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Students Against War is greatly saddened by the decision of the Administration to cancel the Career Fair previously scheduled for January 31st, 2007. As students ourselves we fully understand the need to find employment. We recognize the loss of the Career Fair is a loss of opportunity for UCSC students. This loss is compounded by the short notice of this cancellation and the infrequency that job fairs are held on this campus. UC Berkeley, for example, has 8 career fairs scheduled (including a fair with the title “Nonprofit/Public Service Career Fair”) for its Spring Semester as opposed to UC Santa Cruz’s 1 per Quarter. This averages out to about 1 Career Fair a month, providing constant, easy access to employment opportunities for UC Berkeley students. Read more

see related: "Free Speech" Versus the Military || UC Santa Cruz Administration Sabotages Student-Run Career Event

Carmel, CA. Union workers at the Quail Lodge voted Wednesday, January 17, to ratify a new union labor contract with the hotel. 89 percent of the voting members of UNITEHERE! Local 483 approved the 3-year deal, which calls for up to $3.65 per hour in additional wages and benefits over the life of the contract. The raises are retroactive to August 1, 2006.

A tentative agreement reached late Friday avoided a Quail Lodge management-threatened lockout of the 150 hotel union employees on Monday, January 15. The contract vote ends a confrontational 5-month negotiation process, including an employee strike authorization vote, several public demonstrations at the hotel with over 100 participants, and the union's sixteen legal filings with the federal National Labor Relations Board against the hotel.

“It took us a while, but we ended up with a good total package to help our families. We kept our health plan. We got good raises, some more in our pension fund, and another paid holiday,” said Quail Lodge maintenance worker and Local 483 negotiating committee member, Sergio Vasquez.

The Union contract at Quail Lodge follows similar agreements dating back to September at the Hyatt Regency Monterey, Park Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Monterey Beach Resort, Bay Park Hotel, La Playa Hotel, Asilomar Conference Center, and Pine Inn. While the 3-year term of the Quail Lodge agreement is one year shorter than the other contracts, the wages in the second and third year are higher. The eight union contracts cover more than 1,000 hospitality workers on the Monterey Peninsula. The Hilton Garden Inn, Lodge at Pebble Beach, Carmel Mission Inn, and Monterey Bay Travelodge are the remaining area hotels where new union contracts are yet to be negotiated.

Despite a large public outcry and a local decades-long voting record against widening , the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission voted to pursue funding for three local Highway 1 expansion projects. The three projects were brought to the new SCCRTC on their first meeting, January 11th, 2007. The public was only informed of said projects that week. Objections to widening were raised on the basis of environmental and quality-of-life concerns. The proposed widening would disproportionately affect people living in apartments, condos and mobile home parks.
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A local activist writes, "It has been clear for weeks now that George Bush was planning to escalate the war in Iraq. 20,000 troops will be the beginning, not the end of this escalation, if he is not stopped. All around the country, emergency rallies and actions were organized on Thursday, January 11th in response."

Protests took place in Santa Cruz at 6pm at the Clock Tower ( Photos), in Salinas at 6pm in front of the Alisa St. Post office and in Monterey at 4pm across from McDonald’s, 610 Del Monte Ave. In addition to the rallies on Thursday, other peace activists staged a "human sign" protest "against this monstrous war." On Saturday, at 1pm, they met at Cowell's Beach (Santa Cruz Main Wharf) to form a sign on the beach saying "Out of Iraq." ( Photos)

There's also a series of upcoming educational events at UC Santa Cruz, including a speech on Wed., Jan 17 entitled "The Crisis of Iraq as America's Crisis" from Middle East historian Juan Cole, and a "Back from Iraq" presentation from independent journalist Dahr Jamail on Wed., Jan 24.

Many other anti-war events took place around the Bay Area, including protests in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, El Cerrito, Mountain View, San Jose, Petaluma, San Rafael, and Benicia. See Indybay's Anti-War page for more information.

After months of wrangling with UC Santa Cruz administration, students who were planning an Ethical Career Opportunities ("ECO-7") career event for January 25th have been forced to cancel the program after the administration blocked access to the group’s website for a crucial period of time. The website, removed without warning, was the primary organizing tool of the event, which would have provided much-needed job opportunities for conscientious students.

The student reporters of Radio Journalism 101 present, Free Skool Radio News, a collection of reports, interviews and sounds from just a handful of the dozens of classes and workshops offered through Free Skool Santa Cruz. We'll hear about the Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra, Improv Contact Dance, Spanish Conversation, Tray Boarding, the Punk Sewing Circle and more. This program is the final project of Radio Journalism 101, Free Skool class on the basics of broadcast news production, facilitated by V-Man.

Peter Laufer writes, "This is an open letter I wrote to the son of one of my best friends after I heard he was being deployed to the Iraq War. As the author of Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, I felt obligated to make sure he knew his alternatives and to do all I could to dissuade him from boarding the outbound plane. I failed, but perhaps publishing the letter may influence others."