Office of the External Vice President Local Affairs
Introduction
The Office of the External Vice President Local Affairs serves as a liaison between students and the local community. It works proactively to foster a community that’s accessible, inclusive, safe, and fun.
Halloween in IV
Each year the EVPLA’s Office spends considerable time during the summer months preparing for the massive Halloween party that overwhelms IV each year and brings large numbers of revelers to our community. These efforts include negotiating with campus administrators regarding parking, consulting with local law enforcement agencies, distributing information to students and the wider community, and in general working to make Halloween as safe and fun as possible, given the fact that it’s ultimately a totally unsponsored free-for-all event. Halloween safety and other information can be found by clicking here to get to the A.S. Halloween Keep It Safe page.
IV Co-op “We Own It” Campaign
The Office of the External Vice President for Local Affairs worked to support the IV Food Co-op’s successful fund drive to buy their building this year. When EVPLA Rhandy Siordia was presented with the project he and his office took on the challenge of supporting the Co-op’s drive to raise the money they needed in the local community. The drive became necessary when the Co-op’s lease expired and the IV institution was faced with the possibility of having the building it has occupied since 1972, and had recently extensively renovated, being sold out from under it. The most significant result for A.S. is an agreement that created a partnership between AS UCSB and the IV Food Cooperative and provided $40,000.00 towards the purchase of the Coop property located at 6571 Seville Rd. In exchange, the Coop will provide A.S. with educational programming and event support in the future. A.S. funds were committed specifically from AS organizations, including IV Tenants Union (IVTU), IV Community Relations Committee (IVCRC), Community Affairs Board (CAB), and Environmental Affairs Board (EAB). Students and staff of both AS and the IV Food Cooperative are very excited about solidifying this partnership and continuing to collaborative and support one another.
The Co-op was founded in 1972 due to the initiative of UCSB students. It’s one of several local legacies of this generation of community activists. Today it continues to provide students with food alternatives that are healthy, sustainable, locally grown and tasty. It’s one of the gems of the IV community and ,once again, UCSB students partnered with the local community and played a significant role in preserving an institution with it’s own long history of community building and service.
Walter Capps Park Fence In Isla Vista
The beachside cliffs that run the length of Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista are one of the features that make living there a uniquely beautiful experience, especially for those who live in the houses and apartments that line these bluffs, but also for those who enjoy the several bluff top parks. Unfortunately, these cliffs can also be deadly and each year UCSB students and visitors are severely injured or killed by falls to the sand below. This year 21 year old UCSB student David Propp fell to his death. Although it was in a different location the cliffs at Capps Park are just as treacherous.
To help prevent more tragedies like this, the EVPLA’s office partnered with Santa Barbara County officials, including Supervisor Doreen Farr, the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District (IVRPD), UCSB Life of the Party, and IV Foot Patrol officers to build a fence along the bluffs of Walter Capps Park, which is the last park without this protection.
EVPLA Rhandy Siorda led this effort, which was brought into the sharp focus with the death of a UCSB student this year.
As a result of the efforts of everyone involved the fence was completed Spring Quarter with the County agreeing to provide the necessary funding and a local contractor donating his time to get the project completed.
Sandra Fluke Speaks
In partnership with the UCSB Departments of Sociology and Feminist Studies, Womyn’s Commission, Take Back the Night, and Community Affairs Board, the External Vice President Local Affairs, co-sponsored a talk by women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke. The The daughter of a conservative Christian pastor, Sandra Fluke, 31, became a women’s-rights activist in college and continued her advocacy as a law student at Georgetown. In February 2012, after being denied a chance to testify at a Republican-run House hearing on insurance coverage for birth control, Rush Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut.” Democrats and many Republicans reacted with outrage, and the left made Limbaugh’s slur Exhibit A in what they called a GOP “war on women.” Fluke, meanwhile, weathered the attention with poise and maturity and emerged as a political celebrity. In 2012, Democrats turned the national spotlight on Fluke again by giving her a national-convention speaking slot as part of their push to make reproductive rights a central issue in the presidential campaign.
Sandra Fluke joined the Women, Gender, and Sexual Equity Department and the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee for a presentation on February 28th at 7:30 pm at Campbell Hall to discuss what’s next in the political war on women and how women of all ages can stay energized and active now that the national elections are over. The lecture was open to students, faculty, staff and community members.
Suicide Prevention Walk
In an effort to spread awareness and help prevent suicide in the college community, the Office of the EVPLA hosted a suicide prevention walk at Goleta Beach through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s (ASFP) Campus Walks program in April. The Out of the Darkness Campus walks are 3-5 mile walks that take place in communities across the country, with the proceeds benefitting AFSP.