New Students Urged to Improve Isla Vista Community

UCSB alumni, faculty and student representatives offered words of advice to members of the incoming class.

About 3,000 students attended the annual Convocation ceremony on the Faculty Club Green.

Educators urged students to take responsibility for their actions and to make Isla Vista a community they can be proud of.

The words follow a weekend of arrests and violence in Isla Vista.

They also follow the deadly rampage caused by a troubled Santa Barbara City College drop-out and several out-of-control street parties.

UC Regent and alum George Kieffer explained how he got involved in student government by advocating for tenant rights in Isla Vista. He told students he regreted not seeing more plays, starring classmate Michael Douglas, and not taking religion with late professor and Congressman Walter Capps.

Kieffer told students to get out of their comfort zone and meet new people and try new things before it’s too late and they graduate.

One orientation staff member said student groups are already working on plans to make campus and Isla Vista a safer place.

Students said their take away message was to break down walls and to be open to new people and new things