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cont...
For some years, it was obvious that students were becoming
more conservative, more interested in finances than social issues.
As one indicator, the popularity of campus majors was changing.
In 1975, there were 664 undergraduates in the Economics Department;
by 1985, there were 2,281. In comparison, the Environmental Studies
Program, first offered as a major in 1970, saw a steady decrease
in enrollment by 1985.
Cathy Buchanan, an Environmental Studies graduate who worked on the Maschke/Schewzyk campaign in 1981, notes the changes in student values since her first undergraduate days in 1977.
"In those years, the environmental movement was still new
and big, there was a greater awareness of the interrelatedness
of natural systems than there is now," she says. "Nowadays,
students don't seem to put an economic value on natural resources.
Actually, environmental resources, because of their interrelatedness,
have a very high economic value, because when you destroy one
thing you're actually destroying everything."
As students were becoming more conservative, they were also beginning
to mouth a traditional piece of conservative thought. Voter registration
workers reported that students were often choosing to disenfranchise
themselves, claiming that as transient residents of the area,
it was not proper that they vote here.
"Historically, those arguments have been used by the people
who didn't want students to have the vote. But to hear students
adopt those attitudes just blew me out. I was amazed," said
Ed Maschke. "This line of thought did not acknowledge that
students, as a constituency, have a very permanent and significant
profile in the local community."
In Isla Vista, the result was a dismal combination of poor turnout
and lessened support for the environmentalists. Traditionally,
a turnout of three to four thousand in Isla Vista was expected
up to that point. However, in 1985 only 2,082 actually voted,
or 14.9% of the registered voters, and of those, only 62% voted
for the environmentalist slate. The loss of Maschke and Shewczyk's
seats could be attributed directly to the erosion of the Isla
Vista bloc vote. An additional 1,310 voters casting ballots for
the environmentalist slate would have nudged them to victory.
Instead, Chuck Bennett and Jim Thompson swept to victory, to join
incumbents Don Weaver and Gary MacFarland in a new majority pledging
to "get out of the land-use planning business."
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