Is '420' at UCSC good for the University?

Tuesday’s article in Santa Cruz Sentinel by Matt King, “Thousands at UCSC burn one to mark ‘420’,” made the university seem like a joke. There were over 2,000 students that participated in smoking weed on April 20th, this past Friday, and the school did nothing to prohibit the event. The article glamorizes smoking weed and displays UCSC as a haven for illegal drug use. UCSC should be finding ways to incorporate new theories education, instead of blocking off the roads so students can get baked out of their skulls on campus.

What was UCSC thinking? They allowed an incredible number of students to do this event without thinking about the safety of the students. Most of the 2,000 students must have taken transportation there, how did they drive home safely? Without campus employees or police at the event, what would happen if students had medical emergencies from smoking?

King actually quotes a Berkeley grad student about McRobert‘s video of the event, “While the video shows students doing an illegal drug, it could benefit the school’s reputation.” Are you serious? How can it benefit this academic institution if it portrays us as condoning and encouraging an illegal act? UCSC should be trying to destroy their appearance of being a popular drug usage school and focus on being a leader in California education. In twenty or thirty years, I want to be able to tell people I went to UCSC and allow the people to think prestigious university instead of stoner school.