January 24, 2019

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VOLUME 137, ISSUE 13 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

Federal government shutdown affects UC Davis G AG E SK I D M O R E /CO URTESY

BY AA RON L I SS campus@theaggie.org

UC Davis, a federally-funded institution, is not immune to the effects of the ongoing federal government shutdown.

This means that research grants, student immigration cases and financial aid may be delayed across the university.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA and U.S. Department of Agriculture are examples of some of the departments that have closed and aren’t receiving funding. The NSF distributes the funding for research done by graduate students and professors in UC Davis science departments.

The federal government’s partial shutdown came after Congress didn’t approve a $5 billion funding allocation for the construction of a physical wall along the southern border. As a result, hundreds of thousands of federal employees are not being paid.

The UC Davis Office of Research assured that most federal research grants have already been dispersed for the fiscal 2019 year, but others, like the National Science Foundation, have not. According to the UCOP, university science researchers who are funded by the NSF have not been paid since December and will not be paid until the agency reopens and the government shutdown ends.

New awards, funding increments, payments and prior approvals will be impacted or delayed because of the shutdown,

Some research grants delayed, already-awarded federal financial aid not at risk according to Jean-Pierre Delplanque, the vice provost and dean of graduate studies.

Despite the delays, Delplanque urged those applying for grants to “please submit your application by the deadline published in the funding opportunity announcement, regardless of the status of the government shutdown. Continue working normally unless you receive guidance from your program to stop work. If you receive a stop work order or if [you] have not received your obligated funds, contact externalfellowships@ucdavis.edu immediately.”

Additionally, the UC Davis School of Law, which hosts the UC Immigrant Legal Law Center, said the shutdown has halted immigration cases, leaving trials stagnant while immigration judges are furloughed.

“Thousands of immigration cases have been postponed as a result of the federal government shutdown,” a post on the school’s website read. “Immigration judges have been furloughed, and only cases involving migrants in custody are moving forward. Because of already crowded judicial calendars, postponed matters may not be heard for years. According to the New York Times, delayed proceedings in busy New York immigration courts may not take place until 2022 or 2023.”

Kimberly Hale, of UC Davis news and media relations, spoke about the importance of the funding that fuels scientific research.

“The University of California urges Congress and the administration to

quickly reach an agreement to re-open the federal government,” Hale said via email. “Many of the agencies affected by this shutdown provide critical funding for important research underway by our students, faculty and staff across the university system.”

Hale mentioned the federal Pell Grant program, which provides financial aid to low-income students. She said students currently receiving the grants should not be affected.

The IRS’ closure troubles those who need tax returns from the IRS to apply for aid. Students who want to apply for federal aid may be delayed because the online application may be locked out from federal online databases that confirm their identities.

“We are pleased that earlier this year, Congress was able to provide strong investments for federal financial aid programs – including an increase in Pell Grant funding – and that our students currently receiving this aid are not affected by the shutdown,” Hale said. “However, as a key partner with UC in pursuit of scientific and technological breakthroughs that keep our state and the nation at the forefront of innovation, we urge Congress and the administration to immediately fund [...] agencies that have been affected by this shutdown. We are continu[ing] to closely monitor the situation.”

The White House claims that even though the IRS is down, tax returns will still be paid out during the shutdown.

TIMOT H Y L I / AG G I E

California Hall opens for public use, other campus projects under construction Design and Construction Management workers discuss campus projects

BY GE ORG E L I AO campus@theaggie.org

The Design and Construction Management (DCM) office at UC Davis has been busy with the recent opening of California Hall, a lecture facility located behind Wellman Hall, and with construction projects in the pipeline for the foreseeable future.

The opening of California Hall is within the context of a campus-wide trend aiming to set Davis apart by providing students with advanced classroom technology, allowing them to interact with both the lecture

material and with each other. Current campus construction projects are part of a longterm plan to provide additional learning spaces and housing on campus.

Debra L. Smith, a senior project manager for DCM responsible for California Hall, spoke about how California Hall uses technology to facilitate collaboration in the classroom.

“We are very forward-looking in technology,” she said. “We have a lot of infrastructure that is not only for use today, but will be flexible into the future for new technologies [such as] the annotations on the screens

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Third annual Mental Health Conference features 12 workshops, 3 panels DEB ORA H WIDJA JA / MEN TA L HEA LT H IN IT IAT IV E

Free event draws around 1,000 attendants

BY CLAI R E DODD campus@theaggie.org

The third annual Mental Health Conference took place on Jan. 12 and 13 at the UC Davis Conference Center. This was the first year the event was completely free of charge for students and other attendees, and registration slots quickly filled up before the weekend events even began.

This event was hosted by the UC Davis Mental Health Initiative, an entirely student-run committee within ASUCD. The two-day conference featured a number of workshops led by professors and professionals, panels hosted by students, discussion spaces, performances and a resource fair. There were two allotted workshop sessions on each day of the conference, during which participants had the opportunity to choose between three different sessions, all pertaining to different topics.

Before entering the conference center, guests were encouraged to observe the community agreements set in place which were aimed at creating an inclusive environment. The agreements included using gender inclusive language, refraining from the overuse of technology, upholding a respect for confidentiality and using snapping as a sign of support.

Around 43.8 million adults experience some kind of mental illness in a given year, with nearly 60 percent of that population lacking any form of mental health services, such as counseling or medication, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Survey data from UC Davis also supports these statistics, reporting that 64.8

and the ability to do different kinds of lecture captures and having more participation from students.”

Smith said that California Hall was not anticipated to become a large lecture hall, but after analysis of class needs and schedules, it became apparent another lecture hall was necessary.

“During design, it was anticipated that down-the-line the building could be repurposed into four smaller classrooms that would be 120 to 150 [students] each — that is why there are exit doors at the four corners of the building,” she said.

Smith then offered a story about Clayton Halliday, the recently-retired campus architect who gave a nickname to California Hall.

During construction, Smith said Halliday noticed a yellow glow through the front glass windows caused by light bouncing off of the walls inside. He nicknamed the space “our lantern of learning.”

Jim Carroll, a university architect and an associate vice chancellor at UC Davis, added that the ‘lantern of learning’ effect inside of California Hall gave visitors “an idea of what is happening inside the building from the promenade” and “pulls back in a very handsome way,” which allows passersby to receive “a very good indication of what is happening inside the space.”

In addition to California Hall, there are a number of other new structures set to be

CONFERENCE on 13

built on campus.

Carroll mentioned the DCM’s work on the expansion of West Village, which will add an estimated 3,300 beds. The project will cost $379 million in construction and $201 million for financing, design and construction management fees, site development, furniture, contingent and other associated costs, he explained via email.

Julianne Nola, the director of major capital projects for DCM, said via email that this is an “unusual but exciting year” in regards to the high number of projects under construction.

“In 2019, DCM will complete the ARC Renovation, Recreation Pool (two brand new pools and complete renovation to the bath house), Tercero Dining Commons 2, Webster Housing, Walker Hall (complete renovation), Controlled Environmental Facility Expansion, PSE Library Seismic Retrofit and QMAP Renovations, Athletics Practice Field, Beach Volleyball Complex, Chemistry Seismic Retrofit and Vet Med Large Animal Holding,” she said. “As well as California Hall that just opened for winter quarter. Whew!”

Nola said the projects currently under construction are mainly funded by the university.

“However there are a few that include donor funding, such as Beach Volleyball and CONSTRUCTION on 13

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2 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

Jan. 10 Senate meeting: business continues during active shooter situation First meeting of Winter Quarter includes discussion of Title IX, Unitrans, ends in lockdown

CAITLYN SAMPLEY / AGGIE

BY CL A I RE D O D D campus@theaggie.org

The first ASUCD Senate meeting of the quarter began promptly at 6:10 p.m. in the Mee Room in the Memorial Union. Roll call was taken, and President Michael Gofman was absent for the entirety of the meeting.

The Senate began the meeting with the election of this quarter’s new Senate President Pro Tempore. Pro Tempore acts as the

official representative of the Senate, and assumes the duties of the ASUCD Vice President if they are absent.

Both Senators Alisha Hacker and Jumoke Maraiyesa made brief speeches, arguing why they would be the best candidate.

Hacker, who has held the position before, said that the learning curve for the job was huge and if she was re-elected, it would be minimized. Maraiyesa also addressed this in her pitch, saying that she was more than capable of learning and someone new would eventually have to hold the position regardless.

Senator Alisha Hacker won by one vote, and was officially re-elected as Senate President Pro Tempore.

The Senate moved on to a presentation from the ASUCD Sexual Assault Awareness Advocacy Committee (SAAAC) regarding the U.S. Department of Education’s pro-

posed federal policy changes to Title IX. The committee began its presentation with a brief trigger warning, saying they would be referring to sexual violence and harassment and if anyone at any time felt uncomfortable, they should step out of the room.

The two presenters gave a quick background on Title IX, explaining how it was implemented in the 1970’s at all federally-funded universities, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex and effectively mandateting how institutions respond to sexual misconduct.

This past August, they said, The New York Times received the newly proposed Title IX policy changes, which would narrow the definition of sexual harassment and hold schools accountable for a smaller percentage of misconduct.

“This would make offenses much harder

to prove,” said Claire Chevallier, an undergraduate representative for the UC Title IX Advisory board. She went into detail about some of the proposed policy changes, pointing out some of the potentially problematic modifications.

They continued on to introduce two Title IX workshops that the SAAAC hosted on Jan. 16 and 20. The primary focus of these events will be on writing feedback for formal submission to the Department of Education. Each of these ‘comments,’ by law, must be read by the department, and the SAAAC hopes to make an impact with their words.

The SAAAC provided one last quick update, with a quarterly report coming from chairperson Anamaria Rizo. She acknowledged the upcoming Sexual Awareness SENATE on 13

Facing growing budget deficit, Unitrans proposes fee referendum Student fees funding Unitrans would increase by $13.30 if referendum successful MARKUS_KAEPPELI / AGGIE

BY SA BRI N A HA B C H I campus@theaggie.org

Unitrans has implemented changes to combat its growing budget deficit, including decreasing the frequency of certain less-popular buses. In order to avoid cutting more services, Unitrans proposed a fee referendum which would increase the $34.50 fee each student already pays for Unitrans services by an additional $13.30.

Last May, after the transportation service proposed its first fare hike in 14 years, Unitrans’ General Manager Jeff Flynn told The California Aggie that the unit ran a $450,000 deficit for the 2018 fiscal year and is projected to run a $750,000 deficit in the

2019 fiscal year. Flynn estimated the deficit would increase to $1.6 million within four years without the implementation of substantive changes.

As a unit of ASUCD, Unitrans is a transportation service many UC Davis students and Davis residents use on a daily basis.

Unitrans buses, routed around much of the city of Davis, transport students to and from campus everyday.

The unit is funded by both the City of Davis and UC Davis students through student fees, according to Flynn, who mentioned that while the student fee is fixed, funding from the city increases with inflation. The only way to increase the funding Unitrans receives via student fees is through fee referendums.

“Students, over the last 27 years, have voted four times to fund Unitrans service and provide free boardings for undergraduates,” Flynn said.

In order for the fee referendum to pass successfully — which will be introduced on the ballot for the upcoming ASUCD Winter Election — 20 percent of students must vote in the election and the referendum

SHEREEN LEE / AGGIE

must receive a 60 percent ‘yes’ vote.

Due to historically low voting rates of UC Davis undergraduates, there is concern over whether 20 percent of students will vote in the election. While the ASUCD Winter Elections typically yields greater turn-out, less than 7 percent of students voted in the most recent Fall Election.

The last time Unitrans successfully passed a fee referendum was in 2008.

Factors contributing to Unitrans’ growing budget deficit include California’s increasing minimum wage over the last few years. A minimum wage of $15 will be implemented by the year 2023 and, as a result, Unitrans will be required to pay its workers more, thus increasing its costs.

The fee referendum is currently making its way through the ASUCD Senate. According to Flynn, the increased fees would accomplish several primary goals: maintaining fair, free boarding for undergraduates, introducing more trips or higher capacity buses and hiring career staff trainers and another mechanic.

“With the additional funding, we could also introduce more trips or service or [high-

Memorial for slain police officer Natalie Corona held at UC Davis

er] capacity buses,” Flynn said.

In 2020, regulation changes will require individuals to have more experience before they are allowed to become trainers, Flynn said.

“Right now, Unitrans relies on mostly student trainers — undergraduates who are also our trainers — to train other people to be bus drivers, and right now, that works,” Flynn said. “However, in 2020 the regulation changes […] will essentially eliminate our training workforce, so we’re going to have to hire career staff trainers. And they are significantly more expensive than student employees.”

Of the $34.50 fee students currently pay for Unitrans, $1.50 of that goes to fund student aid, required by UC policy. If the fee referendum is successful, $3.30 would go to student aid, Flynn said.

ASUCD Senate Pro Tempore Alisha Hacker, a second-year political science— public service major and the adopted senator for Unitrans, said that there is a “returnto-aid” component built into student fees in UNITRANS FEE on 13

RAUL MORALES / AGGIE

Thousands gathered to honor Corona’s life, memory

BY ALLY RU SS E LL campus@theaggie.org

Where did the crowbar come from?

January 9 “Male versus female pulling each others clothes.”

January 10 “College students having loud party.”

January 11 “Unknown male asked reporting party to call his phone because he lost it in his car, male gave him the number in Spanish and then proceeded to tell him it was incorrect, said f you and left onto F Street […]”

January 12 “Small white German shepherd running in roadway.”

January 13 “Found a crowbar and wants to drop it off.”

January 14 “Loud videogames/yelling.”

January 15 “Dark grey Ford Focus with gas cap open and green hose hanging out.”

January 16 “Racoon hit in the head by a brick that fell from a ledge […]”

Thousands gathered in the ARC Pavilion to honor the life and memory of 22-year-old Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona on January 18. Corona was killed in the line of duty by 48-year-old Kevin Douglas on Jan. 10 while responding to a three-vehicle collision.

UC Davis administrators advised students to find alternative ways of commuting to campus to make parking spaces available for officers and other attendants paying their respects. The university’s website projected a turnout of an estimated 6,000 officers and other individuals at the service.

Certain parking structures were closed and streets were blocked along La Rue Road, Russell Boulevard and Anderson Road during the procession of Officer Corona’s remains following the ceremony, with individuals lined up along the route.

In addition to those at the ceremony in the Pavilion, individuals gathered around outside of the ARC to watch the ceremony on large screens and at home via livestream.

Although Corona was not from Davis, her family requested the memorial service be held here.

“Davis is the community she loved and was so dedicated to serving,” said Emily Galindo, the interim vice chancellor of Student Affairs in an email to students.

The memorial service began with a video montage of Corona’s life and a musical procession placing her coffin at the front of the stage. Billy Ray Cyrus, a friend of the family, performed and dedicated a song to Corona.

Testimonies from fellow officers and the Corona family followed.

Corona’s father worked as a police officer and began taking Corona on ride-alongs at a young age. “Being a police officer was in her blood,” said Officer Eric Labbe,

who worked alongside Corona.

Labbe’s sentiment was reiterated throughout the ceremony by other speakers. Along with her parents, Corona’s three younger sisters were also present at the service.

According to the Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel, Corona began working with the Davis Police Department in January 2017 as a community service officer while she attended Woodland Community College. That July, she was presented with the opportunity to attend the Sacramento Police Academy, but had to wait six months due to an injury.

During that time, despite no longer having a paid position with the Davis Police Department, Corona maintained her commitment to being a part of the DPD by volunteering, even after she was assured a position would be waiting for her when she recovered. She attended the Sacramento Police Academy last January and had just finished her field training on Dec. 12, 2018 after graduating. She was a solo officer for just a few weeks before her death.

During his testimony, Labbe encouraged officers from Davis and the surrounding areas present in the audience to join in with shouts of agreement while he listed characteristics describing the young officer.

“There will always be a seat reserved in my briefing room for you,” Labbe said, addressing Corona.

Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel spoke next, addressing the crowd in attendance as well as the Davis community. He spoke of Officer Corona’s resilience, enthusiasm and can-do spirit. Pytel mentioned a bet he had made predicting that Corona would eventually end up as police chief herself one day.

Pytel awarded Corona’s family a Purple Heart and Medal of Distinction award at the ceremony for her service MEMORIAL on 13

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 | 3

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration

Downtown Davis holds freedom march in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

ANDREA GONZALEZ / AGGIE

BY ST EL L A T RA N city@theaggie.org

Davis hosted its annual celebration for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 21 at the Varsity Theatre. The event featured guest speakers and music to commemorate civil rights with the theme, “Advancing the Dream; Empowering and Uplifting the Next Generation.” One of the goals of the event was to encourage dialogue on race.

A few performances consisted of an Afrovibes dance, a local youth reading and another reading by Davis’ Poet Laureate James Lee Jobe, as well as singing by Nathalie Minya. The program was concluded with a freedom march through downtown Davis.

Cynthia Pickett, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at UC Davis, was invited to give a speech.

“I was approached by the organizers to see if I would speak at the event,” Pickett said.

“I think it’s because of my research on social identity, intergroup relations and belonging [as well as] my work on diversity and inclusion at UC Davis — plus being on school board and being interested in children.”

Carrie Dyer, a community engagement and cultural services and management analyst for the City of Davis, explained that the event intends to build a community of acceptance.

“The function of the Davis Human Relations Commission is to promote mutual respect, understanding and tolerance among all persons,” Dyer said via email. “The Commission shall seek to build a community where relationships among diverse peoples are valued by all, discrimination and hate are not tolerated, the voices of the voiceless are heard, and where citizens can address issues dealing with hatred, discrimination and alienation through education, outreach, studies and recommendations to the City Council.”

Pickett highlighted concepts such as race in her speech to inspire children. She refer-

enced Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech to explore how race is perceived and treated in society.

“In Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, it talks about the idea of being judged for the content of our character and not the color of our skin,” Pickett said. “A lot of people have interpreted this speech as colorblind ideology, but if you read Martin Luther King’s readings, you see that it was what he intended. He recognized that people are judged and treated differently based on race, gender and a host of other factors. His dream was that through recognizing people’s differences [it] can litigate the damages and to not ignore race entirely.”

Pickett also included the dichotomy between colorblind ideology and multicultural ideology.

“What I will be doing is to talk about what colorblind ideology is versus multicultural ideology — where you recognize and embrace differences and how by not talking about race, we are actually causing harm,” Pickett said.

Pickett’s speech largely focused on how to empower children to ensure that the next generation can move forward from race-related issues and conflicts.

“In terms of empowering children of color and also being able to improve race relations, if you don’t talk about race and understand other people’s perspectives and come up with solutions to problems that arise, [then] my focus is to highlight the importance of talking about race especially among children and youth,” Pickett said.

This was not the first time Pickett has attended the event.

“I’ve been going to this for several years and one of the traditional parts of the event are African American children who do a poem or speech, and it’s just inspiring to see that next generation,” Pickett said. “I think my message is an important one — about why we shouldn’t shy away from talking about race and by having that platform to talk about it is valuable and I appreciate being able to speak.”

Mayor Brett Lee indicated his support for the community event.

“I look forward to this tradition of our community coming together to promote mutual respect, understanding and tolerance among all people,” Lee said, according to Davis Enterprise. “Please join us.”

Increase in electric vehicle charger installations in Davis

Yolo District Attorney’s office helps secure $1.5 million grant for Woodland nonprofit Fourth & Hope Grant will fund new program HOPE that aims to provide transitional housing, services to homeless victims of crime

JEREMY DANG / AGGIE

BY T IM LALO NDE city@theaggie.org

The Yolo County District Attorney’s office announced on Dec. 31 that it successfully secured $1.5 million in funding for a new transitional housing program led by the Woodland homeless shelter Fourth & Hope.

In a press release, the DA’s office celebrated the acceptance of a grant application.

The California Office of Emergency Services Transitional Housing Program approved the request, awarding $1.5 million over a period of five years to the new program. District Attorney Jeff Reisig praised the efforts of his staff in writing and obtaining the grant.

“We have an outstanding team of grant writers who are knowledgeable, dedicated and very creative,” Reisig said in the press release. “We are always pleased to assist our partners particularly when it comes to important causes such as homelessness. We will continue to seek out partnerships with nonprofits and other county agencies to achieve shared policy goals.”

The DA’s office worked in conjunction with Fourth & Hope, a nonprofit based in Woodland, to secure the grant. In addition to providing emergency shelter for local homeless individuals, Fourth & Hope operates supportive programs that seek to help them re-enter the community.

“Over the past 20 years, programs have been established to assure that every person has food to eat; a place to sleep; dignity and

hope,” their website reads. “Our programs address physical and mental health, substance use, employment and income needs, and housing.”

According to the release, the new program is called The Homeless Opportunity and Positive Engagement Program. HOPE aims to deploy a “housing first” strategy, which prioritizes securing housing as the first step to reintegrating homeless individuals into the community. Fourth & Hope will work alongside Empower Yolo, a domestic violence intervention group, to provide rapid re-housing services for their clients. The grant also will fund a full-time case manager to assist Fourth & Hope clients, as well as short-term rental assistance after they move into permanent housing.

HOPE specifically targets homeless individuals who have been victims of crime, according to Jake Whitaker, an administrative service analyst at the District Attorney’s office. Whitaker, who was the primary grant writer of the proposal, noted that the grant reserved its funding for crime victims, but allowed applicants to choose which populations to target.

“In the instructions for the [grant] application, you were told that you had to serve victims of crime, but you could choose your target population,” Whitaker said. “So we saw that as an opportunity to help serve the population in a way that would be broadly accessible.”

Whitaker said that homeless individuals are often victimized of crime, but hesitate to seek help from police in fear that they may be arrested themselves.

“The definition of victimization isn’t simply for cases that have been reported to a law enforcement agency, but it can include self-reported victimization as well, as long as TRANSITIONAL HOUSING on 14

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Electric vehicle charger in Muir Commons example of rise in alternative energy MICHAEL LEAHY / AGGIE

BY R E N EE HO H city@theaggie.org

On Nov. 9, 2018, Muir Commons celebrated the installment of 26 Level-2 electric vehicle chargers, one for each household, as part of PG&E’s EV Charge Network program — making it the largest multi-unit dwelling electric car charging project in California thus far. Both UC Davis and Valley Clean Energy also plan on implementing more charging stations in parking lots and public places.

The EV Charge Network Program aims to “accelerate California’s transition to a clean transportation future by offering electric vehicle charger installation at select locations in PG&E’s service territory,” according to the PG&E website. The Muir Commons ad-hoc committee for EV charging related-services applied to the grant, which is specifically tailored to the implementation of chargers in workplaces and multi-unit dwellings such as apartment complexes.

Eugen Dunlap, a Muir Commons resident and committee member — along with members Ben Finkelor, Corey Bock and Laurie Friedman — spearheaded the movement for EV chargers. The initial estimate was around $700,000 in total, about $25,000 to $30,000 per household. The PG&E grant reduced the cost to $1,150 per household, and a grant from the Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District’s Clean Air Funds Program lowered the final cost to

$550, according to Dunlap, who noted the necessity of the grants to cover the costs of the technology.

“If you have a garage, you can put in a charger, but if you live in an apartment complex or something like that, you have a central parking lot and it gets very complicated and expensive,” Dunlap said.

Surprisingly, Dunlap is among only three residents out of the 26 who currently own an electric vehicle. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, electric vehicles can reach up to an average of 114 miles on a full battery, but many consumers are off-put by purchasing one due to range anxiety — the fear one’s car battery will run out before their destination — which the chargers may eliminate. All residents, however, supported the cause, and the chargers opened up the possibility for residents’ next cars to be electric vehicles.

“The concept of range anxiety really isn’t as much of a problem as people think,” said Jim Parks, the director of customer care and marketing at Valley Clean Energy. “In other words, it’s not much of a real problem because people are mostly commuting and they have plenty of energy to do that with their electric vehicle, and the ability to charge at home.”

Level-2 chargers allow for more electricity to be delivered at a faster time as they are 240-volts, compared to the 120 volts of a Level-1 charger that most appliances are plugged into. The Level-2 chargers are maintained by PG&E and receive electricity from Valley Clean Energy Sources. The convenience of a Level-2 charger in combination with solar power helps incentivize an environmentally friendly form of transportation.

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4 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

AN J IN I V E N UG O PA L / AGGI E

THREE YEARS LATER: WHERE THE WOMEN’S MARCH IS TODAY In Sacramento’s first year as an official chapter of Women’s March Global, attendees remark on the past, present and future

BY A N JI N I V EN U GO PAL features@theaggie.org

On Jan. 21, 2017 the first Women’s March became the largest single-day protest in U.S. history, coinciding with Donald Trump’s inauguration. Crowd scientists

believe that the women’s march in Washington was about three times the size of the audience at the inauguration. Marchers protested President Trump’s misogynistic statements while advocating for legislation and the protection of human rights.

Just months after the first Women’s

March, the #MeToo movement began in full force. Electrified by the widespread misconduct in Hollywood as well as the first year of the Trump presidency, the marchers returned to the streets on Jan. 20, 2018 for the second annual Women’s March.

The beginning of 2019 was marked by increased publicity about the record-breaking number of women in Congress in the “Pink Wave,” as well as news about Sony Music dropping R. Kelly following the release of Lifetime’s documentary in which multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. Marchers returned to cities across the U.S. this weekend, on Jan. 19, 2019.

Armed with posters, Pussyhats and flags, marchers in Sacramento started their 0.8 mile walk to the Capitol from Southside Park. As they marched along closed streets, accompanied by friends, family and pets, there were others standing along the sidewalk cheering them on. Chants of “No borders, no wall” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go” waxed and waned as the march went on. Led by the Women’s March WOC Contingent of Met High School was a rallying cry of “Si se puede.”

There were musicians every few blocks — notably the Davis Raging Grannies. The Raging Grannies, decked in “Granny garb,” held their song sheet binders as they sang of

SOS CLUB BRINGS TOGETHER STUDENTS TO SKI OR SNOWBOARD AT THE SLOPES Every other weekend of Winter Quarter, Ski or Snowboard club takes trips up to Lake Tahoe

BY MA RG O ROSE N B AU M features@theaggie.org

After a long, hard week of taking notes, reading textbooks, completing problem sets and listening to lectures, the Ski or Snowboard club (SOS) members catch a break by escaping to the snow covered runs, crisp mountain air and a frozen-over lake in North Lake Tahoe.

“We have cabin trips in the Winter Quarter where we set up carpools, so everyone can have a good time and ski together,” said Luba Djoneva, a third-year animal science major and the SOS treasurer.

The club holds four cabin trips every Winter Quarter, about every other weekend. The club contains about 380 members, but only about 60 to 70 go on each cabin trip. The club rents a cabin in either North Lake Tahoe or near Tahoe city and everyone stays together to ski or snowboard, according to records taken by fourth-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major Hannah Urrutia, the President of SOS. “There is also a ski team on campus, so we are more the laid-back version of that,” Urrutia said. “It’s a great opportunity to bring a bunch of different people together, in my opinion.”

The first trip of the year was during the three days over the Martin Luther King hol-

iday weekend.

“It’s kind of just an easy way, if you are a freshman and don’t have a car, to get up to the snow,” said Linnea Bird, a first-year biology major and member of the primary organizational team of the club, also known as staff.

For each trip, the cost usually runs around $70 for each member to stay in the cabin and get a ride. Members must additionally buy lift tickets, but the club works with different mountains to get discounts for students. This year, the club will ski at Squaw-Alpine.

“Our goal is to get people up to the mountain for as cheap as possible,” Djoneva said.

Urrutia said that members of the club make up a good range of levels and that some people who go on the trips do not even ski. Some people just like to come on the trips, hang out in Lake Tahoe and go to the parties.

“On staff, we are mostly intermediate to expert,” Urrutia said, “But for members, some do not even ski and then we go all the way to people who are experts and compete.”

Bird said that for people who do not ski, it is just a great way to be in the snow, meet people or hike around.

“Tahoe is obviously beautiful,” Bird said.

“There’s lots of other things to do.”

Braydon Brocket, a fourth-year material science and engineering major, and head of staff for SOS, agrees that there is a large range of skill in the club.

FALLING INTO WINTER QUARTER Transitioning between quarters and starting anew

BY V I N C E N T SA N C H E Z features@theaggie.org

A new calendar year has begun and with it comes a new quarter for the Aggies. Many treat this time as a chance to start fresh with new classes and new faces filling their daily schedules. While each student handles this transition differently, everyone finds themselves in a similar boat: having to navigate the new quarter while coming fresh off of the conclusion of Fall Quarter.

Michael Kauftan, a second-year physics and math double major, described his fall quarter as an overwhelming time for his academic career.

“I had a pretty intense workload,” Kauftan said. “I was only taking 17 units, but I was taking two upper division math courses.

Now, I’m only taking one.”

He noted the ease of his first year, and how he had much easier classes that made his experience more manageable and not so stressful. One thing that has helped him considerably as he moves from one quarter to the next is planning his academic schedule according to what he is accustomed to.

“I don’t like to shift my general schedule too much,” Kauftan said. “If I have my day start at 10 a.m. one quarter, I like to have it that same way the next.”

Consistency in routine seems to make Winter Quarter seem like less of a beast to tackle. Pedro Javaras-Lopez, a fourth-year history major, agreed with Kauftan’s sentiments that creating a schedule early can help make transitions easier.

“I like to plan out my activities according to what my classes allow,” Javaras-Lopez said. “I try and designate an hour for reading or writing just so I stay on track and don’t fall behind.”

Due to the pace of the quarter system, Lopez finds that he often gets too caught up in academic priorities and doesn’t allow much time for personal gain.

“My friends will ask me to hang out with them, and I’m just so involved in work and school that I don’t make time,” Lopez said.

“I have started to give myself at least one offday where I do whatever I want and don’t worry about anything else.”

While Lopez is critical of the quarter system and how it may not always be the easiest

workplace equity and presidential impeachment.

Also at the march was 98-year-old Lollie Rueppel, a veteran of World War II, along with two of her daughters and her granddaughter. During the march, many people stopped to take pictures of or with Rueppel, who smiled from her wheelchair. Rueppel enlisted in the service when she was 21, and her daughter Susan Rueppel describes what a role model she’s been to the whole family.

“Mom was one of only eight women in the military that was an International Morse code operator,” Susan said. “She was a pioneer back in World War II when she was 21 [...] She’s been a role model for her five kids for all our lives. And she’s been an activist all her life. [...] We are just so appreciative and admire that she has not been the ‘traditional woman’ throughout her whole life, and doing things that other women often don’t do. So she’s just such an inspiration to our family and the world.”

This is the family’s third year in attendance, and Lollie described her beliefs on the importance of the marches and how she feels activism has changed over the course of her life.

“The big thing is people are learning WOMEN’S MARCH on 14

T REVOR G OODMA N / AGG IE

“We have got people dropping off of cliffs and people that can’t even ski,” Brockett said.

For Ruby Keene, a first-year human development major and member of SOS, joining was a way to meet new people and improve her snowboarding skills.

“I’m on the more beginning end, and I definitely know there are more people going on the trips who are the same,” Keene said.

“It’s a great way to meet people to help you get better.”

Every year over winter break, SOS club goes on All Cal, a trip to a ski mountain outof-state, where the club competes in ski and snowboard events against other UC schools.

This year they went to Telluride, Colorado and in past years, they have been to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Big Sky, Montana and Crested Butte, Colorado.

“Definitively All Cal is the best because you’re in another state, skiing somewhere you have never skied before and you get to meet a bunch of people,” Brockett said. “Everyone is [in] the same mindset and having

a good time.”

Besides All Cal and the cabin trips, the club has other events as well in the fall and spring. There are two house crawls where members move between a few houses in Davis and enjoy parties at each location. In the fall, people dress up in Halloween costumes and in the spring, people dress up in USA themed red, white and blue attire.

Also in spring, the club holds a jello-wrestling event. Lastly, the club holds a float trip where members go to a lake or river to camp for the weekend.

To recruit more members and spread more information about the club, Djoneva said that club’s members table in the Memorial Union on Monday through Thursday from 11a.m. to 3 p.m.

“People can just come and say hi, sign up to be members, talk to us, sign up for our trips or get information,” Djoneva said.

Urrutia said that she recommends that anyone who likes Lake Tahoe or is interest

to maneuver through, he tries to take classes with professors that have similar disciplines or interests as him outside of his major so he can make the most out of his classroom experience inside and outside.

Jonathan Byers, a second-year civil and environmental engineering major, found himself struggling to adjust to living off-campus and having to find ways to commute to and from school but enjoyed the new experiences Fall Quarter had to offer him. Once he finally decided to major in engineering after entering undeclared, Byers quickly discovered how dense this major truly is. With declaring his major officially in the fall, less uncertainty for the future made this year’s fall to winter transition less daunting.

“I knew I wanted to do something in science, so I was taking chemistry, and math and other basic GE’s in science that I was interested in,” Byers said. “I also took environmental classes, and I really enjoyed that subject. I decided to combine both my interests to cover the environmental side and the engineering side.”

Winter Quarter always carried a gloomy connotation alongside it, thanks to the rainy weather and darker skies, and Byers knew all too well how difficult it would be to shake off those initial melancholic days.

“Winter Quarter was my hardest quarter last year,” Byers said. “I had a pretty big workload, so that contributed too, but the dark weather and the rain made things a bit harder. I think it’s starting off a little better this year; I haven’t felt it as much yet.”

To start off his new quarter, Byers explained that it can be tricky to hit the reset button to be fully prepared for new classes.

He visits home frequently, which has helped him find solace in times of need, but his main goal when starting a new quarter is to approach classes with a positive outlook and be open to the spontaneity of the quarter system.

“On the quarter system, I like how, if you don’t like a class, it’s over quickly,” Byers said. “It’s hard because you jam-pack everything into such a short amount of time. But you can take more classes throughout the year, so that is nice. I don’t think I have a preference for either system, it’s really open ended.”

In either case, new classes can almost feel like starting over. Students have another chance to grow academically and find greater opportunities that may be just on the other side of that fresh GE or major course.

Because the quarter is still young, there is ample time to make the most out of it and ride the momentum of Fall Quarter.

SKI OR SNOWBOARD on 14

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 | 5

HOPE AT UC DAViS / COURTESY

HOPE AT UC DAVIS Student organization enacts powerful change against homelessness, stigma

BY JO SH M A D RI D arts@theaggie.org

Homeless Outreach through Prevention and Education, a student organization founded at UC Davis in 2016, has a mission of assisting those experiencing homelessness and educating others about homelessness through project-based solutions that come from the collective input of all its members.

The organization receives the majority of its funding through the Sheila Kar Health Foundation.

Projects have included gathering donations of dental hygiene equipment paired with instruction flyers, computer literacy classes and GED tutoring to increase the chances of those experiencing homelessness to find a job. During the winter, the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter provides a warm place to stay.

Sarah Shandy, a fifth-year biochemistry and molecular biology major and co-president of HOPE, felt that the sense of agency she experiences allows her and the team to make a difference.

“We all have a part in the club, and I really like that,” Shandy said. “I can have a real impact on the club.”

HOPE understands that it’s important to educate those who aren’t experiencing homelessness as well because it facilitates better understanding and communication — which leads to more action.

Julia Nguyen, a third-year global disease biology major and outreach coordinator for HOPE, described a way the organization is trying to start this conversation.

“We had a whole presentation about the language we use when we talk about homelessness,” Nguyen said. “When we talk about the individuals that we meet, we refer to them as people who are experiencing homelessness [instead of homeless people].

We hope that through language our peers can start to see that homelessness doesn’t define the person.”

Not defining those experiencing homelessness by unfortunate events that have led them to their circumstances is the first step toward humanizing them as individuals — some of whom have been forced to choose between paying for doctors’ appointments, medication, textbooks or paying rent.

“In high school, I signed up for a park

cleanup,” Nguyen said. “The woman leading the cleanup was affiliated with the city, and she [led] us down to a homeless encampment. She said to start clearing everything, and I was really confused because there was a whole community there with tents, bikes and other personal belongings. I remember digging up an ID, and the woman told me to just throw it on the pile.”

While many students cannot give their time or funds to those experiencing homelessness, there is something priceless and more meaningful they can give — recognition.

“They really just want to be recognized when you’re walking on the street,” Shandy said. “Sometimes they’re holding signs and people just look away and not make eye contact. Just say hi or smile.”

Nguyen also advises against not acknowledging.

“The norm is to turn your back when you see someone on the street because there’s this awkwardness of not knowing what to do with yourself [...],” Nguyen said.

Tuition spikes at UC Davis have forced some students to experience homelessness by living out of their cars, and HOPE is seeking to further their outreach to that population.

“We haven’t come into contact with very many, but by getting our message out there, hopefully, we can offer them whatever we can,” said Daniel Lam, a fourth-year neurology, physiology and behavior major and co-president of HOPE. HOPE at UC Davis goes beyond onetime acts of kindness and is always welcoming new members. Brandon Aguilar, a fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology major and historian for HOPE, shared the benefits he experienced after joining the club.

“Joining the club allowed me to learn more about their lives and their stories,” Aguilar said. “Being able to have that opportunity to really interact with them, you really start to understand that these people are coming from a different background, but that doesn’t mean they’re less human.”

HOPE at UC Davis hosts quarterly meetings. Information about joining and making a difference can be found on its Facebook page.

DEEB A YAV ROM / AG GIE

WINTER GLOOM BRINGS STUDENTS DOWN The seasonal gloom surrounding Winter Quarter hits students in full force

BY ALYS S A H ADA features@theaggie.org

Winter Quarter tends to be an energy deficient quarter for students, coming one full quarter after the past summer and another full quarter away from the upcoming summer. Upon returning to Davis in January, students often find themselves less excited to socialize or participate in events in the area.

Many factors play into this generalized apathy, as students note that their hesitancy to go out can be due to a multitude of reasons.

Brian Jahja, a third-year food science major, blames his hesitancy to go out on the dreary weather that looms over campus throughout the quarter, noting that the general gloom of overcast weather can be the cause of students feeling less sociable.

“I think the atmosphere in Davis becomes extremely depressing during Winter Quarter since it rains nonstop on top of it being really cold,” Jahja said. “People are less willing to go out, and the whole vibe of the campus body is very antisocial since everyone just wants to bundle up indoors with a warm blanket. There’s also a lack of activities during the quarter, so it ends up being pretty dead socially for those few months.”

Scott Sanchez, a fourth year design major, agreed that the gloomy vibes of Winter Quarter tend to be mostly due to the gloom in the weather itself. He added that the bad weather can bring additional barriers that make socializing and enjoying Davis more difficult physically.

“Winter Quarter is definitely my least favorite quarter, just in terms of the weather and trying to get around to classes or places

in general,” Sanchez said. “I feel like I have to get up earlier in Winter Quarter too. I like to maximize my sleep time as much as possible, but preparing for the rain means that I have to get up at least an hour earlier to get ready, and even then I’m sometimes late. I also haven’t heard of many cool events going on in Winter Quarter, probably because of the bad weather and the rain itself.

It’s hard to find things to do for fun during Winter Quarter; you can only do so much in the city of Davis and most people have busy schedules too so it can be hard to plan around that.”

Zoe Marin, a fourth-year design major, noted how the bad weather has a domino effect on other aspects of Davis that further deteriorates the overall quality of the quarter.

“During Winter Quarter, I really dislike having to take the buses, but I have to because when it rains it means I can’t really bike,” Marin said. “I live in North Davis and when it comes to living there, the buses get really full because so many people live there. Because of that, the buses also get really musky and gross. Today, I was sitting in the corner of the bus and I felt like I was going to suffocate. I’ve actually seen people pass out on the bus during Winter Quarter because of how stuffy it gets.”

Most students agree that Davis’ winter weather is the main contributor to the dampened mood throughout the quarter, and while there may be a deficiency of scheduled events planned for the quarter, students should still attempt to find ways to enjoy themselves.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

6 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

Opinion THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

Solidarity with Los Angeles teachers on strike

E DI TO R I AL B OAR D

L.A. teacher union demands better pay, more staff, student support

EMILY STACK Editor-in-Chief OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Managing Editor HANNAH HOLZER Campus News Editor KAELYN TUERMER-LEE City News Editor TARYN DEOILERS Opinion Editor OLIVIA LUCHINI Features Editor LIZ JACOBSON Arts & Culture Editor DOMINIC FARIA Sports Editor HARNOOR GILL Science & Tech Editor

SYDNEY ODMAN New Media Manager BRIAN LANDRY Photo Director TREVOR GOODMAN Video Production Manager OLIVIA KOTLAREK Design Director JONATHAN CHEN Layout Director HANNA BAUBLITZ Copy Chief CECILIA MORALES Copy Chief ZOË REINHARDT Website Manager HALI ZWEIGORDON Social Media Manager GRACE SIMMONS Newsletter Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents over 30,000 public and charter school teachers in L.A., entered a second week of striking on Tuesday. While a tentative agreement was reached on Jan. 22, the union stated that it would stay on strike until union members formally voted to approve the contract. Teachers are expected to be back in the classroom on Wednesday.

The UTLA strike was the latest in a series of teacher strikes that began early last year; teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona won significant victories against reticent lawmakers and inspired similar protests in Kentucky, North Carolina and Colorado.

Los Angeles teachers enjoyed an unusually high level of public support. One survey showed that close to 80 percent of Los Angeles residents support the strike. A GoFundMe campaign to bring taco trucks to the picket line, which was set up in hopes of raising $1,000 to feed teachers at a few schools, has raised over $40,000. Hundreds of firefighters marched in solidarity with teachers on Tuesday.

Los Angeles teachers went on strike for better pay, but that’s not all they asked for. UTLA’s demands included smaller class sizes; fewer standardized tests and more teacher discretion over administering tests; increases in per-pupil funding; hiring more school nurses, counselors, social workers, librarians and other staff and increasing charter school accountability. Union members are fighting increased privatization and the encroachment of

charter schools, which threaten to undermine public schools and have been shown to increase school segregation and negative outcomes for students.

Students will be the primary beneficiaries of the demands won by Los Angeles teachers.

While much of the public discourse about education tends to revolve around improving test scores and learning outcomes –– which are no doubt worthy and important goals –– teacher strikes address something more fundamental and important about the state of American education.

Strong neighborhood public schools not only provide academic education, but also are foundations of the community. Teachers provide care and a stable adult presence to children who may not find such support at home. School nurses and counselors are a vital source of intervention, particularly in a country where medical and mental health care is otherwise inaccessible to many. Free and reduced school lunch programs feed over 20 million hungry kids nationwide every day. In the earliest days of the American republic, the founders recognized that a functioning democracy and civil society were impossible without a robust system of public education.

The Editorial Board is in solidarity with the UTLA teachers on strike. Meeting UTLA’s demands will help ensure that one of the largest school districts in the country continues to have a strong, well-funded and effective public school system that works for its students, its teachers and its community.

The problem with plastic roads COUNTERINTUITIVELY, PLASTIC ROADS INCREASE OUR DEPENDENCE ON SINGLE-USE PLASTICS

BY DA N I E L O R O P E ZA daoropeza@ucdavis.edu

As the global population increases, the production of plastic does as well, with an average increase of 8.4 percent per year.

This has lead to an astonishing amount of garbage collected on land, along the coasts and in oceans — culminating into disasters like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Our high demand for plastics has lead to the production of 322 million tons of plastic in 2015. One solution to alleviate excess plastic trash is to recycle our plastic by reusing it to make plastic roads.

This idea promises more durable and environmentally friendly roads at a lower cost. However, plastic roads can end up being more expensive in the long run with hidden external costs; plastic is not found in nature and threatens the health of our planet by leaching harmful chemi-

cals over time. We are becoming increasingly aware of our daily plastic use and its impact. If we accept plastic roads as a solution to the plastic crisis, we will be regressing on our path to a plastic-free society.

The main problem with plastic roads is the production of plastic that is needed to construct them. The town of Maraimalai Nagar in India adopted the idea of constructing plastic roads to make use of excess plastic, but initially struggled to find the manpower to collect enough plastic.

As a solution, the town offered its residents a four-gram gold coin in exchange for collecting 500 kilograms of single-use plastics with a thickness of less than 40 microns. Ironically, Maraimalai Nagar had to abandon the plan a year later since they did not produce enough plastic to keep up with the road production. This plan was flawed from the start since the town was incentivizing the locals to keep

producing the single-use plastic that they were originally trying to eliminate.

There is no safe way to handle or discard plastic once it is made. Once produced, plastics will stay on the planet long after we are gone. Plastic roads give the illusion that plastic use is justified.

This faulty view will ultimately reverse any progress toward eliminating plastic and will likely increase its production.

The chemical composition of plastic has caused environmental problems long before the concept of plastic roads. Most plastic waste found in the world sheds small fragments through photodegradation—the breakdown of plastic from exposure to elements such as light and heat—eventually finding their way into the environment through soils and waterways. These microplastics act very similar to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which act like magnets and attract all pollutants around them. Microplastics

eventually become more polluting and are easily transported throughout many kinds of environments. Organisms can confuse them for food and die from toxic build up.

With plastic roads being a fairly new idea, we don’t yet know how they will hold up to Mother Nature. Even the process of making plastic roads is highly toxic; the heating of many polymers releases gases such as polypropylene, polystyrene and polyethylene polymers. To create the roads, plastic is mixed with chemical additives to add flexibility and delay degradation due to heat or sunlight, making the plastic fireproof. The workers making these plastic roads are directly at risk of inhaling these chemical toxins. Many developing countries have poor safety practices, and constructing plastic roads in large numbers might expose workers, OROPEZA on 13

Guest: A musical about 9/11 and grappling with the death of Officer Natalie Corona A UC DAVIS STUDENT REFLECTS ON BEING DESENSITIZED TO TRAGEDY AND GUN VIOLENCE

BY A L I JA N KU acjanku@ucdavis.edu

On Jan. 11, the night after the death of Officer Natalie Corona, I saw the musical “Come from Away.” It tells the true story of a tiny town in Newfoundland, Canada that completely mobilized to accommodate the landing of 38 planes that were redirected after the decimation of the World Trade Center and the U.S. airspace closed.

“Come from Away” is a story of the way humans react in the face of chaos and tragedy and the extent to which human kindness will go under such circumstances. It gives intimate portraits of people affected by 9/11: a woman praying for her firefighter son, a pilot who lost a colleague, an Egyptian man suddenly under

scrutiny for simply praying.

I wasn’t even one year old when 9/11 occurred, and I’d never thought about how tragic it really was. My entire life, it was always a thing of history; 9/11 is the reason you can’t bring shampoo on the plane, 9/11 was the defining event of the Bush administration. It’s hard to wrap your head around the personal effect of 3,000 casualties and an attack so deafening that the entire U.S. economy hung static for days.

When I first got the text alert that there was an active shooter in Davis, I shrugged. I didn’t react at all. I continued on with my evening, eating dinner, making jokes about how “they say nothing ever happens in Davis.” The minutes kept ticking by, and I remained nonchalant, unbothered by the threat, despite how

close it was.

I’d become desensitized in the same way I was desensitized to 9/11; my high school’s bathroom tiles had shooting threats scrawled on them regularly. I was of the mentality that although there was an active threat nearby, I wasn’t in direct danger (yet), so there was no use being concerned.

With all of the shootings that have occurred in the United States over the past couple of years, it’s easy to feel as though they are irrelevant, far away, fantastical.

It’s easy to feel untouchable by any danger greater than a bike crash. Sometimes I forget that I live in the same world as these atrocities. My world consists of class and friends and what the dining commons is serving — not where I would duck and cover in the occurrence of a shooting.

But minutes on lock down turned to hours. When the death of officer Natalie Corona was announced, there was a significant shift in my mentality. Someone had died. An innocent person, and a young woman like me, at that. This was no longer an empty threat. That could’ve been anyone, it could’ve been me — or my roommate who was having dinner downtown. Would UC Davis be on headlines nationwide the next day?

I’m sure there were students, like me, at Pepperdine University who shrugged and figured that those distant tragedies could never hurt them before the Thousand Oaks shooting.

It’s easy to feel like the events of 9/11, San Bernardino, Thousand Oaks, Sandy JANKÛ on 14

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

HUMOR

Unitrans switches to really long tandem bikes instead of buses IF NOAH HAD USED THIS BIKE DURING THE FLOOD, HE COULD HAVE FIT THREE OF EVERY ANIMAL

BY M A D E L I N E KU MAGAI mskumagai@ucdavis.edu

After relentless harping by CALPIRG, Unitrans switched to using long tandem bicycles for transporting the good people of Davis.

This wheely large undertaking did hit some proverbial bumps in the road.

The average Unitrans bus was able to fit 100 riders if they packed together sardine style.

Mr. Otto Mobile, the head of Unitrans, spoke with The Aggie about the difficulty of creating a bike that could transport the same amount of commuters.

“They said it couldn’t be done,” Mobile admitted. “I called every major bike company to see if they could manufacture our Unitrans bikes, and they said that I’m ‘insane’ or, ‘It’s impossible to make a bike for 100 people,’ or ‘Sir, this is the number for Pizza Hut customer service.’ But I thought of my idol, Miranda Sings, and told my haterz to back off. We kept making calls ‘til we got to the very top. Yes, we called the President and asked him if we could get some military-grade, 100-person bikes. He said it

was the best idea he had heard all day!”

And thus, the Bikehemoth was born.

We asked Bryce Sickle, an employee of Unitrans, for her opinion on the new mode of transportation.

“It’s been a little tough getting used to it,” Sickle said, shrugging. “I was a bus driver before, but now I’m a... uh... bike... driver? I sit in the very front seat and shout which direction we’re turning when we get to an intersection. You’d be surprised how hard it is to go right on a bike that’s the size of a football field.

And during those pesky peak hours, we have passengers sit on the shoulders of someone else and pray to the bike gods that neither of them tip over. We have capsized a few times, but that’s what happens when there’s enough people to fill Wellman 2 on one bike.”

Most students are happy with the change.

“I feel like I’m really doing something for the environment here,” said one Unitrans patron. “Sure, my ride from West Village to campus takes, like, an hour now. But think of the future we’re creating for all those starving polar bears in Antarctica by getting rid of all those bus fumes.”

Passengers carry humongous bottles of lotion through TSA OUR PRESIDENT HAS CREATED PANDEMONIUM

BY H ILARY OJINNA KA hiojinnaka@ucdavis.edu

In the wake of Donald Trump’s historic wall tantrum, the government has been partially shut down, and America has been left to deal with the consequences of Trump’s childish antics. As a result of Trump’s refusal to end his fantasy plan, hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been forced to go to work unpaid. Although many have called out sick with a contagious virus known as “I-ain’t-working-for-free-itis,” some brave souls who work for the TSA have been forced to clock in for a payless payday for almost an entire month.

Since TSA workers would rather be

anywhere but the airport, passengers have been trying to make the best out of a dreadful situation. For instance, passengers at Sacramento International Airport have successfully done what most frequent flyers have been dying to get away with. That’s right: TSA agents have been letting passengers through security with bottles of lotion larger than 3.4 ounces!

Some might view this as unprofessional or unacceptable, but what’s really unprofessional is how our elected officials are sitting around and bickering with each other like there isn’t a president who’s eager to fulfill the little plans he drew in his coloring book before he was elected.

Rest In Peace

BY ROS E Y MO RE ARTY rosey@morearty.org

D ISC L A I M ER: Th e v iews a n d opi ni o ns ex p re ss e d by i nd i vidu al colu mn ists be lon g to th e colu mn ists alone and do no t necessari l y i ndi cate the vi ews an d o p in ion s h eld by The C al i fo rni a Ag g i e. Le tte r s to th e e ditor can be addre sse d to opini o n@theaggi e.o rg.

ISSUE DESIGNED BY JONATHAN CHEN | PATTIE CHEN | ADAN JUNAID | OLIVIA KOTLAREK | SHEREEN NIKZAD | YOON RHA | TAMARA SHOUBBER | CINDY CHEUNG | AMY YE | SYDNEE RODRIGUEZ

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New Year, New Home!

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SCIENCE+TECH Q U I N N SP O O N E R / AGGI E

VISION SCIENCE IN SIGHT UC Davis Center for Vision Science hosts the 2019 Annual Center for Vision Science Symposium

BY FOXY ROBI N S O N science@theaggie.org

The Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility Auditorium was packed with researchers, students and the general public as the Center for Vision Science hosted its Annual Symposium on January 11.

The event featured updates from the center, research talks presented by faculty members, keynote speakers from universities outside of UC Davis and a data blitz, which challenged graduate students and faculty members to concisely capture their PE TE R SM I T H / CO U RTESY

research, impacts and future pursuits in minutes.

“The Center for Vision Science started in 1984 with a group of segmented scientists around campus,” said Paul FitzGerald, the director of the UC Davis Center for Vision Science. “Since then, we have had a growth in the number of faculty. We have over 40 faculty members scattered all over campus.

This symposium gives us a chance to get together.”

Each year, the symposium rotates between subjects and fields, FitzGerald said.

“We have strong psychology, retina,

cornea, optical devices and cell imaging research,” he said. “We want to show different communities embedded in vision sciences and the translational sciences between research and clinical applications.”

Jonathan Horton, a professor of ophthalmology, neurology and physiology at UC San Francisco, presented the John Kelter, MD Distinguished Lecture, discussing how exotropes, individuals who have either one or both eyes turned outward, select an eye for vision.

His research tracked each eye independently, mapping eye movement and behavior.

“Exotropes are faithful to their dominant eye, but it takes more effort to focus on something,” Horton said. “When we provide a challenging target distance from the dominant eye’s perception, they begin to acquire the targets with their other eye instead of their dominant eye. It’s like doubles in tennis—one player dominates and the other player finally gets to play in the game.”

Aaron Beckner, a fourth-year psychology Ph.D. student, presented a segment of his research during the data blitz, which investigates how infants learn through saccades, which are rapid eye movements or eye blinks.

“Imagine you’re trying to sample your environment and you’re an infant,” Beckner said. “You don’t have the ability to grab and manipulate items. It becomes really important for you to be able to fixate on individual items and remember something about that

BIOINNOVATION GROUP OFFERS STUDENTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDEPENDENT RESEARCH

AN OLD MATERIAL MIGHT BUILD THE FUTURE A new building on the UC Davis campus is part of the growing trend of using wood in large structures to reduce carbon emissions B IOIN N OVATION GR OU P / COU RT ESY

BY P E T E R SM I T H science@theaggie.org

On the south side of campus, workers are busy installing a gigantic wooden roof that will cover the new Tercero Dining Commons 2, a new dining hall meant to accommodate more students. The roof is part of an international trend of using wood in large buildings. Although wood isn’t a new material, most large buildings are built with steel and concrete. Today, more architects are turning to wood to build critical parts of large buildings because of environmental concerns and style considerations.

Shiling Pei, an assistant civil engineering professor at the Colorado School of Mines and an expert on wood buildings, said the trend is occurring for several reasons.

“The increasing market demand for wood buildings comes from the unique architectural features provided through exposed wood, environmental benefit of using sustainable material and the efficiency and safety in construction provided through a high level of prefabrication,” Pei said.

Around the world, builders are using wood to replace and augment concrete and steel in new apartment buildings, office buildings and even skyscrapers. Developers recently proposed a wooden building that would be 21 stories in Milwaukee.

At UC Davis, the roof of the new dining hall is made of wooden panels and supported by long wooden beams. The designers chose wood for the roof because of its unique style.

Benjamin Caffey, an architect at Harley Ellis Devereaux, the firm that designed the building, described the stylized roof in an email: “The wood roof is exposed on the interior of the building and offers a natural warmth unattainable with other materials.”

Though the beauty of wood is driving more architects to use this material, there are other benefits to building with wood as well. Wood is a renewable material that fixes carbon dioxide, whereas steel and concrete are not renewable or environmentally friendly. The production of cement, its main ingredient being concrete, is responsible for about 5 percent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. The manufacturing process requires a lot of energy, much of which emits pollutants into the atmosphere. Large amounts of atmospheric carbon are released

when manufacturers produce steel and heat limestone, which is an important part of the production process. Many architects believe using wood will reduce these emissions. “[Wood] is becoming attractive for construction because it is renewable and sequesters carbon,” Caffey said. “Its creation uses less energy and produces less carbon than steel or concrete.”

Wood buildings also satisfy another preference in the construction industry: pre-fabrication. Wood panels can be shipped to the build site pre-cut and finished and then assembled to form major components of the building with very little material waste.

These prefabricated pieces are not the traditional wood beams milled from gigantic old growth trees. The majority of those trees were cut down in the early development of the United States.

“There are very few traditional old growth forests left,” said David Rizzo, a professor of plant pathology at UC Davis.

“It’s a tiny percentage of what it was many years ago when Europeans first arrived here and started cutting trees down to build the cities.”

Today most lumber comes from tree plantations, where trees are planted and harvested like any other crop. These trees are generally much smaller and grow much faster than old growth trees. To produce large beams, engineers have designed sophisticated composite lumber products that can be formed into almost any shape or size. These products have existed for decades, but an increase in demand has led to new variations that are designed to be incredibly consistent, attractive and fire-resistant. A product called cross-laminated timber, designed in the 1990s and refined in the 2000s, is at the forefront of the wood construction boom.

Despite the excitement, some detractors are concerned about the stability and longevity of the new buildings. Engineers across the world are working to study the composite wood products and develop standards to keep people safe in these buildings.

According to Pei, the results suggest that wood buildings are safe and long lasting.

“As of now, we have good evidence through research and full scale testing that at least for seismic performance, well-engineered wood buildings can withstand WOOD on 13

individual item in order to guide subsequent items. The logic is at that age, infants have limited motor abilities, the way that they’re learning is through their vision. They have the remarkable task of learning across their lifespan, they have to do memory encoding, vision helps start this process.”

Beckner tracks infant visual learning by exposing infants to the visual features of objects, including different colors and shapes, and measuring how long infants fixate on an object and a changed feature about the object presented using eye tracking and change detection.

“Infants have a natural desire of proclivity, to seek new over old information,” Beckner said. “We try to measure their ability to store information by looking at their novelty object preference for something new.”

When an infant looks at a new object longer than an older object, they have recognized that an object is older through their stored information or encoded memory.

The symposium concluded with vision researchers discussing each other’s findings.

“When we get together and present in front of each other, it leads to collaborations across disciplines,” said Marie Burns, a professor at the UC Davis Department of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy. “It also gives a chance for students and faculty to improve their presentation and communication skills. All of the data blitz speakers gave superb presentations and we got to see their progress in their research projects.”

BY MICH E LLE WO NG science@theaggie.org

From developing a vegan cheese to finding a lower cost alternative for assaying plant disease, BioInnovation Group offers undergraduate students a myriad of opportunities to obtain hands-on research experience.

Initially called the Synthetic Biology Club, members such as Lisa Illes, a fourthyear biosystems engineering major and current president of BIG, and Alex Krueger, a fifth year biochemical engineering major and strategy and development advisor of BIG, decided to restart the club utilizing the UC Davis Molecular Prototyping and Innovation Lab. Their decision to revitalize the club came under the advisement of Marc Facciotti, an associate professor of the biomedical engineering department and director of the TEAM labs. “[We want to] provide a resource for undergraduate students that does not already exist because there’s a few classes that you can get lab skills, but not really [one that] teaches you how to make your project or what it takes to formulate your own idea,” said Karenna Rehorn, a third year biomedical engineering major and project coordinator of BIG. “No one really gives you the structure for that, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Illes said that she wanted to see opportunities for students to work in research labs and gain research experience, as she herself had trouble finding these opportunities as a freshman and sophomore. In addition, BIG gives students the chance to participate in independent research rather than working under a professor or graduate student, as the organization is entirely undergraduate-run.

“It’s really cool having undergraduates run something because, for the most part, no one thinks undergraduates are capable of much, especially in scientific terms,” said Jacob Lang, a third-year biochemistry major and vice president of BIG. “It’s just really awesome to know that we organize all this stuff, and we’re able to actually accomplish real things in science.”

BIG currently offers five research projects: looking at stress pathways in mammalian cell models, 3D printing microfluidic

The undergraduate-run organization aims to provide all students with laboratory experience

molds to be able to do small scale manipulations, synthesizing the four primary cheese proteins in yeast cells and utilizing a 3D bioprinter to print plant cells in gels. The organization is also currently working in conjunction with HM Clause, a seed-research company, in order to optimize a bioassay that screens plants for diseases.

In addition, BIG recently revamped their Student Lab Managers program, which according to Daniel Graves, a third-year genetics and genomics major and senior student lab manager of BIG, was sparked by the need to scale up. Graves stated that the organization found it important to have a set of students who could help run the laboratory space and train students in hands-on skills that are not commonly offered in coursework. According to Lang, in addition to serving as safety officers during laboratory hours, the student lab managers are currently developing a set of protocols to teach students laboratory skills and the background knowledge behind these skills simultaneously.

“Our Student Lab Managers program is basically built around the idea that we want to provide students on campus and every student on campus with two opportunities: the opportunity to discuss scientific papers that they read with other students and [to] provide them the opportunity to learn basic laboratory techniques that they would need in any biological laboratory they would find themselves in, be it in industry or somewhere on campus,” Illes said.

According to Graves, moving forward, the organization hopes to scale up to provide even more opportunities to a larger number of students. He stated that BIG strives to be as inclusive as possible and provide a space for anyone who wants to participate in innovating biology.

“The main goal of the group is to allow any undergraduate that wants to do research be able to come in with minimal barrier and be able to do meaningful research,” Lang said. “It’d be really awesome if [students] can come in with an idea and they have no skills, we’re able to help them gain all the skills needed and then they’re actually able to do something that came from their own mind and they’re actually able to create something out of it.”

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 | 11

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12 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

L I L L I A N F RANC ES /CO URTE SY

Couch Concert: Lillian Frances

Electronic engineer and singer speaks on broken phones, finding herself

BY CA RO L I N E RU T T E N arts@theaggie.org

Lillian Frances, a 25-year-old Davis-bred electronic musician and singer, constantly takes notes on her phone: phrases she likes, Instagram pictures of babies in retro bright blue outfits and irregular ideas.

“It is all inspired by day-to-day life,” Frances said. “I like to be an observer of what is around me and package it into a song. It’s just random shit that comes to my mind that is remotely interesting or funny.

I try to think of little things that everyone would identify with.”

Her synth-pop, experimental electronic music is just as dynamic as she is, so she gets her inspiration from anything and everything. No idea or thought process goes unrecorded.

She listed some song title ideas she had brewing to prove a point: “Your Boyfriend Likes All of My Instagram Posts,” “You’re Literally the Worst,” “San Francisco Smells Like Marijuana and Parking Tickets,” “Fuuu— That Dude,” “It’s Not Called Being Polly It’s Wanting to F— That Dude,” “Has Anyone Ever Found the Emoji They Are Looking For” and of course “Google Docs are Where Ideas Go to Die.” Quirky and relatable, it is obvious that Frances’ music is an unaltered reflection of her. She does not present herself as anything more or any-

thing less.

An acoustic guitar player since the age of 12, her passion for music solidified and expanded after moving from Davis to study urban and environmental policy at Occidental College in 2015.

“It wasn’t until college when I started writing my songs on acoustic guitar and recording them at our student-run recording studio,” Frances said. “But my senior year, I went to go see Sylvan Esso at a free music festival in Los Angeles. They are huge now, but I had never heard of them at the time in 2014. It blew me away. I never had electronic music vibe with me so hard. It plucked every string in my body. I was vibrating for days. That senior year I started taking Music 100 and electronic music classes at my college.”

Extending her formal music education, Frances took electronic music production classes at the Beat Lab Academy in Los Angeles post-graduation. Then, through a teaching program, she moved to the northwest corner of Spain for a year, which allowed her to improve her Spanish language skills. Dual language competency diversified what she could say in her music and how she wanted to say it.

“Even though I got better at the language, it is really hard to express yourself and your personality in a second language,” Frances said. “Especially since so much of myself is expressed through nuances in language and bad jokes, translating that into Spanish can be hard to tap into. When you’re stripped of language from fully expressing yourself, I learned how to express myself more with my energy. That process of translating yourself through your essence pairs really well with songwriting. Having Spanish as another method of expressing myself in songwriting is liberating. There are a lot of things I can say in Spanish that I can’t say in English and vice versa.”

Because of her experience in Spain, many of Frances’ songs feature her singing in Spanish, like “Bailamos con el humo” off her second EP “Timeism.” With musical introspection accomplished during her time abroad, she returned to Davis in 2017 ready to focus on her electronic music career. Indeed, her first performance of said genre was

C AIT LY N SA M P L E Y / AGGI E

that summer at the Davis Music Festival.

“I don’t see a lot of young women doing what I’m doing,” Frances said. “Electronic music is unique, different and fun.”

However, such official branding as an electronic musician was forced after developing tendonitis in her hand.

“I had always been an acoustic artist and I was planning on moving into this electronic sphere but with my guitar,” Frances said.

“I love my guitar so much, it was like a limb.

Losing this part of me required to lean into electronic music.”

While Frances’ tendonitis has healed and she has begun to take guitar classes again in order to incorporate electric guitar melodies in her new music, such moments of transition and altering identity became the subject of her song “Phone Keys Wallet” from “Timeism.”

“We all lose pieces of ourselves,” Frances said. “It’s about how we separate ourselves from an identity that we always held.”

The beauty in France’s “Timeism” is its ability to package such complex, even lofty ideas into something digestible and relatable. Emotional crutches are equated with a millenial material necessity.

“It was a looking glass into what I see in my little millenial life,” Frances said. “An invitation to see things through my eyes, which is kind of funny, playful and a little tongue and cheek.”

Even down to her hypnotic high-pitched vocals, she does not overcomplicate or take the album too seriously. It’s not laziness, but strategic realness.

“My voice is super wonky and I have to sift through [vocal recordings] a lot,” Frances said. “But you should keep the imperfections because people latch onto imperfections. You know that one part of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’ and he hits a super wonky note and he snaps in that one place?

They kept it in on purpose to show his imperfection.”

Such is another prime example in Frances’ ability to bring herself and her music back down to earth.

“Everything that I do [that] is awesome is a mistake,” Frances said. “I am not at a point where I can decide what I’m going to make.

If I mess things up I’m going to get things I

never even thought of.”

With this mindset, Frances stays experimental in her sound — no criteria to meet, no structure to follow. She’s all the more exciting to follow, to witness the development of an artist.

“I’m not at the point yet where I have found my sound,” Frances said. “I think ‘Timeism’ has a sound, it’s great and I’m proud of it. But other than that, it’s whatever comes to me. I would say it’s synth-pop.

It’s experimental electronic. It’s pop, but it’s not vapid. I would love to do more hard-hitting electronic, more party bangers. I’m always trying to do that, but haven’t been able to pull it off. I’m loving my new stuff and think it’s better than anything else I’ve done before.”

Her new album initially was going to be based on her solo El Camino voyage that she took immediately after releasing “Timeism” in order to gain new songwriting inspiration.

“I wanted to leave ‘Timeism’ at home, absorb new energies and then crank something new out at home,” Frances said. “The idea was I would take a bunch of sound field recordings across the Camino and take a bunch of notes. But at the end of the Camino, I broke my phone and lost all of my information. So the new album will not be set on the Camino, and there’s not set sound to the new album. It will be me finding myself through music.”

Releasing her first full-length album will be a transformative moment in her music career, releasing an item that represents her.

“I have never released a full album,“ Frances said. “I’ve done two EPs, but I really want to get something out there with my name on it … I really just see myself as a different girl from two years ago. I admire her for her vulnerability and strength, but I feel like a different girl. My album will be my next stage and next sound. It will still be a similar electronic sound but more refined.”

In whatever form her first album reveals itself as, we can be sure it will be something authentically Frances — the good, the quirky and the raw.

Frances will be performing at Beatnik Studio in Sacramento on Jan. 25, and at the Holy Diver in Sacramento on Feb. 8.

Review: “Becoming,” Michelle Obama

JA MIE CHEN / AG GIE

New York Times Bestseller doesn’t disappoint

BY CHE YE N N E WIS E MA N arts@theaggie.org

Michelle Obama’s memoir, “Becoming,” has remained at the top of bestseller lists since its publication in November of 2018. It’s currently number one on the New York Times Best Sellers list for nonfiction books.

Michelle Obama provides an in-depth look into her life, exploring her upbringing in Chicago, her career, her relationship with Barack Obama and finally her years living in the White House as First Lady.

Growing up, Obama lived in Chicago’s South Side with her mother, father and brother, in a one-bedroom apartment, where the bottom floor was occupied by her great aunt. Obama reveals that despite her family’s low socioeconomic standing and the fact that her parents worked full-time jobs, Obama and her brother had childhoods filled with love and mentors who fueled their ambitions.

Obama characterizes herself as a go-getter. As a young adult, she attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School and worked endless hours to achieve her position practicing corporate law in Chicago. It was there that she met Barack Obama, a passionate man with big dreams of his own.

Michelle and Barack Obama’s relationship is inspiring. They have maintained their love while braving long periods of separation due to school or work and managed to balance their demanding careers with the duties of marriage and parenthood.

Left feeling unfulfilled by corporate law, Obama was motivated to “swerve” by her husband, to take a leap of faith and follow her heart, figuring out the rest along the way.

This is one of many messages or words of wisdom that Obama ingrains in her memoir. Following this advice, Obama leaves her comfortable position in corporate law to pursue a career in public service, with the goal of helping underprivileged communities like the one she grew up in.

“It was one thing to get yourself out of a stuck place, I realized,” Obama wrote. “It was another

thing entirely to try and get the place itself unstuck.”

Obama details the joys of motherhood as well as its difficulties, a previously unseen glance into the interiority of the Obama family. With a refreshing vulnerability, she discusses the physical and emotional strain of her miscarriage and IVF treatments. Her efforts to push forward in her career and also be a caring, present mother is a familiar story — her relatability and candor helped her win the hearts of Americans everywhere. Later, she details her concerns for the safety of her children as they become recognized faces nationwide.

The memoir picks up speed with Barack Obama’s political career. Obama always has and will always hate politics, admitting that she resisted her husband’s decision to become involved.

“Coexisting with Barack’s strong sense of purpose — sleeping in the same bed with it, sitting at the breakfast table with it — was something to which I had to adjust,” she wrote.

While interesting, the telling of Barack Obama’s run for president delved into lengthy descriptions of the campaign, which slowed down the story.

These sections read more like a textbook, though they may be appreciated by those intrigued with the inner workings of politics.

Obama writes with clarity of her past and present, discussing her role as First Lady and its implications. She redefined the role by focusing her attention on alleviating poverty, improving education and emphasizing habits of healthy living. She analyzes the evolution of her character in the face of adversity, writing of demoralizing racial comments and instances of hatred that accompany being married to the first black President of the United States. She writes of the intense pressure to represent her husband and family and watch every little thing she says, does and wears.

In “Becoming,” Obama doesn’t hold back. Her voice is honest and sometimes biting. She is unafraid to criticize President Trump and the tactics he used in attempts to undermine the integrity of MICHELLE on 14

Spotify vs. Apple Music Discovering which streaming service reigns supreme

BY ROS IE SCHWAR Z arts@theaggie.org

When comparing Spotify and Apple Music, there are many features that make the two streaming services almost identical: both offer a family plan for up to six people, a $5 monthly student fee (instead of the regular price of ten dollars a month), a free trial period and a social aspect that allows users to follow friends and see what they’re listening to. However, they also differ, and this sparks a Spotify versus Apple Music rivalry which has fostered debate over which is the best.

Spotify was founded in 2006, whereas Apple Music began in 2015, giving Spotify an upward advantage in coverage and recognition as the premier music streaming app.

Because of this seniority, Spotify offers its services to 83 million users while Apple Music remains behind with 50 million users. However, according to Forbes, “Spotify is increasing at a monthly rate of 2%, while Apple’s growth rate is 5%,” which means Apple Music could eventually surpass Spotify in users.

Both services have features that differentiate them from the other.

Spotify offers a free ad-supported tier for users that do not want to pay monthly, while Apple’s free version is provided through the Beats 1 radio station. In addition, Apple

Music offers 45 million songs while Spotify offers 35 million, which, depending on one’s musical preferences, could make a big difference in preferred streaming service.

Even though both Apple Music and Spotify offer student plans, Spotify’s student plan for $4.99 per month includes Hulu and Showtime. Spotify also appeals to students with its year-in-review “Wrapped” feature.

Kevin Lentz, a fourth-year political science major, explained his reasons for preferring Spotify over Apple Music.

“Spotify has a more intuitive and user-friendly user interface,” Lentz said. “Searching for music and queuing songs is instant and the platform creates many ‘For You’ custom playlists from the music you routinely listen to. Finding music via genre is also more exact. Spotify has sub-genres categorized under the primary genres. Spotify seems to do a superb job at finding more music beyond my initial selection that I find really appealing, even across polar genres.”

In terms of user interface, both Apple Music and Spotify pride themselves on their aesthetic qualities: a clean white background with pink font and a grungier black background with green font, respectively.

SPOTIFY APPLE on 14

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 | 13

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percent of UC Davis undergraduate students felt overwhelming anxiety in 2017. Directors of the Mental Health Initiative felt that opening up a discussion around mental health on campus would help lower these numbers and help students feel more supported.

“The event is definitely about raising awareness, but I think it’s also about expanding people’s notions of what mental health really stands for,” said Katrina Manrique, a co-director of the UC Davis Mental Health Initiative. “A lot of people, when they think of mental health, […] think of it very much within a medical setting when in reality, it’s intersected with a ton of ideas, such as gender and race.”

Manrique believes the statistics on mental illnesses speak for themselves — even though someone personally may not struggle with mental health, chances are they know somebody who does.

Several attendees expressed their gratefulness to the Mental Health Initiative for hosting this event once again, expressing the sentiment that the event helps to both de-stigmatize mental illness and show how broad the term “mental health” really is.

“This event is really about raising awareness and support at school and around Davis,” said Cindy Ceja, a third-year communication and psychology double major. “We are on a college campus, so there’s always a need to talk about mental health.

Everyone has their own experience with it, and we really should be recognizing how it means different things to different people.”

Ceja, an attendant of the event as well as a volunteer on the first day of the conference, said more than 1,000 individuals registered on the Eventbrite page, and by the first half of Saturday around 200 people had checked in.

The different presenters each chose to approach the subject of mental health in a way they felt was relevant to their own subject matter. For example, Dr. Cameron Carter and Tara Niendam, both from

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the UC Davis Health Department, focused their discussion on prevention and early intervention regarding youth mental health.

Carter founded the UC Davis Early Diagnosis and Preventive Treatment programs which focus on early-on psychosis care. Both Carter and Niendam addressed mental health in a more scientific way, detailing methods for stigma reduction and new techniques, such as brain imaging, to improve the early detection of mental health issues in teens and young adults.

Presenters such as Raul Hernandez Garcia and Celestina Pearl from the St. James Infirmary referred to mental health in a more socially constructed sense.

The St. James Infirmary is a health and safety clinic for sex workers and their families in San Francisco.

Garcia and Pearl focused their discussion on biases against sex work and the decriminalization that they feel needs to take place.

They said it was critical that people understand how personal values may look different from person to person, and that using judgement and bias against those who participate in sex work can be damaging to their mental states.

“As long as individuals are making decisions for themselves, they should be free to go about their choices without judgement,” Pearl said.

“We put a lot of focus on supporting our participants, helping them live their best life on their own terms, and not using our own judgements or forcing how we think they should live their lives onto them,” Pearl said. “It turns out, when people feel supported, they’re able to reach their goals much easier.”

At the close of the conference, Manrique felt the event was a success and said she was grateful for everyone who helped to make the event possible. Her next goal for the initiative, before she graduates this spring, is to drive up participation and visibility for the upcoming Mental Health Awareness Month this May.

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order to support students who may struggle to pay the higher student fees.

“Those who would be otherwise negatively impacted by increased fees, especially low-income students, will get an additional increase in the amount that will be given out in financial aid to offset the higher cost,” Hacker said.

Unitrans will launch an education campaign about the fee referendum in late January, consisting of signage on Unitrans buses, social media posts, fliers posted around campus and communication with Greek Life and Athletics.

“Unitrans is not allowed to take a position on the measure,” Flynn said. “So we will merely be providing information on what the vote does and try to get people to vote. We will have a website about the measure through ASUCD [and] Aggie Studios did a video on it.”

Weston Snyder, a third-year history and international relations double major and operational manager at Unitrans, will play a role in educating students about the fee referendum. Snyder believes that no matter what way students vote, it is important they do.

“Making people aware that this issue is on the ballot and that it is up for them to decide is really important,” Snyder said.

If the fee referendum is not successful, Unitrans will be forced to cut services. Currently, the unit is able to function thanks to reserved funds built up

over the years, but these funds will run out by next year, Flynn said.

“Next year, we’ll be looking to implement 15 to 20 percent service cuts and the year after that, another 15 percent or so service cuts,” Flynn said. “To put that in perspective, currently we run 18 lines, so that’s essentially eliminating six or so bus lines.

We would be reducing staffing on the students and career staff sides.”

These cuts will affect both students and workers at Unitrans.

With the knowledge of how a failed referendum would impact the campus, Hacker said ASUCD officials, including both senators and commission chairs, are backing the proposed fee increase.

“They understand the need and importance for Unitrans not only for our communities and the campus but just knowing that it’s an institution,” Hacker said. “They see the value of doing what it takes to make sure we can keep it.”

Hacker hopes that students will also view Unitrans as an important campus institution and a critical resource for students that needs to be financially supported.

“We’re just really going to have to tell Unitrans’ story to people: let them know exactly what’s at stake here, let them know what a benefit Unitrans is not only to the campus but to the community at large,” she said. “And hopefully that will be enough to let people see the urgency of this.”

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It’s apparent that Weisinger brings a wealth of knowledge to one of UC Davis’ newest programs and will likely continue to impact the sport at the collegiate level for years to come.

Ellis is now a student assistant coach at A&M and says that Weisinger was a big part of that decision.

With a growing sport like equestrian, McKay

thinks other colleges looking to add it to their Division I lineup will use UC Davis as a model. “[Weisinger] will be really good for our sport as a whole to be the one who has started that program and help future schools in the challenges she had in starting the program,” McKay said. “I know she was excited to take on this new challenge.”

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particularly women, to cancer and hormonal problems.

The price of plastic roads is also a problem, since they can end up costing more than the alternative, asphalt, especially when external costs are taken into account. The most widely used material for plastic roads is styrene-butadiene-styrene, which can increase the price of a road by 30 to 50 percent upfront. This price increase will demoralize many poor towns that do not have the necessary funds to replace all their roads, and they will have to rely on government assistance.

Even if the price of hidden external costs—such as damage to soil, agriculture, biodiversity, bodies of water, air pollution and public health—was taken

into account, no government would implement plastic roads because they aren’t economically feasible.

The solution to plastic pollution is in our hands.

We need to reject plastic and start using alternative materials. Our first step must be to stop producing it. By demanding other materials to substitute plastic, the yearly production of plastic worldwide will eventually stop increasing and hopefully stop altogether.

As mentioned before, there is no way to safely, inexpensively and sustainably dispose of any plastic.

The world is already full of plastic in every ocean, and on every continent. Approximately 5.25 trillion units of plastic pollute us worldwide. We are planet Earth, not Planet Plastic.

Month in April, for which they plan on carrying out a poster campaign to raise awareness about healthy relationships.

The meeting pushed forward with a presentation from the Club Finance Council (CFC). The group is an ASUCD-funded program that provides grants to help pay for educational programs, guest speakers and events that will enrich campus life.

The council explained its application process, noting that applicants will be approved on a rolling basis for this quarter.

The CFC plans on utilizing direct marketing tactics to expand awareness to a greater audience, in hopes of providing funding to a more diverse selection of groups on campus.

After the group’s presentation ended, Vice President Shaniah Branson made the announcement that Alice Beittel, from the Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC), would be tardy, resulting in the EPPC Member Confirmations being pushed back to 7:45.

She motioned to push the Senate into the introduction of new legislation, but before SB #30 and 31 were introduced, an individual announced there was a shooting downtown and that the candidate for the External Affairs Commission (EAC) would be unable to attend, given that the entirety of downtown Davis was placed on lockdown.

Given the lack of additional information, the Senate quickly proceeded with the introduction of new legislation.

SB #30, an ASUCD Senate Bill to reform the Closed Session process of the ASUCD Senate and subordinate bodies, and SB #31, an ASUCD Senate Bill to place the following Unitrans Undergraduate Fee Referendum on the Winter 2019 ASUCD Ballot, were both read aloud with no following discussion.

Unit and Committee Adoptions followed the introduction of these two new Senate bills. Twenty one different units and committees, including The California Aggie, were adopted, with one, two, or three senators assigned to each.

Senator Hacker subsequently took advantage of the public discussion portion of the meeting to go into further detail about SB #31.

She explained that Unitrans is currently experiencing a $300,000 deficit, which is only supposed to worsen in coming years. “The costs of goods, gas and minimum wage are all going up,” Hacker said, “which all play a huge role in the debt Unitrans is bearing.”

SB #31 aims to alleviate some of the money owed by Unitrans, and without this bill, Hacker says, they will have to cut a quarter of their services in the next couple years.

Judicial Council Member Confirmations were then held.

Maria Martinez and Nathan Chan, two candidates for the council, both answered several questions and were subsequently confirmed.

A break was held at 7:49 p.m., and immediately after, the Memorial Union — including the Mee Room — was placed on lockdown due to the shooting in Downtown Davis. The meeting continued as scheduled, with intermittent updates about the lockdown and details of the shooting as they surfaced.

The meeting concluded with the delayed EPPC member confirmations, with candidate Ranjini Srikantam introduced and confirmed, as well as DREAM member confirmations, with candidates Matilde Arellano and Lizeth Martinez introduced and confirmed. There were no objections to any of the candidates.

Lockdown was lifted, and the meeting adjourned at 9:39 p.m.

CONSTRUCTION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Athletics Practice Field,” she said.

“There is also the large West Village Expansion project being managed by UC Davis Real Estate Services that is a public/private partnership.”

With regard to the architectural themes on campus, Carroll said “individual architectural design solutions are important.”

“But not every building can be an individual building that makes an individual statement,” he said.

“I think what is most important [...] is contributing to the fabric of campus and not necessarily the individual structures.”

The Robert Mondavi Institute and the Manetti Shrem Museum

are two examples of impressive and memorable individual structures on campus that Caroll mentioned.

“These are all in and of themselves beautiful buildings, very nicely designed and have a great connection to the surrounding community,” he said. “This is a phenomenal entry piece to the campus.”

Carroll said that while these buildings have different styles, “they greatly contribute to the whole that provides a fantastic front door for the campus.”

More information on the ongoing project on campus can be accessed at the DCM website.

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Addressing members of the Davis Police Department and officers in attendance from across the state, Pytel spoke about moving forward after this tragedy.

“We are resilient, let’s not be divisive,” he said. “Let’s use this as an opportunity to join together to find ways to protect the community.”

Corona’s father and three younger sisters also spoke. Following her father’s speech, the entire ARC Pavilion rose to their feet in a standing ovation.

The ceremony ended with a final prayer and the beginning of the gauntlet and procession which would take Corona’s remains to her final resting place.

WOOD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

major earthquakes without much damage,” Pei said. “As for durability of wood buildings, look no further than well-engineered temples in Japan and China that have lasted over 800 years.” .

In the coming years, more and more large buildings will be built with wood to reduce carbon emis-

sions and make building designs more compelling.

“There’s no doubt we will see the use of composite wood construction flourish in California,” Caffey said.

Students at UC Davis will get to experience the trend firsthand when the new Tercero Dining Hall opens next fall.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

14 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

WOMEN’S MARCH

SKI OR SNOWBOARD

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more about [feminism] and that’s what’s important,” Lollie said. “The more people that know about this the better, [so] we can make change in the right direction. That needs to happen always, every year. More people have to get out and let it be known how they feel about things. Yes, it’s a very important job that they should do.”

After reaching Capitol Mall, marchers gathered to listen to speakers who were discussing a range of issues — some first stopped by the food trucks lining 10th Street or at the rows of organizations that were tabling.

One of the two emcees, Coco Blossom, tried to encompass the spirit of the event.

“We’re here today to uplift all women,” Blossom said.

“We’re here today to stand in unity on this platform to inspire and facilitate grassroots actions.

This platform is intersectional, diverse, flexible [and] bringing us all together to bring us together [and] represent what we want and who we are. Today we’re building community on a positive level that will impact all lives to create transformative social change.”

The CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of CA, Crystal Strait, touched upon multiple issues, including reproductive justice, poverty, workplace equity, intimate partner violence, economic security and healthcare accessibility. After the speakers concluded, Miss Shalae, the first black trans performer to headline the Sacramento Women’s March, performed Beyonce covers, closing with “Run the World” and a declaration: “We are feminists as f**k.”

Despite the overall enthusiasm for the march, this year’s event was marked by some controversy after leaders of the national Women’s March organization were charged with anti-Semitism. This was troublesome to many, including 57-year-old Kerry Burton.

“Why would this organization, in general, align themselves with something that even remotely resembles hate,” Burton said. “But in the end, that’s not what we’re about. We’re about inclusion, we’re about human rights, we’re about people of all color, we’re about feminism. Hate like that doesn’t have a place in this group or in this mission at all. It wasn’t started, that way, it shouldn’t be that way in the middle and it shouldn’t end that way.”

Burton described herself as socially liberal, fiscally conservative and formerly Republican.

She said that for over the 57 years of her life, she watched the party lose its platform and foundation and said that it alienated her and her beliefs. Burton’s poster talked about the political strides that women had made, including the fact that there are now 131 women in Congress and Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand’s recent announcement about a run for presidency in 2020. At the top, it said “Future’s so bright” along with a pair of sunglasses. Burton attended the march the past two years, but this is the first time she has made a positive, hopeful sign. “[There’s] a Hawaiian saying that’s like, ‘No rain, no rainbows,’” Burton said, “And sure, two years ago, we were sort of shocked and in disbelief about the kind of person that was elected to the presidency, the highest office in this country.

But sometimes, it takes that major event where it just shocks

your sensibilities and your intelligence and your senses and says, ‘Okay, now is our time to shift and change.’ [...] We’ve made strides, [but we need to] keep working on it, because we’re not there yet, by any stretch. We’re doing the right things, to get people in place who can make those changes and lead instead of posturing for the next election.”

For Burton, this year seems to be the “pay-off” after the #MeToo movement, and she found the atmosphere to be more hopeful than the past two years, with increased Congressional diversity and rising progressive women working towards solutions. Additionally, Burton strongly believes in the power of youth.

“I’m 57, but I absolutely want young, vibrant energy, people who grew up differently and understand you got to work together,” Burton said. “We’re so polarized right now […] Two years ago, I was just kind of in a state of shock that this would happen. It’s also a reminder, don’t sit on your laurels, get out there, vote! Get out there, organize! Get out there and talk to others about it. And that old saying, ‘If you don’t stand for something, you’re going to fall for anything.’ I think a lot of people are falling for anything with 45.”

Representing UC Davis at the march was a coalition of women and female centered organizations. Laurel Low, thirdyear community and regional development major, serves as vice president for the new club, Students for Reproductive Freedom. They work directly with Planned Parenthood in order to advocate for reproductive justice.

Low is concerned about reproductive justice, particularly with regards to the Supreme Court upholding Roe v. Wade.

“I think it’s just our job to make our voices heard at the state level, because I don’t know if those federal protections will be there in a few years,” Low said. “ California is one of the best states in the nation in terms of providing abortion access, but there are a lot of women who live in states where legislators are actively chipping away at those rights. That’s where the fight is really going to be if those federal protections go away.”

Estimates for the size of this year’s march in Sacramento stand around 10,000, which is smaller than in previous years.

According to 67 year old Bill Reichle who has attended all three marches, however, the “gusto” from the past remained.

He talked about the significance of intersectionality, and how groups can support others.

“Anytime there’s a big movement, people hitch their wagon to it so other groups come,” Reichle said. “It says, time for people to come out. Well, I’m going to push this cause, I’m going to push this cause.”

Despite the smaller crowds, there was evident energy in the mass of people especially as Sacramento city councilmember Angelique Ashby introduced 36 newly elected women in the November 2018 election. Some of those women were attendees of the former marches and according to Ashby, hadn’t even really considered running for office.

“See what a difference two years can make,” Ashby said to the cheering crowd. “Correction — see what a difference you can make.”

in skiing or snowboarding join the club.

“I went to the first cabin trip and didn’t know a single person,” Urrutia said. “I transferred here, and didn’t even know anyone at this school. And now these people are my best friends. It is definitely

possible for you to meet new people, even if you don’t ski or snowboard. We just have a really good time.”

For Djoneva, the people really make the club an enjoyable experience.

“Definitely skiing has to be up

there, but probably my favorite part would have to be all the cool people, because you get to hang out with people who are into the same thing that you are,” Djoneva said. “Everyone is very similar in that sense, so pretty much everyone you will meet you will love.”

rating sites, the memoir continues to top bestseller lists worldwide.

Michelle Obama has extended her book tour to include more stops in both the United States and abroad.

“Becoming” is available in most bookstores as well as on Amazon.

An audiobook version read by Michelle Obama is also available through Audible.

“I also find that there are a lot more songs on Apple Music that they don’t have on Spotify, especially with remixes and things like that,” Chisholm said. “I’ve always been a big Soundcloud user, so I never really focused on Spotify.”

For many, choice of streaming service stems from years of attachment and devotion to a site. Many college students who grew up buying songs on iTunes were introduced to Spotify around the time of adolescence when they were branching out from their parents’ music tastes and ready to begin exploring music for themselves.

Fourth-year history and psychology double major Josie Kamida explained her preference for Spotify as a mixture of both comfortability and popularity.

“I think my favorite thing about it is weirdly the social aspect,” Kamida said. “I really like going onto my friends’ Spotify [profiles] and seeing what they’re listening to. I’ve also been using it since sophomore year of high school, so it’s fun to see how my tastes have changed or what I was listening to in different phases of my life.”

At this point, most people have already chosen where their loyalties lie for favorite modes of streaming.

Because both streaming services have their specialties and benefits, it’s impossible to objectively choose which streaming service triumphs.

As people plug in their headphones or put in their Airpods, Apple Music and Spotify can be credited for changing the way that we listen to music.

several years ago, which was rare for residential areas.

“The Muir Commons installation is going to be [a] unique one in that there is one charger per home, and all of the homes do not have electric vehicles,” Parks said. “I think in the future, you’re going to see new homes built with chargers as a standard part of the package. It may, at some point, become a requirement of the building codes.”

Just as solar panels increased globally by nearly 30 percent in 2017, according to SolarPower Europe, and is becoming a popular sustainable energy alternative, electric vehicles may become the next technology to be integrated into daily life. UC Davis has been updating the presence of chargers with charging station installations

at the Mondavi Gateway District Parking Structure and ARC Pavilion Lot 25, with a goal to install 100 new chargers each year.

Valley Clean Energy recently secured a $2.9 million Sacramento Area Council of Governments grant to install electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Yolo County, according to Parks. Over the next few years, more and more electric vehicle chargers will be publicly available.

While Muir Commons just celebrated its latest leap in technological advance, the next may already be in the works.

“We’re always a pioneer in these things, and we love being pioneers,” Dunlap said. “Every time an individual comes up with these new ideas, we try and incorporate it.”

the past year. The majority of the victims surveyed did not report the crime to the police, however.

“The survey found that 26 of 46 clients — 57 percent — self-identified as a victim of crime in the past year,” Whitaker said. “Only 42 percent — 11 of the 26 — reported that crime to law enforcement.”

Whitaker, alongside fellow grant writer member Kevin Clark, saw an opportunity to secure the

funding for this underserved population.

He spoke with pride regarding his success in obtaining funding for the new program.

“One of the great things about being a grant writer — if you do your job well enough — the things you write down on paper actually become real,” Whitaker said. “So, I was so excited when I saw this one had gotten approved. It’s probably my proudest one yet.”

shooter in my own tiny town, and I didn’t even think twice about those planes full of people flying into a skyscraper also full of people.

Perhaps the largest tragedy of all is that these events are so normalized that we don’t react to them anymore. In retrospect, I’m disgusted with my own lack of reaction on Thursday night. I’m a piece of the American apathy. Guns are

so overly accessible that such tragedies occur with some regularity, and 9/11 is merely a historical event. I’m sorry for being part of that. I’m sorry for not reacting.

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Obamas.

Overall, “Becoming” is well-written and its tone is inspirational. So far receiving positive reviews on Goodreads and other

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While this might seem unimportant, when spending so much time on an app, many users place a igh value on user interface.

Lee Chisholm, a third-year communication major, explained her reasoning for choosing Apple Music as one rooted in familial preference, overall user experience and song availability.

“I started [using] Apple Music my freshman year of college because my dad purchased the family plan,” Chisholm said. “I like the lighter background of Apple music, and I’m not that into the green and black color scheme.”

In addition, other streaming sites such as Soundcloud, Amazon music or Tidal can serve as supplements and influence users’ streaming choices.

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there [were] no tailpipe emissions, and it’s when you have solar cells on your roof you’re creating your own fuel,” Dunlap said. “I don’t have [an] oil well in my backyard — you probably don’t have one in your backyard. Even if we would have it, we still have to process the oil, so we’d have to have a refinery, and we don’t have that either. So, with solar, you’re producing your own electricity, and the electricity is in general cleaner than anything burning fossil fuels.”

Muir Commons has fostered a history of innovation, as it was the first new construction cohousing development in the United States when it was built in 1991.

Additionally, the housing complex implemented its first electric vehicle charger 17 years ago and solar panels atop their Common Room

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that circumstance would rise to the level of something that would be a criminal charge,” Whitaker said. “I know that there is a certain level of fear among the homeless community. A lot of these people have warrants for their arrest, so it makes sense that they would not call law enforcement.”

An informal survey of Hope & Fourth’s clients revealed that the majority of those surveyed had been the victims of crime within

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Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Orlando, Stoneman Douglas, Virginia Tech and countless other tragedies are not in the same world as I am — be they acts of planned terror or the second degree whim of someone unfit to own a gun. You can block it out and pretend like it’s not in your world so long as it doesn’t directly affect you. I did this so much that I didn’t even react to an active

The writer is a first-year political science major at UC Davis.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019 | 15

JAMI E C H E N / AG G I E

WEISINGER BRINGS EXPERIENCE TO UC DAVIS’ NEWEST ATHLETICS PROGRAM Women’s Equestrian begins season next week

BY BOBBY JO HN sports@theaggie.org

UC Davis Equestrian Head Coach Jessie Wiesinger’s love for horses started at the age of four. The South Texas native recalled the day that she formed her love for horses.

She went to the barn with her mother and a horse veterinarian, where she found a note reading: “For Jessie” taped onto a stall. In that stall was Junior.

Next Thursday will be UC Davis’ first official Division I meet against Delaware State. Weisinger admits getting the equestrian program up to speed has been hectic.

“It’s very exciting, it’s been crazy busy with starting a new team from scratch,” Weisinger said. “When we got here in August, we didn’t even own a brush, so to see how far we’ve come in less than six months is pretty awesome.”

Forming a team, organizing practices, finding equipment and finding the horses the team needs sounds like a daunting task for even the most highly-funded athletics programs. But this isn’t unfamiliar territory

for Weisinger.

Weisinger started giving horseback riding lessons as a high school student, noting that there was quite a high demand in her community.

“In South Texas, you had to drive about four hours to your trainers for quality instruction, that was the Houston area,” Weisinger said. “There were a ton of kids that wanted instruction.”

Weisinger and a friend saw the opportunity to coach riders and get some more experience under their belts.

“We just started giving riding lessons at the barn,” Weisinger said. “Then we actually had high school teachers that were like ‘we want to start taking lessons’, and then we started giving lessons to our high school teachers.”

After this, others began to ask them to work with new horses and their list of clients grew. They both stayed in Corpus Christi for junior college.

After Weisinger graduated from Texas A&M, where she rode under Head Coach Tana McKay from 1999 to 2002, she worked

for various rodeos in Texas. She then moved to Colorado in 2011 for the opportunity to work as an assistant coach for the Guynn Training Center under Mark Guynn.

Weisinger gained insight into how the management aspect works, rekindling her passion for riding and teaching.

Guynn recalled a conversation he and Weisinger had after noticing that a form of riding, called ranch riding, was gaining popularity on the East Coast.

After Weisinger suggested starting a team, Guynn made her head coach of the Rocky Mountain Wranglers, a team that competed in the Interscholastic Equestrian Association.

“Our team really grew under Jessie’s help, she’s a great individual,” Guynn said.

When an assistant coaching opportunity at the collegiate level presented itself at Texas A&M, Weisinger took it.

The format for the National Collegiate Equestrian Association is different from other formats, such as the IEA, which Weisinger taught to the Rocky Mountain Wranglers. Competitors in NCEA do not get to use their own horses for matches, the horses are selected for the meet and riders go headto-head with each other on the same horse.

Weisinger rode this format while competing at Texas A&M. This particular format is often difficult for some riders to get accustomed to, but Weisinger excelled in the mental aspect.

“She did a really good job of prepping these kids in a high pressure situation,” McKay said. “On our team, we have 55 girls standing at the end gate watching with that pressure of ‘we need this point and we’re all counting on you.’”

Weisinger coached one of A&M’s top riders, Avery Ellis. Ellis won the AQHA Collegiate Horseman Challenge Championship in 2016 and 2018, a competition in which competitors are selected based on their riding statistics, among many other notable athletic achievements.

THE LIFE OF A KICKER: CONTROVERSY AND CATASTROPHE JAMIE C H E N / AG G I E

BY A J SE YM O UR sports@theaggie.org

Kicking in the NFL has always been a difficult, high pressure job. As the league advances towards a future where player safety is the priority, many phases of football, specifically kicking, have become increasingly complex and difficult.

Prior to the beginning of this season, the NFL Competition Committee made two significant changes to the structure of an onside kick: “The kickoff team must have five players on each side of the ball and cannot line up more than one-yard from the restraining line.”

Previously, players attempting to recover the onside kick could start five yards away from the ball, allowing them to get a running start. These players often would be heavily overloaded to one side, sometimes even stacking one side of the field with eight players, which is now illegal as well.

Many fans and pundits poured on criticism when the rule was initially passed in May 2018, holding the notion that the onside kick, at least this season, would be “virtually dead.” But were they actually correct?

Ten years ago in the 2009 season, the onside kick recovery rate was 26 percent.

Throughout the entire 2017 regular season and postseason, 13 of 60 onside kicks were recovered, equating to 21.7 percent.

Although that drop in recovery rate was not exactly appealing to fans who were looking for an exciting play, the plummet of recovery percentage this year will make football enthusiasts cringe. Through the divisional round, out of 53 onside kicks attempted this year, only four have been converted, or 7.5 percent. Lo and behold, critics of the rule change knew exactly what they were talking about, as the chance of the kicking team recovering an onside kick is now slim to none.

UC Davis punter and kicker Matt Blair feels as though the new rule changes take away the capability of a team to come back and win a game.

“I understand the players’ safety aspect of it,” Blair said. “You’re trying to reduce the concussions, but I honestly don’t think five yards makes a big difference whether someone is going to get a concussion or not, so I think they should move it back so teams are

The relationship between Weisinger and Ellis goes back to when Ellis was five years old. While an undergrad competing at A&M, Weisinger gave riding lessons to Ellis. Ellis kept Weisinger’s horse, and this was the only connection the two maintained until Ellis committed to A&M for college.

“A lot of the times she was really goofy and silly but definitely got stuff done, and there was going to be no excuses,” Ellis said of Weisinger’s coaching style at A&M. In Ellis’ estimation, she can be a tough coach but is understanding.

“It was a good balance, she’d have the radio playing in the middle of the arena and making jokes, but when it’s time to be serious, we were serious,” Ellis added.

Texas A&M’s equestrian program was the NCEA Reining Champions in the 2017-18 season and NCEA National Champions in the 2016-17 season. Under McKay’s leadership, the program has also produced many coaches for the sport, which McKay notes is still growing. The head coaches of South Dakota State, TCU, UGA and all of Baylor’s coaches are A&M alumni. And now, UC Davis.

“I think being under [McKay’s] leadership and guidance really helped me grow as a person and grow as a coach,” Weisinger said.

As for the UC Davis riders, they’re excited to get things going next Thursday.

Junior horsemanship rider Bobbie Piddock transferred from University of Tennessee, Martin to be closer to home. But without the addition of equestrian, Piddock said she probably wouldn’t have transferred to UC Davis.

For senior rider Hayley Fredericks, this season presents one last opportunity for her to fulfill her goal of riding for a Division I team.

“I’ve learned so much while being part of this team with Jessie,” Fredericks said.

EQ PREVIEW on 13 J U ST IN HA N / AG GIE

UC Davis kickers Matt Blair and Max O’Rourke share thoughts on new rules, big misses

more successful getting onside kicks.”

Even once a team recovers an improbable onside kick at the end of the game, the kicker still has to make a field goal the majority of the time. No matter the distance, game-winning field goals always seem harder to make than regular ones. Chicago Bears kicker Cody Parkey became a victim of this cruel reality on Jan. 6, when he missed a potentially game-winning kick against the Philadelphia Eagles. Many blamed the entire loss solely on his miss, in spite of the fact that Eagles player Treyvon Hester tipped the ball.

UC Davis placekicker Max O’Rourke said he understood the immediate outcry of frustration and blame.

“As a kicker, you’re really only out there six or seven times in a whole game really, if even that many times might be a lot,” O’Rourke said. “But when you’re out there everything is highlighted, so your mistakes are way more highlighted than others.”

Some fans, however, let their anger spiral out of control. Cody Parkey received an onslaught of hate and even death threats.

“I don’t think the hate is totally warranted,” O’Rourke said. “Given that one, it was blocked, and also, that he had made three field goals and [the Bears] wouldn’t have even been in the game had it not been for him.”

O’Rourke also noted, however, that he understands the passion many fans have for their team.

Blair related the situation to the universal norms that kickers constantly live by.

“There’s a certain aspect of just being human where you can’t be perfect,” Blair said.

“So [Parkey] doesn’t deserve all the hate, but he doesn’t deserve no hate either. If you miss a kick, there’s always going to be too much [hate], but when you make it, you get too much praise, so it goes both ways. People think you’re a superhero when you make the game-winning kick, but want to put you on the stake when you miss, so there’s a dichotomy there.”

Blair wrapped up his thoughts by saying that he believed Parkey handled the miss well.

“He accepted the responsibility of the missed kick as well as he possibly could,” Blair said, “which was impressive and is a good lesson for young people.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL KEEPS THE GOOD TIMES ROLLIN’ Aggies blowout UC Irvine to extend hot streak

BY B RE NDAN O G B U R N sports@theaggie.org

The UC Davis women’s basketball team continued its hot streak with a 80-57 blowout victory over visiting UC Irvine on Saturday afternoon at the Pavilion. The Aggies have now won eight of their last nine games, including three out of four in Big West play.

“I’m really proud of our team’s effort, preparation and focus, most notably on the defensive end,” said UC Davis Head Coach Jennifer Gross. “Our goal for the week was to really bring a lot of urgency on every single possession, and we really tried to do that for the most part.”

Senior forward Morgan Bertsch, the alltime leading scorer in UC Davis history, led the way, just as she has done so many times in her career. She scored 29 points, including a perfect 11-11 mark from the free throw line, and had a significant impact on the game even when she wasn’t putting the ball in the net. Her mere presence on the offensive end of the court, especially around the basket, demands a large amount of attention from opposing defenses, which opened up quality opportunities for teammates to take shots from the outside.

“Morgan takes a lot of attention inside, so if we can move the ball like we did today, we can get good shots,” Gross said.

UC Davis did just that, lighting it up to the tune of 52.9 percent shooting from the field.

Senior guard Kourtney Eaton was a beneficiary of that plan of attack, as she tallied eight points in the first 12 minutes to go along with seven total assists.

Junior forward Nina Bessolo also made her presence known, firing four three-point-

ers in her first 15 minutes of action off the bench.

“I just feel super energized and hyped and even more confident, which boosts my game,” Bessolo said.

The Aggies relied on their three-point shooting, where they converted 10 of 23 attempts, to jump out to an early lead and distance themselves from the Anteaters. UC Davis did not trail for a single second on Saturday and led by as many as 30 points at one point in the fourth quarter.

The Aggies started to kick it into high gear on both ends of the hardwood in the second quarter. They held UC Irvine without a field goal for a five minute stretch and used an 18-5 run to close out the first half, taking a 43-23 advantage into the locker room.

“We’ve been talking a lot about stopscore-stop,” Gross said. “How many of those can we put together? If you do that, you’re going to jump out to a big lead.”

The story remained the same in the second half and the Aggies stayed in cruise control for the final 20 minutes of play.

Bertsch continued to dominate and added another 15 points, before leaving to a standing ovation midway through the fourth quarter.

She etched herself into the Big West history books versus UC Riverside in early January, becoming just the eighth player in conference history to surpass 2,000 career points.

UC Davis has 12 more conference games on the docket before the Big West tournament arrives in mid-March. A first place finish in that competition would send the Aggies to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2010-2011 season.

16 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2019

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE