November 7 2019

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VOLUME 138, ISSUE 7 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

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STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT DACA AND “I STAND WITH…” SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGNS

ZOË REIN HA RDT / AGG IE

UC campaign comes just weeks before US Supreme Court hears case on DACA The Student Health and Wellness Center on the UC Davis Campus in Davis, Calif. California Senate Bill 24 was recently signed into law, mandating medical abortions at California public universities. Nov. 2, 2019. (Photo by Zoë Reinhardt / Aggie)

MEDICATION ABORTIONS TO BE ADMINISTERED AT ALL CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES STARTING 2023 With some states rolling back abortion rights, California becomes first state to offer this type of abortion on college campuses

BY J ESSI CA BAGGOTT campus@theaggie.org

for the Elections Committee.

There has not been any traditional outreach efforts, however, for this campaign cycle and members of the public raised concerns about how this will impact the demographics of students who choose to run.

Although petitions for elections have been moved back, according to the ASUCD Constitution, voting must take place during the week of Nov. 11. That date has remained firm despite setbacks.

There was also a delay in the candidate application process. Due to website technical difficulties, prospective applicants were unable to submit

Starting in 2023, both the UC and California State University (CSU) systems will provide on-campus access to medication abortions or “the abortion pill.” Signed on Oct. 11, the goal of Senate Bill 24 is to increase equity in regards to who has access to this procedure.

Written by California State Senator Connie Leyva, this bill is the first in any state to require such services be offered at public universities.

The idea for the bill first originated with Students United for Reproductive Justice at UC Berkeley. Soon after, the movement became a statewide campaign through the involvement of The Women’s Policy Institute and a multitude of other organizations.

“Abortion is a protected right, and it is important that everyone — including college students — have access to that right, if they so choose,” Leyva said in a statement.

Leyva has worked on the passage of this bill for three years — a previous version of the bill reached the desk of former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018. Brown vetoed the bill, arguing that access to abortion services off-campus were widely available.

Students for Reproductive Freedom is a student-run organization associated with a chapter of Planned Parenthood at UC Davis.

The organization works toward reproductive justice through education and advocacy. Lauren Low, a fourth-year community and regional development major, is the co-founder and current president of the UC Davis chapter. She stressed the importance of access to medication abortion, as it is a time-sensitive prodecure.

“You can only get medicated abortion during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy,” Low said. “Most people don’t realize they’re pregnant until four to six [weeks].”

Low stressed the safety of this procedure, saying “it’s safer than both Viagra and Tylenol.”

“Carrying your pregnancy to term is significantly more risky than this procedure, especially for people of color and people who face implicit bias in the healthcare system,” Low said.

Approximately 62% of students at California’s public universities are more than 30 minutes away from the closest abortion facility when using public transportation, according to a 2018 study published by the Journal of Adolecent Health. The same study said that the average cost of a medication abortion was $604.

At UC Davis, the nearest Planned Parenthood is in Woodland — 20 minutes away by car and an hour by public transportation.

“There are some students who cannot bring their cars on campus,” said Jessy Rosales, campus coordinator of Southern California for JustCARE, an organization highly involved in the passage of SB 24. “There are some students who may not have the funds to even take public transportation [or pay for the fees of the procedure].”

JustCARE organized both student lobby days and days for students to go to committee hearings in order to voice their support for SB 24. Students for Reproductive Freedom encouraged UC Davis students to attend the committee hearings and, during lobby days, met with representatives to discuss its importance.

In addition, Students for Reproductive Freedom held a phone bank stationed at the MU where they urged students to make a quick phone call to their representatives in order to voice support for the bill. They also advocated for voicing concerns via social media, tagging representatives and UC Davis’ chancellor on posts about the subject.

SB 24 affects more than just students in California attending public universities. At a time when other states are rolling back abortion access, the passage of this bill has served as inspiration for individuals across the state and the country.

“One of the big impacts of this bill is the fact that it [has] let this new generation of reproductive justice activists really become

ELECTIONS on 11

SB24 on 11

A B5 4 0 A N D UN D O C UM E NTE D STUD ENT C ETNE R / COU RTESY

Students hold signs in support of the “I Stand With Immigrants” and “I Stand With...” campaigns. (AB540 and Undocumented Student Center / Courtesy)

BY G RASC HEL L E FAR I ÑAS H IPO L I TO campus@theaggie.org The UC’s “I Stand With…” campaign, which launched on Oct. 22, aims to encourage campus community members voice their solidarity with undocumented students and encourage a show of support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy (DACA).

The UC filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in September challenging the Trump administration’s abrupt rescission of DACA. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on the case on Nov. 12.

The UC encourages individuals to write messages of support for both undocumented students and DACA recipients and share these on social media with related hashtags to promote the campaign. Additionally, the UC endorsed an online pledge to stand with DACA recipients. The pledge has since received over 8,000 signatures and will remain open as the case is brought to the Supreme Court.

“I stand with undocumented students because they deserve justice and the opportunities all Americans enjoy,” wrote UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May. SPEAK, a student-run organization focused on supporting and empowering undocumented students at UC Davis, began promoting the

“I Stand With Immigrants” and UC’s “I Stand With…” campaigns to raise awareness for the hearing.

On Oct. 22, the National “I Stand With Immigrants” Day of Action, SPEAK gave out shirts and stickers to those who wrote messages of support to immigrants and undocumented students.

Afterwards, SPEAK held a dialogue around the campaign and presented ways to support immigrants.

“This year was crucial because of the DACA hearing,” said Angel Cardoza, a fourth-year and publicity coordinator for the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center and officer for SPEAK. “We were telling folks that 800,000 people’s lives are at stake. In 45 minutes to an hour, these DACA recipients’ lives are being chosen.”

Of the nearly 700,000 undocumented young people who currently rely on DACA, commonly referred to as “Dreamers,” about 1,700 individuals are students enrolled in the UC system.

“UC’s DACA students are studying to be the next generation of teachers, doctors, engineers, and other professions that make life better for everyone,” said UC President Janet Napolitano in a press release. “They are young people who simply want to continue to live, learn, and contribute to the country they consider home.”

Adriana Lopez Torres, a UC Davis Undergraduate alumna and current UC Davis School of Education Ph.D. student, recalled how DACA had allowed her to work as an orientation leader,

a peer adviser for Latinx students and a teaching assistant in the school of education without fear of deportation. Since receiving it in 2012, she said DACA has made a huge and positive difference.

“DACA has given me the ability to find work, which has provided financial stability not just for me but for my family,” Torres said in a UC News article.

Once she completes her Ph.D., Torres hopes to go into educational policy to work in the Marin and Sonoma schools she attended as a child. She is interested in creating more constructive disciplinary practices, aside from suspension and expulsion, to increase student retention.

“I want to work there to make education better and more accessible for everyone,” Torres said.

Along with the possibility of losing security and financial stability, Torres said that a worse threat is being permanently separated from her parents and siblings, forcing her to leave the only country she’s ever known. Torres, along with the other hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on DACA. For the past three years, over 170 colleges and universities have celebrated the “I Stand With Immigrants” Day of Action — and many UC Davis student organizations have continued to pledge their support to the movement.

Cardoza said SPEAK and the AB540 and

I STAND WITH on 11

FALL QUARTER ASUCD ELECTIONS MOVE FORWARD WITHOUT ELECTIONS CHAIR Scheduling delays, technical malfunctions pose rocky start for this round of elections

BY A L LY RUSSEL L campus@theaggie.org ASUCD finds itself without an elections committee chair and without any members of the elections committee — with 2019 Fall Quarter Senate elections just around the corner, the association is scrambling to prepare. The elections committee chair oversees elections preparation and helps candidates navigate the campaigning process; the former elections committee chair resigned from the position. Currently, Vice President Shreya Deshpande is taking on the role of overseeing elections.

So far this election cycle, petitions were released a week late due to website technical issues.

ASUCD President Justin Hurst spoke about the circumstances that led to this situation.

“The chair is to be appointed by the Judicial Council chair at the end of Spring Quarter for the following academic year,” Hurst said. “Our previous Chair either did not do this, or failed to inform the Senate if he did.”

Former Elections Chair Rodney Tompkins unexpectedly submitted a resignation at the beginning of October. There was a student applicant Hurst hoped to confirm at the Oct. 24 Senate meeting, but that student withdrew their application at the last minute. Both of these unexpected circumstances have left ASUCD without a chair or a committee for the upcoming elections.

“This is definitely not common practice, but there have been extenuating circumstances this time around,” Hurst said.

During the Oct. 24 Senate meeting, senators voted to postpone elections by another week. The following week, during the Oct. 31 Senate meeting, senators introduced legislation to create a

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Memorial Union on the UC Davis campus where ASUCD was housed before moving to 116 A St. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

one-time Elections Committee for the upcoming election. The committee would consist of ex-officio members of the Senate.

“Logistically, we just need an Elections Committee for an election to run, in terms of logistics, for workshops, we just need one,” said Ashely Lo, Internal Affairs Commission chair and author of Senate Bill #10.

Senator Shondreya Landrum commented on the executive team’s work behind the scenes in trying to fill the position of Elections Committee Chair, saying “this is not their jobs, they have taken steps to diligently rectify this and as you can see there’s a bill in front of you now.”

Controller Kevin Rotenkolber allotted the emergency committee half of the budget set aside

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

2 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

OFFICE OF RESEARCH LAUNCHES FOUR SPECIALIZED RESEARCH CENTERS New efforts emphasize UC Davis’ commitment to interdisciplinary research

BY AA RYA G UP TA campus@theaggie.org The Office of Research spearheaded four new special research programs through the Inter and Multidisciplinary Program to Accelerate Convergence and Transition (IMPACT) Centers program. This initiative is “designed to promote new, sustainable inter- and multidisciplinary research activity at UC Davis that responds to society’s greatest challenges and needs,” according to UC Davis’ Administered Programs website.

After receiving 64 proposals written by 750 individual faculty members, four ideas were selected to receive $1 million over three years: the Data Science Center, the Gene Therapy Center, the Global Migration Center and the Perinatal Origins of Disparities Center.

“There is a lot of emphasis now on multidisciplinary research to address global challenges as well as the big societal problems,” said Dr. Prasant Mohapatra, the vice chancellor for research, at the launch event on Oct. 23.

According to the UC Davis website, “scientific merit, plans for self-sustainability and potential for impact” were some factors taken into consideration during the selection process.

“My expectations [...] are very high,” Mohapatra said. “I want all the centers to be very successful in making an impact on the world. Each center by the end of the year [...] should be able to say, [...] ‘During the year we did research X, Y and Z which makes impacts in such a way.’”

Dr. Thomas Strohmer, a professor of mathematics of data science, is directing the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research, also known as CeDAR. CeDAR’s goal is to “effectively respond to [...] grand challenges of our society by advancing data science and AI foundations and applications in a

transdisciplinary effort,” according to the PowerPoint presented at the launch event.

“This is just the beginning,” Strohmer said.

“We want to be really strong in philanthropy. We want to reach out to a lot of industries across the different sectors.”

CeDAR is applying data science and artificial intelligence research to resolve fundamental problems in foundations, healthcare, agriculture and environment, veterinary medicine and biology and biomedical engineering.

Dr. Jan Nolta, professor of cell biology and anatomy, is in charge of the Gene Therapy Center.

“A lot of this started with the stem cell program at UC Davis,” said Joseph Anderson, the assistant director of the Gene Therapy Center. “It started because we can use stem cells and genetically modify stem cells so we can develop these therapies as potential one time treatments.”

Currently, the center is working towards developing hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapies for various conditions, including leukemia, lymphoma, Tay-Sachs disease and sickle cell disease.

The Global Migration Center, directed by Economics Professor Giovanni Peri, grapples with the causes and consequences of migration, policy concerning migrants and cross-disciplinary conversation regarding the political and social spheres of immigration.

“Migration, how to deal with [migration], immigration, refugees and undocumented migrants are a huge theme of debate,” Peri said at the launch event. “Politics are made and unmade around this. This is an important thing.”

The Migration Research Cluster, the “Comparative Studies” initiative and the “Humanizing Deportations” project coalesced to form the Global Migration Center. Twenty-five faculty members from 13 departments across five col-

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The Social Sciences and Humanities building on the UC Davis campus. Oct. 31, 2019. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

leges, along with undergraduate and graduate students, have united to tackle this topic.

The Perinatal Origins of Disparities Center, or POD Center, is led by Dr. Leigh Ann Simmons, a professor and chair of the department of human ecology, and Dr. Janine LaSalle, a professor of medical microbiology and immunology.

“We have four main goals,” Simmons said at the launch event. “They are focused on really leveraging innovation and technology from the basic sciences to clinical and community sciences.”

The POD Center’s research is centralized across three overarching core research threads including biobehavioral research, epidemiological research and research in clinical and community-based interventions.

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF STUDENT DEBT CANCELLATION BILL PASSED AT OCT. 24 SENATE MEETING Joint ASUCD-Graduate Student Association Housing Task Force report presented

BY JAN E L L E M A R I E SAL ANGA campus@theaggie.org The Oct. 24 ASUCD Senate meeting was held in Meeting Room D at the Student Community Center (SCC). Vice President Shreya Deshpande called the meeting to order at 6:16 p.m. Controller Kevin Rotenkolber was absent.

The planned election chairs committee confirmation was cancelled, as no candidates showed up to their interviews.

The table then moved into interim senator confirmation. Of the three interim senators nominated, only Jose Sanchez, a fourth-year political science and communication double major, was present. Sanchez said he hoped to tackle basic necessities and food insecurity during his term. He was confirmed with no objections.

The other two interim senators who had been nominated were not confirmed due to their absences.

The Senate then moved to ex-officio reports.

Gender and Sexualities Commission Chair Elena DeNocochea shared plans to introduce resolutions focusing on gender-inclusive bathrooms and menstrual products across campus. External Affairs Vice President Adam Hatefi went to the Yolo County elections office to talk about leveraging ASUCD resources to spread census awareness.

Rotenkolber, in his email report, suggested that half of the funds raised by University Preferred Partnership Program, or UP3, be put toward the yearly Mental Health Conference.

Environmental Policy and Planning Committee (EPPC) Chair Kyle Krueger talked about his committee’s upcoming partnership with the UC Davis Office of Sustainability and a planned comprehensive environmental survey.

Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jonina Balabis acknowledged Indigenous Peoples’ Day, talked about giving a cultural humility presentation to the Davis College Democrats and said her committee was discussing different ways to combat appropriation at the Whole Earth Festival.

Deshpande said they were working on the Council on Student Affairs and Fees presentation and planned to present the upcoming ASUCD fee referendum proposal to the council soon.

Elected officers gave their reports next. Senator Tony Chen said he would schedule an appointment with the TAPS director to talk about the recent $5 fine increase for parking violations.

Senator Anna Estrada talked about pressuring the university and dorms to bring EBT to actual stores and also brought up the idea of starting a professional wear closet for students to rent professional clothing. Senator Karolina Rodriguez said she was searching for more Kosher options and working on rolling out an exclusively vegetarian and vegan menu for the South CoHo. Senator Maya Barak said she was writing a piece of legislation to codify the onboarding process for ASUCD. Senator Shondreya Landrum expressed concern that nobody was sitting in on interviews for commission members.

“It’s not just one person’s job to be there,” Landrum said. “It’s all of our jobs to be there.”

In response, Senator Andre Spignolio apologized for not going to interviews and said he would make more time going forward, and Senator Sean Kumar encouraged people to sign up for interviews for the Academic Affairs Commission positions.

After reports, Business and Finance Commission Chair Filip Stamenkovic recommended six nominees for the commission. All six were confirmed without objections. EPPC confirmations followed, with seven nominees successfully confirmed.

The confirmations were followed by a housing update from Don Gibson, chair of the joint

“Our research is focusing on pregnant women, infants, on that early period and the families that are raising these young kids,” Simmons said.

“We’re focusing specifically on populations that typically experience disparities in chronic diseases.”

According to the UC Davis website, the four centers will have the opportunity to become IMPACT Centers by the end of their third year of establishment if they demonstrate “strong research progress.”

“I hope five years from now, if I do a Google search on any of the words that you see [on the screen], your center should come as the top one,” Mohapatra said as he addressed the directors in the crowd.

CAMPUS POLICE IMPLEMENT NEW SECURITY MEASURES FOR BAINER HALL Mechanical and aerospace engineering students kept informed

MA RKU S KA EPEL L I / AGG IE CA ITLYN SA MPLEY / AGG IE F IL E

ASUCD-Graduate Student Association Housing Task Force. Gibson attributed the 2000 implementation of Measure R to today’s lack of housing.

“To build new housing now, the entire city of Davis has to vote,” Gibson said, citing Davis community members’ beliefs that Davis was growing too fast for a “quiet agricultural community.”

UC Davis experienced a 50% increase in its campus population from 2000 to 2017 without any significant increases in off-campus housing, according to Gibson. Student homelessness and low vacancy rates motivated the Joint Housing Task Force to develop and release a May 2018 survey to look at housing insecurity and homelessness within the city.

The survey found that for every 1,000 beds in the city of Davis, five were vacant — the vacancy rate has hovered around 0.5% since 2004. As a result, the survey found that 45% of students said their housing expenses were their greatest financial issue and 7% of students experienced temporary or sustained homelessness. Gibson asked ASUCD to dedicate more resources to the task force.

“I’d love to have undergrads re-establish the task force at an ad hoc level,” Gibson said.

He said the task force’s current work focused on developing a student-renters, majority-minority council district, improving the weak renter’s rights ordinance and supporting affordable housing in Davis.

Following the housing update, KDVS General Manager Noel Fernandez and Assistant Manager Ammaar Vayani gave the unit’s quarterly report. Fernandez said KDVS Talks — events where creative types gave talks to members interested in the radio industry — were being planned.

He also touched on returning to broadcasting industry standards, running on listener support by moving back to a single fundraiser and reviving the KDVS zine. Unfortunately, Fernandez said, the radio station still has not secured a new location — a necessary measure due to the planned demolition of Freeborn Hall. KDVS’ needs for space are specific. Another issue, he added, was the branding ASUCD rolled out via Creative Media.

“It’s unjust for Creative Media to assign a logo without conversing with the community,” he said. “It’s also unfair to our in-house design director.”

Landrum responded by telling Fernandez and Vayani to reach out to ASUCD if they needed assistance with publicizing fundraisers and events.

“We can have a sit down and figure out what’s the best route,” she said about the KDVS logo.

“We’re still talking to Creative Media and trying to figure out how to integrate with them.”

The table took a break at 8:05 pm and resumed at 8:11 pm.

Housing Advising for Undergraduate Students (HAUS) director J.J. Hsu gave the unit’s quarterly report. Hsu said in recent years an increasing amount of housing opportunities — which HAUS brings to students through Housing Day — have been around the city of Davis, rather than inside the city.

“Rent is going up and vacancy is going down,” he said, citing average Davis rent as $1,785.

HAUS is now working with UC Davis Student Housing and holding walk-in advising hours while creating educational materials about renters’ rights with the Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center, Hsu said. Following his updates, Hsu was confirmed as the new Judicial Council chair without objections.

The Senate then moved to legislation. Emergency legislation, introduced by President Justin Hurst, concerned ASUCD elections petitions which were supposed to go up during the third week of the quarter, as required by the constitution. The absence of both a judicial council and elections chair, however, made it impossible to maintain that timeline. This resolution made it constitutional for the petitions to be put up in the fourth week of the quarter solely for Fall Quarter 2019. It passed without objections.

Next, Hurst introduced Constitutional Amendment #60, an amendment intended to reform the Judicial Council such that it had a lower body — an oversight council — comprised of nine justices.

“This reform will enable Judicial Council to focus on bigger-scale issues,” Hurst said. He also noted that the ASUCD Constitution defined Judicial Council as an appellate court and as the first court, and such a reform would rectify the definition’s clarity.

Barak expressed doubt about the proposed changes.

“I don’t know how I feel about this amendment in general,” said Barak. “There are lots of simultaneous steps needed to create this body.”

Kreuger also shared concerns, especially when Hurst said the amendment would functionally restore a third branch of ASUCD government.

“Sometimes it’s not appropriate to structure ASUCD like the federal government,” Kreuger said. “For example, you’re there for life in the judicial branch. But we tend to have turn-over — it’s more likely that a new president could [appoint] whoever they want instead of a Judicial Council staying constant if the previous president leaves.”

Hurst said he would alter the amendment to extend the justices’ stay on the council from one to two terms. He also changed the amendment

SENATE on 7

New security measures have been put into effect after a series of break-ins at Roy Bainer Hall on the UC Davis campus. (Photo by Markus Kaeppeli / Aggie)

BY R EBECCA BI HN-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org Following a spate of robberies in Bainer Hall throughout September and October, UC Davis Campus Police have implemented added security measures in the building.

The building and security managers in Bainer recently sent an email to concerned students outlining these steps.

“There has been much going on behind the scenes on hardening our security measures for Bainer at large, [mechanical and aerospace engineering] MAE spaces, and room 1236 in particular,” said the email, which was addressed to COE Student Team Leaders of OneLoop, UCD Formula Racing, Space & Satellite Systems, UCD Baja, and Eclipse Rocketry. Relevant MAE spaces have been rekeyed and re-coded.

Additionally, the managers have “reviewed spaces with [campus police] using a multi-layered, defense in-depth approach, [including] deter, delay, detection, defense, and detaining.” There are now increased police officer and AggieHost patrols in and around the building, and the managers have requested improvements in outdoor lighting and video surveillance.

Other measures include “installing hardware on certain vulnerable doors” as well as evaluating Bainer’s alarm system and reminding people to report suspicious activity and keep the building doors shut. Once the new security system is implemented in Bainer, the email said, “funding [will be secured] for a targeted key card access [...] to exterior and high risk spaces.”

“As you can see, there have been a variety of steps taken and we will continue to work on hardening our security measures as well as improving personal safety help,” the email said. “We are also collaborating on a plan to support the collective and individual student teams’ safety culture efforts.”

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019 | 3

DOWNTOWN DAVIS PLAN RELEASED FOR PUBLIC REVIEW City of Davis seeks public opinions about Draft Downtown Plan

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

BY RUI DING city@theaggie.org The City of Davis released the Draft Downtown Davis Specific Plan and Draft Downtown Form-Based Code for a 90-day public review and comment period, starting Oct. 14 until Jan. 14, 2020. The public can submit their comments through the online comment form.

The plan will be centered around the commercial core and mixed-use area in Davis — it will include the established residential University Avenue-Rice Lane neighborhood and partially established neighborhood of Old North and Old East Davis. This plan identifies six key issues as a result of previous community engagement.

Planner and project manager Eric Lee described the public review and comment period

as a crucial stage.

“It is a very important stage, a very important part of the process,” Lee said. “Up to now, there has been very intensive public participation and community engagement.”

Lee said the City of Davis will evaluate all the comments to identify new issues and general community concerns.

“We will present those comments to the Downtown Plan Advisory Committee and eventually to the Planning Commission and City Council,” Lee said. “We will be looking at those comments and make some revisions to the plan.”

Larry Guenther, a member of the Downtown Plan Advisory Committee (DPAC), as well as a representative of Old East Davis, emphasized the influence of comments from the student body and faculty staff at UC Davis.

HOUSING SHORTAGE ADDRESSED IN PUBLIC MEETINGS WITH UNIVERSITY, CITY, COUNTY OFFICIALS Representatives from UC Davis, city council, county board of supervisors hosted a yearly meeting on campus, special focus on student housing efforts

“There has definitely been a lot of concerns with many other committee members about how this is going to affect students and what role students play,” Guenther said.

Catherine Brinkley, a member of the DPAC and an assistant professor in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, specializes in Human Ecology and Community and Regional Development at UC Davis. She addressed current housing concerns for both students and people who work in Downtown Davis.

“Students are sleeping in the car, they are homeless and they are commuting very long distances, which is increasing greenhouse gas emissions,” Brinkley said. “It’s not just students.

Two-thirds of people who work downtown commute from outside of Davis into Davis.

There is a mismatch of housing availability and affordability.”

Guenther described the current zoning for Davis as restrictive in terms of stories and building types.

“There are very few people who live, actually, in the core downtown,” Guenther said. “One of the goals of the committee is to try to change the zoning so that we get more people [to] live downtown.”

The Specific Plan aims to enhance living and business environments in Downtown Davis. Lee said Davis has the potential to become better.

“The city has a lot to offer the community [and] downtown,” Lee said. “We are very unique in this region. We obviously have the university, all the students [and a] long history there.”

The DPAC, made up of 20 community members representing diverse aspects of the community, is a key component of community engagement in the whole planning process.

“There has been a lot of outreach with the community,” Guenther said. “And the idea behind having so many members in the committee was to really try to do a good job of representing the community and all the different voices.”

The Specific Plan has a 20-year planning horizon through 2040 and will use a two-phase strategy.

SHEREEN LEE / AGGIE

Illegal bush trimming?

October 24 “East side of the pond near [the] bird sanctuary, large tree down blocking the bike path.”

“Vehicle parked in bike lane.”

October 25 “Male on a ‘jump’ bike was stopped in area where plants are overgrown and carrying a bag. Subject looked at reporting party’s neighbor and fled on bike. Seemed suspicious.”

“Unitrans red double decker bus driving into oncoming traffic.”

“Transient man tearing apart a jump bike.”

October 26 “Transient riding a bike and pushing along another bike.”

October 28 “Aggressive Akita dog running loose on Belmont.”

“Traffic light out for past two days, cars traveling on Anderson are not stopping.”

“Reporting party was walking into the reporting party’s apartment [and] bumped into a subject, the other subject seemed very upset and has been verbally aggressive towards the reporting party.”

“Subjects yelling like having a party.”

October 30 “Male trimming bushes with a saw on the greenbelt.”

October 31 “On north side of Blanchard facing Harvest, second night in a row, vehicle is there with loud music. Subject gets out of vehicle, into trunk to retrieve a bag and enters construction zone.”

DAVIS COMMUNITY INFLUENCES CONGRESSIONAL VOTE OVER HONG KONG Garamendi votes in favor of Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act after demonstration by Davis residents, students KA ITLYN PA N G / AGGIE

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

BY EDEN WINNIFORD city@theaggie.org

BY TIM LALONDE city@theaggie.org An annual public meeting between county, city and university representatives was hosted at the UC Davis Genome Center Auditorium on Oct. 17, during which officials discussed the measures currently underway to address a shortage of available housing in Davis. University officials delivered a follow-up presentation during the next city council meeting on Oct. 22.

The university was represented by Chancellor Gary May, Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations and Administration Kelly Ratliff and Associate Chancellor Karl Engelbach, according to the meeting notes. Mayor Brett Lee and Mayor Pro Tempore Gloria Partida, as well as council members Lucas Frerichs, Dan Carson and Will Arnold, represented the city government, while supervisors Dan Saylor and Jim Provenza represented the county.

At the meeting, May delivered a presentation that highlighted the university’s recent successes and cited efforts currently underway to build new student housing. May cited UC Davis’ recent rankings among other public universities in the U.S. — including placing fifth in the country by the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education ranking, fourth by Money Magazine and 11th by US News. He noted that UC Davis continues to rank first in the world for Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine and that UC Davis Medical Center was ranked the number one hospital in Sacramento.

After touching on some of the administration’s efforts to address mental health and food

insecurity among students, May moved on to the subject of housing. According to May’s presentation, the university has set the goal of 6,000 new beds by 2025. In early November, the university released a report detailing the progress of each of its new housing developments toward meeting this goal.

Lee, representing the city, presented a table of data on the status of several pending, under-construction and completed housing developments in the city. The table included several student-oriented housing developments that had completed the planning review stage and were pending construction, including Nishi, Lincoln 40 and Davis Live. The pending developments would add 3,348 new beds to student housing. The chart also noted the recently completed Sterling 5th St. Apartments, slated to provide 540 beds by completion.

Lee also noted other major developments within the city that targeted individuals, families and members of the workforce. In total, completed and pending developments listed on Lee’s chart would add 4,567 new beds of available housing in the city upon completion. Lee said he expects all of the pending construction to be completed between two to five years from now, according to the Davis Enterprise.

“A lot more housing will be hitting the market soon,” Lee said, according to the Enterprise.

Supervisor Don Saylor’s presentation focused mainly on the county’s participation in specific services offered on the UC campus, including CalFresh and mental health resources HO U S ING S H O RTAG E on 11

On Oct. 14, John Garamendi, the Democratic Congressman for the House of Representatives in District 3, held a town hall meeting in the Veterans Memorial Center in Davis. There, UC Davis students and Davis community members gathered to present Garamendi with 373 signed letters, declaring support for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Davis 4 Hong Kong, a group founded in early October, was responsible for the gathering of signatures that were given to Garamendi. Benjamin Leagh, a second-year food science major and member of Davis 4 HK, elaborated on the organization’s goal, saying “our mission is to bring awareness to what’s going on in Hong Kong.”

This event was the first time Garamendi publicly announced his support for Hong Kong, declaring that he would vote in favor of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in Congress.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act was passed the next day and states that “Hong Kong is a part of China but has a largely separate legal and economic system.”

In addition, the bill grants the U.S. a series of powers to place economic and diplomatic sanctions on any individuals found “responsible for gross human rights violations in Hong Kong.”

While the bill has bipartisan support in the U.S., it has been decried by both the City of Beijing as well as Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam. Both parties argue that the U.S. has no right to meddle in affairs in which it has no stake.

Hong Kong and China have officially operated as “one country, two systems” since Hong Kong was released from British colonial rule in 1997. This policy allows the city of Hong Kong to operate as a democracy independent of the Chinese communist government until the year 2047 when Hong Kong will be eligible for reabsorption into the Chinese government.

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in June 2019. Hundreds of thou-

sands of Hong Kong citizens took to the streets to protest a recently-proposed law that would allow for the extradition of Hong Kong citizens to China on a case-by-case basis.

Lam declared on Oct. 23 that the extradition bill has been withdrawn from the Hong Kong Legislature and is “dead.” Protests, however, are scheduled to continue for the foreseeable future.

Protests are ongoing in Davis as well. On Wednesday, Oct.30, Davis 4 HK held an event where the group planned to dress up as Winnie the Pooh, a reference to the ban placed on the Disney bear in China after memes were made comparing him to China’s leader, Xi Jingping.

“We’re protesting because they’re still protesting in Hong Kong,” Leagh said. “As long as this goes on, we’ll keep bringing awareness to the issue — we’ll keep sending letters to congresspeople until they support the bill.”

After his town hall meeting in Davis, Garamendi commented on students’ involvement with such policies, according to the Davis Enterprise.

“What I really like here is that these students have decided they want to be active,” Garamendi said. “They want to be engaged and they want to practice democracy.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

4 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

VALLEY CLEAN ENERGY SUBMITS $300 MILLION BID FOR PG&E ASSETS

Energy provider is looking to own transmission and distribution infrastructure within Yolo County

ANGRY STUDENTS LIVING AT WEST VILLAGE COMPLAIN ABOUT CONSTRUCTION NOISE West Village responds to students’ complaints QU IN N SPOON ER / AGG IE

QU IN N SPOON ER / AGGIE

The Valley Clean Energy office on 604 2nd Street in Davis, Calif. Valley Clean Energy recently submitted a $300 million bid to purchase PG&E infrastructure in Yolo County. Oct 22, 2019. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY MA D E L E I N E PAY N E city@theaggie.org Valley Clean Energy Alliance, the electricity provider for the City of Davis, recently proposed a $300 million bid for the assets owned by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) within Yolo County.

The goal of the proposal is to transfer control of the infrastructure used to distribute energy to customers, like power lines and poles, to Valley Clean Energy and is being submitted as part of PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Valley Clean Energy, a Community Choice Energy program, is a partnership between Woodland, Davis and unincorporated Yolo County.

Lucas Frerichs, a board member of Valley Clean Energy and a member of the Davis City Council, said Valley Clean Energy is currently responsible for the purchasing and selling of electricity used by the county. This offers more renewable energy options than PG&E’s services.

“We are intentionally buying or procuring greener, more renewable energy — more so than PG&E is providing,” Frerichs said. “One of the main reasons for this effort is that we think a locally-controlled utility would be better and more responsive to the needs of our customers.”

Don Saylor, a representative from the Yolo County Board of Supervisors on Valley Clean Energy’s Board of Directors, said PG&E’s bankruptcy proceedings have given Community Choice Energy programs around the state another legal path to acquire electrical infrastructure.

“In the bankruptcy proceeding, some of the issues are likely to be resolved much more quickly and efficiently because it’s a more efficient court process,” Saylor said.

If approved, the bid would allow Valley Clean Energy to control the transmission and distribution infrastructure while continuing its role in purchasing and selling electricity. This would eliminate PG&E’s role in Yolo County’s energy system, and it could turn Valley Clean Energy into a municipal utility district.

“For our customers, it would be a little more simple,” Saylor said. “They would see that both the transmission and power supply would be from Valley Clean Energy.”

The prospect of Yolo County having its own municipal utility district is a long way off, as placing the bid is only the first of many steps

before the proposal can be approved. Even if it is approved, more restructuring and reorganization would occur for Valley Clean Energy, according to Jim Parks, Valley Clean Energy’s Director of Customer Care and Marketing.

“If we municipalized and acquired the assets, we’re going to need to increase the technical side dramatically,” Parks said. “You’re going to need people to work on substations — transformers.

You’re going to have to have linemen to help install new lines and repair lines.”

Saylor added that there is a possibility to contract with other programs.

“We would need to increase our capacity for maintenance and operations,” Saylor said. “Currently, we don’t have that kind of a role, so this would mean that we would probably contract with another provider or expand our operations.”

Though the transition is destined to take several years, the short-term effect on customers’ bills remains uncertain. As Jim Parks said, however, the long-term financial effects for customers could be worth the change.

“Once you pay off the bonds, now you’re free from the debt,” Parks said. “You’re not for profit.

Your rates are definitely going to be lower than investor-owned utility rates.”

Community Choice Energy programs, also called Community Choice Aggregations, have been forming in California over the last ten years. They have been providing customers with more options for greener alternatives than investor-owned utilities. The 19 Community Choice Energy programs in California serve roughly 10 million customers, or a third of the population of California.

“Our bid is not the only one that’s being submitted by Community Choice Energy programs,” Saylor said.

Other Community Choice Energy programs around the state, such as San Francisco’s CleanPowerSF, have placed bids as well, Saylor said.

Since many Community Choice Energy programs are considering the same transition, Valley Clean Energy would have a lot of other energy programs to learn from.

“There’s a lot of people in the industry that can help you with setting those things up to ensure everything is in place,” Parks said. “Plus, there are federal, state and local regulations and ordinances and so forth that ensure the health, safety and viability of the system.”

Construction at West Village has lowered the quality of living for some residents, sparking frustration. Oct. 31, 2019. (Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY LINH NG U YE N features@theaggie.org Construction of the new apartments in West Village, called The Green, began in Feb. 2019. Anticipated to hold approximately 1,000 beds by Fall 2020 and be ready for occupancy

by Fall 2021, The Green is a part of UC Davis’ initiative to provide more housing for undergraduate students. The building is also aiming for Net Zero Energy, meaning the apartments will produce as much energy as it consumes on an annual basis.

The Green is not owned by West Village nor does West Village manage the construction. It is instead owned by UC Davis Student Housing, which is in charge of construction of the new undergraduate apartments in the West Village area. Currently, West Village, managed by Greystar Real Estate, resides on land owned by UC Davis.

The construction of The Green, however, has proven to be a disturbance for current West Village tenants living across from the construction site. Tenants living adjacent to Tilia Street expressed concerns about the construction noises waking them up and bothering them when they are studying.

“It’s Monday through Saturday, so it’s six days a week,” said Adam Graubart, a second-year chemical engineering major. “They start at about 7 a.m. every morning, so I’d say that more than half of the days, it wakes me up. We live about 30 feet from the construction site, so it’s insanely close.”

Some students have reached out to West Village management to complain about the noise, looking to receive some sort of compensation for the trouble.

“This is supposed to be a quiet area,” Graubart said. “I can’t really study during the day.

There have been times where I’m trying to record something on the piano, and the truck beeping in the back gets in the way, and I’d have to rerecord it. It’s annoying. I didn’t sign up for this — there was nothing in the lease agreement that said anything about construction.”

After receiving complaints from their residents, West Village issued a notice to affected

residents which was obtained by The California Aggie.

“The Sol at West Village leasing office has received some complaints and concerns regarding the noise from the construction adjacent to our community,” the notice states. “Please be advised that this construction project is owned and managed by UC Davis. This is not our project, and we do not control the plans for the development or the related noise. We have contacted Real Estate Services on behalf of our residents and asked that the developer be reminded that they are working in a housing area and that development noise needs to be limited in the early morning.”

The notice emphasizes the fact that the leasing office has no control over the project nor any control over construction schedules and all questions, comments or concerns are to be directed to UC Davis Real Estate Services at 530-752-3776.

Rumors have circulated about leasing agents at West Village lowering rent for certain tenants who have complained while maintaining original rent prices for tenants who did not complain. Officials from West Village did not comment on these allegations.

This is not the first occasion at West Village concerning tenant complaints about construction noise, according to a 2011 article from The Aggie. At that time, most of West Village had been finished and it began leasing. Not all the Viridian units, however, were completed, yet management still leased finished units to new tenants.

The graduate students living in these apartments were unhappy with their units because not all amenities they thought they were promised were given, they claimed their apartments were dirty and their appliances were not working.

The noise from the construction of the rest of Viridian was also bothersome, so much so that management placed Viridian tenants in the Hyatt hotel rooms on campus.

The construction of The Green is expected to be finished by Fall 2021. Until then, it is unknown how West Village will continue to handle the complaints they receive for current and future tenants.

STEM VS. HUMANITIES MAJORS: A CLOSER LOOK INTO THEIR DIFFERENCES A look inside the minds of Davis’s diverse academic community

R A B IDA / AGGIE

BY KATHERINE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org UC Davis may be generally regarded as a STEM-focused school, but this view ignores the university’s considerably sized humanities departments. The perceived dominance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics on campus leads to interesting interactions between students of different majors — from the ways students form communities within their majors or view research opportunities to how much time they spend in class on a given week.

A number of students from a wide variety of majors spoke to The California Aggie. From these interviews, it appears that the sheer population size of the College of Biological Sciences and the College of Engineering makes it easier for new students to find classes and resources and to form communities as early as freshman year.

Alexander Dillabaugh, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior (NPB) and Spanish double major, described the differences he has observed between his two majors in terms of advising.

“I usually see my Spanish advisor more often,” Dillabaugh said. “I feel like there’s so many NPB majors that I [...] just ask people and use my friends as my advisors, or people older than me, but there’s not as many Spanish majors, so I go to [the advisors] for advice more.”

NPB and other popular STEM majors on campus such as biology and animal science, have well-developed resource programs that host events, such as major-specific meet-and-greets during Welcome Week — introductory events that are seemingly lacking for humanities students.

Some STEM majors may also choose to get involved with mentorship programs where-

in first-year students can ask questions and get advice from older students. Taylor Silva, a thirdyear NPB and English double major, is part of Mentor Collective — as part of the program, Silva helps one or two first-year students who are also science majors with their transition to college.

These mentorships programs — such as BioLaunch Mentor Collective which, according to the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences website, “matches new and returning students for academic and social support” — are especially prevalent in the College of Biological Sciences.

Although the humanities departments are usually smaller in size and lack some of the university-sponsored programs that STEM majors have, humanities students, including Silva, said they had better luck forming relationships with their professors because it is easier to get one-onone time with them.

This seems to be an experience shared by students who are studying both humanities and STEM curriculum — Dillabaugh also said he was more likely to go to office hours for his humanities courses because they felt more personal.

“In my Spanish language or history classes, I always go to office hours because that’s the most helpful,” Dillabaugh said. “[In STEM classes], there’s more people, they just go through the material again. It’s not one-on-one help.”

Another misconception among students is that humanities majors might not have as much access to professors given that they may not work in labs and on trials with them. According to many students, however, humanities professors are just as eager to make connections with their students.

Along a similar vein, another difference relates to students’ opinions of the importance of STEM versus humanities research.

“It’s more of a stigma that STEM research is more important,” Dillabaugh said, adding that even though Spanish is his other major, he forgets that Spanish professors are also doing research.

As a research university, most every professor at UC Davis is involved in some kind of research.

In general, more STEM students are involved with their professors’ research than humanities

majors. And, because of this, humanities research may be overlooked. “[Working in a lab] definitely would have been my answer [to what research is] in high school, but after being at Davis, it’s changed,” said Lauren Christie, a second-year human development major.

Since coming to Davis, Christie sees research in a broader sense that includes data input and visualisation, the basis of much of the research being done in the humanities fields. Additionally, fourth-year communication major Julia Sabey said that questionnaires, surveys and online polls come to mind when she thinks of research, given that that is the type of research communication majors are generally exposed to in their classes.

A majority of STEM majors, however, said they relate labs and hard sciences, first and foremost, to research. Hannah O’Toole, a fourthyear biomedical engineering major, said that her personal experience of working in a research lab shapes her view of research — “I think of experimental design and a lot of chemistry because that’s the kind of research I do,” O’Toole said.

STEM majors, on average, spend more time in class, with an average of about 20 hours of class a week. Humanities majors mostly responded that they spent 10 to 15 hours in class per week.

First-year psychology and English double major Alik Sultan said he spends “around 10 hours” in class “and probably less than five” doing homework in an average week. Similarly, Sabey reported that she spends three hours a day in class on average and spends about nine to 10 hours doing homework while O’Toole said she spends 22 hours in class a week and around 25 to 30 hours a week on homework.

Despite inherent differences, studying both STEM and humanities curriculum can be mutually beneficial. For example, Dillabaugh does volunteer work with Clinica Tepati, a student-run clinic that serves the Latino and Hispanic communities in Sacramento.

“Most of the people there are STEM majors […] but it’s a great way for me to practice my Spanish,” he said. “It’s a great way for me to connect Spanish and [NPB].”

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019 | 5

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Opinion THE

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E DI TO R I AL B OAR D KAELYN TUERMER-LEE Editor-in-Chief HANNAH HOLZER Managing Editor KENTON GOLDSBY Campus News Editor STELLA TRAN City News Editor HANADI JORDAN Opinion Editor CLAIRE DODD Features Editor LIZ JACOBSON Arts & Culture Editor DOMINIC FARIA Sports Editor CECILIA MORALES Science & Tech Editor

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

The UC should remove SAT/ACT requirement for college admissions Students are more than just a number: SAT/ACT does not reflect students’ worth, potential for success The UC announced in September of 2018 that it would investigate whether or not SAT and ACT scores were an accurate measure of college success, according to the Los Angeles Times. Now, a year later, the UC Board of Regents is finally discussing the possibility of removing the SAT/ACT requirement for UC admissions.

After UC President Janet Napolitano requested that the Academic Senate “examine the current use of standardized testing for UC admission; review the testing principles developed in 2002 and revised in 2010; and determine whether any changes in admission testing policies or practices are necessary to ensure that the University continues to use standardized tests in the appropriate way,” Academic Council Chair Robert May created the Standardized Testing Task Force last January. This task force is comprised of professors from undergraduate and graduate programs across all 10 UCs, staff and a graduate student representative. It is supposedly going to produce preliminary results by February, even though it has not released any reports to date. The UC Regents aren’t expected to make a decision regarding the SAT/ACT admission requirement until some time in 2020.

A study from last year showed that out of 28 colleges and universities in the U.S. with a total sample size of over 950,000 applicants, the SAT and ACT fail to identify individuals’ potential to succeed in college. This has caused admissions decisions based upon these standardized tests to be moved “away from heavy reliance on measures increasingly deemed to provide a narrow assessment of human potential.” Likewise, the Undergraduate Students Association Council at UCLA called on the UC to remove the SAT/ACT requirement from its admissions and provide

alternate ways to measure students’ abilities.

For the 2019–20 school year, the SAT costs $49.50 without the essay and $64.50 with the optional essay.

The ACT costs $52 without the writing portion and $68 with it. But the heavier financial burden isn’t preparing for the test itself. Preparation courses or materials, tutors and actually sending the scores to individual colleges can cost thousands of dollars, which is much more than many students can afford. These tests greatly disadvantage those from low-income families who don’t qualify for fee waivers or who don’t have the extra time and resources to receive help preparing for the SAT/ACT. Minority students, especially those for which English is not their first language, tend to experience more difficulty as well, particularly in the writing sections.

Especially given that the UCs comprised the top six colleges that received the most amount of applications for admission in fall of 2018, the Editorial Board believes that the SAT and ACT are unfair admission barriers and should not be requirements for UC admissions. They are ineffective and decrease the diversity of the student body. The ability to choose the “right” multiple choice answer does nothing to help prepare students to think critically in the future — if anything, it does the opposite. Standardized tests take away students’ capability to think independently, and often kills their curiosity for learning. They do not test students’ competence, they do not reflect their potential and they do not prepare them for future careers. There is no justification for keeping the SAT and ACT. Our hope is that the UC will focus its attention on a more effective way to measure what these tests were originally intended to measure.

Trump’s perverse reverse of chlorpyrifos ban proves his corruption (again) WHY “DRAIN THE SWAMP” WHEN PROFITS FROM TOXIC PESTICIDES ARE ON THE LINE?

BY BEN JA M I N P O RT E R bbporter@ucdavis.edu In the fifth season of Mad Men, Don Draper zealously pitches to executives at Dow Chemical in a desperate plea to prise their business away from a competing advertising agency.

When the conversation reaches a perverse point on the virtues of napalm, Draper confidently says, “The important thing is, when our boys are fighting and they need it, when America needs it, Dow makes it, and it works.”

Fictional ad man Don didn’t win Dow’s business, but the real-life Dow Chemical Company certainly won the real-life madman Don. I’m of course referring to our president, Donald J. Trump, who selflessly (cough) accepted a $1 million donation from Dow Chemical for his inauguration committee. He subsequently decided to eliminate an Obama-era rule that would ban chlorpyrifos, a dangerous and poisonous organophosphate pesticide sold by Dow. Chlorpyrifos is one of the most heavily used pesticides on crops throughout the country and is linked with a myriad of health problems for people and animals. Despite this, Trump and his goons have been more than happy to serve at Dow’s behest. One could easily say, “The important thing is, when our boys are lobbying and they need it, when Dow needs it, Donald Trump does it, and it works.”

In other words, Trump is a corrupt cretin.

But we knew this much already. This is settled science, so to speak. As Bill Maher recently joked, “The only time corruption bothers Trump M A R I O R O D R I G U E Z / AGGI E

is when he’s not in on it.” But Trump said he’d “drain the swamp,” and the chlorpyrifos story is as swampy as it gets. To be fair to Trump, it would’ve been unfair to think he’d actually stick to that silly “drain the swamp” promise. That statement itself probably sounds pretty unfair and, believe me, I want nothing more than to be fair to poor Trump. I really mean that. That’s why I’m obliged to mention the fact that Trump eventually distanced himself from this rhetoric before stacking his cabinet (season one) with former lobbyists, eventually admitting that he never really believed in the slogan — that it was merely an applause line.

But those people who applauded deserve more credit than Trump. I’d like to believe that they were genuine in their desire to “drain the swamp” by ridding Washington of the corrupt insiders and lobbyists who are more than happy to sell out the American people. And even if their applause was disingenuous, I’m sure they don’t want to get poisoned from pesticides that make money for people who know their products are poisonous.

As I previously mentioned, Dow gave Trump’s inauguration committee $1 million.

This came right before Dow CEO Andrew Liveris was afforded great access to Trump and other administration officials. At this point, then-EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt decided to deny a longstanding petition to ban chlorpyrifos given the mounting scientific evidence of its harm. In July of this year, current EPA Secretary Andrew Wheeler formalized the agency’s decision to reverse the proposed

ban by the Obama administration. With the courts creating additional confusion, members of the House and Senate introduced bills to ban chlorpyrifos once and for all, but Dow has sprayed about 27 times more campaign cash at bill opponents as compared to bill supporters.

Throughout this process, Dow has influenced the EPA to ignore its own scientists on the danger of chlorpyrifos. Meanwhile, both of Trump’s heads of the Interior Department have intervened to block reports on the extreme negative impacts of chlorpyrifos on endangered species after Dow urged the administration to “set it aside.”

Reviews of Dow’s own chlorpyrifos research show that it is fundamentally flawed, with severe mistakes and omissions throughout. But this is in keeping with the Trump administration’s view on science, which is that it should pre-determine industry-friendly results. New “transparent science” rules will help to do as much. Against the advice of scientists, this will ban the government from making decisions by using scientific studies that cannot be independently reproduced, which means any studies that rely on private and confidential medical data could not be used. This is (for lack of a better word) bad, as the on-theground impacts of chlorpyrifos are horrifying.

A recent study found that there is no safe level of chlorpyrifos exposure for children. The odor is so foul it can produce headaches, shortness of breath, teary eyes and vomiting, especially for high-exposure groups like schoolchildren and farmworkers. Pregnant women

near fields where the poison is sprayed have an increased risk of having a child with autism.

It causes lower IQs, memory problems, decreased lung function and reduced fertility. I could go on.

Technically, this all means that the administration is violating a part of the Food Quality and Safety Act, which states that, “the term ‘safe’, with respect to a tolerance for a pesticide chemical residue, means that the Administrator has determined that there is a reasonable certainty that no harm will result from aggregate exposure to the pesticide chemical residue, including all anticipated dietary exposures and all other exposures for which there is reliable information.” This could result in more litigation against the Trump administration.

This all sounds pretty damning. But all this information has been out there for some time, and it’s just another addition to Trump’s bed of nails of political scandals. On the bright side, California recently decided to ban chlorpyrifos by 2020.

But on the national level, what happened to the Rachel Carson-powered outrage that produced a national ban on the pesticide DDT? Americans should be in agreement on something as cut and dry as this. This is peak “swamp.” Yet the combined efforts of every cog in the Trump disinformation machine — from his allies at Fox to his media surrogates to his cabinet secretaries — have so far succeeded in obfuscating and even putting a positive spin on what is quite literally one of the most rancid cases of political swamp ass in history.

6 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

AUTOMATED STORYTELLING WILL NEVER MATCH THE HUMAN AUTHENTICITY OF OUR FAVORITE NOVELS A robot probably won’t create the next Great American Novel, but attempts to move AI in that direction are nevertheless alarming

K IYOM I WATSO N / AGGI E

BY S I M RA N KA L KAT skkalkat@ucdavis.edu I came across a weird tech discovery while listening to Reset, a podcast hosted by Arielle Duhaim-Ross. There have been developments in artificial intelligence that have given it the ability to write stories and aid in the creative process.

The story was incredible and yet so bizarre. I am all for innovation and progress, but products like these make me pause..

There is something unusual about artificial intelligence writing the books and stories

we consume, which are beloved for the unique and creative qualities of their human authors. I don’t mean this to sound alarmist or dystopian, just skeptical. The next AI-generated Nicholas Sparks-esque novel sounds terrifying, but it won’t be what puts an end to the human race (hopefully).

In the Reset episode, Duhaime-Ross talks to novelist Sigal Samuel about her experience with OpenAI’s GPT-2, which takes the sentence entered by a user and predicts the next sentences.

Samuel enters text from her already published novel “The Mystics of Mile End” into GPT-2.

“The algorithm is sort of analyzing your words, your syntax, and then it’ll spit out how it thinks your text should be continued,” she tells Duhaime-Ross.

Samuel seems impressed with how the program continues her text. Samuel sees the program as a helpful resource for writers.

“As a writer, you don’t always have the luxury of being in the middle of an MFA workshop or just friends who you can bat around these ideas with,” Samuel said. “So it’s kind of nice to have this machine sounding board slash collaborator.”

Samuel’s experience with the GPT-2 model is just one example of artificial intelligence being used in the storytelling process. “Sunspring,” a nine-minute film directed by Oscar Sharp in 2016 is the first film entirely written by AI. It’s a weird and nonsensical film, proving that the likelihood of AI independently creating a well-written novel or screenplay is highly unlikely. But as Samuel has suggested, there is still room for collaboration between humans and machines.

Storytelling is so intrinsically human that there is something unnerving about AI involvement and collaboration in creative writing. Technology has found its way into every sector and realm of our public and private lives. In fact, I’d be surprised if our process of storytelling and writing doesn’t change within the next few years due to the involvement of AI. But it’s important to remember that people crave stories that stem from human creativity and personal experiences, whether an obscure interpretation of some

socio-political event, an intimate memoir or an artful manifestation of a writer’s wildest dreams.

Technology and the humanities shouldn’t have to be in two different spheres of human intelligence and thinking. Literature, journalism and the broader humanities can be constructive in evaluating the impact of automated programming on humans, contextualizing and grounding technology on an intimate level. Technology is largely made to aid us in much of our work and interactions. For example, the advent of the computer has made writing (or rather, typing) stories easier and more accessible. It’s possible that in the future, technology could forge an even closer relationship between humans and the humanities in ways we couldn’t imagine. It could be a disaster, but maybe it won’t be all that bad.

Like many others, I love storytelling for the creative brilliance of its authentic writers.

When I think about the books that I have found most compelling and impactful, it’s not due to their entertainment value alone. In “Giovanni’s Room,” James Baldwin manages to capture the very human feelings of loneliness and confusion in a relatable and simultaneously unique, way.

George Orwell’s “1984” is still relevant and respected today for its ability to see through the facade of a seemingly perfect society. These stories are personal and critical, as well as entertaining.

Books take time, effort and dedication to

GPT2 on 7

HUMOR

UNAWARE STUDENT BLASTS “MOVES LIKE JAGGER” FOR FOUR HOURS IN SHIELDS LIBRARY UC Davis first-year was shooting for As, but found herself shooting for the stars instead

CONFESSIONS OF A LOST HYDRO FLASK My interior is filthy and it’s getting dark

KATH E R I N E F R A N KS / AGGI E

KA ITLYN PA N G / AGGIE

BY K EL SE Y ST EWART kcstewart@ucdavis.edu First-year biological sciences major Anne Williams found herself in a conundrum last Thursday while studying on the fourth floor of Shields Library.

An unknown guy materialized to take the desk behind her, wearing AirPods and basketball shorts. “Damn, it’s not playing,” she heard him whisper to himself.

Immediately as she began to work, a familiar whistle resounded. Adam Levine soon began to serenade the shocked audience as “Moves Like Jagger” began: “Just shoot for the stars if it feels right/ And aim for my heart if you feel like it…”

Anne found herself checking the calendar on her phone to ensure she hadn’t been launched back to 2011.

“Take me by the tongue and I’ll know you/ Kiss me till you’re drunk and I’ll show you all the moves like Jagger…”

Anne whipped her head around, nervously looking for help. The room was empty. She knew that she should tap him on the shoulder. But he had blocked himself off from the world, nesting his head in his hands and tapping his foot to the beat of the song. It would just be rude to inter-

rupt him. Before she knew it, it was Christina Aguilera’s verse: “You want to know how to make me smile?”

No, not really, Anne thought to herself.

She sat through Adam Levine’s last command to take him by the tongue as the closing whistle signaled the song’s end. Anne let out an audible sigh of relief and realized now that she was finally able to think clearly again.

Her reprieve was short-lived as that familiar whistle began once more, a signal of her journey back to unknown horrors. “My ego is big/ I don’t give a sh-t.”

But I do, Anne thought. She looked back at the unknown guy — he was now sending what seemed to be like a very important email. She couldn’t interrupt him. That would just be inconsiderate.

She sat through another round of the song, knowing that it would be over soon. However, the closing whistle soon bled into the opening whistle, and she started to lose track of time as one typically does when listening to “Moves Like Jagger.”

Hours passed. She wasn’t sure whether she was on the fourth or the four-hundredth listen.

She had an out-of-body experience. Perhaps the

EVERLASTING LOVE?

HEADPHONES on 11

BY MARIO RO DRIG U E Z marrod@ucdavis.edu

BY JU LIE T TA B IS H ARYAN jsbisharyan@ucdavis.edu Captain’s Log. Day 1: It’s been approximately three days since I’ve left Stacey’s side and seen the mustard linings of her Fjallraven Kanken.

Who would have thought that her 4 p.m. lecture would be our last time together?

I remember when I first came into her life.

“Away with plastic water bottles!” she proclaimed as she pulled out a metal straw from her Amazon box. I never felt so special before, just sitting there, listening about her dreams of saving the turtles.

Our time together wasn’t always pretty. I’ll never forget the day her roommate commented on how pretentious my shade “lilac” was. Or how her boyfriend made some sick joke about my nickname, “Wide Mouth.” I didn’t even mind the tacky stickers she put on me. I embraced every part of her chaotic life.

And now I stand underneath an empty seat in Wellman. There’s gum underneath the chair that gently grazes my cap. It’s dark now and I’ve never felt more alone.

Day 2: This morning I awoke to an unfamiliar place. Although I hoped I had been found and placed on Stacy’s nightstand, I was

instead shoved into a side pocket that’s much too small for my 32 oz hips. I knew this wasn’t Stacey because she would never buy a Jansport backpack. Trapped in this netted cage, I can now see why.

Day 3: I now find myself in a bedroom I have never seen before. I’ve been staring at a “Live, Laugh, Love” sign on the wall all day.

Truthfully, I’m not sure how much more of this I can bear.

Day 4: Today I experienced the most surreal thing. Instead of the usual coffee table that I’ve been banished to, I was stationed in a row of several other Hydro Flasks. I asked the olive flask to my right what was going on. He told me that every few days, one of them gets taken away. He also told me to prepare to have my photo taken and be uploaded on some Facebook group. I must admit I’m afraid.

Day 5: Today is my last day in this prison.

I will be taken to a new home tomorrow in exchange for some coins. I no longer feel the need to document these horrific experiences so I bid you all adieu. I hope this finds you in good hands and you remember to check for your loved one before you quickly leave a Davis lecture hall. And to Stacey, my first owner, if you’re still out there: He! Doesn’t! Love! You!

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

DEMANDS FOR SAT, ACT REQUIREMENTS TO BE DROPPED AS UC ENTERS DEBATE ON STANDARDIZED TESTING Interest groups say SAT, ACT tests discriminate on basis of race, disability, wealth

NEW WAGE LAW PROMPTS COHO TO RAISE PRICES Minimum wage in California will be set to $15 by 2022, making it more costly to pay employees

K IYO M I WATS O N / AGGI E

BY LEI OTSUKA features@theaggie.org A letter sent to the UC Board of Regents on Oct. 29 and signed by several low-income student advocacy groups, including the Compton Unified School District, demanded the removal of SAT and ACT requirements from the UC application. The letter claimed that the standardized testing requirement on the application discriminates based on race, disability and wealth. The groups that signed on requested a meeting with the UC Regents within ten business days, stating their “hope that litigation is unnecessary.”

The letter comes in light of the Regents’ general board meeting in mid-September, at which time a discussion on the impact of the standardized testing requirement on the application was first brought up.

In April of this year, the academic senate assembled a standardized testing task force as part of an effort to decide whether the UC would continue to include a request for SAT and ACT scores on its applications. The task force, chaired

by Dr. Henry Sanchez of UCSF, has 17 UC professors from a variety of fields on the committee, as well as one student representative. They meet approximately once a month and often ask experts on standardized testing to speak at these meetings.

There are a variety of different courses of actions the task force could recommend: all or part of the standardized testing requirement may be eliminated, the tests may be made optional or different tests, such as the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium may instead be used for admissions.

The task force is focused on current UC testing practices and assessing whether or not these practices provide an adequate assessment of applicants in the holistic review process. The task force will also be looking into how these testing practices are affecting the diversity of UC applicants.

The recent letter sent to the Regents claims that current practices violate the California Constitution under the right to equal protection as well as several government codes.

The task force hopes to make preliminary recommendations to the board by Feb. 2020, but the letter sent to the board emphasizes the urgency of the matter. It is unclear when any potential

J U ST IN HA N / AG GIE

changes would be implemented, but members of the Regents hope to make changes soon.

UC Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who is also the chancellor of California Community Colleges system, commented on the potential benefits if the test requirements were removed from the application process in an interview with The California Aggie.

“The sooner the better,” Oakley said. “We have a lot of students spending a lot of money on the test prep and if we’re going to make a change they should know when and how we’re going to make the change. Most of the data that’s been clear across the nation [is] that standardized testing like the SAT/ACT say very little about a student’s ability to succeed in college. [It] says more about their wealth or their zip code.”

Jenny Pelliconi, a first-year animal science major, agrees with Oakley’s view, especially given her ACT experience.

“I don’t think I did that well, but I feel like I’m doing really well here,” Pelliconi said. “People are not very good at taking tests sometimes, it’s a certain skill and some people don’t have that, even if they are successful.”

The numbers suggest that any decision made by the UC will have a widespread impact as the system is widely regarded as one of the best public higher education systems in the country, bringing in 176,695 freshman applicants across all UC campuses this year.

If the UC were to eliminate the SAT and ACT requirement, it would be joining thousands of colleges across the U.S. that have already done so, including the University of Chicago and the University of San Francisco.

Though the board is focusing on admissions-based exams at the moment, other standardized tests, such as the Advanced Placement exams, which many high school students take after the completion of an AP course to gain college unit credit, may also be assessed by the board in the future.

Regardless of the outcome, there was a general consensus among the Board of Regents that an evidence-based decision will be of the utmost importance.

“We’ve been very careful not to insert any prejudgement about what recommendations they ultimately forward to this board,” President Janet Napolitano said during the general board meeting. “Whatever we do will be a national precedent, and so we want to get it right.”

SENATE

BY ISAB E LLA B E RI STAI N features@theaggie.org An increase in prices at the CoHo at the start of Fall Quarter have drawn student backlash — “I don’t feel like [the increase] is fair, looking at how much we pay for tuition,” said Yara Habeeb, a third-year computer science major. The recent price increases, however, resulted from a California minimum wage law that goes into effect in 2022.

Public Information Officer for the California Department of Industrial Relations Paola Laverde explained that Senate Bill 3, signed into law by former Calif. Governor Jerry Brown in 2016, states that by 2022 the minimum wage of California will reach $15.

“It is a good thing that minimum wage is going up for workers, because the cost of living in California has increased,” Laverde said. “It had been stagnant for a while, so there was a

push in 2016 to increase the minimum wage to $15 dollars.”

Darin Schluep, food service director for Associated Students Dining Services, said the CoHo management team never takes pricing decisions lightly, but, unfortunately, because of the increased minimum wage, this was a necessary and unavoidable decision.

“The annual increase in minimum wage ($1.00 more per hour each year until it reaches $15.00/hr. in January 2022) means approximately $200,000 in added costs each year that we must take into consideration when setting our budget,” Schluep said via email. “Rather than looking at cutting staff, we have worked to find ways to increase efficiency and to leverage our buying power for better pricing on goods.

But ultimately some of those additional costs must be passed on to the consumer in order for us to continue to operate on a break-even financial basis.”

FAQ #1 Q: Aren’t the free tickets just for first-year students?

A: Not anymore. Every UC Davis student gets ONE FREE TICKET! Go to: mondaviarts.org/students for details.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

such that the Judicial Council chair was elected by a two-thirds Senate majority. With those changes, the amendment was passed with no objections and will be placed on the ballot for fall elections.

Finally, Deshpande introduced Senate Resolution #3 in support of the Student Debt Cancellation Act, H.R. 3448, adding that Congressman John Garamendi would respond to an ASUCD statement.

“Forty-six percent of UC graduates graduate with student debt,” they said. “Student debt affects the welfare of everyone on campus, with students of color disproportionately affected by basic needs and housing insecurity caused by student debt costs. This isn’t a partisan issue, it’s a basic needs and a mental health issue.”

Spignolio said he foresaw a chaotic future for the aforementioned bill.

“The incentives that could result seem to be problematic,” he said. “It’s not a long-term solution because it sounds like it cancels debt of the students before us, but what about students after?”

Isaac Flores, a fourth-year English and psychology major present at the meeting, said the reaction was irrational.

“Allowing entire generations of students to be shackled by massive amounts of student loan debt, that’s irrational,” Flores said. “Suggest solutions rather than saying, ‘This isn’t something I can get behind.’”

External Affairs Commission Chair Shelby

Swirlz cafe at Coffee House is a ASUCD vendor that saw price increases of 25 cents during Fall Quarter 2019.

Oct. 28, 2019. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

Salyer talked about the discrepancy in her parents’ college experience and her own.

“College was cheaper for our parents and grandparents,” Salyer said. “You could go to college with a minimum wage job and get by. Now, my partner struggles a lot financially so she won’t have to take out student loans, working 25 hours per week.”

Salyer said that being an advocate for marginalized communities that have been shut off from education means doing anything to make the current student debt crisis better.

Barak supported Spignolio, but said she also understood where her fellow senators and members of the public who came to support the resolution were coming from. The sentiments of the bill resonated with her, she said. Barak pushed for a change in the resolution’s language such that it said “ASUCD supports the sentiments of the act” instead of “ASUCD supports this passage of the act.”

Deshpande said the wording change diluted the power of the resolution. Instead, after further discussion from both the public and officials at the ASUCD Senate table, they accepted a language change proposed by Estrada — “ASUCD supports the passage of this act in its current form.”

After a 6-2 roll call vote, the resolution passed. Barak and Spignolio voted against the resolution’s passage and Senators Sahiba Kaur and Tony Chen were absent.

The meeting adjourned at 10:28 pm.

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GPT2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

create. To read a book is to engage in work that has been researched, thought out and mulled over a period of months, if not years. Context and life experiences matter in the storytelling process. Although it is hard to imagine artificial

intelligence becoming adequate enough to assist or even replace writers, it’s disturbing to think of the automation of ideas we once saw as pure human brilliance and creativity.

#mondavicenter

mondaviarts.org mondaviarts.org/students

8 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC DAVIS ETHNIC STUDIES CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

Critical importance of ethnic studies — from activism to academia

BY DO MINIC FARIA arts@theaggie.org

A F RIC A N A M E R I C A N STUD I E S D E PARTM ENT / CO URTESY

BY N A HI M A SHA F F E R arts@theaggie.org Born out of protest, it was just 50 years ago that the idea of an ethnic studies curricula emerged at UC Davis — which, at the time, was revolutionary.

With a political climate of anti-war, civil rights and women’s liberation movements, the 1960s embodied a time where change was being called for on all fronts. In academia, many students feared their universities were disconnected from real-world concerns and, even worse, complacent in the perpetuation of systems of oppression.

In those years, California colleges and universities played a fundamental role in the inception of ethnic studies programs, specifically at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University. The student group Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) organized multiple strikes in 1968 to advocate for the necessity of curriculum reform and increased diversity.

At UC Davis, students organized their own TWLF chapter. It was also at this time that several cultural groups emerged, such as the Black Student Union, the Native American Student Association, Asian American Concern and the United Mexican American Students. From protests, newsletters, symposiums and more, these groups aimed to make their communities a priority for the university.

It was not long after the 1968 strikes that the first ethnic studies department was established on March 7, 1969 at San Francisco State University, sending a signal for other California colleges to continue mobilizing and push even harder.

Just two months later, students organized a UC-wide strike on May 23. Several UC Davis student groups used the opportunity to present their demand for ethnic studies to then-Chancellor James Meyer. The demands were not mere lists of wants, but included detailed proposals with budgets and potential classes.

“A number of 13 measures were put up and, at the basis, were asking for an intellectual agenda and a community agenda,” recalled Dr. Bettina Ng’Weno about the African and African American Studies program in particular.

Notably, many of the first ethnic studies courses were offered at the School of Agriculture rather than the College of Letters and Science because they were seen as a fulfillment of the university’s land-grant mission to “pursue science and knowledge in service of the public.”

Some of the first instances of ethnic study on campus were about studying the farming and surrounding communities. The Asian American Studies Department in its early stages, for instance, shared close ties with the Applied Behavioral Sciences Department.

Today, there are four ethnic studies departments on campus. Although much has changed since 1969, the university still has a long way to go.

African and African-American (AAS) studies became the first ethnic studies major at UC Davis, with AAS classes appearing in the course catalog starting in 1971. It took until 2016, however, until the department was officially established.

A similar struggle rings true for the other

ethnic studies departments as well — for many years, academics questioned the legitimacy of ethnic studies programs.

With fewer resources, high faculty turnover rates and departmental conflict, instability persisted until the late 1980s. Then, the Academic Senate voted to allocate six full-time employment positions for all ethnic studies departments, legitimizing the departments and ensuring perpetuity.

The Native American Studies Department came to fruition in 1993 and the program began offering graduate degrees in 1999. The department is unique in that it makes UC Davis the second of only three institutions nationwide to offer doctorates in the field along with the University of Arizona and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Many students and faculty think that this department is especially necessary given that UC Davis was built on the Patwin tribe’s land.

Chicano and Chicana Studies and Asian American Studies became departments in 2008 and 2009, respectively, but courses had been established before then.

Unfortunately, even today several of the departments do not have the promised six fulltime faculty members. For instance, African and African American Studies only has four. What’s more, many of the issues that catalyzed the creation of these departments are still ongoing today, making the continuation of these programs all the more necessary.

Beyond their symbolism, these departments have come to embody vibrant pillars of the UC Davis community both academically and beyond.

“I feel like its grounding, it gave me opportunities,” said Monica Valazquez, a fourth-year Chicana/o Studies and international relations double major.

Many of these programs and their related classes represent some of the first academic opportunities for Black, Chicanx, Native American and Asian American students to learn about their cultures and histories. Cynthia Johnson, a UC Davis alumna who studied Human Development and African and African-American Studies, said that that is a big reason she came to the major.

“My high school curriculum didn’t have that, but going into freshman year, I heard a lot of upper-classmen say, ‘Make sure you take AAS 10,’” Johnson said. “It was very informative, so it kind of brought me on the path of being more inquisitive about the department.”

Throughout the quarter, several of these departments will have events commemorating their 50 year history with and look toward the future.

The Native American Studies is holding its 50th anniversary alumni reunion and 20th anniversary graduate program reunion Nov. 8 and 9 at the UC Davis Conference Center; the African and African American Studies Department will be having a 50th anniversary commemoration “Visioning 50 Years Forward” on Nov. 15 at the Student Community Center and the Asian American Studies’ “The Field and Its Future Symposium” will be held on Nov. 16 in California Hall.

The culminating celebration of all the departments will be held in May 2020. More information can be found on each department’s website.

TV Show: “Bosch” Based on a series of novels by Michael Connelly, the show follows the life of a surly, jazz-appreciating, Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective named Harry Bosch.

He’s basically the John Wick of law enforcement but with a bit less of the rogue assassin vibe. Bosch has no fear, hates bad guys and lets nothing stand in the way justice (“Get off your ass and go knock on doors” is written on a piece of paper posted on his desk at the precinct). “Bosch” may feature action scenes that are adrenaline-inducing, but it also contains an overarching sincere and poignant attitude. More than just an everyday crime action-drama, Bosch confronts themes of grief, loss, regret, redemption and atonement in a brutally honest way. But if that does not intrigue you, at least watch for the shots of Harry’s bitchin’ house in the Hollywood Hills. You can stream all five glorious seasons now on Amazon Prime and then wait in agony until season six airs in April.

Movie: “Burn After Reading” In the year following Joel and Ethan Coen’s best picture-winning film, “No Country For Old Men,” the famed Coen brothers released this much less critically-acclaimed masterpiece — which is one of my personal favorites. An alcoholic CIA agent, a serial cheater, a guy named Chad who works at a fitness center and a woman who just wants a few “procedures” to make her feel pretty all somehow get mixed up in this ridiculous, dark and twisted comedy set in Washington, D.C. You can’t really go wrong with any film that features both Brad Pitt and George Clooney, but what truly ties this hilarious-but-gut-wrenching work together is the sheer smugness and anger of Osbourne Cox (played by John Malkovich) and the ditsy-yet-determined power of Linda Litzke (played by Frances McDormand). This is one of the few movies that will make you cackle and wince at the same time.

Book: “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck “Timshel” is probably the most important word in this lengthy masterpiece. Is it might, or may? Can one be both good and evil? And do we have a choice in which one we get to be? That’s for you to decide after you unpack Steinbeck’s profound and ornate tale that centers around two families in California’s Salinas Valley. “East of Eden” contains so much substance that it’s the only book I’ve ever read more than once, and it actually gets better the second time around. The novel is filled with biblical parallels, complex family relationships and stark juxtapositions that make it impossible to put down. It also has Lee, the novel’s best character and the dude I most wish I could hang out with in real life.

Album: “Tapestry” by Carole King Despite being someone whose music taste varies with the day, I keep finding myself coming back to this album. In my younger years, my mother would play the entire album on repeat during long car rides — so often that I still have every track memorized. “Tapestry” is an irresistible mix of playful Motown rhythms, nostalgia-infused ballads and songs of self-empowerment (“you’re as beautiful as you feel”). My personal favorite from the album, “Way Over Yonder,” is smooth and uplifting — evoking pleasant memories while inspiring me to make it through the toughest of days. Even though the album was released in 1971, its emotional depth is as timeless as Carole King’s vocals. King is considered one of the most prolific and successful songwriters of the 20th century, and “Tapestry” was her breakthrough into singing. As one of the best-selling albums of all time, it’s a must-listen for anyone in our younger generation with an old soul.

A CRUCIBLE IN DESIGN, THE EVOLUTION OF CAMPUS ARCHITECTURE Design professor Mark Kessler discusses history, influence of different architecture movements, from Arts and Crafts movement to the Bauhaus MA RKU S KA EPEL L I / AGG IE

The design of Briggs Hall on the UC Davis campus is influenced by the Bauhaus style of architecture. Oct 31, 2019.

(Photo by Markus Kaeppeli / Aggie)

BY ANDRE W W ILLIAMS arts@theaggie.org

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

Students continuously interact with the layout of campus as they bustle around, plug away at Shields Library and meander through the Death Star. Through this repetition, students can become indifferent to the architecture, as it becomes an extension of their routine during a relentless quarter schedule. In spite of this, the campus’ architecture is filled with a colorful and diverse history that illustrates the push and pull tension between different architectural design beliefs.

Campus history spans over a century and begins with the wooden conservative structures of the early 1900s like the Barn and moves to the present, showcased by the flashy, contemporary California Hall. When strolling through campus, buildings representative of a variety of architectural phases — from older wooden buildings of the anti-capitalist Arts and Crafts movement to more open ambitious structures influenced by Postmodernism — can be found.

Mark Kessler, a UC Davis Professor of Design and licensed architect, discussed the different design forces of the campus’ development, beginning with the earliest buildings and moving through his descriptions and insights chronologically as the UC Davis campus un-

folded.

“The earliest buildings on campus really had a shingle style that was Arts and Crafts based,” Kessler said.

Typified by buildings like the Barn, the Arts and Crafts movement, which originated in Britain and spread to North America between the 1880s to the 1920s, utilized a wooden shingle-clad structure and welcomed embellishment. The movement sneered at the explosion of industrialization occurring at the time. In direct opposition, the Arts and Crafts touted artisanship, rather than the businessman’s efficiency.

William Hayes was a major contributor to on-campus architecture and a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley who sought to shape his buildings in the context of Californian history and culture. Hart Hall is a prime example of an ode to popular styles of years past.

“In Hart Hall, you see a conservative architecture, regionally based and ornamented like a kind of Spanish mission revival style by the same architect William Hayes,” Kessler said.

Kessler also commented on architects adorning their buildings with superfluous details — a popular trend at the time “In the industrial age conservative architects

BAUHAUS on 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019 | 9

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.

Answer to previous puzzle

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

10 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

SCIENCE+TECH VAPING-RELATED ILLNESSES AND DEATHS CONTINUE RISING CDC, health practitioners advise everyone to stop vaping

SCANS WITH SPECIALLY DESIGNED PET SYSTEM FOR HORSES SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTED BY VETERINARY MEDICAL TEACHING HOSPITAL UC Davis VMTH veterinarians, professors created PET scanning system to identify equine lesions

R ICK A RTHU R / COU RTESY L IN DSAY FOX / P I XABAY

BY C E C I L I A M OR A L E S science@theaggie.org In recent months, an “outbreak” has been established by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in cases of vaping-related lung injury, especially in the state of California. By the most recent count — updated every Thursday on the CDC website — on Oct. 29, there were 1,888 reported cases and 37 deaths by vaping-related illness across the country. And these numbers only continue to climb following CDC investigations.

The lung illnesses — which the CDC has started collectively calling EVALI, which stands for “e-cigarette, or vaping, product use associated lung injury” — are overrepresented in male and younger populations. Seventy percent of 1,378 patients affected by the illness identify as male and 79% of 1,364 patients reported being under 35 years old. As of now, the median age for deceased patients is 53 years old.

It is understood that products containing THC and obtained informally off the street — through dealers, friends or family — are the root of most EVALI cases, especially when combined with frequent and extended use. Although cigarette use ties all patients together, research is still needed to determine what is actually causing lung injury and what chemicals, or mix of chemicals, are causing the most damage.

Heat is needed to turn the oil or liquid compositions in a pod or cartridge into gas for inhalation. But this process might be making chemicals more dangerous, according to Dr. Nicholas Kenyon, the division chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine in the UC Davis Health department of internal medicine.

The plethora of products with unknown chemical makeups make it much harder for health providers to give advice beyond not using any e-cigarette or vaping products, whether or not they contain nicotine or THC. “I think we have to say that you should be worried simply because we don’t have a good handle on the situation right now,” Kenyon said. “It is true that some people have really just used nicotine products and ended up with vaping lung injury. It is certainly safest not to vape. We understand that this is a problem, that millions of young people are using these.

It really doesn’t take very long for somebody to start to develop lung injury. Certainly the dose and the frequency of use does correspond with the development of lung injury, but even [with] infrequent use for some time, if you get an adverse reaction to some of the chemicals in these products, it is possible to get fairly severe lung injury.”

As of now, it is critical for health practitioners to be attuned to identifying EVALI

Horses leave the gates at the start of a race at Santa Anita Park in Santa Anita, Calif. (Photo by Rick Arthur / Courtesy)

cases in California and report all such cases to the local state health department and the CDC, according to Kenyon.

“It’s not very easy to recognize,” Kenyon said. “When these cases come in, they look like other forms of pneumonia just that they tend to be in young people so that’s a little bit unusual.”

Many students assume that the retail establishment prevalence and popularity of Juul, a major e-cigarette producer, make their products safer to consume. Despite the health community and the CDC being more concerned about black market and THC-containing products, even Juul products are now being called into question. In a lawsuit filed on Oct. 29, Siddharth Breja, a former executive of Juul, alleged that Juul knowingly “sold at least one million contaminated mint-flavored nicotine pods,” according to a New York Times article.

“Mr. Breja detailed a culture of indifference to safety and quality-control issues among top executives at the company and quoted the thenchief executive Kevin Burns saying at a meeting in February: ‘Half our customers are drunk and vaping’ and wouldn’t ‘notice the quality of our pods,’” The Times reported.

But a fourth-year pre-med student, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, is not moved enough by all this news to quit just yet; she said she goes through a Juul pod about every two days.

“I just read it, and I think it’s just more media stuff,” she said. “Juul was a hype and now anti-Juul is another hype. Anti-Juul culture.”

For her, a consensus merely telling her to stop vaping does not warrant quitting. The extremity of the cases she reads about also reassures her, because in comparison to those EVALI patients, her consumption is not that extreme.

“Sometimes it’ll burn the back of my throat if my pod is burnt, but that doesn’t worry me just because I’m like, ‘That’s just a pod being burnt,’” she said. “It’s not anything.”

She started vaping five months ago with a Suorin but moved to Juuling, because the Suorin was “more powerful.” Sometimes she will feel “kind of weasy” from vaping because of her asthma, so she stops “hitting [the Juul] so much” until she’s fine. She said if she started noticing any adverse health effects, it would prompt her to stop sooner.

“My usage sometimes does worry me just because I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do this everyday, all the time,’” she said. “I do believe I will stop in the future, but I don’t have a desire to right now. I don’t desire to be Juuling all my life.”

Another fourth-year student who has been vaping for about two years started off by slowly

VAPING on 11

BY MARG O ROS E NB AUM science@theaggie.org The UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) has successfully administered scans for horses using their new equine-specific PET system. The machine allows for the 3D scanning of horse limbs to detect lesions and injuries that other technologies cannot identify, according to Mathieu Spriet, an associate professor of diagnostic imaging at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

On Oct. 8, VMTH had the first safety demonstration, illustrating that a horse can safely step out of the machine if they move. So far, four horses have been scanned with the machine, and another set of horses will be scanned this week.

PET (positron emission tomography) provides a 3D representation of tissue and is useful for detecting sites of high metabolism associated with injury and healing in bone, according to an email from Susan Stover, a professor in the department of surgical and radiological sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine. Radioactive material is injected into an area, creating bright spots on the scanned images to show the injuries.

UC Davis specifically developed this new machine to be used with racehorses. In racing, the primary injuries involved are in the sesamoid joint, which is in the horse’s ankle, or fetlock.

“Breakdown,” which occurs when horses become very injured in their fetlocks through repeated racing, makes up about 50% of the fatal injuries in racehorses. It is very difficult for the horse to survive these kinds of injuries, said Rick Arthur, the equine medical director at the School of Veterinary Medicine.

“There’s a lot of catastrophic injury with horses breaking down in the fetlock,” Spriet said.

“That is why the focus was on the fetlock in the first study.”

PET scanning can identify preexisting lesions and horses that are predisposed to having these lesions. Certain types of lesions are not visible through other diagnostic techniques, according to Arthur. The goal is to avoid racing horses with these injuries to keep them sound, which is a term to describe a healthy horse.

“When we measured like 20 racehorse fetlocks, we saw a bunch of lighting up in the sesamoid bones in the fetlock,” Spriet said. “That is why it is very interesting to use it to better understand what is happening in these cases so we can change what we are doing before the horses break down.”

Since the machine is a round structure, it collects 3D information by scanning all the way around the limb. Other scanners such as ultrasounds, scintigraphy and radiographs only take 2D images, so they cannot identify all injuries, Spriet said.

“It may look normal in other scanners, but

PET uses radioactive tracers,” Spriet said. “With molecular imaging, you can see some changes at the microscopic level, which is really important for us. Once you have a big hole in the bone, it is hard to repair, but if you can detect that something is happening before a big hole develops, that helps.”

The idea for using the technology for horses was developed about six years ago. A bioengineer recommended to use his newly developed PET scanner for horses, as he was writing a grant and was trying to show as many applications for the scanner as possible. Although that system did not end up working for horses, it gave Spriet the idea to use PET with horses. PET is usually used in oncology for detecting cancerous tumors in humans and other animals, so it was never really on Spriet’s radar.

“That was the first time the idea came, so we are very grateful for [the bioengineer],” Spriet said.

Four years ago, VMTH got its first PET scanner. It had been developed for human heads, but by placing it on a cart, a horse’s limb could fit in it. Horses had to be anesthetized and laid down in order to use the machine, since the scanner had to go all the way around the horse’s limb, Spriet said.

Horses should not be put under general anesthesia very often, however, because it is a dangerous and complex process, according to Spriet. With this machine, it would not be safe to use with a standing horse, since the horse’s limb could not get out of the cylinder if they moved.

Therefore, they wanted to develop a system that they could use with a standing horse that would detach if a horse moved.

“We did not want to bring [the machine] further up the limb because even if the horse is sedated, at some point they are going to want to move,” Spriet said. “We needed something that will open up.”

With a standing unit, the procedure is easier, faster, cheaper and less risky to administer, so clients will be more willing to use this type of diagnostic imaging, according to Arthur.

Last January, Spriet’s team created the first standing machine, however it was only able to scan the hoof. The machine involved the horse standing in a shallow hole, since it would not be safe for the horse’s whole leg to be encased in the machine, according to Spriet.

Last spring, the team received funding to design and build a machine that disengages when a horse move. The arms open up so the horse can get out of the machine if they move.

“The detectors are the same but the scanner itself is divided into three parts, and so it goes up and down on the limb to the foot, the big safety concept we need the horse to be able to step out

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strong and solidified,” Low said, adding that SB 24 has “inspired a few people to actually start their own productive justice organs on their campuses.”

Now that JustCARE has completed its first

goal of passing SB 24, it is turning its efforts toward working with students and health centers for the next three years “to make sure that this process is very seamless,” Rosales said.

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Undocumented Student Center have supported the “I Stand With Immigrants” campaign and other similar supportive efforts for the past three years. She credits fwd.us, a bipartisan political organization focused on “fixing the failed immigration and criminal justice systems,” with powering the campaign.

SPEAK hopes to bolster the efforts of other non-profit organizations in support of undocumented communities and Dreamers, according to Cardoza. She also highlighted the efforts of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and other activist groups that are leading the #HomeIsHere march from New York City to Washington, D.C. to bring visibility to the contributions that DACA recipients make to the U.S.

“We also want to reach out to other local organizations like M.E.Ch.A., Brown Issues [and] the Filipinx community because the undocumented community includes so many diverse identities within it,” Cardoza said.

Hundreds of corporations, national security experts, colleges and universities — including the UC — as well as members of Congress have filed amicus briefs to pledge support for DACA. “The University of California is proud to lead this charge in support of DACA recipients at UC and across the nation,” Napolitano said. “It is heartening and invigorating to see so many standing with the university in pursuit of what is right.”

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their petitions. The website is now functional and candidates had until Nov. 1 to submit their petitions.

Jenna DiCarlo, a second-year international relations and history double major, is running for senate on the Thrive slate. Without oversight from ASUCD, students running for Senate are left looking to fellow slate members for guidance, she said.

“My main points of contact are probably the senior members of the slate,” DiCarlo said.

“I haven’t had direction from ASUCD, but I’m getting advice from my friends on Thrive and people who have previously worked in ASUCD.” Without an Elections Chair, ASUCD has relied on Creative Media’s efforts to advertise the election and encourage students to consider running as well as word of mouth.

As of the time of publication, 21 students have petitioned to run for six open Senate seats, according to ASUCD’s elections website. At least a few of the petitions appear to be joke petitions submitted under fake names including “Gunrock the Aggie,” “McLovin” and “No Boots.” Students hoping to run must be undergraduates in good academic standing, have completed at least 60 units of University credit and must obtain 125 signatures on their petitions.

Another issue that has arisen concerned the mandatory candidate workshop falling on Día de los Muertos. After a candidate raised

concerns about this, the Elections Committee offered an alternative online workshop offered to candidates, to be completed at a later date.

Additionally, despite past discussions about eliminating Senate slates, students planning to run this fall will have the option to join UC Davis’ version of different political parties. Slates are, “any group of candidates and/or Tickets who run together under a common name or common slogan,” according to the ASUCD Bylaws.

In the past, slates have been accused of causing division among senators and the student body. Slates have previously created so much internal division that previous senators have cited them as the reason that led to their early resignations. Former Senator Danny Halawi referenced his frustration with the Unite! slate when discussing his decision to resign in an Aggie article. During the 2018-19 school year, three senators elected last Fall Quarter resigned before terming out.

Currently, the slates BASED and Unite! are represented in the Senate. In addition to the two currently active BASED and Thrive slates, students have the choice to run independently. There is currently no information available about different ASUCD slates on the ASUCD website.

Student petitions to run closed on Nov. 1 and the mandatory candidate workshop took place on Nov. 2. Voting will begin during Week 7 on Nov. 12 and votes will be counted on Nov. 15.

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under the Mental Health Services Act. He did note several projects that may improve the commute of off-campus students, including an improvement project on I-80 that seeks to reduce traffic congestion through Davis and the launch of the Causeway Connect bus project. This will institute fully electric buses traveling between the UC Davis campus and the Sacramento medical center, with additional limited stops in Davis and Sacramento. The projected is targeted to launch in April 2020.

During the Oct. 22 city council meeting, administrators from Davis delivered a follow-up report on the college’s finances, which paid special attention to how UC Davis plans to address some of the housing pressures posed during the on-campus meeting.

Megan Glide Villasenor, assistant director at UC Davis Shared Services Center, pointed to a goal set by UC President Janet Napoli-

tano’s 2016 Student Housing Initiative which sought to add 14,000 new available beds in student housing across the UC system. Villasenor said that the UC system had exceeded that goal, with a projected 15,161 new beds added system-wide by Fall 2020. UC Davis will have instituted 2,190 of that number, according to Villasenor.

“Davis has actually been an integral part of reaching the target we set for the fall of 2020,” Villasenor said.

After the administrator’s presentation, Lee stressed the importance of continued collaboration between the university and city officials to address housing issues in the city.

“The goal here is to mitigate some of the impacts that the student population has, but we need to be smart about it and work in partnership,” Lee said.

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last 19 years of her life were a fever dream leading up to this point.

She was aware that the sun was rising outside. She was aware that she was hungry and

probably hadn’t eaten in days. But each time those thoughts came, so did “Moves Like Jagger” and she was its victim once again.

“Just shoot for the stars…”

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of that if he gets stressed,” Spriet said.

Now, the VMTH has two PET machines, one where horses lay down under general anesthesia and the new one where horses can stand up. With the standing machine, the images are a little more blurry since the horse has more motion, but the lesions can still be seen very clearly.

“What we can find under anesthesia, we can also find in the machine without,” Spriet said.

“We are still exploring what is the best protocol and way to scan to be the most efficient. We are pretty excited about what we have demonstrated.”

The standing PET machine will not stay in Davis for long. Since the funding for the machine came largely from the Grayson Jockey Club and the Santa Anita race track, the machine will move down to Southern California.

It will be transported to Santa Anita either in the last week of November or the beginning of December.

The next machine they want to develop is a hybrid of the two previously developed systems. Spriet said they want a system that opens up so standing horses can use it but that also has the ability to rotate 90 degrees so anesthetized horses can use it as well. This machine will

stay at UC Davis to be used for clients.

“Typically we will do radiographs and ultrasounds and then MRI,” Spriet said. “This will go instead of MRI or when MRI does not fully answer what is going on. These are more advanced cases. It will help us figure out what kinds of lesions are present, see what is happening and whether the racehorse needs some more rest or needs to change something in the training to reduce stress.”

Longmile Veterinary Imaging builds the PET machines that UC Davis uses. Not many places offer the technology yet, according to David Beylin, the executive director of Longmile Veterinary Imaging. In the next year Beylin said there will be more sites offering the technology.

This technology will be implemented in other contexts than racing and will be especially beneficial to other horse sports such as jumping, dressage and western events, according to Stover.

“It is not going to be the magic thing that will solve all the problems, but it is one tool to really help understand the problem better,” Spriet said. “Ultimately, it will prevent the breakdown of horses and keep horses healthier and racing longer.”

continue to apply ornament to what were modern efficient structures,” Kessler said.

In 1940, Hayes embraced a more contemporary viewpoint on architecture by applying art deco principles to Peter J. Shields Library. “[With] Shields, Hayes dips his feet into Art Deco a little bit without much conviction, but Shields represents for him and his work an advance to a more contemporary aesthetic,” Kessler said.

Hayes was inspired by Art Deco’s attraction to geometric patterns for the library’s use of rectangular shapes to frame windows and provide quirky embellishment. This is evident in the many translucent block windows at Shields — bearing a resemblance to a set of ice cube trays.

In the 1950s and 1960s, campus architecture embraced modernism, a trend sweeping the nation. Modernism, made famous by architects like Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (commonly known as Le Corbusier) and Mies Van der Rhoe, pivoted to maximizing the utility of a structure, while remaining authentic to material and function.

They claimed to value the beauty of simplicity in lieu of extravagance.

Modernism of the 1950s and 1960s assumed a major debt to the Bauhaus (Building House), a small design school in Dessau, Germany. Founded by architect Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus opened in 1919 at the close of World War I, and then closed on the eve of World War II due to political pressures from the Nazi regime.

The Bauhaus shaped products and buildings with a high regard for function and efficiency.

In its fleeting 14-year lifespan, it housed distinguished artists and designers like Paul Klee, Marcel Bruer and Wassily Kadinsky and completely reshaped how designers approach their craft.

During this time, architects chose to accentuate aspects crucial to the structural integrity of the building instead of disguising them in decorative trappings.

“Most of the buildings on campus that express aspects that go back to European modernism, and ultimately the Bauhaus, would be buildings like Kerr or Wickson,” Kessler said. “There are many built on campus during that time that have this structure and infill expression. That is a similar tendency to find integrity in that distinction and to express it efficiently to find beauty and proportion.”

Partaking in the mass modernist movement, architects hired by UC Davis shaped buildings to reflect learning and academia.

“I think an argument can be made that these buildings signify a kind of technocratic competence in their regularity and their rationality,” Kessler said. “They mirrored what was going on inside. This was all about learning and knowledge and the application of science and the search for truth and that in creating these rational pavilions that this was the appropriate institutional architecture for a campus.”

These architects believed that imposing rationality on design would compliment and elevate students’ learning. The reliance on function and cookie cutter styles for crafting buildings can lead to lackluster final product.

“I would say that they fell short in ways that all of these buildings on campuses all over America fell short, which is that they locked into a formula, a template for an academic building and reproduced it ad nauseum,” Kessler said. “The variation is not really enough to sustain interest for the ages and really they become part of the great critique perhaps first launched by Robert Venturi, which is that it is a bore.”

Students who spend their time filtering in and out of the many modernist-inspired buildings on campus echo this sentiment. Nathan Lemus, a fourth-year cognitive science and Spanish double major, summed up his opinion of these buildings in frank terms.

“They are actually pretty horrendous to look at,” Lemus said. “I am not a fan. They all look very basic.”

Under the direction of Venturi and other architects like Frank Gehry, contemporary styles of architecture broke away from the rigidity espoused by the Bauhaus. Architects began to further experiment with ambitious and eye-catching displays that contrasted the modernism of the 50s and 60s. Some of the more recent buildings constructed on campus attempted to be less austere and more daring.

Kessler discussed how the patrons’ freedom was a central component to the design of both the Social Science and Humanities building and the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. “It was important to them to liberate the circulating wandering person and let that person discover on their own how to use the buildings,” Kessler said.

The Social Science and Humanities building — nicknamed the Death Star because of its similarity to the weaponized planet in the “Star Wars” trilogy — alludes to this new direction of freedom in design and layout. Those who have perused the building understand that navigating the concrete alleyways and winding staircases is not for the directionally challenged. The Manetti Shrem Museum also attempts to free their patrons by permitting them to explore the building without specified direction, however, it is considerably more intuitive than SSH due to its smaller size and single-floor layout.

Even though the Social Science and Humanities building is commonly equated to an unconquerable maze, Kessler still admires the ambition of the architect, Antoine Predock, in attempting to move against the grain of traditional campus administrative buildings.

“We’ve all gotten lost in that building and it’s a travesty,” Kessler said. “However, unlike most people who just say it’s a travesty, [...] I acknowledge that I’m mindful of a talented architect who tried to offer an alternative vision, and it makes me smile sometimes just that someone took a risk that big.”

Students who do not care for the design intention of the building are often quite frustrated with Predock’s design decisions.

Lemus commented on his experience trying to find his way around the Death Star.

“I usually only have 10 minutes so I don’t have much time to go through your jungle gym of architecture,” Lemus said.

The Social Science and Humanities building symbolizes a design struggle persistent in time; one between an architect’s desire to give and find meaning in their building and the execution of its technical purpose.

“Some architects would argue that buildings should reflect the complexity of our lives,” Kessler said. “It becomes rooted in the complexity of modern existence.”

Although UC Davis architecture is often seen as underwhelming by its community, it still embodies an intriguing ebb and flow of design movements. When this is taken into account, one can find a greater understanding and appreciation of the buildings that make up our campus.

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incorporating nicotine-containing juices into his Orion vape device.

“Before I started using e-nicotine devices, I was quite into vaping and learning tricks,” he said via email. “However, gradually I started to experiment with using 3mg juices and then 6mg juices, and I somehow ended up on the e-nicotine trend. I now use 50mg juices which is quite an upgrade from 3mg juice.”

He would puff his Orion “around 20 times per day” as he went about his “daily activities” like after eating, going to the gym, showering or waking up. The news has started to concern him though.

“As a e-cig smoker I am concerned of what this adverse habit will lead to,” he said. “At first I believed that vaping was relatively safe, due to the lack of research done with it. However after articles and news sources began releasing ‘vaping dangers’ and ‘vaping deaths’ reports, I am beginning to become quite worried of what I am putting in my body.”

For Kenyon, there is promise in young adults offering to help doctors and investigators with research efforts.

“People who are using these products would have to agree to have some of their breath or maybe some blood work sampled so that we can get a sense of what’s in these products,” Kenyon said. “It would require researchers as well as really many young people to help engage in understanding this.”

On a last but consequential note, the fourth-

year pre-med student sighed as she tried to address how people around her have approached her nicotine addiction. As she stumbled for the right words, she expressed how people have snatched her Juul from her hands or chastised her when they see it, which she says hurts her more than it motivates her to quit. “[I’ve] been experiencing a lot of judgment and shame behind using the Juul, and I think it’s very discouraging,” she said. “People taking it out of my hands and doing those things low key hurt[s] even though I know what I’m doing may not be good for my body and I know that they care, it’s still like actions speak louder. For people who do that, it can be kind of hurtful and it [...] makes me feel more shameful than it does for me to encourage to be stopped.”

Kenyon admitted that the many methods of combating nicotine addiction — such as gums, patches, nasal sprays and addiction programs — have not been “overly successful.” He emphasized, however, that several attempts at quitting are often needed to overcome nicotine addiction.

E-cigarettes are no different.

“The average number of times it takes to quit nicotine cigarettes is about three to four [serious] quits,” Kenyon said. “When we talk to our patients, we always recommend, ‘Don’t get down on yourself. If you failed once keep trying.’ People can succeed on their third or fourth try.”

Two student sources were kept anonymous on account of them speaking to their drug use.

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behind and clawed back for the win. As Washington celebrates its first World Series win ever, it faces several questions heading into the offseason that the club will eventually have to answer, like the contract situations for major contributors like Strasburg (who was named the World Series MVP) and Rendon. Strasburg is expected to opt-out of the remaining four years, with $100 million left on his deal and, after his postseason performance, will most likely get more. As for Rendon, he will likely be one of the best hitters on the market. After his clutch postseason hitting, he will certainly be looking for more than the seven years and $210 million he turned down earlier in the year.

On the other side, this was another major disappointment for the Astros, who will enter 2020 with major contractual questions. Cole dazzled all season and will surely require a big contract,

whether that’s in Houston or elsewhere. For a team with Verlander and Greinke on its rotation (two older players getting up in age), it will be interesting to see whether they will be willing to pay for the younger Cole. After the 2020 season, George Springer, Michael Brantley, Yuli Gurriel and Josh Reddick will all be free agents, so Houston will have big decisions on its hands in the upcoming offseasons.

As we approach another winter of signings, teams that fell short again like the Dodgers and Yankees will look to replenish their rosters and try to make another push. While this offseason won’t have big names like last year’s offseason had, players like Madison Bumgarner, Aroldis Chapman, J.D. Martinez and many more will be available and could be the major pieces needed for another team to finally get over the hump and raise the Commissioner’s Trophy next October.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2019

AGGIES SECURE TOP SPOT IN BIG WEST ON SENIOR DAY UC Davis Men’s soccer triumphs over Sacramento State to close out league play

JU STI N H A N / AG G I E

Sacramento State defender Luis Urias (4,left) holds UC Davis midfielder Emmanuel Doherty’s (19,right) jersey as they both compete for possession of the ball during a game at the Aggie Soccer Field on Nov 2, 2019. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

BY FRA N KI E V E V E R KA sports@theaggie.org In front of a filled Aggie soccer field on Saturday, the UC Davis men’s soccer team brought home the perfect senior day celebration: a clutch win over the team from just across the Causeway that clinched the top seed in the Big West conference tournament.

Going into the game, the Aggies were aware that the outcome of Saturday’s match would help to determine their position heading into the postseason. The pressure to secure the top spot was on, but they didn’t let that get in the way of

playing their game.

Fans arrived early, ready to honor the team’s five seniors, midfielders Marte Formico and Dylan Wood, forwards Kristian Heptner and Adam Mickelson, and goalkeeper Wallis Lapsley.

This rivalry game had a lot at stake for both sides, as the Hornets likely needed a win to clinch a playoff spot and the Aggies wanted to retain their hold at the top of the conference.

The two teams met nearly a month prior in Sacramento, where it was the Aggies who prevailed 2-1 thanks to a clutch Heptner free kick goal in overtime. That game on Oct. 5 was not designated as a Big West conference game, so that

CELEBRATION IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL Nationals capture first World Series ever in a wild seven games R A BI DA / AG G I E

BY O M A R N AVA R R O sports@theaggie.org In front of a sold-out crowd of 43,326 at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Oct. 30, the Washington Nationals captured their first World Series title in franchise history. It was the first World Series won by a team in Washington D.C. since 1924. The road to this championship was not easy, however, as few experts and analysts thought they would achieve this level of success.

As a result of both losing superstar outfielder Bryce Harper in free agency and starting the season 19-31 through the first 50 games, there was talk about the possibility of a rebuild early on.

The tough start had many in the nation’s capital wondering how to move forward in the new Harper-less era. But the Nationals went 74-39 from that point forward and clinched a wild card spot during the last week of the season, which bought them a date with the Milwaukee Brewers.

After going down 3-1 in the Wild Card game, many believed that the Nationals had blown it once again. With five outs to go and National League Reliever of the Year Josh Hader on the mound for Milwaukee, it seemed like there was little to no chance Washington could pull off a come-from-behind win. But after Hader hit a batter, gave up a single to Ryan Zimmerman and walked Anthony Rendon to load the bases, a hit to right field by Juan Soto got past outfielder Trent Grisham, cleared the bases and became the spark that led the Nationals deep into the postseason.

Following the excitement of the huge win, the next task was even tougher for the Nationals, as they faced the best team in the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers. After losing back-toback World Series, the Dodgers were huge favorites to get back once again and finally get over the hump. After going down in the series 2-1, Washington proceeded to win game four. And down 3-1 in the eighth inning of game five, the Nationals hit two back-to-back solo home runs that would force extras in the deciding game.

Finally, in the 10th inning, Washington’s Howie Kendrick hit a grand slam, blowing the game open and shocking the defending NL champs on their home field.

Riding high on the momentum, the Nationals traveled to St. Louis to play the Cardinals in the NL Championship Series. The Cardinals had also won in five games in the NLDS but in a much less dramatic fashion after they scored 10 runs in the first inning. This NLCS was unlike the previous for Washington, as the Nationals dominated all throughout. Behind dominant

starting pitching and great at-bats, they proved to be too much for the Cardinals, sweeping them to win the NL Pennant.

The Nationals opened at +195 underdogs in the World Series against a loaded Houston Astros team, according to ESPN. The Astros had won their first World Series in 2017 and were back looking for another with an arguably better team. Behind an elite starting rotation of Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole and Zack Greinke, Houston was -235 favorites, making them the largest favorites since 2007.

The series began in Houston, but, again, the Nationals shocked many by winning the first two games of the series in dominant fashion. Going back to Washington up 2-0, the Nationals looked to finish off the series, but the veteran Astros were not going out without a fight. Houston managed to contain Washington’s explosive offense and win all three in D.C., flipping the momentum with two chances to finish the Nationals off back in Texas.

After a rocky start in game six by Washington ace Stephen Strasburg, who gave up two runs in the first inning, the Nationals continued to fight. Strasburg bounced back by pitching into the ninth inning of the game and got more than enough run support to lift Washington to a 7-2 win.

Strasburg’s dominant showing set the stage for a pitching matchup for the ages in the deciding game seven. It was Max Scherzer on the bump for Washington and Zack Greinke on for Houston as both former Cy Young winners looked to win their team a championship.

Houston seemed to get the best of Scherzer in game seven, as he only pitched five innings and gave up two earned runs. Clinging onto a 2-0 lead with Greinke pitching into the seventh inning, the Astros looked destined to claim their second title in three years. But as many had witnessed throughout the regular season and the postseason, the Nationals fought back.

A solo home run by Anthony Rendon and a walk was enough to convince Astros manager A.J. Hinch to pull Greinke from the game. It was then Howie Kendrick who delivered once again for Washington, hitting a homerun to right field on the second pitch from Astros reliever Will Harris and giving the Nationals a lead that they would build from and never give up.

The miraculous run by the Nationals included the first-ever World Series in which the road team won every game. They faced elimination five times in the postseason and all five times fell

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made Saturday’s contest all that more meaningful as the two sides clashed for the second time of the season.

The two teams played back and forth continuously in the first half, and at the break they remained locked in a 0-0 draw. But things began to open up in the second frame, and UC Davis took control of the match.

Around the 62nd minute, what appeared to be an Aggie goal was negated by an offsides call. But UC Davis continued to apply the pressure, and it seemed as if it was only a matter of time before the Aggies would break through. All in all, the Aggies totaled 19 shots on the afternoon, four of which were on frame. It wasn’t until the 19th and final shot that UC Davis found the back of the net.

In the game’s 85th minute, sophomore forward Robert Mejia delivered the ball into the Sac State box on a long throw in. Getting on the other end of the ball was junior defender Jake Haupt, who was able to control the ball in time to sneak it past the Sac State goalkeeper for what proved to be the game-winning goal. “(Mejia) put it in the perfect spot for us to get a goal in,” Haupt said. “All the cards fell in my hands, and I was lucky enough to be there and put it away.”

This all-important score sent the Aggies on to victory and cemented them squarely at the top of the Big West standings with 16 points. It also allows UC Davis to bypass the first round of the tournament and host their semifinal match.

Aware of the importance of this game, Haupt understood what that goal meant for his team.

“We have worked so hard for this moment,” Haupt explained. “To get that game-winner goal, it is unbelievable. It’s hard to put that into words.”

This was Haupt’s first goal of the year after starting all 17 regular season games. With all the chaos that occurs near the goal, he had to keep

his composure to deliver for his team.

“There was a split second where I was gonna either shoot it or hold onto it for half a second longer, and luckily I held onto it for half a second longer — or else the goalie probably would’ve gotten it,” Haupt explained. “My mind was just running through the whole thing, ‘you gotta get the goal to send us through.’”

It was easy to tell that the team was elated once Haupt’s clutch strike found the back of the net, and the packed crowd at the Aggie soccer field made for even sweeter celebration.

“I was loving when the fans come to show up,” Haupt said. “It makes the game easier makes the game better. It was unbelievable to have those fans” UC Davis closed its regular season with a 11-4-2 overall record, including a 5-1-1 record in conference play. Now the team will have time to gear up for the conference tournament, which will bring new levels to their game and to the home environment.

“I remember when I was a freshman, I wasn’t even playing yet,” Haupt recalled. “All the fans packed the stands (for the playoffs). It was an unbelievable atmosphere, and I am just so excited for that to happen again.”

After coming up heartbreakingly short in each of the last two conference final games, the Aggies will try once again to overcome their Big West tournament demons this postseason. Their road to redemption begins Saturday at 2 p.m., when UC Davis will host the winner of wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup between Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly.

“I know we are a tough team to beat,” Haupt said. “There [are] not a lot of teams that can stop what we do. We take it long, we play the ball short, we have big guys, we have small guys, we have fast guys […] We just gotta get our minds and bodies ready.”