UC Regents Funding
Much to everyone's surprise, the UC Regents allocated over $750,000
in a three-year plan to assist in getting several community
organizations off the ground. "Tribute money," some
people called it--an insurance premium paid to end the rioting.
Nonetheless, it was through such Regents' Opportunity Funds
that the Isla Vista Open Door Medical Clinic, the Isla Vista
Credit Union, and the Isla Vista Community Council obtained
important seed money. Also, the Regents and the County jointly
funded an experimental "foot patrol" policing function
in Isla Vista, although the county's share came from a federal
grant. Even the Bank of America threw in some money toward the
renting of an Isla Vista Service Center building, which would
house many of Isla Vista's first community programs.
In 1972, the County recognized the elected IVCC as the official
representatives of the community and proclaimed Isla Vista the
official name of the town, recognizing it as a separate community
from Goleta.
Citizen Participation
Probably the most important aspect of the money provided by
the UC Regents--even more than the amount--was the fact that
most of it came without strings attached. A community group
was formed to advise the University how this money should be
spent, and the advice was followed for the most part. The IVCC
was given an annual grant of $25,000 to spend as its elected
representatives saw fit.
In
addition, the University paid the salary of a full-time architect,
John Robert Henderson, who moved into the IVCC offices and assisted
the community to demo-cratically develop a long-range plan for
physical improvements and the eventual down-zoning of the town
from a build-out capacity of 44,000 people to 24,000. This approach
increased the sense of empowerment of Isla Vista residents and
a broad base of the population felt a sense of involvement and
ownership in the creation and maintenance of these new agencies
and in the community planning process.
At the time, the IVCC offices were at 966C Embarcadero del Mar
(where The Cantina is now). For several years, the IVCC office
was the hub of community development activities. IVCC meetings
ran past midnight each Monday, and Planning, Police, and Animal
Control commissions met weekly. Literally hundreds of students
took independent study courses, examining new schemes to rid
the town of cars, create parks, new organizations, and new forms
of governance. More than fifteen original studies of the community's
physical layout, demographic profile, and proposed new programs
were published during the early 1970s--most funded by UC Regents
funds allocated by the IVCC.
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