Professor Duane Kouba has been teaching in the UC Davis Math Department for 30 years. For 20 of those years he’s been involved with the UC Davis basketball team and just about ten years ago he set up a webpage filled with calculus problems to assist his students, simply called “The Calculus Page Problem List.” The site’s stark white background and minimalist layout of problems leading straight to their solutions is so low-tech that your grandmother could probably navigate the site in between playing rounds of Pong on her Commodore 64, but that’s exactly Kouba’s intention.

“If you go to my website you can see that it’s low-tech — here’s a topic, here are problems, here are solutions,” Kouba said. “You just click on the links. No bells and whistles. I haven’t worked on it for many years, but people like it because my explanations are clear.”

The site’s simplicity, and the fact that the link is the first to appear when searching for “calculus problems” on a number of popular search engines, led to Kouba receiving an email from Salman Khan, the creator of highly acclaimed informational website Khan Academy.

“[Khan] said, ‘I’ve been using your calculus website for some problems and inspiration,’” Kouba said. “He asked, ‘Would you be interested in working with us? Let me know’ and of course I’m flabbergasted.”

Launched by five-degree-holding MIT graduate Salman Khan in 2006, Khan Academy is an online educational tool that hosts “micro lecture” videos in a number of languages on a number of subjects with a concentration in mathematics and sciences, and with the goal of distributing useful knowledge to as many people as possible.

According to the website, Khan Academy has uploaded over 4,000 videos to its free-access website, and has delivered over 235 million lessons. To fund this, they’ve racked up a number of grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Google to Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man.

“Because everybody’s starting to get computer access, even though they don’t have food everyday and clean water, education should be free and I love that attitude,” Kouba said.

Fourth-year sociology major Xavier Ontiveros agrees.

“From a humanitarian perspective that sounds like the best thing we can do,” Ontiveros said. “Google and Wikipedia have saved my ass so many different times. People learn in very different ways. Some people will go to the internet, five different places, take bits and pieces of what will actually work for them, put it together and create one synthetic outcome that is just as sound.”

Lucian Novosel, a second-year computer science major, started using Khan Academy’s calculus lessons two years ago in a high school calculus class and still uses the site for reference. While he found it helpful for lower-level math, he sees a disconnect between the material and the caliber of his course load now.

“The level of Khan Academy is more high school-oriented. It’s really simple, there’s not that much material. If you try using Khan Academy for chemistry, it’s a wild goose chase for things that are actually relative,” Novosel said.

Kouba sees his new employment as an opportunity to improve the math education system.

“We want to make math better,” Kouba said. “Whatever he [Salman Khan] liked about what he saw on my website, he wants me to bring that to him, so I think that’s what I’m going to do. Based on our conversation, that is to add new problems and solutions for practice and maybe suggestions for his videos, and also just give my opinion about where I think he could make the current list of video topics better.”

In January of this year, Governor Jerry Brown announced a plan to pressure California public colleges and universities to expand their online course offerings for required lower-division classes after experimenting with a similar program at San Jose State University with another educational website called Udacity.

Novosel, while a fan of Khan Academy, has mixed emotions about such an idea.

“Interestingly enough, I have a friend at Arizona State University and a lot of her freshmen courses are actually all taught online,” Novosel said. “Now they’re really not that rigorous at all.”

Ontiveros is also skeptical about such a large shift from a person to digital format.

“I think it’s an attempt to outsource our learning experience to the internet as opposed to in the classroom. I don’t see any reason why a person-to-person learning experience should not be the first option,” he said.

Kouba, however, sees the digital realm as a frontier with untapped potential.

“[Khan] thinks public school teachers, at some level, have too much to do to teach 30 to 50 kids in a class because that’s what’s going on in public schools. His idea is he’s got spreadsheets that can track students’ progress through his videos,” Kouba said. “It’s a different way for teacher-student contact.”

For now, Kouba is ecstatic to work for Khan Academy through any capacity he can.

“It’s going to be fun,” Kouba said. “I’m going to write hard for ‘em, and try to make math more widely used; that’s my goal.”

SAM RIBAKOFF can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Attorney Ava Landers browses through the list of students seeking legal advice. Next up: a student wanting legal consultation, because their roommate ate their cookie.

ASUCD contracts with an attorney to offer registered undergraduate students free legal phone consultation, a service that seems unknown to many students. Every quarter, each student can get up to 15 minutes of free consultation. In some cases, students may schedule another 15 minutes in the same quarter if needed.

Paid for out of ASUCD student fees, the service has been around as far back as the 1980s. Students can go to the ASUCD office at 347 Memorial Union, show their student ID card and make an appointment for their free consultation.

The issues students want advice for vary, with about 85 percent pertaining to tenant-landlord issues, according to Landers.

“A lot of the time, it’s roommate issues and housing issues,” said Kathy Wilton, ASUCD Student Services Office Manager. “Those are the most prominent things. Every once in a while, you have someone who got a DUI or they got into a fight with somebody.”

Of course, occasionally, Landers said that students want to consult with her about their roommates eating their food.

“It’s a real waste of time, but you’d be surprised,” she said.

However, Landers has also dealt with more serious issues.

“I had a student who had gotten into a physical altercation with his roommate,” Landers said. “He was charged with a very serious felony. For something like that, I would always meet with them in person.”

Landers has been working with ASUCD since the late 1990s, conducting phone consultations three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

After students make their appointment, the list is sent to Landers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights.

“Because I’m in court all the time, sometimes I can’t call them at the appointed time, but by the end of the day, I get to everybody on the list,” Landers said.

Few students either use or know about the legal consultation service, with only around six 15-minute consultations scheduled per week during a school year. During the summer, business is even slower. The list rarely fills up, according to Landers.

“It’s not really advertised,” said Kimberly Garrett, a fourth-year evolution, ecology and biodiversity major, who has used the service. “It’s not something that if you didn’t go looking for it, you’d know about.”

Students are not timed or strictly limited to their 15 minutes. If further help is needed, they can schedule another 15 minutes at another time. Sometimes, depending on her schedule, Landers said she consults with the student for as long as an hour.

But not all students find the service helpful.

Garrett sought legal advice regarding adoption issues, and ultimately called it no more than a referral service.

“You put your name down, and then you have to wait for the person to call you back. The person who called me back was in a hurry. So she was rushed, and she was like, ‘Well, what do you need?’ It was pointless,” Garrett recounted. “She just pretty much said, ‘My recommendation of course is to get a lawyer.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I already knew that.’ There was no advice given basically. It was just 15 minutes of me explaining what my situation was.”

Garrett only used the service once.

“Many law firms in Sacramento offer free consultations,” Garrett said. “You are probably better off looking there.”

Still, Wilton maintains that the service is underutilized, and students don’t realize that not many people can get the opportunity to ask legal questions with a professional attorney for free.

“I think [students] do feel it’s helpful,” Wilton said. “When she’s able to contact them, she does answer their questions. I know that sometimes they’ll come back and make another appointment for a follow up.”

For students looking to get their free 15-minute consultation, bring your student ID and make an appointment at 347 Memorial Union.

JOYCE BERTHELSEN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Students who wish to be in the pre-health field at UC Davis may have different majors, but many strive for one goal: to pursue their fields of study after graduating and ultimately help others.

Both the Nursing Club and the Foresight Pre-Optometry Club help students interested in pursuing nursing or optometry careers beyond their UC Davis education.

The Foresight Pre-Optometry Club aims to provide both academic and social support to students who are willing to learn more about the profession of optometry. Members are mainly given all the information needed about the process of applying to optometry school.

“I decided to join fall of my sophomore year after having spent my first year at Davis as an undeclared major and exploring various career options,” said Teresa Nguyen, a fourth-year psychology major. “Optometry was the path that made the most sense to me. It’s clean, comfortable and fits my personality.”

For member Ece Turhal, a fourth-year biochemistry major, the most important part is the screening process for children in the community. Students administer a basic acuity test and refer them to a professional if they notice anything is wrong with the child’s vision.

“It is a very rewarding feeling. Considering about 80 percent of the information we learn comes through our eyes, vision is very important for a developing child. Children don’t know how clear they’re supposed to see, so they may not complain about not being able to see to their parents and teachers. So, our job is to make sure they can indeed see the board and learn,” Turhal said.

Aside from screenings, the club also helps students become more competitive applicants by having them participate in the club’s various activities throughout the year. With the help of their health sciences advising pre-optometry peer advisor Tiffany Phan, the club has guest speakers from optometry schools and students are able to meet with optometry school recruiters and visit optometry schools in California.

“We work closely with Prevent Blindness Northern California and participate in many of their events. We also have many optometry schools come and talk to us about their programs and talk about the admissions processes. We have seminars where we learn about the OAT and how to use OptomCAS to make applying in the future simpler. Also, the meetings are a great opportunity to talk with peers about classes — which classes to take, when and with who,” Turhal said.

This quarter, the Vision Service Plan, one of the largest eye care providers in America, came to talk to the students about their company and what they have to offer students who are interested in private practice. The club also holds social events, including a Thanksgiving potluck, and game nights. During spring break for the past couple years, the club has planned a trip to SoCal to see optometry schools such as the Southern California College of Optometry and Western University of Health Sciences.

“This is a great opportunity to not only bond with fellow members but to get a feel for the schools we visit. There are so many helpful people in the club, it would be silly not to come talk and get to know them. I feel more comfortable with the application process and I got to hear presentations from the schools I was interested in. I made friends, improved my grades, got experience and solidified my decision of becoming an optometrist,” Turhal said.

For those who are interested, the Foresight Pre-Optometry Club meets every other Wednesday from 6:10 to 7 p.m. in Wellman 26.

Similar to the Foresight Pre-Optometry Club, the Nursing Club educates many students who are interested in pursuing nursing after graduating from UC Davis.

The main purpose of the club is to inform pre-nursing students about the different graduate and accelerated programs in nursing. It also provides students with information about prerequisites for nursing schools, along with information about internships and volunteer experiences relevant to the nursing field.

“I wanted to meet other like-minded people with [the] same long-term career goals. I think it’s [a] great resource in learning more about nursing, especially at a school like UC Davis that doesn’t have an undergraduate nursing program yet,” said Amanda Jones, a third-year psychology major.

The students aid each other in pursuing their goal of becoming nurses, whether it be in picking classes, choosing what programs to apply for or informing each other about research or internship opportunities. They also have many guest speakers from different nursing universities’ admissions committees come and talk at the meetings as well as current UC Davis students or alumni who have been accepted to nursing school.

Students in the club volunteer at Sutter Oaks Nursing Center in by helping with holiday card delivery, helping at themed parties and spending time with patients.

Aside from learning about nursing, students have the time to enjoy each other’s company through pizza socials or bracelet-making at the Atria Covell Gardens.

“It has really opened my eyes to the different specialties in nursing and what it takes to get into a nursing program. It has enabled me to meet a ton of awesome people. It’s a great place to hear inspirational people too, and has really solidified my decision to pursue nursing as a career,” Jones said.

For those who are interested, the Nursing Club meets about twice a month on either Wednesday or Thursday in Olson 118 at 7 or 8 p.m.

ALICE LEE can be reached at features@theaggie.org.