Sometimes in college I feel completely overwhelmed with the problems in the world. Whether it be history, environment, psychology, or social classes it seems impossible to grasp the damage we have done to each other, and our planet. And, it seems we are being educated in hopes of improving some of these situations. As we are known for speaking our minds and refusing to conform to society, UCSC students are making a strong stand against the Long Range Development Plan. The UCSC campus is already huge, but there is a lot of beautiful, untouched property above our campus that the regents are dying to develop. Us tree-huggers are quite opposed to that idea. First of all, the majority of our student body enjoys attending one of the smaller UC's so the ideas of building colleges 11, 12, and 13 is absolutely horrifying. Plus, the property in upper-campus is a very valuable space to runners, bikers, walkers, nature-lovers, as well as a very wonderful resource for environmental and botanical studies. Not to mention our connection to the meadows for drum circles and a few of our favorite trees; tree nine and the wishing tree. We want to stay UCSC, not turn into UCLA. We like to be surrounded by trees, not buildings. In an effort to show this, there have been students camped up in a few of the redwoods. Three or four were harnessed in, wearing masks, and refusing to come down. Of course the police had to get involved and things did get a little violent last week, but that has calmed down. Students are still camped out and hanging out around the trees at Science Hill at all times. I admire their commitment and devotion to the cause. Sometimes I fear how small our voices are as college students or young adults. But, I am encouraged by how many of my peers are willing to stand up and speak out for our environment. I hope that population grows and expands so that our generation can have a positive impact on our planet during our time here.