Once again, student protesters were the victims of police violence.

Last Tuesday, a group of 30 activists were pepper sprayed while attempting to gain access to a Board of Trustees meeting at Santa Monica College (SMC). A small number of students were allowed into the meeting, presumably until the room reached capacity. Over 70 people were left outside protesting the $180-per-unit fee increase being discussed inside.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because similar events have been happening all across California, and the world, for the last few months. University systems are failing their students, students are reacting through activism, and campus police – at the will of the school – are responding with violence.

And though it happened at Montreal’s McGill University on Nov. 10, and at our very own UC Davis on Nov. 18, there is such a great disconnect  on campuses that nothing about the culture of public education has changed enough to prevent the incident at SMC. Campus administration does not understand its students, and in turn treats them as an enemy.

Following the pepper spraying at UC Davis, then-Police Chief Annette Spicuzza was quoted supporting the use of chemical weaponry and UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi sent an e-mail to the campus community citing the “health of the students involved in the protest” as justification for police action.

If you’re a regular reader of The California Aggie or have been paying attention to Occupy, these quotes are little more than trite relics of the uncharted territory that followed our own campus crisis. In response to unresolved campus anger, the Chancellor apologized for the pepper spraying.

Yet following the pepper spraying at SMC, school president Chui L. Tsang issued a statement saying the same bullshit. Students were pepper sprayed to “preserve public and personal safety.” Did he really think it would work this time?

If there is anything we have learned over the last few months, it is that campus administrations do not know how to work with students. From the community college Board of Trustees to the UC Regents, there is little to no student representation when it comes to tuition hikes. Both of the student regents at UC Regents meetings are graduate students, and only one has voting privileges.

This is why students want access to board meetings. This is why three UCLA students were arrested after the public comment session at the Regents meeting over spring break. There are student voices, and they’re not being heard.

A simple solution? Institutionalize more interaction between students and administrators. This means having more than an hour of public discussion at a meeting that affects hundreds of thousands of students’ livelihoods and the future of our state. This means finding a bigger room when there are not enough seats. This means listening to and addressing the concerns presented by protesters.

And most of all, this means not allowing police officers to use pepper spray, or any other form of violence, to silence student voices.

Police at SMC may have temporarily blinded 30 protesters, but we’re still watching.

It’s time to look critically at the investments our university holds, particularly in the energy sector. According to data released today by the California Student Sustainability Coalition, the University of California Regents hold $234 million in 15 of the largest coal mining and coal burning corporations, including Massey Energy, Patriot Coal and Ameren Corp., with millions more possibly in individual campus foundations. A portion of that money comes from our tuition money.

Records of endowment holdings through 2011 show that the $234 million the UC holds in the “Filthy 15” coal companies includes:

●      $25.8 million in Southern Company, the fourth-largest carbon polluter internationally.

●      $12.1 million in Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company.

●      $19.1 million in Duke Energy, responsible for 1,248 deaths due to pollution in 2009.

These numbers reflect only assets held centrally by the UC Treasurer and do not include individual campus foundations. This information comes from a report titled “Reducing California Higher Education’s Support of and Dependence on Coal,” authored by Sarah Siedschlag, a CSSC Alumni. It is publicly available on the CSSC website, sustainabilitycoalition.org. The report details investment structures in UC, CSU and CCC systems, endowment holdings in the “Filthy 15” coal corporations and opportunities for reducing investments in “dirty” energy corporations while increasing support for sustainable  energy initiatives.

Using public dollars and student tuition money to fund practices that degrade and pollute our environment is unacceptable, as is the lack of investment transparency and student representation on investment committees. As students in a university system committed to sustainable practices, it is imperative that we push for our institution to put its money where its mouth is.

KITTY BOLTE
Sophomore, Environmental Science and Management major
khbolte@ucdavis.edu

When it comes to global climate change – more infamously known as global warming – it’s easy to be depressed. After all, what’s there to love about monster hurricanes, more tornadoes and droughts, and other increasingly violent gifts from nature?

Turning to the leaders of our country doesn’t make me any more optimistic. It was just a few weeks ago that Rick Santorum, riffing on the supposed dangers of climate change, argued that all the fuss was merely groundwork “for government to be able to step in and even more greatly control your life.” He is at his most eloquent when speaking about CO2, the main culprit for rising temperatures: “The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is.” Touché, Rick Santorum. Touché.

At least Santorum is honest. This is unlike Mitt Romney, who has somehow managed to stand on both sides of pretty much every major issue up for debate in modern America. It was just a few years ago that Romney, then Governor of Massachusetts, “presided over the introduction of one of the country’s first cap-and-trade programs, for the six largest power plants in the state,” as written in The New Yorker. Then there’s his line in his book No Apology about how “higher energy prices would encourage energy efficiency” or his comment to Larry Kudlow on CNBC about how one fact is incontestable: “It’s getting warmer.” Whoops. Minus 10 points.

And then there’s President Obama. Back in 2009, Obama helped push the country’s first ever cap-and-trade legislation through the House of Representatives. A system of tradable permits that would incentivize businesses to reduce greenhouse gases, cap-and-trade was considered vital by environmentalists and a WMD by conservatives. Luckily for the right, the legislation died in the Senate, a victim of politics and the recession.

In Al Gore’s eyes, this didn’t reflect well on the president. In a blistering 7,000 word op-ed published by Rolling Stone, Gore eviscerates Obama’s handling of the legislation and his failure of leadership on climate change in general. To Gore and other environmentalists, the president is either sleeping at the job, or he has simply accepted defeat, conceding the stage to climate-change deniers and perhaps waiting for the start of the second round come November.

All this resistance begs the question: why? The fuel for deniers is often ignorance or ideology. It’s easy to fire accusations and cry “hoax” if you aren’t aware of the volumes of evidence pointing to human action as the culprit to rising temperatures. And it’s even easier to take shelter under the umbrella of ideological belief, safe from unpleasant questions and uncomfortable facts.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode well for our future. While there is debate about the specifics, scientists agree that the climate trajectory is ugly. For example, as the pace of Arctic and Greenland melting increases, sea levels will rise to dangerous levels. Some projections peg this increase at up to, if not even slightly higher than, seven feet. Say goodbye to New Orleans and Miami.

As I stated at the beginning, it’s pretty easy to be depressed about all this. Yet, not all feel this way. I talked with Arnold Bloom, one of the professors on campus who teaches a class on climate change. To my surprise, he was hopeful about the future. “I get more optimistic the more I teach,” he said. Instead of trying to enact change through the political process, he has found another means to push the ball forward. Bloom’s approach offers one potential avenue for progress, a route that does not depend on the glacial pace of political progress. Through education, he is planting the seeds for future action.

It’s disappointing that in order to enact change, we need to bypass the political process, at least for now. Put simply, the political forecast for real, meaningful action on climate change is grim at best. So yes, we must keep up the pressure on our elected officials. But we simply cannot wait for them any longer.

JONATHAN NELSON is thinking of visiting New Orleans before it disappears underwater. Contact him at jdnelson@ucdavis.edu if you’re interested in carpooling.

On any given day in the CoHo, one can often overhear the grumblings of someone trying to connect to Moobilenet, the Wi-Fi network on campus.

The internet on campus is often very hard to connect to. Specifically in Olson and Wellman Hall, the connection is often slow, if not nonexistent.

While this may seem like a good thing (anything to stop students from going on Facebook during class), it often hinders professors’ lecture plans and makes it difficult to show videos in class. When professors take time away from class to load a video, it takes away valuable learning time from students. And it’s awkward. Furthermore, students use internet on campus to do school work and turn in assignments.

The fact is that we are in a time in which we need technology to succeed. Smartphones are commonplace, and many students use their laptops in class.

Having the internet is not only helpful, but also necessary. Students often use the internet to download lecture slides from Smartsite or look at the online reading that a professor is discussing.

UC Davis is one of the top universities in the country, and we should be able to figure out a way to make our internet connection run quickly and smoothly. We at The Aggie are no technology experts (we don’t even have Wi-Fi in the office), but it seems that there should be a way to make the network connection better on campus. While it may be expensive, it’s worth it.

A large amount of problems with the network connection have not been reported, Mark Redican, director of communication resources, said in an Aggie article.

Well, this is our formal complaint. As students in the 21st century, for the amount of tuition we pay, we’d like our internet on campus to work, all the time, please.

I can barely contain my excitement. April 14 is nearly here! Ah, Tax Day: Almost as fun as the first day of school, or going to the dentist! Mind you, as a grad student, I actually enjoy taking classes and learning, so my love of taxation is genuine. Also, I have nice teeth.

As annoying as it is to have to pay the government a share of your income, take comfort in knowing that your cash is going to a worthy cause: Me. Since I’m an NSF (National Science Foundation) fellow, my stipend comes directly from the government and, indirectly, from you. Your taxes pay for me to live. My rent, my instant noodles, my gin, my daily caviar baths, my extensive porn and Fabergé egg collections, my Tuesday-night hooker-thons … it all comes from you! Hooray, taxes!

Of course, I do have to work for this money. If I’m not on campus doing the wetwork, then I’m at home reading articles, writing papers, analyzing data and, yes, applying for more research funding. Science is expensive! Your taxes help pay for my reagents, my DNA sequencing, my ground-up moon rocks and even my microscope slides. Thanks!

OK, they also pay for my trips to exotic locations. Can I help it if my study organism is in Indonesia, or if the conference I’m speaking at is in Hawaii? Last summer I spent 10 weeks in Japan doing research and gaining “cultural experiences,” which is legalese for federally funded tourism. My airfare and stipend were paid for by the NSF, and my living expenses were covered by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. A summer of sushi, karaoke, and Pokémon merchandise co-sponsored by both American and Japanese taxpayers! Arigato!

Oh, and I also discovered a novel cellulolytic system with possible use in the biofuel industry while I was there. You’re welcome!

If you’re not fully convinced that grad school is a good choice yet, did I mention that tuition is covered? I am literally being paid to go to college again. The UC Regents can do whatever they want and my personal finances won’t take a hit, because my tuition is being paid for by the government (and, by extension, you)!

Before you get your pitchforks, know that the reason that some Ph.D. programs are paid is that the average salary of the graduates isn’t enough to justify med-school levels of tuition or debt. Entering an unpaid Ph.D. program is a terrible idea. The sciences also are much more likely to fund students; getting a humanities degree of any kind is a terrible idea. The stipends aren’t much, either. There’s a reason grad students are stereotyped as subsisting on ramen noodles and criticism. Being a graduate student means getting paid expenses to do what you love, like travel, as opposed to taking a higher-paying job you dislike but affording such perks yourself. I chose the former with no regrets: Food tastes better when it’s free.

As for tuition, I sympathize with the undergrads here, I really do. I see how your tuition keeps going up, exponentially, year after year. You keep paying more but getting less, as sports teams and other perks get cut. I even know students who’ve had to drop out because they can’t pay tuition, and that’s really terrible.

If anything, having earned my B.A. elsewhere gives me a greater perspective on why tuition here is ridiculous. Consider this: While the cost of private universities may be more than for public colleges, the financial aid offered is also greater. We are rapidly nearing a point where, for a middle-class family, an Ivy League degree costs less than a degree at a UC. The former lets you take as many classes as you want for the same tuition, with no lab fees. The latter makes you buy your own scantrons, which I find utterly mind-blowing. I’ve always depended on the kindness of generous campuses and governments, so coming here was a culture shock of sorts. Believe me, tuition-paying citizens of underfunded campuses, I feel your pain — even if my bank account doesn’t.

MATAN SHELOMI flavors his ramen with schadenfreude and the tears of freshmen, and can be reached at mshelomi@ucdavis.edu.

I am forever in love with Los Angeles when I’m not actively hating it with the undying fury of a honey badger. Traffic’s a pain but thank God it’s 75 degrees in March and there are palm trees on my drive to work.

I was headed to an open casting call for a server position (yes, they’re called casting calls here and every customer service job seriously requires a headshot with an application) when I wanted to call it quits. I ran into three-hour traffic because President O-freaking-bama decided to take a trip to the same mall. I had to stop into the nearest Best Buy to calm myself down and wait for traffic to subside. The whir of flat screen TVs puts me at ease.

At Davis, my favorite professor held meetings where she prepped my peers for their move to New York. The L.A. bashing during these meetings worked my nerves. “Driving’s a pain, people are superficial there and New Yorkers care more about their art.” Yeah, it’s true. But it was important to hear those things. You need to make sure you’ll enjoy where you move regardless of the setbacks. Sidebar: The cost of living is cheaper in L.A., apartment availability is cake and there are no snowstorms. Suck it, New Yorkers!

My friends and I had our own L.A. Hunan meetings where we mostly shit-talked, but also thought of the factors behind our decision to move. We had to know exactly what we were getting into. I became obsessed with researching the area. Wikipedia, Yelp and Rent.com are your besties. Take advantage of them. What are the crime rates? Where can I find affordable housing? How often do celebs hit pedestrians in this city because they were strung out on cocaine and self-entitlement? I haven’t been hit yet, but Lindsay did just get off probation so it honestly could happen to any of us at any minute.

I ventured to the land of broken dreams on many occasions not just to eat Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, but to scout the place out for safe neighborhoods and where feasible jobs were. It’s impossible to know where you belong without experiencing it firsthand. Every city has its own unique vibe. Make sure you find the one that suits your needs best, whether it be proximity to clubs or burgers featured on The Food Network.

I stuck with my D-Day of February 1, when I would infiltrate the land of hotness monsters and plastics, to keep my peace of mind and ease my transition. Everything I did during the months following graduation (buying a car, foregoing a social life, working 70-hour weeks) centered around my move. I felt so prepared! Silly rabbit, naivety is for kids.

It costs THAT much for a mattress that wasn’t used in a crackhouse? I can’t make a protected left turn ever? Really? L.A. in general feels like its own planet, where normal Earthly rules don’t apply. Five streets south of me is Miley’s Starbucks. Five streets north, food-stamp dispensaries are as common as those for medical MJ. I was lost all the time. And by “all the time,” I mean every single goddamn time I left my apartment. Which isn’t bad at all. That’s the only way I learned where anything was. Just make sure you have a phone charger in your car. You don’t want your phone to die while lost in Compton.

In regards to my Obama-hates-me meltdown, I realized I could either let all the annoying things about L.A. piss me off every day, or I could learn to deal and adjust to my new world. There’s no point in being frustrated with traffic and parking if I actively chose to have it in my life. Instead of pouting, I allow a five-second freakout where I use every cuss word I know, then I put it behind me. If you spend your whole day being pissed off and stressed out, you won’t get anything done.

Hilda from Ugly Betty put it wisely. “Mama, you want to fit in with these people? They’re not gonna change. YOU have to.”

There are no freshmen orientations or welcome rallies to get us acclimated to our new home. We have to prioritize how much adapting we’re prepared to do. If you have to be near the beach everyday, moving to Kentucky for a job might not be ideal. Don’t make it too hard on yourself. Did I make the right decision in my move? I don’t know yet. But nothing beats getting to watch the sunset from my balcony everyday.

Hit up JAZZ TRICE at jazztrice526@gmail.com or twitter.com/Jazz_Trice and he’ll respond with something to make you smile. Or scream. Luck of the draw.

Well, it’s spring. And it … is … glorious. The breezes are a-blowing, the tall white clouds are tumbling in the sky, and irises and snowdrops are blooming in every front yard. Yes, it’s spring in Davis, and in spring this young woman’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of herbs. The culinary kind, of course. Don’t be vulgar.

You guys, I love fresh herbs. They’re easy to grow and harvest and they make any meal fancy-shmancy. Imagine yourself in the kitchen, Billie Holiday crooning gently from your MacBook speakers, as you pick chervil and parsley for a salad, or roughly chop oregano and toss it into your pasta sauce with a carefree hand. Life is good in a well-stocked kitchen, and fresh herbs are a big step in a delicious direction.

Before we get there, though, I want to drop some science on you.  First of all, what makes something an herb? For our purposes, an herb is the leafy, aromatic part of a plant used for food or medicine. Herbs aren’t spices, which are all the non-leafy parts of plants like flower buds (cloves), bark (cinnamon) or stigmas (shout-out to my girl saffron). But they are delicious.

You probably already know that hot peppers developed their spiciness as a defense against hungry birds and bugs. Herbs did something similar. Most herbs get their distinctive taste from particular chemicals, like thymol in thyme or myrcene in bay leaves. These chemicals aren’t meant to be delicious, though. Actually, they’re useful to the plant for their ability to repel bugs and animals. But these leafy lovelies could not have predicted that their self-defense strategy would make them even more appealing to hungry humans. Haha on you, stupid plants! Humans ftw!

Fun fact! In the UK, they pronounce the word “herb” with a hard h, like “hhhhhherb.” Oh Britain, you so crazy.

How about some history? The first medical treatise written in recognizable English is called “The Leech Book of Bald” and dates to the early 10th century. And when I say “recognizable English” I mean horrible Anglo-Saxon, with words like “claefnunga.” I’m not kidding; one version I found actually used the word “claefnunga.”

Anyway, “The Leech Book of Bald” is full of herbal remedies, many involving herbs we now use mostly for cooking. Of course, the majority of them are completely insane. It promises to cure things like fractured skulls, impotence and strokes — which for the loony Anglo-Saxons were the result of execution-style elf shootings. And while a lot of the remedies involve drinking crushed pearls in wine, or wearing amulets full of arsenic, or similar foolishness, some sound kind of delicious, like the one with egg whites, honey, fennel and mint. Doesn’t that sound nice?

Oh, also? It prescribes leeches for legitimately everything, from intestinal worms to freckles. Come on now.

But enough with the science and history. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and talk about where to get herbs and what to do with them. My suggestion? Grow your own, bro. Get a terracotta pot and seeds from Ace, snag compost from a friend and get planting. Or if that’s too much of a time investment, just steal.

Well, not steal, exactly. But there are herbs growing in public spaces all around Davis, if you just look carefully. Rosemary bushes are running wilder than sheltered freshmen on campus. I sometimes find mint in weird places. The Salad Bowl Garden by the PES building has beautiful parsley and they love to share. Go check it out!

As for what to do with fresh herbs, you’re limited only by your own imagination. Put thyme in your scrambled eggs! Put tarragon in your beans! Put dill in everything! But if you need a little direction, here’s a nom-licious and simple recipe my friend picked up on her great-uncle’s farm in Sicily.

Boil pasta. Roughly tear up a few handfuls of mint, basil and parsley. Finely grate a little garlic and toss everything with plenty of olive oil and salt. Maybe even some ricotta if you’re feeling fancy. Now tear into that yumminess like there’s no tomorrow. Hooray, herbs!

If you’d like to share more bizarre Anglo-Saxon remedies, contact KATELYN HEMPSTEAD at khempstead@ucdavis.edu.