On Friday, 11 UC Davis students and one faculty member went to court for an arraignment on the charges of the obstruction of movement in a public place and conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor.
While it will be up to a judge to determine whether the protesters are guilty of going beyond the limits of the right to free speech, the fact of the matter is these 12 individuals should never have had to step foot in court in the first place.

The decision to go forward with the prosecution was ultimately up to the Yolo County District Attorney, but it was the University that recommended the charges and provided the information for the prosecution.

According to an article from UC Davis News & Information, on March 16, “UC Davis police had forwarded six cases to the Yolo County district attorney’s office, recommending prosecution for violating Penal Code sections that make it a misdemeanor to ‘willfully and maliciously’ obstruct the free movement of any person on any street, sidewalk or other public place, or to intentionally interfere with any lawful business.”

That UC Davis personnel initiated and recommended the prosecution of its own students is a loathsome set of actions to add to the list of wrongdoings the administration and their cohorts have taken against students this year. Alleging a “malicious” intent by the protesters that could lead to these individuals facing 11 years in prison and $1 million in charges is a hugely disappointing and inappropriate step by UC Davis. This seems to go against the Principles of Community the University should be trying to promote.

In a letter released last week, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter wrote that UC Davis “only wishes to see the rights of everyone on campus preserved.” Yet, we fail to see how allowing students to face time in jail is a proportionate way to preserve the rights of the campus community.

This is not about whether or not we agree with the motives of the protesters blockading U.S. Bank, but the failure of the administration to properly handle the situation. The administration should have dealt with the situation directly rather than through retroactive charges passed down by a district attorney.

After what has happened this year, we would expect that the leaders of this campus would have learned from past mistakes and be actively engaging with students.

It is unacceptable that Lieutenant John Pike is still on paid administrative leave after pepper spraying students in their faces, while UC Davis students and faculty are facing prison time for blocking a doorway. It is time that the University gets their priorities straight and decides under what type of principles of community they really want to operate.

Current UC Davis students pay more for their education than any classes before them, and we all know the effects that the high costs of education have had on the university populace.

It seems that, with the overwhelming burdens that come with high fees and the mounting debt that surrounds many students, the University should be doing everything it can to make the financial strain on students more bearable.

But when it comes to Summer Session, UC Davis’ stance has been quite the opposite.

Students are charged $271 per unit for summer classes, even if the units come from off-campus internships rather than on-campus courses. For a student hoping to get a 10-unit internship that spans both Summer Sessions, the cost would be $2,710 — for which the University will do nothing more than read a 12-page paper summarizing the experience gained.

Even looking through the lens of our already astronomically high tuition, charging over $225 for each page read seems utterly ridiculous.

This also applies to students who are going part-time and need to avoid going over the 10-unit maximum.

UC Davis should be encouraging its students to get applicable work experience during the summer months, rather than hamper the incentive for them to continue educating themselves by burdening them with fees.

Furthermore, UC Davis charges students who are not enrolled in Summer Session at least $28 per month for use of recreational facilities, including the Activities and Recreation Center and the Recreation Pool. This is both frustrating and unfair.

UC Davis student fees cover the costs of recreational facilities, and forcing students who are still registered to attend classes the following Fall Quarter to pay out-of-pocket is a frustrating inconvenience.

Additionally, with fewer students in Davis during the summer, recreational facilities face significantly less use during that time than they do during other seasons, so why not allow students to take advantage of the resources that are sitting unused?

The University should be encouraging students to use the resources available to them, rather than over-charging them for services they already pay for.

From here ‘til retirement, our lives are run by work. Bye, summer vacays! But with the high unemployment and college retention rates, there are fewer jobs and more people looking for them. Nut up, get competitive and fight for a paycheck no matter how big or small.

Though Craigslist may lead to legit jobs, they’re mostly scams or seeking girls for a “film shoot.” Get into career listing websites (Monster, Indeed, SimplyHired and LinkedIn, all “.coms”). Make sure to do your research to see which ones have resulted in success for others. Sign up (the small fee may be worth it) and submit those lovely resumes that stand out from people who used a template. Don’t forget those obnoxious cover letters. They’re irritating but can make the difference between getting a call or not.

Nowadays, it seems the only way to get a worthwhile job is through connections. There are way too many weirdos in the world and I wouldn’t want to hire them, either. A referral from a trusted employee makes a boss more likely to consider the candidate. Network and keep up with people who have jobs to offer us. Hey, that’s the world we live in. Better to spin it to our advantage.

Keep files of your resume, references and cover letters on your phone at all times. Meet someone at a bar who would like to pass your resume along? Make a couple of edits and it’ll take five minutes for you to send over your info. Thank Steve Jobs and the iCloud he resides in for the accessibility afforded to us by modern technology.

But there’s a smack-of-reality twist, y’all! With it being this easy to get applications out there, more people have access to the same jobs. If you’re not working, make searching for employment your career. That means spending most of your day on those websites and pounding those grimy streets looking for work. Shoot for 25 (!) job applications a day, and not just for those jobs that need a degree. If you get something to tide you over, keep applying for 10 a day ‘til gold strikes.

Employers understand the current job market and will be more critical. If you’re asked about the company you’re seeking work from, you’d better damn well have an answer. How in the fuck are we supposed to remember each one and research their history? We’d have no time for “Modern Family” marathons! Spend the time to get well-versed in each company’s reputation.

Or, cheat and use the internet during sporadic phone interviews. Thanks again, Steve!

Just like being in the stirrups at a gynecologist’s office, interviews are sweat-inducing nightmares that leave us exposed for strangers to examine. They can and will ask the most asinine inquiries known to man. My personal favorite: “What do you like the least about yourself?” Resist the urge to say, “My inability to answer stupid fucking questions!” Employers are looking for qualified candidates to help solve the internal problem they have. Sell yourself as the asset they need. If we go in with the mindset of alleviating our financial problems, they’ll smell it from the waiting room. Striking the proper tone of confident and assertive is key. And don’t forget to smile your way through the fear. But not like a crazy person. Keep all kinds of crazy locked away at home, and deodorant at the ready in your car.

We enter a new place at the bottom of the ranks and build ourselves up to the top by working our asses off. In school, we eventually become student body president or the head of a production company, so the inevitable drop-off back into the entry-level (or worse, unpaid intern) position produces a bruised ego. Don’t let that become destructive and don’t slack off after getting the job. Human resources is constantly looking for ways to cut labor these days. Instead of letting our knowledge of our overqualification turn us into ungrateful monsters, prove to employers we’re deserving of more dignified work. Buy a jar of patience and wait it out.

There’s no place for lazy these days. We have to be active in making the job opportunities available for us. Perfect your CVs and do the grunt work now to get to the high-paying gigs later. Once we’re comfortable and can pay the bills without worry, then we can watch “Modern Family” all we want.

JAZZ TRICE thinks you is kind, you is smart and you is important. Ask him why at jazztrice526@gmail.com or twitter.com/Jazz_Trice.

It was high noon on Picnic Day and there we were: strewn about the living room, escaping the sweltering heat outside. Those who weren’t watching the Sharks lose to St. Louis were fully invested in their phones, smirking as they dragged their fingertips across the screen, giggling at horrendous drawings. I was among them and I have no shame. We were playing Draw Something and we were loving it.

The addictive mobile Pictionary-esque game has exploded since its debut a couple months ago — thanks to its appeal to users of all ages and artistic abilities. Draw Something is certainly a bright spot in a sea of copycat apps and naysayers. Its refreshing uniqueness is a reminder that not all hope is lost in a sector that seems to have hit a dead end.

There are a handful of tech reporters spreading apocalyptic visions of a doomed industry whose glory days, they claim, are far behind it. Their writings contend that innovation on the web and in mobile have reached its peak and the only direction these technologies can go from here is down.

It’s a jaded perspective — one that’s informed by bored, weary-eyed journalists, exhausted and uninspired by the interminable coverage of Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft — but not necessarily untrue.

I had to stop myself from inappropriately screaming “Yes. YES. YES!” in public while reading Alexis Madrigal’s piece in The Atlantic, “The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future.” My eyes typically roll out onto the floor at articles like these — written by people disappointed that the new millenium came up short of the impossible plans “The Jetsons” drew out for us. But Madrigal was on the money. He was so right about the lack of innovation in energy, healthcare and education — areas that actually need it! — due in large part to the herd mentality among startups to reproduce and fixate on a popular idea (like, cough, social networking) until it’s dead.

Madrigal’s look at the state of technology today is a sobering one. He echoes again and again that we’re doing the same things we did five or 10 years ago — staring at web pages, writing documents and uploading photos — just at higher resolutions.

The essay is basically a 2,000-word plea to end the tech giants’ stronghold and for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE to do SOMETHING new. His claim is a blanket statement to which there are exceptions, obviously. But we’re talking about trends here and the truth of the matter is: there are too few technologies on the web or in mobile that grab us by the shoulders and shake us with inspiration to create or do new things.

Which brings me back to that delicious little game Draw Something. The mobile app was an unlikely success for OMGPOP, a multiplayer gaming site that basically rips off popular games like Connect Four and Mario Kart. The online versions of these games, however, are driven by coin incentives, or currency with which users can buy “upgrades” like protractors and fancy pens for Draw My Thing, the original version of the popular mobile game. It’s this generation’s Neopets, if you know what I mean.

Draw Something for iOS and Android is a watered-down edition of Draw My Thing, wherein users illustrate words for fellow gamers and earn coins based on the difficulty of those words. You have an incentive to draw clearly articulated pictures because if your partner guesses correctly, you earn more points.

How can you hate a game where everyone wins? You can’t. That’s why Draw Something has caught on with the masses. The game’s popularity is a different kind of success for mobile — one that I hope will inspire similar kinds of apps. The game forces people to create moments with their friends and families, rather than constant reflections into the past. It compels gamers to tap into their right brain and share the way they see the world with others. It’s not often that a silly game will offer such a unique perspective on someone’s way of thinking. The highly personal interaction between Draw Something users has the power to nurture more direct and deeper relationships — and I think that’s pretty drawsome.

NICOLE NGUYEN wants to draw things with you. Invite nicolemnguyen to play or send a sketch to niknguyen@ucdavis.edu.