In a speech last September, Chancellor Linda Katehi laid out a vision for a growing and changing UC Davis called 21st Century Plan. A large part of this plan involves the expansion of facilities like lecture halls, and the creation of a new veterinary school building.

To pay for the proposed changes of the 21st Century Plan, UC Davis plans on raising two billion dollars.

Here, each member of the Aggie’s Editorial Board weighs in on how they would spend that kind of money if given the opportunity.

Bryan Sykes, Sports Editor

With $2 billion, I would only want to invest in something that is truly worthwhile. Something that I could tell my grandchildren about, something that they could be proud of. As the sports editor, I feel an immense sense of responsibility to protect and maintain culturally significant sports.

Which is why I would invest heavily in the World Curling Federation, the official organization of the sport of curling. I would use my vast fortune to turn this exhilarating sport into the powerhouse spectacle that it deserves to be. No more should curling remain the redheaded stepchild of the Winter Olympics. No more should it be overshadowed by downhill skiing or the luge. Curling should be at the forefront of national — nay, international — entertainment, and here is why: it’s a winter sport, and more international attention could bring a heightened global awareness of the importance of combating climate change; curling has a culturally rich history, and as the sport grows in popularity, the average citizen would gain knowledge in Nordic and European history; I have a small, burning passion for this sport and I very selfishly want more people to share in the excitement of the game.

Jason Pham, Campus Editor

From two roundtrip tickets to the moon to thousands of in-app purchases in Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, $2 billion can buy a lot of stuff.

If I’m giving my non-serious answer, the latter does sound appealing, but if I’m going for my serious answer, I think that $2 billion would be more wisely spent on hiring more seasoned professors to combat the increasing class sizes. A new veterinary hospital and an expanded campus in Sacramento are fine and dandy, and no one is denying that these improvements would benefit the university, but I think that before we begin expanding our campus outside of Davis, we need to concentrate on improving things at home first. Plus, renovating those alleged asbestos-exposed buildings wouldn’t be a bad idea either. But, you know, being an A-lister in Kim K’s game is important too.

Kayla Zola, City Editor

Waffles. Why isn’t there anywhere to buy waffles on campus? All I want after a long day of class is a plate of waffles with chocolate chips and whipped cream. Also more coffee. Every large lecture hall, like Olson and Wellman, should have coffee. The new coffee shops would also be equipped with state-of-the-art waffle irons offering a variety of flavors, including chocolate chip and cinnamon. They would also have seasonal waffle flavors like pumpkin for fall, peppermint for winter and strawberry in spring with toppings of your choice.

After countless rainy days spent in Shields Library, there are three things that can make my day better: waffles, coffee and a fireplace. Picture yourself in the library a book in your hands, a warm fire crackling and a steaming cup of coffee alongside a fresh plate of waffles. With $2 billion I would renovate the lower level of Shields and add a huge wood fire place and Hogwarts-style couches so that students can feel exceedingly scholarly while studying. Additionally, Shields Shots (of espresso that is), would open on the first floor, offer a variety of food and beverage options so that students no longer have to cut their studies short due to lack of sustenance.

Ellie Dierking, Features Editor

Earlier this week, I saw an article on Forbes that gave a little insight into “What a Billion Dollars Buys You.” A few of these things included purchasing Craig McCaw’s James Island, buying out the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team and endowing your alma mater like Michael Bloomberg did to John Hopkins. Although I am not nearly as well off (or as charitable) as Mr. Bloomberg, I have a few things in mind that $2 billion would help out with nicely.

One of the things I miss most about living in southern California is the beaches. With my handy $2 billion, I could easily jump on my private jet in the morning and spend a nice afternoon in the sand, before making my way back to campus for evening class. Another thing I’d invest in would definitely be a few thousand iPhone chargers (since those cords insist on breaking every time). If these, plus starting my own three-story coffee shop and maybe my own private zoo doesn’t satisfy me, a round trip to the moon and back might be nice.

However, if I wanted to be eternally loved by thousands of my peers, I could pay for the tuition of every UC Davis student in my graduating class — but that’s only if I’m feeling generous.

Amanda Ong, Arts Editor

DISCLAIMER: The following list was written by a very hangry arts editor (for the uninitiated, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “hangry” as bad-tempered or irritable as a result of hunger).

As an English major, I have gotten quite used to the idea of being poor for the rest of my life. And I’m OK with it. But sometimes, when you’re sitting in the basement of a newspaper office for hours on end, and the last thing you ate was a frozen waffle before your 8 a.m. work shift, your mind wanders.

If I had $2 billion, I could buy 745,716,981 bagels from the CoHo. Take that, price increases.

I could buy 666,666,666 million bags of Hot Cheetos. A pretty satanic number for the most heavenly snack food known to man.

I could buy 281,690,140 Chipotle burrito bowls. Guacamole for days.

I could buy 66,666 Dutch Bros. franchises. One for myself, and the rest to 66,665 of my closest friends.

Eventually, I must venture out of the basement and up into the CoHo in search of caffeine. And as I buy my single cup of coffee and bring it back down to our messy, offbeat cave of an office, I realize that this single cup of coffee is all I really need.

Eli Flesch, Opinion Editor

I am very concerned about UC Davis’ future. We don’t have a lot of money. Sometimes, I think of UC Davis as a person, who also doesn’t have a lot of money.

I would split the first billion dollars for the following purposes:

• To attach a couple hundred dollars to fishing lines that will reel a group of English majors to a spot where a net can be thrown over them.

• To finance an official campaign to recognize Hoagland Hall as the worst named building on campus.

• For an initiative to admit more students named William Breckenridge III, Duke of York.

• Gifting the Davis College Republicans with a fireplace in each new members’ dorm.

• Lanyards!

• For public blackboards that students can openly express their deepest dreams, fears and crude penis drawings on.

• For stickers marking UC Davis a No-Vape Zone. That means you too, Terry.

• To hire more professors who pass students based on whether they have the courage to stand up to them.

• A new pair of rollerblades for that guy who rollerblades everywhere.

• To finance an independent investigation as to why the Egg-Head sculptures haven’t hatched yet.

The remaining billion dollars would be spent paying the hourly fees for a group of attorneys hired to criminally prosecute any student who uses the term “Swaggies.”

They say happiness is not a destination, but a manner of traveling. Presumably, “they” are also responsible for expressions like “key to happiness,”  “do what makes you happy,” “don’t worry, be happy,” and so on. Whatever the customary — and quite honestly, clichéd — implications about happiness, everybody considers it to be an integral part of our well-being, and in our technologically evolving culture, it is worth studying.

I visit Facebook multiple times a day. I am not immune to the psychological and emotional effects this force of habit influences. While it does sound dramatic, visiting social media sites can actually influence your psyche to varying extents. A 2013 University of Michigan study concluded that young adults who frequent Facebook experience observable declines in subjective well-being. Participants were continually assessed based on two self-report questions: ‘How do you feel right now?’ and, ‘How long did you use Facebook since the last time we asked?’ They also responded to questions regarding anxiety and loneliness, and their answers revealed a positive correlation between the amount of time spent on the site and experienced levels of sadness and unsettlement. Overall, the researchers in the study were led to suspect that extroverted users in particular were more sensitive to the social events in Facebook. Thus, according to the study, social comparison is a leading factor in declining emotional well-being.

This statement proves to be somewhat true in my own life. Sometimes, when I see someone celebrate a major milestone on their timeline — whether it be an engagement or an impressive job — a concealed part of myself adopts the sentiment of a forced smile, or in many cases, a feeling of inadequacy. My derisive reaction to someone else’s good fortune is not uncommon. I am experiencing what is referred to in popular culture as ‘FOMO,’ or ‘fear of missing out.’ All the same, this gut reaction reveals how a fragile emotional psyche can quickly turn one’s neutrality into envy.

I find that I don’t necessarily envy what others have; I don’t want that job or to marry that guy, so maybe envy isn’t the accurate sentiment. Perhaps we mislabel this ‘pain over good things’ attitude as ‘envy’ when it is actually more complex than that.

In a sense, it’s as if the realm of social media triggers a latent inferiority complex we all have, composed of our deepest insecurities. If anything, this depressive and default way of thinking  indicates how satisfied we are with our own lives rather than how we actually feel about someone else’s happenings. This brings up some very debatable, psychoanalytic and potentially Freudian if-you-go-there questions. Does the newsfeed present some form of competition? And if so, what is the prize?

With all this said, it’s not as if we are confined to these feelings of sadness and inadequacy. While depressive emotions are largely instinctive and provoked, we also have the ability to mediate them. Think about it.

To every reaction there is the preluding question of  ‘how we can react’ followed by the actual action that is framed by the morally implicative question of how we should react. But what does this tell us about social media’s ability to trigger feelings of inadequacy and sadness? We should try to avoid defaulting to depressive thoughts by adopting a more self-aware mindset. By this, I am referring to actually considering our emotional responses. Overcoming our own sadness requires that we work at it, as opposed to waiting for the storm to pass. Not only does Facebook present a bragging space, but it also a challenges us to ask ourselves who we are personally and how happy and generous we can be for others.

Many of the factors which determine our happiness, including career aspirations and personal goals, could neither be conceived nor carried out without explicit consideration of our lives. It is with this same ability that we must accordingly designate negative and positive emotional responses to others’ good fortune in order to not compromise our own. And then, when we achieve our own personal goals, we can be met with genuine congratulations.

You can reach Jazmin Garcia at msjgarcia@ucdavis.edu.

As a technologically advanced and connected society, we have a plethora of information and resources at our disposal. While some argue that this advantage only makes us lazy as a generation, the World Wide Web is really just a tool — how efficiently we navigate it and how we learn from it arguably makes the Millennial Generation the most shrewd. Still, our engagement with technology seems to come at a cost.

Millennial interpersonal and verbal skills may be suffering. A few weeks ago, I spent an evening with my goddaughter, Nia, and her family. Nia is five and a half years old and has just started kindergarten. Of course, I was excited to see her, but what struck me the most when I walked through the door was what I saw clenched in her hands: an iPad.

While it’s not out of the ordinary for Baby Boomers and early Generation Y’ers to make high-tech investments for their children, my goddaughter’s parents are actually quite traditional, practical people who don’t go out of their way for the newest, shiniest gadgets. With this knowledge, I knew their had to be an explanation.

When I inquired about Nia’s iPad to her parents, they explained to me that they were issued by her public school. Having never given much thought to the use of technology for education at such an early stage, I formed a quick opinion about it based on what I saw that night.

I was almost instantly unnerved by the undivided attention the children gave the eight-inch screen. Even with four other children to play with, Nia’s twin brother sat glued to the device with the volume on full-blast for extended intervals of the afternoon and evening. Not only was I annoyed, but I was disturbed to see that with a houseful of toys and others to play with, these children were more interested in screens than in interacting with each other.

Let me be clear: I am not anti-technology by any means. We are more knowledgeable and resourceful individuals because of it, and in that way, we can be considered the smartest generation. However, our obsession with the screen has yielded a lack of essential verbal skills.

Some argue that this behavior is actually okay — that these face-to-face communication skills are not as important as the complex analytical and technical abilities we are obtaining from Millennial culture. Talking about how we do in fact thrive in today’s revolutionary, complex and information-centered environment, historian, economist and demographer Neil Howe told the Washington Times that, “Today’s kids watch ’24’ and ‘Law & Order,’ which have multiple plot lines. We watched ‘The Flintstones’ — one level meaning. They watch ‘The Simpsons’ — multiple levels of meaning. We used to play Monopoly… They play SimCity in real time, trying to manage thousands of variables to keep the city moving.”

So, what’s my takeaway? Technology is a double-edged sword. Howe’s point that Millennial youth is more intellectually advanced based on their ability to navigate new-age tools may be correct, but the way so many Millennials become so engrossed by these tools still seems unnatural. We can say that verbal communication and face-to-face conversations are just becoming less of the norm, but we are still human. We still need to embrace the ways of speaking to one another and learn the flow of a face-to-face conversation. Teaching Millennial youth to balance virtual and in-person interaction will foster the smartest generation yet.

You can reach HAYLEY PROKOS at hprokos@ucdavis.edu or on Twitter @haroulii14.

“This is not how a school should be,” I thought as I watched over 60 armed police officers enter my high school. It was the fall of my first year at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in San Francisco. A small fight had broken out at my school and, all of sudden, for no clear reason my school was under siege. It was an unforgettable incident that would lead to some much-needed police reforms in our community. In the hours that followed, questions swirled for me. Would this have happened if the majority of the students were white? What if we were in a more affluent part of the city?

I walked out of school that day determined to make things better.

As I thought about ways I could improve things for low-income kids of color, I thought about the people who had empowered me and made my own success possible: my mother, whose love and trust gave me confidence; my 7th grade teacher, Ms. April Holland, the first teacher to tell me I was a writer; my baseball coach, Gary Johnson, the first and only father figure I’ve ever had; and Professor Carlos Jackson, who transformed me from a student to a learner. Collectively, this group of incredible individuals loved, supported, inspired and pushed me to become a stronger person. I decided to become a teacher because of their impact.

I currently teach intensive reading at Miami Northwestern High School in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood.

The majority of my students are black and come from low-income communities. Every day, I look at them and see a reflection of myself and my classmates at Thurgood Marshall. That makes my work deeply personal and demands I make it personal for them, too. And so, whenever I have a connection to what we’re reading, I share it. My students know that I grew up in the Bayview – one of the most ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged parts of San Francisco. They know I attended UC Davis, and was the only one of my close childhood friends to finish college. And they also know I’ve fought for years to be their teacher. Back in 2013, I was accepted to Teach For America, an organization that enlists recent college graduates and professionals to teach in high-need communities and advocate for educational equity. Then, I was in a near-fatal car accident. The doctors believed I wouldn’t be able to walk, talk or read.

I want my students to understand my struggles because I know that they may face similar challenges, and they need to know that they can still succeed despite them.

Too many people make negative assumptions about kids who look like mine – the same way those police officers did about my high school peers. But what do I see? The leaders on which our future depends. I refer to my ninth graders as the class of 2023 – the year they’ll graduate from college. Serving my kids means holding them to these high expectations. They deserve nothing less.

After all the passages have been read and tests have all been taken, I believe what kids really want is to know that they matter. So I come to school every day and do whatever I have to do to make sure my kids know that they are seen, heard and respected by their teacher. This, I now believe, is how school should be.

Moving from a history of oppression to a future of empowerment will take major, substantive change. But that doesn’t mean we have to wait for it. Every day, I work to continue the legacy that my own mentors have started. Whether you’re looking to make a bigger impact yourself or know someone who is, consider teaching. Together, we can give our kids the futures they deserve.

Emmanuel Padilla is a 2011 graduate of UC-Davis, where he majored in Community and Regional Development. He worked on campus with the Early Academic Outreach Program (eAOP), Sacramento Area Youth Speaks (SAYS) and Educational Talent Search (ETS). He is a 2014 Teach For America corps member teaching at Miami Northwestern Senior High School.

There’s nothing like wearing a new outfit, feeling like you look really good and being told you look even better. It’s the ever famous follow-up question that I’d like to focus on this week: “Where did you get that?” Although your first response might be the name of the store where you physically purchased the item, that shirt might have gone through hell before it found its way to your closet.

Like many people, I have answered this question with popular brand names like Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, H&M, Zara or Macy’s. All these stores are pretty hip and offer the latest trends much cheaper than their competitors. But in order to offer these tempting bargains, these companies must cut out costs in the production process. This often means paying the employees making their products less than the minimum wage. Many clothing companies today source their cotton from Uzbekistan, where forced labor is very common. The government tries to shut down most human rights movements against forced labor, making progress almost unattainable. In recent years, many clothing brands have made an effort to stop using cotton picked through forced labor by signing a pledge through the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), a nonprofit organization, to vow their opposition to child and adult forced labor.

In a survey conducted by the RSN, 49 companies were asked to report on their activity, or lack thereof, in relation to Uzbek cotton picked with forced labor. The companies were then given a score out of 100, based on policy, public disclosure, engagement, implementation and auditing. Forever 21, along with many of the companies in the report, shared little to no information about their cotton sourcing policies. The company received a 2.5, failing to indicate a requirement to its suppliers to disclose their cotton’s country of origin.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor, they engaged in sweatshop-like conditions in their LA factories, where employees weren’t paid properly and often worked overtime. Urban Outfitters, which received a 0, failed to even respond to the survey, and has yet to speak up about their policies on forced labor.

In addition to forced labor, employee health and safety are important to consider when choosing where to put your dollar.

In 2013, a clothing factory called the Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh, killing 1,138 workers. After this tragedy, H&M, as well as over 200 other brands worldwide, signed an accord vowing to create a safe and healthy garment industry in Bangladesh. In a recent report, H&M was found to be severely behind in their plans to correct safety concerns within their factories and to uphold their vow. The employees who make H&M’s clothing risk their lives every day working in buildings with high levels of fire hazards.

I would never ask someone to pump my gas with a lit cigarette nearby. I would never let a chef cook my dinner if the gas was leaking from the stove. I would never request that my neighbor help me get my cat down from a tree if I knew the branch was loose. So, why did I let someone across the world, someone’s mother or father, sit in a potentially dangerous situation to make the shirt I am wearing right now?

The clothing industry is a vast and mysterious world. I encourage you to do your own research and try to find out about where your favorite brands get their cotton or how they treat their workers. It seems that many companies are reluctant to share this kind of information.

Just like we wouldn’t allow food companies to remove the ingredient labels from our snacks, we shouldn’t allow clothing brands to withhold information about where or how our clothes are made.

I am going to make an effort to shop only at stores that are proud to share their labor and employee safety policies. If this seems like a stretch for you, maybe choose one particular issue you want to stand behind and find out which specific brands also care about that issue. For example, although H&M has poor safety and health conditions for foreign workers, they are among the list of brands who have pledged to ensure a product free of forced labor cotton. Of course, buying your clothes from a secondhand store is always a good option as well.

Even if you are unable to change your shopping habits, it is essential that we take a moment to question why such a huge industry needs to maintain as much secrecy as it does. Just because workers are being mistreated in places we can’t see doesn’t mean their struggles aren’t real. Educate yourself and your friends. Make your dollar count.

You can reach Martha Greenburg or invite her to go shopping with you at mzgreenburg@ucdavis.edu or on Twitter @marthazane94.

Last week, nine people were massacred at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. In September, one student was shot and killed at Sacramento City College, 15 miles from our university. Last May, six students were murdered at UC Santa Barbara, a school where many UC Davis students have family and friends.

How many more of us must die? How many more young adults away at college, turning their dreams into realities, must die? We as college students are prime targets for large scale shootings — there are thousands of us in relatively confined areas. At what point will politicians take measures to protect our lives from school shootings and try to solve America’s massive gun problem?

Often it seems insensitive to politicize a tragedy. However, the people with power to effect legitimate change are the politicians, who can write, debate and defend new or existing legislation. So, Congress, why not introduce “common sense gun control,” an idea President Obama has mentioned several times as a result of the recent shootings?

It really is just what it sounds like: common sense. Acquiring guns should not be absurdly easy. No one living in the United States, excluding the military and law enforcement, needs an assault rifle or high-capacity ammunition; if guns are for self-defense and sport, as most gun-backers claim, then owning military-grade weaponry is superfluous.

Some gun control opponents believe that, instead of curtailing the number of guns in American society, the key to reducing gun violence is to own guns as a way to defend themselves. However, if you break down this issue logically, how in the world would adding more guns into a broken system lead to less violence? It’s an absurd idea and an asinine proposition.

All those who oppose any sort of basic gun control are perpetuating a gun culture that makes these tragedies commonplace. No, Wayne LaPierre and your friends at the National Rifle Association, nobody is taking away your guns. Nobody is taking away your constitutional right to own a gun by limiting access to weapons of warfare. Enough with the ignorant, defiant rhetoric. The world has seen how successful gun control can be (i.e. Australia and Great Britain), and now is the time for the U.S. to catch up with the times. Americans are not inherently more violent than people of any other country, and the idea that there is nothing we can do is preposterous, considering we are the only developed country where mass shootings occur regularly.

One cannot discuss guns and gun control without touching on mental health. On a national level, the editorial board strongly believes that background checks should include more-thorough psychological health screenings for those attempting to purchase a gun. To localize the issue, we also encourage students and others to utilize the resources provided by the UC Davis Student Health and Counseling Services. So, let’s continue to expand mental health services. As our generation continues to fight the stigma associated with mental disorders, it’s on us to bring these issues to the mainstream and to ensure that people aren’t afraid to seek out help.

No more responding to a preventable catastrophe with “stuff happens.” Victims and their families need more than just our thoughts and prayers. In many recent shootings, relatives of both the perpetrators and the victims have called for enhanced gun control within days of the tragedy. For them, ensuring the end of gun violence is part of their mourning process. We have the means and ability to lessen the number of people dying in this country; what are we waiting for?