The state of our student government is in crisis. At the end of this Fall 2011 election, ASUCD will undoubtedly be dominated by one campus slate, BOLD. Six out of seven current candidates are BOLD. With six seats open, they are guaranteed AT LEAST five seats. BOLD slate members currently hold four out of the remaining six seats on senate. Thus, BOLD is assured nine senate seats and an overwhelming 3/4 majority.

Students around campus must ask: how can a single slate represent the diverse needs of the entire campus student body? And, how has BOLD accomplished such a great feat of securing nine senate seats? This answer is within the vote counting system.

Currently, elections are conducted through the choice voting system also known as single transferable vote (STV). This system creates a threshold number of #1 votes that each candidate must reach to get elected. However, after a candidate reaches this threshold number and secures a seat, all surplus #1 votes for the candidate are redirected to a voters #2 candidate. The redirection of votes continues until all six winning candidates reach the threshold number. In theory, this system is meant to be the fairest, allowing for proportional representation. But campus slates, being knowledgeable of this system, have realized the advantage it gives to groups of students that run together.

If one can successfully organize students to vote a slate #1-6, then once the #1 candidate from a slate reaches the threshold, the #2 candidate will receive all of their leading slate members excess votes. So when individuals run together and organize students to vote for them as a group, they are purposefully aiding each other by helping to redirect their votes to their slate members after they meet the threshold.

I do not wish to attack BOLD because they are not the only slate that has benefited from this system. We have seen many slates pass through our ASUCD: LEAD, ACT, GO, JAM and more.

But, having freethinking “individuals” comprise a slate is NOT equitable to being inclusive of diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Yes, each senate candidate is an individual that can think independently and (hopefully) make fair and objective decisions. But, don’t students run on slates because they share similar ideas and goals? If not, then one plausible explanation could be because an election slate gives an advantage to all of its members.

The only method of changing the election process is through the ASUCD Senate. With slates generally winning the majority of senate seats each election, I can only assume that senate members favor the current voting system.

From one student to another, I advise to not vote any slate #1-6 in the future; only choose candidates you believe in and candidates you feel will represent you. Otherwise, campus slates that can successfully organize students to only vote for their slate will continue to dominate in elections and consequently dominate ASUCD.

CAMERON BROWN is a senior economics major and concerned student.
If you want to share you concerns or counterarguments with him, contact him at cabrwn@gmail.com.

If you’ve made it to this corner of the newspaper, you already know that a tumbleweed brush might as well be running for ASUCD Senate. Some say this is a generational phenomenon to be expected of the millennials. For years, our generation sustained criticism for its relative lack of civic engagement. But is the barren election really a function of political apathy?

To make the sweeping claim that millennials are apathetic is to argue that we lack a kind of passion for shaping society to our needs — that we don’t care. Let me entertain four ways to frame our brand of caring to complicate the reductive criticisms levied against millennials.

Firstly, we don’t want to look like we care. There’s a difference between saying someone doesn’t care about politics and noticing when folks are trying hard to signal that they don’t care. In other words, there’s a cache to looking apathetic, independent of whether you really care about any issue. If you’re skeptical of this, direct your attention outside to the roaming packs of hipsters.

Secondly, we care in a different way. But I can see why indifferent appearances are taken as underlying apathy. In 2007, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman called us Generation Q — for “Quiet.” He makes the claim that the millennial generation is too quiet both “…for it’s own good … and for the country’s good.” If we are the quiet generation, this is because the old guard cannot hear the noise online.

In the past, political engagement was the only means of improving your environment. What’s different about our generation is that we have another environment, a virtual space, to disengage from reality. Social networking platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr afford one the opportunity to redesign one’s life via monopolistic control. That means you can reconfigure the constellation of links, feeds, status updates, friend requests, followers, pics, tweets and tumblrs however you like.

Our care today comes across in an alternative politics; one committed to engaging what’s meaningful in a seductively customizable environment.

Thirdly, we cannot afford to care. Students are increasingly seeking employment to make ends meet. A report in 2001 claimed that student employment rose from 49 percent in 1984 to 57 percent in 2001. And this was before Sept. 11, the Iraq-Afghanistan War and credit bubble bursting. This was before tuition increased by several thousands.

Despite the mercy of having much of my tuition covered by scholarship, I still needed to work three part-time jobs last year to afford the remainder, rent and food. I learned this year that I’m just one of many in a recent phenomenon of taking multiple jobs to make ends meet.

School already demands a sizable portion of time. Add to that employment and it’s not hard to see why you find neither students gathering petition signatures to run for office, nor students taking the time to understand the issues and candidates. Political engagement is not so much a political right as it is a privilege. To be able to run in an election, and to a lesser extent, effectively vote, you must first pay to be here, live here and eat here.

Finally, we are not as apathetic about student government as we are convinced it cannot solve our problems. The latest tuition increases charge students nearly $2,000 more in annual fees. Each student here pays about $120 annually to ASUCD through his or her student fees. Even if you were to completely dismantle the student government and refund all the money to students for four years, they would scarcely be able to use that for one month’s rent.

This is not to say that ASUCD is irrelevant. For what $120 is worth, the collective operation of student government does a lot for employing students, making resources available and ensuring a livable, enjoyable, diverse campus environment. They cannot solve tuition hikes, but they do make them hurt less.

I would ask those who speak to the apathy of our generation what they think drives political disengagement. For some, the story of apathy is about some insidious quality inherent to our generation’s character. If you can, in fact, make the claim that we don’t care, you’d be hard-pressed to separate the apathetic generational personality from an environment conducive to disengagement.

RAJIV NARAYAN doesn’t care if you e-mail him at rrnarayan@ucdavis.edu.

I am a failure as a poli sci major. Today is Election Day, but I will not be taking part in it. I registered to vote too late. Yes, I logged onto the “Rock the Vote” website, thanks to influences from musical moguls like Diddy and Justin Timberlake, filled out the entire form, even using my Davis address, only to read the fine print: for California, voters must register at least 15 days in advance. After cursing for a good 10 minutes, I finally came to terms with it. Ah, well, I guess there’s always next year.

Exactly one year from now, hopefully many of you will be voting in the national presidential election. I would never forgive myself if I forgot to register for the big one, especially since I get e-mails from the Obama campaign. Voting takes a lot of effort and I know I’m being incredibly hypocritical, but it’s important to get out there and vote.

I know voting takes time, and you’re busy. I hate to blame my forgetfulness on being busy but I’ll do it anyway. I have midterms, essays and fraternity stuff, on top of trying to catch up on reading and staying healthy (both of which I’m not doing so well on). Between attempting to study and lurk hotties on Facebook, there’s not enough time in the day.

Of course, even when I turn off my laptop and sit down to look at class notes, I glance up to see the month’s PG&E bill staring at me. There goes studying, time to pay the bills. While writing the check, my stomach starts to growl. I open the fridge to get some food only to find that I’m out of everything. It’s time for a Safeway run.

What I’m saying is that finding time in our busy schedules to remember to register punctually can be difficult. Maybe it would be useful to create a calendar reminder on your phone or perhaps walk around with a neon green Post-It note on your face. You won’t be able to read it, but every time you look in the mirror you’ll attempt to read that green thing, which will in turn remind you.

If walking around with a Post-It on your face doesn’t appeal to you, maybe thinking about the benefits of voting will help. First of all, you get a sticker, which I am very sad that I am missing out on. Who doesn’t want an awesome red, white and blue “I Voted” sticker to display proudly on themselves? The sticker comes with automatic bragging rights. Since I have a late December birthday and have never been able to vote before, I have always been jealous of my friends who came back from voting with those badass stickers.

Maybe the sticker isn’t enough for you and you care more about the issues and candidates. Whether you’re for Rick Perry’s flat-tax plan or President Obama’s jobs plan, there could be a lot riding on your vote. Obviously, for today’s election these issues are not as pressing, but there may certainly be issues in your local area that you care about. Take some time to look over the ballots before voting; I know it sounds cliché, but you could make a difference.

Perhaps you couldn’t care less about politics. (Ok, honestly, who are you people?). I understand that everyone varies in interests but, chances are, an issue that you care about may be on a ballot somewhere. If you’re an avid biker, you may be concerned about sustaining bike lanes (just ask Sen. Rand Paul, who tried to shut them down) or if you’re in a “cannabis-induced haze,” you may be concerned about the legalization of marijuana. Don’t dismiss politics because you think all of our politicians are screw-ups or not trustworthy. Ultimately, if no action is taken, we’re going to have to deal with those untrustworthy screw-ups in government. Sounds like a nightmare to me.

I know I sound very hypocritical since I registered too late but isn’t too late better than never? Sure, I blamed it on my lack of time, but I know that it was more my fault in procrastinating. If you know anyone like me, make sure to stay on their asses about registering to vote on time.

As students at a pretty politically active university, it only seems right that we make our voices heard in government. Plus you get stickers, bragging rights and the feeling that you’re making a difference. I couldn’t ask for a better November Tuesday.

MEDHA SRIDHAR is still silently bitching about her excellent procrastination skills. Feel free to reprimand her yourself at mdsridhar@ucdavis.edu.

College can be scary. Upon arrival, many will experience their first time living away from home, their first time being in charge of creating their own schedule, and if they’re lucky, a welcome week-induced hangover the likes of which they’ve never experienced before. Although I do quite literally own a book titled the guide to college, like my column, it does little more than offer a few jokes about things you might come across while you are here. This is why I want to explain how to take advantage of a bank of knowledge which has been sitting right under our noses, or more likely calling every day to make sure our noses are getting along OK.

Our parents are old. This means they are also likely to be old fashioned. However, through diligent research and checking multiple sources I found that they really were “young once too.” In fact, it seems that many of our parents have actually had experiences very similar to the ones we are going through now, and may even be able to offer us relevant advice.

I’m not ashamed to say my dad was cooler than my current self when he was in college. I recently posted a photo online of him with his arm around an old girlfriend in front of his 1968 VW Bus, which featured an ironic portrait of Mickey Mouse he painted himself. After receiving 50,000 hits it was far and away the most popular thing I have ever posted to the internet, and, fortunately, all the comments which read “your mom is hot” were not about my actual mom.

After leaving our childhood homes and legally becoming adults, our parents may not see us as peers, but they will at least begin to recognize us as something more than a butt they used to wipe. This is why I advocate college students seeking advice from their elders. Unfortunately, the UC Davis campus has done its best to get in the way of this. The programming at the Parent and Family Weekend held just a few days ago will not do much to bolster relations between students and the people it is not so aptly named for. I’m doubting that “Davis Chancellor’s Club insider’s view of the Robert Mondavi Institute” is any less uptight than it sounds.

So when your parents come around for the next mandated visitation weekend, recommend they skip the trip to Chem 194 to hear a lecture on “coaching your student through college 101” and actually spend some time with them. Try something which will actually represent at least a smidgen of what your life is like here.

Head over for brunch at Crepeville, or wherever you like to nurse away your headache after a long night of drinking. Whether or not you reveal the location’s identity as a hangover cure is up to you, but perhaps your parents have been waiting for the right time to unveil your family’s secret remedy for post-binge drinking recovery.

Appreciate the convenience of our local Target and grab that mirror you’ve been getting along without for the last two months. When I was a freshman we had to drive 10 miles through the snow to get to the Wal-Mart in Dixon. A shopping trip also means an opportunity to get some groceries if you let it be known that you’ve been living mostly off of Ramen and Chef Boyardee.

There are many benefits to spending “quality time” with one’s parents. Odds are that they know how to help solve all of your petty college problems. I have sought my parents counsel on everything from how to evict my friend that over-stayed himself into a roommate, to over the phone cooking tips on whether or not my steak is done. Their advice may not always be worth taking, but a parent’s suggestion bears a brand of experience that our peers simply cannot offer.

Whether you’re headed for a tour of campus, a quick meal or a trip to the store, you have a heck of a lot of better options than attending a brunch with Chancellor Katehi and hearing her “vision for UC Davis.” Our parents may not seem cool now, and it’s because they probably aren’t. However, if you dig deep and spend some quality time together, as opposed to just suffering through their visit, you might come out with some relevant advice, or at the very least some free food.

If you need AARON WEISS to forward a question to his super cool dad, shoot a note to atweiss@ucdavis.edu.

On Nov. 16, the UC Regents will vote to increase our fees by 81 percent over the next four years. There is no one we can petition or convince to stop this trend toward privatization. We must take matters into our own hands by preventing the UC Regents from convening at UC San Francisco on Nov. 16.

This Wednesday, we will be holding a rally in solidarity with our comrades at UC, CSU and community colleges across the state who are walking out of classes in opposition to the proposed higher education fee hikes and budget cuts and in preparation for the convergence at UCSF on Nov. 16.

For the last 10 years, we students have sat back and let the regents walk all over us. Fees have gone up 300 percent since 2001. In the meantime, the richest Americans have gotten exponentially wealthier, services for working people have been slashed, the average student’s debt load has risen to nearly $30,000 and over 5,000 of our fellow young Americans have been sent to their unnecessary deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama, who was elected on a cynical platform of “hope” and “change,” has flatly betrayed us. Why have he and the Democratic Party doubled our troop presence in Afghanistan, invaded Libya and illegally murdered U.S. citizens in Yemen? Why have they failed to provide the American people with a publicly funded jobs program to curtail growing unemployment and poverty? Why have they promised to slash Medicare and Social Security while giving billions of dollars in relief to the most profitable corporations? Why have they deported more undocumented people than George Bush and the Republicans?

In light of these events and the recent growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement, we UC students have decided that we have had enough with the two-party system!

No longer will we allow the Regents — appointed from both big business parties — to walk all over us. If they must increase fees each time they meet, then, quite simply, we must prevent them from meeting at all.

UC students, teachers and workers, please join the growing movement against budget cuts and fee hikes. The future of our state and our country relies on your involvement in the movement.

On the Nov. 16, free busing will be provided from UC Davis and several other Northern California college campuses to UCSF and back. If you are interested in coming, contact Davis Strike on Facebook for more info.

This is our ultimatum: if the Democrats and Republicans continue to raise fees on working Californians while slashing taxes for the rich, then they will not be physically able to vote on a fee-hike.

We have made our case passively for far too long. Now is the time for action, but we need your support. We will undoubtedly face the same police truncheon that brutalized Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen and disparagingly infiltrated peaceful UC Davis protests in previous years. But we are prepared to fight back with our numerical strength.

Join us on the quad this Wednesday to discuss the plans for the statewide convergence on the regents meeting on Nov. 16.

For decades, working people and students have been hit with the onslaught of austerity and corporatism. Now, for the first time in 80 years, the people are beginning to fight back.

Join us on Facebook by searching and liking “Davis Strike”.

Davis Strike
An organizational network of students aimed at mobilizing UC Davis students against fee-hikes and budget cuts

In the article “Chilean Student Association” from Nov. 1, Boris Cardenas expresses concerns about our activities.

To be clear, the Chilean Student Association is not a political organization. It has a diverse membership and welcomes discussion among individuals with different ideas, which is one of the benefits of being on a university campus. Our main aim is to generate collaborative bridges between our members, who are developing important investigations at UC Davis and Chile in order to contribute to the development of our country. The association expects to meet with any outstanding and valid Chilean authority visiting Davis — no matter of political preferences — to advance its goals.

The association and our affiliates have concerns about the ongoing demands to improve education in Chile and will do our best to contribute to that from California. In fact, there are several activities that are in our agenda regarding this issue.

Chilean Student Association