Barbara Cano, a senior majoring in Physiology and Neuroscience at UCSD, died the morning of Sunday, Jan. 30 in a car accident on her way to work. According to Dallas Patterson, a friend of Cano, she rolled her car down an embankment onto I-15 and was killed when struck by oncoming traffic.

Patterson said she was a pre-med student. Cano was involved in UCSD's Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.

She attended Mission Hills High School in San Marcos. She is from Los Lunas, New Mexico.

By Wafa Ben Hassine, President, Associated Students

Several students from the Associated Students met with Christine Bagwell, the Associate Director of Academic Computing & Media Services, and Debbie McGraw from the Senior Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, on Jan. 14, 2011, to discuss the proposed “Instructional Technology” fee. Following the meeting, we reviewed the proposal and agreed to not support the implementation of the proposed fee.

The Associated Students, as official representatives of the UCSD undergraduate population, are strongly against the instructional technology fee for three fundamental reasons: the audacity to administer a new fee given the current student financial condition, the lack of statistics to justify the technological changes and a lack of student representation in the drafting of the proposal.

First, given the current circumstances, the UC Board of Regents already cut $500 million from the UC budget and have raised “education fees” by 8 percent this year and 32 percent the year prior. Demanding another fee from students is adding salt to the wound. Therefore, not only does ASUCSD fundamentally disagree with such a proposal, but is especially troubled with its timing. With the current fee hikes, students today are struggling to simply make ends meet.

Second, “Instructional Technology” suggests that students desire technological changes on campus, yet no such hard data or studies have been presented to support such a claim. The proposal does not provide any assessment of the current condition of technological systems on our campus, and fails to provide a clear financial breakdown of how they would allocate the funds received from students. Students should not and cannot afford to be treated as an unlimited source of funding.

Third, if the instructional technology fee were to pass, it would be the first time in UCSD history that students would be charged based upon the number of academic units taken. We believe that this would open up a Pandora’s box of issues for students.

Fees such as the one proposed will significantly impact students’ financial condition if they decide to take more units. Although we agree with the Committee on Educational Policy and Courses’ assessment that student-based fees should not be used to fund instructional support services, the Associated Students further disagrees with any gradual introduction of the fee.

We cannot support any new fees unless we have the opportunity to vote and unless we are presented with a specific budget detailing the exact distribution of student fees. Students and faculty share the concern that if this proposal passes, it will inevitably lead to the implementation of more fees through methods that lack student representation.

Students resent the idea that a proposal requiring their own funds was drafted without any student input, and would be further imposed without a student vote.

This proposal bypasses the direct voice of the students and attempts to impose fees in an indirect and unaccountable fashion. We ask that in recognition of the financial hardships students are undergoing, such fees would be proposed only with the consent of those paying for it.

After all the protests, speeches, demonstrations and media coverage of Winter Quarter 2010’s “Compton Cookout,” you would think that the University of California as a whole might have learned how to avoid racially related media coverage. But here we are, exactly a year later, and this time it’s UC Irvine in the spotlight for its poor judgment.

On Jan. 19, in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, UC Irvine’s Pippin Commons served its “Holiday Special: Chicken and Waffles.” The insensitive menu selection, based off stereotypical African-American foods, stirred up enough controversy on the Irvine campus to draw national media attention.

UCI, however, wasn’t alone in its poor judgment: UCSD’s Canyon Vista held its own Martin Luther King Day menu that included collard greens, cornbread and fried catfish. The Canyon Vista menu didn’t trigger much of a reaction here, but it appears that dining department planners at both schools need to take a hard-earned lesson from last winter’s handbook on racial sensitivity.

The dining halls’ inclination to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. with a special menu is baffling to begin with. We don’t celebrate the legacies of Cesar Chavez or Christopher Columbus with foods that have a tenuous connection — at best — to Mexican or Italian culture. They are celebrated for their achievements and not for their race, just as King should be, because his message advocated equality for everyone.

By serving southern foods that have little apparent connection to King beyond racial stereotypes (neither served his favorite food, pecan pie), the dining halls’ menus made an unnecessary racial distinction that doesn’t honor the civil rights activist.

Marshall College sophomore Olamide Noah found the Canyon Vista menu personally offensive. “I’ve experienced way too many ‘black jokes’ that pick upon seemingly typical African-American meals to find that at all humorous or politically correct, especially when used to celebrate a holiday in the name of a historical black figure,” Noah said. “[The menu] seems a lot more like ridicule.”

On the UC Irvine campus, the Black Student Union was not about to allow the dining hall menu to pass under the radar. “I understand people have prejudice and ignorance,” UCI BSU chairman Ricardo Sparks said. “But this is out in the community and nobody is saying anything about it.”

Martin Luther King represents activism and a constant battle for equality. That battle for equality is far from over, and if schools really want to honor the civil rights leader, they should focus on events in the spirit of his universal teachings, not his racial background.

A menu change, no matter how well-intentioned, teaches nothing about the issues that MLK worked so hard to bring to national consciousness.

The dining halls did get something right, though: They’re an ideal location to promote any event or activity. Everyone’s gotta eat, and at one time or another, nearly everyone stops in.

Organizers should have used the dining halls to promote awareness events and campus speakers, all of which are far more effective routes in commemorating one of the great civil rights leaders. The campus should focus its energy on promoting events like the MLK parade and rehabbing the Sherman Heights Community Center. Let’s be honest — the Saturday before midterms week, most probably didn’t even hear about any of the events.

In contrast, hanging a menu does nothing. Although they were intended to commemorate a great leader, they represent yet another instance of low-effort activism, much in the same vein as a “Save Darfur” t-shirt or $5 Starbucks water bottle that sends 3 cents of every bottle to improving water conditions in Africa.

The age of Facebook petitions and Twitter posts may foster some worthwhile impact, as in the case of civil rights movements in Iran and Tunisia. The supposedly commemorative dining-hall offerings, however, make a bleaker statement: that often, our modern efforts at activism are comprised by misunderstanding, laziness and — in this case — ignorance.

President Barack Obama’s Jan. 25 State of the Union Address was banal, idealistic and unoriginal. Every year, regardless of who’s president, we are guaranteed boundless convictions of American exceptionalism and trite themes like “Innovation through Greatness,” which sound more like a middle-school writing contest.

Nor does the speech show any  change in vision for Obama despite humbling midterm election results. His plan for a glorious future: government activism and austerity measures. His proposed five-year freeze of non-security discretionary spending would save $40 billion a year, but the result is laughable when this year’s deficit alone is projected at $1.5 trillion.

Medical malpractice reform and consolidating bureaucracy, too, are the budgetary equivalents of owning a Benz and buying cheap floss to get out of debt. Obama demands greater investment in high-speed rail and wireless access, then calls for meager deficit-cutting measures. Although we’re a far cry from being unable to pay back creditors, the lip service to the deficit is unsettling.
Obama is the eighth consecutive president to advocate energy independence. He’s also likely to become the eighth consecutive president to continue sucking the oily teats of Saudi Arabia. Our parents thought solar energy would be widespread by now, but it appears not even our children will taste relief from black gold. The money invested in clean energy will come from cutting subsidies to oil companies — the same ones funding clean energy research. Subsidies for oil companies (like Chevron) will now be diverted toward companies investing in renewable energy (like Chevron). Now there’s change you can believe in.

There was a silver lining to his speech: He promised to continue free trade agreements with South Korea, making Hyundais much cheaper for Americans. Onerous regulations will also be reviewed to relieve the burden for small businesses. This will be significant, considering regulations cost businesses $1.75 trillion a year.

Obama plans to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit ($10,000 refundable credit for families that make less than $160,000 or single parents that make less than $80,000 paying for four years of college) and expand Pell Grants. Sure, affordable education is great, but it won’t matter much if graduates are entering an abysmal job market.

None of this is to say that the Republican responders’ speeches had any merit. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who either had pink eye or was high, rambled on about limited government and was even more vague in his talk of reducing debt. Considering Ryan voted for the completely unfunded Medicare Part D (estimated cost: $534 billion) without any other revenue offsets, he lacks credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.

The effect of spending too much is less money for investment in the future, stunting our growth across all sectors. Once the economy has recovered, the political class needs a plan for realistic cost-cutting measures that address our never-ending deficit.

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Fall Quarter police reports have revealed that 95 percent of campus crimes are theft-related.

“UCSD crime rates have been pretty consistent throughout my 25 years here,” UCSD Police Detective Doug O’Dell said.

He added that there is a pattern to crime on campus.

“The crime rate is spiky,” O’Dell said. “We’ll make an arrest and the crime rate will drop off and then it will start off again, with a different criminal, or the original offender. Crooks stick to what they know.”

O’Dell said that while going over 2010’s unofficial record, he counted nearly 400 thefts.

Of these, 35 percent of the thefts are of bicycles. The police have created measures to prevent and catch bicycle thieves. These measures include decoy bikes to lure thieves and extra surveillance in areas with more bikes.

“No one area on campus is more popular for thieves,” O’Dell said.

O’Dell said he is only aware of three murders in the history of UCSD.

One of those occurred last October, when police found the dead body of Carlsbad resident Lorena Gonzalez in a burning van in Lot 701. Another murder occurred in the 2005-06 academic year, in which a woman living in the graduate student housing poisoned her husband. The first one O’Dell knew of happened in the ’70s, when a man in student housing murdered his wife and left her in the trunk of his car while he fled the country.

Last quarter, there were 33 reports of theft, injury, vandalism and hit-and-runs in the areas surrounding Price Center alone. Violent crime, however, was uncommon.

According to O’Dell, the majority of crime during Fall Quarter was spread out fairly evenly across the campus. The detective emphasized that students’ belongings are often stolen due to carelessness.

“People in the library get up and walk away from a table and leave their stuff there,” he said. “They [leave] their laptop on [a] table and [leave] the library, and then come back several hours later. They are not securing their property.”

According to O’Dell, about seven to 10 years ago, UCSD had a large auto-theft problem. During that period, O’Dell said about 11 to 12 cars were stolen a month.

“UCSD is a good place for thieves to do their business,” O’Dell said.

Now, however, only two to three cars are stolen per month, and most often occur in the parking lots nearest the freeway. O’Dell said this is because car thieves are generally not from this campus and they find navigation confusing. O’Dell noted that inner lots are safer, but not guaranteed to be crime-free.

In 2010, there were 17 incidences of theft at Geisel Library. The items stolen were usually MP3 players, laptops and backpacks. The UCSD police are currently doing surveillance work to catch suspects. O’Dell said they have recently been successful in identifying and arresting suspects who frequent our campus.

It is difficult for the police to gauge past success in stopping crime because campus police have much smaller crime numbers to analyze than the San Diego police. Statistics are still mostly consistent.

“It’s not like we’re selling a product, crime doesn’t work that way,” O’Dell said.

Over these past two quarters, there have been several wallet thefts in the locker rooms at the Main Gym, RIMAC Arena and Canyonview Pool. The thefts tend to occur in the men’s locker rooms and not the women’s, leading the police to believe that the suspect is male.

The UCSD police have had some success in arresting thieves, but their success does not necessarily signal a drop in crime rates.

“As soon as one thief is arrested, another thief will come in,” O’Dell said.

In 2009, there were two categories of crime recorded. Property crime accounted for 94.93 percent of crime on campus, while violent crime accounted for 5.07 percent.

Property crime was made up of 84.17 percent larceny/theft, 8.61 percent burglary, 6.71 percent motor vehicle theft and 0.52 percent arson. Violent crime was made up 90.32 percent of assault, 6.45 percent robbery, and 3.23 percent forcible rape.

All figures were taken from University of California Police Department Annual Report and Crime Statistics.

It’s official: I’m now an initiated member of my sorority.

After initiation night, my dad called to ask how I felt. “Is it supposed to feel different?” I asked. He said it’s natural to feel underwhelmed by it all. It’s like when you turned 18 and realized you could buy cigarettes and lotto tickets, but other than that, nothing had changed.

In a futile effort at turning back the clock, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives will attempt to repeal health care reform (aka Obamacare) on Jan. 12, challenging the forces of other Democrats in Washington and potentially leaving its own party on the rocks.

Although the average American will hardly feel the benefits from this health care reform bill, President Obama will undoubtedly veto anything that resembles a repeal. And the Senate is still under the reins of the Democrats — the ones who passed the legislation in the first place. Unless an enormous number of Democrats cross the aisle to undo the reform they voted for, there’s little chance of the Republicans getting the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto.

Politically, though, this vote will help filter out Democrats standing against Obama, and their districts will be ripe for Republican taking. And if Obama continues to lose good will among Democrats, that will bode well for Palin — I mean, whoever appears on the GOP ticket — next year.

On the other hand, the repeal bill isn’t even paired with Republican reform. Repealing the bill only further stigmatizes Republicans as the “Party of No.” Trying to pass a bill that satisfies die-hard Tea Partiers, who will stop at nothing until Obama is imprisoned (preferably in Guantanamo Bay), is a poor move to reach out to moderates in the upcoming election. To increase its electability for 2012, the GOP needs to move forward and — dare I say it — progress.

Interestingly enough, the Congressional Budget Office recently released a report indicating that a repeal would actually increase the deficit by about another $230 billion, as the bill cuts Medicare and raises some payroll taxes. This puts the GOP at odds with its promises of reducing the burgeoning deficit, yet it intends to continue pressing on, ignoring the CBO analysis.

Republicans can still defund certain parts of the bill, like further Medicaid expansion, without wholly repealing legislation. There’s plenty to dislike about a bill that makes the bank bailout bill look like a Christmas present (Yeah, I said ‘Christmas,’ not ‘the holidays,’ get over it).

Twenty-four physician-owned hospitals halted construction because the bill favored community hospitals, which the American Hospital Association successfully lobbied for. Reform should start with telling lobbyists to take a hike, and then work toward a solution favorable to all — not just certain industries.

Medical costs are one of the driving factors of the deficit, and Republicans should make sure our health care system remains competitive, but still protects the poorest members of society. So, the budget shouldn’t be balanced by cutting Medicaid.

Last year’s health care reform was only a small step toward fixing our medical woes. Republicans now have a responsibility to refine Obamacare so a fair and lasting solution can emerge.

Like most college students, I don’t exactly get a high from doing laundry, organizing
my closet or doing the dishes. Growing up, my parents would give me “clean your room
or else” ultimatums and so, when I applied for housing freshman year, a single seemed the only option that wouldn’t result in a “freshman murdered by roommates for messy room” news headline.
Sometimes I like to fool myself into thinking that I have such an exciting and action-packed life that I don’t have time to clean my room — but let’s be honest: I don’t.

And while I think it’s perfectly OK to have all my clothes on the biggest shelf in the apartment (the floor), the rest of the world apparently doesn’t share that same sentiment.

Typically, my room goes through a six-step cycle:
1. All of my clothes are hung up and organized by color, sleeve length and fabric, thanks to my miserable summer at Forever 21.
2. One by one, every item of clothing goes from my closet to my floor.
3. Laundry.
4. Instead of hanging the clean clothes up, they go back to the floor to be picked through for outfits over the next couple weeks.
5. Should someone come over, everything gets shoved in my closet and under the bed — then repeat steps two through four.
6. With the exception of step one: rinse, wash and repeat.

For the past 19 years or so, despite glares from my mother, puzzling looks from friends and the “Is that thing growing?” every so often, this system has worked out just fine.
It wasn’t until I realized that the random scrap of paper I threw out was actually my $400 speeding ticket that I realized that this “lifestyle” wasn’t as sustainable as I thought.

Unlike building up running endurance, going from slob to spotless was something I had to do cold turkey.
That weekend, my friend was flying down from Davis, so I figured it was a good a time as any to whip out the pesticides. (In case you’re wondering, that “thing” isn’t growing anymore.)

Glimpsing the piles of old essays, food my bird threw out of her cage, disposed wrappers of varying degrees of incrimination and a Styrofoam box that I think might have been pollo asado fries before winter break, “overwhelmed” didn’t even begin to cover how I felt.

Plus, even though Jillian Michaels says that it takes two weeks to successfully start a new
habit (or maybe just to give up the Kripsy Kremes), I think one major caveat is having a dirty room.

Maybe it’s just me, but when there’s decomposing food of both the bird and Mexican varieties on my desk, I’m probably not going to put my laptop there to do my WebCT reading any time soon.

To make things easier on my brain, I decided to divide my room into sections: desk, floor, closet, garbage.

First stop, my desk. With a swipe of my hand, old essay drafts and empty water bottles were
swept off my desk and into the recycling. Done.

Unfortunately, the rest of my room wasn’t quite as easy. I hadn’t made my bed since the beginning of Fall Quarter and after I dumped clothes that desperately needed to be washed onto the floor I went to work tucking and folding.

After breaking a sweat, I figured that it would be easier to just wash all of the clothes on the floor rather than trying to figure out which ones were clean and which needed to be sanitized.

Slowly but surely, my room went from being Korea’s DMZ to something that might even win Martha Stewart’s seal of approval.

Now, for the hard part: maintaining that level of cleanliness.

That night, as I threw my jeans on the floor, I stopped and told
myself, “No! Pick it up.” And I did. Over the next few days, as I tried to break 19 years of
bad habits, it was a constant schizophrenic battle with myself.

“Pick it up!”

“I can do it later.”

“NO! Drop and give me 50, Hori!”

Eventually, the military sergeant in me prevailed, and aside from a few slip-ups here and there, for two whole weeks I’ve been able to keep my room a near-socially-acceptable
clean. (Unless you count those wrappers. I sure don’t.)

Picture this: a group of teenage boys inches into the Pacific, surfers paddle out from shore, beach babes sunbathe on the sand. All the images are cut together with faux-vintage saturation. Vampire Weekend-style Afrobeat drums complement loose, effervescent guitar lines, while a soulful singer declares his adoration for the Golden State: “I’ve been sleeping far too long, hibernating from your love / I need some summer sun to come and wake me up,” he croons.

This music video — as well as the song itself, “California Sunrise” — has been making waves on the Internet since it was first posted back in October, garnering tens of thousands of views on YouTube and Vimeo.

It might come as a surprise, then, to learn that it’s the first single from a couple of local high school kids.

Carlsbad’s Dirty Gold —a trio composed of brothers John (vocals/ guitar) and Lincoln (keyboard) Ballif and friend Grant Nassif (drums) — have received more acclaim in the local music scene in the last few months than most bands who have been together for years. They’ve found play on 91X’s Locals Only show and made it on to DJ Mat Diablo’s Best of 2010 list, alongside artists like Crystal Castles, School of Seven Bells and Yeasayer, and are playing at the Casbah tonight. Not so bad for three high schoolers, two of whom can’t even buy cigarettes yet.

Lincoln, 18, is the oldest, Grant is 17 and John, 16, is the baby of the group. They’ve already played shows at The Tin Can Ale House and Che Cafe.

The Guardian met up with Dirty Gold at an Encinitas Chipotle (they wanted burritos), where they opened up about their quick rise in the San Diego music scene.

G: What do you think about breaking out in the music scene so suddenly?

Lincoln Ballif: I didn’t even think it would happen-at all. I started writing music over the summer and I had no plans for it to go anywhere. Then John took an interest in it, put it on some blogs and it started getting big from there. So everything that’s happened has kind of been a surprise- a shock almost.

Grant Nassif: Right now our e-mail is like an IM chat.

G: You had UK video artist Panaframe involved with the video for “California Sunrise.” How did that come about?

John Ballif: Basically we just got a Myspace message one day early, early on — maybe like a week or two after putting it on the Internet — and this guy wrote, “Hey, can we make a music video?” We responded, “Uhhh … you can make an unofficial music video, not like a real music video.” So he said, “What do you want on it?” We said, “Something we can project live behind us while we play.” And he made it and we were just waiting for a response, and a week later I just typed in “’Dirty Gold ‘California Sunrise’” [on Google] and this video popped up.

G: Are you planning on doing an official music video anytime soon?

L. Ballif: Probably. We’ve gotten some offers from just some random videographers and directors. So I think once we release the EP we can do that. But we haven’t made it quite through yet.

G: Do you think Panaframe’s involvement made more buzz for “California Sunrise”?

G. Nassif: Oh, definitely.

J.  Ballif: 60,000 views don’t hurt.

L. Ballif: And I think when people can associate the visual aesthetic of our sound with the song, it kind of clicks and they can say “Hey, I really dig the vibe”. But yea, that was pretty cool.

G: You guys are playing at the Casbah this week. How do you guys feel about playing a 21-and-up venue?

G. Nassif: Yeah, we’ve done it before, but it was low-key. Casbah’s obviously a huge venue, so we’re kind of stoked about that. And it’s kind of cool: Thursday, school night, going out playing a show.

L. Ballif: A lot our teachers are coming, actually.

G: So are you guys going to try and slip some beers while you’re there?

G. Nassif: Nah.

J. Ballif: We don’t want to.

G: Well, you guys [John and Lincoln] are Mormon.

G. Nassif: I wouldn’t do it anyway.

J. Ballif: It’s really not a big deal for us. I think it’s funny when people go out to the bar.

G. Nassif: We really want to just hang around and see the other bands too. We’re really stoked.

G: Who else are you playing with at Casbah?

L. Ballif: TV Girl and. . .

G. Nassif: LeSands and Jamuel Saxon.

G: Do you guys know what you’re going to play?

L. Ballif: Everything on our new EP that’s coming out soon, and then a song that’s not gonna be on the EP that we just wrote together.

G. Nassif: Well, somewhat. They had already written it, but we put it together like an hour ago.

G: Oh, nice. So is it along the same lines as your other songs?

L. Ballif: A little bit. It’s along a little more of the rocky side than some of our other stuff, so that’s cool.

G: You guys are under an LA-based label, Autumn Tone Records. Are you recording here in San Diego or are you going up there to record?

G. Nassif: We’re recording at my house with some friends that I’ve known since middle school. They know Logic and all the recording software, so they’ve been helping us out.

G: How do your parents feel about you playing music?

L. Ballif: Our parents are super supportive. I mean, they’re new to the whole scene and so when we want to play 21-and-up venues they’re kind of skeptical of it, but they’ve let us choose for ourselves and so that’s been really cool. And they’ve been super supportive of  how much we’ve had to practice and record, and stuff like that.

G: Are they trying to push you still with all of your schoolwork?

L. Ballif: We push each other. I mean, we’re good students anyway.

G. Nassif: Every time we’re talking about band stuff I’ll be like, “Wait, you guys done your science homework?” We always make sure we do all of it because we know if anything slips, the band’s the first thing to go.

G: So are you guys in the same class? G. Nassif: [Lincoln] and I are. John’s a grade younger.

J. Ballif: I’m in a couple of their classes.

G. Nassif: Yea,  I took some of the classes that Lincoln took last year, and classes that I took last year he’s taking this year, so it kind of works out. We have to go home and do homework tonight actually.

G: So Lincoln and John — you’re brothers. Is there one of you that’s more of the dominant force in the band?

L. Ballif: I’m the singer, I guess. But there’s a song that we’re playing on Thursday that [John] sings. It’s kind of been a struggle just trying to figure out who’s going to do what. I mean, we play the same instruments, except that I play bass. And so it’s just kind of hard to figure out. But I think we’ve been really understanding.

G. Nassif: It was rough in the beginning but…it’s a lot better now.

G: Did you have to act as mediator?

G. Nassif: [laughing] Yeah, somewhat. I would just be here sitting on my drum stool watching it happen. But it’s worked out.

G: What do you think makes your sound so captivating?

L. Ballif: Most of our songs have kind of a hook that draw people in and it’s really accessible to a lot of listeners. But it’s been a really unique sound that people haven’t heard before.

G. Nassif: And I think with “California Sunrise”…I dunno, it’s like…It sometimes makes you happy? I think it kind of makes you want to be happy too.

J. Ballif: I think we write all of our stuff so that we like it, so it’s kind of selfish in that way, but it just works out. It’s not like we’re writing for, you know, anyone in particular. If we like it then, well, then we hope other people are going to like it and I think that’s the key.

G: Are you planning on touring during summer?

L. Ballif: We want to tour. And maybe put out a full-length album.

G: Have you talked to your label about touring?

G. Nassif: We’re just kind of getting by right now.

J. Ballif: We just kind of signed up for this release of the single which is coming out tomorrow, but we’re not really thinking about touring and stuff with them. But we’re going to SXSW and so we’re going to be talking to, I’m sure, managers and stuff there.

G: Who are you guys excited about seeing at SXSW?

J. Ballif: Tennis, for sure, Small Black.

G. Nassif: Yeah, I’m excited to see some house DJs like Skrillex and stuff like that. I think it’ll be a blast. It’s cool, South by Southwest has so many different genres and types of music there, and you can kind of see whatever you want. But we’re really excited for that, because who doesn’t like missing two, three days of school and seeing bands?

G: Are your teachers going to be OK with that?

G. Nassif: We haven’t really told them yet.

J. Ballif: If not, sucks for them!

G. Nassif: [Laughing] No, we’ll figure it out. We’ll do our homework.

L. Ballif: Our teachers have been really supportive. They’ve come to most of our shows.

G. Nassif: Yeah, all of our teachers were at our first show, so it’s cool.

G: What sorts of things can we expect on your EP, or what are you planning for your album?

L. Ballif: Definitely diversity.

G.  Nassif: There are different tempos, different styles, different feels.

J. Ballif: I’d definitely say, expect an introduction. That’s kind of what we said as the opening to our band. So that’s what we’re coming with: the first chapter of a book.

Dirty Gold's first single is available on iTunes now.

It’s been over a month since former linguistics lecturer Henry Acejo was tragically murdered, and UCSD has yet to say or do anything about the matter.
Although he was not internationally known or a highly renowned figure like other faculty
members — such as political science professor Chalmers Johnson, who passed away last November — Acejo deserves the acknowledgment for his contributions as a Filipino language and culture lecturer, either in the form of a statement, on-campus memorial or
commemoration.
According to UCSD spokesperson Christine Clark, it is not university protocol to release a statement regarding loss of faculty members. Clark said statements regarding deaths are only for chancellors or administrative faculty that have died. While Acejo may have only been employed by UCSD since 2006, it does not hurt to commemorate the life of a faculty member who taught ESL and Tagalog classes not only at UCSD, but also at SDSU, Southwestern College and Mid-City College.
He still deserves the “swift, caring and professional assistance” UCSD provides to the “family, survivors and eligible beneficiaries of any death benefits administered by
or through UCSD” that is typically given to faculty members after they die.
Acejo’s passing has already received national and international news coverage. His death has been acknowledged — in the form of statements, memorials, Facebook groups and donations for funeral expenses — by all the San Diego institutions of higher education he
has worked at, save UCSD.
There is no harm or difficulty in sending out a mass e-mail to express condolences to the friends and family of Acejo. All it takes is the willingness to spare time to write a simple e-mail and click send to “all academics, staff and students at UCSD.” And for a faculty member whose love for teaching inspired hundreds of students, it would be effort well-spent.

Last Friday, the UC Office of the President announced a spike in applications for the seventh consecutive year. The rise in popularity was felt most on our campus, with an 11.2-percent increase over applications received last year.

The news isn’t good for a university system already well over $20 billion in debt. According
to Assistant Vice Chancellor of Admissions Mae Brown, despite the increase in applications, UCSD will be forced to cut admission for the 2011-2012 academic year due to Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed $500-million university funding cut.

Though it’s too early to determine the severity of the enrollment cut, it will inevitably mean lower acceptance rates than those of recent years. Which is, perhaps, a faint silver lining: a lowered rate of admission may help boost UCSD in national rankings, especially those
of U.S. News and World Report, which weighs exclusivity alongside other factors like student-to-teacher ratios and graduation rates.

So, once current students enter the job market, they may be able to credit the state budget crisis for a degree that, if earned through larger, more restricted courses, is at least more exclusive. Excellent.

A more commendable aspect of the UCOP announcement concerns minority applicants. On the UCSD campus, the Chicano/Latino application rate rose 34.4 percent over the previous year, from 9,655 to 12,978. African American applications are up 11.8 percent, from 2,210 to 2,471.

The increases suggest that Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Penny Rue’s efforts at saving face following the Winter Quarter 2010 Compton Cookout fiasco may have actually had some tangible impact. (Or perhaps just that applicants didn’t take as much notice as Fox and Rue were afraid they might.)

Yet these achievements pale in comparison to what will be lost. Last week, the Guardian reported that for the first time in the history of the university, students next year will pay more into the UC operating budget than will the state. Coupled with the near-certain
prospect of another enrollment cut (the last occurred for the 2009-2010
academic year, with a reduction of 2,300 students across the UC), these changes represent a momentous step back from the California Master Plan for Higher Education
which, when signed into law in 1960, touted accessibility among its chief goals for the UC.

Fifty years on, the university has never been further from that goal. While the Office of the President is likely cheering last Friday’s announcement as affirmation of continued student interest in the UC, this board firmly believes that its efforts must be focused on lobbying
state legislators to reprioritize higher education. Because with rising fees and dwindling resources, interest in a failing system won’t last forever.

Cough Syrup Ban Was Our Best Bet

A new black market has emerged for cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, which, in addition to soothing your throat, is used to make meth.

The five-year-old phenomenon reveals that current state laws mandating electronic monitoring systems to track purchases of over-the-counter cold pills have failed to curb the drug trade — but in the absence of funding to develop more sophisticated monitoring technology, the legislature’s 2005 ban was the best solution in the war on methamphetamine.

The 2005 Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act mandates that cold pills be placed behind the counter, that purchasers show ID and that pharmacies log each sale. With electronic tracking, buyers’ names are entered into statewide databases, and customers are forbidden from purchasing more than their monthly limit of cold medicines containing the substance.

The law hasn’t put a huge dent in illegal meth usage — there were approximately 12 million users in 2005 and 13 million in 2007 — though methamphetamine-related arrests and drug seizures did rise by 34 percent.

According to Missouri Pharmacy Association CEO Ron Fitzwater, without electronic tracking, law enforcers would have less help tracking down dealers.

Methamphetamine production would remain unchanged and producers wouldn’t have to resort to under-the-table deals to acquire pseudoephedrine.

As long as the enormous profitability of the drug trade is around to seduce narcotics producers, all that can be done is to hinder the process by limiting where producers can get their product and plug away with new technology.

— Arik Burakovsky

Staff Writer

Law Opens Door to Illegal Black Market

Despite the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act’s goal to halt meth production, six years later, the bill has spurred an underground black market for cough syrup.

Now that the law prohibits those with a record from buying cough syrup, many methamphetamine producers have called upon others with clean records to buy it for them.

According to Associated Press reporter Jim Salter, the electronic tracking system has not halted the drug market, but instead has opened a dangerous door for individuals with seemingly clean records to profit from the sale of cough medicine to those working in meth labs.

The electronic systems mandated by the law are used to track the sales of cold medicine and allow pharmacies to instantly check whether the customer has already purchased the legal limit of pseudoephedrine (3.6 grams daily). But the illegal market for the product has expanded to the point that those cleared to purchase cough syrup are able to re-sell it at up to five times the price, with a very low risk for being discovered and arrested.

According to Gary Boggs, an agent at the Drug Enforcement Administration, this law has created a “sub-criminal culture” that allows those with a clean record to weekly pharmacy rotations buying cough medicine until they have reached the legal limit.

Although lawmakers had good intentions in trying to deter the drug fiends, the bill has actually increased illegal activity. If that’s not evidence of the measure’s failure, we don’t know what is.

— Lexi Halamandaris

Staff Writer