FATHER BLAMES ALCOHOL IN UC STUDENT'S DEATH

Incidents cast a pall: Freshman's jump onto pool deck the third shock for
campus in a month.

It was the third shock for the picturesque University of California-Santa
Cruz campus in the past month.

Freshman Matthew Begbie, 18, tried late Friday to leap from a rooftop into
the campus's East Field House pool 30 feet below, but landed a few feet short.

Coroner's officials said Monday that the fall broke both of Begbie's ankles
and his left leg and bruised his temple. He rolled unconscious into the
water and drowned, they said.

``This was a tragic, senseless accident, which apparently resulted from
excess use of alcohol,'' Begbie's father, Joe Begbie of Monterey, said in a
statement released through the sheriff's office. Sheriff's Deputy Kim Allyn
said the family is devastated.

Less than two weeks earlier, a 20-year-old student at UC-Santa Cruz's
Porter College shot himself in the head with a shotgun, blowing his body
off a fourth-floor dorm balcony.

And last month, freshman Emma Freeman, 18, was charged with brandishing a
pistol in two local armed robberies with her boyfriend, Anthony Cristofani,
23, a senior. A preliminary hearing is scheduled March 26.

``It seems we've had more than our fair share of bad luck,'' university
spokeswoman Liz Irwin said. ``In a large community, the odds are that these
kinds of incidents will occur. The fact that they haven't in the past is
all the more remarkable.''

Jennifer Urbach-Teague, a student who works at the East Field House, a
recreational facility, said the recent incidents have cast a gloom over the
scenic campus, set among the misty redwoods overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

``It's been weird,'' Urbach-Teague said. ``It's affected people's ability
to get things done and concentrate.''

Added Austyn Steelman, 18, a freshman: ``It's creepy.''

According to the sheriff's office, Begbie climbed to the pool house roof
sometime after 10 p.m. Friday when it was closed and took a running leap
toward the pool. Employees found his body at 9 the next morning at the
bottom of the pool.

No foul play is suspected in Begbie's death, yet no one has surfaced as a
witness to what was seemingly a stunt gone awry, sheriff's officials said.
If Begbie's fateful leap was an attempt to impress friends, they haven't
come forward to say they saw it.

A colorful sign outside Begbie's Oakes College dorm room said, ``We Love
You Matt.'' A dorm manager posted himself as a guard outside, turning away
reporters. University employees and campus police refused to comment,
referring inquiries to the public relations department.

Alcohol is not allowed at public events on campus, and ``it's expected that
people don't have it on campus,'' Irwin said. But students said liquor
flows freely at many campus parties and that they can easily get older
students to buy it for them.

The death stunned friends and administrators at Monterey High School, where
Begbie was regarded as an ace student and a star athlete with a promising
future.

Begbie was an honor student who played high school football his freshman
year and soccer all four years, being named most valuable player on his
varsity soccer team, his father said. The elder Begbie described his son as
``a talented artist who loves sports, vintage muscle cars and animals.''

``We're just devastated,'' Monterey High School Assistant Principal Alicia
La Salle said. ``We're just really in shock. Matt was an excellent student.
He was a very active student. He was a very nice young man, very
well-liked, and respected by all the students and staff.''