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Indybay Feature

2006 Disorientation Guide

by UCSC Disorientation Guide Collective (disguide [at] graffiti.net)
The Disorientation Guide is a radical resource published by an open collective and distributed for free at the beginning of Fall quarter. It’s for new students, for the Santa Cruz community, and for everyone who wants to get more informed, active, or involved in the radical history of the campus and the rich networks of organizations and coalitions at UCSC and in Santa Cruz.
disorientationguide2006.pdf_600_.jpg
Welcome to the Disorientation Guide!

You have just stepped foot into the land of UC Santa Cruz, and with this first flip of the page, stumbled upon an introduction to the side of this school that you might have heard of but won’t find in your glossy orientation materials. This guide is designed as a resource for you in discovering the creative, radical communities and projects that thrive here in Santa Cruz. It’s true that these things are a big part of what makes our campus unique, but it’s not always easy to find them. More importantly, the radical spaces here will only exist as long as we keep on creating them. So if you’re interested in connecting to this world, hopefully this guide will be a helpful place to start.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Disorientation Guide has been distributed on this campus, adding to the lineage of others, published in 1977, 1982, and 1984. Similar guides are also circulated at universities such as Berkeley, MIT, Yale, U of Texas, Austin, and Concordia, among many others. It was baked lovingly by a collective of students who are excited to see new faces joining us in our tradition of thoughtful resistance.

This Guide is:
- An introduction to issues that affect our campus and communities
- An attempt to strengthen local activists
- A call for direct action and radical change for social justice

It includes:
- Articles by students/activists
- Descriptions of campus orgs and contact info for getting involved
- Tools for rockin' the boat
- And even sex advice!!!

Love,
The UCSC Disorientation Guide Collective
§UC Santa Cruz 2004-2005 Disorientation Guide
by Disorientation Guide Collective (disguide [at] graffiti.net)
disguide05.pdf_600_.jpg
Download the 2004-2005 Disorientation Guide to UCSC
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by an editor
Thanks for the information on Indymedia. However, the listing states that meetings are held once a month at Barrios Unidos. That is no longer the case. Please check the events listings for upcoming indymedia meetings! In the meantime, anyone can participate in creating independent media by posting their news stories, audio, video and/or photos on the site!! If you'd like more information, see the following:

http://www.indybay.org/publish.php
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/mod/info/display/media_guide/index.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/06/22/16865301.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/12/15/16659071.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/08/04/1395001.php

Good luck! BE the change you want to see!
by Facultyperson
Excellent publication -- one of the best I have seen. One small correction -- it says assistant professors (those at the untenured level) average $91K/year. It is more like $55K/year. Even full professors (those tenured and who have been here ca. 10 years) start out at about $65K.

This is important, because I think the opportunities for unionizing assistant and associate professors in common with other sectors at UCSC has been overlooked.
by Palm Trees
You forgot to mention the sister guide down at UC Santa Barbara!
http://sbdisorientation.org

Peace out.
by ROGER SIDEMAN
October 8, 2006

UCSC students aim to 'disorient' one another
By ROGER SIDEMAN
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

SANTA CRUZ — Incoming UC Santa Cruz freshmen and transfer students are probably familiar with the official Orientation Guide, which provides the basics on when to drop classes, where to get a parking sticker and how to catch the bus.

But to get the inside scoop on campus life, this year's 4,700 new students need to check out the "Disorientation Guide 2006."

So says politics students Mara Ortenburger and Aaron Dankman, who belong to the eight-person collective keeping the guide's 30-year tradition alive.

The guide looks like a magazine but is really more of a manual for budding activists looking to relearn the three Rs — resist, rebel, revolt — and the ABCs, according to the guide's glossary of terms: anarchy, bureaucracy and classism.

It features a primer on "choosing classes that don't totally suck," "Tools for White Guys Who Are Working Towards Social Change" and "Run for your life! It's the Long Range Development Plan."

There is a history of indigenous people on the Central Coast, a directory of local leftist organizations, commentaries on subjects including feminism, corporate media and proper "queer" terminology. And it chronicles the history of UCSC activism, including the infamous 1991 arrests of 42 people protesting the logging of "Elfland" to make way for colleges 9 and 10.

"There's a history of activism that only exists in the memory of the students who tell their stories," Ortenburger said. "The purpose is to show their struggle."

Stanford, Harvard, UC Santa Barbara and other colleges have similar print or online guides.

The guide quietly hit campus at the start of the school year. Since then, about 30 freshmen and incoming transfers have taken guided "disorientation tours" of the campus, scoping out the graffitied caves below Porter College and the spot where anti-war activists confronted military recruiters at a job fair. Most of the guide's creators are affiliated with Students Against War.

But it wasn't the political views in the guide that stirred the most controversy this year. The goal of subverting the dominant paradigm was, apparently, less offensive to the first company slated to print the booklet than a graphic image placed atop an advice column titled, "Sex: In Three Parts." The company refused to publish it. Another company, however, agreed to do so.

Largely funded by local advertisers, the guide is in its fourth consecutive year, having been revived after a long hiatus. The first issue from 1977 still sits in special collections at the McHenry Library.

"Disorientation Guide 2006" can be found online at http://www.indybay.org/santacruz
by via Darwin BondGraham
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A sister publication to UCSC's DisoGuide is now out! The SBDisoGuide can also be found on the web at sbdisorientation.org

Welcome to college, what will you do? This is a world of war and injustice, pain, hope, and struggle. The richest one percent of humanity controls as much wealth as the bottom 60 percent. There are more than two billion peasants living today. There are countless more whose lives are equally difficult, and they all live in the first world’s long shadow. A global ecological crisis is upon us. Centuries of exploitation have left large swaths of the earth barren and poisoned. A crisis of meaning has overtaken us. We are continually bombarded with messages promoting consumption, wealth, and individual gain as the highest achievements we can aspire toward.

So welcome to college. How did you get here? Ever wonder how many people dream of attending the university but can’t afford it? What will you do with your time and education here? Do you believe that money, appearance, entertainment, and shopping are the be-all-end-all? Or is there more to life? Is there a different meaning? Collectively, most of us came here not entirely of our own choosing. If the future were our own, what would we make of it? Can we change things for the better?

The (Dis)Orientation Guide suggests some possibilities. The future is written partly in the rubble of yesterday’s burned banks. It’s etched in the blazing passions of past hunger strikes, sit-ins and organized uprisings. Part introduction, invitation, and inspiration, this booklet is a resource to connect you with others in your search for meaning and understanding. The goal of the Guide is to challenge all assumptions and to catalyze radical thought about the university, society at large, and our individual lives.
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