June 4 2020

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VOLUME 138, ISSUE 30 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

STUDENTS, COMMUNITY MEMBERS PROTEST POLICE BRUTALITY AFTER POLICE KILLING OF GEORGE FLOYD

Student activists inspired by Black Lives Matter protests across nation call for change in Davis community

Dignity Health Medical Foundation in North Davis.

(Markus Kaeppeli / Aggie)

UC TASK FORCE UNABLE TO REACH AGREEMENT ON HOW TO MOVE FORWARD WITH DIGNITY HEALTH PARTNERSHIPS, GIVES TWO RECOMMENDATIONS Some argue that partnering with Dignity restrict care to

LGBTQ+ people, women, others argue more are harmed by not partnering

BY J ESSI CA BAGGOTT campus@theaggie.org Black Lives Matter protestors marched to the Richards Boulevard Overpass, where protestors faced officers from the Davis Police Department and California Highway Patrol on Sunday, May 31. (Benjamin Cheng / Aggie)

BY MA D EL E I N E PAY NE city@theaggie.org Protesters in Davis took to the streets this weekend to speak out against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Monday. The demonstrators — a crowd of around 80 to 100 students and community members who marched through Downtown Davis — were among the thousands of Americans involved in ongoing protests and demonstrations focused on racism and police brutality that took place in cities around the country and the world.

Kevin Kimura, a second-year economics major and one of the organizers for Saturday’s protest, said he wanted to organize a peaceful protest after connecting with Davis students over social media.

“Out of the blue, I decided to post something on the Wildfire app, and some people responded saying they wanted to protest as well,” Kimura said. “I wasn’t expecting that, but that’s where it took off.”

Another student organizer for Saturday’s protest is Maya Martinez, a second-year biological sciences major. Martinez said she felt compelled to act after seeing social media posts about Floyd’s death and the news coverage of the Black Lives

Matter protests happening across the country.

“I was just outraged because this has been a regular occurrence in people’s lives,” Martinez said. “As someone who is non-Black but who has also experienced other types of injustice and racism, I just wanted to help in any way I could — while also understanding my role as an ally.”

Kimura explained that he and those who responded to his post became the main organizers for Saturday’s event. Together they planned the route, created a Facebook page and drew fliers to be shared on social media. Kimura also informed the Davis Police Department ahead of the protest.

“In preparation, I actually notified the Davis P.D. before the protests were happening,” Kimura said. “They were essentially escorting us, but the goal was basically to keep the protest peaceful because we were expecting outside groups to come in.”

While the protest on Saturday had structure and a public Facebook page, Sunday’s protest was different. Various fliers circulated around Wildfire that called for a protest beginning at the intersection of Anderson Road and Russell Boulevard and ending at Central Park Gardens, but the source of the fliers remains unclear.

One protester, who wished to remain anonymous, said the fliers for Sunday’s protest were “originally posted on Wildfire after many indi-

viduals wanted to protest,” but that they themself “did not want to attend Saturday’s event because the police were informed and escorted protestors.”

Ultimately, Sunday’s protest led to a standoff with police in riot gear, who were blocking the freeway bridge at the intersection of Olive Drive and Richards Boulevard. The protests continued without any violent confrontations, as the group of protesters turned around and returned to Downtown Davis.

Despite disagreements over police involvement, many students are passionate about inciting change in the Davis community. Martinez said the protests have made her think more critically about how UC Davis could be doing more to support Black students during this time.

“I think extra resources should be provided to Black students,” Martinez said. “Counseling, health services and even professors and TAs checking in on Black students is really important because they are undergoing a type of stress that people who are non-Black don’t understand.”

Kimura added a more urgent message — a sentiment that is being echoed throughout the streets of America.

“It is time for change,” Kimura said. “This is not the America I want to be living in.”

DAVIS BUSINESSES STRUGGLING, AS SHOWN IN DAVIS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SURVEY Over half of Davis businesses surveyed report significant loss of income during shelter-in-place KATHER IN E FR A N KS / AGGIE

BY T I M L A LO N D E city@theaggie.org Results from a survey conducted by the Davis Chamber of Commerce show the COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound negative impact on Davis business. Over half of Davis businesses that form the Chamber’s membership have reported “severe” loss of income and 14% report shuttering completely.

The Chamber surveyed its 124 local business members in early May and sent out the results in a press release to the Davis Enterprise and the Davis Vanguard. The Chamber asked businesses about the financial and operational impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent shelter-inplace order.

Seventy-five percent of businesses said they had experienced a loss of income and half saw

that reduction as “severe;” 18% said most or all of their staff had been placed on leave or laid off and 26% reported some layoffs and reduction to staff hours, according to the Vanguard.

Thirty-seven percent of businesses reported that they had moved part of their operations online or introduced delivery options to continue operations, and 70% reported that they had applied for some kind of financial assistance, either from federal, state or local entities, according to the Vanguard.

The survey also asked participants what further actions the Chamber and local and state officials could do to help Davis businesses stay afloat during the pandemic. Respondents requested outreach to community members — providing information on which businesses remain open — and outreach to members of the business community on best practices related to conducting operations during the pandemic, the Vanguard reported.

“The most urgent request from businesses was to receive clear guidance on how to operate safely within current and emerging conditions,” the chamber reported, according to the Vanguard.

“In the challenging days ahead, the Davis Chamber of Commerce will work tirelessly in partnership with our colleagues at the city of Davis, Yolo County and the state of California to continue to provide support and assistance to our local businesses.”

Recent relaxed shelter-in-place orders — both at a state and county level — may provide some degree of relief to Davis businesses in the coming days. On May 4, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced that the state would move into the second of his four-stage reopening process, allowing for some “low-risk” businesses to resume. And on May 21, Yolo County had been approved to move further into the reopening process, according to Yolo County Public Information Office’s Manager of Public Affairs Jenny Tan in a daily briefing.

“This means that our county has met criteria outlined by the California Department of Public Health to move more quickly through Stage Two,” Tan said. “Activities and businesses that are now eligible in Yolo County to reopen include dine-in restaurants and shopping centers like retail stores and swap meets.”

In a May 26 press release, the county announced which activities and business had been approved for reopening under the new, relaxed restrictions. Non-essential offices, in-store retail shopping centers and dine-in restaurants were eligible to reopen as of May 27, according to the release. Hair salons and barbershops could reopen after May 28 and places of worship could reopen as of May 29. The release highlighted the importance of complying with state guidance for reopening during the pandemic, making special note of restrictions for dine-in services at restaurants.

COMMERCEREPORT on 11

Unable to agree on a single set of recommendations, a UC task force presented two options on how best to affiliate with health care systems outside of the system to UC President Janet Napolitano in the Working Group on Comprehensive Access (WGCA) Chair’s Report of Findings and Recommendations.

The WGCA was formed in August of 2019 after public outcry in the spring when UCSF was revealed to be expanding affiliations with faith-based hospital system Dignity Health.

The WGCA was composed of 15 UC officials: a regent, chancellors, deans, faculty, Academic Senate representatives and UC health leadership.

Ten of the 15 WGCA members had already expressed support for the UCSF and Dignity Health partnership before the formation of the WGCA. All three Academic Senate Representatives in the WGCA, as well as UC San Diego Professor Gabriel Haddad, were explicitly not in favor of a UCSF and Dignity Health partnership before the formation of the WGCA. The group was tasked with creating a list of policy recommendations to ensure the values of the UC are upheld in all affiliations with other health care systems and that UC personnel would be unrestricted in providing medical care.

Unable to agree to one set of recommendations, the WGCA created two options which could be adopted individually or in combination with one another, according to UC Irvine Chancellor and Chair of the WGCA Howard Gillman.

Option 1, supported primarily by UC Health officials “allow affiliations with organizations that have non-evidence-based policy restrictions on care if governed by appropriate policies and guidelines,” Gillman said in the report. Option 2, supported by those who could not endorse the report was “designed to impose a prohibition on such affiliations.”

In short, Option 1 encouraged continued affiliation with health care systems that may restrict health care based on religious doctrine if clear guidelines are created to protect UC personnel. Option 2 discouraged continued affiliation with health care systems that have restrictions based on religion.

The two groups formed because the WGCA could not unite in answering two fundamental questions: “Whether UC should affiliate at all with organizations whose institutional policies (a) prohibit the use of contraception, abortion, assisted reproductive technology, gender-affirming care for transgender people, and the full range of end-of-life options and (b) permit non-clinicians to make clinical decisions affecting the health and safety of individual patients irrespective of the professional judgment of health care providers and/or the informed decisions of patients.”

Though the WGCA was tasked with making policy recommendations that protect the freedoms of UC personnel, enable the appropriate care of patients regardless of which facility they are first examined and encompass respect for a diversity of opinions, the issue comes down to the fact that some Catholic Church-sponsored hospitals restrict care based on religious convictions. These convictions, called Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs), are determined by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), not doctors.

The ERDs do not allow the prescription of any FDA-approved methods for preventing pregnancy including sterilization, elective abortion; assistive reproductive technology such as in-vetro fertalization (IVF) or the use of a surrogate for pregnancy; gender affirming care such as hormone replacement therapy or surgery or physician-assisted aid in dying.

Women and transgender individuals are those most affected by these policies, and gay couples who need IVF or a surrogate for biological pregnancy are also highly impacted.

DIGNITYHEALTH on 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

2 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

YOLO COUNTY ENTERS STAGE 2 OF ROAD TO RECOVERY, GETS APPROVAL FROM STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO PROCEED TO LATE-STAGE 2

Childcare, outdoor museums among services that are allowed to resume, county officials discuss opening of dine-in restaurants KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

BY MA D E L E I N E PAY N E city@theaggie.org Yolo County is allowing several previously restricted activities to resume with social distancing measures after California adjusted its shelter-inplace order. The state has also allowed for more individual variation between counties in reopening businesses and other activities, prompting a discussion by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors for when the county will be ready to reopen.

In a Yolo County press release, city officials described the services that can continue as the state transitions into phase two of a four-phase plan for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Effective immediately Yolo County has

amended the current Shelter-in-Place order to now allow childcare for non-essential workers, select services, and outdoor museums and open gallery spaces to re-open while non-essential office-based businesses must remain closed,” the statement said.

The “select services” mentioned in the amendment include services that require limited person-to-person contact, like car washes, pet grooming and residential cleaning. The press release explains why office-based businesses were not included in the list.

“While the State Order is in effect, counties are permitted to be more restrictive than the state regarding the re-opening of activities,” the statement said. “The State’s Order now allows for

office-based business to re-open, while strongly encouraging continued teleworking. The County will delay reopening non-essential offices until next week in order to develop localized guidance.”

Though the county is not immediately reopening all of the services allowed by the state, officials received approval from the state of California for Yolo County to progress more quickly through phase two of the Resilience Roadmap.

The services that would be open later in stage two include dine-in restaurants, schools with some modifications, and in-store retail shopping, according to the Yolo County Roadmap to Recovery.

Ron Chapman, Yolo County’s health officer, recommended that the county progress toward these late-stage two reopenings with the appropriate safety measures at a Board of Supervisors meeting on May 19. He mentioned how in his personal experience, businesses and residents are coming together to protect the community.

“I’ve been really impressed,” Chapman said.

“These businesses have a steady flow of customers, all of whom are wearing face coverings [and] following safe distance practices. These businesses and their customers have created a new normal. Our coronavirus dashboard shows this new normal to be successful.”

In another presentation to the Board of Supervisors the following week, Chapman discussed the county’s testing capacities in relation to businesses reopening.

“Our testing capacity is exceptional at this point and far exceeding public and clinical demand,” Chapman said. “Our positive test rate remains very low. Our number of cases and hospitalizations combined with our outstanding level of preparedness makes our county ready to ex-

pand the opening of businesses in a safe manner following state and local public health guidance.”

During the same meeting, April Meneghetti, the Yolo County Director of Environmental Health, discussed how the Environmental Health Department approves the reopening of dine-in restaurants but encouraged the county to provide more specific guidance on requiring employees to wear face coverings and that employees who are sick should stay at home.

Meneghetti discussed the various situations that the county is experiencing now — situations that may require additional guidance if restaurants are open for dine-in. She mentioned that restaurants have only seen a few customers who refuse to wear a facemask but that in those instances, the restaurants are not responsible for the customer’s actions.

“If somebody’s refusing to wear a face-covering, for example, we’re not going to cite the restaurant for that,” Meneghetti said. “They’re going to need to work through that, and if things become extremely difficult our recommendation would be to call law enforcement at that point.”

The Board of Supervisors expressed concerns about how to protect employees of essential businesses as restaurants open back up. Supervisor Don Saylor discussed the ways essential workers can protect themselves and report unsafe practices.

“As we open these businesses, we may be transferring risks from the community to these people who work in the kitchens and in serving, and they sometimes can’t avoid them,” Saylor said. “I’m interested in us delving into the use of sick leave, and the use of paid sick leave. If you’re working in a restaurant and you see an unsafe practice, how do you deal with that?”

UC BUDGET CUTS COULD HIT UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS AND LECTURERS THE HARDEST Despite Napolitano, chancellors’ voluntary 10% pay cut, UC faces multiple budget challenges

UC President Janet Napolitano speaking during the investiture of Gary May as chancellor of UC Davis in 2017.

(Jordan Knowles / Aggie)

BY JA N EL L E M A R IE SAL ANGA campus@theaggie.org UC President Janet Napolitano and the 10 UC chancellors will be taking a voluntary 10% pay cut during the 2020–2021 UC fiscal year, which begins on July 1, Napolitano said in a May 18 press release. It’s the latest measure taken by the UC to mitigate losses from COVID-19 costs, estimated to be nearly $1.2 billion from midMarch to April.

In anticipation of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revision of state budget plans, Napolitano authored

a letter to the governor asking for leniency with regard to cuts to UC funding.

“UC is confronting many of the worst impacts of the virus all at once,” she wrote. “We are a health care system saving lives; a research enterprise seeking cures and a vaccine; an education system quickly transitioning to remote instruction; and an employer working hard to protect our workforce in the face of an economic downturn.”

Despite the letter, Newsom’s revised state budget, introduced on May 14, would institute a 10% decrease in state funding to the UC system if the federal government does not provide funds

to restore them.

One of Newsom’s directives amid the potential decrease in UC funding is for the system to minimize the impact on programs and services for underrepresented students.

Despite this directive, a line item on the budget for UC Regents, however, would reduce funding for undocumented students’ campus services and financial aid by $500,000. While originally intended to be discussed at the Regents meeting in May, it was tabled until July.

ASUCD External Affairs Vice President Maria Martinez, however, wrote a letter — with the aid of SPEAK — to the UC Regents to demonstrate student opposition to the line item before the item was tabled. Martinez plans to keep its momentum going until the budget cut is discussed.

There are 119 pages of signatures, from organizations and students within the UC to members of the general public, as of June 1.

“Our fight to protect undocumented students should not end at the Supreme Court,” Martinez said in her letter. “We must support all of our undocumented students by adequately funding their financial aid and programs that support them in their educational journey. Anything less would undermine the University’s mission to provide opportunities to undocumented students.”

Martinez said one of the most frustrating things for her was the Regents listing a $400,000 expansion for the National Center for Free Speech.

“Of course I value free speech and civic engagement, but I don’t think they’re taking into consideration the students,” Martinez said.

In the 2018–19 budget schedule for UC Da-

vis, there were $59,000 unrestricted designated funds for “cultural programs” and $12,000 unrestricted general funds for disadvantaged students.

UC Davis also spent $155 million on student services in 2018–19, compared to $186 million for institutional support, a category including employee benefits, environmental health, police and public relations.

Before Martinez published her letter, Varsha Sarveshwar, president of the UC Student Association (UCSA), advocated for additional funds for undocumented student services in a letter addressed to Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-CA) and State Senator Holly Mitchell (D-CA).

On behalf of the UCSA, Sarveshwar requested $2.5 million in ongoing funding for undocumented student programs and one-time funds of $7.5 million for emergency financial aid.

“Most undocumented student programs are expected to run out of the short-term funds the university had provided to them years ago, even as the COVID-19 pandemic drives demand for their services and as the Supreme Court DACA case decision looms,” Sarveshwar wrote.

While Martinez herself is not undocumented, her parents are immigrants and many of her friends are part of the undocumented community.

“Looking around me, a lot of my friends [who are undocumented] are about to get their education and go to school, but are really frustrated by the barriers they already face,” Martinez said. “My family didn’t get to go to college, but they could’ve with these programs.”

BUDGETANDPAY on 11

UC DAVIS CLINICIANS AND ENGINEERS COLLABORATE TO DEVELOP LOW-COST PORTABLE VENTILATOR Ventilator created with goal of 80% functionality for 10% of cost compared to commercially available device KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE

BY DI N A G A L L AC H E R science@theaggie.org In response to the national shortage of ventilators across the country, UC Davis biomedical engineers and clinicians have collaboratively developed an automated low-cost portable ventilator. The device has been named AmbuBox and is on track to becoming publicly available in the near future following urgent authorization from the FDA. The AmbuBox is expected to cost between $100 and $500, according to engineers and developers involved in the ongoing project. This contrasts greatly with commercially available ventilators, which can cost upward of $50,000 in some cases.

The AmbuBox design was originally devel-

oped by clinicians and engineers at MiNI Lab, which is directed by Dr. Tingrui Pan, a professor within the Department of Biomedical Engineering. His lab is particularly interested in exploring interdisciplinary links between nanoengineering, biomedicine, and related fields.

“The idea was first Dr. Pan’s idea,” said Dr. Andrew Li from the Department of Surgery at UC Davis Medical Center. “Whether it’s pumps or converting small volumes of liquid from one area to another, that’s kind of [MiNI Lab’s] specialty — they’re very interested in the flow of liquids and gases, and this was the perfect application.”

After learning early on that there could be a potential shortage of ventilators due to the pandemic, Pan started leading work on easing this issue.

“During the pandemic, I was working with

my collaborator in the Medical Center and they told us that there could be a potential shortfall on the ventilator, and so we started working on it,” Pan said. “The goal is not to create a new category of ventilator [but rather] to make a simpler ventilator design that can be quickly manufactured.”

There are many commercially available ventilators that are equipped with advanced technology in order to improve the user experience, according to Pan. These ventilators are furnished with advanced interfaces and various breath delivery settings, which significantly raise the price of the device but do not provide a significantly greater degree of care to the patient. “[The traditional ventilator] consists of thousands of components that you have to order, not only from the US but [also] globally,” Pan said.

“If there’s any glitch in the supply chain, you might not get a ventilator in a short time frame.”

With this challenge in mind, Pan’s lab emphasized a minimal amount of working parts when they were considering various designs for the AmbuBox. Some inspiration for the project came from AmbuBag, an existing manual ventilator which requires a nurse or doctor to squeeze air into the bag to allow for ventilation. “[AmbuBox] is a very simple design with no major moving parts,” Li said. “This is in contrast with a traditional ventilator that often has many, many moving parts, and on top of that, sometimes very elaborate electronics. [AmbuBox] is more meant to be a low cost, reliable, durable, hopefully less power-consuming device with the same basic features that would help sustain someone’s respiratory system.”

The AmbuBox has been designed to include an automated compression mechanism for the airbag, making it so that a doctor or nurse is not needed to operate this ventilator. The device is designed to utilize existing compressed air from a medical center, for example.

“Our prototype will be very inexpensive, it

will [use] less power,” Li said. “The machine really will drive a breath into a patient with the use of compressed air. Compressed air is relatively easy to obtain versus battery power. The only thing that’s really battery controlled are the pressure sensors and also the solenoid valve that controls the flow of compressed air into the chamber.”

In addition to the changes in power utilization made possible by AmbuBox’s design, developers of the prototype also hope to utilize existing mobile compressed air for the ventilator system.

“What we also would like to consider is medical transport, whether it’s via ambulance or medical airplane or air transport,” Li said. “All of those vehicles and aircraft have compressed air on board.”

Before the design can be finalized and sent to the FDA for approval, extensive testing must be conducted on the AmbuBox. This is already in progress and involves the use of various test lungs, which are devices designed to mimic the human lung. “[The test lung is] essentially a balloon that’s supposed to mimic the elasticity and compliance of lung tissue,” Li said. “The [human] lungs are made up of [somewhere in the order of ] thousands of little balloons called alveoli. But unlike a standard balloon, the lungs have a very low surface tension, so it’s very easy to inflate them.”

Due to the delicate nature of alveoli, Li agrees that it is very easy to over inflate the lung tissue in a select number of COVID patients. This over inflation, called barotrauma, is thus a danger that engineers must factor into the design of AmbuBox. Despite the challenges of developing this ventilator, engineers and clinicians are hopeful the device will prove successful once testing has been concluded.

“Preliminary data looks very good,” Li said.

“We’ll be planning definitive testing on a much larger test lung piece of equipment in the respiratory therapy area of the Medical Center.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020 | 3

UC IS LARGEST EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION IN NATION TO DIVEST COMPLETELY FROM FOSSIL FUELS

UC sells more than $1 billion in assets from pension, endowment, working capital pools to divest completely from fossil fuels with late payments completed MA R I O R O D R I G UE Z / AGGI E

BY JESSICA BAGGOTT campus@theaggie.org After a five-year effort to move the UC’s $126 billion investment portfolio toward more environmentally sustainable sources, the UC Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the Regents announced on May 19 that the final $1 billion of the UC’s investment portfolio in fossil fuels was sold.

In working toward the sustainable investment

goal, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the UC’s chief investment officer, also announced that the UC had surpassed its goal of investing $1 billion into “promising clean energy projects.”

“Today we remain convinced that continuing to invest in fossil fuels poses an unacceptable financial risk to UC’s portfolios and therefore to the students, faculty, staff and retirees of the University of California,” Singh Bachher said.

With the divestment, the UC has secured its place as the largest educational institution in the

nation to divest completely from fossil fuels.

This comes eight years after students, staff, faculty and alumni first began organizing for Fossil Free UC in 2012.

Even as recently as 2018, real change felt distant and unobtainable, according to UC Davis alum Evan Steele, who was an environmental policy and planning major and advocated for Fossil Free UC. “My experience working [in] Fossil Free UC Davis was very frustrating, it kind of led me to the belief that not much was going to happen quickly,” Steele said.

Steele and others involved with the Fossil Free UC Davis movement arranged a meeting with UC Regent Richard Sherman, the chair of the UC Board of Regents’ Investments Committee, after a several-day sit-in at Mrak Hall in protest of the UC’s investments. “[Sherman] sidestepped all our questions and it seemed like he had only accepted the meeting to basically waste our time and get it to end our sit-in,” Steele said.

Yet four years prior, in 2014, the UC had already begun to discuss and integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment decision making and committed to “Evaluate all strategies for achieving ESG goals as soon as practical, including whether to use divestment,” among other things, leading to its eventual complete divestment from fossil fuels.

“As long-term investors, we believe the university and its stakeholders are much better served by investing in promising opportunities in

the alternative energy field rather than gambling on oil and gas,” Sherman said.

Steele took issue with some of the reasoning behind the recent divestment, given that much of the language used by the investments committee, Regents and the chief investment officer centered around financial risks and serving stakeholders rather than the principle of protecting the environment and serving future generations of UC staff, students and faculty.

“If you believe [the researchers at the UC] and all their research, it’s not a gamble,” Steele said.

“It’s [an inevitability] that renewable and alternative energies are the future.”

Steele also recognized that not all investments in alternative or renewable energies are created equal, saying that just because something is “under the label ‘alternative energy’ or even ‘renewable energy’ or ‘green energy’” does not necessarily mean “it’s totally good for the environment and people.”

The “UC Investments’ commitment to clean energy now stands at $1.036 billion, with the lion’s share — $750 million — allocated to two best-in-class, utility-scale wind and solar developers, and an aggregator strategy to own and operate commercial and industrial solar opportunities,” according to a press release from the UC Office of the President (UCOP).

UCOP’s Senior Communications Strategist Stett Hollbrook commented on the UC’s unique responsibility to climate action as one of the nation’s largest, most prestigious and forward thinking universities.

“Universities in particular have a responsibility to translate their research findings into technologies and solutions that benefit the public good,” Hollbrook said. “These commitments will better bridge the gap between the latest academic findings on climate and on-the-ground actions that universities and communities can take to advance sustainability at home.”

SENATE RESERVES DOWN TO $81, SENATE PASSES RESOLUTION URGING DISAFFILIATION FROM CHINESE UNIVERSITIES OVER TREATMENT OF TIBET AT MAY 21 MEETING Backlog of quarterly reports cleared as Senate catches up after not meeting for one third of Spring Quarter AGGIE FILES

BY ALEX WEINSTEIN campus@theaggie.org The ASUCD Senate began its May 21 meeting with quarterly reports from the Campus Center for the Environment, Committee on

Committees, Mental Health Initiative, TRVC, The California Aggie, the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission and Entertainment Council.

ECAC and the Scholarship Committee did not make quarterly reports, and the ECAC quarterly report was moved to June 4.

UC DAVIS PROFESSOR ELECTED TO SOCIETY OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS

Professor Ari Kelman honored for literary achievements arise in hearings for Judicial Council, Ethnic and Cultural Commission

The Campus Center for the Environment reported that it had hired all its staff and appointed project coordinators and directors. Its presentation concluded by emphasizing the need for more paid positions.

The Committee on Committees reported that it had an adopted Senator.

The Mental Health Initiative reported about mental health month and the ongoing programs and online seminars being held to promote mental health during May. The Transfer, Reentry and Veterans Committee also gave its quarterly report.

The California Aggie reported on the creation of a subcommittee meant to work with the UC Davis Media Board in order to completely revise the editor-in-chief (EIC) selection process to give The Aggie autonomy in choosing its own EIC — a standard practice at college papers throughout the nation. Currently, the Media Board, an administrative advisory board, retains the ability to hire and fire The Aggie’s EIC. The Aggie’s current EIC Kaelyn Tuermer-Lee also reported on plans to relocate the paper’s distribution outside of non-essential businesses to ensure people still have access to print news.

New legislation was then introduced, including Senate Bill #63 to create a banner and A-frame for ASUCD and Senate Resolution #21, which takes a stance in solidarity with the Tibetan community and, among other things, recom-

mends the dissolution of the UC’s partnership with the Chinese University system. These bills passed unanimously and without much discussion.

Emergency DREAMer legislation from Senators Shreya Deshpande and Juan Velasco also passed, allocating $9,800 in Senate reserves toward aid for DREAMer students in SB #66 and SB #67. This bill, along with a bill allocating $300 to the Mental Health Initiative last week, brought Senate reserves down to $81.

SR #17 also passed, demanding one-third of UC Davis tuition be refunded to all students.

“They have the money, trust me,” said Senator JB Martinez, the author of the resolution.

This bill also passed, with questions of where the one-third number came from. Martinez claimed that the choice was arbitrary but seemed fair.

SR #20 also passed, urging UC Davis to protect the ‘old’ version of Title IX, which was recently rolled back by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The remainder of the resolutions and bills that passed governed procedure and included cleanup bills to make some language more consistent.

The five hour meeting concluded with open discussion of misconduct from Senators, the details of which are currently unavailable at this time.

UC DAVIS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL RESEARCHES COVID-19-RELATED SYNDROME IN CHILDREN

200 children in Europe, U.S. diagnosed with COVID-related inflammatory syndrome

Professor and Interim Dean Ari Kelman, who was recently elected as a fellow of the Society of American Historians.

(Karin Higgins / Courtesy Photo)

BY HANNAH BLOME campus@theaggie.org UC Davis History Professor and Interim Dean for the College of Letters and Science Ari Kelman was recently elected to the Society of American Historians for his published historical novels.

The society’s executive secretary, Andie Tucker, explained that the Society of American Historians honors eloquent literary works in historian academia.

“Unlike most other societies devoted to history, our society’s members include not just scholars but also independent writers, journalists, filmmakers, novelists, poets and others.” Tucker said. “We are the only society I know of that considers literary grace and narrative art as important components of historical writing that should be taken seriously.”

Kelman was elected as a fellow to the society in honor of his historical nonfiction novels: A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek (2003), A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans (2013) and Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (2015).

Kelman reported that each book took nearly a decade to write, edit and publish.

His latest novel, Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (2015), is a co-authored graphic comic novel. Kelman worked with graphic artist Jonathan Fetter-Vorm.

“It’s a graphic novel but it’s nonfiction, so a graphic history of the U.S. Civil War.” Kelman said. “It was a really fun project.”

“It is an ambitious text, as in many ways a comic can only paint a broad picture of a complex theater,” said literary critic Cassandra Koslen. “To widen this scope, Battle Lines relies on a human narrative of America’s bloodiest divide.”

To be elected to the Society of American Historians, writers must be nominated and voted in by current members of the society. The election process and limited number of new fellows elected makes Kelman’s inclusion a prestigious title.

“Professor Kelman’s election means that a substantial number of our current members — among whom number some of the most celebrated historians working today — recognized his work as showing both historical rigor and stylistic grace,” Tucker said.

Tucker explained that an annual fellowship awards night and dinner is usually planned for May but has been postponed due to the pandemic.

Kelman joins three UC Davis professors in the Society of American Historians.

The UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento. (Photo Courtesy of UC Davis Regents)

BY REBECCA BIHN-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org UC Davis Children’s Hospital, part of the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN), is helping conduct a global study regarding COVID-19 in children. The Children’s Hospital has thus far seen very few cases of the coronavirus in children, and none have exhibited symptoms associated with a newly reported syndrome that COVID-19 causes in children, which has affected about 200 children in the U.S. and Europe.

This syndrome has been identified as Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) and is characterized by fever, multiorgan problems and inflammation. These symptoms can occur well after a child is infected with COVID-19 and, as with the typical version of coronavirus, patients may not even be aware that they are infected.

Coronavirus usually targets the lungs in adults and older children, causing respiratory problems.

MIS-C, however, causes inflammation. In the worst case scenario, this can lead to a heart attack, according to Nathan Kupperman, professor

and chair of emergency medicine at UC Davis.

MIS-C presents similarly to Kawasaki disease, although it may affect the heart more severely than Kawasaki typically does. For example, it can cause myocarditis — abnormal heart rhythms — according to an article in UC Davis Health News.

Still, children make up just 1–2% of reported COVID-19 cases as of May 2020, according to Web-MD. CDC guidelines for avoiding MIS-C match those for avoiding coronavirus in general.

The CDC currently recommends that children over the age of two wear face masks. It also advises social distancing, hand washing, disinfecting “high-touch” spaces and avoiding both sick people and playing with other children.

It also suggests taking “extra precautions” if the child occupies a household with another individual deemed at a greater risk for the virus.

“With limited information about risk factors, treatments and outcomes, the CDC has asked providers like UC Davis Health to closely watch for suspected cases,” UC Davis Health said.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

4 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

UC DAVIS PRE-HEALTH CONFERENCE SHIFTS TO FREE, LIVE VIRTUAL EVENT DUE TO COVID-19

AGGIE FILES

More diverse workshops, speakers, exhibitors planned

A pre-health conference from 2017 taking place at the Pavilion at UC Davis. (Photo Courtesy)

BY GRASC HEL L E FA R IÑAS HIPO L I TO campus@theaggie.org The 18th annual UC Davis Pre-Health Conference, the nation’s largest pre-health conference, will take place as a live virtual event on Oct. 17, 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns. The virtual conference will now be free of charge and all previously registered attendees and sponsors will be issued a full refund.

“We know a lot of families and people in general have been affected by this pandemic, so we wanted to make [the conference] as accessible as possible for everyone,” Pre-Health Conference Co-Coordinator Lillian Wu said. “Our conference is definitely not about making profit.”

According to the conference website, the event provides community college, university and post-baccalaureate students, as well as prehealth advisors, with the information and skills necessary to succeed in the health professions school admission process. The conference invites

representatives from a wide variety of health professional programs and organizations to network with attendees and offers the opportunity to explore options in pursuing a health career. Over 250 health professions schools from across the nation and over 100 speakers from various health careers attend the conference every year.

Although all interactive workshops were removed from the schedule, the Pre-Health Conference Planning Team plans to host more workshops. It will also maintain the Pre-Health Fair part of the program, where attendees are able to network with exhibitors from health professional schools all over the nation on a virtual platform.

The rest of the program will be structured similarly to previous in-person conferences.

“Instead of doing interactive workshops, we’re expanding on the number of workshops we’re offering every hour and we’re also offering four workshops blocks [rather than three] with each block having around 30 to 40 workshops,” Pre-Health Conference Co-Coordinator Shivani Patel said.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TOURISM IN YOLO COUNTY Decline in travel spending, jobs impacted JOELLE TAHTA / AGGIE

BY S HRA D D HA J H INGA N city@theaggie.org A recent report from Visit California showed the economic impact of tourism from 20102019 across various regions of California, including Yolo County. The results from this report, however, don’t include the forecasted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism across Yolo County.

According to the report, travel spending grew steadily during the past decade, from $324,036,782.26 in 2010 to $454,322,463.11 in 2019. The tourism expenditure helped support 1.18 million jobs across California, according to the report.

Despite the increased jobs from the increase in travel spending in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has already had an impact on numerous industries across California, with millions filing for unemployment across the country.

Terry Selk, the executive director of Visit Yolo, noted the impact on the tourism industry.

Many programs and services that residents benefit from are funded by “tourism dollars on every level,” Selk highlighted.

“Some hotels have had to close indefinitely while others have significantly needed to reduce staffing due to exceptionally low occupancy rates, in the single digits,” Selk said via email. “In Davis, without campus activity, the lodging properties, restaurants and other services frequented by students and their parents have suffered.”

Another report from Tourism Economics forecasted the impact that coronavirus would have on tourism across California. The economic situation could be subject to change though, the report noted.

The report also highlighted the decline in travel spending compared to prior months. For instance, in April 2020 there was predicted to be a 81% decrease in travel spending compared to April 2019 and a 74% decrease in July 2020 compared to July 2019.

Additionally, the report predicts the impact on jobs across the state by creating a “mitigated downturn” scenario. In this, “a scenario model was run to assess the potential gains of a more tempered downturn beginning in June, resulting in a net gain of $14.2 billion in visitor spending relative to the baseline scenario,” the report reads.

This scenario assumes a range of efforts being implemented to help reduce the impact on

the tourism industry. According to the mitigated downturn scenario, there will be a $57.9 billion decrease in tourism revenue, compared to the baseline $72.1 billion decrease.

Furthermore, if more measures are implemented to help promote tourism, the number of travel related jobs affected will decrease.

For example, in June 2020 there are predicted to be 608,000 “travel-related jobs” affected by COVID-19 and 363,000 in October 2020. Nevertheless, with the mitigated downturn scenario, 537,000 will be affected in June and 199,000 in October.

Even after the pandemic is over, some businesses will not be able to recover, according to Selk.

“Many of the smaller businesses who have had to shut their doors may never be able to recover from the economic impact,” Selk said via email. “Some operations with small square footage may not be able to generate enough volume of business to be profitable. Restaurants run on very small margins and rely on the ability to serve many customers over the course of a day to be able to make payroll, rent and other necessary operating expenses.”

Businesses such as hotels may also continue to be affected, since they are dependent to a certain extent on a group or corporate business, according to Selk. Restrictions on gathering sizes will affect events, which create higher occupancy in establishments such as boutique hotels and vacation rental properties across the county.

“The normal of the future will likely not be the normal we knew,” Selk said via email. “Travel sentiment and trip decision will be greatly influenced by many factors taken for granted previously such as clean and sanitized hotel rooms, social distancing spacing [...].”

On April 9, 2020, the California Travel Industry Coalition addressed a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom with suggested measures to help support the travel and tourism industry.

“As you continue to make critical decisions to prepare California for the peak of COVID-19 and ensure that we are able to meet this moment, we urge you to not lose sight of the economic hardships businesses are facing, especially those in the travel and tourism industry,” the letter read.

TOURISMREPORT on 11

Wu said the planning team is working to offer more diverse workshops, such as mental health and gap-year related topics.

“We want to have more health professions represented and implement more mental health related workshops because that’s been really popular in terms of people pursuing a career in [mental health], so just expand to a more diverse range of health professions and more diverse topics beyond admissions panels,” Wu said.

In addition to more workshop options, PreHealth Conference Co-Coordinator Sare Kilic said she hopes the number of participants for the virtual conference will increase by thousands.

“Since it’s all online and there are no travel fees, I’m hoping that we can reach people across the country now,” Kilic said. “We’re hoping for at least the same amount as previous years of 3,500 to 4,000 attendees, but we think it might increase even more up to 10,000 [attendees].”

Pre-Health Conference Co-Coordinator Linda Chen said the biggest benefit is being able to reach a wider audience.

“Because [previous conferences] were in-person and in the small town of Davis, only a select number of people around the area could come, mostly in California,” Chen said. “Now, anybody can come from wherever they’re living, like rural Ohio or even upstate New York.”

Chen said she hopes the team will be able to recruit speakers, exhibitors and representatives from schools in different parts of the U.S. that have never attended the conference before.

Although organizing a wide scale virtual prehealth conference for the first time comes with challenges for the planning team, UC Davis Pre-Health Conference Advisor and Director of Health Professions Advising Joanne Snapp said she still welcomes the thousands of prospective participants.

“While we’ve gotten pretty good at golf-carting people around campus, we’re excited to try to orchestrate all of those people through hundreds of private links and online presentations,” Snapp said. “We’re up for the challenge and we hope that the UC Davis and national pre-health population will join us for this exciting event.”

Registration for the Pre-Health Conference is now open for attendees and exhibitors with more information on the official website and social media accounts on how to get involved.

WEAR YOUR FACE MASKS May 20 “White male adult standing on trash can in front of gas station.

Subject was initially clothed, but is standing on trash can taking them off. Now only wearing boxers.”

“Noise complaint. Loud karaoke.”

May 22 “Customer in the store refusing to wear face mask and has been asked to leave but refusing.”

“15 teens drinking cases of beer.”

May 24 “Complaint of loud chickens.”

“Subject hit vehicle with paintball causing damage.”

“Three males setting off smoke bombs.”

May 25 “Subject inside building refusing to leave after being asked to wear a mask — sneezing on products purposely.”

May 27 “White husky attached to tether from backyard, dug underneath fence and is now sitting on the sidewalk, still attached to tether.”

OFFICER NATALIE CORONA’S DAVIS MEMORIAL VANDALIZED, SUSPECTED ARSON

Vandalism occurs during National Police Week, COVID-19 causes delays in national honors for Officer Corona

An arsonist recently set fire to the Natalie Corona memorial in Davis. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY E DE N W INNIFO RD city@theaggie.org An unknown suspect vandalized the Fifth and C Street memorial for fallen Officer Natalie Corona on May 13. Arson is suspected after a small fire at the memorial was reported and put out by a Davis firefighter, according to the Davis Enterprise.

Deputy Chief of the Davis Police Department Paul Doroshov explained that he was sure the fire was not an accident.

“Obviously, somebody did it intentionally to vandalize it,” Doroshov said. “We don’t have any idea who may have done it, so we don’t really know what their motivation was. But it’s not going to destroy what she stood for.”

Corona was shot and killed on Jan. 10, 2019 at the age of 22 after she responded to a report of a three-vehicle crash.

Doroshov said this was the only recent vandalism of the memorial.

“We had some problems in the beginning when we first put the memorial up when she first lost her life,” Doroshov said. “Since then, we have not, and this has been the first time anything like this has occurred since 2019.”

The vandalism occurred during National Police Week. On their website, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) said the week is a memorial for officers who have fallen while on duty.

“Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others,” its website read.

Doroshov said he believed this date was in-

tentionally picked to coincide with the memorial week.

“Prior to COVID-19, her name was supposed to go up on a memorial in Washington D.C.,” Doroshov said. “Because of COVID-19, the memorial ceremony has been cancelled for now and will have to happen at a later date.”

A press release from NLEOMF said the memorial is updated yearly to honor fallen police officers from all around the country.

“Located in Washington, DC, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is a living monument to ensure the men and women who died in the line of duty will never be forgotten,” the press release reads. “The names engraved on the Memorial’s walls represent fallen officers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, federal law enforcement, and military police agencies.”

The NLEOMF website explained that an online Candlelight Vigil was held on May 13, 2020 instead of an in-person gathering in order to still honor the fallen.

“We plan to march forward in solidarity with a virtual Candlelight Vigil and the reading of the names that can be watched from anywhere in the world,” said an NLEOMF press release. “Then, as the future becomes more certain and the end of the crisis is near, we will begin to make plans for an in-person reading of names to honor our fallen officers.”

Doroshov said the vandalism will have far-reaching effects.

“I think the vandalism is going to have an effect not only in the police department but in a lot of the community,” Doroshov said. “Despite how anybody feels about policing today, I think the memorial is there to honor somebody who gave their life to the community.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

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

All lives do not matter until Black lives matter The Editorial Board expresses its solidarity with nationwide protests for Black Lives Matter movement

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

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

George Floyd’s tragic death in broad daylight should not come as a surprise. Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, David McAtee, Dion Johnson and Ahmaud Arbery, among countless others — the loss of Black life due to state violence carried out by the police is nothing new, it is simply being broadcasted more. Change must start immediately with oneself and one’s circle in order to achieve broader transformation of race relations in this country and the world. It goes without saying: The Editorial Board is in complete solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. Among an onslaught of information and misinformation, we want to draw attention to being a non-performative ally as well as moving into action safely and respectfully.

Taking the time to understand the biases and privileges we hold and urging family and friends around us to do the same costs nothing, and it is the most basic first step we can take in making progress toward equality. We need to commit ourselves to anti-racist action. While it may be uncomfortable to confront our shortcomings, being uncomfortable cannot compare to the murders, injustices, silencing and suffering that Black people face every single day due to collective complacency.

In this journey of self-educating, make space for and listen to Black organizers, voices and leaders, but remember it is not their responsibility to address questions about how to help.

There are plenty of resources available and texts to read in this effort that do not require further burdening the very people who are most likely burnt out from years and decades of attempting to educate those around them. Read, not just about the history of police and their role in society, but about why it’s so hard to talk about race.

As protestors across the country face both arrests and police-initiated violence in response to their peaceful protests, donating to bail funds can help support them pre-trial. It’s critical to support these bail funds right now because these protests have and inevitably do result in a disproportionate number of Black people being arrested and forced into a system designed to keep them incarcerated. There are also local mutual aid networks that use funds to support fellow community members, whether it be by delivering groceries or distributing cleaning supplies. Research local organizations to support that are committed to ending police violence and resisting white supremacy; BLM chapters can point to the right resources as well.

Recognize that an ally’s role at these protests is to protect Black lives and to listen to and support Black voices; it is absolutely not an ally’s place to promote any other cause or perspective. Think twice about the media that you choose to spread and consume. Post on social media thoughtfully and constructively. Take seriously the significance of this movement and commit to action behind the scenes by signing petitions as well as calling and emailing local representatives to hold those in power accountable for Black lives.

Black lives are at stake. We are all personally responsible for reforming our communities in a way that values everyone’s humanity. We must take it upon ourselves to understand our role in promoting respect for all human life and fighting systems that perpetuate oppression — systems that have been in place for time immemorial. There should not have to be perfectly packaged narratives, stories or metaphors to get us to understand. We must work to dismantle oppression now.

JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

Letter From The Editor

BY KAE LYN T U E RME R-LE E editor@theaggie.org Congratulations to the UC Davis Class of 2020 — we did it! While this year has certainly been challenging, forcing us to adapt to unprecedented situations, I’m incredibly proud of our amazing staff at The California Aggie. Of my four years at The Aggie, this has by far been my favorite. I’ve never seen and worked alongside such a strong, determined, dedicated and passionate group of people who never fail to bring a joyful presence to our dimly lit basement office at 25 Lower Freeborn.

The Aggie staff has accomplished so much this year, including the passage of the Basic Needs and Services Referendum, which our unit and all other units of ASUCD would not survive without. We’ve put out our Best of Davis issue, which set a record with the greatest number of responses we’ve had to date, along with our Literary Magazine, which was also a huge success. We’ve covered breaking news, the Band-Uh! sexual assault misconduct, COVID-19, mental health resources and much more.

Reflecting on my four years at UC Davis, I am most grateful to The Aggie for allowing me to grow so much as a person, writer and editor, and for giving me a place and people who make it feel like home. Congratulations to a majority of our managing staff who are graduating — you should feel very proud of all you have accomplished, both at UC Davis and The Aggie. While it will be an adjustment to have a completely new Editorial Board and mostly new managing staff, I’m proud to say that Anjini Venugopal will be the next editor-in-chief of The Aggie. I have no doubt that she and the new managing staff will continue to make The Aggie proud and lead it to new heights.

I would also like to thank our staff writers, photographers, graphic designers, layout artists and copy readers who have worked tirelessly to produce amazing content. Without all their hard work, we wouldn’t have a newspaper. Thank you to our managing staff for always being so prepared, leading your desks with the utmost ease and being people whom your desks can look up to.

Thank you to our Editorial Board for showing me different perspectives and allowing for such a safe, collaborative environment. And thank you to my amazing managing editor, Hannah Holzer, who has been my absolute rock without fail and without whom I would not have been able to lead such a large news organization. All of these people are the backbone and spirit of The Aggie, and they have made my job so enjoyable. I’m beyond honored to have worked side by side and be friends with each and every one of you.

So, thank you again to everyone who has made this journey at The Aggie an unforgettable experience. I’m forever thankful for everything The Aggie has given to me, and I can’t wait to see what next year’s staff will accomplish.

Signing off, Kaelyn Tuermer-Lee Editor-in-Chief

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

6 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

COVID-19 IS A REMINDER THAT PUBLIC LIBRARIES ARE STILL IMPORTANT The world may be moving online, but public libraries remain invaluable KATH E R I N E F R A N KS / AGGI E

BY S I M RA N KA L KAT skkalkat@ucdavis.edu I first fell in love with public libraries before I could even spell the word “library.” As a kid, I went to the library every weekend and stuffed my backpack with Harry Potter books or the works of Roald Dahl, hoping to learn how to fly a Nimbus 2000 or save the world from the Grand High Witch. It was where I discovered my passion for reading, learning and community.

The impacts of COVID-19 are far-reaching and extend to public libraries. Public libraries are more than just buildings with books to loan.

They provide services from tutoring and tax prep to arts and crafts classes. But most importantly,

they are a public space for anyone and everyone to enjoy. Public libraries are our spaces. From the large, ornate buildings of the New York Public Library to smaller, rural libraries, all libraries provide a unique environment for community and collaboration.

Like the vast majority of schools, shops and restaurants in the country, public libraries have had to close their doors in response to the pandemic. On March 12, the Library of Congress became one of the first to close buildings and facilities to the public. Soon after, almost all libraries in the country announced temporary closures.

Libraries are inherently social spots in almost all communities. They thrive on human interactions, which is why keeping them open

during a pandemic is so difficult.

“Part of the reason why libraries aren’t open yet, generally, is that so much of our work doesn’t lend itself to physical distancing,” said Cindy Chadwick, the county librarian for the Alameda County Library (ACL) system.

Learning how to navigate health and safety standards in an institution that functions on sharing materials and providing a venue for social collaboration is hard.

On March 15, the AC Library closed all 10 of its buildings to the public. Since then, a “skeleton crew” of library workers have been coming into the building to work on a myriad of tasks such as paying bills, getting invoices and making deliveries. The buildings are being cleaned out daily as staff comes into work for about four hours a day.

Like so many other libraries, the AC Library is trying to ensure that patrons still hear from and remain connected to the library. It launched “Ask Us,” a live chat room for people to reach out with their questions and concerns.

“Right away, we were responding to questions from the public by having certain online presence every day, Monday through Saturday,” said Blaine Wentworth, the acting library manager and teen services librarian at the AC Library’s Union City branch.

The biggest concern for libraries now is how to operate in a safe and healthy manner for the public and the library staff. With the current stay-at-home orders in California, libraries are seeing an increase in use of electronic resources like eBooks, eAudiobooks and other streaming contents through services such as OverDrive and Libby. In just one month, Alameda County Library saw a 63% increase in usership of OverDrive, a platform for borrowing digital content. This trend isn’t limited to the AC Library system — similarly, the San Francisco

Public Library system is seeing a significant change in their e-resource usership. “[It’s] been a period in which people have taken full advantage of services that they had used before or fallen in love with new e-resources,” said Jaime Wong, the public relations officer at San Francisco Public Library (SFPL).

Many librarians and advocates have been pushing for an increased digital presence in public libraries since the emergence of COVID-19. For Anthony Marx, the president of the New York Public Library (NYPL) — the second largest library system in the U.S. — a strong digital presence is key to ensuring that libraries uphold their commitment to serving the public. For example, the NYPL, along with other libraries such as Alameda County, partnered with Brainfuse to offer free, oneon-one online tutoring for elementary to high school children. These libraries also subscribed and increased access to databases and other important information sources.

“My guess is the world isn’t going to be the same after this,” Marx said in an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Andy Serwer. “People are going to get used to doing things online. People are going to get used to [...] meeting online. It’s not going to be the same when this is done.”

Many libraries have moved a great deal of their normal operations online due to the shutdown. SFPL has been working on a 24/7 virtual library, which is now open. It offers services like eBooks, audiobooks, one-on-one tutoring, resume-building workshops and, my personal favorite, Sweet Stories, a virtual storytime led by librarians and occasionally familiar faces like Mayor London Breed.

R EAD FULL ARTI CLE ONLI NE

TRAGEDY PLUS TIME EQUALS COMEDY, BUT HOW SOON IS TOO SOON? Exploring whether “humor” is still “funny” in midst of pandemic RA B I DA / AG G I E

BY B EN JA M I N P O RT E R bbporter@ucdavis.edu Over these last two months — excuse me, first two months — of “attending” virtual lectures via Zoom, students have conditioned themselves to always abide by one basic, fundamental, overarching, all-encompassing supreme law of the land in the new planet-spanning, intercontinental virtual classroom: “muting” themselves.

This practice has some readily apparent benefits. Of course, it seems like an obvious common courtesy to prevent every little bit of background noise from disturbing and distracting from the entire virtual class’ virtual classroom experience. For example, it’s probably

a good thing that I was “on mute” during my music history class last week as my housemate and I (with my laptop in hand and earbuds still in) frantically heaved my mattress across the room as part of an arduous, harrowing, Herculean, profanity-laden effort to apprehend a quite sizable spider that had fallen beneath my bed.

Muting myself during that incident was no doubt the politest thing I could have done in that situation. But was it the funniest thing I could have done? Most certainly not! For instance, I could have “accidentally” “forgotten” to “mute” myself. That would’ve been pretty damn funny.

I would gladly give a million bucks to have been on the other end of that Zoom call. Perhaps even more than that, given the state of the world right

now…

And therein lies my problem with Zoom’s “mute” function. As an unintended consequence of this primary “feature” of Zoom etiquette, we have effectively deprived the classroom of collective laughter. It’s almost as if the function is specially designed to stymie, stifle and smother the laughter resulting from the shared jokes, jests, quips and moments of situational irony that make the in-person classroom experience so special. “Muting” seems like a tailor-made tool for subconsciously reminding us that this pandemic is not an appropriate time to be laughing about anyone or anything.

And thus, we are often left with a virtual learning environment more comedically sterile than the classroom of a yardstick-wielding Catholic nun. So it’s perfectly reasonable to argue that this makes “muting” more of a bug than a feature. Especially for any recovering Catholics keen on avoiding those memories.

With the classroom robbed of the usual mechanisms that promote collective laughter, we’ve been forced to rewrite the language of humor in the classroom — with mixed results.

You can’t hear people laugh, but can you see them laugh? Yes, but only if their video is on. Does anybody in the virtual classroom do that? Nope, virtually nobody. Damn, how impersonal! But that’s understandable for privacy reasons. So can students just use the chat function to say “LOL” then? Yes, they can, and they do, but virtually nothing is more annoying than that. Luckily, if you think like Larry David on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” you can at least be happy that they aren’t “verbal texting” by literally saying “LOL” out loud. And at least I only have to “virtually meet” these people!

Nonetheless, virtually nothing can adequately replace the smattering of chuckles that moves across the classroom like an ocean wave whenever

the professor makes a clever and topical joke. Or the joy of exchanging a bemused single eyebrow raise with your neighbor when the professor may have just said, “let’s shit gears” instead of “let’s shift gears.”

Speaking of which, I can’t even begin to imagine how awkward and bizarre the virtual classroom must be for the world’s teachers and professors. For starters, if virtually the entire virtual class has deactivated their audio and video, then the act of teaching is reduced to nothing more than lecturing into a blank, empty, lifeless void. I’m sure that before this pandemic, that metaphor has inspired decades of incomplete screenplays from teachers across the globe.

Like the students, teachers can’t hear or participate in collective laughter from any amusing or unexpected situations that arise in the virtual meeting space. And to make matters worse, they can’t tell whether or not any of their jokes are actually landing! I’ve long felt that the best teachers are the ones who have a little bit of stand-up comic in ‘em — the teachers who can guide you to not only consume the course material, but also to appreciate and internalize it to the degree required in order to find sources of humor, amusement and irony.

Whether bringing that humor to lectures is done through traditional joke structures or via George Carlin-esque, cleverly wordsmithed monologues that call attention to peculiar yet comical details is up to the teacher. Both approaches can work. But on Zoom, there’s no way to tell what works when we’re all muted. Just as comics need time to work out their material in comedy clubs, teachers and professors need to be able to get that same type of feedback, which is virtually impossible when we’re apart.

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HUMOR

GARY MAY CANCELS HIS D&D CAMPAIGN DURING COVID-19

“All of us are making sacrifices, guys”

JOELLE TA HTA / AGGIE

BY MAT T H E W S IMO NS mrsimons@ucdavis.edu Chancellor Gary May sits in his office at the top of Mrak Hall. He stands next to his window and looks across the courtyard leading to Shields Library. He rubs his forehead and talks into his phone. He is on a conference call.

“We’ve been putting it off for so long, everyone,” May says. “I think it’s time to call it quits.”

“Please, Gary, reconsider,” begs a woman on the other end of the line. “People’s ways of life are at stake here.”

“No,” he asserts. “We haven’t met in weeks because of the virus. And our campaign is losing momentum… Guys, I’m calling off our D&D game,” he declares.

The conference call erupts with a chorus of voices. Some are panicked, others are angry.

“Be reasonable, guys — I don’t even remember my character anymore.” May throws his hands up in frustration.

“That’s not true! You were a Dwarf Sorcerer named Garrus Maerun!” calls out Professor Edward (William) Tavernetti. “How could you forget it? ‘Garrus Maerun.’ That’s just your name.”

“He was a throwaway character,” May insists.

“Look guys, this campaign means the world to

me. I just don’t see any way we can meet with all the COVID stuff going on. It’s time to stop kidding ourselves.”

“We could always try doing it over Skype…”

May punches the wall in his office. “YOU KNOW THAT’S NOT THE SAME.” He is breathing heavily. The phone call is silent. Over the phone, a gentle sobbing can be heard.

“I…oh god, Enderle, I...” May starts.

“Now you’ve done it,” scoffs Provost Ralph J. Hexter. “You made Enderle cry.”

May stands speechless at his window. One by one, members of the conference call hang up. His mouth hangs open and then stiffens shut. When the last of them leave the call, he stares into his reflection for a long time.

May sits down at his desk and loosens his tie.

He picks up a framed picture next to his desktop.

In the frame, UC Davis staff and professors sit around a dinner table in costumes as their D&D characters. Professor Bryan Enderle wears elf ears and holds a gnarled wizard’s staff. Across the table, Linda Katehi mimes a casting of “magic missile” at him. May sits at the head of the table dressed as cleric. The picture is dated 1991.

May sinks into his chair and sighs deeply.

“What do I do?” he thinks to himself. He exhales and opens up his Gmail account. “Maybe if I write an email about it I’ll feel better.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ONE IN A THOUSAND: STUDENTS LIKE SHONDREYA LANDRUM NAVIGATE BEING BLACK AT UC DAVIS

Black students, Chancellor May, discuss facing discrimination, finding community

TE SSA KO G A / AG G I E

Shondreya Landrum was elected to ASUCD Senate during the 2019 Winter Elections. (Photo Courtesy)

BY LI Z JACOBSO N arts@theaggie.org In the ASUCD Winter 2019 Elections, Shondreya Landrum won a seat on the Senate table. The ASUCD Elections website, which uses a ranking system, asking students to rank their top choices — up to six people — in numerical order for Senate positions. At the time, Landrum not only received the highest amount of #1 votes, she also made history for receiving the most overall votes for an ASUCD senator in recent memory — 863 students ranked Landrum as their top choice.

Eight hundred and sixty-three is almost equal to the number of Black students on the UC Davis campus. This landslide win was more than just something Landrum could add to her résumé. When only 1,096 undergraduate students identify as Black or African American, this accomplishment was not just Landrum’s, but the Black community’s. And even though Landrum does not speak for every Black student on the UC Davis campus, her experiences are reflective of many of those of her peers.

“I ran because every time we would have a [Black Student Union] event, every time we would come into safe spaces, there was always an issue,” Landrum said. “Why are we going to a school where not everyone is accepted?”

Landrum was born in San Diego, the fifth daughter of Mel and Ken Landrum, who met in the early ’90s in Wisconsin, where Ken worked at a local Pick ‘n Save and Mel worked for Airborne Express. The Landrums moved their family to San Diego before Shondreya — or Shonna — was born.

In San Diego, Landrum was part of the first class to graduate from Chula Vista Learning Community Charter School. In high school, she was the president of the Associated Students

Union twice, was on the cheer team and served as Senior Class President. Her high school involvement only foreshadowed what was to come.

For Landrum, the decision to come to UC Davis was an easy one. The academics, reputation and proximity to the State Capitol made it an attractive option. After her first tour, she knew that the competitive attitude that permeated her high school was not something she would have to endure at UC Davis. She did consider attending a historically Black college or university (HBCU) and thinks she might like to attend one for law school in the future.

“I felt like everyone was just so nice to me,” Landrum said. “I actually felt like I could talk to people and feel comfortable.”

Landrum is just a few quarters away from earning two degrees, one in political science public service and the other in cognitive science.

She is also pursuing a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies. Out of her immediate family, she will be the first one to graduate with her bachelor’s degree, though some of her older sisters are in community college right now. Her mother has an associate’s degree, and her father was a year away from earning his bachelor’s degree, but after sustaining a football injury, lost his scholarship. Landrum’s little sister, Darvy, is following in Shonna’s footsteps by playing volleyball and “doing everything under the sun.” “[It feels] good because it’s nice that I’m able to do something that nobody else was able to fully get to or actually accomplish, but at the same time, it sucks,” Landrum said. “My sisters are so intelligent. They could have been the first ones to graduate, but everybody had things in their life happening, and that deterred them.”

“I still felt very isolated.” Adjusting to life in Davis Destanie Smith, like Landrum, was also the first in her family to graduate from college. A UC

WATCH HAYLEY WILLAMS BLOOM

“Petals for Armor” pulled up her roots, but she’s headed for the sky

Davis graduate who majored in religious studies and biological sciences, Smith once seriously considered attending an HBCU — she was accepted to Howard University and Spelman College — but UC Davis’ academic opportunities were more attractive.

“I just figured that growing up in high school, middle school, I was always put in classes where I was kind of the minority anyways, so I figured it wouldn’t be as bad coming to a college campus,” Smith said.

Choosing to attend UC Davis is an easier feat than adjusting to living in Davis, where Black students are confronted with a culture shock of sorts. At UC Davis, only 4% of students identify as African American or Black. “[Transitioning to UC Davis] was difficult because although I met a lot of people, I still felt very isolated,” Landrum said. “At least in San Diego, even though I was still one of the only two Black people that went to my school, I had my family to go home to at night to take that burden off. I didn’t know why I was sad. I didn’t know why there was an issue until I actually went to a [Black Student Union] event.”

This feeling of isolation is not exclusive to the students at UC Davis. Chancellor Gary May, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 1985, had a similar experience.

“African Americans were significantly underrepresented,” May said. “I think we were, at that time, 6 or 7% of the student body, which probably sounds good compared to Davis, which is 4%. It wasn’t a new experience for me being in a classroom or a lab full of students who did not look like me.”

To combat this feeling of isolation, some students, like second-year political science-public service major Ayiana Keith, choose to live on the African American Living Learning Community floor in Student Housing during their first year.

There, Keith found her community and a group of friends that she continues to live with today.

“It was definitely a big culture shock when I first got here,” Keith said. “Like, I knew I wasn’t going to be around a lot of Black people, but literally, there’s nobody here. I don’t see myself.

Oftentimes, I’m the only Black person in [my] class.”

Smith, who came from a diverse high school in San Diego, also wasn’t prepared for the culture shock she would feel at UC Davis. She did, however, eventually find her home in the Turtle House, a co-op style living space on 2nd Street.

Turtle House is home to 20 people — some students, some young professionals — all committed to living together in a creative, harmonious space. Their blue house, with chickens and often someone playing guitar in the yard, is named for the suspended turtle statue hanging above the porch and is known for their house shows and large, family-style dinners.\ “I feel like I’m in a safe space there,” Smith said. “You don’t feel that sense of comfortability everywhere. No one’s ever really judgmental

there.”

“I am most definitely hyper aware of how to present myself.” Life on campus Banks, who chose UC Davis because it was the furthest school from her hometown of Bakersfield, California, did not find community in a traditionally Black space, but rather in the California Aggie Marching Band, formerly known as Band-Uh! “I always have people to talk to and I like to keep things close and so I did find that [closeness] there,” Banks said. “It’s not diverse at all, but they do give me the space to push back on that.”

Banks pointed out to band leaders that their music folders did not feature any songs written by an artist of color.

To Black and African American students, being faced with prejudice, even on a campus that prides itself on diversity, is inevitable. Not everyone will find a space where pushing back is welcomed. Black students are faced with the struggle to not only exist, but to be exceptional and the knowledge that people’s eyes are always on them.

“I am most definitely hyper-aware of how to present myself in every sphere that I am in,” Landrum said. “I’m always on my P’s and Q’s [...] because if you slip up, especially as a Black woman, you get screwed.”

Many students are faced with stereotypes and microaggressions because of their race or ethnicity. Smith recalls having been asked at least once per quarter if she was in the right class, or if her acceptance to UC Davis was contingent upon athletics, especially when asking for help from faculty.

“I often get asked, ‘Oh, what sport do you play?’” Smith said. “That all comes with the territory.”

Smith often had to explain that she wasn’t attending office hours because she was on the basketball team, but because she just needed help on different class concepts.

Although no longer a student, even May has experienced microaggressions in the professional spaces he navigates as chancellor of the university. “[At] my first meeting of our Athletic Conference presidents, everybody’s introducing themselves, and I say, ‘I’m Gary May from UC Davis,’ and one of the other presidents says, ‘and what is your role at UC Davis?’” May recalled.

Banks, now in her fourth year, reflected on the low numbers of students of color and Black students at UC Davis. She said “a lot of Black people think that they need their body to get into college,” and, “typically,” sports are the way to go to a top tier school.

Racism in the community Fourth-year human development major Jamarca Banks has been subjected to overt racism in the City of Davis.

ONEI NATHOUSAND on 11

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN LISTENING TO THIS YEAR? The Arts and Culture Desk (and a bonus!) shares our most impactful albums from this year

Hayley Willams’ ablum, “Petals for Armor.” (Photo Courtesy)

BY J OSH M A D RID arts@theaggie.org Paramore lead singer Hayley Willams released her debut solo album on May 8. The teenage punk icon has turned over a new petal, silently expressing her loud message of self-liberation through pain and self-confrontation. The teenage punk-rock icon has shed her tough exterior and found her strength from the inside outward.

The album begins with the lead single “Simmer,” in which Williams starts by singing about rage and learning to tame it in a low and quick tempo. It contrasts with the soft image of flowers in the album’s title. There is a consistent tonal style across the album in which Williams bathes in debilitating vulnerability, apart from the moments of upbeat optimism in “Over Yet” and “Sugar On The Rim.” She admits she is perhaps unaware of her own abilities and does not yet know the boundary between wrath and mercy.

It’s a sign of a maturity acquired through recognition of her effect on others, and vice versa.

Despite the surface-level stylistic chaos of the album — ranging from indie-alternative to nearly pure pop — the album’s lyrics thread a common message of beautiful optimism in dark places like that of a rose pushing its way through the surface of the dirt. She speaks of struggling with depression in “Dead Horse,” during which a recorded voicemail by Williams reveals that she had trouble putting together the album. The listener hears the bark of William’s dog and pulls back the curtain to reveal that despite her position in society, she is human.

In the struggle of humans, particularly women, Williams uses “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris” to address the constant expectation of society for

women to spare each other and compete — a mere smoke and mirror attempt of a patriarchy to which Williams pays no mind.

She sings, “But I am in a garden / Tending to my own / So what do I care / And what do you care if I grow?” She also compares herself to a wilting flower that struggles to find sunlight and pulls its own petals until she decides to bloom, implying an agency unmatched when she takes care of herself to better a greater fight for equality.

Williams knows who she is now and expresses that long search in “Watch Me While I Bloom” and “Cinnamon.” The former features raspy, electrified vocals which make clear there’s more than one side to her. Much like a sculpture in a museum, it takes a few paces around to get the full picture. “Cinnamon” shows that Williams is unbothered by being alone, knowing how it differs from loneliness. In a fulfilled manner, she describes her home as a place where she gets to make her favorite tea and eat her breakfast while talking to her dog. More importantly, she is free.

The album features nearly unrecognizable styles that are not at all reminiscent of her Paramore era. “Sugar On The Rim” has elements of ethereal pop honed by that of Kimbra and even mid-discography of Madonna. “Over Yet” has the most synth-presence on the album and has a feel-good disco lightness of artists like Kylie Minogue.

The album takes great care in each track, as they are an unseemingly purposeful mix of emotions that express the pain that can be used as fertilizer in our rose garden if one sees that possibility.

“Petals for Armor” is available on all streaming services.

(Photo Courtesy)

BY T H E ARTS & CU LTUR E DESK arts@theaggie.org Liz Jacobson, Arts & Culture Editor: “YHLQMDLG” by Bad Bunny Bad Bunny’s second studio album pays homage to reggaetón’s past and showcases its future with features by the genre’s legends and fellow Latin trap up-and-comers. The album’s title is an abbreviation of “Yo hago lo que me da la gana” (“I do whatever I want”). “Safeara” and “Yo Perreo Sola,” along with the rest of the party album, will have you feelin’ yourself and doing whatever you want.

Allie Bailey, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor: “Circles” by Mac Miller Only some of the greatest musicians have a strong enough collection of recordings to release an album posthumously. Mac Miller joins this talented crowd with “Circles” — chill, real, at times upbeat and often heartbreaking, the album is an accumulation of Miller’s lyrical intimacy and distinguished sound that transcends anything we’ve seen from him before.

Itzelth Gamboa: “Seven + Mary” by Rainbow Kitten Surprise There is no comparable feeling to the feeling I got while listening to RKS blast in my 2001 Buggie. My third year in Davis was filled with an immense amount of new music, but “Seven + Mary” was, without a doubt, the best album.

The music brings a sense of nostalgia, and will be accompanied by nothing but good memories.

Alyssa Ilsley: “Fine Line” by Harry Styles Styles’ sophomore album is contemplative and

emotional. Inspired by ’70s rock, Styles infuses folk, soul and psychedelic pop influences into an album that promotes a sense of timelessness. Styles is modernizing the pop-rock genre, with “Sunflower, Vol. 6” and “Cherry” demonstrating this best.

Sierra Jimenez: “Traveller” by Chris Stapleton This album was made by the spirit of scraggly hairs on a wild cowboy’s beard and aimlessly driving to nowhere under a sea of stars in a beaten down truck. It stands along the border with one boot in country twang and the other, a bare foot, in the soil of bluegrass. You’ll definitely need some whiskey when listening to this diamond in the rough — Tennessee whiskey to be exact.

Josh Madrid: “Norman Fucking Rockwell!”

by Lana Del Rey This nosedive into the grey zone of American nostalgia takes place in my hometown of Long Beach, and it’s the type of lyrical poetry that one contemplates in the smoking section of the bar patio while thinking, “What’s next?” The best song on the album is “Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have — but I have it.”

Livvy Mullen: “Art Angels” by Grimes More than ever, I really need music that makes me feel absolutely feral. “Art Angels” just gives you that rush! Though I only understand 20 to 30% of the lyrics, I am confident that it is the greatest album in the history of music. My current isolation self-care routine is streaming it in full at 2 a.m.

ARTSDESKALBUMS on 11

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8 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

COMMENTARY: WELCOME TO THE POST-IRONIC AGE First as tragedy, then as farce

ILYA SHR AYB ER / AGGIE

BY I LYA SHRAYB E R arts@theaggie.org I wake up as I always do a bit groggy but nonetheless eager to see what the day has in store for me. I walk downstairs, cut up some fruit, pour a cup of tea and if weather permits, go for a short walk, perhaps even dipping my feet into the ocean. I try not to look at my phone other than to queue up tracks on Spotify or check on my grandparents. Every day, once I return home, I am bombarded with a wealth of information — some of it bad, some of it good, some of it true and some of it blatantly false. The world is buzzing. The era of information, defined by spectacled geniuses in laboratories, is over. This period of time has brought great upheaval, and we are now entering the ensuing stage in our shared culture. Welcome to the next phase of politics, economics, art and emotion. Welcome to the Post-Ironic Age. To try to define the Post-Ironic Age would be as hilariously absurd as it is to live in it, which many of us already do. To attempt and explain exactly the times we are living in is a great feat for even the most talented of artists, but perhaps laying the groundwork for how it is, and how it feels, would be a decent start.

To live in the Post-Ironic Age is to utilize the relics of the era that came before it — the Information Age. It’s a time that’s defined by global

hyperconnectivity, one that we as a planet have agreed to, for better or worse. A concept like trading privacy for goods or services, usually digital, is a cornerstone of the Post-Ironic Age. As is the general anxiety about the impact of all these things, which most deftly affects younger populations. The Post-Ironic Age is not one that those over 40 truly understand, but one they shape with legislation, economic action and general confusion.

The atmosphere, or colloquially “the vibe,” of the Post-Ironic Age is characterized by the constant absurdity of the world around us. There is a larger, continued outcry for the death of Harambe, a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, then for the burning of Notre Dame in Paris. Why? Because there is more power in irony and even more power in the continued existence after the event, which we can call post-irony. To focus on an innocent gorilla getting put down rather than the destruction of a globally recognized historic site is a strange thing indeed.

After a while, the constant absurdity leads to a malaise. Rapidly forming, one begins to detect despair. At its worst, it becomes hopelessness.

Thanks to a logical conclusion in hyperconnectivity (how much more virtually connected could we get?), we now begin to notice the ugly stepsister that it came with: hypercompetitiveness.

Everything from a Facebook post to an Instagram story has become an arena, a battleground

or a stage. And it is exhausting, much like many things have in the Post-Ironic Age. Indeed, to live in this new era means one has to be “on” from the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep. It has led to finding beauty in the littlest of things, from weighted blankets to artisanal beverages. A joy to be found in soft goods, however fleeting, rather than grand investment and the support of traditional industries, is a central tenet of this new era, much to the chagrin of Baby Boomers everywhere.

It is tough, and in some ways nearly impossible, to trace the advent of the Post-Ironic Age. Many, I believe, would point to the 2016 United States Presidential Election, when Donald J. Trump beat out Hillary Rodham Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States. It was, in many liberal circles, nothing short of a D Day scenario. There were protests across America. Early on, a common phrase one could hear in San Francisco, if not every major city was, “Not my president.” But therein lies the tragedy: He was our president, and at the time of writing, still is. The fact that we elected a sexist, senile gameshow host as the leader of the free world should’ve been enough to show us that these times were cursed, but it was in his policies and actions that we truly began to see this.

The Trump administration has done an incredible job of breaking the American people down, exhausting us week after week with a myriad of plans that are seemingly birthed by Dr. Evil and company. To describe the policies of this administration would be to cite racism, xenophobia and a general desire to go backward both in domestic and international affairs. Many around the world have adopted a regime of modern barbarism, swinging their once temperate countries deep into the far-right, planting the seeds for a new brand of fascism, including Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines and Recep Erdoğan in Turkey.

Of course, the biggest player outside the United States in the Post-Ironic Age is China.

Through the creation of concentration camps for its Uighur populations, along with the jailing and silencing of coronavirus whistleblowers, China has shown the world it will stop and reassess for no one. In addition, given China’s mandatory social credit system along with a deep national firewall, not only do you have a state that is deeply rooted in post irony, but one that almost approaches the title of cyberpunk — the most financially disparate and emotionally bankrupt title we can give our hyper-connected future.

As politics embrace absurdism and post-irony, so must our financial institutions. The concept of

money since the abandoning of the gold standard has always been flimsy, but in the Post-Ironic age, it has reached new heights. Crypto-currency, long dormant, has been shocked back to life with the creation of the blockchain, a traceable log of transactions between users. The utility of it, along with its universal nature, has created a renaissance in the way society views currency and how it is earned. Instead of manual or white-collar labor, it is “‘mined” by computers that have to solve complex puzzles that exacerbate processing power. We have traded in physical currency, backed by the Federal Reserve, for electronic currency, backed by a virtual network of people around the world who have agreed it is worth something.

This is, in some ways, quite clever. As political tensions boil over in countries like those mentioned above, it could be smart to invest in alternative currencies. It could be safer, as well.

Indeed, for someone like a Syrian refugee, it may prove more favorable to transfer their life savings into Bitcoin, and then redeem it for the currency of whatever country in which they settle. One can recognize that that would be safer, smarter and more lucrative than running around with a bag full of Euros or American dollars that can be seized by the state, or worse, militants.

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, the art world has perhaps been engrossed in post irony longer than any other realm. Has there always been something ironic about art? There is a notion that some people really get it, while the majority of us really do not. If there is, then we have reached a point where people can choose which one of those camps to stay in seemingly through a coin flip, deciding the moment they see a work of art. Take “Comedian” by Maurizio Cattelan, a piece unveiled in 2019.

“Comedian” has been heavily reported on, deeply discussed and thoroughly dissected by a multitude of outlets. But the simple truth is that it is a banana, taped to a wall, with a torn piece of duct tape. The other simple truth? It sold for 120,000 dollars at Art Basel last year. “Comedian” is a piece of conceptual art that doesn’t have any meaning until you ascribe it some. In this sense, it is art in its purest form. Its meaning in the post-ironic age is, of course, one of metaphor, a symbol of farce: winking at our collective consciousness, is at the same time playful and devoid of any logical sense.

Another piece one could hone in on is “Girl with Balloon,” by Banksy, sold in October of 2018.

DECLARATION on 11

UC DAVIS CAMP KESEM WILL CONTINUE SERVING COMMUNITY THROUGH ONLINE FORMAT Camp directors discuss transition to online camp this summer

K IYO M I WATS O N / AGGI E

BY SOP HI E D EW E E S features@theaggie.org Usually located in the wooded Tahoe Foothills, UC Davis Camp Kesem, the Davis chapter of the national Camp Kesem organization, serves children of cancer patients, cancer survivors or those who have lost family members to cancer. This year, the UC Davis student-run camp will continue remotely via Zoom for about 260 campers.

According to Tomer Fidelman, a third-year economics major and camp director, the Camp Kesem organization decided to move camp online in March, allowing the counselors more time to plan for the summer.

“That decision came relatively early in the

pandemic, which was great because we have ample time to prepare,” Fidelman said. “We’ve been able to really focus on how we’re going to make this the best experience for our community.”

This decision seemed natural for him, as many campers come from a family that is immunocompromised, making the risk of contracting a respiratory disease higher for the Kesem community members.

“We’re serving a highly vulnerable population, and we should not be in a position where we might be endangering them,” Fidelman said.

Camp in a Box Running from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., there will be about four hours of programming each day, including camp games and arts and crafts. In ad-

dition, each camper will receive a box with materials such as markers, a journal and more.

“The activities we’ll be doing will be things that we can do from home like tie-dying,” said Armando Gonzalez, a fourth-year sociology major and camp director. “We’re sending all of our campers a little pot and a seed so they can grow a little plant.”

In normal circumstances, Kesem is an overnight camp with campers divided into cabin groups. According to Gonzalez, these groups will continue online, and campers will still be able to participate in a signature Kesem activity: the evening “Cabin Chat.”

“We ask our campers questions about how they’re feeling [and] things that they’re interested in so they can build a community and realize that there’s other people out there who are very similar to them and have similar experiences and that they aren’t alone,” Gonzalez said.

Online engagement Kesem offers spots for kids aged six to 16 with a teen leadership program for 16 to 18-year-olds.

Because of this age range, Gonzalez worries that the younger campers will struggle to stay concentrated.

“As a former counselor for the six-year-old bunch, I’m a little concerned about having them just sit in front of a screen and be focused and attentive for more than an hour at a time,” Gonzalez said.

However, Kesem’s many counselors, according to Gonzalez, are more than equipped to keep the campers interested.

“Typically, our ratio is about three campers for every one counselor, and so that makes it a little more manageable for the counselors to be giving them more direct attention,” Gonzalez said.

The Kesem community

Although the camp has had to remove all of the physical games and activities from the schedule to accommodate with social distancing, Fidelman said he believes UC Davis Camp Kesem will be able to retain the emotional connection that is, in his words, highly impactful for the kids.

“Sometimes, I think we can get disillusioned with the fact that if we’re not there in person, we might not be able to provide the same kind of support,” Fidelman said. “We’re really emphasizing here now that when we create our virtual camp schedule, we’re trying to retain all the emotionally connective parts of camp, all the parts that are cathartic and are healing and are great spaces for our counselors and our campers to connect.”

Although the camp is only six days long, in Fidelman’s experience, campers often use this time to talk for hours with others and bond over shared experiences. According to Fidelman, Kesem’s most important role is to facilitate this discussion and bring children with similar backgrounds together, a role it can still have over the internet.

“That’s been the call to action now; the fact that there is some emotional reserve there that we need to access so that connection is still there and still possible even over Zoom,” Fidelman said.

To Gonzalez, Camp Kesem is, at its heart, a community that does not require in-person meetings to serve its purpose.

“We talk a lot about the community that we are and how there isn’t really any physical location or anything physical that needs to be there for the power of the community to be felt,” Gonzalez said. “Times like this exactly show that. It’s an incredible group. It’s so much more than just a camp.”

CAMPUS PERSONIFIED: SEARCHING FOR A SOUL WITHIN WOOD, BRICK AND CONCRETE Wellman, Shields, Social Sciences, Olson have more to them than meets the eye

Top row from left to right: Kleiber Hall and Peter J. Shields Library. Bottom row from left to right: Olson Hall and Wellman Hall. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY A N D REW W I LL IAMS arts@theaggie.org In the first article I published for The California Aggie, I wrote “among the stucco and concrete box-like structures that riddle the campus, students are hard-pressed to find a building that evokes anything but a shrug.” I would like to make this my sincere apology to those buildings,

which I may have offended.

Over the past four years — after countless hours spent in these “box-like structures” — they have become an inseparable part of my Davis experience. This past year, in brief moments of mania, I began to see beyond just what they were — their structure and their materials — and into who they were. Have I lost my marbles? Perhaps, but as I turn the last page on the last chapter of

college life, I thought I’d share my collection of thoughts on these steadfast companions.

Wellman Hall Wellman will forever be the eccentric uncle we all know and love. He smells distinctly of sawdust and is brimming with wacky stories about campus life in the ’60s. For postgrad he attended law school, but quickly dropped out because he refused to be “just another brick in the wall.” After a good deal of soul-searching, he eventually found his way. Pursuant to a passion for the American Civil War, he obtained a degree in history and a teaching credential. He shares his love for past events with future generations as a much-beloved APUSH teacher. Currently, Wellman lives alone on the periphery of a forest where he tends to his botanical garden and extensive collections of petrified wood and vintage Pink Floyd LPs. He truly is a simple man of simple pleasures.

Shields Library Shields grew up an aspiring writer; sending in her stories to the late, great New Yorker. On her 76th attempt, the magazine finally validated her talents by publishing her short story “Egg Shells and Ice Cubes.” Shields rode this wave of success to three acclaimed works of fiction. Now a silver-haired information specialist, she spends her days organizing, reorganizing and burying her nose in the books of the place she calls home.

Despite living through both World Wars and nearly 20 U.S. presidents, she hasn’t lost the pep in her step nor the twinkle in her eye. During her downtime, you can find her in a wooden rocker reading E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web” to a group of stray children and wistful adults.

Social Sciences and Humanities Building (Death Star) An academic to his concrete laden core, SSH is usually clad in a sharp-cut tweed blazer. Peering down from his imposing stature and wire-framed Corbusier spectacles, he emanates an air of authority. Having no understanding of the term small talk, he churns on a single gear — “existentialism.” All you wanted were directions to the nearest Starbucks and the next thing you know your head is swirling about with the theories of Jean-Paul Sartre and Descartes. That being said, in less pressing times, you find yourself admiring the grandeur of such a formidable cranium.

Olson Hall Olson’s a bonafide problem solver and not afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s usually on the late-night grind as a C.E.O. of a non-profit. But don’t let that unshakeable work-ethic deceive you — she’s full of compassion and well-established as the best hugger on campus. As of late, she’s been going through a mid-life crisis as newcomers attempt to upstage her — namely, that pretentious noob California Hall. As a consequence, she’s slightly insecure about her standing. Don’t you fret Ol’ Faithful, I love you all the same.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Sudoku

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020 | 9

Answer to previous puzzle

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10 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR AND STUDENTS WEIGH IN ON ZOOM FATIGUE Lack of non-verbal cues, physical tiredness contribute to the phenomenon

TESSA KOGA / AGGIE

BY A N JI N I V EN U GO PAL features@theaggie.org Without actually seeing people in person, many people have taken to extensive communication over video through services such as Zoom, FaceTime and Skype. With classes, meetings, happy hours and more spent in such a way, many people have reported increased exhaustion, a phenomenon termed “Zoom fatigue.”

Second-year biochemistry and molecular biology major Aparna Manoj said, over Zoom, one doesn’t get the same nonverbal communication cues. In her experience, when someone can’t see others’ facial expressions and gestures as clearly, there is a stronger dependence on the words that are spoken.

“Since there’s only a voice to engage us sort

of, it’s much easier to get distracted, and then even harder to get re-oriented in the call,” Manoj said in an email. “Overall, I just think we need a higher amount of focus and concentration to understand what’s happening with Zoom communication, and I feel that this is really what leaves us feeling so exhausted after a call.

Like Manoj, fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major Mira Shah finds that video calls and conferences are “much more draining” than in-person interactions, in large part due to lack of nonverbal cues. Shah uses Zoom mostly for classes and said the “already dreadful concept” of participating becomes even more stressful and intimidating since the screen shifts to the speaker. On top of that, an unstable internet connection and uncertainty about how you sound and look can cause even more stress.

Shah described a lab session toward the beginning of the quarter in which her internet connection was poor and she was disconnected from the session. She said this caused a lot of anxiety as she scrambled to reconnect and explain the situation to the TA so she could be placed into the correct breakout room.

“Ever since that lab, I get really stressed out about my WiFi connection, because I wouldn’t know what to do if it randomly disconnected while I was taking the proctored lab quiz we have once a week,” Shah said in an email. “From my use of Zoom, all of these added stressors that come along with virtual communication contribute largely to the ‘Zoom fatigue’ and feeling of relief I experience whenever a Zoom call has ended.”

Shah said she feels the most Zoom fatigue in that three-hour lab class. In addition to the lack of nonverbal cues, sitting in front of a laptop for that long is tiring.

“Besides the physical effects Zoom calls have caused me (stiff neck/shoulders, eye strain, leg paresthesia -from sitting for so long, and headaches), I tend to feel very mentally drained after my labs,” Shah said. “[I] have noticed that my productivity is at its lowest on the days I have lab.”

Manoj said she started experiencing Zoom fatigue a few weeks into Spring Quarter. Classes and meetings were suddenly more tiring; 50-minute classes that flew by in person were draining and left her feeling unproductive “Now, these same Zoom meetings are something I have to brace for,” Manoj said. “They feel so much longer and I end up feeling super drained after. Especially if it is a live class, I end up feeling so exhausted after the call, and I feel like my brain can’t listen to anything anymore and absorb information. I end up feeling super unmotivated to continue with work afterward, and my overall mood becomes pretty irritable.”

Both Manoj and Shah have heard from their friends about having difficulty staying engaged.

Manoj added that with remote instruction, it’s harder to understand material, and there’s a common lack of energy to clarify the confusion at a later time.

Manoj is currently the programming coordinator and incoming co-director of Mental Health Initiative (MHI), and she says that counselors and community members she’s encountered in that context have helped her validate that Zoom fatigue is real; it’s not just laziness.

“It helped me see [Zoom fatigue] as something I can try to cope with and that’s when I started trying a lot of coping strategies I’ve learned with MHI,” Manoj said.

Being able to see oneself on screen is also something that contributes to feelings of Zoom fatigue — Shah says that it has a negative impact because it’s something that wouldn’t be dealt with in a “‘typical’ social setting,” and especially not in class.

“Even personally, I feel the need to constantly check my square on the Zoom call to make sure I look okay, and that my room in the background isn’t cluttered or messy,” Shah said. “For me personally, having my camera on is bringing my whole class home with me, and it makes me extra self-conscious about how I am presenting myself and my space. This can be especially distracting, as it is for me, and takes away from learning experiences, making the Zoom call feel more like a 3hr long performance instead of an informative class period.”

Manoj agrees, saying that everyone is self-conscious and seeing herself on screen makes her more aware of her appearance and thus increases her nervousness.

R EAD FULL ARTI CLE ONLI NE

KATHERINE KIM REGARDED AS “PIONEER” IN FIELD OF MEDICAL INFORMATICS

Nursing professor named fellow in American Medical Informatics Association

Katherine Kim, an assistant professor at the UC Davis Nursing School, was named a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association. (UC Davis Regents / Courtesy)

BY MA RG O ROSE NB AU M science@theaggie.org Katherine Kim, an assistant professor for the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, has worked in the field of health informatics for 25 years. To recognize her efforts in applying information science and technology to healthcare, Kim was recently named a fellow of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

Along with 153 other professionals, Kim was inducted at the AMIA 2020 Virtual Clinical Informatics Conference on May 19. These professionals were recognized in the Fellows of AMIA Applied Informatics Recognition Program for their excellence in practicing informatics, according to a press release from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Founded in 1988, AMIA is a professional scientific association that aims to lead the way in transforming health care through trusted science, education and the practice of informatics. AMIA connects a broad community of professionals and students interested in informatics, said Karen Greenwood, the executive vice president and COO of AMIA. Founded in 2018, the Fellows of the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA) is a recognition program for members who apply informatics skills and knowledge within their professional setting, Greenwood said via email.

“Fellows of the FAMIA recognize profession-

als who apply informatics skills and knowledge towards the goals of enhanced personal and population health, improved organizational performance and learning and individual empowerment in their health care and research,” Kim said.

Fellows must demonstrate professional achievement, leadership and a sustained commitment to the betterment of AMIA, according to Greenwood.

“To be a fellow, it means that you’ve achieved a certain level of experience and expertise in the application of informatics to healthcare,” Kim said.

Even before she became a professor at the nursing school in 2014, Kim demonstrated professional achievement and leadership. Kim has led numerous projects studying the use of information technology in improving public health and advancing clinical research, said Stephen Cavanagh, the dean for the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, via email.

“Dr. Kim is a talented and enthusiastic researcher who has considerable skill in researching and communicating the importance of data in patient care decision making,” Cavanagh wrote.

Much of Kim’s work involves designing and implementing mobile health and digital health technology that help patients and clinicians collaborate in improving healthcare. She is one of two UC Davis faculty members who oversee the UC Davis arm of the National Institutes of Health’s monumental, nationwide All of Us Re-

search Program.

“Apart from personal recognition for being an expert in the field of medical informatics, this fellowship also highlights and illustrates the distinguished work that Dr. Kim and her colleagues are doing both within the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing and UC Davis as a whole,” Cavanagh said via email.

Kim not only designs technology systems, but also participates in implementing them within public health. Her systems are used throughout entire countries like Singapore and Thailand and within individual hospital systems.

“Kathy is hard-working and forward thinking,” said Janice Bell, the associate dean for research and a professor for the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, via email. “She moves quickly and decisively. She has a lot of disparate interests and a knack for pulling them all together in support of patient engaged user centered technology design and research.”

As a professor and as an entrepreneur, Kim knows how to run both research projects and businesses, said Susan Hull, the chief health information officer of Careloop, who wrote Kim’s recommendation for the fellowship.

“She’s really pioneering participatory health information technology and experiences to develop new models for health delivery and research,” Hull said.

Some of Kim’s colleagues describe Kim in a similar manner. The complexity and depth of Kim’s background make her pretty unusual in academia, said Jill Joseph, a professor of epidemiology and a physician for the school of nursing.

“We tend to take a narrow slice of the pie and that’s our slice of the pie over and over and over again,” Joseph said. “She has a broad application of a very specific interest in assuring that technology is useful and can be used by many groups that are oftentimes not considered.”

This broad range of experience, in addition to her work’s progression over 25 years, made Kim a competitive applicant for the FAMIA fellowship.

“I could actually demonstrate that I knew what it took to actually have those systems be in the real world,” Kim said.

This fellowship gives Kim credibility as an expert in health informatics, as well as the ability to share her expertise and research with other contributors in the field, Kim said. Being surrounded by others also trained in informatics and who

have also applied it in practical settings are some other benefits of this fellowship. “[It] gives you lots of opportunity to continue learning, and to share what we know with each other,” Kim said. “It’s kind of like being part of a club where people care about the same things that you do, and you get to learn from those people.”

Kim is continuing to work on several research projects in which her team goes out to the community to educate about health informatics. Kim urges undergraduates to become involved, as many students are unfamiliar with the field.

“Health informatics is a great field that combines all kinds of people,” Kim said. “If you have an interest in technology or information science and care about healthcare or public health, it’s a great field to think about.”

Kim’s team currently studies food security for pregnant women and their families in the Yurok tribe in Northern California. Kim is teaching these people to create home gardens, preserve the food they grow and use technology to evaluate their programs. The team members will also be implementing a subscription food delivery service in their neighborhood for food that cannot be grown in the area.

“We are helping [the Yurok people] learn what computer tools they need to collect data on this and evaluate whether their program is effective,” Kim said. “We will be teaching them about program evaluation [and] about mobile tools that you can use on a smartphone or a tablet to collect data as you’re out in the field and then how to analyze that.”

Kim’s team is also working on a mobile health application to collect information about signs and symptoms of COVID-19, called a symptom discovery application.

“It’s actually trying to understand what are all the things that are happening in the body when someone’s affected with COVID-19,” Kim said.

Both these projects illustrate how Kim is involved with many communities, which is one reason why she was named a FAMIA fellow, according to Hull. “[Kim’s] very grounded in communities of practice and with the people who actually need to participate in creating these interventions, but she’s also got this very wide range of leadership on national initiatives that are spanning many years and many people,” Hull said.

AGGIES SHARE SUMMER PLANS AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC A look into how three students are spending a summer like no other

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

BY N ORA FA RA H DE L features@theaggie.org The sun is shining, the school year has come to an end and Bachelor in Paradise is on: It’s summer. Summer is a time of exploration for many students — a time when to focus on school, potential careers or just relax.

This summer, like much of 2020, however, is drastically different from the ones in years past.

With COVID-19 regulations in place, many regular summer plans are no longer available, and summer plans have been adjusted to fit the new normal of the pandemic. Yet, students have still found ways to spend their summers productively.

Samveda Rukmangadhan, a first-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, decided to take summer classes at Davis over the summer to get ahead. This is an option that many students have chosen due to the pandemic, as online

classes can be done safely from home. In fact, in a message sent on May 8, Chancellor Gary May said there has been a 22% increase in Summer Session enrollment since last year.

Rukmangadhan’s original summer plans were to travel to India and see family, but these have been canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Instead, Rukmangadhan said she decided to take two of her harder classes, CHE 118A and B, at a time where she can put all of her focus on them.

“I chose these courses because they are some of the hardest courses I would have to take,” Rukmangadhan said. “I decided, since many other health-related opportunities are closed over the summer, such as labs and hospital volunteering, I may as well focus all my time into harder classes.”

Kavenpreet Bal, a third-year genetics and genomics major, has a multitude of plans prepared for the summer. He is taking classes at UC Davis for Summer Session One and Two and, at the same time, he plans to continue his work as a microbiology assistant at the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching hospital, where he will culture bacteria to assist in diagnosing various conditions in animals. Additionally, as a part of the Bhagat Puran Singh Health Initiative (BPSHI), Bal will distribute medical supplies to hospitals in need.

Lastly, Ball will volunteer at Sutter Health and participate in mobile research at Hunter Laboratory.

Bal shared his gratitude for all of these opportunities and looks forward to when restrictions

are lifted so he can take on even more of his interests.

“I am fortunate to be able to work at an essential job, take classes online and engage in mobile training/research, while giving back to our first responders and hospitals,” Bal said. “After restrictions ease up, I look forward to ideally being able to shadow physicians with specialties in internal medicine and emergency medicine.”

Rodrigo Altamirano, a first-year hydrology major, is enlisted in the California Army National Guard and plans on participating in annual training this summer. Altamirano will use this time to maintain and improve his skill levels, such as obtaining a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS).

Altamirano shared his excitement for his upcoming training during the summer, and emphasized its safety. Above all, his family’s safety is the driving force which keeps Altamirano optimistic for the future during these hard times.

“Even though we only see each other once a month for our drills, my section is very close and knowing them, there’s not going to be a dull moment at annual training,” Altamirano said. “My chain of command, as with many others in charge, are going to do their best to keep the health and safety of their soldiers a priority.

Knowing that my family is healthy and safe is what is able to keep me optimistic, to do everything you can to make sure the ones you love are safe is what keeps me going.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020 | 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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“Some key measures to note in the State’s guidance for dine-in restaurants include, but are not limited to: removing tables and chairs from dining areas so that six feet of physical distance can be maintained, closing bar areas, adjusting maximum occupancy rules, encouraging reservations, performing thorough, frequent cleaning, and installing hand sanitizer dispensers at entrances and contact areas,” according to the press release.

Even with the relaxed shelter-in-place orders, however, Davis businesses will still face significant challenges. The Chamber conducted an information session via Zoom on May 15, during which police, city and Chamber officials fielded questions from community members and business owners

about operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Assistant City Manager Ash Feeney discussed the challenge of restoring customer confidence — creating business spaces where customers feel safe enough from infection to visit and spend money.

“We’re continuing to see more businesses allowed to open, but they’re not necessarily opening in the way we did business yesterday,” Feeney said. “What we’re trying to do is be proactive in thought and say ‘Okay, if it isn’t going to look like it did two or three months ago with respect to commerce, what can we do to help facilitate businesses to ensure that customers are comfortable coming back and getting those cash registers ringing again?’”

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Dignity Health, which has agreements with five of six UC medical centers, operates under the ERDs at 17 out of 31 California hospitals. At the other 14, they operate under the Statement of Common Values where they do not perform elective abortions, IVF or physician-assisted death.

“It’s pretty clear why [these policies are] discriminatory against transgender people,” said WGCA member and UCSF Ob/Gyn Vanessa Jacoby. The discrimination against women is trickier to pick out, though, Jacoby argued.

“Policies that prohibit women from getting standard of care services are discriminatory against women because the vast majority of our contraception is for women,” Jacoby said. “Women who are prohibited from getting contraception are the ones that bear the consequences of undesired pregnancy.”

Because Jacoby views these policies as so discriminatory towards women and members of LGBTQ community, Jacoby is fundamentally against these partnerships as they conflict with the values of UC. “When I’m considering a healthcare decision, if one of the harms is discrimination against any group, but in this case discrimination against women and against LGBT people and against transgender patients [...] that, to me, overwhelms any potential benefit,” Jacoby said. “I don’t believe UC should violate our anti-discrimination policies, no matter what the potential benefits are.”

UC Davis’ ASUCD shares this belief and unanimously passed Senate Resolution #18 which calls for the UC to end all plans to expand affiliations with Dignity Health.

Others such as David Lubarsky, vice chancellor of Human Health Sciences and CEO for UC Davis Health, follows a different line of reasoning. Since many of Dignity’s facilities are in rural areas, the only healthcare facilities for miles, UC would not have access to these patients if not for partnerships with Dignity Health. Lubarsky said he believes that more harm would be done to these rural communities by not partnering with systems like Dignity Health than could potentially be done by partnering with them.

“We agree 100% that we have to do everything we can promote for Reproductive Rights and full access to health care for the LGBTQ community in every way,” Lubarsky said in an interview earlier this year with The California Aggie’s Editorial Board. “But that principle cannot trump the real harm that would be done to a large population of individuals who [would no longer be able to] get advanced care at a UC hospital.”

Lubarsky put bluntly what a complete disengagement with Dignity Health would do: “It prevents the poor people [which]

Dignity primarily serves from having access to any UC hospital.”

Lubarsky said he believes the WGCA did not get to the root of the problem: How can we balance the need of the underserved communities that need access to UC doctors through Dignity with our own values surrounding women’s reproductive health care and LGBTQ+ healthcare?

“It became an argument over a single issue, which was actually a mistake,” Lubarsky said, saying he believes “a broader discussion about ‘How do we best serve the human beings we’re responsible for?’” would have been more productive.

Dan Loeterman, the director of External Communications for Dignity Health, said he agrees.

“It’s very clear to us that tens of thousands of Californians depend on [UC and Dignity] programs for their health each year,” Loeterman said. “We believe that there’s a lot more where [UC and Dignity] agree than where we disagree.”

Everyone does seem to agree on the fact that the partnership between UC and Dignity Health is highly political, especially because each is a powerhouse of medical care, since half of California doctors are trained at UC, and Dignity Health is the largest hospital chain in California.

“UC Health will try to say this isn’t about politics — this is about one of the most important issues facing this country,” said UC Davis Professor and Member of the WGCA Robert May. “If Roe v. Wade is overturned, and there’s a very good likelihood that that will happen, that will engender a major health crisis in this country. Our getting involved with this is just aiding that.”

Lubarsky said he thinks otherwise. By participating in these affiliations, the UC is able to at least have some sway in the conversation regarding the treatment of patients at hospitals that operate under the ERDs. “By disengagement, we lose our voice in that argument,” Lubarsky said. “We think principled engagement plus support of organizations like Planned Parenthood will be a better tactic than disengagement.”

Jacoby, however, did not adhere to this idea.

“I really believe that the University of California can find solutions to address our clinical needs, our research needs, our educational needs, that do not compromise our core values and our anti-discrimination policies,” Jacoby said. “I would love [for leadership in the UC] to propose solutions that don’t have this controversy around it and don’t discriminate against women or LGBT people.”

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Newsom’s proposal, however, has been met with pushback from the California legislature, which has instead proposed that funds be delayed — not cut — from the UC if no substitute federal aid arrives.

UC Davis relied on over $124 million of contracts and grants from the California state government — 14.77% of its contract and grant funds — in the 2018–19 fiscal year.

Among the other changes announced in the press release were a systemwide freeze on salaries for policy-covered staff employees and salary scales for policy-covered, non-student academic appointees for the 2020–21 fiscal year.

Those changes come on the heels of an April 2 announcement from Napolitano and the UC chancellors that there would be no COVID-19 related career staff layoffs through the end of the 2019–20 UC fiscal year, which ends June 30.

That promise, however, excluded lecturers.

UC Davis Provost Ralph Hexter said in an April 7 letter to UC Davis faculty that the university already faced a need to rebalance core funds by $100 million over the next five years. In planning faculty recruitment, he added that it was important for faculty to find “creative opportunities” to meet their needs moving forward.

“I encourage you to consider opportunities to include Lecturers with Potential for Security of Employment (LPSOEs) in your hiring plans where they may provide workload support for quality teaching and curricular development and instruction,” he wrote.

UC-Academic Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT), which represents lecturers and librarians throughout UC, has been bargaining for a renewal of its contract since it ended on Jan. 31. When the announcement about no UC career-staff layoffs was made, UCAFT members began advocating for lecturers to be included in that protection.

Only one UC campus — UC Berkeley — has made that provision for lecturers.

UC-AFT’s Executive Board also wrote a letter to Napolitano on May 29, in response to the 10% pay cut she and other UC chancellors were taking.

In it, the members of the board underscored that around 1,300 lecturers on shortterm contracts may lose their job security if they are not reappointed by June 1 and that, given the $19,900 median salary of lecturers, pay cuts may drive folks out of academia altogether.

“If cuts are deemed necessary, they should not come at the expense of the UC’s existing workforce but should start with temporary cuts to UC’s highest salaries and be steeply progressive,” the board wrote.

Its members proposed that for one year, UC capped incomes at $250,000, which would, they said, save the university up to $900 million.

UC Berkeley lecturer and UC-AFT member Marianne Kaletzky, who was raised by her mom, a Philippine immigrant and single parent, said at a UC-AFT press conference on June 1 that though her mom, who worked as a secretary, wasn’t making that much, she would always send money back to her family in the Philippines.

“That impressed upon me the need to support my family and community,” she said.

Kaletzky said that by being unwilling to offer job stability and living wages, the UC was losing diversity.

“What I hear from a lot of lecturers and PhD candidates from historically marginalized backgrounds is how hard it is to stay in positions like that knowing the kinds of responsibility one has — to one’s family, community, being financially solvent oneself,” she said. “UC is losing faculty and teachers from [...] historically marginalized backgrounds, first-generation backgrounds, working-class backgrounds and backgrounds of color.”

Though Martinez isn’t sure what impact her letter to the Regents will have on the budget, she said she hopes the Regents recognize the statewide opposition toward the reduction of undocumented student funds.

“Behind the budget and numbers are people,” she said. “UC expresses a commitment to support undocumented students. If they make this budget cut, then they need to revise their values.”

In the future, there could be an increase in demand for travel, according to Selk.

“Indicators reveal that there is pent up demand for travel but execution will return in waves starting with local and regional, followed by longer haul US and then international,” Selk said via email. “Yolo County is positioned ideally for the first wave as it possesses many of the current aspects of which travelers will seek - wide open spaces, fresh air, low city congestion[...].”

According to the letter from the California Travel Industry Coalition, one such way to help commu-

nities who have been affected by “the potential loss of the Transient Occupancy Tax revenue base” is a “one-time emergency stimulus fund.”

Selk also highlighted how the general public can help support tourism during this time, such as by supporting local businesses and welcoming those who are visiting Yolo County from other areas.

“When it is appropriate for travelers to cross county borders, invite your friends and family to come experience YOUR Yolo County, showing off what makes this a special place to live, work and play,” Selk said via email.

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Twice, she has been called the “N-word,” once by a group of white men in a pickup truck with an American flag and twice by a white colleague.

“When I heard the one by the guys in the truck, it shook me to my core,” Banks said. “[When my colleague said it to me], I didn’t think anything of it until months later. I knew it wasn’t okay at the moment, but then it really hit me that someone actually had the audacity to say it to my face multiple times.”

Banks is not alone in being subjected to overt racism and harassment on campus.

On his first day at Georgia Tech in the early 1980s, May moved into his dorm room to find that he and his roommate, Chip, had both been subjected to overt racism. “[His name card said] Chip is an N-word lover, so that was my introduction to the campus,” May said.

Incidents of racism and white supremacy are not uncommon on the UC Davis campus. Last October, The Aggie reported that 25 staff and students linked to the African American studies and political science departments received an email containing the message “It’s okay to be white.” The next week, a student reported that the fifth floor of the Death Star had been vandalized with two discrete N-words. This is on top of countless incidents of anti-Semitism on campus.

“The students who have grown up more within their culture [...] want to feel safe on campus and I don’t think UC Davis has done the best to provide that, truthfully,” Landrum said.

May argued, however, that the university walks a fine line between protecting students to the best of its availability and preparing students for the difficult situations they will inevitably face after graduation.

“I think we are doing quite a bit, but we’re never going to be different from society at large,” May said. “I straddle this line between wanting the students to feel safe and wanting them to be able to function in society. So, it’s a difficult balance.”

“We are a very strong community.”

Landrum and her ASUCD staff were tasked with making a video for UC Davis’ Orientation aimed at Black students to inform them of different resources and opportunities. Mostly, the video aims to make sure that incoming Black students feel seen. Keith, Landrum’s chief of staff, took the lead on the video. “[This video is for] when they come in, they can look at Black students and they will see, these are Black students and here’s what they’re doing on campus,” Landrum said.

Landrum wants more attention paid to what Black students are accomplishing on campus. For example, the Black Pre-Law Association went on a fully funded trip to Columbia University for the Black Pre-Law Conference, and the Black Engineers Association hosted a state-wide conference at UC Davis.

As a senator, Landrum worked last summer to

secure more space for the Center for African Diaspora Student Success (CADSS). After ASUCD dissolved the Experimental College, Landrum took advantage of the opportunity and worked to double the amount of space dedicated to CADSS. “They have been fighting for more space since they got the space [they’re in now], but CADSS was literally put on the list last,” Landrum explained. “It was extremely difficult because even though there aren’t many Black students on campus, we are a very strong community. And we do like being with each other. And we do like having a safe space to be on campus with each other.”

Landrum has spent much of her time on the Senate table advocating not only for her own community, but for all underrepresented communities.

The ASUCD Senate table is often divided, but it was Landrum’s reputation for communicating with students and her ability to work across the aisle that won her the election.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Landrum planned to host an ASUCD banquet that would invite alumni and different ASUCD units to come together and raise money for the association. Alumni would be given the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the different programs and initiatives spearheaded by ASUCD. Former ASUCD Vice President Shreya Deshpande admires Landrum’s ability to ask the right questions: “What can I do for you? What are the issues that you need addressed? And how can I make sure that you’re feeling represented and feeling heard?”

These questions are especially important when the table’s discussions are focused on police brutality and the Blue Lives Matter flag, on allocating funding and space to different commissions and committees or processing instances of hate and racism on campus.

“She won the election by a freaking landslide,” Deshpande said. “The way she humbled herself, and continues to humble herself at the table, shows [that she is someone] in power, using her power, to be able to create that space.”

That effort to create space was recently acknowledged by the Black Student Union. Landrum was awarded the Helping Hand Award for the second year in a row.

Landrum plans to take the lessons she’s learned through her internships, her time at the Senate table and what she learned at the Black Pre-Law Conference to law school. Even if she doesn’t attend an HBCU — though she would love to — she is confident that she will thrive, regardless. Being a Black woman at UC Davis has taught her to thrive in the face of adversity.

“At the end of the day, I’ve pulled through and the most challenging times were in places where it was very unlikely for me to succeed,” Landrum said.

“But I did it.”

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while I try to move things with my mind. Highly recommend!

Caroline Rutten: “Immunity” by Clairo This young, emerging artist offers us a glimpse into adolescent experiences with love — it’s innocent, it’s intense and it’s heart-wrenching at times.

Clairo offers lyrics of perfect simplicity, partnered with the sound of ex-Vampire Weekend’s Rostam.

Bedroom pop has reached a moment of beauty with this album.

Ilya Shrayber: “1000 gecs” by 100 gecs There is truly nothing in our sonic landscape that sounds quite like 100 gecs. Sit back, relax, pour yourself a cup of tea, then stand back up, throw the cup against the wall and start flailing along to the endless array of bangers found on their debut release “1000 gecs.”

Andrew Williams: “Maggot Brain” by Funkadelic Funkadelic’s third studio album pits all the groove and move of the ’70s against, y’know, “Nam” and all that stuff. Strap yourself in and prepare for a psychedelic eruption of face-melting guitar solos and funktastic basslines — just don’t forget to pack your stinkiest “stank” face.

Added Bonus by Dominic Faria, Sports Editor: “Mirrorland” by EarthGang This is one of the most creative and expressive albums to come out of the ascendant Dreamville label. Olu and WowGr8 take you on a rhythmic ride through Atlanta that changes course with each unique track. It blends art and imagination with heartfelt poetry, and it begs to be listened to over and over again.

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However, the focus here is not on the actual painting itself but what happened when it was auctioned off. As soon as the gavel hit the surface, the painting began to move downwards, shredding itself slowly. Another classic Banksy stunt for internet hits to be sure, but this one felt more poignant. The shredding of “Girl with Balloon,” after being sold for $1.4 million, was a reminder of the ephemeral nature of art itself and how one often forgets that, especially in an era that is defined by things existing always and forever on a server somewhere. Just as well, it was a middle finger to the ultra wealthy, a nice gesture from an anonymous artist who is probably quite well off themself.

And being well off is a great fear for many of us who live in this new age. Scraping by is the ultimate fear, and if we are not doing something to contribute to the gross domestic product, we are trained to feel as if we somehow failed. Yet, this new era cannot be defined by that, nor by hopelessness. Indeed, there are rumblings of change coming about. What we must do is be resilient.

Before I leave Land’s End and decide to come back home, I always watch the ocean for a few minutes. The future is scary and intimidating. But it is also exciting and alluring. I am thrilled to take it on, no matter how deeply steeped in post-irony and absurdity it may be.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

PROFESSIONAL SPORTS IN US SLOWLY PREPARING TO RETURN Countries across the globe provide glimpse of new reality for live sportsr future

KA IT LY N PA N G / AGGI E

BY RAIN YEKIKIAN sports@theaggie.org As sports leagues in the U.S. begin to reveal plans for their potential return, professional leagues across the world are providing the first glimpse into what could be the new reality for live sports amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Beginning in early May, South Korea became one of the first countries to resume play, as the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) implemented several preventive measures in an attempt to make the playing environment as safe as possible.

Players and coaches must go through fever screening prior to entering stadiums and are not allowed to high-five teammates with bare hands.

Masks are required for umpires and base coaches, as well as for anyone who enters training facilities. The KBO has also decided that if any team member tests positive for the virus, the league will immediately shut down.

Germany’s Bundesliga became the first major soccer league to return to play as well, implementing their own protocols such as disinfecting

match balls, fever screening and requiring substitutes to wear masks and sit six feet apart from each other on the bench. Players have also been discouraged from typical celebratory actions such as hugging and high-fiving.

Italy’s Serie A and England’s Premier League have also announced their expected return around mid-June. They will most likely be following similar preventive measures.

Among the many preventive measures implemented, the one that presents the biggest challenge to a return to normalcy is the new reality that all sports are going to have to be played without fans — or a severely limited number of fans — for the foreseeable future. South Korea and Germany have attempted to ease this obvious sense of emptiness by placing cutouts and images of their fans throughout stadiums.

The KBO said it hoped to have fans return to games as soon as early June, starting out with 20% capacity and increasing from there. But a recent spike in coronavirus cases in South Korea has put that plan in jeopardy for now as the situation remains uncertain.

In the U.S., leagues have slowly started to

release their plans to move forward with their respective seasons. But considering the country has had more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other, it will likely take more time for sports to resume.

The MLB released a detailed, 67-page safety proposal regarding its potential return for the 2020 season, which includes a wide range of modifications it hopes to implement.

The proposal consists of procedures such as multiple daily temperature screenings, balls being thrown away after being touched by multiple players and consistent testing for players and staff, which would require upwards of 10,000 tests per week. Players are also discouraged from showering at stadiums and socializing with opponents during games and are not allowed to use any ride-sharing apps when traveling.

The MLB’s possible 2020 season relies on approval from the MLB Players Association before moving forward with an official start date. All 30 teams were consulted regarding the proposed safety protocols, but the two sides still remain in negotiations regarding the financial details.

It’s apparent how much effort and atten-

tion-to-detail will be required if the MLB does decide to move forward with the season. Although it seems to have a very thorough set of guidelines, it is difficult to predict exactly how all of this could be carried out, and whether it will succeed at all.

The NBA is also working on a plan to resume its season, as teams have opened training facilities under a strict set of protocols that players and staff must follow. These include a check-in area upon arrival to training centers, temperature screenings and training on an assigned court. Only four players are allowed to practice at a time, and groups must rotate at designated times to avoid coming into contact with one another.

The NHL released its plan to move straight into the playoffs with a 24-team playoff format, but has not yet revealed when the season will be returning — if at all. It is expected that the NHL will select two “hub cities” where games will be played to avoid traveling as much as possible while also relying on temperature screening and voluntary workouts with limited numbers of players.

Neither the NBA nor the NHL have released official health protocols or specific dates in which they plan to resume their respective seasons, although the NBA is targeting July 31 as a possible return date.

The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) decided it will be returning to play, scheduling a month-long tournament in Salt Lake City at the end of June. The U.S. Women's National Team Players Association and U.S. Soccer Federation have both agreed they will allow each player to choose whether or not to compete in the tournament. If the tournament continues as scheduled, the NWSL will be the first U.S. league to resume play since the professional sports shutdown.

Although the future of sports remains uncertain, the effort put into resuming play indicates the strong desire that owners, players and fans have to bring sports back into their lives. While it may seem like an attractive concept, there are many difficulties leagues could end up facing if seasons return too soon.

As displayed in the MLB’s proposal, there are a large number of guidelines that players and staff must remember to follow, and questions remain about how leagues are going to monitor every single aspect of the game to make sure every rule is being adhered to.

There is also the possibility of a player testing positive for the virus, which could ultimately lead to their teammates or family members being infected as well. Leagues will have to account for this possibility and decide whether or not resuming their seasons is worth this risk.

Between the lack of close celebration that fans are so used to seeing from their teams and the unusual silence from the stands, fans and players are constantly reminded of exactly how far the world is from any sense of normalcy — not to mention that players adhering to strict guidelines day in and day out might begin to feel more disconnected from their sport as ever.

Nonetheless, there comes a time when the sports world will have to start again, and fans and players can only hope that leagues will account for all possible risks and resume play when it is safe to do so.

UC DAVIS ATHLETICS TO WAIT, FOLLOW COUNTY GUIDELINES ON REOPENING FACILITIES FOR PRACTICES Decision follows NCAA announcement allowing voluntary training starting June 1 KAIT LY N PA N G / AGGI E

BY PRIYA REDDY sports@theaggie.org On May 22, the NCAA announced it would allow voluntary activities to be held for Division I sports starting June 1. The announcement means that all Division I programs can now hold voluntary practices for eight hours each week.

This expands on a previous NCAA decision from May 20 allowing for D-1 basketball and football teams to begin holding on-campus voluntary activities on June 1 as long as all “local, state and federal regulations are followed.”

Prior to this announcement, the NCAA only allowed teams to hold eight hours of voluntary virtual activities each week. This decision, coupled with UC Davis’ decision to cancel all on-campus athletics activities for the spring season, meant that spring sports teams have been

unable to practice in person since mid-March.

Now, UC Davis Athletics is deciding how to move forward with summer training.

Currently, the state of California’s COVID public health guidelines allow for local health inspectors to commence with a gradual reopening under state guidelines. Following this directive, Yolo County recently lifted its shelter-in-place orders and has moved into Phase 2 of its reopening plan. In Phase 2, the county will allow for the gradual reopening of lower risk facilities, including schools, with some modifications.

Some of these modifications may need to include adjusting the practice schedules and activities for the UC Davis sports teams that have been unable to practice in person this quarter.

“We are eager to resume permission for student athletes to partake in voluntary activities,” said UC Davis Director of Athletics Kevin Blue.

“However, the availability of our facilities, and the availability and the permissibility of UC Davis students doing voluntary learning activities on our campus is subject to Yolo County and the County Public Health guidelines and how the shelter-in-place Order affects what's permissible activity.”

The Athletics Department is currently awaiting word from Yolo County officials as to whether or not it will be able to reopen and in what capacity. As a result, the department is unsure when, exactly, teams will be able to resume in-person training. In addition, it’s possible that in the coming months only certain training functions will be available.

“Right now, it's within the shelter-in-place guidelines for people to go for an outdoor run, so long as they maintain social distance,” Blue said. “Our distance runners, for example, can

train on running trails the same as they would in a more conventional environment so long as they're maintaining social distancing. On the other hand, indoor spaces, like a basketball gym, may not be available for access because of public health guidelines from Yolo County in the State of California.”

Regardless of when local and state guidelines will allow for the reopening of UC Davis facilities, the university would still need to take proper precautions before allowing for in-person practice and the use of athletics facilities.

“Any reopening would be done safely and gradually, but we don't have details or specifics on it because we simply lack any advanced understanding of what the state and county will do as far as relaxing [restrictions],” Blue said.