Paolo Brinderson

Hi, I’m Paolo Brinderson, a third-year Political Science student here at beautiful sunny UCSB. Our school
is great! However, sooner or later the novelty begins to wear off and you begin to notice systemic problems.

Our advisors, administrators, and police are deeply out of touch with the needs of the student body. It did not begin with the closing of the MCC and it will not end there either. Compounded with the bogus national narrative that our public universities have become hotbeds of hate, the tensions between us students and those who have control of our tuition money has never been more palpable.

At the same time, our freedoms are being curtailed. Restorative Justice was banned for Deltopia, without any substantial student input. Police presence and surveillance gets measurably worse every year, again with no student input. No one feels safer with more police around, especially our students of color.

It should not be radical to say that our tuition dollars cannot go towards genocide and its profiteers. Instead when we protest our funding of genocide, we are accused of radicalism, ignorance, and hate. This is a research university where students are highly educated on both world affairs and systems of hate. UCSB students simply do not match these baseless accusations.

Every day our admin ignores the deaths of thousands across the Global South from the Congo, Sudan, and Gaza all the while funding the systems that create this mass suffering. In the face of this ignorance, we must acknowledge our privilege as UC students and the suffering our investments create.

“Dismantling global capitalism” is not on the ASB ballot. I am, however, and my first action will be to propose a bill to divest from systems of genocide. UCSB is behind the times as the only UC that has not divested. We need student representation of student money.

I am that voice and I will represent you, the fed-up student who wants to make a difference.

We must fight for our right to party. -Beastie Boys