Opinion

Considering that this Saturday is St.Despicable’s Day,it’s fitting that I finish going over proper Breakup Protocol.Now before anybody gets huffy,I’m legally obligated by the state of California to acknowledge that everyone is different and stereotyping is a no-no (especially when the frowny-pants guys over at the ACLU give me a call).

Student government is usually pretty harmless.Aside from the occasional overly ambitious candidate soliciting signatures for the Association’s quarterly popularity contest,often loosely referred to as an election,its direct impact on student life is rather minimal.In fact,whenthey’renot spending countless hours mesmerized by the sounds of their own voice,I’d reckon that ASUCD officials are relatively normal and competent people.

UC Davis reports the highest level of sexual assaults and violence on campus of any school in the UC system. Due to recent budget cuts,these high offense rates could be on the rise. The UC Davis Gender Education program will be cut following the2008-2009school year if it is not added to the budget of the Women’s Resources and Research Center.

If you’re lucky enough to have a professor who uses it and knows it well,Smartsite can be an extremely useful class resource.But for many students,the “cutting edge” courseware technology is full of problems. Smartsite,the online course collaboration tool,was introduced on campus in2006and fully implemented in2007.Since then,the tool has received mixed reviews from the students and faculty who use it.

Today’s approval of the proposal proves to us that the UC Board of Regents will stop at nothing to achieve their desired diversity quota, even if it comes at the cost of the entire California education system. When you guarantee admittance to a higher proportion of the lowest performing high schools, and lower the proportion of the top students in the state, it is absurd to think that the quality of students will do anything but go down.

I’ve always been jealous of those who rant.It may seem a strange thing to envy,but people who get passionate about a topic and then get annoyed,angry,and just lay into someoneseem so emotionally free.Granted,they may also be criminally unbalanced,but that’s a topic for another day.There’ve been times in my life I wish I had yelled or screamed; sometimes I wish I could be a royal bitch who just calls it like I see it.Alas,that’s not me.But as I began to work on this week’s column,I was determined that I too could be an effective ranter.

Low voter turnout for ASUCD elections has been a conversation topic among student government types for a long time.It gets talked about each election season and is the reason nearly every senatorial candidate feels obligated to spend an inordinate amount of time talking about outreach.

This past Tuesday, January 20th the ASUCD Academic Affairs commission reviewed ASUCD Senator Jack Zwald’s resolution to uphold UC admissions Standards.  For those of you who have not heard of the issue facing the UC system today here is some background.  The UC Regents have proposed to lower UC admission standards across the board.  The proposition up for a vote in early February threatens to eliminate the SAT Subject Tests as a requirement and bring down the number of top high school students guaranteed admission to at least one UC from 12 percent to 9 percent.

I’m nearing the end of my time here at UC Davis, and I realized this weekend while playing sloshball in Slide Hill Park that no one ever told me what to expect of this humble township when I first began this four five year adventure.

The stimulus package laboriously working its way through Congress has huge implications, both politically and economically, for our generation and for students especially.

Andrew Hufferd was a friend of mine I’ve known since our high school days, so sitting down with the returning GI for an interview was difficult. I’d always called him ‘AJ.‘ While I drafted interview questions, I found myself stricken with what I reflect on now as one of the greatest quandaries of modern warfare. What do you ask a soldier anymore?

KEVIN BURK can be reached at xavierholt@gmail.com