By the way, that's the entrance to our new library where the lunch and learn seminar took place. It's got lots of study space and it looks pretty fancy.
As mentioned, last time a graduate student who's studying Education gave a presentation with the title "The solution to tragedy is community". First, he told us his personal story about one of his summers where about four of his close relatives / close friends died. He found comfort in the remaining part of his family / friends and got over it. This tragedy happened to an individual, which is something different to a tragedy that's striking an institution, like the UCSB.
In 2014, there has been a shooting in Isla Vista, which is the student town directly located next to the campus. Six people died and fourteen were injured. During Halloween 2013, the police arrested about 250 people due to riots in Isla Vista. These events and some others lead to a drop of 15% in the number of applications to UCSB.
The graduate student at "Lunch and learn" compared the portfolios of the UCSB before and after the shooting, talked to professors and students about these events and overall studied how the UCSB's identity was re-shaped to cope with the "dangerous place" stamp. His studies show so far that many posters, catalogs and interviews focus on community, i.e. that 75% of all students live either on campus or closer than 1 mile away, there are many student organizations and clubs, lots of recreational sports etc. I saw his point, but I think, that community is probably not that unique to Santa Barbara; yet, it seems like it has helped UCSB to go back to a "normal" university.
