As a former undergraduate and graduate student who spent 15 years at UCSC, I feel particularly keen about preserving the upper UCSC campus. I have seen the campus grow from about 6,500 students in the mid 80s, to about 16,000 students in the late 00s.

UCSC has gone from being a small liberal arts university to become a major science centric research university. There were few graduate students when I was an undergraduate, while there is a major presence of graduate students now. For many departments, I fear the quality of education for undergraduates has suffered.

UCSC still retains some of its unique qualities. However they are quickly diminishing. UCSC has a poor infrastructure for further development. It should not expand anymore. It is large enough to perform its mission.

Bulldozing the beautiful, precious forests and meadows of the upper UCSC campus would be criminal. Enough is enough.

I signed the petition asking the UCSC administration to preserve the upper UCSC campus from development. They seem deaf to the pleas of the student body and the community. That's tragic.

LAFCO's public hearing may be our last, best hope to not only save the upper UCSC campus, but to save UCSC itself. I didn't come to Santa Cruz to attend UC Irvine or UC San Diego — I came for UC Santa Cruz. I hope LAFCO comes down on the side of preservation.