By Barbara Anderson

Aggies' web

Once upon a time, colleges and universities enticed prospective students with colorful brochures handed out by recruiters visiting local high schools. And although we still print lots of those calendars and catalogs, the soon-to-be Aggie of the late '90s may very well learn about UC Davis via the World Wide Web. The Nov. 3 education supplement to the New York Times reported that that's how freshman Kris Carde first visited the Davis campus. Carde, who lives in Amherst, Mass., and refers to himself as a "mouse potato" (cyberspeak for "couch potato"--he's a programmer), used the World Wide Web to investigate the schools he was considering. He found UC Davis' home page (http://www.ucdavis.edu) gave him access to a lot of information--admissions stuff, yes; but also web pages on campus events, computer resources and student activities. And though he did visit the campus in person before making his final decision to come here, Carde said what made it easier was the 24-hour access to the campus that the Web pages provide: "Most students can't go back to a school they've visited to get more information, but you can easily revisit a school on the Internet," he said.

Fifth-year follies

Speaking of once upon a time, time was when most students finished their undergraduate careers in four years. But rising costs and the need to work to help finance an education have led to the emergence of the so-called "fifth-year senior." The California Aggie's editor-in-chief Margaret J. Berry, who writes a weekly column in the paper titled "The List," recently enumerated some of the ways "super seniors" can recognize themselves. Among the characteristics:

* Filling out financial aid forms takes you approximately 2.5 minutes.

* Your dorm mate just sent you a birth announcement.

* You avoid most of the people you used to consider your closest friends because at one point you tried to live with them and discovered they were pigs.

* You can tell what day of the week it is by looking at the Coffee House menu.

* You can drink nine espressos the night before a final and still fall asleep at 8 p.m.

* Preparing Top Ramen is getting to be too much effort.

* You're starting to wonder who's admitting all these 15-year-olds.

Breakfast of Deadheads?

A cafe near campus has recently begun serving breakfast, and we got a look at their new menu. Featured along with pancakes, omelets and toast are--wow!--"hash brownies." You can even get a side order! Hope they're still serving come Whole Earth Festival. . . .

Promises, promises

Posted amid the standard-issue ASUCD campaign signs--you know, the red-white-and-blue ones, the "VOTE FOR ME!" ones--was this one, printed in black on a plain white background: "Kirsten is quite nifty. ASUCD Senate."

It's probably too much to hope for that this trend would spread to national politics. (By the way--the student body, apparently taking Kirsten at her word, elected her.)

Name that team!

What's in a name? Well, if you're talking about IM Sports teams--long known for their irreverent and raunchy approach to team identity--it could be plenty. We thought we'd see what the latest batch of players has come up with. Herewith, a few of the ones we can print:

Volleyball: Only 5'2" Damn It, Exceptional Progeny, Practice Safe Sets, 4 Trees 2 Stumps, Mad Cows

Soccer: Kickin Grass, Punk in Drublic, Big Ugly Mistake, Goals by Tunneling, Bovines of Mercy

Football: Beyond Big, Rude Awakening, Illegal Procedures, All Madden Team, Notre Newman

Roller hockey: Ugly Men and A Girl, Noxious Gases, Turbo Thunder Chickens

Ultimate Frisbee: Snap Necks, California Cheese, Disk Space, Discheads

PASSING TIME
75 years ago

Last Monday some 30 University Farm School men went one by one to Dean Tavernetti's office, where they were met and were talked with for a few minutes by Dean Hunt of the College of Agriculture. After talking with the graduates, the dean gave them their certificates and they ceased to be members of the student body.

While this informal method of graduating non-degree students at the Farm has not in the past been customary, it apparently met with the approval of those most concerned, namely the graduates. Most of the men felt that a few minutes' talk with Dean Hunt was worth far more to them than a half-hour or so of the usual fine-sounding speeches, which are flung from the rostrum by the speaker of the evening at the formal graduation exercise.

-- University Farm Agricola
Dec. 14, 1921

50 years ago

There is good news for those of us who have been doing our own laundry work. There are now four Bendix washing machines in the laundry room of the gymnasium. . . . The schedule for women is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to noon; Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 1 to 5. The schedule for men is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 to 5; Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to noon. The laundry room may be reached through the respective locker rooms of the men and women.

Next week . . . there will be a special representative on hand to demonstrate the proper use of the machine.

-- The California Aggie
Jan. 30, 1947

Illustrations by Paiching Wei