The Fall Internship and Career Fair will take place on Thursday at the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) Pavilion from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students from all majors are invited to come learn about intern and career opportunities from over 165 companies.
– Hannah Strumwasser
Editor’s Note: Ask Katehi is a weekly column where students get a chance to ask the UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi questions.
What is your favorite Greek food and why?
There are so many wonderful Greek dishes to choose from and, although I do not eat meat and tend to be a light eater, I do eat dairy products and seafood. With that said, my favorite Greek food is charbroiled octopus. This might surprise many of you because this dish is not commonly served in the U.S. Even in Greek restaurants here where they do serve it, it differs greatly from what you get in Greece, both because of the quality of the cephalopod and the way it is prepared.
This dish goes well with a glass of chilled white wine or a shot of ouzo – an anise-flavored liquor often served with Greek foods or appetizers. But there’s nothing like sitting in a Greek island café on a warm summer evening munching on a leg of charbroiled octopus as you watch the sunset or boats sail by, or while having a lively conversation with friends or relatives about addressing the world’s problems. Everything then seems possible and there is nothing that can spoil the atmosphere.
If you ever find yourself in Greece in the summer, I encourage you to try it and you will see what I mean. You will need a Greek native friend, though, to take you to the right place.
Want to ask Katehi a question? E-mail your questions to campus@theaggie.org.
On Monday, petitions for the upcoming ASUCD elections were released. Yet yearly averages show that 85 percent of the UC Davis student body was unaware of past election cycles. Like the latent crash of thunder, so low and distant it hardly registers in the human auditory canal, petitions were released, and UC Davis campus politics awoke from its slumber.
Election season began this week, and despite the prominent electoral indicators – including A-Frames, fliers, candidate presentations and ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo) debates – most students will remain unaware of the politics taking place around them. This, in turn, could lead to low electoral participation.
Voter turnout is typically low. In a university of approximately 25,000 eligible undergraduate voters, only about 3,000 to 4,500 students (10 to 15 percent) vote on a quarterly basis. What’s more, few students aren’t even aware of their student government or its elections. Kevin Tsukamoto, a first-year design major, did not know when elections began, or how the electoral process functioned. He did, however, know ASUCD stood for Associated Students of UC Davis.
Other students, like Hong Hochung, a first-year molecular biology major, were similarly nonplussed. Such ambivalence has ASUCD Elections Committee Chair, Stephanie Wong, worried.
“The Senate does do important things, but the average student doesn’t care or is far too busy to notice,” Wong said.
These important things include ASUCD’s $11 million budget used to facilitate major student services like the CoHo, Unitrans, campus radio station KDVS and the town’s much beloved Picnic Day. The Association is also responsible for maintaining the post office in the Memorial Union and subsidizing the Pantry in Lower Freeborn. Despite these significant offerings, many students like Tsukanodo and Hochung don’t know how their elected representatives are chosen.
Elections take place during Fall and Winter quarters, with six Senate seats up for grabs each time. The president and vice president are elected in Winter. Beginning in the third week of the quarter, prospective candidates are issued petitions, which they must return to the Elections Committee one week later with 125 student signatures. The campaign period then lasts until the seventh week of the quarter when voting takes place.
Voting is done online in a format known as ranked choice voting. In this system, voters rank their candidate choices one through six. When a candidate receives a predetermined number of first place votes, they are elected. From there all second rank votes are counted until another candidate is elected, and so on until all the open seats are filled.
It’s a complicated system, and it comes with its own unique advantages and disadvantages.
“It’s a system that causes every vote to count,” Wong said.
Ranked choice voting allows voters to cast their number one vote for an underdog candidate without simultaneously throwing away their ballot. This is opposed to American politics, where individuals rarely vote for a third party because they know only major party candidates have a legitimate chance to win.
“It’s a way of people getting to express their true preferences and not having to vote tactically,” said political science Professor Ethan Scheiner. “Rather, they don’t have to cast their ballot for someone they don’t really like.”
The main detractor from ranked choice voting is that its complexity drives away the uninformed.
“In general people don’t know all that much about what’s going on when they vote,” Scheiner said. “That gets even more complicated if you ask them to rank their preferences in any kind of way.”
Because most voters are only familiar with one or two candidates, asking voters to rank six choices can send some running from the ballot boxes.
As a result, the 15 percent who do vote each quarter tend to be very well informed. But many feel student government should represent more than the campus’ political avant garde.
“ASUCD is meant to cater to the students – we want to know what the people want,” Wong said.
One of the reasons students don’t know much about their student government is the lack of prominent information. First-year students enter with little to no knowledge of ASUCD.
“I only found out about ASUCD because I was looking on their jobs website,” Hong Hochung told me.
To combat the information shortage, ASUCD is working to expand its online presence by creating a Facebook page, among other improvements. The Elections Committee also has the means to advertise itself, albeit with a limited budget of approximately $3,000.
Another way to raise turnout would be to involve more students in their student government. ASUCD President Adam Thongsavat said he would like nothing better than to increase student involvement.
“I love seeing qualified people get jobs in ASUCD. Working on a commission or as an intern is great because you work with a team and you learn a lot,” he said.
In the end, however, the onus for raising turnout is on ASUCD.
“What is most important is that students are aware of the services ASUCD provides,” said ASUCD Senator Matt Provencher.
By improving the quality of its offerings, members of the association hope to draw more people toward it.
“Do things that matter and people take notice – do things that matter,” Thongsavat said.
JUSTIN GOSS can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
FRIDAY
Bong threat
Someone found two plastic bottles glued together on Hanover Drive.
No comment
There was underage drinking on Anderson Road.
SATURDAY
Grave robbers
A burglar alarm was going off at the cemetery on Pole Line Road.
Who’s paying the Czech?
Several people were fighting outside Little Prague on G Street.
Free samples
Someone left partially eaten food items on a porch at Raphael Place.
SUNDAY
BeeMW parking only
There was a swarm of bees at a garage on F Street.
Police Briefs are compiled by TRACY HARRIS from the city of Davis daily crime bulletins. Contact TRACY HARRIS at city@theaggie.org.
When you read the title of my column, I want you to read it how Tower of Power sings it. Did you do it? If you need a minute to Google the song, then take a moment. I had to look it up myself to find out who wrote it, if we’re being perfectly honest.? Now that I have vividly described how “What is hip?” should sound inside your head, we can continue with my column.
Davis is pretty Mnstrm. It’s hard to find a place that you feel like you can tell your friends about without them rubbing it in your face that they’ve been there and done that. We all want the satisfaction of doing something “hip”, as it is common knowledge that something’s coolness is inversely proportional to how many people know about it.
Firstly, we need to talk about what qualifies someone as a hipster or what makes a location hip. The most important quality to hold in regards to hipness is being different from mainstream culture. You wouldn’t see a hipster repping an Abercrombie and Fitch polo while rocking out to the Black Eyed Peas. You’d be much more likely to catch a hipster in an off-colored floral print romper humming Belle & Sebastian as they walk to class.?
I could talk all day about the subtle differences between living an indie versus an alternative life style, but that probably wouldn’t be relevant to you the reader.
The real question is — where does Davis hide its hipsters?
One semi-obvious location is Delta of Venus, near the corner of Second and B. I first stumbled upon DoV when I was catching brunch with a few friends from out of town. ?We sat down to eat and I was surprised to see they offer a full breakfast for only five dollars. However, after I got my plate I was whole-heartedly offended when I found myself asking, “Where’s the bacon?”
This conjecture arose not because I had forgotten to order a side of my favorite pig part, but because DoV is a mostly vegetarian restaurant. While it is not a fact that all hipsters are vegetarians, it is true that having one of these traits makes you more likely to have the other (They won’t let me put in the Venn Diagram I drew). ?By not serving a lot of meat, Delta of Venus effectively filters its customers to ensure only the most hip clientele visit their restaurant. The reason I say this is because of the steadily more apparent merging of hipsters and hippies, which leads me to my next hip locale.
The Davis area with the highest density of hipness is probably the on-campus cooperative housing. The mainstream simply does not flow through the co-ops.
They make community meals, grow their own organic food in a garden, and host parties where they have live, non-electronic music. Not only do they host bands you’ve probably never heard of, they live a life style that you will probably never experience.
Another hip location is the Davis Beer Shoppe. This place isn’t exactly a secret as it is often very crowded, but have you seen how they spell “Shoppe”?
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t come in and buy yourself a nice 22 oz. of Arrogant Bastard ale to enjoy at your own convenience. If Fratural ice and KeyBrone light are no longer up to your standards, then swing by here to grab a brew that will make people think that you think you’re better than them. When in doubt about what comments to make regarding your beer, just throw out adjectives like “Hoppy” and “Robust” and you’ll probably be fine.
If you don’t feel that you can keep up with all this hip action, then don’t beat yourself up too much. In reality, being a hipster is really about being yourself, no matter what you like. So keep enjoying top 40 music and don’t worry if you bought your clothes at Target, and not at Salvation Army. You can still be a hipster, the other hipsters just might frown at you a lot. A lot, a lot.
AARON WEISS doesn’t think he is more hip than you, but only because that wouldn’t be very hip. Tell him you’re judging him at atweiss@ucdavis.edu.
Recent events in the Silicon Valley – like the shooting that occurred in my hometown and the passing of my high school’s most famous alumnus, innovator Steve Jobs – had me so worried that I went home for the weekend.
There are certain perks to being home, and let me tell you, the main one is satellite TV. I was able to plop myself down on the couch on Sunday for E!’s special presentation of “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event,” a documentation of the reality star’s wedding.
Cameras flashed as over 400 guests gathered to watch Kim tie the knot to a man twice her size, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries. The bride wore custom Vera Wang gowns (of course, a dress change was involved), the ceremony took place at a gorgeous mansion in southern California, and celebrities ranging from Eva Longoria to Ryan Seacrest were in attendance.
It was not long before tabloids were dubbing it a “dream wedding” and “the wedding of the year” (had they forgotten about the royal wedding?). But how many girls really want their wedding to cost millions of dollars and be documented for the entire world to see? Was this the wedding that many girls, including myself, have dreamt of from a young age?
As a self-proclaimed wedding enthusiast, I decided to delve deeper into the wedding phenomenon. I had added TV shows such as “Four Weddings,” and “Say Yes to the Dress” to my DVR lineup over the summer, so they had been recording while I was away. Side note: DVR is another awesome thing about being at home.
From what I could see of the former show (“Four Weddings,” in which four brides attend each other’s weddings and rate them to win a free honeymoon), the brides felt that they had to stick to a theme, serve the best food or have the biggest surprise element in each of their respective weddings in order to edge out the competition.
I got to questioning what happened to the day being about the love that the couple has for each other. Since when did a wedding turn into a day of criticizing the choice of décor or written vows?
After getting fed up with brides talking smack about each other’s weddings, I decided to switch to the other show, “Say Yes to the Dress.” The title seemed pretty self-explanatory: brides visit the enormous Kleinfeld Bridal Salon in New York to choose their wedding dress, thereby “saying yes to the dress.”
The dress, traditionally white, has always been a significant part of the wedding day festivities, so it was clear that the brides would want to walk down the aisle in their “dream dresses.” Little did I know of the drama that came along with these bridal appointments.
The death glares exchanged between mothers and daughters, the tears that flowed once the perfect gown was on, and the rookie mistake of exceeding the set budget were just a few highlights in the preparation of attire for the big day. Sure, every girl wants to look good for her wedding, but is a $24,000 wedding gown worth it when the groom-to-be loves the bride regardless of her attire?
Don’t get me wrong; I have been fantasizing about my wedding day for years. However, the media exposure of weddings, whether it is via celebrities like Ms. Kardashian (or is it Humphries now?) or through the television shows that depict the bridezillas of today’s wedding culture, I can’t help but feel anxious about what the young girls of today are planning for their own “dream weddings.” Do they include a fabulously expensive wedding gown or a $15,000 cake that stands five feet tall?
Whatever the case, the media has cast such a spotlight on weddings that it is hard to imagine girls dreaming of a simple wedding. Who wants to see a $100 wedding dress or homemade cupcakes when there are so many more extravagant options?
As for me, the weekend at home watching all of these shows had me fantasizing about my own big day. Although I shook my head while I watched them, I couldn’t help but imagine trying on an expensive gown or tasting delicious cake flavors.
Boy, these shows are really doing their job. I’ll be right back; I’m adding “weddings” to my interests on StumbleUpon. Hey, a girl can dream, right?
MEDHA SRIDHAR is now hooked on wedding shows and would love to hear your thoughts about centerpieces and flower arrangements. E-mail her at mdsridhar@ucdavis.edu.
ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Oct. 6, 2011 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room. The ASUCD president is not required to attend senate meetings.
Meeting called to order at 6:10 p.m.
Adam Thongsavat, ASUCD president, absent
Bree Rombi, ASUCD vice president, present
Yena Bae, ASUCD senator, present
Miguel Espinoza, ASUCD senator, present
Emmanuel Diaz-Ordaz, ASUCD senator, present
Andre Lee, ASUCD senator, present
Amy Martin, ASUCD senator, present
Mayra Martín, ASUCD senator, present
Tatiana Moana Bush, ASUCD senator, absent
Darwin Moosavi, ASUCD senator, present
Matthew Provencher, ASUCD president pro-tempore, present
Brendan Repicky, ASUCD senator, present
Rebecca Sterling, ASUCD senator, present
Ryan Meyerhoff, ASUCD senator, absent
Appointments and confirmations
Cynthia Chan, Kristie Fung, Anni Kimball, Wilson Cheng, Daniel Quintana, Joyce Han, Navpreet Chima, Michael Matosich and Maggie Mae were confirmed to the Outreach Assembly.
Evelin Gonzalez and Kathleen Parsons were confirmed to the Aggie Bound Outreach Committee.
Sabastian Belser was confirmed as unit director of STS/Tipsy Taxi.
Danica Liongson, Kate Lin, Catherine Hawe, Tanzi Jackson and Wilson Sauthoff were confirmed to the Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC).
Caitlin Alday was re-confirmed as chair of the Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC).
Moosavi was appointed as senate representative to the Aggie Public Arts Committee.
Unit Director Reports
Sabastian Belser said that Tipsy Taxi has upped its standing revenue by 50 percent. Also, Tipsy Taxi has begun to use the new Tipsy Taxi van. Tipsy Taxi also launched its new website recently, and about 11 or 12 people used it the first weekend.
Consideration of old legislation
Senate Bill 3, authored by Sterling, co-authored by Bae, Lee, Moosavi and Carly Sandstrom, introduced by Lee, to enhance separation of powers between the ASUCD Senate, subordinate bodies of the ASUCD Senate, ASUCD Executive Office, ASUCD Court and the Student Government Administrative Office. Lee said that he really wanted to maximize the amount of people who can get involved in ASUCD. The table discussed including advocacy units to the list. Lee made an amendment that states that people who already hold two positions would be exempt from this rule. In a 9-0-3 vote the bill passed.
Senate Bill 4, authored by Lee, co-authored by Don Ho, Sterling and Thongsavat, introduced by Lee, to allocate $1,008 from Senate Reserves to the ASUCD President’s Office for ASUCD advertisements on Unitrans. Martin suggested that the money come out of Capital Reserves if the ads could be used for multiple years. The table decided to fund the printing costs for this project with Capital Reserves. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 5, authored by Lee, co-authored by Bae, Rombi, Debs Schrimmer and Sterling, introduced by Lee, to allocate $305 from Senate Reserves to reimburse the library administration for canvases donated in the 2010-11 school year. Lee said that they were doing this because the library had originally donated the canvases, but because the project has taken much longer than expected, he does not feel the library should have to pay for them. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 6, authored by Moosavi, co-authored by Leticia Cheng and Henry Chatfield, introduced by Moosavi, to amend the Entertainment Council budget to reallocate the surplus of $875 in funds from the Buzz. Ho said that the reason EC saved money on the Buzz is because there was a mix up with the rental company for the sound equipment. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 7, authored by the Internal Affairs Commission (IAC), introduced by Cano, to remove obsolete references to the ASUCD Judicial Codes from the ASUCD Bylaws, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 8, authored by the IAC, introduced by Cano, to add the Speaker of the ASUCD Outreach Assembly to the list of persons required to attend mandatory management and staff development events, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 9, authored by the IAC, introduced by Sergio Cano, to remove obsolete references to AS Papers from the ASUCD Bylaws, passed unanimously.
Public discussion
The table discussed whether or not GASC should see a bill pertaining to the Students of Color Conference. Because GASC does not have enough members currently, it cannot be seen by the commission until a much later date. Espinoza said that there is no way the bill can be seen later, as the Students of Color Conference is taking place soon. In a 7-4-1 vote, it was decided that the bill would not be seen by GASC.
Sterling said that ASUCD funds the Art Basement Gallery, in the basement of the Art Department. They are having a new show soon and she encouraged everyone to attend.
Rikki Seguin from CalPIRG said thank you to everyone who came to the Textbook Awareness event on the Quad. She also said that Davis got the most petitions out of the other 40 schools that were involved.
Edd Montelongo, chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, announced that the SOCC website is now up, and can be seen at socc2011.ucdavis.edu.
Cano said that election petitions would be available Monday.
Meeting adjourned at 10:21 p.m.
Open positions within ASUCD can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu. HANNAH STRUMWASSER compiles the senate briefs. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
TODAY
Ian Bogost Lecture
3 p.m.
126 Voorhies
Ian Bogost, CEO of Persuasive Games and author of Newsgames and How to Do Things with Videogames, will discuss “Words, Images, Computation and Other Materials.” Bogost also invented the Facebook application Cow Clicker and is a professor of media studies at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Teach-in for the National Day of Solidarity with the Irvine 11
8:30 p.m.
115 Wellman
UC Davis’ Students for Justice in Palestine will hold a teach-in to raise awareness about the Irvine 11 and show their support for the Irvine 11 as they appeal their verdict.
WEDNESDAY
Student Organization Showcase
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
West Quad
Join 180+ clubs at the annual student organization showcase! Groups can recruit members, give demonstrations, perform and let the campus community know who they are and what they have to offer. The Aggie Pack booth will release a limited number of brand-new Homecoming shirts.
Science Café: Medicines from Nature: Drugs that Changed the World
5:15 p.m.
Wyatt Deck, UC Davis Arboretum
Professor Ted Molinski of the deptartment of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will provide an overview of the development of medicines from plants and other natural sources. He will discuss the historical impact of this research and several recent breakthroughs that have helped lead to cures for diseases.
Student Investors and Entrepreneurs Workshop
7 to 8 p.m.
1150 Hart
UC Davis alumnus Robert L. Woods will lead a workshop about investing and portfolio building. Learn about stocks, bonds, insurance, retirement planning and more.
Vet Aide Club Meeting
7:30 p.m.
176 Everson
Join the Vet Aide Club at UC Davis to hear veterinary speakers discuss career opportunities in food animal medicine. Also, come for information regarding the beef, llama and poultry handling workshops.
THURSDAY
Fall Internship and Career Fair
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
ARC Pavilion
Over 165 companies – including Cisco, Teach for America and the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising – will provide information about career and internship opportunities for students.
Women’s Soccer v. Pacific
3 p.m.
Aggie Soccer Field
The first 250 students will receive free Homecoming shirts.
American Red Cross Club General Meeting
6:15 to 7:30 p.m.
118 Olson
Missed the first general meeting? No worries! Just come to the second meeting of the year and learn about volunteer opportunities around Davis and the Yolo community.
To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, e-mail dailycal@theaggie.org or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing, and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.
UC Davis officials have released the concept for the uHub, a conglomerate of virtual and physical research units, that has become the product of the many proposed ideas received from constituencies, after a request for innovation hub concept proposals were issued last February.
The uHub will aim to consolidate the university’s various research units, while addressing critical issues that face the world community today, such as energy, food, human and animal health, environmental sustainability and technology.
UC Davis West Village, the nation’s largest planned zero net energy community, is to house uHub’s energy-related research units. This will in turn foster successful collaboration among various research units, provide undergraduate and graduate students with opportunities to learn in the fields that interest them and essentially stimulate the transfer of technologies from concepts and the lab to generate revenue in the marketplace.
Assistant vice chancellor Karl Mohr, who took part in the proposal reviewing and formulation of the uHub concept, said by bringing these various research units together they hope to create more opportunities for the private sector to come in partner with the different groups on research that is important both in the public and private sectors.
“By bringing these units together, we’re hoping to create more opportunities for cross-fertilization … for interaction between these units as well as outside parties that are interested in this,” Mohr said.
The request for proposals collected a wide range of concepts that would potentially contribute to the overarching concept of the uHub. Throughout the proposals, frequent themes would emerge that they felt the final result should address, Mohr said.
“The process was not set up to necessarily pick a single one,” he said. “And, in fact, as we looked at various proposals … what emerged were these themes of really needing to address some of the issues related to technology transfer but also this notion of creating more clear portals … into the university’s research enterprise.”
Though all serving the same goals, research units of the uHub can be placed in either a virtual network of new or existing resources, or in a physical space or location, depending on the issue being researched.
uHub, with the goal of increasing university involvement in the economic development of the region and state, will also create opportunities for students, faculty and staff to engage in research projects, specific to their interests. uHub will serve to provide educational and networking opportunities, as well as demonstrate the commercial worth of ideas and inventions.
Leading the reviewing process is Ralph Hexter, provost and executive vice chancellor. He said uHub will have an inevitable increase in student and faculty involvement.
“If our idea of co-locating related research units results in increased private sector collaborations,” Hexter said, “I imagine that not only will there be additional opportunities for students to engage with faculty in cutting edge research, but also, we hope, future employment opportunities if university research ultimately is spun-off into viable commercial business.”
Mitchel Benson, associate vice chancellor for university communications, explains the uHub will assist in identifying the world’s most critical issues and will help to address them.
“I think the most important thing about how we’re evolving this university,” Benson said, “Is we’re acknowledging and accepting the fact, that one area where UC Davis is uniquely stronger than other universities is our ability to collaborate… [and] innovate at the intersection of these critical issues.”
The uHub will highlight UC Davis’ strengths as a collaborative university, Benson said.
“The interdisciplinary nature is in the DNA of UC Davis, it’s always been in our DNA, it’s been in the DNA from the first century and will continue into the second century,” he said. “It’s that spirit of collaboration and interdisciplinary research that puts UC Davis above and beyond the other public research universities around here, in our nation.”
The West Village community, home to the first uHub, generates only the amount of energy the community needs, and already houses 800 community members, 900 members of faculty and 700 students. It will also be home to the Sacramento Community College Davis Center, which is the first community college extension on a University of California campus. An open house, ribbon-cutting ceremony and barbeque will be held to celebrate the completion of the West Village community.
The free event will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. this Saturday. Members of the public are invited to learn about the energy-efficient features of West Village and to tour the community. The event will include words from speakers and representatives of UC Davis on the community’s newest developments.
MUNA SADEK can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
For first-year English graduate student Ashley Matson, completing all her assigned reading was not something she did on a regular basis throughout her college career. As a result of having too many readings for a particular night, Matson would choose a class she liked the best or that was the most difficult and only did the reading for that class.
“I skipped probably two thirds of my readings,” Matson said. “If there weren’t consequences, it wasn’t difficult, or [if] I could do the essays without reading, I wouldn’t do it.”
Matson is not alone. Many students, regardless of their major, do not complete assigned reading prior to when it is due, and many just skip it at some point in their college career.
The reasons for skipping assigned readings are numerous and vary from person to person. For Julia Simon, professor of comparative literature, humanities and French literature and culture, students tend to skip assigned readings because of various pressures at school: seeing it as unimportant, saving up for the end of the quarter and blatantly not caring.
“When students don’t do the reading, they can’t engage with material, fall behind and don’t understand lecture and discussion,” Simon said. “If I assign something, it’s because I have learned from it and believe that students will, too.”
Many students believe that professors assign too much reading, but there are some students who believe it’s an accumulation of reading from multiple professors that makes it seem like a lot.
“In a way, I do believe the professor assigns a lot of reading, but I think it may also seem that way for me because I have other professors assigning me just as much reading,” said first-year animal science major Marrisa Trevino.
The views of students are vastly different from those of professors on the subject of excessive reading assignments. Professor and director of religious studies Catherine Chin says she doubts there are any professors who would think their assignments are unfair or unmanageable, and does not know any professor who does not consider whether they are assigning a reasonable amount of reading.
Like Chin, Simon believes that what she assigns for her classes is fair. When assigning reading, she considers whether students will be able to manage the workload. Giving shorter assignments during the week and longer ones over the weekend is part of her method of assigning reading.
Matson believes that for many classes, readings are there just because professors feel like students should be reading, not because the reading was actually beneficial. In her experience, if the readings are meaningful and have a point, students will read them. If not, they will be overlooked.
“Professors want to get through so many readings in a quarter, and it’s just not possible,” Matson said. “Realistically, we will read the same number of books each quarter regardless of the number assigned because we will always cut out the extras if we’re assigned too many.”
The majority of students agreed with professors that reading the assigned material is important; however, on students’ hierarchy of priorities, reading is not always at the top. Spanish literature and language professor Charles Oriel finds that students have misguided priorities and lose sight of the fact that their classes are the most important thing in their lives right now.
“Never again will they have the enviable position of simply having to study, so a number of other priorities take over: social life, clubs, partying and dating,” Oriel said.
First-year undeclared major Fearghal Casey is the type of students Oriel may be describing. Casey attempts to complete the required reading assignments, but will skip some if social obligations come up.
Like Oriel, French and humanities professor Noah Guynn feels that many students who skip assigned reading are simply just lazy or immature. Yet, he has learned that many students often face difficult issues that interfere with their abilities to follow through with reading all the material.
“I don’t accept excuses, though I do want to offer my students support if they need it or help them find support,” Guynn said.
While some professors disagree on whether or not assigning less reading material would propel more students to thoroughly and critically read them, all professors agree that to not read will inevitably result in a student performing poorly in the class. Simon, Oriel, Guynn and Chin all have memories of times when it was clear to them that their students failed to complete the reading, whether it was through exams, essays, class or one-on-one discussions.
Despite the consequences of not reading, there will continue to be students like Matson who have been able to successfully pass classes without doing the reading assignments.
“If I could do the essays without doing the reading, I would. It’s kind of like an English major rite of passage to see how well you can do without doing the reading,” Matson said. “If you could get an “A” like I could having not read the book, you know you were a successful English major.”
PRISCILLA WONG can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
The Davis Dollars organization, which is designed to promote the use of a local currency in the city of Davis, has changed its exchange rate in an attempt to make the currency more appealing to business owners.
For those unaware of what Davis Dollars are, the organization allows community member to purchase 10 “dollars” at $9.50, which can be spent at various places around town.
“Basically one of the appeals is that once you have Davis Dollars, you can spend it within the Davis community just like regular money and it makes our economy stronger,” said Ann Barzman, a junior economics major and intern for Davis Dollars. “Also on our website we have people posting services that they offer and want, so others within the Davis community can benefit.”
Davis Dollars can be spent at an ever-growing list of business around town, including Watermelon Music and Copyland. In addition to physical business, individuals can post services that they are either offering or looking for, similar to Craigslist.
“This nonprofit organization also allows Davis locals to buy and sell goods and services online, which serves as a great social means of strengthening our community and empowering the Davis consumer,” said Valerie Francisco, junior international relations major and intern for Davis Dollars, in an e-mail interview.
In addition, the Davis Dollars services are often open to bargaining, where other services or money can be bartered for the service being offered or looked for.
But since its founding a few years ago, Davis Dollars has changed its currency exchange rate to make the bills more appealing to community businesses. As opposed to the previous 1 US dollar to 1 Davis Dollar ratio, consumers can now buy 1 Davis dollar for 95 cents.
“Now the Davis Dollar is equivalent to the U.S. dollar,” Francisco said. “Locals may buy the Davis Dollar at a price of $1 and sell at a U.S. dollar return price of $0.95. This way, businesses that accept Davis Dollars only lose 5 percent of their profit when converting them to U.S. dollars.”
For the community members that purchase Davis Dollars, other than saving 50 cents and some visual changes of the Davis dollar, the benefit of Davis Dollars and its new exchange has stayed fairly the same.
“Consumers who purchase the Davis Dollars in the first place do so for the cause; for the purpose of strengthening the community and stimulating the Davis economy,” Francisco said. “Spending locally makes sure that each dollar stays inside of the town longer.”
Essentially, community members who utilize Davis Dollars will be helping keep the local economy prosperous.
“I do recommend using the Davis Dollar, especially if you care about the future of Davis,” said Shelley Wong, a sophomore textiles and clothing major and intern for Davis Dollars, in an e-mail interview. “I’d like to encourage the students to spend Davis Dollars because they are a large factor of the spending that takes place in Davis.”
More information about Davis Dollars can be found at davisdollars.org.
CHARLOTTE YOUNG can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
It wasn’t the return home the Aggies would have hoped for.
No. 10 UC Davis had a tough weekend, losing to No. 6 Pacific for the second time this year and conference rival No. 18 Santa Clara.
Slow starts and penalties did the Aggies in, as the team never had a lead in either game.
The Aggies, who have lost three in a row for the first time this season, now enter the final month of play with plenty of work ahead if they are to advance to the Western Water Polo Association Championship.
With the losses, UC Davis moves to 16-7 on the year – 10-2 in WWPA play.
Friday – No. 6 Pacific 10, No. 10 UC Davis 5
UC Davis lost for the second time this season to non-conference opponent Pacific before a capacity crowd at Schaal Aquatics Center.
The Aggies got down early, and could not mount a comeback against a tough Pacific squad.
“We need to come out with a lot more intensity and desire,” said assistant coach Tom Kurth. “We can’t come out here and just expect that we are going to play well.”
Pacific jumped out to an early one-goal lead, scoring 45 seconds into the contest. The Aggies trailed 6-3 at halftime and 8-3 heading into the fourth quarter. Three exclusions led to three man-advantage goals for the Tigers.
Five different players tallied a goal for the Aggies in the defeat. Despite the loss, UC Davis head coach Steve Doten was proud of the team’s efforts.
“The guys swam hard,” he said. “You could tell by the white water on the counter-attack. I’m happy with how hard these guys played. If they do that every game, I’ll be happy.”
Sunday – No. 18 Santa Clara 9, UC Davis 6
UC Davis tried to bounce back against conference opponent Santa Clara, but the early struggles led to another tough loss.
Santa Clara scored just one of its goals at even strength. The Broncos scored three five-meter penalty shots and two man-advantage goals in the first half alone. All three of their second half goals came after an Aggie exclusion.
“The focus isn’t there at the start of the games,” Kurth said. “Against a team like Santa Clara, if you’re not focused, if you’re not executing, they’ll beat you, and that’s exactly what happened today.”
UC Davis shot a paltry 3-for-17 in the first half, and the struggles continued in the third quarter as the Aggies shot just 1-for-7.
Seniors Aaron Salit and Luke Collins scored two goals apiece for the Aggies, but the comeback was too little, too late.
UC Davis will take a weekend off from official competition, hosting an Alumni Game on Saturday.
“In the next two weeks, I want us to focus on what makes us a good team. Everyone has to do their role, and dedicate themselves for the next month, because that’s potentially all that is left in our season,” Kurth said. “We need to buckle down and realize we have a lot of hard work ahead of us and can’t go easy the next two weeks because we don’t have any games, and iron out these small details.”
The Aggies return to action on Oct. 22 with a two-day, four-game tournament at Santa Clara.
RUSSELL EISENMAN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
When you’re walking along the north side of the Quad and a smiling stranger invites you to sign up to save the turtles, if you even bother to sign your name, you don’t usually think to also offer up a list of your family members, the location of your hometown and a select variety of pictures spanning across the majority of your youth.
Yet, this perfect stranger can easily have access to all this and more, without a smile or even the pretense of permission.
Through the likes of Facebook and other social networking websites, we throw out information like we do garbage — with no idea of who is collecting it. Your mother? Your future employer? Obama? What is strange is not that we are unaware of this, but that we are aware and don’t seem to be able to unplug ourselves.
It is an odd paradox that as we become more detached from one another in the actual living world, we are infinitely – and much more intimately – connected through our computers, and not just with our friends.
Kashmir Hill, a Forbes privacy blogger, posted a chart exhibiting that 95 percent of employers say they use social media sites to seek out information on job applicants, and 69 percent have rejected candidates based on their online profile.
It’s not for the reasons you might guess, either. We all know pictures of binge drinking and Halloween costumes you wouldn’t want your grandmother to catch you in are obvious job deal breakers. But, 11 percent say they opted not to hire someone because they demonstrated poor communication skills, such as spelling, grammar and vocabulary. That means it’s not just about content — you need to be aware of the way you present yourself in all aspects.
Now you’re probably thinking about your privacy settings. Maybe only friends can see your profile, or your tagged pictures aren’t available for viewing. But privacy settings often get reset when a new version of Facebook comes out (so pretty much everyday) and it is rumored that many employers have ways of getting around them. Not only that, but when a photo is posted on Facebook, they technically own it. Even once it’s deleted, it stays on their database forever.
Networking sites all change so rapidly, we can hardly keep up with the updates. We accept them without protest, except for a few days of angry status updates, and continue to use them without a serious thought of the consequences.
Invention is the mother of necessity. We think we need Facebook to communicate, to keep in touch and to express ourselves. It’s not a bad thing, but we should keep in mind that people did all these things for thousands of years without computers, let alone networking sites.
The important thing to remember with these sites is that you should be the one in control. You are the customer; these sites need to be made to cater to you, not the other way around.
Dear Editor,
Aside from The Aggie’s poor showing against the Lumberjacks this past weekend, my friends and I were dismayed to find – after waiting in (we felt unnecessarily) slow moving lines at the ticket counter – that General Admission no longer means “general admission” at Aggie Stadium. When we tried to enter an unreserved ticket section on the west (Aggie) side of the field – which was half empty after kickoff – we were firmly told that our tickets only entitled us to sit among the Humboldt State fans. If this is indeed the official policy, then we should be advised of this when purchasing tickets.
Peter Schiffman
UC Davis emeritus professor of geology
Affordable drinking water is our right. During the summer of 2011, the Davis City Council passed a motion to increase the utility rates by 250 percent or more in the next five years. The raised water and sewage fees would be directed toward funding a new water treatment plant to provide surface water from the Sacramento River to Davis and Woodland. While the project has been proposed for over a decade, the swift decision made by the City Council to raise the rates was both deceptive and undemocratic.
There is a great deal of controversy over the proposed construction of the $325 million plant including the degrading effects on the river, unequal distribution of the water, and urban expansion into farmland surrounding the city. The most immediate consequence will be the higher water rates, felt most directly by low-income families and students.
The experts are still out on potential alternatives. The surface water project is a bi-partisan issue, with progressives and conservatives vehemently fighting on both sides of the debate. It is a complex proposal with many stakeholders including the engineers and land developers with millions of dollars on the line. However, this is not some distant legislation. The new water system will affect every Davis citizen, warranting their inclusion in the decision-making process. As of yet, there has been minimal dialogue between the city council and the citizens of Davis. However, there is a great deal of neutral information on the internet. I implore the student community to get informed and have their voice heard.
The city council is confident in their proposal for the surface water treatment plant. They have repeated publicly that this is the only option for safe and secure water in Davis. However, it is clear by the large number of signatures that have been collected in protest to the water project that the citizens of Davis are not convinced. I ask then, why the city council does not allow for this to be decided on by a vote of the people. If they are so certain about the necessity of the project, it is their responsibility to get everyone in support.
The primary concern right now is overturning the decision to go ahead with the construction of the plant, and the accompanying rate increases to Davis residents. As concerned citizens, we are demanding democratization of the decision to increase the utility rates and transparency of further City Council action on the matter. The first step toward defending our rights to affordable water is to acquire 4,500 signatures of Davis voters for a referendum on the fee increases. Signing the referendum is not giving support for or against the water project. It is holding city council responsible for including its citizens in the development of big public works projects.
William Roberts
Fifth-year international relations major
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