<p>So let's discuss the party riot in IV this weekend shall we?
Why does UCSB admin allow this to go on EVERY year? </p>
<p>Academic? No.
Party? YES!!!</p>
<p>Nice work UCSB!</p>
<p><a href=“At Least 100 Spring Break Revelers Arrested When Riot Erupts During 'Deltopia' - CBS Los Angeles”>http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/04/06/at-least-100-spring-break-revelers-arrested-when-riot-erupts-during-deltopia/</a></p>
<p>I was following the leadup to this on social media and was concerned when the police were arresting people for having radio music in their back yard, and here were thousands (12K per facebook) coming from all over for a party that wasn’t going to be allowed. And some apparently came to cause trouble. I saw reports that bricks were thrown. Where in Isla Vista are you going to get a brick? I don’t know of any bricks there. Did people bring them?</p>
<p>It is a shame that people will come in from outside and cause problems. Perhaps the administration will let it go back to being on the beach, so long as student groups clean up as they do now in Isla Vista. I don’t recall hearing of any injuries or serious property damage then, possibly because it was more spontaneous and didn’t have several days or a week’s lead time for people to set up to come from far away. The students should be able to have a celebration of spring party without it becoming the party in between Chico’s and Coachella, as one post put it on facebook. (that is, that person had gone to Chico, was going to Deltopia, then was going to Coachella. I guess some just cruise from one to another.)</p>
<p>And no, parties are rarely academic. UCSB shows its academic strength in other ways.</p>
<p>Santa Barbara resident here. Unfortunately, it’s the non-UCSB persons that cause the most trouble. The great majority of arrests were of young adults from out of the area. Deltopia/Floatopia and Halloween attract many,many out of the area kids as well as SBCC students.</p>
<p>I think this is just an example of the chickens coming home to roost as ill-conceived gov’t policy leads to bad outcomes, which then leads to even more draconian measures. The Santa Barbara county gov’t is happy with the money the university brings to the economy, its the students they don’t like. </p>
<p>Back in the day it was perfectly legal to drink in public if you were over 21. Was it nirvana? No. Did underage kids get their hands on beer? Yes. But by and large you had kids walking around beer-in-hand looking for music and their pals on weekends. The main time of trouble, if there was any, happened when lots of non-students showed up for the Halloween party. But the Supervisors, sensing an easy way to look “tough on crime” without causing any discomfort to the area residents/voters, prohibited public drinking in Isla Vista. To this day you are welcome to drink in many SB parks (see <a href=“Parks and Recreation”>http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/parksrec/recreation/facrental/default.asp</a>) but not anywhere in IV. </p>
<p>The policy had nothing really to do with improving IV, it was just grandstanding for SB county voters. And what happened? Do you think kids said “I guess we’ll stop drinking?” No, but instead of drinking a few beers over the course of a nite they do a few shots in someone’s apartment and then head out. Except now they are drunk, and drunks cause problems. When this law didn’t seem to work, the next action was to stop the kids from having anywhere to go. So they passed “noise” ordinances allowing those with bands playing in their apartment driveway to be arrested for holding an “outdoor music festival”. </p>
<p>In effect the Supervisors have been taunting the kids, saying “we will make your lives unhappy just because we can, and there’s not a darn thing you can do about it”. So instead of having small scale parties and the occasional problem that comes along with it, we now have a situation where the kids know that the only way they can fight back is by having parties so big that the cops just can’t break them up. Voila. A recipe for a weekend like we just saw. No doubt the Supervisors are going to play to their voters and do something even more draconian, with predictable consequences. </p>
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<p>It is off campus, so the UCSB admin has no ability to do anything about it. </p>
<p>@mikemac Hear, hear!</p>
<p>They were citing kids for playing a stereo with one speaker into their yard early in the day because ‘500 people were within three blocks’. It is like those cheap dolls you can win at fairs where you squeeze their stomach and their eyes and tongue stick out. Repression isn’t the answer-- the unintended consequences come out sideways. Maybe student fees for a permit or porta potties or Associated Students and Panhellenic could suggest activities to fund overtime for IV foot patrol or something. </p>
<p>Is the political situation such that those in IV can’t vote in their own ordinances? Or are students not allowed to vote there?</p>
<p>Stopping the outsider brigade by making the parties more spontaneous again would be helpful.</p>
<p>@socaldad2, although it is off campus, UCSB must do something to clean up these events, otherwise the top qualifying students who get into better schools as well as UCSB aren’t going to choose it, either because their parents talk them out of it or because of the bad reputation. Thus the rankings will go down. USC has a similar problem with off campus incidences and they immediately effect some kind of change, most recently stepping up the police presence in the surrounding areas. They also shut down frat parties frequently for an extended length of time when things get out of hand. I find it odd that the City of Goleta and the university didn’t work together beforehand to have a plan of action and also a lot of police in the area. Its unfathomable to me since this happens year after year. I understand that budget is obviously a problem, but considering the bad press, especially recently with the multiple rapes, the girl that fell over the cliff at Deltopia last year, and now this riot, UCSB can’t afford not to take some action.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the plan of action backfired. They put up surveillance cameras and cracked down on kids playing music in their back yard when there was noone out of control. That left 15000 people, a large part from out of town, who came a long way for a party, walking the street with nothing to do. The ‘big’ party with neighboring colleges had grown to about 8000 people, but last year with facebook and social media events it became 18000. I think that shows how many were and were not local. </p>
<p>I think finding a way the students CAN have a party they set up, with porta potties and heck, maybe even wrist bands, might be a way to go. The Associated Students throws an ‘extravaganza’ band thing every year and it is huge, with no trouble. Clamping down just makes people try to get around it, and choose bad options, sometimes. And those who are willing to cause trouble, will. But honestly, this was a limited part of the people, most of whom were there to party. Go on twitter or instagram and check #deltopia Most of it is kids partying or hanging out with their friends in the sun. </p>
<p>The girl who fell over the cliff last year was from Cal Poly SLO. One of the news videos on this interviewed her friends who had come with her last time, who were at Deltopia this year. They were saying they were planning to stay sober and just enjoy the sun and the time with friends. Most people who go are good kids, but some come to make trouble. I am pretty sure those 18 arrests during the disturbance part of the event will mostly be from out of the area. The other arrests were for music, minors with alcohol etc from what I’ve read. People show the crowd, which is mostly partiers, not rioters, and make it seem like more were causing trouble than were. Most of the crowd was filming it with cell phones etc if you look at the videos. </p>
<p>It looks like UCSB’s student government wants to know exactly who the actors were and how it happened, and is calling for a Grand Jury Investigation. <a href=“http://www.keyt.com/news/ucsb-student-government-wants-grand-jury-investigation-of-deltopia-riot/25366750”>http://www.keyt.com/news/ucsb-student-government-wants-grand-jury-investigation-of-deltopia-riot/25366750</a></p>
<p>My son is a student there and he went back to his apartment and stayed inside because it got so wild. He said he’d never seen anything like it. It also made him very sad and I’m sure made many of the other students very sad, because they know that the troublemakers are mainly “out of towners” as my son calls them.</p>
<p>Yeah. I think most kids with a head on their shoulders sort of fell back when that pack started rocking cars and stuff. I used to attend there, and my brother did before me. It is sad to see people come in and do that, it is such a friendly place. The news said 80% arrested were from out of town, and I bet the other 20% were much more minor offenses of the ‘partying’ sort.</p>
<p>“Out of towers” don’t just show up by accident - they are invited or at least informed via Facebook or other social media, so the problem still reflects back on the campus community of UCSB.</p>
<p>Sadly, I don’t doubt there are lots of great kids there who deserve no blame for what happened - but I do think this riot should be seen as a problem and a symptom of why the democratization of higher education in CA has many detrimental and unexpected consequences. People behaving like animals does not equate to an environment in which higher learning prevails. </p>
<p>why does it reflect on UCSB if someone --not traced to UCSB sets up a facebook page? Yeah, some people behave like animals, but just because you live in Los Angeles or attend Coachella doesn’t mean the actions of others who visit there or act badly there reflects on you imho. Unfortunately, the media is reporting it the way you see it. THAT is why it reflects on UCSB. If these were UCSB students, why doesn’t this sort of thing happen EXCEPT when huge parties like Halloween and Deltopia draw out of towners?</p>
<p>Some few act badly at many large gatherings unfortunately.</p>
<p>Yes those mythical out-of-towners are the blame. Please. If this is true then why doesn’t UCSD have this exact same problem being they are also beach front etc. No this is UCSB’s problem and ignoring it has made it worse. My original post still stands: how can anyone take UCSB seriously from an academic viewpoint if this nonsense is allowed to dominate the social landscape. </p>
<p>To put it more bluntly, top students turn away from party-central UCSB and that’s a fact.</p>
<p>Party on Wayne!</p>
<p>I will say that the party reputation is the main reason why my D has decided not to go to UCSB. She has several other UC’s to pick from. UCSB was tied for #1 but decided to decline. She isn’t worried about getting caught up in the party scene herself but she is worried that she will have trouble finding friends who don’t get caught up in it. After this latest incident she feels confident that she made the right choice. I hope UCSB can get it under control because I’m sure they are losing plenty of great students, especially this year.</p>
<p>@Wheaty Well-stated - and you can add that parents of top students wouldn’t dream of sending their kid to UCSB! Its shocking that a once well-respected UC campus could devolve so quickly. </p>
<p>@camama2 Your daughter sounds like she’s smart and making a good decision. UCSB has had a party reputation for many years, but it seems like the dark side has been overtaking it for at least 10 years now, so I wouldn’t expect a quick turn-around. </p>
<p>UCSB is an excellent school. #9 in the nation for physics. Why doesn’t a school like UCSD have this problem, @Wheaty? Because they don’t have a town connected to the campus like UCSB does (Isla Vista). I would never say La Jolla is connected to the UCSD campus. Isla Vista is not a closed off community, as it is not owned by UCSB. Therefore, a lot of non-UCSB kids descend on the town for Halloween and Deltopia. Here are the current stats from the SB Sheriff regarding Deltopia: “Of the 62 people either arrested or cited who claimed a school affiliation, 16 said they were from UCSB, 10 from Santa Barbara City College and 36 said they attended school outside of Santa Barbara County.” To say the UCSB is not taken seriously from an academic viewpoint is a ridiculous statement. One has nothing to do with the other. </p>
<p>Sorry to vent my frustrations here but there is so much to love about UCSB and I feel it’s being thrown away because nobody wants to clean up IV. I refer to Isla Vista as the island of lost children and it kills me that I love the rest of the college experience at UCSB. The campus, the beach, College of Creative Studies (!), and on and on. So why not just put a lid on Isla Vista once and for all and make UCSB 10x better?</p>
<p>I want to love UCSB but as an old dad I’m really happy my daughters are both at another UC.</p>
<p>To say that UCSB isn’t a great school from an academic standpoint is a ridiculous and absolutely wrong statement. It has many incredible programs including Physics, Economics, Actuarial Science, and the various Engineering programs to name a few. Plus the woman that wrote the organic chemistry textbook widely regarded as the best textbook for the field teaches at UCSB. So many great professors would not be teaching at the school if it wasn’t such a great academic institution.</p>
<p>And with regards to Deltopia: yes people were invited by their friends to come during the weekend and the students were partially at fault for some of the out of town folk that came along, but they were so many more that literally just came uninvited and even more that came specifically to cause problems. According to the official numbers, 362 of the 412 arrests and citations were given out to people that are not registered at UCSB. Plus the person that first hit the cop which inevitably led to the riot, is a 17 year old kid that lives in Los Angeles. That is a clear sign that at the end of the day, the biggest issues that arose were caused by non-UCSB students.</p>
<p>Additionally, the event wasn’t even sponsored by the university. It never was and should not be thought of as a representation of the university or its student body. Plus the people that created the Deltopia Facebook events aren’t even UCSB students as it is. The students went out in numbers the next day to clean up the mess that occurred, and many more met at a forum to discuss ways to keep that from ever occurring again.</p>
<p>As a student at UCSB, I can tell you that the “party school” reputation is blown out of the water and for the most part is really a mythical status. To be honest, this reputation stems from the Deltopia and Halloween events that occur where the majority of the people in Isla Vista at the time aren’t even UCSB students. Every school (other than places like UCSD that literally have no social scene or places like BYU that are religiously centered) that you may go to or your child may go to is going to have parties; to think otherwise is to be terribly misinformed. I’ve visited friends at plenty of other schools (UCLA, Cal, UC Davis, and Cal Poly to name a few), and the parties I witnessed seemed pretty much the same as what I’ve seen during my 3 years so far at UCSB.</p>
<p>So to those that are coming to swift conclusions regarding UCSB being a “party school” and thinking there is something wrong with the school because of that, please don’t be so quick to judge regarding something that just isn’t all that true in the first place.</p>
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It sounds like you are not familiar with the UCSD campus and area. UCSD is in La Jolla, which welcomes the jobs and money the school brings but is about as happy to have students living in their tony neighborhood as the people in Bel Air and Westwood are to host UCLA students. Most kids at UCSD after frosh year in the dorms disperse into the greater San Diego area, esp. places like Pacific Beach and Mission Beach. If the knock on UCSB is that its a party school, the knock on UCSD is that it is a commuter school.</p>
<p>@camama2 Every student out to look for schools where they feel at home. Given her concerns it doesn’t sound like UCSB would be a fit for her and she made the right choice</p>