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ASUCD senators to discuss $11.8 million Association budget this weekend

Campus Editor
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ASUCD senators to discuss $11.8 million Association budget this weekend

This weekend, the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD) budget hearings will be held to determine the funding of each ASUCD unit for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

From Friday through Sunday, ASUCD officials will discuss and vote on how best to distribute their budget among each of the 24 ASUCD units. Among these units are the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo), Unitrans, KDVS, the Entertainment Council, The California Aggie and several other notable campus organizations.

The budget is proposed by the ASUCD president based on financial analysis of each unit by the Controller’s office, discussion with individual unit directors and unit tours by the president and vice president to attain qualitative and quantitative data about the needs of each unit.

The proposed total operating budget for the 2012-2013 school year is $11.1 million.

However, ASUCD must also account for the payment of new taxes, which as of recently have amounted to about $60,000.

“Unfortunately, these taxes are not one time taxes,” ASUCD President Rebecca Sterling said in an e-mail interview.  “This is just the first year we are seeing these taxes, and they are only scheduled to increase in the coming years.”

To accommodate for the payment of these taxes, as well as to assist in the association’s recovery from what Sterling called a “deficit year,” several units will face the risk of financial cuts this weekend.

The taxes stand to possibly affect the future funding of any and all units of ASUCD. However, some of the units may be more financially secure than others.

“There are certain areas that will probably be cut more,” said ASUCD Senator Bradley Bottoms. “I doubt Unitrans, the CoHo or Tipsy Taxi will be receiving many cuts.”

On the other hand, Bottoms did state his belief that outside organizations and events such as general grants programs and cultural days are more likely to face cuts since they are not actual affiliates of ASUCD, but rather recipients of funding from ASUCD.

Furthermore, Bottoms stated his belief that potential cuts made to organizations such as KDVS or Project Compost would likely pertain to expensive equipment rather than student positions.

According to both Sterling and Bottoms, among ASUCD’s largest priorities are protecting the largest amount of student employment and leadership opportunities within ASUCD’s own units.

“Units come first,” Bottoms said. “They are the base of ASUCD, what we have established in our organization, our source of student jobs.”

Bottoms emphasized ASUCD’s dedication to the preservation of students’ employment and leadership positions by stating that the senators will strive to make decisions that increase the amount of such opportunities.

“Student employment is the one area [senators] are not willing to compromise in cuts,” Bottoms  said. “Our students’ employment is one of the most important parts of our association.”

Beyond casting their own votes to preserve student interests, though, ASUCD senators encourage students to attend the budget hearings for themselves and make their opinions on platforms heard.

Expression of the wants and needs of the public may be of such value to ASUCD senators because, according to ASUCD Controller Melanie Maemura, many of the most divisive issues are ultimately decided based on senators’ own interpretations of the ASUCD mission statement.

The essence of this mission, according to the web page of President Rebecca Sterling, is “true student representation.”

Student attendance and participation affords ASUCD senators an opportunity to hear the voice of the public, which, Bottoms stated, has swayed senators’ decisions on issues in the past.

“The most contentious issues are philosophical ones relating to our mission statement as an Association,” Maemura said. “The biggest question is: how can we produce a budget that ensures our Association remains financially healthy and robust, but also maintains our unique range of services?”

The hearings begin at 5 p.m. this Friday in the Mee Room in the Memorial Union.  Budget hearings will continue in the ARC Conference Room 1 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday.

DYLAN GALLAGHER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Arts Week

Arts Editor
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MUSIC
ASUCD EC presents: TIPPER // KRADDY // JOE DADDY
Tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Freeborn Hall, $16 (general)/$12 (student)
Entertainment Council brings TIPPER, a prodigy of electronic music tracing back to the UK rave scene of the late 90’s, and KRADDY, an LA based electronic music artist who brings the sound of underground to new audiences. This will be a loud and exciting night in addition to the events during the first night of Whole Earth Festival.

Vocal Art Ensemble
Saturday, May 12 at 7:30 p.m.
United Methodist Church of Davis, 1620 Anderson Road
Sunday, May 13 at 4 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis, 27074 Patwin Road
Suggested donations of $6 to 20
Vocal Art Ensemble, a Davis-based a cappella choral group, performs this weekend at various locations. Poems by Shakespeare, Frost and Rumi will be utilized, and poetry enactments will be directed by Russell St. Clair of Daedalus Performance Company.

Spring Quad Show Series: Oak & Gorski
Tuesday, May 15 at 12 p.m.
West Quad, free
Entertainment Council brings Oak & Gorski, a group with the cello as the lead instrument. After creating their own unique brand of “cello rock,” Oak & Gorski have four albums under their belt and a variety of major placements on television and film. This group has self-booked 12 national and international tours and sold over 30,000 albums — notably, they’ve even shared the stage with Sara Bareilles, Mumford & Sons and Far East Movement.

ART/GALLERY
Summer Solstice SUNday 2012: Call for artists & participants
Tomorrow
If you’re a musician or a designer or involved in the advancement of solar energy, interested in showing your art or creating sun-themed sculptures, tomorrow is the last day to get involved with Summer Solstice SUNday 2012, a festival at the East Area Water Tank. This event takes place June 24 and celebrates the shadows on the new kinetic art installation, Same Sun, falling into place for the first time. Email sofia@lcmuralanddesign.com. More information can be found at http://davistank.blogspot.com.

Gallery 1855: Photographic Works of Pete Eckert
Open House & Reception: Sunday, May 13 at 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
On display throughout May 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday
Davis Cemetery District Office, 820 Pole Line Road
Internationally acclaimed artist Pete Eckert, founder of the Blind Photographer’s Guild, is celebrated in an exhibition of his framed photographic works in order to both intrigue and inspire the public.

THEATRE/MONDAVI
Studio 301: RENT
Tonight through Sunday, May 13 & May 17 to 20
8 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Wyatt Pavillion, $16 (general)/$14 (student)
Studio 301 Productions brings the world-famous Tony-and-Pulitzer-Prize-winning rock musical RENT to Wyatt Pavillion starting tonight. The show is directed by Mitchell VanLandingham with musical direction by Elizabeth Tremaine and stage manager Marissa Saravis.

The Memorandum
Tonight to tomorrow at 8 p.m., May 12 at 2 p.m.
Thursday, May 17 to May 19 at 8 p.m.
Wright Hall, Lab A, free
The UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance’s Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance presents The Memorandum, written by Vaclav Havel, translated by Vera Blackwell and directed by Alejandro Torres. The production will integrate projections, live video, wacky props, physical comedy, artificial words and the festivities of a massive office party.

Magik*Magik String Quartet
Tuesday, May 15 at 8 p.m. $30 (general)/$15 (student)
Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center
The Mondavi Center Aggie Arts Program presents the Magik*Magik String Quartet, a subset of the San Francisco based Magik*Magik Orchestra. Their mission is to attract new listeners and participants to the orchestral experience. During their Mondavi debut, this performance will explore the duality between chaos and order by performing pairings of music illustrating the contrasts that exist within musical styles.

Movie review: Dark Shadows

Arts Editor
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In Review: Dark Shadows
3 out of 5 stars
Run time: 113 minutes
Rated PG-13
Opens tomorrow at Regal Davis Stadium 5, 420 G St.

In the grand scheme of cinematic vampires, Barnabas Collins is, honestly, kind of a square.

He’s too gentlemanly to be scary, like Nosferatu or Dracula. His wardrobe is perpetually 200 years out of date, meaning he could never secretly live amongst the locals à la Edward Cullen. And with his stiff posture and raccoon eyes, his sex appeal is no match for Tom Cruise’s Lestat de Lioncourt (although no less than four women succumb to Barnabas’ advances throughout the course of the movie, so clearly I know nothing about vampire hotness).

So, how do you turn a polite, unfashionable, decidedly unsexy vampire into the hero of a film based on an equally lame ’60s TV show?

Put him in a beanbag chair and have him wax poetic about ’70s love songs, naturally.

This stranger-in-a-strange-land premise is the formula that director Tim Burton and his eight-time collaborator/muse/cash cow/BFF Johnny Depp follow in the black comedy Dark Shadows, and it works — to an extent. There’s still that pesky thing called “plot,” and the joy of seeing an 18th century vampire thrown into the groovy ’70s doesn’t quite save the film’s snoozer of a story.

It’s 1972 when Barnabas (Depp) is discovered buried alive, trapped in a coffin since 1776. A playboy of sorts, heir to a Maine fishing empire, Barnabas makes the mistake of admitting to girlfriend-of-the-month Angelique (a delightfully campy Eva Green) that he doesn’t love her, proving once and for all that hell indeed hath no fury like a woman scorned. It turns out she’s a witch, and after sending his true love Josette to her death, she curses poor Barnabas to vampire-dom and locks him in that dreaded box.

But things begin to look up for Barnabas when he is finally released and, above ground for the first time in nearly 200 years, he goes in search of his former home, the grand, gothic Collinwood Manor. Inhabiting the drafty house (which looks, on the inside, suspiciously like Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion) are Barnabas’ descendants, a ragtag group of misfits including sweet nanny Victoria (Bella Heathcote), an alcoholic groundskeeper (Jackie Earle Haley), psychedelic psychiatrist Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter, who else), matriarch Elizabeth Collins (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her daughter Carolyn (Chloe Moretz).

It’s Barnabas’ interactions with the Collinwood residents and landmarks of ’70s culture (macrame and lava lamps, anyone?) where the film really shines, mainly due to Depp’s spot-on comedic timing and stately but lovable portrayal of the hopelessly out-of-place Barnabas. Never has it been more abundantly clear that Depp is, despite his penchant for the bizarre, first and foremost a comedian, and most of the film’s laughs belong to him. A scene in which he asks a group of hippies for love advice is particularly amusing.

But back to the plot, and where the film falls into a trap that I suspect is inevitable for many TV-to-film adaptations. How do you make a fresh two-hour movie out of a TV show that has already created new drama for its characters throughout — in the case of “Dark Shadows,” more than 1,000 episodes?

Apparently, you manufacture a conflict that feels neither fresh nor new. Angelique, a member of the undead herself and still hanging around Barnabas’ old stomping grounds, is now the head of her own fishing company that has dwarfed the Collins family’s. Of course, this infuriates Barnabas, and he sets off to restore the Collins name and destroy Angelique. Shenanigans ensue. After being introduced to the wickedly wonderful Barnabas and Co., it’s pretty much a letdown.

It’s a shame, because Burton creates an appropriately creepy yet silly first half that allows the viewer to glimpse what an inspired film this could have been, if only it hadn’t been saddled with such a boring plot. Having compelling characters is one thing; having them do compelling things is quite another. Only the former is accomplished.

Still, I expect Dark Shadows’ broad comedy and Depp’s star power to make the film a hit at the box office, and I’m OK with that. The rather unsatisfying conclusion, which Burton has said is a nod to the never-ending nature of soap operas, leaves the possibility of a sequel open. Perhaps someday we’ll get to see Barnabas discover the magic of Cabbage Patch dolls and acid-washed jeans. That’s something I’d pay to see.

ERIN MIGDOL can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Progress Ranch director transitions into retirement

City Editor
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Progress Ranch director transitions into retirement
Progress Ranch, a group home for boys with behavioral problems that make them ineligible for foster care, will be entering its own phase of progression. Its current director, Russell Kusama, will retire at the end of the year.
Kusama has been with Progress Ranch since 1978, almost since the organization’s beginning in 1976.
Some things, such as location, may have changed with the organization, but Kusama said the most important thing is that it managed to maintain its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.
“We’ve been able to maintain a point-and-level system,” Kusama said. “We have a very strong program that provides resilience, operating on the concept of not failing until we’ve tried everything working with a youngster.”
The facility offers trained staff working around the clock as well as its own social worker and psychiatrist. They also offer individual and group therapy at the site.
“Through a program that is based on a behavior log and natural consequences, the kids are able to respond,” Kusama said. “It takes between one and three years to get them to a point where their behaviors might be retrained and they can go into a less restrictive setting.”
The organization also helps boys transition into mainstreaming by placing them in Davis public schools.
They are forced to operate within those parameters to keep their behaviors in check in school,” Kusama said.
If they’re ready, completers of the program move on to foster families or kinship homes. Some of them are even able to return home. Kids that aren’t ready for foster care are required to go to adolescent group homes.
The ability to help kids change their behavior for the better is what hooked Kusama at the beginning. He trained as a junior college teacher, but fell into counseling when he discovered a lack of jobs in the field.
“I first worked in a boys facility with 60 boys from ages 10 to 18,” Kusama said. “But I tell you, when I first came to Progress Ranch, it was more difficult working with three kids from this age group than it was working with an adolescent group of 12 boys.”
Though Kusama said their cognitive abilities and lack of impulse control makes them more difficult to deal with, he enjoyed working with younger kids because of their potential for improvement.
“One of the reasons I’m not still working with adolescents is because they don’t change,” Kusama said. “I went down an age group because I used to see kids going through the system and returning all the time. You stand a better chance of making some lasting changes in the kids you work with because of their age.”
Another aspect of the job Kusama enjoyed was community engagement. Progress Ranch promotes the participation of several organizations in Davis, as well as offering students an outlet to get some real-world experience in counseling.
Recently, the United States Forest Service built 30 raised beds for the facility’s backyard to help the boys grow a vegetable garden.
“Each kid had a plot and decided what vegetables they got to put in it,” Kusama said. “It worked out really well.”
Progress Ranch also worked with California Education through Animals in Vacaville.
“We went out to the ranch once every two weeks, and the kids got to learn about feeding, caring and the behavior of certain animals,” Kusama said.
The organization maintains an open attitude toward help from community members, including UC Davis students.
“We’ve had a lot of UC Davis students go through the program, offering opportunities for internships in human development and nutrition,” Kusama said. “We have a good relationship to UCD, promoting human services through our agency to the student population.”
It’s the collaboration with students that Kusama chose to emphasize in conclusion.
“I really liked this job and I enjoyed it,” Kusama said. “The collaboration with students worked out really well. It’s an ideal community to work with because of the student population, and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without participation from the community.”

EINAT GILBOA can be reached city@theaggie.org.

SHAWCing Tips: Stress

Campus Editor
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You probably need no reminder that stress is a commonly cited obstacle to health and wellness. Being stressed is itself an unpleasant feeling, one that can lead to weight gain and a weakened immune system by way of cortisol and other hormones. To manage stress unhealthily is another source of, well, stress.The American Psychological Association (APA) indicates that our generation leans on alcohol and food. What you may not have heard, and what the APA recently found, is that another metric is causing our generation still more stress.

The stress differential – the difference between how stress you feel and how much stress you think is healthy or normal for someone your age – is at its highest in five years for people born between 1980 and 1994, the Millennial generation. As you might have guessed, part of the problem here is that there are more reported stressors. Issues exacerbated by our financial climate, including money, work and the cost of housing, are the most commonly reported sources of stress.

Reading this is probably stressing you out more, so let’s get to solutions: Psychologists claim that coping with stress is a two-part process. First, how you appraise stressful situations is key. If you find your first response to a stressor is cursing below your breath or yelling at your roommate or wallowing in despair, practice instead the words, “Okay, that’s a challenge, but I can handle it.” Second, what you do about stress is important too. If there’s good news to be found in the APA study, it’s that our generation is notable for proactive stress-management techniques, ranging over exercise, meditation, mindfulness and yoga. And no one expects you to go it alone. Between CAPS, The House, Health and Education Promotion (HEP) and the Student Health Center, there are a number of places on campus that are willing to load your stress-management arsenal.

The ASUCD Student Health and Wellness Committee (SHAWC) aims to promote and address important health-related issues on campus. We serve as a liaison between ASUCD and campus health organizations, clubs and resources. If you have SHAWCing suggestions, questions or tips, please e-mail us at shawcucd@gmail.com and “Like” us on our Facebook page!

Who’s in that painting?

Science Editor
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At the University of California, Riverside, three scholars have begun a research project testing – for the first time – the use of facial recognition software to identify unknown subjects of portrait and sculpture art.
The project is called FACES (Faces, Art and Computerized Evaluation Systems). Project director and UC Riverside art history professor Conrad Rudolph hopes to use this cutting-edge facial recognition technology to help answer questions of political and social history surrounding unknown portraiture.
“A walk through almost any major museum will show a large number of these portraits from before the 19th century – many of them great works of art – have lost the identities of their subjects through the fortunes of time,” Rudolph said.

Testing will begin by comparing the death or life mask of a known individual to an identified sculptural portrait of the same individual. Using the results of this testing phase, the researchers must work through a number of issues that art mediums pose.

“With portraiture in sculpture, painting and drawing, not only do all the problems that apply to human subjects apply [lighting, angle, age, etc.], but these works of art have their own additional challenges,” Rudolph said. “Most notably, portrait art does not provide what might be called a photographic likeness but rather one that goes through a process of visual interpretation on the part of the artist.”
Furthermore, the type of paint or technique can drastically change the appearance of an individual within a portrait as well. According to UC Davis doctoral student in computer science Divya Banesh, who has looked into similar research ideas, some type of pre-processing procedure would have to be employed in order to “fix” a portrait individual’s likeness, in order to make the portrait recognizable to the software.
“[For example] many paintings that used the Impressionistic or Neo-Impressionistic techniques did not use expanses of color but short strokes or dots of paint,” Banesh said. “The human eye can stitch this together to create a coherent image, but a facial recognition software might not be able to do the same. It might be like a low-resolution pixelated image that needs to be improved in quality.”
If this initial phase of testing from a 3D lifemask to 3D imaging of the portrait is encouraging, Rudolph and his researchers hope to broaden their methods to address the issues posed by 2D images by starting with a comparison of portraits of the same subject by the same artist, then by different artists.
“We would systematically broaden testing from highly controlled paradigms to less controlled,” Rudolph said. “An important goal of FACES is to test identified portraits against unidentified portraits.”
If successful, the impact of this research on the art world would be unprecedented. Jeffrey Ruda, UC Davis art history professor specializing in the Italian Renaissance, looks ahead to wider research opened up by this project.
“By identifying differences from actual human anatomy, the software could help to define what kinds of interpretation show up in various cultures or in the work of individual artists,” Ruda said.

The study not only opens doors to enriching the understanding and learning of art history and its social and political impacts, but also demonstrates a way art can partner with science in an interdisciplinary way.

“This project will bring a new scientific objectivity to a traditionally highly subjective aspect of art history while at the same time retaining the human eye as the final arbiter,” Rudolph said.

RACHEL KUBICA can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

Plans begin for Memorial Union remodeling

Campus Editor
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Plans begin for Memorial Union remodeling
The Memorial Union (MU) is expected to receive a renovation sometime in the near future with the hopes of bringing new life to the facility.

Plans are currently being put forth for the remodeling of the East Wing, which now houses the Post Office, Campus Copies/Classical Notes and the Information Center. The project also includes a wayfaring initiative to improve the entrance to the MU from the bus terminal. Designs are barely in the development stage, and definitive decisions have yet to be made regarding what will be added to the wing. Ideas include additional lounge space and outdoor seating, an area for live entertainment, more retail space and a pub.

The project aims to be as student-oriented as possible in order to satisfy the desires of the general population.
“The more student input, the better,” said Brett Burns, Business Manager of ASUCD.
According to Burns, leaders from greek, intercollegiate athletics and various other organizations will have input on the plans. Two student representatives will sit on the Memorial Union Planning and Analysis Committee, and a Memorial Union Remodel Student Advisory Committee was established by ASUCD President Rebecca Sterling in collaboration with Executive Director of Campus Recreation John Campbell.
Sterling feels that the current state of the MU lacks the proper energy for such a central location.
“The Memorial Union is highly outdated, and is greatly lacking social space,” she said in an e-mail interview. “While our University is in a tight economic crunch, it is important that we preserve the quality of student life and experience.  As the Memorial Union is one of the main student hubs on campus, it is critical that students feel comfortable and a sense of ownership of this space, and as it is currently, that is simply missing.”
Sterling hopes the renovations will have a positive effect on the spirit of UC Davis.
“I believe this remodel has the potential of revitalizing the MU with a whole new energy and vibe,” she said.
Some students are skeptical if this year is an appropriate time to focus attention and funding toward the building.
“I feel that the MU is pretty functional as it is,” said Jordan Wade, a daily attendee of the MU. “Not to say that the space couldn’t be improved upon, but given the budget, there would have to be some very strong pros.”
Johnny Wiley, who sits on one of the committees that will have a say on the designs, is also unsure.
“I think it is a good idea, but I hesitate whether we have the budget to do that right now. Then again, we haven’t had our first meeting, so I don’t know yet,” he said.
Questions concerning the budget seem to be of major concern. According to Burns, however, the project has already been reduced significantly due to monetary limitations, and the cost should not be seen as a burden.
“It started off as a much larger project, and it’s been reduced in scope,” he said. “It might blossom up in the future, but because of reducing budget issues, the project has moved down to about a $15 million budget. I know this sounds like a lot of money, but it’s really not when you’re trying to do a large renewal program.”
According to Sterling, a reserve account has been accruing to absorb the costs the project will incur.
One of the more popular concepts for the new MU is the addition of a small pub.
“Many students have expressed interest in a pub in the MU, which would bring much energy to the facility,” Sterling said.

The concept, according to Burns, is a space in which students and faculty could interact with each other in a fun environment, much like the Bear Lair at UC Berkeley.

Regardless of any informal plans, it seems that the only thing certain is that nothing is certain.
“The student committee has yet to officially meet, so I cannot speak to what ideas will come from the committee,” Sterling said.
Burns asserts that even a general timeline is too premature.
“The key right now is simply getting students into the design exercise,” he said.
Burns also feels like the MU is in need of a new image that meets the modernity and functionality of buildings like the newly built Student Community Center.
“It’s a tired building. It needs to open up, with open, bright spaces like the Community Center,” he said. “The MU should be the heart of campus, because every school deserves to have a vibrant student union where students can socialize and study.”
Thought of as the unofficial center of campus, the MU sees roughly 10,000 to 15,000 people and 7,500 transactions at the CoHo every day. With such a large number, many seem to feel that the MU should look and feel as important as it is.
“Hopefully through the remodel, the MU will become the campus go-to socializing space for students,”  Sterling said.ADAM KHAN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.  

Column: Five of May

Opinion
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Cinco de Mayo, or Cinco de Drinko, as it’s lovingly called by some, is an American tradition celebrating our ability to celebrate anything. Together, those two phrases translate to “May I drink five times more than usual?” or something. Last week my friends and I answered that question with an enthusiastic “¡Sí!”
I was expecting a Picnic Day-like fervor on this special day, but there was an air of reverence around town. People waited until after noon to sip on tequila, open their Mexican brews, eat chips and salsa and sport the traditional canopy-sized sombrero. It’s the kind of restraint that shows a collective, respectful effort to truly understand another culture. Just more evidence that as a nation we are more progressive and empathetic than we’re given credit for.
This holiday is a rambunctious nod of approval to our southern neighbors, like the one we give every March 17 to the little green men that live across the pond. If as a culture you’re feeling a little underappreciated by the stars and stripes, just give us a date, show us how your citizens dress and we’ll love you for the rest of our drunken lives.
My friends and I honored Mexican Independence Day by grilling sausages, because fuck making sense. To make up for it, we had chips and salsa and drank Pacífico, a beer that got its start in Mazatlán, Mexico where it was invented in 1900 by Germans. Because, again, one does not simply make sense. We also played the customary Cinco de Mayo drinking games: baseball, flip cup and Beirut.
I’m going to stop there. Depending on your taste for history and sense for sarcasm, what you just read either made you mad, made you laugh or described your Saturday. More likely, you don’t think I’m funny, but you’re mad I’m making fun of a holiday. I get it. Most of us just want to have a good time and we get upset when douchebags like me distract us from doing that. But that’s kinda my point. If we weren’t so distracted with having fun, maybe we could learn a few things.
I apologize for the history lesson I’m about to give, but bear with me because it should be important. As some of you know, Cinco de Mayo isn’t Mexican Independence Day. That’s September 16, when Mexico broke free from Spanish rule in 1810. May 5 is the day Mexico defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla in 1862. Still, Cinco de Mayo isn’t widely celebrated in Mexico. This is where things get interesting.
Cinco de Mayo gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, partly because of the Good Neighbor Policy. The U.S. government wanted the holiday to amiably connect Mexican and American cultures. Chicano activists also embraced it as a way to express Mexican American identity. It became a bicultural event where Anglo-Americans could actively learn about Mexican culture.

All this contributed to an exciting time for sociopolitical progress. But in just a couple decades, commercialism turned it all to crap.

Some blame the 1980s for making this community-building exercise a community drinkathon. Corporations capitalized on the increasing Hispanic market, turning Cinco de Mayo into an alcohol-fueled vehicle to transport money into their pockets. I don’t have to expand much on this. Just reread the first few paragraphs up top and you’ll get the picture.

I’m not mad people in America are celebrating another nation’s holiday. That can be a good thing. But we’re not even doing that. I don’t know what we’re doing. Not long ago, this holiday was productive, but somewhere along the way we lost ourselves.

Instead of serving as a bridge between cultures, Cinco de Mayo has become a sign we hang, a coaster where we rest our Corona and limes. It’s something we throw away on the sixth. Considering some political conversations we’re having, I hope we soon find ourselves celebrating this Mexican holiday the way past generations of Americans wanted us to: sharing not only drinks, but history and empathy as well.

He doesn’t always suck the fun out of holidays, but when he does, NOLAN SHELDON can be reached at nosheldon@ucdavis.edu.

An end leads to new beginning

Science Editor
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An end leads to new beginning
The annual UC Davis Horse Barn Production Sale is coming up on June 23, and that means it is time for internship students to part ways with the horses they have spent every day with for the last six months. Although the internship is the culmination of the work done by the internship students, it is also the beginning for incoming interns.
Traditionally, the horse auction brings in between $15,000 and $20,000, a sum that helps the internship program for the following year.
“The money gets put back into the internship program, so we can do the internship program the next year,” said Joel Viloria, equine facilities supervisor at the Animal Science Horse Barn.
Among other things, Viloria said the money goes toward covering the costs of “the equipment, vaccines, the supplies, vet care and feeding the horses.”

Keeping the horses well-supplied and fed is important not only to the horses themselves, but also to the research on breeding that the Animal Science Horse Barn conducts.

“The research aspect of the barn is supported in part by the availability of the horses, mostly during the summer when they are not being used for teaching,” said Jan Roser, UC Davis professor of animal sciences.

Viloria said that the internship, culminating with the auction, serves as a good way for students to learn how run a business.

“The students definitely do feel the effects when they are in the auction, but it is part of the training of how to run a business,” Viloria said.
Viloria said that the Animal Science Horse Barn does not place minimums on its horses, so they have never had a “no sale.” This year 14 horses will be put up for sale.
“How well we do is dependent on the students. This is their opportunity to learn how to run an operation,” Viloria said. “It’s really why we do these programs.”
Roser said the horse barn strives to provide the best opportunities for students.
“The main motivation is to provide a venue for the students to learn how to run a breeding operation,” Roser said. “Sitting in a classroom is fine but doing it [taking on the responsibilities of the internship] reinforces all that didactic knowledge.”
Megan Dodd, a junior animal science major and a part of the internship program, really enjoys what the program has to offer.
“I think it’s one of the best internships on campus; you really get to experience running an equine barn,” Dodd said. “It gives you real world experience, something to take with you.”
Dodd said that the first quarter of the internship is comprised of learning and the second is applying what is learned.
“You learn working as a team, a leader, and taking initiatives,” Dodd said. “It teaches you to manage your time and apply your knowledge.”
Dodd said that the auction is difficult because of the uncertainty.
“It’s toughest because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Dodd said. “It’s totally worth it, though, even knowing you’re going to lose your kid [horse] forever.”
Though the auction can be an emotional time for the students involved with daily activities at the Animal Science Horse Barn, it proves to be vital for more students to get the experience of working in the equine industry.
“It’s a very rewarding task for all the hard work it takes,” Dodd said. “I’d rather be here than in my classes.”
ERIC C. LIPSKY can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

New head baseball coach swings for the fences

Sports Editor
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It ended with a “ping.”

The sound doesn’t have quite the same flair as the crack of the wooden bats in the Major Leagues, but that didn’t really matter at that moment.
The crowd had dwindled as the 11-inning game neared the four-hour mark, but the UC Davis baseball players were focused entirely on the field, as a walk-off single off junior Paul Politi’s aluminum bat gave the Aggies a victory over rival Cal Poly.

The entire UC Davis team ran out of the dugout to mob Politi in excitement, and the remaining spectators cheered while the sun set behind the center-field wall on a clear, crisp Friday afternoon.

But as the celebration continued behind him, UC Davis head coach Matt Vaughn showed little emotion.

He clapped his hands a few times, took a brief moment to look around sparsely populated Dobbins Baseball Complex and then walked at a measured pace to exchange a handshake with the opposing coach in front of home plate.

It’s the calm, steady demeanor that characterizes Vaughn as a coach, but despite his lack of displayed emotion, Vaughn’s players know he cares deeply about UC Davis baseball.

“Coach Vaughn is a very stoic individual,” said senior starting pitcher Anthony Kubpens, “but you cannot question the passion he has for this team. He’s a fiery guy and when he speaks to you, you can feel his passion.”

Vaughn first joined the UC Davis baseball program in 1988 as a freshman pitcher out of Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, Calif.

He found success early in his career under legendary head coach Phil Swimley, but shoulder surgery prevented him from reaching his full potential.

“Before the surgery I think I would have gotten a shot to pitch [at the professional level,” he said. “ I was able to [return to] pitch at the college level and be effective, but it was really unsatisfying.”

Vaughn’s desire to remain involved with baseball prompted him to ask Swimley about the possibility of returning to UC Davis after graduation as pitching coach. Swimley was not initially open to the idea, encouraging Vaughn instead to continue applying for law school.

Vaughn said he thought Swimley was afraid of what his parents would say if he chose to give up on law school. Regardless, a call from Vaughn’s father finally convinced Swimley to allow his senior pitcher to become part of the coaching staff.

In the end it worked out for both sides as Vaughn held the position of pitching coach for the remainder of Swimley’s tenure.

When Swimley retired in 2002 following 36 years as head coach, Vaughn felt he was a strong candidate to become the program’s next top-man, but was disappointed to find out that UC Davis had opted to go with Rex Peters, who had served nine years as head coach of Chapman University.

Vaughn was so frustrated by the university’s decision that he packed up his office and prepared to leave the university for good. He threw all of his things into a duffle bag, certain that his time at UC Davis was over.

Peters attempted to contact Vaughn on multiple occasions, but Vaughn was not interested in sticking around as an assistant coach.

But over the next few weeks things changed.

Vaughn’s first child was born that summer, and the next day he met with Peters at The Graduate, a restaurant across the street from the University.

As Vaughn describes it, in the days after your first child is born “everything is right with the world,” and Vaughn agreed to stick out the season as pitching coach.

Nine years later, Vaughn finally got a chance at his long-awaited opportunity, and the first week of August 2011 remains firmly imprinted in his memory.

On Aug. 1, Peters was offered a position as assistant coach at UCLA, and the next day he took the job.

On Aug. 3, Vaughn conducted a phone interview for a job at another university. When the interview ended, he got a call from UC Davis Interim Athletic Director Nona Richardson, who asked him to come to her office.

Vaughn had no idea what would come next.

“Looking back, I went into her office unprepared,” Vaughn said. “I think I wore shorts and a collared shirt. I just thought she wanted to meet with me — I didn’t think it would be anything formal.”

The meeting turned out to be a job interview that extended over two afternoons, and at the end Richardson offered Vaughn the head coaching job.

“I was blown away,” Vaughn said. “It really felt like this was the right move and this was the right time.”

During his first season as head coach, Vaughn admits that he faces a lot more pressure now than in years past, but he is making the most of his opportunity.

While he concedes that it is unlikely his team will reach its preseason goal of winning 30 games (the Aggies are 18-26 with 12 games remaining), he is pleased with his team’s ability to fight through adversity, something he says they have struggled with in recent seasons.

UC Davis is on pace to easily eclipse last year’s win total of 18, but Vaughn’s most impressive feat may well be the way he has cultivated his pitching staff.

After losing three pitchers to the professional ranks this summer, Vaughn has effectively managed three senior starters who have played well all season. Dayne Quist, Kubpens and Tom Briner have pitched nearly every weekend for the Aggies this year, and Vaughn believes that all three have the potential to break into the professional ranks over the next few months.

But as challenging as this past summer was for Vaughn, a more difficult task lies ahead.

With Quist, Kubpens and Briner all slated to graduate in the next few months, Vaughn will need to revamp his pitching staff yet again.

And both Vaughn and his players know that filling the holes left by his senior pitchers will be nearly impossible.

“I don’t think you can replace those guys,” said redshirt freshman pitcher Craig Lanza, who recorded his first collegiate win on Sunday. “All you can do is continue to work hard next year.”

Still, Vaughn is going to continue working at the job he loves, and giving everything he has to the players he coaches.

“We know he cares about us in the same way he cares about his family,” Quist said. “It’s just about his passion for life.”

TREVOR CRAMER can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Column: A beauty bias

Opinion
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Let me start off by saying that I really, really like Beyoncé. I think that she’s incredibly talented and impossibly beautiful and that she carries herself very well. She’s one of the few pop icons out there whose success stands on more than sex appeal. She can actually sing and dance and is a master entertainer. Beyoncé is many things: a vocalist, an entrepreneur, an inspiration to millions around the globe. What she is not is a writer.

When I say writer, I don’t mean songwriter. I have no idea if Beyoncé has any part in writing the hits that inspire dance crazes, carry women through breakups and become staples at karaoke bars. My guess is that she has a lot of help, to put it nicely. I’m talking about real writing (not that songwriting isn’t real writing). More specifically, I’m talking about journalism.

As an aspiring journalist myself, it came as a complete shock to me when I perused through my usual news and gossip websites only to find out that the New York Association of Black Journalists had given the singer a first-place writing award in the category of Arts and Entertainment.

On May 15, Beyoncé will be honored at the NYABJ 24th Annual Scholarship and Awards Banquet for the cover story she wrote for Essence Magazine entitled “Eat, Play, Love,” which gives readers a glimpse into the nine-month vacation she took from work. The piece is alright. It’s more than satisfying for fans who want to know more about Beyonce’s private life, but from a writer’s point of view, it’s just alright.

Like I mentioned earlier, I have nothing against Beyoncé. She was being a smart businesswoman when she agreed to write for the magazine. She didn’t ask to be given a writing award. No, I’m more disappointed in the NYABJ for putting publicity above content, beauty and recognition above skill. This controversy definitely put their name out there, which is what I suspect they wanted in the first place.

Publicity reasons aside, NYABJ is not the first and won’t be the last to be blinded by a person’s charisma and beauty, unable or unwilling to recognize their flaws. We do this all the time, giving people who are attractive the benefit of the doubt or assuming that because they are attractive, they must have all these other positive traits, too.

Recently, in my communication class, the professor presented a slide with incomplete statements about physical and personality traits and had the class finish the sentences. For example, Amy is attractive, intelligent and (likeable, unlikeable). Or Aaron is bright, lively and (thin, heavy). Everyone in the class selected likeable for the first statement and thin for the second. Our tendency to group characteristics together is described by the Implicit Personality Theory.

Assumptions are dangerous things and this case is no exception. We are visual creatures and always looking for shortcuts when trying to characterize people that we don’t know well, but judging others’ competence and character using superficial criteria has negative implications.

In movies, for example, the main chick is always chasing after the gorgeous jock who also happens to be a total jerk. She goes through hell trying to be good enough for a nobody trapped in an Adonis body all the while overlooking the not-as-attractive but super sweet, smart and compassionate guy who’s been in love with her this whole time. She could save herself so much trouble by being more objective when it comes to assessing her romantic prospects.

Maybe there’s something reassuring about things and people that are visually pleasing to the eye that makes us want to believe all these good things about them. The problem lies not in making these initial assumptions – I have a feeling that we do this subconsciously and can’t help ourselves – but in letting our assumptions drive our actions to the point that we ignore reality.

Contact PAMELA NONGA NGUE at pamnonga@ucdavis.edu.

Campus shopping guide

Features Editor
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Campus shopping guide

As graduation season approaches, many Aggies are flocking to the Memorial Union (MU) and other campus shopping locales to stock up on college memorabilia.

Aside from those few coffee mugs placed suggestively on kitchen countertops, T-shirts etched with mascots and the infamous college acronym sweatshirts, there is hardly a variety in establishing where a person graduated from school these days. While these staple items may get the message across, there’s no real display of personality in them.

But with a more discerning eye, UC Davis students will find that the MU Bookstore hosts many hidden gems ideal for post-graduation purposes. This shopping guide will highlight two items perfect for repping your alma mater in a creative, more mature fashion.

Mascot Apron
When attending a barbecue, the person at the grill whipping up the food is always the center of attention. This lightweight apron I found on display at the Bookstore will surely make the griller of new interest.

With the mascot repeated throughout in blue and white gingham print, it’s the perfect way to rep UC Davis and spark conversation during a family reunion or company picnic.

I found that $29.95 was a modest asking price.

Including two small front pockets ideal for carrying tongs and other grilling/cooking supplies, the Aggie rendition is everything one would want in a 100 percent cotton apron. Plus, its lightweight size provides for more versatility, as it can be simplified for around-the-house cooking as well — perfect to hang up alongside those UC Davis coffee mugs.

So the next time you want to show allegiance during a tailgate or while basting a Thanksgiving turkey, this could be the icing on the cake.

But if you’re feeling that the Aggie apron is a bit too ostentatious for a subtle, yet prideful and unique means of depicting campus devotion, the Bookstore offers smaller tailgating supplies such as dish towels ($9.95 each), oven mitts ($13.95 each), potholders ($9.95 each) and large tablecloths ($44.95 each).

Silk Mascot Tie

I’ve always envied those New England prep boys and their impeccable Ivy League style. I searched around the Bookstore trying to find something that may capture and replicate that debonair fashion.

When I told one of the sales representatives what I had in mind, she pointed me in the right direction. A small-sized navy silk box immediately caught my eye. Inside was a matching 100 percent silk tie.

In a mostly navy color with gold stripe accents and embroidered Aggie horse logos throughout, this tie is practically essential for college-chic. It’s perfect for special functions, internship- and job-related interviews and all occasions where dressing the part matters.

$48.95 may be seem a bit steep considering the whole struggling-college-student thing, but like a nice purse for a woman, a nice tie for a maturing stud is never a bad investment.

So instead of a new UC Davis hoodie, I’d definitely suggest pulling the trigger on this more sophisticated item, especially for those nearing the end of their college career and entering into the real world where items of this sort hold greater value.

Paired with perhaps a nice white shirt and tailored navy blazer, the Aggie mascot tie meshes swagger with sophistication — arguably the highest echelon of college style.

ISAIAH SHELTON can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Unhealthy food options linger at the DC

Features Editor
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A batch of neon yellow eggs coagulates into chunks above a watery base in one of many warm metal dishes along a service line: strips of bacon atop oil-soaked bread, sugar-dusted pancakes and glistening potatoes. With a quick swipe of their plastic ID cards, students are lured to the UC Davis Dining Commons (DC) by the smell of glazed donuts and frosted cinnamon rolls.

While the all-you-can-eat model of UC Davis dining is economical according to Dining Services Director of Sustainability and Nutrition Linda Adams, as far as redeeming the labor, water, and electricity used to produce the food, concerns about the environment may also facilitate the mass production of food.

Although these issues are foremost the responsibility of Dining Services staff members, General Manager of Resident Dining Brenan Connolly said they have trouble modifying the menu and its nutritional content if the most popular and consumed dishes are the less healthy ones.

“There’s too much opposition to messing with some of our [less healthy] dishes,” Connolly said.

The amount and type of oil used in these dishes is a point of contention for some students. Thibault Hoppe-Glosser, a senior science and technology studies major, tilted his empty plate of beef tacos (550 calories, 21g fat, 5g saturated fat, according to nutritional information provided by Adams) to expose a dark orange puddle. Next to him was a half-eaten grilled portobello burger (610 calories, 34g fat, 9g saturated fat) with a visibly damp bun.

“I’m usually not very picky, but this looks too unhealthy,” Hoppe-Glosser said, pushing the plate out of sight.

It turns out the chefs mainly use canola oil. For more “traditional dishes” they will cook with a half-soybean, half-olive oil mixture or UC Davis-grown olive oil, according to Adams. Adams also said the Dining Commons still incorporate butter into certain recipes.

“Butter has a specific taste, one that is drastically different from olive oil. I happen to love butter myself!” said Adams, who is in lean, marathon-running-type shape.

The house granola offered at breakfast is one such recipe that adds butter for consistency and flavor. It has certainly stood the test of time, for Adams remembered the exact same granola during her college career at Chico State University working for Saga Food Service, the equivalent of UC Davis’ food provider Sodexo.

Even the ever-so-popular, or rather unpopular, ingredient MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) has yet to be completely banned from the three DCs. Approximately seven items, including pita chips, Hidden Valley Ranch and a few soup bases have MSG listed among their ingredients, but not as an allergen.

After a student had an allergic reaction to the savory food additive, Dining Services conducted an in-depth ingredients search and ultimately stopped serving all but one of the seven products, Connolly and Adams said.

The deviating point along this scatterplot is “English Country Gravy,” a white, creamy sauce that accompanies buttermilk biscuits. On the nutrition sheet above its long ladle, “Contains MSG” reads in red.

Connolly said Dining Services works with the Student Farm to purchase seasonal vegetables for Tercero and Cuarto — but not Segundo.

“The Student Farm doesn’t have the volume to produce for the whole campus, but we are working with them to plant more products,” Connolly said.

While fingers may immediately point at campus leadership and members of UC Davis Dining Services, Dining Commons staff said they ultimately serve the students and their requests.

“It is obviously more expensive for us to buy organic rice from Michael Bosworth’s farm in Sacramento Valley instead of the bulk Sodexo grain, but the question is whether or not students put more value on quality. Do they want us to spend a cent more for fair-trade bananas?” Adams said.

After five years of hard protest, Adams finally convinced upper management to cut and bake, not defrost and deep-fry, now-fresh French fries.

Most of the corporate pushback stemmed from concerns over efficiency. It essentially takes greater time and attention to cook food the right way than the easy way, said Adams.

What’s surprising is that the students had more trouble accepting this change. Connolly noted that they appreciated the fast-food nature of the fries, the potato-like taste of the golden sticks.

Dining Services Nutrition Intern Sarah Lau said that she doesn’t think the DC is unhealthy. For Lau, a senior clinical nutrition major, it depends on what students are choosing to eat; for example, eating three slices of pizza for dinner will not be healthy.

“Sometimes, I realized too DC food is salty, [such as the] Mongolian Wok, and I usually send an e-mail to them to tell them about the food. The DC needs feedback from the students. If students think the food is unhealthy and oily, they need to respond to DC. Overall, I think DC provides decent and healthy meals every day,” Lau said in an e-mail.

Lau said that if a student wishes to eat healthy and doesn’t know what to eat, they should look for the “happy healthy apple” sign on the menu. One apple means that the food is good, two apples mean better and three apples mean best.

While nutritionists can continuously promote the addition of more vegan dishes, they can’t help it if quinoa returns to the dishwasher untouched and pork carnitas comes back licked clean. When the DC conducts their triennial assessments, Adams said these trends show up on the reports, the same evaluations that dictate future menus.

It’s a classic chicken-or-the-egg problem: The DC can’t serve healthier items if students keep eating the unhealthy ones, and students will continue eating unhealthily if there aren’t enough healthy options.
So what to do? Well, for one, Adams’ mission is to remove from DC menus the processed and sodium-heavy items like chicken patty sandwiches and cheeseburgers. She said to give her until the end of the year to remove the last MSG item, country gravy, from dishes.
The new Aggie Dish app for iPhones is now available for downloading, and contains nutritional information for two days’ worth of DC menus. Adams and Connolly hope their summer interns will finish including all dishes’ ingredients in the app by the start of Fall Quarter.
The bigger question is whether or not students will accept that the DC is not a fast food joint.

“Save [eating oily food] for McDonald’s and In-n-Out. The DC is just like your home kitchen,” Adams said.

CHELSEA MEHRA can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Study reveals disparities in breast cancer needs of African Americans

Science Editor
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A new study conducted by the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) identified unmet needs among African American breast cancer survivors. The results of this “first-of-its-kind” study may provide information on how to better treat specific populations in the United States.

The study, “The unmet needs of African American women with breast cancer,” looked into the effects that breast cancer treatment has on African American women. The study was conducted by CCC researcher Marlene M. von Friederichs-Fitzwater and her community partner Reverend Tammie Dynse and was published online in Advances in Breast Cancer Research in April.

“We are really trying to look at how to deliver comprehensive care to any patient that has cancer,” von Friederichs-Fitzwater said. “This study found that each woman must be treated differently. There is no ‘one size fits all’ kind of approach.”

For this study, researchers sought to assess both the medical experiences of the patients as well as their experiences with coping with the disease. The study involved interviews with 137 African American women who survived breast cancer.

Most significantly, the study found that African American women reported that their physicians did not provide adequate disease and treatment information, did not discuss clinical trials with them and did not offer access to support services.

Although 90 percent of women reported that they were satisfied with their treatment, 24 percent said that they were not satisfied with the information they received from their doctors on breast cancer and treatment options.

Further, 60 percent of women said they sought information on their own, and 43 percent said their doctor or other health care provider did not provide information about support services. Sixty-two percent said they wanted such services.

“One of the biggest issues when you are diagnosed with this disease is fear, uncertainty and anxiety and wanting to know more and be around people who are going through this experience,” von Friederichs-Fitzwater said.

African American women have both the highest incidence and mortality rate of breast cancer of any population group in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. The death rate, 33 per 100,000, is more than twice that of both Asian American and Hispanic populations.

“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer over seven years ago, I wanted and needed information and answers about cancer regarding African American women, but it was just not available in my community,” said Dynse, president and founder of the organization Carrie’s Touch, a Sacramento-based community organization for African American women with breast and other cancers.

“Talking with fellow African American breast cancer survivors, I found many felt the same way.”

Breast cancer, the most common cancer among women, involves a variety of different treatments, often combining surgery, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. While many previous studies have addressed the issue of breast cancer in African American women, those studies have mainly focused on early detection, screening, mortality and staging at diagnosis.

Both von Friederichs-Fitzwater and Dynse are grateful that the study helped provide immediate solutions, such as the need to recruit more African American breast cancer survivors to act as peer navigators for newly diagnosed women. However, they also acknowledged that this study reveals an issue that must be examined more closely with further research.

“Cultural issues and psychosocial issues need to be addressed along with the medical issues because they are often directly related to survival,” von Friederichs-Fitzwater said. “This study was just a stepping stone and will hopefully open the door to future research on this topic.”

CLAIRE MALDARELLI can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

Column: Mental health

Science Editor
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Mental illness can sometimes be a tricky topic to discuss. Though the stigma around mental illness has dissipated in the past few decades as understanding of its nature has grown, there can still be misunderstandings about mental illness: its causes, its symptoms and the people with them. Even writing about them is tricky; in this paragraph I’ve been talking about mental illnesses as a singular group, when in reality there are nearly as many varieties of disorders as there are with other types of disorders or illnesses.

There are some misunderstandings that are more wrong than others. For example, movies or novels that mention schizophrenics will often say something about multiple personalities. In Stephen King’s The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, one of the characters has two personalities that take over her body at different times and each has no awareness of the other; she is consistently referred to as schizophrenic, even by a character that is an EMT.

This isn’t what schizophrenia is at all. Schizophrenia can have many variable symptoms, ranging from hallucinations and paranoia to disorganized speech and social withdrawal. Though a person with schizophrenia may not realize that they have a mental illness, their behavior is not akin to completely changing personalities.

Perceptions of other disorders can be even more harmful; at least everyone acknowledges that schizophrenia actually exists. Two that are somewhat related in ideology is that people with depression can just “get over it,” and that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are just children whose parents don’t know how to raise them correctly.
For depression, that idea is often due to the notion that depression is too easily diagnosed, that feeling sad or stressed on occasion is enough to get you all the Zoloft you want. In reality, psychiatrists talk to their patients about stressors at home and at work before the main question: how disruptive are these symptoms to the rest of your life? Do you have feelings of worthlessness, emptiness or guilt? Have you lost interest in activities you used to love? Problems sleeping, suicidal thoughts?
Part of the problem is that though mental and emotional illnesses and disorders are linked to certain parts of the brain depending on the disorder, different people may show problems in different parts of the brain. Most people would never be able to tell where such a complex organ as the brain is going wrong.
People with ADHD face a similar issue as people with depression. When they’re children, their symptoms can be superficially similar to spoiled and unruly kids running amok, and a diagnosis of ADHD can often be condemned by people thinking that our youth is overmedicated. Easily distracted, procrastination, fidgeting or squirming in a seat — get my child a prescription right now!
However, there is a difference, one that the families can probably tell much more easily than a random observer. Other symptoms can include being very easily distracted by trivial noises, frequent shifts in conversation, difficulty with social situations and impulsivity.
Unfortunately, people with ADHD are probably going to have to face this stigma for quite a while still, as it can be difficult to tell normal childhood behavior from a disorder. For this reason, symptoms have to be present in more than one environment (for example, a child unable to pay attention both at work and at school) and, again, an inability to function in these environments.
Arguments about the existence of ADHD and depression are often conflated with arguments about over-prescribing medication. Though related, these are separate issues. It is something that psychiatrists are looking to fix, however; some doctors will accompany their prescription with a rough timetable of how long a person should be medicated. Some disorders, like depression, can stop treatment after a couple of years; others, like schizophrenia, are significantly more stubborn.
To those here at UC Davis or elsewhere suffering silently with these disorders, or if you only suspect that you may have one, I’d like to urge you to talk to someone. If you really don’t want to be medicated, at least talk to a counselor or psychologist.

AMY STEWART can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

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