![students smiling](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/students.jpg) | Opening doors of opportunity | UC Santa Cruz ranks as one of the top universities in the nation for social mobility—where a student from an economically disadvantaged background can enroll, pay a low tuition, earn a degree, and land a good-paying job. | | ![u c santa cruz alumni parading with a 12-foot sammy the slug balloon sculpture](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/parade-balloon-sammy.jpg) | Banana Slug pageantry | The first-ever Banana Slug Parade & Expo celebrated our 50th anniversary and brought the campus and community together. | | ![tidal disruption showing a disk of stellar debris around a black hole and a long tail of debris that is flung away from the black hole](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/tidal-illustration.jpg) | How a black hole swallows a star | New details about what happens when a black hole tears apart a star are giving scientists an extraordinary opportunity to understand the extreme environment around a black hole. | | | ALUMNI REGIONAL EVENTS | Santa Cruz – Wednesday, November 18 | UC Santa Cruz History Trivia Night at New Bohemia Brewing Co. | San Francisco – Thursday, November 19 | Game Changers: New Directions in Design and Play at San Francisco Film Centre | Los Angeles – Saturday, December 12 | Holiday Volunteer Service Day at Los Angeles Regional Food Bank | » More Regional Events | | | ![frances mcallister holding a sign saying frances b. mcallister; ella barrows hagar, widow of regent gerald hagar, holding a sign saying hagar; regent daniel koshland holding a sign saying koshland; sylvia mclaughlin, widow of regent donald mcLaughlin holding a sign saying mclaughlin; and virginia meyer, widow of regent theodore meyer holding a sign saying meyer](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/phil-focus-street-signs.jpg) | Names of fame | Students may take for granted the monikers on buildings around campus. But how did they get those names? | | The campaign for uc Santa Cruz | ![layla cervantes](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/layla-cervantes.jpg) | Rising to the challenge | Leaving behind an early life of poverty, Layla Cervantes (College Eight ’16, MCD biology) is defying the statistics. This year, she won an Undergraduate Research Award, made possible by a generous private contribution. | | ![bev crair](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/bev-crair.jpg) | May her memory be a blessing | Bev Crair’s mother was her best friend. Now, Crair is sustaining her mother’s name, and helping gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth, with a $50,000 pledge establishing an endowed fund for students at the Cantú Queer Center. | | ![nicole crane inspecting and recording reef health](http://connect.ucsc.edu/s/1069/images/editor/enews/2015_november/opor-nicole.jpg) | Bridging science and tradition | Dedicated scientists launch One People One Reef, a five-year conservation effort on Ulithi Atoll in Micronesia aimed at sustaining the ecological health of the islands—and the islanders. | | 'This Home Won't Break' | Assistant professor of film and digital media Jennifer Maytorena Taylor's new documentary focuses on former gang member, victim of gang violence. | | |
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