Deep Thoughts by Justin Juul, in honor of Cannabis Awareness Day, Sat/3
The University of Santa Cruz has a long history of embracing pot-heads, communist philosophers, vegans, musicians, artists, and white Rastafarian dudes. That’s why it came as no surprise that The Grateful Dead recently chose the school as the new home for its entire catalogue of music, articles, photos, films, etc. But it was no small feat. UCSC actually beat out bids by Stanford and Berkeley, which, to some, suggests that maybe the world really is changing for the better. Maybe hippies actually are kind of smart. After all, UCSC, a school founded by a roving band of love children back in the early 1960’s, a school that was once featured in Rolling Stone Magazine as “The Best School for Stoners,” a school that David Horowitz singled out on Fox News as “The Most Un-American School in the Country” has become one of the harder schools in the UC system to get admitted to.
The Grateful Dead deal is just another big step in the right direction for all of hippy-kind. But wait. Is the school really that dedicated to its roots or is it just cashing in on them for publicity, hoping that accepting the Dead catalogue will convince the world that hippies are still running the show at UCSC? The truth is they’re not.
Shortly before proudly becoming the only school in the world to offer an official class on tuning in, turning on, and dropping out Dead-style, the school also issued a school-wide memo stating its new policy on the student body’s annual 4-20, marijuana “protest.” Basically, the board of directors tried to shut the place down. Any student who wasn’t taking a class during the 4:00 hour on April 20th was barred from entering campus. WTF?
Come on, Santa Cruz. Be real. Just because you’re an up-and-coming learning institution, with one of the best astronomy programs in the country, it doesn’t mean you have to start turning into a bunch of squares. But if you are going that route, why not leave the Dead catalogue to a school, like SF State or Humbolt State, that loves its hippy student-base? Are you really planning on clearing out a spot in your new library for The Dead catalogue, or are you just gonna burn it?! That’s what I wanna know?
Shit, man. What am I saying? I didn’t mean to get all paranoid there. It’s just, well, I’ve been smoking a lot of weed today, and well, UCSC’s actions just don’t make sense. But don’t listen to me. UCSC is my Alma Mater and that makes me, well, a hippy, I guess. And everybody knows hippies are crazy.
Which reminds me. Did you see the other headline Santa Cruz made last week?
From SFist: Missing Santa Cruz Teen Found Gorked
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