Co-News Editor

From Jan. 10–14, UC Santa Barbara’s (UCSB) Associated Students (AS) will host a “Protect Your Peers Week” in collaboration with off- and on-campus organizations supporting undocumented and international students. 

805UndocuFund, Unión del Barrio, Undocumented Students Services (USS), the Office of International Students & Scholars (OISS), and more will speak and conduct educational workshops. 

AS representatives were inspired to create the week-long event as the federal government increases Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence both nationwide and in Santa Barbara County. Fall quarter saw talks of ICE agents trying to arrest a student at a UCSB Residence Hall. 

In response to the incident — and general anxiety around ICE  — on Nov. 17, 2025, AS hosted a single evening “Protect Your Peers” teach-in at Campbell Hall in collaboration with 805UndocuFund. AS plans to expand the scope of this one event across four days.

These upcoming workshops and teach-ins are meant for “getting ahead of the game as opposed to responding when bad things happen,” AS President Le Anh Metzger said in an interview with The Bottom Line. 

Regarding a timeline of the events:

On Monday, Jan. 12, 805UndocuFund is hosting a Rapid Response Training.

On Tuesday, USS and the OISS collaborate to host the Know Your Rights and Legal Resources Event.

The events of those two days will be summarized in a town hall, similar in scale to last quarter’s Save Deltopia Town Hall. Members from various activist organizations and the Isla Vista (I.V.) community will educate and offer public comment on the issue of federal threats to I.V.

AS will end “Protect your Peers Week” on Thursday, Jan. 16, with a teach-in by Professor John Park from UCSB’s Department of Asian American Studies. He specializes in immigration policy and law, providing context for current American immigration policy. 

The schedule is subject to change. Free food and drink will be provided at each event, with hot chocolate provided one night, and Zocalo catering another.

The central aim of “Peer Your Peers Week” is to educate the student body. With the tools learned from the week of workshops, AS hopes for students to take action, just like how the students of the AS Office of the President themselves planned the events. 

“The UCSB admin in a lot of ways feels like their hands are tied. They can’t do a lot themselves. But they’ve been really supportive of us,” President Metzger said. 

By doing what the university administration is currently unable to, AS hopes to achieve a sense of safety for the student body. 

“UCSB is known as a sanctuary campus, and I want that to be a reality, not just a name or a tagline,” AS Student Advocate General Sydney Bivins stated.

But a challenge in planning the “Protect Your Peers Week” is tight timing. Talks of planning such a week only began late in the fall quarter, leaving AS the month of winter break to organize the event.

Yet, Metzger and Bivins have high hopes for student engagement. With similar time constraints, the first “Protect Your Peers,” planned in a week, gathered 112 students to Campbell Hall. 

Bivins explained the broad name for the event, with ICE raids being “a campuswide anxiety, and it’s also something that even if somebody isn’t worried about being profiled, they’re worried for their friends, their co-workers, their fellow classmates.”

Bivins continued, “So we really wanted this to be an initiative of unity across campus, which is why we called it ‘Protect Your Peers.’”

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Rapper YG headlined this year’s Delirium alongside Freddie Gibbs, bringing their signature mix of lyrically dense hip-hop to UCSB. Gibbs performed numerous songs from his latest album, “Alfredo 2,” while YG played various hits including “FTD.”

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On Nov. 14, Wisp performed at UC Santa Barbara’s University Center Hub, playing various songs from her EPs and recently released debut album, “If Not Winter.” Her songs blend soft, whisper-like vocals with a rock sound reminiscent of Deftones and My Chemical Romance. This show follows her recently concluded U.S. tour promoting her new music.

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The three days I spent in Amsterdam in early fall were mostly characterized by moody weather. Random bursts of rain and chilly winds forced me to break out my coat for the first time in months, but the excellent food and museums easily made up for it. Highly recommend the stoopwaffles.

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I can recall pleasant memories when my mother made hot chocolate during the cold winters. As a chocolate connoisseur and descendant of the Mayans, I always appreciate a cup of hot cocoa, especially when it’s made from scratch instead of out of a packet. However, it seems like hot chocolate is now an underrated warm drink that has become overlooked by caramel, peppermint, and pumpkin lattes. We’ve lost touch with the casual drink of sweetness as we crave something more energizing, stronger, and more conventionally known.

When it comes to hot chocolate, it is usually sold in packets containing the hot cocoa mix and instructions on how to make the sweet drink. It is rarely made with authentic ingredients like cocoa powder or quality chocolate. Hot chocolate is celebrated in Latin American cultures like Guatemalan culture for its emphasis in providing the natural chocolatey taste that was inspired by traditions traced centuries ago. Of course, each culture has its own drink that they cherish the most, but hot chocolate is the most accessible drink for its simple ingredients.

Recently, there have been other drinks that are trying to replicate the magic of hot chocolate.

The most popular and obvious choice we have is coffee. A well-known organic source of caffeine that eradicates a student’s laziness and makes their eyes as wide and vast as the ocean. A lot of people enjoy their coffee in the form of lattes laced with syrup. One of the usual syrups is the mocha syrup, which tastes like chocolate. The syrup for the latte tries to mimic the comfort of hot chocolate, but the coffee’s bitter taste lingers in your mouth, reminding you that you’re primarily getting energized. Hot chocolate is more tied to nostalgia and childhood because children have not yet graduated to be able to drink caffeinated beverages.

Herbal tea is the trustworthy friend you rely on whenever you have a cold, an upset stomach, or feel stressed. The smell of herbs like chamomile or mint reinforces the comfort the tea provides. However, it is seen as a natural remedy rather than a treat to enjoy, unless you genuinely like drinking tea, perhaps by adding honey. Personally, tea is not the warm drink that reminds me of childhood memories as the sweetness in hot chocolate carries a warm sensation of hugs and kisses.

For most of the time, matcha is not supposed to be sweet, and people don’t think of it as a typical hot drink. Given the fact that matcha is facing a shortage, it would be best to get something that you can easily obtain at any cafe like hot chocolate. Matcha has become a trendy drink recently, partially thanks to the performative males. Jokes aside, matcha has been a drink that can be enjoyed hot or cold. However, hot chocolate is only hot; you can make a cold chocolate drink, but it is less associated with the winter months. We’re talking about a drink that slightly burns your tongue, but warms up your body like a sweater.

Overall, hot chocolate is a delightful experience that never fails, with only hot water or milk being the main ingredient alongside the necessary ingredient: chocolate or cocoa powder. Its pleasure comes from the rich texture and the silkiness of the liquid that the cocoa is mixed with, whether it’s water or milk. No need to worry about it not being sold in different cafes or it containing caffeine. It’s a simple drink that will warm yourself up to get through the gloomy days where it’s too cold and gets dark early.

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Guillermo del Toro and “Frankenstein” are a match made in heaven. Of course, a director known for his sympathetic monsters would want to tell one of the original sympathetic monster stories. “Frankenstein” is one of the most Guillermo del Toro films that Guillermo del Toro has ever made, showcasing his biggest strengths and flaws as a creator.

To start, the production design is as immaculate as one would expect from a del Toro film. The sets look absolutely marvelous; every building’s interior has its own unique vibe that perfectly fits with the tone of the story. The sets were created by Shane Vieau, who also designed the sets for previous del Toro films like “Crimson Peak,” “The Shape of Water,” and “Nightmare Alley,” with this film having a similar level of attention to detail. The costumes by Kate Hawley (another frequent del Toro collaborator) are also a lot of fun, with Mia Goth’s symbolic-heavy red dress being a standout. Together, this builds a wonderful, moody atmosphere.

Guillermo del Toro’s direction really allows these great environments to soak in, with a lot of big, expansive shots. Unfortunately, the directing often focuses much more on the environments rather than the actual characters. The camera is far away from them, putting distance between them and the viewer. It means that a lot of the story’s potential intimacy is gone. 

However, with many of the Guillermo del Toro films I’ve seen, my main problems lie with the script, and this film is no different. It’s awkwardly paced, with an unnecessarily long introduction and a climax that comes way too quickly (but to be fair, this is arguably also true of the book).

Many of the side characters feel underdeveloped, especially Elizabeth Harlander (played by Mia Goth), whose connection with the Creature feels sudden and whose resolution as a character comes out of nowhere. We never really learn why she has an interest in the Creature, nor do we ever actually get her true perspective on Victor or her husband. She’s certainly a fun character, and the way she serves as the only one challenging Victor for much of the story is interesting, but it feels like there could have been more time spent exploring her. 

Another important character, Henrich Harlander, played by Christoph Waltz, also has a character ending that feels very sudden, with no real buildup. He also lacks any real depth despite being a fun character to witness. Captain Anderson, played by Lars Mikkelsen, is in a similar boat (pun intended), with the film depicting his final actions as a sign of a character arc despite us never really seeing him going through one. We’re also never given a reason to care about him or his crew, so his final decision rings hollow. The film definitely tries to give the side characters some depth, but it doesn’t give them enough time, so it still feels like they’re little more than scenery to support our main two characters.

Thankfully, those two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, are very compelling. Their relationship is very interesting, with Victor being drawn to create the Creature due to his father’s abuse towards him, only for Victor himself to act like his father towards the Creature. What makes Victor so engrossing is that he’s equal parts despicable and sympathetic. On one hand, he’s someone whose extreme jealousy and obsession with perfection leads him to use others in his life like chess pieces. However, his obsession stems from a place of trauma, and he does seem to legitimately care for the people in his life, even if that care comes second to his own ambitions. 

The film also makes a significant change to the book by having Victor originally care for his creation, yet only to grow angry with the Creature’s imperfections. This simultaneously makes Victor a lot more human and a lot more habitable. He really is a great protagonist, and Oscar Isaac plays him with a lot of melodrama and a real crazed energy. 

The Creature, however, is the true star of the show. The entire segment of the film focusing on him in the woods with the old man is classic del Toro, with equal parts wonder and tragedy, all wrapped up in a huge amount of pathos. The injustice of it all stings, and you just want to wrap the Creature up in a big old hug. 

Del Toro understands why Frankenstein’s monster has been such a captivating creature, how many people can relate to the isolation, the feeling that you are inherently different, and the daddy issues. And the writing of the monster is elevated by Jacob Elordi’s one-of-a-kind performance, with every movement being so surreal yet so natural. Whenever the creation is on screen, the film is mesmerizing. 

The relationship between Victor and the Creature feels very real and reminiscent of actual parental conflicts, and it leads to quite the cathartic ending. 

Despite my complaints, I still found a lot to appreciate in this film. It’s got a stacked cast, it has a lot to say about parenthood and abuse, and it’s very pleasing on the eyes. At the end of the day, I think that del Toro is a really great director of vibes, and this film has vibes up the wazoo, being a very gothic and ghoulish journey. If you’re a fan of his work, I’d recommend it.

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