sorry to continue off the subject, but i see that this discussion is taking place both in this subject and another one (the uc regents meeting protest feature). there's a post by mara in that one:

santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/17777/index.php

" Santa Cruz Native,

I understand your frustration that UCSC students protest the University of California while simultaneously enjoying the benefits of its education and privilege. You call us hypocrites and suggest we should either get out of the UC system or shut the hell up. But the logical extension of your argument is laughable.

Following your logic, all U.S. citizens who protest the Iraq War while simultaneously benefiting from the protections of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy are raging hypocrites. Maybe we should quit this war protesting all together? Your logic also suggests that any critical voice originating from the inside the system is hypocritical and…what? Should be silenced? I think I’ve heard that argument before and I think its usually phrased “love it or leave it.� Come on.

Your proposed criteria for college choice is cute and noble, but in reality most student’s decision to attend a UC is the result of family pressures and economic considerations…not ideological orientations or clever arguments crafted on indymedia message boards. So let’s say you enter UCSC as a bright-eyed 18 year old and soon discover that the Regents do some things you don’t agree with. We should drop out immediately right? Well, go for it man. Or maybe we should ignore the problems and go about our college lives without disrupting things? Most do. But frankly, some of us aren’t satisfied with those two options and feel compelled to voice our opposition, spread awareness, and work to change things from the inside. Hypocrites? Come on, life does not hand us tidy packages of black/white good/bad ideological consistencies."