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Guide to the Santa Barbara Citizens Commission on Civil Disorders Collection
SBHC Mss 57
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Table of contents
Title: Santa Barbara Citizens Commission on Civil Disorders Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1970
Collection Number: SBHC Mss 57
Creator:
Santa Barbara Citizens Commission on Civil Disorders
Extent:
1 linear foot
(1 half-size box and 15 open reel audiotapes)
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Department of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, California 93106-9010
Physical Location: Del Sur (Box 1) and Performing Arts (audiotapes).
Language:
English.
None.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Santa Barbara Citizens Commission on Civil Disorders Collection. SBHC Mss 57. Department of Special Collections, Davidson
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Donated by Mrs. Adolf C. [Helen] Pedotti, Oct. 1970.
In response to 1969-1970 disturbances in Isla Vista (the community adjacent to the University of California, Santa Barbara
campus) and elsewhere locally, the Santa Barbara Citizens Commission on Civil Disorders was self-appointed and organized mid-June
1970. The 46 members were from various segments of the community, but did not include UCSB administration, faculty, and students,
Isla Vista residents, and local government officials.
The Commission was formed to make public inquiries and findings relating to "... the eruption of civil disorders in our area,
the course and nature of these disorders, the efforts by official and unofficial agencies to quell or stem disorder, and the
administration of justice connected with the disorders."
More than 150 people testified during the hearings, including University administrators, faculty, and students (also including
political, social, and ecology groups); Isla Vista realtors, landlords, and businessmen; attorneys, and other legal and law
enforcement experts; members of the Sheriff's Civil Service Commission, National Guard, Santa Barbara County Fire Department,
and a State Senator; Isla Vista Community Council leaders and members of other Isla Vista organizations; psychiatrists, medical
observers, ministers, chemists; and numerous citizen observers and participants in the disturbances in Isla Vista, at the
University, and at El Paseo (in Santa Barbara). Due to pending lawsuits, county officials and law enforcement officers could
not give testimony.
The hearings were public and recorded on tape. They were made available to Commissioners and others not able to attend the
hearings. This collection of tapes was donated by Mrs. Adolf C. [Helen] Pedotti, a member of the Commission, rancher, and
Vice-President of Central Coast Broadcasters, KCOY-TV, in October 1970.
[From information in the Introduction to the Table of Contents located in Box 1, folder 1].
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection contains a list/table of contents and 15 open reel audiotapes of hearings held from June 17, 1970 to September
1, 1970 regarding Isla Vista and other local disturbances, 1969-1970. It includes eyewitness testimony, accounts of arrests
and jail experiences, observations of police actions, accounts of news coverage, observations on causes of unrest, resource
information on judicial codes, bail systems, effects of tear gas, socio-economic conditions of Isla Vista, housing, mass arrest
procedures, administration of justice during civil disorders, the role of UCSB administration, radicalization process among
the student body, Black Student Union, Student Legal Defense Fund, observations of the legal community, Faculty for Academic
Responsibility group, UCSB Radical Student Union group, county drug problems, Isla Vista Red Cross Unit, the development of
ecology as a student issue, the role of fire departments in civil disorders, law enforcement training, Isla Vista riots from
a state administrative point of view, and and issues of UCSB student government.