UC Santa Cruz Hopes to Lead the Way : Students Get Nuclear Survival Tips

University students, upon registering for class, often get a packet of information on how to “survive the coming year,” complete with directions to the library, the bookstore, the gym and the nearest cafeteria with edible food.

At the University of California campus at Santa Cruz, students registering last week got a handbook on how to survive the nuclear arms race.

“This is the first time of which we are aware that students are provided information that may be useful in surviving for the longer term,” said Daniel Hirsch, a Santa Cruz professor who worked with students over the summer in preparing the 72-page handbook.

“It is my hope that UC Santa Cruz, as a new university, less encumbered by tradition, may lead the way to the new paths of thought and the new mores of human interaction essential to the nuclear age,” Chancellor Robert Sinsheimer wrote in the introduction of the book.

The new paths of thought will not come easy.

The booklet is jammed with dense statistics on nuclear stockpiles, interviews with opinionated Americans and assessments of Soviet intentions. In several extensive interviews and commentaries, Santa Cruz professors denounce the Reagan Administration’s military policies and contend that Soviet aggression has been exaggerated. President Reagan, Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet expert George Kennan make brief appearances, arguing for deterrence.

“It is not light reading,” said Tom O’Leary, a university spokesman. “It’s our hope that students will keep it on their desks and use it as a source book for reading throughout the year.”

Last April, Santa Cruz students rejected by 60 votes a so-called “suicide initiative,” which would have asked campus administrators to stock cyanide pills and select burial sites as a preparation for nuclear war.

Students at Brown University in Rhode Island had earlier approved a similar measure by a 60-40 margin.

At Santa Cruz, Sinsheimer spoke out against the initiative, calling it a “nihilistic Jonestown solution.” The former Caltech biologist supports the nuclear freeze and has publicly opposed UC management of the nuclear weapons labs at Livermore and Los Alamos. The suicide initiative, he said, would contribute little to the complex debate over nuclear weapons, war and the Soviet Union.

As an alternative, Sinsheimer backed the preparation of the nuclear handbook and provided funds for printing copies for the 7,500 Santa Cruz students.