End of Quarter… So Close

Well, it’s been a while since I lasted posted, but I have been so busy! Here’s a quick rundown of what I’ve been up to the last couple of weeks:

I had decided early on that I would not be going to San Diego for Thanksgiving. I knew I would be going home a few weeks after that and I decided instead to save money and time and stay in Nor. Cal. Thankfully, my dear friend Monica invited Sami and I to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Monica is one of my oldest and closest friends. But she does not like dogs, so for her to include Sami in the invitation and allow the dog to stay in her house for over 24 hours was amazing of her! It was so great to spend some time with her, and I love her kids, they are great! Plus, there was homemade pie… it can’t get much better than that.

The day after Thanksgiving, an even older friend of mine, Sarah (who I have know for about 23 years) and her husband were able to come and visit me. They spent their Thanksgiving camping in Big Sur. They met in Monterey and I think they were just happy to be back in the bay area. I loved having them (even though we are all terrible at Beatles:Rockband!) We toured the campus and spent a few hours in downtown SC for delicious pizza, cookies and Sarah got some Christmas shopping done too. Unfortunately they were only able to stay until Saturday night.

Thankfully that same Saturday night, Kevin finally moved up! He has been living in So Cal this whole time so I am SO EXCITED to have him up here! He was able to get a transfer from his work from Vista to San Jose. Unfortunately he still has quite the commute. In fact on Monday and Tuesday, he drove through snow!! We have had record cold temperatures the past week, brrr! I wish it had snowed in town… but no such luck.

Tuesday night I turned in my last assignments for my classes this quarter. It has been rough, I’m learning to write in a style I don’t have much practice in writing. It has been a real challenge and I worked really hard on the last paper to overcome some of the weaknesses I’ve had writing this way (fingers crossed!). All I have left, which I’m obviously putting off by blogging right now, is to grade 46 research papers and write the students’ evaluations. Then the quarter is really over!

I will be home for a few weeks to spend time with my family and friends. But the winter quarter begins the first week of January, so my break will be short. I plan on blogging about my break in January, so until then I hope anyone who reads this enjoys their holidays!

Students Protest as Fees Increase

Today the UC Board of Regents voted to increase undergraduate student fees by 32% over the next three years. This, if approved by a final vote tomorrow (11/19), will result in annual fees over $10,000. This is an enormous increase and even more stunning when it is remembered that this is a university system that was founded on a belief in free education for California state residents. Students at Berkeley, UCSC, and UCLA (where the vote was held) held protests. I assume other UCs likely also held protest, but I do not have information on this. A fellow graduate student has questioned the effectiveness of these protests, since they require students to not attend class. While I see the point in his comment, I also believe that the students need to demonstrate their frustration and anger to the Board and, perhaps more importantly, to the citizens of California.

After the vote, UC President Mark Yudof stated that there might be alternative ways to save UC money, such as more online classes and more three year degrees. I am curious how he expects students to realistically be able to graduate in three years when, due to budget cuts, the classes they need are not available. To me, the only  way this could be possible would by severely reducing the standards of the UC. Yudof provided some revealing answers in his interview with the New York Times in September about his leadership and salary (read it here).

While these fee hikes do not directly effect me as a graduate student, they do reflect the position that is being taken in regards to California’s public system of higher education (and it is likely that the Board will also vote to increase graduate student fees). I support the undergraduate protest and recognize their frustration with a state that does not seem to value educating its citizens. As the fees raise higher and higher, less and less Californians will be able to attend the schools, forcing them to either abandon goals of higher education or go elsewhere. This is not a situation limited the UC system, the CSU system if facing the same budget shortfalls. (A former professor of mine blogs about her experience with furloughs here.)

Unfortunately, our state has repeatedly demonstrated that education is not its priority. In fact, we currently use more state dollars on prisons than on education. This is a true detriment to our state, both now and in its future. This blog post does not have a clear nor a happy ending. Instead, it is a call to bring attention to the priorities of our state. I can only hope that anyone who might stumble across this blog pass along concerns about the lack of priority on education. Email representatives, the governor, or write about it in letters to the editor to your local newspaper.

UPDATE 11/22/07: I wanted to include a brief update as to what happened at UCSC, although we were not the only school to have occupied buildings on campus. Approximately 70 students and faculty had been occupying Kerr Hall since Thursday. This morning at about 7:00am, they were forced out by campus police and Santa Cruz sheriffs. It appears some type of force was used, although I’m not sure to what extent since there are differing stories. The local paper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, reported on this removal. I should be clear that while I support the protest and occupation, I did not participate. Unfortunately, based on comments on the SC Sentinel and SF Chronicle’s website, this is not a supported protest and most people feel that the students are just whiners. For reasons stated above, this problem is much deeper than the recent fee increase.

Time Management and Then Some

I know, I know… it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. But hey, give me a break! I’m a first year PhD student and there is reading to be done… A LOT of reading to be done! That’s not to say that I haven’t had time for other activities. For example, the history grads went out for karaoke on Saturday night. (No, I did not sing!) The karaoke was different than any thing I’ve ever witnessed because instead of singing along to actual song with the lead singer’s vocal track removed, the singers had a live band. The band had a list of songs they knew how to play and then people picked from the list. It was quite entertaining!

Let’s see, what else is new? As I mentioned before, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and a little bit of writing. I am trying to master the difficult skill of time management. This is part of the reason I have not been blogging, my time management calendar does not have blogging scheduled in! Actually, managing my time has been really helpful. It requires me to really focus and read a book in specified amount of time. When I see it all lined out, it gives me an idea of what I need to do and when, and more importantly how devastating procrastination would be! To give you an idea, I took a screen shot of last week’s calendar. For anyone who might read this that is going to grad school or considering it, I would highly recommend working on time management and really dedicating yourself to committing to a schedule. And don’t forget to pencil in some down time!

In relation to my grad school career, I am excited that I will be doing a directed reading next quarter with my advisor. I study religion in 19th century United States and she studies religion in earlier periods of the United States. There is another first year who studies Puritans who will also be enrolled. I took a Religion in US History class as an undergrad (thanks Prof. Watts!) and I loved it. So I am excited to revisit this as a reading topic and delve a little further, expanding my foundational library. We also discussed what I would like to work on for my dissertation and we were on the same page! Exciting indeed!

Finally, this quarter I am a teaching assistant for Women and American Religious Culture. It’s been such a great experience. The books have been excellent and I have been poaching some great sources from my students’ research papers. Instead of lecturing, as a TA I facilitate discussion. Today my section had such a great discussion. We read Miriam’s Kitchen (which I would recommend to anyone, historians and non-historians alike). The students really seemed to connect with the text. I had originally planned for half the class to be discussion and the second have to practice reading sources (with the text as a source). But the discussion ended up taking the whole class! It was great!

Well I must return to my allotted activity according to my calendar: reading Pox Americana (great book) and then editing some drafts I was working over the weekend. A graduate student never rests.

Surviving Crazy Dogs and Windy Storms

This week I survived my first Northern California storm. But more on that in a second, I also survived some crazy dogs trying to befriend (or attack Sami). My friend was house/dog sitting for some friends and invited Sami and I to spend the weekend with her. We lasted about 24 hours. One of the dogs, Gus, was very sweet (although he did chew up my friend’s sweater, which tarnished her opinion of him). The other dog, Bailey, was very unsure of Sami’s presence. Sometimes she liked Sami… sometimes not so much. My dog doesn’t have much experience with other dogs not liking her, when Bailey bared her teeth at Sami, Sami suck her face in the dog’s mouth… hmmm. Well, between fighting and playing Sami got her face a little banged up (her eye was all swollen). She couldn’t let herself rest so I decided to head back home instead of staying a second night. Sami and her new frenemies are in the photo below. And don’t fret, Sami’s eye is all healed up! Good as new.

Secondly, I survived the first major storm of the season. In my opinion, the rain didn’t seem too crazy. Although there were 4-6 inches over the day and a half of rain. What was overwhelming, however, was the winds. I’m talking up to 60 mph gusts! And it was a mess, my car was littered with pieces of redwood trees from campus and my patio was covered in debris. I saw city workers cleaning up Santa Cruz yesterday afternoon. Apparently there were some uprooted trees as well. In Santa Cruz, there are still about 2,500 people without power! Thankfully, I didn’t lose power, phew! While the storm might have been overwhelming (especially since I don’t own a rain jacket), it sure made for some beautiful scenes. Below is a photo of the trees on campus after the rain had subsided. The bay was especially awesome. The tide was high and water was crashing up on the cliffs. I didn’t have a camera/phone with me when I was there, so unfortunately no photos of the bay.

I know there will be more storms to come, but for this Southern California girl… this was quite the introduction to Nor Cal weather!

The Most Beautiful Campus

In case you didn’t know, UCSC has the most beautiful campus. Everyday that I am at school I can’t get over how beautiful it is. I am surrounded by these huge trees and then I turn around to see the Monterey Bay. Really, can it get any better?

It can because there are deer on campus! I know there is wildlife in Southern California, I just rarely saw it. Tiny squirrels and annoying crows just didn’t cut it for me. Therefore, I love that I come on campus and see deer…. everywhere. I was lost today at school (which is nothing knew here, I’m lost everyday on campus, I take the wrong path and instead of 5 minutes it takes me 20 minutes to get to the library) but I couldn’t even be mad because there were beautiful deer grazing all over campus this cold fall morning. This one was especially cute as he looked at me taking a picture of him (or her, I’m not sure…).

It’s not just the campus that is full of such beautiful wildlife either. I go for a run and see pelicans diving for their food and sea lions relaxing on their rock. I also hear the sea lions every night from where I live!

It’s so motivating to be surrounded by such beauty. It makes a longer walk to the library more peaceful, reading on a bench relaxing, and when I don’t feel like running, I can’t help but think of how beautiful the bay is and how I will be able to admire it as I run… so I go for my run after all.