The Jackson siblings, who attended Davis between 1969 and 1978, compare contemporary university culture to their own experiences
By ZOEY MORTAZAVI — features@theaggie.org
Three siblings — John Jackson (73), Linda Jackson Becker (71) and Rob Jackson (68) — moved from Philadelphia to Santa Rosa, California when they were growing up in the 1950s. UC Davis seemed like the natural choice for university for John, the eldest brother. The other two siblings followed suit, with Linda and Rob’s Davis careers overlapping by two years, while John and Linda’s overlapped by one year.
The Jacksons revisited UC Davis on Nov. 14, 2024 — 55 years after John began his education at the university in 1969. The siblings noticed dramatic changes compared to when they attended the school: general facilities, student-to-faculty relations, student population and diversity-centered differences, just to name a few. The Jackson siblings expressed that they all enjoyed their college experiences at Davis, noting modern similarities in on-campus discourse.
To get a more established sense of how academic operations have changed, Rob and Linda both attended courses just last week that they took during their own Davis careers. After their experiences watching the lectures, The California Aggie sat down with Rob, Linda and John to discuss some of their takeaways about how Davis has — and has not — changed throughout the 46 years that have passed since the last Jackson sibling graduated.
Rob, who attended Davis as an English major and later graduated from the UC Davis School of Law, attended ENG 117, which focuses predominantly on Shakespearean literature. John, though he was unable to find a lecture to attend that day, graduated from Davis in 1973 with a degree in mathematics and later attended the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Linda, who graduated from UCD with a degree in cognitive development and child education, attended EDU 110, a course in educational psychology — which, she noted, was her favorite class as a Davis student.
In addition to general classroom structure, class participation and overall technological advances, Linda also commented on how much on-campus diversity has changed since the 1970s.
“It was just really inspiring to see the diversity in the classroom,” Linda said after sitting in on the lecture.
Linda also noted that it was a bit of a shock to see the amount of students taking notes on laptops, rather than using pen and paper, to which Rob agreed.
“The makeup of the class was roughly the same — I counted 32 students, two guys,” Rob said. “What stood out to me with the technology [was] that the professor could give visuals that we never had.”
Rob proceeded to compare the convenience of having visual aids to his own process of trying to make sense of Shakespearean plays during his college years. This process consisted of him going to the much-smaller Shields Library to check out LP tapes of the plays, which you couldn’t rewind, and listening to them on repeat until some level of understanding was reached.
One of the concepts the Jacksons were the most curious about was AI in the modern university setting. After it was explained that many professors at Davis and beyond are taking measures to shift the use of AI to being more beneficial than harmful, the three siblings agreed that it seems that students today have the ability to understand content more expeditiously due to not just the technology, but also the expanded number of resources being offered.
They proceeded to share that academic and other resources for students were very minimal in the 1970s compared to today. When disclosing some of the campus groups, student research options and mental health resources offered at Davis, they seemed surprised to realize the amount of resources that students have today. With these modern advantages, though, come modern disadvantages.
For the three, the thought of contemporary tuition rates, rent and even food was almost unfathomable. During their time at Davis, the three paid $212 per quarter for their tuition; John even commented that he paid $50 per month for his rent living in a Davis apartment, while averages now extend far beyond what they used to pay. They seemed a bit disturbed to find that many students now work and provide for themselves in order to afford basic food and living expenses — something that was much less of a concern during their own college years.
“We all had side jobs for spending money, but we were talking around 12-15 hours a week,” Linda said. “My daughter worked 36 hours a week, alongside a full load. What I’ve noticed is that kids now are just surviving; their focus is not solely on school, it’s about survival, and about paying the bills.”
When asked what some of their preferred extracurricular activities were as Aggies, Rob remarked that he drove Unitrans buses when he attended Davis. The three were happy to hear that the old school double-decker buses have not gone completely extinct from the community, and now even offer service to and from the Davis Farmers Market on Saturdays.
John shared that he often participated in intramural or recreational sports, which remain very popular at Davis for students — though sport and exercise-based resources, including the development of the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) have since occurred.
It was also revealed that during the 1970s, Greek life at Davis was viewed as being an elitist institution that most students avoided. Linda, who described that theirs was the hippie generation, commented that Greek life was often seen as very exclusionary and even classist. This system has changed significantly, with philanthropic efforts often being at the forefront of contemporary fraternity and sorority life in universities today.
“My take is that it was kind of the anti-’50s,” John said. “We were considered kind of ‘awakened.’”
They also described that student protests were present during their time as students. John said that protests associated with the Vietnam War “really died down in the late ‘60s,” though Linda commented that her father was worried that she would be hurt on campus in the face of protests associated with the war, which concluded during her third year at Davis.
While they expressed that Davis held fewer protests than other campuses, there has been a long-existing presence of college protesters responding to global political issues and human rights violations. These acts of student expression and political commentary have been an integral part of university life, with Davis and other UCs serving as examples.
Despite the overall positive memories that the siblings associate with their college experiences, John remarked that he wishes Davis conducted more outreach to establish a more active alumni network. As the Jacksons expressed, a public university system like the UCs could likely do more to reach out and invite back past students and staff to engage with current campus life.
“The university could encourage [inviting] the alumni back,” John said. “Just to make it easier — you know, like [Rob and Linda] were able to do today. Reach out to them and say, ‘Hey, come sit in on this event or this class, or anything like that.’”
UC Davis has come a long way over the last several decades, as this conversation with Rob, John and Linda seemed to affirm. Davis has transformed from just Berkeley’s agricultural school into a diverse, expansive research institution that is not only academically renowned and competitive for applicants, but also seeks to supply its students with as much hands-on experience as possible.
To conclude the interview, the Jacksons and Jackson Becker shared some advice for current students attending Davis.
“Walking around here, I wanted to get up on a park bench and scream: this is going to be the best time of your life!” Rob said. “Right now. It will truly never be better than this. Lord knows there’s enough pressure on college kids, and to characterize college as [being] stress-free is not right […] I remember, my dad told me the same thing when he dropped me off here.”
John continued by disclosing his own advice for current Aggies.
“Take this opportunity to grow,” John said. “I mean you don’t have the weight of the world on your shoulders, you don’t have to take care of your family and you just hope that no one’s trying to step on each other to get to some other place — so just enjoy the opportunity that this is.”
Finally, Linda shared advice about stepping outside of your comfort zone and past experiences during college.
“Think outside of your family, outside of the way you were raised and entertain other ways of looking at the world,” Linda said. “You can learn a lot from people. Get out of your bubble. It’s so important — especially the way things are right now.”
Written by: Zoey Mortazavi — features@theaggie.org
