At UC Santa Cruz, there are 10 residential colleges that vary in theme and housing design. As a student, you choose and are subsequently assigned to a residential college in which you will live for (at least) your first year on campus, take a required writing class in the aforementioned theme and will remain affiliated with for the rest of your time at the university.

I am affiliated with Stevenson college and have incredibly fond memories of my first year living on campus and participating in the many college-specific experiences offered, such as events and college nights at the Stevenson Event Center, studying at the Fireside Lounge, smoking cigarettes (when it was legal on-campus) at the ship-shaped wooden bench, late night vending machine snacks, ping pong in the Stevenson Recreation Room and even later nights spent studying in Stevenson's 24-hour library adjacent to the dorms. This spring, I will be graduating and walking with a couple hundred of my fellow Stevenson students. On this same weekend, however, another Stevenson institution of upwards of 40 years will be closing: the Stevenson Coffee House. Just a few weeks ago, the notice of the closure was posted with this letter:

In the wake of the announcement, thousands of students and alumni have taken to Change.com with an online petition, created by the Coffee House's student employees, to stop the closure. Many reasons are listed in the petition, such as the fact that the Coffee House

• supports local businesses (The Bagelry, Kerri’s Cookies, Santa Cruz Coffee Roasters, Pacific Espresso, Sushi Cruz, Aldo’s, etc.)
• makes all of its food in-house, while still keeping our prices low and affordable
• offers vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options
• allows a space for professors and TA’s to hold office hours and other academic meetings
• is an open space for student-led events (open mic night, trivia night, etc.)
• offers late-night hours

As a student, my peers and I can more corroborate the veracity of the above statements: The Stevenson Coffee House has long been a haven for studying students, hungry students who can't bus downtown just to get a good bagel (or any other number of delicious and highly affordable food options for a variety of dietary needs), teachers and students to meet with one another in a non-academic space and students to spend time with one another in a comfortable community space run by peers.

However, my fellow banana slugs are also aware that some of the dining businesses on campus have been operating in the red, a reason cited for Stevenson Coffee House's closure, as well. I'm sure the many individuals who spend extended periods of time in the space without buying much food or drink account for some of these losses, but that is also the set of people this space was intended for. What is a college campus without spaces to foster community and provide a sense of security and home?

In the past couple of years, and even more so in the past couple of months, it has been highly discouraging to see a number of other on-campus dining options either contracted out to new employers. Examples are found in businesses, including McHenry library's cafe, which used to be operated by Global Village Cafe and now is operated by Amazon Juices, which sells juices and sandwiches at about $10, as opposed to the $6 sandwiches and $4 smoothies that used to be sold there. It is one thing for businesses to not be able to operate with ideal profits but to put that deficit on the backs of students is unfair, especially considering that until now, the deficit has already been paid with Stevenson and Cowell student fees. This is even more pressing at an institution that is highly overpriced for our already dwindling amount of resources that will only be further taxed by the hundreds of new students UCSC is required to enroll next year.

The UCSC campus has already been described by many as a "food desert," where food is not easily accessible at a number of locations on campus. This is a problem when off-campus students spend extended periods of time on campus and need feasible access to healthy and affordable food throughout the school day. To expect college students to perform academically when our education necessitates that our schedules are already highly irregular is simply not possible without the fuel to support our personal and academic well-being. Since many of these spaces have been changed and prices raised drastically, it is now even harder for students to have access to the food they need on a daily basis. I know many of my friends now prefer to buy coffee and sandwiches off-campus before coming to study at the library as the new cafe doesn't have an espresso machine or affordable food.

All in all, UCSC students can't afford to lose more spaces like Stevenson Coffee House. I may be graduating, but many of my friends aren't and are concerned about what options they will have for studying and eating on the East side of campus, especially when the space is under renovation, which is expected to take place from June 2016 to January 2017 (although the McHenry cafe change-over was only predicted to take one month and ended up taking closer to three). This is only worsened by the fact that the Cowell Coffee Shop, which will be open during the Stevenson renovation is too small to accommodate those who would usually find themselves at Stevenson.

So please, if you find yourself angered or burdened or saddened by this closure, too, sign the petition. Hold your school accountable for the needs or desires of the students. Refuse to pay $30,000 a year for a school that is not concerned with your well-being. When we've already lost so many battles for protecting our school's unique identity within the UC system to system-wide decisions to enroll more students at the current students' expense, both in regards to education and housing, we can't afford to lose more. We can't be stripped of what makes this school great, not only as a learning environment but also an experiential one. We must stand up for what we, as an institution, are supposed to stand for. Every decision impacts our student body hugely, so we are responsible for protecting our own interests. Save Stevenson Coffee House.