L'etat, C'est Nous … or at Least Our Initials

James Baron, father of a former student of my alma mater, UC Santa Barbara, is for whatever reason upset that U Can Study Buzzed is a hell's nest of "underage and excessive drinking, drugs, lying, cheating, stealing, rape, sexual assault, violence and promiscuity." OK, the rape & violence is bad, though who knows how widespread. Anyway, we might not be mentioning Baron's www.thedarksideofucsb.com at all, except for the University's shameful response to the man's freely exercised complaints:

On Nov. 10, Baron got an e-mail from Meta Clow, UCSB's policy and records management coordinator, asking him to "immediately remove our initials from your Web site designation."

Clow said Baron was in violation of California Education Code Section 92000, which designates the "University of California" name and all abbreviations, like UCSB, as property of the state. "Anyone violating this provision," Clow pointed out, "is guilty of a misdemeanor."