June 1, 2017

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

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VOLUME 135, ISSUE 29 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

Hexter announces support for fossil fuel divestment ALEXA FONTANILLA / AGGIE FILE

Four UC chancellors call for UC to divest from fossil fuel industry

BY JAYASHRI PA D MA N A B H AN campus@theaggie.org

Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter announced his support for fossil fuel divestment on May 15 following student protests in Mrak Hall. The movement calls for the UC Regents to divest from the UC system’s $2.5 billion investments in companies that support fossil fuels. Hexter joins UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George R. Blumenthal and UC Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry T. Yang, who was the first UC chancellor to call for UC divestment from fossil fuels.

Fossil Free UC Davis members began their protests at the Memorial Union and later held a sit-in at Mrak Hall. Students chose to continue protesting despite threats of possible Student Judicial Affairs action and police confrontation. Sarah Risher, a third-year environmental policy and planning major, said that the organization contacted members of the UC Davis administration who said they would assist with efforts to speak with UC Regents members. Students were unable to gain support from UC Regent Richard Sherman.

“Hexter finally supporting the fossil fuel divestment movement is important because it sends a message that this is not something just the students want but something that UC Davis as a whole wants,” Risher said via email. “This puts more pressure on the Regents to act in the interests of the UC campuses rather than their own.”

Fossil Free UC Davis is a chapter of Fossil Free UC (FFUC), a UC-wide campaign calling for UC system divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.

“The greater goal of FFUC is to divest fully from the fossil fuel industry,” said Evan Steel, a fourth-year environmental policy and planning major. “This sends a clear message that there are viable clean energy paths forward and that the UC system does not support the oppressive and destructive regime of the fossil fuel industry. Our goals align with efforts to hold the UC accountable to its students, workers, faculty and the public. Ultimately, we want to see the democratization of our education system in a way that centers the voices of those who have been historically and socially marginalized and oppressed.”

Global studies Ph.D. student Theo LeQuesne, the campaign coordinator for Fossil Free UCSB, said that Fossil Free UC Davis has played a crucial role in solidifying the support of chancellors around the issue. LeQuesne stressed the importance of every UC carrying out action similar to the sit-in.

“Interim Chancellor Hexter’s public endorsement of fossil fuel divestment is a testament to the momentum and support that students across the UC have built around severing ties with the fossil fuel industry,” LeQuesne said via email. “As the third of four chancellors to endorse fossil fuel divestment in the six days since UCSB’s 400 person sit, Chancellor Hexter is helping to solidify the kind of leadership that chancellors across the UCs must show in addressing the climate crisis and delegitimizing the fossil fuel industry.

DIVEST on 9

HANNAH LEE / AGGIE

GENESIA TING / AGGIE

Petition created for continued employment of NPB lecturer Dr. Lauren Liets

The question of intellectual property:

Over 1,000 students sign petition

Universities prevent researchers from taking complete ownership of ideas

BY YVON N E L E ON G campus@theaggie.org

A petition was created on Change.org at the beginning of May to support the continued professorship of Lauren Liets, a lecturer in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior (NPB), beyond Spring Quarter 2018. In 2014, Liets was given a “pink slip,” meaning her job could be revoked at anytime during the year. It was decided that her time as a lecturer would end after Spring Quarter 2018. UC Davis students Noreen Mansuri, a third-year NPB major; Colin Wang, a third-year NPB major; and Hiba Hummadi, a fourth-year NPB major, created the petition so that Liets could retain her job. As of May 28, 1,172 people had signed the petition.

“We, the students of UC Davis, would like to express our love and support for Dr. Lauren Liets,” the petition reads. “Her passion, extensive knowledge, and ability to engage with students have made her one of the most beloved and sought out professors in the NPB department.” The petition also states

that “her departure from the university would be a great disservice to all students and the NPB department.”

Many comments were left by the petition’s supporters. Ekaterina Gurzh, a fourth-year NPB major, said Liets is one of the best professors she has ever had.

“I’m currently in Dr. Liets’ NPB 168 class and I can safely say she is one of the best professors I have ever had,” Gurzh commented on the petition. “Her class has been extremely eye opening and informative and I firmly believe that she is an irreplaceable asset to the NPB department. I hope students can continue taking her class for years.”

Mansuri supports Liets because she believes the lecturer is an irreplaceable part of the NPB department.

“I support this petition because Dr. Liets is one of the best professors on campus and as a student, I want to have the opportunity to take more classes with her in the future and ensure that incoming NPB on 9

BY G ILLIAN ALLEN features@theaggie.org

From the modern-day elevator to social media worlds like Facebook, America prides itself on promoting innovation and invention. However, coming up with a new and useful idea can be extremely expensive, difficult and time-consuming. For this reason, many Ph.D. candidates and professors dream of working at prestigious research universities that will provide researchers with the resources they need, such as money and technology, to pursue their inventions and ideas.

“A lot of professors who have had successful pasts will be able to get a job at a university like this, use its facility, develop their [studies] and get grants to their department or school and also to himself or herself,” said Ryan Ko, a fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology major. “There are professors in the field that are motivated to keep getting ahead and find that big breakthrough.”

Since his sophomore year, Ko has worked in a lab studying the structural biology of proteins — even

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conducting his own independent research project — and has seen many cases of the interaction between industry and research.

“A professor who has had that big breakthrough and starts selling [a discovery] to industry needs to consider the fact that it is intellectual property of the university and you can’t make additional money off of their facilities,” Ko said. “The school’s opinion is that if you develop an idea, it becomes the school property if you use their laboratory or their process of hiring undergraduates or graduates [...] you’re using the school as a way to get to where you are.”

In a recent lawsuit over the ownership of a strawberry breed invented at UC Davis, two former UC Davis scientists were found guilty of breeding what was considered to be the university’s intellectual property. This is where the catch of the university research system comes in.

According to a Forbes technology article from 2012, all UC campuses require that graduate students who have been hired to perform research each

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2 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ASUCD SENATE HOLDS ANNUAL BUDGET HEARINGS Senators approve units’ budgets for the 2017-2018 year

JAY GELVEZON / AGGIE

BY KEN TO N G O L DS BY, CLARA Z H AO, I VA N VALEN Z U E L A , L I N DSAY FLOYD, JAYAS H R I PADMA N A B H A N , K I M I A AKBAR I , E D DY Z H U, A L LY RUSSE L L A N D AA R O N L I SS campus@theaggie.org

With many hours of debate and discussion to come, the 2017-2018 ASUCD budget hearings opened on the evening of May 19 with an inspirational address from Associate Vice Chancellor Milton Lang. He expressed his hopes that the ASUCD members “be civil [and] be respectful” during the difficult work ahead of them.

He further addressed his hope for Student Affairs to not have to become involved in the budgetary process. His department has not been involved in the

Police Logs:

past and he expressed that he wanted this to remain the case.

Before starting discussion about units, ASUCD Controller Jin Zhang remarked that ASUCD begins with an operating budget total of $549,389. As budgets are approved, depending on if the unit will be giving or receiving a subsidy, this amount will increase or decrease.

The body then moved to address the budget for Creative Media. The proposed budget from Creative Media Director Alexander Park was approved unanimously.

The budget for Unitrans was then considered. Director Anthony Palmere remarked how important wages are to his budget, as he is trying to keep wages for bus drivers around 20 percent higher than minimum wage in order to retain employees. The Unitrans budget passed unanimously.

AS Dining Services was the next

Caution: chicken crossing

BY SA M S O LO MON city@theaggie.org

unit budget discussed. Director Darin Schluep also spoke about wages and how the the gradual minimum wage increase to $15 per hour is affecting his budget.

Discussion of the Coffee House budget then began. ASUCD Senator Daniel Nagey proposed increased discounts for students at the Coffee House, but Schluep said lines are already too long to distinguish between students and non-students. Schluep responded that Aggie Cash sales made up of 14 to 16 percent of overall sales when asked about Aggie Cash. ASUCD Senator Samantha Chiang motioned to approve Coffee House Budget for the year. The motion was seconded and budget was approved, and Chiang opened discussion of BioBrew budget. Schluep talked about how BioBrew was a new unit, but is doing fairly well and will return $35,000 this year. He projected a 5 percent growth for BioBrew including summer income. The BioBrew Budget was approved.

Discussion of Coho South budget began. Schluep said the CoHo South is also doing well, projecting a 5 percent growth and return of $20,000. Nagey motioned to approve CoHo South budget, which was seconded and approved, and Chiang motioned for a 15-minute break. After

the break, admin general budget discussion began. The administrator general’s income stayed relatively the same as last year. Copy and printing was kept relatively the same, mail expenditure had gone up greatly, and transportation expenditure had decreased. Chiang motioned to approve the admin general budget and the motion was approved.

Chiang then opened discussion of the executive office budget. The executive office expenditure has increased due to mandatory salary increases but they have cut many of their special projects. Their budget was soon approved. Chiang started discussion about making the secretary of outreach and recruitment position a paid position. Chiang opened voting for whether to keep Picnic Day luncheon budget at zero or increase it to $1000, and the Senate voted to keep at the budget at zero.

Shortly after 8 p.m., Chiang motioned to approve the ASUCD president’s executive office 2017-18 income and the 2017-18 president’s executive office expenses. There were no objections to her motion, so the income and expenses were approved. Afterwards, there was discussion about executive office salary for a few minutes, but at 8:15 p.m.

May 21 “Group of males screaming on/off.”

Nagey motioned to transition out of the executive office budget and move into a presentation for the 2017-18 STS Tipsy Taxi.

The unit director for Tipsy Taxi mentioned that the unit uses drivers from Unitrans and currently has a shortage of drivers. Chiang motioned to pass the budget and, with no objections, the budget is passed.

At 8:30 p.m., the presentation for the 2017-18 Bike Barn budget began. According to the director, the Bike Barn has an average of 10 mechanics at any time.

Chiang asked if it is possible to reduce the number to 9, but the director said that it was not possible. Chiang then motioned to approve 2017-18 Bike Barn budget and the budget was approved.

At 8:45 p.m., the senate moved into the Picnic Day 2017-18 budget. As the senate motioned to approve the budget, Chiang objected. Because every other unit has been asked to cut positions, Chiang wanted Picnic Day to do same.

She asked the unit to cut a position’s pay on the spot and make it a volunteer position.

continued on theaggie.org

May 26 “Neighbors have about six chickens wandering in the street.”

“RP and ex-girlfriend arguing over therapy cat.”

May 23 “Female inside business [...] throwing her flip flops at passersby outside.”

May 27 “RP upset about losing his vape.”

May 24 “Female pulled her pants down and started urinating next to pool.”

NIKKI PADAR / AGGIE

Street Smarts is the best art

City community program teaches students active, safe transportation

Leave a bit early and expect delays Allow extra time to get to your destination Consider parking a block away and walking children to school

HANNAH LEE / AGGIE

Be alert for school zones Take extra care to look out for children Enter and exit vehicles on the passenger side of the car

Look in all directions when crossing the street Bicyclists under the age of 18 must wear a buckled helmet HANNAH LEE / AGGIE

BY R AY RUA N O city@theaggie.org

The Street Smarts/Safe Routes to School program, which was implemented in 2006 at Davis’ K-6 schools, encourages active transportation, such as walking or biking, and supports the practice of safety on the roads, while simultaneously bringing together the community and reducing car emissions.

“The program works on the seven Es: education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, evaluation, equity and enjoyment,” said Lorretta Moore, the program coordinator at the City of Davis. “We do a lot of fun things which reflect the Davis bike community, and we are able to take that community personality and bring it to schools.”

By being aware of the community and their surroundings, children can practice good street safety and continue to do so as they use active transportation. Children also make program-inspired artwork.

“We do poster contests, [which become] educational art that is posted at the schools and bus stops — all designed by children in the Davis community,” Moore said.

The program represents the Davis community’s spirit.

“We incorporate and use a lot of artwork that kids create in our media, some which go on bookmarks with our campaign messages,” said Rachel Hartsough, the arts and culture manager at the City of Davis. “It is a very important part of the program.”

Although the creation of art is only one of the key factors in the successful functionality of the program, other fun events include the annual bike rodeos, Bike to School Day, Walk/Bike to School Day, Books on Bikes, and Loopalooza — a family-oriented bike ride that showcases the Davis Bike Loop and its proximity to schools.

The program is also supported by family and community involvement.

“Safe routes partners with Bike Davis and PTAs at each site, as each school has a parent champion or volunteer,” Moore said. “They run the bike scanning tool [Active4me], bike celebrations and encouragement programs.”

Parent champions volunteer their time and effort to help with the program behind the scenes.

“The program champion is the only way this works.

Without them you don’t have a program,” said Tim Starback,

founder of the Active4me, in an email interview. “The tech is cool but would not exist without an amazing parent volunteer at Birch Lane, Sanne Fettinger; she ran the program like a champ and made this all possible.”

As community involvement grows, the program prospers and utilizes tools such as Active4me, a service that helps active transportation programs manage their data and verify the programs’ effectiveness.

Active4me works as each student is given a barcode tag which is scanned by parent volunteers as each student arrives on his or her bike. This tool offers the ability to immediately notify parents by text, phone or email that their student has arrived at school.

The children are also rewarded when they ride their bike and scan in at their school.

“The kids also can get virtual money when they scan in, so they get like 25 virtual cents, and [...] certain schools will have a store where they can buy items like keychains and bike lights,” Moore said.

Children can practice how money works and reach a state of independence while they use active transportation as they navigate the city with confidence.

“In a town that already has high levels of bicycling among schoolchildren, the additional benefit of encouragement programs like Active4me are not likely to be as influential as they might be elsewhere,” said Calvin Thigpen, a Ph.D. candidate in the transportation technology and policy program at UC Davis, via email. “The city of Davis is really doing its young citizens a favor compared to other cities.”

In regards to the community as a whole, the bike scene in Davis offers short-term as well as long-term benefits.

“Our goal is that the program continues to grow and become a really great part of the culture,” Hartsough said. “It is way for parents to interact with each other and get to know your neighbors and other children.”

Davis’ ongoing advocacy of bike safety through programs like Street Smarts/Safe Routes to School benefits drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike, while also encouraging and protecting the younger generation.

The City of Davis offers bike education classes for $19 per class. For more information on the Safe Routes program, check out the City of Davis website.

BY AARON LISS AND LI NDSAY FLOY D campus@theaggie.org

ASUCD Vice President Adilla Jamaludin called the ASUCD senate meeting to order on May 18 at 6:10 p.m. 10 senators were present and two were absent.

The meeting opened with an Aggie Public Arts Committee report that discussed the Whole Earth festival, the possibility of placing a piano where the MU hot dog cart is and Manetti Shrem collaborations.

The Bike Barn then presented and discussed how sales have been the largest ever this year. Controller Jin Zhang asked about how the Bike Barn could increase rentals over summer, and Business and Finance Commission Chair Alex Mirov asked about their plans to utilize an allotted $4,500 marketing budget.

The Aggie presented next and explained how the staffers have received two new computers and how a concert was filmed in The Aggie’s Lower Freeborn office. Editor-in-Chief Scott Dresser told the board how The Aggie will have put $100,000 into its reserves by the end of the year.

The Gender and Sexuality Commission then gave an update, discussing its genitalia fair and mental health open spaces.

Itamar Waksman and Jacob Ganz from the Internal Affairs Commission updated ASUCD with their continual plans to scrub and update bylaws for proofreading errors and to check for consistency.

In the public announcements, President Josh Dalavai talked about setting up a reservation system for booking the

ASUCD service desk due to high demand.

Senator Daniel Nagey and Jamaludin introduced the idea of their upcoming food security task force platform. Senator Michael Gofman raised concerns over unclear standards of “low” or “very low” food security, in response to which Jamaludin cited documented and definitive UC Office of the President language that defined each of these terms.

Following a 10-minute recess, the meeting resumed at 9:23 p.m., and ASUCD bills being sent to commissions the following week were introduced.

These included bills to allocate $900 for the ASUCD volunteer award and to make the budgetary seminar mandatory in the bylaws.

A consideration of old legislature then proceeded. Jamaludin proposed discussing Senate Bill (SB) 97 to purchase outreach materials like pens, shirts, banners and a pop-up tent for tabling and this bill carried. SB 98 proposing a mental health initiative committee also passed.

SB 99 was raised to codify a summit training seminar, which carried. SB 100, a law shifting the hiring of the secretary of Department of Outreach and Recruitment to the cabinet hiring schedule, also passed. SB 101, a long range plan for the Entertainment Council to add a photographer and a photography intern as well as unfreeze the large show fund, passed.

Senate Resolution #X, an emergency legislation regarding sexual assault education, was then discussed and carried.

The meeting concluded with ex-officio reports and elected officer reports.

At 10:30 p.m., Jamaludin adjourned the meeting.

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC regents meeting canceled after protests erupt Regents vacate room prior to start of meeting

BY KIMI A A KBA RI campus@ t he ag g i e . o rg

In light of recent tuition hikes as well as the state audit that found $175 million dollars in hidden UCOP reserves, UC student and worker protesters gathered outside the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus building where the May 17 regents meeting was scheduled to take place.

Workers and students displayed protests signs and chanted for the university to “put students before profit.” Meanwhile, dozens of police officers armed with batons and handguns circled the premises and used metal detectors to search individuals before allowing them to enter the conference room.

The services workers union in the UC System, AFSCME 3299, organized several groups of protestors from all nine UC campuses. Students from the southern California UC campuses coordinated a collective carpool, leaving their campuses around midnight and making stops along the way to pick up student protesters from several UC campuses.

AFSCME provided food and financial compensation for student transportation.

Amara Miller, a graduate student in the sociology department at UC Davis and member of the Student Workers Union (UAW), worked in collaboration with ASUCD Senator Daniel Nagey and an AFSCME representative to facilitate the transportation of UC Davis students.

Chloe Pan, the newly-elected student government external vice president at UCLA, described her personal reasons for protesting against the administration.

“I come from a low-income single-parent family and I wouldn’t be here without financial aid,” Pan said. “I don’t want to say the news about the audits was surprising, but I do want to say that as a student I’ve had to skip meals to pay for textbooks or sleep on campus because I didn’t have time to go back to my dorm […] [it’s unfortunate] to see those

who are in power abusing their power when students are struggling just to survive every single day on our campuses.”

In the meeting room, 38 students and workers lined up for public comment. Each were given 60 seconds to introduce themselves and express their concerns. Comments were made regarding the raise of student fees in conjunction with the lack of improvements on student resources.

A student from UC Merced addressed the lack of resources for minority students and pointed out that, of the nine campuses, UC Merced has the highest population of students of color, yet it recently established a cultural center that can only accommodate 20 people and is recognized as a “temporary space.”

Julia Schemmer, a second-year student from UC Riverside, was among the public commenters that spoke about the lack of transparency in the UC administration.

“I’ve travelled in the dead of night to come here because I’m upset,” Schemmer said. “I’m upset that students are having to choose between paying for food and paying for textbooks when there are millions of dollars in hidden funds [...] I’m upset that even when I’m here and [we’re] speaking about transparency there are still regents on their iPad while students are [stating] their concerns.”

Kathryn Lybarger, the AFSCME 3299 president, was also among the public commenters.

“In the past UC has justified the rise in tuition and housing costs and exploitation of low-wage contract workers largely by citing the decrease in state support. Now we know that was simply misleading,” Lybarger said. “In fact the [audit findings] seem to confirm the systemic problems that student and workers have raised over the years. An evidence of unprecedented abstraction during the audit calls UCOP’s integrity in dealing with students and workers issues into question.”

Several students used the opportunity to urge administrators to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

NICKI PADAR / AGGIE

UC Davis students Kevin Horng, Evan Steel, Daniela Palacios and UC Santa Cruz student Loretta Johnson made comments with regard to the issue.

“I think that when you have the top team of investors that can find out how you can divest this money over seven years and make a public politicized statement […] we know the divestment can change things when you cause social and institutional change and right now you as regent as representatives have that power to make that change,” Johnson said.

Horng criticised the regents for not reacting to student activist pressure. “[Students are] sacrificing so much unpaid time and energy just to simply get you to listen,” Horng said. “Instead of listening, you ask us to learn your language, work without compensation on your terms while you sit comfortably in a position of power avoiding the responsibility that you owe us as presumed leader of this [university system].”

Following the termination of the public comment segment, protesters began chanting about the UC’s greedy tendencies. At 9:15 a.m., the administrators got up from their seats and vacated the conference room without starting the meeting, which was scheduled to end at 11:30 a.m.

While the chanting was still going on, police officers stated that everyone who did not leave the room within five minutes would be arrested. Miller

BY B IANCA ANT U NE Z c ity@the aggie .org

CIERA PASTUREL / AGGIE

Third Space Art Collective secures new lease at old location Local art collective faces financial strife, struggles to remain in Davis

After three months of apprehensive negotiations with the building’s new owner, Third Space Art Collective signed a new lease at 946 Olive Drive, although the location of the art collective remains the same. As a result of the lease, the collective’s rent increased in addition to losing its show and event room at the warehouse.

Currently, Third Space remains closed as its members attempt to complete renovations on the building to comply with city codes. They are pushing to reopen soon to serve the art community in Davis; however, the collective has a long way to go before anything is official.

Third Space, a nonprofit space that houses art studios, galleries, music shows, art events and workshops, provides an affordable and accessible area for people to create, exhibit and share their work and thoughts with others in the community, regardless of any economic, gender, age or other life differences.

“That’s the mission of Third Space — to occupy a space that needs to be there in our city where people who are incredibly talented and incredibly smart can afford to do their work in a place like Davis where there hasn’t really been that space,” said Lisa Cantrell, the membership director of Third Space. “The mission has been and still now is to create an affordable option for emerging artists. It’s a launching-off point for them.”

Any college town like Davis often has various resources available to its students and its community. In terms of traditional galleries, the city houses the Pence Gallery and the Davis Arts Center, but it is often difficult for up-and-coming artists to exhibit their work there or to otherwise get involved with the local

UC Davis Net Impact chapter on the rise Nonprofit group seeks to improve community

BY ED DY Z HU campus@ t he ag g i e . o rg

There is no shortage of UC Davis clubs and organizations dedicated to benefitting the community and making positive changes in the world. One such club is Net Impact, a nonprofit social and environmental entrepreneurship organization. Net Impact is an international organization with chapters at numerous universities around the world, but the UC Davis chapter was started just this year by Nivi Achanta, a fourth-year managerial economics and statistics double major. Achanta, who serves as the club’s president, wanted to focus the efforts of the Davis chapter on an area particularly pertinent to the Davis community.

“We wanted to do something with respect to sustainability on a very targetable and local scale,” Achanta said. “Once we recruited enough people in Fall Quarter that’s when we were really able to figure out our mission.”

The club is split into three interdisciplinary teams, each focused on a specific project. The teams develop their project in three phases, each of which last one quarter. During Fall Quarter the project is designed, Winter Quarter focuses on strategy and research and in Spring Quarter the project is implemented.

The teams also have to work on getting their

projects funded — an integral part of any nonprofit organization. Although some funding is provided

by ASUCD and the Innovation Institute for Food and Health, much of it depends on the Net Impact members themselves.

“We have an annual pitchfest to a panel of potential investors,” Achanta said. “These people decide how valuable and doable our projects are and then they give each of us either full or partial funding.”

The three projects are each headed by project managers, who are responsible for overseeing the projects and ensuring that their team fulfills all of its objectives.

One of these managers is Brooke Garcher, a third-year environmental design major and the leader of the waste management team. Garcher, also the club’s director of outreach, had her team focus on expanding compost on campus, both in terms of adding more compost bins and educating people on waste sorting.

“We knew that where composting existed, like at the CoHo or Silo, it was very successful,” Garcher said. “But they’re only at food places. So when you take your coffee cup to go, you throw it in the trash which ends up piling a lot. A lot of the waste in landfills could be compostable.”

Garcher, who aims to implement compost bins on a building-to-building basis, began contacting on-campus buildings such as Shields Library to con-

expressed her frustration with the response of the regents and the number of police present, who have a history of arresting student protesters.

“I think [their reaction] showcases the lack of accountability and accessibility of the regents, and how completely disconnected they are from the needs of students and workers in the UC system,” Miller said.

“The difficulty getting in, the lack of transparency about where to sign up to speak […] the fact that within minutes of students disrupting the meeting to point out all the problems with the Regents ‘public comment’ theater act they have rows of cops wielding batons demanding we leave within five minutes or will be arrested […] I think it all shows the way in which the Regents are supported by a militarized police force that targets, harasses, and silences the valid concerns of the UC communities they are meant to serve.”

Miller further added that that the reaction from the administration emphasizes certain implications with regard to the system as a whole.

“Ultimately it illustrates the need to democratize the regents system as well as push for disarming police on campuses, as well as many other demands students and workers are making right now such as paying living wages to workers on campuses, creating sanctuary campuses, and making tuition costs affordable by rolling back hikes and working toward a free education system,” Miller said.

art community. At Third Space, artists who haven’t yet “made it” in the art world and aren’t making a large amount of profit for their work can create and show pieces in addition to meeting like-minded artists.

“If you go to any big city like San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Detroit, you will find many nonprofit spaces and many artist collectives where the meaning-making and the experimentation is prioritized over commercial gain,” said Robin Hill, a professor in the Department of Art Studio at UC Davis. “It’s important in a town like Davis, that has a community of art-appreciating people with a research-one university and state-of-the-art labs and programs, to get out into the public in a way where their work is authentic and pure to its research goals. I feel like the Third Space collective has provided that opportunity for our students.”

Besides exhibiting and working on pieces, artists are also able to experiment with their craft in a way that traditional galleries may not allow. Since galleries are for-profit, they often focus on commercialism and so must focus on their audience and the marketability of their products. Art collectives, however, are whatever the artists make of them, and there are often fewer boundaries to what they can create — things involving pyrotechnics or nudity, for example.

“What is great about Third Space is how willing they were to experiment and try other formats and invite people into the gallery space that maybe wouldn’t have those opportunities,” said Angela Willetts, an alumna of the UC Davis Master of Fine Arts program. “In the grad program at Davis, a lot of the stuff that we were all doing was not particularly polished in the way

duct trial runs.

“During week 10 and finals week we’re going to have several compost bins at the library,” Garcher said. “We’re going to be monitoring the data and hopefully we can make the bins a permanent mainstay.”

Another project manager is Maria Arteaga, a third-year managerial economics major. Arteaga, who will take over as club president next year, heads the education project. Arteaga acknowledged the fact that the current divisive political climate has made education and understanding other cultures as important as ever. Arteaga and her team created a program that connects UC Davis students to students abroad through sister schools and schools that UC Davis has already partnered with.

“What we’re trying to do is create a seminar, where a pilot group of 10 students can come in and log on to the country’s mostused chat and video platforms and start talking about themselves and get to know each other,” Arteaga said. “They would then lead into their education and how living in their community has impacted their lives. Eventually they would identify a problem in their community and [use] everything they learned about each other to create a solution.”

Artega stated that her

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team’s main goal was to give students a chance to work together on an international scale.

“We feel like collaboration is key, and we want to provide that opportunity for that international experience due to money or government policies,” Arteaga said.

Achanta, who started the club at the beginning of Fall Quarter, stated that the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse range of people was one of the main driving forces behind founding the club.

“I wanted to work with people from different backgrounds, and I never had the opportunity to collaborate with people from different majors,” Achanta said. “Our entire founding board is a different major and I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve been so successful.”

NET IMPACT on 9

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Davis Pride: Responding to adversity in colorful stride Month celebrates messages of strength, community, empathy

B R IA N A N GO / AGGIE FILE

BY KRISTEN LEUNG featu res@ th e a ggi e .o r g

For many in Davis’ LGBTQIA community, feelings of safety and acceptance can be hard to come by. This May, UC Davis’ Pride Month and festivities in the city of Davis showcased the community’s vibrant resilience to the adversity it faces while recognizing folks’ unique identities. Pride events speak volumes to the strength and courage of a community that often lives in fear of others’ intolerance for their identities.

“I have a lot of friends who have experienced hate crimes just walking in Davis and there’s a

lot of people that feel that other people don’t deserve to exist.” said Rosie Romick, a fourthyear plant biology major and co-president of Lambda Delta Lambda.

Pride in the City of Davis was born out of such violence committed upon a Davis resident.

In 2013, Lawrence “Mikey” Partida’s neighbor brutally attacked him for his sexual orientation — to the extent that he could not walk. After the incident, Partida’s mother formed the Davis Phoenix Coalition to combat intolerance with programs and events such as the annual Davis Pride Festival and Run for Equality. No Pride events existed in Davis prior to the Davis Phoe-

nix; the coalition united previously disjointed efforts of Davis’ different queer organizations.

“When I was staying here [in Davis], I was looking for some other queer establishments and I didn’t see much here,” said Johnathan Celestin, a recording artist headlining Davis Pride as the first stop in his world tour. “The fact that [Gloria Partida] was able to create [Davis Pride] amidst an absence of [queer establishments] — she filled a vacuum.”

Partida’s work has also focused on promoting the visibility of the LGBTQIA community so that individuals and their loved ones supporting them do not feel alone.

“We started this coalition because we wanted to work against bullying and try to promote an inclusive community,” Partida said. “When families find out that their child is gay or questioning, they often don’t know where to go or what groups are out there and that’s really hard, especially because they’re trying to do that quietly. It’s good to be very visible so that people can find you.”

UC Davis’ active LGBTQIA community has also made itself more apparent over the years via 16 queer-focused student organizations, a LGBTQIA resource center, queer dormitory housing in the Rainbow House, support groups and counseling.

“I went to a workshop yesterday actually and a couple people came up to me,” said Jade Lounds, a second-year environmental horticulture and urban forestry major and a resident advisor for Rainbow House. “They were like, ‘It’s really cool that you have this space because I didn’t

know that there were other queer people out there.’ I think it’s great to just have that sense of community. I wish we could have more queer-focused events.”

Though students have noted the program has room for expansion, UC Davis has continually provided support to its LGBTQIA students through the LGBTQIA Resource Center, which is a hub for all of UC Davis’ queer-inclusive efforts. According to Bee Curiel, a fifth-year Chicano studies major and one of the Pride Month community coordinators, Pride Month and the community have grown concurrently since the center’s move to the Student Community Center. By 2015, the center had extended Pride at UC Davis from a week to an entire month.

“Different political events that have happened called for unification of the community here,” Curiel said. “[With] the theme for this year, ‘Rest and Resist,’ we wanted to highlight ways of resistance in the current political environment that we face and ways of healing.”

UC Davis’ Pride Month programming included Movie Mondays, Workshop Wednesdays, a pool party sponsored by the Recreation Pool, handing out snow cones on the Quad to support visibility and the grand opening of a gender-affirming clothing closet for trans and nonbinary individuals. These events are particularly important in the current political environment.

“It has gotten a little more hostile in different situations,” Curiel said. “As a transperson, I’ve been a little bit PRIDE MONTH on 9

N ICOLE WASHIN GTON / AGGIE N ICKI PA DA R / AGG IE

Davis Ace Hardware to renovate parking lot Renovation to include customer parking spots, handicap access

BY KAELYN TUERMER-LEE city@theaggie.org

Although Davis may be considered a small town, it is always bustling with people strolling around and checking out downtown; parking does pose an issue during Davis’ “rush hours” around lunch and in the evening. Like many downtown businesses, Ace Hardware struggles with a lack of parking, causing customers to park farther away or take their business elsewhere. Subsequently, Davis Ace Hardware has decided to renovate their parking lot to provide more customer parking spots, including handicap access.

Original plans for extra parking included demolishing several small warehouse sheds and building a new two-story commercial building to provide more office space.

However, this plan was deemed unfeasible, as it was financially unstable.

The revised plans call for a 2,000-square-foot overhead parking lot structure. This would also include solar panels, which would be a much more environmentally friendly way of harvesting energy, not to mention much more cost efficient in the long run.

This new parking lot structure would also allow for easier access for suppliers to unload and transport inside, seeing as the facility lacks a back entrance to the alley.

“It’s really important to have accessible parking for unloading; it provides flexibility for our customers,” said Ace Hardware owner Jennifer Ander-

son.

In addition, it would be very beneficial to customers, who would no longer have to struggle to find parking.

“We came up with a solution –– we have a lot in this open space, and we’re just trying to make it open to the public and handicap accessible,” Anderson said.

Anderson went on to explain that Davis doesn’t have enough parking downtown, so adding to existing parking would solve some of the issues. One new parking lot structure is now on 4th Street, a location that doesn’t have a large curb and therefore allows handicap access.

“I think a lot of customers would be really happy [with the new parking lot],” said Brittney McClain, an employee of Davis Ace Hardware for the last five years. “The thing I hear every time is ‘Oh my gosh, I was driving around for 20 minutes looking for parking.’”

With the addition of this parking lot structure, Ace is hoping to appeal to more customers and provide them with quicker service, while also benefiting suppliers. The current, narrow lot would be transformed into a bigger covered area, which would also help protect from weathering. Products transported into the building would be protected from the rain, as to ensure the best possible quality for their customers.

“We don’t have enough parking downtown,” said Ryan Hatmaker, a first-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior student at UC Davis. “I think it’d be beneficial to have more [parking].”

Yolo County’s first food-centric festival comes to Davis’ Central Park Taste of Yolo celebrates farm-to-fork movement with local farmers, restaurants, chefs

BY BIANCA ANTUNEZ city@theaggie.org

Taste of Yolo, the county’s first and only food festival, will showcase the richness of Yolo County agriculture, wineries, restaurants and more through various demonstrations, wine tastings and food samples. Visit Yolo, of the Yolo County Visitor’s Bureau, will host the event at Davis’ Central Park on Saturday, June 10.

During its inaugural celebration, visitors and residents alike can try all of the food and beverage products produced in Yolo County, such as olive oil, honey and wine; some of these products are also available for purchase at the event. Several local farm-to-table restaurants will have dishes for guests to sample as well.

In addition to the tasting element of the festival, there will be stages for various demonstrations.

The Nugget Markets Culinary Stage will headline guest chef Ryan Scott, who has been featured on Bravo TV’s Top Chef as both a competitor and a guest judge. Chef Patrick Mulvaney, a grandfather of the farm-to-fork movement, will also showcase his unique perspective and techniques. Yolo County chef Fred Reyes of Buckhorn Steakhouse in Winters will also take the stage at the upcoming festival.

The festival was started as part of Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork movement, which includes its surrounding areas, including Yolo County. Visit Yolo

wanted to show off Yolo County and felt that food would be the best way to do that.

“It’s a festival where every single one of the exhibitors have something for people to taste because we believe that agriculture is the biggest and most attractive thing about Yolo County,” said Mo Stoycoff, the event and marketing manager of Visit Yolo. “We get a lot of visitors from the Bay Area who are interested in touring farms and they are really interested in going to food related events.

There are a lot of statistics supporting that visitors are more and more interested [...] in experiences [particularly food-related] than they are in purchasing material items. That’s why we are focusing on food and food products.”

There will also be a DIY stage, where guests can learn canning, pickling and how to make their own bouquet. There will be over 70 exhibitors at the event, with a large majority of the vendors offering something for people to taste.

“We have always been looking for ways to educate people, expose them and do outreach about the amazing agricultural, food-related activities, farms, resources and tourist attractions in Yolo County,” said Randii MacNear, a Visit Yolo board member and the executive director of the Davis Farmers Market. “At the board level, we have been exploring the idea of developing a signature festival for Yolo County, which would speak to involving all the right partners.”

TASTE OF YOLO on 9

6 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion letter from the editor

the California Aggie EDITORIAL BOARD

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

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

BY S COT T DRE SS E R Editor in Chief

In high school, I wrote an analysis of the future of journalism as part of my senior project: “Although the landscape is morphing, journalism is as healthy and alive as ever, and it’s not going away anytime soon. The battle with extinction continues, but journalists seem to be holding the upper hand.”

The California Aggie is testament to this.

In my four years at The Aggie— the last two of which I have served as editor-in-chief — I’ve watched this publication grow and flourish, hitting several milestones along the way. In 2015, The Aggie turned 100, and, in 2016, The Aggie returned to print after a two-plus year hiatus.

From a content standpoint, we have a regular weekly newspaper again.

We also now have a weekly newsletter. We have a science desk again and a new humor section. We have produced videos for The Aggie for the first time and have even hosted concerts in our office. We have taken on the extensive project of digitizing our entire 102 years’ worth of microfilm archives to make them accessible and searchable for anyone online.

On the business side, our budget has grown from $4,000 to $350,000 (an increase of 8,650 percent) in two years. We now have a fully-functioning business office and a restructured, revamped advertising department, led by a full-time business development manager to ensure longterm financial sustainability. We have guaranteed revenue for four more years and a new business model in place to allow The Aggie to operate fully — with regular printing and paid staffers — for at least a decade.

This year alone, we put over $100,000 into our reserves.

Operationally, we currently have over 120 staffers — including 60 new paid positions that enable us to provide a system for incentivizing staff members and for recruiting applicants who may be unable to work unpaid jobs. Most importantly, we have a culture of transparency and professionalism that underscores all of our operations, leading to better journalism and a better office dynamic.

Serving as The Aggie’s editor-in-chief the past two years has been far and away the most rewarding, fun and challenging experience of my life. College suddenly became The Aggie with a side of academics (sorry, Mom). But I learned more about myself from dealing with staffers, campaigns and crises than I ever could have in class. The experiences and life lessons presented to me have been invaluable, defining my identity and passions as I transition from the windowless office in Lower Freeborn into the dreaded “real world.”

Four years at The Aggie have passed by unbelievably quickly. As I have written before, my time at the paper has been sometimes turbulent and other times unrivaled in its thrill, and I worked constantly to make sure that I did my best to effectively translate these experiences into me being a better leader with an understanding of the “big picture” as it pertains to the organization. Many former editors-in-chief have told me that the

position is the best job they ever held, and I fully understand that now.

I always felt an obligation both to the UC Davis community to create an engaged, informed student body and to the thousands of Aggie alumni who came before me to carry on the legacy of this campus institution they helped create. With The Aggie’s return to print, and with the project to digitize our archives underway, I feel assured as I prepare for graduation that the legacy of this campus and its relationship to student media is as strong as ever.

The fact that we can even talk about our newspaper as an actual newspaper is a testament to last year’s staff, who campaigned day and night for weeks to pass a referendum that will have provided $1.2 million in funding to The Aggie between 2016 and 2021. That “Print the Aggie” campaign seems like years ago, and it all still seems fairly surreal at times, but the diligence and dedication of the staffers who helped pass the legislation is forever engrained in the history of this campus. UC Davis is no longer the only UC campus without a print newspaper. The Aggie is back to providing both a service to the community and also to the hundreds of aspiring journalists on campus.

My gratitude to The Aggie’s staff extends beyond a successful “Print the Aggie” campaign. The countless hours spent weekly following up with sources for articles, travelling across the city to take photographs, catching the most miniscule of grammatical errors and laying out our pages have not gone unnoticed, and I cannot fully articulate my appreciation for for the sacrifices made by these staffers for the sake of this newspaper.

The Aggie has been my safe haven, my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for and run a newspaper (and a business) with some of my closest friends. I will be forever grateful to have been able to work with the sharpest, most thoughtful minds on this campus every day for four years.

Thank you to our readers, who provided us thoughtful feedback, held us accountable and somehow never figured out that our humor articles aren’t actually real news. We were not perfect along the way, so thank you for challenging our content and our decisions — hearing from you and learning from you made me a better editor and continues to make The Aggie a better newspaper.

I want to say a special thank you to my high school journalism teacher, Ms. Gunnison, for teaching me the power of asking good questions, the importance of ethics and not taking any nonsense from anyone. I want to thank my incredible managing editors over the past two years, Ritika Iyer and Ellie Dierking, for doing the impossible job of coordinating so many of the day-to-day operations of the paper. And I want to thank my parents, who I often felt were our only two readers, for teaching me the importance of taking all aspects of my job in stride and never getting too high or too low about anything. And to all of the Aggie staffers and school administrators who provided assistance, meaningful feedback and unforgettable memories along the way, thank you, truly, for everything.

It’s been an absolute pleasure to serve as your editor-in-chief.

Davis Community Advising Network reaches out to a diverse student body The need for cultural competency in counseling

BY MA RI SOL BE AS mbeas@ucdavis.edu

At times, students may find it hard to relate to others at UC Davis.

Many come from diverse backgrounds such as being first-generation college students, having economic hardships or growing up with different culture. Oftentimes these students have no one to turn to. It’s because of this diversity that cultural competence is needed, and it’s also why the Student Health and Counseling Services Community Advising Network (CAN) was created.

In 2009, UC Davis created the only program of its kind in California: CAN, which consists of six ethnically-diverse counselors trained in multicultural competence. These counselors have crucial understandings of diverse backgrounds in relation to the ethnicity, race, gender and culture of students.

Counselors trained in multicultural counseling have a better understanding of dissimilarities in religion and spirituality, sexual orientation, gender, age, maturity, socioeconomic class, family history and

cultural background.

CAN counselors are able to go beyond the Western style of counseling and use a more culturally-sensitive approach. The CAN counselor's goal is to help everyone, including professors and faculty — underrepresented or otherwise — achieve their goals, as well as address any hurdles that may be affecting their academic success.

They are diverse individuals who provide a range of services, including individual counseling, group counseling and career counseling. CAN counselors can help students with issues like time management, academic difficulties, depression, addiction issues, family expectations, relationship issues, balancing activism and academics, questioning sexuality and coming out, cultural adjustment, immigration concerns and stress management.

CAN’s six community counselors are partnered with 12 departments and programs at UC Davis, including the Cross Cultural Center, the Educational Opportunity Program, the Women’s Resource and Research Center and many more. With these partnerings, the CAN team hopes to increase access to mental

health services for students from marginalized and underserved communities.

The CAN team increases access through visibility with various locations and partners. Paul Kim, the director of Multicultural Services, said in an email that the CAN team concentrates on developing relationships and “being part of the communities that they work with.” He added that, “for many students, it is more culturally congruent to speak to someone in their community about challenges that they are experiencing.”

With this approach, Kim said, the CAN team can help decrease the stigma that students face when they seek mental health services.

The CAN program is a great way to serve these students because they do not have to go through paperwork and there is no formal intake process.

Counselors have open office hours throughout the week, and students can also be seen anonymously for consultations. Kim stated that, with this approach, “barriers are decreased and access to support is more readily available” — a benefit for all students.

Why “The Walking Dead” appeals to Rust Belt voters How the Trump team used Facebook data to exploit the fears of the Midwest

BY NOA H P F LUE GE R - P E T E R S napfluegerpeters@ucdavis.edu

Since last November, much has been written about what went wrong during the election. While it looks increasingly likely that the Russians may have played a big role in securing Trump’s presidency, he did earn a significant number of legitimate votes, particularly across rural America and the Rust Belt. Many of these were won due to the Trump campaign’s unsettling method of targeting potential voters, which included using Facebook likes and TV ratings to appeal to an untapped political audience.

One of the biggest groups the Trump campaign targeted was fans of AMC’s hit zombie show The Walking Dead. Shortly after the election, Jared Kushner said that the campaign found that frequent viewers of The Walking Dead tended to be concerned about immigration and were more likely to be conservative. The Trump campaign appealed to this group with pro-Trump messages, to obvious success.

The campaign was one of the first to find voters — especially on Facebook — based off of psychometrics, the study of people’s personalities. Researchers compared participants’ personality scores with the pages they liked, such as The Walking Dead, and their demographic information on Facebook.

As trends were observed and more data came pouring in, researchers could predict with about 90 percent accuracy a person’s skin color, sexual orientation, political affiliation, intelligence and even religious views just through public Facebook data.

Here’s where it gets Orwellian: campaigns, particularly those for Brexit and Trump, were able to use this information to gain a bigger edge than if they used typical neighborhood-based demographics.

Instead of bombarding a majority-Republican neighborhood with advertising, they reached individual people whose profiles made it seem likely they were Republicans — even if they were disinterested in politics or living in heavily blue areas.

It’s easy to see why Trump voters, particularly in the Rust Belt and rural America — two major sources of his legitimate votes — might relate to The Walking Dead characters. Though obviously not to the extent of the show, parts of the Rust Belt seem relatively post-apocalyptic.

Factories that once propelled the growth of towns have closed and sit decaying in city centers, serving as a reminder of what once was.

The infrastructure is falling apart, the education standard for schools is well below par and the land value is hitting rock bottom. There may not be zombies, but for the people living there, their world is slowly crumbling and looking more and more like the show.

The Walking Dead is a show about survival — not only from the zombies that have taken over the planet, but also from other humans.

The characters are on their own, moving from location to location without promise of any government coming in and helping them.

They scavenge whatever they can to live while defending themselves with violence whenever necessary. They only hope to someday find somewhere safe where they can settle down and finally escape their threats.

Rust Belters must also take care of themselves because of how spread out rural America is. Modern amenities like hospitals, grocery stores and police departments exist, but getting to them is inconvenient and oftentimes not worth the hassle. Rust Belters, like characters in the show, frequently have to heal, defend and feed themselves with whatever they have. In many cases, survival is one of their biggest priorities, as blue-collar labor declines and wages don’t increase to match inflation.

The correlation between The Walking Dead and immigration concerns is less clear, though still understandable given the Rust Belt’s homogenous history. As America’s workforce diversifies and different types of people flood into formerly isolated and homogenous areas, people start to feel a lot of cultural anxiety.

Although this attitude is xenophobic, someone who has spent their entire life around the same type of people might incorrectly relate this influx of diversity to the concurrent economic decline of their towns. Like the characters of The Walking Dead, Midwesterners might feel that they’re being invaded.

Zombie fiction like The Walking Dead might appeal to right-wing voters due to its emphasis on survival in the face of decay and invasion that can parallel the decaying condition of a once-prosperous rural America.

One of the Trump’s team’s few smart moves was exploiting the audience’s fears and interests to their advantage. Let’s just hope the real world doesn’t reach Walking Dead-levels of post-apocalypse before his term is all said and done.

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

DOUBLE TAKE:

Are we in a world where GMOs need to stay?

NO

YES

BY C A M I L L E C H A R GO I S cachargois@ucdavis.edu

BY B RO DY FER NANDEZ bwfernandez@ucdavis.edu

Genetically modified organisms need to remain a part of the multiple food systems they already inhabit simply because, without them, the already-deplorable state of food insecurity will worsen. The advent of this new technology has made food production exponentially easier, safer and cheaper. It has saved the livelihoods of countless organic and conventional farmers on whom we rely to produce our daily meals by providing them with disease and pesticide-resistant crops.

GMOs are simply the beautiful products of either genetic engineering or the modification of agricultural products to replace unwanted or harmful traits with more useful ones.

GMOs solve one of the most persistent problems in farming by controlling diseased crops.

“When nothing seems to be working, you have to think of alternate solutions,” said professor Dennis Gonsalves, a plant pathologist at Cornell, when he was modifying the rainbow papaya to be resistant against the ringspot that nearly drove the species extinct.

The papaya industry is now booming and Hawai’ians are reaping economic benefits. None of this, including the products you consume containing papaya, would be possible without GMOs. In another case, GMO technology played a vital role in eradicating the gene causing wilt rot in bananas on a sustenance farm in Ghana. By collaborating with scientists to genetically modify the bananas to resist wilt rot, the family was able to combat severe food insecurity that would have otherwise persisted on their farm and throughout the country.

GMOs are not limited just to food — their benefits extend beyond agriculture to industries such as medicine and environmental management. A common misconception about GMOs is that they have adverse health risks, when in reality they are the reason diabetics who need insulin — a GMO — are able to live healthy, comfortable lifestyles. If you believe in the validity of science, you should also believe in the validity of its most recent revolutionary technology: the GMO. We also have to be responsible about the way we discuss GMOs. Negative effects of confirmation bias and vilification of GMOs perpetuated in Western media have already spread misinformation worldwide. Just as America’s political actions have severe global consequences, so do its scientific communications.

What do we really know about genetically engineered food? Not as much as we should, according to leading scientists at Harvard University. This uncertainty doesn’t mean we should get rid of them entirely. However, we also shouldn’t be so dependent on something that we don’t yet fully understand.

High-fructose corn syrup, chemical-resistant apples and insect-resistant vegetables are among the genetically modified organisms that prompt us to question what’s really going inside our bodies. According to an article in the journal Critical Reviews in the Science and Nutrition, there are certain genetic compounds and antibiotics found in most genetically engineered foods that are harmful to our digestive system because our bodies cannot yet identify and digest them.

Additionally, most Americans don’t even know what a GMO is. Until we know whether GMOs are something we should avoid putting in our bodies, I think we can agree that regulating GMOs in a more ethical way would better serve the longevity of our health. After all, we’re not yet sure whether GMOs will kill us along with all the Bisphenol A and other chemicals found in just about everything. Less regulation and dependence on GMOs can ensure the American people that what they’re eating “might” not kill them instead of “will definitely” kill them.

Think about it: Is corn that’s genetically altered to excrete a toxin that kills all insects that touch it really healthy for humans? Last time I checked, we’re also living organisms that feed off these genetically modified crops. At least the bugs suffer a quick and painless death — something I can’t say humans will experience 40 to 50 years down the road.

There’s enough evidence in the Harvard study to support both sides in the GMO debate. Regardless of the answers, I implore people who are generally concerned about this issue to seek out solid, researchbased findings that were not conducted by scientists working for Monsanto. Challenge the status quo of our agricultural system, even if rooting out all GMOs is impossible.

When I go shopping these days, I’m not looking for fat-free yogurt or sugar-free ice cream (which is a felony), nor am I looking for something with an organic label. Rather, I’m looking for one little critter that’s tucked away on the corner of nearly every food item I buy: that sweet, tender little butterfly that indicates “non-GMO.” That, in the end, has me sleeping better at night.

HUMOR Gary May brings lunchbox, matching thermos instead of briefcase on first day on job NEW CHANCELLOR GOOFS UP AGAIN WHEN HE BRINGS FRUIT SNACKS INSTEAD OF PAPERWORK

BY O L I V I A LUC H I NI ocluchini@ucdavis.edu

The lovable young chap Gary May made an “uh-oh” on his first day of the job when he walked into a very important meeting holding his brand-spanking-new lunchbox rather than a briefcase like his fellow co-workers.

He attempted to play it off by sitting down with gusto and confidence, but he was eventually shot down when they asked him about his thoughts on administration, which he misheard as “a minestrone.” He then pulled out his little thermos, thinking that the conversation had shifted to soup-related affairs.

“Ugh! I really heckin’ did it this time,” May said. “I didn’t even

have enough Oreos to share! Just two, the labeled serving size.”

The UC Davis administration team had planned this meeting to go over the parameters of letting more students onto campus next year — a matter with which May was hardly familiar.

“I near spit out my juice!” May said. “That many kids? We only added two rows of bike parking to the Silo. Where will they all go?”

May wanted to stress-eat, like we all do. But he was once again embarrassed when he had to open his tin lunch box during a quiet lull in the meeting, as tin is the least forgiving of all lunchbox materials when it comes to discrete openings.

“This is actually a collectable, so I can’t get too cross with it,” May laughed. “It’s from the 1982 class Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I really cherish it.”

Members of the meeting were not as pleased with this blunder.

One person in particular, who was sitting at the farthest corner of the table, had some firm opinions.

“I just think that some of us could have taken this a little more seriously,” said the person, who upon further investigation was discovered to be Linda Katehi in a fake mustache and sunglasses. She was promptly booted back to her perch in the CoHo. Gary May has stated that he’ll definitely invest in a real briefcase before the next meeting. He’s looking into online suppliers that might be willing to customize his new digs with a subtle starfleet insignia right across the front.

Oh, and he’d like one with a pocket for his thermos of minestrone.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by

The California Aggie . Letters to the editor can be addressed to opinion@theaggie.org.

ISSUE DESIGNED BY HANNAH LEE | AMY YE | CHRISTIE NEO | CINDY CHEUNG | JONATHAN CHEN | PATTIE CHEN

8 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SCIENCE+TECH Aggies secure top four playoff finish in collegiate eSport UC Davis Dota 2 team confident for next year

CRAIG BALLENGER / COURTESY

California salmon threatened by changing climates Population diversity key to salmon resiliency

DAVIS DOTA TEAM / COURTESY

BY G EORG E UG A RT E ME NDIA friend@theaggie.org

A recent report commissioned by California Trout — a San Francisco-based nonprofit — and completed by UC Davis reviewed the state of the 32 types of native California salmon, steelhead, trout and whitefish. The report, titled State of the Salmonids II: Fish in Hot Water, was a follow-up to a similar report completed in 2008. The newest findings indicate that nearly half of these fish populations are in danger of going extinct within 50 years. The bull trout, one of the 32 species native to California, has been extinct since 1975.

“The big overarching threat, and the one we found threatened 84 percent of the species, is climate change,” said Dr. Robert Lusardi, a joint California Trout and UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish researcher and one of the authors of the paper. “The reason for that is climate change will affect and is affecting the magnitude and timing of the flow, so it’s changing what these fish are evolved to. But it also affects food web dynamics, how their food interacts, abundance [and] diversity. It can also alter species interactions.”

Salmon are coldwater fish and struggle to survive in warm waters. Certain types of salmon are anadromous, or migratory, and travel from the frigid Pacific Ocean to California rivers for development and breeding. These species are most vulnerable to dams, which can cut off their traditional migration routes and spawning grounds.

Other types of salmon stay in small watersheds higher up in the hills and mountains, where the water runs quick and chilly. Even slight warming of these sensitive waters could jeopardize entire species of inland fishes. In recent years, more precipitation has been reaching California peaks as rain instead of snow. Salmon rely on large snowpacks to slowly melt during the summer, providing the perfect coldwater brew for growth and maturation.

According to Patrick Samuel, the Conservation Program coordinator for California Trout and one of the authors of the paper, everybody plays a role in revitalizing California’s native salmon.

“Something we advocate for is trying to restore the logical function of our highly altered landscapes,” Samuel said. “We can protect our source waters, our springs, our natural reservoirs on the landscapes to help store water and keep it cold and then slowly release it during the warm summer months when the fish really need it.”

The report is hopeful in regards to potential partnerships between competing water interests in California. An ongoing observational experiment involves agricultural entities and fisheries sharing seasons of land and water use.

“We’re working with rice farmers,” Samuel said. “They flood their fields in the wintertime when they don’t need to grow rice. Juvenile salmon and steelhead have historically used those floodplain habitats to fatten up before migrating to the Pacific Ocean.”

According to Lusardi, salmon are also indicators of watershed health. When coldwater fish are unable to thrive in their traditional waters, signs point to important links in the local ecosystem weakening. A sustainable California will strive to have high-quality water, and actions can be taken to improve the health of California’s native salmonids. The goal of these interventions will be “to help them return to abundance,” Samuel said.

Climate change is the largest overarching threat to 84 percent of California’s native salmonids, but it is not the only danger facing these fish. Estuary alteration, major dams and agricultural water demands impact anadromous species, while invasive fish species, severe fires and hatcheries imperil inland species.

Certain existing dams could be removed to recreate lost floodplains for fish to develop and thrive. Future construction projects that will permanently affect waterways should be mindful of the needs of watershed to keep ecosystems healthy.

The proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan reroutes water from above the San Joaquin Delta to huge pumps for agricultural usage and human drinking water. Scientists and wildlife experts are divided on how fish will be impacted by the construction project, which will lower the resting flow volume of the San Joaquin Delta.

Dr. Peter Moyle, the associate director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis and lead author of the paper, has mixed feelings about the project.

A second wind for desert tortoises

Design of wind energy facilities impacts predators, prey GENESIA TING / AGGIE

BY JACK CARRILLO CONCOR DI A science@theaggie.org

Sports and video games may not sound compatible, but electronic sports (eSports) is growing in popularity for casual and hardcore players alike. For some students, eSports is the perfect way to enjoy a competitive environment without the toxicity of professional play. One group of undergraduates created a team called the UC Davis Aggies for a recent collegiate eSports tournament.

Ian Skebba, a third-year computer science major and a member of the Aggies, enjoys the collegiate scene and says that Dota 2, one of the main games in the tournament, is the only video game he plays. Skebba is the highest ranked player on his team and is in the top 200 of the player leaderboard under the alias “lucky57.” “[Dota 2 is] like chess and basketball mixed together,” Skebba said.

Dota 2, or Defense of the Ancients 2, is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) and the sequel to the original Dota, created from Warcraft III. At its most basic level, MOBAs are strategy games, in which each team of 5 must “capture” the main objective on the opposing side of the map by fighting through deterrents like turrets, monsters and the enemy team’s players.

The strategy, competitiveness and teamplay is what hooks mosts players. However, it isn’t all fun and games.

Since Dota 2 is a team-based game, communication and synergy are key.

“I’ve played in semi-professional teams and with sort of professional players that I would never play with,” Skebba said. “They are mechanically gifted, and they are some of the best players online, but you cannot work with them as a team.”

The first time Skebba played with the Davis team, they lost three games in a row, but everyone had fun regardless.

“That’s when I was like, ‘Okay, I can be with this team,’” Skebba said.

Thinh Le, a second-year mechanical and aerospace engineering major and another Aggie team member, is the support player and the in-game strategist. He joined the team last year and agreed to switch roles because of his lower ranking.

“With our team, I play support because I know there are people better than me,” Le said. “[But] as the support, you kind of control what’s going on in the game. It’s like a chess match.”

Skebba knows that his high ranking affects in-game decisions, but he doesn’t see a single team captain or leader on the team. He emphasized the importance of listening and respecting everyone, even if a player has a lower matchmaking rating, or skill level.

According to Le, team skills and coordination are more influential than mechanical skills.

“If you think you’re a perfect player, you’ll never get better,” Skebba said. “I think that really helped us as a team.

We realized that it doesn’t matter what your skill or your rank is. No one’s voice on the team matters more or less than any other’s.”

The Aggies competed in the Collegiate Starleague (CSL), which organizes events for many games including League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2.

The season works around a typical American school year: students register their teams in September, and the season begins in October, with a break in December for college finals and the holidays. The season starts up again in January and finishes in late February to make way for playoffs, which typically end in May. “In 2009, [CSL] was just a [Starcraft] Brood War tournament with maybe twenty-five teams or so, but by the next season, it doubled,” said Theresa Gaffney, the current Editor-in-Chief for CSL. “From last season, we had five thousand teams or more that registered. So that’s exponential growth at that point.”

The grand finals, held in Toronto, Canada from May 12 to 14, featured the top four teams from each game CSL covers. Most players never met their rivals face-to-face before this event.

Though sometimes stressful, their time in Toronto was fantastic for the team, said Skebba. Though they were technically opponents in the tournament, the Aggies hung out with the University of British Columbia (UBC) and CSU Long Beach teams. However, the teams stayed competitive with a $20,000 prize and bragging rights were at stake. According to Le, while the Aggies always try to have fun, they also know how to put their heads down and be serious.

“The live experience in eSports is so interactive,” Gaffney said. “What we usually do in video games is that we’re involved to a certain extent, but we don’t go over that because we’re playing on a screen [or] we’re typing. But when you’re in a live environment — touching, feeling, seeing — you’re using all your senses. So, yes, I think it really does make a difference.”

The event allowed for teammates to sit next to each other while their opponents play on the other side of the stage in front of the audience. The matches were streamed live on Twitch.tv, with commentators casting and analyzing the games like sports announcers.

“The atmosphere is different; it’s more intense,” Le said.

“But once you get the ball rolling, you’re just riding the momentum. Online is different. It’s a lot slower. It’s hard to get hyped.”

Skebba and Le have their criticisms of CSL, but agreed that the staff works hard despite setbacks. Some issues included the winter season’s importance over the fall season and the imbalance of top teams on one side of this year’s AGGIE GAMING on 13

BY H ARNO O R G ILL science@theaggie.org

Although habitat disturbance is hardly ever viewed as favorable for wildlife, the presence of wind turbines can lead to unique opportunities and advantages for some species, such as desert tortoises. According to a recent study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management led by researchers at the University of California, Davis and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the design of wind energy facilities creates special patterns of behavior in both predators and prey.

Scientists surrounded the entrances of 46 active desert tortoise burrows with motion-activated cameras in a wind energy facility near Palm Springs, Calif. The results from the video recordings show that visits to burrows by predators such as bobcats, gray foxes, coyotes, black bears and western spotted skunks decreased in proximity to wind turbines and increased closer to dirt roads.

“These results suggest that infrastructure associated with large-scale wind energy facilities, such as dirt roads, may act as movement corridors for terrestrial wildlife,” said Mickey Agha, the study’s lead author and a UC Davis graduate student in ecology. “Alternatively, lack of mesocarnivore sightings closer to wind turbines could suggest

avoidance by terrestrial animals.”

Dr. Jeffrey Lovich, USGS scientist and a co-author of the study, added that the sound and vibrations from wind turbines may cause the mammals to avoid areas closer to turbines.

Wind energy facilities can fragment habitats and thereby diminish populations of large carnivores, but small carnivores such as foxes and coyotes are often able to adapt to the modified environment.

Additionally, the discovery that dirts roads can lead to species success in desert tortoises is beneficial to consider when designing the layout of wind energy facilities.

“Minimizing the amount and extent of roads that are built to service wind turbines may benefit desert tortoises by eliminating a popular corridor for predators,” said Dr. Brian Todd, the study’s other co-author and a UC Davis professor of ecology.

This study shows the immense impact that the infrastructure of wind energy facilities can have on wildlife behavior.

By understanding wildlife’s response to changes in the wind energy landscape through studies like this one, scientists hope to implement better designs for wind energy facilities while also considering the effects of human actions on species occupying a given habitat.

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017 | 9

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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Meanwhile, the UC Regents, and particularly Regent Sherman, continue to reject any such leadership and instead choose to side with fossil fuel interests over UC students, faculty, staff and chancellors. We need bold leadership from Regent Sherman, and we need it now.”

FFUC receives additional support from partner organizations like 350.org, an international environmental organization building a global grassroots movement to take on the fossil fuel industry and combat climate change. 350.org gets its name from the belief that the atmospheric concentration of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide is a safe upper limit.

Katie McChesney, the U.S. divestment campaign manager at 350.org, said that UC students and staff have been at the forefront of the divestment movement since its beginnings in 2012.

“In [the] last month alone, hundreds of students and four UC Chancellors have taken bold action on fossil fuel divestment,” McChesney said via email. “It is time that Sherman and the UC Regents heed the generational mission and divest from the rouge, destructive fossil fuel industry. In the era of Trump, it is up to every institution to pick a side, the side of a bright future lit by 100% renewable energy or one wrecked by climate and political chaos. Incremental divestment policies clearly show Sherman and the Regents have taken preliminary moral and financial warning signs, but it is time to divest the

rest.”

Benjamin Houlton, the director of the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, believes the future risks of climate change for people and the planet will be greatly reduced by rerouting the energy economy toward carbon neutral resources. Divesting from fossil fuels is a critical part of this transition.

“UC Davis has a key role to play in the research and scholarship of climate change, and divestment sends a signal to the world that we are taking care of our own carbon pollution too,” Houlton said via email.

Houlton explained that the path to reducing major threats of climate change will require all countries to adhere to rapid global emissions reductions and cut global carbon pollution in half each decade moving forward to reach climate neutral emissions by no later than 2050.

“The fossil fuel sector is subsidized by governments at [approximately] $400 to $600 billion annually,” Houlton said. “This subsidy slows the free market enterprise from unleashing the power of solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy sources that don’t emit carbon pollution. Divestment is a critical aspect of allowing the renewable energy industry to reach its full potential as quickly as possible.”

Following Hexter, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla also released a statement in support of fossil fuel divestment on May 17.

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students have this opportunity as well,” Mansuri said via email. “Dr. Liets is able to engage students in a way that I have not seen any other professor do. She is humorous, incredibly knowledgeable and compassionate. Our campus and NPB department would not be the same without her.”

Liets is the reason why Mansuri decided to switch her major to NPB. “I have now had two classes with Dr. Liets, NPB 101 and NPB 168,” Mansuri said via email. “Her NPB 101 class prompted me to switch my major to NPB. I absolutely fell in love with the material and Dr. Leits made it so exciting to learn. I spent a great deal of time in the office hours for both of these courses, attending almost every one. I was able to see Dr. Liets’ approachability and dedication to students.”

Mansuri, Wang and Hummadi arranged a meeting

with John Harada on May 12 to encourage dialogue between students and the NPB department.

“The meeting went well, as they will look into extending her professorship for at least another quarter, so that she could at least qualify for her 20 year retirement benefits,” Wang said via email. “However, as with the nature of her position as lecturer, she has to have her contract renewed yearly, without any longterm guarantee-which is why we encourage students to continue to utilize their voices as part of a sustained effort.”

The next step will be to contact the vice chair of teaching for the NPB department, according to students in support of the petition.

The goal is to express support for Liets and inquire about ensuring Liets’ contract will extend beyond 20 years.

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Net Impact has attracted numerous students with the same mindset as Achanta, also looking to make a legitimate difference in their community and the world at large. “[Net Impact] is very driven by the club members,” Arteaga said. “We’ve got a lot of members who have really great ideas to make really feasible projects.”

One of Achanta’s main objectives is to spread awareness of the club and continue to add on to the team, as Net Impact’s ability to make a difference increases with

each student that joins the club.

“Outreach is something that’s always been very important to us,” Achanta said. “We’re constantly reaching reaching out to people to try to recruit the best talent.”

Although Net Impact is still a relatively new club, it is quickly growing both in popularity and impact. Students from around campus who want to help other people and make a difference are joining the club, and due to this, Achanta and her team have high aspirations for Net Impact.

PRIDE MONTH

RESEARCH

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more scared to be open and vocal about my own needs [...] because it’s been polarized now. It’s very clear what people think and it can be kind of scary.”

Spaces like the LGBTQIA resource center and Pride events can make queer students feel safe. For example, a wide variety of performances reflected the diversity of the identities at the Davis Pride Festival in Central Park on May 21.

Drag queens, a cheer team, a choir, UC Davis’ alumni band, a fashion show and an international recording artist all made the stage for a multi-generational event happening in downtown Davis over the weekend.

“It’s been a phenomenal thing,” said Sandre Nelson, the director of Davis Pride. “The community of Davis has really supported this idea that we had three years ago to make it go from this little, little pride to a great success.”

Nelson said the hometown event has grown from 500 attendees to an estimated 20,000 this year.

“The kiosks here, they’re all different businesses and they all have a different goal with somehow supporting marginalized voices,” Celestin said. “To see how people are trying to amplify marginalized voices in a unique way to Davis, I think that’s one

of the things part of this experience that I just think is really cool.”

Davis Pride and UC Davis Pride Month events invite the general community to understand, recognize and uplift folks.

“The queer community at Davis is super active — especially the QTPOC [queer, trans people of color] community,” Lounds said. “It’s a lot of emotional and physical work to be an activist and when you’re constantly fighting, you can [...] feel really worn out.

I think that that is where the allies can step up. You can’t just call yourself an ally [...] without actually actively fighting for the rest of all people. [But] if they’re not personally invested in it, then they don’t show up.”

For many, Pride events provide a start to building bridges of empathy.

“I’ve traveled around the world and it’s so funny [because] people think that they are so different but when you go to a lot of these prides, you see that people have so much more [...] in common,” Celestin said. “If people just take the time to experience the commonalities that we have, you see that life is a lot more beautiful and less complicated than we like to make of it.”

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that artwork generally is before it ends up in a gallery. I do feel very strongly that there needs to be that experimental arena for people to try things and not necessarily make their best work or always succeed in everything, but to have that opportunity to experiment and let those experiments be seen — it’s really invaluable.”

For many in the Davis community, losing Third Space would be a tragedy. As of now, the art collective is looking for an architect to create a blueprint for the ren-

ovations, but unfortunately lacks the funds to hire one.

“It’s an actual process to do that, and that costs money,” Cantrell said. “People don’t do that for free usually.

We have talked to some architects who are charging us a lot of money, and we can’t afford to pay a lot of money on top of doing the renovations we need to do on top of having our doors closed for an extra month or two. We need people to invest in the space and an architect. That’s why our plans are still kind of tentative to be honest.”

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The festival incorporated local businesses, like one of its major leading sponsors, Yolo Federal Credit Union (YFCU).

“We’re really excited to be part of it,” said Kelley Jacobsen, the marketing manager of YFCU. “Local is who we are and what we do. So, any chance we have at supporting local endeavors, like the Taste of Yolo Event, we are all for it and are excited to be part of it. We will also be holding contests on our Facebook page leading up to the event for tickets, so be sure to

visit us on Facebook to possibly win some tickets.”

In the future, festival coordinators are looking toward adding an artistic element, but were limited by the size of Central Park this year. Visit Yolo, however, notes how fun it is to have an event purely based on high-quality local food. In the years coming, the event will likely move from each of the main cities in Yolo County.

Visit the Taste of Yolo website for event and ticket details.

sign a contract that acknowledges their obligation to fully disclose potentially patentable inventions to the university-authorized licensing office. This holds true in the case of professors as well (as seen in the strawberry suit) because the majority of creations, inventions and discoveries made at the university belong to the university. Researchers may be receiving ample funding and capital for their projects, but are they really their projects?

For political science graduate student Matt Lesenyie, this system does not deter his creativity nor his drive to conduct research. Actually, Lesenyie feels he is able to do his research specifically because of the university’s support.

“I do research using lab experiments and samples of students that examines differences in campaign finance disclosure in advertisements,” Lesenyie said. “It’s been about four years of research using lab equipment and convenience samples that I couldn’t do it without the resources that we have here[...]I simply don’t have that many people and computers.”

If this is the case for Lesenyie, how is it that some faculty find themselves going against the university in an effort to exploit what they deem is their rightful intellectual property?

Intellectual property refers to the creations of the mind from physical inventions to ideas, which is how faculty might become stuck in the grey area of who has rightful ownership. According to the economic principle of rivalry, ideas — whether they be for a pest-resistant strawberry or new iPhone app — are non-rivalrous, meaning that one person’s use of an idea does not prevent another person’s use of that same idea.

Professors may fall into the trap of believing that their ideas belong to them and only them, when in fact the university must take ownership of this idea in order to prevent it from exploitation.

“When you sign your contract, it says whatever you bought with research funds at Davis stays [at the university], but when you come up with an idea it’s much more difficult because the idea is out there now for everyone to use,” said economics professor Athanasios Geromichalos. “You can see that both sides have a point. In the one hand it was [the professor] and his hard work that helped make the idea come true, at the same time [his idea] not only physically took place inside UC Davis facility but it also took place with the financial and research support from UC Davis.”

Geromichalos studies modern monetary policy and how the central bank affects aggregate microeconomic activity, a topic that he hopes would eventually be relevant for monetary policy. Even though Geromichalos will probably not find himself in a situation akin to that of the strawberry lawsuit, he stresses that it is important for faculty to stay humble and remember the sources of their success.

“I think the university helps you conduct research under excellent conditions,” Geromichalos said. “You want the university to help you come up with good ideas but you don’t want to forget that the university had a role to play in this contribution.”

Despite his confidence in not having to face a challenge of ownership against the university, Geromichalos believes that the university could do more to educate its professors and graduate students on the subject of intellectual property.

When researchers know that ideas they worked so hard for will be taken away from them, this creates disincentives for people to be innovative and work hard, according to Geromichalos. As a result, he argues for more of a middle-ground solution for deciding who has rights to intellectual property.

“We need to maximize efficiency by having a mechanism in play that makes sure there is no loss of good ideas because of disincentives,” Geromichalos said. “But, at the same time, there should be a fair split of the fruits of discoveries between the university and the researcher. Having a more clear framework and understanding of what happens in cases like that can definitely not hurt.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

10 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

ARTS & Culture “Master of None” entertaining, but disjointed Season Two showcases different narrative than previous episodes

BY A BI G AI L WANG arts@theaggie.org

From the get-go, the second season of Master of None gave off a very different vibe than the previous season. For starters, the first episode of the season is featured in black and white and is set in Modena, Italy, with everyone speaking Italian.

However, those jarring changes are eased with subtitles, and the color change does not last throughout the whole season.

The storyline picks up pretty much where it left off, with Dev attempting to bury his romance woes by fleeing to Italy and working in a pasta shop.

After a couple of fun Italian-themed episodes, the show then follows Dev back to New York as he navigates his new dating life and career.

Season two has a different feel for multiple reasons. First, it’s very artistic. All of the shots are beautifully set up, especially in the episodes that take place in Italy. The picturesque scenery coupled with the close-up food shots are enough to make anyone put Italy at the top of their travel list.

Another difference is that the episodes are less focused on Dev and his friends as a group and more on each of their individual stories. Each one of his friends, besides Arnold, who is folded into Dev’s episodes, is given their own vignette episode.

I found these episodes to be some of the most enjoyable of the season, especially Denise’s episode, which focuses on her difficulties expressing her sexuality to her family. Awkward Thanksgiving meals sounds familiar to anyone? If so, watch this episode for some déjà vu. I definitely appreciated this sto-

ryline as a queer woman of color myself, as it is still such a struggle to find accurate portrayals of these types of narratives.

Another enjoyable episode of the show was “New York, I Love You”. Even if you don’t watch Master of None, I recommend watching this particular episode. Instead of focusing on the main characters, it tells the stories of different marginalized people in New York.

But other parts of the show weren’t as powerful. I don’t know if this is just me, but I find Dev’s character rather unlikeable. It might be because he reminds me of some of my exes, or I might just find him annoying in general. I find his fixation on his love life to be particularly irritating, although maybe that’s out of fear that I will be in the same position in my later 20s, going on pointless date after pointless date. Also, the woman he is primarily interested in calls him “curry man” several times, and although Dev calls her out on it, it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I would have liked to see him question how her identity as a white woman complicates their relationship.

I also found that, although I liked the different vignettes the show had, overall I felt it made the season feel a bit disjointed. I also missed having Dev, Denise, Arnold and Brian all hanging together as friends, watching their banter unfold. They had a really good dynamic in the last season, and this time it seemed like it was just Dev hanging out with them individually.

Overall, Season Two is still an entertaining watch with some bright sparks, but it suffers from being too fragmented.

JOA N M A R C US / CO U RTESY

Catch The Tricky Part at the Mondavi An inside look with Martin Moran about his upcoming play

BY A KAYLAH EL L I S O N arts@theaggie.org

Content warning: Sexual abuse Martin Moran, an Obie award winner, has written a captivating tale about the harsh realities and how to deal with them. The Tricky Part is about the issue of the complications of childhood sexual abuse. Moran wanted to encourage people to deal with their abusers, literally or otherwise. Although his experiences were very specific, he discussed how he wants his show to be about the human experience.

The Aggie asked Moran, “What are some things that led you to writing a one-man show? What led you to be so open about such a personal experience?”

Moran answered, “When writing memoirs,

there’s a way in which it’s not so much an idea as an imperative, meaning that there was a sense within my soul [...] that I needed to tell this story — that I needed to sort it out in some way. And of course, it was very,very private at first [...] In the case of The Tricky Part, I think writing this story led to understanding something about the nature of forgiveness, and that felt important.”

Moran’s answer highlights the fine line between writing and journaling. He shows how he attempts to write about the human experience through the lens of something that happened to him, but ultimately, he writes a story for all people, no matter their trauma.

“It’s really a lot more than about sexual abuse,” Moran said. “It’s really the question of how we deal with the sense of being damaged [...] It’s about the MORAN on 13

Davis Chamber Choir Spring Concert A fusion of classical and pop

BY CARAJOY KLEI N R O C K arts@theaggie.org

The Davis Chamber Choir’s (DCC) Spring Concert will be it’s third major concert this year.

The choir will sing both a cappella and to musical accompaniment as both a full group and in smaller group combinations. Their music ranges from classical and choral works to arrangements of pop and jazz songs.

Bailey Cooke, a second-year music major and the choir’s musical director, is responsible for teaching music, leading rehearsals and performances, organizing concerts and conducting the choir.

“The planning process is usually similar in each concert,” Cooke said. “The repertoire is selected about two weeks before the quarter starts and we rehearse twice a week for two hours each.”

According to Cooke, some of the highlights of the concert include “A Boy and a Girl” by Eric Whitacre, “Alleluia” by Jake Runestad, “The Heart’s Reflection” by Daniel Elder and Chanticleer’s “Cells Planets.”

There are 29 singers in the choir this quarter,

and its board consists of six singers elected by the ensemble. Positions include the treasurer, administrative director and music coordinator.

Lisa Bell, a fourth-year exercise biology major, is a current member of the choir and former administrative director and treasurer.

“There are a variety of pieces. They have this shimmer effect because they have chords built on top of each other with eight-part harmonies,” Bell said. “We finally have everything memorized for this concert.”

Nicole Daghighian, a third-year global disease biology major, is an alto in the choir.

“It’s a fun mix of songs and we are a pretty big group and we have a few really great soloists and good small groups that are fun because they sing pop songs,” Daghighian said.

The choir performs a variety of songs that fuse choir and pop, and audience members can look forward to hearing such arrangements at their spring concert.

DCC has grown a lot each quarter, so at each CHAMBER on 13

Harmonious Greeks: Greek Beats JA I ME CH EN / AGG IE

UC Davis sorority women sing for philanthropy, personal development

BY CAROLINE RUTTEN arts@theaggie.org

Claire Ongaro, a first-year communication and design major, is a natural singer — she’s not formally trained in singing, but has a natural voice. In high school, Ongaro channeled her musical expression by walking through her house, singing to the audience in her kitchen or living room.

Maybe it was the condensed floor plan, but in college, a dorm room couldn’t satisfy Ongaro’s desire for a musical outlet. That’s where Greek Beats came into play.

“I just wanted to get my singing energy out in a space that is appropriate,” Ongaro said. “Back home I would sing all the time in my house, and it felt kinda weird to just being singing in my dorm with my roommate. Being a part of Greek Beats is meaningful because it is a space where I can just sing.”

Greek Beats is an all-women a cappella group made by and for women in the Panhellenic Greek Community on campus. While the group is limited to a specific category of women at UC Davis, the group embodies a welcoming environment for a variety of women to join.

“The auditions were really scary because I never auditioned for singing before,” Ongaro said. “But being a new member is really cool. One of the older members painted all the new members these Greek Beat plaques — it was kinda like some of the crafts we get from sororities, but it makes it really welcoming.”

Similarly for Julia Rateaver, a fourth-year communication major and the music director for Greek Beats, joining the group gave her an outlet for performing.

“I have always been into music ever since I was little, and I wanted to have a musical outlet when I came to Davis,” Rateaver said. “What I liked about Greek Beats was that it had a fun casual vibe about it where you could still put sorority, school and everything first, but have a fun outlet for your music talent.”

Because Greek Beats caters specifically to the Greek community on campus, there is an understanding about time commitment and the overall busy nature of the Greek system. Nevertheless, this similarity among the girls fosters a collaborative environment and gives them the opportunity to perform.

“The whole mindset of Greek Beats is that we are a bunch of girls who want to do something musical, but don’t necessarily have the time to commit to something really big — we just want to sing together,” said Andrea Martinez, a fourth-year economics and design double major and the president of Greek Beats. “Being in a sorority takes up a lot of time, so we all have a mutual understanding that we have other important things in my life. We do a good job catering to everyone’s other activities, which I think is really important in a college atmosphere — balance is everything. Being involved in other things is really important and having this organization that understands that and wants to work with you and achieve all those goals is great.”

Similarly, the fluidity of Greek Beats was a factor that attracted her to the organization in the first place.

“It is a balance to support our sorority chapters and other things we care about, and if we were in a different a cappella group it might have to make us miss our philanthropies or other sorority events,” Rateaver said.

Aligning with the welcoming nature of the group, a person’s level of a cappella experience does not necessarily impact their acceptance into the group.

“The cool thing about Greek Beats is that a lot of girls come in not having a lot of singing experience,” Rateaver said. “I didn’t have much musical background either. A lot of girls have a lot of musical talent for not having much experience.”

Especially for Ongaro, who is not musically trained, Greek Beats gave her the opportunity to develop her musical skills.

“When we auditioned they asked us if we had any a cappella experience, but it wasn’t necessary to join,” Ongaro said. “It allows for people to grow musically because maybe I will be able to know chords in the future, there’s nothing that can limit me. I had to spend some time learning how to sing a cappella, especially since I never did a cappella before. People in Greek Beats have tips like closing your eyes, focusing on the overall sound and blending your voice to match other tones. It’s about softening your voice, making it not about you. It’s pretty humbling.”

Despite the spectrum of previous training, the

group is nonetheless able to create a cohesive sound.

“Since you are in a group rather than just a soloist, you have to work together to make an even, balanced sound — it is a team effort,” Rateaver said.

This unity of sound is used to support a greater cause: Cal Aggie Camp, which pays to send children in the foster care system to a summer camp run by UC Davis students every year.

“A big step for us was adopting Cal Aggie Camp, which is Panhellenic’s philanthropy, and I really want to build on that,” Martinez said. “We are so focused in our own sororities and philanthropic service to others, so I think it is important to do that in all aspects in life. And I want Greek Beats to be part of that and to help out as much as we can since Cal Aggie Camp is such a small organization.

To raise money, we do a combination of bake sales, Yoloberry fundraisers and Blaze Pizza fundraisers.

Also at the end of the year we do a senior showcase where it’s free but people donate money to us and we donate all that money.”

Adopting Cal Aggie Camp has allowed the women of Greek Beats to immerse themselves into something other than music while still supporting the Greek system.

“Since we are a Greek group we want to donate to Cal Aggie Camp, so we can further integrate ourselves into the Greek community,” Rateaver said.

“We also perform at a lot of Greek philanthropies like TKE Sweetheart, Chi O Casino and Arrowjam.”

However, Greek Beats is not limited to solely the Greek system — talent and practice of their caliber has granted them equal standing among other a cappella groups.

“This past weekend we did a show in Central Park in Davis with the Columbia Kingsmen who are from Columbia University,” Martinez said. “It wasn’t anything to promote the Greek community; they just reached out to us through Facebook and wanted to do a show with us. It was super random, but it was so much fun.”

Such expansion is a testament to the amount of growth Greek Beats has experienced since its creation.

“We have come such a long way since it started,” Rateaver said. “We have always had musical talent, but as we become more well known in the Greek community we have attracted a lot more talent to join. People have stepped out of their comfort zone and come to us, a lot more musically-talented people have decided to join so our sound has really developed.”

Likewise, Greek Beats is looking for other routes to expand the organization, like performing at more non-Greek events and even possibly adding Greek men into the group, Martinez said.

Furthermore, growth of Greek Beats itself parallels the personal and musical growth of its members.

“My singing has gotten so much better and now I have so much confidence,” Ongaro said. “I never wanted to sing in front of people before, but now that I got in and have people to support me, I feel a lot more confident in my singing abilities.”

Martinez experienced a specific example of musical growth, testing her abilities to realms she didn’t know she could accomplish.

“We have been trying to find a beatboxer for so long — you don’t know how hard it is to find someone who is a girl, in the Greek system and can beatbox,” Martinez said. “One day at practice, I just kinda went for it and it sounded actually okay. I can only do four beats but they sound decent. I think in the future we are going to try and train our girls to beatbox and try to find some when we do auditions, but I never knew that I could do something like that.”

To Martinez, that grit and willingness to try new things embodies the people who make up the Greek community on campus. Greek Beats has helped develop a new realm of the Greek system.

“I think Greek women are awesome because we tend to do a ton of things; we are not just an a cappella group, we have a variety of interests,” Martinez said. “I think it says a lot about the Davis Greek community. Our group does a good job about integrating everyone. I don’t see a girl in Greek Beats as someone not in my sorority, but as someone who is my friend and that I do a capella with.”

For Rateaver, the moral character Greek Beats embodies has made it a defining part of her college experience.

“Coming in as a freshman, I only really knew girls in my sorority, Delta Gamma,” Rateaver said.

“Greek Beats was a good way to get out of that bubble and meet other girls in the Greek community. I wish I could stay in it longer; it made a huge impact on my college experience.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017 | 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

R E BE CC A R I D G E / AGGI E

summer edition

AggIE STYLE WATCH

HOW TO DRESS FOR FLUCTUATING WEATHER

BY BEC KY L E E arts@theaggie.org

Redondiez: I watch a lot of fashion YouTubers for some inspiration, but the main goal is to stay comfy for class.

Amihan Redondiez, a first-year gender, sexuality and women’s studies major, values the art of thrifting and especially layering for the strange spring-to-summer weather transitions. With 50-degree mornings and 90-degree afternoons, it’s impossible to wear one outfit the entire day. Redondiez has the answer to this dilemma.

ASW: Where do you get your clothes?

Redondiez: I mostly thrift my clothes because I like how it’s more unique and cheaper, too.

ASW: What is your style inspiration?

ASW: With the weather changing throughout the day, how do you stay versatile with your clothes?

Redondiez: I still try to layer. For example, I knew it would be cold

ZOË R E I N H A RDT / AGGIE

so I have this sweater but also a short sleeve underneath. My pants right now are long enough to keep me warm but still breathable. I’ll keep a cardigan or jacket in my car, just in case.

ASW: What summer hack would you like for others to know?

Redondiez: I keep a pair of pants in my bag. If I’m wearing a romper or shorts, I’ll keep a pair of long pants in my bag because I’ll usually be out until night when it gets colder.

Just make sure it matches with your outfit and put it on when you need it.

LAU R A LON G / AG GIE F IL E

Undergraduate seniors in Design Department to showcase a variety of work ASUCD Food Pantry to hold 2nd Annual Benefit Show

The ASUCD Food Pantry will be hosting its second annual benefit show on June 1, with the theme “Life’s a Beach,” in order to raise money for the cause. It will take place in Science Lecture Hall 123, and will be feature a variety of different student groups on campus, including a cappella groups, dance groups and cultural clubs.

Some of the organizations performing include Danzantes del Alma, Na Keiki ‘O Hawai’i Polynesian Dance Group and The Liquid Hotplates. All the proceeds from the event will go directly to the Pantry to further aid it in its mission to create a healthier campus environment. Justin Hu, a fourth-year biological sciences major and an intern at the Food Pantry, works closely with the students who benefit from the Pantry’s services.

Event will showcase live performances to benefit a great cause

PANTRY on 13

Pieces range from apps to furniture to fashion

BY PA RI SAG AF I arts@theaggie.org

The Department of Design will present its first-ever undergraduate senior showcase from May 22 to June 18. For anyone confused as to what the subject of design entails, fear not — the exhibit’s preparer, Chris Jones, has clarified what it means to showcase design.

“The short answer to that is that it’s a lot of different things, and maybe the basic principle is that everything that we interact with as people is designed in some way,” Jones said. “So this show is nice in that you do see how these things kind of permeate throughout our culture from everything from apps to more straightforward image design or layout or typography or textiles. It’s kind of neat to see how some design principles are overarching across many kinds of disciplines and ways of making things.”

Design is certainly varied in its medium, preparation and context, ranging from textiles and digital media to product design and beyond. The exhibit includes some independent projects, such as a bus that was theoretically designed to transport disabled and elderly people, as well as product-design projects, like a new design for packaging mooncakes.

Brontë Blanco, a third-year design major and assistant exhibition designer, found it rewarding to work on the

exhibit, as she was able to collaborate with various on campus clubs and artists, whose work will also be showcased.

For the months leading up to the exhibit, she worked on exhibition design, curation of the materials and organizing submissions from design clubs and students. Blanco said that the showcase is meant to celebrate the works and accomplishments of individuals from the Design Department but also to give the public a better understanding of the variety of design coming from the department.

“I think it’s exciting to know that this is the first of many to come, and the point is that this exhibition is supposed to be reflective of the senior student body, so the seniors are supposed to work alongside whoever is designing the exhibition to put their own feel on the exhibition,” Blanco said.

She also noted that the exhibit may be completely different years from now, but will still be representative of graduating seniors’ hard work.

Marissa Meier, a fourth-year design major, has two pieces being showcased in the exhibition. One is a small wooden chair made of vinyl sheeting and bucket straps, which she created in her furniture design class. The idea is that the chair can be taken apart and carried, DESIGN EXHIBIT on 13

BY SYDNEY ODMAN arts@theaggie.org

12 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

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BACKSTOP BRIANA NGO / AGGIE FILE

Brynton Lemar’s hoop dreams aren’t over

Tube polo:

Graduating senior lands workout with NBA’s Sacramento Kings

Water polo, but with tubes

RAUL MORALES / AGGIE

A look into a popular UC Davis original intramural sport

BY DOM I NI C FARI A sports@theaggie.org

When it comes to UC Davis intramural sports (IMs), there are a multitude of different options to choose from. The selection of sports varies from quarter to quarter, offering a diverse selection of games and competition levels to satisfy nearly anyone’s athletic interests. Many are simply recreational versions of more traditional sports, such as eight-on-eight soccer, flag football and grass volleyball. On the intramural schedule for Spring Quarter, however, there is one sport that is unique from the rest: tube water polo.

It’s traditional water polo with a fun twist geared for the more casual sportsman. Instead of requiring players to keep themselves afloat, tube polo eliminates the arduous work of treading water by allowing participants to float atop inflatable inner tubes.

Much of the rest is the same. The game still uses a water polo ball that can be passed back and forth between teammates, there are goalkeepers and the goal of the game is identical: score as many times as possible.

Tube polo was invented at UC Davis as an intramural sport.

The late Gary Colberg, longtime associate athletics director of UC Davis intramural and club sports, is credited with inventing tube polo back in 1969 as a way for students with little water polo experience to play a less physically demanding version of the game.

On the surface, tube polo may seem simple and even relaxing by nature, but make no mistake — there is still plenty of diffi-

Back to the Glory Days:

Scott Carrell

SCOTT CARRELL / COURTESY

UC Davis professor talks sports, opportunities athletics provide

BY RYAN BUG SC H sports@theaggie.org

Ever wondered if any college professors once played collegiate athletics? This second article in a series of three continues to follow and question different UC Davis professors to talk about their collegiate athletic playing days and why they decided to take a different path from athletics to become a professor.

This week, The California Aggie had the chance to sit down with Scott Carrell, a professor of economics and the Faculty Athletics Representative at UC Davis. At the graduate level, Carrell teaches public finance, and at the undergraduate level, introductory microeconomics. He played college football for the Air Force Falcons.

Have you spent your whole life playing football, or was it something you just started playing in college?

I first played tackle football when I was seven years old. I played in second and third grade. I moved to Iowa and they didn’t have tackle football until seventh grade, so I had a three or four year period where I didn’t play, then played since seventh grade all through high school. I was then recruited by a number of teams to play and ended up going into the Air Force Academy.

How was your experience in collegiate athletics?

I want to start by saying that I grew up in a small town in Iowa

culty involved.

“I’ve done sports in the past, but nothing aquatic,” said Ingrid Hernandez, a third-year microbiology major. “[Tube polo] is much harder than anything I’ve done. It’s harder to move, it’s harder to go fast, you have to plan everything when you’re playing.”

While the inner tubes allow an escape from physical exertion, they make it much more difficult to maneuver oneself in the field of play. Players must balance themselves on the tubes and use mainly their arms to row themselves in any direction or to spin themselves around.

This makes it slightly harder to manufacture quick movements across the water or to place oneself in the correct place to receive a pass.

But the surprising difficulty of tube polo is what creates the silliness involved in playing. The amusement brought by watching someone struggle to move while floating on a tiny tube, combined with rising Spring Quarter temperatures and the draw of competition, is what attracts many UC Davis students to the sport.

“This is actually my first time playing tube polo,” said Daniel Arreola, a fourth-year political science and history double major.

“I played IM soccer my freshman year. Tube polo I guess is a lot more difficult for me because I don’t have any experience with water polo or anything like that before. But it’s really fun learning the sport — it’s a lot like soccer.”

Tube polo is a simple, fun, yet competitive game open for almost anyone to play. Didn’t get the chance to play this quarter?

Be on the lookout for team sign-ups come next spring. For those interested in viewing tube polo, games are played every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings at Schaal Aquatics Center up until the championship games on June 8. with 11,000 people and the default was not to go to college or go to community college. What being recruited to play football did was open my eyes to going to different places. I had never thought about serving in the military until those schools started recruiting me. One thing that athletics does, even at UC Davis, is it brings students here who may have never thought about going here, which is unique. My playing career was relatively shortlived — I entered the Air Force Academy in 1991 and was doing quite well. The Air Force requires you to do basic training when you arrive and I lost a bunch of weight, which made me even more undersize then I was, and it became very hard for me to regain that weight, so I got cut the beginning of my sophomore year.

Why did you choose to become an economics professor after your collegiate football was done at the Air Force?

I am an economics professor by accident, so to speak. I was an economics undergraduate major so once I was cut from the team I thought about transferring to get another opportunity to play, but ultimately decided to stay. I ended up an economics major because it was the class I liked the most and we had to declare majors. My GPA rose quite a lot when I stopped playing football, which is also why I admire the high level of academics of the athletes here at UC Davis. The Air Force Academy contacted me in the future and said that they needed instructors to teach and if I wanted to go to grad school. I went to the University of Florida and actually fell in love with the field of economics and the economics of education. I left the Air Force in 2005, spent two years at Dartmouth College and been at UC Davis since 2011.

Why did you choose to come to UC Davis to teach?

Growing up in Iowa and living in Colorado, even as a professor, I had never even heard of UC Davis. A job opening came up in a unique job market and so it was one of about 100 jobs I applied for. I went to the interview and learned a lot about the place [UC Davis]. I came out to visit in my on-campus interview and thought this was a really special place, and it’s a shame more people don’t know about it.

Do you ever miss playing football?

Absolutely. I still have some regrets about choosing not to go back and play when I had the opportunity. I have been a longtime youth football coach here in Davis, and last year was my last year of coaching the eighth-grade team. I was also the president of the Davis Senior Davis Youth Football Program. I love the game and it is very much a large part of who I am and became.

I do not think I would be here as a professor if it wasn’t for the opportunities that athletics gave me.

Being a former athlete, do you have any general advice for current and/or future student athletes?

Athletics is just a pathway to success, it teaches you teamwork, discipline, etc. The skills that you learn in becoming an athlete are those skills that make you successful in life. I like athletics because it is a gateway for learning opportunities and brings people to places, like UC Davis, that wouldn’t otherwise be here.

BY BRADLEY GEISER sports@theaggie.org

For many outgoing seniors who are competing in NCAA basketball, their final game at the college level marks the end of their basketball careers. For others, like UC Davis’ own Brynton Lemar, it was simply another step on his journey to the next level. While the future remains uncertain, Lemar got a much-needed boost when he landed a coveted workout with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings. It was an opportunity that Lemar was certain not to waste.

“Right now, workouts are in full effect and I have to be ready, I have to be in shape,” Lemar said. “I have to be mentally ready and also physically. So there’s really not a break between this basketball stuff, 24/7.”

In 2015, Lemar’s teammate Corey Hawkins received a similar opportunity. Hawkins also worked out for the Kings and was invited to play for their Summer League squad. The NBA Summer League is a showcase not only for those young players who have just been drafted, but also for those who went undrafted and are hoping to make it in the NBA. Hawkins, who was unable to participate in that season’s Summer League due to injury, reached out to Lemar and gave him advice for his ongoing journey. “[Hawkins] really helped me realize what they’re going to do,” Lemar said.

“He gave me the rundown about what’s going to happen, and what to mentally prepare for.”

Lemar also got to meet with some current NBA players, with young Kings players Willie Cauley-Stein, Skal Labissiere and Georgios Papagiannis offering advice to prospective colleagues like Lemar. According to Lemar, opportunities like this help prepare him for his stressful journey to the ranks of the NBA. The workout is brief; just one hour and 15 minutes, according to Lemar. In that hour, he is matched up against some of the top college players in the nation, all of whom have the same goal that he does. Lemar accepts this challenge, as he knows that these are the players whom he will have to get through in order to achieve his NBA dreams.

“I was excited to showcase my skills in front of the front office of the Kings,” Lemar said. “I felt good about it. I know I can compete at that level — I compete every day. I feel like I’m an NBA player, it’s just a matter of opportunity.

Going to a small school, we’re not on that national skill like Kansas or Kansas State, but I had the opportunity to showcase what I had against those players.”

It is with this optimism that Lemar enters life after college. He is taking his final weeks as a student at UC Davis to reflect on all he has learned during his last four years at the school.

“I know that all good things come to an end,” Lemar said. “My career here at Davis has been fun. I’m going to miss it, but I know that I’m on to bigger and better things.”

As graduation rapidly approaches, there will be no rest. Lemar is hoping to get in on a few more workouts and see what happens from there. Whatever it is, he is approaching it with an open mind and competitive thirst.

“Draft, Summer League, maybe going to Europe in early August,” Lemar said. “It’s going to be an exciting summer.”

Lemar should know his immediate NBA future by the time NBA Summer Leagues begin in early July.

THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017 | 13

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

CHAMBER

MORAN

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performance there is a larger concert and audience. The group really focuses on musicality and methods of sight-reading, setting it apart from other choirs.

The show will be held on Saturday, June 3 from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at the Davis Community Church at 412 C St. There is no entry fee, but a $5 donation is suggested.

AGGIE GAMING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

playoff bracket. Additionally, the playoffs featured single-elimination instead of including a losers bracket, and some players were delayed or prevented from going to Toronto because of visa issues.

Last year, the Aggies were eliminated in the sixteenth round. This year, they made top four before falling to UBC, the eventual champions.

“We would have won if we had our full roster,” Skebba said, referring to the visa issues with one of their core players. “I think UBC also agreed about that because we did win American Video Game League with our full [roster].”

The Aggies from the beginning of the season to their run in the finals are entirely different teams, according to Skebba. The only changes to their roster were necessary substitutions.

“I always think of [the Aggies] as a unit because they’re just very strong all around,” Gaffney said. “It’s not a surprise to me that their Dota 2 team is getting better as it’s going along.”

Dota 2 isn’t just a game, either; many people besides players are involved, such as staffers, tech crews, managers and coordinators as well as universities, friends, family and fans.

“It’s mostly that I want to say thank you to the teams and the community that partic-

ipates, because they give our staff a reason to do what they do everyday,” Gaffney said. “I think that’s something that’s not often told in stories, that we love what we do, that we want to keep this collegiate scene going.”

Skebba and Le encourage interested players, regardless of ranking or role, to contact their team through the Facebook page, UC Davis DotA 2 Players, or their Discord chat.

Skebba sees the declining number of Dota 2 players as a sign that the game is going stale.

“Reach out to us, we always look for players,” Skebba said. “Obviously, there has to be a certain skill level. The way we like to say it though is, you can teach Dota, but you can’t teach attitude. If you have an attitude to play, then you can play.”

According to Skebba, the Dota 2 public community is toxic because of some veteran players’ unwelcoming attitudes and the nature of the game itself, making it daunting for new players.

Skebba prefers the college scene because everyone is friendly, even between rival teams.

The Aggies are planning to participate next year and have high hopes for the championship.

“Next year, we should win because we’re going to keep our roster, and our guy shouldn’t have visa issues,” Skebba said.

“Davis should win next year.”

PANTRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

“[As an intern], we help with stocking the Pantry and making weekly trips to the food bank,” Hu said. “You get to see familiar faces that come in everyday, and it’s really nice to know that you’re helping them and that they want to continue using us as a resource.”

The ASUCD Food Pantry is often considered one of the most beneficial resources on campus to students in need. The goal of the Food Pantry is to ensure that no student ever goes hungry or lacks the basic necessities needed in order to successfully pursue a higher education. The Pantry does more than just provide daily meals to students in need; it also holds food drives and provides scholarships to students in the form of grocery certificates or even gift cards to the Coffee House on campus.

“It’s always been so humbling to work at the Pantry because we get to work directly

with the people that we’re helping out,” said Bianca Miguel, a fourth-year psychology major and an intern at the Pantry.

Additionally, working at the ASUCD Food Pantry is a great network to be a part of on campus. Staffers meet multiple times a week in meetings and at their respective shifts in order to ensure that the Pantry is doing all that it can to continue to provide for students.

“For me, [working at the ASUCD Food Pantry] is more of a de-stressor,” said Jia Yi, a third-year managerial economics major. “Its focused solely around helping people, and you get to get away from the stress of school while you’re there.”

The Food Pantry Benefit Show will be June 1 from 8:30 to 10:30 p.m in Science Lecture Hall 123.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased at the MU Bookstore.

tricky part of moving on when we perceive something has traumatized [us]. The play has a lot of universality: how we deal with being wronged and how we make sense of those who have wronged us.”

This play has won an Obie Award and was nominated for other prestigious awards. It’s a play about what it means to be a child, an adult, a liar, a cheater and how all of these identities intersect with these people. It’s a play very much interested in coming to terms with pain and one’s tormentors, abusers and problems.

While describing what he wanted to people to get from his play, Moran said, “Liberation from the past, liberation from the things we think that hold us to the past.”

Moran’s writing comes at a much-needed time. His story is about more than forgiveness and coming to terms with ourselves and others; it’s about how we survive the world despite its toxic environment. Moran is not attempting to lecture his audience about the importance of forgiveness and how to live in this scary world. Instead, he wrote a one-man show that illuminates a tricky issue through the lens of theatre. The Tricky Part will be a night of entertainment at its core, while discussing the importance of forgiveness.

When asked what an audience should expect from Moran’s play, he said, “It is an evening that is utterly not what you expect. It’s filled with humor, it’s filled with humanity, it’s filled with vivid storytelling and beautiful language. I say that with some modesty. It’s a strong piece of theatre. It’s a gripping evening that is much more than just sexual abuse. It’s about the tricky part of being a human being on the planet when people bomb each other, hit each other and hurt each other.”

The show will play at the Mondavi Center June 1 to 3 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for students. To buy tickets, please visit the Mondavi Center website.

DESIGN EXHIBIT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

since it doesn’t have any hardware. Another is an interlocking seating installation group project that was featured in the Chicago SOFA (Structure Objects, Functional Art and Design). Only five schools are accepted, and UC Davis is the only one from California to be included almost every year. Meier and her peers “tried to being something that’s uniquely UC Davis,” according to Meier.

In terms of the undergraduate senior showcase, Meier noted that it personally motivates her to see what other students are working on throughout the school year.

“A lot of people in the Design Department take different multidisciplinary approaches on the projects that we do,” Meier said.

The showcase coincides with the design commencement on June 17, so many of the seniors will be there to discuss their pieces and answer any questions, including the professors who teach the classes from which the projects were inspired. All pieces include wall tags that note which class the piece was made in for those who may be seeking some inspiration when it comes to signing up for a design class.

The exhibit is open Monday through Friday, 12 to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m., from now until June 18 in Cruess Hall.

14 | THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 2017

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