signed due to a perceived
nationwide war on cops resulting from
recent protests against high-profile cases of
police brutality. The bill passed in less than
two months without backlash in an
overwhelmingly
Republican
house.
State
Rep.
Lance
Harris, author of the bill,
cited the need for extra
protection due to a
deliberate campaign to
terrorize our officers.
There is no evidence
that attacks against
police offers are on
the rise. Violent
crimes by firearms
against police have
steadily decreased
since the 1970s, from
156 officer deaths in 1973
to 50 in 2014, according to a
study by former police officer and University of
South Carolina law professor Seth Stoughton.
2013 was the safest year on record to be
a cop in America, with 27 deaths. While 20
officers have been killed in the line of duty this
year, 2016 is also looking to be one of the least
deadly years for police.

The fact is that police officers, the blue


lives in question, already matter in America.
Theyre culturally valued and well-protected.
HB 953 isnt a form of counter-defense for
officers, but rather a counter-attack.
Given the prioritization of police lives in
America, this law seems to be a direct reaction
to groups like Black Lives Matter, which
aim to initiate a
conversation on
state violence
Z
DE
and race. Black
AN
N
ER
men are nine
H
L
E
times more likely
U
G
I
M
to be killed by police
than
other
races,
according to a Guardian
study.
No one is saying it
isnt dangerous to be a
police officer. No one is
saying that ambush attacks
against police officers because of
their profession dont happen. But in
Louisiana, a state with the second-largest black
population in the country, legislation shouldnt
focus on law enforcement when it comes to
hate crimes.
The evidence of hate crimes committed
against black people in the U.S. is overwhelming.
The FBI, the U.S. Census, Gallup and many
other sources report that black Americans
experience the highest number of hate crimes.

As enforcers of the law, police are also


protected by the law. When a police officer steps
outside, they are taking a risk. When a black
American walks outside, they too are taking a
risk.
Marginalized communities have historically
struggled to receive state recognition for crimes
committed against them due to their skin color,
ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender.
Now that HB 953 has passed, it may be even
harder to hold police officers accountable.
This war on cops rhetoric is just another
way to protect police from accountability,
Daunasia Yancey, a Black Lives Matter activist,
told NPR.
Why is it that police officers can immediately
get protection because of a perception of
danger, whereas underrepresented groups
in America struggle to get the same despite
overwhelming statistics of hate crimes? In
short, the answer is racism and the consistent
devaluation of brown and black bodies in this
country, this time prioritized below blue lives.
The tension caused by policing race is a
national issue and deserves national attention.
As the polarization between activists and law
enforcement widens, a retaliation exposing
racism and upholding biases toward people
of color has ignited within Louisianas house
assembly.

Whitewashing Silicon Valley

Lack of benefits to subcontractors leads to lack of diversity in tech

SM

IT
H

Because a huge portion of subcontracted


workers in Silicon Valley cannot afford to live in
the area, they are being forced out by wealthier
and often white residents who can.
If this trend continues, Silicon Valley and its
neighboring areas will be further whitewashed,
and only occupied by highly educated and
nearly all white male employees. This is not and
cannot be the standard
by which Silicon Valley
and any corporation
operates.

EE

themselves from service workers by not


financially supporting them. Its ridiculous
that despite advancements, many of these
supergiants still lack representation and full
benefits for their subcontracted employees.
How can some of the most seemingly
progressive companies in the country be a
leading force in gentrifying the locale in which
they reside?
The key point is that there is strong
occupational segregation by race, said
Everett Program executive director and
UCSC environmental studies professor
Chris Benner, with Latinos and African
Americans in poorer employment
opportunities.
If the companies who claim
to be role model employers
cant address these issues,
theres little hope for other
industries to follow in their
footsteps.
Silicon Valley may be
paving the way for the
future of labor, but so far
the fruits of these ideas have
yet to trickle to the bottom
of the wage spectrum and
lift up underrepresented
communities.

IL

Cupertino, previously subcontracted its security


officers. This is a start, but it isnt enough.
Silicon Valley is home to tech giants like
Hewlett-Packard, Facebook, Cisco, Intel and
Netflix. Its within their power to leverage
structural inequality, and its imperative that
they adequately support underrepresented
people within their organizations.
Service workers deserve higher pay rates
in order to afford living a reasonable distance
from their workplace, and they should be hired
directly and with the same in-house employee
benefits as tech workers.
Hiring these workers directly and providing
a salary proportional to their workload not only
demonstrates their value to the corporation but
establishes a stronger presence of people of
color in the tech workforce.
Though diversity within Silicon Valley
tech companies is predominantly rooted in
subcontracting, its vital that representation is
also expanded beyond blue-collar jobs and into
engineering and computer tech careers. This
lack of diversity originates from a larger issue of
education of underrepresented communities in
the STEM field attributed to a systematic lack of
resources for underrepresented communities
beginning in preliminary education.
As of fall 2015 at UCSC, less than 2 percent
of declared computer engineering or computer
science majors are African American students.
Latinx students comprise less than 25 percent
of computer engineering majors and 17 percent
of computer science majors.
Silicon Valley is a leader of the future of
tech, innovation and commerce. Last May,
Facebook implemented the $15 hourly
minimum wage for workers, while the statemandated minimum wage is $10 an hour.
Fellow Silicon Valley supergiant Netflix offers its
employees unlimited vacation time, provided
that employees finish their work and act within
Netflixs best interest.
At the same time, the people creating these
technologies and companies are distancing

KA

You cant predict the future, but white men in


Silicon Valley are stealing it. Income inequality
in Silicon Valley is wider than ever, especially
for people of color. The wage gap between
workers is also reinforced by an increasing gap
in occupational opportunities.
Only 7 percent of tech workers in Silicon
Valley are people of color, according to a
Contract Workforce Assessment published in
March by the Everett Program in partnership
with UC Santa Cruz. Yet there are an estimated
19,000-39,000 people in low and medium wage
subcontractor occupations in the region and
58 percent of these blue-collar workers are
Latinx or African American.
Despite large tech companies trying
to downplay the practice, they outsource
subcontractors at a much cheaper expense at
an increasing rate.
A majority of these workers are
subcontracted through a third party. They
only receive 30 percent of an in-house tech
employee salary less than $40,000 a year
and dont receive benefits. The average annual
pay for direct tech employees in Silicon Valley
is $113,000, while annual average pay for bluecollar contract industry workers is $19,900.
Meanwhile, median annual rent in Santa
Clara County is $21,444. Considering that
Silicon Valley is home to seven of the 10 most
expensive cities to find a home including
Saratoga, Cupertino, Los Gatos and San Mateo
it isnt feasible for these workers to live close
to or anywhere near their places of employment
while making such low wages.
This means employees in Silicon Valley
who cook meals, wash floors or landscape
grounds are subject to irresponsible contracting
practices, and as a result, are being pushed out
of the area.
Last year, Apple announced after a year-long
reviewing process that it will expand employee
benefits including full health insurance,
retirement benefits and parental leave to their
in-house security team. Apple, based out of

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