UCSB/IV Party Scene – Exposed!

[CORRECTED EDITORIAL] Many people have defended the UCSB/IV party scene on the basis that it is a responsible party scene.  The university and even local landlords provide classes on how to party responsibly.  These programs seem to conflict with a great deal of the email we receive claiming that UCSB students are “adults.”  Since when do adults need to take classes on how to party responsibly?   While all of this all makes for fun editorial writing, there is a serious question that needs to be answered: is there anything about the UCSB/IV party scene that is responsible?

Historically, no one involved – UCSB, SBCC, the students, and even the local people who live in IV for the party (booze, drugs, and sex) – has ever denied that UCSB is a serious party place.  UCSB was ranked number four party school in the country in the most recent ranking by the Princeton Review.  UCSB has done little to stop the party school image because this wink-and-a-nod party school image has served their recruiting goals in the past.  But what we find interesting is that there has never been a serious description of the UCSB/IV party scene; moreover, the scene has not been documented well to the outside world.  IV is not your father’s party – even if he was a party animal.

Isla Vista TV (IVTV) (a two-man cable show run by a couple of UCSB students a few years back) did a relatively good job of showing some of the debauchery commonly found in IV; however, IVTV, in no small way, glorified this decadent scene.  When we interviewed one of the founders of IVTV last year, he admitted that even they did not show some of the more violent encounters that they filmed.  

We requested the right to use some of IVTV’s footage to show some of what goes in IV.  Unfortunately, we were not able to obtain the rights.  However, you can view a sanitized preview of IVTV at the IVTV Website.   Viewing a few still photos from one of their shows gives one a better understanding of the UCSB/IV party scene.  The IVTV videos show far worse behaviors.  However, since IVTV was shown only on local (Isla Vista) cable and sanitized to glamorize the events, IVTV did nothing to educate the public about the true state of the UCSB/IV party scene.  IVTV and IV must have a different standard of decency than the rest of the world.  A quote in the Nexus that defended one of the obnoxious episodes of the IV scene:  “Anywhere else you would see a priest with a dildo hanging out of his pants the whole community would see it as blasphemous, as sacrilegious, but when people in I.V. see it, it’s a small token of a rebellious act.”   As an aside, one is left to wonder if the politically correct half-wits of UCSB draw the line at showing people performing fellatio on a dildo hanging from a priest’s pants or would they do the same for an imam?  

We checked the local media and found a dearth of real coverage about the UCSB party scene.  Typical of the local media’s lymphatic coverage about the UCSB party scene, including the Nexus, they show silly photos of red plastic cups strewn about gutters of IV when they discuss the party scene – they never depict what really goes on.     

After spending a fair amount of time in IV, it was clear to us that the public (particularly parents who are considering UCSB for their kids) does not have a clear understanding of the risks and depravity imbued within the UCSB/IV party scene.  We also looked at local and student news media to see how well the scene was being portrayed.   While there was spot coverage of the some of aftermath of the UCSB/IV party scene – deaths, fights, stabbings, theft, sexual assaults, auto accidents, as well as booze and drugs induced hospitalization, there was not a clear picture presented of the scope of the party scene.  The sanitized reports we read did not match the impressions we got while visiting the IV party scene. 

The UCSB/IV party scene has lots of players.  First and foremost are the UCSB students who live in IV and promote the party.  They are ably assisted by students who live in IV and attend SBCC.  These two groups constitute the majority of the party scene.   Several other groups contribute much to the mayhem as well.  One group that the UCSB/IV party scene likes to blame the problems the group they call the out-of-towners (they come all the way from Ireland to party).  Another group that contributes to the problem is the people who either come to IV to live because of the booze, sex, and drugs, or they were once students who washed out and stayed for the party.  No matter how you cut it, the simple fact is that UCSB is the nexus and genesis of the problems.

IV was and remains the creation of UCSB.  A review of any history of IV shows that the leadership of UCSB created, promoted, and profited from IV.  The university’s mavens promoted and profited from the zoning, financing, building and renting of what has become little more than a student ghetto.  The icons of UCSB, Cheadle, Storke and the rest of their lot made big money by developing IV – the planning and development was nothing short of the lowest quality jerry-builders.  It has been rumored that some within the university still profit from property ownership and rents in IV.  This might account for the university’s unwillingness to rock the boat.  But more likely, it is merely the fact that the party school image attracts applicants (albeit the wrong type of applicant) to UCSB and that helps keep the UCSB coffers full and the school growing.  Moreover, the ignominious administration lives in fear of being called – horror of horrors, dare we even say the word aloud – judgmental.

Even if the out-of-towners and the resident non-student party people contribute to the carnage and exacerbate the party scene, it is still the UCSB/IV community that bears the responsibility.  It is this community that promotes and tolerates the party scene.  It is this community (read any Nexus) that glorifies and defends the party scene.  The out-of-towners are attracted to the party scene (drugs, booze, sex and violence) that is promoted and tolerated by the UCSB/IV community.   The UCSB administration tolerates the party.  With the exception of an occasional inane utterance by the administration, UCSB has done little to nothing to improve the situation because it has benefited from the increased applications to the school that emanate from its party image. 

In no small way, parents who warehouse their children at SBCC (rumored to have one of the highest non-resident student populations in California) bear some of the responsibility.  Why do parents send their kids to a junior college hundreds of miles from their home?  What does SBCC offer that their local community college does not offer?   You can take bonehead English anywhere – keep your kids home until they mature a bit more and improve their grades.   Think we exaggerate?  According to a July 3, 2005, article in the Santa Barbara News Press written by Morgan Green, “Alarmed by soaring numbers of new students who cannot handle freshman classes, Santa Barbara City College has plunged into a campus wide campaign to buoy the incoming thousands known in college circles as ‘the unprepared.’  A whopping 73 percent of new students failed tests of their readiness to take college entry-level English writing and reading courses in 2003, according to the latest SBCC Institutional Effectiveness Report.”  The vast majority of SBCC students could take their bonehead courses at their local community college rather than come to IV and party.  

 SBCC and UCSB create the “perfect storm” for the party scene.

The UCSB/IV party scene is best described as a blending of Lord of the Flies meets MTV’s Real World.   This perverse dynamic was brought home to me during a recent visit to a top-ten-rated school (academically) in the Northeast.  This school is located around and integrated within a town that is similar in size to IV.   While clearly a university town, this town (and the school’s students) displays little of the aberrant anti-social behavior consistently evident in the UCSB/IV area.  I saw none of the persistent and disgusting behaviors you will see on any weekend in IV.  Absent were the drunken coeds with puke in their hair, their ass cracks, thong underwear, and low-back tattoos showing.  We did not hear the foul mouth expletives everywhere or see gangs of drunken youths blocking the streets or accosting people.  We did not see groups of men standing with their penises out or sticking them through chain link fences for fun (see IVTV video).  Also absent were the burning couches, taunting frat-rats, public urination, and people shouting caustic obscenities and verbal abuses from balconies.  I did not see a single fight.

Rather, shops and restaurants were open.  Students and locals (including children and families) enjoyed dining, shopping, and various entertainment venues.  Rather than sleazy stores and liquor dealers (IV has far too many), there were nice shops and good restaurants.  No offense to the great burritos and piazza that can be found in IV, fine dining it is not.  In short, what I observed on my visit to this outstanding Northeast school was an outstanding community that was eminently livable for families as well as students.  I saw none of the coarseness that is ubiquitous in IV. 

At this point, most of you who have never been on Del Playa Street late Friday or Saturday night (when school is in session) still have no idea about the drugs, booze, sex, violence and party mobs.  

The behaviors you will see are displayed on public property in full view of everyone.  We don’t show coeds lifting their tops, flashing their asses, or engaging in lesbian kissing for the camera.  We also don’t show people urinating in pubic or exposing themselves.  If you would like to see these behavior patterns, purchase the IVTV tapes – there is plenty of that to be seen – as well as every other anti-social behavior you ever wanted to observe.  We are going to stick to drugs, booze, crime, and violence – IV’s always publicly denied cottage industries.

The party scene in IV is out of control; the party crowds can swell to 15,000 people.  The authorities resort to horse patrols to contain crowds during Halloween. 

Fights are not just between young men; women also get into the action.  Many serious injuries (and deaths) have occurred from the street fights that break out in IV.   UCSB does nothing to students who engage in fighting – even those who are arrested for felony assault while on probation for other serious crimes.  The dénouement of one of the most pathetic examples of the university’s feckless leadership can be seen in the very public example of former AS president Cervin Morris.  The most recent Nexus article about this outrage clearly demonstrates the administration ineptitude (or out right neglect of its responsibilities).  UCSB does not protect its students from violent felons – it does not enforce its own code of conduct.   

The crowds are so violent that the IVFP has developed a unique team approach to policing.  Unlike the normal one or two man police patrols, the IVFP needs three or four officers even to investigate a single event.  One officer will deal with the subject (checking ID, calling in for records information, etc.) while the second officer concentrates on the subject to make sure that the subject does not run or assault the first officer.  At the same time, one or two additional officers face away from the officers and the subject to watch the crowd to keep the other two officers safe from assaults while they deal with the subject.  The IVFP is forced to use this technique to keep crowds from “rescuing” their friends who are being arrested. 

Booze and drugs are ever present, and they are not being sold and promoted solely by some low-level drug dealers from outside the community.  We are told that many students engage in this IV cottage industry – drug sales.  We certainly had no problems finding drugs and alcohol all over IV.  And not just grass – everything from cocaine to heroin is available.  David Attias, who killed four people with his automobile, was a user of many drugs including animal tranquilizers.  Moreover, like many other dangerous students, David Attias’ drug and alcohol abuse and his violent behavior were known to many students and to UCSB before he killed four people.  Rather than stop his behavior and get him help, they merely nicknamed him Crazy Dave and continued to party with him.   Mr. Attias is no longer a student at UCSB; he is committed to a mental institution – but for that, there is some doubt in my mind whether UCSB would have ever taken action to expel him. 

 Last year some of the staff of the UCSB student newspaper was arrested for drug sales as well as possession.  This single article in the Nexus was the extent of the coverage in the media.  Contrary to claims in the article, all of the students remained in school and kept their positions on the student newspaper – just like the A.S. president who was charged with felony assault but kept his job and remained in school.  As far as one can tell, nothing ever happens to those who break the law.   Whether the crime is booze, drugs, sexual assault, or garden variety violence, UCSB remains politically correct and quiescent. 

If UCSB wants to get better rankings academically and stop being thought of as a “party school,” it needs to change.   Many managers in business and industry look at a UCSB degree cum grano salis.    Many graduates are sick of hearing jokes about UCSB being a party school when they are interviewing for a job.  

There have been some things done to ameliorate some of the party problems.  Thedarksideofucsb.com funds thousands of dollars annually into alternative (no booze, drugs, or violence) events.  UCSB also funds some projects – unfortunately far too little.  Most regrettable, it is thought by many that UCSB funds these projects merely for public relations.  Committees and meetings are good PR but they have never resulted in any tangible results.  The after hours venues such as those promoted on UCSB After Dark offer alternatives to the party-till-we-puke crowd. 

What’s missing in the fight to stop the carnage in IV is leadership from UCSB.  The leadership likes to say that they are against violence, drugs and alcohol abuse, and sexual assaults.  What’s missing is the will on the part of UCSB to do something about it.   It appears that there is no penalty for those who engage in dangerous and illegal behaviors.  Why the administration continues to fail to provide the leadership is a mystery.  One can assume that it is easier to merely whitewash the occasional disasters by clucking their collective tongues and uttering claptrap about students making “poor choices” than to be thought of as judgmental and take action to prevent disasters. 

 Here is what we suggest that the administration do:  

1. Take swift and immediate action against those individuals who commit crimes and abuse others. 
2. Make public statements condemning the out-of-control-party-scene at UCSB/IV, violence and sexual assaults
3. Provide substantial additional funding for alternative events.
4. Set up a fund for IV that provides ongoing funding to improve housing, increase parking, and improve police and other public services.

Now, for those of you on staff who will whine about not disclosing information on students, we have never suggested that you do so.  Just take the action; the rest of the students will know within a few days.  A good example is the A.S. president who committed a felony assault while on probation for another alcohol related crimes.  Had the university suspended or expelled him, all of the students would have known about it in a matter of days – even if the university never announced it.  The student grapevine will get the message out. 

Stop tolerating the party image and stop embarrassing the university and its graduates by allowing a few miscreants to diminish the value of a UCSB degree.

 So while you enjoy the videos, we are getting ready for the hundreds of angry emails from the frat-rats, sorority-sluts, full-time party pukes, low-life drug dealers, and the useful idiots (both students and UCSB staff) who will inevitably write to us with hateful screeds demanding that we be taken off the internet and comparing us to Nazis.  It would seem that the drug, party, and violence lobby is alive, well, and well funded within the UCSB/IV community.  You know, the ones who think that they can do anything they like because, "We study hard and have the right to party, IV is our fucking town and we say what goes here!" (a quote from one of our previous emails).  Anyone who shines light on the party scene will be attacked.     

Aren’t these kids supposed to be our best and brightest?