Halloween 2015 was a bust. The majority of students went home for the weekend. UCSB students that stayed had the option of attending subsidized $5 concerts. Two hundred police for the second year running and a well-dispersed “don’t come” message led to one of the quietest weekends of the fall. A newcomer to this annual debacle might ask “what is all the hype about Halloween?” Sadly, the answer is the Isla Vista Halloween disaster is decades in the making with millions expended on a law enforcement problem that was already solved — in 1996. After the late Willy Chamberlin stepped on Halloween for three years, the Daily Bruin declared in 1996 that the “Party’s Over” in Isla Vista. Sadly, it was not.
Twenty Yang years later UCSB’s reputation as a party school is at a level unparalleled in the history of the University of California. Between 2004 and 2015, Santa Barbara ranked in or near the top 10 of the Princeton Review’s Top 20 Party Schools every single year: 2004-12th, 2005-5th, 2006-10th, 2007-10th, 2008-9th, 2010-10th, 2011-8th, 2012-5th, 2013-2nd, 2014-2nd, and 2015-3rd. Princeton Review’s data is affirmed by other rankings such as Playboy's that recognized UCSB in 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010, and 2011. Santa Barbara’s top 20 ranking by Princeton and others goes back to at least 2001. One need only trace the history of Halloween, Floatopia, and Deltopia parties to realize that UCSB’s party school reputation was decades in the making and is out of control.
Only one other University of California campus ever graced the Princeton Review list, and that is UC Santa Cruz with a third-place ranking in 2001 that fell to 15th in 2002 and thereafter never appeared again. Administrators laud UCSB’s appearance on Princeton’s “Green University” list but are seemingly oblivious to the ubiquitous Top 10 party school ranking. After the last two Halloweens it appears the head-in-the-sand lead-from-behind approach to I.V. mega-parties is finally ending. The reality, however, is that I.V.’s drug- and alcohol-fueled party machine fires up every weekend like clockwork. This is more than a one-party problem. Why is this trend allowed to continue uninterrupted at what is ostensibly one of California’s top universities?