November 3, 2016

the California Aggie

SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

THE

VOLUME 135, ISSUE 7 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION HANNAH LEE / AGGIE

UC Davis Primate Center under fire after death of monkey

Watchdog groups call for full USDA open investigation

ASHLEY LUGO / AGGIE FILE

BY LINDSAY FLOYD campus@theaggie.org

STUDENT BODY, STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS VOICE SENTIMENTS TOWARD GENERAL ELECTION

BY GILLIAN ALLEN AND SAHITI VEMUL A features@theaggie.org Next Tuesday, Nov. 8, is a day that will forever leave a mark on United States history.

This 2016 presidential election is like none other for a multitude of reasons, one of those reasons being that the nation may have its first female president.

The UC Davis student body has expressed strong sentiments toward the election and the future of the country through The California Aggie’s General Election survey, which asked the question of how, in the students’ opinion, UC Davis thinks politically. The online survey polled around 200 students across all years and colleges, and allowed them to voice other options such as their race or gender if desired.

One particular group is the Davis Students for Hillary (DSH), a political community on campus supporting Clinton and the Democratic Party in the election. Samip Mehta, fourth-year political science major and vice president of the club, described that DSH hosts events such as club banking, debate watches and debates with groups that support different candidates from other parties.

“We are freely progressive but consider ourselves ‘blue-dog’ Democrats,” Mehta said.

“However, we are not as liberal as certain

Bernie [Sanders] supporters because we have more conservative views on finances, prices and political feasibility.”

While surrounding areas are predominantly conservative, Mehta considers Davis to be “extremely liberal,” which can be seen in the poll results taken from the student body.

54.3 percent of the student population surveyed said that they were democratic compared to 15.4 percent that said they were Republican. 71.3 percent said they were voting for Hillary while 13.3 percent said they are voting for Donald Trump. While it is clear that the DSH believes that Hillary is the most capable of all the candidates, Mehta is nonetheless concerned for the health of the two-party system.

“I personally feel really strongly that the [those in the] GOP at this point should readdress [themselves], and think ‘am I a Trump conservative, or am I a McCain conservative?’”

Mehta said. “The same goes for the Democrats. Should we address ourselves as blue-dog Democrat[s] or progressive liberal[s]?”

The California Women’s List at UC Davis is another on-campus political organization and is a chapter of a statewide political action committee devoted to fundraising for democratic women elected into state office.

Michaela Worona, third-year political science major and president and co-founder of

the Women’s List, is mostly concerned with the treatment of women in this year’s election.

“I just hope that even though women are gaining more visibility through Clinton’s candidacy, we don’t take for granted that feminism has achieved its goal,” Worona said. “[Hillary] is still being treated much differently [compared to] Trump. It’s enlightening to see the way that gender comments and behavior are still at play even though women are gaining more visibility.”

The “nasty woman” memes and shirts of Trump’s disrespectful comment toward his candidate in the final debate bothers Worona, since it reveals a lot about U.S. politics with regards to gender. However, 76.1 percent of the students who answered The California Aggie’s General Election survey were female, which suggests that UC Davis women have not been ultimately deterred by the controversial politics in this election.

When asked in which direction UC Davis leans as a political entity, 94.7 percent of students said that the campus is more liberal than conservative. However, the voice of the Davis College Republicans (DCR) can still be heard on the UC Davis campus.

Nicholas Francois, third-year political science major and chair of the DCR, described

One of the UC Davis Primate Center’s test-subjects died on Aug. 23 because of failure to close the separating door between the cages of two non-compatible monkeys. This offense follows several other animal safety violations that have occurred in the past year at the Primate Center.

On Sept. 13, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an official statement of the incident, available to the public upon request.

“On August 23, 2016 two non-compatible non-human primates (NHP) were injured after staff failed to secure and lock a divider door that separated them,” the USDA said in the report. “According to the facility incident report the NHPs (adult male macaques) opened the divider and were found injured when staff returned to the room approximately 20 minutes after shifting animals. Both NHPs received prompt veterinary treatment. One was treated for minor wounds and has since recovered. The second had a significant injury and was promptly euthanized. The staff member involved in the incident has been re-trained. The facility self-reported the incident to officials.”

Watchdog groups across the nation took notice and filed official complaints to the USDA, pushing for an open investigation of the lab. The Center For Ethical Science (CFES) based out of Chicago filed a letter to Dr. Robert Gibbens, director of the Western region of the USDA and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), urging that UC Davis receive the maximum fine of $10,000 per non-compliance. “[The Primate Center] has violation after violation after violation; it is a criminal lab,” said Jodie Wiederkehr, executive director of CFES. “Pet stores with these same practices would likely be shut down, but when it comes to labs they are fined, then continue to harm and kill animals and the public never really knows. [...] Research is important to me, however, animal research is not effective.”

The Primate Center recently came under fire in 2014 for another monkey-related death at the lab. The USDA published an investigative report in 2015 regarding the incident.

“On Aug. 9, 2014, a NHP was injured while being restrained for treatment of a clinical condition,” the USDA said in an official report. “The NHP, a 6-year-old male macaque, was left while on a restraint board in a treatment room during intravenous fluid administration. At some point during treatment the animal chewed through tape restraining his upper body to the board, leaving his legs taped to the board. The animal was found to have a broken leg, was treated, and recovered from the fracture.”

POLL on 8

Cannabis cultivation permit problems persist

UC Davis faces issue of overcrowding ALEXA FONTANILLA / AGGIE

Construction in progress for classrooms, lecture hall spaces, triple-occupancy dorms

BY KENTON GOLDSBY campus@theaggie.org Increases in enrollment at UC Davis have created a demand for additional housing and classroom space. Due to both UC Davis’ own 2020 Initiative and University of California (UC) President Janet Napolitano’s call for an increase in enrollment, UC Davis enrollment is now on an incline.

Numerous on-campus groups and organizations will be affected by this enrollment increase, including Student Housing (SH) residents, sports clubs and administrators.

SH has been preparing for the increased enrollment, according to Richard Ronquillo, assistant director of Student Housing.

“I know housing has planned for those growths,” Ronquillo said. “That’s why we did a renovation of our housing facility in Tercero this summer — to accommodate the growth.”

SH will open a new Tercero residence hall in fall of 2017, while plans for a second dining facil-

PRIMATECENTER on 8

ity in Tercero and a two-year renovation process of Cuarto’s Webster Hall are almost underway.

This year, some housing units were converted to triple-occupancy rooms in order to accommodate additional students.

“A lot of our newer construction was built with the idea that it could be either double or triple [occupancy rooms],” Ronquillo said. “The square footage is there for triples if we need them, but we can also double them if that’s what the need calls for. We have a lot of adjustment with our housing.”

However, triple-occupancy rooms are not ideal for students like Harrison Morrow, a third-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major who has lived in a three-occupancy room during his time at UC Davis.

“I lived [in a triple] and there must have been three other two-person rooms [in the suite],” Morrow said. “That’s nine guys sharing one living space, two bathrooms and two showers. [...] It gets OVERCROWDING on 8

MEENA RUGH / AGGIE

Farmers’ overwhelming medical marijuana market causes “land rush” in Yolo County

BY BIANCA ANTUNEZ city@theaggie.org Yolo County supervisors voted on Oct. 11 to enact a moratorium prohibiting additional permit requests for cannabis cultivation due to the high volume of permits the county had already received. The board met again on Oct. 25 and voted 3-2 to continue the moratorium, pending additional considerations.

The moratorium was originally initiated for several reasons, including numerous requests for permits that engulfed the existing staff, concerns with cultivation sites near sensitive areas (such as schools and parks) and worries that demand for cultivation sites (for medical marijuana) would drive up land prices.

“There was this sudden rush of interest in Yolo County that we really needed to put the brakes on,” said John Young, Yolo County agriculture commissioner, according to CBS Sacramento.

However, there was some opposition to this prohibition. Don Saylor, Yolo County supervisor, voted against the moratorium, citing the sudden prohibi-

tion as unreasonable. The deadline for applications ended on Oct. 11 at 5 p.m., only hours after the board voted to pass the moratorium.

“I know that there are some people [...] hoping to establish legal cultivation sites who were in the process of meeting their requirements but had not yet fulfilled those exactly,” Saylor said. “It was an unfair thing to tell them that they cannot proceed. I thought we should make individual, case-by-case decisions whether someone was in the process and exercising due diligence for the requirement or if they were just coming late to the game.”

Before the moratorium can be removed, the council needs to make sure that the cultivation ordinance applies to all parties involved. They must also ensure that the county has the revenue to pay for regulation enforcement and application processing.

However, this doesn’t seem to have stopped many countywide growers. The number of illegal growers, though still unknown, is estimated to be between 400 CANNALAND on 8

2 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

RESCUING OUR FURRY FRIENDS

KELSEY GREGGE/ AGGIE

Vet students, undergraduates balance pets with school Students find that especially during exam season, getting out of the house with an animal is a great way to stay active. However, owning a pet can, at times, be a struggle to balance.

“It’s definitely a little bit difficult sometimes to make sure that [my dog] gets walked every day and has exercise, especially when it’s the middle of the quarter and midterms and essays are piling up,” said Kelsey Clausen, fifth-year psychology major and dog owner.

“But it’s not hard to try and find 10 minutes at least to take her out.”

Students in search of a furry friends had the chance to adopt a pet of their choice on Oct. 23 when a group of UC Davis veterinary students collaborated with 20 different animal shelters to put on its annual animal adopt-a-thon.

BY A L LYSON TSUJ I featu res@ th e a ggi e .o r g

As students enter college, they also find opportunities to take part in adult activities — like adopting pets. For some UC Davis students, adopting pets serves as a way to focus their attention on something other than school.

“My housemates and I wanted a dog for company and also [...] for therapy,” said Vyvy Ha, third-year evolution, ecology and biodiversity major and owner of a 6-year-old rescue dog named Lexi. “College is stressful, and dogs eliminate stress because they’re so cute and fluffy.”

Many UC Davis students adopt pets for various reasons, including mental health and comfort. Having pets also encourages physical health, since animals need exercise too.

The event, which took place at Davis Central Park, included an Animal Health Fair as well as animal demonstrations such as agility races and frisbee competitions.

“I had such a great team of volunteers and people to help me out,” said Katie Krebs, thirdyear veterinary student and project director for the event.

“Seeing [...] the enthusiasm of the volunteers, [...] the rescue organizations and the people coming out to learn [...] makes it an awarding event.”

The project was funded by a grant from the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF), which holds an application process each year for projects, seven of which are chosen for the grant. AVMF has funded the adopt-a-thon project for the last three years.

“Being able to spread awareness is super rewarding,” Krebs said. “Companies like [AVMF and Banfield Pet Hospital] make it possible for us to do these things.”

The event allowed animals of all kinds, including dogs, cats, parrots and more, to come and enjoy services such as the free veterinary clinic, which gave free health checkups and vaccinations. At the Animal Health Fair, many of the veterinary school clubs presented different health topics from microchipping to household items hazardous to pets.

“We were hoping to [...] spread awareness about [...] animals, and make it a little easier for people to adopt an animal,” Krebs said. “[Adoption is] a way

Take some time off to reflect Global Citizen Year fellow discusses gap year benefits

CHRISTIE NEO / AGGIE

BY A MANDA C RUZ featu res@ th e a ggi e .o r g

The transition from high school to a four-year university can be difficult for those who are still unsure of whether or not they want to pursue an undergraduate degree. Some students have a set career they wish to pursue, while others succumb to the pressure of deciding their futures at a young age.

With the help of organizations such as Global Citi-

zen Year, taking time off is an option that more people are starting to consider. Global Citizen Year, a nonprofit organization based in the Bay Area, sends high school graduates from around the United States on service-oriented apprenticeships in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The organization’s goal is to provide graduating high school students with handson experiences during what they call a “bridge” year before they go to college.

“The metaphor of the bridge implies that you are moving from one place to another,” said Tess Langan, alumni ambassador for Global Citizen Year. “We call it a ‘bridge’ year, not a gap year, because we think that the connotation of the word ‘gap’ can be really negative. It could be like falling into a gap […] from which you may or may not emerge from.”

According to Langan, Global Citizen Year believes

POLICE LOGS This week’s most bizarre police reports

animals get a new lease on life.”

Yolo County is home to a number of pet adoption shelters, including the Yolo County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The SPCA hosts adoption events on Saturdays at the PETCO on West Covell Blvd in North Davis.

Some students live in housing where animals are not allowed, while others live in pet-friendly environments. Even though some people live with housemates who are willing to take turns with animal care, there are often still times when no one is home.

“Making sure that someone’s home with [Lexi] to [...] take her out once in awhile [can be challenging], and my schedule is pretty busy this quarter,” Ha said.

To solve this problem, the veterinary school at UC Davis allows students to take their pets to class with them, which gives students the opportunity to exercise and spend time with their pets while at school. On days when she has a heavy schedule, Krebs brings both of her rescue labrador-mixed dogs to school.

“Being able to bring them to school gives me the peace of mind,” Krebs said. “When I tell my older dog we’re going to school in the morning, she gets so excited. I couldn’t imagine being in vet school without [both of ] them.”

In particular, many students have animals for mental and emotional support. Similar to the “therapy fluffy” events that are held on campus, pets often

InterVarsity enforces new anti-gay policy for staff Davis students speak out against organization’s stance on human sexuality

BY IVAN VALENZUELA c ampus@t he aggie . org

Earlier this month, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, one of the largest Christian ministries operating on college campuses, released a policy change notifying staff members who held theological views in support of gay marriage that they should step forward for involuntary termination starting Nov. 11.

The organization, which operates on 667 campuses and serves over 40,000 students in the United States, announced the policy change after a four-year review of the Bible and the group’s theology on gender, sexuality and marriage, examining the Scripture’s words on human sexuality and reaffirming a stance that the group says it has held for 75 years.

“We have always expected employees to reflect the ministry’s theological beliefs, as would be true for any church, synagogue, mosque or religious organization,” said Greg Jao, vice president of InterVarsity and director of campus engagement, in a statement responding to backlash to the new policy. “We recognize employees who disagree, or whose beliefs have changed over time, will leave employment because we have reiterated our beliefs.”

ADOPT on PAGE 8

that everyone should have access to essential skills such as cultural competency, language skills, empathy and resilience, all of which a bridge year can provide.

“What [Global Citizen Year] is trying to do is basically [make] gap and bridge years accessible to everybody and not just those who can afford it,” Langan said. “[Taking a bridge year] is a progressive action and so you are not falling off track, rather you are learning more about what track you actually want to be on.”

For third-year global disease biology major Thien Tran, the decision to take a bridge year stemmed from his lack of connection to any of the career paths he researched. While Tran was applying to colleges, he came across Global Citizen Year and decided to apply.

He was accepted into UC Davis around the same time that he was accepted to be a

Global Citizen Year fellow.

He then considered whether taking a year off before going to a university was the right decision for him.

“I [did not] know anyone [who] had taken a gap year before and so even applying [to the Global Citizen Year] was a blind decision,” Tran said.

Tran felt that he had to take some time before going to college to figure out what interested him. For him, this was a tough decision to make because it strayed from the track that his parents had set out for him.

“As a first-generation college student there is a lot of pressure [...] to do the right thing and there is no room for error,” Tran said. “[My parents] had done all this [work] for me and here I was getting off track from my educational career. I felt like growing up there was always a path that I needed to follow, but not necessari-

Bill would have established a grant program for university mental health services ROSIE SCHWARZ / AGGIE FILE

DANIEL TAK / AGGIE

BY SAM SOLOM O N ci ty@ th e a ggi e .o r g

Oct. 22 RP “threw a chair from the neighbor’s apartment into the bush.”

tive turkey that has him cornered against the building, requesting assistance.”

Oct. 25 “Subjects screaming for the last couple of hours — playing beer pong.”

Oct. 24 “Gardeners using leaf blowers too close to one another.”

Oct. 28 “Theft of paper cups and two empty pastry bags.”

Oct. 24 “RP is afraid of an asser-

Oct. 28 “Male subject outside yell-

ing and making a strange noise.”

Oct. 29 “Turkey walking the roadway, not injured.”

Oct. 29 “Naked male sitting on the gate to the pool.”

Oct 29.

“Unknown subjects setting off fireworks in the cemetery.”

On Sept. 24, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the College Mental Health Services Bill. The bill, known as AB 2017, would have required the Mental Health Oversight and Accountability Commission to establish a grant program for mental health services at public colleges and universities.

Governor Brown stated the reason for his veto was because the bill did not specify the amount of funding necessary. He felt that the complexity of mental health required a specific source of funding.

AB 2017 originally stipulated $40 million from Mental Health

INTERVARSITY on PAGE 8

ly the path that I wanted to follow.”

Despite the possibility that his family would not understand his reasoning, Tran felt that taking a bridge year would be more beneficial than immediately accepting a college offer.

“I thought that if I were go to college [right out of high school] I would be so unprepared and unmotivated compared to the rest of the student body,” Tran said. “[UC] Davis lets you defer for a year and saves your admission letter. I took advantage of that and asked to take three quarters off. It was a no-questions-asked sort of thing.”

Growing up in Silicon Valley led Tran to choose a program in a slower-paced environment, so Global Citizen Year placed him on a sugarcane farm in Garopaba, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

According to Tran’s family, he became much more inde-

MENTAL HEALTH BILL FOR PUBLIC COLLEGES VETOED

BY GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN

BY YVONNE LE ONG ca m pus @thea g g ie.org

Heather Nguyen, a fourth-year psychobiology major and a member of Davis InterVarsity, said that the new policy creates tensions within the organization.

“Those terminations across the country have created this climate of fear and self-censorship amongst staff members because if they don’t align with InterVarsity’s policy of human sexuality then they jeopardize their livelihoods,” said Nguyen. “It sends this message that queer students are not loved for who they are in InterVarsity spaces.”

Since the policy announcement, students have expressed disagreement with the group. A Change.org petition, created by student members of InterVarsity, asks President Tom Lin, Vice President Jao, the executive team and Board of Trustees to reverse their decision on same sex marriage and to acknowledge the experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals.

“We are students who oppose InterVarsity’s policy of involuntarily terminating staff who openly affirm same-sex relationships as God-blessed,” the petition states.

“Some of us who sign this petition are queer and Christian. Some of us are Christian and queer-affirming.

Some of us share InterVarsity’s redeemed sexuality theology. All of us are Christian. All of us are or

Services Act (Proposition 63) income tax to be given to universities throughout California. Funding would be based on each university’s capacity to match the grant’s funding, with only 5 percent of the funding to be used for administrative costs. These funds were removed in the final draft of the bill sent to Governor Brown.

ASUCD Senator Samantha Chiang questioned Governor Brown’s reasoning for vetoing the bill, as she believes that the bill specified where funding would come from. “[The 5 percent restriction would have] increased the actual effect [the bill] would have had on students,” Chiang said via e-mail.

“However, when the bill went

pendent and motivated, and they were surprised upon his return when he began to intern and volunteer on local farms.

“The big push [in deciding to take a year off ] was wanting to be somewhere new,” Tran said.

“I felt like things were too stagnant, [and with a bridge year] I knew that I had this certain amount of time to reflect. I knew I was going back to college but [I wanted to] take this time to reconsider what interests me and consider what in my life impacted my decision to attend Davis.”

UC Davis allows newly admitted students to defer their acceptance for up to one year. However, students who have already begun a term have a few options for taking time off. For example, many students might take a quarter off to figure GAP YEAR on PAGE 8

through appropriations committee, the guarantee of $40 million was removed altogether, only to be replaced by a nebulous mental health grant.”

Daniel Nagey, legislative director of the Office of Advocacy and Student Representation, added that the bill would have allowed community colleges, CSUs and UCs to apply for up to $5 million in grant funding to go toward their respective mental health services.

Earlier this year, a statewide study published by the UC Student Association found that on average, most UCs did not adequately address their communities’ mental health issues. In an A to F ranking, UC Davis received the highest score among other UCs by meeting outreach standards, but lacking accessibility and diversity. Most UCs’ rankings averaged at “C,” with UC Davis scoring “B-.”

Nagey disapproves of UC Davis’ ranking on mental health issues and thought that the funding from AB 2017 would have alleviated the UC system’s poor rankings, as they would have been able to hire more counselors with diverse backgrounds and gain space to house new resources.

MENTAL HEALTH on PAGE 8

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 | 3

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

JONATHAN CHEN / AGGIE

Propositions are underrated: Go Vote!

C a l i fornia vo t es on 13 s t a t ewide i n i t i atives this November BY JUNO BHA R D WA J - SHA H ci ty@th ea ggi e .o r g

With the media frenzy that has surrounded the 2016 Presidential Election, voters seem distracted from many of the other ballot decisions this year.

There are 13 statewide propositions on the ballot this year, ranging from Proposition 64, which would legalize the recreational use of marijuana, to Proposition 62, which would repeal the death penalty.

Other propositions include an initiative to force drug companies to sell state’s drugs at the same price that they charge to the VA (Proposition 61) and a measure to allow non-English languages to be used as a method of instruction in public schools (Proposition 58).

Robb Davis, City of Davis mayor, has not formally endorsed any statewide initiatives at this time but is supportive of Measure H, a local initiative which would renew and slightly increase a previous tax which goes towards funding Davis’ public schools.

“We have a long history here of parcel taxes, meaning it’s a flat tax on a niche parcel for the city, to fund various school programs. Basically, these tax initiatives [like Measure H] have been used to backfill fund-

ing that is no longer available from the state. The citizens of this community, over the years, have pretty much systematically said, ‘we want to tax ourselves to provide more resources for students.’ It’s basically to provide a broader array of opportunities for students than they would get if we just relied on state funding,” Davis said.

While many long-time Davis residents, like the mayor, are aware of the local initiatives on the ballot this year, some of UC Davis’ 30,000 students are voting in their hometowns and therefore might not be as interested in Davis-specific measures.

Nick Talbott, graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature, is voting in Berkeley and is supportive of Proposition 64, which would

m

legalize marijuana in California.

However, he admits that while there are a few propositions that his colleagues are aware of, many of the smaller initiatives get very little attention.

“I think that there are three or four propositions that people know about, but some of the lettered ones go unnoticed. I think there should be more done to advertise some of

the individual ones, instead of the larger ones that people are getting a lot on already,” Talbott said.

Carlos Castaneda, a first-year biochemistry and molecular biology major at UC Davis, is interested in a few propositions on the ballot this year but said that much of the talk surrounding the November election has focused on the presidential election rather than the state initi-

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS IN COLLEGIATE AVIATION HANNAH LEE / AGGIE

DANIEL TAK / AGGIE

University Airport of UC Davis provides aircraft services, flight training for community

BY J E NNI E C HANG featu res@th e a ggi e .o r g

An airplane takes off and flies miles above Davis. The student operating the plane looks out the window upon an aerial view of campus, identifying the oval shape of Aggie Stadium, the roof of the Mondavi Center and the painted bike circle logos. For students who want to experience flying an airplane, the

University Airport of UC Davis is the ideal destination.

Managed by UC Davis Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS), the University Airport is a public general aviation airport located on the west side of Davis.

The airport was first founded by C. Harold Hopkins in 1946 and officially became part of UC Davis in AIRPORT on PAGE 8

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

The ASUCD Senate meeting was called to order at 6:11 p.m. on Oct. 20, followed immediately by the establishment of the quorum with 10 out of the 11 senators present. Senator Sam Park was absent.

The meeting began with a presentation by Athletic Director Kevin Blue who was accompanied by a member of the women’s tennis team.

Blue discussed the education of the athletes and the department’s continued effort to keep student-athletes

on track and focused on their school work. He emphasized the impact athletics has on the academic enterprise, providing statistics of many universities’ level of academic and athletic success over the past years at schools including Princeton, Stanford and UC Davis.

Senators then had the opportunity to bring up questions. External Affairs Commission Chair Sara Williams asked, “What is being done about sexual assault awareness within the athletics department?” Blue stated that there are programs that athletes must attend every quarter to discuss

atives.

“I’ll be honest and say that I’ve only talked to a few friends [about it] and, for most of them, the general conversation goes to the Presidential race. I feel like it should be taken into account [more] because as much the impact the presidency can have on us; the impact of the propositions is also important,” Castaneda said.

that issue. Senator Samantha Chiang also addressed the issue of mental health, asking if the athletics department is doing anything to address that issue. Blue stated that Counseling and Psychological Services provides psychologists especially for athletes who can help them and discuss issues in confidentiality.

Blue provided his e-mail and phone number, asking the senators to reach out to him with any other questions or concerns.

Citizens for Responsible Planning presented next, with Eileen Savitz, former planning commissioner for the City of Davis, stating her concerns with the current student housing situation. She expressed her concern regarding the lack of housing for students on campus, and how having limited housing is unfair due to the fact that UC

Davis is the largest UC in the state and many other smaller UC’s are able to provide more options.

“Davis has been growing over the years but did not increase the amount of housing,” Savitz said. “We won’t be able to house all students.”

Savitz agreed to discuss the issue with President Alex Lee personally on a later date.

Academic Affairs Commission Chair Hemali Patel introduced new commission chairs fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major Kishan Patel and third-year microbiology major Justin Hurst.

Senator Joshua Dalavai moved to confirm Patel and Hurst to the Academic Affairs Commission and the motion was seconded with no objections.

Gender and Sexuality SENATE on PAGE 8

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4 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SCIENCE+TECH NICKI PADAR / AGGIE

UC DAVIS RESEARCHER HELPS IDENTIFY POTENTIALLY LETHAL GENE IN HOLSTEIN CATTLE

HOLD YOUR HORSES: EQUINE WORK MAY PROVE HEALING FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA

CAT TAYLOR / AGGIE

How horse grooming can help dementia patients, caregivers and horses themselves

BY M ERAL BASI T sci ence@ th ea ggi e .o r g

Every 66 seconds, someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease. Couple this with the fact that it is also the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and it’s understandable why UC Davis researchers are conducting studies to help better the lives of those diagnosed with dementia-related diseases.

Paula Hertel and Nancy Scheir Anzelmo are the co-founders of Connected Horse, a nonprofit organization that partnered with the UC Davis School of Medicine and the UC Davis Veterinary School to explore the therapeutic benefits of having people with dementia, as well as their care partners, interact with horses.

Hertel and Anzelmo first developed and tested the cooperative studies at Stanford University. After their informational session, which took place on Oct. 31, they are planning to hold another pilot study at UC Davis on Nov. 7 and 14. Despite common assumptions, participants will not be riding the horses. Instead, they will be spending time with, grooming and getting to know the animals. “[The challenge is] how do you work collaboratively with a horse and be clear in your non-verbal reactions,” Hertel said. “That’s really where we see a lot of learning in terms of strengthening the relationship [between the participant and the caregiver], because we as humans rely so heavily on our verbal communication. When that gets compromised, we’re often unaware of what our body language is telling us.”

The study is unique in that it aims to monitor not only the participant with dementia, but also his or her caregiver and the relationship between the two. Anzelmo and Hertel believe that the diagnosis not only affects the person who received it, but the entire support network of that person. For this reason, the researchers place a heavy importance on relationship building, which is clarified by the presence of a horse.

Horses are herd as well as prey animals, which means that they have to be able to pick up cues from other horses in their herd while being attuned to their environment. Therefore, a horse will tend to mirror another horse’s behavior, a quality that is also seen between horses and humans. Anzelmo and Hertel plan to use this mirroring ability in horses to promote introspection with the participants.

By functioning as a mirror, the horses can inform participants about their body language, a tool that has proven useful in other therapeutic environments.

“The horses are really the teacher in these workshops,” Anzelmo said. “They’ve been very healing in many populations from traumatic brain injury, to veterans, to children with autism and physical disability and even prisoners […] so we know there’s a very strong therapeutic model.”

Sarah Tomaszewski Farias is a professor of neurology at UC Davis who conducts research at the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center.

Farias is also the principal investigator on the project, a job that involves consulting, reaching out to prospective participants and analyzing the outcomes of the study.

“Right now, in terms of the medication we have available to treat Alzheimer’s disease, it’s pretty limited,” Farias said. “There are a couple of medications that are approved by the FDA to treat Alzheimer’s disease, but they really just slow the disease process. [The clinics are] SANDRA CARLSON / COURTESY

PALEOBIOLOGISTS UNCOVER EARTH’S HISTORY, REACH NEW DEPTHS Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences’ vast array of research extends from ocean depths to other planets

not something that would take the place of those medications. [They] would be something in addition to medication, but really it’s geared more toward improving quality of life.”

Claudia Sonders is the director for Center of Equine Health, as well as a professor at the UC Davis Veterinary School. She is in charge of the herd of horses that will be used for the study.

“For this particular project, what we’re looking for are horses that are accustomed to interacting with humans that are naturally calm and quiet and patient and that we can rely upon to be careful around humans,” Sonders said. “[We tend to use] geriatric horses who have a lot of world experience.”

In addition to providing data about the human participants, the study will also provide data about the equine counterparts.

“We’re also working with the Computer Science Department to train computers to recognize the equine face,” Sonders said. “It’s part of a greater project, which is a pain-detection project in horses. This pilot data will help the computer learning team get the computer to recognize the equine face.”

While interacting with the participants of the study, Sonders hypothesizes that the horses will be more calm, which can provide valuable facial recognition data. In general, Sonders plans to use the pain-detection program to help diagnose geriatric horses with problems associated with old age. The program’s creation is especially pertinent because horses evolutionarily tend to hide when they feel pain to avoid looking weak in front of a predator.

“If you have a horse that’s in pain, and it’s standing in its stall and you have a camera on it, and there are no people around, that horse will probably be in the corner, its head will be down, its ears will be back, it’ll have facial tension,” Sonders said. “When you walk in and you open that stall door, that horse is going to perk up, it’s going to put its ears up, it’s going to walk over, it’s going to interact with you.

It doesn’t want you to know that it doesn’t feel well.”

While the pilot studies that Connected Horse is planning will help the creation of this program, Sonders said that it also gives geriatric horses who are past their athletic prime a purpose in society.

“It’s really important that a geriatric horse have a place in society because in many cases when a horse becomes too old to be physically athletic, it becomes a dilemma for what we should do with that horse,” Sonders said. “Some people put them to sleep if they’re no longer useful [or often, if ] people don’t want to put a horse to sleep, the horse will end up in a rescue or in a situation where they’re living out their life at rest, and sometimes that can go well for them and sometimes that does not.The idea that we could take a public horse and potentially have it be a public asset is really exciting.”

As for the future, Hertel and Anzelmo hope to both continue the growth of the program at Connected Horse by holding another workshop in the spring, as well as help to get similar programs off the ground in other places.

“We don’t want to just develop this for Connected Horse,” Hertel said. “We want to really share our knowledge and our curriculum with those who can use it. Whether they’re one person that has a small barn somewhere or a therapeutic riding center that’s been serving children but now wants to start serving elders too. We really see ourselves as a resource so that we can grow this option beyond the research.”

For more information on Connected Horses’ research and how to get involved, visit its website at connectedhorse.com.

BY SHIVANI KAMAL s ci ence@thea g g ie.org

For many, the first thought that comes to mind when hearing the word “paleontology” is dinosaur bones. But what about paleobiology? The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Davis houses world-class paleobiologists researching marine organisms like photosynthetic bacteria and brachiopods, vertebrae fossils and even microorganisms that may have once lived on Mars.

Paleobiology is the study of early life and the history of Earth that utilizes tools from geology, paleontology and biology alike. Understanding biological and environmental history is key to studying fossils because it may explain why a certain organism went extinct.

Sandra J. Carlson, professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and UC Davis faculty member of 30 years, is one of the few paleobiologists that studies brachiopods. Brachiopods are marine organisms that have a similar appearance to clams, and tend to live in deep, cold water near the equator or poles.

Deadly gene mutation may be responsible for over half million calf abortions worldwide

BY EMMA SADLOWSKI sc ie nc e @t he aggie . org

Researchers have identified a potentially lethal genetic mutation responsible for over half a million spontaneous abortions in Holstein cattle, according to a recent publication in the Journal of Dairy Science.

Using these data, cattle breeders can now test for the fatal allele in their herds and prevent the trait from being passed onto future generations.

The genetic mutation was linked back to a Holstein bull named Pawnee Farm Alinda Chief, one of the most productive bulls in Holstein cattle breeding history.

Born in 1962, Chief has passed his genes down to roughly 3 million cows, and his chromosomes currently make up almost 14 percent of the Holstein genome in the United States.

Harris Lewin, a UC Davis professor of evolution and ecology, sequenced the DNA of Chief and one of his sons in a 2011 study and was approached by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA had identified a segment of genes in Holstein cows associated with low fertility rates and miscarriages traced all the way back to Chief. They requested Lewin to identify any problematic mutations in Chief ’s genome that might have an effect on fertility.

Lewin was able to quickly spot a nonsense mutation on chromosome five responsible for shortening an essential amino acid chain needed for fetal development.

The mutation occurs in a gene called APAF1 (apoptosis peptide activating factor 1), a recessive allele that can be quietly passed on when a dominant allele shields it. APAF1 becomes lethal when two carriers of the trait mate and conceive a calf with both recessive alleles, resulting in embryonic or fetal death.

“We found that when the mutation is present in homozygous form, that is, two copies of the mutant gene, the embryo or fetus will die,” Lewin said.

The study found no animals with two copies of the APAF1 mutation among the 758 animals examined.

Previous mouse studies have also shown that mutations in APAF1 can cause fetal death in mice by affecting the development of the central nervous system and the construction of critical amino acid chains.

Denis Larkin, a co-author and associate professor in comparative genomics at the Royal Veterinary College in London, explained in an e-mail interview how APAF1 could be regarded as a gene essential to life.

“This gene in mice was shown to be important for early development,” Larkin said. “If you knock it out (switch [it] off ) it in mice most homozygous knockouts will die by day 16 of development.”

Inbreeding and artificial insemination practices, the research suggests, have also contributed to the spread of the APAF1 mutation.

The study estimates that the mutation terminated over half a million Holstein cattle pregnancies worldwide over the past 30 years.

These abortions have cost dairy farms an estimated $420 million over the past 35 years.

With these new findings, however, cattle breeders can now scan and test for problematic mutations in their Holstein cattle and help eliminate the APAF1 mutated gene.

Breeders can examine their cattles’ genomes to identify any gene mutations. If they find that one of their Holstein bulls is a carrier of the APAF1 mutation, the breeder can prevent passing on the gene by not mating the bull.

“The mutation can be eliminated through genetic screening,” Lewin said. “That is, you would never mate a bull who is a carrier with a cow who is a carrier.”

Genome sequencing and genetic screening, says Lewin, will also save breeders from the emotional and financial costs of cattle abortion procedures.

Juan Medrano, a UC Davis professor of animal genetics, emphasized the importance of advanced technology in helping researchers understand the spread of genetic mutations.

“As technology improves it will become easier to identify the cause of these detrimental traits, and to prevent the mating of animals carrying the negative mutations to eliminate them from the population,” Medrano said.

“Brachiopods today are living, but 95 percent of them are extinct [...] I look at how the living brachiopods can give us information of the past,” Carlson said.

Much of the brachiopod research investigates how these previously abundant organisms changed in morphology, or physical appearance, as well as what factors contributed to their extinction.

“We don’t eat [brachiopods], nor are they diverse, but it is important to study them because they give us information on atmospheric and ocean health,” Carlson said.

Carlson has published groundbreaking research on the evolution of brachiopods and received the 2016 Encourage Award by the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG).

Serving as the president of the Paleontology Society (PS) from 2012 to 2014, and later returning as a council member, Carlson has strengthened the partnership between the PS and AWG to encourage women in the field of paleontology and support paleobiology students throughout their academic careers.

Carlson’s hard work also includes creating schol-

arship awards for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early-career researchers. In addition, Carlson helped to double the value of each scholarship.

The number of applications for these scholarships increases every year, and they have supported a number of determined young women pursuing paleontology.

Another researcher in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is Professor Ryosuke Motani, whose focus is studying vertebrate organisms, specifically Mesozoic marine reptiles.

“We are trying to figure out how the evolution of vertebrate animals in the past were driven or restricted based on certain factors, like the type of environment during that time,” Motani said.

Previous field work has taken Motani to China, where he excavated fossils from the marine Triassic in South and Southwest China. His current research involves studying the physics-based functional morphology driving the evolution of animal shapes during the worst mass extinction 251 million years ago.

GEOSCIENCE on PAGE 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ELECTIONS SUMMIT Simran Grewal Simran Grewal, a second-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major and Summit candidate, hopes to bring more diversity to ASUCD if elected.

“ASUCD serves the student body and it represents all student voices and all those student voices are from different majors, different programs [and] different ethnicities,” Grewal said. “And I thought I’d like to make a difference in ASUCD and have people of different majors come to be involved.”

Grewal previously served as chief of staff for Senator Sevan Nahabedian and is the current vice chair of the Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) and chief of staff for ASUCD Vice Presi-

dent Abhay Sandhu.

Grewal’s platforms include expanding both public health education and dietary diversity on campus. She also wants to install coffee vending machines on the first floor of the library and increase library hours during finals week.

Alexander Keyser Alexander Keyser, a third-year political science major and Summit candidate, has previously served as vice chair of the Internal Affairs Commission as well as chief of staff for Senator Sam Park.

If elected, Keyser plans on helping ASUCD units gain more knowledge regarding student government in order to work more efficiently.

“I’ve watched [the units] struggle with adopted senator programs and seen bills that they’ve tried to pass fail for stupid reasons and I was kind of sick of it,” Keyser said. “I want them to have more influence in ASUCD.” Keyser also wants to raise awareness of the mental health resources available to students. One of Keyser’s platforms is to change the Intercollegiate Athletics funding from a student fee service to a college paid service in order to increase efficiency.

BASED

JULIE JUNG Julie Jung, a second-year political science major and part of the Summit slate, currently serves as an interim senator.

“I actually wasn’t planning on running until maybe a week after I got sworn in,” Jung said. “I realized that there [were] just so many things to do and I couldn’t complete [them] all within one quarter and I knew that I needed to have this seat for at least a whole entire year for me to be able to do something impactful and for me to have a meaningful Senate term.”

Jung hopes to improve the relationship between the senate and the ASUCD units, increase student accessibility to campus food resources like The Pantry and encourage more international students to become involved in ASUCD. “I know that, as an international student, there [aren’t] many chances for [international] students to get involved within ASUCD,” Jung said.

Jung plans on being a support system for the various areas of ASUCD if elected.

Zachary Moore Zachary Moore, a fourth-year economics major, is running on the Summit slate. Although he has no formal ASUCD experience, Moore has interned at CALPIRG and is part of several business organizations.

Moore’s platforms include increasing career preparation and networking resources on campus.

“When guest speakers or recruiters from firms come to campus they usually do stuff through student club organization[s],” Moore said. “By running them through the [Internship and Career Center], it will get them more publicity [and] allow more students [to have access to these opportunities].”

Moore also plans to create a UC Davis mobile app interface so students can see which study rooms are currently available in addition to installing Buddy Benches on campus as a means of encouraging community members to mingle.

INDEPENDENT Anastasia Ruttkay

Anastasia Ruttkay, a fourth-year international relations major, has decided to run for senate on the Based slate in order to increase sexual harassment awareness and prevention across campus. With experience as a member of the Alpha Phi sorority as well as a past senatorial staff member for current ASUCD president Alex Lee, Ruttkay wants to implement programs within Greek life to prevent occurrences of sexual assault from happening at UC Davis.

“Greek life is one of the main demographics a part of those who contribute the statistics on one in five women in college getting sexualy assaulted,” Ruttkay said. “[Right now] there’s nothing within the individual chapters where there’s a resource for sexual assault prevention.”

If elected, Ruttkay would work with the Study Abroad Office to provide resources in order for students to easily assimilate into a new culture and would fight for increased visibility within the campus administration, especially with the newly elected chancellor.

JOSE ANTONIO MENESES Jose Antonio Meneses, second-year political science major and Based candidate, hopes to establish a legal undergraduate clinic if elected, likely through the establishment of an additional ASUCD unit.

“I decided to run as a sophomore because I think a lot of people don’t understand how the association works,” Meneses said. “And when I say that, I mean that platforms that you put forward need to be accomplished and platforms do take time. And so as a sophomore, I know I have [an] ample amount of time to work on these platforms.”

Meneses, who has previously served as a legislative aid under former ASUCD President Mariah Watson and has worked with Senator Georgia Savage on her “Let’s Talk about Sex” sexual assault awareness project, also plans on increasing retention and graduation rates for the Asian Pacific Islander community as well as bringing domestic violence awareness and prevention programs to UC Davis.

DANIEL NAGEY Daniel Nagey, a second-year managerial economics and psychology double major and Based candidate, has worked as legislative director for the Office of Advocacy & Student Representation and deputy director for Lobby Corps.

“I’m familiar with how the entire structure of ASUCD works,” Nagey said. “So I think that’ll be a really easy transition for me to hop into Senate especially because I have worked with senators [and] coworkers of mine have become senators, so I’ve been through the process of being with them as they ran in previous years and see[ing] what they do on a daily basis. I would say I’m fairly to very familiar with

how meetings run and whatnot.”

Nagey’s platforms include addressing food and housing insecurities, increasing transparency surrounding tuition increases and destigmatizing mental health.

MATTHEW YAMAGUCHI Matthew Yamaguchi, a fourth-year managerial economics major running as an independent candidate, has focused his platforms on resources for clubs and organizations in order to spread collaboration and constructive efforts. His background in economics and business has inspired him to run in order to help students contribute to the campus.

“The main idea [of my first platform] is to create a physical space for students, clubs, organizations and student-run projects to really collaborate and work together,” Yamaguchi said. “[You can have] all these clubs working in unison [...] and the idea is to have all [of them] working together.”

If elected, Yamaguchi would also focus on the use of fields under consideration for residence hall expansion in the Long Range Development plan as well as the transportation needs of the campus in the form of ride-sharing partners and emergency services. His experience with the Unitrans unit of ASUCD has exposed him to this need of the student body.

MADISON WHEELER As a third-year English major and transfer student, Madison Wheeler is running independently for senate to emphasize the devotion she has for supporting her community.

Wheeler wants to provide the campus with resources within her platforms of campus safety and security.

“My platforms [are] just making sure that people are safe on campus and can get the help when things go wrong,” Wheeler said. “One of the main concerns that I [have] is the fact that there is only one sexual assault assembly that is mandatory for students as incoming students, and I thought that that was a little odd because if someone is here for five years, [...] they just don’t hear about what sexual assault really is.”

Wheeler, if elected, plans on simplifying resources for survivors, including the implementation of a student-based support group and streamlining the sexual violence prevention website. In addition, Wheeler plans on adding substantive lighting and expanding emergency systems on campus.

Although she has only recently transferred to UC Davis, Wheeler understands the importance of these resources on such a large campus.

ALEXANDER RODRIGUEZ Alexander Rodriguez, a third-year history major, is running for senate in order to bring to light the multicultural aspects of the UC Davis campus. One of this independent candidate’s biggest platforms includes bringing different groups, organizations and clubs of various representations together to showcase the resources these communities can provide. “[I’m] really trying to celebrate our diversity [...to] show that Davis has so much to offer and every student should feel welcome,” Rodriguez said. “[Students should] be able to be themselves and celebrate themselves, and [I want] to educate people and get people interested in [different views], whether it be a culture or religion.”

As a part of the Muslim Student Association, Rodriguez wants to emphasize the importance of providing the campus with resources meant for specific demographics. His platforms focus on creating a cleansing station for the Davis Muslim population and beyond, representing students’ experiences in the expansion of mental health resources and educating the campus culturally and spiritually overall.

elections.ucdavis.edu November 8 to November 11 WRITTEN BY Emilie DeFazio and Alyssa Vandenberg PHOTOS BY Laura Long, Charles Miin, Daniel Tak, Nadia Doris, Amy Hoang, Cat Taylor, Kelsey Gregge, Briana Ngo, Ian Jones, Alexa Fontanilla

6 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion from the editorial board

the California Aggie

SENATE ENDORSEMENTS: CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING

EDITORIAL BOARD

ASUCD’s Fall Quarter Senate elections begin next week. To help UC Davis students choose the most qualified students to represent them, the Editorial Board interviewed all 10 candidates. After asking a series of questions about their platforms and knowledge regarding campus issues and Senate itself, the Editorial Board chose to endorse three candidates. While the majority of candidates had good intentions, these three candidates had the most experience and specificity to their platforms as well as the wherewithal to complete them.

SCOTT DRESSER Editor in Chief ELLIE DIERKING Managing Editor ALYSSA VANDENBERG Campus News Editor

No. 1: Simran Grewal SAMANTHA SOLOMON City News Editor

As a neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, Grewal would bring an element of diversity to a Senate that is lacking STEM representation. Grewal, who currently serves as the vice chair of the Internal Affairs Commission, has the experience and passion to incite change. The Editorial Board is impressed by the level of detail in Grewal’s plans, which include increasing dietary diversity on campus and keeping the library open for 24 hours a day during finals week, as well as how informed she is about campus issues.

ELI FLESCH Opinion Editor EMILIE DEFAZIO Features Editor AMANDA ONG Arts & Culture Editor BRYAN SYKES Sports Editor

No. 2: Julie Jung

ARIEL ROBBINS Science & Tech Editor

As the former junior chief of staff to ASUCD President Alex Lee and a current interim senator, political science major Jung has the knowledge and experience needed to achieve her platforms, including making ASUCD more accessible for international students. Jung, who chose to run in order to complete the platforms she started working on during her time on Senate this quarter, has detailed knowledge about the goings-on of campus and ASUCD as a whole. Additionally, the Editorial Board appreciates Jung’s commitment to increasing and expanding resources for ASUCD units.

CHIARA ALVES New Media Manager JAY GELVEZON Photo Director HANNAH LEE Design Director

No. 3: Daniel Nagey

EMILY STACK Copy Chief

Managerial economics and psychology double major Nagey has a passion for student justice that will make him an effective senator. He is invested in advocating for and destigmatizing mental health awareness on campus, increasing transparency from the administration and addressing food and housing insecurities for students. His awareness of issues that matter for students will help him make an impact on campus.

OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Copy Chief VERONICA VARGO Website Manager ELISABETH MCALLISTER Social Media Mangager

The candidates will debate on Monday, Nov. 7 from 12 to 1:30 p.m. at the CoHo. The Editorial Board encourages students to vote at elections.ucdavis.edu. Voting is open from Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 8 a.m. until 12 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 11.

MADELINE ONG Newsletter Manager

GUEST OPINION

BY NATALIA ARBEL ÁEZ JARAMILLO This year, three important governmental elections have taken place around the world — in Great Britain, Colombia and the U.S. There are multiple connections among these events as well as important lessons to be shared and understood from them.

One of the common themes is not only each decision’s transcendental character for the future of the respective countries, but also the role that hate has been playing in the voters’ motivations.

Britain’s citizens had to decide between remaining a part of the European Union (EU) or leaving the EU in order to be able to close Britain's borders and prevent the arrival of immigrants and refugees, and also, apparently, to improve its economic conditions.

Recently, the nation of Colombia had to vote on whether or not to end a 50-plus-year armed conflict by implementing an agreement between the government and the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

FARC is one of the major producers and exporters of illegal drugs such as cocaine in the world — one of the reasons why the U.S. government has, for decades, invested billions of dollars in order to defeat them through a program called Plan Colombia. As a result of the peace agreement, FARC agreed to put down their weapons and give up committing crimes in exchange for reduced punishment and

political participation.

The other option for the Colombian people was to vote no and stay at war until one, the agreement could be renegotiated to toughen its terms against FARC, or two, the state could defeat them through armed action (which has not been possible in a half-century of conflict).

Critics of the peace process oppose it because of the abominable crimes committed by FARC that are unforgivable for some, but not necessarily the direct victims, whose own suffering has made them more amenable to a compromise.

Similarly, with election day around the corner, the American people must choose a presidential candidate to lead their country for the next four or possibly eight years.

One candidate, Donald Trump, has proposed public policies based on, among other things, the enforcement of border control, police action against the African American community and the Black Lives Matter movement, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and tax breaks and loopholes for wealthy and big corporations.

In contrast, Hillary Clinton advocates for better relationships between police and communities through education and understanding, government support of universal healthcare for people who cannot afford it and a fair tax policy that does not cater to corporations

and the nation's wealthiest individuals.

Another commonality between these three elections is the deep divisions they have created in their respective societies, which has caused animosity to rise even among families and friends. The decision was already made in the case of Great Britain, and the results were a polarizing picture: 51.9 percent voted for leaving the EU over the 48.1 percent that voted to remain.

Colombia, which earlier this month made their decision, voted no, by a 50.22 percent margin rejecting the final agreement to end the armed conflict with FARC, over the 49.77 percent that voted in favor of it.

Unlike Britain and Colombia, the United States has not yet had its election. The polls have predicted a nail-biter.

Despite Clinton taking a bit of a lead in recent weeks, if we look back to the end of July, the gap was less than one point. The margins in the Brexit (as Britain's exit from the EU was named) vote, the Colombian peace process vote and the U.S. Presidential race are slim.

And with the decisions that have been made, and will be made, it could be said that almost half of respective voters feel or will feel that they have not been heard or validated, which presents a potential legitimacy problem that could significantly affect the stability of these COLUMBIA on 8

How other countries do gun control right AMERICA COULD STAND TO LEARN A FEW THINGS FROM OTHER NATIONS ABOUT GUN LAWS

BY TAMANNA AHLUWALIA tahluwalia@ucdavis.edu Controversial as the statement may seem, America is actually not the best at everything — especially when it comes to gun violence and gun laws. Our gun homicide rates are 25.2 times higher than those of other high-income industrialized countries such as England or Japan.

Unlike America, the United Kingdom decided to act on gun legislation when a tragic mass shooting in 1996 occurred at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland. In the months following Dunblane, a nationwide fever of public debate ensued.

The Snowdrop Petition was launched and a judicial inquiry was initiated. These actions and their consequences were all swift and groundbreaking.

The Snowdrop Petition, which called for a ban on private gun ownership, elicited 750,000 signatures.

To put that into context, after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut, 300,000 people signed a petition on the White House’s official page. After taking into account the total population of England versus America, that’s about 12 times the public support in England for gun control following a prominent national tragedy.

That public pressure, as well as the anticipation of the Cullen Inquiry, which would report official findings about the shooting and ways to prevent it, worked well for the United Kingdom.

The U.K. banned all handguns above 0.22 caliber with the Firearms Amendment Act of 1997, and extended it by banning all handguns regardless of the caliber in an amendment to the legislation the same year.

Since then, England’s firearm-related mortality rate has dropped to 0.3 percent.

Out of 127 million people, only 710,000 civilians own a private firearm in Japan, meaning

that less than 1 percent of the entire population own a gun. Their law, which dates back to 1958, is the closest to a zero-tolerance gun policy that the world has seen.

It states that no one is permitted to own a firearm or sword, with a few exceptions, such as only being able to own a shotgun with a rigorous licensing process. Japan’s firearm homicide rate? Only 0.1 percent.

Even though Japan is one of the most stringent gun-control nations in the world, the United States could still stand to learn from their firearm background-check process. In Japan, before someone can even think about owning a weapon, they have to attend special classes on firearm use, pass written and oral tests, take a drug test and undergo a comprehensive background check. Only if all these tests are passed with no red flags can a gun be purchased.

Although it’s impossible to project exactly what

would happen in the United States if laws such as these were implemented, it is safe to say that deaths by firearms rates would decrease.

By having to undergo background checks, criminals with a past history of violence or abuse would be weeded out. Having to take a series of training and educational classes would deter impulsive or suicidal prospective owners.

A drug test would highlight those who may not be in the best condition to own a gun at that point in their lives.

Other issues, such as not being able to filter people who are dangerous, but don’t necessarily have a written record of violence or criminal activity, still need to be addressed. But we need to start somewhere.

The United Kingdom’s change came after a horrifying mass massacre of children. Japan’s came in an effort to unify the population. When, and what, will it take for America’s change to come?

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.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

The Minority Report MICROAGGRESSIONS: PREJUDICE IN PLAIN SIGHT

BY JEANETTE YUE jyyue@ucdavis.edu “So, like, where are you really from?”

If we had a dollar for every time a microaggression like this one was used, we might just be able to end poverty in the United States.

Maybe that’s a stretch, but microaggressions, like the example above, are arguably the most ubiquitous form of prejudice today. And more often than not, they’re dismissed. Microaggressions are subtle.

They’re the backhanded compliments about only hiring Asians because “they make the best workers,” and the surprise on someone’s face after finding out someone who “looked straight” is actually gay. Microaggressions are, like the term suggests, small and easy to miss.

When taken at face value, these verbal, environmental and behavioral insults based on social identity don’t do much damage. But microaggressions add up over time, and they can detrimentally

affect the mental well-being of those on the receiving end.

Walking into a class and being the only student of color is an example of an environmental microaggression. Typically, these instances aren’t purposeful — no one set out to make that student feel excluded. But this type of setting affects the power dynamic of the room and how that student views themselves relative to the majority group.

This can have adverse effects on their identity, especially because the student will be in this classroom setting multiple times a week over an extended period of time.

The constant repetition of microaggressions is what makes them so dangerous. Microaggressions are usually repeated in different ways and by different people throughout a person’s life.

Subtlety makes it difficult to decide whether or not a microaggression is worth its trouble. Because microaggressions are so brief, they tend to throw us off when we encounter them.

It takes a moment to process whether or not

that microaggression really happened, if it was supposed to be offensive and if it is, whether it’s even worth bringing up.

And microaggressions are difficult to pinpoint. A behavioral microaggression like someone rolling their eyes whenever a woman speaks, for example, isn't always obvious or easy to prove.

Because microaggressions are so small, it might not make sense for the target to draw attention to one and risk making a scene or ruining a relationship.

Sometimes, the perpetrator may be an authority figure, in which case calling out a backhanded compliment or snide remark would be even more difficult and risky.

It’s especially challenging for individuals because in most cases, people who use microaggressions don’t mean any harm. Often, they are genuinely curious about where a person is “really from,” attempting to give a compliment or just making a joke in poor taste. Their intention isn’t to hurt anyone.

That said, intention isn’t the point. Rather, it’s about how these microaggressions impact the victim, which likely won’t be in a positive way. Instead, effects of microaggressions have been proven harmful to mental health, self-esteem and work and school performance. And that’s just on an individual level.

On a societal level, microaggressions continually feed into existing stereotypes of minority groups and reflect the underlying and subconscious prejudices that persist today. Not everyone who has used microaggressions is racist or sexist, but everyone is susceptible to relying on the stereotypes that pervade society.

No matter how insignificant a microaggression may seem, the issues underlying them are anything but. The continual use of microaggressions only prove how widespread biases still are.

The scary part is they have become so embedded and casual in our society that we have trouble recognizing them for what they really are: derogatory and harmful.

The far left, liberal utopias and Portlandia PORTLANDIA SIMULTANEOUSLY CELEBRATES AND MOCKS LIBERAL CLICHES, CULTURE

BY STELL A SAPPINGTON sasappington@ucdavis.edu I grew up in a town called Sebastopol, located about an hour north of San Francisco. Sebastopol is small, community-oriented and quaint. Although it used to be known for family-owned apple orchards, it’s losing its charm to large-scale and invasive vineyards. What it strives for and succeeds to maintain, however, is a hippie vibe.

At any hour of the day you can pass by the local Whole Foods, which feels more like a co-op than a huge grocery corporation, and find groups of old friends, a pungent dank smell wafting off of their organic hemp sweaters and Birkenstocks. The Sunday farmers market reverberates with energy as drum circles grow near the town square, a senior chorus takes its chance at a Gwen Stefani song, a fermented food stand racks up a line and vendors sell organic-only vegetables.

You can find a similar Sunday afternoon in the scenes of Portlandia, a comedy sketch show starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. Their

show incessantly plays at the stereotypes, cliches and irony of living in a place as “down-to-earth” as Portland and takes a close look at the new Millennial-hippie culture.

Portlandia embraces progressivism, as the characters often challenge binary gender constructs, partake in many different types of relationships — heterosexual, homosexual, platonic — call for humanely-raised meat, protest the police, ostracize those who don’t bring reusable bags to the grocery store, fight for unpasteurized milk and embrace many more left-wing cliches.

However, by existing on a broadcast show, the quasi-hippie community they portray loses its counter-culture, alternative aura and instead becomes mainstream enough to draw an audience and clean enough to be widely appealing.

Armisen and Brownstein, who write and star in Portlandia, create a liberal utopia on two levels.

First, they satirize Portland through a number of archetypical characters free of real-world concerns and swayed only by far-left morals. Second, they design the show itself to be enjoyed almost exclu-

sively by like-minded liberals and upper-middle class hippies.

The show, with its niche content and audience, makes no attempt at actualizing the liberal ideologies it spends so much time illustrating.

Walking through Sebastopol, I can pass by the house whose owners were featured in the local paper for refusing to vaccinate any of their kids, as well as numerous signs for local ballot measures, especially those requiring listing GMOs on food packaging.

What Portlandia fails to do is offer liberal views that may be challenging or unappealing. By painting such a perfectly humorous picture of hippie life, the show doesn’t accomplish political change or much realism.

But perhaps realism is not the goal, and Portlandia is meant to simply be an escapist’s tool.

The viewer has reason to believe that Armisen and Brownstein are liberal themselves and are not offering a harsh mockery of the culture, but simply exposing how absurd it can be when shown from only one side.

A 2012 New Yorker article entitled “Stumptown Girl” offers an analysis of Portlandia with a focus on Brownstein and her relationship to Armisen. The article recognizes Portlandia as a show specifically attuned to satire, “an extended joke about what Freud called the narcissism of small differences: the need to distinguish oneself by minute shadings and to insist, with outsized militancy, on the importance of those shadings.”

That is the lens from which the viewer understands Portlandia: a satirical criticism of a stereotyped lifestyle in such an extended form that it’s not meant to be a realistic representation.

Take, for example, “First Feminist City,” an episode from the show’s most recent season. This episode features two of the show’s most well-loved characters, Candace and Toni, who run a nonprofit feminist bookstore. When Portland is declared the first feminist city, tourists flock to the bookstore like never before — comical to viewers accustomed to the bookstore routinely having no SAPPINGTON on 9

HUMOR SPEAKERS TO BE INSTALLED IN CLASSROOMS FOR WEEKLY 10 A.M. CHANCELLOR ANNOUNCEMENTS

BY ETHAN VICTOR ejvictor@ucdavis.edu Given the distrust students currently have for UC Davis administration, the university announced on Tuesday that it will be installing speakers in every classroom and lecture hall on campus, with the purpose of having students hear weekly announcements from the chancellor.

Students and faculty alike have expressed their discomfort with the lack of administrative transparency after Linda Katehi’s actions that dramatically increased her salary as a result of her position on boards for private institutions and textbook companies.

Interim Chancellor Ralph Hexter followed her scandal with a scandal of his own. He was accused of embezzling funds during his

time at Hampshire College. Hexter wants to change how students perceive the administration.

“I just don’t trust what’s going on. I like the idea of the chancellor getting in contact with us, but I don’t think this is the way to do it,” said Kevin McGrady, a third-year managerial economics major.

“We’ve seen the videos of Katehi in our emails and that was just weird. I hope this will be better, but I doubt it.”

Professors are questioning the decision as well. Although many want better communication, they doubt this new method will be effective.

“I like it, but I don’t. Class starts at 10. How am I supposed to begin teaching? I don’t want to hear some bigwig talk about what he has done in the past week and have that taken out of my teaching time,” said Larry Richards, an English professor who has a particular

dislike of technology.

Others feel that giving students a window into Hexter’s doings is a good idea.

“Is it a little bit silly? Yes. Does it feel like high school? Yes. I like it, though,” said Lily Marx, a first-year design major. “It’s cool and gives us something new. Let’s do it.”

Richards brings up a valid point that Hexter has yet to address, which is when class time will officially start. If Hexter plans to speak during class, he will take time out of learning, but if classes start 10 minutes later, students would not show up until the lecture officially began.

By forcing members of the university to arrive early and listen to what he has to say, Hexter might just turn UC Davis into a modernday 1984.

FACEBOOK EVENT COVER PHOTO MORE FUN THAN PARTY WILL EVER BE

BY BRIAN L ANDRY bjlandry@ucdavis.edu According to a report obtained by The California Aggie, local student Brendan Yarden, a third-year communication major and aspiring clown-college graduate, is throwing a party this coming Friday.

“A huge part of throwing a party is having a really good event photo and description on Facebook,” Yarden said. “You really have to draw people in. That’s why I always make sure to Google pictures of people at parties that look super fun. But when guests get to my house, I have something completely different set up. One time I just played music in my headphones that only I could hear and passed ISSUE DESIGNED BY

around a single beer for everyone to share. To me, that’s fun. But now my parties are empty, and I’m not sure why.”

The Aggie talked to some guests of Yarden’s past parties. One was Ariel Chung, a second-year English major and owner of not one, but four loaves of rotting bread that should probably have been thrown out by now.

“I got invited on Facebook to a party and the event photo showed a bunch of people in a huge house,” Chung said. “There was neon paint sprayed everywhere, and it looked like everyone was having a really good time. But the party was completely different from the event photo. When I got there, Brendan was just telling ‘scary’ stories about the time he locked himself in a porta-potty and thought that the echo of his voice in the waste chamber was another person.

I tried to leave, but he had barred the doors and I had to listen to the entire three-hour story.”

Other people shared similar stories about Yarden’s parties.

“I was really drawn in by the event photo,” said James Rodriguez, a fourth-year applied mathematics major and aspiring VHS-tape manufacturer. “But I was disappointed to see that Brendan spent the entire party playing recordings of himself making cat noises.

Over and over. Needless to say, I won't be going back to one of his parties.”

It should be interesting to see what Brendan decides to do for his Facebook cover photo this time to entice people to come to his next party. So check your Facebook for an invite soon. Actually, don’t.

You’re probably not even invited. How sad.

HANNAH LEE | AMY YE | CHRISTIE NEO | CINDY CHEUNG | JONATHAN CHEN

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how his organization makes a difference within the state by attending California Republican Party Conventions and volunteering with Republican candidates running for state positions.

“Most campuses are known for being liberal, Davis having a reputation for being one of the most liberal in the nation,” Francois said. “While we may see liberal biases expressed by some professors and even in UC hiring practices, Davis doesn’t tend to represent ‘militant liberalism,’ meaning [that] while we disagree on many things, we feel that there’s not hostility between us because of these differences.”

As one of the only openly Republican groups on campus, DCR has done its best to represents its own interests while still addressing the opinions of others. The group emphasizes the need for political alignment within each party, as this particular election has taken a toll on both sides.

“We are a conservative organization and we are Republicans, but we are individuals representing diverse people. The party is in-line with many millennials’ beliefs,” Francois said. “This is a difficult national race for both parties [...] but it’s important to realize that historically, this has happened before and allowing opposing ideas to have a voice in your own party is how parties survive and how change occurs.”

Professor of political science at UC Davis Robert Huckfeldt noted that while this is true from a general perspective, he has also noticed a variety of

political views on campus. “[The campus] is considerably democratic and liberal, and in that sense it reflects the views of the state,” Huckfeldt said. “We do see [...other political beliefs] when we ask people to do questionnaires. From this we see that we do have a substantial number of conservative Republicans keeping us honest.”

On the topic of this particular election, Huckfeldt, like Mehta and Francois, expressed his concern and premonitions about the health of the political party system. ”[The two party system] is badly fractured right now and they’re having trouble holding it together during this trying time,” Huckfeldt said. “Democratic politics require two healthy parties but now the Republican Party is on life support and that’s not good for Democrats either.”

Huckfeldt noted that elections — especially the 2016 election — are wake-up calls for both Democrats and Republicans to take the population’s problems more seriously.

Huckfeldt encourages students to remember that political parties are solely for winning elections. “[Students] have to buffer [the dirty politics] and realize that maybe things aren’t quite as bad as they’re making them out to be in terms of the other side,” Huckfeldt said. “The whole thing is predicated on winning so I would encourage everyone not to despair.”

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and 800. Illegal cannabis growing creates a challenge for the community and its leaders. “[Growing cannabis without a permit] is illegal so it creates public-safety dangers, potential theft, environmental degradation through inappropriate use of water, redirecting creeks, [...] using illegal pesticides and more,” Saylor said.

“Then since it’s an illegal activity there may be a presence of firearms, large amounts of money, all those elements of an illegal operation. One of the things that I am interested in is moving away from the public-safety risks and the environmental hazards of illegal cultivation.”

Saylor hopes to move toward a regulatory framework, permitting the cultivation of cannabis under specified conditions, which in his view is a preferable approach to prohibition.

The council will revisit the issue again on Nov. 22 with additional considerations, including the voter decision on Proposition 64, which could open up cannabis cultivation for non-medicinal use.

Dennis Chambers, chief deputy agricultural commissioner, said that this “land rush” has also driven land values dramatically higher, possibly three times or more, but understands that some rural communities are wary of cannabis cultivators who might disrupt Yolo County culture.

“There is a fear that all cultivators are less than scrupulous and are not business people or they are just trying to turn a quick dollar,” Chambers said. “What we’ve found is that is not the case.

By and large, these people are businessmen and want to do things right.”

GAP YEAR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

out whether they enjoy the subjects they are pursuing, while others often take a bridge year to get real-life experience before going to graduate school.

These students can readmit as long as they are in good academic standing prior to withdrawing.

“If a student finishes a term and they decide they do not want to come back they [can] just leave,” said Barbara Noble, senior associate registrar at the Office of the University Registrar. “They can readmit if they want to come back, but if they want to leave for only one term, we have the Planned Educational Leave Program.”

The Planned Educational Leave Program at UC Davis allows continuing undergraduate students to take one term off during their academic year for any reason. Readmission is guaranteed as long

as the student continues their coursework, as students only have the opportunity to to take time off once in their undergraduate career.

For many, the option of taking time off from academics allows students the chance to recenter and take a look at whether they are following a path that’s right for them. Through organizations such as Global Citizen Year, students can get hands-on experience in nontraditional areas that don’t fall into a classroom setting.

“Taking the time to look back at your experiences is very valuable,” Tran said. “I wouldn’t say that everyone has to take a gap year, but I think they should take some time to think about where [they] have been, where [they] are now, and where [they] want to be.”

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1950. It provides various aviation services, from aircraft storage to fueling.

Aircrafts that do not exceed 12,500 pounds are allowed to operate at the airport. The airport hosts approximately 35,000 take-offs and landings each year, and stores about 60 based aircrafts. For storage, the airport offers rentals for hangars and tie-down spaces.

Moreover, the airport is home to the Davis Air Repair and the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers, which offer additional services to the aviation community.

The Davis Air Repair provides repair and maintenance services for aircraft, while the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers offers flight instruction to anyone who is interested in learning how to fly an airplane or even obtaining a pilot’s license. “[The Cal Aggie Flying Farmers] is a flying club,” said Cliff Contreras, director of TAPS. “It is a host of pilots that provide instructions [to the public] on how to fly, whether you’re a student, staff, faculty or someone within the community.”

There is no set amount of lessons that a student is required to take. Students can register for as many classes as they need to develop the skills necessary to obtain their pilot’s licenses.

Students who only wish to fly once may ask for a demo flight, in which they get 30 minutes in the air.

Flight instruction at the University Airport consists of both classroom training and air training.

“Each time you go there, you have a brief demo with a little toy plane, and the instructor will tell you [...] how the air flows and what you can do with the plane,” said David Fung, a fourth-year applied statistics major. “Then you go into lesson and you practice those skills. It’s a mixture of both class and going in the air — and then coming back down and having a debrief of what you did right and what you did wrong.”

In addition to offering flight training, the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers also provides aircraft

rentals for licensed pilots.

The University Airport is in association with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which also sets the airport’s regulations.

Currently, the University Airport and the FAA are focusing on renovating the airport’s 3,150 foot runway.

“Anything in flight is controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration,” Contreras said.

“A high-priority project for us [and] for the FAA is improving our runway.”

There are only about 20 airports nationwide that are university-affiliated. UC Davis is the only UC campus to own an airport.

“The fact that [the airport is] owned by a public university [is] almost unprecedented,” Fung said. “Also, the flight school [is] non-profit, so if you were to get a training course for a [pilot] license, this would probably be the cheapest place to get your flight lessons.”

Students believe that the University Airport and its training classes are a great way for those with an interest in aviation to gain hands-on experience with aircraft flying.

“I believe there’s a liability in the [flying] classes, but I think that it’s a good idea because it opens opportunities for people,” said Kasy Tu, a third-year managerial economics major.

“I think it just depends on the regulations — who can be teaching the classes, who can fly and when — but overall I think it’s a good idea.”

With the airport’s many resources in aviation training, Contreras hopes to establish a stronger connection between the airport’s programs and UC Davis academics.

“We think it’s quite the jewel within the university resources to have our own airport,” Contreras said. “We are starting to build more interest from the academic community, and seeing the airport as something that can help the university serve its mission. If we can tie ourselves more closely to academics, then that’s our goal.”

More information about the airport and its services can be found on TAPS’ official website.

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According to Andy Fell, UC Davis associate director of news and media relations, the Primate Center follows strict regulations needed to protect its animals.

“Unfortunately accidents do happen,” Fell said.

“Research is strictly regulated. Care of animals is a responsibility that UC Davis takes extremely seriously.”

Ohio watchdog group Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN) also filed a report to the USDA based on the multiple infractions at the UC Davis Primate Center.

“Major violations of the Animal Welfare Act

continue to pile up at UC Davis, and these failures to comply with the federal law appear to be fatal almost without exception,” said SAEN co-founder Michael Budkie. “It is pathetic that Davis can’t even manage to follow the law when it is already the target of a federal probe.”

The Primate Center performs cutting-edge research on illnesses such as HIV and the Zika virus and is home to one of the top research centers for autism nationwide. Truvada, currently the top HIV drug on the market, was developed via resources at the Primate Center. The UC Davis Primate Center is one of only seven in the nation.

OVERCROWDING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

kind of hard to move around there.”

A separate yet similar challenge which Morrow currently faces is finding adequate space for the UC Davis club rugby team to practice on.

“Oftentimes this year, we practice on Hutchison Field and about half of that field is taken up by [intramural] sports,” Morrow said. “There’s a group of graduate students that goes and plays soccer out there a couple times a week and oftentimes we will have to go and talk to them and be like, ‘Hey guys, we have this field reserved actually.’ That’s kind of a testament to the fact that there are students who want to go out and have access to these open areas but there’s not enough space to accommodate all that.”

In recent years, UC Davis has resorted to using unconventional spaces as classrooms and lecture halls, including Jackson Hall in the Mondavi Center.

“I have a class in the Mondavi Center right now,” Morrow said. “I don’t think that was put there to accommodate academic needs. They are going to have to start finding more unconventional ways to house these students. [...] I think it would be more worthwhile to just focus on your student body and making sure their experience is good without [...] trying to enlarge it when you don’t have the resources available.”

Alternatively, Matt Traxler, associate vice provost for academic planning, supports the use of Jackson Hall as a lecture hall.

“I have been in Jackson Hall when it was being used for classes, and in my experience as a professor,

it works perfectly fine as a lecture hall space,” Traxler said. “It’s a beautiful facility and the acoustics are fantastic. There have been some issues with some sound and display, but those have been worked through by the staff at Mondavi and I am confident that those issues have been addressed.”

Traxler believes that UC Davis’ most pressing concern is the need for larger lecture spaces, leading the university to turn to places like Jackson Hall.

“The reason why we approached Mondavi Center is because on this campus, the space needs we have are particularly acute in the larger classroom spaces,” Traxler said. “There are some smaller classrooms where [...] the supply is sufficient to meet the projected demand. [...] Using Jackson Hall essentially gives us another large lecture space we can use while we finish off the new large lecture hall on California [Avenue], the rebuilding of Walker Hall and so on.

With a vast number of students transporting from class to class via bikes, bike parking is also considered in the choosing of lecture hall locations. “[Bike parking is] something we worked on when we approached the Mondavi Center about using Jackson Hall,” Traxler said. “It’s something we talked to the Shrem Museum before they are letting us use their large lecture space. That corner of campus did not have much by way of bike parking so we made some investments to increase the number of bike parking spots over there so students taking courses [over there] would have a place to put their bikes.”

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Christian. All of us are or have been in InterVarsity.

All of us wholeheartedly oppose this policy as siblings in Christ.”

InterVarsity/USA has said that staff members would be allowed to stay as long as they uphold the group’s theological principles.

Zac Fielding, a third-year psychology and sociology double major and a member of Davis’ InterVarsity who identifies as queer, said that the InterVarsity’s new position is affecting its students and staff in a different way.

“I think this specific policy is different because before, a lot of the ways in which InterVarsity would sort of go into the personal lives of their staff members, were things about pre-marital sex, drug use and alcohol abuse,” Fielding said. “And I think in those cases, they’re reaching into the personal lives of their staff members more so from a way that didn’t necessarily devalue them as people.”

For Nguyen, a singular interpretation of what the Bible says about human sexuality goes against many of the practices she has learned in her time at InterVarsity.

“By creating a policy like this, it’s politicizing something that is incredibly personal,” Nguyen said. “I would say that InterVarsity is overreaching

by making staff all agree on one theological interpretation, especially because inductive study is all about having different interpretations.”

As an interdenominational organization, InterVarsity uses inductive Bible study by focusing on scriptures and sharing interpretations amongst its members.

Fielding said that the UC Davis campus’ diversity helps bring in members of different backgrounds.

With the new policy, he said that InterVarsity as a national organization should keep in mind that many of the students that take part in its membership.

“We’re fortunate in a way where Davis is a more liberal community, so InterVarsity at [UC Davis] is more liberal,” Fielding said. “But I think it’s because InterVarsity [is] a national public organization, they pride themselves in reaching out to students and helping students and serving students.

And so I think the students that they are serving should have some sort of say in how InterVarsity serves them. [...] If InterVarsity is attempting to serve students in a way which is actually harming students [...] then it’s more the organization’s problem to fix versus the students’ [problem].”

MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

“It would have been important to college students because our mental health resources on campus currently are poor,” Nagey said via e-mail. “Mental health accommodations can not be at best a B-. This means students are waiting weeks to get their first appointment just to get quickly deferred to another resource off-campus that costs students a lot of money.”

Dr. Dorje Jennette, director of academic satellites for Student Health and Counseling Services, said he

expects that follow-up efforts to improve the bill are achievable. He thinks AB 2017 would be beneficial to the UC Davis community’s mental health.

“We would have the opportunity to go the extra mile in promoting resilience among all UC Davis students, in improving the coping skills of students who have had to fight an uphill battle to succeed and in streamlining access to thorough professional care,” Jennette said via e-mail.

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gitimacy problem that could significantly affect the stability of these nations now as well as in the future.

In terms of shared experiences and lessons learned, Brexit appears irreversible despite some of its supporters being confident they can renegotiate a deal with the EU that favors Great Britain.

On the contrary, in Colombia, despite the election’s results, there is still an opportunity to renegotiate the agreement already signed and achieve some form of peace.

Although the result is uncertain, the truth is that both political forces (no and yes supporters) have attenuated their differences and considered other creative options that include ideas from both sides of the debate.

In the end, if a renegotiation was to be achieved, the peace process would gain more legitimacy

from the people. And if there was more consensus among the people, implementation of a final peace plan would be significantly easier.

In the case of the United States, no matter what the results of the election are, the winning candidate should take into account the claims of people who did not support them, precisely as a way to not dig deeply into the feelings of hate that have seemed to run through both candidates’ campaigns.

Still, this would only seem possible if the winner is Hillary Clinton, who is conciliatory and has not resorted to Donald Trump’s xenophobia and hate.

Natalia Arbeláez Jaramillo is a Colombian lawyer and a former technical advisor in the Congress of the Republic of Colombia. She is currently taking an Intensive English Program at UC Davis.

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provide personal comfort in times of stress.

“Whenever I’m having a bad day, I’ll just pick [...] up [my cat] and cuddle with her,” said Lindsay Hedgecock, fourth-year community and regional development major. “She’s super sweet.”

Despite the challenges that balancing schoolwork, extracurriculars and a pet can pose, animal adoption can be overall beneficial to both the owners

and the animals.

Students can return from school to see a rescued furry friend, but more importantly, the animals find loving homes.

“I’m a dog person. I’ve had a lot of dogs growing up,” Clausen said. “I love [that] they cuddle up with you and then they fall asleep and snore — it’s so cute.”

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Commission chair Allison Tam introduced GASC Commissioners Mary Rasooli, Sheyla Mirka Dirzo, Savannah Vandenbos and Weizheng Zhang. Dalavai also moved to confirm Rasooli, Dirzo, Vandenbos and Zhang to the Gender and Sexuality Commission. The motion was seconded with no objections.

President Alex Lee then introduced Whole Earth Festival (WEF) director Jess Tierney.

Before confirmed as director, Tierney said that she hoped to fix WEF’s relationship with ASUCD and explained her goals for this year. Tierney said she would like WEF and ASUCD to work together to foster open communication and mutual respect.

Her goal is to have a more student-focused festival.

“I would like to essentially create a festival for students by students,” Tierney said.

Senator Ricardo Martinez moved to confirm Tierney as Whole Earth Festival director. The motion was seconded and there were no objections.

The senators moved on to consideration of old legislation and discussed Senate Bills seven and nine as well as Senate Resolution one.

SB 7 would have allocated $720 for the ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission’s (GASC) publicity, outreach and supplies. At the meeting Tam withdrew the bill.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

SB 9 is an ASUCD Senate Bill to allocate $61 for Housing Advising for Undergraduate Students to purchase a vinyl banner to help them advertise for Housing Day. Dalavai moved to call the bill into question. The motion was seconded. The motion carried unanimously and there were no objections to passing the bill.

SR 1 calls for the halt in the designation of the next chancellor of UC Davis until a more transparent and democratic process for selection and appointment has been established. Senate Pro Tempore Adilla Jamaludin moved to call the resolution into question. The motion was seconded. The motion carried unanimously and there were no objections to passing the resolution.

New legislation was then introduced. The Senate first discussed the ASUCD bill to exempt Unitrans, KDVS and The California Aggie’s social media pages from including ASUCD in their social media page titles. They also discussed the bill to increase spending limits during elections, the ASUCD resolution to stand in solidarity with Standing Rock and the ASUCD bill to allocate $270.50 for Aggie Reuse.

The meeting closed with elected officer reports, announcements and approval of past meeting minutes. The meeting adjourned at 9:48 p.m.

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customers.

Candace is excited by their newfound popularity and becomes part of the first feminist superstore, marketing and profiting from feminism entering the mainstream. Toni is enraged at Candace’s willingness to be a figurehead for feminism and ultimately inspires their earthy-crunchy feminist following to take down the “Femi-Mart.”

Portlandia doubles down on satire in episodes like “First Feminist City”; not only does the show itself mock aggressive and exclusive feminism, but

it also exposes the flaws of the feminist community within the show.

The synchronicities within the two utopias created by Portlandia are fascinating, layered and contemporary. Armisen and Brownstein mock a world that they are a part of, both in fiction and reality, living flawed and inconsistent lives.

Still, when I walk through Sebastopol and pass the bead store, I can’t help but feel Portlandia has somewhat accurately represented the absurd quirks and realities of living in a liberal utopia.

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this single-story, 30,000-square-foot building.

Moreover, the intricate dappled patterns on the canopy turn the intense nearby lighting into changing shadows and silhouettes.

“I also love how well our architects thought about the whole experience, and our mission of having people come to experience the space, not just visit,” said Elisa Massenzio, a fourth-year design and Italian double major at UC Davis and student assistant at Manetti Shrem Museum.

Apart from the grand lobby, the museum also has a courtyard and two lounges for visitors to relax, along with free Wi-Fi and plenty of power outlets.

The new museum aims to serve all UC Davis students, not singularly those who study art or art history. In fact, there will be a reception for current UC Davis students the night before the museum

opens, complete with music, pizza and student performances.

The museum has also created a student coalition to try to engage all students. Students can apply to be a member of the coalition and get involved in various museum projects.

“The museum wants to be a community space for students, and the best way to do that is have it be by students,” said Carmel Dor, coordinator of student engagement at Manetti Shrem Museum. “Students will also get a taste of the different things that happen in a museum and get to shape the student experience.”

For more information about Manetti Shrem Museum, visit its website, manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu.

Admission is free for all visitors.

Another focus of paleobiology research involves understanding the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis on Earth. Dawn Sumner, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, collaborates with the Natural History Museum of London, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Canterbury, New Zealand to discover new characteristics of photosynthetic bacteria.

“Right now I am working with bacteria that grow in lakes in Antarctica that are photosynthetic during the summer but not during the long, dark winters,” Sumner said.

Sumner and her team analyze the evolutionary relationships between these bacteria and similar organisms in order to explain how oxygenic photosynthesis evolved. Such research can benefit climatologists and geologists, since the appearance of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has drastically affected Earth’s ocean acidity, atmosphere and potential for life over time.

Sumner’s experience with understanding early life on Earth made her an excellent candidate for a NASA committee seeking evidence of life on Mars. “[We had to ask] how do you look for life on another planet when it might not exist? How do you make that search useful scientifically even if life never existed on Mars?” Sumner said.

The committee sent the Curiosity Rover to

a location on Mars where there may once have been liquid water. The goal was to analyze the sediments there and see if the environment could have harbored life similar to life on Earth.

“We have found evidence [of ] ancient lakes and rivers that were once capable of supporting life similar to some bacteria on Earth,” Sumner said. “We do not have any evidence that life was actually present; we have not found any fossils.”

Exploring Mars with a robot gave scientists ground images that couldn’t have been seen before. Although the robot has limitations when it comes to data collection, the results are highly valuable.

“Results also show that the surface of Earth and Mars were likely similar when both planets were young, 4.6 to 3 billion years ago,” Sumner said.

Mars is very different than Earth and is extremely cold, so it is unlikely that life could persist, at least near the surface.

Many labs on campus offer undergraduate students opportunities to pursue research in paleobiology. The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences website lists professors and research groups currently working on projects. “[Paleobiology is] something you can pursue for the rest of your life if you are really interested,” Motani said.

SEDARIS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

the “uncomfortable” bits that make it so easy to relate to.

“He goes into a lot of detail about issues that his family had, and it’s very personal but also very funny! A lot of it’s very tragic, but it grips you — he mixes it in and tempers it with a lot of humor,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez also addressed why one would attend a live reading session with an author and the benefits that this could provide compared to only reading their work.

He believes that “hearing one of his stories performed live is almost like experiencing it for the first time,” and that one does not necessarily have had to have read his work in order to be moved by the author.

Jacinda Townsend, an assistant professor of English and the author of Saint Monkey, also believes in the power of seeing an author live.

“When a writer reads to you, you’re having a whole different experience than you are when you are simply connecting to it on the page,” Townsend said. “Literature is a way to understand the human condition, and actually going to see an author talking about how he or she went about turning these marks on paper into an understanding of the human condition is just a marvelous thing.”

Sedaris certainly touches upon the human condition in his work; he has written about his sister’s tragic suicide and the difficulties of family life.

Sedaris is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and often reads his work on NPR, the platform which originally put him on the map. He has mastered the art of work that is both interesting and translates well to being read aloud.

Jeremy Ganter, the associate executive director and director of programming at the Mondavi Center, is also a fan of the author.

“The live Sedaris experience is uniquely communal — he knows how to connect with an audience — and that adds new dimensions and inflections to his work. For me, and I’m sure for many others, it’s similar to seeing the script of a beloved play finally realized in front of you,” Ganter said.

Since writers can be underrepresented in terms of appearances at larger venues, the benefit to students of having an author welcomed for a large event cannot be ignored.

“For students, particularly those exploring creative pursuits, I can think of few better examples of the power of writing about what you know. His work is deeply personal but is often so side-splittingly funny that you just can’t help being open and happy about hearing what he has to say, warts and all, about himself and about human nature,” Ganter said.

The event will take place at 8 p.m. in Jackson Hall. For more information about ticketing, please visit the Mondavi Center website at https://tickets. mondaviarts.org.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

10 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

ARTS & Culture Kanye West and Cirque Du Soleil just an Uber ride away

New Golden 1 Center offers more-accessible entertainment venue for UC Davis students

CO MMS CO P E [CC BY 2 .0] / F LIC K R

BY CARAJOY KLEI N R O C K arts@ th e ag g i e . o rg

Sick of trying to find a way to get to San Francisco or Oakland for concerts?

Look no further than the new Golden 1 Center. Located in the heart of downtown Sacramento and home of the Sacramento Kings, the Golden 1 Center is a multi-purpose arena that hosts concerts

and other entertainment events.

Unlike some large arenas, the center has implemented many new sustainable practices. Sacramento is known for its farm-to-fork philosophy, and Golden 1 honors that by bringing concessions from within a 150-mile radius, and donating all leftover food to Sacramento Community Food Bank and Family Services. On top of that, any leftover fryer

oil is converted to biodiesel by a local family-run business.

Another new aspect to the center is the Art Collection. This collection is the result of the Sacramento Kings’ partnership with the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. The team has already contributed art currently displayed in downtown Sacramento and has also donated $5.5 million to the “Art in Public

Spaces” program.

And no need to fret about getting tickets — this new arena has a seating capacity of 17,500, so there will be plenty of chances to get tickets to sporting events and concerts.

Here are some highlights of the upcoming season: Kanye West: SAINT PABLO TOUR / Sunday, Nov. 19 at 9 p.m.; tickets start at $26 Kanye has added a second leg to his tour along with new dates and locations, including Sacramento. Tickets went on sale on Oct. 22 at www.livenation.com.

This tour promotes his chart-topping new album The Life of Pablo.

Cirque Du Soleil: Toruk — The First Flight / Wednesday, Nov. 30 to Sunday, Dec. 4; tickets range from $30-$100 This new Cirque Du Soleil show is based on James Cameron’s Avatar. This show takes audience members to the world of Pandora to experience storytelling like never before. Cirque Du Soleil is

known for its beautiful visuals and ability to transform venues into different worlds through the power of dance acrobatics.

Electric Christmas / Thursday, Dec. 8 at 6 p.m.; tickets are $36, $40 and $75.

Fan of alternative music? Check out this event hosted by Radio 94.7, the best radio station in the Greater Sacramento area for alternative artists. The lineup for this event includes Capital Cities, Milky Chance, Glass Animals, The Naked and Famous and Warpaint. And since this event is at the end of finals week, it can serve as a good way to end finals on a high note.

V101 Throwback Holiday Jam / Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m.; tickets range from $30-$75 The event features live performances

by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Juvenile, BLACKstreet, Ginuwine, En Vogue, Baby Bash, Zapp and JJ Fad. It is put on by Pacific Concert Group and the V101 radio station, Sacramento’s home for throwback hip hop and R&B.

David Sedaris returns to UC Davis Author and humorist hopes to entertain, inspire

BY PARI SAGAFI ar ts @the aggie .org

VENO OS M OSHAY E DI / AGGIE

There aren’t many authors who have been nominated for several Grammy Awards, won Time’s “Humorist of the Year” and whose non-fiction essay about being “Crumpet the Elf ” at a Macy’s department store has become a classic NPR holiday tradition. This may explain why author, humorist and radio

contributor David Sedaris is so incredibly popular. Time and again he has impressed audiences with his mainly autobiographical work that seamlessly weaves together the tales of family life, humor and everything in between.

Sedaris will be returning to the Mondavi Center on Nov. 11 for “An Evening with David Sedaris,” where he will be reading from essay collections and engaging with the audi-

ence.

Jose Ramirez, a fifth-year English and computer science double major, believes that Sedaris has cross-platform appeal as an author and a humorist and likened Sedaris to the closest thing we have to a rock-star author. Ramirez appreciates the brutal honesty of Sedaris’ autobiographical work, including SEDARIS on PAGE 9

The data is in:

DATA. D N TA S R E D N U O H W S D A R ERAL ARTS G B LI T N A W S IE N A P M O C P TO

So supercharge your skills (and your resume) by taking your major and applying it to the world of data.

Register now!

Introduction to Data Studies, CRN: 42208 • Instructor: Joseph Dumit (http://dumit.net), MW 4:10 PM - 6:00 PM WELLMAN 119 (The course is listed as STS.198 “Directed Group Study.” It has variable units so students must manually select four units.)

Businesses, institutions and governments run on data. This course provides a hands-on introduction to the role of data, data-based jobs and the value of critical thinking and social science in approaching data in the business world. You will learn how to evaluate, visualize and present results. Using a case-based approach, the course will cover how to: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Use Excel to organize and manipulate files.

Use databases to search and display data.

Use interviews and ethnography to address stakeholders involved in making decisions.

Manage files and databases for maximum efficiency.

Together, these skills will enable you to identify new opportunities from data assets, communicate with data scientists and executives, and interpret insights from data analysis.

For more information, email: datastudies@ucdavis.edu

iss.ucdavis.edu/datastudies

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016| 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

A night of blessings AMY HOA N G / AGGIE

Sunday school with Chance the Rapper

BY A M ANDA ONG arts@ th e ag g i e . o rg

It was the Sunday night before week 6 — before a week full of midterms and papers — but nobody in the Pavilion seemed to care, because we were all too busy enjoying the whimsical, heartfelt and joyful experience that is Chance the Rapper’s Magnificent Coloring World Tour.

Chance certainly brought his best to Davis, dancing and spinning and bantering with the various puppets on stage, a touch that sometimes made me

feel like I was watching some bizarre and ridiculously entertaining episode of the Muppets. The set design itself was incredible, with dazzling and complementary lights accompanying each new song.

Chance was backed by a drummer, keyboardist and trumpeter, additions that added effusive energy to an already vibrant concert. There is an infectious joy to his live performance that makes it impossible not to smile and dance along, even when I was thinking about the pages of Chaucer I had to read after the show.

But a review of Chance’s show would be incom-

plete without mention of the controversy that has accompanied the Davis concert. The ASUCD Entertainment Council shut down the initial event page after a student who asked non-black folks to give up their floor seats to black students became the victim of a barrage of racist and transphobic attacks. This ugly incident revealed that racism is still very much alive in Davis, California, no matter how hard some people may try to deny it. Spaces like the Chance concert exist for healing, and for dealing with all the pent-up anger that comes from attending an institution that was not made for you, one that is hostile to your very being.

Near the end of show, Chance treated the crowd to a rousing rendition of “All We Got,” a song that includes the lines “Music is all we got / So we might as well give it all we got.” Hip-hop stems from music like African slave spirituals, jazz, blues and gospel — genres that black people developed in order to survive systematic oppression in America — and while it’s true that anyone can enjoy Chance’s unique brand of hip-hop, non-black students will never be able to truly identify with the “we” that Chance and Kanye are referring to because that is simply not a part of their identity. And that’s okay.

What’s not acceptable is victim blaming, tone policing and quoting someone out of context. Eli Flesch argued in his latest opinion piece that the Chance controversy is evidence that UC Davis is fall-

ing into a “culture of victimhood.” He blames identity politics for causing minority groups to “retreat inward” — as if it were a bad thing that people of color would want to find community with each other and not share something with the white people who have long been upholding systems of oppression.

Identity politics are not polluting the American university. People chalking “Trump 2016” around student cultural centers and college groups hosting events called “An Illegal Immigrant Killed My Child” are polluting our university. People need to continue rallying against hateful incidents like these and ignoring critics who insist on having a “civil and polite dialogue.” Being angry and being an activist are not mutually exclusive things. Ignoring identity means downplaying the anger and frustration that is part of the lived experience of people of color; asking people to “rise above identity politics” is a slippery slope that leads to comments like “I don’t see race.”

The crowd at the Pavilion exploded in deafening cheers when Chance burst into his verse from Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam.”

“This is my part, nobody else speak / This is my part, nobody else speak” Chance rapped, saying it twice in case we didn’t hear the message the first time: sit down and be quiet, especially if you’re going to speak on a topic you don’t know about. Maybe it’s time to educate yourself and give someone else the chance to speak their part.

New CAMPUS museum opens to public on Nov. 13 Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art grand opening to feature four innovative exhibitions

BY BE TTY WU ar ts @the aggie .org

The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art will hold its grand opening on Sunday, Nov. 13 at 10 a.m.. Four opening exhibitions — Out Our Way, Hoof & Foot: A Field Study, A Pot for Latch and The Making of a Museum — will be displayed following the grand opening.

Out Our Way presents the creations of 12 artists hired by Richard Nelson, the founding chair of UC Davis Department of Art in the 1960s.

Hoof & Foot: A Field Study is a video project by Chris Sollars, a Bay Area artist and art

B ECC A RI D G E / AGGI E

JAY GE LV E ZO N / AG G I E F I LE

Introducing the Davis Chamber Choir

BY A L LY OVERBAY arts@ th e ag g i e . o rg

The Liquid Hotplates, the Lounge Lizards, the Spokes: these student-run a cappella groups are ubiquitous on the UC Davis campus. With a repertoire of pop mash-ups and catchy melodies, their performances have an effortless appeal.

But lesser known is the Davis Chamber Choir (DCC), which lacks such campus familiarity.

But that’s not to say its sound is any less lovable; Ashley West, second-year music and sociology double major and DCC member, emphasized that DCC performs a variety of tracks.

“It’s a different approach, I would say. It’s classical music — but not all of it; we do jazz and pop interspersed with that. That makes us different than other student music groups on campus,” West said.

DCC members, who are mostly

professor at Mills College in Oakland. The video shows the symbiotic relationship between animals on the UC Davis campus and the life of UC Davis students.

A Pot for Latch is an interactive exhibition, in which attendees can participate by exchanging artwork with the museum’s selected collections. This is an activity designed for people to look back at the growth of the Department of Art as well as forward to the exciting future.

“This is actually related to the 1960s art faculties and their costumes, because in the 1960s art faculties used to give art to each other,” said Karen Nikos-Rose, the associate director and media representative at Manetti Shrem Museum.

The Making of a Museum will exhibit videos, models and drawings that illustrate the fascinating process of constructing the museum.

As the most anticipated building debuting in the coming month, no one can overlook the museum’s impressive architecture. SO-IL, an internationally-renowned architecture firm founded in Brooklyn, New York, created the striking design that is visible from Interstate 80.

The design’s signature feature is the Grand Canopy outside the museum. At first glance, the Grand Canopy is an imposing cover for MANETTI GRAND OPENING on PAGE 9

Davis Chamber Choir offers different approach to a cappella trained musicians, have a strong overlap with other campus organizations like Band-Uh! and various a cappella groups.

“From the other a cappella groups, I get that for them it is a fun activity more than it is theoretical. There’s definitely more of a nerdy type [in DCC],” West said.

Yet DCC is no stranger to fun.

Whether it’s performing at the Bookstore’s grand opening this fall or caroling around the holiday season, DCC ensures its performances are lively and entertaining — and that its friendships are strong.

In fact, personal relationships are heavily emphasized for the chamber choir. Nicole Villalon, second-year student animal science and music double major, explained that, for her, DCC was a way to meet people immediately after arriving in Davis.

“I’ve always viewed choir as a place where I can meet my closest friends, especially at a new school. So I decided to join choir here so I could get a head start on meeting people,” Villalon said.

West mentioned the importance of DCC friendships, despite the group’s recent growth and the challenges that such growth entails.

“We’re a bigger group than usual.

We were 24-ish last year, and now we’re more like 30 — which is awesome; now we have this big sound. But we want to maintain the closeness and the friendship aspect, so we have to be more intentional about that this year,” West said.

But like any on-campus organization, DCC has faced its fair share of challenges. After a recent policy change by the Department of Music, DCC (and other non-department music organizations on campus) was no longer able to practice in the music building. It now holds its biweekly rehearsals in Olson Hall.

However, West emphasized that this was in no way a conflict between DCC and the Music Department, but simply a minor inconvenience the group faced and overcame.

“Another thing that’s come up is satisfying different people’s wants with the

repertoire. Some people want to do more carols, [and] some people say we need to do more pop songs,” West said. “Obviously there’s no way to please everyone, and [it’s a challenge] trying to balance that so everyone can be really excited about what we’re singing.”

Less challenging for DCC, however, is music. With consistent rehearsal schedules and a dedicated (and talented) team, its performances are a wonderful surprise.

West noted that the majority of the group’s audience is musically trained, but anyone can enjoy their music.

“People who aren’t [musically] trained enjoy our music, but they wouldn’t know that they would,” West said. “Like the ‘choir’ in the name is off-putting, or something.”

But, of course, talent supersedes recognition. Don’t believe it? Take a listen.

Check out DCC’s cover of Steam Powered Giraffe’s “Honeybee” on YouTube, or attend the group’s performance at the annual Alotta Capella event on Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.

Today's society shown through interpretive dance 8 Seconds showcases impact of technology on attention spans

CINDY CH E U NG / AG G IE

BY KRI SHAN MI T H A L art s@ t he ag g i e . o rg

The Pamela Trokanski Dance Workshop, which displays thought-provoking performances through dance, is now performing its latest show, 8 Seconds — a humorous look at how increased dependence

on technology has decreased our attention spans.

The title of the show is a reference to studies that show that, thanks to the prevalence of social media, eight seconds is now the average attention span of an adult.

Trokanski believes that the performance is important because it raises questions regarding the

positives and negatives of focus. “[The show] allows the audience member an opportunity to reflect on their own personal attention spans and that of human beings as a species and consider the implications [...] the performance is also a visceral experience of how different kinds of attention spans are at play at any given time,” Trokanski said.

The performance’s main themes are painfully relevant when considering society today and people’s inundation of information. 8 Seconds intends to bring this issue to light with a little bit of humor.

Karen Zhong, a fourth-year molecular biology major, has been to other Pamela Trokanski performances and admires how dance is incorporated into the performances to convey important messages.

“It’s something you have to see for yourself [...] interpretive dance is pretty undermined in my opinion, but it so effectively conveys the themes of the act,” Zhong said.

Nia Gill, a fourth-year psychology major, thinks

that 8 Seconds delves into an issue many are not consciously aware of.

“Because we have been so consumed with gadgets and all this stuff for a long time, we don’t even think about how this is affecting us [...] performances like these are important because it makes us reevaluate our actions,” Gill said.

“Brains are clearly changing as a result of technology [...] changes in technology are having significant ramifications,” Trokanski explained.

The cast and crew have been preparing the various aspects of the performance, like choreography and dancer interactions, since August. Trokanski is no stranger to hectic schedules; she has been teaching several classes a week, producing and choreographing other performances and fundraising.

Even with her busy schedule, Trokanski found time to create 8 Seconds.

The show opened on Oct. 30 and will continue running through Nov. 5. For more information, please contact pamela@trokanski.com or visit www.trokanski.com

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDSAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

BACKSTOP CH ELBE RT DA I / AGGIE

UC Davis swimming AND diving claims strong victory over BYU

The Aggies move to 5-2 on season, defeat Cougars 172-128

BY NICO L E T T E SA R M I E N TO sports@theaggie.org

The UC Davis swimming and diving team dominated the Brigham Young University Cougars 172-128 at Schaal Aquatics Center last Friday, Oct. 28, winning 12 of the 16 events.

The Aggies started strong with a win in the 200 medley relay with a season record time of 1:45:68. The Cougars responded with a win in the 1000 free and 200 free, putting them up 33-22.

However, UC Davis responded with sophomore Solie Laughlin and senior Elise Roberts setting their season-best records for the 100 back and 100 breast, respectively.

The Aggies swept the 50 free event with senior Kirsten Brand, junior Courtney Schultz and freshman Jaime Pincin all posting top times to put UC Davis back on top 116-91. Schultz and Pincin then split the first place medal in the 100 free with a shared time of 52.50, making it Pincin’s first individual win as an Aggie.

UC Davis pulled away as Laughlin won in the 200 back. Roberts touched the wall first to win the 200 breast, and redshirt senior Marissa Brown won her event in the 500 free.

Other notable victories for the Aggies included sophomore Eva Chung in the 200 individual medley and sophomore Mia Facey, Brand, Pincin and Schultz in the 400 free relay.

On the diving side, sophomore Shaifali Goyal, senior Serena Yee and sophomore Inessa Toropov placed in the top five spots in the 3-meter.

Goyal and Yee closed with a 1-2 on the low board to put a cap on the day.

With this win, UC Davis goes up 5-2 on the season and 3-0 against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opponents. The Aggies return to Schaal Aquatics Center to host a meet against Nevada and Cal State East Bay on Nov. 4 at 4 p.m.

UC DAVIS MEN’S WATER POLO BATTLES TO WIN HARD-FOUGHT GAME IN FINAL MINUTES The Aggies fight hard Saturday to earn a 10-9 win over Pepperdine University

IAN JO NE S / AG G IE

BY RYAN BUGSCH sports@theaggie.org

The overcast weather last Saturday afternoon at Schaal Aquatics Center did not foreshadow the UC Davis men’s water polo performance, as an intense and hard-fought non-conference game allowed the Aggies to come out victorious over the Pepperdine University Waves, 10-9. Leading up to this game, UC Davis and Pepperdine were both tied for the No. 8 spot by the NCAA Men’s Water Polo Rankings, and the win moved the Aggies to an overall record of 19-4 on the year.

Freshmen center Eric Martel and attacker Yurii Hanley, sophomores utility Sasa Antunovic and utility Nick Coufal and juniors attacker Cory Laidig and utility Morgan Olson-Fabbro all found the back of the net to contribute to the UC Davis win. Junior goalkeeper Spencer Creed also came out strong in the match, saving eight of the 14 Pepperdine shots in the first half.

Martel scored the first goal for the Aggies in the first set to give the team a 1-1 tie after the first period. Antunovic and sophomore attacker Marcus Anderson would each score in the second period of play to give the Aggies the lead at 6:44, but the Waves scored three unanswered goals to take the 4-3 lead at halftime.

“We didn’t talk about how many goals we were down,” head coach Daniel Leyson said. “We just talked about what we needed to do and tried to stay focus and calm. [The team] really responded well and battled back a couple times which was really great.”

Laidig scored in the third period to tie the game at 4-4. By the 3:38 mark in this period, Pepperdine scored two more goals to take a 6-4 lead. Coufal found the back of the net for the Ag-

gies, and with Hanley not far behind, they were soon tied at 6-6.

Pepperdine made a penalty shot with 2:06 left in the third, and sophomore attacker Ido Goldschmidt equalized for the Aggies with just seconds left in the third period, tying the game at 7-7.

At the start of the fourth period, Anderson added another goal to his name, but Pepperdine quickly countered with its own to tie the game at 8-8. Olson-Fabbro scored his first goal of the game for the Aggies to give them the lead, but the back and forth scoring continued as the Waves tied the game once more, at 9-9.

With 2:45 left in the game, Goldschmidt scored a high goal to give the Aggies a 10-9 lead. Pepperdine received a possession with 13 seconds left, but the defense from UC Davis prevented any chance of a goal, and the Aggie came away with a win.

“I think if you emerge victorious in such a hard fought battle against a team that has beaten us before, it is a great testament to how hard these guys are working and that can give us more confidence moving forward,” Leyson said.

Saturday's win was against the highest ranked opponent the Aggies have beaten since the opening weekend of the 2015 season.

The UC Davis men’s water polo team finishes its conference play this week with two home games, one against Loyola Marymount Thursday at 6 p.m., and the other against UC San Diego Saturday at 12 p.m.

“We are going to try to get better one step at a time,” Leyson said. “We know that LMU and San Diego are huge conference rivals and they always give us their best performance. They are gonna come in here and give us a very tough game, so we need to be on top of our game and prepared for tough battles.”

GAMES THIS WEEK Men's water polo (Schaal Aquatics Center): Thursday, Nov. 3 vs. Loyola Marymount at 6 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 5 vs. UC San Diego at 12 p.m.

Women's volleyball (The ARC Pavilion): Thursday, Nov. 3 vs. UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 5 vs. Cal Poly SLO at 7 p.m.

Swimming & diving (Schaal Aquatics Center): Friday, Nov. 4 vs. Nevada and Cal State East Bay at 4 p.m.

Men's & women's cross country (Putah Creek Reserve): Saturday, Nov. 5, Doc Adams Open at 10 a.m.

Women's basketball (The ARC Pavilion): Friday, Nov. 4 vs. Stanislaus State at 7 p.m.

Football (Aggie Stadium): Saturday, Nov. 5 vs. Portland State at 4 p.m.

TEAM RESULTS 1. UC Davis, 172 2. BYU, 128

ZHEN LU / AGGI E

RUSSELL WESTBROOK'S YEAR

BY M IC HAEL W EX L E R sports@theaggie.org

Russell Westbrook was put in a difficult position in the beginning of July.

His longtime partner in crime and teammate, Kevin Durant, opted to join the Golden State Warriors in probably the biggest free agent acquisition in NBA history aside from LeBron James’ decision to join the Miami Heat in 2010.

After Durant’s departure, many fans, analysts and pundits speculated that the Thunder organization was doomed. Westbrook surely had to follow Durant’s footsteps and leave now, right? Many predicted he would bolt at the end of the 2016-2017 season and go back to his hometown, Los Angeles, to bring the Lakers back from the dead. He was born in Long Beach. He went to UCLA. Going to the Lakers was going to be the next move, but it never happened.

Westbrook extended his contract with Oklahoma City. The NBA community assumed he had to go elsewhere. Being in Oklahoma City as a perennial contender is one thing, but fans believed his desire to remain was contingent on the strength of the roster. Westbrook signed a three-year extension worth $85 million to stay in Oklahoma City.

As a self-proclaimed fashion icon agreeing to another three years in a cowboy town that many believe can’t contain personalities such as his, this move was shocking. Now, Westbrook is out to claim that he can do it alone, and he is off to one hell of a start.

Last Friday, Westbrook tallied 51 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists in a game against the Phoenix Suns. This was the first time a 50-point tripledouble has occurred since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it 40 years ago.

Oh, and that wasn’t just some anomaly. Westbrook was just one assist away from tallying another triple-double in the first game of the season. This will be a recurring theme this season.

Westbrook will have some absolutely filthy stat lines this season; he’s out to prove that he doesn’t need KD or anyone else to keep his team near the top of the Western Conference.

Westbrook’s decision to extend with Thunder after Durant’s exit was, in my mind, the most admirable move a prominent athlete has made since I can remember.

Westbrook has the old-school mentality that many former athletes love to see, because it reminds them of their generation. Westbrook never pouted, never complained and took this as a challenge. And it’s fueling him to become a man on a mission.

This breakup has set him on track for a historical season, and I’m clamoring to watch it all unfold. I still get the jitters thinking about Durant vs.

Westbrook Round I on Thursday, Nov. 3.

The matchup between the Warriors and the Thunder won’t encompass all the animosity from the fans that we will see once Durant returns to Oklahoma City, but it should be a memorable one nonetheless.

UC Davis women’s field hockey closes out regular season with home victory Aggies end Senior Day with 2-0 win over Cal Golden Bears

BY BRADLEY GEISER sports@theaggie.org

Before taking the field for the last game of the regular season, the UC Davis women’s field hockey team entered last Friday’s game with a chip on its shoulder and a message to send. The team would not leave quietly.

Whether it was the added pressure of Senior Day or the looming threat of rain, the Aggies took the field against the Cal Golden Bears on Oct. 28, and imposed their will; taking control of the game’s tempo for nearly 70 minutes en route to their 2-0 victory over the visiting team.

“The whole team has worked hard, and it’s always nice to go out on a winning note,” said head coach Chrissy Kilroe.

Before the game, the team honored all of its departing seniors alongside their friends and family members as they took the field before their final home game.

The seniors are goalie Beth Lee, backs Eden Borsack and Lauren Copeland and forwards Courtney Hessler, Kat Jackson, Agustina Singh and Kayla Wigney.

“I’m really proud of them,” Kilroe said.

“It’s not easy to have a new coach [senior year] playing different systems, but they have 100 percent bought in.”

Not everything came easy for the field hockey team this season, which ended regu-

lar season play with a 5-12 record overall.

Despite the hardships that plagued the season, Kilroe believes the year was still a success.

“It was inspiring to see how hard they worked, and how on board they were,” Kilroe said.

Despite the preseason festivities and the looming threat of rain, there was still a game to to be played. The team showed up on the back of Wigney, who came into the game having scored just one goal on the season.

By the end of the first half, however, she had increased that total to three.

“It was really nice to have everything come together and play for 70 minutes and finally get this result,” Wigney said. “I think there was a lot of emotion that went into this game and also a lot of intelligence; and in the end, the emotion and the intelligence paid off.”

While the ball stayed on the offensive side of the field for a majority of the game, especially in the first half, the victory would not have been possible without the stellar goalkeeping of Lee, who helped keep Cal scoreless, including one brief stretch near the end of the first half when she withstood a flurry of kicks from the opposing team.

Lee finished the game with six saves.

“I think we really build our composure off of each other,” Lee said. “[...] My defen-

sive unit really helped our composure during that situation.”

Both Lee and Wigney took time to reflect after the game, sharing what they will miss most about playing with their Aggie teammates.

“It’s been a great journey: four years,” Lee said. “It’s been long, but it’s also been so memorable and so rewarding.”

Wigney’s takeaway came in the form of her teammates, even crediting them for her great night.

“Not many other people in the world will have the opportunity to have the bond, that type of chemistry at this level,” Wigney said. “Just being able to be good friends and being able to play well together is enjoyable.

Kilroe hopes that the graduating seniors recognize their personal growth when reflecting on their time as Aggie athletes.

“I know 100 percent that they have [grown as players] — but I also hope that they have grown as young women and take their leadership skills that they have gained here at UC Davis to become strong, powerful women within their community,” Kilroe said.

While the regular season is over, there is still more field hockey to be played. The UC Davis field hockey team will travel to Stockton to face Albany at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3 for the America East Championship tournament.