Pride Festival comes to campus June 2
The second annual event will feature drag performances, student clubs and vendors
BY SYDNEY AMESTOY campus@theaggie.org
ASUCD’s second annual Pride Festival is returning to the Memorial Union Quad on June 2 from 3-8 p.m.
The event will feature numerous vendors selling crafts and food, along with a performance by the student pole dancing club and shows from local drag queens, according to fourth-year American studies and neurobiology, physiology and behavior double major Emma Bishoff.
Bishoff, along with secondyear communication major Hallie Wong, are this year’s ASUCD Pride Festival co-chairs. The two have been working throughout the year to organize June’s event, which is new to UC Davis as of last year.
Some of the tasks that went into organizing this year’s festival included gathering student volunteers to help table and run the event, as well as bringing in new vendors and entertainment not featured at the inaugural event.
“This year, it’s bigger,” Bishoff said. “I would say [there are] aspects of the festival that are unique to the queer and trans community like drag performance. We’re also having tarot readers come, and we’re having a Henna artist. So we’re having a lot of activities.”
Many of the vendors being brought in are local, according to Wong. “This event also provides a
platform for local businesses and small businesses owned by queer and trans individuals,” Wong said.
The Pride Festival was recently designated an ASUCD unit. Last year, it was organized by the ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission with a relatively small budget, but this year, it was granted a budget of $10,000. “[The budget] definitely alleviated
a lot of the stress, because last year, we didn’t have [much] funding, and nobody believed in the event because it had never happened,” Bishoff said. “[Now] it was like people had confidence in us, which was nice. We could take a little bit of a deep breath.”
Pride Month at UC Davis is celebrated throughout the month of May, rather than the nationally recognized month
Women’s Resources and Research Center presents 18th annual Feminist Film Festival
The festival featured 24 short films centered around the theme of solidarity
BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org
On May 18 and 19 from 6-10 p.m., a number of students and local community members gathered in the Student Community Center (SCC) multipurpose room to view a selection of 24 short films that were curated by eight undergraduate interns for the Davis Feminist Film Festival.
Put on by the UC Davis Women’s Resources and Research Center (WRRC), the theme for the 18th annual festival was “solidarity,” with sub-themes of survival, resistance, motherhood and intergenerational struggles. The event was free to all, and attendees enjoyed short films from around the world with snacks and drinks provided. The event also featured a photo booth and raffle prizes including gift bags filled with film posters, a t-shirt designed by one of the interns, a gift card to the CoHo and other goodies from the WRRC.
The annual grassroots event seeks to link art to social issues, as the festival screens independent films in the experimental, narrative and documentary genres that highlight perspectives that might be missing from more mainstream media. The festival accepts local, national and international submissions from professionals, students
and community members, with the goal of creating a public space for filmmakers with marginalized racial and gender identities to showcase their art on the topic of social inequalities.
Third-year international relations major and Film Curation and Lineup Co-Chair Erika Au said that there were around 700 film submissions this year, which were narrowed down to a select 24 films by the interns. Interns screened films in pairs and each pair watched about three hours of films a week for months leading up to the festival to narrow down the selections.
“We didn’t think it was a good idea to ignore stories that were difficult to talk about, so we included those, but we also wanted some that brought light and hope into their stories,” third-year Asian American studies and cognitive science double major and Technology and Logistics Chair Mia Chi said. “We talked a lot about what feminism is when we were planning this festival […] thinking about all of those things and how [feminism] looks in different ways and in different places and circumstances.”
At the end of the festival, audiences voted on their favorite films for each day of the event. The audience’s award selection for day one of the festival was a film from Germany called “Matapacos” by directors Karla Riebartsch and Lion Durst. “Matapacos” is based on the famous Chilean “riot dog” Negro Matapacos, a stray dog who gets to know Maria, a young protester.
The audience’s favorite from day two of the festival was “ElHalabiyeh” by Palestinian director Rana Abushkhaidem. “El Halabiyeh” is a film personal to Abushkhaidem, as it is a story about her grandmother set the night before her heart surgery. It is all about opening the doors to the memories of her life in Aleppo, Jaffa and Hebron.
“I worked on this film with all my heart,” Abushkhaidem said via email. “When I started submitting it to film festivals, I was somehow picky [with] where to send it. I always tried to find something warm and familiar in each film festival I sent my film to. When I read about Davis Feminist Film Festival, I felt it.”
She said that having her film screened around the globe is a pleasure and that when she got the news that her film was chosen as one of the audience favorites, she was proud and happy. She said that she immediately called her grandmother to tell her the news.
“El-Halabiyeh fits into the theme of the feminist film festival because it tells the story of a woman who struggled and fought for her and her thirteen daughters’ lives in a complicated community and cruel political situation,” Abushkhaidem said.
On the first day of the festival, some people stumbled upon the festival while walking by the SCC and ended up joining the event at the last minute. On the second day of the festival, several organizations, such as individuals associated with the WRRC and Students for Reproductive Justice, also tabled at the event.
“I hope that audiences learn that there are so many different types of ways that feminism can be viewed in different cultural contexts,” third-year sociology major and Audience Engagement Chair Sara Tareen said. “Watching the films that I screened and then watching them again at the festival, I learned so much about so many different cultures and so many different types of people. When screening the films, that’s what I had in mind, I wanted the audience to be able to learn from these films [...] It’s so important to learn other stories and other perspectives, and I feel like we did a really good job of doing that this year.”
The festival is not a part of the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center’s May Pride Month events, but according to Bishoff, it shares the same themes of resilience.
“Right now, in our country, we’re at a very important moment,” Bishoff said. “The people who are standing up and saying we are proud of this community, and we are here to support it, I think that every chance we have to do that, we must. This event is not just to be fun and celebratory. It’s also a protest [to say], ‘We are we are here, we are we exist, we matter and we’re going to take up space.’”
Both Wong and Bishoff emphasized what they see as the importance of an event like this, both for the LGBTQIA+ community on campus and individually. According to Wong, her attendance at last year’s Pride as a freshman was one of the main factors that encouraged her to take on the co-chair position.
of June, because of the fact that many students aren’t in Davis over the summer. ASUCD and the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center have been putting on numerous events throughout the month so far. The LGBTQIA+ Resource Center’s events were themed around ‘Rage and Resilience,’ which Bishoff said was inspired by the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City.
“Celebrating and uplifting the queer and trans community and just knowing that I can contribute or help contribute this year, I’m incredibly honored to be a part of this new tradition,” Bishoff said. “I’m super excited and proud of this event and I hope it carries on forever.”
New carbon farming techniques can help mitigate climate change
City-owned farm Howat Ranch sets precedent in Yolo County area for offsetting carbon emissions
BY ZOE SMITH city@theaggie.org
In collaboration with Yolo County Resource Conservation District, the city of Davis’s Community Development and Sustainability department is working to implement carbon farming techniques that will enhance the local habitat while also drawing as much carbon from the air. Chris Gardner, the city’s open space lands manager, and Tracie Reynolds, the manager of the leases and the open space program, are heading the project for the city.
This is all happening on one specific farm: Howat Ranch, a 760-acre cityowned agricultural property that is the first of its kind in Davis. In 2019, the city of Davis began to use carbon farming techniques on Howat Ranch after they were approached by the Carbon Cycle Institute, a group that uses and promotes farming practices that create increased carbon capture in hopes of combating climate change.
Pelayo Alvarez worked for the Carbon Cycle Institute for over seven years and said that his team initially brought the idea of carbon farming to the city of Davis. The Carbon Cycle Institute partners with resource conservation districts, such as the Yolo County RCD, as well as landowners, farmers and forest owners to implement conservation practices using certain funding programs.
“Most of the funding is from federal programs, like Natural Resources Conservation Service, EQIP Program or Conservation Stewardship Program,” Alvarez said. “We help the landowners find the funding and then help them with technical assistance. We’re trying to promote carbon farming across the state.” On Howat Ranch, the city is using a
two-prong approach to mitigate climate change by reducing tillage and planting hedgerows in farming practices.
One of these habitat-enhancing techniques is called “hedgerows,” which are strips of densely planted trees or shrubs that provide wind breaks on the farm. This creates better conditions for healthy soil and provides biodiversity on the farm.
Reynolds and Gardner’s team has already planted 200 trees and shrubs on Howat Ranch and plan to plant more. The city is also working on a plan to turn 200 acres of Howat’s farmland into a wetland.
To increase carbon capture, the farmers who rent Howat Ranch also uses crop rotation, which means over the span of four or five years, he plants different crops to keep the soul healthy. The crops in the rotation are alfalfa, winter wheat and either sunflowers or safflower. He has also converted all his farm equipment to Tier 4 engines, which are the cleanest in terms of emissions, and practices reduced tilling.
This means that “He tries to pass over the land once and he only goes down about six inches,” according to Reynolds.
All of these practices help to keep the carbon that’s already in the ground there while improving soil composition and health. Together, these actions limit the amount of carbon emitted from producing crops.
“The city just recently approved the climate action and adaptation plan called the CAP update,” Reynolds said. “One of the many action items is to do carbon farm plans for the other city agricultural properties. So we’ll be looking into doing a couple more in the next year or so, but right now, this is the only one that we have.”
SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915 THEAGGIE.ORG VOLUME 146, ISSUE 29 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 READ MORE The art of perfume commercials: capturing the bizarre SEE PAGE 6 How fragrance advertisements visually mimic scent (and why they can be so weird). FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA @THECALIFORNIAAGGIE @CALIFORNIAAGGIE @CALIFORNIAAGGIE THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE DONATE TO THE AGGIE CARBONFARMING on 3
Howat Ranch. (Chris Garderner / Courtesy)
UC Davis Women’s Resources and Research Center presents 2023 Davis Feminist Film Festival. (Jersain Medina / Aggie)
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Davis City Council officially recognizes June as Pride Month, sparking debate
City council passed an item that would officially denote June as Pride Month at May 26 meeting
BY HANNAH SCHRADER city@theaggie.org
Content Warning: this article contains discussions of transphobia.
On May 26, the Davis City Council met to address both the new agenda items and the previously scheduled agenda items that were rescheduled in order to prioritize the investigation into the recent stabbings. One of the items on the agenda was to pass an item to officially recognize June as Pride Month in Davis, which sparked controversy during the public opinion section of the meeting.
A Davis resident talked about their trans identity and the importance of supporting LGBTQIA+ youth in Davis during the public comment section.
“If I had never come out of the closet as a trans boy, I would have been dead by last year,” the speaker said. “I understand that some of you are here due to the misconception that we are predators and we sexualize everything that moves, but I’m here to tell you that sickens us to the bone, we are sad that you think that. Queer people have simply existed and love who they love, and you feel threatened? I personally have witnessed the community be nothing but gentle and caring to kids.”
Another concerned Davis resident, who said they spoke on behalf of a friend during the public comment section, criticized the city’s recognition of Pride Month and involvement with the Davis
Phoenix Coalition (DPC).
“Who has given the Davis Phoenix Coalition the authority to sexually emancipate a minor child?” the resident said. “If any adult or teen in attendance [of the Davis pride event] is possibly sexually aroused during the drag show, resulting in a sexual assault of a minor or adult, are there legal implications for the sponsors of this event?”
The DPC is an organization that aims to eliminate intolerance through the cultivation of a more accepting environment and provide Davis with more resources for the LGBTQIA+ community. The director of Yolo Rainbow Families (a DPC program), Anoosh Jorjorian, who also spoke during the recent city council meeting, talked about the tension in Davis surrounding LGBTQIA+ rights at the moment and pointed to Yolo County Moms for Liberty, the group Jorjorian believes is responsible for many anti-trans protests in Davis.
“So the group that currently is using the Moms for Liberty banner, [...] we first found out about them in December at one of the board of education meetings,” Jorjorian said. “But it seems like they’ve settled on Moms for Liberty as the organization that, you know, they’re using that umbrella to advance their anti-trans policies.”
Jorjorian discussed the opposition the DPC has received lately amid the ongoing wave of anti-trans rhetoric around the country.
“We certainly have this national movement against trans rights,”
Jorjorian said. “There have been several articles that have come out about how the GOP selected trans rights as the issue, as [...] what are the main issues that they would be targeting for the 2024 election. So this is a very top-down strategic movement that dovetails with a kind of national GOP agenda.”
The DPC’s presence at the most recent city council meeting was also accredited to showing up for council member Gloria Partida, who is also the chair of the Davis Phoenix Coalition.
“[The DPC has] been focusing a lot of our actions on the school board meetings because that is, you know, where policy about children is decided and things like that,” Jorjorian said. “But poor Gloria had been targeted during these city council meetings for months.”
During the public comment section of the meeting, another resident spoke critically about the announcement and criticized the DPC for their support of trans youth in the community.
“Why is the Davis Phoenix Coalition, an organization founded to counter bigotry toward the lesbian-gay community, completely oblivious to the profound homophobia underpinning gender ideology?” the resident said. “Why are they ignoring the systematic sterilization of gender nonconforming children, who if left to develop naturally, would likely grow up to be happy, healthy homosexuals?”
A young trans kid came up to speak during the public comment, with their parent by their side, to thank the city for its support for the LGBTQIA+
City of Davis partners with Perennial Grazing to use sheep to restore habitats
Davis to use sheep to control plant growth in Open Space Program habitats
BY ALMA CULVERWELL city@theaggie.org
The city of Davis recently began using sheep from Perennial Grazing to combat weeds and other unwanted plant growth in their 60-acre Oak Savannah habitat at the South Fork Preserve, which is part of their Open Space Program.
The Open Space Program was created in 1990 to address the need for more adequate policies to protect local farmland and habitat areas around Davis. The program has since evolved to both acquire and preserve open space around Davis.
The program was made possible due to funding from Measure O, a parcel tax dedicated to open space preservation that was passed in 2000. Measure O, which expires in 2030, has allowed the city of Davis to protect over 2,800 acres of land and secure millions in state and federal open space acquisition grants.
Tracie Reynolds, the open space manager for the city, explained the decision to work with Perennial Grazing and its sheep to help with the Open Space Program.
“We’ve had some issues in the past with just how the sheep were grazing and that it wasn’t really benefiting the
habitat the way we wanted because we primarily manage that property for habitat reasons,” Reynolds said. “And then secondarily it’s for the recreational value of it, for people that take hikes and things like that.”
Reynolds explained how Perennial Grazing’s sheep are helping the habitats.
“Perennial Grazing … has more of an emphasis on doing the grazing in a way that also helps the habitat,” Reynolds said. “What we’re trying to do there is really stimulate the growth of the native grasses as opposed to the weeds.”
Perennial Grazing is a group of ranchers and custom grazers based in the Capay Valley. The company has been in business for the past five years and works to salvage native plants by using grazing as opposed to using herbicides, tilling or irrigation to keep open spaces clean.
Shannon Waldron, a shepherd for Perennial Grazing, shared how sheep grazing works.
“We bring the sheep in once a year and we do what we call ‘mob grazing’ where we build temporary pens — these ones are about two acres — and we bring the sheep in there,” Waldron said. “What the sheep are doing is they’re eating and pooping and trampling on grass and then that leaves [...] a fresh layer.”
The South Fork Preserve is Davis’s largest open space area, as well as a great place to enjoy nature and see wildlife. (Christine Minarik / Aggie)
The city is currently working on several projects as part of the Open Space Program, including the wetlands habitat restoration with UC Davis as well as other habitat restoration projects along the South Fork of Putah Creek. Measure O will be up for renewal in 2030, which Reynolds encouraged community members to vote in favor of.
Davis community shows support for Pride Month by painting rainbow crosswalks
The Davis Phoenix Coalition and volunteers begin their preparations for annual Pride celebration even in the face of protestors
BY ZOE SMITH city@theaggie.org
Content Warning: this article contains discussions of transphobia.
On May 28 at 6 a.m., members of the Davis Phoenix Coalition (DPC) gathered at Central Park to paint nine crosswalks rainbow colors in honor of Pride Month, which is celebrated throughout June. The DPC is a group that works to eliminate intolerance and prevent hate. While the group has painted sidewalks with the classic rainbow colors during Pride before, this is the first year that they have painted the colors of the trans flag on the crosswalks. Dylan Horton has been a member
of the Davis Pride Committee for three years. He and his partner Francisco Lopez Montaño were some of the volunteers that helped paint the crosswalks and bring supplies.
“This is our ninth annual celebration here in the city of Davis, so we’re really proud of that,” Horton said. “This crosswalk painting has only been incorporated as a part of our celebrations for the past couple of years. There’s so much community support around this; a lot of the schools in the K-12 school district have added some rainbow crosswalks to parts of their campus.”
DPC members were notified that there may be protestors from a local conservative group coming to disrupt the painting process, and possibly attempt to wash off the fresh paint. A rainbow
crosswalk at Birch Lane Elementary School had already been washed off by one Davis woman affiliated with the right-wing protestors a few days prior.
“Overwhelmingly, this is a community that supports inclusion and accessibility,” Horton said. “The folks who are coming to our community, I point that out, [are] coming to our community from somewhere else to inject division and wedges between folks in our community. They’re external. They’re not a part of this.”
Only two protestors showed up at the event. They were two Davis parents, Beth and Rick, who preferred not to give their last names in order to protect their privacy. They propped up signs and held a big banner that stated, “Don’t let your body be their piggy bank” and “Loving parents don’t support gender ideology.”
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t wait until after Memorial Day weekend,” Rick said. “That kind of minimizes Memorial Day. They have an entire month next month and could have waited till after. Painting the crosswalk without authorization at a location where there’s going to be a Pride festival. I have a problem with it at schools. I do because that’s putting an ideology in children.”
While there was no confrontation between the protestors and the DPC members at the event, Montaño shared their frustration with the protest and talked about how it harms the community.
community.
“I’m mostly here to say keep supporting us and thank you for all the support Davis has given us,” the speaker said.
Their parent followed and talked about their experience in Davis.
“I wanted to say thank you for declaring [June as] Pride Month,” their parent said. “I remember back in the ‘90s this being the place where I felt safe enough to explore and come out and [Davis] being a great place to raise a kid [because] it’s a safe and supportive community.” Jorjorian was also at the city council meeting and talked about the DPC and the hate they are working to eliminate in Davis.
KELLIE LU / AGGIE
“We were founded on an anti-gay hate crime,” Jorjorian said. “Therefore, our mission has been to stand up for the marginalized, to end hate in Davis and in our region and to bring marginalized voices forward. We would really prefer to not to have to keep coming to these forums, to say that hate is wrong and that discriminating against any community in Davis is wrong and that hate is not an opinion: it is a position that people take. People claim they are ‘progressive liberals’ and they support the LGBTQIA+ community, [but] when they partner with right-wing media, when they dox our members, when they take photos of trans members of our community and put it public on Twitter with an anti-trans slur — that is hate.”
‘I am Davis Pride’: upcoming events and Pride Festival set to celebrate throughout June
Davis Pride to host its ninth annual Pride Festival in Central Park this month
BY CHRIS PONCE city@theaggie.org
This year’s Pride Month will feature a slate of events in the city to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community. The Davis Phoenix Coalition (DPC) has organized a lineup of events that are set to occur primarily during the first weekend of the month, June 2-4. The theme of this year’s pride events is “I am Davis Pride.”
The kick-off event was held on May 28, when volunteers painted nine of Davis’s sidewalks in pride colors. Saturday, June 3 is the free “Skate with Pride” event that will be from 7-9 p.m. at Central Park. Later in the month, there will also be a “Ride with Pride” biking event on June 23 at 6 p.m. that will start at Central Park. The largest events of the year are on June 4, which will feature the annual “Run for Equality” at 8 a.m., followed by this year’s Davis Pride Festival from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Central Park.
Sandré Nelson, who has been the director of Davis Pride for the last nine years, talked about the popularity of the festival and other Davis Pride events.
“We are probably the largest pride event in Yolo County,” Nelson said. “At one point we were even told [we were] the fastest-growing LGBT event in Sacramento Valley. So we’re proud of a lot of the accomplishments we’ve made. And [...], even though San Francisco Pride and Sacrament Pride are great, I think we just bring something different to the table.”
Nelson said that over the last nine years, attendance, vendors and funding for the event have grown. He talked about the theme of this year’s pride and said that the goal is to show the importance of community.
“This year’s theme is ‘I am Davis Pride,’’’ Nelson said. “We came up with the theme to be community-based, [so] everybody who attends or supports in a positive manner: you are a part of our event, our community. We wanted to use that theme this year to stress community.”
The festival will include several vendor and food booths, cultural presentations, exhibits and different musical artists. The headline artist is “Tainted Love,” a San Francisco 80s-themed band.
A press release about the festival by Wendy Weitzel, former managing editor of and current freelance writer for the Davis Enterprise, said that the sentiment of pride is “stronger than ever this year.” Nelson shared why he also agrees with this.
“After everything that just recently happened, and then we have [...] Moms
with Liberty coming in trying to do their thing, [which is] anti-trans [and] antidrag, the sense of pride and community are stronger with us this year and we will definitely be presenting that we are a community that comes together,” Nelson said. “You’re not going to stop us through tragedies, through hate, through whatever. The one thing about the Davis/Yolo community is that you will get us stronger. Don’t push us over the edge because you will what type of community the supporters have.”
Nelson expects that there will be protests in the area in response to the festival. He said there is some concern regarding protesters, but there will be strong security during the events. The conversation surrounding having more security at this year’s pride is also in part a response to the recent stabbings, according to Nelson.
“I’ve been informed that Davis Police will be doing extra patrols and more constant patrols in the area,” Nelson said. “They’ve always been a phone call away and within minutes they’re there. I think we’ve had one or two situations where we needed to call them, but they were right there right away. They try to respect the queer feelings about police and they’re only in places that we need them to produce the event and they’re very respectful. Sometimes a few officers may walk through, check out the booths, get something to eat. But again, the Davis Police are very respectful about the feelings the queer community have about police.”
In addition to the events planned by the DPC, local businesses are hosting a variety of events to show their support for Pride Month. Nelson said Red 88 Noodle Bar will be hosting an event later this month similar to G Street Wunderbar’s previous “Drag Queen Bingo” events. Holly Snyder Thompson, the outreach and event manager for The Avid Reader, shared what the bookstore will be doing to show support for the queer community..
“To celebrate Pride Month, The Avid Reader and Avid & Co. Toy Emporium will be featuring goods made by LGBTQ+ artists and businesses,” Thompson said via email. “Additionally, The Avid Reader will have multiple Pride Month displays throughout the store featuring books by LGBTQ+ authors and illustrators. The Avid Reader is hosting Drag Story Hour, a non-profit organization that captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. This event will take place on Sunday, June 4 at 11 a.m.”
2 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
Sidewalks near Central Park are painted for Pride Month. (Kayla Bruckman / Aggie)
SIDEWALKS on 3
DAVISPRIDE on 3
Davis residents painted the trans Pride flag colors on crosswalks for the first time this year. (Grey Crawford / Courtesy)
UC Davis honors Aggie military veterans at Memorial Day service
The event featured Xóchitl Rodriguez Murillo as the keynote speaker, as well as remarks from Chancellor Gary May
BY JADE BELL campus@theaggie.org
CARBONFARMING
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The California Healthy Soil Program is a statewide program created by the California State Department of Food and Agriculture that will continue to fund writing these plans so that more private- and city-owned farms can implement carbon farming. Funding is also available through the Federal Department of Agriculture, called the National Resource Conservation Service,
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While there was no confrontation between the protestors and the DPC members at the event, Montaño shared their frustration with the protest and talked about how it harms the community.
“What frustrates me personally is the amount of times that individuals will talk about individual freedom and liberty and personal choice, but then make statements like this and pursue policies like these,” Montaño said. “Which so
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On May 25 at 4 p.m., UC Davis honored Aggie military veterans during the 2023 annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Memorial Union’s (MU) North Courtyard. This event commemorated the 136 Gold Star Aggies, or fallen soldiers who were previously enrolled at UC Davis.
The service began with a reading of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Memorial Day proclamation by the Undersecretary for Minority and Underrepresented Veterans Russell Atterberry.
“On Memorial Day, we remember and honor the courageous men and women who laid down their lives to protect our cherished freedoms and way of life,” Atterberry read. “Upholding a solemn tradition that dates back to Decoration Day in 1868, communities across the country will gather to pay tribute to the selfless heroes: our friends, family and ancestors who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our
nation.”
After the reading, Chancellor Gary May provided his statement. This year marked the first time he has spoken at the event since becoming chancellor in 2017.
“It’s an honor to be here to pay my respects and honor the courageous Americans who have died in war while defending our nation and our best ideals,” May said. “I also like to acknowledge those who came home with scars, both physical and mental, and those who never came home and whose fates are still unknown. [On] Memorial Day, we have an opportunity to echo the significance of this important day to our country, our state and our campus.”
May went on to introduce keynote speaker Xóchitl Rodriguez Murillo, the Deputy Secretary for Minority and Underrepresented Veterans and a veteran of the Army Reserve. She shared what Memorial Day means to her and
the purpose of recognizing military veterans.
“I’m honored to be here with you today,” Rodriguez Murillo said. “I address you not only as a representative of Cal Vet but also as a veteran of the United States Army [and] an active member of the Army Reserve. I am a proud graduate of this wonderful university, class of 2008. We, all of us, are here because we know the real meaning of Memorial Day. It’s about remembrance, reverence and respect.”
After the memorial service, a reception for attendees was provided. During this transition period, military veteran Cecil Frank shared what this Memorial Day service meant to him.
“The experience took me back to remembering a lot of the other comrades that were not as lucky to come home as I was, or some of the other folks that came back with me,” Frank said. “I think it’s a good event to remember those that are gone and acknowledge their sacrifice.”
ASUCD 2023-2024 budget hearings result in major cuts to Entertainment Council, Creative Media budgets
The hearings that took place on May 20 and 21 also resulted in increased funding for the creation of paid student positions
BY LILY FREEMAN campus@theaggie.org
The ASUCD 2023-2024 budget was debated and finalized over the weekend of May 20-21 during the annual budget hearings process. The $19 million budget was allocated to various sectors and organizations at UC Davis, according to the ASUCD Budget website, and the Senate had the final say in its distribution.
Senator Jacob Klein explained the initial steps in the budget hearing process. He said that first, each unit and committee funded by ASUCD submits its proposed budget. The ASUCD President then creates an ASUCD-wide proposed budget to be presented based on the budgets proposed by unit and committee directors and their own judgment, and then this budget is deliberated and voted on by the ASUCD Senate.
Senator Stephen Fujimoto explained the next steps in the hearing process, noting that the twelve senators have the final say in the budget under the ASUCD constitution.
“Over the weekend of budget hearings, the Senate looks at the proposed budget of each unit, office, commission and committee and is able to make amendments before voting to adopt that budget,” Fujimoto said. “I think that is the biggest role a senator plays.”
Senator Francisco Ojeda further outlined the hearings’ procedure.
“During the weekend, senators have a chance to listen and ask questions to representatives from the inner ASUCD bodies,” Ojeda said. “Senators follow a procedure to then vote and close the budget for the specific inner body.”
According to Fujimoto, eight of the 12 senators
are required to approve any change to the budget. Senator Jacob Klein said that during these hearings, nearly every group seeks more funding than the initial proposed budget allots them.
“Since the budget is perfectly balanced, for the Senate to allocate even one dollar more, we have to take one dollar from somewhere else,” Klein said. “That’s why it’s so important that we listen to each unit and committee in budget hearings so that we can provide money for the things we care about most.”
Ojeda went on to explain the factors that went into his votes on the budget.
“When it comes to considering changes to the budget, it is great to be shown how the unit is currently using its money,” Ojeda said. “How do students benefit from this? We also consider how much extra money they are looking for, and [...] we need to have a plan of how much is feasible to relocate and where the money would come from.”
Fujimoto also talked about the factors that he placed more weight on during these hearings.
“Personally, I weighed heavily the amount of students I believed would benefit from one allocation versus another,” Fujimoto said. “This meant I prioritized basic needs as well as funding for disability accessibility upgrades. Any student can benefit from increased ASUCD support for basic needs.”
Klein detailed the major changes made to the budget — namely, a $180,000 cut to the budget for the Entertainment Council.
“Many senators were against this large of a cut, but since there was no room in the balanced
While the UC Davis campus celebrates Pride Month in May, Nelson encouraged students to attend the pride events in the city this June.
“Davis Pride [...] is a good starter
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“We also found that the environmental risks are much higher closer to shore in shallower waters,” Agerton said. “Spilling oil really far away from shore is not as much of a problem as spilling oil in the middle of a marsh, where it can quickly smother plants and wildlife.”
Liability for cleaning wells in federal waters falls on either the current owner of the well, or, if they have gone bankrupt, any of its previous owners. In the case of state waters, the liability falls on the state if the company that owns a well has gone bankrupt. Therefore, the authors
so that growers who don’t have a carbon farm plan with their cities can still use the grants to implement these practices.
“We are kind of special here in the city, having a carbon farm plan,” Gardner said. “We’re happy to help fund the writing of this plan and to use our publicly owned property as almost a demonstration piece where we can figure out some of the logistics of how to implement these things in partnership with the growers that farm the cityowned property, and then they can see benefits happening on our ranch and hopefully spread that throughout the community.”
very obviously harms our population and limits our potential and our ability to continue growing as individuals.”
City Councilmember Gloria Partida, chair of the DPC, talked about what the coalition stands for.
“We work on diversity and inclusion,” Partida said. “We do a lot of different things in the community. Most recently, we did a vigil for David Breaux at the compassion bench. And we do a lot of anti-bullying work. And we also support a lot of our vulnerable populations in the community. Everybody has a right to their opinion [...] we believe that everybody should be accepted and supported and that they can feel safe in their community.”
Pride,” Nelson said. “I encourage students [to attend] if this is your first Pride event or if you are still trying to figure yourself out. [...] If you are still trying to become who your authentic self is and everything, we are a good pride for you to just come, relax [and] enjoy yourself. We are a supportive community, we will have a lot of resources.”
also suggest that wells in state waters be prioritized to prevent as much of the financial burden from falling upon taxpayers as possible. Ultimately, this paper can inform policymakers and the federal government about where to focus plugging and abandoning efforts to have the most positive impacts while minimizing expenses in the government’s budget. According to Agerton, $4.7 billion is put aside to clean up idle and abandoned wells. Instead of trying to plug all of the wells that are eligible, the authors identified a solid starting place that can optimize this budget while minimizing environmental damage. The authors also suggest complimenting this budget with regulations that would further incentivize oil and gas companies to clean their wells themselves.
budget, we voted to cut funds from Creative Media,” Klein said. “Additionally, more than $100,000 was allocated to Aggie Aid in the President’s proposed budget. This is a grant that gives emergency funding to students who have already exhausted all other aid and are at risk of things like eviction.”
Fujimoto said that the cuts to Creative Media were used to fund more paid hours for ASUCD positions and the marketing budgets of other units. He went on to outline two new units that were incorporated into the 2023-2024 budget.
“The ASUCD Senate recently established two new units, both of which I have had an opportunity to help create: the Innovation and Research Lab and the Pride Festival,” Fujimoto said. “The former received a final allocation of around $53,000 and the latter received an allocation of around $30,000.
The Senate voted to increase both of these units’ budgets from the President’s proposed allocations.”
Senator Ojeda said that the Senate also voted for the budget to allow various previously volunteer or stipend-funded positions to become hourly-paid positions during the next academic year.
“ASUCD [is moving] away from stipend positions,” Ojeda said. “I’m happy to share that a large number of ASUCD student workers are now paid hourly. This is one step closer to achieving living wages for all ASUCD workers.”
Klein concluded by highlighting how students are able to have a voice in the allocation of the budget each year.
“Each budget meeting is open to the public, so students can advocate for changes in proposed budgets,” Klein said. “Additionally, students should talk to senators individually about prioritizing certain budgets.”
The finalized budget for the 2023-2024 school year can be found on the ASUCD budget website.
THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 | 3
UC Davis honors fallen soldiers with 163 American flags placed along the quad in the MU. (Cruz Martinez / Aggie)
MIRANDA LEE / AGGIE
Color psychology and its functions in society
How you can utilize knowledge of color for your benefit
Take advantage of intramural sports at UC Davis
BY AUDREY BOYCE afboyce@ucdavis.edu
It is no secret that college provides a lot of new stressors for students. Living away from home for the first time, navigating new social situations and an uptick in academic responsibilities are all possible reasons why anxiety rates among college students are so high. At UC Davis, 40.7% of undergraduate students reported feelings of anxiety.
Although I am an advocate of seeking therapy or professional help if you are feeling high levels of anxiety, exercise can be one of the easiest ways to help improve mental health. It produces endorphins that assist our ability to sleep, helps to stabilize our mood, decreases tension and increases self-esteem.
request to join these and meet a new group of people to play a sport with. Both ways require purchasing a “Rec Sports One Pass” for $20. For first years, residence halls provide promotional codes that make this pass free.
Intramural sports also provide opportunities for those who did not get the opportunity to play a sport growing up. While many high school teams require a certain level of skill, these teams simply require that you desire to play. From my experience playing soccer, while the league only coordinates games, many teams take advantage of Dairy Field to host practices, which allows less experienced players to improve their skills.
BY MAYA KORNYEYEVA mkornyeyeva@ucdavis.edu
Colors are all around you. From the blue of the sky to the green of the trees to the beige gray of the asphalt, your eyes perceive millions of colors in every moment. However, colors are not just something to look at — they can also have a substantial impact on emotion and mood.
Color psychology is a field of research that is widely studied by a variety of departments, including design, marketing, film, psychology, architecture and more. Whether it is deciding what color to paint the walls in a restaurant or which shade of red to use for a new line of shoes, color choice and its effects have the potential to greatly impact daily life.
Interior decorating is one of the most recognizable uses of color. According to research published in the National Center of Biotechnology Information, each color has a distinct effect on mood and behavior. Red is associated with anger, passion and love, yellow symbolizes joy and hope, while blue represents both calmness and sadness. Lavender shades of purple are soothing and gentle and are often chosen for home spaces or businesses that specialize in products for sleep and self-care. White walls are chosen to make a space appear brighter and larger, while black is used to do the opposite.
Have you ever noticed that fastfood restaurants use bold colors and logos? The reason has to do with the way certain colors attract our attention or influence our actions. Warm reds, oranges and yellows often stimulate our
senses and draw our eyes, while also increasing our productivity and speed.
In this way, fast food places draw us in and encourage us to grab our food and go, or otherwise eat fast and leave.
Cinematography also often uses color strategically to make us feel different emotions. Consider the classic Pixar movie “Up.” At the beginning of the film, the main character, Carl Fredrickson, spends a happy life with his wife, Ellie, before her untimely death. The animators chose a set of bright pastel pinks, greens, blues and yellows to depict Carl and Ellie’s adventures and fond memories, then abruptly switch to dark grays and blacks when the story takes a turn, following Ellie’s hospitalization and later, Carl’s grief after losing his wife. Such a drastic tone switch corresponds directly with the feelings of sadness, pity and empathy the animators hope the story will evoke for viewers — watching that section of “Up” always brings tears to my eyes.
So why does understanding and recognizing color psychology matter?
As a college student, there are a few areas where color theory can prove useful.
For one, clothing is a means of expression that relies heavily on color and can be used to strategically present yourself to a target audience. When going in for a job interview, colors that are proven to present best are black, gray, blue and white. These all act as neutral colors that paint the wearer as someone that is trustworthy, organized and analytical. Also, not wearing too
many colors can help your interviewer maintain focus. Red is a color that can make someone appear more attractive or romantic on a date, but it can be jarring or over-energetic in a professional setting.
From an academic perspective, color coding is a great study tool that can be used to organize and remember various concepts. Highlighting in bright colors puts emphasis on key phrases while organizing chapters or topics by color can make it easier to find specific details.
Finally, as college students, studying and preparing for exams is a large part of our lives. Choosing study spaces with certain colors like green — which represents life and energy — and blue can help you stay focused and productive. Pink has also been proven as a calming color, so studying in a space with pink walls or decor can potentially ease feelings of frustration.
With all these in mind, being a color-theory wizard is not such a distant dream. Paying attention to the slight subtleties of the color schemes you encounter in your day-to-day life can serve to benefit your understanding of the world around you and the way color performs certain essential functions within it.
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.
Decorating your room can be a form of self-expression
You should turn your college living situation into your own personal sanctuary
BY YASMEEN O’BRIEN yjobrien@ucdavis.edu
As college students, our rooms are pretty temporary. We likely won’t live in these dorms, apartments or houses for more than a few years. For this reason, decorating your room may seem like a tedious, unnecessary way to spend your time. But these places become time capsules of who we were at the time that we lived in them. What you choose to adorn your walls with, place around your room or sleep on is an expression of who you are.
Decorating your room may not seem like a grand declaration of your identity, but I think it’s a way to show ourselves care by appealing to our authentic selves. Just as mama birds spend time making their nests comfortable for their babies, we should do the same for our rooms.
In my experience, putting some effort into your room to make it a space that you enjoy can really increase your sense of home and belonging, as well as boost your productivity and act as a therapeutic form of self-care. It doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of money or hours and hours decorating every square inch of your room — although it can.
I used to have a housemate who had one poster, a couple of photos and all gray bedding in her room. While this was pretty far from how I chose to decorate my room (I am something of a maximalist), I could see that it worked perfectly for her. It gave her the calming atmosphere she needed to get away from the rest of the world and focus on her work. We spend a lot of time in our rooms. You’re in your room pretty much every day, whether you spend hours doing school work at your desk or mostly just come back to crash. Your room is supposed to be your safe space — a space where you can let your guard down, shed your armor and just be yourself. It should
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feel comfortable and should feel like you.
Not only that, but it is also a pretty unfiltered form of self-expression since the only other people going into there are people you invite, making it more intimate and vulnerable. You are choosing to share a part of yourself with them. And even for those who share a room — like me — decorating your side, wall or corner is still a form of selfexpression.
I love looking at people’s rooms because it’s such a nice slice of their personality. What people choose to put on their walls often allows me to learn more about them. I can see what’s
I am part of the significant minority of students at UC Davis who experience anxiety, and for a large portion of my first year at college, I had no outlet to deal with it. That was until I got a text message from a friend asking my roommates and me to join his intramural soccer team. I reluctantly agreed, worried I would be judged since I had not played soccer in five years.
To my surprise, although the game was set up in a professional manner, with referees enforcing typical soccer rules, the environment felt relaxed, enjoyable and easy-going. Players could either take it seriously or just play for fun. The rec team provided me with an outlet for my anxiety every Sunday evening and even inspired me to begin exercising more regularly to stay in shape for games.
There are two ways to get involved in intramural sports at UC Davis. The first is to find a group of friends or peers who are interested and register as a team for a league of choice. However, if you do not know people who would be interested in joining an intramural team, there are teams called “free agent teams.” You can
In addition to helping me deal with anxiety, the people I met on the soccer team became the friend group I have to this day. One of the biggest challenges I had with the large student population at UC Davis is that finding a group of friends felt impossible, especially amid COVID-19 restrictions that greatly impacted social interactions earlier on in my time at Davis.
From my experience, most people find their group of friends on their residence hall floor, so when that did not work out for me, I had no hope of a “college group of friends” until I joined my soccer team. Soccer games led to team dinners which led to almost-daily gettogethers, eventually creating a tight-knit friend group.
Any student who is physically capable should take this opportunity to relieve stress, find or improve on a sport of interest or create new connections. It really is a unique opportunity that may be more challenging to find later in life.
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.
EDITORIAL
FROM PAGE 5
And as far as addressing concerns about promoting healthy, nourishing foods and beverages, UC Davis may be able to apply its own research to the problem. A recent study found that putting warning labels next to menu items with high levels of added sugar reduced the likelihood that consumers would purchase these items. PepsiCo isn’t likely to be in favor of a change specifically targeted toward decreasing sales of many of its products, but it could be a step toward encouraging healthier choices for students. We all have a natural tendency to prefer benefits in the short term to those in the long term — it’s easy to want to hold on to the promise of guaranteed funding and convenient access to a myriad of our favorite snacks and drinks, as opposed to environmental goals that can feel vague
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The 1991 commercial for COCO by Chanel is the perfect example of how creative experimentation turns a marketing limitation into a unique and lucid experience that stands out from more predictable, formulaic advertisements. A miniature Vanessa Paradis in a dimly lit cage is overlaid with the sound of birdsong, the harsh roll of
COMMENCEMENT
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important to them, who they love, their hobbies, their style and more. Sometimes it can even be inspiring for my own space. We don’t get a lot of places just for ourselves, so why not turn your space into a sanctuary? Make it yours. Go out and choose a piece of furniture, art or tchotchke that speaks to you. It will feel good to come home to a place that feels like you belong there.
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.
Steven Luck, Ph.D.: Commonly known as the professor of PSC 001 and head of his own psychology lab, Dr. Luck is actually speaking at commencement. However, instead of giving his best wishes to the seniors, I think he should tell us about all the crazy experiments he would do if he had no regard for basic ethics or the law. If we start collectively pretending Gary May is invisible, what will that do to his psyche? What combination of illegal drugs makes the human body perform the best in a game of Valorant? If I start
and uncertain. UC Davis often claims to be a leader in sustainability and that sometimes means making choices that seem radical or unpopular at the time. Reducing single-use plastic waste and changing our country’s culture around added sugars are projects that will only be successful if we’re motivated by a vision of the future that is better for us, better for the next generations and better for the plants and animals that we at UC Davis are so fond of.
In a few weeks, the UC Davis Beverage Rights Industry Working Group will decide whether or not to request bids from large beverage companies, including PepsiCo, to sign a new pouring rights contract. While they deliberate on their decision, we urge them and the UC Davis administration to consider creative amendments to future contracts, if not ending the practice of an exclusive pouring rights contract altogether, and to make their decision with not just the next 10 years, but the long-term future of our campus and our planet in mind.
thunder and a swelling 1930s soundtrack. The 30-second masterpiece only suggests perfume when a bottle in her hand is revealed, spilling out its contents in slowmotion.
The types of perfume commercials that evade explanation are the ones that do it best — they replicate the sensory-driven experience of smelling something for the first time. We don’t make sense of smells as much as we experience them, physically and subconsciously, as a hundred separate associations and memories that culminate in a single unique, visceral and almost ungraspable moment.
tasing my housemates every time they don’t wash the dishes, how fast will it start working?
Paris Hilton: Do not allow anyone to write anything for her or give her any notes. I want to hear it straight from the heart. For 10 American minutes. I will hang onto every word.
Literally anyone, but the screen behind them is playing Subway Surfers: That’s the only way you’re going to get a photo of everyone in the audience looking in the right direction.
Taylor Swift: No? You’re saying that NYU is better than us?
Disclaimer: This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.
4 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE OPINION
Reduced anxiety and new friendships are some of the advantages to getting active
MAYA KORNYEYEVA / AGGIE
JOANNE SUN / AGGIE
UC Davis should consider ending or amending their pouring rights contract
There are ways to balance the economic benefits of a beverage company sponsorship with our commitment to reducing plastic waste on campus
It’s a question every environmentally minded individual has asked themselves: what difference can one person really make? Does recycling, riding your bike or toting around reusable utensils matter given global corporations’ mass production of single-use plastics and contributions to world carbon emissions?
Sometimes, it feels like the answer is no. But at UC Davis in the coming months, as the university decides whether or not to re-sign an exclusive pouring rights contract with PepsiCo, students and administrators have the opportunity to consider alternatives to receiving funding from one of the three largest producers of plastic in the world.
Pouring rights contracts, which are relatively common at universities, give companies such as PepsiCo or CocaCola exclusive rights to selling their products in on-campus food markets, as well as allowing these companies to advertise on school scoreboards, certain merchandise items and so on, in exchange for sponsorship.
Under UC Davis’s current 10-year contract with PepsiCo, this funding goes toward Registered Student Organization grants, athletics and scholarships, as well as providing some funding for campus sustainability in the form of recycling bins located near PepsiCo vending machines. In addition to funding students’ academic and athletic pursuits, the contract also benefits students because of the sheer number of choices the company offers; an “exclusive” contract might seem limiting, but part of the reason why UC Davis chose this contract is because in addition to Pepsi, PepsiCo owns Cheetos, Gatorade, Doritos, Lay’s, Mountain Dew, Naked juice, Ruffles, Tropicana, Yachak yerba mate and much more.
But despite the benefits the contract provides, there are several reasons why
The Editorial Board believes that the committee making this decision must undergo significant consideration of alternatives before signing another 10year contract with PepsiCo. To begin with, as mentioned earlier, the company is well-known as one of the world’s top plastic polluters — not a title that seems in line with UC Davis’s goal to treat the university as “a living laboratory dedicated to developing, testing and providing solutions to address the world’s most pressing issues,” including sustainability and climate change, according to the university website’s sustainability page.
PepsiCo also largely produces items that are high in added sugar. These items are often cheaper than healthier alternatives, and much more common around campus as well under the contract, meaning that students will likely be drawn to the combination of low prices and high availability. This disproportionately affects low-income students, in discord with projects like the recently opened pay-as-you-can AggieEats food truck that specifically seek to make healthy, nutritious food financially feasible and convenient for food-insecure or low-income students.
In light of these complicated factors, what are the university’s options?
If UC Davis chooses not to re-sign the contract with PepsiCo, they will have to find funding for the programs that the pouring rights sponsorship supports somewhere else. Instead of one exclusive contract, the university could explore signing smaller deals with local or more sustainable beverage and snack companies, compiling funding from many sources and still maintaining a variety of food and drink options.
More likely, if the university chooses to re-sign, there are plenty of ways they could modify the contract to retain
funding while offsetting some of the negative consequences. To begin with, UC Davis could simply sign a shorter contract, such as a two- or five-year deal. This would give us more time to look into alternative funding and beveragesourcing options, as well as give PepsiCo an economic incentive to move toward a less plastic-heavy future so that their increasingly sustainability-focused consumers want to re-sign contracts with them five years in the future. Or, we could change the contract to reserve a portion of the food and beverage offerings, such as 20%, to be sourced from local, sustainable companies, in support of healthier, more environmentally friendly alternatives and in support of the local economy.
In terms of where the funding from the contract is currently going, campus sustainability is listed on UC Davis’s website as one of the five uses of the money, but these projects don’t appear to be well-documented or widespread. The website lists only installing recycling bins in 2019 and 2020 as an example of how this portion of the fund has been used. While we understand that the primary goal of this funding is to support student athletics and scholarships, the negative environmental consequences of the contract might better be counteracted if a larger portion of the funds were earmarked for campus sustainability — maybe this funding could be given to continue campus sustainability projects like the Sheepmowers that used to be funded by The Green Initiative Fund, now that its previous funding has dried up.
WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Davis is the perfect summer vacation spot if you’re an imp from the underworld
BY OWEN RUDERMAN opinion@theaggie.org
“Summer vacation destination” isn’t usually the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Davis, CA. Most people get out of the Central Valley during the hotter months, visiting family, taking a trip to the Bay Area or perhaps even traveling below the equator. But for immortal beings damned for their sin, Davis is the perfect location for a summer getaway.
“It’s a really nice way to transition from the flames of the depths, as it’s not too much cooler,” Barbas, a minion of the underworld, said. “If we were to vacation in San Francisco, for example, I think we would just shrivel up.”
As many of us well know, Davis is something of a hellscape during the summer. From around 5 a.m.-10 p.m., it feels like you’re turning into a puddle, which makes the small college town a perfect place for the gathering of the servants of the Father of Lies.
It turns out that every summer, Satan, Prince of Darkness, takes his coworkers and staff for a week-long vacation in Davis to unwind from all the torturing. Some of their favorite activities include visiting Davis Creamery, seeing the cows and strolling through the Arboretum.
“This is all a part of the new teambuilding initiative the Big Guy Upstairs put into place,” Satan said. “He said that the last report He received from HR reported extremely low morale.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t great news for the residents of Davis.
One student, who asked to remain anonymous, said, “Yeah, last summer I was taking some summer session classes that I needed for my major. But halfway through the quarter, I just… stopped showing up to my classes. I became super prideful and envious. I was eating all the time. It’s like I was possessed or something. Maybe it was the heat.”
On the other hand, Chris Bacon, the mayor of Davis, is thankful for
the added tourism income for the city. When most of the college students leave for the summer, Davis becomes much less active.
“If [the Demons] want to roam around Davis and inflict unimaginable suffering amongst the locals, I say let them,” Bacon said. “They spend an absurd amount at the Farmers Market.”
The California Aggie asked God, King of Kings, for a comment, but received no response.
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.
Back-up commencement speakers Help, I’m being replaced
BY ANNABEL MARSHALL almarshall@ucdavis.edu
When I heard that comedian and UC Davis alum Hasan Minhaj had been formally invited to speak at the 2023 commencement, I just assumed he had already said yes. But, no (the opposite of yes). They were “just asking.” I didn’t realize that UC Davis inviting someone to speak at graduation was the equivalent of me tweeting at Nicki Minaj. I got so much second-hand embarrassment from UCD begging our only mildly famous alumni to repeat some fortune cookie sayings that I made a list of people we should have at commencement instead.
George, my English TA: George is many things. Soft-spoken, kind, tallish. A harsh grader for grammar but basically a nice dude. He’ll probably show up about 20 minutes late and read off his slides which he will not connect to any big screen but instead show by turning his laptop around. Your mom will have a crush on him.
KELLIE LU
AARON POTTER
MARY ANN LEM
How to hype up future Aggies
Incoming freshmen are the future of America. Hoorah!
Piers Morgan: I’ve always wanted to throw something at a British person, but usually they’re out of range. Someone’s mom: I’m sure any mom in the audience is going to give a more heartwarming, down-to-earth and entertaining speech than anyone currently on the roster. I do not want to hear from an advisor in the Chemistry Department, respectfully. You didn’t even go to school here.
Ben Shapiro: I’m sure he’s available.
God knows he’s not busy having sex with his wife.
Matt Bennett: Originally made famous by his iconic role on Victorious as Robert “Robbie” Shapiro (no relation to Ben, I think?), Bennett now moonlights as a DJ, playing sets as near as Sacramento. Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn’t prefer that to a member of the UC Davis staff that you never knew existed skirting around the fact that you’re graduating into a recession. Me: Welcome, graduates of 2023. I have a lot to say. First of all, did y’all know you could go on the roof of the Memorial Union? I did not. I think if
I had known this sooner I would have done a lot better in college, but also in life, long-term. This charming anecdote shows how, had we known more, we would have lived our lives differently and better. Now, however, it is too late to lead a better life. As you move forward in life, try to remember that there is nothing you can do that will allow you to achieve that supposedly perfect life you could have had if you had just known at the time what you know now. It’s too late, probably.
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BY CARMEL RAVIV craviv@ucdavis.edu
As this tumultuous school year comes to a close and we shed our prolific senior class, it is time to welcome an exciting new generation of Aggies. They will carry the torch of this great institution’s legacy and relish in the opportunities that Davis has to offer.
But no one tell them about the TA strike, the atmospheric floods or dayslong power outages. Or the cow smell. But hey, other than that UC Davis is top-notch!
Here is a short list of tips and fun facts to mention when you encounter a future Aggie to get them hyped and keep them informed for the 2023-24 school year:
1. The MU is pronounced “The Moo.”
2. Make sure to buy the nicest, most expensive bike and always wear a helmet.
3. Text your potential roommates on Instagram that you are a direct descendant of Gary May and you can get into the best dorm building.
4. Cheeto is the name of the hottest girl on campus, so let everyone know you have a crush on Cheeto and they will relate!
5. Hasbullah studied the philosophy
of thermodynamics at UC Davis and worked at the Student Farm. You are walking the hallowed halls of greatness.
6. UC Davis is in California, so we are really close to LA!
7. There are crocodiles in the creek running through the Arboretum, and late at night they emerge and sing “Going Down the Bayou” and “Rap God.” They can also scat so don’t get spooked.
8. You may have heard of the super cool coffee-brewing class, but there is also a cough-knee pooing class in the School of Biological Sciences. And a toffee-chewing class. And concepts of nutrition!
9. At the beginning of every school year, we have a tradition called “Running of the Freshmen,” which is when upperclassmen select freshmen on the first day of school and ride their backs as the freshmen run to their first class. The fastest freshman wins a squirrel!
10. To pass your finals, it is Davis’s superstition to go to the egghead statues and drop your best pickup line. The student with the most seductive line will get a B+.
THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 | 5
EDITORIAL
JOANNE SUN
“It reminds me of the weather back home,” Satan said
Disclaimer: This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.
ALEJANDRO VARGAS / AGGIE
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HUMOR
ARTS & CULTURE
The art of perfume commercials: capturing the bizarre
How fragrance advertisements visually mimic scent (and why they can be so weird)
BY CORALIE LOON arts@theaggie.org
Ever since their cinematic debut in the 1980s, perfume advertisements have developed a reputation for being some of the strangest, most experimental and hard-to-grasp commercials out there. Some feel arcane, excessive or even completely unrelated to perfume, such as Kenzo World’s infamous commercial in which Margaret Qualley begins dancing grotesquely to Latin-inspired techno music.
But there’s a reason perfume commercials leave many viewers flabbergasted. Since perfumes were first marketed to average consumers, companies have faced the unique challenge of using visual and auditory stimuli to sell scent-based products. According to one source, big perfume brands often make the choice to invest time and money into commercials that are high-budget, cinematic and usually feature famous faces. But why favor the strange and surreal?
One of the possible goals of a perfume commercial is to visually (and auditorily) hint at the notes in a given fragrance. Olfactory accords — the blend
of different notes that create a floral, musky, sweet or spicy scent — play a large part in how scents are branded and sold. Therefore, the commercials often use associations connecting smells, sights and sounds to create the aura of a scent or allude to its notes.
The commercial for the perfume
“Wonderwood,” a distorted, organic and borderline nightmarish arthouse ad, visually animates dark, textured woods, branches, nuts, acorns and pine branches.
On Fragrantica, the actual perfume is described as smelling woody, spicy, aromatic, warm and powdery, expanding on the elements the video provided.
However, this type of commercial (animated and lacking the presence of any human actors) is a bit unusual in the perfume world. Many advertisements aspire to a second goal, which is less about selling the smell than about selling societal connotations attached to perfume usage.
Fragrance Market explains that common themes in perfume commercials are luxury and opulence, while another source says that themes of love, seduction and dreams are also prevalent. These concepts not only appeal to a general audience but also relate to perfume’s history as an upper-class (and
often seductive) commodity.
The 2017 advertisement for Gucci “Bloom” does what many perfume commercials do best: display aesthetically pleasing people, settings and positions to paint a portrait of luxury. What makes this one different is its romanticization of nature — it features heaps of flowers, a colorful but casual living room and a natural pool overflowing with petals rather than more traditional symbols of wealth. Through its pale, wet and acoustic themes, Gucci banks on the audience’s appreciation of natural beauty and romance while referencing the fragrance’s white floral and green notes. While these factors play into the logic of most perfume commercials, their perceived “weirdness” tackles another element. One of perfume brands’ main efforts is to remain memorable, especially when it’s difficult to market a scent through a camera lens. It seems that perfume commercials often appeal more to the subconscious than to the conscious, relying on associations and emotions over any logical need to buy a fragrance. Rather than devoted to selling the viewer something for the whole duration of the advertisement, perfume commercials often dedicate themselves to creating unique sensory experiences.
According to perfume critic Igor Masyukov, the perfect commercial should be abstract: “It should contain understatement, mystery and something quite concrete — a tangible boundary between our reality and the world of dreams.”
The focus on abstract sensory elements, memories and dream-like sensations could be so effective in part because of the way smell and memory are closely linked in the human brain. Perfume, one of the rare products that cater almost entirely to one’s sense of smell, capitalizes on the unique ways we experience smells that escape logic and rationalization.
PERFUME on
UC Davis’s first-ever Punjabi Week celebrated all the culture has to offer
The activities, coordinated by the UC Davis Punjabi Club, connected students to their heritage and spread cultural awareness
BY RUMA POUDELL arts@theaggie.org
Davis is situated in the heart of the first South Asian community in the United States. Most of the South Asian migrants who came to the Sacramento Valley area came from Punjab, a region in northwest India, and the community developed there in the late nineteenth century due to an abundant agricultural background,
This year, Punjab took center stage during Davis’ first-ever Punjabi Week, showcasing the region’s vibrant tradition and rich heritage. Each day of Punjabi Week brought together students, connecting them to and teaching them about Punjabi culture through art, music, dancing, food and meaningful discussion.
To kick off the week, students and faculty met under a decorated canopy on the Quad, where they were served jalebi, a traditional sweet snack, and various other treats. Punjabi music was blasting, dholis were smacking their dhols and bhangra dancers were dancing. The event was lively and had a great turnout.
Amandeep Kaur Dhaliwal, a first-year English and international relations double major, spoke about the connections Punjabi Week created.
“As a freshman who didn’t really know many other people who were Punjabi, I personally got to know so many people,” Dhaliwal said. “I think it creates this sense of family and community with people who are similar to you and share the same values.”
Volunteers at the Whole Earth Festival weave together community, sustainability and memorable experiences
Dedicated members reflect on the essence of the Whole Earth Festival
BY FAITH DEMEULENAERE features@theaggie.org
A Gurbani Sangeet (the classical Sikh music style) concert was held on the second day. The event was led by undergraduate instrumental musicians and singers. Students like Rasleen Kaur believe in their culture and faith despite unbelievable hardship, which is a feature of Punjabi culture that was displayed through the selected songs performed.
The next event was a webinar hosted by women in the Punjabi community, during which they discussed the heritage of their food, different recipes and Punjab’s culture of hospitality that has carried over into the United States.
Nicole Ranganath, a member of UC Davis’s Middle East/South Asia studies (ME/SA) faculty, as well as the filmmaker and curator of the Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, touched on her experience with this facet of the culture.
“As a recipient of Punjabi hospitality, it is extremely humbling,” Ranganath said. “One of the core features of Punjabi culture is generosity and sharing your time, your wealth and your energy with other people. [Guests] come to your home and you give the best of everything you have.”
On Thursday, a documentary by Harleen Kaur Bal, a UC Davis Ph.D. student studying sociocultural anthropology, was screened for the community to learn about the challenges that working-class Punjabi immigrants face today in California. The documentary focused on Punjabi immigrants who work in dangerous conditions in the meat-packing industry due to limited job options.
Lastly, on Friday, Professor Gurdev
S. Khush was honored by Chancellor Gary May and Dr. Estella Atekwana, who is the Dean of the College of Letters and Sciences, for donating his personal and research papers to the university library. Professor Khush is one of the most distinguished faculty at UC Davis, and his research efforts have led to an astounding advancement in increasing the world’s supply of rice. The night was filled with rich discussion reflecting on Professor Khush’s life and his legacy, as well as food and socializing.
Punjabi Week was a success as a result of hard work and support from the Interim Director of the Davis Humanities Institute, Archana Venkatesan and the ME/SA program, along with many dedicated student leaders. The ME/SA program began 20 years ago and has been growing ever since.
ME/SA’s role is to offer classes and major and minor programs that connect students to the history and contemporary issues in countries in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, including Punjab. Through classes and student-led activities, students can learn about the cultures and languages of these countries.
“There was never a platform distinctively dedicated to the Punjabi community as a whole without boundaries dividing by religion or geographic boundary,” Prabhjot Singh, a third-year biological sciences major and co-founder of Punjabi Club on campus, said. “So for this first-ever Punjabi Week, everyone came out and showed so much enthusiasm and got things started off on a strong note.”
While a few days cannot encapsulate all of Punjabi culture, Punjabi Week is part of a long-term effort to do so. The week brought community members together with a cohesive vision of how to serve students as well as the greater community.
Everyone is welcome to get involved in the events organized by the Punjabi Club, which include movie nights, language tutoring sessions and cultural festivities. UC Davis will begin offering elementary and intermediate Punjabi language classes in fall quarter 2024. Dr. Kuldeep Singh will teach Elementary Punjabi (CRN 53009) and Intermediate Punjabi (CRN 52464). During the fall, Professor Ranganath will also be teaching two classes — Social Justice in the Middle East and South Asia (CRN 41436) and the South Asian Diaspora (CRN 41438).
Nestled within the vibrant grounds of the University of California, Davis, the Whole Earth Festival is an annual celebration of music, art and sustainable living.
While the festival attracts thousands of visitors each year, it is the dedicated volunteers who are the backbone of the event. For enthusiastic newcomers like Eva Jabbari, a first-year environmental policy analysis and planning and international relations double major, and returning volunteers like Josh Winter, a recent alum who majored in computer science, the festival is a transformative experience that fosters a sense of unity and purpose.
The Whole Earth Festival, which began in 1969, is hosted on the Memorial Union Quad during spring quarter. Throughout the threeday event. artists and vendors set up booths and various bands perform for the crowd. In 2022, Winter joined the Quad stage crew. This role demanded physical stamina and a keen eye for swift stage changes. However, it was the strong sense of camaraderie that struck Winter the most.
“Many of the people I worked alongside have been Quad stage volunteers for over a decade,” Winter said. “I met a lot of great people that weekend, many of whom I got to see again this year.”
Many volunteers like Winter and Jabbari are familiar with the volunteer saying “WEF love,” which, according to Winter, portrays the “special sort of connection formed between everyone involved in making the festival happen.”
“There’s a feeling of belonging, acceptance and duty when working together to create the event,” Winter said.
WEF is a zero-waste event, which the volunteers agree can be quite
SBNATIONALS
FROM PAGE 12
The game started off slow, as the first and second innings remained scoreless for both sides. The Aggies managed to put a run on the board in the third inning when Starks hit a single, giving Dethlefson the chance to cross home plate. The Texans were unable to put points on the board at this time, but they responded with a run at the bottom of the fourth inning which tied the game, 1-1.
The fifth inning went scoreless as the pitching was outstanding from both teams, but the sixth inning is where Tarletons’ offense started to fire up; they managed to score three runs. UC Davis failed to emulate the offensive firepower. The Aggies did manage to muster up one run to end the inning, but they trailed behind 4-2 late in the game.
With one inning left, the Aggies needed to play catch-up in the seventh inning of a possible season-ending game in Fort Worth. Tarleton State had an amazing last inning, which made it very difficult for UC Davis; they scored six runs, making it 10-2 on the score sheet. At the bottom of the seventh inning, the Aggies had one last chance to win the game. However, it was highly unlikely that the offense could produce eight runs this late in the game. As predicted, UC Davis was not able to achieve that many runs in just one inning. Even though they fought hard in the last inning and managed to score two more runs, the Aggies fell to the Texans.
exhausting at times. “In an effort for the festival to be a zero-waste event, all food vendors are supplied with reusable cups, plates and utensils,” Winter said. “There is a never-ending supply of dirty dishes throughout the entire festival. Somebody has to collect, transport, wash, dry and distribute the dishes — and that somebody is the staff and volunteers of the Whole Earth Recycling Committee.”
According to Winter, dishwashing facilities at the Segundo Dining Commons and the CoHo are set up during the festival. Volunteers also sort waste in accordance with Whole Earth’s sustainability goals.
“At ‘Compost & Recycling,’ a team of eight volunteers and I got to sort compostables from recyclables [and] landfillables in the festival’s trash,” Winter said. “It got gross, but I was in good company throughout it all.”
Jabbari said it was empowering to participate in a zero-waste effort.
“I volunteered at the dish return for a bit and while it was a bit hectic at times, given the amount of traffic we got, [...] it was awesome to be a part of,” Jabbari said.
According to Winter, Whole Earth is an opportunity to be “a part of something bigger” and continue a tradition in the community.
“The Whole Earth Festival fosters a sense of community and helps welcome the spring and the hotter weather because it gets people out and about on campus in a fun and rather historic manner,” Jabbari said. “I couldn’t believe how old the festival was until I went to the volunteer non-violence training and heard some stories from people who’ve been attending Whole Earth since the 1970s.”
Their season ended with a final score of 10-4 in this double-elimination series. Brown pitched six of those innings and managed to strike out nine hitters while allowing four runs on six hits.
Star player Dethlefson batted one for three in runs scored, and both fourth-year outfielder Delaney Diaz and third-year outfielder Sarah Nakahara went one for two, each getting crucial RBIs. Third-year infielder Bella Pahulu stood out when she hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning.
The Aggies’ season came to an end with a 29-22 overall record. Even though the NISC did not go as planned, they had their first winning overall record since 2020, which was outstanding considering the 2020 season was shortened due to the pandemic.
The UC Davis Aggies closed the season on a high note, finishing fourth in the Big West standings and earning a berth in the postseason. Players on the roster have tremendously grown, and the overall team chemistry was evident on the field. Standout players include Dethlefson who got the nod for Big West Player of The Year and All-Big West First Team along with Brown. Dethlefson and Brown also garnered 2023 NFCA Division I All-Region honors. Another notable player who produced on offense, Starks earned All-Big West Second Team honors. In addition, first-year utility player Gia Felice and first-year pitcher and first baseman Caroline Grimes earned AllFreshman Team honors.
With remarkable players on the roster, UC Davis will go into an offseason with high expectations as they prepare for the 2024 season.
6 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
An image from a 2017 advertisement for Gucci “Bloom.” (Wikipedia / Creative Commons)
UC Davis students celebrate Whole Earth Festival with volunteers. (Victor Sandoval / Courtesy)
Logo for the UC Davis Punjabi Club. (Punjabi Club / Courtesy)
4
Crumbl Cookies-inspired recipes to get you through the end of the quarter
While the dessert franchise has locations nearby, recreating their treats at home can be a fun study break
BY LORENA ALVAREZ arts@theaggie.org
The Arts Desk’s weekly picks for music, movies and more
BY SARAH HAN arts@theaggie.org
Movie: “Tangled” dir. by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard (2010)
Rewinding to our childhood, “Tangled” recounts the story of Rapunzel, who sneaks out into the outside world after living in a tower for 18 years. Along the ride joins Flynn Rider — also known as Eugene Fitzherbert — a notorious criminal wanted for theft. This movie is so nostalgic and I never get tired of it no matter how old I am. Part of this is because of the more mature humor embedded throughout the story: Rapunzel and Flynn’s relationship lies somewhere between love interests and rough friendship, which many can relate to. Additionally, “Tangled” felt like the first Disney princess movie that excelled in designing realistic characters; for example, a lot of the characters’ expressions and reactions were subtle but accurate. If you want to revisit a timeless classic, I highly recommend rewatching “Tangled.” Also, shout out to the best casting — Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi play Rapunzel and Flynn respectively.
Song: “Traffic Light” by Lee Mu-jin (2021)
Amidst an upsurge in the popularity of K-pop songs, “Traffic Light” by Lee Mu-jin is one you do not want to miss. The tune opens with a catchy beat played by trumpets, which immediately creates a bright mood for the song. Lee has a very soothing yet distinct voice, which complements the song’s vibe. My favorite part is the use of instrumental breaks because they mix different genres of music together: there’s a hint of jazz thrown in with the classic pop beat. Although this song can be heard any time throughout the year, I highly recommend listening to it near the end of spring and the entirety of summer because it’s an upbeat tune that will definitely help you transition into warmer weather.
TV Show: “The Queen’s Gambit” dir. by Scott Frank (2020)
Crumbl Cookies is a dessert franchise well-known for its weekly flavor rotation that was established at the end of 2018 by Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley. According to the Crumbl Cookies’ website, the two spent thousands of dollars trying to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, eventually turning to public surveys on cookie preferences for guidance. While the company rotates and introduces new flavors weekly, they have their classic chocolate chip and pink sugar cookies year-round. The changing menu allows the company to experiment with different flavors and create unique “classics” as well as seasonal favorites. The downside with this rotation is that flavors are not repeated often, leaving customers longing for their favorite cookie and attempting to recreate it at home. The following are some Crumblinspired cookie recipes and my reviews of the “Copycat Crumbl Raspberry Cheesecake Cookie” recipe.
Customers who enjoy Crumbl’s lemon glaze cookies may be pleasantly surprised by “Easy Crumbl Lemon Glaze Cookies.”. Like Crumbl’s version, this cookie’s lemon frosting hardens, leaving a zesty and sour aftertaste, which is a shift from their usual creamy frosting. Unlike Crumbl’s cookies, which average 700 calories per cookie, this recipe’s cookies are each 408 calories, suggesting that while the cookies may be similar in taste, they will not be identical.
Brownie lovers can indulge in chocolate bliss when eating Crumbl’s Cosmic Brownie Cookies. Their chocolate ganache
covered in rainbow sprinkles is similar in appearance to Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies and might remind customers of their childhoods and times free of adult responsibilities. When this cookie is not available at Crumbl, bakers can try to recreate the beloved treat using Chahinez’s “Better than Crumbl Cosmic Brownie Cookies” recipe. Another recipe worth trying is Lifestyle of a Foodie’s Crumblinspired “Pink Velvet Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting.” Unlike red velvet cookies made with cocoa powder, these cookies are made with vanilla and almond extract. While Crumbl’s version is usually sold around Mother’s Day, this cookie’s vibrant pink color and creamy cheesecake frosting is something you can recreate at home for any occasion. And, a great thing about remaking cookies is that you can add your own twist to each recipe. Bakers willing to stray from the recipe can try using strawberries to make their frosting pink, transforming the recipe into a strawberry pink velvet cookie.
A signature of Crumbl is its creamy cream cheese frosting. Bakers at home cannot go wrong with these Snickerdoodle cream cheese sugar cookies, or as the recipe calls them, “Snickerdoodle Cupcake Cookies.” This sugar cookie is made with cinnamon and vanilla cream cheese frosting. For this recipe, the most important step is setting up a timer, so your cookies do not overbake and lose their crumble.
Last but not least is my personal favorite, “Copycat Crumbl Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies.” The cookie features crushed graham crackers,
cream cheese and fresh raspberry jam, effectively making it taste like a cheesecake.
I recreated this cookie after loving Crumbl’s version and realizing that I would not be able to enjoy this treat on a regular basis. While my attempt at recreating one of Crumbl’s savory cream cheese cookies did not exactly meet my very high expectations, they were nonetheless a delicious way to tide me over until the original rotates back into the weekly menu.
Having tried one of these recipes, I have a couple of suggestions for those recreating the cookies. To achieve Crumbl’s texture, take the cookies out of the oven as soon as the cookies no longer appear wet or raw to maintain a soft texture.
“The heat from the cookies, as well as the heat from the baking sheet, will continue baking them,” Lifestyle of a Foodie noted.
I would also suggest that new bakers try to make smaller cookies than the size many copycat recipes call for because the recipes are trying to achieve Crumbl’s signature large cookies. Making smaller cookies may be a wise alternative because the larger the cookies, the more likely they are to turn into a single sheet cookie rather than individual desserts.
For those looking to enjoy a dessert similar to the cookie franchise’s without making the trek to a nearby location, there are plenty of copycat instructions out there that allow you to do so. Even better, following these recipes is a great excuse for taking a finals week study break.
The final contender on this list is the beloved Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit.” The episodes uncover the tumultuous life of Beth Harmon, an orphan who becomes a chess prodigy. Despite her overwhelming success, she deals with drug addiction and perfectionism throughout her career. This series is so novel yet relatable in a broad sense: it reestablishes the status quo of life having ups and downs through the eyes of a chess game. The series also touches on the challenges of women triumphing in male-dominated fields, which further adds to the complexity and nuance of the story. Anya Taylor-Joy, who plays Harmon, does a phenomenal job encapsulating the character’s sensitive and strong-willed traits. Overall, if you’re looking for a new series to add to your watch list, I highly recommend “The Queen’s Gambit.”
Literature: “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (1948)
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is one of my favorite short stories of all time. It is about a community that annually selects one member to be stoned to death. The process involves every community member picking a sheet of paper; the one that picks the paper with the black dot is the “winner” and thus is stoned to death by friends and family. Although highly disturbing, the book touches on the theme of how traditions and rituals blind individuals from considering the morality of certain actions. Jackson does a wonderful job communicating this message in a very succinct manner, so if you are looking for a quick yet thought-provoking read, I recommend checking out this short story.
Senate hears from ASUCD Units who oppose recent budget decisions
They also heard quarterly reports from Aggie Reuse,
BY RACHEL GAUER campus@theaggie.org
Vice President JT Eden called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. on Thursday, May 25. Eden then recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.
First, the Senate moved into the confirmation of the Interim International Student Representative (ISR) Noah Shrestha, a second-year international relations major. Shrestha will serve for the remainder of the academic year.
The Judicial Council (JC) recently ruled that the ISR and Transfer Student Representative (TSR) positions now have voting power in the Senate. Senator Fujimoto expressed his concern in swearing in the new candidate under these new conditions.
“I think as members of the table we should be in the mentality that we are confirming an interim senator,” said Fujimoto. “I argued in front of JC that I think it’s very problematic and concerning that an executive branch member has [...] legislative authority in the Senate. [...] I don’t think I will be voting in favor of this candidate tonight.”
After several other comments and questions from other members of the Senate table, they moved into a roll call vote for Shrestha’s confirmation, and with a 8-3-2 vote, the vote passed and Shrestha was confirmed as the interim ISR.
Next, the Senate heard a presentation from Alex Lee, a UC Davis alumnus who currently serves as a state assemblymember for California’s 24th District. Lee served as ASUCD President during the 2016-2017 academic year and graduated with a double major in political science and communication.
“I think this experience really prepared me to become a state legislator,” said Lee. “I have never been elected to any other ‘real office’ before. I was an [ASUCD] senator, then president, and then elected as a state assemblymember.”
Lee, who is 25 years old, also spoke about his experience as a particularly young member of the state assembly.
“The fact of the matter is, I serve with people who I am the same age as their grandchildren or children,” said Lee. “But the reality as young people is that we are judged by a different metric, especially when you are queer or a person of color, as I am. You must
Whole Earth Festival
work 100 times harder to just be equal.”
Following the presentation, the Senate moved into public comments.
Members in support of a greater budget for the Entertainment Council (EC) and other ASUCD units after the recent budget hearings for the 2023-2024 academic year attended and spoke about their disappointment regarding the recent budget decreases for the council.
Keegan Thompson, a secondyear communication major and a representative of Entertainment Council, spoke in support of EC.
“I’m not here to say, ‘Just give us more money,’ because I understand that’s what everyone wants,” Thompson said.
“But I want to just spread awareness that people like what we do and I think we’re doing it really like it as well. We just want to be able to keep doing that.”
Kaya Kurtz, a third-year sustainable environmental design major who is one of the satellite operations managers for the ASUCD Pantry, expressed her concern regarding the summer budget for the unit.
“With the current ASUCD budget, the managers won’t be able to get paid for either of the summer terms, which means that the Pantry most likely will not be able to run,” Kurtz said. “This
is an issue because the Pantry is a huge resource for students to be able to have food and the managers are really who make this happen”
After hearing the budget concerns from the individuals representing ASUCD units, the senators heard Aggie Reuse’s quarterly report. Victoria Mattsson, a third-year environmental science and management major and the unit director for Aggie Reuse, gave the brief presentation via Zoom in which she described the the store and updated the s=Senate on its operations.
“For those of you who don’t know, Aggie Reuse was known as the oncampus thrift store, but recently this whole year it has been functioning as a mutual-aid model where all of the items in our store are free for students and non-students,” Mattsson said. “Everything in our inventory is donated to us by community members and students. Most of our expenses and most of our budget really just goes to paying seven of us and our normal expenses are very low. It really runs beautifully, and I’d like to thank you all for supporting it.”
Following the presentation, the senate entered a 30-minute break and resumed the meeting again at 9:10 p.m.
Senator Stephen Fujimoto presented the president pro tem quarterly report in which he outlined an extensive list of duties to the Senate table.
In response to Fujimoto’s presentation, TSR Logan Ueno suggested that Fujimoto receive extra help from other senators or volunteers.
“That list is like 15+ things to do and you are only allocated a certain number of hours,” Ueno said. “I think that’s a lot, that’s too much for someone to do on top of being a student. People say during public comment that we should prioritize being a student and that rings true here. Yes, we are elected officials but we have to remind ourselves that we are students too and we don’t want our academics to slip.”
Next, the Senate heard the quarterly report from the Whole Earth Festival (WEF). Senator Zeki Xu, a fourth-year design major and publicity director for WEF, gave the report, which focused on the successes of the event and the large turnout for volunteers. The Senate moved into brief officer reports and then began with the status of previous legislation. SR #6, SB #102 and SB #105 all passed.
THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 | 7
THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
Crumbl Cookies. (Uber Eats / Creative Commons)
SENATE on 10
Davis Anime Club connects people through colorful stories
Student organization brings together anime, cartoons, games and community
BY LYNN CHEN features@theaggie.org
To those who watch anime, animated TV from Japan, it can represent anything: a pastime, a source of comfort, a nostalgic memory or even a source of inspiration. Communities are built on discussing, sharing and enjoying anime, and one such community is the Davis Anime Club. Currently, the club boasts over 200 members on Discord.
Anime has withstood the test of time at UC Davis. Just recently, the club celebrated its 30th anniversary at Kobe Mini Mart downtown. The club hosted a costume café event for its members, complete with snacks, drinks, dance performances, raffles and cosplay.
Gage Heeszel, the member manager for the club and fourth-year managerial economics major, said that the club was hoping to use the cosplay event to fundraise for the Davis Anime Convention (DAiCon), a popular event the club used to host before the pandemic hit.
According to Avery Xiao, the secretary of the club and a second-year math major, DAiCon was a place for anime enthusiasts to sell their art and merchandise as well as attend guest speaker panels that once featured staff from Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service.
“Our goal right now is to start up our convention again on campus,” Heeszel said. “From what I know, it was a very big success in the past, and everyone really wants to see it return. We haven’t really had the funds to make it happen just yet, but hopefully, with the cost of the café and all of our other fundraising efforts, it’s going to happen.”
The club also hosts weekly meetings on Wednesdays and Thursdays during which members socialize and watch anime movies and shows, as well as participate in fun trivia activities.
Officers of the club pick anime to watch each quarter based on what they believe the club will like and whether the show is appropriate to the student
audience; however, opinions on the latter are changing.
“This quarter, we [are] also branching out with shows,” Xiao said.
“Normally, we show shows that are generally really safe to watch, but now [we’re] also branching into other genres like horror or really bloody fighting shows.”
Recently, the club has featured “Skip and Loafer,” a romantic comedy about a country girl in Tokyo, and “Hell’s Paradise,” an action anime about an assassin on the quest to find immortality.
Davis Anime Club also has several sub-clubs that cater to other types of media and entertainment members might enjoy, such as the Western Animation Club, which screens animated shows from outside of Japan; the Tabletop Club, which allows members to play board games or role-playing one-shot games; and the club’s official art team, which provides members a creative outlet in the anime community.
Overall, the club aims to provide a safe and inclusive space for its members to bond over their shared interest.
“We’re very closely tied with other communities,” Heeszel said. “Minority groups, the LGBTQ+ community — these groups are just very intrinsically baked into our community. We do different things to make people feel welcome.”
Mickaela Del Ponzo, the graphic
Kesem provides community and support to camp attendees and students who are connected to the club
designer for the club and a third-year design major, also attributes the club’s welcoming nature to its large size.
“[Davis Anime Club] is truly made with the club members in mind,” Del Ponzo said via Discord direct messaging. “Our officers are always discussing how to create anime line-ups and events that our members will enjoy.”
Additionally, according to Del Ponzo, officers of the club will check in on members through surveys to make sure they feel heard.
Heeszel said that the club has grown quickly at UC Davis because people have become more open-minded in their tastes for entertainment.
“In recent years, people have been allowing themselves to be freer and to enjoy different things because [anime] was definitely seen as cringe for a while,” Heeszel said.
However, despite anime’s newfound popularity and the club’s high member count, meeting participation has stagnated due to the pandemic.
“Our club meetings are relatively small, especially later in the quarter because of midterms,” Xiao said. “We’re hoping to advertise our clubs more so that we can have a full classroom of people watching anime together. Before quarantine, according to our seniors, the classrooms would be full and there would be a lot of talking and socializing. It would be really nice to bring back those kinds of days.”
UC Davis’s Love Lab hosts ‘Sexcess Week’
Love Lab staff give insight on “Sexcess Week” and raising awareness about sexual health
BY ELIZABETH WOODHALL features@theaggie.org
From May 15 to 19, UC Davis’s Love Lab hosted “Sexcess Week,” a week all about promoting awareness about sexual health for students. It consisted of workshops and events where students could learn more about sexual health — free of cost and open to anyone.
The Love Lab is a mobile cart located in the Health Education and Promotion office on the third floor of the Student Health and Wellness Center, according to its website. This mobile cart is stocked with free contraceptives and items that promote sexual well-being and safety. The Love Lab also provides educational material like cards and flyers to students who want to learn more about sexual health.
Abi Yeh, a fourth-year political science major and sexual well-being student coordinator for the Love Lab, said that the week is not only meant to be informative but it is also meant to be a fun way to learn about sexual health.
“‘Sexcess Week’ is just a week we dedicate to raising awareness about the sexual health resources that the Love Lab offers, as well as what the Student Health and Counseling Services at UC Davis offers,” Yeh said. “We provide resources and information, and it’s also just a fun way to engage with students and work with our campus partners to promote safer sex.”
This week-long event is geared toward all students according to Alyson Kahn, a fourth-year human development major and sexual well-being student coordinator at the Love Lab.
“It’s an opportunity for any of the UC Davis students to have access to our programming,” Khan said. “A lot of our programming throughout the year will be strictly residence halls or based on a request from us. It’s a week where we put a lot of things open to the public.”
“Sexcess Week” was inspired by campuses that host sexual health week during National Condom Week, which typically occurs during the week of Valentine’s Day, according to Stephanie Ha, a fourth-year human development major and sexual well-being student coordinator. Last year, the date was changed to May.
“Usually it was during National Condom Week, but for the last two years, it’s been the middle of May,” Kahn said. “It just fits better with the quarter. We noticed that planning-wise, it was really hard coming back from winter break and just jumping right into ‘Sexcess Week’ and getting that all together. We wanted to provide a time that fits best for the students.”
On May 15, the kick-off started. The student staff tabled at the Memorial Union from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., with students dropping by and asking their questions about sexual health. While tabling, Love
Lab staff also gave out safer-sex products, informational material and stickers.
Ha said that it is important that students feel comfortable asking sex-related questions, especially with the existing stigma around sexual health.
“We wanted to make sure to provide an inclusive and open environment for students to ask their questions,” Ha said.
“Additionally, being able to table [...] shows visibility on campus. So, more people can learn about our work and what we do, and it’s just to provide an informative and shame-free resource, as well as making sure [...] students feel more comfortable seeking out sexual health resources and services.”
On May 16, a “Pleasure and Communication Workshop” took place on the third floor at the Student Health and Counseling Services building. It was an interactive discussion about the importance of pleasure hosted by Yeh and Kahn.
“The workshop basically was a combination of a presentation style as well as interactive activities,” Yeh said. “It was meant to have a lot of open discussion. We had some conversation surrounding pleasure in both non-sexual as well as sexual context[s].”
During this workshop, Yeh said that it is important for pleasure to be part of sexual education. They informed participants about pleasure’s role in sexual intercourse — a topic that is often overshadowed.
“Oftentimes, when we learn about sex for the first time, as adolescents or young adults, we’re often told the negative aspects of sex, like sexually transmitted infections or how to avoid a pregnancy,” Yeh said. “And while those things are really important, pleasure is also really important because it is like the main reason why most people engage in sexual activity at all.”
Combating negative stigma around
sex can start conversations around sexual health, allowing people to engage in healthier communication around sexrelated topics, Yeh said.
On May 17, “AndPI Sex Ed w/ the Love Lab” was hosted at the Student Community Center in collaboration with the Strategic Asian and Pacific Island Retention Initiative (SA&PIRI).
The workshop was joined by Tatum Phan, Ph.D., a UC Davis counselor in the Cross Cultural Center and Asian American Studies Department. Phan helped put on a game of Kahoot, a game-based learning platform, to teach students about HIV and its impacts on the Asian American community.
“We use the Kahoot platform to make sure to try and be interactive and fun while also being educational for students, who are always using this in their classes, and [Kahoot] has always been really fun for others,” Ha said. “It’s also used in our sex Kahoots, which we do for residential halls, campus organizations and classes. We actually had a sex Kahoot to end our ‘Sexcess Week’ on Friday last week.”
Having this conversation about HIV be centered around the Asian American community brings in more visibility to an issue that is not often talked about within the community.
“It lets people know that they’re not alone,” Ha said. “Additionally, like the Asian and Pacific Islander population, many people in this community are affected by HIV and don’t know it, as well as are affected by various barriers. It’s just important to shed light on the issue to eliminate HIV stigma, as well as support people living with HIV.”
Students can access the UC Davis Sexcess Map on the Love Lab’s website, which details where all the sexual health resources can be found on and around campus. Students can access these nearby
BY AMBER WARNKE features@theaggie.org
Camp Kesem is a national nonprofit organization that was founded in 2000 and provides free week-long overnight summer camps for children six to 18 who are impacted by a parent’s cancer diagnosis. The organization collaborates with over 130 college chapters in 44 states, which staff and fundraise for the camps. In 2021, Kesem served nearly 7,000 children with over 5,000 student volunteers.
Asher Rose, a first-year political science and sociology double major at UCSB, attended the UC Davis-run Kesem camp as a child. He grew up in Davis and was familiar with Kesem from the organization’s mural downtown. When his mom was diagnosed with cancer, he asked her to send him to the camp just four months later.
“I’m really glad I got to go that summer because I don’t know what I would have done without it,” Rose said.
Rose said the camp helped him accept his mom’s diagnosis and find a community that understood how he was feeling.
“The support system is the biggest thing that I would say that I’ve gotten from camp,” Rose said. “It’s very alienating, I would say, to be a kid and have a parent who has cancer. It’s hard, and you feel like not a lot of people really understand what you’re going through because a lot of people don’t. But Kesem really gives you that space to have that shared community to rely on. I wasn’t totally alone. I had a group of people I could really talk to, [...] who would really understand what I was talking about.”
Second-year design and English double major Faith Arnett has been a general member in Kesem at UC Davis for two years. She said she decided to join after seeing a flier for the club in Wellman Hall. Arnett shared that her mom was diagnosed with cancer when she was young.
“Now, I wish I had Kesem when I was a kid,” Arnett said. “It would have been great just to meet other kids whose parents also had cancer because it’s kind of hard to bring that up in school.”
According to Arnett, not everyone knows how to react when kids say their parents have cancer, but Kesem provides a space where kids can be supported.
“You’ll get a lot of pity, [...] It’s coming from a good place, but at the end of the day, that’s not what a child needs at that age,” Arnett said. “They don’t need pity, they need support. They need companionship. They need to know that there are other people who are also going through the same thing they are, and that’s exactly what Kesem does for these kids. It gives them a sense of community rather than being ‘the kid with a parent who has cancer.’”
Arnett attended Kesem for the first time as a counselor in summer 2022 and found that the camp does a good job balancing traditional camp activities with activities designed to give kids a space to process their parents’ diagnoses.
“We have a day in the week called ‘Empowerment,’ where we get a little bit
CAPSULEGUT
FROM PAGE 11
Jacob Folz, first author on the study and postdoctoral researcher in Fiehn’s lab at UC Davis, commented on how CapScan overcomes the drawbacks of other methods used to study digestion.
“This study and new technology open the door to freely research what is happening in the gut,” Folz said via email. “This has previously been barred by physically invasive sampling procedures and radical diet control. Now researchers will be able to address serious questions related to intestinal health and disease, or simply look at how the digestion of a tomato compares to the digestion of an olive.”
So far, the small intestine has only been studied in individuals under sedation or through invasive but
more serious,” Arnett said. “This is where they talk about the family members they’re here for. We all sit there and listen, as we all support them. There’s a lot of tears on that day and a lot of crying, but at the end of it, I think we just all feel so immensely close to each other, and it’s just such an incredible feeling seeing those kids being so vulnerable with each other.”
Fourth-year music and sociocultural anthropology double major and UC Davis Kesem Chapter Co-Director Cloe DeBarros has been involved in Kesem for over 13 years, having attended camp since the age of 10.
“[Kesem] definitely changed my coping skills, my perspective [and] my understanding of things,” DeBarros said. “Honestly, for the most part, it just told me that I wasn’t alone in how I was feeling.”
DeBarros’s mom is a cancer survivor. When she was diagnosed, DeBarros was only six, but as the oldest sibling, she took responsibility for the family. DeBarros said that at the time, she often felt guilty after her mom’s diagnosis. However, at Kesem, she was able to focus on her own needs.
“A lot of the time I blamed myself for the things that were going on in my family and what my mom was going through,” DeBarros said. “I kind of just put it on myself because I was the older child, and I was like, ‘Oh I have to take care of my family.’ I took the step up to be the more mature child because I have a younger brother, and I didn’t really want to focus on my own childhood, being a kid. So when I got to camp, it was that chance for me to just have fun [and] enjoy myself.”
Fourth-year human development major Jenna Larson said she didn’t want to go to camp when her mom initially suggested it after her dad passed away from cancer.
“I was super anti-Kesem when my mom presented it to me when I was 13, and I had a terrible attitude,” Larson said. “I just didn’t want to do anything. I was very against it, going to what I saw as ‘cancer camp.’ But it ended up playing such a huge role in my life, and as much as I wanted to hate it, I loved it, and I met so many amazing people, and now I don’t know what I’m going to do without it after I graduate.”
Arnett has also made many close friends through her participation in Kesem in college.
“Kesem is one of the most amazing things in college that I didn’t think was going to happen,” Arnett said. “It brings together so many good people.”
Larson feels similarly.
“I would not be anywhere without Kesem in my college experience,” Larson said. “All of my best friends are from Kesem. My friends outside of Kesem are like, ‘Oh my God, Kesem is your whole personality,’ but it is; it’s totally shaped who I am.”
When asked to describe what Kesem represents in one sentence, Larson responded, “Resilience.”
controlled procedures since digestion is difficult to research in humans. Part of this difficulty is due to limitations in clinical exams like endoscopy and colonoscopy, which can only scan up to certain parts of the digestive tract. However, the invention of CapScan will be able to provide more comprehensive information about processes that have never been studied before, as it can travel through and survey the entire digestive tract without disrupting or contaminating an individual’s gut microbiome. In addition, clinical trials testing gut health will no longer require participants to undergo “[This project] is really the exploration of the unknown,” Fiehn said. “People think about the next frontier being Mars or being the bottom of the ocean, but there’s another frontier. We think it’s absolutely essential to understand human disease but also how microbes interact with human physiology.”
8 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
Camp Kesem positively impacts the children it serves and the student who volunteer
Volunteers and attendees support one another at Camp Kesem. (Raz Yardeny / Courtesy)
Love Lab volunteers present “Pleasure and Communication Workshop” for Sexcess Week. (Blake Flaughter / Courtesy)
MIRANDA LEE / AGGIE
Sudoku
Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.
Crossword
THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 | 9 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
Answer to previous puzzle 5/25/23 r edu c e . r eu s e . r e cycl e . T h e a gg i e Answer to previous puzzle 5/25/23 Scan to upload your completed crossword for the chance to win a prize!
UC Davis women’s equestrian team members reflect on how their sport has impacted their lives
BY AMBER WARNKE features@theaggie.org
Dogs of Davis
Meet the canine companions of students across campus
BY MIA BALTIERRA features@theaggie.org
Q: Tell me about your dog.
A: He has a closet. He has an Instagram and everything, @louie_the_pawteenth.
Q: When did you get your dog?
A: Last year. He was a stray. I’m from SoCal, so he actually went to our house and stayed at our door so my brother decided to keep him. At the time, I had wanted to have an emotional support animal [...] so I drove him up here, and now he’s mine.
Q: What’s it like having a dog at college?
Q: What can you tell me about his personality?
A: He’s loving. He’s also very sassy. He loves water a little too much; he’s obsessed with water. He’s very wellmannered.
Q: Can you share any interesting or funny stories about him being on campus or in general?
Second-year
Ashley Cabrera and Louie, her fiveyear-old shih tzu.
A: It’s been interesting. He comes to class with me sometimes. He’s the calmest dog ever, he doesn’t bark at anything. He’s very loving, and he’s helped me deal with stress. He loves people, so it’s great to have him on campus.
Q: Tell me about your dog.
A: She’s a puppy; she just turned four months old last week.
Q: When did you get your dog?
A: About a month ago, we got her about half an hour away in Vacaville — me and my partner. We got her the day after Picnic Day. After the [Doxie] Derby, we were like, ‘We want a puppy,’ so we were looking around, and we got Luna.
Q: What’s it like having a dog at college?
A: In terms of productivity, it’s a bit better, just because I have to wake up so early every day. Normally, I’m used to waking up a little bit later — aside from when I have to go to work — but with her, I’m basically up at seven every day because she wakes me up. I take her on campus once a week typically. When I have more time, I’ll bring her
Q: Tell me about your dog.
The riders of the UC Davis women’s equestrian team, established in 2018, compete in Western and English competitions across the country and practice three times a week at the Davis Equestrian Center.
The team has had a successful spring season, with a “dominant victory against the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles,” scoring 15-0 and recording 1,161 points, which marks UC Davis’s “most lopsided win in program history,” according to the UC Davis Equestrian website.
“This program has done some incredible things in the short span that it’s been organized,” second-year history major Marin Gilliland said. “We went from having a really small team to winning our conference championships this year, which is a really big deal, and now we’re trying to go to Nationals next year.”
The team practices for two hours three times a week in addition to preand post-practice horse care, according to fourth-year history major Macey Newkirk.
“We have an hour to get ready for practice,” Newkirk said. “And then it’s about an hour to take our horse out of practice, which means taking all the tack [gear] off and unsaddling and washing our horses after practice, so it’s a big deal.”
Though this is already a significant time commitment, Gilliland explained that the team would actually practice more if they had the funding to do so.
“We can’t afford any more horses,” Newkirk said. “If the university gave us more money, we’d be allowed to practice more, but that sadly has not been the case, so we’re only allowed to practice three days a week.”
While the team mostly takes care of and practices with the horses housed at the UC Davis Equestrian Center, when riders compete at other schools, they have to ride that school’s horses, which is an added difficulty, according to Gilliland.
“When you go away to other schools, […] you only have four minutes to learn the horse before you have to do your event,” Gilliland said.
Despite the challenges of growing a young program, members of the team say the camaraderie between the riders is worth the difficulties, and being on the team has shaped their experiences at UC Davis.
“As a person, it kind of shaped who I am today,” Newkirk said. “It allowed me to get to UC Davis [and] gave me every opportunity I’ve had. The Davis team is genuinely a big family. This team is absolutely everything you could wish for to welcome you into this town as a student-athlete.”
Many of the team members grew up riding horses before coming to UC Davis. Gilliland was introduced to riding around the age of nine by her
BASEBALLSENIORDAY
FROM PAGE 12
“In my mind, I wasn’t sure where he was at [mentally because] he struggled last year,” said Nicholson. “I was like ‘Gosh, is he going to be the same guy [this year]?’ Being a senior, he actually graduated after the winter quarter. In my mind, I was [wondering] if he is just coasting through his last year? To his credit, he worked his butt off and I think he has the second-[best] ERA on our team. He’s been one of our most valuable pitchers. It’s a testament to his character.”
mom and grandmother, who both grew up participating in the sport.
“My grandmother always rode because a lot of people rode at that time,” Gilliland said. “They rode Holo Lio [which means “horse riding” in Hawaiian] [...] and then because my grandmother rode, my mom got into riding, and then so on — I got into riding. The whole community in Hawaii, where I grew up riding, everyone knew everyone, and it was a really nice community to grow up in and learn my sport in.”
For Gilliland, growing up in Hawaii impacted her equestrian opportunities.
“Not a lot of people, at least in my disciple, which is show jumping, have the opportunities to be able to ride on the mainland, or at a higher level because we’re on an island in the middle of the ocean, so it’s a little harder to get the supplies and scholarships over there,” Gilliland said. “You have to work extra hard to be able to get [...] recruited to a college, which requires a lot of work and a lot of time.”
Gilliland is proud of her background as a horseback rider from Hawaii and hopes that more opportunities will open up for Pacific Islander riders in the future.
“For me, the value of riding is proving that people from Hawaii, Pacific Islanders, anybody, can make it to a college team and ride at this high level,” Gilliland said. “It’s all possible; we just need the opportunities to do it. Because we’re so small, we all have to stick together and work hard to enjoy our sport and make it possible for upand-coming generations to have access to opportunities that maybe we didn’t have when we began riding. The road is being paved, and people are getting the opportunities that they deserve because there are some really talented riders over there. It’s an ocean away!”
Second-year communication major Kendall Lance is also a member of the team. She explained that she was introduced to the sport when her mom found a Groupon for a horse riding camp.
“I had always begged her to ride horses, and she let me go and it just went on from there,” Lance said. “I started doing more regular lessons and then leasing a horse and then owning a horse, and now I’m here.”
Lance has thus far enjoyed her experience as an equestrian at UC Davis, and said she loves striving towards winning competitions as a team.
“I love it here,” Lance said. “The team’s really awesome; we have a really great team culture. I think because it is a newer team still — I think this was the fifth year of competitions — so everyone is still hunting for those big goals. It’s really awesome being a part of a group of girls where we all have the same values.”
The Anteaters would add two runs in the final two innings, while the Aggies struggled to come back from behind. The game ended after Aggies’ second-year outfielder Mark Wolbert hit a hard ground ball that the Anteaters’ second baseman, redshirt second-year Will Bermudez, snagged on a diving grab before recording the final out at first base. The Anteaters improved their overall record to 35-17.
In his press conference, Nicholson described how Williams III, Freeman and Peng have all been a part of changing the team culture.
“Those guys are a big reason why our culture is trending in the right direction,” said Nicholson. “I think the culture of our team is guys that
Scout, a 10-year-old Australian cattle dog (red heeler). Parker Flickinger, a graduate student in community and regional development.
A: [It’s a] long story, but Scout isn’t my personal dog. He’s owned by my pastor, actually. My pastor runs a little chapel off campus [called The Belfry]. It’s a student chapel. I volunteer there, and I take him on therapy walks, so he can be pet and play with other students.
Q: What’s it like having a dog at college?
A: I take him out with the chapel and with my own personnel volunteering as well, to be out there, be friendly and help students feel safe and comfortable here on campus. I walk him around and the students can come say hello and play with him, and he can make them feel safe and happy. It’s just letting students know they are not alone, and I just happened to find a dog that could help with that.
Q: When did you get your dog?
A: I adopted him when he was about two years old. My sister had two other dogs with her boyfriend, so she had too many dogs on hand and she was working a busy job in a tiny little apartment, so I would dogsit for them all the time, and I saw him and realized, ‘Okay, maybe if I take one of your dogs off your hands, you can be a little more relaxed at home,’ and I decided to adopt him. She was totally okay with that, so that’s how I got him, but he’s originally from Kingman, Arizona. I adopted him in Louisiana, and now he’s in California.
Q: What’s it like having a dog at college?
A: I used to live at the dairy facility as a resident, and he tried to play with the cows because he thought they were big dogs. They would come up to him and stuff. I wouldn’t let him [get too close], but they would both pay attention to each other.
in during the middle of the day to get her used to people.
Q: What can you tell me about her personality?
A: She’s a little scared of dogs, but she’s great with people. She’s very playful; she likes playing with literally anything. Especially after she eats, she gets a burst of energy.
Q: Can you share any interesting or funny stories about her being on campus or in general?
A: [On] Saturday, I helped volunteer at a model UN conference they do here for high schoolers, and we had her in one of the skits. She was one of those villains in the Justice League skit that they were performing. Whenever I can, I bring her with me, and she just socializes with other people.
Q: What can you tell me about his personality?
A: Scout is definitely a people[’s] dog. He’s definitely quiet and mellow. He’s in his retirement because he’s an older dog. [Australian cattle dogs] are often very high energy because they are bred to chase cattle. He isn’t super keen on other animals, but he loves people of all ages.
Q: Can you share any interesting or funny stories about him being on campus or in general?
A: We were just doing a therapy session with ASUCD. He has also done sessions at the Hillel House, [which is] the Jewish community center on campus. I need to take a full tally, but he has played with over a thousand students on campus.
A: He’s definitely a people’s dog. He likes to meet other students. He’s very shy but friendly. With other animals, he’ll be talkative, but with people, he’ll just give you body language, so I think it’s just a shy demeanor. He’s not a cuddle bug, but he’s lovable. His favorite things are balls; he just likes to roll on them.
Q: Can you share any interesting or funny stories about him being on campus or in general?
Yogi, a six-year-old American cocker spaniel. Natalie Jean, a recent master’s graduate in earth and planetary sciences.
A: I think it’s helped with my anxiety with college classes and just deadlines. […] When I go home and pet him, it’s an easy way to get your mind off of things. It forces me to exercise. It’s really easy to stay home and work on your computer the entire time, but it was a way for me to take a step back and not be so anxious all the time. It’s helped my mental health a lot.
Q: What can you tell me about his personality?
Q: Tell me about your dog.
A: It’s my boyfriend’s dog, she’s a field golden [retriever].
Q: When did you get your dog?
A: My boyfriend moved here a year ago, and he had her before, so he didn’t get her anywhere local.
Q: What’s it like having a dog at college?
A: I live walking distance from campus, so we walk here a lot. I think it’s nice because it’s an excuse to get out of the apartment. We have to take her out two to three times a day to go on walks. Campus is very dog friendly and I always see other people with dogs. My boyfriend goes on bike rides and she’ll run alongside him.
A: He’s very familiar with the squirrels that live by our house. One time, when he had the chance to go outside, the squirrel was caught off guard, and Yogi just kind of snuck up behind him. The squirrel didn’t have the chance to run up the tree, so Yogi had grabbed him by the tail by then. I was screaming, ‘No, don’t hurt him!’ but he didn’t know what to do. He just had him by the tail and the squirrel was trying to leave, but he let go when I said, ‘Yogi, let him go!’ He still wanted to play with him. He wasn’t aggressive; he has no killer instinct.
Q: What can you tell me about her personality?
A: She’s very energetic, she’s very loving, she’s very well-behaved. My boyfriend took a long time to train her, so she listens. She loves people.
Q: Can you share any interesting or funny stories about her being on campus or in general?
A: She loves the Arboretum. When we walk her there, she loves chasing the ducks, but she doesn’t try to catch them. She just wants to chase them enough that they run away from her. It’s like a little game she plays.
Eden said.
work hard; they play hard; they do the right thing off the field [and] they’re respectful. When we go on the road, we haven’t had any issues. We’ve got guys that do things the right way. They’re good on campus, and those three really have been a positive influence on their teammates and the whole team.”
The Aggies have demonstrated significant improvement this year after only winning six games last season. UC Davis finished their season on the road against Long Beach State in a threegame series from May 25 to May 27 — the Aggies lost all three games and finished with a 17-37 overall record along with a 7-23 record in conference play.
SENATE FROM PAGE 7
Next, the Senate discussed new legislation. Vice President Eden read the summary of SR #7 and assigned it to External Affairs Comission and The Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission.
“This is a resolution to support the mission of National Gun Violence Awareness Day on the first Friday in June to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence, and to declare that we, as a country, must do more to end this public health crisis,”
CA #85, SR #9, SB #115 and SB #116 were also introduced.
Next, the consent calendar passed unanimously.
The table then moved into “budget amendment” which was added to the agenda prior to the meeting. However, budget amendments were unable to be made after the hearings on May 20-21.
“This was on the agenda originally, because I thought we could actually do it, but we can’t,” Eden said. “We can’t bend the budget in this meeting. The bylaws outline a pretty detailed and lengthy procedure for how the Senate can amend the budget.”
After this, Eden adjourned the meeting at 11:28 p.m.
10 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE
Riders say the equestrian community has provided them with social and emotional benefits
animal science major
Elizabeth Hernandez, a third-year design major, and her four-month-old German shepherd, Luna.
Three-year-old field golden retriever, Riley. Paige Karpinen, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major.
Horses can be found on campus at the Vet School and in the Equestrian Center.
(Kayla Bruckman / Aggie)
SCIENCE AND TECH
UC Davis researchers use artificial intelligence to accelerate wildfire vegetation redevelopment
Researchers are developing a toolkit that can efficiently help farmers rehabilitate land lost in wildfires
Abandoned offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico could cost $30 billion to clean up
Study finds that plugging shallower wells first would be more cost-effective
BY LILLY ACKERMAN science@theaggie.org
A recent paper by researchers at UC Davis and Louisiana State University estimated that it would cost around $30 billion to plug and abandon all inactive offshore oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. It also informs where budget money for cleanup might most effectively be spent for maximum environmental benefit.
BY ARYAMAN BHATIA science@theaggie.org
Researchers at UC Davis are developing an artificial intelligence-based toolkit that can assess damages caused by wildfires to vegetated areas and accelerate the recuperation process for landowners.
With the rising temperatures caused due to global warming, wildfire risks have increased substantially. The aftermath of a wildfire is often unpredictable, making it difficult for landowners to know the exact severity of the damages that can occur.
In an effort to combat this, UC Davis researchers are using artificial intelligence to analyze wildfire repercussions and develop an online toolkit that can be accessed by anyone. With the help of the toolkit, landowners can project how vegetation in the area is growing and its susceptibility to wildfire damages, helping the user effectively intervene in the case of wildfire.
The project involves two main steps: data collection and classification. For data collection, the team collects large numbers of forested area images before and after the area has been affected by wildfire. To do this, the project uses a dataset from the NRS’s California Heartbeat Initiative. The team also conducts drone flyovers over wildfire-affected areas to gain a better understanding of how wildfire has affected various vegetation types and areas over time.
Derek Young, an assistant professional researcher for the Forest Change Analysis Lab at UC Davis and co-lead for the project, explained the benefits of using drones to survey land after wildfires.
“The benefit of using drones is that many objects on the ground, say a rock or a shrub or a tree, show up in many different images,” Young said.
“So by using a program called ‘Motion for Capture,’ you can triangulate the structure and height.”
This helps the team get accurately measured data, which allows them to classify vegetation down to the pixel. The images are then hand-labeled individually according to their vegetation type in the form of a large data structure.
Once the data has been collected, it is split into a training set, which refers to the images that will be used to train the machine-learning algorithm, and testing sets, to see how correctly the algorithm classifies the images.
The machine-learning algorithm divides each image input by the user into sections and characterizes images based on the training set. By identifying pixel groups within the image as certain vegetation types, such as shrubs or trees, the model can identify differences between images of different timelines.
“We might, in our pre-wildfire image, see a lot of green in, say, a slope of chaparral, and in the immediate postwildfire image, that might become red, like bare ground,” Young said. “And then in another few years, it might be back to
Capsule invented to learn more about the human digestive system
The CapScan capsule passes through the small intestine to provide information about gut microbiomes and how diet affects health
BY KATIE HELLMAN science@theaggie.org
According to a recent publication in Nature, researchers have designed a capsule called CapScan to collect data about healthy human digestive systems. The project was conducted by researchers at UC Davis, Stanford University and Envivo Bio Inc.
During the study, researchers analyzed the digestion process in 15 healthy individuals and found significant correlations between diet and metabolites, the result of metabolic processes.
“To sample from four distinct regions of the intestinal tract, four devices were ingested as a set after an individual ate a meal of their choosing, wherein different device types in a set were designed to open at different, progressively higher pH levels,” the study reads.
Typically, digestion takes place when enzymes in the small intestine break down food, which is then absorbed into the bloodstream so nutrients can be dispersed throughout the body. However, the specific functions of different parts along the intestinal tract remain largely unknown.
Oliver Fiehn, a senior author of the
green, as the chaparral resprouted and started to recover.”
In this way, one can track how ecosystems recover from the aftermath of a wildfire, which is important for learning how to best manage resources.
“The areas in need of post-fire reforestation far exceed the resources managers have for planting,” the Forest Change Analysis Lab’s website reads. “It is critical to understand where tree planting is most likely to be effective at achieving restoration goals so that limited resources can be put to use most effectively.”
The end goal is to develop a toolkit that allows anyone with access to a drone to input overhead shots of their own land and understand which areas are at high risk for wildfire damage. This would allow owners to know where exactly they must devote resources to their land.
Young said that this project showcases the benefits of adopting a multidisciplinary approach by combining ecology and artificial intelligence.
“There’s been some huge advances in the machine learning and computer vision community,” Young said. “Some of those are accessible to specialists in other disciplines, like ecologists, but others require collaboration with computer scientists. So I think there is a huge potential for the ecological insights we can gain from our data, using both the current tools and the tools that are just becoming available.”
According to the paper, as 2021’s top producer of oil and gas in the world, the United States is home to over 4.4 million oil and gas wells. Offshore wells make up only 2.5% of this total, but they are responsible for 15% of all oil and gas production. Of these offshore wells, 14% are inactive and eligible for plugging and abandoning in the Gulf of Mexico, the epicenter of the U.S.’s offshore gas and oil operations.
Plugging and abandoning oil and gas wells that are no longer in use is crucial to avoid methane gas leaks, chronic oil leaks and other pollution that could result from a lack of monitoring and repairs. These leaks impact global climate change as well as the health of local ecosystems, and with the historical prevalence of using oil and gas for energy, there are plenty of wells that need to be plugged.
“[Plugging and abandoning] wells prevents underground saltwater from polluting fresh groundwater reservoirs, and it prevents leakage of hydrocarbons or other substances from the well,” the
paper reads. According to Dr. Mark Agerton, the lead author of the paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, no prior studies have focused specifically on these offshore wells, which are different in many ways to the wells on land.
“We thought it was important to specifically focus on the offshore wells because they tend to be bigger, the environmental risks are different and they’re more expensive to clean up,” Agerton said.
The authors found that plugging and abandoning all inactive offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico would cost around $30 billion. Notably, wells in shallow water account for over 90% of these inactive wells, and plugging them would only cost about $7 billion of the $30 billion total.
This finding has important implications for prioritizing well clean up, especially since such a large proportion of these inactive wells can be plugged at a relatively small cost.
Compounding these implications is the finding that shallower wells also pose more of an environmental threat than deep water wells. For example, pollutants like methane emitted by deep water wells often dissolve in water and do not reach the surface, which means they don’t all enter the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
study and director of the West Coast Metabolomics Center at UC Davis, provided insight into how CapScan could shed light on the digestive process.
“We can look into how nutrition is altered,” Fiehn said. “We can give people specific foods and use these devices to see what happens in different parts of the small intestine while they ingest them.”
The CapScan is coated with a pHsensitive layer, which makes it so that researchers can choose which part of the intestinal tract to sample. The capsule is later recovered in the stool of participants for analysis.
“All of this information can be used for intervention,” Fiehn said. “Once we know what happens to nutrition and which microbes are responsible, and also maybe which drugs and other compounds interfere with microbial properties, then we can intervene appropriately. Instead of targeting human genes, we would target microbial species to improve health.”
CapScan also hopes to provide a much more thorough analysis of the gut metabolome (the small molecules involved in metabolism) and information about the gut microbiome.
Annual
Vietnamese Mini Medical School hosted at UC Davis Health
The conference presented a series of speakers to medically inform the underserved Vietnamese community in Sacramento on mental health, healthy aging and diabetes
medical health,” Ly said. “This year, we had speakers discuss mental health and Alzheimer’s Disease, colon and stomach cancer screening, normal and abnormal aging and Type II Diabetes, all of which become increasingly relevant and important to the health of older Vietnamese individuals.”
Both Meyer and Ly hope that the VMMS can continue to be an accessible and reliable source of medical information that is culturally and linguistically adapted for all Vietnamese individuals in the Sacramento area.
“The event totally exceeded my expectations, with a great number of people who showed up — around 120 individuals,” Meyer said. “I always get these older Vietnamese people who come up afterward who tell me that they’re grateful that we do this for the community, and it’s very heartwarming.”
Upon reflection, Meyer hoped to expand the VMMS to include more socially interactive sections in the annual program to bring the community closer together.
BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org
On May 13, UC Davis Health hosted its third annual Vietnamese Mini Medical School (VMMS), open for the Vietnamese immigrant and refugee community in Sacramento to attend. For almost 20 years, UC Davis School of Medicine has been offering an annual highly acclaimed mini medical school program, featuring faculty who volunteer to teach free classes to the public.
In partnership with the Asian Resources Inc. (ARI), Oanh Meyer, an assistant professor of neurology at UC Davis Health and a social psychologist by training, started the VMMS back in 2021, in the thick of the pandemic. For three years now, the program has expanded to address the unique needs of Sacramento’s Vietnamese population during May annually, coinciding with Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“For many years, UC Davis Health had an annual mini medical school for the general community, targeting
older individuals with informative presentations on cardiovascular health, brain health and so forth,” Meyer said. “Neighborhoods immediately adjacent to and south of the UC Davis Health campus are home to a large population of Vietnamese origin. Many Vietnamese Americans in Sacramento are foreignborn, lack access to culturally appropriate care and are medically underserved. So I thought of catering the MMS toward the Vietnamese community here.”
VMMS has come a long way, beginning virtually during the pandemic to now a full-blown annual conference and social event with presentations in Vietnamese. With the help of Hoa Ly, clinical research supervisor for the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Meyer selected speakers, most of whom were healthcare workers and doctors whom she knew, to discuss diseases that Vietnamese individuals are more predisposed to and inform the community about preventative healthcare.
“The motivation for this is to reach out to the Vietnamese community and offer an educational day, where we go over different, selected topics on
“Next year, I think we might have a little bit more entertainment and fun because one of my staff, which I didn’t know he was going to do, brought a guitar during our intermission time and started playing and singing,” Meyer said. “It was amazing to see everyone getting into it, clapping, smiling and trying to sing along. So we’ll make sure to have some entertainment, so the program can be more interactive.”
According to Meyer, medically informing the public can help bridge gaps in health disparities that often arise in underserved communities, and VMMS has become just one effort to do so.
“I just think if we continue the momentum of bringing education and research to underserved communities, we can reduce the disproportionate health disparities that we often observe in specific populations and communities,” Meyer said. “That can be through the VMMS, research in different labs, like my lab which focuses on mental health and Alzheimer’s Disease in Vietnamese individuals, or just going into the community to serve and inform individuals.”
THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 | 11
GULFOFMEXICO on 3
CAPSULEGUT on 8
A closer image of the CapScan capsule held between fingers (Envivo Bio, Inc. / Courtesy)
Snapshot of one of the offshore wells that are now inactive (Lynda Miller / Courtesy)
NATALIE CHENG / AGGIE
Meyer at the front with the microphone, presenting her research on mental health and Alzheimer’s Disease. (Dr. Oanh Meyer / Courtesy)
The UC Davis softball team loses both games at the National Invitational Softball Championship
The Aggies’ championship aspirations come to an end in the postseason after a historic season
BY ELOISE ENGS sports@theaggie.org
On May 18 and 19, UC Davis women’s softball (29-22 overall, 15-12 in conference play) made a postseason appearance in the National Invitational Softball Championship (NISC) in Fort Collins, Colorado. After a strong season, the Aggies lost to the University of Iowa, 3-6, and Tarleton State University, 4-10. The regional and final rounds of the tournament started on May 19 and ended May 20, when the University of Iowa won the tournament. The other teams in the tournament were Tarleton (30-27, 13-11), South Dakota State (37-17, 17-0), Maryland (36-17, 1111), CSUN (28-22, 19-8), San Jose State (26-28, 11-11) and Brigham Young University (32-16, 11-4).
This eight-team championship was the fifth edition of the NISC, which is a great opportunity for deserving teams who desire to compete in the postseason. The tournament is played on two fields in a double-elimination format throughout the first round of the Super Regionals. Once the competition gets down to four teams, the tournament proceeds in a singleelimination style bracket.
The Aggies have had an outstanding and record-breaking season this year, as they finished with a 15-12 conference record. They secured their first winning season this year since the 2020 pandemic season when it was significantly shortened.
UC Davis won their last Big West
BASEBALL
Aggies were playing catch-up in the third inning as they punched in two runs to decrease the lead down to one.
Both teams displayed high-level defense as they kept the offense scoreless in the fourth inning, but Iowa managed to score two runs in the fifth inning, making it 5-2. This gave the Aggies two more innings to either tie the score or possibly one-up the Hawkeyes.
The sixth inning looked promising for UC Davis when they got another run on the board, making the score 5-3, but Iowa quickly responded with a run at the bottom of the sixth inning.
UC Davis had one more opportunity to put at least three runs on the board to extend the game to extra innings. However, the Aggies were shut out and could not score another run, which ultimately ended the game.
The Hawkeyes defeated the Aggies 6-3.
Third-year first baseman Sarah Starks was a standout in this game, as she broke the Division I program record for tallying two runs batted in (RBI), which ultimately moved her to 92 total RBIs in her three seasons. Another standout was Dethlefson, who went two for four in runs scored in this game.
Conference series after defeating the University of Hawaii in two out of three games. They lost the first game 2-3, but in the next two games, they came back with two wins (6-1 and 5-2).
Third-year catcher and outfielder
Anna Dethlefson was named the Big West Conference Player of the Year. Dethlefson was the first Aggie
bases in the regular season as well.
UC Davis took on Iowa for their first series of the NISC on May 18. The game started off with third-year Kenedi Brown on the pitching mound, who kept the opposing team from scoring in the first inning. An inning later, the Hawkeyes scored three runs to end the second inning, making it 3-0. The
UC Davis attends the National Invitational Softball Championship and plays against the University of Iowa. (Courtesy of UC Davis Athletics / Leroy Yau) in program history to earn Player of the Year honors from the Big West. Throughout the season, Dethlefson tallied an impressive slugging percentage (.618), doubles (15) and stolen bases (42). She ranks second in batting average (.408), OPS (1.096), runs (46) and hits (64). Dethlefson also broke a single-season record with most stolen
In their next game, Brown took the mound again to start, and UC Davis was in a must-win situation in order to remain alive in the tournament. Their next competitor was Tarleton State, a school located near Fort Worth, Texas.
SBNATIONALS on 6
Aggies honor seniors in final home game against UC Irvine Anteaters
Aggies lose on Senior Day, 2-9
BY PATRICK FIGUEROA sports@theaggie.org
On Sunday afternoon, the UC Davis Aggies prepared for their final home game of the season against the UC Irvine Anteaters. Most teams consider the last home game of the season “Senior Day,” a day to bid a final farewell to all of the departing seniors on the team. This year, the Aggies honored catcher James Williams III and pitchers Nate Freeman and Nathan Peng.
With the game slated to begin at 1 p.m., UC Davis began its ceremony at 12:50 p.m. Each player walked onto Phil Swimley Field for one last time with their loved ones by their sides to receive acknowledgement and cheers from both teams’ fans. UC Davis Athletics had even painted their numbers on the field behind home plate to honor each player.
The Aggies then faced off against the Anteaters for the final game of
WATERSKI
their three-game series. They lost the prior two games 5-10 and 2-13, and unfortunately for the Aggies, the Anteaters completed the sweep, winning the third game 9-2.
UC Davis’s starting pitcher was graduating senior Nate Freeman. Entering this game, Freeman had pitched in 165 innings for the Aggies, racking up 121 strikeouts. He was also a two-time Big West Conference AllAcademic Team representative.
“He’s been a leader in the two years I’ve been here,” said UC Davis Head Coach Tommy Nicholson. “Just the way he goes about his business, [he’s] really good on the field [and] off the field. [He’s] a really hard worker [and] just a professional. [He’s] a model teammate, and I can’t say enough about his work ethic.”
In the top of the first inning, Freeman gave up a leadoff triple to Anteaters’ third-year infielder Jo Oyama. However, he maintained his
composure on the mound, forcing the next batter to ground out to second base and then striking out one of the Big West’s best hitters, Anteaters’ first-year first baseman Anthony Martinez. With a runner on third base and two outs, Freeman got Anteaters’ second-year shortstop Dub Gleeb to hit a ground ball, but third-year third baseman Nick Iverson mishandled the ball, resulting in an error and a run.
Freeman would pitch for two more innings, allowing two runs in the third inning. With two outs and runners on first and third bases in the third inning, Freeman got out of the jam with a strikeout against Anteaters’ second-year outfielder Myles Smith.
Entering the bottom of the fourth inning, the Aggies were down 4-0. With two outs, UC Davis had runners on first
and third base when Williams III came up to the plate. With one ball and one strike, he ripped a single right past a diving second baseman, driving in the first run for the Aggies.
Williams III finished the day with an impressive three-hit performance. Since transferring from Santa Ana Community College, he has accumulated 76 hits, 48 RBI and two home runs in his two-year Aggie career. According to Nicholson, he has been a strong leader as one of the captains of the team this season.
With two runners on base in the top of the sixth inning, Peng entered the game with one out. The Aggies were only down 4-2 after third-year outfielder Damian Stone drove in a run on a double in the prior inning. Alas, the Anteaters scored two runs in this inning,
Water ski club shines in local tournament
UC Davis’s Juraski Park team earns second place
BY MEGAN JOSEPH sports@theaggie.org
Extreme heat this past week did not stop the UC Davis water ski team from snagging second place in their tournament over the May 12-14 weekend. There were some outstanding performances by team members that led the UC Davis men’s water ski A and B teams to victory; the entire water ski team also placed second overall.
With nine other schools competing, the men’s A team won first place overall in three events: trick, jump and slalom. UC Davis received 625 points in trick and 510 points in jump. In the slalom event, the team earned 710 points, putting them in second place behind Western Washington University; nonetheless, all three categories combined to 1,845 points, earning the men’s A team first place.
Some of the best performances of
the tournament came from fourth-year
Noah Gaffney and second-year Connor Johnson. In the slalom event, Gaffney cleared 4.5 buoys while going 32 miles per hour on the 18.25 rope. Gaffney scored 64.50 and earned 220 points which put him in fourth place for the event. Johnson also put up a noteworthy performance, falling not far behind Gaffney and earning sixth place in slalom. Johnson cleared three buoys on the 18.25 rope going 32 miles per hour. He received a score of 63 and earned 200 points. Together, Gaffney and Johnson’s combined effort catapulted the team to victory in the men’s events against their strongest competition, Western Washington University.
Gaffney also showed his abilities in the jump event where he jumped 20.4 meters (67 feet), earning 190 points for the team and third place in the jump category. His performance in all three categories put him in second place for the men’s overall skier category with
550 points.
Additionally, fourth-year Ian Crone had a strong performance in the jump event, placing seventh. Crone jumped 14.7 meters (48 feet), adding 140 points for the team. Crone also earned the team points in the trick category of the tournament. He scored a 200, which translated to 160 points for the team. Individually, he tied for eighth place with two other competitors from Western Washington University in the event. Overall, Crone placed seventh for men’s overall skier with 460 points.
Fourth-year Jason Vaccarezza also competed in the men’s trick category and earned a score of 340. With such a high score, Vaccarezza gained 210 points for the team and placed fourth in the event.
The men’s A team was a tough act to follow but the men’s B team kept the pace, also winning first overall. Fourthyear Bryson Dort won first place in the men’s B team slalom and fourth-year Seth Gach won first place in the trick
category of the competition. The women’s A team also showed a lot of skill in their performances in all three categories. First-year Ashley Carroll jumped 10.5 meters (35 feet), earning the team 150 points. This jump also put
Carroll in third place for the jump category which was the best UC Davis women’s performance of the weekend. Her other teammates, third-year Allison Veiga, fourth-year Taylor Lewis, and UC Davis alum Renee Torree all placed sixth in their respective events. Together, they earned a total of 1,205 points: 375 points in slalom, 450 in trick and 380 in jump. After tying for first place in the jump category and taking third place in the trick and slalom categories, the women’s A team finished in third place overall. The women’s B team earned second
but neither would be accredited to Peng. Peng continued pitching in the top of the seventh inning. While he did give up a run, he also struck out two batters and stranded one runner on base after the final batter flew out to left field. Peng finished his day with 1.2 innings and two strikeouts.
Before becoming a full-time pitcher for his final season, Peng was a two-way player for three seasons as an Aggie. He accumulated 76 innings, 68 strikeouts, 17 hits and one home run in his Aggie career. In addition, Peng was a twotime Big West Conference All-Academic Team representative. Coach Nicholson spoke about how Peng battled back from adversity this season when asked about him.
BASEBALLSENIORDAY on 10
place overall and 510 points in total. While many members of the women’s B team were still perfecting their tricks and jumps, some had admirable performances, like Torre, who placed second in the trick competition, earning 90 points. Carroll and first-year Riley Rodriguez tied for first in slalom.
Overall, the men’s and women’s water ski teams earned a total of 3,050 points, falling just short of first place against Western Washington’s 3,275 points.
12 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2023 THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE SPORTS
SOFTBALL
Senior pitcher Nate Freeman walks off the field after concluding his outing against UC Irvine. (Sean Vanderaa / Aggie)
Nathan Peng, surrounded by family and teammates, receives his parting gift during Senior Day. (Sean Vanderaa / Aggie)
NATALIECHENG/AGGIE