Did anyone else catch that sermon President Obama gave the other day? It was cleverly disguised as a commencement speech for the graduating class of Notre Dame.On May17,amidst complaints and protests from Notre Dame alumni and other Catholics,Barack Obama received an honorary degree and gave such a moving,passionate speech that I honestly felt like I was sitting in church just by watching it on YouTube.

Summertime means barbeques with the gang,picnics at the park and day parties by the pool.But don’t let the weekend meal sabotage your favorite swimsuit.With all the taste,but none of the guilt,here is a healthy twist on a traditional summertime meal as prescribed by Professor Francene M.Steinberg,Dr.Emily Cena and Dr.Liz Applegate of the UC Davis department of nutrition.

Student-athletes to host ‘Aggie Idol‘ tonight The UC Davis Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will host its third annualAggie Idol competition today at Freeborn Hall.The event is scheduled to start at7p.m.with tickets costing$8at the door.

Event:NCAA Championships Where:Caves Valley Golf Club – Owing Mills,Md. When:Today through Friday; all day Who to watch:Sophomore Alice Kim will serve as the lone Aggie representing UC Davis at the NCAA Championships this year. Kim led the UC Davis women’s golf team with four top-five individual finishes.She boasts an impressive73.4stroke average through33rounds of play. Did you know? Don’t let Kim’s class standing fool you.She already has NCAA Championships experience on her side. A principle part of now retired coach Kathy DeYoung’s “Cinderella” team from last year,Kim posted a team-best300over the four-day title event at the New Mexico Championship Course in Albuquerque,N.M.The Aggies finished at No.21in the nation as a team.

Tragedy struck for two junior UC Davis students on Friday May 8. Eunice Park, a junior communication major, died in a car crash while driving home to Los Angeles to surprise her parents for Mother’sDay. She brought along friend and roommate Jackie Garayar. In Nees, Calif. just outside of Fresno, at around 4p.m on I-5, Park lost control of her vehicle white changing lanes, flipping over into incoming traffic. It took paramedics roughly 30 minutes to get to the scene, where she was pronounced brain dead. Park was then air-lifted to the Fresno Community Hospital and put on life support.

After a breakout series against UC Riverside last weekend, the UC Davis baseball team hit the road looking for consecutive series wins for the first time all year. Unfortunately for the Aggies, they ran into the No. 1 team in the country. UC Irvine won all three games between the two clubs, earning its sixth Big West Conference sweep of the season in the process. The Anteaters jumped out to an early lead and then coasted to a 9-3 victory on Friday. That’s as close as UC Davis would get to UC Irvine, as the Anteaters’ took Saturday’s game by 13 before posting a seven-run win Sunday. UC Davis looks to turn things back around when it heads to Stanford to take on the Cardinal today at 5:30 p.m. from Sunken Diamond.

Many of us are conditioned from the get-gothat going to collegeis the key to success.If you work hardandgetyour undergraduatedegree,thenyouare on the fast track to livin‘ the good life.This is America,damn it,and we can be whatever we want to be. Well,this is indeed America,but whatthose in the graduating class of2009likely failed to account for intheir collectivedreams was graduating amidst the hail of the worst economicstorm since the Great Depression.

As college students,we’re often forced to endure difficult situations that we would rather simply avoid,postponeor ignore. We can all imagine how much easier our lives would be if turning our back on an especially rough midterm and running for the hills without consequence were considered a viable option.Unfortunately,our society has taught us the importance of personal accountability,and we know that such reckless inaction and negligence would be catastrophic when it came to impacting our public image.

Well my minions,with just two more columns to go,I feel like I have so much left to say.Alas,after writing many advice columns,I’ve decided that this one will be my last, “How to…” article. I’ve realized that over the years,my columns usually revolve around some aspect of a shitty relationship (I suppose because it’s so easy to obtain one).But with one last piece of advice to give,I want to leave on an optimistic note about the one thing I know a little bit about (but not by choice of course) – and that is how to be so awesomely single.

In a given quarter, 1,500 to 2,000 UC Davis students do not pay their fees on time. Beginning in the fall, those students will be in for a rude surprise when the fee payment deadline passes. Traditionally, students could pay their fees as late as ten days into the quarter without being dropped from their classes and were just assessed a $50 late fee. But beginning in the fall, students who fail to pay their fees by the deadline will be dropped from their classes. The existing system is unfair to students who pay their fees on time and prevents students from moving from the waitlists and into classes, said Barbara Noble, senior associate registrar.

Davis was ranked as one of America’s “Top 25 towns to live well,” according to Forbes Magazine. Davis was ranked 19 out of 25 towns. Forbes defines a town as any area with a population less than 100,000. Towns considered for ranking had to have the power to attract business through their environments and resources. Characteristics such as the number of museums, parks, bars, restaurantsand cultural institutions per capita were considered. Forbes states that these factors indicate a favorable business environment. California towns dominated the list, receiving eight of the 25 spots. Boulder, Colo. received the top ranking. Davis met all of Forbes’ standards.

There is no way to describe the strange noise that came out of my mouth when I walked past the Davis Creamery a month ago and noticed a gourmet cupcake advertisement.This food combination was like if Disneyland had fused with Sea World– kind of random but still a really good idea. The Davis Creamery makes and sells chocolate,vanilla,coffee,peppermint,chocolate mint,strawberry,salted caramel,cheesecake,cupcake and lemon custard ice cream on a regular basis.It’s currently offering three new fruit sorbet flavors,including Very Berry,Pomegranate Raspberryand Mango.