Opinion

UC Davis officials trumpeted the news proudly the week before Picnic Day - "Safe Party Initiative cuts students' high-risk drinking," read a story in the Sacramento Bee. "Report: Binge drinking declines," read another in the Davis Enterprise.

If you had only read the headlines, you might have thought UC Davis students had given up hard drinking altogether, trading in those ubiquitous red Solo cups for bluebooks and #2 pencils.

Friday morning I got a text from a friend asking me if I'd like to accompany her to the Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference the following afternoon to see her roommate present some research she'd been working on. Slightly embarrassed, I asked for more information and admitted I had never heard of the conference before.

So at the risk of furthering Twitter's disturbingly expansive reach into popular culture, I'm going to spend this week talking about it. Putting aside for a moment that the concept of Twitter is more than a little mystifying (despite many millions of dollars in funding from venture capitalists, it has yet to produce even a single dollar of revenue), let's discuss a frightening concept that's been spread in recent weeks: Twitter journalism (my initial thinking when I heard the phrase was "Oh dear God," followed by banging my head against my desk. Twitter journalism? What?).

The American auto industry is one hell of a lemon. This week, governmental debt bringers are sinking another $5.5 billion in taxpayer money into GM and Chrysler, two sputtering corporate giants who can no longer find first gear. In realistic terms, this cash is just a survival stopgap - without intelligent cooperation between industry and government, loans won't repair the auto market, just buy it another tank of gas. In short, we need to put new ideas at the wheel. (Man, I really went full throttle into that car metaphor.)

About three weeks ago I was sitting in my room minding my own business, listening to the rain pitter-patter gently against my window, when it hit me. Without warning. On the forehead.

It was water, and it was leaking through my ceiling.

Super Senior,

Why is it that upperclassmen find the DC to be such an enticing place to eat? I would like to understand so that I will be better prepared for falling victim to it myself when I check out of dorms. But seriously ... the food is only good for days when a multitude of prospective students will be dining there, which coincidentally means that there is nowhere to sit, and more to the point you stare at the same food over and over and over again until some of it starts to look like it is just perpetually left over.

- Trying to Regain my Appetite

A lot of men are unsatisfied with their abilities to attract women and have nowhere to go for help. And where they do go for help, they are met with heaps of misinformation. Most men learn from pop-culture e.g. movies, TV shows, magazines or other incredulous sources. This cloud of useless information leads some men toward further low self-esteem, low confidence, feelings of inferiority and hopelessness.

One of the least discussed problems at UC Davis is the under representation, both politically and in popular awareness, of the international student population.

They currently represent around 2,500 students or almost 10 percent of the student population, yet at times they seem almost non-represented. More should be done.

Summer is rad - totally, way rad. Everyone wants to have the perfect summer. There are songs and movies and poems written by 13 year-old girls about it. You know that summer has hit when the Facebook statuses start gloating about it. 48 hours later, everyone is whining that they're bored.

A five-cent tax increase on all ASUCD commercial units' credit card transactions has been in effect since Jan. 1. The decision was passed by the University Rate Group on Jan. 23 without student approval or representation.Michael Allred, associate vice chancellor of finance, said Accounting and Financial Services "would welcome student feedback" regarding the tax increase reported in Monday's Aggie. The ASUCD Senate, however, did not learn of the tax until roughly two weeks ago.

Somewhere between our youthful commitment to whatever lifestyle our parents raised us with and a midlife crisis, most college students put the idea of religion behind them. Succumbing to an authority figure, with its rules and regulations, and lack of tangible force doesn't fit well in the schema of our college lives.

Let's be honest, we all have our bad weeks. I'm not talking about anything serious (although those happen, too), I'm talking about those times when tons of little annoyances just add up and the tiniest thing can make you break down into tears of self-pity. Take right now, for example. I should be happy as a clam (which I'm pretty sure means that I should be pretty gosh-darn happy, although I never understood how clams became the mascot for happiness).

For months you tried to plant the seeds of romance by being a genuine and thoughtful friend, often consoling her and listening to her complain about how Stage 3 douchebags (if you're confused about the stages, I encourage you to check out last week's column) seem to be a dime a dozen in this shanty town.

And all the while you wondered if she was blind.

I want to murder my toilet. Lately, it has decided to go rogue and do everything it's not supposed to do. One day, I'll open the lid in hopes of (ahem) "dropping the kids off at the pool," and see that there is absolutely no water in it.

Being a student at one of the world's largest public universities makes avoiding passionate debaters practically impossible.

Most of the time such debate appears to be intelligent. You'll simply overhear a few of your peers calmly tossing out points and counter-points, secretly nod your head at the validity of their claims, and decide to get moving to your next class.