On Friday, Oct. 10, SPARk — a self-described anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist organization run by anonymous UC San Diego students — hosted public walking tours, or “dis-orientation tours,” of the campus. These tours showed “a version of UC San Diego’s history you don’t get at official campus tours.”
The event drew around 20 attendees across two hour-long sessions, one at 10 a.m. and another at 11 a.m., including first years, transfer students, and returning students. The group did not seek formal campus approval for the tour, aiming to connect students directly with hidden histories of UC San Diego’s activism outside of the University’s oversight.
During each tour, SPARk traced a timeline of student activism at UCSD, featuring archival photos, documents, and oral histories of campus locations. According to one of the event organizers, SPARk aims to “catalyze student union drives, build experienced organizers, and connect students to class struggles” through political education and action.
Organizers told The UCSD Guardian they were inspired by “dis-orientation tours” at other universities like UC Berkeley. At UCSD, they wanted to honor recent activism, such as the 2022 University of California academic worker strikes by labor union United Auto Workers Local 4811 and the 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which brought attention to UCSD’s connections to genocide.
“We wanted to make this history visible,” one of the tour guides said. “A lot of these events shaped UCSD, but they are not part of what students usually learn when they come here.”
SPARk chose stops where student actions have historically clashed with administrative responses.
The first stop of the tour was Price Center. The guides explained that the building’s construction was a turning point in the UCSD student body’s relationship with University administration. Administrators began commercial development in the late 1980s despite 90% of the student body opposing it.
Tour guides also recounted “Black Winter,” the nickname given to Winter Quarter 2010 at UCSD describing a series of anti-Black incidents and events on campus, especially the “Compton Cookout.” Student activism demanding institutional changes in the face of Black Winter led to the creation of the Black Resource Center. The tour guides also warned that this activism must continue; “Black enrollment remains low — rising only from 2% in 2010 to 3.6% this year.”
Crossing Library Walk toward the grass field in front of Target, the tour turned to the site of the 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment. The tour guides pointed out surveillance cameras administration installed near the site following the encampment and described the early morning police sweep that resulted in student arrests and probationary conduct sanctions.
Next, they continued uphill to Thurgood Marshall College, revisiting the 1960s Lumumba-Zapata College proposal that would have created a student-governed college. As the tour passed through John Muir College and Revelle College, guides highlighted locations where students held protests against the Vietnam War in May 1970. As they passed Galbraith Hall, the tour guides recounted students’ occupation of the building in protest against South African apartheid.
Fourth-year political science and economics student Drew Migita was inspired after attending the tour. “I wondered whether repeating past tactics works under changed conditions,” Migita said. “The facts are true; the challenge is drawing lessons for practical action we should take today.”
The tour ended with a tabling fair at the Old Student Center, including the student-run self-identified “radical” organizations on campus like SPACES, Ché Café, and Groundwork Books.
SPARk, which was previously named the Radical Planning Collective, is the organization behind last year’s student-taught class. Members encouraged students to get involved by attending meetings, joining mutual aid efforts, and supporting ongoing campaigns.
“There’s so much buried history in the archives,” one organizer said. “We want students to become part of the history you just heard.”
