May 9, 2019

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VOLUME 137, ISSUE 26 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

May is Pride Month at UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center presents “Collective Healing for Liberation” as month’s theme

Non-binary students find security in pronouns, peer support Students discuss their journeys toward authentic gender expression

G EOR G E L I AO campus@theaggie.org

CA IT LY N SA MPL EY / AG GIE

Pride Month at UC Davis began with a kick-off event on May 2, 2019 and will continue with a host of additional events throughout the month of May. The events will be held at the UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center in the Student Community Center, the Student Health and Wellness Center, the Quad and other locations on campus. The theme for this year’s Pride Month is “Collective Healing for Liberation,” focusing on healing within the LGBTQIA community.

Joel Gutierrez, a third-year gender, sexuality and women’s studies and American studies double major and community coordinator at the Center, spoke about this year’s theme.

“This year’s theme is collective healing for liberation,” Gutierrez said. “We are really focusing on healing, and what that looks like for the communities, and how there can be many different forms of healing for people.”

In this effort, the the Center is actively collaborating with the Health Education and Promotion program within Student Health and Counseling Services, according to Gutierrez. During the first week of Pride Month, a series of activities called “Student Healing Week” will be provided in collaboration with HEP, allowing the Center to, “really hone in on [our] theme and make sure that we’re doing programming that reflects that theme.”

Though healing is the overarching theme of the whole month, long-running events will also take place again.

“For example, Pride Kick-Off and Out On the Quad are [events] that are pretty much similar every year and don’t necessarily have to align with the theme completely,” Gutierrez said. “They are ways to celebrate pride.”

A diversity of events are on the docket, including therapy dogs and bug-contact events.

“Something we really worked on is to think about forms of healing that [people] don’t think about right away when you think of healing,” Gutierrez said. “For example, we are doing therapy fluffies like when they have the dogs during midterm season and therapy bugs [...] At the Bohart Museum [of Entomology], someone is bringing some bugs from there. That way folks can interact with the bugs.

That is healing, so they can relax [with the bugs].”

While animal events are common outside of the Center, events led by other community coordinators at the Center will be prominent as well.

“One of our staff is doing a movement-based healing [and] workshop. One of my co-workers is doing a tincture workshop,” Gutierrez said. “We are also really thinking about how we can heal just by being with community as well.”

To Gutierrez, Pride month is a way to show off the size of the LGBTQIA community at UC Da-

vis to help dispel the “myth that there are not that many LGBTQIA people” and the misconception that the LGBTQIA community on-campus is not as large as many people think.

“I think Pride Month is an example that there are a lot of us,” Gutierrez said. “If someone were to go to every single event, they would see so many different faces and also that people have many different interests. I want to tell the greater campus community that our community is really strong and benefits from being together and really finding connections with each other as well, because all of our communities are so interlinked.”

Lehma Sawez, a fifth-year history and international relations double major, spoke about the importance of the Pride Month Pick-Off event held on May 2.

“Pride Kick-Off is a way for us to start off the month of May in a way where we are able to gather community and celebrate Pride Month,” Sawez said. “It is a way for us to come together to celebrate being community so that we can further plan for the events for the month.”

Out on the Quad will be the largest of the Pride Month events and is planned for May 14 from 12:00 to 2:30 p.m. The event expects a large turnout from the UC Davis community.

“Out on the Quad will be one

of our biggest events,” Sawez said.

“We [will] occupy the front part of the east quad, and we have tables and events and we give out shirts, and it is just a way for the community to be visible and present here on campus and also to just spend time with each other.”

Kit Phillips, a third-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major, spoke about what the Pride Month Kick-Off event and other events during Pride Month mean to them.

“It’s not necessarily that it is just this event only,” Phillips said.

“Events such as these and spaces such as these are for some people, the only place where people are allowed to safely be themselves [and] to be out as their identify without fear of being rejected by peers. We pride ourselves on being a safe space for that to happen. For people who cannot be themselves outside of this space, this is a really big thing.”

Phillips is also looking forward to the festivities during Out on the Quad.

“I’m really looking forward to Out on the Quad,” Phillips said.

“It’s always a highlight of the year for me to go and see all of our centers, clubs and all of our tables and activities that we do not just on a weekly basis here [in the center] but it is showcasing this is who we are, and we are not going to hide ourselves, and engaging in community and having a great time.”

Aggie Job Link shuts down, university transitions to Handshake

BY MI KI WAY NE features@theaggie.org Much of our world is split up into binaries. As a result, our society puts a significant amount of pressure on individuals to demonstrate an identity which fits into a binary standard. With contemporary society’s expanding perceptions of gender, however, many individuals are finding that they do not fit directly into this binary system. The term used to define this identity is referred to as gender non-binary.

The UC Davis LGBTQIA Resource Center defines non-binary as “a gender identity and experience that embraces a full universe of expressions and ways of being that resonate for an individual. It may be an active resistance to binary gender expectations and/or an intentional creation of new unbounded ideas of self within the world.”

While it may not be immediately apparent, there are many individuals who attend UC Davis who identify as non-binary. In a 2018-19 student demographic survey, .2% of the UC Davis population marked “other” in the gender category. Compared to the national average — for which non-binary individuals make up .15% of the population — this is quite a significant statistic.

This begs the question: is the university doing enough to accommodate this population?

First-year environmental science major

NON-BINARY on 11

Z ACHA RY L ACSON / AG GIE

Faculty, employers, students express satisfaction over switch in hopes that it will improve recruitment rates

BY CL A I RE D O D D city@theaggie.org UC Davis’ job posting site Aggie Job Link will be replaced by the up-and-coming career network site, Handshake. Over 700 universities, including UC Berkeley, Stanford and Princeton already use the platform, and Davis hopes that this switch will boost its recruitment rates.

The new site will make it more appealing for employers to share opportunities with Davis students. Before, companies needed to make a separate Aggie Job Link account to interact with individuals, but Handshake has created a one-stop shop where companies only need one account to reach students from hundreds of schools.

Alex Amerling, a member of Handshake’s university partnership team, described the tech company as the nation’s largest early talent career network. He emphasized that

Handshake is a true network, in comparison to other systems designed for specific schools.

“Handshake offers the ability for students to learn from one another, for employers to easily join a network of 800+ universities and send messages about potential opportunities,” Amerling said. “All of this aligns with our mission — to help level the playing field for every student across the nation to find a great job.”

The Internship and Career Center is using Spring Quarter 2019 as a “soft launch” for Handshake and officially opened the program for students on April 29. The ICC hopes that all students will be fully transitioned by the upcoming fall. Aggie Job Link is still up and running, but the ICC is currently notifying all users, companies and students of the shift.

Many universities have already been using Handshake for years. Marcie Kirk-Holland, the executive director of

the ICC, explained why it took UC Davis over three years to make the switch.

“We’ve been looking at Handshake from when it first launched,” Kirk-Holland said.

“There were a couple of issues that were of concern to us. One was the privacy issue, and this idea of who owns the data — it’s a very different model.”

With Aggie Job Link, UC Davis was in control of students’ data. Bringing in this outside site means that this data will change hands, with Handshake storing some of the information.

Amerling and the website’s privacy policy page, however, made it clear that students are in complete control of their data and that Handshake does not sell personal student data.

“For us, student security and safety will always be number one,” Amerling said. “We constantly make improvements to the platform to ensure students are in full control of their data.”

Furthermore, Kirk-Holland emphasized that once the privacy issues were dismissed, it became clear that implementing Handshake would be the best thing for students.

“It got to the point that there was a risk associated with us not being on the platform, because one of the things Handshake does is it aggregates the data, so there should never be a way that any individual could be identified,” Kirk-Holland said. “The data sets then, help inform companies about where to recruit. By not having our data set in there, we could actually end up obscuring UC Davis students from companies’ views.”

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She also noted that Aggie Job Link student usage has been on the decline in the past several years. Kirk-Holland hopes that Handshake’s user-friendly format will help attract students seeking career opportunities, and she noted that other universities who implemented the platform saw a 30% increase in student usage.

Both interviewees noted that using Handshake was standard in most universities, with Kirk-Holland mentioning that she’d gotten specific requests for the program.

“There have been a lot of students who have been asking for it,” Kirk-Holland said.

“They say their friends or rela-

tives at other campuses are using it, and so there’s some pentup demand.”

Jack Stafford, a third-year managerial economics major, mirrored this sentiment with an expression of relief over the change.

“Honestly, ever since I’ve gone to college, I keep hearing my friends from home talk about this job site,” Stafford said. “Handshake is what they use to search for jobs or internships, and they’re able to find opportunities outside of their college town. Aggie Job Link definitely had some good stuff, but it sounds like this new

HANDSHAKE on 11

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2 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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Flip flops with socks, a violation April 25 “Daughter under the influence, throwing items up on the roof, was beating the garage and causing a disturbance. Currently banging on the front door.”

UC Davis raises $2 million on Give Day Students are not expected to donate to annual fundraiser

BY DE A N A M E D I N A campus@theaggie.org A common sight before and throughout the long awaited Picnic Day are the small picket signs nestled into the grass, displaying barcodes and names of certain organizations or buildings asking for donations. But the reason why Give Day exists in the first place and why donations are needed is not common knowledge.

Preparations for Give Day typically start in September, and the event requires nearly a year to properly plan. According to Melissa Lutz Blouin, the director of News and Media Relations for the Office of Strategic Communications, “The Give Day committee is comprised of nearly 60 representatives from across the university who meet monthly,” including all of the colleges and schools, UC Davis Health, the Picnic Day committee, the Cal Aggie Alumni Association, Strategic Communications and even departments such as Student Affairs, the Arboretum and the Manetti Shrem Museum.

Lutz Blouin said that this “collaborative effort” is what makes Give Day such a success.

UC Davis was able to raise more than $2 million from about 4,450 donations during this Give Day event, according to Lutz Blouin. “[These donations are a] remarkable outpouring of support from our alumni, students, parents, faculty and staff and friends,” Lutz Blouin said. “We are grateful for the commitment and generous support of the UC Davis community for students, research, programs and special projects throughout the university.”

What exactly will be done with those $2 million is up to the donors who chose specific funds when making their donations. Lutz Blouin described how each donor chose a certain area of interest to them, which will now allow the “university to benefit scholarships, programs, research and special projects.”

The Graduate School of Management was able to raise $50,000 from 192 gifts which is “twice as much as last year and a great showing from our alumni,” according to Kristy Peterson, the director for the school, via email.

Although there were multiple efforts that could be donated to, there were two that were particularly at the forefront: Oustanding Female Leadership & Impact Award and the Student

Rainy Day Fund.

Shari Kawelo, the executive director for Development and External Relations for the College of Biological Sciences, disclosed via email that the College of Bio Sci and other colleges on campus “raise funds for college-specific priorities and ask donors to support us through Give Day Challenges (minimum gift of $2,500).”

Their efforts were centered on 20 programs, including the Young Scientist Program that “promotes K–12 STEM education” along with the Bodega Marine Laboratory Undergraduate Research Scholarship which “allows undergrads to do hands-on marine science research over the summer at the university’s Bodega Marine Lab.” The college reaches out to alumni, friends, parents, staff, faculty and students. Students are included due to their ability to publicize the event. “[Students] can help us spread the word about the college’s needs in a very personal way through their social media channels, acting as ambassadors for the college,” Kawelo said. “[We] greatly understand the financial pressures placed on students to gain their education, [though].”

Lutz Blouin affirmed that the Give Day efforts and the target audience is the “entire UCD community,” specifically reaffirming “the message that Every Aggie Counts.” The small picket signs throughout campus are mostly seen by students, leading to questions as to how much exactly students can be expected to donate due to having the burden of tuition and other costs placed upon them.

Donations are voluntary and not every student should feel as if they must donate. In fact, Lutz Blouin stated any size donation is appreciated. “[A] $5 gift to The Pantry, which is about the cost of a latte, will help several students who are dealing with food insecurity on a daily basis,” Lutz Blouin said.

To give a donation is actually an “opportunity,” Lutz Blouin said — one that lets students “participate and see the multitude of areas across their university that are impacted by philanthropy.”

During this last Give Day at least 150 students self-identified as such when donating gifts.

April 26 “Sounds of walking. No sounds of distress.”

April 27 “Request assistance with asking subject to leave, has been told in the past not to use electrical outlets and subject has become agitated/aggressive with staff.”

“Intoxicated male wandering in the street yelling at passerbyers, shaved head, multicolored blue shirt and blue jeans, flip flops with white socks.”

“Ex-wife at the front of house knocking on door and window.”

April 30 “Laundry room had sign with picture of male saying if he is seen to call Davis Police Department — similar looking male inside gym area with multiple bottles of alcohol.”

CA IT LY N SA MPL EY / AG GIE

Senate passes bill to fund free menstrual products in restrooms on campus Meeting also sees confirmation of new IAC members, discusses upcoming budget hearings

BY RE B E CCA B IH N-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org The ASUCD Senate meeting was called to order by Vice President Shreya Deshpande at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday, April 25.

The meeting began with a brief Club Finance Council presentation, which discussed funding for student organizations.

IAC Chair Henry Nibelli then nominated new Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) members. The Senate confirmed Julian Garcia, Hannah Tan, Emily Barneond, Juan Velasco and Jackson Cooney into the IAC. New IAC member Aryushi Chheda was absent.

Senators then had the opportunity to ask the commissioners about their hopes for ASUCD. Commission members spoke about the need for greater campus awareness about the Senate, greater bipartisanship and a more detailed knowledge of the bylaws in order to provide effective policy suggestions for senators.

Senate then considered old legislation. SB #81 was examined, but later withdrawn. SB #82 was not considered because it had not yet reached the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission.

Next, Senate discussed SB #73, a proposal to implement a pilot program for providing tampons and pads in high-traffic university bathrooms.

A survey run by the Period Project on campus indicated that 97% of respondents support having free menstrual supplies in campus bathrooms, and 58% of respondents see menstrual products as being a financial burden. 50% of respondents reported they have missed some work or class at least once as a result of not having access to menstrual products.

“With this bill, we not only aim to curb that kind of inequality — because as we know [with] the quarter system, specifically if you’re a STEM major, you’re not going to make it if you skip class just for something that’s so basic — and on top of that, we aim to be a leader in the UC system by being one of the first campuses to supply these products, not by the administration but by the students,” said Shervin Shahnazi, who worked with Senator Ricky Zapardiel on the bill, to resounding snaps from Senate members.

The only reservations expressed about the bill regarded the financing of the trial period for the program. The Senate also decided that organic, low-waste applicator tampons, as well as pads, will be supplied in high-traffic bathrooms including those in the Memorial Union. The bill was

then passed without objections.

During public discussion, ECAC Chair Rina Singh expressed hope that ASUCD will pass a bill regarding sexual assault and harassment.

“I think it’s important for us to be thinking, because harassment has happened, and when that happens, what are the systems in place to address it?” Singh said. “And I think it’s really important to initiate that process. If anybody is interested, I personally want to work with GASC [Gender and Sexuality Commission] and address this.”

Deshpande mentioned budget hearings that will take place this week to address a potential dissolution bill. The bill may include budget cuts for specific units including the Experimental College, due to out-of-date advertising and low membership rates compared to increasing UC Davis student enrollment.

“When it comes to these cuts, you have to ask yourself what you’re prioritizing in terms of what it accomplishes, like what could be considered a luxury relative to other units,” said Senator Alexis Ramirez. “I think if we make cuts in certain ways, it doesn’t mean we have to make cuts to other units. But units such as Experimental College [...] relative to Pantry or other units, are a luxury, in my honest opinion,” Ramirez added.

Deshpande concurred.

Singh noted they felt “conflicted” about some of the proposed budget cuts, especially with respect to the Experimental College.

“I personally think that dissolving these units is not the best way to deal with [this],” Singh said. “We should think about other things, like perhaps reducing [their] budgets or something else [...] I think [dissolving them] is a big step and I feel for not only those who work in these units, but the people that they care for.”

Senator Sean Kumar said he had spoken with Police Chief Joe Farrow about the potential cuts to Tipsy Taxi, a ride program for intoxicated students. The police department has expressed interest in funding Tipsy Taxi, Kumar noted.

“A statistic should be considered, which is that on Picnic Day, Tipsy Taxi had 400 rides, which saved 400 lives possibly,” Kumar said.

The Campus Center for the Environment then presented its quarterly report. Other upcoming campus initiatives were also discussed, including sexual assault awareness month and pride month.

Singh also spoke about the student proposal to have Punjabi language classes at UC Davis, but said that those she consulted with were not receptive. She discussed the possibility of a sit-in to raise awareness about the proposal.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019 | 3

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A N DR EA GON ZA LEZ / AGGIE

Yolo County Board of Supervisors declines plan to hire attorney for immigrants facing deportation County supervisors voted against setting aside $50,000 in general funds to hire new immigration attorney for a year

Davis due for updates to Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Climate emergency resolution passes, inventory and plan updates on horizon

BY AN N E F E Y city@theaggie.org When Davis adopted the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan in 2010, it envisioned a city that at mid-century would see fossil-fueled vehicles become unused collectors’ items, thrive with green-collar jobs and lay claim to the title: “Healthiest City in America.”

This Davis CAAP set forth ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets to achieve at least the state’s reduction goals and went even further by aiming for 28% below 1990 levels by 2020 and carbon neutrality by 2050. It also offered ideas for specific steps to be taken to reach these ends.

Though the city has been working toward carbon reduction both historically and in the nine years since the adoption of the CAAP — for example, through COOL Davis community engagement efforts and the creation of Valley Clean Energy — recent events gave Davis an opportunity to revisit the CAAP targets and vision.

These events included a blueprint for a plan update, an opportunity to set aside funding in next year’s budget and a climate emergency resolution spearheaded by a citizen group.

The action plan itself indicates that updates are overdue, as the Davis CAAP deals primarily with the period 2010 to 2015 but has not been updated since its adoption.

Additionally, the city had anticipated completing greenhouse gas inventories every four to five years to measure outcomes, but since an inventory has not been undertaken since 2012, achievement of targets cannot be evaluated.

Kerry Daane Loux, the sustainability coordinator for the City of Davis, said that despite this limitation, the city believes much progress was made.

Davis sustainability leaders like Loux have recognized the need to complete both a CAAP update and a new greenhouse gas inventory, and in 2017, the city developed a comprehensive blueprint for a CAAP update. Loux and Mike Webb, the Davis city manager, expect that next year’s budget — which is currently being developed — will include funding to take on these tasks.

Along with these efforts, Davis joined over 450 local governments on March 5 in declaring a climate emergency and committing to carbon reduction mobilization efforts. This Resolution Declaring a Climate Emergency and Proposing Mobilization Efforts to Restore a Safe Climate, which was approved unanimously by council, is part of an international movement.

For Davis specifically, the resolution calls for maximum efforts to implement carbon reduction actions by 2030, an update of the plan and an acceleration of the existing 2050 net carbon neutrality goal to a 2040 target.

According to Webb, this resolution signifies an opportunity to reaffirm Davis’ climate commitments as more is discovered about climate change.

“There’s this call to arms of sorts to ramp up efforts and say, ‘Hey look, this train is coming; this climate change train is coming faster than anyone may have thought,’” Webb said.

Webb acknowledged that the CAAP acted as a guiding document and said that some actions were unfulfilled as other previously unidentified opportunities arose.

For example, Davis has not worked on improving the energy efficiency of rental housing, an action designated

by CAAP. Also, according to UC Davis landscape architecture and environmental design professor Stephen Wheeler, Davis was not able to continue certain pilots like the Low Carbon Household Footprint program, which it piloted around 2010 for about 100 households.

On the other hand, the city has helped create Valley Clean Energy, which both Wheeler and Webb said will have a profound effect on greenhouse gas emissions. The city also launched a successful solar rooftop system campaign through COOL Davis and converted street and greenbelt lights to LED. Webb is optimistic about the city’s plans.

“We’ve proven time and time again how we’re quite good at setting goals,” Webb said. “We don’t always achieve them, but we certainly work very hard to

achieve them, and in many, most cases, we do achieve them.”

Mitch Sears, Davis’ sustainability programs manager who is currently serving as Valley Clean Energy’s interim general manager, commented on why some aspects of the plan were not directly followed.

“The plan itself was acknowledged and recognized in Davis to try to push toward the goals that were in [the plan], but it was kind of an aspirational statement in a lot of ways to the community, not knowing exactly how we were going to get there,” Sears said.

Sears commented further on Davis’ role as a community taking climate action.

“Davis, we may never make the summit, but we’re one of those communities that is sort of setting the base camp for the next group,” Sears said. “We have almost a moral obligation to continue to innovate and explore and test so that others can make advances more rapidly.”

Sears acknowledged that securing resources to innovate in these ways presents a challenge.

“We look for grants, we look for internal sources, we look for creative ideas to be able to test some things,” Sears said.

Sears also discussed failure that occurs throughout these efforts.

“We’re not always successful in terms of getting the resources, but we also fail, right?” Sears said. “They call them pilot projects. You learn as much — sometimes more — from not being successful and coming back and saying, ‘What can we do next time?’ or ‘How does that work?’ It’s difficult for local governments to do that because the resources are so thin, but I think we’re a little bit different breed of community, and that’s good.

Knowing that we can fail and share that with others is important to us.”

Due to this evolving nature of climate action, Webb said it becomes especially important to create the plan update.

“It is important to update [the plan] to give a better understanding of the inventory and how much progress have we made towards our overall goal, but also to take a fresh look at tasks and the objectives, and say, ‘Are those still current, are those still relevant, do those still make sense?” Webb said.

Loux believes that it is important for the city’s updates to be measurable and enforceable, as well as direct in laying out how the city can reach its goals.

“What we need to do is be very clear about what actions people take and how far along those actions could get us [so] that we can envision an actual path,” Loux said.

To Wheeler, one key idea is for climate to not only be declared but also treated as an emergency. Wheeler sees room for improvement, particularly in taking action to discourage people from treating Davis as a “bedroom community” from which to commute to Sacramento, and also in ensuring well-balanced, healthy communities in the region so people won’t need to commute.

“I like to see us declare an emergency, but we really need clear political articulation of what this could mean,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler said that he has seen staff capacity and funding limit climate action.

“I’m not saying anything against what the city has done — the city has done some good things,” Wheeler said.

“The city needs to do more, and it needs to have the capacity to do more and I hope we can all encourage it.”

Wheeler also cautioned that the city needs to balance inclusion with conciseness.

“To be successful, the new plan needs to be done in a reasonably short and efficient way, because plans often can drag out for too long and wear everybody out,” Wheeler said.

The climate emergency resolution indicates an interest in setting out to accomplish these climate goals, and Webb said that though enacting the resolution will still be a challenge, the city is not one to back down.

“If it was easy, then we probably wouldn’t need a resolution to do it,” Webb said. “If we get 96% of the way there, that’s huge for Davis. First, let’s be a community that’s going to say, ‘Nothing’s too hard — forget it. We’re not even going to bother. Just let the state tell us what we have to do.’ That’s just never been our approach. We don’t wait for the state, for example, to give us mandates.”

BY T IM LALO NDE city@theaggie.org On April 23, Yolo County officials declined to pass a resolution to hire an attorney for the purpose of defending immigrants facing deportation but left room open for future considerations in their upcoming June budget discussions.

The plan, put forward by supervisors Don Saylor and Jim Provenza, would have added $50,000 dollars to the existing $100,000 earmarked by the county for legal aid to immigrants, according to the county officials. The funds would have been used to hire either an outside attorney or dedicated public defender — who would assist in deportation cases — for one year. To pass, four of the five council members needed to approve the resolution during the April 23 Board of Supervisors meeting.

During the meeting, Tracie Olson, a public defender from the Yolo County office, voiced support for the proposal. She spoke at length about the some of the challenges immigrants face in the current national political climate.

“Today what we have is a system where immigrants can be arrested, can be brought into jail and they can be detained for long periods of time,” Olson said. “And we all know that — as of late — the federal system has implemented stepped-up policies aimed at its emission of deportation.”

Olson said that immigrants caught up in today’s immigration

courts are often denied proper legal representation and that language and financial barriers often put these defendants at a disadvantage.

“They are crushed by evidence that they can rebut but they don’t know how, and they have no assistance because they’re not entitled in the federal system today to the assistance of legal counsel if they’re too poor,” Olson said.

The budget resolution, according to Olson, would have allowed the Yolo County office to assist detainees as they move through the local system to the end of their case in federal immigration courts. Answering a question from Provenza, Olson said that office is currently unable to represent its clients once their cases were transferred from states to federal courts. In a response to a question from Supervisor Gary Sandy, Olson estimated that the resolution would allow her office to handle 30 to 50 of these cases per year.

When Provenza asked about the detainees’ chances of staying in the country without representation in federal courts, Olson stated they were “dismal.” Supervisor Duane Chamberlain, however, disagreed with Olson’s characterization of the immigration legal system. He cited some of the legal difficulties immigrants from Mexico whom he employed at his farm had faced in the past, stating that he was able to “get it straightened out” by working directly with immigration officials.

Chamberlain voiced his opposition to the proposal, citing budgetary concerns.

“I’m not going to vote to throw

another $50,000 at this,” Chamberlain said. “We’ve got enough budget problems already. You’ve got 100,000 [dollars] to play with.”

Supervisor Oscar Villegas also expressed skepticism that engaging in the current federal immigration system was the best use of the additional county funds.

“I don’t believe that we are equipped to deal with what could become a massive caseload in light of what the federal government is currently doing,” Villegas said. “Yolo County is in no position to be able to withstand the amount of resources potentially being placed in the illegal immigration that are currently pending before our court systems.”

Sandy also came out against the proposal at the current time, saying that he felt federal immigration issues were outside the purview of the county’s responsibilities. He stated he would like to see more data and information before he made a decision on the matter.

“I appreciate this proposal very much, but at the moment, it is not sufficiently grounded to move forward,” Sandy said. “We’re dealing with absence of real numbers here, real impacts that I could evaluate and measure in the system, and instead we have to rely on anecdotal evidence to provide backing for this.”

With the majority of the board expressing either disapproval or the desire for further research to back the proposal, Provenza agreed to withdraw his motion to pass the resolution until the council’s June 11 budget hearing.

CA IT LY N SA MPL EY / AG GIE

West Sacramento hires goat herd to clear shrubs throughout city “#goatcam” video amasses thousand of views on city’s social media

BY H ANNAN WALIU LLAH city@theaggie.org On April 18, the city of West Sacramento published a video from the perspective of a goat running around near the Sacramento River.

A video camera was attached to the head of the goat, and for two minutes, viewers could peer into the life of a goat.

The video featured members of a 400-goat herd chewing shrubs along River Walk Park in West Sacramento. Since then, the video of the goat herd has amassed thousands of views on the city’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Hiring goats to clear weeds has been a Sacramento tradition since 2014. In 2017, the herd followed a similar trail along the Clarksburg Branch Line Trail. In 2018, the goat herd grazed along the Broderick Boat Camp.

Red Bluff’s Blue Tent Farms hired the goats, and the goats will be chewing through weeds until the end of May. According to a press release from the city of West Sacramento, the goats will be grazing throughout various areas of the city.

“The adorable herd will be in West Sacramento through May hitting hard to reach high growth loca-

tions like the banks of the Barge Canal, Clarksburg Branch Line Trail, along the river in front of the Barn, near Tower Bridge and the Broderick Boat Ramp,” the report said.

According to Frank Mitloehner, a UC Davis professor of animal science and air quality specialist, the practice of renting out a goat is both environmentally friendly and fairly common.

“There is no livestock species better suited for brush/fuel control than goats,” Mitloehner said via email.

“You can now ‘rent a goat’ and clear the area around your fire-prone house or community. People rent a few dozen and these guys do an amazing job. It has always been the way to do that job and I am glad to see a renaissance of it. Using mowers and burn fossil fuel gas? Why would we do that if we have a natural method?”

According to James Murray, a professor and chair of the UC Davis Animal Sciences department, these natural methods allow access to more hard-to-reach areas. Murray stated using goats has different advantages over sheep and cattle.

“Goats are primarily browsers, and sheep and cattle are grazers, and they all can be very efficient ‘mowers’ of two different types of plants and varying landscapes,” Murray said.

“The animals have the capability to

access areas that are difficult to reach with mechanical mowers; they can cover areas with a minimal amount of human input and are viewed as a more ‘natural’ means to control vegetation, weeds and reduce fire load.”

According to Dan Macon, a UC Davis farm advisor, a similar grazing method is being used near campus with sheep.

“ANS sheep are currently grazing a restoration site west of campus as a way to support the establishment of native perennial grasses,” Macon said via email.

According to Murray, the university uses sheep and cattle to graze around the Putah Creek area and Russell Ranch.

“The Department of Animal Science occasionally has cattle on both of these areas,” Murray said.

“Initially, livestock were excluded to make it a natural area. However, after an invasion of noxious weeds and eventually a fire, Animal Science was asked if we [would] use our animals to graze it again.”

The City of West Sacramento website has a schedule of where the goats are munching on weeds.

“The goal is to reduce the risk of fire danger, and they do a great job,” said city spokesman Paul Hosley to The Sacramento Bee. “And heck, our residents think they’re pretty darn cute.”

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A CLOSER LOOK AT ASIAN GREEK LIFE

Asian American interest fraternities, sororities speak about stereotypes, misconceptions

BY LINH NGUYEN features@theaggie.org

Asian American interest fraternities and sororities at UC Davis belong to a smaller division of Greek life, known as the Asian Sorority and Fraternity Council (ASFC). There are six organizations that belong to the council: two fraternities and four sororities. The fraternities belonging to this council are Psi Chi Omega and Sigma Kappa Rho; the sororities are Sigma Omicron Pi, Kappa Psi Epsilon, Chi Delta Theta and Alpha Kappa Delta Phi. Asian American interest fraternities and sororities are not just for people of Asian ethnicities.

“We accept everyone and to be honest, joining an organization is mostly about if you like the bro’s or the sisters of the organization, and if you feel like it’s the right organization for you and if you identify with it or not. We absolutely do not discriminate,” said Esther Lim, a third-year pharmaceutical chemistry major and the chapter pres-

ident of the Epsilon chapter of Chi Delta Theta.

What separates ASFC organizations from Panhellenic, IFC and professional Greek life organizations is that ASFC promotes and nurtures a cultural connection to Asian roots.

“Asian Greek [organizations] are very culturally focused and do well to help their members and the rest of their communities to connect to their culture and heritage as Asian Americans/ members of the pan-Asian diaspora,” said Isabelle Perlada, a fourth-year microbiology and Asian American studies major. Perlada also serves as the president to the ASFC. Like other fraternities and sororities, there are stereotypes and rumors circulating the organizations in ASFC. Many of these stereotypes are centered around the rushing process and alleged hazing rituals.

“Some of the stereotypes I hear about Asian Greek are that we are very scary because our process is very difficult,” Lim said. “People think we ‘haze like crazy’ and there are some rumors that

go around about how we physically harm people.

And we only allow Asian people into our organizations.”

Like many Greek organizations, other stereotypes include drinking and sexual assault.

The “process” that Lim mentioned is the pledge education program or the pledge process for those who are interested in the organizations.

“It’s a time where one learns how the organization functions and learns about our history, ideals and basics that we were built upon,” Lim said. “The reason behind a process like this is to make sure each member knows our ideals and goals but also so that they do not come into the organization blindly. It’s a way for us to teach them risk management and educate them on how the sorority runs. Because we are small and do not have hundreds of members, people hold multiple positions and one learns what each position and status entails so that they do not just take on a position or status without knowing how it works.”

It is in this process where the alleged hazing occurs in both fraternities and sororities alike.

Students who rush for Asian American Greek life have reported having to endure physical tasks, including drinking amounts of alcohol and performing strenuous physical activities.

“ASFC firmly enforces the standards set by the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life (OSFL) and does not tolerate its member chapters hazing new members,” Perlada said. “Member chapters employ risk management policies that reflect this standard within its own organizations as well.”

Even with this rule in place, however, there are a number of allegations of hazing.

“It’s very difficult to combat these stereotypes or rumors because people like to believe what others tell them and it only makes it worse because these rumors instill fear in them,” Lim said.

“When people do actually ask about how Asian Greek works or asks if these rumors are true, we can’t physically prove it and can only tell them that it’s not true and the only way to find out is to actually experience it for themselves. If these rumors and allegations of Asian Greek being scary and difficult are true, the Asian Greek community would not even exist at all. No one would be even a part of the Asian Greek organizations and we wouldn’t even have an Asian Sorority and Fraternity Council. This is where the cliché comes into mind about how you should never judge a book by its cover.”

The California Aggie reached out to the chapter presidents of Sigma Kappa Rho and Psi Chi Omega, but they did not respond for comments.

Much of what happens within Asian fraternities and sororities during the pledging process is kept in secrecy. Most students who were asked by their friends to describe the details of their rushing process cannot answer any of their friends’ questions. Regardless of these rumors, many students still rush every quarter.

“People who decide to go forward with joining Asian Greek really, really like the idea of us being small,” Lim said. “Because we [are] smaller, we know everyone in our [organization] on a deeper and personal level, which makes us more tight knit. You also make a lot of friends and connections with the different [organizations] apart of ASFC. The Asian fraternities have ‘lil sis’ programs where you get a ‘big bro.’ And many people from Asian sororities or non-affiliated people join as well so you get to network and make even more friends. We have our own small community where we all know each other and it’s really nice.”

Lim wants the campus to understand that Asian Greek is not scary.

“We are not intimidating people,” she said.

“Talk to a bro or a sister and just get to know us first before coming to a conclusion about our community based on rumors, because that’s just all hearsay. We are just like any other fraternity or sorority part of IFC or Panhellenic. We focus a lot on sisterhood/brotherhood, our philanthropies and community service, etc. We are a very tight and small community and take a lot of pride in it. Everyone should really have an open mind to things and not be afraid.”

FOOD DELIVERY APPS HELP STUDENTS LIVING IN DORMS TAKE A BREAK FROM DC FOOD

First-year students discuss the role of apps like UberEATS, DoorDash

BY ANJINI VENUGOPAL features@theaggie.org Food delivery services such as Postmates, DoorDash and UberEATS that have started in the past 10 years have become increasingly popular. Although plenty of eateries offer their own delivery services, these apps allow users to easily browse through a multitude of options — and who better to utilize them than tired, stressed students? For first-year students living in the dorms, food delivery apps can be convenient when the Dining Commons are closed, when they don’t have a weekend meal plan or even if they just want a break from DC food.

For first-year biological sciences major Ritika Gupta, who has a five day meal plan (for weekdays only), ordering food can be convenient on weekends. She also said that since the DC closes at 8 p.m. on Fridays, even though she has a meal plan for that day, it can sometimes be more convenient to just order dinner. Gupta has used UberEATS and DoorDash but said that she’s had more success with DoorDash and prefers their options. There are Thai restaurants that Gupta likes, but Red 88 Noodle Bar is Gupta’s favorite place to order from.

“Fun fact, that place is an actual bar, so you can’t get into it unless you’re 21,” Gupta said.

“The food is really good though, so you just DoorDash it and it works.”

DoorDash has food from over 130 restaurants

in Davis, including many of the 2018 Best of Davis eateries such as Crepeville, Ike’s and Taqueria Guadalajara. Meanwhile, UberEATS offers delivery from around 40 restaurants in Davis. GrubHub, which is most popular in New York and Chicago, according to a 2017 Vox article, offers delivery from around 30 places in Davis. That same Vox article discussed the “fractured market” of food delivery services and indicated how different factors affect what platform is popular in different locations.

First-year managerial economics major Riya Jain used to order from UberEATS a lot more because her dad works for Uber. Since Uber employees are given $200 a month to spend on UberEATS and in addition to Jain’s dislike for the vegetarian options provided by the DC, she ordered a fair amount from UberEATS during Fall Quarter. She tried, however, to cut down during Winter Quarter.

“I personally dislike the Dining Commons,” Jain said. “They have less variation of food items for vegetarians, at least. They have pizza and [vegetarian] burgers, or something. Most of my classes end after 8 [p.m.] […] so I literally only have salad or pizza left [during late night], so I would prefer to go out or order [with] UberEATS.” Jain says that she found herself spending more money than she wanted to, so after a while, she decided to refrain from ordering on UberEATS. Instead, she and her friends prefer to go out and avoid that pesky delivery fee, or they will

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order from Domino’s, which gives a lot of coupons. “[Now] we usually go out, actually,” Jain said.

“We walk and we go to KetMoRee, Thai Canteen, Chipotle or Panera.”

First-year animal science major Juan Carlos Guerrero said that he uses food delivery apps “not frequently, but sometimes.” When he does order, it is through UberEATS, and he buys from Wingstop, Panda Express or Davis’ Piñata Mexican Grill.

“I use UberEATS because I’m kinda lazy to go to the [DC],” Guerrero said. “And it’s convenient

RELAY FOR LIFE BRINGS FUNDRAISING TO DAVIS FOR THE 15TH YEAR IN A ROW

24-hour fundraising for American Cancer Society put on by students, community members A L E X G O R I / AG G I E

BY SIERRA BURGUENO features@theaggie.org Relay for Life is a 24-hour fundraising event held in many countries for the American Cancer Society. Each year since 2004, the Davis community works to put on this event by organizing booths for different organizations to fundraise and also planning fun activities.

“Through our water-balloon fights we share endless laughs and fun memories,” said Alexandra Gori, the event chair and experience lead of the executive board for Colleges Against Cancer. “Through our ceremonies, Luminaria specifically, we share our personal stories and backgrounds. In this way, we are a supportive community and family so that not one of us feels like we are in the fight against cancer alone.”

Colleges Against Cancer is a student organization that has been around for about 15 years and dedicates a lot of hard work and time into putting on the event. Members of the executive board include Katelyn Vales, Fund the Cure lead, and Michelle Galat, People’s lead.

because they bring it to you and you don’t have to go anywhere.”

Guerrero said that ordering food from outside is, in part, due to the repetitivity of the food at the DC, and on the days that he would prefer not to eat food from the DC, he considers using a delivery app to be far more convenient than going out to eat. There’s probably one thing that is the most important consideration at the end of the day, though, and that is cost. “[We go with] whatever’s the cheapest option,” Jain said. “I’d say that that’s the optimal method for eating.”

“All members of the organization come together as a group of individuals to plan a 24 hour event where we honor all who share some connection or experience with cancer,” Gori said. “Some of our club members are also cancer survivors; we relay for them.”

Preparing for Relay for Life takes approximately nine months. The event always takes place in May, so the Event Leadership team commits to weekly meetings starting in September to get started on planning. The executive board meets bi- to tri-weekly and works hand in hand with Caron Russell, their American Cancer Society staff partner.

“Our Event Leadership Team (ELT) is comprised of 20 students,” Galat said. “Since we are a non-profit organization, every position relies on persistent outreach in the UC Davis and surrounding communities to secure the resources needed to put on Relay for Life.”

Each year, it is estimated that 300 to 400 members of the community participate in the event. This year, the event had a total of 58 teams and 219 registered participants. Roughly 200 non-registered participants were also estimated to attend the event on May 4.

Relay for Life at Davis makes about $25,000 to $36,000 depending on the year, and all of these funds go directly toward the American Cancer Society. All donations and money raised for the event help cancer patients with side effects, lodging, rides, information, support and empowerment.

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minor objectives,” Mitchell said. “The grand prize was some gaming gear from Viper Gaming, so we were really excited to offer that.”

While allowing students to have a comfortable space to game with their friends is the ultimate objective, Mitchell also expressed interest in working with professors to create an extended learning space for students interested in game design.

Most of the games available through Gunrock Gaming are free to play and multiplayer games, like “Fortnite” and “Apex Legends,” that students can enjoy together create lasting friendships over a common interest. The possibility for holding other games that cost money is an avenue that Mitchell is still looking into.

“These are games that students play with others, so they talk about strategy, or they simply enjoy watching them together,” Mitchell said. “The expectation is that, eventually, we’ll have guest accounts for people who don’t own the games we feature. Like ‘Overwatch,’ for instance, that costs money, and if some students can’t afford it, they can come here and play it using a shared account.

Of course, if you own the game already, you can log in to your own account and play with your personal settings.”

The social scene of gaming is something Mitchell hopes to highlight through Gunrock Gaming, and he hopes to have a space open to any and all players looking to make new connections.

“We’d like to encourage the social aspect of

gaming as well, getting students to work together in different ways,” Mitchell said. “For instance, there’s a controller called the Octopad that allows you to play games like ‘Super Mario,’ but each player can only have one button, so one person can jump, another moves right, another moves left and so on, so you have to work together to accomplish the goal.”

Holding more casual tournaments is part of the goal Mitchell has in mind, to allow students to come together, enjoy their favorite games and meet new people under low-stress circumstances.

Creating campus-wide teams for tournaments that would be held throughout a quarter is something Mitchell is very passionate about extending to the students. He also hopes to give them the opportunity to explore gaming in a greater sense.

Other social activities include the idea of “Fortnite” Fridays, where students can stop by and play “Fortnite” with friends.

Another expansion of Gunrock Gaming that Mitchell has in mind is an idea he calls the “A to Z of gaming.”

“If people have no experience gaming, we could have an intro class of like, ‘What is ‘League of Legends?’’ We can show them how to play it, share advanced tips if they want to become really skilled and then move on to things like skill workshops. We want to try and link with Aggie Gaming to allow students to become coaches for gaming if that interests them so they can be paired with people who want to learn and get better with games.”

While 27 computers in Gunrock Gaming have the same capacities, the 28th one has been dubbed “The Throne” for its advanced playing capabilities above all the rest.

“It’s something I want everyone to have an opportunity to play on because 99% of students do not have the resources to play on something like it,” Mitchell said. “This is something that does look impressive. We want prospective students to show this to their parents and let them know that this is something the campus cares about. Instead of being holed up in an apartment, they can be here, making friends, learning about computers and socializing.”

Mitchell also made a point to stress the various avenues that are available to students within gaming and how it can be more than just a hobby.

“People can do so much with gaming, such as professional commentary or event management,” Mitchell said. “We’re planning a big [Local Area Network] event next month and we’re looking at getting up to 200 people in the MU playing in a number of tournaments and winning lots of prizes. All of that management and coordination, that’s stuff students will be involved in and can put on their resumes. It’s all in pursuit of helping students become well-rounded.”

Now that the new gaming center has arrived, students are encouraged to find out all that gaming has to offer. Whether it is socializing with friends, meeting new people or harnessing professional skills, Gunrock Gaming is here to put games on the map.

Patagonia. Patagonia started in my hometown and its logo embodies adventure and most importantly the ocean that I miss on a daily basis.”

The process is time-consuming, but worth it.

“I remember the first Thursday of Fall Quarter when I painted the table white first as a base coat and drew the design in pencil,” Ellberg said.

“Friends kept stopping by to see the progress and help me color between the lines […] Overall, the whole process of acquiring the table, deciding on designs, picking the colors and having people over to play die on it has been a way to bond with my friends and an excuse to have fun whenever we don’t have any class. It might be cheesy, but the table has totally brought us closer together.”

For Noah Yardeny, a second-year pharmaceutical chemistry major, the inspiration for his table centers around UC Davis pride in the style of one of his favorite artists.

“For our table my housemates and I really

wanted to do something colorful, fun and for it to be bright because die is such a happy game,” Yardeny said. “We decided to go with gold and blue for UC Davis, and for the other side we chose green and purple because those colors create a nice contrast. We really like the artist Jackson Pollock so we were inspired to splatter paint [on] the table and the table came out all textured and organic and we were stoked.”

Spencer Katz, a fourth-year political science major, painted his table to mimic a classic pingpong table.

“It was originally supposed to have a large Gunrock painted in the middle but once we got the line drawn we decided to take a tossing break and we’ve been playing ever since,” Katz said.

“The table is a gathering place, a focal point to build community. We can all come together and debate which of the cheap beers are the worst — Rolling Rock — enjoy the outdoors, take the edge off and meet new people.”

Although beer die is a game often played on college lawns across America, it is customizable to each group of friends. For example, when it is played sitting down, it’s called snappa.

“I also love the house rules in beer die which allow each home to put their creative spin on the game and introduce new challenges which keep the game interesting and lead to a culture of idea exchange,” Katz said.

As each house or group of friends individualizes their table, they create a persona for their die table reflecting their shared interests. After graduating, seniors often pass down their table to a younger group of friends who are either moving into their house or share their love for the game.

Although beer die is popular across the country, the welcoming and laid-back atmosphere of UC Davis fosters the perfect beer die environment for students to create something that is more than just a game.

CHHENG-SIM BUN / COURTESY

Gunrock Gaming: Providing students with a new space to game Games Area coordinator emphasizes the fun pastime and its engaging qualities VINC EN T SA N C H E Z features@theaggie.org Those in the gaming community may recall times in high school when parents would place strict rules on electronic activities. Instead of staying up all night hunting the Covenant in “Halo,” or challenging someone to a quick-scope battle on Rust in “Modern Warfare 2,” they had to be in bed at a certain time or risk losing gaming privileges. The move to college certainly provides members of the gaming community with one assurance: they can game anytime, any day.

With the grand opening of Gunrock Gaming, students are encouraged to rally up their friends and indulge in online computer gaming experiences, while also learning valuable information about the technology they’re using to do so.

Walk into Gunrock Gaming and immediately you’ll find it’s a gamer’s paradise. From the two TV screens plastered across the wall showing Twitch livestreams of gamers like Herschel Beahm IV, popularly known as Dr Disrespect, to the 28 gaming computers ready and waiting to be played, it has a little something for everyone.

Ferguson Mitchell, the Games Area coordinator who arranged the arrival of Gunrock Gaming, explained how the new gaming area came to be.

“The Tech Hub used to be here, but now it’s moved down to the vacancy that was in the Games Area where we had an extra billiards room,” Mitchell said. “They were looking for the right thing to place here, but nothing really

worked. They eventually came across the idea of a PC gaming space, especially since UC Irvine put up an e-sports gaming area on their campus a few years ago, and Berkeley did in the fall too.

So they came to me a little over a year ago and asked if I wanted to turn this place into Gunrock Gaming, and I said, ‘I absolutely do!’”

Mitchell explained how his own background in the e-sports scene helped him find the inspiration to turn gaming into something all students could enjoy.

“In 2011, I was a student here, and I started the ‘Starcraft 2’ club,” Mitchell said. “With our team, we became one of the top teams in the nation. In 2013, our collegiate record was 17-0.

After I graduated, I couldn’t be in the club anymore, but I was still interested in professional gaming, so I worked with CSL [Collegiate Starleague], a collegiate esports organization. I became an e-sports journalist, and I still am today. I was also a coach for a ‘Starcraft 2’ team, I’ve commentated for ‘Starcraft 2’ professional matches, I worked for Riot Games doing match coverage, so I’ve done pretty much everything.”

After 14 months of planning and anticipation, the grand opening of Gunrock Gaming was held on April 25, which gave students the first look at what to expect. The “League of Legends” club and Aggie Gaming sponsored the event and helped put on various live matches for the packed crowd to watch.

“We had a casual tournament where people could race across [a] series of games to complete

ROSIE SCHWARZ / COURTESY

The Art of Beer Die Where creativity, drinking come together R OSI E SC HWA RZ arts@theaggie.org Most college-aged people have heard of the sport “beer die,” a drinking game involving four glass pints, two dice and a large table. Unlike many other drinking games, beer die revolves around culminating an atmosphere of relaxation and camaraderie through its dependance on good weather, the outdoors and team building.

When walking through Davis, students can be seen outside throwing die. Most of the time, there is music playing, people watching and the expectation that many games will be played. Because of the specific dimensions of a beer die table (8-by-4 feet and at least ½ inch thick), many

students build their own tables to customize their experience.

After embarking on a trip to Home Depot and participating in the group activity of building the table, many students decorate their tables.

The tables serve as markers of friendship with whom they built it or to show their love for the game. This degree of personalization reflects the unique nature of beer die as a drinking game that centers around community and leisure.

Sally Ellberg, a third-year biological sciences major, painted her table with a friend in tribute to their shared love of their hometown.

“I am from Ventura, California where I grew up swimming in the ocean [and] bodysurfing,” Ellberg said. “One of my friends Joe Terre, who gave me the table, is also from my area so we brainstormed a design that was ocean inspired for the both of us. After brainstorming, we chose to mimic the common outdoor company called

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

6 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

Opinion THE

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E DI TO R I AL B OAR D

UC Davis should be an active ally to LGBTQIA students, faculty, staff More funds, resources need to be allocated toward LGBTQIA Resource Center, other student services

EMILY STACK Editor-in-Chief OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Managing Editor KENTON GOLDSBY 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

UC Davis is celebrating Pride Month throughout May, with this year’s theme being “Collective Healing for Liberation: Healing Our Past, Embracing Our Present, Reclaiming Our Future.” Pride Month is “dedicated to bringing visibility, empowerment, and knowledge to our communities,” according to the LGBTQIA Resource Center website. A calendar on the website details various events and activities throughout May, including free anonymous HIV testing, movement healing, community-led sex ed and sound meditation.

Even though UC Davis offers resources — such as the LGBTQIA Resource Center, the Women’s Resources and Research Center and Student Health and Counseling Services — both the number of staff and their times of availability are not adequate for the large number of students attending our university. Institutional policies continue to marginalize communities and threaten the well-being of students. UC Davis needs to do more than simply hang a pride flag or change its Instagram profile picture. Counselors also need to be better equipped to discuss and handle LGBTQIA-sensitive topics, and the university needs to allocate more monetary and structural support to the student staff centers that provide critical resources for our campus community. The Cross Cultural Center, for example, should have more funds allocated toward it rather than face budget cuts. Additionally, the Health Education and Promotion program needs to provide more anonymous HIV testing, as there are only three days per quarter during which it is offered at the LGBTQIA Resource Center.

The university also needs to help transgender peo-

ple facilitate the process of changing their preferred names on identity documents, including those for FAFSA and scholarships. Students should be able to go to class without fearing being called their dead names or be marked down as a different gender than the one with which they identify. And although UC Davis has some gender-neutral bathrooms — such as in freshman dorms, the Student Community Center and the Memorial Union — it needs to implement more of these around campus so that students don’t feel harassed or threatened by the social stigmas surrounding anything that slightly deviates from the societal norms.

Students, staff and faculty need to be better educated when it comes to inclusive language, as to not be offensive to certain groups of people. Everyone should be able to feel safe and included, no matter how they identify. Actions speak louder than words, and UC Davis needs to make more of an effort in taking concrete, actionable steps rather than merely sending out an email or posting a photo. Last month, Gary May released an open letter calling on the FDA to overturn the restrictions it places on men who have had sex with men donating blood. Although statements of solidarity or support are important, they don’t replace material actions that tangibly improve the lives of LGBTQIA students, faculty and staff.

The Editorial Board commends those advocating for better resources and outreach to students, and demands that the university and top-ranking officials make more of an effort to support its students so that UC Davis can be the inclusive university it claims to be.

ER patients need feminism, and feminism needs men “TIME’S UP HEALTHCARE” HAS THE POTENTIAL TO SMITE THE PATRIARCHY

BY L AURE N FR AU STO lrfrausto@ucdavis.edu The Time’s Up movement is like a hashtagable, outsourced HR nonprofit endeavor. The state of affairs reached an actionable tipping point similar to that of the #MeToo movement when it finally became so apparent that Human Resources departments failed colossally in ensuring safe, equitable workplaces in the advertising, tech, entertainment and healthcare industries. Improving laws and policies and ensuring legal access to those needing recourse due to the harrowing experiences of sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace is receiving much needed attention.

Which is great. But on principle, it seems wrong that the systemic failure to protect the wellbeing and interests of anyone who is not white, male, straight and gender-conforming in some of our greatest GDP-contributing industries is now receiving its own sweet logo and social media campaign. If the Time’s Up movement is able to achieve a safe, fair workplace better than an HR department, then let’s do it — but I get super salty when HR depart-

ments can’t be held accountable for doing their jobs. I know how to fill out a W-2.

The medical industry’s branch of Time’s Up, “Time’s Up Healthcare”, launched on March 1st. It’s no surprise that there are plenty of horrible stories about the treatment of women within the healthcare system. It makes sense that, when a group of silenced people are finally getting the privilege of a long-denied voice, their pain and anger is first to surface.

However, as a movement against the PATRIARCHY, I’m not sure we have the luxury of indulging in wide-scale catharsis, despite deserving it. There are much larger things at stake.

Are women going to be asked to sacrifice something they deserve — a public forum for grief (?) — for the greater good? Because this isn’t just about how female healthcare providers are treated — it’s about the female patients are getting treated. For example, female patients wait longer in ERs to be treated than men and women are more likely to die of a heart attack if their ER doctor is a man. As a former gender studies major, I see how framing our cause in terms of pain and anger shoots ourselves — meaning everyone — in the foot. Feminism

beyond “feminism is equality for everybody!” is complex.

My point: Not all men are evil. And when entire movements forget that half the population isn’t horrible, and is, in fact, replete with good people, we are losing allies just as important and powerful as our female ones.

The fast track for improving working conditions for women in healthcare, and improving the quality of care for female patients involves making the education and recruitment of male allies — in an industry that remains male dominated and male top-heavy — of equal priority in empowering the women rising in its ranks. Female leadership is inevitable. It’s happening. We are educated. We are increasingly STEM-ing.

All too often, enabling men to be committed feminists seems to be completely ignored.

Just so we’re clear, helping men embrace feminism is empowering them to be more complete human beings (see “Feminism is for Everybody” by Bell Hooks). Patriarchy hurts everyone, yet the F-word is still too often viewed as synonymous to that of man-hating.

This is tragic, and until this shifts on a large scale we are all devastated, no matter how

many pink pussy hats we knit.

Call me a dirty, dirty optimist, but the future of a more balanced workforce and of greater equity is there — it’s just a matter of time. Nothing is going stop it. But in the meantime, there are women dying in ERs at the hands of male doctors that could be, for lack of a better term, “systematically woke.”

The men in the upper echelons of the medical industry are still going to be there for another, what, 20 to 30 years? They are the ones we need on our side — NOW. Imagine the long and many awkward conversations it would take with senior-ranking executives and doctors to conjure the kinds of consciousness shifts we need. I’m not even entirely convinced such a thing is possible, but I’d love for a ton of dedicated social workers, academics, psychologists, doctors, patients and administrators to get together and try.

It might not be fair to ask for a whole lot of women to do large-scale emotional labor on behalf of the medical industry, but I don’t care.

I’m willing to help if I can. I want myself or someday my daughters, my mom, my friends, to be safe should any of us ever find ourselves in an ER waiting room.

American children are not being taught their most important lesson: Climate change KIDS HAVE THE WILLINGNESS TO TAKE ACTION IF GIVEN THE CHANCE AND KNOWLEDGE

BY DA N I EL O R O P E ZA daoropeza@ucdavis.edu When did you first learn about climate change?

Most of my fellow environmentalist friends first learned about climate change in their AP Environmental Science classes during high school or in community college. I didn’t learn about it until my third year in the U.S. Navy, while watching documentaries during one of my many long nights aboard an aircraft carrier.

If you attended K-12 in a public school in California after September 2013, you were more likely to have learned about climate change in one of your science classes. This is because California adopted the Next Generation Science Standards in its curriculum — a higher STEM teaching standard program set by educators and scientists.

As of today, 21 states and the district of Columbia have adopted the NGSS for their education system. Unfortunately, just because your state has adopted the NGSS doesn’t mean

children will be exposed to the program.

While 86% of teachers think schools should teach climate change, only 42% actually teach it. The biggest reasons for this discrepancy — heightened by the fact that teachers are overworked and underpaid — are that climate change is outside of their expertise; they don’t know enough about it, and they don’t have the materials to teach it.

So are parents stepping up and teaching their kids about climate change? According to the same poll, only 45% of parents talk about climate change with their kids.

As the older generation and culprits of current climate change, we’re failing our youth and future leaders by not educating them about the biggest problem they will face in their lifetime.

Who’s to blame? Is it parents? Teachers?

The education system? The government? Ourselves?

When I was watching my pirated climate change documentaries aboard that aircraft carrier in the middle of the Atlantic, I experienced a whirlpool of emotions. I felt anger, motiva-

tion, confusion, curiosity, disillusion and fear — yet also a sense of relief. Tired of the mundane and monotonous long nights, all I wanted during that time of my life was a purpose, a direction, something meaningful to contribute to. Learning about climate change filled that role and changed my life forever.

We are living in a time when children are unwillingly set to be the proprietors of the consequences of our actions and will feel the full wrath of climate change. By failing to educate our youth, we are committing the greatest injustice against them and robbing their chance to find purpose and fight back.

Youth around the world are showing us what they are capable of doing when they are aware of the perils of climate change. Young people from 123 countries are following the footsteps of a 16-year-old Swedish student — Greta Thunberg — and skipping school on Fridays to strike for a climate action.

In the U.S., 21 kids, teenagers and young adults from ages 11 to 22 are suing the U.S. government in the case Juliana v. United States for “supporting a national energy system that

emits prodigious amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thus stoking human-caused climate change and endangering their futures.” The plaintiffs are arguing that the government is depriving them of their guaranteed rights to life, liberty and property.

When our youth have the most to lose, it’s in their best interest to take action. And they have showed us they will do just that. We know what they are capable of if they are just given the chance to learn. They just need motivation, a direction, something to care about, and they will put their all into the cause.

More than ever before, we need communicators and educators. If you’re a teacher, teach.

If you’re a father, enlighten. If you’re a brother or sister, provide guidance. If you’re a friend, inspire change. Give purpose and teach about our most pressing issue!

We don’t need to be experts in the field to raise awareness in our youth. We simply need to plant the seed.

Curiosity will feed our eager youngsters, they will sprout and our youth and planet will bear fruit.

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019 | 7

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HUMOR

Play your indie games INDIE GAMES OFFER THOUGHTFUL EXPERIENCES AND SUPPORT PASSIONATE CREATORS WHO BUILD THEM

BY C A LV I N COFF E E cscoffee@ucdavis.edu I haven’t played nearly enough indie games in my life. Growing up, I was never exposed to indie games (or even knew what an indie game was), so my experience with them has only come recently. My overall time spent with them has led me to one belief — indie games provide experiences that can be found nowhere else in the industry.

Indie games are special, and my time with them certainly is as well. The Fullbright Company’s “Gone Home” brilliantly subverts the horror genre by letting the player explore the organized chaos of a familiar house and pick up clues that lead to one of the best reveals in the history of storytelling. “Emily is Away” and “Emily is Away Too” perfectly encapsulate what it was like to nervously instant message a highschool crush. Nostalgia will never hit you so hard in your life. And “Florence” artfully depicts the start, highs and lows of a relationship (with a beautiful soundtrack) better than any movie or show I’ve ever seen. These are genres and stories never even thought of on the AAA scale. These experiences are only made possible through the tender care and love that are poured into these titles.

Indie games don’t just offer different experiences to seasoned gamers; they are often the best place to start playing, for new or returning gamers.

Support for independent developers is vital for the long-term health of the industry.

Countless major studios in the industry today were once a struggling, independent studio.

The beginning of the industry looked remarkably like the state of indie games now. Small, independent developers with less than a dozen

members are what make up the majority of the industry. They are the first stages in the life cycle of studios. Look at the best regarded game studios out there –– the Naughty Dogs, Insomniac Games, Sucker Punch, Obsidian Entertainment, etc. –– all of these originated as independent studios. But indie games don’t get nearly as much publicity or attention as major developers because they don’t have the money to pay for it. Thatgamecompany was lucky to have a three-game deal with PlayStation, which gave it the exposure it needed to make “Journey,” a game of the year contender in 2012.

In recent years, the biggest players in the market — Nintendo, Microsoft and PlayStation — have started to notice the capability of independent developers to fill out game catalogs on their platforms and provide plenty of experiences for the player.

The bloated budgets of massive AAA games often leads to an obtuse experience for the player. These massive AAA games become too expensive to make and encounter so much demand to be made in a timely manner that they lead to massive problems of crunch in the industry. We have seen this issue recently with Rockstar Games and Riot Games, which resulted in 100 hour work weeks.

How to tell if your parents are addicted to Crepeville IF YOU GIVE A MOM A CREPE

BY MADE LINE KU MAGAI mskumagai@ucdavis.edu It’s Sunday morning, and your parents want to have a nice meal with you before they leave Davis. You think, “Hmm, maybe I’ll introduce them to Crepeville. There’s something for everyone there.” But I’m going to stop you right there. If you embark down this dark and dangerous path, there is no turning back.

The addiction to Crepeville starts off simple enough.

You take your parents for that initial Nutella banana crepe. You all leave the restaurant, your parents nonchalantly shrugging and saying, “Not bad.” Not a deluge of enthusiasm, but not exactly a critique either.

Fast forward three months. It’s the first time your parents have come back to Davis for a visit since last quarter. You need a place to eat, and your dad casually says, “How ‘bout that crepe place in Downtown? What’s it called...Crepe City?” And you agree because it’s been weeks since you’ve had Crepeville.

You leave the restaurant after your second Crepeville outing. Your parents are raving.

“Can we talk about the potatoes?”

“Can we talk about those CREPES, Barb?”

If your parents say something that sounds uncharacteristically Caucasian of them, then you’re too late. The lust for Crepeville has bewitched your parents, body and soul.

A few weeks later, your parents call, emphatically asking if they can visit you. You’re suspicious because they usually complain about making the drive to Davis, but you happily oblige since yah love ‘em.

They want to eat at Crepeville again because they “already know it’s good.” You think “For the love of God, there are other places to eat in this town.” But these people give you money for boba, so you keep your bubble tea-lovin’ mouth shut.

Minutes into dinner, you notice something is off. Your parents haven’t even looked at you. They’ve only had eyes for their apple cinnamon crepes this whole time! And that’s when you realize…

They didn’t come to Davis to see you. They came to Davis to eat mediocre crepes.

Before you know it, the pictures of you on your family’s fridge have been replaced with photographs of French pancakes. All your little league trophies have been replaced with “Best Restaurant in Davis” plaques. You are no longer your parents’ child. Crepes are their baby now.

CAITLYN SAMPLEY/ AGGIE

BY ROSEY M O R E ART Y rosey@morearty.org

D ISC L A I M ER: Th e v iews a n d o p i 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 alon e and do no t necessari l y i ndi cate the vi ews and opi n i o n s h eld by The C al i fo rni a Ag g i e. P l e as e addre ss le tte r s to th e e ditor to opin ion @ th eaggi e.o rg.

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

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8 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

PROFILES IN SCIENCE J ESSE ST ESHEN KO / AGG IE F IL E

C RYSTA L Y E / CO URTE SY

LESHELLE MAY How her childhood made her the assertive, innovative leader she is today

BY KR I TI VAR GHESE science@theaggie.org

his enthusiasm for science, Neil brings art and music to the learning experience, encouraging students to tap into their own creativity.”

Schore’s path to chemistry started with a magic show, featuring exciting exploding pennies, at eight years old. As an only child living in one of the 15-story New York City projects, Schore liked to think about science problems at home, looking for science and math self-help books to read. He was especially fond of the “Science for Dummies” series.

In a time when the first satellites were launched into space and the United States competed against Russia in the Cold War, Schore knew he liked learning about chemistry, physics, math and astronomy. He liked the kind of science that demanded creativity and

One of the first things noticeable in conversation with LeShelle May is that she has a refined sense of objectivity. Whenever anything negative comes her way, she takes a step back and looks at things objectively to understand how to best handle it. She credits this skill to her mother.

“I grew up with a very nervous mother. I was always trying to please her. Anytime she got nervous, I would say ‘Okay, calm down. Look at the big picture.’ That forced me to mature a little earlier.”

May grew up in Harlem in New York City and comes from humble beginnings. When she tells her story, people frequently assume that she was a first-generation college student. On the contrary, both of her parents have undergraduate and graduate degrees. She grew up in a single-parent home where she lived with her mother.

“My mom worked as a social worker. She felt that my high school opportunities would be limited because the parochial school I was in ended after sixth grade. It gave me a strong foundation in math and science which I had a better aptitude for.”

This led to May moving to a predominantly Jewish town in New Jersey for middle school and meant that she would have to travel to New York to visit her father.

“I didn’t visit him that much. He was not a father type figure. But what he would do during the weekends that I did spend with him was teach me how to play chess. I used to be really good at chess.

SCHORE on 11

M AY on 11

NEIL SCHORE After 43 years at UC Davis, Neil Schore, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Chemistry, still enjoys problem-solving

BY FOXY ROBI N S O N science@theaggie.org He was the first person in his family to go to college. He was the first person from his high school to go to the University of Pennsylvania.

He chose chemistry as his major, and it became his way to connect to others. As Neil Schore, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Chemistry, prepares for his term to teach students at the UC Davis Quarter Abroad Pharmaceutical Chemistry in Taipei, Taiwan Program, he reflected on the moments leading him to his newest batch of students.

He still manages to steal time away, loading Hearthstone on his phone for a quick game of strategy. His son, Michael, got him into the game but Schore has amassed hundreds of collectible cards, purchasing new collectible cards

U C DAV I S P H OTO / CO URTESY

PAUL HASTINGS Professor Hastings’ passion and involvement in the field of developmental psychology

BY MI C HE L L E WO NG science@theaggie.org It was not science, but a love for literature that introduced Paul Hastings, a professor in the department of psychology, to the field which he would continue to pursue for years to come.

“What it was about reading and literature and mythology and everything like that that I loved was how the authors created such complex and multifaceted characters and what the motivations were for truly well rounded complex characters,” Hastings said.

With an inclination toward the pre-medical path, Hastings enrolled in the general science program at McGill University. Besides all of the STEM courses he was required to take, he had room in his schedule for two elective classes. Growing up with an interest in the physical sciences, Hastings decided to take a geology class in addition to Introduction to Psychology. He explained that he deeply resonated with the class and became excited at the prospect of studying how and why people become who they are. It was because of this newfound passion that he decided to take an introduction to developmental psychology his second year, which is his current field of interest. “[That class] really was getting exactly at that question of the becoming, the unfolding, over time from the roots of life, how people progress through infancy and childhood and adolescence in the context of their relationships with the unfolding of their maturing abilities,” Hastings said. “And that just completely captivated me.”

Through these classes, Hastings was able to realize how the character differences that he loved within literature could be applied to and studied in the scientific field as well.

It was then that his infatuation with developmental psychology emerged and it hasn’t changed since.

It was during his undergraduate career that he had heard of Jane Ledingham and Alex Schwartzman’s study, the original inspiration behind Hastings’ recently published

after each in-game victory.

After a quick game, Schore looks forward to making plans with his students, such as their unanimous decision to see Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Even though his class eagerly saw the movie already, they are all planning to see it again, together.

This quarter abroad class is a result of Schore and Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague’s efforts to create a study abroad program for the sciences, allowing students to focus on three UC Davis pharmaceutical chemistry courses, or a full year’s curriculum, in one quarter along with a seminar series filled with members of the pharmaceutical industry. The classes are also open to students at Academia Sinica in Taipei.

“Neil Schore is an inspiring scholar,” said Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Chemistry. “Beyond

study, “Predicting psychosis-spectrum diagnoses in adulthood from social behaviors and neighborhood contexts in childhood,” which he worked in collaboration with the two, in addition to Lisa Serbin and Dale Stack.

Their study, conducted in the 1970s, consisted of evaluating how children’s social behaviors and environmental factors predicted potential mental health issues during adulthood. Having heard of this study during his undergraduate career, he later conversed with Schwartzman at Concordia University about their interest in expanding on his initial research.

“I got me really excited to start to think about examining how these multiple influences on mental health play out not just over months and years, but over decades,” Hastings said. “I saw this as an opportunity to take the kinds of questions I had been examining much further and into an area of work I had never studied before which is psychosis spectrum mental illness.”

Hastings defined psychosis-spectrum mental illnesses to be hallucinations and delusions, which create feelings of confusion in the affected person and requires constant support or medication. He believes it is important to learn about the predictors of these psychiatric disorders in order to attempt to prevent them, as they are hard to treat once developed. As the original study was conducted through a survey of adults, there were various limitations. Therefore, Hastings’ recent study included almost 4000 children where they reported on each other’s social behaviors and related this to the socioeconomic aspects of the environment they lived in.

“I think that the most important findings were the ones that confirmed and further informed the hypotheses that led Schwartzman and Ledingham to design the CLRP (Concordia Longitudinal Research Project,” Hastings said. “We found that children who were raised in more disadvantaged urban neighborhoods were more likely to develop schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis over the next 30 years, compared to children raised in more economically advantaged urban neighborhoods. The combination of neighborhood conditions and children’s social characteristics also contributed to their risk.”

With this new knowledge, Hastings believes improving school qualities or allocating neighborhood conditions in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas may be able to prevent these diseases from occurring. In addition, children at risk of developing this disorder could undergo cognitive behavioral or other psychosocial treatments.

One topic that Hastings becomes excited about is looking into children’s development of empathy, kindness and compassion.

Although many people view psychology in mostly the clinical aspect such as therapy or counseling, Hasting explained that that is but one aspect of the field. Holistically, it is about understanding the human condition from a scientific approach.

“I think what a lot of people don’t realize until they start to take a psychology course is that most of the work in psychology is really this research oriented approach to understanding thoughts, feelings and behaviors as they make us be the individuals and the social beings that we are,” Hastings said.

A LEXA FON TA N ILLA / AGGI E

RAISSA D’SOUZA A diverse UC Davis professor explores the complexity of systems

BY PE T E R S MIT H science@theaggie.org How are monkey societies, power grids and nanomechanical oscillators related? That is one of the questions that Raissa D’Souza, a professor of computer science and a mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis is trying to answer. Scientists often study specific systems, sociologists investigate social networks and engineers study transportation networks. Yet D’souza wants to look at the basic principles which govern all complex systems.

These interesting questions have led to one of the most successful periods in her scientific career; she is leading a multi-university investigation into these complex systems. The questions she is asking have been a long time coming.

In her years of high school in the suburbs of Chicago, D’Souza enjoyed logic puzzles and calculus. Her school didn’t offer physics but after studying derivatives and vectors in her math classes, she knew that she was interested in using math to describe the world.

“Seeing how to connect math to something tangible was really exciting,” D’Souza said.

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, D’Souza studied physics and philosophy.

Her choice of study was an early incarnation of the interdisciplinary approach D’Souza has taken throughout her career. At UC Davis she works with scientists from across the academic spectrum.

“Many of the really exciting things in the world around us are highly interdisciplinary,” D’Souza said. “We need sociologists and engineers and mathematicians and physicists, and philosophers and artists all working together to solve problems.

During her summers at college, she interned at Bell laboratories training as an experimentalist.

When she finished her undergraduate degree, she thought she would continue down that path at M.I.T. for her doctorate. Yet, when she arrived at graduate school, her plans changed.

“I showed up thinking that I would do what I had done in those research internships which was experimental particle physics.” D’Souza said.

“When I started grad school, I realized I was more interested in the basic fundamental questions than engineering a system to do a specific experiment.”

D’Souza discovered the field of complex systems: an area of physics focused on the behavior of systems that are difficult to model. In particular, she was fascinated by how simple interactions between independent actors could lead to incredibly complex emergent behaviors. A classic example of this phenomena occurs in ant colonies; each insect has limited capabilities and means of communication, yet ant colonies can accomplish incredible feats without centralized direction.

“I got really interested in what are called complex systems; looking at systems that have behaviors that emerge from elements that we wouldn’t have predicted,” D’Souza said. “I really wanted to understand how I could use the tools that I gained in statistical physics to study emergent behaviors of collections of simple elements.”

At M.I.T she found researchers that were studying these behaviors in rigorous mathematical and scientific ways. She sought out those professors and did her thesis on the topic.

D’Souza’s technical training is not the only thing that informs her research. Her identity and upbringing are also central to who she has become as a scientist.

Raissa D’Souza is a unique name. Raissa is Russian, and D’Souza is Portuguese. The name is indicative of her diverse background and childhood. Her father is from India and her mother from Chile, and she grew up in an Irish neighborhood. According to D’Souza, this great diversity shaped her world view.

As a child, she traveled to Chile and India regularly.

“Going to India was very mind expanding to see that most people in the world don’t live in suburban homes going to grammar school across the street,” she said.

Yet, like most non-white, non-male researchers, D’Souza’s background also made it more difficult to fit into the academic world. Still, D’Souza believes her outsider status has been an important aspect of her career.

“I’ve always not fit in, and it’s a little difficult to not fit in, but I think that not fitting in is what gives you that outsider’s perspective and creativity,” she said. “If we all think the same way we are not going to make progress, so we really need diversity of

DSOUZA on 11

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019 | 9

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AGGIE CLASSIFIEDS Unitrans Hiring Now

JOBS Tutor Coordinator The Academic Assistance & Tutoring Centers is recruiting for a Tutor Coordinator. Please distribute this announcement widely to share this position opening at UC Davis.

Here is a link to the position: https://www.employment.ucdavis.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=3977 37 UC Davis Staff jobs Requisition Number: 03023579

We're trying to hire as many people as we can to train during summer to get ready. If you have students who need summer jobs and work next academic year, please let them know we're hiring!

Training starts at $12/hour and then goes to $14.25/hour when you get your license. Wage increases to $15.25/hour on January 1, 2020. We offer very flexible work hours, supervisory and management opportunities, and it’s FUN to drive the buses!

Apply at vacancy.ucdavis.edu or go to https://vacancy.ucdavis.edu/listings/3170/

University of California, Davis http://tutoring.ucdavis.edu

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Chamber Players in Davis

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The Davis Graduate is hiring for All Positions.

Apply in Person: The Davis Graduate 805 Russell Blvd Davis CA Email dannycee@davisgrad.com

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The first "Chamber Players" Spring concert will be held on April 20th, 2019, 7:30 p.m., at Congregation Bet Haverim @ 1715 Anderson Road in Davis.

Online ticket purchase is now available through Brown Paper Tickets.

Please access the following website for ticket purchase: https://www.brownpapertickets. com/event/4102526.

WANT TO BE PART OF OUR TEAM? The Co-op is one of the friendliest places to work in Davis!

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CULTURE CORNER

Garlic Fried Egg Tacos

Homemade corn tortillas, pickled onions and a seasonal salad make for perfect spring dinner

The Arts Desk’s weekly picks for televisions, movies, books, music GR ACE SIMMON S / AGGIE

BY G RAC E SI M M O NS arts@theaggie.org It’s Tuesday, it’s dinner time, what do you turn to? Tacos, duh.

Taco Tuesday is a quintessential American food trend originally devised by the Tex-Mex food chain, “Taco John’s” as a marketing strategy back in the early 1980’s. The company even trademarked the alliterative phrase in 1989, though it hasn’t stopped the event from gaining worldwide popularity. The Wyoming-based chain is known for sending out cease and desist letters to any restaurant who advertises a “Taco Tuesday” special — which is why you’ll often see, for example, “$2 Tacos on Tuesday” rather than using the trademarked phrase. Interesting, huh?

To what might be a slightly contentious opinion, I am here to argue that the Mexican food in Davis is lacking authenticity or any out-ofthe-box culinary attempts. While I acknowledge the regular Taco Tuesday goers — and I get it, cheap tacos, margs and friends — I believe if you want truly good tacos, you have to either travel outside of Davis or take initiative in your own kitchen.

I opt for homemade...specifically, garlic fried egg tacos topped with pickled red onions in a homemade corn tortilla with a side salad of seasonal arugula and a creamy cilantro lime dressing — *gasps for breath*.

Different from your average scrambled egg breakfast tacos, the fried egg’s runny yolk serves as a beautiful salsa — salsa as in the direct translation for sauce — but when accompanied by tomato salsa or hot sauce it balances the spice and acidity and gives it body. Eggs are cheap, easy to prepare and can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner; not to mention they’re a good source of protein and fat. It’s not a traditional or authentic taco, but you can’t get this at any Davis taqueria.

This is a fancier version of the lunch I have been making every day for the past few months, no exaggeration, every single day… it’s delicious, affordable, quick, and I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. This recipe can be as simple as buying premade tortillas, eggs and avocados and whipping these babies up in 5 minutes, or it can be carried out how I am about to detail below, raising the stakes with homemade corn tortillas, introducing some fried garlic oil and pickling some red onion to go on top. And for the side, I take advantage of superior Californian produce with a seasonal salad paired with a homemade cilantro lime dressing.

Disclaimer, I am not a professionally trained chef, nor do I claim to be a taco expert; however, I am an avid home chef as well as a Southern California native — that is, my taste buds have been attuned to distinguish between the Americanized flavors and the real stuff. And I will firmly say that what makes or breaks a taco, is the tortilla — a Mexican restaurant is not authentic unless it makes its own corn tortillas. Once you eat a real, soft, homemade corn tortilla, there is no going back to the chewy and bland processed ones.

To make the tortillas, all you need is a masa harina mix. I used Bob’s Red Mill organic masa harina from the Davis Co-Op, water and salt. While it’s not necessary, a tortilla press is extremely helpful. I did not have a tortilla press when I embarked on this process, but after researching makeshift techniques such as using a rolling pin or a cast

iron pan and elbow grease, I forked out the $13 and ordered a tortilla press on Amazon.

and painfully simple.

Homemade Corn Tortillas:

My favorite base for a creamy, thick salad dressing is tahini — ground sesame seeds, think peanut or almond butter consistency. It has a nutty and subtle bitter flavor, and is a great way to replicate creamy dressings sans dairy.

The principle ingredient in this dressing is the fresh, seasonal cilantro — most herbs are harvested in the spring. Start by roughly chopping a small handful of sprigs, about a half cup packed. Add to a blender along with the juice from 1½ limes, ¼ cup tahini, 1 medium clove of garlic, a ½ teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste. You may have to stop to scrape down the sides a couple of times, each time adding a tablespoon of water to help thin the consistency — I ended up adding 3 tablespoons. Blend until cilantro bits are fine, if you have an above average blender, you can get it pretty close to a homogeneous mixture.

I start by mixing the dough according to the package instructions — mix 2 cups masa with ½ teaspoon salt in a large bowl, then slowly add and mix in 1½ - 2 cups warm water (I used 1½ cups of water). The consistency should be firm and springy, not crumbly or sticky.

I used my hands — because why dirty up a spoon? Plus, it was an extremely satisfying texture and playing with the dough made me swell with nostalgia. After I had my fun, I formed the dough into a ball and covered the bowl with a towel to let sit out for an hour.

Use this hour to begin to prepare the rest of the meal.

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing:

Seasonal Salad:

Pickled Onions:

Tart, acidic, fresh, crunchy — this deceitfully fancy and seemingly involved topping is actually quite simple to make. I recommend preparing the pickled onions the night before to let them marinate and break down further in the brine; however, since we are using a quick, vinegar-based method of pickling, as little as 30 minutes will do the trick. Basic pickled onion recipes are fairly consistent across the board no matter where you get it from, I got mine from Bon Appétit.

1 red onion ½ cup apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar 1½ teaspoons of salt The onion I picked was abnormally large, so I had to make a half-portion of the pickling liquid in addition to the full portion (a.c.v., sugar, salt), keeping the proportions the same. The key is that the liquid covers, or nearly covers, the onion in whichever vessel you chose to store it in, I used a large mason jar.

Peel then slice the whole onion very thinly. I like to keep the onion whole so I get at least some rings, but halving lengthwise — keeping each half intact with the root — works just the same.

Tip: when cutting onions, keep the root intact as you chop to prevent or lessen crying, putting a cup of water next to your cutting board helps too.

Next, add the apple cider vinegar, sugar and salt to a jar, cover and shake until sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the sliced onion and press down to submerge in the liquid.

That’s it! Cover the jar and let sit for at least 30 minutes. These keep up to two weeks in the fridge.

Highly impressive, very delicious

Light, but not light on flavor.

Arugula, otherwise known as rocket, is a cute little leaf with a bitter punch that cuts through the heft of the main. Topped with avocado, radishes (in season) and the creamy, herby dressing, this salad does a delicate dance between fresh and crisp, to astringent and tangy.

Thinly slice or mandolin a few radishes and half, score and scoop one avocado and add to a bowl of arugula. Toss with desired amount of creamy cilantro lime dressing.

At this point, your masa should be ready to hit the press. This may be a two-person activity, but if you are a confident and focused multi-tasker, go for it. I opted for some assistance and had a little tortilla date — one on the press, one on the stove.

Begin by cutting a gallon Ziplock bag along its sides so that the bottom is still attached and it is one large rectangular sheet. Orient the tortilla press with the handle on your dominant side — I’m a righty, so handle to the right. Place the bottom seam of the bag in the plate hinge on the left so that each plate is lined with the plastic.

Before pressing, heat a pan or griddle to medium/medium-high heat.

Next, uncover the bowl of masa — the dough should be set and firm — and roll little balls of masa between your hands, slightly smaller than a golf ball. Depending on how thin or thick you like your tortillas, you can adjust the amount of masa or pressure you apply to the press.

Place the ball on the plastic lining the bottom plate of the press. Because of the way that the top plate comes down, you want to place the ball off-center to the left because the tortilla will spread closer to the handle. Close the top plate and use the handle to press — put some weight into it. And voilà! Gently peel the tortilla from the plastic and throw on the warm pan or griddle. Cook for around 30 to 60 seconds on each side until they achieve some color.

They may puff in the middle, totally normal. Wrap in a kitchen towel to keep warm. Repeat this process until you have used all of the masa — my batch yielded around 15 tortillas.

Now for the star of the show...

Garlic Fried-Eggs & crispy garlic chips: (1 serving = 2 eggs) Start by heating a generous

UC Davis to host Whole Earth Festival The 50th annual festival will be one for the books

BY I TZE LTH G AMB OA arts@theaggie.org

BE SS I E N I CO L A I D E S / CO URTE SY

UC Davis’ will host its 50th annual Whole Earth Festival from May 10 to 12 on the Quad. This event will be filled with music, art and a whole lot of lovable hippies, so wear your Birkenstocks and mingle with your friends while enjoying a vegan pizza.

This student-run event was founded in 1969 as part of a small art project for a class on campus called “Art Happening.”

amount of olive oil in a nonstick pan on low — not enough to completely cover the bottom, but enough so that if you tilt the pan you could fill a large spoon. It is important to heat your oil slowly, on low as to not burn it because we will use this oil to cook the eggs later on.

Once the oil is warm, about two minutes, add 1 to 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves. I prefer slicing them lengthwise, but circular rounds work just the same. They should sizzle and bubble when they hit the oil, but not brown — if they start to brown immediately, the oil is too hot and the garlic chips will burn.

Let the garlic chips fry in the oil for about 2 to 3 minutes, until they are golden brown, fishing them out of the pan with a fork and placing them on a paper towel to let cool.

BY ALYSSA I LSLEY arts@theaggie.org

Television: “Portlandia” This wonderfully weird sketch comedy show was born from the minds of Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, who also star in each sketch. The show focuses on expressing the niche eccentricities of people who live in Portland, from hipsters to feminist bookshop owners. Each sketch is weirder than the next, but with the clever writing and Armisen and Brownstein’s effortless chemistry, the show is undoubtedly hilarious, even for those who aren’t from Portland.

Eggs:

Keeping the garlic infused oil in the pan, raise the temperature to medium-high to let the oil heat further.

Crack two eggs on opposite sides of the pan, avoiding contact if possible — keeping the saucer shape is more for aesthetic reasons, but avoids having to cut them apart later on. When the eggs hit the pan, they should sputter and crackle. After a minute or so, the white should puff and bubble, and the edges should start to reveal some color.

Tilt the pan so that the oil runs to the edge and spoon the hot oil over the tops of the egg whites, avoiding the yolk. The hot oil will help cook any translucent, uncooked bits. Cook for one more minute.

I like to salt and pepper the eggs just before they are done.

They are done once the edges have crisped, the bottom has browned past golden and the whites on top are cooked. Remove from heat and plate.

Lay the crispy fried egg on the bed of the warm tortilla, top with onions, garlic chips, avo, hot sauce, lime juice, go crazy. Serve with salad and devour.

Ingredients Salad:

1 Bag of arugula 2-3 Radishes 1 Avocado

Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing:

½ cup (packed) roughly chopped cilantro Juice from 1½ limes ¼ cup tahini 3 tablespoons water 1 medium garlic clove ½ teaspoon salt Pepper to taste

Quick Pickled Onions:

1 red onion ½ cup apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar 1½ teaspoon salt

Garlic Fried Egg and Garlic Chips:

2 eggs 1-2 cloves of garlic 2 tablespoons olive oil Salt and pepper to taste

Corn Tortillas:

2 cups masa harina mix ½ teaspoon salt 1½ - 2 cups warm water

“I decided to become part of the Whole Earth Festival because I volunteered as a freshman,” said Kennedy Field, a third-year English and art history double major and Chaos Control director for the Whole Earth Festival via email. “I volunteered for Night Keeping, which is our nighttime security and I absolutely loved the experience and the people that I met. I genuinely felt at home.”

While the Whole Earth Festival aims to bring everyone a memorable three days, they also call for an environmental change.

“Not only is it a magical three day break from the “Real world”, but it is also a great avenue for sharing ideas and creating change,” said Tinka Peterka, a third-year design major and director of the Whole Earth Festival via email. “Our sustainable efforts and education booths are a great way to bring awareness to environmental

Movie: “Love, Simon” Although just a romantic comedy, “Love, Simon” left its mark on movie-goers and the teenage romance genre alike. The film centers around closeted teen Simon Spier, who is played by the effortlessly likeable Nick Robinson. This Greg Berlanti-directed flick marks the first film from a major Hollywood studio to focus on a gay romance between teenagers, and the feedback from critics was overwhelmingly positive. The film deals with Simon’s sexual identity with nuance and, most importantly, normalcy. It does not try to be revolutionary, deep or tragically sad as many other representations of same-sex love often try to be.

The film is cheesy and happy, which is the exact depiction the world needed.

book: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” I believe that Maya Angelou’s 1969 autobiography is a novel that everyone should read at least once in their life.

The book details Angelou’s childhood and what lead her to become the remarkable force of nature that she is remembered as today. Angelou painfully recounts not only her childhood traumas and insecurities, but the steps she took to overcome them. The novel is poignant and filled with lessons that are still applicable today. Despite the hardships she faced as an African American woman growing up in the rural South, Angelou maintains an unapologetic optimism for others and the world around her in her writing.

Album: “A Place We Knew” by Dean Lewis Australian singer-songwriter Dean Lewis released his first studio album on March 22. “Be Alright,” his first single off the album, was a success on the charts and shot Lewis into the limelight. His soft, passionate voice over his acoustic guitar brought back an Ed Sheeran-esque sound that has been missing from the charts for a while. The album focuses mainly on the bitter-sweet ending of a relationship. His lyrics are beautiful and deeply relatable. Of the new songs featured on the album, “7 minutes” and “Stay Awake” are the stand-out hits. Both songs showcase Lewis’s vocal range and talent as a lyricist.

and social issues in an inviting way for those who have never been exposed to them before.”

Tianna Ching, a third-year English and cognitive science double major and Publicity coordinator for the Whole Earth Festival, said that while the festival started out as a small project, it has substantially grown since then, but the initial values remain.

“It was just a way to use art to teach people and visitors about activism, wellness and environment sustainability,” Ching said.

The event will have multiple booths, some children-friendly and others perfectly tailored to college students. Booths will include craft booths, where vendors will sell jewelry or art, coffee booths, where all the proceeds will go towards funding the next year’s festival and food booths, where visitors can fill their stomachs

with sustainable, vegan food for the weekend. WEF will have over 140 vendors at their event, but all will follow the sustainable and environment-friendly theme. With each booth serving its own purpose, the festival has something for everyone.

“It is so rewarding to see all the hard work that we all put in come together in one beautiful event,” Field said. “Leading up to the festival, we check in with each other a lot, but we never know exactly what everyone else is doing, so once it becomes festival we get to see how all of our hard work combines and fits together!”

The festival aims to have a wide range of music. Over the span of three days, the Whole Earth Festival will become home to 30 musicians.

In previous years, the Whole Earth Festival hosted many performers

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THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019 | 11

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Alida Jacobs discovered their gender identity after discussing with a friend the societal norms which place individuals into categories.

From their experience, the “female” identity was something they did not connect with, and being referred to by she/her/hers pronouns prevented them from feeling a sense of ownership over their identity and body.

“I realized I was non-binary when I started talking to a close friend about my disconnect between assigned gender and presentation,” Jacobs said. “Especially my disconnect between how the world perceives my gender based on my physical body and how I myself identify.”

Jacobs described feeling a sense of empowerment after their friend began using they/ them pronouns for them.

“I physically felt relieved by the feeling of affirmation and the allowance for a third option that my friend’s language allowed me.Then I adopted it all the time for myself whenever it was safe to do so,” Jacobs said.

Similarly, third-year art history major Sedona Patterson-Smith felt a sense of liberation after beginning to use they/them pronouns.

They feel that the constraints of gender binary limited their self-expression and a feeling of autonomy over their body.

“I felt like I always had to be compromising part of myself to fit a rulebook for what it meant to be a woman,” Patterson-Smith said.

Patterson-Smith feels that a lot of the restrictions associated with womanhood are based on antiquated gender ideals constructed by society as a form of oppression.

“I now feel less pressure on myself to be accepted by other people,” Patterson-Smith said.

“Also, using they/them pronouns has allowed me to feel more included in conversations which address one gender or the other for no good reason.”

The university has some accommodations for transgender and non-binary students, such as gender-inclusive restrooms and various transgender resources. On a classroom-to-classroom basis, however, instructors and professors often take it upon themselves to try and acknowledge non-binary students by asking for students to state their preferred pronouns as a part of their introductions. This practice — while being an acknowledgement of non-binary gender — can be as alienating as it is accommodating. Fourth-year communication major and theater-dance minor Bex

Nava-McLellan identifies as non-binary and trans-masc. He feels as though this practice from instructors and professors puts him in situations in which he feels outed.

“I don’t know if I like it when people are asked to say their pronouns in the beginning of class because I don’t feel comfortable being out to a lot of people,” Nava-McLellan said.

“It takes time for me to let people know I’m non-binary, so I either have to come out or lie.”

Patterson-Smith has had a different experience with this practice.

“I think it’s nice when professors ask name and pronouns,” Patterson-Smith said. “Even just that acknowledgement of the presence of non-binary people in your space, really plants that seed to be conscious of others.”

There are many challenges associated with being non-binary that may go unnoticed. According to Jacobs, individuals can alleviate some of this pressure by having a general sense of responsibility to be both cognizant and accommodating of non-binary people.

“I love it when people ask for my pronouns because it shows me that they have done or are willing to do the mental work of categorizing someone by gender not solely on their presentation,” Jacobs said.

Further, Nava-McLellan feels there is a tendency to boil an individual down to their gender identity or expression. He believes that if more people viewed transgender and non-binary people as more than just their preferred pronouns, these identities would be more humanized and normalized.

“When people are exaggerating parts of my life in order to fit some typical narrative that they have of queer people, I feel they are disregarding other aspects of my identity,” Nava-McLellan said.

Jacobs hopes that society will stop making judgements on the identities of individuals based on their outward appearance. They hope that by using they/them pronouns in a public space, they can bring attention to the existence of non-binary individuals and destigmatize transgender and non-binary people.

“I hope that by stating my pronouns and being visible, I can let other people who might be questioning their gender identity know that there is another option, that there is no set androgynous aesthetic that you must conform to in order to identify as non-binary, and that we’re all just ordinary people” Jacobs said.

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program will really help me to find opportunities that aren’t necessarily Davis-specific.”

Students can expect an announcement

with more details about the new platform and its implementation from the Division of Student Affairs in mid-May.

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This year, many different organizations from on campus and off campus set up booths to fundraise for the event such as Walk Around the Clock, UC Davis Alumni Association and #GoldTogether Capital City.

“We were fortunate to invite Dr. Brad Pollock, Ph.D., MPH Associate Dean for Public Health Sciences at UC Davis School of Medicine, Ken Isaac, a cancer care peer navigator program coordinator, Dr. Marcio Malogolowkin MD, chief of the UC Davis Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, and Eve Bukowski, cancer survivor and immensely strong woman,” Gori said.

To participate in the event or plan for next year, visit @RFLatUCDavis on Facebook or check out their website RelayForLife.org/UCDavisCA. Colleges Against Cancer is also looking for students to join the Event Leadership Team for the 2019-2020 school year. Applications will be posted on their social media pages within the next few weeks.

“Our official Relay for Life 2019 event still remains active and open until August 2019 for those who would like to donate, and still be a part of an extraordinary cause and movement to end cancer,” Gori said.

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tangible solutions. Chemistry created a good match, where one could mix things together and see what happens.

Schore spent a lot of time being lost in college, finding his own way and relating to other students.

During his sophomore year, he found a great teacher and mentor in Madeleine Joullie, who encouraged him and two other students to identify problems to solve, then solve them.

Their group of three built a friendship lasting them throughout undergraduate research and

college, leading them to successful careers in chemistry.

Above all chemicals he has encountered, Schore’s favorite is Coenzyme Q10, a molecule existing in every person to help the body use oxygen, metabolizing it as people breathe.

Schore plans to retire from his full-time faculty position later this year. Even then, he hopes to continue his 43 years of professorship at UC Davis, inspiring creativity and problem-solving within the next generation of scientists.

AGGIE NFL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

Each of these young men has rightfully earned their chance to prove himself at the next level. Whatever happens is ultimately up to how well they perform under a small, extremely scrutinized sample size of time on the

practice field. If each player is lucky enough to make it past training camp and into preseason football in August, they will have a legitimate shot at living out their childhood dreams of making it to the National Football League.

It was just that logic and thinking and that kind of helped.”

In New Jersey, May was able to take classes in AP Physics and AP Calculus and hone the math and science skills she already had an affinity toward. She described herself during that period of time as outgoing but shy. She considered herself a nerd, never the popular girl or the cheerleader type. Most of the students from May’s high school went to top-tier colleges. May wanted to go to Brown.

“I studied at Boston University. But my first choice was Brown, where I was waitlisted. My dad wanted me to go to Vassar for the law but I told him that’s not happening.”

May credits her high school for making the transition to college courses at Boston University easier. Her tough high school teachers made college courses seem a lot easier.

“But then when I started to build into these tough academic courses, your confidence can be compromised. But at the same time, I didn’t have an option B. I knew this was it. My family wasn’t well-to-do so I had to keep a certain GPA to keep my scholarship. That kept me studying harder and working harder.”

LeShelle May has now been working in software development for CNN for over 20 years and is also passionate about health and fitness.

She’s also an avid traveler.

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thought, especially as we are talking much more challenging global problems.”

After graduate school, D’Souza had the opportunity to go back to Bell Laboratories to study theory, and then work at Microsoft research.

Both experiences helped her further refine her interests.

Then D’Souza arrived at UC Davis, and today her background, identify and career path have led to her current research query.

“Networks are so diverse, they are so massive, they have so many different realms that they live in, so what we are trying to do with this bigger project is think about; where is the complexity?”

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including Tempest, Big Sticky Mess and Geographer.

Sticking true to its roots, the festival will have an art space. This will serve as an art gallery for community members to showcase their creations.

If interested, WEF takes applications every year from January to March for the upcoming festival.

“It’s a very fun, relaxing time,” Ching said.

“Especially [because] it’s kind of in the middle of midterms and all that stuff. So it’s really fun to just relax and hear some good music.”

When purchasing food, the Whole Earth Reusables Cooperatives will provide customers with reusable dishes. They will wash the dirty plates for vendors who choose to make this day a sustainable and environmentally friendly experience. The food vendors are required to use reusable, washable dishes to the best of their ability. If their dishes are not reusable then all of the waste needs to be either recyclable or compostable.

“The planning process always gets difficult,” Field said. “But these moments honestly don’t matter that much, because at the end of the day, the festival just happens. No matter who or how we make mistakes, there are other people there to help and support us and things always work out.”

With the Quad being such a big space, the festival will have three main stages. Their Quad stage will be their largest and host many of the musicians. Each day will hold a new headlining artist and following bands. Headlining the festival is Kid Bloom, Y La Bamba and The Dirt Feelin. The bands Beauty Queen, Indigo Elephant and Tempest will perform during the opening and closing ceremonies.

The Cedar Stage will have a much different vibe. The Cedar Stage is smaller and will give the audience the opportunity to hear a wide range of

performers. From spoken word and EDM, this stage is meant for visitors to stop by, munch on their sustainable snacks and listen to something they have never heard before. The third stage is the dance stage where multiple cultures will share their dance and traditions with the hundreds of people that enjoy the festival.

“The festival has a life of its own and it’s always amazing to see it come to life in ways we could have never imagined,” Field said.

Ching explained that working on a big event like the Whole Earth Festival requires a lot of work, but with a big group of volunteers and staff, it’s hard not to look at the positive side of the situation.

“It’s a little much,” Ching said. “But when you’re working together in this group, and you’re all sleep deprived and so tired, and delirious it is kind of fun. It’s like hanging out and you’re all in this together and you really do bond.”

While the festival ends at 8 p.m. on Sunday night, it continues for the staff of the WEF. The staff and volunteers will stay afterwards to make sure everything is in its right place and all the trash and compost are put in the correct bins. But even as the festival comes to an end, the festival never fails to make long lasting memories for everyone involved.

“We received a letter last year from an elderly man, thanking our staff for working hard to put on the festival.” Peterka said. “He had met his now wife at the festival almost 40 years ago, proposed to her at the festival a year later, and continues to come with her and the rest of his family each year.”

The Whole Earth Festival is open to the public, but parking isn’t free. The festival will take place all day from May 10 to 12.

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Other superstars across the NBA commonly voice their enjoyment of the league and share some of their favorite players. Even with WNBA players opting out of the CBA, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver expressed his understanding.

“I wasn’t disappointed at all,” Silver told ESPNW. “My sense from talking to players and listening to what they’re saying publicly is that we seem to be missing a connection, a real engagement between the players and the league.”

With the new WNBA season now just weeks away, there is new excitement to look forward to and a chance to garner more publicity that could surely help the league as it continues to grow. Even offering a league pass for only $16.99 that gives fans access to every game, the WBNA continues to look forward to expanding and ultimately reaching its goal of better pay, which they plan to achieve following the end of the season in the negotiations for a new CBA.

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about some of the streets being resurfaced, deciphering their water bills and some of the services provided all across the city.”

In collaboration with the Davis Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Chamber Ambassadors, DJUSD Board Trustee Joe DiNunzio has helped set up the event’s educational booths and family-friendly activities in past years.

“We have hundreds of members participate in Celebrate Davis, through whom we entertain more than 10,000 attendees every year,” DiNunzio said via email. “For me, it is rewarding to engage directly with so many of our community members, Chamber members and civic leaders.

It is a great place to meet and connect with people from all four corners of Davis — including UCD.”

In addition to helping coordinate the event, Bowen and DiNunzio enjoy participating in the festivities.

Bowen looks forward helping the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame with its display, which features an old-fashioned high wheel bicycle.

DiNunzio commented on the welcoming atmosphere and sense of community present in the traditions at Celebrate Davis.

“There are a number of fantastic food and drink vendors, engaging member exhibits and lots of fun games and physical activities for people of all ages,” DiNunzio said via email. “I recommend that people plan to spend a couple of hours to get the full experience and most definitely stay for the fireworks — it is always a great show.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

Couch Concert: VirgoGabrielle Young local musician tells a personal story with her music

JUSTIN HAN / AGGIE

BY C A RO L I N E RU T T E N arts@theaggie.org First-year community and regional development major Gabrielle Reid, also known as VirgoGabrielle, writes her music on a bright blue electric guitar. The scene is striking: a sky blue instrument to complement her bright pink bodycon dress. “[The guitar] is my baby,” Reid said. “A good friend of mine works at a music store back home. One day after work I saw this guitar on display — she was one of a kind and on sale.

I was working really hard at that point in my life, and I told myself I was going to buy this guitar, it’s very beautiful and I deserve it. I play her everyday, and I have written the most true songs on her.”

Her current image — cool, bright and mature — would not suggest that her music writing roots are in rock ‘n’ roll. In high school in San Ramon, Calif. she formed a four-woman, all-female rock group called Novicain Road. She served as lead vocalist.

“I was really into rock ‘n’ roll,” Reid said.

“There was a good rock ‘n’ roll scene where I grew

up, so I started an all female rock ‘n’ roll band.

That continued all throughout high school. We would play shows all around the Bay Area, we had a few songs recorded. That’s when I started doing music and realized that it is something I thoroughly enjoy […] The writing process is the most different from what I’m doing now because there’s three other people to write with and create the song with. It’s something so different than what an individual would do.”

Now, Reid has taken a musical 180 as she has transitioned into being a solo rhythm and blues artist since the start of her college experience at UC Davis.

“As much as there is going to be a place in my heart for Novicain Road, the sound just wasn’t inspiring me anymore,” Reid said. “It wasn’t truly what I as a person connect to most. The switch to more R&B and jazz was more natural coming [to UC Davis], being older and more in tune with myself.”

Her music, indeed, is much more personal and listens like a journal entry. She sings of romantic situations, longing and confidence to the tune of simple, smooth guitar chords.

“Common themes in my songs now are insecurities, things that hurt the soul in one way or

another,” Reid said. “Music is therapy in a way for me, too, so what goes into those songs are more real or a little darker. Now, the inspiration [for my music] is not something I seek out; it just comes to me. When I get in these mindsets, I’ll just sit in my room and write everything down.

I’ll start recording a voice memo and free styling.

I’ll go back and edit it, see what I like and see what lines I like out of that stream of consciousness. Or I’ll sit down with my guitar and freestyle with my guitar and see what I like.”

To Reid, “R&B is very comforting,” and the relaxed nature of the music makes relaying stronger sentiments approachable to the listener. Due to the form of her music, Reid connects with her audience in a much more personal way.

“I want listeners to understand how these things happen to a lot of people, and they are not uncommon,” Reid said. “When we don’t talk about things, we think we are the only ones experiencing them and there is something wrong with us because of that. I want people to listen to my music and see that no matter who you are these things happen and it’s not necessarily a reflection of who you are as a person. In a way, I am speaking to myself and that sometimes is relatable to the audience.”

Her most recent song, “Losing Sleep, Lucid Dreams,” is her first song to be released online and follows the same musical purpose.

“That song has a lot to do with feeling used and kind of this mindset that a lot of people have that you need be icy and cold and have a guard up all the time,” Reid said. “But that’s not really who I am as a person. So the song has to do with me showing that side to people and them not understanding it or taking it well.”

“Losing Sleep, Lucid Dreams” will be on Reid’s first EP that she plans to release this summer.

“It’s probably going to be four or five songs,” Reid said. “I have most of the songs written, [and they have a] similar vibe for sure. The first song ‘Broken Bones’ is a strange mixture of ancestral pain with insecurities and relationship problems.

It mixes the past and present. ‘Girls Like Me’ is a song dedicated to every girl or woman. It talks about insecurities being a woman.”

Reid’s music touches on rather intense topics.

And while Reid did not offer specifics about the anecdotes that inspire her music, the mystery is part of her attraction. Perhaps the personal narrative is not as significant as the feeling it creates in response — the shared feeling to which we all relate.

Martyrs of Art: The Dangers of Creating a Masterpiece Some critics ignore controversial art, others require blood ALLYSON KO / AGGIE

BY C L AY A L L E N R O GE R S arts@theaggie.org Throughout history, artists have suffered for their work — some by way of their own creations, and others because of how that art is received by the public. There are some bemusing accounts of artists inadvertently perishing by their own hand, such as Michelangelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio, who died from leadbased paint poisoning. Then there is the tragic, such as Delbert “Demz” Rodrigues, who was a 21-year-old graffiti artist that died in 2014 after being struck by Detective Michael Cadavid’s unmarked police cruiser during Art Basel weekend in Miami. This was the same weekend during which undercover units were assigned to bust taggers during the festivities. In 2015, when 12 Parisian artists at Charlie Hebdo Magazine published a caricature of the prophet Mohammed they were subsequently met with machine gun fire by an Islamist terrorist group that resulted in their untimely deaths — deaths that carved their names into history as martyrs of art.

These attacks, whether unintentional (according to Detective Cadavid) or intentional, are in some mysterious way a show of honor for the artist. Though violence is not a constructive show of appreciation for art, the artist themselves might welcome their fate if they were given a foresight into the universal call-to-action for progressive change that would follow their deaths.

Murder, of course, is not an adequate response to artistic expression, but all artists would agree that a masterpiece is not meant to invoke passivity, but quite the opposite. The fact that there still exists a culture in which paintings, film, philosophy, etc. are not a harmless commodity creates a threat to the creative freedom of artists and puts

damper on their imaginations. It poses the questions: is all art dangerous? Is all art controversial?

The artist is then left to ask themselves: am I willing to die for my art?

Art is often characterized as obscene whenever it’s deemed controversial, but it’s difficult to think back to a time in history where art hasn’t been considered controversial. Always in the art world, there will be an institution that exists to constrict artists, but these institutions are a testament to the fragile, normative ideological values that aim to censor and not foster creativity. It’s difficult to imagine where our world would be without those daring geniuses that were hellbent on challenging the society they lived in and the rules of that society to which they were forced to adhere.

Socrates is one of the oldest examples of those put to death for their art. He was sentenced to death for “corrupting the youth” and “refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state.”

Through his philosophical discourses, he broke the mold of structured intellectualism within his ancient Greek society. Not that the unwritten texts of Socrates and the caricatures of Charlie Hebdo are identical in quality, but they both challenged specific, widespread ideological values which resulted in the death of their architects.

The list of martyrs is not limited to philosophers and cartoonists. In 1952, a massacre known as “The Night of the Murdered Poets” resulted in several significant Soviet Jewish figures being executed in the Lubyanka Prison on charges of espionage, bourgeois nationalism, treason and a “lack of true Soviet spirit.” The group consisted of several Yiddish writers, all of whom were a part of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.

Under the order of Joseph Stalin, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee leaders were arrested, tortured, beaten and isolated for three years be-

fore being formally charged with said crimes. In court, there were no prosecutors or defense attorneys, only three military judges. Some defendants admitted their guilt, others plead partially guilty and some maintained their innocence. The men received “the severest measure of punishment for the crimes committed by them jointly: execution by firing squad, with all their property to be confiscated.”

After the execution, there was no reference to the men in Soviet newspapers. The defendants’ families were charged with crimes of “being relatives of traitors to the motherland” and exiled in late 1952. They did not learn about the fates of their family members until November of 1955 when the case was reopened.

Then there are those who have died directly at the hand of the system. In the 1960s, Lenny Bruce, a revolutionary stand-up comedian who was leading the way in counter-culture comedy, often integrated rants about his court battles over obscenity charges and other tirades against fascism. Though by today’s standards, Bruce’s standup would be considered relatively tame, in the 1960s he found himself blacklisted from almost every club in the country.

The provocative material and frequent use of expletives that Bruce factored into his routines made him both a star and a blip on the authorities’ radar, which led to his repeated arrests. Bruce became bankrupt due to the compounding of his obscenity charges and his lack of employment.

With his spirit and career destroyed by his battles with the U.S. justice system, he turned to drugs to cope with the downfall of his career.

“Without Lenny Bruce a lot of us wouldn’t be able to do what we do today,” said Brendon Burns, an Australian comedian, in an interview with the BBC. “He pioneered stand-up about things everyone does and everyone thinks, but it

just wasn’t polite to talk about.”

In August of 1966, Bruce died because of a drug overdose in the bathroom of his Los Angeles home. His premature death and professional decline have since led to him being defined as a martyr of free speech.

But sometimes it doesn’t require a painting or a poem for an artist to be murdered for their genius. In the early 1980s, Jewish radio talk show host Alan Berg was killed by automatic-weapon fire released by four members of The Order, a white nationalist group that was dedicated to the separation of the races and the annihilation of Jewish peoples. Berg made their hit-list not only because he was Jewish but because of his liberal views and his combative on-air persona, which often focused on challenging members of the Christian Identity movement who believed Jewish peoples were descended from Satan.

Anath White, one of the last producers to work with Berg, insists that even if Berg had known how dangerous the people and supporters were of the Christian Identity movement, he would not have canceled or changed his tack for those shows. “He was a person who took risks for his beliefs,” she said in an interview with the Denver Post.

If a posthumous Berg were to look back at the cause of his death, what would he say? An eternal mystery, admittedly, but would he choose to take back his interview and the questions he asked that challenged the dispositions of a hateful organization? Would he choose to die again, as a symbol for all those who wish to diverge from the norm with their art?

According to Plato, Socrates felt the same lack of regret. When the hemlock finally passed his lips and began to numb Socrates’s body, his final words were, “Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius.

Please, don’t forget to pay the debt.”

THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019 | 13

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

MICHA EL LEA HY / AGGIE

SAVE THE BEES!

Hanging bee hives provide art, functionality

BY STELLA TRAN city@theaggie.org Given the recent swarm of bees in Davis, Circle of Bees — a nonprofit that provides education to protect and expand beekeeping culture — has been involved in a number of projects, including an art installation that hung about 77 bee hives in Davis’ Central Park as part of a 100 Hives project. It is also working on future PolliNation Fests to facilitate more awareness about beekeeping.

Christian Coulon, the founder and president of Circle of Bees, noted that he was inspired to

create a niche group that cares about bee protection and engages in more education and art surrounding beekeeping to enrich the community.

“There should be a career in city beekeeping somewhere between education and the art and science in beekeeping — there should be a rotation there,” Coulon said.

As swarms of bees come and go, John McNerney, the wildlife resource specialist for the City of Davis, clarified that swarms are inevitable.

“To be clear, swarms happen,” McNerney said via email. “There is no good reason nor feasible way to prevent them. These swarm capture devises will help control where these swarms end up

JA IME CHEN / AGGIE

CELEBRATE DAVIS RETURNS WITH TRADITIONS, NEW HISTORICAL ACTIVITY

Local businesses, organizations come together to honor city’s rich history

colonizing. Swarms frequently establish permanent hives in precarious locations such as buildings, play structures, trees along bike paths, etc.

The goal of the swam capture device installation is to offer temporary shelter to queen/ swarm until a beekeeper can collect them and give them a new, more appropriately located home. I think the blend of art and functionality is a great way to engage and educate the public about the value of honey bees and other important pollinators.”

In efforts to handle honey bee infestations, Coulon incorporated the 100 Hives project, which encompasses the arts as well as functionality through hive installations.

“100 Hives project is a practical solution to the problem of honey bee infestations in town,” Coulon said via email. “Every spring we get about 50 swarms in town which every beekeeper want. However, a good portion ends up in cavities in walls and chimneys, which nobody wants to deal with. Our swarm capture hives are built to dimensions and baited so that they are more attractive to scout bees than anything else. Therefore they prevent costly repairs and nuisance to humans and extension to bees. And we’ve had good evidence that they work because we captured 4 swarms over 4 days in Central Park last weekend while the installation was up.”

While the hives serve a function, local artists also colored and decorated them so that they are appealing to the eye.

Rachel Hartsough, the City of Davis’ arts and culture manager, mentioned the city’s appreciation for the hive art installation.

“Using public art to help tell a story about environmental sustainability and stewardship is a real priority for the city’s arts program, and we are thrilled to be supporting the Circle of Bees project,” Hartsough said to The Davis Enterprise.

“Healthy bees are a vital part of our local ecology, and essential to the California economy, which relies so heavily on agricultural production,” Hartsough said to The Enterprise.

While Coulon has a vision to protect bees, Circle of Bees does not do beekeeping.

“We don’t do beekeeping,” Coulon said. “Circle of Bees is focused on visual or sensory art and education, and we saw that 100 hives could be a culmination of art and education opportunity.”

Since there is not another feasible way to prevent swarms, McNerney indicated that the swarm capture devices, or the hive art installation, is the better alternative.

“Again, there is no reasonable way to prevent this natural dispersal event,” McNerney said.

“These swarm capture devices are likely the best available method to guide colony establishment.”

For future projects, Coulon noted that Circle of Bees is looking forward to future PolliNation fests, where it can throw a party for different causes.

“Examples are: Banning sale of Roundup or other toxic herbicides or fungicides in Davis, Star fest: getting the city to turn off all the lights and asking businesses and residents to do the same, for one night so that we can see the stars, [and] rallying to have the city close all of Third Street to personal automobile traffic downtown,” Coulon said.

While PolliNation Fest seems like another Whole Earth Fest, Coulon suggested its differences.

“PolliNation Fest was conceived as we have the PolliNation Fest billed as the scrappy, punky kid-sister to Whole Earth Fest, with less commercial hippy appeal and more experimental, interactive, techno-folk inclusivity,” Coulon said via email.

BY RENEE HOH city@theaggie.org

Library for attendees to view.”

The Chamber keeps the event environmentally friendly and tries to reduce traffic by encouraging participants to bike to the event and utilize the free bike valet service, as well as bring their own reusable water bottles to use at fill-up stations, according to Claus.

Some vendors of the event include Sudwerk Brewery and Running Rivers Wine Cellar, while sponsors include A Grand Affair, Nugget Markets, The Kana Company, among others.

According to Bob Bowen, the public relations manager for the city of Davis, the city will partner with the Chamber and have six different booths from various departments –– from public works to the police department. Residents will be able to ask questions about their utility bill or learn more about upcoming summer programs and recreational activities.

“People have an opportunity to find out about some of the city services and the programs that we have or some the projects that are underway right now,” Bowen said. “People are concerned

The annual Celebrate Davis and fireworks show, is a celebration of Davis’ prolific business community, residents and student life. The event will be hosted by the Davis Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, May 16.

The gathering is free of charge and set to begin at 4 p.m. It will feature performances, food options, bounce houses, shopping and a fireworks show to conclude the event at 9 p.m.

Attendees will gather at Community Park on F Street, which is the same venue as the annual Fourth of July fireworks show.

A new feature to this year’s celebration displays a walk-through “History of Yolo” section, showcasing artifacts from the County’s history.

“Old vehicles and equipment will be on dis from the City of Davis Police Department, Fire Department and Recology, who is our Title Sponsor this year,” said Holly Claus, the director of events & marketing of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, via email. “There will also be old photographs brought out by UC Davis Shields

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backstop

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

14 | THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2019

IA N J O N E S / AG G I E

SACRAMENTO REPUBLIC FC MAKES EFFORT TO BECOME PART OF MLS Team secures new funding, releases outline for new stadium plan

BY A J SE YM O UR sports@theaggie.org In early April, Sacramento Republic FC and the city of Sacramento released a joint term sheet that outlined the makings of a new Major League Soccer (MLS) stadium. The stadium is estimated to be built in the city’s rail yards — but only if the MLS agrees to allow the team to expand to Sacramento. Although the term sheet is non-binding, it demonstrates how the city, the team

and the project’s lead investor, Ron Burkle, will be able to work together to raise the funds for the stadium and begin the construction process.

The new stadium plans surround the team’s push to officially become part of the MLS. With city leadership behind them, Sac Republic managers have been working for years to make the move — but so far to no avail.

In 2018, Sacramento was passed up by the MLS for a team in Nashville, Ten. This year though, it appears to be almost guaran-

CA ITLYN SA MPLEY / AGGIE

A BOUNCE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION New TV deal, injury to one of its biggest stars brings more attention to WNBA in its fight for better pay

BY OM A R N AVA R R O sports@theaggie.org On April 22, the WNBA and CBS Sports agreed to a multiyear TV deal that will almost double the exposure of the league compared to last season. CBS Sports Network will air 40 WNBA games this season, and ESPN will air another 16. This new deal appears to be a big step in the right direction for a league that is constantly battling to achieve equal pay — and will help make this deal about more than just the games.

“It’s going to be beyond highlights,” Senior Vice President, Global Media Distribution and Business Affairs for NBA Entertainment David Denenberg told the Star Tribune.

“Whether it’s features we develop or CBS develops, we want to do more.”

The new deal adds another layer to the fight for better pay for the WNBA players, who make just a fraction of what their NBA counterparts make. While there are a number of economic factors as to why NBA players earn more money, like jersey sales, tickets and a higher TV ratings share, WNBA player salaries on their own are still astonishingly small for professional ball players.

For example, a player on a maximum contract in the NBA makes about $40 million annually, and this figure is continuing to increase by the millions every year. A max player in the WNBA, however, makes just $115,000, and the max contract only goes up $2,000 every season.

A’ja Wilson was drafted number one overall in the 2018 WNBA draft but has a salary of $53,000, whereas number one overall pick in the NBA that same year, Deandre Ayton, plays on an average salary of $8.8 million a year.

The list of disparities goes on, and last season all throughout the WNBA, players began to speak up. Players like All-Star and WNBA legend Sue Bird began to bring up the notion that this was unjust.

“Look, we’re not over here saying we should be paid the same as the men. We’re realistic,” Bird told ESPN. “We understand that this is a business and that their revenue is insane compared to ours. But there is a bias that exists.”

What players do want is a bigger share of the revenue.

“I’m tired of people thinking that us players are asking for the same type of money as NBA players,” said Las Vegas Aces’ star Kelsey Plum in a tweet. “We are asking for the same percentage of revenue shared within our CBA.” While the WNBA collective bargaining agreement is not public, there are estimates that suggest the players make only 20% of the league revenue. On the other hand, NBA players make 50% of their league revenue. Because of this, in November of 2018, the WNBA Players Association announced that they voted to opt-out of the CBA, which now expires after the 2019 season. The players association also plans to market around the league’s stars, market the teams more effectively, space out the schedule and improve the travel conditions.

Because players do not earn enough over the course of a regular season, many play in other leagues overseas in the offseason. Abroad, WNBA stars can make around 10 to 15 times more money than they do in the states. But the downside is that doing so taxes the players’ bodies year round and leaves no offseason to recover.

Because of this, injuries and fatigue are common. Breanna Stewart, the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player and Finals MVP in 2019, entered this Spring coming off a dominant season that culminated in a championship for her team, the Seattle Storm. Even she, like many other WNBA players, competed overseas right after the season ended. In last month’s Euroleague championship game, Stewart ruptured her achilles, ending her 2019 WNBA season before it began.

This was a big blow for the WNBA, as Stewart is one of its bigger stars. The injury made waves throughout the basketball world, and NBA players like Lebron James and others showed their support for the MVP. The NBA is no stranger to showing its support for WNBA players, as it is one of the biggest supporters in the WNBA’s quest for better pay. The NBA has long supported the WNBA, even releasing commercials featuring players such as Steph Curry, Paul George and Isaiah Thomas, among others, expressing their excitement for the WNBA and its players.

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teed that Sacramento will finally secure its spot in the MLS in the next few years. In the middle of April, many expected the MLS to announce whether Sacramento or St. Louis would be winning a spot in the league. To everyone’s surprise, instead the MLS announced it would be accepting three more teams into the league at its Board of Governors meeting in Beverly Hills and said it was entering formal talks with Sacramento and St. Louis for two of them.

It is estimated that the entirety of the building will cost $252 million, and the actual construction would generate between 1,310 and 2,639 jobs while the building of the infrastructure would generate between 108 and 245 jobs.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg reassured the people of Sacramento that the funds for the project would not be coming out of taxpayers’ wallets.

“The proposed term sheet lays out a package of fee waivers, tax rebates, advertising rights to stadium signage and infrastructure financing,” Steinberg said. “All with variables based on some factors that are yet to be determined — speed of development, advertising revenue, estimated taxes, etc.”

On top of private funding, the new stadium is said to present a significant benefit for the city’s development, especially to the areas surrounding it. The 17 acres it would occupy for the stadium racks up an investment of about $1 billion into the city.

Sacramento City Council Member Jeff Harris commented on the beneficial aspects of the stadium — and not just from a fan’s point of view.

“This MLS stadium will jump-start the railyards and redevelopment of the river district,” Harris said. “So, there is benefits galore for the city, in terms of development, tax money we can raise over time, but also, it just serves the needs our constituents.”

Currently, Sac Republic is a member of the United Soccer League, which is essentially a minor league for the MLS. Having dominated since entering the league in 2014, Sac Republic has a culture unlike most other clubs.

Sac Republic’s home stadium is Papa Murphy’s Park located on the Sacramento Fairgrounds. It’s a newly built, soccer-specific stadium that sells out quite often, fitting just over 11,000 fans.

One sellout includes the club’s most recent home match on April 27 versus Phoenix Rising.

The electricity buzzing through the stadium continued ceaselessly for 90 minutes, even without a goal being recorded in the match. The smaller sized stadium might possibly be working in the home team’s favor, considering the sheer volume of noise echoing from the crowd. With the immense money and resources billionaire Ron Burkle has put into this organization, it’s become undeniable that Sacramento Republic FC is rapidly on the come up and will be a prime time Northern California sporting event in no time.

A LEXA FON TA N ILLA / AGG IE

FOUR AGGIES GET A SHOT AT LIVING OUT NFL DREAMS Doss, Moe, Olave, White will participate in rookie mini-camps

BY B RE NDAN O G B U R N sports@theaggie.org A quartet of former UC Davis football players will have an opportunity to continue their careers at the next level after getting the call from four different NFL franchises following last month’s NFL Draft.

Wide receiver Keelan Doss and linebacker Mason Moe both signed rookie contracts and will join their teams as undrafted free agents. Doss will stay very close to his hometown of Alameda and compete for a spot on the Oakland Raiders.

He participated in the team’s rookie mini-camp during the first weekend of May, which is a threeday workout all of the 32 NFL franchises hold for their newest players out of college.

Moe, an All-Big Sky Second Team honoree last season, will head east to the City of Brotherly Love and compete for the Philadelphia Eagles.

After leading the Big Sky in tackles for loss and sacks last season, Moe plans to finish his American Studies degree this quarter.

Meanwhile, defensive backs Isiah Olave and Vincent White both received invites to participate in the rookie mini-camps, after being notified late last week. Olave, who was second on the team in interceptions and pass break-up’s last season, will head to South Florida to try out for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. White, the Big Sky leader with 21 pass break-ups last season, will get a shot to play for the Denver Broncos. Both players will try to earn spots on the 90-man rosters this upcoming weekend, in hopes of getting invited back for further offseason workouts and training camps in mid-July.

Doss’ noticeable absence from the NFL draft was a head-scratcher for many fans and draft “experts,” who were expecting a mid-to-late-round selection. As time continued to pass on Friday evening and Saturday morning of draft weekend, it became apparent that Doss, who was watching on television with his friends and family in Alameda, was not going to hear his name called on the big stage in Nashville, Tenn., where the main event was hosted. Evidently, his pectoral injury at the NFL Combine in March proved to be a concern for NFL front offices, and his once-soaring draft stock took a sizable blow as a result.

Nevertheless, he was quickly snatched up by the Oakland Raiders just a couple hours after the conclusion of the draft on Saturday afternoon.

Reportedly, there was a grand total of 18 NFL teams lining up to sign the 2017 Walter Payton Award Finalist, but Doss chose to stay close to home and sign with the team that coached him during the Reese’s Senior Bowl in January.

During that week of practice with many of the top college football players in the nation, Doss was able to forge a relationship with Oakland Head Coach Jon Gruden, who he had grown up watching and adoring as a kid in the Bay Area.

“We were definitely surprised he wasn’t drafted,” Carmen Wallace, Doss’ agent at Athletes First told The Athletic last week. “But he has a tremendous opportunity [in Oakland]. Plus he has a great rapport with the rest of the staff and felt he had a head start on the offense.”

Doss will have his work cut out for him trying to earn a spot in a wide receiver corps that already includes high-profile free agent signees Antonio Brown and Tyrell Williams, among other talented players in the position. However, Gruden has all the confidence in the world that Doss will be able to rise above the competition and secure a spot on the 53-man roster.

A Sports Illustrated film focusing on Doss and his preparation for the NFL draft, “Next Level,” was recently released, giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at his experiences at the Senior Bowl, Combine, Pro Day and draft night.

The film shows footage of Gruden speaking to Doss shortly after the draft and reiterating his trust and belief in the player’s talent and ability.

This was surely a crucial selling point in Doss’ decision to sign with the Raiders.

Given all the obstacles Doss has overcome already, outperforming his teammates and ultimately earning a spot on the Raiders roster is well within his reach. It will take an incredible amount of hard work and determination over the next four months, but Doss has shown time and time again just how gifted he is on the football field.

Overall, all four of these former Aggies played a pivotal role in leading UC Davis to one of the greatest and most memorable seasons in the program’s 100-year history. They formed a large part of the core that dominated opponents throughout the fall, en route to a 9-2 regular season, a first round bye and first Division-I playoff victory in school history.

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