How to not completely waste your month-long break

Aggies were ecstatic to learn about the extra week added to winter vacation. With so much time and no classes to attend, it might be tempting to catch up on all of those Netflix series you put on hold during finals. However, there are some ways to get the most out of your four weeks of downtime without feeling like a complete couch potato.  

• Plan a road trip

As long as you have a car, a playlist and a couple of friends, it’s hard to make an excuse not to take a road trip this winter break. If you live in California, drive along the coast to check out some of the state’s coolest cities, including Big Sur, Santa Barbara, Hollywood and San Diego. Go visit college friends who live far away from you and pick them up to join in on the adventure. Take a tent and some sleeping bags to camp along the way, or rent an Airbnb for a more glamourous stop.

• Study the subjects you are taking next quarter

Rather than beating yourself up during midterm season for not studying sooner, get a head start during winter break. Find some quiet time during the holidays to read up on your Winter Quarter subjects to get your brain familiar with the topics. Instead of watching four episodes of Breaking Bad, take half of that time to read ahead or do some practice problems; you’ll thank yourself later.

• Start a new class at your local gym

Most gyms, including Crunch and 24 Hour Fitness, offer group classes for members every day. Whether you’re looking to keep up your cycling routine, learn kickboxing, relax in a yoga class or carve out some abs, a gym near you is guaranteed to have something you’ll like.

• Get outside

Get on a bike, a surfboard, a pair of skis or your own two feet and take advantage of the outdoors. There’s no better way to clear your head from the stress of Fall Quarter and mentally prepare for 2017 than being in the crisp winter air — and maybe even seeing some snow. Discover a new hiking trail, go ice skating or just take a minute outside to enjoy the last few weeks of 2016.

• Make plans with high school buddies you neglected to see during Thanksgiving break

Since most Aggies are only home for four days, Thanksgiving can be a difficult time to make plans with old friends. With 28 days of winter break, you’ll have plenty of time to reach out to old friends. Try not to let the entire break fly by without seeing your hometown buddies, especially since people only get busier and it only gets harder to maintain friendships.

• Pursue a new interest, or take up an old hobby

Four weeks of freedom means plenty of time to learn the saxophone — you know you’ve been dying to do it. But seriously, get some teammates from your high school sports team together for a quick game, learn how to cook, paint a landscape or start a vinyl collection. The list is never-ending and by the time break is over you’ll be able to play the Careless Whisper riff on your new instrument like nobody’s business.

• Read a book…for fun!

Don’t worry, interesting books still exist in the world. It might have been a while since you got to pick up something other than a textbook, but it’s never too late to re-read Harry Potter or go a little deeper with Hemingway. Take the plunge and dust off those covers on your parents’ shelves.

• Create a plan for the future

Several required courses can be painfully boring and leave you questioning your major and your future, but take this break to get back to what you envision yourself doing after college. Writing down ideas about your academic, career or life plans is a good way to keep things in perspective and remind yourself that all the hard work of college will be worth it. You can even throw in some research on internships, graduate schools and companies in your field. You don’t have to apply for positions tomorrow, but having your plans in one place is a great way to be organized for the future.

Written by: Gillian Allen — features@theaggie.org

Breaking down the difference between tuition, Student Services Fees, campus-based fees

University of California (UC) students are not so different from one another; whether attending school in Davis, Berkeley or LA, all UC students pay a baseline cost for education. Tuition, along with the Student Services Fee (SSF), is set by the UC Regents and is the same across all campuses.

California residents pay an annual fee of $11,220 in tuition to attend a UC school as undergraduate students. This amounts to 80 percent of the annual fees of attending UC Davis for California residents. The remaining 20 percent is comprised of the SSF — set at $1,074 — along with a number of campus-based fees that vary at each UC institution.

As a state university, all UC’s are also state-supported. Sarah Mangum, the director of Academic Budget and Policy, pointed out that funding from the State of California to the UC system as a share of the universities’ budgets has decreased over the past decade.

“There [were] big cuts about five years ago,” Mangum said in an e-mail interview. “For example, in 2007-2008, state funds made up 17 percent of our total revenue, now they are 9 percent.”

Tuition and state funds make up the pool of money that goes toward the university’s educational mission, supporting teaching, public service and research. Examples of this instructional support include faculty salary and benefits, teaching assistants and readers, as well as classroom infrastructure such as audio-visual equipment.

“There’s an Office of the President policy called Return-to-Aid,” Mangum said. “Approximately 30 percent of all tuition for undergraduates goes right back into financial aid. The rest of [tuition] goes toward supporting the cost of teaching.”

Return-to-Aid is governed by policies of the UC Office of the President and the UC Board of Regents and is applied to tuition on all UC campuses. At UC Davis, most student fees have a Return-to-Aid component.

Non-academic services are funded by the SSF. These services support students through activities like counseling, advising and tutoring. A small portion of the SSF, $61 per student, funds mental health services.

Campus-based fees are the services students pay for besides tuition and the SSF. This includes the ASUCD, Memorial Union, Facilities and Campus Enhancement (FACE), Campus Expansion Initiative (CEI), Student Services Maintenance/Student Activities and Services Initiative (SASI), Student Facilities Safety, Student Services Health (not to be confused with the SSF mental health fee), Unitrans, the Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) and The California Aggie Fees, totalling $1,753.

Nearly all of these fees were approved by student leadership and votes. The student fee initiative process at UC Davis is overseen by The Council on Student Affairs and Fees (COSAF), which follows a guide when reviewing the creation of a student fee initiative. After endorsement by COSAF, the student body votes during Winter Quarter ASUCD election. If approved, the initiative is reviewed by the vice chancellor of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity, the UC Davis budget officer and finally the UC Davis chancellor. It ultimately reaches the UC Office of the President, where final approval is granted by the Office of the Regents.

Essentially, passing a student referendum on fees is an extensive and time-consuming process.

“A lot of misconception about the COSAF council is that we change student fees, which is not what we do at all,” said Madeline Garcia, a fourth year political science major and co-chair of COSAF. “COSAF […] decide[s] for the three fees that have an inflationary index whether or not to apply a consumer price index adjustment. [If COSAF recommends to the chancellor that CPI be applied] then [that will] make the purchasing power from last year the same this year [to] keep [the] programming going. The chancellor has never gone against what [COSAF] suggests. [An initiative without] a CPI adjustment has less money to spend, but [COSAF is] not taking away money.”

The three fees COSAF annually reviews are those that lack a sunset clause, which means there is no set limit to these student fees. FACE, CEI and SASI have an inflammatory index and were all passed with the ability to increase with inflation. It is the role of COSAF to maintain the integrity of student’s interests and desires throughout the duration of these initiatives. Another entity responsible for the checks and balances of student fees is ASUCD.

“[ASUCD represents] every student, and I’m sure there are many departments saying ‘How are my dollars being spent?’’ said Greg Ortiz, ASUCD advisor to the Athletics and Administrative Advisory Committees. “[ASUCD is] making sure that if there’s money involved, [it’s being] used well.”

Understanding the sources and allocation of money on campus becomes even more nuanced with the consideration of increased enrollment. It seems as though the services paid for by student fees should benefit from increased enrollment, but that is not always the case.

“The most counterintuitive thing about higher education increased enrollment right now is that, even though there are more people coming and paying fees, [our] level of service is going backwards — it’s declining,” said ASUCD President Alex Lee.

An example of this is Unitrans, a service sewn in the fabric of Davis culture since 1968. Unitrans has multiple revenue sources, receiving about $99 from each student per year through CEI, ASUCD and its own exclusive Unitrans fee. This amounts to $2.7 million from student fees. The rest of its $5 million budget comes from a combination of grant funds from the City of Davis, federal funds, sales tax and miscellaneous revenue like bus fares from non-student riders.

With more students comes more money, so why is Unitrans already digging into its reserves?

Despite what sounds like a large income, the state’s unprecedented and rapid increase of the minimum wage is causing the bus service to rely on every penny of its funds. Unitrans has the third largest ridership in the California, and students are beginning to notice that some routes are becoming increasingly impacted. More riders means more service and, therefore, costs more money to meet demand. The task now is to find an equitable option for students in order to keep such a valuable service.

“And that’s the thing,” said Anthony Palmere, general manager of Unitrans. “At some point you don’t know what’s the straw that’s too much to know so that you’ve kind of drawn the line. [Unitrans] certainly recognizes there’s a limit, and that’s why we’re trying to have the conversations early to know [how] we can keep the service going.”

Written by: Marlys Jeane — features@theaggie.org