Editor,

I’m writing in response to the “Exercise Etiquette” column written by Dave Karimi last Tuesday. I’m currently one of the ARC member service attendants that Karimi writes about in this column, and would like to clear up a few misconceptions he has about our role in the fitness room.

First, our primary role of being stationed on the island in the fitness room is to alert a member service lead or building supervisor if there is an emergency, with the most common emergency being an injury.

Other duties that we attend to fall under two categories: assisting patrons and enforcing ARC policies.

Assisting patrons can mean anything from changing television channels (which apparently we need to work on), checking out squat pads, cleaning equipment, making known of broken equipmentinforming superiors of broken equipment, and, for those who wish to use occupied equipment, monitoring the time patrons are on one machine (cardio equipment has a 30-minute time limit when there are people waiting).

At one point, we did offer towels in the fitness room, but stopped this because it required the ARC employee to constantly revolve around the island, rather than being able to walk around and perform other duties. Also, it created another task of carting the towels back and forth to the laundry room to be washed, which made everyone less productive in other tasks they were attending to. If one needs to check out a grey workout towel, they can do so at the equipment room, which is right down the hall from the fitness room. The one item we do rent out in the fitness room is a squat pad, so feel free to approach the employee stationed in the fitness room to assist you if you so chose to rent one.

The second part of our job, enforcing ARC policies, is a bit more difficult that it may seem. Many patrons of the ARC are unaware of these policies and need to be reminded of them on a consistent basis. Some of these policies include wearing proper gym apparel (no cargo shorts, jeans or open toed shoes), re-racking weights when done with exercising (this is the patron’s responsibility, not the employee’s), not using chalk with weights;, keeping backpacks in the cubbies or lockers and not on the ground where they can become a tripping hazard; and many more policies which are outlined on a poster located on the front of the island in the fitness room. When we are “wandering aimlessly between exercise machines,” we are actually making ourselves available to patrons who may need assistance, as well as making sure all the policies are enforced.

Lastly, we rotate to a different station every hour, not every half hour as Karimi said in his column.

If Karimi wishes to apply for the job of member service attendant, he can do so online at the Aggie Job Link.

I hope this clears up some questions and misconceptions that had been brought up in the column. If anyone has any further questions, feel free to drop by the ARC and one of the employees will be happy to answer them for you.

MICHAEL WISE

It seems like every week there is some new major financial problem for the state of California. Most students focus on the academic budget cuts, but there are really a whole host of other major problems.

There are budget cuts for academic and athletic departments, furloughs for state workers, public workers pensions that cannot be paid and an over-reliance on fees that nickel and dime California citizens.

A common complaint by Californians is that we spend more money on prisons than on education. It’s a peculiar argument given the completely different role that schools and prisons play in society -although I’ve had a few classes that had a prison-like quality to them. The response has been to release thousands of inmates to limit overcrowding and to cut costs. It made sense fiscally in the short term, but the consequences could have a terrible impact on society.

Unfortunately, these problems should have been addressed years ago with policies that reflected a better long-term outlook instead of a short-term, expedient one. Our problem with high prison costs has reached a dangerous tipping point, but it really has been an accumulation of decades worth of fiscally imprudent policy.

Consider the death penalty, which is a highly controversial issue that has clearly defined proponents and opponents. In 1972 the Supreme Court banned the practice entirely, but this decision was repealed in 1976 to allow states to decide proper disciplinary policy.

Since the reenactment of the death penalty in 1976, states have enacted wildly divergent policies. Some states, such as Michigan, have decided to eliminate the death penalty altogether. This means that there is currently not a single person on death row in that state, and there has not been a single execution since 1976.

Other states have gone to the opposite extreme. Texas is well known for its liberal use of capital punishment, and the numbers prove it. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Texas has executed 452 people since 1976. This accounts for about a third of the total executions in this country since that time. Texas currently has 342 people on death row.

It’s obvious where states like Texas and Michigan stand; both carry out their respective policies in ways that adhere to their laws regarding the use of capital punishment. California is quite different.

California has executed just 13 people after the national reenactment of the death penalty. What jumps out, however, is that there are currently 690 people on death row. This number is by far the highest of any other state. While some may see this as merely California’s stronger commitment to determine guilt or innocence, it is clearly a costly and inefficient way of doing business. California sentences people to death almost as much as Texas, we just don’t carry those sentences out.

Each of these inmates costs the state around $90,000 a year because they require special housing, which adds up to about $62 million a year. This doesn’t even take into consideration the impressive legal fees that are even higher than housing costs. This is especially so in California, where courts are resistant to allowing anyone being executed. This means that every year we must spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a few horrible people.

The problem with this kind of policy is that it is schizophrenic, costly and ineffective. It is really a fiscally unhealthy compromise that, coupled with other poor policy decisions, has led to the current wave of seemingly endless budget nightmares.

While by itself the cost of California’s death penalty policies could be absorbed, the amount of spending in other areas along with an urgent need to cut costs should bring this issue to the forefront.

Prison reform is badly needed. Either we need to reform our laws to make state sponsored executions more expedient, or we need to end the practice by creating new severe penalties for criminals who have committed serious atrocities.

JARRETT STEPMAN wants politicians to focus on important issues like prison reform instead of policies like the “No Cussing Week”. You can reach him at jstepman@ucdavis.edu.

My sister Melody only started working for our Uncle John’s architecture firm after moving home to Diamond Bar because she no longer made enough money to pay for rent and utilities up in Berkeley.

The year before was a good one. She’d won $3,000 for the Eisner Prize in architecture and scored an internship with SOM, one of the world’s leading architecture firms with clients including the Beijing Olympics and multiple others in Dubai.

Moving back home wasn’t supposed to be in the cards for her, but after the economy tanked, after her entire internship class was laid off and after a failed attempt to start a private architecture firm, Uncle John’s firm was the only smiling face card she had left.

She says once she got there, everyone treated her like the heiress to the kingdom. We all knew that Uncle John was the Chan family’s success story – the Chinese immigrant who worked his way up from cleaning houses to making millions through his own architecture firm. But at family gatherings on my mom’s side, he was just our white-haired uncle who gave us $50 Gap cards for Christmas when everyone else gave marked-off sweaters from Broadway.

But at work, all Melody’s coworkers worship Uncle John. By extension, they compliment her work as acts of a UC Berkeley prodigy. She once opened a window for light in the drafting room. Her coworker called her a genius.

Our uncle’s current project is to redesign the surveillance in the LA County Prisons. After a string of articles published in the Los Angeles Times about prison guards abusing the inmates, LA County commissioned my uncle’s architecture firm to redesign the map for security cameras.

I asked Melody what the articles were about. She says they were all disturbing. The most shocking stories were of the female guards who sexually abused minors in prisons. In one case, a guard had boys have sex with her in exchange for certain privileges in prison. Another had other inmates beat a boy she suspected for stealing her cell phone, though he repeatedly yelled that he didn’t have it. She later found her cell phone in her car.

“The worst part is most of these women have families and children of their own,” Melody says.

At first, my sister was skeptical if new security cameras would actually work, but Uncle John said they would be very effective. He says in the post office, cameras aren’t allowed for security reasons. Instead they built this tunnel that workers couldn’t see into; those inside the tunnel, however, could see perfectly through it into the post office. Anyone at any time can go in and watch, though the workers would never know when.

I tell her it’s like the Panopticon – a prison model where inmates behave well at all times since they can’t ever verify when they’re being watched.

It’s ironic that Melody complains she’s always being micromanaged at work. She knows there are expectations of her that she wouldn’t be able to fulfill, even if she wanted to. There’s an unspoken expectation for her to take the place of Uncle John’s son, also a Berkeley graduate in architecture who refused to work at our uncle’s firm and take on the family business. She feels she has to play the role.

Melody can tell sometimes when Uncle John gets frustrated that she doesn’t learn fast enough, or if she’s disinterested or tired.

“Sometimes the Chans don’t understand that others wouldn’t want to work hard,” Uncle John’s wife Daisy told my sister once. They started talking often – mostly family gossip – since my sister was the first girl in a while to work at the office. When the firm started taking off, Daisy did all the secretarial work and has been stuck with the job ever since.

Both my father and Daisy were outsiders grafted to the Chan family dynasty once they married into it. And in a way, all of us born into the Chan family are expected to be grafted into the success story the Chan family is: full of nurses, pharmacists and entrepreneurs who all make six figures. Deviants are frowned upon.

At first, it was our mother’s surveillance that pushed us to work hard. It got my sister into SOM. It got my brother into PWC, the top accounting firm in the nation. But when my sister starts saying she’s okay with just getting married and raising a family, when my brother quits his job to pursue his dream as a writer, when my father asks me in the car if I’ve heard of a “mid-life crisis,” and when everyone in my family but my brother has been in therapy, we have to wonder – is anyone even still watching?

GEOFF MAK wonders what the LA Prisons and the Catholic Church have in common in terms of a lack of accountability. E-mail him at gemak@ucdavis.edu.

Dear Editor,

There are many reasons to be proud of UC Davis. As an alumnus, I have watched the campus grow into a diverse, world-class institution of learning.

Of all the reasons for me to show pride, nothing can come close to the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, which was held at Aggie Stadium this past Saturday. It amazes me every year to see close to 2,000 young men and women give up their weekends to camp out and raise money for cancer research.

I’m a seven-year survivor of lymphoma. I don’t even have the words to express my gratitude and admiration for all those people who planned and participated in the event. It’s obvious that our campus has matured to the point where the Aggie spirit has grown from shouting cheers at athletic events to shouting cheers for survivors of cancer – and far beyond.

To all of you who made the weekend such a monumental success, I wish you all the best that life has to offer. You can’t possibly imagine what your actions on Saturday mean to me personally.

Sincerely,

ROY S. ENGORON

Davis resident

Every time I play Scattergories, I lose interest about halfway through – just when people are getting heated up and competitive. So instead of playing seriously, I just half-ass everything. Case in point: the letter “N” comes up and the question is “Something that lives in the ocean.” My answer: “Nice Sharks.”

OTPHJ (Over The Pants Hand Jobs) are functionally useless. How the fuck do you expect this to end … all over my belly button? Hell no. This is especially frustrating if the girl is a man-eater. Imagine a Tiger hunting down its prey only to say at the moment of capture, “Yeah … I’ll have the salad. Oil and vinegar dressing, please.” To quote Steve Prefontaine, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

I now have two khaki shorts that are button-less. For some reason, it flies off when I’m trying to take a piss. I believe there is a direct linear correlation between the intensity with which I need to pee and the likelihood that I’ll break the button right off my pants. I may try to sew it back on, but I’m going to reinforce it first with paper clips or epoxy so it won’t happen again. I’m sure one of them is on the floor somewhere in the Olson first-floor bathroom. Let me know if you find it – my number is (203) 257-7885. Anyway, nobody can see my waistline due to an overbooked Spillagio Hotel, so I now use my shirt to cover up this sartorial disaster. My zipper is ultimately the only thing that stands between me and nakieness.

What the fuck is it with Pokémon? They can only say their name. “Pika! Pikachu!” Imagine fighting with your friends: It would just be an incomprehensible mish-mash of various intonations of your name. This is clearly a byproduct of Japanese consumer schizophrenia. That, and maybe Pocky.

At Relay for Life this past weekend, some old woman who looked like the physical manifestation of a troll came by and told us we couldn’t sell hand-made cheesecake because of some obscure bureaucratic rule involving perishable food. She implied that it was killing people who were on chemotherapy. I was fittin’ to bitch her out after these wild accusations. When I did, she ended up crying like the blubbering asshole that she was. Apparently, she trolls around and does this wherever people are trying to be happy and caring toward one another – Picnic Day, Whole Earth Festival and Relay for Life are just a few of the places that she frequents. I’ve also been told that she cries when she doesn’t get her way. No surprises there. UC Davis: hiring bureaucratic, egomaniacal crybabies since 1905.

Every man should invest in a good pair of Ugg (or Fugg) boots and leggings. Think about it. Why don’t girls ever fucking talk about that shit? Because they feel bomb as fuck and they don’t want the secret getting out to guys. That’s why I bought them. And let me tell you: Wearing an Uggs/leggings combo is an orgasmic feeling for your legs. It’s like someone is constantly caressing everything below your waist. No wonder they kept that shit secret. Plus, it makes my ass look great.

Trying to uncover “white” privilege will only further separate us into a fabricated dichotomy that can never be resolved. This self-perpetuating belief that separation between “races” and various superficial differences are above and beyond anything we can do to fix them misses the larger point: Our differences would mean absolutely nothing if we thought it so.

Instead, we as a campus love to feed into this: There’s always a fight to be had, there’s always someone who’s oppressed, there’s always an enemy and there’s always an ego in need of attention and validation. This kind of victimization has gotten us nowhere, and it only furthers the already great divide between humanity and its sense of self. Next time, don’t “check your privilege” – instead, just try to be a decent human being goddamnit. You know, some people were so offended by my article that made fun of Persians that they were discussing whether or not it was possible to be racist against your own race. Are you fucking kidding me? I have carte blanche and I can say whatever the FUCK I want about Persians. Here’s one: Most Persian women have hairy backs. Ewww.

If you’re a Persian woman who isn’t light-hearted enough to take that joke in stride, then you can ask DAVE KARIMI to send you a complimentary bottle of Nair. His e-mail address is dkarimi@ucdavis.edu.

Among some of the major propositions on the ballot this June is Proposition 16.

Due to the logistical constraints of stringing power lines it’s impossible to allow multiple electricity providers to operate within a single district. Legal monopolies are therefore permitted. However, each local government currently decides which provider to use.

If passed, this proposition will require a public supermajority of 66 percent of voters to opt out of the current provider, previously chosen by the local government.

The proposition, also known as the “New Two-Thirds Requirement for Local Public Electricity Providers Act,” is entirely funded and backed by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Enabling people to vote in this case seems logical. Supporters for the proposition even claim this will benefit the state, allowing taxpayers to determine the state’s financial decisions.

However, achieving a supermajority is no easy task. Two-thirds of a district is an overwhelming figure – it’s not called a supermajority for nothing. By requiring such a high threshold, it will limit competition by making it more difficult for communities to change providers.

The point of local government is to do what is best for the community. Citizens elect their local leaders to make decisions in their best interest.

Another possible negative outcome of this proposition is that areas such as San Francisco and Marin County, which are currently pursing solar energy projects, would have a harder time opting into these programs if they are forced to have PG&E.

Monopolies are necessary to effectively provide electricity, however competition amongst those monopolies should still be encouraged. That’s something that Prop 16 doesn’t do.

Sen. Abel Maldonado’s (R-Santa Maria) proposal to reform the California primary system will give the electoral race back to voters.

Proposition 14, which will appear on the June 8th ballot, aims to reform the California Primary System. Under the reform, the two candidates with the most votes during the primary election appear on the ballot for the general election. This would change the current policy, in which the top candidate from each party in the primary is placed on the final ballot.

Though the current system has its benefits, its downfall is the type of candidates it draws to the general election. Primary elections tend to draw only the most passionate partisan voters, making the nominees more partisan than they would be otherwise.

With the reform, voters would not have to register under a specific party to vote for that party’s candidate, like they do now. Instead, if a registered Republican voter happens to favor a Democrat, the polarizing weakness of the party system will not hinder that voter’s preference. Though it is idealistic to say that this reform will completely do away with party clash, it may mitigate initial party loyalties, which often cloud political action.

The reform isn’t flawless. Candidates are typically backed financially by Republican or Democratic parties, which ultimately gain them the most popularity. The system weakens the chances an independent candidate will appear on the final ballot.

However, these candidates have practically no chance at winning in the general election anyway. Harsh as the reform is, it will bring a dose of reality to politicians who perhaps aren’t in touch with the general public. We can hope that the elimination of third parties will force candidates into the two major political parties, creating a more diverse electoral climate.

Essentially, neither the current nor the proposed primary system is ideal. However, the current primary system encourages a tense political environment, which has severely and antagonistically divided Democrats and Republicans on important policy decisions.

These detriments considered, Proposition 14 is the lesser of two evils. It aims to improve and moderate the voter-candidate relationship in order to minimize contention in the legislative system.