The Trow Report &
UCSB's Responsibilities to Isla Vista
Analysis and Commentary by Carmen Lodise
In April 1970, the UC Regents established a seven-person
committee called The Commission on Isla Vista to "make
recommendations for eliminating or ameliorating the causes of
unrest in Isla Vista." The committee, which included
UC Berkeley sociologist Martin Trow (after who the final report
was popularly named) and Ira M. Heyman (currently chancellor
at UC Berkeley), chose "to make practical recommendations
about the University's role in Isla Vista... (which were) designed
to change the character of Isla Vista in ways that will reduce
its potential for violence and destruction, and strengthen its
potential as . . . a vital part of the University community."
The Commission made its final report to the UC Regents in October
of that year.
The report's recommendations remain a standard by which the
University's actions and policies toward Isla Vista can be judged.
What follows are some comments selected from the 80-page
report, and then a summary of its several recommendations, which
occupied another 15 pages. I have also
included an analysis in blue capital letters of what, to my
knowledge, has been accomplished (and what has not) since the
Trow Report was published.
This analysis first appeared in the Isla Vista FREE PRESS,
March 30, 1987. It was updated in early 1990 just before publication
of Isla Vista: A Citizen's History.
SELECTIVE COMMENTS FROM THE REPORT
If there is one thread running through all of our deliberations
and recommendations, it is that the University can no longer
ignore, if it ever could, the conditions under which the bulk
of its students live and spend the greater part of their time
while at the University. What goes on in Isla Vista is as central
to the University's life and functions as is what goes on in
its laboratories and lecture rooms. page iii, Preface.
The
University cannot act in Isla just as it does on its own campus;
but neither can it refuse to act there at all. That principle,
to which we have been persuaded by everything we have learned
in our inquiry, is present in all of our recommendations. page
iii, Preface.
Isla Vista is deeply scarred by the events of the past
year and its very survival as a place to house a university
community is in jeopardy. It has been largely ignored in the
past by both the University and the county government and consequently
has not developed long-standing institutions. Without indigenous
institutions, the community can continue to be torn apart. But
if increasing numbers of Isla Vista residents can feel that
they are able to improve their own environment, Isla Vista can
become a distinguished university community. Because of the
unique local environment of Isla Vista, the ingredients are
present for a promising experiment in community development.
page 3.
To the extent that UCSB has had a policy toward Isla Vista,
it appears to have been to avoid extensive involvement in the
affairs of the community. Until some official steps were taken
recently to formulate a more aggressive policy, there was no
statement of policy from the Chancellor specifying a philosophy
of UCSB relationship to Isla Vista. page 55.
The general attitude of the University as perceived by the students,
as well as by several members of the administration has been
a hands-off doctrine summed up as: Isla Vista is not University
campus; Isla Vista is Isla Vista and the University is the University.
page 57.
Isla
Vista is not University campus; Isla Vista is contiguous to
the campus. As such, the campus has to interact positively and
sensitively with any community so close. The campus has to be
a good neighbor, has to work constructively with the community."
DANIEL ALDRICH Acting UCSB Chancellor, 1986-87
Isla Vista Free Press March 30, 1987
"The
University has a special responsibility to our students who
live in I.V. But exercising this responsibility is difficult
because ... we have no legal jurisdiction there."
BARBARA S. UEHLING
UCSB Chancellor, 1988-present.
Isla Vista FREE PRESS
Feb. 15, 1989
The Trow Report continues . . .
A report to the Regents by the consulting firm of Pereira &
Luckman in 1958 commented on Isla Vista's small lots narrow
streets, lack of sidewalks and absence of streetlights. Pereira
& Luckman recommended that the University assist the county
government in developing a "vital, well-balanced community,
which will be most conducive to the University's healthy, long-term
growth." It appears that no initiative was taken as a result
of the recommendation. The County was not consulted for a joint
land use plan for the area, and subsequent UCSB Long Range Plans
in 1958, 1963, and 1968 basically ignored Isla Vista.
This was most striking in the 1963 and 1968 plans. By 1960 it
was already apparent that students living off-campus would be
seeking housing in Isla Vista, but this was not reflected in
the 1963 plan. The University Planner in Berkeley reacted to
this omission as follows:
The seeming lack of concern for "what goes on in Isla Vista"
as evidenced by the Plan Study's lack of indication of land
uses, circulation patterns, and current state of building development
in this area, should be corrected at once. The campus obviously
has a great stake in Isla Vista's growth coupled with and complementary
to the campus itself for it is the campus' only residential
neighbor. As at other campuses, intensive efforts must be made
to coordinate physical planning of campus and community.
Again, alarming words went unheeded . . . . By 1968, the University
almost completely surrounded Isla Vista, but the name "Isla
Vista" appeared in passing only a few places in the 1968
UCSB Long-Range Development Plan. Perhaps symbolically, the
maps included in that Report used nine colors to illustrate
features of the campus and a stern gray to color Isla Vista,
the airport and other "non-university" areas. pp.
57-8.
The Commission believes (that there has been) . . . an
inability on the part of the UCSB administration to balance
realistically and wisely its reluctance to intervene in affairs
which affect the interests of private parties with the need
to protect the orderly development of a University community
in Isla Vista. page 66.
. . . the local (UCSB) administration's attitude that
the improvement of Isla Vista's environment was of secondary
importance in the long-range development of the campus . . .
reflects a failure to consider the campus and Isla Vista as
an integrated University community. page 67
In summary, in a situation that generates a great deal of misunderstanding
and hostility, the University has made rather limited attempts
to ameliorate tensions or improve living conditions. At the
same time, the University continues to expand its enrollment
[then 13,500 and 19,150 in 1989: CL] without providing additional
attractive living quarters on campus. In a sense, UCSB is the
most powerful 'citizen' in Isla Vista, yet in our opinion it
has refused to assume its proportionate civic responsibility.
page 76.
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