The MQ Volume 28 Issue 7

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THE MQ UC SAN DIEGO

June 1, 2022

“A positive attitude and a sense of humor go together like biscuits and gravy.” - Dolly Parton, Gay Icon

Volume XXVIII Issue VII

There are exactly 104 days of summer vacation!

Geisel Renovation to Include New Crying Booths in Response to Rising Mental Health Concerns

IN THIS ISSUE SUNNY G FOUND WEARING CAPES

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SUSAN BAGEL’S MERINGUE RECIPE

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THE MQ PLANS A $4.5 MILLION SUMMER WEDDING

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UCSD UNVEILS LIMITED NUMBER OF SINGULARITY DORMS THINGS ARE STARTING TO CHANGE AND I DON’T LIKE IT

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NEWS IN BRIEF CHEMIST DISCOVERS FIRST BASE PHOTO BY JULIA WONG Pitt said, “This whole time, I thought CBT stood for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Now I know it stands for Crying Booth Treatment.” BY KARINA YU Staff Writer

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hroughout May, which is National Mental Health Month, many students have anticipated a campus response addressing rising concerns for student wellbeing. After a long wait, the UCSD Planning, Design and Construction Department has announced plans to make further renovations to the famous Geisel Library in hopes of quelling student anger. Reinvigorated conversation about student mental health began after user u/book_of_revelleations’s recent post on the UCSD subreddit. The user stated, “Given that this institution is concerned with being at the forefront of innovation, it’s honestly disheartening to see the lackluster response to student mental health. It takes months to get genuine help in response to mental health crises, and even then, it is impossible to get consistent, quality treatment. The best things UCSD ever did for mental health were introducing

therapy fluffies and existing in a state where weed is legal. Can’t wait to see what the school does for Mental Health Month, but I won’t be setting my expectations all that high.” As hopes mounted, UCSD released a public statement. “Geisel is the gem of UCSD, and it’s important that it represents our beliefs as a community,” UCSD spokesperson George Germain stated in an inter view. “For a long time, the librar y has represented innovation and creativity, but now we want to acknowledge the mental health of our students. UCSD plans to add an extension to the eighth floor — Jacobs School of Engineering–style — dedicated to innovative, cutting-edge crying booths.” Each crying booth will feature a tissue box, a wooden stool, glass pane walls, and a sink with a mirror for you to play out your “nonspecific Oscar-nominated crying-infront-of-the-mirror-whilefixing-your-dramatic-makeup

scene,” according to Germain. “We considered giving the booths opaque, soundproof walls, but recent research has shown that nothing fuels students to study better than the sounds of their brethren crying a few feet away. With finals season approaching, we thought it would be better to make sure the sobs of your classmates that couldn’t hack it would provide ample fuel to study for that three hour MATH 20C final.” The renovations have garnered various responses from students across campus. Senior CS major Greg Grenville stated in an interview, “Man, we just wanted to smoke weed on campus without our downstairs neighbors calling campus security. And maybe for some teachers to stop being absolute dicks. I mean, how is my mental health supposed to remain intact when my prof tells me that maybe I’m just ‘not smart enough’ when I ask a question about the homework? But I guess crying booths work too.”

“I mean, every student cries at least once a quarter,” sophomore history major Hester Pitt stated. “And if they say they haven’t, they’re lying to you. If the school can promise that the tissue boxes are always stocked and that they’re not that scratchy grocery brand, then I’m game. It’s better to cry in Geisel than on a bench outside Peterson Hall. Public crying would feel a bit more, say, dignified, if it was on purpose, in a booth for all of the eighth floor to hear.” According to the UCSD spokesperson, renovations are expected to take place “ASAP” to ensure booths are available in time for finals week. “I’ve heard some worry about renovations shutting down the library for studying, so I wanted to clear the air: a little construction has never stopped UCSD from continuing to hold classes. We just want to remind students that to study in Geisel over the next few weeks, they will be required to wear a hard hat and construction vest.”

Study Finds New Sixth College Students Don’t Know How Good They Have It

PHOTO BY SHARON ROTH One spectator commented, “Wow, this feels like the third installment in a trilogy. I wonder if I could go onto TheMQ.org and find the prequels.” BY ANDREW SITKO Managing Editor

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new study has found that Sixth students who enrolled after 2020 have “no idea how good they have it compared to literally everyone else who ever attended Sixth College.”

This study was conducted by Andrew Sitko one random Wednesday afternoon. “We can’t actually remember when it happened,” said Sitko, “but we asked each other about our first years here, and all the memories of Foodworx and Camp Snoopy came flood-

ing back.” Sitko has recently delved into the now-corroded corridors of the long abandoned raccoon-themed Pirates of the Caribbean ride, reminiscing of the past. “New Sixers have no idea how good they have it,” said Sitko. “Have you ever been in that one

building that’s a skyscraper? You can see everything, and it’s all new! We had black mold in our bathrooms, and you couldn’t even walk around to the other side of the dorms ...

See SIXTH, page 2

LOCAL PARENTS WELCOME ANOTHER CHILD INTO THEIR FAMILY

STATISTICS SHOW ALASKANS HAVE BETTER LOVE LIVES

Happily announce the baby is a Scorpio

It doesn’t take a dummy to figure out why

A UCSD chemistry lab shocked the scientific community when Erick Menten, a third-year chemistry major, synthesized a compound with unusual physiological effects. Menten first believed the finding to be a fluke, because none of his classmates had ever heard of a compound with such unique traits. While other nonacidic molecules contain lone pairs, Menten’s base contains “nonlonely electrons.” While other substances can be readily deprotonated in water, Menten’s molecule is actually capable of deprotonating other compounds. He believes that this property

is what triggers the dopamine rush in the brain that the base is hypothesized to induce. Menten tested the first base by eating a small amount of the indicator phenolphthalein, then consuming some of his compound. He observed that above a pH of 9.0, the base dissociates, causing his cheeks to turn slightly pink and his heart rate to accelerate. The compound is difficult to purify due to Menten’s unorthodox research methods. “My mentor told me to use a separatory funnel to collect my solution,” he said, “but I can’t, because I refuse to use the stopcock. I don’t think cock should be stopped.”

FOR LOCAL FROG, “IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN” Listen. Listen! Lean in here. All the way down, buddy. You see where I live? This absolutely gorgeous miniature log cabin is my home. I live by a most lovely tree. It is between the concrete for feet and the concrete for large scary wheels. The issue is, sometimes the feet veer from the concrete, stepping by my tree and onto my house. Now, I don’t really mind rebuilding my house every once in a while. It keeps things fresh! But it’s tiring to do so nearly every day, and it doesn’t look nearly as nice when I have to use less-than-cheerful twigs to rebuild the walls. Now I have a friend, maybe more than a friend

— hopefully more than a friend — but maybe not, I’m unsure. I like to have my friend over. He is a toad, and I am a frog. Some think our union unnatural, but we’re a perfect match. We both like hopscotch! Anyway, I like having my friend over to my home. And I really would like for us to not turn into goo while enjoying tea and romancing each other, possibly not platonically. So this is my official plea. I beg of you, feet-havers. Reduce your footprint. Leave the future of my budding romance up to myself and my potential future toad husband. Stay away from my tree.

UCSD FOURTH-YEAR REFUSES TO ADMIT SHE HAS PEAKED “I’m embarrassed for myself,” admitted Hester Corduroy. “Even now, I feel like I’m half present — some part of me is looking on in complete disgust as I continue to tarnish my own memor y so close to the end. And God am I so close to the end.” Corduroy, knowing that she is about to graduate, has elected not to leave gracefully and allow others to look back on her with fond memories. She has instead, in her own words, chosen “to not gently go into that good night. Wait, shit, goddamn — it’s ‘to not go gently into that good

night.’ That’s how the poem goes. Fuck.” Corduroy continued, “At this ver y moment, I’m hear ing a voice in my head actively screaming out in complete anguish. I currently can’t hear in my left ear. I could’ve been respected. I could’ve cut my losses and reveled in the joy of finally being done with university. But no — I can’t let go. This is an objectively stale ending. My stor y ends with a whimper, not a bang. Wait —”

See BRIEFS, page 11


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