Darkstar is the Science Fiction and Gaming Club at the University of
California, San Diego. The club was formed in 1978 to gather together
all those interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and somehow
has survived intact to the present day.
Affiliation with UCSD is not necessary to participate in the club:
we have a vast and diverse array of members including UCSD
students, staff, alumni, as well as members of the wider San Diego
community otherwise unaffiliated with the university.
We meet for socializing (aka "dinner meetings") Thursday evenings at
7:30pm at one of a number of restaurants.
We also hold regular monthly boardgaming sessions, maintain a
large lending library, watch movies,
show movies on campus, go stargazing, attend conventions, and more.
For more information about the club, please continue to read below,
or come to one of our meetings or events. You may contact us via email
at darkstar@ucsd.edu.
Bored? Our Club Constitution
is available for your reading pleasure.
To receive email announcements of events and meetings,
as well as the occasional SF- or gaming-related discussion,
join one of our two mailing lists:
![[Picture of Office Entrance]](http://darkstar.ucsd.edu/darkstar.images/misc/smoffice.jpg)
Our office and library are located in the colorful
Ché Café complex of buildings at the south end
of the UCSD campus, across the street from the main campus
cooling plant.
For directions to the Che Cafe, see UCSD's
Maps and Driving Directions page.
As of Fall 2006, parking is free on the weekends in all standard
spaces (including meters).
| Office Hours for Fall 2009: |
| To be updated |
Our office phone is (858) 534-7491, but we're only
likely to answer it during the office hours listed above.
We do respond to all messages left on our answering machine,
though it might take several weeks for us to get back to you.
Darkstar's extensive library contains more than 4,000 fiction
and non-fiction books within the science fiction and fantasy
genres. Additionally, our collection of such magazines as
Fantasy & Science Fiction and
Astounding
reaches back to the early 1940s.
Borrowing privileges are extended to Darkstar members (student &
community members alike) and to students/staff of UCSD. If you're
not a club member, it's easy to become one: just show up at one of our
meetings every Thursday evening.
Our library is named after Anne Proud, a long-time Los
Angeles-area science fiction reader whose extensive collection formed
the nucleus of our library. We are grateful to her and her estate for
their generosity.
Search the Darkstar Library Catalog:
Our Pulp/Magazine holdings:
Get Involved with the Library!
If you'd like to help out with the library, please
contact our library committee mailing list at
dslib@darkstar.ucsd.edu.
We hold semi-regular work parties where we sort, catalog,
and shelve new and returning books. We can always use
extra help -- no experience is necessary!
Donations to our Library
We gladly accept donations of genre books and magazines.
Please contact us for more details.
Generally, e-mail may be sent to
darkstar@ucsd.edu. Mail sent to this address is automatically
forwarded to the officers of the club.
If, on the other hand, you'd like to e-mail a specific officer,
try one of the following addresses:
If you'd like to send us postal mail, here's our address:
Darkstar
University of California, San Diego
Mail Code 0077 C-46
La Jolla, CA 92093-0077
The buildings comprising the
Ché Café complex
were built in 1922 on US Army land which is now UCSD's Thornton Hospital.
In 1959, the Army ceded control over
Camp Matthews
to the newly-established UCSD; and in 1966 the three buildings were
moved across campus to create the university's first student center.
Since 1966, the complex has housed a short-order grill, the campus newspaper,
and several student organizations. Currently, Darkstar shares the complex
with the eponymous
Ché Café Collective, who host frequent alternative music
shows and the occasional all-you-can-eat vegan meal.
![[Darkstar]](/new/images/title.png)