November 3, 2022

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VOLUME 141, ISSUE 7 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022

STUDENTS REACT TO VIOLENCE OUTSIDE OF TURNING POINT USA EVENT

The conservative student group canceled its event on Oct. 25 after violence broke out between protesters and counter-protesters

BY SYDNEY AMESTOY campus@theaggie.org On the evening of Oct. 25, an event at the UC Davis Conference Center organized by Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at UC Davis was canceled before speaker Stephen Davis began his talk after the protest outside turned violent.

TPUSA, a Registered Student Organization (RSO) on campus, is a conservative student group with a mission to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government,” according to their website.

Stephen Davis is a conservative activist and a regular contributor to TPUSA, writing columns for their website, speaking at events and hosting a podcast. He often goes by the name “MAGA Hulk,” and was planning to speak at the Oct. 25 event at UC Davis about why he, as an African American man, believes that “systemic racism isn’t real.”

In the days leading up to the talk, UC Davis Cops Off Campus, an unregistered advocacy group, replaced advertisements for the event with posters calling for a protest against the speaker and TPUSA. The organization planned to hold the protest outside of the Conference Center while the event took place. “[TPUSA members] claim to be in favor of freedom and limited government,” the posters read. “But this is a front for their notoriously racist, homophobic, transphobic, and antiimmigrant activities.”

At 6 p.m. on Oct. 25, around 100 people gathered outside of the

conference center.One protester, who wished to remain anonymous for their safety, shared why they felt the protest was important.

“When you have someone who is espousing ideas that we’ve seen [...] hurt our democracy, it’s important that we continue to protest and fight for the values that make this country a country that is welcoming to people,” the protester said.

Another protester, who also requested anonymity, cited recent antisemitic incidents on campus as a motivating factor for protesting this event.

“Every single time that there’s a racist or antisemitic event [the administration says] we don’t stand for that on campus, but then they allow racist speakers to come in,” the protester said.

A metal barricade was set up around the Conference Center to separate protestors from the event. The protesters picked up the barricade and began to hit it against the glass of the building, according to UC Davis Police Chief Joseph Farrow and eyewitnesses.

About an hour into the event, a group of counter-protesters who are believed to be affiliated with the Proud Boys based on their attire, arrived. The Proud Boys are an exclusively male far-right extremist group that has a history of instigating and engaging with political violence; some members are also involved in white supremacist groups.

Members of the crowd used pepper spray, including those identifiable as Proud Boys, although it is currently unclear who initiated its use. According to eyewitness reports there were also physical altercations, although Farrow said that only one such report has been

officially made to the UC Davis Police Department (UCDPD) as of Oct. 28.

“We have the one report of a young lady [who was sprayed with pepper spray],” Farrow said. “We’ve heard of other reports of people being shoved.

But nobody [else has] come forward.”

Security officers associated with UCDPD assisted the contracted private security force outside of the event in setting up a perimeter around the building, according to Farrow, but they made no arrests. The official report of a student being pepper sprayed is under active investigation.

After the TPUSA event was canceled, attendees were evacuated through a back exit. The clash outside dissipated as protesters and counterprotesters left the scene. “[Guests attending the event] didn’t want to be subjected to the protests that were going on outside,” Farrow said. “Our officers escorted them out a backdoor into the parking lot, and then sent them on the way. That was the only time they were deployed, but that was really just to get the participants out of the building.”

According to an updated version of UC Davis’ official statement on the cancellation of the event, the UCPD’s decision to not engage in the protest when it became violent was made collaboratively with Student Affairs. “[UCPD worked] to monitor the protest in real time and make decisions quickly,” the statement reads. “They were on stand-by when fighting broke out, but the situation de-escalated on its own, eliminating the need for the police to engage. No serious injuries were reported.”

The Student Community Center (SCC) closed early because of the event,

DAVIS’S 2022 CITY COUNCIL ELECTION SEES CONTROVERSIES, ADMINISTRATIVE ERRORS Important voting information, candidates’ responses to allegations made against them, descriptions of their platforms

The Student Community Center on campus posted a sign announcing their early closure after a Mondavi Center protest turned violent.

(Sonora Slater / Aggie) as well as other spaces on campus.

Around 8 p.m., according to third-year clinical nutrition major and employee at the SCC Diana Li, a sign was posted on the front entrance that read: “This facility is locked down/closed due to an emergency situation.”

The university’s official statement denounces the violence on campus and states that it was “unfortunate that the event could not proceed as planned.”

“As a public institution, UC Davis values and supports freedom of expression as rights guaranteed to every

citizen,” the statement reads.

The statement reiterates the university’s obligation to uphold the first amendment by allowing TPUSA to invite speakers on campus, as well as by protecting the rights of those who wish to protest against such events. The UC Davis Principles of Community were linked in the response, as well as resources available to students who were affected by the event.

TURNINGPOINTPROTEST on 6

UC DAVIS POLICE DEPARTMENT USES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO MONITOR STUDENT SOCIAL MEDIA The software program Detect scans social media posts for threats of violence and has potential to monitor student protests

UCD police department on campus. (Aggie File) The City of Davis City Hall is located on Russell Blvd. City Council District Elections will be held on Nov. 8.

(Claire Diepenbrock / Aggie)

BY CHRIS PONCE city@theaggie.org Davis’s 2022 general municipal election day is Nov. 8. This year’s election will determine the city council representatives for Districts 1 and 4, as Council Members Gloria Partida (District 4) and Dan Carson (District 1) are up for re-election.

This year’s election season has

READ MORE UC DAVIS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2022-2023 SEASON PREVIEW

With three key players gone who were the centerpieces to their dominance in the Big West the Aggies start a new era.

SEE PAGE 3

included some unusual obstacles so far. Recently, a section of Orchard Road was renamed Blue Ridge Road.

Because of this, 110 registered voters — 101 of whom live at the Russell Park Apartments on Orchard Park Drive — were mailed incorrect vote-by-mail ballots, according to a statement by Yolo County. The press release explained that the issue had been resolved by resending the correct ballots with a letter detailing the error.

The District 4 city council race has also featured controversy. Incumbent and former Mayor Gloria Partida has been accused of not disclosing a criminal record, including a felony conviction, by residents. Partida said that she was expunged for these charges and that the incident was classified a misdemeanor in a guest commentary she wrote for the Davis Vanguard.

“I did have a prior conviction from 22 years ago,” Partida wrote in The Vanguard. “That conviction was dismissed and set aside by the Yolo County Superior Court in 2005, based on my ‘continued law-abiding lifestyle, education and involvement in family and community.’ Simple fact: I do not currently have a conviction.”

She is running for re-election against Adam Morrill.

The city council candidates in District 1 are Bapu Vaitla, Kelsey Fortune and incumbent Council Member Dan Carson. Council Member Carson responded to the false accusations made against Council

Member Partida, saying that there have been misleading attacks on both of them. He declined to elaborate on the attacks directed at him.

“Actually, I’d prefer not to talk about them,” Carson said. “Because I’m not going to rehash what folks are throwing at me on social media.”

While it is unclear what accusations Carson was referring to, the Davis Vanguard has accused Carson of violating city policies. The Vanguard claims that emails reveal Carson used his official city email for campaign purposes relating to Measure H. Vaitla, who is a member of the Davis Social Services Commission, also responded to the claims made against Partida, saying that the efforts to defame her are associated with racist rhetoric.

“It concerns me because there are also, I think, racial elements to this where we are sort of accusing a woman of color of this crime,” Vaitla said.

“It just brings up associations that I think are, whether they’re intentional or not, [...] unwarranted and [an] outside-of-the-lines attack on Gloria, so I’m really disappointed. I also think Gloria’s responded to this with grace [and] honesty.”

Vaitla said that two of the core issues of his campaign are climate change and the housing crisis, which he believes distinguishes him from the other candidates and are reasons he chose to run for the position.

ELECTION on 6

BY LA RISSA VASQUEZ campus@theaggie.org On Oct. 19, the UC Davis Police Department (UCDPD) released a statement confirming that it is using the software program ‘Detect’ to conduct “threat monitoring” of students’ social media accounts. In the official statement, the UCDPD stated its intentions with the software.

“The UC Davis Police Department (UCDPD) uses a product called Detect (formerly Social Sentinel) to monitor publicly-available content on social media and websites for timely insights into such threats to our community,” the statement reads.

Joanne Zekany, a UCDPD lieutenant, said the program allows a select few members of UCDPD to discern genuine threats to individual and community safety.

“The software carries out searches based on keywords we supply,” Zekany said. “The goal of these searches is to find signs that someone is at risk of harming themselves or others. Using this software allows us to scan the many thousands of social media posts from our community for a few that are of genuine concern.”

On Oct. 27, 2020, Social Sentinel, a language-learning AI-based software designed to recognize signs of impending violence in organizationowned emails and public social media posts, was bought by Navigate360 and rebranded as Detect. According to the Navigate360 website, they are an umbrella company that acquires software and technology to monitor

online activity in schools, workplaces and other public institutions.

According to Zekany, UCDPD has been using the scanning software since 2015.

“Students should understand that this system can only look at public postings that are visible to any internet user,” Zekany said. “It cannot look at closed or private groups or pages, direct messages or private chats or email.”

The UCDPD Policy Manual does not provide any information on training or procedures that are used to ensure department transparency of the 24-hour automated coverage Detect provides.

The Oct. 19 release stated, “If an alert is sufficiently concerning, UCDPD would work with the social media platform or website involved to take any further action.”

In an investigation published last month by the Dallas Morning News, it was found that Detect marketed its services as a way of “mitigating” or “forestalling” student protests. Across the country, 37 schools, including UCLA, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Texas at Dallas, have also purchased contracts with the company to use its surveillance services.

Howard Ku, a first-year graduate student studying computer science, commented on the university’s use of Detect.

“I think [it’s] a little [stressful] if there was someone monitoring my information,” Ku said. ”There should be some limitation to their power and privilege to our data.”

2 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC, CSU, CCCS RELEASE JOINT STATEMENT ON DACA RULING IN TEXAS

The appeals court ruling found the program unlawful, but will allow existing DACA recipients to renew their status for the time being

BY SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org On Oct. 5, a federal appeals court announced their decision on the Texas v. U.S. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case, agreeing with previous judgment on the case that stated DACA was unlawful, but sending the case back to a lower court in Texas to be decided again based on new rules recently implemented by the Biden administration.

DACA is a national program that was created in 2012 by the Obama administration and allows immigrants who came to the U.S. unlawfully before their 16th birthday to receive a twoyear period of deferred action from deportation, as well as become eligible for a work permit. Based on the Oct. 5 ruling, existing DACA recipients are still able to renew their status, but the program is not accepting new applicants for the time being.

UC Davis has an estimated 800 undocumented undergraduate and graduate students, according to Enrique López, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department and the Training and Engagement Coordinator for the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center. López said that some staff and faculty at the university are also undocumented, and may similarly benefit from DACA. “The population is not small, it’s not insignificant,” López said. “With this news of possible DACA repeals, there’s a very significant amount of students who are threatened with the removal of a sense of security. [And]

ASUCD SENATORS DISCUSS TURNING POINT USA PROTEST AT OCT. 27 MEETING The Senate also heard quarterly reports, in which Unitrans announced significant progress on driver staffing

BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org

The International Center, located on California Dr., is a multicultural hub for both international and domestic students to engage with their community.

(Christine Minarik / Aggie) if anything happens to DACA, it’s not just happening to students but it’s also impacting professionals, teachers and faculty who are crucial for UC Davis to function.”

On Oct. 6, the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges issued a joint statement on the ruling.

“Even as we hope that this decision is overturned, the uncertainty it creates is untenable,” the statement reads.

“DACA recipients deserve to have their status as equal Americans protected. We support the decision to allow current DACA recipients to avoid immediate disruption to their lives and also to seek extensions of their DACA status.”

The statement goes on to reference a goal of “[advocating] for

permanent pathways to citizenship so undocumented Californians can pursue their academic and professional goals without fear of deportation.”

López, who said that he was undocumented in the past but now is not, described his experience of what the emotions surrounding DACA’s uncertainty can be like.

“I think that the easiest and most accessible thing for everyone to do is to become aware of that liminal and vague space that a lot of students are facing right now,” López said. “Even though DACA students have a sense of security, it’s only temporary. And DACA has been on this very fine thread for a very long time.”

DACARULING on 6

On Thursday, Oct. 27, at 6:15 p.m., Vice President JT Eden called the Senate meeting to order and recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

The Senate then moved through Gender and Sexuality Commission confirmations without any objections.

The senators moved to public comments and then to quarterly reports. Eden gave a report from the Personnel Committee, which reviews the personnel policies of ASUCD and proposes changes to those policies, including those regarding employee compensation.

The report included a list of recent accomplishments, one being that the senators are starting to gather volunteer tracking data after passing a bill to incentivize participation in hour tracking. The senators are hoping to receive a high number of responses.

The Personnel Committee’s goals for the rest of the year are to propose new career-staff positions and create clear internal hiring guidelines to prevent unpaid labor.

The Volunteer Award Committee, which gives out an award to ASUCD volunteers twice a year, and the Scholarship Award Committee, which gives out a scholarship to undergraduate students twice a year, gave their quarterly reports.

Next, the Senate transitioned to elected officer reports, during which they gave updates on their weekly schedules and progress on various

projects.

General Manager Jeff Flynn then gave a quarterly report for Unitrans.

In terms of cleaning and safe riding updates, the plastic barriers between riders and drivers installed during the pandemic remain in place, and they have a once-daily sanitizing procedure on all vehicles.

Additionally, Flynn said that for the first time in two years, Unitrans took down their driver vacancy from the ASUCD vacancy listing. For full service, 175 drivers are needed, and as of Oct. 2022, there are 120 active drivers, 50 active trainees and 25 hiresin-process. There are plans to slowly restore services as the year progresses.

As for ridership, fall 2022 has shown the highest ridership since March 2020, with 18,000 weekday customers on average.

They then moved on to the status of previous legislation, which includes two Senate bills, SB #12 and SB #14, which were vetoed at the Oct. 20 Senate meeting by President Radhika Gawde.

Next, they introduced new legislation CA #79, which is a constitutional amendment which, in the case of a recall vote, would allow for the student body to vote on a replacement candidate at the same time as the recall vote.

SENATE on 6

STUDENTS AND VISITORS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS ARE ABLE TO NAVIGATE THE UC DAVIS’S CAMPUS WITH NEW TACTILE AUDIO CAMPUS MAP The three-dimensional, interactive map allows users to explore the layout of various campus destinations with auditory guidance

BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org An interactive, audio-tactile map of the UC Davis campus is now available for use at the Memorial Union student drop-in center. The three-dimensional printed map was created for students and visitors with visual impairments to be able to explore buildings, roads and other campus destinations, according to a recent press release.

On the left side of the map, there is an index of campus locations in both print and braille. When an item on the index is pressed, the route to the destination can be traced on the map by following lights and a tone that rises in pitch as the user’s touch gets closer to the destination.

The map is designed for multiple touch points as users can touch anywhere on the map with both hands to feel around the map. If a user lifts all of their fingers except for one off

of a building, the map announces information about that building, including the name, a description of the destination and how to get there.

“The map adds an accessible feel [to] the campus and gives an innovative opportunity to interact with the information, creating a more inclusive experience,” creator and Accessible Technology Coordinator Joshua Hori said via email. “While it’s meant for blind and low vision students, it has audio captions which are helpful for neurodiverse students. Everyone who has had a chance to try it out has gravitated towards the technology.”

In 2018, Student Affairs offered grants to employees for innovative projects that could benefit the workplace. Hori, who was working at the Student Disability Center (SDC) at the time, applied, and received a grant for this project. He then teamed up with Professor Susan Verba in the Design department, who created a

course in which design students and visually impaired students created the prototype of the map and tested out tactile patterns for it. Some of the research from the course is available at the SDC. “The map was created under Joshua’s vision while he was working at the SDC and we’re very fortunate to have it,” Jennifer Billeci, the director of the SDC, said via email. “It adds important accessibility for many individuals with disabilities. Further, it expands the understanding of multiple modes of communication for those without a disability.”

On Oct. 12, the Tactile Audio Campus (TAC) Map was presented at the annual Disability Awareness Symposium, which was put on by the Disability Issues Administrative Advisory Committee and the Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion. At the event, Touch Graphics, the company that created the prototype based on

The TAC (Tactile Audio Campus) Map will read the name of this veterinary medicine building when it is touched. (Karin Higgins / UC Davis) students’ design proposal, discussed its collaboration with UC Davis.

Billeci expressed hope that similar inter-department collaborations can take place at UC Davis in the future.

“The SDC hopes to collaborate

with other departments to design and implement new ways for students to interact with technology which is inclusive to the campus community,” Billeci said.

UC DAVIS STUDENT ENTREPRENEURS ARE DRIVEN BY ART AND COMMUNITY, NOT PROFIT Students share how selling their art at the Davis Art Market gives them a creative outlet

BY MARIA MARTINEZ CASTRO

features@theaggie.org The Davis Art Market serves as a hub for art creators, small-business owners and vendors to share and sell their things to the Davis community.

Along 3rd Street, one can find an array of products lining the sidewalk — including crochet hats, unique fashion pieces, handmade jewelry and customized acrylic nail sets.

While many UC Davis students use the space to promote their business and art, other artists from the surrounding region have also set up shop within the art market. The market has even grown to attract and welcome vendors outside of Davis.

While the art market does not exclusively house UC Davis student entrepreneurs’ shops, it has served as a platform for many students to establish and grow their small businesses.

Pinny Kantacheerawat, a fourthyear mechanical and aerospace engineering major, and Lauren Tsujioka, a fourth-year political science major, are business partners running Cowtown Nails. Their business focuses on creating fun, customized acrylic press-on nails.

“For me, I feel like nails are just like my artist side,” Kantacheerawat said.

“I’m doing a super academic major, so I feel like whenever I paint nails, it’s like another way of me relaxing, just taking my time. Then the product turns out, and I get super excited because they look really good.”

A passion for art has thrust some students into the world of business and entrepreneurship, even presenting

them with future career trajectories they initially did not consider.

“I honestly never thought about entrepreneurship,” Tsujioka said. “I’m a political science major, so, honestly, it made me think about going into a master’s for marketing in business. I really like the small business aspects and trying something new. I always wanted to be something different, like work in public policy or something else, and this has really changed my path.”

Ahndiya Kiburi, a third-year design and international relations double major, is in a similar position. Kiburi runs Ahndiya Studios, a small business that sells crochet bags, book sleeves, plant hangers and clothing such as tops and hats.

She said that she came into college wanting to be a lawyer, and while that “isn’t off the table,” it’s no longer her top choice.

“Design was my fun major,” Kiburi said. “But then, I started taking some political science classes, and I was just like, ‘this isn’t 100% for me.’ Because of that, I was like, ‘let me just make my fun major my career major.’ Why can’t it be, essentially?”

While entrepreneurship can be an alternative to a typical nine-to-five job, some student entrepreneurs’ focus isn’t on the money. Kiburi views her small business and the art market as a means to share her art and passion with others.

“I am willing to take more of a pay cut if I’m doing what I love to do,” Kiburi said. “The motivation is more just to be creative as an entrepreneur rather than to make the most money in the least amount of time.”

Tsujioka says that interactions with

customers is one of the most rewarding parts of running a business.

“The plus side is, honestly, seeing the customers’ faces light up when they do receive their nails,” Tsujioka said.

“Or, when they come and show us the nails that they have on, it literally makes us so happy.”

Heron Rana, who is behind “@ davis_street_market” on Instagram, says that the market started as a space for artists to share their art and uplift each other.

“For me, the [Davis] Art Market was always more of a space for [community] rather than, like, economics,” Rana said.

“I never really pictured that people would actually be making bank at the art market. But they do, which is really awesome that that’s another form of validation too.”

While the Davis Art Market has expanded to be a platform for UC Davis’ small business owners to expand their shops, it continues to be a space of art, inclusivity, diversity and community.

“It really does create easy access for people who are coming into it newly or young and exploring their art,” Rana said. “That’s the best part of it for me. It creates a safe space for people to do that without the pressure of, ‘Am I going to make the money that I’ve invested into this?’ I would believe a lot of people, even when they don’t sell anything, they still don’t lose because you receive the love of the community.”

Large crowds of students attend the Saturday Street Market to buy art and clothes made by the Davis community.

Featured are @_phanart_ and @_bugsthebun_ on Instagram. (Kazim Jafri / Aggie)

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022 | 3

SPORTS FOOTBALL

THE AGGIES STAMPEDE PAST CAL POLY TO CLAIM THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE UC Davis football’s winning streak continues as they climb in the Big Sky standings

Wide receiver Justin Poerio sprints down the field to successfuly make a touchdown, helping the Aggies maintain the lead against Cal Poly. (Claire Diepenbrock / Aggie)

BY GABRIEL CARABALLO sports@theaggie.org Following wins against Northern Arizona University and Northern Colorado, the UC Davis Aggies claimed the Golden Horseshoe at UC Davis Health Stadium on Saturday, October 29, beating Cal Poly 59-17.

UC Davis won the opening coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, so Cal Poly would start the first quarter from their own 25-yard line.

However, the Mustangs’ first drive didn’t last long, as the Aggies’ defense forced a four-and-out situation for the Mustangs, making them punt the football.

The Aggies received the punt and started their first drive of the game. On UC Davis’ first offensive play of the game, fourth-year running back Ulonzo Gilliam Jr. broke through Cal Poly’s defense and ran for an incredible 59yard touchdown. Gilliam’s run gave the Aggies an early 7-0 lead.

The Mustangs were down a score and wanted to even the odds, but UC Davis’s defense kept Cal Poly grounded.

On second down, Cal Poly’s third-year quarterback Spencer Brasch was sacked by the Aggie second-year safety Kavir Bains for a 10-yard loss, leading the Mustangs to punt the ball back to the home team.

UC Davis immediately took

advantage of the opportunity, with second-year quarterback Miles Hastings throwing a 30-yard dime to sophomore receiver CJ Hutton — resulting in good field position at the 50-yard line. However, the Aggies did not take advantage of the play as Cal Poly’s defense forced the home team to punt.

Cal Poly regained possession but was only able to muster one first down before being halted by the defense.

UC Davis would gain two firstdowns on their next possession before being held at fourth-and-short — the Aggies went for it but were unable to convert the first down, resulting in a turnover on downs.

As the Mustangs regained

possession, signal-caller Brasch threw his first interception of the game to the Aggies’ second-year defensive back Jehiel Budgett.

The home team took advantage of the turnover with a seven-play, 40yard scoring drive, capped off with a touchdown run from Hutton. This brought the first quarter to a close with the Aggies up 14-0.

The second quarter began with the Mustangs on offense — Brasch threw an incredible 57-yard pass to third-year wide receiver Bryson Allen, who entered the red zone. In the following sequence, Brasch threw a pass into the endzone, but it was intercepted by second-year linebacker Teddye Buchanan.

“I ended up tipping it to myself and came down with it. I was in the right place at the right time and made the play,” Buchanan said in regard to the interception.

Thanks to the defensive play, the Aggies were able to put points on the board with a quick four-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Hastings connected with Hutton for 54 yards and the drive ended with Gilliam’s second rushing touchdown of the game.

UCDFOOTBALLVSCALPOLY on 6

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

UC DAVIS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2022-23 SEASON PREVIEW With three key players gone, the Aggies start a new era

BY MARLON ROLON sports@theaggie.org The UC Davis women’s basketball team is coming off an up-and-down 2021-22 season — beating the University of Oregon, who was ranked No. 16 at that time, and Gonzaga for the first time in program history. The Aggies entered the Big West tournament as the sixth seed, which broke their streak of four-straight regular season titles and they were seconds away from making their third straight finals appearance in the tournament. However, UC Davis let the game slip away in the final 30 seconds of regulation, and the Aggies lost to UC Irvine in overtime. They finished the season with an overall record of 15-13 and 8-8 in conference play.

UC Davis’ elimination from the Big West tournament left players on the court in tears — especially for graduating seniors Sage Stobbart, Cierra Hall and Kayla Konrad, who were integral to the four regular season titles, two Big West Tournament championships and two NCAA tournament appearances. The trio achieved accolades that set a high standard within the program.

“To see them come in here and help raise the bar for our program is unbelievable,” Head Coach Jennifer Gross said following their semi-final loss to UC Irvine. “Those are three special individuals, and I’m so proud of them and their careers.”

Following their exit from the tournament, so many questions swirled around about the program. Who would replace the trio in the starting lineup?

How would the Aggies fare in the regular season, and would they even get into the Big West tournament?

“In the past we’d really gotten used to having that target on our back and all of a sudden now we’re an underdog,” Gross said.

Fast forward to this year, as Gross enters her 12th season as the head coach for the UC Davis women’s basketball team, the Aggies are prepared to answer those questions on the court.

Gross has assembled the roster with three new transfer recruits: graduate student forward Tess Sussman, thirdyear guard Tova Sabel and redshirt firstyear guard Victoria Baker.

“We are really excited to add [Baker], [Sabel], and [Sussman] to our team this season,” Gross said in a recent

UC Davis Aggies Women’s Basketball celebrating as they face Sacramento Hornets at Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento.

(Aggie File) interview with UC Davis. “They are all highly skilled players, great students, and most importantly, incredible people who will fit in well with the team culture we have built here at UC Davis. We can’t wait for our Aggie fans to watch them compete!”

Baker is a Texas native transferring from UC Irvine. In her lone season as an Anteater, Baker averaged 5.0 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.

Most notably, Baker is known to be a gritty defender, an attribute that Gross loves from her players. “[Baker] is a gritty defender who makes lots of hustle plays and will help us with our goal of being an elite defensive team,” Gross said.

Sabel is from Stockholm, Sweden.

She is a transfer from Penn State, and in her two seasons there, she averaged 5.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game.

With Sabel on the roster, the Aggies added much-needed experience, as she was a part of the Swedish National U19 Team. In 2019, Sabel was voted the Most Valuable Player on the U19 National Team.

Sussman, a Harvard transfer from Needham, Massachusetts, averaged 5.9

points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in her three seasons with the Crimson. In her senior season, Sussman reached a career high in points, field goals made and steals. Sussman is also a gold medalist for Team USA at the 2022 Maccabiah Games.

Out of the three transfers, Sussman is the one who will make an impact inside the paint in terms of attaining rebounds. Offensively, she averaged 8.3 points per game in her last year at Harvard. And with high minutes on the court, Sussman can bring that average even higher in the Big West under Gross’s guidance.

Aside from the new transfers joining the blue and gold, the Aggies have star players who are expected to lead the team in this new era of Aggie basketball. Last season, third-year guard Evanne Turner averaged 12.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game.

Turner is coming off of her best season yet, during which she was an offensive game changer for UC Davis behind the three-point line. Turner will take over Cierra Hall’s role as a leader and face of the team, being selected as the coach’s preseason All-Big West team.

“[Turner’s] been tremendous, as a coach you hope that the best players are setting the tone with their work ethic and with their energy and she’s done such an amazing job with that,” Gross said. “[Turner] brings joy to the game and to the court and our fans get a chance to see that; She’s been a fun player to watch.”

Another notable player is secondyear starting point-guard Sydney Burns, who averaged 5.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game during her first year. Burns’ performance on the court led her to be selected for the 2022 Big West All-Freshman Team. Burns is excellent at stretching the floor in addition to her vision with passing abilities that make her essential to the offense.

One more player who will have a big role this season is fourth-year forward Lena Svanholm. Last season, Stobbart played the center position, but taking over that role this season is Svanholm.

With her 6’6” stature, she will not have a problem guarding the paint. Svanholm had limited minutes (13 minutes per game on average) on the court last season, but even with limited action,

Svanholm averaged 5.4 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. With Svanholm predicated to get more playing time this year, she should be a big help to the Aggies on the defensive side.

These veteran players on the roster have the experience and potential to bring the Big West Championship back to Davis. The offense will run through Turner who is one of the best three point shooters in the Big West conference.

Gross and her coaching staff will rely on their veterans starters and new transfers who have valuable experience under their belts.

The annual preseason poll conducted by the league’s 11 head coaches picked UC Davis to finish in sixth-place, with Hawai’i selected to repeat as the conference champions.

The team’s journey begins on Nov. 1 in an exhibition game at home against San Francisco State. On Nov. 7, the Aggies officially open the season at home against Bethel College. UC Davis will then go on the road on Nov. 11 to face the University of Washington.

They then return home on Nov. 17 to host Boise State and travel to face off against cross-town rivals Sacramento State on Nov. 22.

The schedule will then transition to the Tiger Turkey Tip-Off tournament in Stockton on Nov. 26 and 27. In their first game, the Aggies will play against Wyoming, and in their second game, they will play against the University of Pacific.

As the schedule gets tougher, UC Davis will go on the road to face Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga on Dec. 3 and Dec. 11. Then, the Aggies will return to Davis for a homestand against William Jessup University and Northern Arizona University on Dec. 15 and Dec. 19. The team will open their Big West conference schedule against the defending champions, the University of Hawai’i, on Dec. 29.

There are plenty of question marks that surround Gross’ team due the departure of the big three — Stobbart, Hall and Konrad — but the Aggies still have arguably the best shooter in the Big West conference in Evanne Turner.

Gross, who is a five-time “Coach of the Year,” has plenty of knowledge and experience to bring the best out of her players. With her at the helm, expect UC Davis to make a run in the postseason and contend for the Big West championship — something they do year in and year out.

4 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022

ARTS & CULTURE

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

WHY ARE SO MANY POP SONGS ABOUT LOVE? UC Davis community members discuss why love is such a popular topic in the music industry

BY SARAH HAN arts@theaggie.org

BY MAYA REIHANIAN arts@theaggie.org

MIRANDA LEE / AGGIE From The Beatles to Taylor Swift, music’s biggest stars have historically written about love and relationships.

Although not all songs are about love, it’s a common theme across the pop music industry. Looking at Billboard’s Top 100, most songs center around different types and stages of love and relationships.

Sophia Wahanik, the principal bassist of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, explains that love might be a popular topic because of its relatability.

“Love is a big, human, emotional experience,” Wahanik said. “It’s romanticized. It’s something that can be generalized. You just write a song about somebody you love [but] make it vague enough.”

Indeed, relatability is a common factor. Samuel Nelson, a first-year Ph.D. candidate in musicology, explains that part of the reason the topic is so relatable is because of the wide variety of types of love that one might write about.

“The varieties of love [are] openended,” Nelson said. “The love that you feel for a lover is one way [and] the love that you feel maybe for a parent or for a best friend [are] different as well.

[Empowerment is] love of oneself. Love just comes in a lot of different ways.”

Sarah Miller, a fifth-year PhD student in musicology, explained that the many types of love and its vagueness furthers its relatability. “[It’s] broadening the interpretation,

being a bit ambiguous of what you’re talking about to apply it to your own circumstance,” Miller said. “I think people often write art, poetry or music perhaps [to] leave the imagination [to] the audience.”

Within the broader realm of love songs, tracks often fall into different “tropes,” “The trope of the quirky, cute and perfect but ‘I’m so awkward’ girl like Taylor Swift, [or] BTS pretending [to be] this perfect boyfriend,” Miller said. “ I think popular music draws from those sorts of tropes.”

Another reason might simply lie in the historical precedence of love in songs. “[In the] Romantic era, you’ll see poet composers singing often about love topics, unrequited love and this eternal dichotomy between love and duty,” Miller said.

Society’s shift from “love and duty” to a more free-thinking view of love may also explain the spike in the popularity of exploring love through music.

“You didn’t have a choice [about] love,” Nelson said. “Now it’s much more of a freedom, and there [are] so many different types of love as well.”

Miller further explained that the rise of love songs might be the outcome of breaking out of the social norms of what love is and looks like.

Song: “Growing/Dying” by The Backseat Lovers The Backseat Lovers is one of my favorite bands of all time. Seeing them in concert for the first time in the fall of 2021 was a life-changing experience for me, and I don’t know how to break it to my future husband that our wedding day might never compare to seeing this band live in concert. The Backseat Lovers first plunged into mainstream indie music with their song “Kilby Girl” from their debut album “When We Were Friends,” and in anticipation of their next album, “Waiting to Spill,” they released their first single from the project.

The song, called “Growing/Dying,” effortlessly weaves together immersive guitar solos with powerful vocals and lyrics that truly encapsulate the feeling of being stuck in one place and making the decision to grow into a stronger version of yourself. This track serves as the perfect opener to what is sure to be an extraordinary album.

Book: “Goodbye Days” by Jeff Zentner (2017) My taste in books has been described as masochistic, and “Goodbye Days”

by Jeff Zentner is no outlier. When I enter a bookstore, I ask for a book that will leave me blubbering and sobbing for days after finishing it — and then the store clerk usually gives me a strange look as she hands me a book and tells me this will be the one to break me. “Goodbye Days” focuses on Carver, nicknamed Blade by his friend group “The Sauce Crew,” who is burdened with guilt for sending a text that ultimately leads to his friends getting into a fatal car crash. Blade spends the final month of his summer attending the funerals of his best friends as senior year and college applications loom over him. To find closure, Blade plans “Goodbye Days” with the parents who lost their children in the car accident. This book crushes your heart and soul as you navigate the new and empty world Blade is plunged into as he is blamed for the deaths of his best friends.

TV Show: “Teen Wolf ” (2011) In preparation for the spooky season, I’ve been indulging in one of my favorite shows from high school: “Teen Wolf.” The show is about a teenager who becomes a werewolf, which, surprisingly, alters the trajectory of his future.

Starring Tyler Posey, who remains as dreamy and charismatic throughout the six seasons of the show as he is in the first episode, It’s both campy and nostalgic, scratching the itch in my brain that craves poor CGI, teenagers running on all fours like wolves and Dylan O’Brien (pre-Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” (10 Minute Version) short film).

Movie: “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” dir. by Stephen Chbosky (2012) My Culture Corner wouldn’t be complete without me mentioning “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” a movie that found me when I needed it the most during my sophomore year of high school. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is for anyone who just wants to feel like they belong somewhere, as viewers experience the main character, Charlie, navigating the daunting environment of high school. This movie left an impact on me that no movie has been able to compare to since. Logan Lerman and Emma Watson star in this film and give extraordinary performances as characters with deep layers and dark secrets.

(Content warnings: suicide; sexual abuse)

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UC DAVIS STUDENTS WEIGH UPCOMING EVENTS IN ON THE CONNECTION IN NOVEMBER Poetry readings, concerts and more to BETWEEN FASHION AND usher in the colder months CULTURAL HERITAGE CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

Students from diverse backgrounds explain cultural appreciation and share what their cultural dress means to them

BY UMAIMA EJAZ features@theaggie.org Everyone has their own fashion style. Some people lean toward certain trends more than others, and some don’t even consider consulting trends in the first place. Whatever the case may be for a given individual, one’s fashion choices are a manifestation of who they are, and they say a lot about how one wants people to perceive them.

Julia Dang, a third-year UC Davis student double majoring in English and design with an emphasis in fashion and the president of the Fashion and Design Society at UC Davis, said that she believes fashion is an extension of one’s true self.

Julia Dang’s traditional Vietnamese designs. (Julia Dang / Courtesy)

“Fashion for me is really an expression,” Dang said. “A lot of people think that it’s a way to express yourself. It’s an art form. And I think it can also be a combination of all that.”

Many people’s fashion choices may have been inherited from those who raised them: parents, grandparents and other adults who were present in their childhoods. Fionna (who asked that her last name be omitted), a second-year UC Davis student double majoring in economics and viticulture and enology, said that her first memory of being enamored with fashion was at eight years old when she found a stack of Vogue magazines in her mother’s study — magazines that remain part of Fionna’s own collection to this day. Fionna said that her mother was always her main fashion inspiration.

“Even though my mom is not in fashion and wasn’t a design major, she’s always been really, really awesome in the fashion field,” Fionna said. “She has a really, really good view of how to style people. I can’t top it, but I at least want to be as good as her.”

Dang said that her cultural heritage defines her fashion in many ways today. People let their cultures speak through their fashion choices, and it is widely recognized as a beautiful thing for people of different backgrounds, beliefs and cultures to express those differences through their personal appearances. But when people wear clothing from a culture that isn’t theirs, it has the potential to be disrespectful.

“I feel there’s a very thin line between cultural appreciation versus cultural appropriation,” Dang said.

“If you’re appreciating one’s culture, you’re supporting them, raising awareness and you’re not modifying and changing it for yourself. Whereas

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org

Julia Dang is the president of UC Davis’s Fashion and Design Society.

(Julia Dang / Courtesy) cultural appropriation is really disregarding all of the traditions behind and the history behind it.”

As a project for a fashion class, Dang recently designed a garment that was inspired by “áo dài” — a form-fitting Vietnamese tunic with long slits up both sides, typically worn over long flowing pants. She said that the dress represents culture, modesty and tradition. But just a few years ago, country singer and Grammy-winner Kacey Musgraves wore an áo dài dress without pants, attracting much criticism.

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Poetry Night (The Avid Reader, 6 7:30 p.m. on November 4) Support local artists and businesses by coming out to a poetry night at the Avid Reader on Nov. 4. The event will feature readings by four poets from the area as they share their most recent works. Getting to hear poetry straight from the source is an enriching experience, as you get to hear it performed with the emotional gravity that was intended. Learn more on the Avid Reader’s website.

Los Sindes Moon Wave Hook-Ups (The Motel, 7 p.m. on November 5) KDVS, UC Davis’ student-run radio station, is hosting a concert on Nov. 5 that promises to be a fun night, featuring performances from local indie bands. Concert-goers are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes, so show up and show your spirit! Doors will open at 6 p.m. and the music will start at 7 p.m. Find more details on KDVS’s Instagram.

The Red Door Project: Evolve (Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, 7:30 p.m. on November 11, 12 and 13) Seeking to explore the relationship dynamics between law officers and BIPOC Americans, “The Red Door

Project” is a powerful new performance experience that combines pre-recorded videos, live monologues and a Q&A session. At a time during which tensions surrounding social justice issues seem extremely high and political events are resulting in violence on our very campus, it is crucial to listen to the voices of underrepresented communities on these issues and be open to an informed conversation. As stated on the Red Door Project’s website, “[they] envision a society where our differences catalyze listening, learning, and thoughtful action.” Tickets for the event can be purchased here.

Percussion Ensemble UC Davis (Ann E. Pitzer Center, 4 - 5 p.m. on November 18) Join the UC Davis Percussion Ensemble for a free performance featuring assorted pieces. Hosted at the Ann E. Pitzer Center, the program will be led by Chris Froh, a UC Davis lecturer in music. Made up of students, the ensemble regularly “presents public performance of significant works for percussion ensemble,” according to their website.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022 | 5

OPINION EDITORIAL

STUDENTS NEED TO FEEL SAFE TO PROTEST ON CAMPUS The university must do better to protect student protestors and condemn the presence of violent extremists On Oct. 25, UC Davis’s chapter of Turning Point USA, a right-wing nonprofit organization active on college campuses across the country, planned to host an event at the UC Davis Conference Center featuring speaker Stephen Davis. The event was canceled before Davis began his remarks, however, when a protest and counter-protest taking place outside became violent.

Davis has written articles and given speeches for Turning Point USA perpetuating dangerous false narratives about multiple historically-marginalized groups. In his recent posts on Turning

SEE ONLINE Scan to read a humor piece about UC Davis’s new podcast.

Point USA’s site, he has described systemic racism as “left in the past,” written a blog post titled “LGBT nation is coming for our children” that refers to sites like the It Gets Better Project as “corrupting” and denied trans people’s identities.

Students and members of UC Davis Cops Off Campus, an unregistered advocacy group, gathered outside of the event to express their outrage in response to Davis’s words and presence on campus. Counter-protestors, some of whom were identifiable as members of the Proud Boys, were also present, and some are reported to have pepper sprayed and physically assaulted students.

In a statement released on Oct. 25, UC Davis affirmed the right of students to invite speakers to campus, as well as the right of others to protest.

The Editorial Board understands why the university chose to allow the event to take place and that it must uphold First Amendment rights as a public institution. That said, we stand against the misinformation that Stephen Davis spreads, and we encourage students to protest those who choose to share this kind of messaging.

Further, we believe that it is necessary for the university to make protesting on campus safe for students, and at this event, they did not do that.

While the protest organized by Cops Off Campus was not entirely peaceful as some destruction of property took place,

the violence escalated greatly when the counter-protestors arrived.

In addition to better protecting those protesting, we believe that UC Davis’s statement should have more clearly differentiated between the protestors and counter-protestors, and should have condemned the Proud Boys’ presence at the event.

The Proud Boys are described as a “right-wing extremist group with a violent agenda” by the Anti-Defamation League, and its members are known to support white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies. These were not students exercising their freedom of speech, they were a group there to incite violence and disrupt the demonstration.

The university should not have equated the Proud Boys with the students protesting.

We know Tuesday’s events were distressing for many, the members of the Editorial Board included, and we would like to express our support for students who may be feeling targeted or unsafe on campus as a result. We support ASUCD President Radhika Gawde and Internal Vice President JT Eden’s efforts to encourage a more effective university response. We affirm the right of students to be politically active on campus, and call upon the university to cultivate a safe environment for future protests.

WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

COLLEGE IS THE BEST TIME OPEN LETTER OF YOUR LIFE BECAUSE OF TO GARY MAY ITS WALKABILITY ABOUT CAMPUS Why we all benefit from communities that prioritize pedestrians over cars

BY NADIA ANEES nsanees@ucdavis.edu

NADIA ANEES / AGGIE When I reflect on what I’ll miss the most after graduating from college, what comes to the front of my mind is the feeling of closeness. I’m living closer to my friends and peers than ever before. I can go just downstairs to ask my friend for some sugar to bake cookies. I bump into friends on the way to my design studio class. I am within walking distance to basically anything I need — the gym, campus, library, grocery stores, coffee shops, cafes, friends’ homes, scenic walking paths and more.

Coming to UC Davis for college has been the first time in probably my entire life that I’ve felt a strong sense of place. As a senior, there is a bit of dread in considering life post-grad. I will, all of a sudden, be far away from the friends and places that felt like home. This dread stems from the fact that for me, and many of us, college has been our very first exposure to living in a tightknit, walkable community.

JOANNE SUN / AGGIE

A walkable city is a city designed to prioritize pedestrians over cars.

Walkable cities help us to really learn our surroundings. They also force us to have face-to-face interactions — which, in today’s pandemic era, feel scary and anxiety-inducing sometimes.

Having grown up in Sunnyvale, a large Bay Area city that is heavily cardependent, living near campus in Davis for the last couple of years has shown me the numerous benefits of walkable communities. I feel content having a myriad of options to choose from while hanging out around UC Davis’ campus and beyond. I don’t feel so alone when I’m surrounded by my fellow students who are also going about their unique days. Not to mention my mental health is at its best while I’m in college because of my increased activity levels — there’s always somewhere to walk to and something to busy myself with!

In college, we feel less alone because we have constant access to connect with other people, either through club sports, ceramics classes, music, food, gardening or painting. But why does American society limit the natural desire for humans to connect with other humans to only four years of our lives?

It’s not our fault that so many American cities are un-walkable. Since the 1900s, urban sprawl has led us to live car-dependent lives where it takes 15 minutes to get to the places we need to go. Grab-and-go items and mobile orders are preferred so that we don’t have to step foot inside a store or spend too long waiting. But really, our minds, bodies and souls benefit from the simple act of taking the time to walk around.

Many people have realized two things thanks to the pandemic: first, that they hated spending most of their waking hours producing work so that the people at the top continue making billions, and second, that they wanted to live a slower life. The pandemic has also shown some of us a glimpse of what it could look like when we deprioritize cars and open up streets and downtowns for pedestrians to roam. Even in my suburban hometown of Sunnyvale, our small and faded downtown on Murphy Avenue gained back a lot of life and has now become a busy hangout spot most weeknights.

The popularity of living in cities like New York and San Francisco is a direct example of the desire for walkable communities. But these cities have become incredibly expensive and unaffordable. We should not have to move to big cities and pay $3,000 in rent to enjoy sidewalks and condensed urban planning.

In my mind, the solution is more public spaces for community gathering.

We need free centers for art, dancing, reading and chatting with strangers. We need libraries to be bustling centers of town where people can relax and chat among one another. Essentially, we need more options for a “third place,” a term coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg.

The “third place” refers to places where people spend time between home (“first” place) and work (“second” place). They are locations where people can exchange ideas, have a good time and build relationships.

WALKABILITY on 6

VIOLENCE

BY JOSHUA CLOVER jclover@ucdavis.edu Dear Gary, I was not at the event at UC Davis on Tuesday night, but neither were you; nor were the police (or so you claimed in your first statement’s position, later revised to the exact opposite). I am sure we both have access to the same accounts. One difference, however, is that I have scholarly knowledge of such events and groups across multiple publications, the most recent being an introduction to Antifa: the Antifascist Handbook. I know that, as the president of our great university, you support the scholarship of its employees, so I hope — given the appalling outcome of the decisions you made and the troubling content of your statement, and given your interest in transparency — that you will prove able to offer illuminating answers to these questions.

Your statement insistently equates, on the one side, Turning Point USA and the Proud Boys, and on the other side, protestors, as involved in a sort of joint altercation in which both sides are at fault. Specifically, it raises the specter of “antifa” as some sort of complement to the ethnonationalists who scheduled the event. In main, my questions are related to this framing and this way of grasping the import of what happened.

1. You no doubt recognize that history did not begin afresh on the morning of Oct. 25. Thus, all evaluations of the event ask us to understand the context and history. Let me direct your attention to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) article, titled “Turning Point USA’s blooming romance with the alt-right,” as well as the SPLC’s identification of Proud Boys as a hate group. I might also suggest you review the trial statements of Jason Kessler, organizer of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina and a member of the Proud Boys. You will note as well that SPLC does not recognize “antifa” or any related group, much less protestors of neofascism, as hate groups or as threats. Do you feel you had an adequate knowledge of the various parties involved in the event, so as to properly understand the dynamic and the risks?

2. Do you understand that these two groupings did not arrive at campus through some mutual agreement, but that protestors felt ethically called to attend only after and because neofascists planned a rally that you approved in advance, under pretense of a “talk?” I might note, as you consider your answer, that, other than to oppose the threat of

violent white nationalists, “antifa” have shown up in the United States a total of zero times.

3. The events at UC Davis share a similar structure with the aforementioned “Unite the Right” rally, where neofascists, granted a permit by civic authorities to hold an event denying historic racism, threatened (and eventually both beat and killed) protestors as well as bystanders, some of whom defended themselves. In the aftermath and against evidence, Donald Trump offered a now-classic example of “both-sides-ism” and similar reference to “antifa” — despite the easily available facts that only one side arranged the event, espoused white supremacy and broader hatred, initiated the violence and did actual harm to humans. This is the same imbalance obtained at UC Davis on Tuesday, and yet your statement is redolent with both-sides-ism. Were you consciously appropriating Trump’s view, or is this simply the spontaneous ideology of apex administrators?

4. According to the Washington Post, “Domestic terrorism incidents have soared to new highs in the United States, driven chiefly by white-supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right.” All evidence from all quarters indicates that there is no comparison regarding the threat of violence from “both sides,” and indeed that there are not two sides when it comes to violence and killing; there is one, and it is the ethnonationalists. Do you feel that it is appropriate to provide support and comfort for that side by equating them with antiracist protestors and “antifa,” who, as of a 2020 study, have killed a grand total of zero people?

5. Turning Point USA openly compiles a “Professor Watchlist” and uses it to orchestrate harassment and death threats against professors, per the Guardian. This includes faculty at UC Davis for whom you are responsible. As someone whose job is to protect and support professors, do you feel it is appropriate to defend such an organization’s right to be on a university campus? Could you please provide clear legal citation — beyond shouting “free speech!” — for why the University of California is obliged to host an organization that actively works to harass and threaten its employees?

PROFESSORGUEST on 6

6 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

TURNINGPOINTPROTEST

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Before the protest began, ASUCD President Radhika Gawde posted a statement on the @ucdpresident Instagram account calling on students to consider not attending the event and instead join in protesting the speaker.

Gawde, along with ASUCD Vice President JT Eden and members of ASUCD student government, also released an official statement on Oct. 26 that expressed their solidarity with those who protested the speaker and called out the group of counter-protesters.

“We are horrified by the actions of the counter-protestors and condemn their hateful decision to resort to violence,” the statement reads.

“Domestic terrorist groups, including the Proud Boys, have no place on our campus. Pepper spraying and engaging in assault and battery against students and security guards are not acceptable methods to voice your discontent with a protesting group.”

The response went on to encourage students to “exercise their right to protest” and reminded students of the importance of protesting safely.

“We want to be unequivocally clear that the destruction of campus property and the surrounding environment is an inappropriate means of protesting,” the statement reads. “We ask that students protest in a manner that is safe and that avoids destruction without symbolic purpose. As always, please look after each other and ensure that we are keeping one another safe.”

Gawde was in attendance at the protest when she saw the conflict begin to escalate and said that she then “contacted the appropriate members of campus administration.” “[I contacted them] just to make sure that things would be safe,” Gawde said. “Obviously, that didn’t work out.”

Gawde and Eden have had meetings with administrators, including UC Davis Chancellor Gary May and have planned to further discuss the university’s response to the event.

According to Gawde, one of their main concerns is a lack of direct condemnation by the university of the counter-protesters.

“Campus tends to be very worried about legal ramifications,” Gawde said. “We recognize First Amendment jurisprudence [...], so we’re not expecting [...] condemnation. However, we’re just asking them to say, maybe pepper spraying people is not a good thing.”

Eden expressed similar thoughts and expressed a desire for the university to distinguish more clearly between the actions of the original protesters and the counter-protesters.

“There was some idea, I think, that both sides were brawling or something like that,” Eden said. “That’s just not an accurate reflection. I think it was definitely peaceful and then [there was] violence [from] that group of actors who were not there with good intentions.”

ELECTION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “I don’t see vision on the part of [Carson], as far as the housing issue or the climate issue,” Vaitla said. “He’s sort of pitched in here and there with his ideas along the process on both of those issues, but in terms of coming up [and] leading the process and creating a five-, 10- [or] 20-year strategic vision for how we meet our housing needs and how we get to carbon negativity, that hasn’t happened. So I wasn’t happy with my choices in West Davis.”

Council Member Carson, who is endorsed by the Davis College Democrats, said that he decided to run for re-election to continue working on economic issues.

“I’m the only candidate [Davis College Democrats] endorsed in this race, and we have a history [of ] working together on issues,” Carson

said. “Particularly those regarding jobs and housing for our community. It’s one of the big emphases in my campaign [...] The major reason I’m running is to help us resolve our fiscal challenges that our city has.”

Carson and the Davis College Democrats have been canvassing for his campaign, with an emphasis on getting students out to vote.

“I think [the student vote] has the potential to be a game changer,” Carson said.

Students can register to vote on the Yolo Elections Office website or by directly visiting registertovote.ca.gov.

More information about the districts or candidates on the ballot can be found on the city website. Voting Centers and Ballot Drop Boxes can be found at the Yolo Elections Office website.

With the consideration of the consent calendar, SB #19, which allows the ASUCD Controller to call a meeting of the Board of Unit Directing Students to elect a chair, and SB #32, which amends the hiring and interviewing process for the Judicial Council Chairperson and members, passed unanimously.

Moving to the consideration of old legislation, there was a motion to endorse the Approval of the 2022 Guide to Placing a Student Fee Initiative on the Ballot that passed unanimously.

SB #20, which ​​allocates hourly pay

for the Student Advocate Office’s (SAO) Chief of Staff, was tabled.

CA #80, which places a vote on the fall election ballot to ensure continuity in elections administration, and CA #81, which places a vote on the fall election ballot to allow for immediate enactment of student fee initiatives, passed unanimously.

The senators approved past meeting minutes and moved on to open forum.

The senators brought up the cancellation of the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event at UC Davis in

discussion. One of the senators said that some students have expressed wishes for TPUSA at UC Davis to be removed as a Registered Student Organization on campus. Another senator stated that because ASUCD Senate is federally funded, they must carefully adhere to the First Amendment right to free speech. According to the senators, if there was proof that TPUSA had violated California or federal law, there is a possibility that the campus organization would be disbanded.

Eden adjourned the meeting at 8:42 p.m.

UCDFOOTBALLVSCALPOLY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 Down 21-0 with under 12 minutes left in the half, the Mustangs cruised down the field with two quick first downs, one of which was a 34-yard pass to graduate student wide receiver Chris Coleman. After a quick gain of two yards, Brasch threw a 28-yard pass to second-year wide receiver Giancarlo Woods for the Mustangs’ first touchdown of the game, cutting UC Davis’s lead to 21-7.

On the Aggies’ next drive, things seemed to be clicking as they moved the chains with two quick first downs, but then Cal Poly’s second-year linebacker David Meyer forced a fumble on the Aggies’ quarterback Hastings and Mustangs’ first-year defensive lineman Soni Finau recovered the football and secured possession.

Cal Poly took advantage of the turnover and put together a seven-play, 35-yard scoring drive. Brasch connected with Coleman for a six-yard passing touchdown, further shrinking UC Davis’s lead to 21-14 with just over

five minutes left in the second quarter.

The Aggies immediately responded with a score of their own though. UC Davis’s drive lasted roughly 50 seconds; the three-play drive ended with a 65yard passing touchdown from Hastings to second-year wide receiver Justin Poerio to make the score 28-14.

With about four minutes left in the quarter, Cal Poly showed their grit and went for a nine-play drive, obtaining three first downs in the process. Ultimately, they were held to a 36-yard field goal, whittling away the deficit with a 28-17 score.

The Aggies had the ball with under two minutes left in the second quarter and three timeouts left. UC Davis gained two first downs before calling a timeout with only one minute left.

After an incomplete pass from Hastings, the Mustangs’ defense made a big play — second-year defensive end Elijah Ponder brought down Hastings for an eight-yard loss and caused a third down.

Even so, Cal Poly wasn’t able to

stop the Aggies, who gained 15 yards and converted the fourth-and-short.

Shortly after the conversion, UC Davis’ luck continued as the Mustangs’ defense was called for a “roughing the passer” penalty. That penalty got the Aggies into prime field goal range, and before the half ended, fourth-year kicker Isiah Gomez added to their lead with a 30yard field goal.

At the half, the Aggies led 31-17.

UC Davis started the third quarter with the ball but was met with a four-andout and forced to punt. However, the Mustangs didn’t do any better during their first offensive series of the half and were forced to kick the ball back to the home team.

UC Davis started a drive with sevenand-a-half minutes left in the third quarter, putting together a quick twoplay, 56-yard drive that was completed by a 52-yard touchdown catch from first-year wide receiver Casey Granfors.

Miller believes music can be a tool for people to express their emotions — uncensored.

“Writing music and sharing music can be used to talk about things that are difficult to talk about, to put yourself in a place that perhaps language cannot fully grasp,” Miller said.

Wahanik agreed, explaining that music has the ability to let people reflect

on and share their experiences.

“We feel things with music, so we can play these things on repeat [and] have our thoughts of love or whatever emotion,” Wahanik said. “It can also [be] played again [during a] break up [or when] you remember how we were loved.”

too because it was about appreciating it.”

Muslim women across the globe style their headscarves in many different ways — but that’s not the only way religion plays a role in Muslim women’s fashion choices. For Sheamain Khan, a second-year international relations major, Islam still influences her style to a significant degree even though she doesn’t wear the hijab. Khan mixes her modest style with more typical western looks, but doesn’t compromise her religious values.

“As a Muslim, I have always tried to dress modestly,” Sheamain said.

“Whether I’m following western or South-Asian trends, I don’t show any of my skin at all. I have to be modest because of my religious beliefs. Even as I mix styles, I always stay within the boundaries of my religion.”

Saif Khan, a second-year computer science major, is super enthusiastic

about street fashion, but, like Sheamain, he said that his Islamic faith is apparent in his clothing choices. His style is influenced by both Pakistani and American culture.

“I feel like I just use the western, like, inspiration,” Saif Khan said. “But I keep it under the limit, and I also don’t break my cultural boundaries or my religious boundaries. I feel like I just mix and match there, and somehow, it works out. […] For me personally, culture plays a huge part in my passions, so I feel like it’s the best collaboration.”

Fashion can reflect one’s identity, culture and life experience in a myriad of subtle ways. Students whose styles are influenced by their cultures urge others to think more consciously about this area of self-expression and to listen to diverse perspectives in order to appreciate, not appropriate, cultural dress.

LOVESONGS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4 “Foucault, a French philosopher, came out with a book, ‘The History of Sexuality,’ and he talks about how we carefully negotiate norms and in what ways [we can] subvert them through language,” Miller said. “Music, historically, is infamous for being difficult to censor. So in what ways is music used to break societal comfort and norms?”

CULTURALFASHION DACARULING

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

“[The clothing] was very sexualized by her,” Dang said. “However, if a person who is not Vietnamese decides to wear it, and they wear pants — like, fully traditional wear — I think that is completely cultural appreciation. And it’s appropriate for [certain] occasions.”

Taking the time to understand why others wear the things they wear, and why they wear them in a certain way, can be the difference between blindly following a trend and expressing your appreciation and respect for a longstanding tradition.

Fionna lovingly recalled a memory from the time she spent visiting Dubai when she tried wearing a hijab for the first time.

“It felt beautiful, not only because of how it looked, but also because I knew what it signifies for Muslim women,” Fionna said. “I asked the translator who was present at that moment so many questions, and did research on my own

The joint statement states that undocumented students, including DACA recipients, remain welcome at California’s public colleges and universities.

“The decision [...] does not change our mission to welcome and serve all students,” the statement reads. “This is what we have always done, and we will not waver. We will continue to do all we can to ensure our undocumented students feel safe and supported on our campuses.”

In summer of 2021, ASUCD passed a resolution to end the use of the terms “illegal” and “alien” when referring to undocumented individuals.

According to López, he saw this as “[positive] movement happening at the bureaucratic level,” but he still believes that “more action can be taken.”

The statement by leaders at California universities also presented an imagining of where undocumented individuals who were once college students may be now.

“Today, recipients are first responders, medical professionals, educators, scientists, and serve in a host of other critical professions,” the statement reads. “They have made and continue to make positive contributions to our local, state, and federal economies and communities.”

WALKABILITY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 The desire for a walkable city really is a desire for something bigger — it’s a plea for collectivism, mutual aid and community cohesion. In a society that prioritizes working most hours of the day, walkable cities have the power to unite communities and create a sense of togetherness post-college.

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.

PROFESSORGUEST CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 I hope that you will be able to clarify these matters to the satisfaction of the people who were beaten and maced, and to the students, faculty, staff and community members you continue to put at risk via your historical ignorance and false equivalences.

Joshua Clover is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC Davis.

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.

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SCIENCE AND TECH UC DAVIS RESEARCHERS CONTRIBUTE TO STUDY RECONSTRUCTING THE GENOMIC SEQUENCE OF MAMMALS’ COMMON ANCESTOR The study sheds light on characteristics of the common ancestor

BY YASH RATHI science@theaggie.org

MIRANDA LEE / AGGIE

All living mammals — from giant blue whales in the Pacific Ocean to small squirrels scurrying on campus — all have a common ancestor that existed 180 million years ago. There isn’t much information available about that common ancestor, but recently, its genomic set has been reconstructed with the help of computer software operated by an international team of researchers, including some from UC Davis. The complete research on the genomic data was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on Sept.

30.

The team first drew high-quality genome sequences of 32 living species, including humans, chimpanzees, rabbits, manatees, wombats, rhinos, bats, domestic cattle and pangolins.

To map these sequences, they used the help of the Earth BioGenome Project, an international collaborative group that is dedicated to creating complete DNA sequences of individual organisms, along with other large-scale sequencing groups.

Dr. Harris A. Lewin, a professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, was one of the lead authors of the paper.

He explained that the sample of the 32 mammals analyzed all fall under the same phylum or scientifically-classified “group.” They examined genomes of animals in the same group because it allows for similarities in their genomic sets to be more easily identified and the team can begin creating the potential DNA sequence of the common ancestor.

Their study found 1,215 sequences of genes that consistently occurred on the same chromosomes in the same order in the sampled species’ genomes.

Lewin said that this finding aligned with the fact that these mammals have a shared appearance during the embryo stage of development.

Joana Damas, a postdoctoral researcher at the UC Davis Genome Center and a co-author of this paper, explained why these findings are important to better understand the

common ancestor of mammals.

“Unlocking the genomic sequence showed that the mammal ancestor had 19 autosomal chromosomes [which are the vast majority of chromosomes found in the cells of organisms] and two sex-linked chromosomes used … in the process of reproduction,” Damas said.

These genomic sets, which were common for all 32 mammals, had multiple repetitive sequences which could easily break, recombine and mutate. According to the paper, the adaptive mobility of these sequences was the main cause of the genomic evolution seen in modern mammals.

They were also able to infer certain characteristics from the chromosome sets they mapped. They found that the rate of chromosome rearrangement was different for the mammal groups, which indicated that these groups evolved from the common ancestor at different rates and times.

For example, the ruminant group, which includes cattle, sheep and deer, had a rearrangement of their genomic sequence 66 million years ago, which is considered to be fast on an evolutionary timescale. This could be traced back to the time when a cataclysmic asteroid hit Earth near present-day Mexico that covered the atmosphere in large amounts of soot and dust. This event caused blockage to sunlight exposure and hindered oxygen inhalation, which massively disrupted ecosystems and wiped out dinosaur populations. This disaster led to the rise of the ruminant group along with other mammal species.

According to Lewin and Damas, the genomic data now available from the study can be used to help researchers better understand how mammals adapted to live on the continuouslychanging planet over the last 180 million years.

“Our results have important implications for understanding the evolution of mammals and for conservation efforts,” Lewin said.

UC DAVIS HEALTH STUDY EXPLORES HOW OUR BRAINS PERCEIVE FACES DEPENDING ON CONTEXT Specific regions in our brains use synchronized brain waves to create neural connections between two seemingly-unrelated entities

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org Context matters when perceiving faces; our perception of a person with a knife at a birthday party drastically differs from one in a dark alley at night.

Recently, a UC Davis Health study shed light on the underlying neural computations our brain makes when processing situations like these.

Dr. Jack Lin, a professor of neurology and director of the UC Davis Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, explained the purpose of the study and how contextual processing influences human decision-making and inferences.

“The question we were trying to answer is: how does the brain combine two seemingly-unrelated things together and influence our decisionmaking?” Lin said. “Imagine a person next to a burning building; even though the person and the building have no relationship, you would probably assume that the person may be an arsonist. But if you were to put the same face next to a pleasant picture, such as a sunny beach, you would most likely perceive the face as friendly and happy.”

Jie Zheng, a postdoctoral fellow researcher at Harvard Medical School and the first author on the study, explained the brain regions that the team analyzed.

“We are actually recording direct neurosignals inside of the brain, targeting regions of the hippocampus, amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex,” Zheng said. “Prior studies in the literature have shown that those three regions are involved in memory, emotional or decision-making processes. But nothing was known about how they communicated with each other, so we wanted to uncover the underlying brain mechanisms that enabled that communication.”

The hippocampus is known to be involved in memory, and the amygdala is an almond-shaped organ in the brain that affects emotion, according to Lin. The orbitofrontal cortex, a region of the brain just above the eyes, influences decision-making processes.

The study’s sample consisted of epilepsy patients who volunteered for the study. Lin explained that since these patients already had electrodes

implanted inside their brains to monitor for seizures, he and Zheng could gather specific neural activity in different regions of the brain while the subjects viewed a series of images with varying emotional contexts.

“The electrodes in the brain are like radios with different wave frequencies,” Lin said. “The brain regions need to have these different waves line up at the same frequency in order to communicate effectively.”

Within seconds, During the study, patients were shown photos of faces in different contexts meant to evoke a more positive or negative perception. They were then asked to rank the valence of the face in each photo immediately after. These photos ranged from a dog running through a field to a set of hands opening a door through broken glass.

The researchers focused on two types of brain waves present in patients when looking at the photos: theta and gamma waves, which must align in a synchronized manner to facilitate longdistance communication.

“The slow rhythm, also known as the theta waves, opens up the communication channel between the three brain regions,” Lin said. “After the brain dials the right frequency for the slow wave, there is then a very fast rhythm, known as the gamma wave, which indicates neurons firing on a local level. So when the slow waves and the fast local waves line up, the brain regions are able to communicate with each other. This is what we call thetagamma coherence or synchrony.”

Recording the theta-gamma wave interactions both to and from different brain regions revealed interactions between the brain’s emotion, memory and decision-making networks. In observing the coordination of the theta and gamma waves traveling between these brain regions, researchers were able to successfully predict how the participants would perceive the face they were observing before even seeing their responses.

Understanding the fundamental interactions between these brain regions is a first step in supporting patients affected by neurological

JOANNE SUN / AGGIE

diseases that have altered their neural communication network. Lin said that this research opens up the possibility of disconnecting and reforming neural paths within the brain to help modulate a patient’s interpersonal behavior in the future.

“One of the things that is really important is that this may help us

potentially map and treat psychiatric diseases,” Lin said. “The associations we make sometimes can be correct and good, but sometimes they are bad and can lead to mental health issues. When we make overly-generalized associations, for example, we hope that in the future we can break these bonds if we better understand the mechanism of how

we associate two seemingly-unrelated items together. Then we can figure out a way using brain stimulation to disconnect some of these channels that are unhealthy but enhance some of the channels that are healthy.”