April 2 2020

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VOLUME 138, ISSUE 21 | THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

GRASSROOTS GROUPS IN YOLO COUNTY EMERGE TO SHARE INFORMATION, RESOURCES DURING LOCKDOWN Online and over airwaves, local community members band together remotely in a period of social distancing Streets of Davis without activity following a statewide shelter-in-place order by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, March 19 to combat the spread of coronavirus. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie).

“TAKING OUR PERSONAL HEALTH SERIOUSLY”: IMPLICATIONS OF CALIFORNIA’S SHELTER-INPLACE ORDER Order prioritizes public health,

highlighting need for individual hygiene, disrupting serviceindustry jobs

BY EDEN WI NNI FOR D city@theaggie.org

On March 16, California released regulations for retail food and beverage services, including special regulations for farmers markets. According to MacNear, the California Department of Public Health treats farmers markets separately than other food and beverage services because of their abundance in California.

“Certified farmers markets are iconic in the state of California,” MacNear said. “We’re the only state that actually has legislation that authorizes and enforces certified farmers markets as only farmers selling directly to the public.”

One of the regulations includes eliminating, “non-essential/non-related services, such as bands or other entertainment,” according to the California Department of Public Health. For the Davis Farmers Market, that means postponing a beloved springtime tradition — Picnic in the Park — until May 13. A statement released by the Davis Farmers Market describes the reasons behind the cancellation of events.

“The decision to postpone the extended Wednesday evening hours is prompted by Governor Gavin Newsom’s recommendation on Sunday to eliminate public gatherings of more than 50 people for a minimum of eight weeks, to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus,” the statement read.

MacNear said Picnic in the Park is an ideal environment for the potential spread of a virus.

“You have 3,000 people that are all sitting right next to each other, listening to music, dancing and eating together,” MacNear mentioned.

“We will await direction from the city and from the county about that.”

Grocery stores in the Davis area are also carefully heading the regulations, amid panic-buying and shortages during the coronavirus pandemic.

One local grocery store, the Davis Food Co-op, has reduced its hours and increased sanitary measures to provide a safer shopping experience, including providing free gloves for shoppers at the entrance. According to a blog post on their website, the Co-op is also providing opening hours specifically for vulnerable members of the community.

“We designated the first two hours for our

In the wake of the rapidly-escalating COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom mandated a statewide shelter-in-place order.

The executive order declares that all nonessential persons must remain at home.

“To protect public health, I […] order all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors,” Newsom wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security website outlines critical sectors, which include healthcare and transportation. These professions are selected based on their level of impact on community wellbeing.

“Functioning critical infrastructure is imperative during the response to the COVID-19 emergency for both public health and safety as well as community well-being,” the website reads. “Certain critical infrastructure industries have a special responsibility in these times to continue operations.”

Newsom cited concern over public health and the importance of slowing down the spread of the virus.

“This Order is being issued to protect the public health of Californians,” Newsom wrote.

“The California Department of Public Health looks to establish consistency across the state in order to ensure that we mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Our goal is simple, we want to bend the curve, and disrupt the spread of the virus.”

The “curve” refers to the projected number of COVID-19 cases expected in a specific area over a certain period of time. Livescience writer Brandon Specktor explains that bending the curve will spread out the cases and reduce the strain on hospitals, ultimately allowing more lives to be saved.

“The faster the infection curve rises, the quicker the local health care system gets overloaded beyond its capacity to treat people,” Specktor wrote. “A flatter curve, on the other hand, assumes the same number of people ultimately get infected, but over a longer period of time. A slower infection rate means a less stressed health care system, fewer hospital visits on any given day and fewer sick people being turned away.”

Despite the order’s intent of protecting public safety, its closure of dine-in restaurants, bars and salons has resulted in mass layoffs of employees. To decrease this financial burden, California has granted some resources to affected workers, including unemployment pay and temporary grace periods from mortgages and bills.

“If you have been financially affected by COVID-19, you may be eligible for services such as: Unemployment insurance [,] Paid family leave [,] Disability Insurance [and] Relief from financial institutions,” the California Coronavirus Response website reads.

Although there are significant financial and personal impacts of the quarantine, Edison Adler, an first-year undeclared major in life sciences at UC Davis, focused on the positives. He highlighted the attention that the stay-at-home order has brought to maintaining individual health for public safety.

“The quarantine brings up the concerns about personal health and how it affects everyone,” Adler said. “One person can mess up the entire system that we all revolve around. It’s all bad: we’re all stuck in our homes and some of us are actually very sick, so we’re very concerned about what’s going to happen to us. But I think a positive thing to come out of this is the discussion about taking our personal health seriously.”

California’s COVID-19 Toolkit website similarly echoes the role of personal hygiene in the overall fight against the virus.

“The state is mobilizing at every level to proactively and aggressively protect the health and well-being of Californians, but we cannot fight this outbreak alone,” the website reads.

FARMERSMARKET on 10

STAYINPLACE on 10

MA R I O R O D R I G UE Z / AGGI E

BY T I M L A LO N D E city@theaggie.org In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent shelter-in-place orders, local community groups have emerged to share information, resources and messages of solidarity among residents of Yolo County.

Perhaps the largest of these local grassroots networks is the ever-growing “COVID-19 Yolo Community Response” Facebook group — it is over 4,000 members strong at the time of writing. There are a wide array of posts about any and all things corona-related that Yolo County residents might be concerned about. Members share local and national news articles, requests and offers for aid and supplies, updates from local businesses and other pertinent information.

The group’s creator, local organizer Kate Mellon-Anibaba, said the idea for the group sprung from her dismay at witnessing what she saw as self-interested behavior in her community. Reports of people hoarding supplies like hand sanitizer and toilet paper inspired her to advocate for a more community-oriented mindset amid the outbreak.

“I was feeling very worried about how people were closing in on themselves, hoarding, only thinking about their own family — and I totally understand that, Mellon-Anibaba said. “But I felt like there could be this more collective community mindset.”

The Facebook group began with just a handful of members, but it quickly ballooned to thousands in just a few days. Running such a large group is itself a community effort — one that Mellon-Anibaba said was led by a group of dedicated, professional women who volunteered to help moderate the group.

“We have a medical professional in the [moderator] group, we have a scientist in the group, we have community organizers, we have an engineer,” Mellon-Anibaba said. “We have all these really, really smart people — specifically women — who are doing a really good job of vetting information, talking it over and getting outside help to look at resources before we post them.”

A second more-specialized Facebook group formed out of the COVID-19 Yolo Community group, is the Yolo County Mask-Making for COVID-19 group. Inside this private Facebook community, almost a hundred members share in-

formation and resources explaining how to make homemade masks for healthcare workers, veterinarians, homeless shelters and other workplaces in need of face masks.

Group founder Haven DePietro said she brought up the idea in the original COVID-19 Yolo Community Response group, after watching a Rachel Maddow segment about face mask shortages among healthcare workers. Administrators from the original group connected her with other members, suggesting that she form a new Facebook group dedicated to the task of mask-making. DePietro said she was unsure exactly how many masks have been made by the members so far, but said that “the volume is increasing.”

“One person made five masks and got them to a healthcare worker, and other people are starting to post about ways to distribute masks they have made, as well as organizations that are taking masks,” DePietro said via email.

DePietro wanted to give special thanks to her co-moderator, Sharyn O’Neil Leith, who she says has been one of the group’s most active members.

CORONACOMMUNITY on 10

DAVIS FARMERS MARKET REMAINS OPEN DURING CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, ENACTS EXTRA PRECAUTIONS

Davis Farmers Market will no longer have samples, increases sanitary measures like local grocery stores

Empty shelves at the toiletries section at Safeway in Davis. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

MADEL E I N E PAYN E city@theaggie.org The Davis Farmers Market is taking additional measures to protect sellers and buyers as the coronavirus spreads throughout California, but remains open during Yolo County’s shelterin-place order. In order to reduce the potential transmission of the virus, music and events like Picnic in the Park are being postponed until further notice.

An announcement on the Davis Farmers Market website described the actions taken to protect visitors during the biweekly market.

“The market added a third hand-washing station, and remains vigilant about cleaning all surfaces and vendor tablecloths,” the announcement reads. “Sellers stay home if they are ill.”

Other precautions include keeping sellers six feet apart, pre-packaging goods and removing communal condiments, like coffee creamer.

Many of the changes are aimed at reducing unnecessary contact between buyers and items that are being sold, explained Executive Director Randii MacNear.

“Anything that people used to touch is now restricted,” MacNear said. “We’re not having any samples. We’re trying to keep an eye on the public, and the public in Davis has been very, very cooperative in self-monitoring.”

Market officials encourage visitors to come within the first hour of the market if they are concerned about crowds, and to keep, “an arm’s length distance from others,” according to the announcement.

MacNear emphasized that, for many Davis residents, shopping at the Farmers Market can bring a level of comfort for the buyers in this uncertain time.

“Many people are very committed to shopping directly from farmers,” MacNear said. “They know that the produce has been picked — most of the time — the day before and that very few hands have handled it. They know the farmer that will come and sell the produce to the consumer.”

For some, shopping in an open-air market can feel safer than a traditional grocery store, and market officials emphasize that fresh fruit and vegetables can be vital for maintaining the immune system.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

2 |THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

LECTURES DISSCUSS OBSTACLES, PLANS FOR REMOTE INSTRUCTION

Faculty explore alternatives to engage, offer flexibility to students

An empty California Hall during the first week of Spring Quarter. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

BY GRASC HE L L E FARI Ñ AS HI P O L I TO campus@theaggie.org Following UC Davis’ decision to implement remote instruction for the remainder of the academic year, students and faculty now face some challenges in the transition from in-person to online classes.

John Theobald, a continuing lecturer in the Department of Communication, will be instructing CMN 142: Newsmaking and CMN 148: Contemporary Trends in Media. Both courses aim to teach students about the principles of journalism and globalization in media, respectively. He plans to post weekly asynchronous lectures so that students can access his videos on their own time, and he plans to incorporate video supplements and a participation component. Theobald explained, however, that finalizing Winter Quarter grades and preparing for Spring Quarter courses in the span of one week of Spring Break has posed a struggle.

“We’re having to do this very quickly, as are students, on how to access and work with different systems,” Theobald said.

Theobald noted that courses are going to lack the polish and careful preparation that would otherwise be expected of an in-person class.

“We’re all operating under very pressured, less-than-optimal circumstances, and as a consequence of that, we are going to be cutting some corners — it’s unavoidable,” Theobald said. “It’s just a function of having very little time to prepare for this.”

Theobald said many faculty members on campus have never taught an online class before.

“Some things lend themselves to an online format better than others,” he added.

Lynette Hunter, a professor and Ph.D. advisor for the Department of Theatre and Dance, addressed the obstacles of transitioning an advanced acting course instructed by Professor Peter Lichtenfels. Hunter explained the technical elements practiced in the course and other courses in the department, such as pauses and silences, gesture and movement and breathing and shared lines. The original structure of the course involved three hours twice a week — including one-on-one practice with the professor and group work, which is not as feasible in an online course.

Hunter said the course is now structured to have the first hour as an optional Zoom room hangout or visiting hour where the professor will be available for questions and technical advice.

Students can work either in the main room or in a breakout room in smaller groups.

“We plan to split the class into one hour of visiting and two hours of actual group class time,” Hunter said. “They will be working primarily in gallery mode [on Zoom], but we hope to be able to pin two people. Breakout rooms make it a lot easier.”

Hunter explained that the breakout room feature on Zoom — in which students can break up into smaller groups and work privately before reconvening in the main gallery room with the entire class — will allow students to practice scenes together similar to the original structure of the course.

Hunter acknowledged, however, that they are still working on finding a way to have students showcase their whole body vertically in order to analyze gesture and movement.

“This way of doing it is going to be very different because [the arts] are nearly the only department in the university — and in sciences as

DAVIS JOINT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT CONTINUES TO OFFER MEALS TO STUDENTS One of many school districts shutting down across the country due to COVID-19 outbreak

well, with labs — where you physically use your body as part of the learning experience,” Hunter said. “A lot of students take our classes precisely because they want that experience, so going online is not going to be something that a lot of students want to do.”

Remaining optimistic, Hunter noted the possibility of remote instruction producing some courses that are specifically tailored for distance learning.

“Who knows, we may be able to develop a suite of courses that are for distance learning for people with disabilities or people who live in remote places, but as far as you can go in a long-term way is a hybrid course,” Hunter said. “[Remote instruction] is actually quite important in interim, but in the long-term, I think there are many issues that need to be resolved.”

Mark Verbitsky, an assistant professor in the political science department, foresees two big challenges in his online classes: Keeping students motivated and building a sense of community in the class.

Verbitsky will be teaching two upper-division political science courses next quarter, POL 113: American Political Thought and POL 151: First Amendment Liberties, both with about 75 students. He mentioned that remote instruction will have a major impact on his classes because he typically incorporates discussions and opportunities for students to work through questions together.

“I’m not going to be able to have the same level of interactivity,” Verbitsky said. “I’m trying to come up with ways to maintain a connection with students, but it’s going to be difficult.”

He plans to use both asynchronous and synchronous teaching, including recorded lectures for students to watch and absorb information on their own time as well as live sessions for students to attend. He hopes that students will better understand material if they are able to pause or rewatch lectures, but that they also have the option of drawing on the advantages of live sessions and spark discussions through that medium.

This quarter will be Verbitsky’s first online course. Since this will be a learning experience for both him and his students, he plans to send out a survey for student feedback in order to better gauge reactions. He will adjust the course to help students learn better.

Regarding student motivation, he acknowledged that students are understandably going to be distracted and may have more pressing concerns, which may lead to a tendency to push off videos and lessons.

“On the one hand, I plan to build in some flexibility to allow for outside world factors, but on the other, I need incentives to keep students engaged, so I’ll have more small-scale assignments throughout the quarter such as

semi-weekly quizzes that will take the place of a major midterm,” Verbitsky said.

Regarding building a sense of community, he noted that he will utilize Zoom’s breakout room feature during live sessions, which will require students to talk to and learn from each other, as well as the discussion board on Canvas to facilitate group work for one of the major class assignments.

“University classes can always be isolating, but now students are going to be literally isolated and many will be displaced, living in non-ideal study conditions, so I think it’s even more important to let students build a connection with each other,” Verbitsky said. “I think students can learn a lot from each other, but another part of this type of assignment is simply to encourage students to interact and remind them that they’re not alone.”

Despite only having one week to prepare for Spring Quarter, Verbitsky said he is open to being surprised. He explained that students may be more responsive to his attempts to get them engaged and to draw more students to speak out to an online platform.

“I also suspect that there will be different students than usual who get more involved in the class,” Verbitsky said. “Some students are comfortable speaking out in class, whereas others might be more comfortable in an online setting, say using the chat features in a live session or on the discussion board. I think the course could reach different people more effectively and I look forward to learning about this as we go.”

In regards to the technical aspect of the transition to remote instruction, Verbitsky said that Academic Technology Services is doing a great job offering guidance to faculty in the rapid acquisition of software licenses and guidance on how to use them, but they cannot tailor support to each faculty member because of the limited preparation time. He noted that each department is working internally to meet the challenge.

“Suddenly, what was background support is now front and center as one of the most important needs,” Verbitsky said. “The university is offering overarching guidance for this. Different disciplines will teach differently, though, so it’s ultimately more up to the departments and individual professors to decide how to adapt their classes to the new circumstances.”

In the uncharted territory the university now finds itself in, Hunter also noted that although she believes it is unrealistic for the university to expect everybody to be able to do remote instruction and an entirely online quarter, she acknowledges the responsibility that faculty has to students.

“We’ve got graduating students and we want you all to pass and finish your year,” Hunter said.

“We have a responsibility here, even though it’s completely crazy, we’re all trying the best we can.”

UC DAVIS POLICE CHIEF JOE FARROW GIVES MORE INFORMATION ON MACHETE INCIDENT Identity of man seen with machete in his backpack remains unknown

The Susan B. Anthony Administration Center of the Davis Joint Unified School District. Schools within the DJUSD shut down on March 19 but will still be providing students with food. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY S HRA D D HA J H I NGA N city@theaggie.org On March 18, 2020, Superintendent John Bowes announced that the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD), school and district offices would be shutting down and that schools will remain closed.

Despite the shutdown of schools in the district, meals will continue to be offered to students aged 18 and under, regardless of whether they are a student in DJUSD or not, from March 16, 2020 to April 3, 2020.

The meals will consist of breakfast and lunch, specifically “lunch for the current day and breakfast for the next morning” in the form of Graband-Go meals, according to the DJUSD Student Nutrition Services webpage. They will be available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays and can be picked up from one of the following locations: Montgomery Elementary, Harper Junior High, Patwin Elementary and the parking lot behind the All Student Centre at Davis Senior High School on Oak Avenue.

Families of the students will also be able to pick up the meal packages, as no form of identification is required.

“The meal county is growing daily from 100 plus on Monday to 479 today,” said Bruce Colby, the chief business and operations officer in a DJUSD meeting held on March 19.

Furthermore, as schools around the world shut down, the way in which various schools educate students will be affected. Approximately 1.38 billion students worldwide have been impacted by school closures, as of March 23, according to a chart from UNESCO that was published in a World Economic Forum article. This is approximately 80% of the world’s students.

Additionally, more than 138 governments have ordered schools and universities to shut down on a country-wide basis.

In a message for the DJUSD community on

March 18, Superintendent John Bowes highlighted how DJUSD would be affected.

DJUSD will be implementing two phases in order to continue supporting students while the schools are shut down.

Phase 1 will last until April 12 and will involve providing “supplementary materials and resources for students and families to voluntarily access at home.” The materials will be available online on DJUSD’s website.

If schools continue to be closed after April 12, Phase 2 will be implemented.

“This phase will focus on continuity of learning and will require planning and implementation by teachers and the use of a virtual platform in order to facilitate remote learning,” Bowes said in the message sent to the DJUSD community. “We will begin preparation and training for Phase 2 in the coming weeks.”

Phase 2 will focus on Distance Learning, which is “a system by which students and teachers who are located in different locations can continue instruction and learning using a variety of methods.”

In addition, the DJUSD Board of Education recently held a meeting on March 19, during which one of the topics discussed was COVID-19.

“I’ve been working primarily to coordinate closure activities,” said Deputy Superintendent Matt Best at the meeting. “Closing down a district with more than 1,000 employees across 20 [some] locations is challenging to say the least.

And I’ve been primarily working to make sure this action happens as cohesively and quickly as possible.”

DJUSD will also continue to support students in a variety of ways, such as by following up with students who are “medically fragile” and students who are vulnerable,

DIST RICTSHUTDOWNS on 10

An individual riding a bike and wielding a machete was spotted near the Segundo Dining Commons and ARC area on Monday, March 9. Police searched for the individual but only recovered the machete. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY RE B E CCA B IH N-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org The California Aggie recently sat down with UC Davis Campus Police Chief Joe Farrow to discuss an earlier incident on March 9 in which a suspect approached campus with a machete for unknown reasons. The suspect was first seen off campus in South Davis, where two people reported to the Davis Police Department that they saw an eighteen-inch “sword-like” machete in his backpack. They said that the suspect was behaving “erratically.”

The Davis Police Department notified the UC Davis Campus Police (UCDPD) after the suspect headed down a bike path toward Segundo, coming from the direction of I-80. Students on campus received a WarnMe notification about the incident. Farrow explained that they wanted to send out the WarnMe alert before the suspect reached campus so that people were aware of what was going on.

“The common thing about these WarnMe [alerts] is that we want to warn our campus about a pending situation, a bad situation,” Farrow said. “We respond and we try to deal with whatever the issue may be. And I thought that the on-duty supervisor made a really good call by putting the WarnMe out before [the suspect] got on our property.”

Campus police followed the suspect by car, but he discarded the machete and disappeared into a trail only accessible by bike or on foot.

“We got a glimpse of him and he saw us and

immediately pulled off and went down some trails off campus,” Farrow explained.

Although the suspect was listed as a Hispanic male with short hair, a mustache, a white t-shirt and blue jeans on a black bike, Farrow explained that UC Davis Campus Police remain unsure of the man’s appearance since he disappeared so quickly. Since the incident, the suspect has not been found.

“Nobody has any information on him, we had no cameras or anything that caught his profile,” Farrow said. “The Davis [police] went back and interviewed the callers that called in in the neighborhood and they didn’t know who he was.”

Farrow also noted that the police would not arrest somebody carrying a machete unless it appeared that they planned on harming someone with it.

“The mere fact that you have a machete wrapped up in a pack in plain view is not necessarily a crime in itself,” he said. “The suspicious circumstances attracted the police’s attention. It’s not necessarily a crime just to have the knife.”

Following the incident, Farrow said that UCDPD “re-directed the WarnMe system,” alleviating people’s fears about a possible attack.

“We figured then that maybe [the suspect] was either transient or didn’t live in the immediate area,” he explained. “He could have been 100% harmless and just riding a bike with a machete, or [worst-case scenario] he could have been a burglar. The good news is, we kind of have the description. And the officers [here know], and the Davis Police Department knows.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 | 3

UC CONTINUES SEARCH FOR NEW PRESIDENT AMID CAMPUS CLOSURES, COLA STRIKE

Current UC President Janet Napolitano to step down this summer

UC President Janet Napolitano speaking during the investiture of Gary May as chancellor of UC Davis in 2017. (Photo by Jesse Kireyev / Aggie File)

BY ALLY RUSSELL campus@theaggie.org The UC is in search of its 21st president who will lead and oversee all 10 campuses, five medical centers, three national laboratories as well as agriculture and natural resources programs. Current UC President Janet Napolitano is expected to step down by August 2020.

Napolitano has served as president for the last seven years and was the university system’s first female president. Napolitano made the decision to step down this past September.

“This particular chapter in my professional history has been especially meaningful,” Napolitano said in a statement. “My years with the University of California have shown me the monumental value of public higher education.”

Now, months before Napolitano is scheduled

to step down, UC campuses are facing campus closures in response to the coronavirus outbreak as well as ongoing, widespread graduate student Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) protests.

In November of 2019, Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, a female and minority-owned executive search firm, was selected to find potential candidates to fill the president vacancy. In addition, a special committee was assembled to oversee the candidate application process. The committee is composed of faculty, staff, students, alumni, chancellors, lab directors and vice presidents.

According to the Board of Regents, the new president should have a “demonstrated track record of advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion and a commitment to building a University that serves the diverse population of the state of

VOTE ON TUITION INCREASE FOR UC SYSTEM POSTPONED, FUTURE UNCERTAIN WITH COVID-19

Currently unknown how COVID-19 will impact proposed UC tuition hike

Chalking opposing the proposed tuition increases at UC schools at the main entrance to Wellman Hall on Jan. 21.

(Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

California.”

The Board of Regents planned to hold extra town hall forums early in 2020 to help advance the hiring process. The UC Board of Regents hosted its first town hall forum on Jan. 21, 2020 at UC Riverside. At the meeting, speakers expressed primary concerns they hoped the new president would address. Cecilia Estolano, the vice chairwoman of the special committee, spoke about issues important to her and others at UCR. “I want that president to exemplify the importance of diversity of experiences, boldly moving forward, constantly innovating, taking risks and investing in those who receive the least resources,” Estolano said, according to UC Riverside’s newspaper, The Highlander.

On Jan. 27, during a town hall at UC Berkeley, the issue of climate change was brought to regents’ attention.

After a petition from UC San Diego Green New Deal was sent to the Regents in January, the board agreed that the issue of climate change would factor into their decision-making when evaluating potential candidates. Almost 2,500 people signed the petition.

Adam Aron, a professor at UCSD, spoke to the purpose of the petition.

“The purpose is to put pressure on the selection committee,” Aron said. “Why wasn’t the issue of climate change there in the beginning?

Our organization is trying to push the wider UC system to take the crisis seriously.”

It is unclear at the time of writing how the recent coronavirus outbreak will impact the selection process of the UC president. All nine undergraduate UC campuses have decided to institute online courses for the remainder of the school year.

BY ALEX WEINSTEIN campus@theaggie.org

The cohort tuition model has supporters on the UC Davis campus. Chancellor Gary May, in a February interview with The California Aggie’s Editorial Board, voiced his support for both the cohort-based model as well as a tuition increase more generally. Former ASUCD External Affairs Vice President Adam Hatefi supports the model, but thinks that a tuition increase is not “necessary at this moment.”

“We don’t need this increase until two or three years from now,” Hatefi said. “At that point, our enrollment growth is going to catch up with our funding increase, and then we’ll need to increase tuition.”

Newsom increased UC funding for the 202021 fiscal year by 5%, the second consecutive year of increased state funding. With the required enrollment growth from every UC campus, the UC will not be able to keep up with the rate of inflation, and a UC tuition hike would be necessary in two to three years, according to Hatefi.

“The University has raised tuition only once in the last eight years, by approximately $300 (or 2.5 percent), and campuses rely on tuition as well as State support to hire faculty, academic advisors and support staff,” McBride said. ”Recent increases in State support have partially addressed these needs, but it is not realistic to expect the State to cover all of UC’s costs, which is why a tuition increase is critical to maintaining UC’s high-quality of education.”

While some argue that the UC does not need to raise tuition at this time, UCOP remains stagnant in its position that a tuition increase is necessary to preserve the standard of quality education.

The vote on a UC-wide tuition hike, opposed by many, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, has been postponed again, after it had been previously postponed due to a clerical error. The latest vote, scheduled to take place at the UC Regents March 20 meeting, was pushed back due to discussions regarding the outbreak of COVID-19.

Planned to be reevaluated, the tuition hike could be further postponed by the continuation of this crisis.

“Nobody knows the hit the economy is going to take in California or the world, and we don’t want to be in the position of being even more tenuous with our financial plans,” said Regent-designate Debby Stegura during the Regents’ March 20 meeting.

The planned tuition increase is one of two plans initially proposed. The Regents decided to continue with a planned cohort-based tuition model instead of a standard tuition increase.

“Under the proposed tuition plan, UC would institute a one-time increase of systemwide charges for each incoming undergraduate class, or cohort, comprised of the following: Tuition, the Student Services Fee and Nonresident Supplemental Tuition,” said Sarah McBride, a media and communications strategist at the UC Office of the President, via email. “Under the plan, those costs would remain the same throughout a student’s attendance at the University. The charges students pay at the time of their enrollment would be what they pay annually for the duration of their time at UC — up to six academic years.”

UC DAVIS OFFERS ON-CAMPUS VOTING OPTIONS

SHEREEN LEE / AGGIE

Separate locations lead to confusion

A sign encouraging students to vote in the California March 3 primary elections hung on the second floor of the MU. (Photo by Kaelyn Tuermer-Lee / Aggie)

BY ALLY RUSSELL campus@theaggie.org On Super Tuesday, March 3, students and Davis residents alike had the opportunity to vote in the presidential primary election and other local elections at on-campus polling places. Polling places opened at 7 a.m. and remained open until 8 p.m.

Voters had the option to vote at two locations on campus: the MU or the Russell Park apartment complexes. Voters registered in Yolo County with mail-in ballots also had the option to drop off their ballots at on-campus polling stations.

Despite planning in advance to make it easier for Yolo County residents and students to vote, UC Davis published an additional statement in response to voter confusion at on-campus polling

places.

“Registered voters should vote at their assigned polling place (which, if you have a campus address, may be the Garrison Room in the Memorial Union,)” the statement said. “If you are registered elsewhere in Yolo County, and still wish to vote on campus, you should ask for a provisional ballot.”

One Reddit user, u/korge1000, posted a thread about issues they had voting.

“Admin at UC Davis has been advertising for the last week that any student can vote at the student union building, but now they are rejecting students,” the thread said. “The poll workers are arguing that only people who live on campus can vote there but the website explicitly says that any student can vote there.”

Students in the Reddit thread also commented on the length of polling place lines. One stu-

dent claimed to have been in line for more than an hour.

In addition to long lines at UC Davis, other campuses across the country reported similar trends on Super Tuesday. Across California and Texas, many voters faced hours-long lines to vote, according to a report from The Guardian.

On-campus polling places are one way the UC hopes to boost student voter turnout. According to the UC website, just more than half of students registered to vote in the 2018 midterm elections actually voted.

With student voter turnout already statistically low, UC campuses aimed to improve students’ likelihood of voting. In reality, long lines at polling stations likely had the opposite effect.

According to one study, every additional hour voters have to wait to vote decreases their probability of voting.

Voters also had the option to participate in same-day voter registration in the ASUCD offices on the third floor of the MU. This was in a different location than general on-campus polling places, creating some confusion for voters on March 3.

In addition to the UC system’s efforts to improve young voter turnout, student organizations have been working since Fall Quarter to register students.

Noah Dickman, the president of the Davis College Republicans, worked early in the year to get new and returning students to register to vote.

“Our voter registration drive was in October and consisted of tabling at the Memorial Union and going door-to-door in a few neighborhoods to make sure as many individuals as possible are registered to vote.”

The Davis College Democrats have also helped register students and community members to vote.

“This year we registered over 600 voters,” said Molly Mermin, the executive director for the Davis College Democrats. “And we’ll be doing more throughout the general election season.”

Bikes and scooters and tricycles, oh my!

March 4 “Male rode his bike into a vehicle then kicked the vehicle causing damage.”

“Tenant just came into the office demanding repairs to his personal appliances.”

March 5 “Two males smoking marijuana.”

“Construction crews not efficiently/safely directing traffic.”

March 6 “Loud engine revving for the last 30 minutes.”

“Swinging golf clubs […] Just arrived on tricycle.”

“Male standing in the roadway intermittently.”

March 7 “Throwing pots/pans out of the residence.”

“Broke computer, refusing to listen and go to bed.”

March 8 “Zebra brand white/black striped electric moped scooter stolen.”

March 9 “Masterbating.”

“Person used respondent’s phone and venmo account to send himself money without respondents consent. Total loss $900.”

March 10 “Subject riding a bike in lanes of traffic causing neat traffic collisions.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

4 | THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

UNCONVENTIONAL FINALS WEEK AFFECTS EXAMS — AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE

Moving out of the dorms, proctored or canceled finals, and more: how the evolving COVID-19 pandemic played a role in many students’ finals week anxieties

SIXTH CANCELLATION IN 111 YEARS: PICNIC DAY CHAIR COMMENTS ON DECISION Other Picnic Day cancellations due to WWII, outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease, gym construction

TESSA KOGA / AGGIE

KA IT LY N PA N G / AGG IE

BY KAT I E D EBE NE DE T T I features@theaggie.org Quarter-system students face an additional source of stress amid the evolving coronavirus pandemic: dealing with the fallout that was winter quarter finals. COVID-19 puts universities across the nation into uncharted territory, leaving many students and faculty alike with no cohesive plan for fulfilling coursework and taking exams.

This unique situation led to a myriad of finals week experiences. While some professors elected to cancel exams completely, others converted them to take-home exams — some navigated ProctorU for the first time. Many courses even had to change exam plans multiple times, given that the university announced that finals would be moved completely online only five days before finals officially began — leaving many professors and students scrambling.

Farah Shuaib, a first year psychology major, recounts how the dorms were buzzing with worried chatter surrounding how certain classes were going to adjust their exams.

“Just sitting and waiting was so stressful for people because obviously you want to know if you should start studying hard for [an exam] or not,” Shuaib said. “For chemistry, I was just sitting, I was not doing anything to prepare because I had no idea what the final was going to be. I think everyone was excited at first for online exams [...] but the next day when they realized that now the teachers had to come up with something, it got a lot scarier.”

Shuaib did not receive updated information about the status of one of her exams until March 13th, just three days before finals week began.

Additionally, Shuaib, like many students, had to learn how to use ProctorU, which she says was really stressful at first.

“It’s a little unnerving with the camera, because although you can’t see them, you get the idea that someone is watching you and hearing you, and it’s a little uncomfortable,” Shuaib said.

“It was really nerve-wracking hearing someone talk on your computer and have control of your cursor even.”

Taking exams on ProctorU required students to learn how to use new software on their own time. These exams require an empty room, reliable internet connection and a strict time frame, which can be difficult to coordinate, especially when sharing living spaces with roommates or family.

Additionally, many freshmen including Shuaib were faced with deciding whether to move out of the dorms or not for the duration of spring quarter. Residence hall students received an email March 17, mid-finals week, that they had until March 25 to decide whether or not they were going to remain in the dorms for the rest of the academic year. If they elected to move home, they were required to have all of their personal belongings out of the room by March 25.

Shuaib says that deciding whether or not to stay on campus added stress to her finals week.

“It was on my mind for like a week, wondering what’s best,” Shuaib said. “Being home or being somewhere where I can pay attention?”

Similarly, Kathryn Nguyen, a first year animal science major, was planning to leave campus for just over a week

FINALS on 10

SEMINAR SPOTLIGHT: “BECOMING AN EXTRAORDINARY HUMAN”

Students discuss Tamarkoz and other lessons from course

BY ANJINI VE NU G O PAL features@theaggie.org The UC Davis administration announced the cancelation of Picnic Day on March 14, “as recommended by the ASUCD student organizers.”

The event has been canceled five times before this since it began in 1909: As a result of an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease among cowherds in 1924, due to the construction of the gym in 1938 and from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. It was only five days prior to the announcement of the recent cancelation, on Monday, March 9, that it crossed Picnic Day Chair Nicole Deacon’s mind that Picnic Day might actually be canceled. Comments on the official Picnic Day social media accounts asking whether the event was going to be canceled gave her some pause, but at that point, it hadn’t yet been announced that finals were no longer to be administered in person.

The announcement canceling finals was made the following day, as professors began cancelling classes for the week. Meanwhile, students discussed whether UC Davis would institute an online Spring Quarter, like other undergraduate UC campuses, and wondered what campus events would be canceled or postponed, as music festivals like Stagecoach and Coachella were postponed.

“At our board meeting on [March 11], all the directors stayed after,” Deacon, a fourth-year statistics major, said. “I told them, ‘Picnic Day, if it happens, is not going to be what we expected it to be. We need to brainstorm some ways to mitigate the risk.’ At that point, we were still trying to find alternatives and think about how to be cognizant of the health risk.”

The night after the board meeting, Deacon

recalled reading about the NBA season being suspended indefinitely and hearing about people affected by travel bans.

“We were continuing to get more and more very panicked phone calls asking why Picnic Day wasn’t canceled yet,” Deacon said. “And then Disneyland was closed, and someone commented on our Facebook page, ‘If Disneyland is closed, why is Picnic Day still going on?’”

Deacon, along with two Picnic Day advisors and Vice Chair Caitlyn Liu, a third-year information and communication technology and English double major, met on Friday, March 13 to discuss what the right decision would be.

“The question very quickly shifted from ‘Why cancel Picnic Day?’ to ‘Why not cancel Picnic Day?’” Deacon said. “The final call was basically, ‘Do we cancel it, or do we postpone it?’”

Deacon consulted Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life Sheri Atkinson and, at 2:30 p.m., she gave her recommendation to cancel the event. Atkinson met with the chancellor at 3 p.m. and relayed the recommendation. Around 4:30 p.m., Deacon talked to Atkinson again and was told that the administration supported the decision to cancel.

“I sent an email to the directors and the rest of the board [on Friday night], and I told them to please keep this information confidential for now,” Deacon said. “And then we waited for the campus announcement to go out on Saturday.

Our official Picnic Day announcement went out at basically the same time.”

Each of the directors has been told to follow up with the people they were in touch with regarding Picnic Day arrangements to let them know the event was canceled.

PICNICDAYCANCEL on 10

AGGIES SHARE THEIR QUARANTINE ROUTINES

What social distancing is, how it works and what readers can do to effectively practice this method KA IT LY N PA N G / AG GIE

MA RI O R O D R I G U E Z / AGGI E

BY LYRA FA RREL L features@theaggie.org Tamarkoz, a practice rooted in Sufism, has one primary goal: to empty your mind. When done right, this fundamental emptiness is said to come with an array of benefits that may be especially attractive to students stressed about the global pandemic.

“Becoming an Extraordinary Human,” the first-year seminar offered by Assistant Professor Mohammed Sadoghi and Professor Emeritus Lynn Wilcox, lists goals such as “stress mastery,” “development of physical awareness and control” and “increased self-confidence.” Although the main focus of the practice seems to be cognition, it is actually the strengthening of the heart, which is the location of the main electromagnetic center in the body.

“The unique thing about this particular practice is heartbeats,” Sadoghi said. “So all the attention, all the focus, is going to be [...] on the heart.”

Sadoghi, who began learning about the practice between earning his master’s degree and his Ph.D, has been practicing Tamarkoz for almost 12 years.

During the seminar, each session of Tamarkoz is broken into a few main components. It starts with quieting the mind, then moves onto breathing techniques aimed at increasing breath capacity, followed by slow movements of the body called “Movazeneh,” which translates to “balance.” After these steps comes progressive relaxation and finally visualization, which is the most outlandish bit of the 50-minute session, according to first-year biological sciences major Elena DeLoizaga, who took the seminar in Winter Quarter.

“One of the times, [the professor] was like, ‘Imagine you’re a flower, or imagine you’re a river,’” DeLoizaga said. “You basically just close your eyes and imagine it. And after 20 minutes, you wake up, but you weren’t really sleeping.”

Sadoghi discussed visualizations and what to expect from them.

“It’s not about it being difficult,” Sadoghi said. “Some people can’t visualize and that’s fine.

Sometimes they might get images — they may

see, they may not see, that’s fine. But just going through it, it’s effective.”

Students may have different expectations regarding what they’ll gain from sitting in a room with their eyes closed as they follow vocal instruction. While one person may expect to temporarily travel to an alternate realm, another may expect an awakening of the soul.

“Expect nothingness,” Sadoghi said. “You’re not going to turn into a butterfly. You’re not going to start levitating, nothing from the sky is going to fall, nothing is going to happen.”

First-year sustainable environmental design major Jonah Brees took the seminar and opened up to Tamarkoz. He now understands the benefits of the practice.

“I think it gave me a lot of areas to work on and a lot of techniques I could practice to improve [myself ],” Brees said. “It gave me an ability to be more introspective and reflective on my actions, and just living in general. I would definitely recommend this seminar to people who are stressed, just because it’s sort of an outlet to just pause and really focus on your body for, like, an hour. You really just completely push everything to the side, and you just physically [and] emotionally analyze every aspect of who you are and how you’re doing.”

Other components of the course include tips on how to balance your daily activities and habits to practice better mental clarity. Students even receive a handout with a pie chart that they fill out with the activities they want to focus more or less time on, aiming to help them gain a better understanding of themselves and their priorities.

“I definitely want to do it again,” DeLoizaga said. “If I could, I would sign up for it again, for sure.”

When asked if he feels more extraordinary now than he did before the seminar, Brees said, “I do actually — as cliche as that may sound — I do feel more extraordinary.”

As a part of the curriculum, students also fill out a sheet at the beginning and end of the 50-minute sessions, describing how they feel, along with meditating for shorter intervals at home. The seminar is a one-unit pass/no pass course. An online version of the seminar is scheduled for Spring Quarter 2020.

BY S NE H A RAMACH ANDR AN features@theaggie.org On March 16, 2020, President Donald Trump called for a 15-day shelter-in-place order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Across the nation, U.S. government officials have ordered residents to stay home and practice social distancing in an attempt to contain the rate of transmission until a treatment or vaccine is created, effectively halting university operations across the nation — including at UC Davis.

Dr. Jonathan Eisen, a UC Davis professor with a background in Evolution and Ecology, Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Genomics, explained how social distancing can reduce transmission rates and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by infected patients.

“We desperately need to slow down the spread [of the virus] to not overwhelm the healthcare system,” Dr. Eisen said. “[This will] give time for more ventilators and protective supplies to be made or obtained, better treatments to be developed and better prevention methods to be developed like vaccines.”

At the time of publication, the amount of cases in the United States alone has surpassed 100,000. To help flatten the curve, Dr. Eisen urges people to practice social distancing, which entails staying away from others and maintaining a distance of at least 6 feet. Dr. Eisen also encourages people to constantly wash their hands, cover their coughs and most importantly convince their leaders to implement policies that make social distancing more common. Dr. Eisen shared what he and his family have been doing to keep busy.

“I am trying to spend a bit of time in nature everyday,” Eisen said. “I have been going on walks and taking pictures and posting them to help give what I call ‘NatureTherapy” to myself and others, [and] I really recommend everyone

try to do this if they can.”

Third-year human development major Lillian Cheung went into detail about how social distancing is especially important to help protect people whose immune systems “might not be as strong as mine due to underlying illnesses.”

“It’s my responsibility to do that because if I were to get sick I might just stay home for a few days and get better and carry on with my life, but I know for others this can be a life or death situation,” Cheung said. “I think it’d be incredibly selfish to not look out for my neighbors, friends or peers just because I have a greater chance of getting better.”

Universities and schools across the nation have been shut down and opted for online learning methods for the foreseeable future. As a result, many students struggle with adapting to daily social isolation. For Cheung, playing Club Penguin, watching movies on streaming services and cooking with her family has kept her mind at ease during the quarantine.

“I think a tip I would recommend is to just do what feels natural to you and to not feel any pressure to do everything and anything at this time,” Cheung said. “This pandemic is unknown territory and if you’re anxious talk to someone about it and take it day by day. Everyone in society is definitely struggling with being indoors all day and having their daily lives interrupted so take this time to care for yourself and do what makes you feel best.”

For those interested in taking classes in addition to their UC Davis workload, 8 of the Ivy League schools are offering free online classes.

Additionally, museums across the world are offering free virtual tours that individuals can experience from the comfort of their own homes and the Georgia Aquarium has live feeds of various exhibits.

QUARANTINE on 10

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TO R I AL B OAR D KAELYN TUERMER-LEE Editor-in-Chief

Letter from the editor: The California Aggie’s Spring Quarter operations CONTINUING TO PROVIDE ESSENTIAL NEWS DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

HANNAH HOLZER Managing Editor KENTON GOLDSBY Campus News Editor STELLA TRAN City News Editor HANADI JORDAN Opinion Editor CLAIRE DODD Features Editor LIZ JACOBSON Arts & Culture Editor DOMINIC FARIA Sports Editor CECILIA MORALES Science & Tech Editor

HANNAN WALIULLAH New Media Manager JUSTIN HAN Photo Director SYDNEE RODRIGUEZ Design Director ARIANA GREEN Layout Director SABRINA HABCHI Copy Chief ISABELLA BLOOM Copy Chief ZOË REINHARDT Website Manager

BY KAE LYN T U E RME R-LE E editor@theaggie.org To our readers, UC Davis and city of Davis community: During these uncertain times amid the COVID-19 outbreak, news media outlets are more important than ever in ensuring that the public is well informed. Especially in times of crisis, readers turn to trustworthy, reliable news sources to find out what’s happening, and we want The California Aggie to continue to be that source.

In the past couple of weeks, The Aggie’s team has worked diligently to cover the effects of COVID-19. This has included coverage of confirmed cases in Yolo County, event cancellations and the implications of the institution moving to remote instruction for Spring Quarter.

With all of this in mind, The Aggie hopes to continue both its online and print presence. We are, of course, doing all of our work remotely in order to be mindful and conscientious of our staff’s health as well as the health of other students and community members. We did ultimately decide to continue producing our print product; however, we plan to significantly reduce the amount of copies being printed and will remap our distribution sites. This decision was made in order to continue providing information to those who do not have access to our website and to maintain physical editions, which is essential for the maintenance of our recently digitized historical archives.

A limited number of staff members will be distributing copies of our newspaper at locations in Davis that are currently operational — at essential places such as the hospital and grocery stores. In accordance with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide shelter-in-place order, the State Public Health Officer deemed news reporters and media services among those classified as “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers.”

I encourage you all to continue reading The Aggie and ask us any questions you might have — we will do our best to find the answers and provide our readers a sense of stability. Finally, please take heed of the shelter-in-place and social distancing. Many more people have COVID-19 than are reported, as tests are not readily available for all and since some are asymptomatic. The best thing people can do to protect themselves, their family, their friends and the community — especially the at-risk and vulnerable populations — is to stay in isolation. In the meantime, I hear (from an unbiased source) that reading The Aggie is a great way to pass the time, so pick up a copy at your next trip to the grocery store or visit our website!

Kaelyn Tuermer-Lee Editor-in-Chief

SYDNEY ODMAN Social Media Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

Thank you to those who have stepped up amid the COVID-19 crisis We are grateful for healthcare workers, local and state leaders, UC Davis faculty and administration, community helpers

As we each do our best to navigate these unnerving and uncertain times, we might choose to take solace in the resiliency of our community. To the Davis community members eager to lend a helping hand; to our state and local leaders who have been proactive in their communication efforts; to the teachers and employees who continue to selflessly serve us and to the local, national and global healthcare workers on the front lines of this chaos: We are filled with gratitude.

In times of crisis, there is perhaps no more reassuring sentiment than Mister Rogers’ famous plea to “look to the helpers.” Fortunately, we can see these helpers in our own neighborhood. Davis City Council passed an ordinance halting evictions and authorized the suspension of fees for missed payments. The Davis Joint Unified School District, though shut down, is still providing twice-daily meals. In the Yolo County Mask-Making for COVID-19 Facebook group, nearly 100 members virtually collaborate on making homemade masks for healthcare workers, veterinarians and homeless shelters. And, on the COVID-19 Yolo Community Response Facebook page, over 4,300 people have shared information, supported local businesses, donated goods and helped their neighbors track down items like toilet paper and flour.

While our national leaders in the White House seem to have failed us now, the time when we need them most, the State of California — under the decisive leadership of Gov. Gavin Newsom — is in a better position to mitigate the spread of the virus than other states are, thanks to Newsom’s early and effective statewide shelter-in-place order.

The Editorial Board commends UC Davis administrators for actively seeking out and listening to student input

when making decisions such as canceling Picnic Day. Previously, we have disagreed with Chancellor Gary May over the frequency with which campus-wide emails are sent out — we have belabored our argument to such a degree that we almost have to laugh when we bring it up with him yet again. But at this point in time, clear and proactive communication is no joke, and we believe May has undoubtedly risen to the occasion. The administration’s weekly Friday emails and May’s upbeat Facebook and Instagram posts are greatly appreciated.

Transitioning to remote instruction almost overnight is going to be a challenge, to say the least. We want to recognize the dedication of our instructors who are going out of their way to problem solve and make the most of the limited resources and tools available. We also want to acknowledge the commitment of those UC Davis employees who are ensuring that the campus maintains minimal, but necessary, operations.

To our fellow students: Please have patience and understanding for and empathy toward your instructors. We, the nine members of the Editorial Board, are all seniors, and we whole-heartedly agree that this situation is far from ideal. We recognize, however, that we are fortunate to have our health, our families, our friends and our continuing education.

Finally, the health and well-being of healthcare workers, first responders and their families are being directly and exponentially impacted as cases of COVID-19 rapidly increase.

Just recently, UC Davis Medical Center employees tested positive for coronavirus. These workers are risking their lives to save others, and we thank them for this ultimate act of noble sacrifice.

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

6 | THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

EMPEROR TRUMP IS STARK NAKED, BUT AT LEAST HALF THE POPULATION DOESN’T CARE The president’s handling of the global pandemic should cost him re-election, but will it?

President Donald Trump gives a speach. (Photo by Gage Skidmore / Creative Commons)

BY H A N A D I JO RDA N hajordan@ucdavis.edu For months, the American people listened to President Donald Trump downplay the threat of coronavirus, calling it the Democrat’s “new hoax,” and then, as cases began to rise, dismissing it as something that would just disappear, “like a miracle.” On March 9, he called it nothing more than the “common flu.” Four days later, he declared a national emergency.

Even then, when the battle against the virus was at our very doorstep, he refused — and still refuses — to declare a national lockdown and only recently utilized his emergency powers to increase production of critical medical supplies.

As governors across the country pleaded with the

president for aid, he told Fox News that such assistance was conditional upon the behavior of the states, saying “They have to treat us well, also.

They can’t say ‘Oh, gee, we should get this, we should get that.’”

In some ways, as conservative columnist Max Boot said, we can’t really blame Trump for his grossly incompetent response to this global pandemic — he never lied about who he was.

Trump has simply never been pushed to provide even minimal data to back up his answers.

Yet I’m frustrated, angry and, like many Americans, scared. As hospitals in various states, including my home state of Michigan, find themselves overwhelmed with patients and short on critical medical supplies, they are forced to provide treatment based on who has the best

chance of survival. That means pulling patients, whose conditions do not improve, off ventilators and giving them end-of-life care. Ironically, the “death panels” Sarah Palin and other Republicans lied about in their attacks on Obamacare have become a reality under their chosen president.

We are all feeling the effects of this virus to varying degrees. Many of us have lost our last months of college with friends, not to mention our jobs and ability to pay the bills. Some can’t even feed their families or themselves. But what unites many of us is our shared fear of losing someone we love.

I drop off food at my grandmother’s porch, telling her I love her through a glass window. I feel tears well up when I contemplate the idea that my parents could get sick, and there might not be a ventilator for them. I feel a lump in my throat when I know my aunt goes to the frontline of this war when her hospital lacks the basic tools to protect its nurses from the same virus that ravages its patients.

There is a frustration that is almost overwhelming when I think about how much of this crisis was preventable. Even if Trump hadn’t disbanded much of the pandemic team or ignored the National Security Council’s pandemic playbook managed under the Obama administration, there were innumerable measures he could have taken to slow the spread of the virus — the first being an admission that there was a crisis, the second being the institution of a lockdown.

Instead, fearing for his chances of re-election, Trump repeatedly lied in a silly, misguided and ultimately futile effort to protect the stock market from major losses. It was only with massive hits to the Dow Jones Industrial average and catastrophic stock losses that the president admitted that the virus was an issue and not a flu-like disease that would magically disappear.

But even as cases mount at a rate of 20,000 a

day, states are responding haphazardly and chaotically with little direction from the federal government.

We can’t slow the spread when some states refuse to mandate a shelter-in-place order, or even refuse to enforce it where it has been implemented. This doesn’t work if only some do their part. The nation slowly bleeds out as we wait on our elected officials to take critical action, putting us on a trajectory far grimmer than that of Italy.

As the crisis continues to unfold in the coming months, I implore my fellow Americans to pay attention. The leaders of this nation must protect their citizens and residents. At the end of the day, America has a wonderful set of ideas and principles, but America is only the people that live in it. Our leaders must make decisions solely based on protecting the lives of citizens and residents, not partisan pettiness or religious magical nonsense.

For those who would say Trump couldn’t have predicted this, tell that to the advisors who warned him for months. And for those who would say now is the time to support and not criticize the president, you can support him while also demanding that he take action to save Americans. In fact, doing so is the most critical form of support you could lend him at this time.

If you’re assuming a landslide Trump loss in November and think you can stay home, the latest Gallup Poll has Trump’s approval at 60%, and Fox News has his approval at 51% — surpassing President Obama’s numbers going into his re-election.

For those who love to chant “not my president,” he is your president, so you better vote in November to change that. Americans can no longer afford to remain blissfully ignorant of the nation’s politics. It is now a matter of life and death.

HUMOR

MASSIVE MILITARY BUDGET AND PUBLIC HEALTH CUTS TO COME GOOD IN FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

Nation relieved

M A R I O R O D R I G UE Z / AGGI E

BY B E N JA M I N P O RT E R bbporter@ucdavis.edu Once upon a time in the United States, the National Security Council had a directorate for global health security and bio-defense, but this office was eliminated by President Trump. The office was tasked with predicting, planning and preparing for the possibility of a pandemic, but how could we have possibly predicted or prepared

for the possibility that predicting or preparing for anything might be prudent?

You see, predicting, projecting, prophesizing and prognosticating are not the American way.

In fact, we’re neither proactive nor reactive — we simply do. We’re a nation of doers. But we’re also a nation of do-nothingers, which means we’re not going to lift a finger — unless that finger is our trigger finger, in which case we stand our ground, shoot first and ask questions

later. And that is precisely why Americans should be prouder than ever that we spend so much money on the military. Because it is in times like the present, as we face the global threat of the coronavirus pandemic, our boasting monstrous military might will finally come good.

Who needs extra plastic gloves for keeping the virus off our hands when we can just snipe it from over a mile away? Why are we trying to show the virus hospitality by getting more hospital beds?

And who needs hand sanitizer when we can just burn the coronavirus with Napalm? Why are we setting up temporary hospitals when we should be employing shoot-and-scoot tactics? Why do we need so many silly face-masks and ventilators when we have tens of thousands of high-tech, military-grade, tactical, full-face respirators with attached night-vision goggles?

By using those, the doctors and nurses on the front lines of this war could work into the night! Come to think of it, we don’t even need to be paying all these doctors and nurses who are on the ground, in the trenches, when we could simply carry out an aerial assault on the coronavirus with fighter jets and drones.

Our military will give us the cutting edge, ruthless tactics against the coronavirus that all these soft “first, do no harm” people simply cannot provide. Yeah, that silly Hippocratic Oath doesn’t really do much good when the primary objective is to kill the coronavirus, does it?

So, unlike those hypocritical Hippocrats running our hospitals, trained soldiers will not hesitate to do as much harm to the coronavirus as possible.

We will strike first against this evil and cunning virus. After setting up a blockade and beginning an artillery barrage, infantry will advance swiftly from our garrison in a frontal assault, a forward charge, ready to ambush, outflank, envelope and encircle the virus in a coup de main that will in all hope be a coup de grâce! We will resort to guerilla tactics if we have to! We will give no quarter! We will never retreat or surrender! We will not negotiate with the virus like those pacifist medical and public health professionals think we should!

With aggressive tactics like these, I predict that this battle plan we’ve prepared to defeat the coronavirus once and for all will work like a charm. In the meantime, we will never stop swarming, shelling and laying siege to this pandemic — no matter what the doctors tell us.

Believe me, our fresh approach to public health war, or as I prefer to think of it, Blitzgesundheit, is just what the doctor ordered.

U-HAUL SELF-STORAGE OFFERS STUDENTS FREE DEAL TO SELFSTORE THEMSELVES IN QUARANTINE “It’s kinda dark in here”

BY B E NJAMIN PO RT ER bbporter@ucdavis.edu

Storage units. (Photo by JeepersMedia / Creative Commons)

As many universities across the country force students to move out of their on-campus housing, an unlikely hero of the coronavirus pandemic has emerged: U-Haul. According to CNN, the moving and storage company “is offering 30-day free self-storage to students with college IDs.” This amazing deal kills two birds with one stone by giving students a place to store their belongings before they can travel back home. But more importantly, it allows them to simply self-store themselves in quarantine for a month, helping to prevent any further spread of COVID-19.

One drawback of living inside a storage unit for a month is that the facilities leave the lights off inside the units most of the time to save on energy costs. Luckily, most college students are very used to doing nothing but staring at their various screens in the dark, so this shouldn’t require too much acclimatization on their part.

However, #uhaulLife has drastically changed how students interact with social media.

“Posting on Snapchat and Insta without my friends just isn’t the same,” said first-year studies studies major Brian Onpauz in a phone interview. “I like getting together with my friends so I can post pics and stories of myself with my friends so my other friends can see what a good time we’re all having. But since I’m all by myself in my storage unit, I have to go on social media all by myself, which is kinda lonely. Plus, seeing posts from all my friends all by themselves as well is just way too boring, and this actually gave me a bad dream that me and all my friends are actually just boring people. It was such a relief when I woke up from that nightmare!”

In addition to electricity, chronic boredom and chronically boring people, other problems including sanitation, plumbing and sewage have presented extreme challenges for the managers of U-Haul self-storage facilities. For more on that, please check out our extended coverage on The California Aggie Overtime, where we interviewed students who have experienced the best and worst of U-Haul’s waste management practices.

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THE RISE OF DOJA CAT A look into the TikTok generation’s fastest rising star KATH E R I N E F R A N KS / AGGI E

BY LIZ JACO B S ON & MATHI LDA S ILVE RST E IN arts@theaggie.org

TV Show: Sex and the City It’s fast food television — bad for you, tastes good, but you can only take so much of it. “Sex and the City” follows Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte — four thirty-something women, each with a few key character traits, who speak only in far-reaching sexual metaphors as they navigate their relationships and their taboo sexual problem of the week. It’s entertaining to see which now-famous celebrity is the love interest of the week, and the outfits are interesting, to say the least. There’s never a shortage of designer strappy sandals. It’s definitely out of date and borderline offensive in some episodes (see Season Three, Episode Four about bisexuality), but it will make for an entertaining drinking game if you count all the times Carrie says, “And then I wondered.”

BY LI VVY M UL L E N arts@theaggie.org Nothing has rocked the music industry like the introduction of TikTok, and no artist has benefited from the app more than Doja Cat. “Candy,” “Cyber Sex” and “Say So” are just some of the 24-year-old singer and rapper’s multiple songs that have gone viral on the videosharing platform. Now, she is the queen of one of the biggest apps on the market, but who was she before we knew her as the sexually liberated genre-bending artist she is today?

Born Amalaratna Zandile Dilamini, she was raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Not much is known about her family, but it’s suspected that her father is a South African actor while her mother is a Jewish art teacher. Elated to learn of her Jewish heritage, I scoured the internet trying to find confirmation from Doja herself, and ultimately failed. In the name of journalistic integrity, I spammed all of her Instagram live videos with “are u jewish” until I got blocked from commenting for three days. Weeks went by without a response. I began to lose hope — until her 11 p.m. live stream on March 11. After the second comment I sent, she stared at the camera and provided us Jewish Doja Cat fans with the confirmation we craved: “Am I Jewish? Yes.” She dropped out of high school to upload her self-produced Garageband songs on Soundcloud. This is where she released her 2013 song “So High.” Later, it became her debut single when she signed to RCA Records. With the release of her debut EP “Purrr!,” she released two of her more popular songs, “Go to Town” and “Tia Tamera,” the latter a collaboration with fellow up-and-coming artist Rico Nasty.

Her first album “Amala” gained mild success, but it wasn’t until five months after its release that it gained widespread acclaim with the release of the music video for “Mooo.” The homemade video shows scenes of Doja in a cow-printed two piece, lazily dancing in front of a green screen that alternates between GIFs of bouncing anime breasts and pixelated flipping burgers. The fun, laid back video paired with the creative lyrics: “B-tch, I’m a cow, b-tch, I’m a cow (Moo, moo, moo) /Got the methane, I’m a farter (Woo) With my farmer (Woo), MacDonald (Woo).” It took

the world by storm. In August of 2018, “Mooo” made its way into our playlists and patterns of speech. Propelled by the “Mooo” fame, Doja Cat released a deluxe version of “Amala” with three bonus tracks. One of those bonus tracks, “Juicy,” marked her first entry on the Billboard charts, debuting at no. 41.

Doja quickly became familiar with the darker side of fame. Old tweets resurfaced and she was documented saying multiple homphobic slurs.

When confronted, she uploaded one of the worst celebrity apologies to date. The tweet featured her announcing she “has said F****t roughly like 15,000 times” in her life while simultaneously displaying her accepting attitude stating: “Do I hate gay people? I don’t think I hate gay people.

Gay is okay.”

There was a moment of outrage: Articles were published and tweets declared her canceled. But the anger came mostly from straight people.

Members of the LGBTQIA community did not take as much offense. Many made it into a joke and continued to support her undeniably good music. The controversy blew over, but the joke remains.

After “Amala,” she released “Hot Pink.” Similar to her previous album, it had a slow start.

It changed when TikTok user Haley Sharpe uploaded a dance cover. The dance took off, and it wasn’t long before its signature punch and body roll would be recognizable to any TikTok user.

People heard the song in the background and started streaming and sharing it. It spawned multiple mashups, many with different verses from rapper Nicki Minaj — the most popular being an incredible pop mix of the background of “Say So” with the lyrics of Ariana Grande’s “goodnight n go.” “Say So” continues to climb the charts, peaking at no. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, at the time this article was written.

Though Doja Cat is receiving unprecedented levels, she’s not immune to the controversy that seems to follow her on every step of her career. She has most recently received backlash for working with Dr. Luke, the infamous producer, on “Hot Pink.”

Whether you chose to focus on her faults, or ignore them to enjoy her skillful body of work, Doja Cat is currently the most powerful artist on the rise.

Movie: “GoodFellas” dir. by Martin Scorcese “GoodFellas” is one of two Scorcese films we watched during Spring Break, and it didn’t disappoint. This almost three-hour film was entertaining and engaging the whole way through. The story of Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill, an associate of an Italian-American mob in Brooklyn from 1955 to 1980, gave us insight into a genre we’re not incredibly familiar with. Joe Pesci (whom Liz had only previously known as the villain in “Home Alone”) and Robert De Niro’s performances had a chaotic energy we couldn’t take our eyes off. Oh, and the outfits!

Book: Joy Luck Club If you’re a product of the American public school system, chances are you’ve read a passage from Amy Tan’s 1989 novel “Joy Luck Club” — or, at the very least, you might have watched the 1993 film adaption (the first major motion picture to feature a majority Asian American cast). This novel follows four American-born Chinese daughters and their complex relationships with their immigrant mothers in San Francisco. It’s easy to read and simply written, but still poetic and beautiful. And during this shelter-in-place when neither of us can be with our mothers (Hi Joanne and Clare), it’s comforting to read about mother-daughter relationships and the traits we share.

Album: “Jolene” by Dolly Parton For weeks now, The Aggie’s Creative Media Coordinator, Caroline Rutten, and I (Liz) have been singing the praises of Dolly Parton to our fellow Arts Desk writer, Andrew Williams. But alas, he has yet to embrace the Tennessee legend, so I find it necessary to recommend her here for any other Dolly deniers. Before I talk about her album “Jolene,” I would be remiss not to first recommend “Coat of Many Colors.” This biographical song has profoundly shaped the outlook I hold in life and makes me smile everytime I hear it.

“Jolene” is the perfect introduction to Dolly Parton — her melodic vibrato and Southern twang come through crystal clear on “River of Happiness,” “Cracker Jack,” “I Will Always Love You” and, of course, the title track “Jolene.”

REVIEW: TAME IMPALA’S “THE SLOW RUSH” Parker’s fourth studio album is an atypical mixed bag with glimpses of the genius we’ve become accustomed to KATHER IN E FR A N KS / AGG IE

BY A N D REW W I LL IAMS arts@theaggie.org After a tormenting five-year hiatus, Tame Impala — the Australian one-man write it, play it, mix it machine, Kevin Parker — released his fourth studio album on Feb. 14. “The Slow Rush” follows in the imposing shadow of the 2015 critically acclaimed and widely praised “Currents,” album, whose unmistakable groovy basslines are still featured on radio stations everywhere. Given the artistic and commercial success of “Currents,” “The Slow Rush” is arguably the most hyped release of the year. Since the inception of Parker’s project in 2007, it has steadily pumped

out some of the best alt-rock of the past decade.

Accustomed to consistency, I first listened with expectations of only the best and finished listening with a tinge of disappointment.

Fittingly titled, “The Slow Rush” confronts the passage of time. Parker described the album to Boston’s NPR station — “Life is like a piece of string with a definitive start and end,” he said.

“And we never really know where we are on that piece of string.”

When I listened to the songs, Parker’s remark makes sense, although not in the way he intended. On first listen, I found myself bouncing around from track to track, drifting through no man’s land. In the sixth track, “Tomorrow’s Dust,”

Parker explores time through the past’s stranglehold on the future, highlighted by the lyrics, “And though I try, I do the same as though I must // And in the air of today is tomorrow’s dust.”

Parker’s inner monologue dominates the hour-long album, as he meditates on his creative capabilities and potential artistic legacy. In the song “On Track,” Parker comes across as tentatively confident, repeating a mantra to convince himself that he is where he’s supposed to be, and despite the many, “tragedies falling in [his] lap [and] major setbacks” he is still “strictly speaking on track.”

Tame Impala’s last three projects gracefully toed the line between nostalgic psych-rock and

cutting-edge production technicality. Shifting into the realm of lo-fi dance music, “The Slow Rush” is of an entirely different vein. When compared to the lucid audiovisual wonderlands of “Innerspeaker” and “Lonerism,” songs like “Glimmer’’ and “Instant Destiny” come across as airy and stale and could be removed without harming the structure and flow of the album. The lead track “One More Year” — an amalgamation of an auto-tuned droning “ohms,” heavy reverb and a basic looped bassline — is another cut that seems just a touch out of place. Parker’s normally dreamlike tone is bogged down and oddly macabre, pushing me into a state akin to my own attempts at meditation — inescapable boredom.

This isn’t to say the album is completely flawed. The heart of the album’s redemption lies in “Posthumous Forgiveness” — a dazzling epic recounting Parker’s tumultuous relationship with his late father. Filled with a colorful variation in pace and instrumentals, the track leaves you floored for its six-minute duration and marks a sharp turn from the arid sounds that precede it. The composition blends twangy guitar, spacey synths and a pounding bassline. Wearing his heart on his sleeve he sings, “Just a boy and a father // What I’d give for another // Wanna play you all my songs // Hear your voice sing along.”

His intonations are packed with the emotional strain of losing a parent. At the four and a half minute mark, his voice shifts up an octave and the song cascades into a heavenly ethereal falsetto, putting it among my all-time favorites from the band.

Followed by the promise of “Breathe Deeper,” it fades to disappointment, and the album cools down as fast as it heated up. For whatever reason, as much as I tried, I just couldn’t get around to enjoying the heady dance tunes that make up the majority of the work. Regardless, giving credit where credit is due, there is a splash of quality on the album that almost every fan can enjoy. Cuts that stood out in my eyes, in addition to “Posthumous Forgiveness,” were the polished upbeat second version of “Borderline” and the head-bobbing drum-packed “Might Be Time.”

Parker said he hoped this album would prove that the idea of genres is a thing of the past, and it’s true this album isn’t in a box. However, it doesn’t quite fit in anywhere — dull on the dancefloor and limited content-wise for fulllength listening. After all the suspense, the album did not live up to expectations, but maybe that’s okay — indicative of growing pains in an otherwise promising career.

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8 | THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

UC DAVIS STUDENT INTERNS AT HILLEL OF DAVIS AND SACRAMENTO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES Students strengthen Jewish community through internship

The Sam Len Hillel House in Davis. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY N O RA FA RA H DE L features@theaggie.org For many students, the Hillel of Davis and Sacramento serves as a home away from home.

Students frequent Hillel, located directly across the street from campus on A Street, to attend Shabbat dinners on Friday nights, free Tuesday lunches or just to study in between classes.

Hillel is open to all, welcoming the Jewish community with complementary food, conversations and more as students embark on their college careers. Hillel is made possible by a professional staff as well as four UC Davis student interns: third-year neurobiology, physiology and

behavior major Yael Vainberg, fourth-year environmental policy analysis and planning major Forrest Pasturel, third-year psychology major Jane Bakhter and fourth-year communication major Eric Korman.

Korman was drawn to the internship because of its integration with the Jewish community.

“Hillel always seemed like an important place, because it’s a place where Jewish students can gather and feel at home.” Korman said. “It felt like a good opportunity to work at a place like that, where I’m serving the Jewish community.”

The interns juggle many tasks. One big part of their job is helping to plan and execute the

weekly Shabbat dinners that Hillel hosts. Each Shabbat has a different theme with its own menu and ambiance, such as Chanukah or Disney Shabbat. In addition to the planning, the interns help set up and clean up every Shabbat.

The interns have a role in shaping the events and their themes. For example, Pasturel helped create New York Deli Shabbat, inspired by his grandfather who grew up in the Bronx. Former Soviet Union Shabbat was inspired by Vainberg, Bahkter and Korman’s family origins from the former Soviet Union, serving to shine a light on the discrimination toward the Jewish people that took place there.

The interns are also involved in planning less

routine events, such as events for Jewish holidays or events that host influential speakers. Hillel hosts joint events by working with organizations such as the student group Aggies for Israel while also hosting many of their own events, like LGBTQ movie nights.

Another part of the internship is student outreach. Interns are encouraged to take students out for coffee dates to check in on them and receive feedback on what they want at Hillel. The goal of this engagement is to show the Jewish community on campus that Hillel is there for them.

Seth Browner, the engagement associate at Hillel, works closely with the interns while also planning the weekly Shabbat dinners. Browner collaborates with the interns on ideas and they all work together to execute the weekly events.

“As an intern, you get a more direct say into the direction that you want to take Hillel, whether it’s with the programming, the social media — anything,” Browner said.

“They get the opportunity to be campus leaders, they get the opportunity to make changes that they want to see at Hillel. Ultimately, Hillel is there to serve them, so that’s what we want to do, is to enhance their own college experience as much as possible.”

With Spring Quarter operating remotely due to health concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Hillel is closed until April 7, 2020.

The interns said Hillel is working on plans with Hillel International to continue on in an online platform in order to maintain connections with and continue to provide services for the students.

Pasturel said working at Hillel was a valuable experience because it acted as an opportunity to serve the Jewish community, build relationships and positively impact others.

“Hillel to me [is] not even a place but an idea of what community truly means,” Pasturel said.

“And not just for the Jewish community, but for the human community. Bringing people together, getting people to talk, getting people to interact with one another, learning from one another and bonding.”

EBT: A SOLUTION FOR BALANCING FINANCES Students discuss how CalFresh takes the financial pressure off them KI YO M I WATSO N / AGGI E

BY AT HE N A AG H I GH I features@theaggie.org CalFresh, also referred to as Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT), is a statewide program that allows individuals to maintain a healthy lifestyle without having to worry about the often higher

price of nutritious foods. Eligible students receive an EBT card, which is essentially a debit card with a monthly balance that helps students buy groceries. Students can get up to $192 per month from the government, which helps tremendously with their food bill.

This money can be used at most grocery

stores, including Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Costco. The program can be applied to online and even has an office in the MU at which students can stop by and ask questions. Students are eligible for the service based on certain criteria, such as if they work more than 20 hours a week or have federal grants for tuition.

The application includes an in-person or phone call interview, as well as forms that detail financial and personal expenses. The application takes about 20 minutes to complete, making it a viable option for even the busiest of students. If accepted, students need to reapply for the program every six months, to ensure that the benefits are going to eligible people.

Fourth-year statistics and managerial economics double major Mary Vang was directed to CalFresh by relatives and upperclassmen in the Hmong Club during her freshman year.

“As a college student balancing rent, utilities, insurance and other bills, I found EBT to be tremendously helpful because it took care of my finances for food,” Vang said. “I would say that it has positively impacted how I manage my college experience! It’s something less I have to worry about and allows me to focus more on my studies.”

Third-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major John Liu found out about CalFresh

through Aggie Compass, the center for CalFresh in the MU. He discussed how the program allowed him to eat healthier and be more relaxed.

Liu encourages students to apply.

“I eat healthier for sure because it only works at grocery stores, so I actually cook my own food which is better for me than eating out,” Liu said.

“I don’t have to worry as much about relying on my jobs to pay for my food, which lets me focus on schoolwork more. I still work to earn money, but I won’t freak out if I need to drop a shift to study for a test.”

Fourth-year cognitive science major Elsa Jimenez also found EBT to be incredibly helpful.

She learned about the program through friends and applied online.

“UC Davis has an EBT representative on campus that is helpful to students who may not have access to the internet and can apply in person,” Jimenez said. “It’s been a huge relief and helps monthly, I no longer have to budget for groceries which is so nice. EBT has helped ease a lot of financial stress.”

Programs like CalFresh can help college students maintain a balance between schoolwork and a healthy life. By being aware of programs that can create an improved state of living, students are better able to maneuver both the stress and freedom that college generates.

WHAT YOUR BACKPACK SAYS TO THE WORLD

Six different backpacks, six different personality types

A student walking to class wearing an Osprey backpack. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY ITZ ELT H G A M B OA arts@theaggie.org When my backpack ripped at the beginning of this year and I was faced with choosing a new one, I was met with an overwhelming amount of choices. I had to decide which backpack I would be identified with for the remainder of my college career. Was I ready for that kind of commitment?

As I did my backpack research, it became clear that different types of people use different types of backpacks — their backpack being a representation of their personality. Here’s what I’ve gathered.

Jansport This regular two-zipper backpack that can endure Davis’ heavy weather reminds me of highschool. I’ll admit it — I had a Jansport back in

high school, but so did everyone else. It was sturdy, reliable and would keep your supplies safe.

But if you have this backpack in college, I would bet you’re one of the most unorganized people on campus. For one reason and one reason only: It only has two zippers.

An average college student has three to four classes — that’s a lot of worksheets from some of your less environmentally-conscious professors, not to mention your different pens, pencils, highlighters and erasers. These are the type of people that have everything and will know where everything is, but have to shove their entire arm to get one eraser. It’s like one of those clown cars where one clown comes after another and another and another.

JanSport Big Student Backpack These are the backpacks that have so many

zippers I couldn’t even count them. If you have this backpack, take this as your wake-up call: relax. You have way too much on your plate. While college activities and organizations are a fun way to get out of your comfort zone and meet new people, taking on too much is a recipe for stress.

What’s important is that you focus on what you have and don’t let it fall apart — as your backpack most likely is doing. Pro tip: Do not let this backpack clutter. Once this backpack gets cluttered, it’s all downhill from there.

The North Face When I came to Davis, I was surrounded by an abundance of The North Face. It seemed like everyone here was a brand ambassador. If you have this backpack, you’re most likely from SoCal and have inevitably assimilated into the NorCal culture with a North Face backpack. With

that said, this is the backpack I purchased. I am also, however, a really organized person. There is a pocket for my laptop, one for my notebooks and another pocket for emergency medicine (Spring Quarter allergies, am I right?) and my phone charger.

Additionally, there are the three NorCal native options when it comes to having The North Face backpack.

You have never been hiking and wanted to buy the backpack to seem cool because that’s what everyone else was using.

You went hiking once and felt alive for the first time ever, decided that this would be the new you, bought all of the necessities and never went out again.

You love hiking and everything outdoorsy and you hate everyone that wears a North Face backpack who doesn’t love hiking as much as you do because they’re “fake.”

A Tote I genuinely don’t understand how so many things can fit in a tote bag. And don’t your shoulders hurt? These are the kinds of people that bring one notebook, one folder and one pen to campus, and yet are somehow always prepared.

As for the people that have The New Yorker tote bags, 90% of you all didn’t even buy it to read the news, you bought it for the bag. This bag is solely for looks — or rather, aesthetic.

Fjällräven Kånken These backpacks blew up a couple of years ago and now everyone has one — including myself. But to wear these backpacks around is plainly stating that you care more about your backpack being cute than anything else. Half of the reason why I won’t wear it is because it’s bright pink and the other reason is because the straps are not comfortable whatsoever. These are the uwu-type people that edit their pictures with little heart emoji around them. They must be protected.

Anything Louis Vuitton Ma’am or sir, I’m going to need you to take a couple of steps back. This is not a fashion show, this is a public school. Nothing even goes into this backpack other than a major flex on everyone else. Louis Vuitton is so out of reach that I actually had to look up how to spell it.

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Sudoku

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain one of each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 | 9

Answer to previous puzzle

10 | THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

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CORONACOMMUNITY

QUARANTINE

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DePietro said that the group is always accepting new members, especially those who can “sew masks, provide supplies for masks, or are [in] need of masks, either individually or as part of an organization.”

The experience of starting and running the group has been inspiring, DePietro said.

“The outpouring of enthusiasm and support has been really wonderful,” DePietro said. “As far as I can tell, all group members are really dedicated to helping with the need for masks and everyone is respectful of each other and wonderful at taking initiative to work with the information they find in the group.”

The success of the COVID-19 Yolo Community Response group also sparked similar projects outside the internet. Twice a week, local radio station KDRT 97.5 FM broadcasts “The COVID-19 Community Report” — a new program directly inspired by the Facebook group, Host Autumn Labbe-Renault said.

“It sparked the idea of ‘Okay, here are all these people reaching out to offer help or recieve help — let’s do something like that on the radio,’” Labbe-Renault said.

The COVID-19 Community Report features interviews with Davis and Yolo County public officials and community leaders on COVID-19 related matters. Recent guests include Yolo Supervisor Don Saylor, DJUSD Superintendent John Bowes and Mellon-Anibaba. The show also provides an updating

list of local services and resources for those impacted

by COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place order. New episodes air Tuesday and Fridays at 12 p.m. and rebroadcast at 5 p.m. The show can also be streamed on the KDRT website.

Like many Davis workplaces, KDRT’s day-today operations were shuttered in response to the lockdown order. Currently, the station airs repeats of past programming — with the exception of The COVID-19 Community Report. Labbe-Renault, who is also the executive director of Davis Media Access, said she is the sole broadcaster remaining at the station during the lockdown.

“I’m coming at you from the darkened KDRT studio, here at Davis Media Access on 5th St — in a building I’ve closed to everyone else — and I’m wearing latex gloves,” Labbe-Renault said during the opening of her first show. “Suffice it to say, our new normal is anything but.”

Community radio fills a unique niche in times of crisis Labbe-Renault said — in part because of its accessibility, as well as a sense of human connection.

“I think right now, people are hungry for connection,” Labbe-Renault said. “I just think right now, I’m helping people connect — at least I hope I am.

Connecting in a time of isolation is so important, especially as the crisis looks like it will go on for some time.”

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most vulnerable members of our community, which include seniors that are 65 and older, pregnant or otherwise at high risk of infection,” the post reads.

“We ask that you allow our older and immunocompromised community members the time and space

they need to do their shopping as safely as possible.”

Other local grocery stores, including Nugget Markets and Trader Joes, are practicing similar precautions with increased sanitary measures and specific hours for at-risk populations.

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“Californians need to know how critical it is to stay home, learn how to stay healthy and where they

can get help. These actions are critical and there is no doubt our collective efforts save lives.”

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as well as creating web pages that contain activities and resources for students. Additionally, Chromebooks will be offered to students who may not have access to the internet or a computer to participate in Distance Learning.

“We will have a drive-up station set up at Harper Junior High, Montgomery Elementary and Patwin Elementary during the meal disbursement windows in the coming week,” said Marcia Bernard, a chief technology officer. “A parent may come, sign

out a Chromebook and charger, along with [being equipped with] instruction for getting free access to internet, if they do not have it at home.”

Ultimately, DJUSD will help to support students and continue their education amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Let’s continue to stay connected as we adapt and navigate the coming weeks and months ahead,” Bowes wrote in his message to the DJUSD community,

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when she found out that the following day she would need to have all of her belongings packed up to take home. When she learned that she would need to be ready to move out in 24 hours, she still had two exams to take, which added to the stress of the week in her opinion.

“While I was stressed out about [moving out] and worrying about my family as well, I had to take my CHE 2B final on Monday at 8 a.m.,” Nguyen said.

“It was extremely stressful, and the system even submitted my exam [before it was complete] due to technical errors. I emailed the TA about it but the only thing that they could let me do was opt out of the final or take an incomplete. I ended up opting out, [....] but this was an extremely upsetting experience.”

Nguyen struggled to complete her exam and pack up her belongings in such a short span of time and recalled how the uncertainty over her grade made it more difficult to focus on packing and study for her exam the following day. She ultimately had to take her ANS 2 exam on her way home from school since she was unable to leave as early as planned, having not finished packing up her room. Nguyen said this made it very stressful for her to complete the exam.

“I had to drive down to SoCal, and I did not know if I would be able to make my ANS 2 final exam online,” Nguyen said. “I took it while we were driving using my mobile hotspot. The internet went out a couple times, and it was the most stressed I had ever been in my life.”

While some courses had stricter exam policies,

other courses opted for take-home or cancelled exams in light of the unforeseen circumstances. Rachel Callegari, a first year political science major, said she only had to take two of her four originally scheduled exams.

“My political theory final was changed so the professor gave everyone 100% on the test,” Callegari said. “My stats final wasn’t canceled, but he made it optional to take. He said that he would weight our first two midterms more heavily if you didn’t take the final, and I was happy with my grade on those midterms so I opted not to take the final.”

Even of her two remaining exams, both were adjusted, allowing unproctored canvas assignments to fulfill the final exam requirement. Callegari said that because of her professors’ flexibility, she was actually able to perform well on her exams.

However, the stress of the evolving situation both globally and on-campus did affect many students’ performance on exams, like Shuaib. She — and many students — said that they were more stressed than usual during finals week and that the uncertainty of their exams and the rest of the school year factored into their ability to prepare for exams.

“When I heard the news — this may be a little selfish — but I got really sad, because first of all, it’s a pandemic and that’s scary on it’s own, but I was also thinking about spring quarter,” Shuaib said. “Getting the news that spring quarter was going to be an empty campus was like a little devastating and that kind of ruined my syke for finals week.”

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The “big thing,” according to Deacon, is the financial aspect.

“The good news is that for most people, it’s just a matter of stopping whatever they had been doing,” Deacon said. “And thankfully, we had not really made any big purchases yet, so there’s no financial strain here. The really important thing is being able to return all the money.”

The cancelation, along with all the other changes implemented as a result of COVID-19, is particularly emotional for Deacon, who decided to attend UC Davis because of her experience at Picnic Day when she was a senior in high school.

“Picnic Day was what made me commit to Davis.

I was like, ‘This is super cool that a school does this,’” Deacon said. “Somehow I figured out that Picnic Day was a student-run event, so I knew that, when I came to campus in the fall as a freshman, I wanted to get involved. I found the Picnic Day table at the

housing fair during Week Zero and put my email down.”

In her first year, Deacon was an assistant director for the Children’s Discovery Fair at Picnic Day and found it “super rewarding.” After that, she decided that she wanted to come back as a director — she was the special events director during her second year and vice chair in her third year.

“Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Week 10 were very hard,” Deacon said. “I cried a lot those days. I’m just one of the many college seniors who is leaving their last [everything]. For me, it’s my last Picnic Day, and that obviously sucks. But there’s a whole graduating class, and we’re all kind of in the same boat here, where college is just not ending the way we thought it was going to. For me, it’s now less about Picnic Day and more about everything in general.”

For those struggling with social isolation, an alternative route may include inviting friends to play online board games such as Pictionary, Codenames, Settlers of Catan and Cards Against Humanity or talk on various video hangout programs.

A few weeks ago, Cheung was accepted into a UCLA summer internship program that partnered with the CDC. Like Cheung, many other students have faced the disappointing news of internships and other extracurriculars being cancelled.

“I’m definitely in a way still mourning the loss of such an incredible experience I could’ve had this summer, and the cancellation of my internship made me realize how much unknown is in this pandemic,” Cheung said. “I’ve been looking into shelters, food banks and nonprofits I can volunteer at this summer, and I think that’s what’s been helping me because there are so many other ways I can help my community.”

In addition to practicing self-care by

spending quality time with family and catching up on movies, third-year economics and political science double major Natalie Ken recommends doing activities that don’t involve staring at screens for an extended period of time.

“I’ve been using YouTube to get ideas for workout routines to stay active at home and occasionally walking my dog outside for some fresh air,” Ken said. “I’ve also been learning how to embroider, which has been super fun and also time consuming, so it’s been a good way to keep busy, and also keeping in touch with friends by talking to them on FaceTime and Zoom has been another way I keep busy.”

“I think we are all struggling to adjust during this period of uncertainty, and for a lot of us that means facing job insecurity and missing out on milestones,” Ken said.

“But it’s important to keep in mind that we need to do our part to help ‘flatten the curve’ and limit the spread of the virus.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020 | 11

HIGHER PSYCHOPATHOLOGY RATES IN YOUNGER GIRLS WITH AUTISM LINKED WITH ENLARGED AMYGDALAS

Research study focuses on identifying children with autism at higher risk for psychiatric disorders KI YO M I WATS O N / AGGI E

BY MI C HE L L E WO NG science@theaggie.org Enlarged amygdalas in young children with autism were linked to high levels of psychopathology, meaning a higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder in the future, according to recent research conducted at the UC Davis Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute. The amygdala is the area of the brain commonly associated with emotional responses. Specifically, the research found that young girls were more likely to be categorized in the subgroup at a higher risk of developing a future psychiatric disorder.

“We talk about autism as one thing, but a lot of us also talk about it being very heterogeneous, and what we mean by that is that some people have an intellectual disability, some people don’t, some have verbal skills, some don’t,” said Christine Wu Nordhal, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the MIND Institute. “The severity of their symptoms can be vastly different as well. The

thing that we were focusing on in terms of heterogeneity was this idea of co-occurring psychopathology or co-occurring anxiety, depression, ADHD — disorders that are their own diagnoses but are distinct from autism.”

Although previous studies have seen that there is a higher rate of these co-occurring psychiatric problems in older individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there has been less focus on researching these rates in younger children. Nordhal first came into this field of research 15 years ago when autism diagnoses were becoming more common. After seeing many families affected by this disorder, along with the lack of understanding of its biological mechanisms, she said she felt it was an important topic to study.

“I felt like it was really important to look at very young ages when kids are being diagnosed if you want to look at the brain basis of autism,” Nordhal said. “Because if you wait until they’re much older, of course, this person has had a lifetime of behavioral interventions or other things that could be, should be, altering their brain in some way to help them. So to look at the most

ENGINEERING INCLUSIVITY: THE DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING WOMEN IN STEM

pure sort of neural basis of autism, we wanted to look at right when kids were getting diagnosed.”

Alexa Hechtman, a staff research associate at the UC Davis Medical Center (UCDMC) with the MIND Institute, said that since a majority of autism research is centered around males, it was important to focus on girls due to their underrepresentation. Boys are diagnosed with ASD about four to five times more often than girls, according to Hechtman.

“It takes more time and resources to find girls and bring them into research in order to learn more about them, so, because of that, a lot of research studies are just including males, just for statistical reasons or just the ease of access,” Hechtman said.

In addition, Nordhal thought that a focus on these co-occurring psychopathology traits could help improve the quality of life of these individuals in the future. She clarified that although these psychiatric problems are not diagnosed at age three — the age group that is being focused on in the study — a child who has higher symptoms at this age may be at higher risk for being diagnosed for psychiatric disorders in adolescence.

“This seemed to me like a target where we could actually try to help these kids because there are treatments and interventions for things like anxiety and depression that a parent or family could try outside of their autism therapies,” Nordhal said.

“The goal of looking at these co-occurring psychiatric conditions is also because there’s something that we can do about it. If we can identify it in the child, then we can try to help them improve the quality of their life.”

Once the study identified the group of children with high psychopathology within their sample, the researchers decided to look at the underlying neurobiology in order to discover what was causing the larger number of symptoms. The amygdala is a natural target to study due to its common association with autism along with psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression,

Nordhal explained. Through MRI scanning, the researchers found that their hypothesis — that patients with higher psychopathology would have enlarged amygdalas — was correct, with almost twice as many girls categorized in this subgroup.

Nordhal explained that although people may generalize behaviors to be within the autism diagnosis, there are subgroups of children with certain behaviors that are different from autism. Informing parents of this and targeting treatments specifically to a child’s behaviors may be helpful.

She also hopes that somewhere down the line in this field of research they will be able to track the rate of amygdala development in order to flag children who are at a higher risk of developing future psychiatric problems.

The team will soon begin to investigate the emergence of depression between middle childhood and middle adolescence in individuals with ASD compared to those with typical development, according to Marjorie Solomon, a professor at the MIND Institute.

“We will examine how factors like IQ and social functioning influence who becomes depressed and who does not,” Solomon said. “This will help us to figure out who to treat as we believe psychopathology has an adverse effect on young adult life outcomes.”

Furthermore, the team’s current clinical trial comparing children with ASD and anxiety who are receiving either cognitive behavioral therapy, medication or pill placebo will help clarify which treatments are best for certain individuals.

Hechtman noted the importance of keeping in mind all of the strengths these individuals possess.

“Being able to really focus on what’s special and what you enjoy about that child or individual and just giving them as much support and fostering those areas so that they can have those strengths and grow, versus always focusing on the areas that we need to fix as well — [that is] something that would be helpful,” Hechtman said.

MARS WRIGLEY LAUNCHES NEW RESEARCH PROGRAM WITH UC DAVIS

Partnership expands on cacao crop research

Jennifer Curtis, the first female dean for the UC Davis College of Engineering, speaks about her experience as a female engineer

Jennifer Curtis, Dean of the College of Engineering at UC Davis. (Courtesy Photo)

BY S O P HI E D EW E E S features@theaggie.org In STEM-related fields, particularly engineering, men significantly outnumber women.

According to Forbes, women made up 14% of engineers in 2016 — in other words, one out of every seven engineers is a woman. To many, this percentage might seem small, but it was even smaller in the 1980s when Jennifer Curtis, the first female dean of the UC Davis College of Engineering, was in graduate school. For Curtis, being the only woman in the classroom was a common experience.

“Way back in 1979 when I started college, Purdue actually was one of the leaders in terms of the percent of women studying engineering,” Curtis said. “That changed drastically when I went to Princeton for graduate school. Then I was the only woman in my class.”

A future for females As a student, having female faculty to look up to helped Curtis realize her goals.

“I was lucky, in both Purdue and Princeton, there was one woman engineer faculty member,” Curtis said. “Just her presence, seeing that she was doing the career that I was envisioning for myself, personally, it made all the difference to me, knowing that it was possible.”

Since the 1980s, the statistics in engineering have drastically changed, according to Curtis.

“Now, in our college, for instance, we have 25% women engineering faculty,” Curtis said.

“This is a huge difference than [only] one.”

Seeing people like herself working as engineers inspired Curtis to succeed. According to Curtis, having faculty representation of the student body can only improve students’ education.

“When you look at different groups and identities, you might not always see that person to look up to,” Curtis said. “I want to make sure our students always can see that role model or interact with that role model. I know for me it made a world of difference.”

Collaboration and community Curtis has found a uniquely interactive community of engineers while working at UC Davis.

“I just really felt the spirit of community here and also […] all the interdisciplinary projects,” Curtis said. “I had never seen that much collaboration in a large, public institution.”

UC Davis is also different because of its dedi-

cation to promoting inclusivity.

“A lot of institutions today, they certainly support diversity, but the level of commitment and the level of heart commitment is different here at Davis than other places,” Curtis said.

The power of mentorship Mentors and advisors helped guide Curtis throughout school and helped her choose a career path. She did not have any engineers in her family and chose the engineering major based on the suggestion of her high school counselor.

“He just said he saw that I always liked chemistry and math,” Curtis said. “Now I look back, and he was pretty progressive. I mean, this is 1978 and he was telling me, ‘You should be an engineer.’”

As mentorship greatly enhanced her education, Curtis is dedicated to providing similar opportunities to engineering students at UC Davis, particularly by providing information about potential career paths for new students.

“Thirty-five percent of our students in our engineering college are first-generation,” Curtis said. “I’m very passionate about having those students know right away what engineering […] is and getting them involved in some engineering projects [and] connecting them with alumni mentors.”

By interacting with alumni, Curtis believes students can make an informed decision about their major and learn the benefits of having a degree in engineering.

“I’m passionate about having as many students as possible who come into my college finish with that engineering degree,” Curtis said. “If they have that degree, the world of opportunities is going to be so broad for them.”

With programs such as Leadership in Engineering Advancement, Diversity and Retention (LEADR) and a new engineering student design center opening in October 2020, Curtis hopes to provide further opportunities for engineering students and ultimately encourage students to complete their engineering degree.

“That’s something I’m very passionate about: retention of our students to engineering and having students understand what engineering is right away and how engineers can make an impact on the world,” Curtis said.

This story is a continuation of The California Aggie’s HERstory series for women’s history month.

Mars Geneticist Ashley DuVal (left) and Mars Associate Marcelo Santos (right) grafting plants in the UC Davis greenhouse. (Mars Wrigley / Courtesy)

BY YANTO NG YE science@theaggie.org Mars Wrigley, the world-famous manufacturer of chocolates, candies and gums, recently launched a new research program with UC Davis focused on cacao. Construction of a new on-campus greenhouse supported by Mars for this cacao plant research is nearly complete.

Cacao is a relatively unexplored plant compared to other crops that are considered major sources of energy, according to David Mackill, the cacao genetics and breeding director at Mars Wrigley and an adjunct professor in the plant sciences department. Conducting fundamental studies to improve the basic understanding of cacao can have a great impact worldwide, Mackill said.

“More productive cacao trees that are resistant to pests and diseases means farmers can grow more high-quality cocoa on less land, improving their productivity and their lives with less risk of deforestation,” Mackill said via email. “This research partnership between UC Davis and Mars and these important new facilities will help achieve that.”

The partnership between Mars and UC Davis began in 1974. Since then, the company has worked with multiple departments and programs at UC Davis, conducting research on crops such as cocoa, peanut and mint.

Research on sustainability and plant disease control are also areas of great focus. Alan Bennet, a distinguished professor in the department of plant sciences, ran a research project with Mars focused on identifying corn varieties in Mexico that were able to fix their own nitrogen.

“This research supports the development of more sustainable agriculture,” Bennet said. “It will have the biggest impact on undeveloped areas where nitrogen fertilizers aren’t even available.

It can really enhance food security in important ways and in important parts of the world.”

Because of the increasing world population, industry and academia are working together to

find sustainable agricultural operations that can benefit future generations.

“Mars can inform scientists, like myself and others, about how a company would look at the world and the kind of things they need,” Bennet said.

The collaboration between academia and industry will only increase in the future, according to Bennet.

“It’s very important for our world to meet its food production demands by 2050,” Bennet said. “It’s going to need new technologies, creative ideas and disruptive approaches. This often comes from universities. In order for those disruptive ideas to be translated, there needs to be a strong collaboration with industry.”

Ann Filmer, the communications director of the department of plant sciences, also agrees that the partnership between industry and academia will continue to expand because of the emerging challenges in the production of healthy and affordable food worldwide.

“With global population growth, a changing climate, and projected increases in drought, the partnerships can also address short- and longterm challenges — such as adequate global food needs, water supplies, and environmental sustainability — and how to solve them on a global scale,” Filmer said via email.

UC Davis conducts numerous research projects with the goal of improving food production and sustainability both locally and internationally, Filmer mentioned. In addition to collaborating with industry, researchers in the department of plant sciences work with various agencies, governments and nonprofit organizations.

Mackill noted that, because cocoa is under-researched, there are great opportunities for students and scientists to explore the plant.

“Cocoa is a very exciting research topic and UC Davis students interested in pursuing a career in cocoa plant science and research should take advantage of having one of the foremost cocoa plant science and research programs in the world right here at UC Davis,” Mackill said.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2020

SPORTS WORLD LEFT IN LIMBO AMID CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK

How COVID-19 has impacted athletics across the globe

TESSA KOGA / AGGIE

BY RAIN YEKIKIAN sports@theaggie.org The entire world of sports has been catapulted into a state of uncertainty following a series of unprecedented events in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S. recently became the country with the most reported cases of coronavirus worldwide. As the number of cases continues to grow every day, it is safe to say that this pandemic has impacted the world in ways that are far beyond what many could have imagined. The sports community is just one among many that has been seriously affected in this past month.

The caution surrounding this virus began with some teams, like the Golden State Warriors and San Jose Sharks, planning to play games without any fans in attendance amid the growing fears of coronavirus that were taking place within the Bay Area at the time. Around the same time, the NCAA announced that they planned on limiting attendance at their competitions to “essential staff and limited family” as a precautionary

measure to avoid community spread.

Although it is clear that some organizations had begun taking steps to protect everyone from further spread, the fallout that ensued was unprecedented, as the world of sports came to a standstill in what felt like an instant.

On the evening of March 11, a game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder was postponed after Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus before the game began. All Utah Jazz players were told to remain in Oklahoma City for testing, and Gobert’s star teammate Donovan Mitchell tested positive as well.

The postponement of the Jazz-Thunder game was immediately followed by the NBA’s shocking announcement that it would be suspending the rest of the season.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained that the league's main concern at this time is the “well-being of fans, players, everyone connected to our game, and the general public.” Silver’s immediacy in handling this situation is commendable, as the NBA was the first league to display

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: KATE GRAHAM

UC Davis Women’s Lacrosse midfielder talks college career

Kate Graham (12) of UC Davis Women's Lacrosse team in action during a match against Georgetown on March 8 at the UC Davis Health Stadium. (Photo by C.K. Hicks / UC Davis Athletics)

BY PRIYA REDDY sports@theaggie.org Senior midfielder Kate Graham is a force on the UC Davis women’s lacrosse team. The San Francisco native and sociology-organizational studies major began playing lacrosse in the second grade when she and her two best friends decided to join the local club team. Despite never having any exposure to lacrosse before that, she fell in love with the sport and has continued playing ever since.

During her high school career, Graham played lacrosse, basketball and waterpolo all four years and earned multiple All-Marin County Athletic League awards for each sport. As a midfielder on the UC Davis team, Graham’s career has only picked up. In her freshman year Graham started all but one game and scored 13 goals and recorded 16 assists. She continued to improve in her sophomore year, starting all 14 games and scoring seven goals and compiling seven assists.

By her junior year at UC Davis, she started 17 games, scored 14 goals and was selected for the All-MPSF team for the first time.

The Aggie sat down with Graham to discuss how she’s grown as a player at UC Davis, her collegiate career so far and her plans for after college.

The California Aggie: What made you choose UC Davis?

Kate Graham: I was kind of lost during the recruiting process. I'm pretty indecisive, so I never knew. I was like, “Oh, maybe I'll go to the East Coast. Maybe I'll go to a football school, maybe I’ll go to a school that has 10 people or 30,000.”

Davis was the first school that showed interest in me, and I wasn't really sure what direction I was going to go in at that point. So I held off and just went to other things, explored other options and then I came back to a Davis camp. I tell this story a lot, but when you go to camps and tournaments and you talk to girls who are committed to schools, a lot of times they don't acknowledge

such caution and officially suspend its season.

In the days that followed this announcement, other NBA teams began testing their players.

There are now 14 confirmed cases within the NBA, including Kevin Durant and Marcus Smart.

As disheartening as Silver’s decision may have been for fans in the moment, it soon became clear that the suspension of all other sports competitions was inevitable. Fears evolved into reality by the next afternoon, as Major League Baseball pushed back spring training and postponed the start of the season, while the National Hockey League suspended the rest of its season as well.

Major League Soccer has also followed suit, suspending play for a minimum of 30 days.

The exponential growth in the confirmed cases of the virus and the fact that tests are still not readily available, suggests that the nation will continue to see a surge in cases before any decline. Thirty days will most likely not be enough time to determine the end of this outbreak.

In the midst of all these adjustments, one of the biggest announcements was made on March 24, when the International Olympic Committee decided to postpone the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics, set to take place in Tokyo from July 24 to Aug. 9.

The committee initially appeared hesitant to go through with postponement, but after pleas from several Olympic athletes and various countries’ Olympic committees and due to the undeniable severity of the situation, the committee eventually decided it would be best to move them to “no later than summer 2021.”

All marathons scheduled for the next few months have also been postponed, including the Boston and London Marathons — two major races that take place each year.

College sports have also been impacted by concerns surrounding the coronavirus, as the NCAA cancelled all remaining tournaments and championships, resulting in the suspension of play from conferences like the Big West, Big East and Big 12.

The adjustments being made in response to the coronavirus have also significantly impacted the UC Davis athletic community. On March 12, UC Davis athletics announced that all remaining winter and all upcoming spring sports will be cancelled, effective immediately.

This decision was made “in the interest of the health and safety of student-athletes, coaches and staff, administrators and fans” and extends to all practices, including those that would have been held in spring to prepare for the upcoming fall season.

UC Davis Director of Athletics Kevin Blue recently released a letter to the Aggie community, reassuring that everyone’s health and safety remains the top priority as the athletics department continues to monitor the current situation.

The decision to suspend all sporting events and practices was soon followed by the UC Davis administration’s announcement that the campus will be switching to complete remote instruction for Spring Quarter.

The fact that the limit for public gatherings was set at 1,000 people just weeks ago and has now subsequently been condensed to less than 10 indicates the gradual seriousness and unpredictability of this pandemic. Given this turbulent situation, shutting down all in-person operations and large events until it can be confirmed that it is safe to resume is certainly a wise decision.

The uncertainty that the coronavirus has left not only on the world of sports but on all aspects of life across the country is unlike anything we have seen before. What originated as a possible cause for concern has developed into a global pandemic, eliminating the routines of life as we knew it before the spread of this virus.

The coronavirus pandemic has also taken away the one certainty that sports fans have always had of being able to watch their team perform even when everything else in life felt unbearable. The reaction from the whole nation, however, has proven that this is something that extends far beyond any game or championship.

When sports do resume, there will most likely not be a sense of true normalcy for some time.

Although some fans will be excited to return to games, this virus has instilled a level of fear and cautiousness within people that is unlikely to fade away quickly. It is unlikely that stadiums will be filling back up immediately.

As unimaginable as this situation may be, it is important to understand that sports will eventually be there to pick us up once again, as soon as it is absolutely safe to do so. The most important thing to do now is to support one another and keep ourselves safe.

you as much because they're the cool, committed girls. And I remember I came to Davis camp and all the committed girls were so talkative, so willing to ask you questions — be kind to you.

A specific alumni, Natalie Garces, asked me who I was and what I was doing there. I instantly was like, “Oh, these people are normal and nice.” So I fell in love with the school.

TCA: How much has changed for you as a player since your freshman year?

KG: Well, the rules have changed, they change every year. And we've had a bunch of coaching changes. I was recruited by a coach, they left, and then I had a new coach my freshman year.

They left, and now I've had Suzanne [Isidor]. So I think in that formal aspect, a lot has changed.

But when it comes to playing, I would say I've learned to play for my team, with my team. And everyone on the team plays the exact same way, like we're a family on and off the field. I think that bond has only grown since my freshman year to my senior year — these girls are my best friends. I know they have my back. So you can play with so much more trust and compassion on the field.

TCA: What advice would you give your freshman self coming into your college career at UC Davis?

KG: Go hard, [play with] energy. Don't be afraid to fail, make mistakes, do weird things. Make yourself uncomfortable on the field because it's just gonna pay off. Don't just do what you're good at, do something challenging — practice your behind the backs, practice with your left hand, because it's all gonna pay off in the long run. Make yourself uncomfortable.

TCA: How do you prepare for games mentally?

Do you have any rituals or anything that you have to do pre-game?

KG: I used to be super superstitious in high school. I would eat the same sandwich, eat a jolly rancher, glue a penny onto my locker — I was psycho about it. And coming into college, I was kind of the same way. But this year, I've just let it all go and I am just way more calm and casual. It feels so much better to just be like, “It's fine. I know what I'm doing. I've done this for so long, I don't need a ritual.” Although, I do brush my teeth before every game, every single time. I brush my teeth like a normal person. And then before the game, once I'm done eating and drinking or whatever, I brush my teeth [again].

TCA: Given the career and the success that you’ve had here at UC Davis, what do you think has helped you become the player you are today?

KG: It sounds cheesy, but my teammates, wholeheartedly. When I came in freshman year, every-

one just boosted my confidence [and] boosted everyone else's confidence. We talk about trust and trusting every person who comes off the bench. So as soon as you step off the bench, those girls respect you and they know that you're supposed to be out there for a reason. So I would just say my teammates — people pumping you up during practice, congratulating each other, staying after and doing extra work after practice, it all contributes to it. But having that strong unit that backs you up and supports you and gives you that confidence only reiterates the confidence that you already had for yourself.

TCA: As a senior who’s wrapping up the end of your career here at Davis, what are you going to miss most about playing lacrosse?

KG: Probably the team. Not only that — because I know that they're going to be my friends forever — but probably just the fact that to play competitively and to get to be competitive. It's not weird that you're competitive, you know, because it's so legit. I've played competitive sports, all these girls have, our whole lives. Where does that energy go?

What do you channel that aggression and that competitive edge towards? So I'll have to find another outlet.

TCA: What do you plan to do after you graduate?

KG: I'm actually not worried at all. We have the [Aggie] EVO system, which is for athletics, it helps you plan for what you're doing in the future. So I'm just looking around. I'm from the Bay Area, so I am lucky that I am from a place that has lots of job opportunities. I'm thinking about relaxing in the summer, taking my time and then hopefully landing into something in the fall. But honestly, who knows. I could be on a boat, I could be in another country — totally going with the flow. For one time [in] my life, I won't have a schedule. So why not enjoy it?

TCA: Do you have any personal goals for the rest of the season?

KG: I think just having fun, wholeheartedly, like it's my last year playing a competitive sport ever.

I want to enjoy every minute of it. And I think we're in the position to do that — great coaches, great support, great players. This is a year where we can beat a lot of people. I think the goal, of course, is to win the MPSF. We've won the regular season twice and then lost the championship twice. So capitalizing on that would be super cool, but besides that like having fun. It's a sport.

It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Enjoy our time here. **Since the interview with Graham, all remaining UC Davis athletics events for this year have been suspended.