March 16, 2017

the California Aggie SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

THEAGGIE.ORG

WAYNE TILCOCK / DAVIS ENTERPRISE

VOLUME 135, ISSUE 20 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

JILL STEIN VISITS UC DAVIS ON CALIFORNIA TOUR Former green party presidential candidate speaks to students, community members about environment, income inequality

AGGIES TRIUMPH IN BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP

UC Davis men’s basketball team beats UC Irvine 50-47 for program’s first Big West Championship title, NCAA Tournament bid

BY ROWAN O’CO N N E L L- G AT E S sports@theaggie.org

JAY GELVEZON / AGGIE

BY IVAN VALENZUELA campus@theaggie.org

The UC Davis men’s basketball team made school history at the Honda Center in Anaheim last Saturday, capturing its first Big West Championship in a defensive struggle against UC Irvine, 50-47.

The Big West title gives UC Davis an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. In just their 13th year as a Division I school, the Aggies are headed to college basketball’s biggest stage for the first time — a historic outcome for both the basketball program and the UC Davis community.

UC Davis is set to play North Carolina Central in one of the tournament’s four “First Four” matchups in a game to be played on Wednesday, March 15. The winner advances to the first round of the Midwest Regional as the region’s 16 seed to play the region’s top- seeded University of Kansas on Friday, March 17, in Tulsa, Okla. At press time, the “First Four” game had not yet been played.

Two years ago, the Aggies won the regular season Big West crown but failed to make good on their number-one seed in the Big West tournament. Last weekend served as the Aggies’ shot at redemption.

The team opened the Big West tournament on Thursday, March 9 against seventh-seeded Cal Poly. Junior forward Chima Moneke tied a UC Davis record with 18 rebounds in the game and senior guard Brynton Lemar recovered from a rough first half to lead the Aggies with 16 second-half points. The Aggies led the entire game, resulting in a 66-55 victory over the Mustangs.

Next up, the Aggies faced Cal State Fullerton in the Big

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein spoke at a UC Davis rally on March 9, 2016 as part of a speaking tour across California.

The event, sponsored by the Yolo and Sacramento Green Parties and the Black Student Union of UC Davis, also featured a speech by campaign manager David Cobb.

“This is a time of great peril and great possibility,” Stein said in her speech. “We’ve got to decide which one it is. We don’t have time to go through another four years of being led around by the nose. We are on borrowed time right now; it’s not going to be easy to get out of here alive.”

Throughout her speech, Stein touched on several issues pertinent to her platform, including healthcare, military spending, the environment, student debt and immigration.

Walter England, a fifth-year anthropology major and a student officer for the Yolo County Green Party, said that the rally provided an opportunity for community members to learn more about Green Party policies and ideas. “[Stein] was paid by Humboldt University to speak, and she took that money and she used it to basically pay to travel up and down California, to meet at various different universities and towns to kind of rally different Greens,” England said. “So this is an opportunity for people and the public to kind of become more aware of the rising Green movement that’s happening right now, and to become aware of Green Party policies and the options that are available and the sort of actions that we help support.”

The rally was held in Wellman 2 and began shortly after 8 p.m. with a short musical performance and announcements by the Sacramento and Yolo County Green parties.

Adam Siegel, the local council secretary for the Yolo County Green Party, said that Stein will tour across California to take better hold of a rise in Green Party support since the election.

“There’s been an upsurge in Green Party activity since the election, since before the election obviously, and there’s been a renewed interest in revitalizing the county party councils across the state,” Siegel said.

“Jill Stein is currently barnstorming the state. She was in Arcata earlier today, she’s in Berkeley tomorrow and then the state Green Party is meeting in Bakersfield this weekend, so it’s all sort of a let’s take stock of where we are in 2017 and look to what comes next.”

One of the prominent topics discussed was the lack of choice in the two-party system and a need for alternative candidates in the political field.

“There’s a lot of possibility out there,” Siegel said. “I think, you know, the last year showed most Americans that there’s a real worry that we may be at a real point of departure in the political landscape, so you know there’s a lot of progressive energy out there that’s in the Democratic Party, that’s in the Green Party, that’s in other third parties and that is outside the party structure. [...] I think it’s important to build political alternatives or alternative political choices for voters.”

Stein, who at various times compared herself to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, said that the Democratic Party has prevented members from the left from having a role in the party structure.

“These are things that, as Bernie Sanders showed, is a majoritarSTEIN on 12

BIG WEST RECAP on 12

1

2

1. STANLEY B. FREEBORN, 1958-59

3

2. EMIL M. MRAK, 1959-70

5

4

3. JAMES H. MEYER, 1970-87

4. THEODORE L. HULLAR, 1987-94

6

7

5. LARRY N. VANDERHOEF, 1994-2009

6. LINDA P.B. KATEHI, 2009-16

7. GARY S.MAY, APPOINTED FEB. 23, 2017

THE HISTORY OF UC DAVIS CHANCELLORS Distinguished professors look back on six individuals who shaped the university

BY HANNAH HOL Z E R features@theaggie.org

The University of California (UC) Board of Regents unanimously voted on Feb. 21 to select Gary May, a dean at the Georgia Institute of Technology, as UC Davis’ seventh chancellor.

Prior to the creation of the chancellor position, university affairs were managed by the deans of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Extension at the University Farm. In 1958, Stanley Freeborn, who had served as the chair of the division of entomology for ten years, was appointed as UC Davis’ first chancellor. According to “Abundant Harvest: The History of the University of California, Davis,” Freeborn was known for his friendly nature and also as the occasional timer for soccer games, due to his love of university sports.

After Freeborn’s retirement from the position in 1959, Emil Mrak, a food scientist and microbiologist, was appointed as the university’s second chancellor. During Mrak’s decade as chancellor, he oversaw the extensive expansion of the university, as the student population grew from 2,600 to 12,000. In addition to his determined attitude, “Abundant Harvest” writes that Mrak was also known for his hospitality and good relationship with the student body.

In 1969, James Meyer took over the chancellor position, one he

remained until his retirement in 1987. Meyer, a former dean of the College of Agriculture, is responsible for the renaming to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“His biggest strength was his very calm approach [and] his very steady leadership,” said Alan Hastings, a distinguished professor of environmental science and policy who has been a faculty member at UC Davis since 1979. “His biggest fault was that, at a time when there were lots of resources, he did not aggressively pursue those for the Davis campus, as opposed to other campuses in the UC system.”

Meyer’s replacement, Ted Hullar, proved to be an extremely different leader than Meyer was. Unlike his predecessors who had previously worked within the university, Hullar served as the chancellor of UC Riverside before he was appointed chancellor of UC Davis.

“One [difficult factor] was having somebody from outside UC Davis who did not understand UC Davis,” said chemical engineering professor Robert Powell, a faculty member since 1984. “There was also a feeling of, [...does] this devalue Riverside? People here were just calling all of their friends at Riverside and finding out that they were really happy for him to leave. That was a bad decision.”

Hullar was one of the most, if not the most, widely criticized chancellors among UC Davis faculty member, according to Hastings.

“His was a fairly short and tumultuous reign,” Hastings said. “I

think he certainly was somewhat polarizing in a way. There was a sense that he did not do enough planning in order to carry out the programs he was working on.”

According to Powell, under Hullar, research became more monetized. However, Linda Bisson, a professor in the Department of Viticulture and Enology and faculty member since 1985, said that Hullar had an additional long-lasting impact.

“I’m a real fan of change agents,” Bisson said. “You have somebody coming, opening doors and windows and [saying], ‘This is what we’re going to do.’ You might not like what they say [...but] now there can be a dialogue.”

After almost six years as chancellor, Hullar was transferred by thenUC President Jack Peltason to a temporary job in Oakland. Meanwhile, Larry Vanderhoef was appointed as interim chancellor in May of 1993 and officially named the fifth UC Davis chancellor in 1994.

“Larry was a real nuts-and-bolts budget [and] money guy,” Bisson said. “It was a change. He brought a practicality with him that was, I think at the time, welcomed. Not so visionary, but day-to-day, the place is going to run.”

According to Hastings, Vanderhoef enjoyed interacting with students and would meet informally with student body presidents and faculty members by taking walks with them. Powell, who served as CHANCELLOR on 12

PHOTO CREDITS 1 - 4. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS / UC DAVIS LIBRARY 5. SANJANA CHAND / AGGIE FILE 6. CIERA PASTUREL / AGGIE FILE 7. GEORGIA TECH / COURTESY

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2 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ASUCD proposes system to give GE credit for AP classes taken in high school Emails from two administrators show alleged obstruction of proposal by administration

HANNAH LEE / UC DAVIS

BY K E NTON G OL DS BY c a mpu s @ th ea ggi e .o r g

Currently, UC Davis is the only UC school that does not provide GE credit for passing AP scores.

In response to this, ASUCD President Alex Lee proposed Senate Resolution #9, which requests that UC Davis award General Education (GE) credit for students who earned passing scores on Advanced Placement (AP) classes in high school.

The current proposal is a part of the platform that Lee campaigned on when he ran for ASUCD president. Only the ASUCD president can make proposals, such as Senate Resolution #9, to the Academic Senate, and they can only make that proposal once it has been approved by the ASUCD Senate.

Then, the proposal is sent to the Academic Senate for consideration.

However, Lee has fears about the future of his proposal because of two emails which were obtained by The Aggie. These emails allegedly show an unwillingness of the administration and Academic Senate to cooperate with student requests for GE/AP reform.

“This is the fun case of, ‘you have to check who you are sending your emails to,’” Lee said. “[…] This kind of highlights in writing that [Academic Senate Chair] Rachael [Goodhue] has been kind of evasive of the student government and students in general. […] This [email from Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Adela De La Torre also] shows in writing that they basically didn’t want to take it seriously in the first place.”

The first email Lee mentioned is an email from de la Torre addressed to Goodhue.

“Rachel [sic] I will ask Milt to manage Alex,” de la Torre said in the email. “He is

HANNAH LEE / AGGIE

BY K IMI A AKBARI ca mpu s @ th e a ggi e .o r g

The ASUCD weekly Senate meeting took place on March 2 in the Mee Room of the Memorial Union. During quorum roll call, interim Senator Michael Chan was absent; however, he arrived later during the meeting.

Senator Daniel Nagey spoke about a constructed survey by the joint ASUCDGSA Housing Task-force to be sent out to all UC Davis students, faculty and staff suffering from housing issues. He urged members of the Senate to take a few minutes to fill out the survey. Next, he introduced Donald Gibson, the cochair of the Task-force, who had prepared a presentation about the importance of the data collected by the survey.

Gibson’s presentation addressed the projected increase in enrollment of students in conjunction with the stagnating population of Davis. He emphasized that the fundamental issue with housing units is the lack of supply.

Next, Senator Sofia Molodanof presented about the campaign “spread the word to end the word” regarding the use of the word “retarded” in addressing people with disabilities. She discussed how ASUCD has not addressed this issue and

encouraged others to pledge to address people with disabilities as the human beings that they are rather than letting their disabilities define them.

ASUCD Entertainment Council Director Rachel Meyers presented on the unit’s past, current and future plans for events. She discussed plans for athletics partnerships for unconventional venues, implementing a sponsorship deck in order to generate revenue and a new video series to provide an additional platform for student performers. Furthermore, she discussed the unit’s income, with consideration of a possible discrepancy as a result of not receiving all of the funds the unit was owed from the Chance the Rapper concert.

Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) chair Nick Flores questioned the preparedness of Entertainment Council in future situations similar to the Chance the Rapper “Facebook incident” and Meyers responded that it has given them insight on how to tackle similar issues in the future.

Senate Resolution #49, authored by Senator Sam Chiang, was amended after meeting with campus legal counsel. This resolution condemns Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter for allowing Milo Yiannopoulos, a far-right speaker, to visit UC

no longer ASUCD President. A new one was elected last Friday so this may be the end of the conversation as well.”

De la Torre, when prompted on this email, stated that she was simply asking Vice Chancellor Milton Lang and ASUCD Business Manager Janice Corbett to manage the “transitional issue” between new ASUCD executive administrations.

“The issue is primarily a transitional issue,” de la Torre said. “When the president steps down, the issue really becomes one of, who you need to communicate with. The issues becomes, in the portfolio, Milt and Janice are the ones who manage the discussions and the meetings. […] We have to be very careful to ensure that the transition period is one where, quite frankly, Alex provides the information transfers to the new president and the vice president.”

The second email Lee mentioned is one from Goodhue.

“He’s been told that we need to manage workload, and that this is an internal request that doesn’t have an external deadline, unlike something from systemwide or the administration,” Goodhue said in the email. “It’s a request to change an internal Davis Division of the Aca-

demic Senate policy. I’m not responding to any more emails on this matter from Alex. He’s wasting my time. If SA judges a communication to be important, please have him send it to one of you, and you forward it to me.”

Goodhue explained her email as simply an effort to control conversation and keep it, “productive.”

“I and the Senate office had explained to Alex, to President Lee, repeatedly that ASUCD’s request was under consideration,” Goodhue said. “At that point, communication had stopped being productive.”

Lee’s GE/AP proposal builds off of existing frameworks within the university.

GE credit would be awarded to students based on already determined course equivalencies.

Students who earn passing scores on AP exams are given certain numbers of units for each exam and barred from taking an equivalent course at UC Davis. Instead of just receiving units toward graduation, students would also receive similar or identical GE credit for those equivalent courses.

Without specifically talking about the merits of this proposal, Goodhue did speak about work toward reducing

time-to-degree, among two other subject matters.

“I would like to reiterate that time-todegree is very important to the Senate and very important to campus,” Goodhue said. “I will also say that it was nice to get a concrete proposal from ASUCD. The last thing I’ll say is a plug — the ASUCD has places for representatives to senate committees. The ASUCD has struggled to fill them. I strongly, strongly encourage students who want to become more involved in how the university works to apply to participate in these committees.

It would be great to see them at the meetings.”

This final point about filling ASUCD spots on Academic Senate committees was also brought up by Lee, who described some of the challenges students face on these committees.

“On their committees [they] have ex-officio, non-voting, basically observer seats, that ASUCD tries to fill,” Lee said.

“I say try because they are very daunting for students. Not all committees are, but some committees are not very welcoming to students because they talk for three hours about tenure for faculty, or something. It’s not accessible. But we have student reps on there.”

Davis.

Molodanof believes that Hexter could not legally condemn Yiannopoulos because he is at the helm of a public university. Senator Anastasia Ruttkay mentioned that Hexter’s expression of disappointment showed his point of view on the issue, and Nagey stated that the chancellor could have sent out an email to notify and provide safe spaces for students who would be suffering as a result of the event taking place, but he did not do so.

Senator Jose Meneses discussed how Club Finance Council would have funded the event, regardless of the whether the full controversial name of Yiannopoulos’s tour, titled “The Dangerous Faggot Tour,” was included, because funding for club events is not politicized.

Gender and Sexuality Commission chair Alison Tam had spoken with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Adela de la Torre and said that “[the administration was] aware of the steps they could have taken and chose not to do anything.”

Former senator and future ASUCD President Josh Dalavai suggested putting limits on controversial speakers and their interaction with the crowd so that individual students do not get targeted.

Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission Chair Julienne Correa urged ASUCD to apologize to all communities affected by the Yiannopoulos visit, mentioning that often times “we are reactive rather than proactive.”

After facing an objection from Chan, who believed that the legislation was not explicit enough, SR #49 passed with 100-0.

For Senate Bill #52, the Sexual Assault Awareness and Advocacy Committee (SAAAC) Chair Rachelle Fishbin asked to change the SAAAC job descriptions to more accurately reflect the job responsibilities. The bill passed.

In response to the SAAAC effort, ASUCD Controller Joe DeAngelo com-

posed a bill in order to make it easier for the SAAAC to receive money for its committee endeavors.

Campus Center for the Environment representative Helen VanBeck presented a unit report regarding compost workshops for UC Davis students as well as vermicomposting workshops for elementary school students.

Chelsea Hernandez, the Picnic Day chair, presented on the current affairs of the event as well as the unit’s long-term plan. This included a repealed Sodexo dining contract and several modifications to constituent events taking place as a result of construction. Following her presentation, SB #59 was passed in order to implement a new long range plan for Picnic Day. SB #54, presented by Flores, calls to close session any voting or ex-officio member of the Senate who misses more than three Senate meetings in the same quarter. The bill was passed.

SR #10 was presented by CALPIRG and ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission, which urges the University of California to commit to adopting the goal of 100 percent renewable energy as an extension of the Carbon Neutrality Initiative. It was pointed out that the UC Student Association had already passed this bill; however, the table agreed it was necessary to sign it for symbolic reasons.

Scott Dresser, the editor-in-chief of The California Aggie, presented his unit director report. He mentioned that The Aggie hired a professional business development manager, and presented SB #58 to change the current title of the student advertising sales position at the newspaper. He also spoke of his plan and work to begin the process of digitizing the 102 years worth of microfilm archives of The Aggie, which would then become accessible to the general public online.

Senators asked questions and gave feedback regarding items like the diversity

of The Aggie’s staff. Chiang suggested that The Aggie’s staff attend cultural competency trainings, and Dresser said that he plans to open those trainings up beyond just the paper’s managing staff to include reporters and columnists as well. Nagey asked whether writers are trained to ask interviewees of their preferred gender pronouns (PGPs), because he had previously not been asked. Dresser responded that The Aggie’s reporters are indeed trained to ask sources for their PGPs, and he asked members of the senate table to inform him if this is not the case moving forward. Correa asked whether there is a platform for The Aggie to receive feedback on its articles, and whether the paper has received negative feedback. She suggested a more accessible platform for receiving feedback on certain articles that may be triggering for students who may not be comfortable with being featured in The Aggie. Dresser said that readers have the option of writing letters to the editor in response to articles or with any other feedback, and he added that anyone may contact him through his own personal email with any concerns or suggestions.

Chiang discussed how “there is always that one rogue opinion article that goes viral,” which not only creates tension for students but also results in the work of one writer reflecting poorly on the entire newspaper. She also inquired about the vetting process for the staff. Dresser responded that the opinions of an individual columnist do not reflect the opinions held by The Aggie as an organization, which is written as a disclaimer after every opinion article.

Nagey suggested that The Aggie take steps to approach communities that may be targeted by certain opinion articles, and Ruttkay suggested that The Aggie collaborate with ethnically-themed campus newspapers.

Chiang also addressed the history of

Grande Village lottery increases accessibility of affordable homes in Davis GENESIA TING / AGGIE

Davis Affordable Ownership Housing Program offers diverse housing options

BY BIA N C A A N T UNE Z ci ty@th ea ggi e .o r g

The new Grande Village neighborhood held a successful lottery the last weekend of February as part of Davis’ Affordable Ownership Housing Program (AOHP) in an effort to create diverse housing options who can’t afford current housing in the City of Davis.

The project began several years ago, when the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) looked into putting the unused property on the market. Its aim was to increase the availability of housing for teachers and district staff members, especially those who are eligible for income-price restricted housing.

“Once the DJUSD decided that the site is no longer needed for a school site and that disposition of the site was necessary, it filed the necessary entitlement applications for the development

of the site,” said Ike Njoku, a planner and historical resources manager at the City of Davis, in an email interview. “The goal was to generate the best and highest value for the site.”

Subsequently, Don Fouts, the owner of Fouts Homes and a developer of Grande Village, acquired the property from the school district. The development agreement for the real estate outlined that fourteen single-family homes would be sold at below market rates as part of the city’s AOHP; the remaining 27 homes will be priced at market value.

The below-market units would be sold through the lottery system set up by the city for price-restricted ownership properties. School district employees held priority in the lottery and were first in line for the property as outlined in the development agreement.

GRANDE VILLAGE on 12

NIKKI PADAR / AGGIE

SENATE on 12

Police Logs: Finals week fever

BY SAM SOLOMON c it y@t he aggie . org

March 6 “Male stating he was unable to get off the train.”

March 9 “Male subject dancing in the intersection.”

March 10 “Unknown subject … urinated

on front window.”

“RP visited Davis March 4 and parked his vehicle before walking onto UCD campus. Since then, he does not recall where he parked vehicle.”

March 11 “Male was seen urinating against front of Safeway … wearing fedora style hat with shamrocks on it.”

“Male threw ice tea at RP while he was driving by.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017 | 3

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

BY DE MI CACE RE S ca m pus @thea g g ie.org

MEENA RUGH / AGGIE FILE

UC Office of the President addresses gender inclusive restrooms on campuses Gender inclusive bathrooms filter now located on the UC Davis campus map

The University of California Office of the President (UCOP) released a statement on Feb. 23 regarding President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the guidance issued by the Obama Administration on accommodating transgender and gender non-conforming students. This included the unrestricted access to restrooms that conform to students’ gender identities.

“The University of California, in accordance with state law and in keeping with its own principles of nondiscrimination, will continue to ensure that its transgender students, faculty and staff have unrestricted access to restrooms that conform to their gender identities,” said a statement released

by UCOP. “We are heartened to hear that protecting all students, including those in the LGBTQ community, remains a stated priority for the Department of Education.”

On the UC Davis campus map, students can now locate all gender-inclusive bathrooms under the student and staff resources tab.

City of Davis accepting nominations for 23rd Annual Environmental Recognition Award

BY CAIT LYN SAMPLE Y ci t y @ thea g g ie.org

GENESIA TING / AGGIE

Award brings recognition to environmentallyminded individuals, groups in the community

On the UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center’s website, an article was released listing the available gender-inclusive restroom locations on campus. The article also includes a statement by JAC Stringer, founder of Heartland Trans* Wellness Group, that addresses the struggles transgender people face in sex-segregated bathrooms and the importance of providing gender-inclusive restrooms for not only transgender people, but also for children or disabled people who are accompanied by a differently-gendered parent or attendant.

“Gender inclusive bathrooms provide a safe, private facility for transgender, genderqueer and gender nonconforming people, families with children and people with disabilities who may need assistance,” Stringer said.

UC Berkeley researchers recently released a study that found transgender and genderfluid teens face up to three times more mental and physical abuse than their gender-conforming peers. The study also found that school-based bullying was the most common form of aggression faced by transgender and

Chess

Sudoku

White to move. White get the queen in 3 moves or 5 moves, depending on opponent’s move.

Black will try to stop white as best as it can.

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces.

Every row, column, and 3x3 square must contain one of each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing

Hint: Neither of the kings need to move.

The City of Davis is currently accepting nominations for its Annual Environmental Recognition Award.

Davis’ Natural Resources Commission created the Environmental Recognition Award in in 1995 to bring attention to those in the community who have made enormous efforts to improve the environment in and around the city. Davis has awarded a business, a nonprofit organization and an individual or group in the City of Davis with this honor for over 23 years.

This year, a fourth category for “legacy” awards is being added in honor of the city’s 100year anniversary.

“A special category has been added to commemorate our centennial year,” said Kerry Daane ENVIRON AWARDS on 12

ANSWERS TO PREVIOUS PUZZLES “What we do on stage is like a live abstract painting.”

—Jacques Heim, Diavolo Artistic Director

Diavolo

L.O.S.T. (Losing One’s Self Temporarily)

Their new work reveals how we are affected emotionally, physically and socially by the spaces we inhabit.

SUN, MAR 26 • 3PM

upNEXT:

Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs

An eclectic evening of irreverent humor, mischief-making, storytelling, pop songs and stage classics.

FRI, MARCH 31 • 8PM

Mucca Pazza

Marching band traditions merged with street theater spectacle, rock and roll sensibilities and a high level of musicianship.

SAT, APRIL 1 • 8PM

**UC Davis student tickets price special: $10**

Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Kevin Eubanks and Eric Harland

Aziza is a jazz super group that comes along only so often, one with such a distinct identity and history, it is worth a close listen.

WED, APRIL 5 • 8PM

mondaviarts.org/uc-davis-students

Your first ticket is FREE!*

50% off tickets all the time!*

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Limit one per student.

Full-time students enrolled in current academic year.

* Mondavi Center presents and UC Davis Department of Music events only.

genderfluid teens, with transgender girls experiencing the highest rates of cyberbullying and gender-fluid teens assigned male at birth reporting the most cases of sexual violence.

The director of the LGBTQIA Resource Center, elizabeth coté, believes it is important for universities to continue to provide students, faculty and staff the option of gender-inclusive restrooms.

“Having gender-inclusive restrooms and facilities available is crucial to the campus climate for trans and gender non-conforming undergraduate and graduate scholars, staff and faculty,” coté said.

The LGBTQIA Resource Center, coté added, will continue to be a useful and comfortable space for all students of the UC Davis community.

“The LGBTQIA Resource Center will continue our work of providing an open and inclusive space and community that challenges systems of oppression, including cis-sexism,” coté said. “We will continue to provide education about all sexes, genders and sexualities as well as space for self-exploration of these identities.”

4 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2016

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Purr-fect campus pets: The Physics Cats

Stray cats taken in by physics staff bring comfort to students

KELSEY GREGGE / AGGIE

BY SA HI T I V EMU L A featu r es@th e a ggi e . o r g

Around the northeast corner of the physics building, two stray cats can be seen playing a mischievous game of hide-and-seek in the shrubs outside, sunbathing on the concrete or enjoying the treats the physics staff leaves them.

“Sometimes we have tough days and it’s nice to come out and get some animal love,” said Danielle Fradet, a first-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major.

Like many other students, Fradet comes to the Physics Building specifically to play with these cats every now and then.

These cats have been given many names over the years, but the ones that have stuck are Cheetoh, for the big orange cat who loves to laze around in the sun, and Grey Cat, who is always found in a visitor’s lap.

“I just like animals in general, and I have a dog, so it’s nice when I come to college to be able to pet something,” Fradet said.

Although Fradet is a dog owner, she doesn’t buy into the dog-cat dichotomy, and luckily for Cheetoh and Grey Cat, visits them frequently.

“I’ve actually been out here multiple times since the beginning of the year,” Fradet said.

“There’s not that many dogs here on campus, and

SAHAR FOROUZANFAR / AGGIE

the cats are really nice.”

The ultimate “cat lady” award, however, goes to Laura Kemp, a financial assistant who works in the Physics Building. She has taken it upon herself over the past few years to care for the cats and make sure they are fed and sheltered.

“We have a lot of people [who] really like the cats,” Kemp said. “They think [the cats are] good therapy for the students when they’re real stressed out with courses and things. Any day I come out here, there’ll be at least one or two people sitting down with a cat on their lap. I think they almost get more attention here than they would inside a home.”

Fradet believes both of these cats are actually strays that have never had an owner before — until, of course, they found a family in the Physics Department at UC Davis.

“They’re both spayed or neutered, and that’s why they [each] have their ear clipped,” Fradet said. “It’s actually a thing [...] for stray animals [to have their ears clipped] whenever they’ve been spayed or neutered, so that way if someone else finds them, they’ll know [if it was done].”

As the cats do not have official licenses, their names are up for debate. Fradet explained that her preferred name for Grey Cat is Garrison, which is actually an inside joke among her and her friends.

“My friends and I [...] started calling him Gary, but we decided to elaborate on the name,”

The Yolo County Library, comprised of eight branches throughout Yolo County, has introduced a new program to help its patrons pay off overdue books. The program is called “Pay it Forward,” and it collects donations that are put toward paying off late fees with the goal of increasing library usage for those who cannot afford to pay off their fines.

Patrons are encouraged to donate whatever amount of money they would like to the program and in return will receive a star-shaped note to write a message on. Once filled out, the stars will be on a board behind the circulation desks at Yolo county libraries. Patrons who cannot afford to pay off their library fines can then redeem those stars.

“We are so fortunate to be in a community that looks out for each other,” said Patty Wong, a Yolo County librarian, in a statement on the library’s website. “Through the kindness of others we can help continue someone’s lifelong connection with literacy and the library.”

Stephanie Li, a third-year managerial economics major, likes the “Pay it Forward” program.

“I think it’s a good program because it encourages people who may not be able to pay their fines to continue to go to the library,” Li said. “If they can continue to educate themselves and have access to books, the program is really good.”

“Pay it Forward” aligns strongly with policy

released by the American Library Association (ALA) in 2012 entitled “‘Library Services to the Poor,’ in which ALA directs libraries to remove late fees.

“It is crucial that libraries recognize their role in enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society, by utilizing a wide variety of available resources and strategies,” said the policy statement on the ALA’s website. “The American Library Association shall implement these objectives by [...] Promoting the removal of all barriers to library and information services, particularly fees and overdue charges.”

Hannah Kim, a third-year community and resource development major and employee of Shields Library, believes that sometimes late fines are justified — particularly for books from Shields Reserves.

“People take [books from reserves] for several hours and complain about how [the late fees] racked up,” Kim said. “[Without fees,] people wouldn’t bring books back, and people waiting in line wouldn’t get books. It would be unfair for the people waiting.”

Despite her belief that late fees are sometimes necessary, Kim is a fan of the “Pay it Forward” program.

“It allows people to be a good samaritan, it’s a good opportunity,” Kim said.

Anyone interested in taking advantage of the program, or donating to the program, is encouraged to stop by the circulation desk of any Yolo County Library branch.

away the dishes, and that if they had a problem with the cats, to come see me. During the summer it was hot, and I don’t know if [the cats] can get water anywhere else, so I was more concerned about them just getting water.”

Lined up along the left-side wall of the building are little cat shelters built by anonymous donors.

But of all the fancy shelters made, the cats only used the open boxes with a blanket.

“Last summer [Cheetoh] was laying out here, and I think she was just sleeping, and somebody called the [...] town sheriff,” Kemp said. “He came out to check on her, and he was sitting in his truck out here writing notes.”

Worried and indignant at the possibility of having their cats taken away, many staff members working in the Physics building had taken it upon themselves to speak to the sheriff.

“It was funny because one of my coworkers said ‘Oh don’t worry, I talked to him — I’ll make sure he won’t take our cats away,’” Kemp said. “I started realizing that all these people would come up to [the sheriff ] and get upset that he was going to take the cats away. And I thought, ‘oh my God, the sheriff will never come here again!’”

These cats are no longer strays, now considered a part of the UC Davis family.

“I think they’re happy,” Kemp said. “I think they like their life here.”

California Public Utilities Commision holds bi-monthly voting meeting at UC Davis

Yolo County Library introduces ‘Pay it Forward’

Program will help library patrons pay off overdue fines

BY RAUL C AST EL L ANOS J R ci ty@th ea ggi e .o r g

Fradet said. “I know the orange one’s called Cheetoh, but we don’t know what [Grey Cat] is called, so we made up a name.”

Grey Cat is generally friendly and approachable, and Fradet wonders if their friendship has progressed enough for him to recognize her.

“He kinda just sits in anyone’s lap whenever I walk by, so I don’t know [if he recognizes me], but I like to think so,” Fradet said.

Tanat Kissikov, a graduate student in the Physics Department, has noticed the cats growing plumper and more accustomed to people over the course of the past two years.

Before he moved to a higher story in the building, Kissikov worked on the first floor and would often enjoy petting the cats.

“One or two years ago, they started off more reticent, but became more used to people — and fatter,” Kissikov said.

Students have worked with Kemp to create a feeding log spreadsheet in order to organize the cats’ feeding schedule, especially for the weekends. Despite all of this care, there has unfortunately also been some negative energy toward the cats.

“We’ve had some vandalism here about a year ago, where somebody kept throwing out the cat food dishes,” Kemp said. “I got upset, so that’s [when] I kind of became more of the cat lady. I posted the sign here asking people not to throw

CAT TAYLOR / AGGIE

BY IVAN VALENZUELA ca m pus @thea g g ie . org

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) held its bi-monthly voting meeting on March 2 at UC Davis to vote on a number of proposed policies. The meeting, which included a presentation on the implementation for the area code overlay for the 916 region, also gave members of the public an opportunity to discuss recent issues concerning rising utility rates in the past year.

“We have scheduled a number of Voting Meetings around the state this year in order to get into the communities we serve,” said Michael Picker, the president of CPUC in a press release. “Holding this meeting at UC Davis is of particular interest to me because it allows us to build a direct pipeline to students and let them know about the varied and important work that the CPUC does, how they can get involved and how they can join our team when they graduate.”

The meeting, which was held in the Appellate Courtroom of King Hall, began with a half hour of public comments. People wishing to express their concerns to the commission largely spoke about the rising billing costs concerning the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which rose in summer of 2016 and again in the winter.

Penny Manzo, a local resident who spoke during the meeting, said that the committee needs to better address the recent spikes in utility costs that have put a strain on consumers.

“You’re putting us in a bind, in this impossible bind,” Manzo said. “I want the PUC to keep us in mind, that as a regulatory agency, that’s what you need to be looking at. PG&E has a holding company.

PG&E has resources. When a mistake is made, when

Members of the public raised concerns over rising PG&E costs maintenance is not kept up, when they have issues, they need to address it, but not on the back of consumers.”

Since last August, the CPUC has approved a series of rate increases. Because of the especially cold winter in California, consumers have seen sharp increases in their billing.

Earlier this month, the increased rates prompted State Senator Jerry Hill (D-13) from the San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties to call on PG&E and the CPUC to fix the utility company’s rate structure.

“The research showed that the most vulnerable are being hit the hardest at a time when they need heating the most,” said Hill in a staff report. “PG&E and the Public Utilities Commission need to prioritize customer heating needs in a way I have not yet seen.”

The CPUC, addressing Hill’s report on the rate structures for PG&E, said that they will take the proposals into consideration.

“There are many solid recommendations in Senator Hill’s report,” said the CPUC in a press release.

“We will review the report closely to determine the best way to implement appropriate measures, such as adjusting the winter baseline. We thank Senator Hill for the report, as we all work toward ensuring utilities are educating and responding to their customers to help them understand their energy use and the changes in their billing, and the assistance programs that are available.”

The meeting also featured a presentation on the implementation of the area code overlay for the 916 region.

Suffering from a shortage of numbers for the 916 area code, a new number, 279, will be added to the region. The region includes parts of the Yolo, Solano, Sutter, Placer, El Dorado and Sacramento counties.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

TAY LOR R U NNE L L S / AGGIE

Aggie Profiles: Camille Pannu

A LEXA FON TA N IL L A / AGG IE

Local business relocates to Lake Boulevard

One woman’s fighting passion for environmental justice

BY M A RLYS JE A N E features@theaggie.org

In late 2015, Camille Pannu received an unexpected phone call from an old acquaintance.

It was Angela Harris, a professor of environmental justice at the UC Davis School of Law and a member of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies’ Committee, asking if Pannu wanted to be the director of a proposed water justice clinic. Naturally, Pannu jumped at the opportunity.

The UC Davis School of Law has a number of clinics that deal with court representation, such as the Immigration Clinic and the Civil Rights Clinic. However, the creation of the Water Justice Clinic was the result of the water bond package that was passed by the State of California in 2014 and requires that legal aid and technical assistance be given to low income, unincorporated communities. “[Right now] I’m a [full-time] attorney for the clinic, [and] if the clinic is approved [by the law school] then I’ll be the director,” Pannu said. “Clinical education is about teaching law students how to be lawyers, essentially, and giving them meaningful opportunities to work with people.”

Pannu is a self-described “hell-raiser,” but it’s hard to tell through her effervescent and friendly personality. She told stories from her life with a twinkle in her eye, her voice full of passion as she shared her knowledge and perspectives. Pannu comes across like an old friend reminiscing about past adventures, but also undeniably as a scholar who has witnessed the world in multiple, fascinating ways.

“I grew up in Richmond, [Calif.], and [my family was] there when Richmond was the murder capital of the United States,” Pannu said.

“You could really see by sixth grade where people’s life opportunities were going to be based on where they came from — I had a bunch of friends whose parents were working so many jobs to make ends meet and they just couldn’t.”

Pannu’s opportunities for an academic future after high school were nearly impossible in Richmond since none of the schools offered any of the coursework required to apply to college.

She transferred to a high school in the nearby town of Moraga, which, according to Pannu, was more than 80 percent white at the time and discernibly affluent.

With a laugh, she described the difference was “like night and day.”

“You had these huge green fields and all these wonderful amenities,” Pannu said. “They had this Olympic-sized pool where the US synchronized swimming team practiced. Three-quarters of all students were in competitive sports and four people from my class went to the Olympics — twice!”

Pannu had grown up buying into the narrative of “America’s meritocracy”; that if she worked hard, she could “make it.” However, identifying as South Asian, Pannu noticed a stark difference between the kind of treatment she received from that of her white peers. Not only did her guidance counselor advise her away from the classes and extracurriculars her white peers participated in, she also dealt with racist tirades from classmates and even parents on a regular basis.

She recalled a time in her junior year when her classmate, someone she had never had issues with, raised their hand in class to express that “poor people are poor because they’re lazy.” This was the first time Pannu actively spoke up after three years of silence in the face of stunning ignorance in this community.

“I lost it,” Pannu said. “I was like ‘you guys are all going to go to college, [...] you’re all going to become leaders and you’re all going to have opportunity,’ whereas my friends [in Richmond] are working hard [and] some of them had dropped out, some had gotten pregnant, some had been killed, some of them had joined gangs [and] some were trying to get back out of gangs.”

It was at this moment that she realized what focus she would work on for the rest of her life.

“This is the issue I care about, this issue of poverty and the disparities that exist and the lack of understanding between people,” Pannu said.

After graduating high school in 2002, Pannu made for UC Berkeley, where she trained in community organization and statewide advocacy. Many of the groups Pannu joined focused on access to higher education, but she then shifted

to juvenile justice issues and eventually to hate crime in search of what drives structural poverty. “[Structural poverty] starts so much earlier with the environment you grow up with,” Pannu said. “It matters what opportunity you see and what violence you see and it matters whether your water had lead in it. It matters whether the air you’re breathing gives you asthma.”

And so began her shift to an issue she found extremely fascinating and incredibly fundamental: environmental justice.

“I had seen a lot of the environmental activism at [Berkeley] as being oriented towards things as recycling and composting and saving biodiversity,” Pannu said. “[Although] I think all of that is really valuable, it felt like it lacked urgency to me, in part because I’m overly concerned with human beings.”

Pannu graduated with a degree in political economy and a minor in African American studies. Her first job took her to rural Kenya, where she worked for a development non-governmental organization on a project focused on water-borne diseases called the Rural Water Project.

After returning to the U.S., though, she moved away from the field of environmental justice and took up a research position at the Yale Law School that focused on the death penalty in Connecticut. She spent her days sitting in a dim basement, away from people and any sense of community.

“I was feeling really isolated,” Pannu said.

“Yale also has a weird relationship with the local community, so living in the local community and [working at the] local school [...] just felt a little off.”

Even though she wasn’t a student at Yale, Pannu was allowed to participate in one of the Law School’s clinics as a student director. This is where environmental justice once again trickled into the forefront of her mind, so it was the idea of a marriage between these two passions in addition to her work with the clinic that made her apply to law school. Laughing, Pannu expressed that her life seems to be full of circles, as she ended up back at UC Berkeley.

“I’m good at figuring out how to twist rules to do the opposite of what they’re for, and I was like ‘I should be a lawyer, this sounds like an excellent way to do this,’” Pannu said. “Lawyers are often there to tell you everything that will go wrong, and tell you everything not to do, [but] it helps to have lawyers who come out of community organizing because they’re a key that [...] the community gets to turn to open a door, as opposed to being the door and the lock.”

Pannu recalled her time during law school as successful and rewarding, having had the opportunity to work on litigation suing the Chevron refinery which had plagued the resources of her hometown of Richmond. This case happened to be the first victory on an environmental case against Chevron in history.

After this, Pannu left the urban-scape to work in rural areas of the San Joaquin Valley.

She then worked with the Center on Race and Poverty in the Environment doing clerk work for some judges. This is when she received the phone call from Harris and began the next chapter of her life at UC Davis.

“One of the communities I’m working with has had no water for two and a half years now,” Pannu said. “What happened [...in Tulare County] was that when the drought happened, a lot of farmers started digging deeper wells to get to deeper aquifers. It’s essentially like that weird part of ‘There Will be Blood’ where Daniel Day Lewis is like “I take my milkshake and I drink your water — or drink your oil” and the whole time you’re like ‘where is this coming from, what is he talking about?’ So that’s what happened with water in Tulare county — a bunch of people took a deeper milkshake and drank down everyone’s water.”

Unsure of her future goals, Pannu is content to focus on water justice as long as she can. Pannu’s journey up to this point in time has been winding, but she has never strayed from her ultimate goal of doing something where she is connected to people.

“I think one of the best pieces of advice I got when I was in college is that negative information is good information,” Pannu said. “I think that’s why I’ve had so many jobs. A lot of my life has also been figuring out what doesn’t fit and appreciating that experience for the education it gives you about yourself so you can do these really cool things.”

WATERMELON MUSIC PICKS UP ITS TEMPO

BY KA E LY N T U E R M E R - L E E city@theaggie.org

Four days and twelve hours each day — that’s how long it took to pack up 12 years worth of business. After receiving a letter from its landlord in August of 2015, Watermelon Music was informed that the commercial property on which its business was located was going to be sold. Owner Jeff Simons had someone appraise the property, discovering that the value was well beyond what the business could afford. As a result, Simons began to look elsewhere for properties where Watermelon Music could relocate.

“As we were negotiating, a broker that I had been trying to talk to about buying other pieces of land had said that this building had just gone up on sale that morning,” Simons said. “When I went out and looked, it was absolutely stunning — an amazing fit for what I wanted to do. So we made an offer on it and purchased the building.”

Simons described renting the biggest U-Haul in town to transport instruments and products. With the help of family members, friends and customers, everything was out of the old store on Feb. 28 at 9:30 p.m., just four days after starting the moving process.

It then took approximately three to four days to get everything settled into the new store. Watermelon Music opened its doors to customers on March 4, although the performance part of the store is yet to be finished.

This new performance part will include a 120-seat music venue to host concerts, clinics and open mic nights. In addition, the layout of the store is much more customer oriented, with each department clearly labeled. The repair space is also improved, allowing more complicated repairs to be done, and the building is humidity controlled.

This is vital for an instrument store, as wooden instruments need to be kept at the correct humidity in order to prevent the wood from drying out and crack-

ing.

Watermelon Music’s new location, although farther away from downtown, has its perks. The space itself is much bigger and also has parking. Since it is also not as centrally located, the people who come into the store are those who are serious customers and have the intent on purchasing something.

“The downtown location was like a combination of a music store and a playground,” Simons said. “So many of the people who walked in weren’t interested in buying anything, and just wandered in since it’s kind of a fun, hands-on thing; we’re going to have much less of that. It’s also easy to get to from any part of Davis.”

This also opens up room for other businesses in the old Watermelon Music location. Paul Wilbur, the manager of Armadillo Music, is excited to see what will occupy the former Watermelon Music store.

“Anytime an institutional business leaves the area, it definitely hurts, [but] anything that makes Davis unique is good — we like different types of businesses,” Wilbur said. “The more diversified, the better.”

The transition to its new location was a step forward and a way to expand their horizons, although owner Jeff Simons certainly was surprised.

“Commercial property in Davis never ever goes for sale, it’s a super rare thing,” Simons said. “So I think this group from out of town looked at it, and in the long run, I’m sure they’re going to do well with it — it’s prime location in the middle of downtown. But I’m not sure they understand the Davis dynamic — what makes it unique and interesting.”

For other stores and organizations in the West Davis area, the relocation of Watermelon Music is will have a positive impact on customers, as it will attract more business.

“I think it’s a great thing — I myself am a musician,” said Patrick Cain, a manager at Westlake Market. “I think it will bring more people from central Davis this way.”

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF HEALTH MA DEL EIN E SILV ERST EIN / COU RT ESY

Students intern abroad, prepare for medical professions

BY G ILLIAN ALLEN features@theaggie.org

After driving through the desolate dirt roads of the Bolivian suburbs, third-year cell biology major Maddy Silverstein was welcomed by a hospitable family who would host her for a five-week medical internship.

Through this once-in-a-lifetime experience, Silverstein was shocked to discover the difference in lifestyles between those in Bolivia and those back in Davis.

The UC Davis Global Health Internships Abroad provides students with study abroad opportunities that encompass educational, cultural and hands-on experiences geared toward students’ professional aspirations, while also allowing students to connect with their cultural roots and do good in the world.

Carisa Swason, a third-year animal science major, was able to explore her half-Filipino heritage while in-

terning abroad in Manila, Philippines. Swason’s program, Philippines — Remote Island Medicine, taught her the importance of having a strong and accessible healthcare system.

“There are two hospitals in Manila; [...] one is extremely wealthy and next door to it is the second, run down hospital,” Swason said. “The minute you walk into the second one you feel diseased, there is no air conditioning and people from other islands stand outside starting at four in the morning just to get into the hospital.”

In the Philippines there is an extreme divide in the social classes, making it difficult for the entire population to get health care due to the lack of funding for the lower class, seen in the state of their hospitals. There is no social mobility, and only the rich have the best health care.

MEDICAL MISSIONS on 9

Peace Corps rank UC Davis in top 20 volunteer producers of 2017 DA N IEL TA K / COU RT ESY

UC Davis included on list of "Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities" for 16th consecutive year

BY YVO NNE LEONG campus@theaggie.org

The Peace Corps announced on Feb. 28 that UC Davis ranked No. 20 among schools with more than 15,000 students on the list of 2017 Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities. There are 39 Aggies currently in the Peace Corps.

UC Davis ranked in the top 25 for the 16th consecutive year. This year, two other UC’s were ranked in the top 25 list. UCLA ranked 13th with 43 volunteers and UC Santa Barbara ranked 18th with 40 volunteers.

Rankings are calculated based on fiscal year data as of

Sept. 30, 2016, as self-reported by Peace Corps volunteers.

“UC Davis attracts people with a global perspective, seeking to find ways to address some of the world’s greatest challenges,” said Marcie Holland, the director of the UC Davis Internship and Career Center (ICC), via email. “The Peace Corps offers incredible opportunities to engage in projects that have significant positive impacts.”

Holland believes that UC Davis is ranked high as a volunteer-producing university because of both its VOLUNTEER on 12

6 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion the California Aggie

editorial board

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editorial Board sits down with Jill Stein GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE’S GOOD INTENTIONS NOT ROOTED IN REALITY

SCOTT DRESSER Editor in Chief ELLIE DIERKING Managing Editor ALYSSA VANDENBERG Campus News Editor SAMANTHA SOLOMON City News Editor ELI FLESCH Opinion Editor EMILIE DEFAZIO Features Editor AMANDA ONG Arts & Culture Editor BRYAN SYKES Sports Editor ARIEL ROBBINS Science & Tech Editor

CHIARA ALVES New Media Manager JAY GELVEZON Photo Director HANNAH LEE Design Director EMILY STACK Copy Chief OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Copy Chief VERONICA VARGO Website Manager ALEX GUZMÁN Social Media Mangager MADELINE ONG Newsletter Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

In welcoming Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein to UC Davis last week, students received a unique opportunity to hear a progressive vision for America markedly different than anything offered by mainstream parties. But Stein’s calls for a “Green New Deal” don’t change the fact of her stubborn refusal to effect real change by leaving the confines of a third-party.

Before her rally, Stein sat down with The Aggie’s Editorial Board for about 20 minutes to discuss topics ranging from student loans to environmental sustainability to the Dakota Access Pipeline. In the meeting, she displayed the same stalwart progressivism that has both made her a champion to those on the far-left and an irritant to more moderate liberals who fault her for sapping critical votes away from Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton in the presidential election.

Stein reiterated a proposal to erase all student debt as part of a plan to overhaul higher education that includes tuition-free college — a noble goal. Americans owe more on student loans than they do on credit cards. But it’s a plan that has its shortcomings. She said that she wouldn’t make an exception for high-income students with the ability to pay down loans, at the risk of

her plan becoming a “poor-people’s program.” But these students could help offset the costs to universities of suddenly having a large amount of debt forgiven.

While Stein’s policy proposals reflect a much-needed spirit of progressivism, their success is still rooted in the fantasy that a mass of people will suddenly rise to the occasion of implementing them. That’s the kind of politically ignorant thinking only an American third-party candidate could concoct. While grassroots organizing is essential to resisting Trump — and Stein should be commended for bringing that message to UC Davis — it is certainly not sufficient.

Stein would better serve this country as Bernie Sanders did: by working within the parameters of a mainstream party. Consider that in just the past week, California politicians have been judging the merits of a proposed debt-free college plan, and a “medicare-for-all” health care system proposed by Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom as part of his bid for governor.

Both are measures Sanders tirelessly advocated for during the presidential election.

But these conversations wouldn’t be happening had Sanders mounted an independent campaign.

Unfortunately, Stein dismissed that pos-

sibility of working with Democrats out of hand, calling Hillary Clinton just as dangerous a candidate as Donald Trump. How misguided.

Democrats need somebody like Stein who is right to devote so much attention to the environment and the effect of its destruction on vulnerable Native American communities. Even though her call that the United States run entirely on renewable energy by 2030 is wholly unrealistic, it reflects the much-needed urgency that climate change issues deserves.

By throwing Clinton in the same bag as President Trump, Stein has reduced herself to nothing more than a fringe element of American politics — one important only to shine a light on issues, like climate change and the abuse of indigenous people, that demand our constant attention.

Forget the distracting conversations about her swinging the vote. Those would be better spent asking how a bigot like Trump could secure so much of the electorate in the first place. Instead, students talking about Jill Stein should talk about how to turn her progressive values into viable mainstream policies. Only then will the Green Party register as more than a protest movement.

Feature-length columns To wrap up the quarter, each columnist put together an in-depth feature on a given subject.

The rest of the articles can be found next week on theaggie.org.

Trump is Making Journalism Great Again HOW THE PRESIDENT ENDANGERS AND STRENGTHENS JOURNALISTIC PRACTICE

BY JAZMIN GA R C I A msjgarcia@ucdavis.edu

Donald Trump’s animosity toward the press has been well-documented throughout the election campaign and his current presidency. From accusing the media of falsely reporting the size of his inauguration crowds to evicting reporters from the White House Press Room, President Trump has made one thing clear: he doesn’t want you listening to the news. Whether he succeeds or not could determine how people perceive the truth in the era of “alternative facts.”

“I have a running war with the media,” he said during a visit to the CIA headquarters, which took place on his first full day as president, and during which he remarked that “fake news media” journalists were “the most dishonest human beings on earth.”

It’s clear that Trump and his administration are at war with what they call the mainstream media, or the liberal media, which assumes that there’s a systemic bias within the press, and that these sources work in lockstep to discredit the president. That simply is not the case.

More recently he has declared these journalists “the enemy of the people” — a phrase with a fraught history behind it.

Over the course of the last century, it had been used by dictators

to undermine foreign governments, political opposition and protesters. The phrase dates as far back as the reign of Emperor Nero, who had been called “an enemy of the people” by the Roman Senate. It reemerged during the French Revolution and was later employed by the German Nazi party to subjugate the Jews. It was most widely used by Stalin against any who opposed his Bolshevik government and eventual Soviet Union. Whether the historical use of the phrase is conscious or unknown to Trump, its invocation directly links him to a tradition of demogogy.

“When you look at somebody who makes a career out of demogogy, they need enemies, and it’s almost secondary who the enemy is,” said Sasha Abramsky, a UC Davis lecturer and journalist. “Trump’s encouraging a very venomous look at the media as traitors […] partly that’s just theatrics, but the danger is that you get violence at the backend of that. When you call a group of people the ‘enemy of the people,’ you’re essentially making them targets for anybody who’s angry and alienated.”

Abramsky explained that Americans have become increasingly distrustful of expert opinions, whether they come from politicians, policymakers, lawyers, scientists or journalists.

“When Trump comes in and says the media is promoting fake news, he’s trying to delegitimize people who are already viewed with suspicion by a large part of the public,” he said. Abramsky contends

that Trump’s attack on the media has the intentional effect of inciting violence.

Indeed, the president uses the media like no other politician does and knows how to use it. He needs it. And he knows that every time he demonizes the media, he will receive more attention. Abramsky believes that Trump attempts to distract from other things including, but certainly not limited to, evidence that his entire campaign was in league with Russia. He said: “[Trump’s] a master of distraction, but I think the bigger issue, even in that, is that he’s a manipulator of the mob.”

The Aggie’s editor-in-chief, Scott Dresser, echoes this sentiment.

“I think any time an elected official or someone in power wants to silence journalists, it’s because that person is doing things that he doesn’t want the people to know,” Dresser said. “It could mean that he doesn’t want the general public to know that his administration is in a state of chaos and that there’s no real, centered leadership.”

Dresser believes that Trump’s attack on the media is done in part to appeal to his base: the people for whom he campaigned, and to whom he derided the media as corrupt.

Needless to say, the president’s censure of journalists is just one of the things that defines his legacy as an abnormal president. Abramsky asserts that there hasn’t been a president with more to hide... continued on

theaggie.org

Life with Tourette Syndrome INDIVIDUALS WITH TOURETTE’S FIND SUCCESS, IDENTITY, HAPPINESS DESPITE DAILY CHALLENGES

BY TARYN DEOI L E R S tldeoilers@ucdavis.edu

At first glance, the East Bay support group for people with Tourette’s looked like any other friend group meeting for pizza on a Saturday afternoon. At Bambino’s Pizza in Concord last month, adolescents and adults mingled and discussed an array of topics, from the Jaws franchise to the video game “Five Nights At Freddy’s” to college courses. A few newcomers introduced themselves to the crowd of about 15 or so — all of whom were either individuals with Tourette Syndrome or family members. The ambiance was casual, friendly and, most importantly, empathetic. No one stared at another person’s involuntary actions — whether they were minor facial grimaces, verbal outbursts or something in between. Support groups like the one in the East Bay provide a vital level of hospitality for those confronting Tourette’s, as doctors continue to search for answers about the disorder.

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is relatively common — affecting an estimated one in 160 children in the U.S. — but how the disorder manifests itself varies immensely throughout the population. TS is a neurological disorder characterized by repeated compulsory movements and vocalizations called tics. The impulse to tic is comparable

to impulsive actions, yet people with TS still maintain complete authority over their actions, resulting in a syndrome that muddies the line between the voluntary and involuntary.

All individuals with Tourette’s experience at least two motor tics — from simple ones like excessively bobbing the head, blinking the eyes and tensing body parts, to more complex ones that require the orchestration of several muscles. Complex tics might evoke a sequence of simple tics or even entail more dramatic movements like twirling or hopping. In the rarest and most severe cases, tics can be completely debilitating.

TS is also characterized by the presence of at least one vocal tic — the aspect for which the disorder is most recognized — such as coughing, clicking the tongue and repeating the last word of a sentence like an echo. While Hollywood tends to depict people with Tourette’s as endless spewers of F-bombs, racial slurs and other obscenities — a symptom called coprolalia — only about 10 percent of individuals with the disorder actually express socially unacceptable verbal tics.

Former San Francisco support group leader Marcus de Cunha’s moderate childhood tics of head nods and eye rolls gradually became more drastic or evolved into entirely new tics. One of his current vocal tics constitutes a persistent gulping that sometimes leaves his

throat so raw that he’s incapable of swallowing saliva (“Very good for diets,” he joked).

Although de Cunha has recently stepped back from his position as a co-vice chairman at the Tourette Association of America to focus more intently on his own condition, he still helps others overcome what he sees as the three main challenges for all people with Tourette’s: distraction, discomfort and embarrassment.

Distraction, the first obstacle, impacts everyone to varying degrees, depending on the severity of their tics. Jaleesa Jenkins, 19, of Union City, attended the East Bay support group. She talked about how, when she was suddenly afflicted by obtrusive tics at the age of 18, she had difficulty performing even the most basic functions.

Jenkins’s tics were mild enough as a child to remain inconspicuous, but now her verbal tics range from interjecting words like “cat” or “fidget” into her dialogue every few seconds, to infrequently muttering swear words.

“There’s been times when I’ve had trouble eating, either actually getting food to my mouth because my hands would be moving everywhere — fidget — or [because I’d be] having so many uncontrollable vocal tics,” Jenkins said.

De Cunha recalled another woman — a student from... continued on

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THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017 | 7

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Why the Syrian Civil War represents our greatest humanitarian crisis HOW THE ARAB SPRING CONTRIBUTED TO SYRIA’S DOWNFALL

BY SHOHI NI M A I T R A samaitra@ucdavis.edu

A boy lies face down on the sand, as the waves of a beach in Turkey wash over him. A police officer looks the other way, hollering at people we cannot see. The water moves back and forth, back and forth, but the boy lies still on the sand like a big doll that’s been abandoned by children who’ve grown bigger than their toys. At three, he hasn’t lived a life long enough to understand why he and his family had to leave home, or why they needed to cross perilous waters in shoddy lifeboats to reach a foreign land. All he can do is follow his parents, and all his parents can do is run from whichever danger faces them next. Bullets, bombings, ISIS, the Kurds — at this point, it doesn’t even matter.

But he’s not running anymore. The iconic image of Aylan Kurdi sparked international outrage and gave a face to the Syrian Civil War. Aylan Kurdi’s story helped humanize a crisis the UN characterized as the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era. The picture of his

lifeless body on the beach, pasted on every newspaper around the world, brought the globe to a full stop, just for a second, as it focused its attention on the mass exodus of refugees from Syria.

It’s been five years since the Syrian Civil War began, and entire cities steeped with ancient heritage and historic sites have been laid to waste. About half the population has fled the country, and at least 386,000 people have been killed. The city of Aleppo, one of world’s oldest, lies in ruins. Still a civil war in name, the conflict has escalated into a proxy war for different countries, namely the United States and Russia. Every powerful nation in the world today plays a role on the Syrian battlefield, and diplomatic relations between countries have soured as a result. Turkey is in conflict with the EU, and the EU is in danger of breaking up due to numerous issues including the refugee problem. In this context, it seems impossible to believe that the story starts out with a fruit seller in Tunisia.

After being publicly humiliated, a fruit seller marched in front of a government building in Tunisia and self-immolated. Catalyzed by his act of desperation, protests broke out all over the city, standing up

against the dictatorial regime and asking for a real democracy. Within a month, the President had fled the country.

The success of the non-violent protests in Tunisia sparked a series of demonstrations in many other Middle Eastern countries, leading to a movement now known as the Arab Spring. While these originated independently in each country, their demands were very similar.

The common people were fed up with their oppressive and corrupt regimes, and wanted a government where they had a real say in the decisions made. Poor economies in these countries created mass unemployment that led to educated youth taking up jobs not suited to their capabilities. This led to widespread dissatisfaction among the large population of youth in the Middle East, and was a large factor in the popularity of the anti-government protests.

The Arab Spring had mixed outcomes in the various countries that it affected. Despite setbacks, Tunisia has been working hard to establish a strong foundation of democracy. Egypt seemed to... ing towards a state of progression, but has since relapsed into a... continued on

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Tom Dalzell documents city’s quirks and reveals an American treasure MEET THE MAN ASSIDUOUSLY RECORDING BERKELEY’S PAST AND PRESENT WEIRDNESS

BY SI D BAG G A sidobagga@ucdavis.edu

Should it ever strike your fancy to Google the terms “bowling balls as lawn art,” “enormous dachshund sculptures,” “a pyramid made of birdhouses” or “a house in the shape of a tardigrade,” you’ll be delighted to find that all these oddities exist in the city limits of Berkeley. You’ll also be pleased to learn that one man has taken it upon himself to record all these and more, through photography and written word.

Tom Dalzell is the brains behind Quirky Berkeley, a website that, by anthologizing the eccentricities of the city’s material culture, is helping to preserve a cornerstone of American culture at one of the country’s most prominent public universities.

Dalzell’s prose is liberally peppered with allusions to high culture, the marks of his Ivy League education. A walk through Marcia Donahue’s garden for him inspires the same awe as “a walk into a Maybeck home.” He correctly identifies Marion Friedman’s backyard collec-

tion as a homage to “objet trouvé,” a French Surrealist movement.

He devotes an entire section of his blog to the aesthetic of emptiness, inspired by the Buddhist philosophy of Sunyata.

But despite the erudition and knowledge which he possesses, Dalzell is incredibly skilled at connecting with his readers. As he guides his audience through the nuance of Berkeley’s quirks, he uses secondperson pronouns to directly address the reader. To read his blog is to engage in t te-à-t te with a romantic on the subject of his lover. A reader who shares Dalzell’s love for quirk will find that his writing exudes a distinct warmth.

All this ran through my mind as I shivered under Dalzell’s cold glare. He had marshalled me to stand opposite his end of his kitchen island, and now sat in annoyed anticipation of my questions.

When Dalzell isn’t curating his quirk collection, he is managing the finances of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) California chapter. His career and hobby have shared a serendipitous connection throughout his life, as if labor lawyer and Berkeley enthusiast are in the same karass of occupations.

Back in 1968, when movies cost a nickel and the Beatles still crooned together, Dalzell travelled to Delano, California for a summer gig with the United Farm Workers. It was on a weekend excursion away from the Central Valley when Dalzell first laid eyes upon his city. Love at first sight? Not quite.

“I admit — it was a shock to my eyes,” Dalzell said. “It was more than I could absorb.”

Understandable. 1968 Berkeley was the city at its most extreme.

This was the year of the Tet offensive, the Black Power takeover of Columbia, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the student uprising in Paris, the politicized Mexico City Olympics, the bloody Democratic National Convention riots and Prague Spring. And the University of California’s famous student protesters had much to say about it all. To Dalzell, at the time a “justbarely-17 year old Mainline Philadelphia Episcopal” high schooler, the scene was overwhelming.

Yet he kept visiting Berkeley that summer. And after a... continued on

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HUMOR Shields Library doors not automatic, just repulsed by students REVEAL OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SENDS SHOCKWAVES THROUGH UC DAVIS

BY BRI AN LAND RY bjlandry@ucdavis.edu

In a shocking breach of classified information, Wikileaks announced Wednesday that it obtained damaging information about Shields Library at UC Davis.

The documents revealed that although the doors at the library appear to be automatic, they actually open because of how repulsed they are by the students that walk through them.

The California Aggie reached out to the doors for comment and, as you would expect, got one.

“We are extremely disappointed by this leak,” said the doors, who enjoy deep sea diving in their spare time. “We didn’t want all the students to know how gross we think they are. And let me tell you,

they are gross. Some of them only shower three to four times a day, so they are really stinky. And honestly, we’re not judgemental, but these students are truly the worst people alive.”

The news sent shockwaves through the student body, who previously had no idea that the library doors were capable of making such harsh judgments.

“I had heard rumors about the library doors, but I never expected them to actually be true,” said Karina Tack, a second-year biochemistry and molecular biology major and background actor in season three, episode six of NBC’s The West Wing, the greatest television show of all time. “If the doors are alive, then what’s next? Are people going to start telling me that plants are alive?”

Some students actually found some relief in the news.

“I’m kind of glad to find out that the doors are judging me, be-

cause I’ve been judging them a lot lately too,” said Gabe Gape, a first-year mechanical engineering major and semi-professional dabber. “The other day the doors got so fed up with students that they just stopped opening completely in an effort to keep us out of the library. I had to physically push the doors open. I can never forgive them for the pain they put me through that day."

"It’s even worse than the pain I went through when I lost track of my son,” Gape continued.

The library doors are expected to continue at UC Davis despite the student body’s awareness of their true feelings.

But this revelation has had people talking about the true thoughts of the other automatic doors in the City of Davis, and it’s unclear if the student body-door relationship will ever be as strong as it once was.

Student with 12 Twitter followers kills with her live coverage of current events SECOND-YEAR MONICA ALVARO’S CUTTING-EDGE TWEETS STRIKE THE FANCY OF A DOZEN

BY OL I VI A LUC H I N I ocluchini@ucdavis.edu

For years, Twitter has provided an outlet for millions to connect with their favorite celebrities, read the news or even create their own voices.

Monica Alvaro has recently become a social media mogul after creating her first account three months ago.

“It’s crazy how quickly fame hits,” Alvaro said. “One month you have 10 followers, the next you have 12. It’s the American Dream.”

Alvaro covers several controversial topics, including the Trump administration, the wage gap and the rapid rate at which bees are dying. A lot of her profile consists of retweets, but she’ll occasionally pepper in some of her own content.

“Yeah, I sent a tweet directly at Trump telling him to ‘suck it,’ but he has yet to get back to me,” Alvaro said. “I’m assuming my content

was too edgy for him and it scared him.”

Though Trump said he has never once looked at his “mentions” section on Twitter to know if anyone is trying to reach out to him, Alvaro is still convinced that her fine piece of commentary made the cut.

“Honestly, my fans know that I’m well-versed on issues that concern the average American citizen,” Alvaro said.

The Aggie reached out to Alvaro’s “fans,” but 10 out of the 12 were just robots for diet pill accounts. The other two were her friends from high school who honestly only followed her so she’d follow them back.

“It’s all about that follow-for-follow game, son,” said Alvaro’s expal, Millie Loofawitz.

You might be thinking that Alvaro’s account sounds unsuccessful at this point, but your opinion will quickly change when you hear some of the statistics circulating her presence: five of her tweets have

gotten two favorites and three of them have been retweeted.

“I have tweeted 45,000 times,” Alvaro said. “It’s all about hard work.”

You can catch Monica Alvaro’s intense tweeting today if you simply look up the user @bieberlover143. She claims that the username is an ironic take on the priorities of the average teenage girl, but that’s not what the 30 Justin Bieber fan accounts that she follows seem to convey.

“Bieber? Never heard of him,” Alvaro said as she shredded her ten Justin Bieber posters right in front of us. “He sounds like a wuss, though.”

The lesson here is that you can find news from The New York Times, Fox or even The Huffington Post, but you won’t get the same passion from them that you find in Monica Alvaro.

“Check out my latest tweet about why McNuggets are unconstitutional!” Alvaro proclaimed.

DISCLAIMER:

The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie . Letters to the editor can be addressed to opinion@theaggie.org.

ISSUE DESIGNED BY H A N N A H L E E | A M Y Y E | C H R I S T I E N E O | C I N D Y C H E U N G | J O N A T H A N C H E N

8 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

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SCIENCE+TECH Geophysical dance course to be offered next quarter Freshman seminar merges arts, science

BY E MM A ASKEA s ci ence@ th ea ggi e .o r g

Crashing tides, tsunamis and other fluids that move our world will be paired with dance in a freshman seminar offered next quarter in the hopes of creating a new way to approach science and the arts.

The course, Geophysical Dance, is a two-hour class offered on Tuesdays from 12:10 to 2 p.m. It has no prerequisites and is described by the lead professor, Ian Faloona, as being “light” in both science and dance elements. The class is interested in putting these two topics into conversation.

Faloona, an atmospheric science professor at UC Davis, has been dancing since he was an undergraduate and was encouraged by colleagues to develop a class that united his two areas of interest.

“I teach how the atmosphere moves and [...] I have all these ideas about how the way we move is so similar to — in a lot of ways — what I am trying to teach about how fluids move in the atmosphere and oceans,” Faloona said.

The class will be a hybrid of lecture and applications, using students’ bodies to teach concepts of atmospheric science and to create new ways of thinking about science in general.

Faloona has built the class around five basic concepts that are all centered around fostering creativity through the combination of these two disciplines.

“We try to find elements in nature that then we can use to build movement pieces,” Faloona said.

He emphasized that there is not a formal dance component to the class, but rather that this is a way to use creativity to understand fluids of the environ-

UC Davis alumni revolutionize genetic engineering Biology meets engineering to increase production of transgenic organisms COURTESY

Arshia Firouzi (left), Gurkern Sufi (right)

Mosquitoes’ biting preference revealed UC Davis faculty, research team discover mosquitoes’ preference in human genetics

BY M OL I NA HAUV s ci en ce@ th ea ggi e .o r g

Mosquitoes serve not only as as a nuisance to humans, but also as carriers of multiple infectious diseases like yellow fever, malaria and Zika virus. Most recently, mosquitoes served as the catalyst behind the 2015 Zika virus epidemic, and are responsible for over one million deaths worldwide each year.

UC Davis faculty and other researchers have come together to look into the role of genetics in the feeding choice of Anopheles Arabiensis: a major carrier of malaria in East Africa. This species of mosquitoes is known for its broad range of hosts. It has the ability to adapt quickly to both outdoor and indoor environments.

Because of this and the frequent use of bed nets in Africa, these mosquitoes serve as a huge threat.

Bed nets that are treated with pesticides in the area lead to the death of other species, which then in turn allow Anopheles Arabiensis to thrive.

By looking at the genetics of human-fed versus cattle-fed mosquitoes, the researchers were able to deduce whether or not there is a genetic basis rooted in the feeding preferences of mosquitoes. The process involved a field survey in which researchers visited and obtained data from East African cities.

“In the field survey we go into people’s houses, with permission, of course, and collect mosquitoes that have recently fed from people’s houses, goats, shacks and more,” said Bradley Main, a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.

Once mosquito samples were collected, researchers ran through genome sequencing (a method used to determine the precise order of DNA in an organism) by looking into the mosquitoes’ diets. This process was used to compare cattle-fed mosquitoes to human-fed mosquitoes. While one of the main questions posed was related to the feeding preferences of Anopheles Arabiensis, the resting behavior (where

ment. Topics for the quarter include understanding the summer fog of California, exploration of the physics of rotation and formation of thunderstorms.

“One of my main objectives is try to get us back to this level of pure creativity,” Faloona said.

With a planned field trip to a playground and a unique teaching philosophy, this class is a rare opportunity for UC Davis students.

Faloona is teaching this class with the help of Kevin O’Connor, a Ph.D. candidate in performance studies at UC Davis who holds an MSA in choreography.

“In the case of this class, we’re using the dance studio and our bodies as experimental laboratories to explore contemporary scientific understanding of weather,” O’Connor said. “Using the different practices [of art and science] to think through or imagine new ways of modeling the data, bodies can be used as models to think about scientific data with and in enacting the data, it creates new ways of thinking about the data.”

While Geophysical Dance is a fairly new class, Terry Nathan, a professor of atmospheric science, has been teaching a class that also combines the arts

with the sciences in a course that pairs photography with atmospheric science.

“In my course, students use photography to explore the common ground occupied by art and science,” Nathan said in an email interview. “Gestalt psychology meets Einsteinian physics in photographic composition; the geometric foundations of art and science; order versus disorder; and photographic interpretation of the environment.”

Nathan is one of the people who encouraged Faloona to create his own course. He also emphasized the unique experience that science and art provide each other.

“Despite the apparent dichotomy between art and science, they share the twin pillars of a university education — creativity and the quest for discovery,” Nathan said.

The seminar being offered next quarter highlights what Nathan discusses — merging “pillars of a university education.”

The new Geophysical Dance class gives students a way to use creativity and expression as a lens to describe the world.

BY H ARNOOR GILL s cience@theaggie . org

Of the thousands of UC Davis students that frequent the campus, Arshia Firouzi and Gurkern Sufi managed to encounter one another in Tercero Hall in 2011. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshmen, they had yet to embark on the exhilarating journey, brimming with challenges, that would lead to their founding of Ravata Solutions – a company dedicated to making transgenics, the field of biology that results in genetically engineered organisms, easier for genetic engineering.

Sufi has a degree in biotechnology and Firouzi has a degree in electrical engineering major, and the marriage between these two sciences is what intrigued them the most. Under the guidance of UC Davis professor Marc Facciotti, they were able to gain a VentureWell grant in 2015 to begin tinkering with their project and conducting basic research in Translating Engineering Advances to Medicine’s (TEAM) Molecular Prototyping and Bioinnovation Laboratory.

“We had put together a lab space and equipment where people can come and explore the various types of technology that are associated with engineering biology,” Facciotti said. “Connected to that is an award from a foundation called VentureWell, and VentureWell gave some money to help facilitate this general idea, and I’ve been using it to seed projects that students are coming up with.”

The initial idea revolved around micro-electrical components and biology together, but the application that came of it was not what they were thinking of originally.

“We had been working on single-cell electroporation, [using an electric field to increase absorption of foreign materials into cells], for a while with exploring potential applications in a variety of cells,” Sufi said. “We asked, ‘What are some high-value,

high priority cells that researchers can’t risk losing large quantities of when they want to do a transformation?’ Naturally, we fell upon embryos.”

And thus, Ravata Solutions was born. Ravata is dedicated to creating a device that will transform transgenics.

This automated device would take the place of microinjection, the classic technique used to manually insert DNA into an embryo. While microinjection does ultimately result in the production of transgenic animals, it has critical flaws.

“A real limitation of microinjection is the time it takes to make a successfully transgenic organism,” Sufi said. “It is also an outdated field [that] you can’t find many skilled professionals in anymore.”

Ravata’s device increases the efficiency and viability of producing transgenic animals with the incorporation of electroporation and single-cell sensing. This new technology results in up to 1,000 embryo transformations per hour with over 80 percent viability and over 80 percent efficiency. This is important because it allows researchers to rapidly conduct embryo transformations and know if they are on the right path.

“The rate-limiting step in creating transgenic animals is embryo transformation,” Firouzi said.

“What Ravata is doing is enabling production of embryo engineering by allowing input of the process of embryo transformation to increase 100-fold.”

Having been accepted into the IndieBio accelerator program in San Francisco in October of 2016, and partnered with the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, VIB Life Sciences and the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program, Ravata is currently testing pilot programs and plans to launch their product in 2018.

“We are excited to launch and also start exploring the many other applications of our technology in plants,” Firouzi said. “At the end of the day, our device doesn’t transform just embryos, it can transform any cell type with a high efficiency and high viability.”

mosquitoes would choose to land) was researched as well.

“We then looked at the genomes of the mosquitos to see if there was a connection between genetic variation and the host preference, either the mosquito prefers humans or animals,” said Eleazar Eskin, a professor of computer science and human genetics at UCLA. The final results indicated that mosquitoes had a preference for feeding on humans versus cattle or other organisms. In the results, mosquitoes tested rarely indicated feeding on more than one host, illustrating mosquitoes’ preference to specific hosts.

The team of researchers also found that mosquito resting behavior was random, meaning there was no correlation between the resting behavior of mosquitoes and genetics. The results supported the fact that mosquitoes preferred feeding on humans, with higher feeding rates indoors.

“Results were based on analysis of individual mosquito whole genome sequences,” said Gregory Lanzaro, a professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. “We were asking the question: ‘Is mosquito host preference (human vs. cattle and other animals) determined genetically

or do they simply feed on whatever mammal they come in contact with?’”

Through the analysis of this one species of mosquito, UC Davis faculty and other colleagues were able to deduce a relationship between mosquito feeding and genetics.

In the past, researchers have analyzed various species of mosquitoes and their relation to infectious diseases. Carolyn Mcbride, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology from the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, recently published a journal which analyzed the behavior of Aedes Aegypti, a mosquito that is known for spreading dengue and yellow fever.

In her journal, she mentions how the species of mosquito has evolved a preference for human odor, which later related to a genetic level.

With the results of the Anopheles Arabiensis research, Main and his colleagues aim to expand this research into a controlled experiment to find out why mosquitoes have a feeding preference for humans in particular.

This could range from collecting a larger sample size that would cover more regions, or simply repeating the study.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017 | 9

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

MEDICAL MISSIONS WINE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

“Most of their population is getting very minimal health care because the people have no knowledge about their health or diseases,” Swason said. “After going to the Philippines and seeing this I am now a strong believer in free health care because people shouldn’t have to be rich to be healthy.”

While the class divide is an obvious issue, Swason believes the root of the healthcare problem in countries such as the Philippines is in the lack of understanding of the importance of health. Cecile Msays, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, spent this past summer as an intern for the Healthcare Challenges in Cape Town program in South Africa. She too blamed poor education for the extreme health concerns in this country.

“It was shocking to me that we were asked to go around to villagers’ houses to make sure they were taking their pills because in America we are expected to take the medication we are prescribed,” Msays said. “People will refuse to take their medication and are unaware of why it is important because nobody teaches them about it in school.”

Msays was sent to the Victoria Hospital in Cape Town, where she was put on a team of doctors, residents and other interns. While not every student in the program had the opportunity to get involved in medical procedures, Msays’ supervising doctor generously provided her with several opportunities to apply her pre-med undergraduate education to real-life cases.

“I got to do a lot of things that we would not have been allowed to do in America because we were students with no training,” Msays said. “My doctor let me draw blood and lean how the x-rays worked, and when we had a patient who had a collapsed lung she showed me how they were able to fix it.”

Msays stressed the importance of completing a medical internship abroad because as a student intern in America, there are not many opportunities for learning how to handle out-of-the box experiences, such as the isolation of children with severe cerebral palsy or the prominence of drug overdose.

“We saw people in front of us dying of tuberculosis which was shocking because this disease is [no longer] an epidemic in America,” Msays said. “Going to a [developing] country exposes you to many more disabilities and diseases than you would see at an American hospital. I was interested to compare healthcares of different countries and I now feel that I have a much better gauge on the American healthcare system having seen another country’s system.”

Teresa Fletchinger, a third-year nutritional biology major, embarked on the Pediatric Health in La Paz internship in Bolivia after her freshman year.

According to Fletchinger’s account, due to the lack of economic and educational development, Bolivia is a very poor country and, in turn, the hospitals don’t have many of the tools imperative to success.

“The doctors were knowledgeable and had good training but many of them didn’t have the supplies that we do here so they didn’t have good accessibility,” Fletchinger said. “During one surgery I watched, someone died on the table only because the hospital didn’t have enough blood from the blood bank. Another time, the power

went out in the hospital and while the backup generators were able to keep the person alive, the doctors had us use our iPhones to give them light to finish the surgery.”

While some of Fletchinger’s experiences may seem stressful, these are exactly the kinds of situations that help to better prepare students for careers in the medical field. Fletchinger noted that it is beneficial for UC Davis students to see repercussions of another country’s education and health care system first-hand.

“It is so easy to get caught up in the bubble that we live in here in America,” Fletchinger said. “We hear about poverty in the world and how there are so many people in need, but until you actually see it and experience it, you do not understand the gravity of the situation.

Since going to Bolivia I’ve become more passionate about medicine and [it] has solidified why I want to help people in the world.”

Maddy Silverstein, a third-year cell biology major, did the same internship in Bolivia the summer after her freshman year. After five weeks living with a host family in the city of La Paz, Silverstein was able to perfect her Spanish, learn about culture and work at the hospital and local clinics every day.

“We worked in a women’s abortion clinic which was one of the most eye-opening experiences from the trip,” Silverstein said. “In Bolivia, abortions are illegal so working there made me realize what I wanted out of abortion laws in America. A country needs abortion as an option because we saw many women come in after using unsanitary self-methods secretly and illegally, which later causes more health problems.”

Silverstein recalled that at first, the women in the clinic were skeptical of the students. However, speaking Spanish with the people of Bolivia allowed her to connect with the patients and eventually gain their trust.

This experience of helping other women inspired Silverstein to pursue obstetrics and gynaecology in her professional career and continue raising awareness for women’s health.

“We’ve come so far since Roe v. Wade and it’s clear that in order for a country to be more developed and ‘healthier,’ there must be access to safe abortion,” Silverstein said. “I was worried at first in the women’s clinic because I really didn’t know if I was making a difference or not, but I now know that the women at least got something out of it.”

The diversity within the UC Davis Global Health Internships Abroad prepares students for many expected and unexpected obstacles that they may face in their future professional journeys.

Whether a student’s pre-med plans include becoming a doctor, physician’s assistant or surgeon, or simply a desire to help people of the world, these internships provide endless opportunities to become a more educated member of society.

“I don’t see myself doing anything else besides medicine,” Silverstein said. “I really enjoy the process of meeting doctors and going into the surgery room and now that I know I can work hard in school to meet the academic standard, I’ve found my path and I’m sticking to it. It’s the only thing I want to do for the rest of my life.”

BASEBALL UCONN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

The UC Davis baseball team stayed strong, keeping UConn’s score at bay during both the fourth and fifth inning. A hard drive to center field by sophomore left fielder Ryan Anderson drove a run in and helped close the score gap.

UC Davis and UConn tied 6-6 in the seventh, thanks to redshirt senior first baseman Mason Novak stealing third and being driven home by Anderson.

Redshirt junior pitcher Zach Stone was brought in to close the game at the top of the ninth. Although he allowed the tying run, Stone still earned the win with three ground balls. At the bottom of the ninth, Diaz rallied the team with a walk to first base and advanced to second after a walk by UConn reliever Ronnie Rossomando. Freshman Colton Evans was brought in as pinch runner, and after stealing third, only had to sprint 90 feet to win the game, which he did after a hit by junior infielder Brad Pluschkell, ending the game with a final score of 8-7.

“I was just trying to shut the door, trying to go after guys,”

Stone said. “I had a curve ball get away from me, I think I was hurrying to the plate a little bit, but I’m just going out there to attack hitters and shut the game down and get us a win.”

The team credit its win to Aggie pride, which was renewed after watching the UC Davis men’s basketball team clinch its spot in the NCAA bracket after winning the Big West Tournament championship game.

“We were having a rough weekend and every single one of our guys watched that game and I think we came out today and played a little bit better because the Aggies won that game last night,” Vaughn said.

Stone echoed his coach’s sentiment.

“I think it was a good win for us,” Stone said. “We got to come out here and show we got. In the ninth inning, the first two guys put us in a tough position but we responded well and kind of came together as a team and got the big hit to come out on top.”

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie ROCK CLIMBING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

munity within their tightknit group. That feeling of togetherness extends to competitions at other schools where hospitality is the norm.

“Just over a year ago we went to our Stanford University competition with just five members,” Hopkins said. “Watching other local colleges with teams of 15 to 20 was intimidating, but the collegiate climbing community is incredibly welcoming and encourages such a positive atmosphere, and we ended up having a great experience.”

Hopkins went on to say that at its following meet at Sacramento State in March of 2016, the UC Davis club had over twice as many members. It now has about 30 regular members.

“I hope to continue to establish our community among climbers at Davis so that we could continue to help connect people,” Hopkins said.

Ann Grotjahn, a second-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major, joined the club in Fall Quarter of 2016.

“I have had such a positive experience so far, everyone has been so welcoming and encouraging,” Grotjahn said. “What I really love about this club is that whether you are serious about climbing or just want some people to climb with on weekends, there is something for everyone and everyone is welcome!”

The rock climbing club is still fairly new, but will continue to grow with a steady influx of both beginning and experienced climbers. Those interested in getting involved can visit the Davis Climbing Facebook page to find updates and information on the team.

Another Facebook group called Davis Climbing Club is a forum in which people can post to arrange climbing meetups; those interested can directly message the page or contact one of the officers.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

thing where people can really learn and see how the steps get put together, and how they can create something really cool that they didn’t think they were capable of before,” Roberts said.

All in all, the evening can’t go wrong with a paintbrush in one hand and a wine glass in the other.

“Paint n’ Sip” hosted by Cork It Again Wines Sunday, March 19 2 to 4 p.m. $35, $3-4/glass of wine 21 years and older For Cork It Again, pairing wine and paint is not a novel concept. The small tasting room in downtown Davis has been hosting these events for a little over a year, but, because they host the event outside the tasting room, they are more frequent once the weather gets warmer.

The $35 fee includes all painting supplies, but beverages are not included. With an array of fine wines, however, Cork It Again discounts their wine to $3 to $4 per glass.

In addition to hosting their own events, Cork It Again will bring the party to you.

“We do private parties, too,” said Jake Lenz, the operations manager for Cork It Again. “We’ve even gone to different offices in the area. We have everything — tables, supplies, wine.”

Lenz noted that the instructors for each painting event vary, but the current instructors are all previous or current UC Davis students. Many of the instructors’ work has also been featured in their tasting room.

Similar to the Pence Gallery, Cork It Again ensures that the instructors move slowly and carefully to accommodate all levels of painting experience.

“Everyone’s usually scared to do it, and really, you shouldn’t be,” Lenz said. “Everybody in the class is a beginner — most people have never even painted before. But the instructors make it really easy, so it’s literally like step-by-step.”

The event accommodates a maximum of 20 people, so those interested are encouraged to pre-register on the Cork It Again’s website.

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vinced that all Scorpios are the devil incarnate, so prove her wrong this week by donating all of your savings to her GoFundMe project, which is to build life-size iCarly character statues made of celery, homemade pesto and pure gold. The universe is sure to send you karma points for supporting her dream, and I can finally stop having to listen to ol’ Grammy talk about how all Scorpios should burn in the eternal flames of hell, so you’ll be doing us both a favor.

Sagittarius: My charismatic pal, your charm is sure to come in handy in the upcoming weeks, as an eclipse is rotating at the 90th angle of your solar plexus, transcending through Venus’ Achilles heel, making its rounds to Mars and finally stopping in your north node on the dark side of the moon. I’m an expert, so trust me when I say that this will be the ideal time to propose to the person who you’ve been dating for 2 months.

Capricorn: A black cat named Saint Roberta will touch you gently with her paw and you will feel instantly rejuvenated and ready to take on the brutal week ahead. Until then, take care of yourself, my friend.

Aquarius: Everybody knows you as the intellectual one of the group, so why not summon some courage this week, show up early to class and start to teach the day’s lecture? Your professor is bound to be impressed, and if not, look them deep in the eyes and announce your new found dominance with a “Look at me… I’m the captain now!” With this type of attitude, the whole world can be yours.

Pisces: If the haunting terror of being alive is getting to you this week, sit back, take a deep breath and take solace in your favorite memes. Can you relate to the quiet surrender and defeat of Pepe, or does the sheer panic portrayed in the Mr. Krabs meme make you feel like you are not alone? Either way, I’m told that memes are the stuff of stardust, so use them to your advantage in these difficult times.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

10 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

ARTS & Culture UC Davis Basement Gallery hosts exhibition dedicated to International Women's Day

Art of protest used to enact social change

B RIA N A N GO / AG GIE

BY BEC KY L EE arts@theaggie.org

Protest in today’s political atmosphere is not only necessary, but also an outlet for artists to use art as a form of social change. From the Dakota Access Pipeline protests to the Women’s March, art has been used as a powerful tool in protest for marginalized voices to be heard and remembered.

The UC Davis Basement Gallery, a student-run gallery located in Room 60 of the Art Building, accepts submissions from members of both the university and the Davis community to showcase in the gallery’s exhibitions. Its latest exhibition was titled “She Persisted: The Art of Protest” to celebrate International Women’s Day. The theme was focused on the Women’s March that occurred on Jan. 21, 2017. Although the gallery is small, each piece of art spoke volumes, and consisted of various mixed media and subject matters.

Seeing the paraphernalia from the Women’s March in person and all the handmade posters was deeply moving — with each stroke of the artists’ paintbrush creating words and images that made a permanent mark in history. These artists were able to convey messages that transcended traditional, mainstream feminism and used their creativity to address issues that are in many ways ineffable.

As an artist myself, I understand art not only as a powerful method of self-expression, but also as an aperture to escape suffering and an opportunity for healing.

While the Women’s March became a topic of controversy regarding inclusivity and intersectionality, it was still a significant step toward greater change.

My favorite piece from the gallery was a twopart embroidery piece — one using a tampon stitched with red thread and embroidered lettering and another using an empty birth control packet

L AU R A LO N G / AG G I E

attached to it. The utilization of traditional embroidery with a twist struck me as innovative and almost brave. The meticulous details and needlework alone were astounding, but the use of these very intimate and oftentimes shamed daily objects that I depend on was empowering, to say the least.

Seeing memorabilia from and inspired by the Women’s March this past January reminded me of how much we need voice, agency and autonomy to represent all women, whether it is through art, speech, education or political action.

Helena Zittel, the director of PR and marketing at the Basement Gallery, understands how important it is for us to use our voices to make a political and social difference.

“I think that protest is an opportunity to fully understand that we don’t have to be passive and that we have voices and that we have means of making them be heard and making real change,” Zittel said.

Finals motivation playlist

Essential tunes to get you through week 10 and finals

BY SY D NEY OD M A N arts@theaggie.org

1. “Build Me Up Buttercup” – The Foundations The anticipation of spring break is upon us; the days are sunnier, and, along with that, your mood a little brighter. It’s all fun and games at the end of winter quarter — that is, until week 10 hits like a freight train. Keep your spirits up with this catchy tune as you begin studying for what may seem like an eternity.

2. “FourFiveSeconds” – Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney And so it begins. Whether it be at the library, the CoHo or your dorm room, you hole up in your favorite study spot and begin your downward spiral into a mass of flashcards and practice tests.

As soon as you start, it feels as if it’s about time to give up. You “woke up an optimist,” but you’re not feeling so confident anymore. Don’t “spaz” yet, though — you can do this!

3. “Stronger” – Kanye West As the self-proclaimed “Yeezus” once wisely said, “now that that don’t kill me can only make me stronger.” In a strange way, your struggles leading up to finals week will only build you up! Your future self will thank you later for all your hard work.

4. “Anna” – Will Butler Despite what the memes may say, GPA is not forever. So don’t stress too much, “nail your worries to the cross,” and take care of yourself this finals week.

5. “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell As the determined and studious UC Davis students we all are, there truly is no mountain too high for us to conquer. I always find that when morale is low, Gaye and Terrell’s iconic duet never fails to lift me back up.

6. “Here Comes The Sun” – The Beatles “It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter” but nev-

er fear, because the rising temperatures can only mean we’re that much closer to finishing Winter Quarter. Relax, take a break and de-stress with one of my favorite Beatles tunes of all time.

7. “Finish Line/Drown” – Chance the Rapper When it comes to motivational music, no one inspires quite like Chance. With his uplifting lyrics and gospel-esque beats, the entire Coloring Book album is the perfect soundtrack to push you through those last few days leading up to finals.

We can “see the finish line!”

8. “Baby’s On Fire” – Die Antwoord Once you’ve successfully defeated all of your finals, and the blood, sweat and tears that were shed have finally washed away, it’s time to celebrate!

After spring break comes Spring Quarter, which means that the greatest time of the year for UC Davis students is upon us. Jam to the eccentric beats of Die Antwoord and go get a tan — you earned it.

FARAH FARJOOD / AGGIE

Vegan Eats at the CoHo What’s available for vegan eaters at this quintessential UC Davis eatery?

BY CAR OLI NE R UTTEN arts@theaggie.org

“If I was a picky eater, I don’t think I could be vegan,” said Danny O’Brien, a vegan and first-year environmental science and management major. “Your options can be limited at times, but that comes with being vegan.”

Indeed, eating vegan restricts the variety of foods you can consume. Restaurant options and eating nonhome-cooked meals can also become a hassle. And for busy college students, quick on-the-go options are a must. The Coho in the center of campus is often the spot for such meals, but what are the options for vegan students?

“At the CoHo, we have vegan options in every restaurant,” said Lily Johnson, a third-year sociology major and a CoHo employee. “Some restaurants have more options than others, but we are told in the training process what is vegan and what is not vegan. Everything we serve is labeled vegan or not. If we have any questions we can ask the supervisor, but all the information is provided to us.”

Johnson named specific vegan options at Swirlz including chocolate chip cookies, snowball cookies, almond shortbread, coconut fudge bars and cupcakes.

One of the most popular options there is the vegan peanut butter Rice Krispie treats.

“Our deli bread is also vegan except for the greek yogurt bun, and you can put veggies on to make a vegan sandwich,” Johnson said. “The tofu salad is also vegan.”

In O’Brien’s opinion, TxMx is a good CoHo option for vegans.

“TxMx is actually good because you can substitute beans instead of meat, and the meal actually fills you up rather than just a salad at Croutons,” O’Brien said.

“I also like the tofu chili at Cooks and bagels with avocado spread.”

Staple foods for vegans include beans, hummus and avocado, according to O’Brien, which can be provided and substituted at most restaurants in the CoHo. “Really the only restaurant that is off-limits for vegans is the the pizza place, Ciao,” O’Brien said.

For vegan Samy Richards, a fourth-year design major who worked at the CoHo last year, staples like nuts, grains, beans and vegetables make up her diet.

“I either eat vegetable sushi, a vegetarian sandwich with dairy-free bread or a salad from Croutons,” Richards said. “I never have had a problem eating at the CoHo or accommodating for customers when I used to work at the CoHo.” Johnson agreed that CoHo employees are eager to help vegan patrons navigate the different options at the CoHo — all one has to do is ask.

“We at the CoHo are all more than happy to help.

It is never an extra hassle to accommodate for a vegan customer,” Johnson said. “I think we do the best we can, but we are always open to more suggestions to make things more welcome to vegan eaters.”

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017| 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

L I QU ID H OT P L AT E S / CO URTESY

Liquid Hotplates take home first place in a cappella competition A cappella choir to move on to ICAA semifinals

BY M YA H DA N I E L S arts@theaggie.org

UC Davis’ very own a capella group, the Liquid Hotplates, has been chosen to compete at the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella (ICCA) Tournament on March 25.

After winning the Northwest quarterfinal a few weeks ago, the group is now advancing to Salem, Oregon, where it will sing against groups from Stanford, Oregon, Utah and Washington. If they win the semifinals, they will advance to nationals in New York City.

“I think we have a really good chance,” said Calvin Htet, a fourth-year computer science major who won the award for outstanding soloist at the competition. “We scored among the top 5 out of

40-something groups in our region, so I think we have a really good likelihood of getting to the finals.”

The group has been putting in extra rehearsal time to prepare for its upcoming competition. It is focusing on micro-tuning fine details from its quarterfinal set.

“We are not going to change what works,” said Tristan Bonds, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major and the co-music director of the group.

“The goal is to pinpoint the areas we need to focus on,” added Maddy Dufek, a fourth-year biological sciences major and the other outstanding solo winner. “We are really going to tailor our changes to the judges comments we got from the last competition.”

One notable aspect of the group is its unique

sound, which is achieved by taking elements from several types of music and mixing them together.

“It is kind of jazzy, R&B and pop-style,” Dufek said. “Every group has different styles. The goal in a capella, especially when competing is to take a song and make it your own [...] A lot of groups do traditional barbershop style which can be very cookie cutter and safe. It is fun to listen to, but not as exciting or stimulating.”

The Liquid Hotplates are a completely studentrun group. The members do everything from fundraising to music rehearsals all by themselves. Music directors Cole Hofberg and Tristan Bonds frequently work off one another to come up with new arrangements for the group.

“We come from different genre backgrounds,” said Cole Hofberg, a third-year civil engineering

A LEXA FON TA N ILLA / AGGIE

major. “I wanted to do more kind of R&B hip-hop kind of stuff, and [Tristan] wanted to do jazz.”

The combination of different styles seems to work well for the group. Their unique sound helps them stand out from the competition.

“We are doing a version of ‘Cocoa Butter Kisses’

by Chance the Rapper,” Dufek said. “Our music director, Cole, made it a much more melodic edition.

It has a really nice R&B sound. It is really different and really fun. By the end of the song we are all just belting.”

The Liquid Hotplates will be traveling over eight hours on March 25, the day after finals schedule ends, in order to compete in the tournament, which runs from 7 to 11 p.m.

For more details, please visit the Liquid Hotplates’ and ICAA event pages.

MORG A N T IEU / AGG IE

Local venues host wine and painting classes

Seeking advice? Check out this week’s horoscope

Cork It Again wine seller, Pence Gallery to provide visitors with drinks, painting supplies

For those with a sense of humor, these readings are sure to bring some much-needed insight (plus a good laugh)

BY ALLY OV ERBAY arts@theaggie.org

For many, painting is intimidating; the thought of a blank canvas and infinite combinations can easily be overwhelming. Fortunately, thanks to the Pence Gallery and Cork It Again wine seller, painting is made simpler with step-by-step instructions — and of course, some alcoholic beverages.

“Canvas and Cocktails” hosted by Pence Gallery Saturday, March 18 and Saturday, March 25 $45/person, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

15 years and older After the success of the Pence Gallery’s first few “Canvas and Cocktail” events beginning in January of this year, Kelly Roberts, the painting instructor and fourth-year art studio and economics double major, hopes to make it a recurring event.

“I thought Davis and the Pence Gallery would benefit from those kinds of classes — there would be a draw and people would be interested,” Roberts said. “So I proposed the idea and outlined costs and what we would need to start it. [...] So [Nelson and I] bought supplies and set some dates.”

Natalie Nelson, the director and curator for the Pence Gallery, has since worked with Roberts to host the “Canvas and Cocktails” events on a regular basis.

“We had a really great response the first time around; people really liked it,” Nelson said.

“There’s a lot of these in Sacramento, but there’s nothing here being offered anyways, so I think the community will really like it.”

Before Roberts begins her instruction, the evening starts with a few glasses of wine, chocolates and various appetizers. The $45 fee includes the instruction, all supplies and beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Roberts then slowly guides visitors through the step-by-step painting process. Unlike other similar programs, Roberts emphasizes the educational aspect of her lessons.

“I’d like to think I provide a little more teaching, and a little more instruction than most of these classes,” Roberts said. “I think the painting that we do during the paint parties [...] they’re a little more in-depth, they’re a little more challenging. Which is to inspire people to get out and paint more, and not just doing a swirly blue thing with some stars on it.”

Nelson, who herself has attended one of these events, notes that the process is easy to follow for someone at any level of experience.

“Once she goes through the paint (this time we’re doing a still life with wine bottles and a wineglass), [Roberts] starts with what brush to use and what color to mix — she goes really slowly through everything so that you feel comfortable doing it,” Nelson said. “Towards the end, people bring them up, or ask questions, and then we share them. It’s fun to talk to friends [..] it’s all very light-hearted.”

The subject of the paintings vary with each event, so anyone who enjoyed the experience can always return. Roberts admits she prefers landscapes or still-lifes, but primarily wants to challenge her students.

“I tend to like to do landscapes, or just someWINE on 9

Aries: Has your mind recently been plagued by the incessant, inescapable thoughts about the inevitable passage of time? Do you feel that you have yet to find your purpose in life, that every waking second is a reminder that our precious time on Earth is fleeting and that all we truly have are the connections we make with other living beings?

If so, the stars say, “I feel you.” That’s all I got. I’m so afraid.

distance and preferably cover your eyes at all times.

Taurus: Quick question for you, Taurus: What qualities do you look for in a romantic partner?

I’m asking for a friend, so please email me immediately to share your input. Oh, I almost forgot — you’ll find a $100 bill on the ground, but it will be cursed, so just give it to someone you can’t stand.

Virgo: It’s universally acknowledged that you are the superior sign of the Zodiac, and please don’t argue with me on this one, as this was confirmed by the late and great astronomer Carl Sagan. Anyways, I wanted to tell you that you are a ray of sunshine in this cruel and unforgiving world, and that you deserve to live forever and accomplish all of your goals in this life.

Gemini: My lovely Gemini, if you have been seeking the advice of a higher power this week, keep your eyes on the ground, for the stars are telling me that an ancient rat will deliver a special message to you. His name is Great Albert, and you’re probably wondering if he will pass on a horrific disease to you as he whispers in your ear. The answer is: probably, but it will be worth it. Great Albert only accepts 7 ounces of brie cheese as payment, so make sure to have that on you at all times, just in case…

Cancer: Does the thought of the upcoming weeks terrify you to no end? If so, rejoice in the simple things in life, like nature! The famous turkeys of Davis have nothing but good intentions, and bonding with the usually ravenous squirrels will surely put your mind at ease. Just keep your

Leo: It’s bound to be a rough week for you when it comes to communicating with a housemate and please note that it will be your fault.

Maybe you haven’t done your share of the dishes or taken out the trash? And when was the last time that you cleaned the bathroom when it was clearly your turn? It’s really not that difficult.

Libra: “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy. There’s vomit on his sweater already: Mom’s spaghetti…” These moving and iconic words were written by none other than your fellow Libra, Eminem. You have artistic blood flowing through your veins, and the stars are telling me that you must sign up for the next rap battle in your town, regardless of talent and previous experience. Remember, this week’s goal is solely to make Marshall Mathers proud, so if you were planning to study for finals, just toss that idea out the window right now.

Scorpio: My otherwise sweet grandma is conHOROSCOPES on 9

12 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

BIG WEST RECAP

STEIN

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West semifinals. The Titans came into the game red hot after a late season surge and did not go down quietly. Once again, Moneke and Lemar rose to the challenge; Lemar led all scorers with 23 points, and Moneke posted 19 points and added 14 rebounds.

While Lemar led the Aggies offensively, it was Moneke who played the hero role. With the game in overtime, tied at 64, with four seconds remaining, Aggie sophomore guard Siler Schneider tossed up a wild three pointer as time expired, missing the rim and ricocheting off of the backboard. Moneke grabbed the offensive rebound and tipped in the winning bucket to give the Aggies the thrilling 6664 win.

The UC Davis men’s basketball team’s wild finish set the stage for a final showdown against UC Irvine.

The Aggies came into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder. Just last week, the team was embar-

rassed in the regular season finale for the winnertake-all regular season Big West title.

With this 30 point blowout at the hands of the Anteaters in mind, the Aggies demonstrated an intense defensive effort, as they held the Anteaters to a season-low 16 points in the first half. In the second half, UC Irvine Big West Player of the Year Luke Nelson swung the momentum in the Anteaters’ favor with a steal and two critical layups. The Aggies responded with a late surge behind the gutsy play of Lemar, who scored eight of his 20 points in the final two minutes of the game.

Between Lemar and UC Davis’ relentless defense, UC Irvine could not make up the difference, leading the Aggies to their first ever Big West Championship.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

ian agenda,” Stein said. “You know, [Sanders] was constrained by the Democratic Party, but other than that, our agendas were pretty similar. He couldn’t quite step up to the plate on transforming from a war economy to a Green economy, and there are a few other things that the Democratic Party just won’t let you do, but the other thing that the Democratic Party won’t let you do is win an election.”

Following the election, many Green Party members have advocated against the new administration. England, who formerly supported Sanders, said that there are various ways in which liberal groups have continued to stay active in the current political climate.

“I was one of those people, those who were incredibly depressed by the outcome of the election,” England said. “But ultimately, no matter how hard it can get, there is always a path forward. There is always an avenue for hope and change, things that we can do to try and make differences and sometimes that can be trying to fight within the party to make it better like Justice Democrats, sometimes it can be creating entirely different organizations like Indivisible, and sometimes it can be bolstering third parties to kind of put pressure from the left onto our local, state and national governments to act in the interest of the unsung people on the left that often get ignored by traditional politics.”

Visit theaggie.org for up-to-date information.

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the special advisor to the chancellor from 1996 to 1999, remembered Vanderhoef as having a more holistic perspective than Hullar.

“He was much more in tune with what was going on in the campus,” Powell said. “The year 1990 started the bad budget year, [...and] Larry led this budget-cutting exercise that we had to go through. He led the beginning of the recovery from the budget cuts and how that would be structured. He had to play a much more organic role of leading the campus.”

Under Vanderhoef, the main entrance to the campus was shifted to the south side, and his goal to create a world-class performing arts center manifested into a reality with the Mondavi Center in 2002. Powell also said one underappreciated legacy of Vanderhoef ’s was the addition of UC Davis to the Association of American Universities.

Vanderhoef retired in 2009 and was succeeded by the university’s first female chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi. According to Powell, the majority of faculty members strongly supported Katehi throughout her time as chancellor because of her ability to understand “quality research.”

“One top priority [for Katehi] was definitely to increase the research profile of the university,” Powell said. “A priority that came out of necessity was to create a stable financial model for the university. She definitely wanted to increase the international profile of Davis [and] she wanted to increase the national profile of Davis. Definitely a priority for her [was] women in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics].”

However, Katehi came under fire in November of 2011 when campus police pepper-sprayed student protesters under her reign. Ph.D. candidate Amory Meltzer previously served on the Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholar Welfare committee, where he became familiar with the Reynoso Task Force Report that assessed the pepper spraying incident.

“Reviewing some of the Reynoso Reports [...] certainly made me very aware of the chancellor’s role or lack of a role,” Meltzer said. “That was my first moment of becoming aware of Chancellor Katehi’s presence, and it certainly wasn’t positive. I think, over the years, until she was removed, that definitely hung over her. I would say that for my part and for most other graduate students, I think she was often a non-presence.

She didn’t seem to be part of the community [and] wasn’t directly engaged with students.”

After the incident, Katehi was met with

mounting media and student backlash as details came out about her role in the usage of university funds to scrub the internet of photos from the pepper-spraying incident. Katehi also faced charges of conflicts of interest — including nepotism — and acts of poor judgment, which led to her resignation in August of 2016.

While Meltzer saw most students in support of her resignation, Powell said the majority of faculty were in support of Katehi and wanted her to remain chancellor. Elizabeth Picazo, a second-year neurology, physiology and behavior major and ASUCD representative for the Preparatory Education Committee, said tensions continue to run high after Katehi’s resignation, even almost a year later. “[Her resignation] did leave a lot of grey area,” Picazo said. “It left a lot of anger and distrust of the people who are in charge of student academics and student affairs here. There’s still that distrust [for] a lot of students because that situation had gone on for so long with very little resolution during her time.”

Bisson, who worked closely with Katehi as a member of the Academic Senate, which assists in governing the university as part of the shared governance model, believes Katehi was the chancellor who understood “the heart and soul” of UC Davis the best.

“She had a lot of community support, far more so than I think any of the other chancellors,’” Bisson said. “I think [she] did a lot for the issues on campus — hate crimes, microaggressions, all of those discussions.”

Bisson, Powell, Meltzer and Hastings are pleased with the appointment of Gary May as the seventh chancellor of UC Davis.

“One thing which I think is great is that he’s spent his [...] entire academic career at [...] one institution, which is a commitment that’s very, very positive,” Hastings said. “He appears to have [...] the right kind of personality — somebody who is going to be open, maybe willing to acknowledge different viewpoints and to really listen to the diversity of views across the campus, which is a real challenge. I’m really excited for the future.”

According to Powell, although the same sort of echochamber created during Katehi’s time as chancellor has already started to form around Gary May’s outside income, it is important that the university has an open mind in light of the transition to the new chancellor.

“I think he will bring a lot to the campus,” Powell said. “And we have to be accepting of what he brings.”

the shaky relationship between the newspaper and ASUCD. Dresser told the senate table that by no means is it The Aggie’s aim to act as the enemy to student government, but rather to keep the community informed, and he said that he hopes to work with student leaders to showcase their various efforts and endeavors to the student body.

Finally, the Disability Rights Advocacy Committee chair, Ian Rowland, was confirmed. Academic Affairs Commission chair Hemali Patel, asked Rowland about his plan of action. Rowland explained that since there is no actual system put into place for students with disabilities, it is important to first collect data regarding the needs of the student body.

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Eight of the homes are low-moderate income units for households that are no higher than 120 percent of the area median income (AMI) based on household size and annual gross income.

Fouts will sell the other six homes as middle-income units for households that are no higher than 180 percent of the AMI. Of the 14 homes available, 126 families entered the lottery, with the first 29 spots reserved for qualifying school district employees. David Achimore, a teacher at Davis High School, was the first name chosen in the lottery.

“I went into the lottery knowing that lots of people had applied,” said Achimore in an article from The Davis Enterprise. “It’s good to make the first step.”

In addition to the Grande Vllage development, two other projects are also underway as part of the AOHP: the Villages at Willow Creek and BerryBridge.

The pre-application process for the Villages has ended; however, BerryBridge will be accepting applications until March 17.

“We have a lot of interest in that type of product [affordable single-family homes] in the community,” said Kelly Stachowicz, an assistant city manager. “A lot of people would like to be able to live here, usually because they work here, but they aren’t able to afford a market-rate unit.”

For more information on the AOHP and the breakdown of the AMI for households, visit the city’s website.

ENVIRON AWARD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

Loux, the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Davis, in a press release. “The Environmental Legacy Awards will celebrate sustainability efforts that have made a difference over Davis’s 100-year history.”

Past recipients of the award include The Bike Campaign, ASUCD for Unitrans Bus system, The Davis Food Co-op and the Hallmark Inn. In 2016, winners included the Davis Farmers Market and its Market Manager, Randii MacNear, and Gail Doesken, a teacher at the Davis Waldorf School and Sierra Energy.

The Farmer’s Market celebrated was awarded in the nonprofit category for “improving local quality of life through its services, public education, inspiration and actions related to a commitment to zero waste.”

Gail Doesken, a Davis resident, was awarded in the individual category for “sharing her love of the land and growing things with students, faculty and families in the school community.”

Sierra Energy was awarded in the business category for “[turning] the environmental problem of solid waste into a business venture that provides clean energy solutions.”

A full list of the past winners is available online at the City of Davis website.

As listed officially in the application requirements, the winners are chosen based upon “achievements [that] address a current environmental concern, [...] a record of achievements or actions benefitting the environment,[...] a commitment to continued effort long term, and/or the nominee’s creative implementation or development of an innovative project.” The past winners have been chosen based upon community support through multiple nominations or written letters of support.

The award recipients will be chosen and announced during a city council meeting on April 18, four days before Earth Day. Nomination forms can be found on the Davis City webpage and are due

by March 17.

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global mindset and the ICC’s collaboration with the Peace Corps.

“I believe UC Davis ranks high because of the global perspective of our student body and the outstanding, relevant training they receive as part of their UC Davis studies,” Holland said via email. “Additionally, through the ICC-Peace Corps partnership, UC Davis students have access to information on the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards the Peace Corps provides. The ICC is proud to support these connections and gratified to see the positive impact Peace Corps has on the communities it serves and the personal and career trajectories of so many Aggies.”

In 2016, California ranked first in the U.S. by sending a total 916 Peace Corps volunteers abroad. Since the founding of Peace Corps in 1961, 11,000 UC alumni, from which UC Davis boasts 1,497, have traveled across the world as volunteers. UC Davis alumni are currently volunteering in countries that include Mozambique, Thailand, Peru and Dominican Republic.

“During the 2015-2016 school year, an estimated 860,392 volunteer hours were completed,” said Jaime Hamilton, a student manager for the UC Davis Community Service Resource Center, via email. “I’ve come to believe that [we] are able to complete such an outstanding number of volunteer hours each year because [...] [we] actively foster different traditions and principles of community that instill community members with collectivist ideas that are necessary to promote volunteering on such a large scale.”

Hamilton emphasized the on campus re-

sources geared toward cultivating volunteer opportunities.

“Each year, the Community Service Resource Center hosts the Community Service Fair during fall quarter and the Community Service Awards during spring quarter,” Hamilton said via email. “With this schedule in place, each academic year starts with a chance to become engaged with new community service opportunities and ends with a celebration of displays of outstanding community service involvement.”

Kellen Parish, a first-year graduate student in international agricultural development and former Peace Corps volunteer, described why she believes UC Davis received such high rankings.

“Having done presentations about the Peace Corps for undergraduates in my time here as a graduate student, there is a special energy among undergraduates here in UC Davis,” Parish said via email. “They’re passionate and view themselves as future agents of change. [...] the faculty and staff of the university nourish this.

Peace Corps is a very natural step for any person wanting to get involved in global issues. Davis does a good job of cultivating those people from what I’ve seen.”

Parish felt unfulfilled by her undergraduate career, and chose to volunteer in order to change herself.

“I wanted to make a change and spending two years trying to live in a culture distinctly different from my own seemed like a great way to start,” Parish said via email. “It helped me change the trajectory of my life.”

These views are Parish’s alone and do not reflect Peace Corps.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017 | 13

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

C AT TAY LO R / AGGIE FILE

UC Davis women’s basketball head coach awarded Coach of the Year Jennifer Gross named Big West Conference Coach of the Year, four Aggies honored

BY RYAN BUGSCH sports@theaggie.org

It was a tremendous regular season for the UC Davis women’s basketball team, which finished with a confer-

ence record of 14-2, overall record of 23-6 and a home record of 12-2. The team’s 23 overall wins for the season are the second-highest in their Division I program’s history. UC Davis also earned the title of Big West Champions after defeating CSUN in its last regular season game.

This is the sixth time that the Aggies have earned a regular season title in the program’s history, and sixth-year head coach Jennifer Gross was named Big West Conference Coach of the Year.

This is the first time that Gross was named Coach of the Year since taking over the head coaching position for the program in the 201112 season. During the regular season this year, the Aggies’ win against UC Riverside on March 2 was the 100th win for Gross as head coach of the program.

Additionally, four student-athletes received honors that were voted on by the league’s head coaches. Sophomore forward Morgan Bertsch and junior forward Pele Gianotti were named to the All-Big West first team, the first time that there have been two Aggies on the first team since the 2011-12 season. With these two awards, UC Davis is the only women’s basketball program to have at least one first-team honoree since the program became a part of the Big West Conference in 2007-08.

This was the first time that Bertsch has earned first-team honors, after receiving second-team honors last season as a freshman. She led the Aggies this season by scoring 16.5 points per game, averaging 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. Bertsch also had eight games with 20 points or more this season.

As a sophomore last season, Gianotti received honorable mention selection, but really showed spectators what she was capable of after an incredible junior year, averaging 11.3 points per game and leading the team with 5.9 rebounds

per game. On top of this, she averaged 2.4 assists per game and helped the Aggies achieve an 82 percent free throw shooting percentage, only missing 11 times all year.

Junior guard Dani Nafekh received second-team honors and first-year forward Nina Bessolo was named to the All-Freshman team.

Bessolo’s award was the third straight year and and the seventh time overall that the Aggies have had one of the league’s top freshman.

To go along with her second-team honors, Nafekh was also named UC Davis’ Big West Female Scholar Athlete of the Year, and her second-team honor was her first career all-conference honor. She finished the regular season with 11.6 points per game, 2.93 assists per game, ranking among the league leaders in both of these categories. She is currently ranked in the top 10 for UC Davis women’s basketball all-time career assists.

Bessolo averaged 4.6 points per game and 2.7 rebounds per game, appearing in 28 of the team’s 29 games off the bench. She also finished with double-digit stats four times in the regular season.

The UC Davis women’s basketball team hoped to continue its season’s success with the Big West Conference Tournament last Friday, March 10, in Anaheim, Calif. The Aggies’ firstplace finish in the regular season allowed them to advance straight to the semifinals, as they were the first seed. Unfortunately, the team lost to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 73-59, ending their hopes of being Big West Conference Tournament champions.

AGGIES CLAIM VICTORY OVER HUSKIES IN SERIES FINALE UC Davis baseball team salvages 7-6 win against UConn, but loses series 2-1 N ICKI PA DA R / AGG IE

BY LIZ JACOBSON sports@theaggie.org

After losing to the University of Connecticut Huskies 7-4 on Friday and 9-6 on Saturday, the Aggies rallied to win on Sunday, March 12, which they secured with a sacrificed pop-fly to score the winning run.

The Aggies had a challenge in front of them, but the team was focused on remaining strong and fighting until the last inning.

“Coming into today, it’s kind of a gut check,” said head coach Matt Vaughn. “How are we going to be? We got beat on Friday, basically threw it away on Saturday, so are we going to be tough today? We came out and played tough and found a way to get the win, so I’m really proud of their efforts today.”

The Aggies took the field with senior pitcher Justin Mullins on the mound and senior catcher Ignacio Diaz behind the plate for the third time this series. After a scoreless first inning, the Huskies managed a 3-1 lead in the second inning, courtesy of a bad throw to first base with the bases loaded.

Both teams battled hard in the third inning, each scoring two runs.

“It was a good game,” Diaz said. “We played hard. We fought the entire game. I mean, we had some runs and they got some runs, but we stayed strong.”

NICHOLAS CHAN / AGGIE

Softball (La Rue Field)

Thursday, March 16 vs. Bryant University at 3:30 p.m.

Friday, March 17 vs. Saint Mary’s at 1:15 p.m.

Friday, March 17 vs. North Dakota at 3:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 18 vs. Saint Mary’s at 1:15 p.m.

Saturday, March 18 vs. Princeton at 3:30 p.m.

Sunday, March 19 vs. Princeton at 1:15 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse (Aggie Stadium)

Thursday, March 16 vs. Columbia at 5 p.m.

Women’s tennis (Marya Welch Tennis Center)

Friday, March 17 vs. Weber State at 3 p.m.

Women’s water polo (Schaal Aquatics Center)

Saturday, March 18 vs. CSUN at 12 p.m.

Men’s tennis (Marya Welch Tennis Center)

Saturday, March 18 vs. Yale at 12 p.m.

BASEBALL UCONN on 9

IA N J O N E S / AGGI E

Hanging around with the Rock Climbing Club

BY DAVID FLORES sports@theaggie.org

C I E RA PAST UR E L / AGGI E FI LE

UC Davis women’s basketball team falls short in Big West Conference tournament UC Santa Barbara wins 73-59 with strong third quarter

BY BRA D L EY G EI S E R sports@theaggie.org

Members of the UC Davis women’s basketball team headed into the Big West Conference Tournament with a 14-2 conference record, including 10 straight wins to close out the regular season. The Aggies were not required to play until the semifinals, since they secured the top record going into the tournament.

Facing the 15-15 Gauchos from UC Santa Barbara, the Aggies were supposed to have the advantage. However, the Gauchos came prepared, and, thanks to a 23-point third quarter, were able to build a large advantage that the Aggies were unable to overcome, eventually winning the game 73-59.

Junior guard Rachel Nagel led the team in scoring with

18 points to go with five rebounds and an assist. Sophomore forward Morgan Bertsch and junior forward Pele Gianotti each pitched in 12 points of their own. This scoring was not enough to match the onslaught from the Gauchos, as two of their players rallied with 21 and 23 points.

However, there is still more basketball to be played: While the NCAA tournament is out of the picture now the Aggies lost the semifinal, they secured a berth to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) by their regular season success. The women’s basketball team will play University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 17 at 5 p.m.

Regardless of the WNIT’s outcome, the Aggies can still build off of the successful year, since most of the team is eligible to return for next season.

The Rock Climbing Club is one of the more recent additions to the clubs on campus, after a group of students decided to bring the rock climbing community back to Davis. Jonathan Hopkins, a second-year computer science and engineering and cinema and digital media double major, spearheaded its resurgence.

“When I started going to school here I came into contact with a former member of the club as well as an alumni who gave me a lot of club advice,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins, the president of the organization, wasn’t alone in the process for getting the club started. The summer before attending UC Davis, he had reached out to other rock climbing devotees, including Amanda Milici, a second-year environmental science and management major, and Emily Nguyen, a second-year French and neurobiology, physiology and behavior double major, over Facebook. Together, they came up with a collaborative plan to

bring the rock climbing community back to campus. It wouldn’t be until the start of the following Winter Quarter in 2016, the start of competition season, that they would decide to seek official club status.

The club is part of the Northern California Region Collegiate Climbing Series, which allows them to compete with other colleges in the region.

Milici, the events coordinator for the Rock Climbing Club, explained that during winter competition, events are held on indoor rock walls. The walls are short enough for climbers to go without the use of a rope and the floors are padded in case of a fall.

According to Milici, the competition atmosphere tends to be laid back.

“Everyone just climbs together,” Milici said. “All of the other schools cheer each other on, and you never really feel like you’re competing.”

Members of the club enjoy the closeness and camaraderie of the rock climbing comROCK CLIMBING on 9

14 | THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE