Awaiting a midterm, I was sitting in my lecture hall freaking out. Of course I studied, but the nerves were getting to me, and I cycled through all the material in my head. I got so nervous that I decided to say a little prayer, hoping that my brain wouldn’t fail me on such an important day.

I looked around the room, and I wondered what was going on in the heads of the other students. Do my peers pray? And aside from scoring well on exams, how is prayer used on campus?

To get as many perspectives as possible, I asked various religious groups around the university, why do you participate in prayer? I received answers from members of Hillel (the student Judaic center), Davis Christian Fellowship, the UC Davis Meditation Club and the Islamic Center of Davis.

First, I asked a fourth-year why he likes to observe Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest) at Hillel. In response, he said, “It’s like a form of centering myself and removing myself from the rest of the week, setting aside problems and anxieties.” For him, prayer was finding “a moment of peace.” In addition, the communal aspect of hanging out with friends and eating Shabbat dinner added to his experience.  On the whole, respecting the tradition separates him from the worries of the week.

Second, I heard from a fifth-year psychology student and member of Davis Christian Fellowship. For him, prayer helps him focus on a righteous life. He responded, “As a Christian, I follow Christ and His life serves a model on how to live mine.” And to follow Christ’s model, he voiced, “I pray because it allows me to have a time to re-focus and I also come away with a perspective that sees things through the lens of God.” To emulate Jesus, prayer is a way to talk to “God,” and keep at the forefront his teachings.

Next, I listened to a member of our school’s meditation club. She said that she practices meditation to “untangle [herself] from the drama of everyday life.”  For her, it’s a mindset, “keeping presence in the present” and putting one’s energies in the now. The nickname of the club is “Simply Being,” and for her, that summarized the freedom and truth she knows to recognize.

Lastly, I contacted the Islamic Center of Davis, and I corresponded with the recently retired Imam.  For background information, he shared that “when Muslims say prayer, it is usually Salaa (structured prayer) that comes to mind, specifically, the five times a day required prayer.” He adds that, “the beauty of Salaa is that it comes from the Arabic root word ‘Sila,’ which means connection.” For Muslims, saying prayer at least five times a day is the “connection that we maintain with God.” And this practice is vital for the link with holiness, because “we, as people, generally tend to be distracted, busy and caught up in life to the point of losing focus or spirituality, or even becoming heedless of God and our purpose in life.”  In his opinion, we often get distracted from our goals, and reconnecting to “true reality … is a source of rest, peace, love, clarity and guidance.”  For him, “prayer is priceless.”

For all these individuals, it seems clear that their practices and beliefs hold great personal importance. Furthermore, it appears that prayer influences their frame of mind, coloring the meaning of existence.

But for those who don’t have a routine, what is a secular view on prayer?

One student said, “I can understand how prayer makes one appreciate life, but I think its repetitive nature makes [it] lose meaning.”  Acknowledging that prayer works for some, he stated, “there are ways of accomplishing the effects of prayer for different individuals.” For instance, he says he habitually contemplates the priorities in life. But overall, he makes clear that “[he] try to reflect on the beauty of life all the time.” Whether listening to music, exercising through sport or enjoying the company of others, it can be accomplished in all settings if one has the intention.

Regardless of religious affiliation, it can be said that time could be well-spent focusing on what is important in one’s life, whatever it may be.

If you want to find the meaning of life with DANIEL HERMAN, he can be reached at dsherman@ucdavis.edu.

Two years after the pepper spray incident, it is time to gather on the Quad at noon to confront the reality of our university. In the past years, the largest unions at UC have been active in trying to preserve quality of education and service at UC in the face of increasing inequality and police repression. Although each union’s demands are specific, they have in common an opposition to the privatization of the UC, the raising of its tuition, the lowering of its standards and the stark difference in pay between those at the bottom and those at the top.

In short, the same struggles that played out in the quad two years ago as part of Occupy UC Davis continue to haunt our campus. Two years ago, the focus of protest was a massive increase in tuition. This Nov. 18, with a former law enforcement official with no educational experience now at the helm of the UC system, we must gather to oppose police repression and defend quality education at UC.

The UC depends on the work of TAs, readers and associate instructors, who are the frontline educators in most departments. And yet, even as administrators get paid more and more, and tuitions go up and up, TA wages have been stagnant (dropping, if one calculates for inflation). Class sizes have gone up, and the ability of these educators to earn a living and provide a quality education has deteriorated — even as the students they serve pay more for that education!

Monday Nov. 18 and Tuesday Nov. 19, the UC Student-Workers Union UAW 2865 will be bargaining with UC Administration here on the Davis campus for a new contract, one that pays us fairly and guarantees a quality education for our students. Join us in the Quad at noon on Nov. 18, and join us at the bargaining sessions, to show support for your frontline educators.

Steve Cox

Department of History

University of California, Davis

Almost all of us have seen the advertisements for paid tutors around campus charging $30 or more per hour. Frequently, those advertisements are missing many of the tear-off contact info strips, indicating interest in their services.

However, professors and TAs offer office hours for free. Why, then, do we hire private tutors who know only the general subject, not the specific material presented in the class?

While private tutors can be useful, they should be a last resort after we have tried the professor and TAs. However, many of us make excuses to ourselves instead of giving office hours a chance first.

Many of us turn to one-on-one, paid tutors out of fear that we cannot get personal assistance in office hours because we will not be the only one there. However, we do not know how many people will be there until we show up. If other students are there, most of the time, we benefit from their questions.

In addition, if we have the courage to ask, many professors will make personal appointments outside of normal office hours.

In the rare case where we go several times and office hours are constantly too full, private tutors can help. However, we should go to office hours several times before we draw that conclusion.

Sometimes, we feel or are told by friends that, while we can get personal help, a certain professor or TA cannot teach effectively and thus going to office hours wastes our time.

However, we forget that a professor’s inability to teach us in a lecture hall of hundreds of students does not mean the professor cannot teach us one-on-one. Teaching hundreds of students at once is incredibly difficult; few have that gift.

For example, if a professor has a thick accent and we cannot understand what is said in lecture, we will find it much easier to understand when we are physically closer in office hours and can ask the professor to repeat what they said if we missed a word, which we cannot do in lecture.

Some professors and TAs really cannot teach, which is where private tutors can be useful, but we should give each professor and TA a chance first instead of judging them based on past experiences, word of mouth or ratemyprofessor.com.

To give professors or TAs a chance, we must ask for help, which embarrasses many of us and makes us feel foolish. Most professors and TAs will not belittle us for our ignorance; the fear is only in our minds. Most of them sincerely want us to learn and will spend their time teaching us if we have the courage to ask.

Perhaps one in five will show that they are busy and just want us to leave, but we should give each one a fair chance and not judge them all by the actions of a few. In those rare cases, private tutors can be useful. However, if we go with the attitude of finding fault or arrogance in professors or TAs, we will find what we look for regardless of if the professor wants to help us, feeding the cycle of fear and judgment.

However, while most professors want us to learn, office hours are not for repeating what was said in lecture. When we ask for this, we show that we have not made an effort on our own first.

Our education is our responsibility; nobody can help us unless we first try to help ourselves. Showing this laziness frustrates even the best professors and TAs. When we see this frustration, we call even the most helpful ones arrogant, unhelpful or unable to teach, instead of realizing our own faults.

Thus, we think every professor and TA cannot teach, so we give up on office hours entirely for every class and turn to private tutors who will coddle us to keep us coming and paying, even though that is not in our best interest.

Instead, we should make our best effort to understand the material ourselves and only then go to office hours when we cannot understand a specific idea. By doing so, we go with specific, detailed questions that show the professor we want to learn and are trying our best to do so.

When most professors see that determination, they will go out of their way to help us. However, we must first show them our drive to learn.

To share your experiences with private tutors, contact WILLIAM CONNER at wrconner@ucdavis.edu.