October 31 2019

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VOLUME 138, ISSUE 6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

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AN AGGIE SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: SUICIDE RATES ARE RISING. WHY DOESN’T THE UC MANDATE THE COLLECTION OF SUICIDE DATA? Suicide data can be essential information, but public universities aren’t required to collect by any state, federal bodies

BY H ANNAH H O LZ E R campus@theaggie.org This article is the first in a multi-part investigation by The California Aggie looking at suicide statistics in the UC system. As these statistics are not maintained by the UC Office of the President, The Aggie has compiled the previous decade’s worth of suicide statistics at each of the 10 UC campuses through public information requests.

Patti Pape lost her son Eric Pape in May 2017 when Eric, a student at UC Davis, died by suicide. Since then, Patti Pape has become an advocate for increased access to mental health resources, talking at churches and schools, attempting to influence public policy and speaking with local representatives.

Patti Pape was “horrified” to learn that the UC system has no official policy nor standard on collecting suicide data. There is also no systemwide policy on the collecting and reporting of this data nor is there a systemwide definition of suicide — information that was discovered through an independent investigation conducted by The California Aggie and disclosed

by Andrew Gordon, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President (UCOP).

At UC Davis, 15.5% of undergraduate students had seriously considered suicide at any time over the

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UC DAVIS HAS SEEN 20 DEATHS BY SUICIDE OVER THE PAST DECADE, BUT THAT NUMBER DOESN’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY

last 12 months, according to a report from 2017. This rate is higher than the national average of 11.5% of undergraduates over the same period, according to a copy of a survey administered to UC Davis students last year as part of the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment. In 2019, that number rose on campus to 15.8%, compared to 14.4% of undergraduates nationally.

UC Davis has had 20 suicides in the past decade — a number obtained by The Aggie through public records requests. This number was gathered by university officials using information from the UC Davis Police Department and the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, according to Julia Ann Easley, a spokesperson for UC Davis.

The number may not represent the actual number of student suicides at UC Davis over the previous decade. It is based upon deaths classified as a suicide by the county coroner who then notified UC Davis Student Affairs.

As Student Affairs does not keep a database of this information on hand, the number 20 was determined by university officials in order to complete The Aggie’s record request. When asked, officials from the university’s Student Health and Counseling Services said they had not previously heard this number, as

it seems the data had not been put together in such a manner before now.

Additionally, UCOP does not have access to this information as it “does not maintain” suicide data, according to an official with UCOP’s public records office.

For Patti Pape, the lack of a systemwide standard for collecting this data “is not acceptable.”

“It doesn’t make sense that we have this national problem with suicides and the UC doesn’t feel they should be keeping statistics,” she said. “Not knowing where we’re going, where we came from and our history is just going to cause us to make the same mistakes over and over. Reform is necessary in order to keep our children healthy and alive.

If you don’t know [your history,] you’re bound to stumble and have a crisis at some point.”

vided by UCLA that was inexplicably missing more than half of the 11 years of requested data.

• UC Santa Barbara: 19 deaths by suicide • UC San Diego: 18 deaths by suicide • UC Berkeley: 12 deaths by suicide • UC Riverside: 11 deaths by suicide • UC Irvine: Eight deaths by suicide • UC Merced: Four deaths by suicide

Why is it important to collect suicide data?

Experts say suicide data can be invaluable information for administrators. Dr. Jane Pearson, the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) special advisor to the director on suicide research, said in order “to change anything, you have to measure it.”

SUICIDE 1 on 10

SYDN EE R ODR IGU EZ / AGGIE

A look at the previous decade’s worth of suicide statistics at each of the 10 UC campuses

BY H A N N A H HO L ZE R campus@theaggie.org This article is the second in a multi-part investigation by The California Aggie looking at suicide statistics in the UC system. As these statistics are not maintained by the UC Office of the President, The Aggie has compiled the previous decade’s worth of suicide statistics at each of the 10 UC campuses through public information requests.

Leading mental health experts say that collecting suicide data can be a critical tool in prevention efforts — UC Davis’ Executive Director of Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) Margaret Walter agrees.

“Any sized college or institution of higher education would want to look at public health issues such as suicide with an eye for prevention opportunities or improving response,” Walter said when asked why a public university such as

UC Davis would collect suicide data.

Yet the UC does not require its campuses to collect suicide-related data, nor does there exist a “systemwide UC policy or standard on collecting suicide data,” according to Andrew Gordon, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President (UCOP).

“There is no systemwide definiton of suicide nor policy thresholds at which suicides must be reported by a campus,” Gordon said via email. “Though campus counseling centers typically do collect this data and share with campus leadership locally.”

In order to gain insight into student suicides on UC campuses that UCOP was not able to provide, The California Aggie submitted 20 California Public Records Act requests for the previous decade’s worth of student suicide statistics at each of the 10 UC campuses.

As there is no systemwide standard for collecting suicide data, the data reported by each campus cannot directly

be compared. Given the responsive records submitted to The Aggie by each of the campuses, however, UC Davis was reporting the highest number of student suicides over the past 11 years — a total of 20, just one death higher than deaths reported by UC Santa Barbara and two deaths higher than deaths reported by UC San Diego.

Some of the data provided by a few of the campuses were incomplete or insufficient, such as the data pro-

The following data is an estimate provided by officials and may not represent the actual number of suicides at a given campus.

Student suicide data from each UC campus from 2008-2018: • UC Davis: 20 deaths by suicide

SUICIDE 2 on 10

POLICE WARN OF ARMED ROBBERIES IN DAVIS, ONE SUSPECT ARRESTED Davis PD arrested a man in connection to at least one of five recent armed robberies in city

BY TI M L A LON D E city@theaggie.org After warning the community of a string of similar armed robbery incidents over the past couple of months, Davis police announced the arrest of a man connected to at least one of the five crimes.

Davis police released a message on Oct. 10 through the community alert network, Nixle, warning Davis residents about a series of five armed robberies that occurred between Sept. 19 and Oct. 9 in the city. “In all 5 cases the suspect(s) have approached the victim on a street or sidewalk and threatened the victim with a handgun before taking property,” the release read.

“Property taken has included personal electronics (phones and computers) along with wallets.”

One of the five muggings, which occurred on Sept. 20, received some media attention.

Syed Fahad Shah, a scholar visiting UC Davis, was robbed at gunpoint while walking along Russell Boulevard. Shah said an armed man and an accomplice took his laptop, containing irreplaceable research, as well as his wallet and laptop.

On Oct. 18, the Davis Police announced the arrest of one man, Eric Rodriguez, suspected of participating in at least one of the robberies.

Rodriguez was taken into custody in Woodland after turning himself in for an Oct. 5 armed robbery near Sycamore Lane and Villanova Drive.

“After the robbery, Rodriguez fled out of state where detectives were able to make contact with him by phone,” the Facebook post read. “Detectives negotiated with [Rodriguez] for the past

two days, and he agreed to turn himself in.”

Lt. Paul Doroshov of the Davis PD said police are not certain whether Rodriguez is connected to any of the other five incidents, and they confirmed that their investigation into the series of crimes was ongoing.

“We suspect, based on the information that we have now, that he is complicit in the armed robbery on [Oct. 5],” Doroshov said. “We haven’t connected him officially to any of the other cases at this point — although we’re investigating that option.”

Doroshov said Rodriguez was reportedly accompanied by a female suspect during the Oct. 5 incident. He noted that some victims of the series of muggings had also reported multiple perpetrators.

“There were some that had a couple of suspects, and some [victims] described a solo suspect,” Doroshov said.

The Nixle alert noted that suspect descriptions associated with the robberies were “limited” and only “vaguely similar” in reported appearance.

After the string of five robberies, the last of which occurred on Oct. 8, there have not been any similar incidents, according to Doroshov.

Police recognized the possibility of a connection between the muggings, according to the Nixle alert. Doroshov said this particular string of armed robberies stood out because suspects targeted individual pedestrians rather than businesses.

“These are a little different in the sense that the targets are actually just people walking down the street,” Doroshov said. “Typically we get armed robbery of a store, or a gas station or something

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

— a business. In this case, it’s just people.”

In its Nixle alert, the Davis PD warned community members to “stay vigilant,” cautioning against walking alone at night, particularly in poorly lit, unpopulated areas. Police also advised citizens to turn on tracking software on their electronic devices and to cooperate in the event of armed robbery.

Doroshov added that police were encouraging UC Davis students and community members

to back up any important information, projects or documents stored on their electronic devices.

“In addition to the electronics, what people end up losing in these [incidents] is a lot of data and work products,” Doroshov said. “We’re just really urging people — for whatever reason — make sure you’re backing up your data or your work products somewhere else, in addition to your personal device. Even if it gets stolen out of your car, for a lot of people, that’s a huge loss.”

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2 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

RECENT WHITE NATIONALIST, ANTI-SEMITIC EVENTS ON CAMPUS MIMIC A NATIONAL TREND OF INCREASED RATES OF WHITE SUPERMACIST PROPAGANDA

UC DAVIS SECURES STATE FUNDING FOR FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND GUN VIOLENCE RESEARCH When white nationalist, anti-Semitic incidents happen at UC Davis, they do not occur in a vacuum U CFC / COU RTESY

When white nationalist, anti-Semitic incidents happen at UC Davis, they do not occur in a vacuum JU ST I N H A N / AG G I E

BY ALLY RU SS E LL campus@theaggie.org

BY REBE CC A BI H N-WAL L AC E campus@theaggie.org UC Davis has been repeatedly targeted by white supremacist groups during the last year.

White supremacist and anti-Semitic fliers were posted on campus in October 2018 and October 2019.

These actions reflect a concerted effort on the part of such organizations to disseminate their views following the fatal Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017. An Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report cited “a 9 percent increase” in on-campus anti-Semitic incidents between 2017 and 2018, according to Inside Higher Ed. In the U.S. overall, there was a 182% increase in the distribution of white supremacist propaganda between 2017 and 2018.

While UC Davis in particular ranks as a university with higher instances of anti-Semitism, these incidents also reflect a growing national trend of white supremacists targeting college campuses. The propaganda generally include “fliers, stickers, banners, and posters” expressing “racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamaphobic views,” according to an ADL report. Due to “public backlash” and “negative media coverage,” the report suggests white supremacists have sought to “maximize media and online attention, while limiting the risk of individual exposure.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) currently deems the “alt-right” as “white nationalism’s most recent formation,” in part instigated during the controversial election of Donald Trump as president. The alt-right is thought to be increasingly “porous,” which “allows for the inclusion of more radical elements, including a suite of Neo-Nazi organizations.” The failure of a second Unite the Right Rally and the angry reaction to Richard Spencer’s speeches on college campuses in 2017 and 2018 demonstrate the movement’s increasing desperation and inability to recoup after the events in Charlottesville.

Today’s alt-right and white nationalist move-

ment has the same roots as previous anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic and racist movements. As noted by extremism expert Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, in a phone interview, “the American hate movement is rooted in hatred of Jewish people and people of color.”

Still, UC Davis’ history of anti-Semitism emerged well before the events in Charlottesville. In 2015, swastikas were painted on the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi’s house. In 2016, university printers received anti-Semitic fliers from The Daily Stormer, and in 2017, a sermon given at the Islamic Center of Davis allegedly called for the annihiliation of the Jews.

“Identity Evropa [also known as the American Identity Movement] distributed flyers and stickers at the University of California at Davis,” according to an April 2018 ADL report mapping anti-Semitic incidents nationwide. “One flyer read ‘Action. Leadership. Identity,’ and another advertised a book called ‘White Identity’ with the message, ‘Your professor is scared of this book.’”

Locally, in May 2018, the Road to Power organization “issued anti-Semitic robocalls on behalf of neo-Nazi Patrick Little that claimed Senator Dianne Feinstein was a dual-citizen of Israel and accused Feinstein of killing American children by sending billions of dollars to Israel.

The call also said that Little was ‘going to get rid of all the nation-wrecking Jews from our country.’”

In October 2018, the Daily Stormer distributed fliers throughout campus blaming prominent Jewish public figures, including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer, for the controversy surrounding the nomination of now Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Additionally, in October 2019, the American Identity Movement again posted fliers on campus.

ANTISEMITISM on 8

The UC Firearm Violence Research Center (UCFC), the nation’s first research center of its kind, recently published three studies that take a closer look at the impact of firearm violence and potential prevention efforts. These studies are part of the first wave of state-funded firearm violence research in more than 20 years.

The center, which is housed at UC Davis, was established in 2017 to pioneer firearm research efforts, examining the impacts of gun violence despite national pushback and lack of funding.

Funding for gun violence research all but disappeared in the 1990s as a result of the Dickey Amendment, which prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using money “to advocate or promote gun control.”

Since then, Arkansas Congressman Jay Dickey, who sponsored the amendment, has recognized the need to further study gun violence and is now a vocal supporter of the UCFC. Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the UCFC and professor of emergency medicine, has dedicated the last three decades to researching firearm violence and prevention. In the face of funding blocked by Congress, Wintemute has donated more than $1.1 million of his own money toward research. With $5 million in funds recently granted by the state to study firearm violence, Wintemute reflected on what public funds mean for the future of the center and research.

“Having state funding, particularly for the long term, makes it possible for us to undertake a wide array of research and education projects that will be of real benefit to the people of California and the United States,” Wintemute said.

The first study published delved into the relationship between DUIs and domestic violence, with the intention of researching whether a link exists between alcohol abuse and intimate partner gun violence. The study found that handgun owners with former DUI convictions, even without any other criminal history, are three times more likely to be arrested for intimate partner violence than individuals with no criminal history. The study proposes further regulation of firearm ownership among individ-

LONG-RUNNING INTERCAMPUS SHUTTLE TO BE REPLACED WITH PUBLIC ELECTRIC BUS SERVICE, LEAVING MANY RIDERS FRUSTRATED

uals with histories of alcohol abuse as one way to reduce intimate partner violence.

The second study analyzed public opinion on the topic of healthcare professionals discussing firearm safety with patients at risk of gun-related injury, including suicide. At the intersection of mental health and gun violence, this research focused on the fact that firearm-related injuries are the leading cause of death among teenagers between the ages of 14 and 22. Among those surveyed, around 66% of respondents agreed that it was at least sometimes appropriate for healthcare professionals to discuss gun safety with patients at risk of gun-related injury.

Rocco Pallin, the data analyst and author of this second study, had previously worked in community health and youth development in New Orleans before doing research on firearm violence.

“In that work, I could see the disruption that violence, and often gun violence, can cause to individuals, families and entire communities,” Pallin said.

The final study researched shortcomings regarding the effectiveness of background checks.

In contrast with widespread rhetoric advanced by political leaders and lobbyists, 87% of the public supports background checks, according to a study in 2017 by the US National Library of Medicine. Among gun owners and Republicans, 85.3% and 88% respectively support checks. The study delved deeper into the ways in which established background checks are avoided, including the private sale of firearms and other failings of local and state oversight.

“Having grown up around guns, sport shooting and hunting, I see that there’s a lot of consensus on gun policies,” Pallin said. “I believe there’s room for evidence-based policies; for example, those that keep guns out of the hands of those who have demonstrated dangerous behavior, that large majorities of gun owners, who are a very diverse group, of course, would be glad to support.”

Gun violence research revolves largely around the goal of decreasing gun violence and gun-related deaths. Because of the partisan nature of gun ownership, however, many openly

GUNS on 8

SHEREEN LEE / AGGIE

Current riders feel ignored by administrators regarding objections to the changes

BY A N D RE A ESQ U E T INI campus@theaggie.org A shuttle service provided by UC Davis and relied upon by staff, faculty and students will come to an end, effective April 2020.

The shuttle will be replaced by a public electric bus service that will run as part of a partnership between Yolobus and the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT).

The new buses will have smaller capacities, less bike storage and no seatbelts.

The route for the new buses will add additional stops, likely two in Davis and two in Sacramento, increasing an already long commute. These changes have left many riders questioning the reasons for the change and left many feeling ignored due to the lack of timely communication from the team in charge.

“Our input is not being valued,” said Rachel Ray, a managing attorney at the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center and a rider of the shuttle. Part of the input Ray mentioned consists of a survey of 59 riders along with a list of recommendations, put together by riders and sent to the UC Davis administration on July 19, 2019.

“We believe that open dialogue and inclusion of our voices in the planning for the new buses will help ensure changes that truly have a positive impact on the environment and the daily lives of the students, faculty and staff who use the shuttle,” states a letter addressed to Provost Ralph Hexter and staff in charge of UC Davis transportation. The letter also informed its recipients of the existence of a listserv which, at the time, included 90 shuttle riders from several different campus departments.

The survey was conducted after Rose Cabral, executive assistant to the Assistant Executive Vice Chancellor and a shuttle rider, saw that the new electric buses had already been purchased and were being tested over the summer.

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Punishable laughing, music-playing, grass-burning October 18 “Male threw a backpack on trash can and walked off.”

“Subject knocking on doors claiming to be PG&E.” UC Davis Health Center’s shuttle delivers passengers between the UC Davis Medical Center and the Silo on September 26, 2019. Photo by Quinn Spooner / Aggie.

After the letter was sent out, Kelly Ratliff, vice chancellor for Finance, Operations and Administration of UC Davis, and Brad Simmons, interim chief executive officer of the UC Davis Medical Center, responded, saying, “ongoing efforts to expand and improve the intercampus shuttle will definitely benefit from additional input from existing shuttle riders.”

Their response also said riders could expect to hear from a team leading the outreach effort in early August 2019, but this communication did not occur until early September. At that time, Matt Dulcich, director of environmental planning and local government relations manager for UC Davis, informed riders of upcoming round table meetings where riders would have the opportunity to provide feedback on “ideas for future service options.”

These round table meetings were not publicized to the listserv until a rider who

did receive information about the meetings forwarded it out and several riders then posted information about the meetings at shuttle stops. This led to confusion about the lack of widespread communication.

Four meetings were held between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4 on the Davis and Sacramento campuses. At the Oct. 4 meeting in the Davis Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) office, multiple riders said that they had purchased their home specifically with the availability of the shuttle in mind. People also expressed their concerns about no longer being able to do work on the bus.

Ray, in a later interview with The California Aggie, said that her ability to work on the bus allows her to “be a more productive employee.”

The main problems that riders expressed during this meeting concerned decreased

BUS CONTROVERSEY on 11

October 19 “Vehicle horn honking for past 20 minutes.”

October 20 “Reporting party was turning from Rite Aid — a subject jumped on the truck and fell off.”

October 21 “Three male subjects heard in the bushes and playing music.”

October 22 “Sounds like kids in background — no signs of distress.”

“Strong smell of smoke in the area — smells like grass burning.”

October 23 “Females laughing.”

“Footsteps in backyard and then subjects rang doorbell.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 | 3

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Only 4% of faculty identify as Hispanic or Latinx at UC Davis as of 2016 — though university is still working toward becoming Hispanic Serving Institute Faculty, students comment on the consequences of underrepresentation

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BY MIKI WAYNE features@theaggie.org For the past decade, UC Davis has been working toward achieving a status as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). The designation requires that the university maintain a student body comprised of at least 25% Hispanic students, among other criteria. Of the nine UC undergraduate schools, six are currently HSIs, and Davis is projected to achieve this status by the end of 2019.

The HSI task force has submitted yearly applications since 2008 and has established resource centers for Latinx and Chicanx students under the following vision: “Through the HSI initiative, we envision UC Davis as a culturally responsive learning community that fulfills the mission of a Research 1 and land grant university, closing the equity gap in higher education.”

The number of Chicanx and Latinx undergraduates has more than doubled, seeing an increase from 3,063 to 6,715 as of Sept. 2019, according to the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

The Center for Chicanx and Latinx Academic Student Success, or “El Centro,” located in the

MU, was established in 2017 to provide a variety of resources and services to Latinx and Chicanx students. Cirilo Cortez, director of El Centro, said being designated as an HSI is an important step in increasing Latinx and Chicanx visibility and representation.

“This designation is really a seal of prestige and a commitment to diversity,” Cortez said.

“Essentially, it translates into federal grants which we can use to build infrastructure [and] put toward diversity training. We are excited about the future.”

Faculty demographics, however, do not reflect the same strides in diversity seen in student body demographics. Compared to a 23% Hispanic or Latinx American student population, only 4% of faculty identifies as Hispanic or Latinx as of 2016, according to the UC Davis HSI Task Force Report.

UC Davis does have efforts focused on diversifying faculty. For example, ADVANCE is a program aimed to “increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.”

Students and faculty, however, have noticed

the underrepresentation of minority groups in UC Davis’ STEM departments — Santiago Ramirez, an associate professor in the department of evolution and ecology, said he has noticed a major lack of Latinx and Chicanx professors in his department.

“We have a total of 29 faculty in our department, and I am the only Hispanic professor,” Ramirez said via email, adding the lack of representation could have a major impact on a student’s ability to find academic role models within their fields.

“Over the years, I have had conversations with some students [who] identify as Latinx [and] they often seem surprised [and] amazed that there is a Latin professor teaching a class,” Ramirez said. “It makes me feel very happy, but also sad that many students have gone through their degree without ever taking a class from a Latinx professor.”

NPR published a study in 2017 correlating students’ success with whether or not their teacher was the same race as the student. The study found that when students had teachers who looked similar to them, they became more interested in their schoolwork and felt more appreciated.

Fourth-year cinema and digital media major Raul Morales Jr. was not made aware of the Latinx and Chicanx resources available on campus until the end of his third year. Coming from a high school with a primarily Latinx population, he said it was a culture shock to arrive at a university with no awareness of these resources.

“Having a consistent group of Latinx people around me in college hasn’t occurred unless I searched for it,” Morales said. “I didn’t find El Centro until the end of my third year and a lot of people there were speaking Spanish or teaching English and looked like me and my family.”

Morales said he felt isolated for the first two years of his college career and, after having a Latinx professor for the first time in his third year, he said he felt that it was in part because he felt underrepresented at UC Davis.

“I found out the Art Department was going

to have a Latin American art history class for the first time and I knew I needed to be a part of it to help cement it into the curriculum,” Morales said. “Hearing my professor talk about how he returned to Latin America to find role models in his field made me realize that I wanted more professors [who] represent my culture.”

Despite the disparity between students and faculty representation, Cortez said UC Davis is moving in the right direction when it comes to enhancing staff diversity.

“There are programs on campus like the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion that are committed to bringing in more diverse faculty,” Cortez said. “The foundation is there, we just need to create these pathways, starting with undergraduates.”

Like Cortez, Ramirez is also hopeful that Latinx representation within his field of evolutionary biology will only continue to grow in the coming years.

“I think UC Davis is really moving in the right direction in terms of increasing representation across campus,” Ramirez said via email.

“Unfortunately, the biological sciences appear to be lagging behind. We are trying to change this here at UCD, but it takes a long time. I am connected with the Latin American community in my field, and I see many talented young scientists.”

Morales feels strongly that the lack of Latinx and Chicanx professors at UC Davis has inspired him and his Latinx and Chicanx peers to become role models for future generations.

“I eventually want to become a professor in my field because I know what it meant to have professors [who] look like me,” Morales said. “It has been nice to find other people in my community [with] that mindset who want to effect change in their fields. These big changes start in institutions like this. If there are Latinx people reading this, I’m here, you’re here, we’re all here and we are only growing. Whenever you are feeling alone, there is community if you seek it out, help represent it and inspire change.”

The cultural evolution of the Birkenstock How a 200-year-old shoe became a modern icon

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BY ILYA SHRAYBER arts@theaggie.org Take a stroll through any major metropolitan area and you’ll see them. Walk across campus and you’ll notice them, often in hordes. Even a venture out to the countryside would yield a sighting of two. Usually in shades of brown or black, with two or three straps and invariable simplicity, the prominence of the Birkenstock cannot be ignored. The world of fashion is an ephemeral one, where trends blaze like wildfire and one’s eye must always be trained on the next big thing.

Against all odds, Birkenstock has persisted — even flourished — in an industry that quite literally phases out its inventory twice a year. But how did a shoe that was most famously associated with health food stores suddenly burst onto the cultural forefront?

In 1774, Johann Birkenstock registered as a shoemaker in a small village in Hesse, Germany.

He was quite skilled, and the family trade was established shortly after. Over 100 years later in 1896, Johann Birkenstock’s great-great grandson, would go on to found the company that is now synonymous with the shoe itself. The contoured insole was invented by Konrad Birkenstock and became an instant hit with soldiers for its exemplary orthopedic support. The company’s shoes were first introduced to the United States in 1966, where they quickly spread across the West Coast and then the rest of the nation.

The Birkenstock couldn’t have come to America at a better time: it nudged itself neatly in the Summer of Love and the ensuing hippie movements. It was at this time that Birkenstock gained its reputation as the official footwear of peace, love and everything organic. In fact, Birkenstocks were only sold at health food stores until 1986, when Nordstrom gained distribution rights.

For 20 years, the only spot to pick up a pair was in the same place you got vitamins and Omega-3 oils. The atmosphere that surrounded Birkenstocks for so long — one of a do-good liberal who was probably a vegetarian — was not completely unfounded.

Nicole Smith, a recent UC Davis sociology graduate, calls them “vegan Jesus sandals.”

So when did the jump to the fashion world occur?

Perhaps what put Birkenstock back into the nouvelle vogue was its inherent rejection of it to begin with. Visually, the shoes have been largely unchanged for decades, embracing simplicity over all else. There have been introductions of new models, of course, but the beauty of Birken-

stock shoes is their resistance to change, or, as the fashion world likes to call them, trends.

Their current CEO, Oliver Reichert, when pressed for comment in 2017 at one of their shows in Paris, said “Birkenstock does not want to be a part of the fashion industry,” adding that they “just wanted to host a nice party,” when pressed as to why they put on a presentation in the first place. This does not, however, mean that they aren’t open to new ideas.

While embracing the simplicity of their shoes, Birkenstock has collaborated with many brands to nudge their footwear into unexpected corners of the fashion world. The collaboration that was one of the farthest from their stereotypical consumer was one with Rick Owens, a contemporary designer known for his dark, long drapey pieces that invoke a goth-in-apocalypse aesthetic.

Owens’ clothes are popular for obscuring gender, their overly luxurious material and the fact that, when worn correctly, one looks like a mystic of the Medieval times. He brought the same energy to Birkenstock, infusing the Arizona, their classic two-strap sandals, with horsehair, velour and, of course, his signature black hue.

The result is an artist’s twist on a long-established classic. The concept of using the Birkenstock’s silhouettes as a canvas is a powerful one.

Owens’ fingerprints are all over the aforementioned shoe, but in the end, it’s still an Arizona sandal. Birkenstock’s collaboration with Opening Ceremony, another high-fashion powerhouse, evokes the same feeling. Instead of dark grunge, Opening Ceremony embraces camp and maximalism, brightly sequinning Birkenstock’s Boston silhouette — a strapped, well-fitting clog.

The partnership that may have attracted the most attention was one planned with Supreme, the crown jewel of streetwear. Instead of playing ball, Birkenstock pulled out, citing a disrespect for their shoes.

Klaus Baumann, Birkenstock’s chief of sales chimed in, “It was never about function for them, just logos.”

A staunch line has been drawn in the sand when it comes to the morals of Birkenstock, something that can’t be said for much of the fashion industry.

For many, what’s most important and what most strongly attracts them to the brand is the actual fit of the shoes themselves. Because of the nature of the sole, Birkenstocks conform to your feet over time, becoming almost like an extension of your body after enough wear.

The full version of this article appears online.

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4 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

UC DAVIS STUDENTS SHARE THEIR BEST PRACTICES ON APPRECIATION

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Halloween outfits rooted in cultural respect, not appropriation

BY SNEHA RAMACHANDRAN features@theaggie.org Oct. 31 marks an annual celebration, one where countries around the world celebrate Halloween by dressing in elaborate costumes and expressing their creativity. The celebration originates from an ancient Celtic festival where participants wear costumes to ward off ghosts and evil spirits.

Robert Dellinger, a third-year marine science and international relations major, explained why Halloween is one of his favorite celebrations of the year and discussed how he picks out his costumes.

“I love that there is so much open space to do whatever you want for Halloween,” Dellinger said. “I normally pick my costumes off of funny things, or memes, that have happened throughout the year.”

In recent years, there have been several controversies over certain costumes considered to be culturally insensitive — especially costumes with blackface as well as costumes appropriating Native American dress and cultural customs.

USA Today has published a comprehensive list detailing Halloween costumes perceived as inappropriate.

According to Dellinger, people should be culturally aware when choosing their costumes.

“If you think it’s cultural appropriation it probably is, so don’t do it,” Dellinger said. “We all hear stories about the blackface on college campuses and it’s upsetting because people who live with those skin tones have to deal with that every day of the year, specifically regarding racism and police brutality. So when people dress up in blackface, they make a joke out of those issues.”

Chaz Cruz, the director of the Cross Cultural Center (CCC), said offensive Halloween

costumes may start as a small incident, but once they gain recognition and attention, their negative message spreads.

“Many costumes are connected to stereotypical views of a community, thus, become a part of a greater collective joke, whereas the community in which is being stereotyped/appropriated suffer grave consequences,” Cruz said. “For example, non-Black people who decide to dress up as a black person by painting their skin brown and wearing ‘afro’ wigs or other hair pieces that are connected to blackness. Blackface carries a long history of dehumanization of black people.

When a non-black person dresses up in blackface, the person doesn’t honor the real discriminatory experiences of black people, for example, while someone may wear an Afro wig, it is still legal in most states to discriminate against black people for wearing their natural hair.”

Cruz said the CCC advises those celebrating Halloween to practice cultural awareness and avoid cultural appropriation.

“Halloween can be a magical dress up celebration,” Cruz said. “It’s one of the few times people can play with fantasy and characters in a dominant setting. One way to stay away from appropriating is making sure not to dress up as something that is tied to someone’s culture, especially marginalized cultures. If you decide to dress up as a real person who is outside of your culture/ community, research ways to do it without being offensive; one trick in advance do NOT paint your skin darker to be a Brown person.”

ASUCD Vice President Shreya Deshpande discussed different elements surrounding both cultural awareness and cultural appropriation.

“Cultural awareness is first and foremost — recognizing that there are a plethora of communities, traditions, identities and forms of expression that people come from and engage in based on their diverse backgrounds,” Deshpande said.

PHI BETA SIGMA HOSTS FRESH HAIR FRIDAYS

Creating a space for community, business

LIZ JACOB SEN / AGGIE

Student and barber Nouh Tekle cuts a student’s hair. (Photo by Liz Jacobson / Aggie)

UC DAVIS CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL ONLY ‘LEVEL ONE RATED’ CHILDREN’S SURGERY CENTER IN STATE

UC Davis Children’s Hospital achieves reverification after meeting necessary qualifications

UC DAVIS R EGEN TS / COU RTESY

“It is being cognizant of the significance that a certain cultural tradition may carry, and respecting that even if you are unaware of exactly what it is. Cultural appropriation refers to co-opting one’s traditional or culturally significant practice for a purpose that is separate from the purpose it is utilized amongst a certain community.”

Deshpande listed examples and consequences of cultural appropriation.

“The classic example is wearing a bindi or Indigenous headdresses as adornments to a ‘costume’ simply because it is aesthetically pleasing,” Deshpande said. “These articles of clothing carry certain cultural significance, either religious or spiritual beliefs, or are to be worn under certain circumstances. Taking it out of context and co-opting it for a costume is a form of ignorance for not only the cultures of these people, but of the histories within which these items and practices hold their significance.”

Deshpande has seen non-African American individuals with cornrows in their hair and non-Indian/Southest Asian individuals wear bindis — “it’s always a little shocking.”

“There is no one thing that can make a costume offensive,” Deshpande said. “It is important for folks to educate themselves, understand

BY LIZ JACOBSON arts@theaggie.org Phi Beta Sigma, one of the historically African American Greek-letter fraternities on campus, hosts Fresh Hair Friday every week, where students can make appointments with student barbers as well as enjoy each other’s company.

Created in 2016, the Fresh Hair Program fills a gap felt by the Black community at UC Davis. Many new students are tasked with finding barber shops or salons to do their hair once they move away from home to campus — this can be more difficult for students with textured hair.

“The program started because the issue was, at the beginning of the year, people ask, ‘Where’s the barbershop? Who’s a good barber?’” said Abdal Elmahdi, a fourth-year psychology major and a Phi Beta Sigma member. “And you wouldn’t be able to find anything besides Motown [Barbershop]. Plus, the reality of the situation is that not everyone knows how to cut Black curly hair.”

Phi Beta Sigma brothers initiated the program to recreate the barbershop experience they were used to before moving to Davis.

Yusuph Lawal, a fourth-year political science major and Phi Beta Sigma member, was nervous at first about having someone the same age as him cut his hair.

“When I came to Davis, I didn’t want to cut my hair,” Lawal said. “At first, I was like, ‘No, I don’t know,’” Lawal said. “I’m used to professionals cutting my hair. But then I was like, ‘Wow.’ [The student barber] really spent so much time cutting my hair and knew the contours of my hair.”

Barbers are either students or local residents, all of whom have different specialties. Each barber has their own customers who make their appointments with the barber themselves. Haircuts are not free — the goal of the program is to connect the barber to the student and provide the

BY MARGO ROSENBAUM science@theaggie.org The UC Davis Children’s Hospital, located in Sacramento, has been recertified for the next three years as a level one children’s surgery center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). The ACS children’s surgery verification program rates children’s hospitals and gives certifications on a scale of three, with a level one distinction being the highest. UC Davis received this verification, which lasts until Sept. 1, 2022, after the hospital met essential criteria for staffing, training, facility infrastructure and protocols for care, according to a press release from UC Davis Health Public Affairs.

ACS is a science and education association which strives to improve the quality of care for surgery patients by setting high standards for surgical practice and education. Through their verifications, ACS aims to improve children’s surgical care, according to a press release.

“Children are not just small sized adults; their biology and anatomy and diseases are different than in adults and to get the best care for kids one needs people who are specially trained and who focus exclusively in children,” said Diana Lee Farmer, a distinguished professor in the department of surgery at the UC Davis School of Medicine, via email.

The criteria needed to receive the distinction of a level one rating includes having specially trained children’s surgeons in every discipline that can help children of all ages, providing readily available pediatric anesthesiologists and dedicating 24/7 operating rooms to children.

These centers must also participate in a national data registry that creates reports on the center’s quality of services, train future leaders in health research and education and lead the way in outreach and community service, according to the press release.

the diversity of cultures around them, and if they have doubts, better to stay on the safe side and not wear the costume at all.”

Deshpande cited the DSU ‘Is your Halloween costume racist?’ as a good foundation to determine whether or not a costume is inappropriate.

She further detailed examples of popular inappropriate costumes she has noticed.

“If it looks wrong, don’t buy it,” Deshpande said. “Don’t wear a headdress and moccasins to dress up like an ‘Indian.’ Don’t be ‘Pocahontas,’ don’t be an ‘Arabian Princess,’ don’t be a ‘gaucho.’

If you are wondering if you are appropriating, err on the side of caution, and take the time to educate yourself. It is easy to be ignorant, but it is not an excuse.”

Advice was offered to those participating in Halloween festivities this week.

“Take the time this year to educate yourself,” Deshpande said. “In a politically [and] racially charged climate, it is important for us to respect one another. This means respecting cultural practices, taking the time to have a conversation with someone about their culture. There are tons of costume ideas out there that are not disrespectful, original and creative.”

space for the haircut. “[We] give [student barbers] a taste of what is a business,” Elmahdi said. “Like, ‘How do I run this? How do I run my own business? How do I do this is a manner that’s professional and stay consistent?’”

Nouh Tekle, a transfer student and sociology major, is one of the student barbers. Tekle is originally from Alameda, Calif.

“I’ve been cutting my own hair since I was 14 and I started cutting other people’s hair when I came to Davis,” Tekle said.

Tekle appreciates the Fresh Hair Friday program because it allows him to balance his studies and his business as he’s able to manage how he schedules appointments.

To some, Fresh Hair Friday represents more than just a place to get a haircut.

“I kind of took it for granted [back home], so I realized this is really impactful and and a community-oriented space,” Elmahdi said. “There was one time a song came on, [and some of the barbers] turned off their clippers and they ran to the other side of the house just to start dancing.”

In the future, the Fresh Hair Fridays coordinators hope to expand. In the past, they had women who would braid hair and they hope to recruit more barbers and stylists. Lawal and Elmahdi also spoke about their hopes to move the location closer to campus to improve accessibility. Lawal also offers bike repairs, an additional service that reflects the entrepreneurial aspect of the program beyond just hairstyling.

“I think [Fresh Hair Friday] gets people invested,” Elmahdi said. “This ties [students] to different people, different organizations and networks. [It makes it so] they have their own spot, their own place to come.”

Fresh Hair Friday occurs every Friday until 6 p.m. at 1201 Duke Drive. More information can be found on their Instagram (@officialfreshhairfriday). The program welcomes all students.

“Verification as a ‘Level One Childrens Surgical center’ allows the public to know that if they bring their child to UC Davis, they will receive the highest level of surgical care for children available,” Farmer said. “It means they will get the same level of support that they would get at any of the major freestanding children’s hospitals.”

The verification process also helps the children’s hospital stay up to date and have the highest level of equipment and resources available for all children, Farmer said.

“Children’s surgery is unique and requires a focused quality and safety construct that optimizes patient care and this verification solidifies our program and the excellent care we provide to kids,” said Karen Lynn Semkiw, the children’s surgery program manager at the UC Davis Children’s Hospital, via email.

The UC Davis Children’s Hospital was the first hospital on the West Coat to receive a level one distinction when it first received the rating in 2016, according to the press release. At this time, a team from ACS comprised of children’s surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses reviewed the hospital’s structure, processes and data from patient experiences.

“Hospitals are assessed during a site visit if they are compliant with the standards,” said Catherine Grant, ACS’s children’s surgery program manager, via email. “Standards benefit patients, consumers, and the general public. Standards ensure the hospital has the right resources to care for a child undergoing surgery [and] ensure that the right people are at the bedside caring for the patient. With standardization of care there is potential to improve surgical outcomes.”

The ACS program has been endorsed by multiple special societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Pediatric R ATI NG on 11

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TO R I AL B OAR D KAELYN TUERMER-LEE Editor-in-Chief HANNAH HOLZER Managing Editor 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 Editorial Board meets with Chancellor Gary May

May discusses positions on commencement, new band, employment, among other issues The California Aggie Editorial Board sat down with Chancellor Gary May on Monday to talk about issues concerning UC Davis students and faculty. Below is a transcript of the meeting that has been edited for length and clarity. The full transcript will appear online.

The California Aggie: With respect to your recent Letter to the Editor in response to our editorial about commencement, why did you choose to release this information through The California Aggie instead of through a university platform?

Gary May: We announced it quite a bit — we had an article on Dateline in the spring that explained all the changes and the reasons for the changes, [but] I guess students don’t read Dateline. As I said in the letter, we’ve had students involved in all phases of the process, from planning to selecting speakers, and those students are my student advisors to the chancellor, the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Advisory Board and ASUCD leadership.

I guess we should maybe own that we didn’t have a broader announcement to students so they would know your name is going to be read. We kind of hoped that the associate deans that are in charge of the undergraduate programs would help us with that, but that didn’t go as well as it might have.

TCA: How is the university making

sure that people who had been in positions of authority in the marching band, or who had uplifted old traditions that survivors have called harmful, do not re-establish these traditions either officially or unofficially? How is the university making sure that the UCDMB has fresh leadership?

GM: We’re doing the best we can — I don’t know that we’ll be able to eliminate it immediately, but over time I think that we’re going to try to minimize or move away from the sort of traditions that have been problematic. There’s a book that they use, the hymnal, we’re trying to get rid of.

But some of these things are hard to police because you can’t keep somebody from keeping a copy themselves and giving it to other people. But we think by having leadership and regular events and activities for the band members — and trying to inculcate a culture of respect — that we’ll be able to minimize or eliminate those bad behaviors over time. And I think if we can get to a better culture and baseline, we may get to the point where we can revisit or reconsider an alumni band. But I think for now, the best thing to do is to make a clean break and try to reset the organization.

TCA: With the number of delays toward the implementation of UCPath at UC Davis, why are there seemingly so many issues with UCPath on campus already?

GM: UCPath, as you know, is a large, system-wide initiative, and the way they implemented it was sort of one or two campuses at a time. October was Davis’ turn and, in theory, each iteration more problems were being worked out. But in a big, complex human resources piece of software, there’s going to be unanticipated problems. I think that the October 1 switchover was pretty smooth. And this most recent bi-weekly period, there was some issue with timesheets being recorded properly and being recorded into the system, which I think is being addressed now.

A lot of the problems — not all — but a lot of the problems have been us not knowing about the issue and all of our employees actually doing what they’re supposed to do in terms of setting up their electronic pay, having all their records correct in the system, having an address and all those sorts of things. I think a lot of people don’t realize that even in the old system, every month, roughly 3-4% of the checks were wrong. So we’ve never been at 100% — nobody has.

It’s not unanticipated that there will be some glitches and some problems that make a major transition to a new system, but we have people that are working very hard to make sure that those issues are getting addressed and fixed as soon as possible, and hopefully we’ll have a smooth November 1.

Winning by losing: tanking has entered the NFL IN ORDER TO WIN IN TODAY’S NFL YOU MUST LOSE FIRST

BY C A LV I N CO F F E E cscoffee@ucdavis.edu

The Miami Dolphins have not won a playoff game in almost 19 years.

They’ve lost each of their first seven games by an average margin of 24.7 points.

Their roster is $26.2 million less expensive than the next lowest spending team.

They are in full-on tank mode and the league will not admit it. It’s a win-now league, but not all teams can win right now. Some teams have to go through years of losing first. This is moneyball in the NFL. Tanking is a phenomenon by which teams can supposedly gain a long-term competitive advantage by intentionally losing as much as possible for a limited amount of time. Losing so much and selling all viable players for picks means teams can accumulate as much draft capital as possible. Tanking is not so much intentionally throwing individual games as it is setting up the infrastructure to lose as many games as possible.

Tanking is committing fully to a rebuild and then some.

Tanking has proven effective in the MLB with both the Cubs and Astros committing to the tank for years, and now both have won championships as a result. In the NBA, the Sixers were the poster child for tanking, urging fans to “trust the process” as the team accumulated seven first-round picks in four years. They are now a top-five favorite to win the NBA title this year because of it.

The closest the NFL has ever been to tanking is the decades-long abysmal performance by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns went 1-31 in two consecutive seasons from 2015 to 2017 before finally turning it around — their last stint of losing before drafting Myles Garrett and Baker Mayfield. Those two starting pieces on either side of the ball allowed the Browns to trade for players like Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon and move into position to win the AFC North.

The Dolphins check all the boxes for what it means to be a tanking team.

They are currently winless on the season. They have traded away their two most valuable assets –– Laremy Tunsil and Minkah Fitzpatrick –– to collect draft

capital. And they have stripped their roster down to cheap, short-term players full on rookie contracts and fun veterans.

It’s textbook and it’s beautiful to see.

What is the point of aiming to win but being a mediocre team for decades when you can just actively lose for two to three seasons and accumulate young, cheap talent through the draft, setting your team up with a multi-year championship window? The Dolphins owner Stephen Ross seems to agree with this tactic.

If you’re the Dolphins and you’ve had two decades of the New England Patriots consistently dominating your division, why would you not tank and play the long game to outlast Belichick and Brady?

The Dolphins tanking is good for the NFL. The same teams have been dominating the league for decades. Seeing the Patriots in the Super Bowl year after year is impressive, but excruciatingly repetitive and boring.

The Dolphins and the Browns leading the league would do wonders for the Miami and Cleveland markets as well as diversify the NFL as a whole. Tanking gives fans more reasons to root for teams and be invested in the long run. It also gives young players time to gain experience that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

The concept of winning is deeply ingrained in what we do. But winning is overrated. Winning is treated as though it is everything, but it really isn’t.

Is anything in life really as black and white as winning or losing? On a day-to-day basis, life is all about grey areas and hopefully setting up long-term success.

The league is becoming increasingly divided as the winners keep winning and the losers keep losing. Part of that is because those teams are not good at evaluating talent and managing their roster and the other part is that good teams have used high draft picks on valuable franchise corner pieces, like quarterbacks, to stay relevant for so long. The only way to change that with the rules that currently apply is to tank.

6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

HOW GREEN ARE CALIFORNIA AND CANADA, REALLY? Self-proclaimed environmental champions have a ways to go

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

Within the span of a few days last summer, I made the trip from Davis to the Bay area three times — twice by car, once by train. Each time I had a different view of the several massive oil refineries scattered throughout Richmond, Martinez and Benicia.

Oil refineries are visually stunning, with chaotic layers of pipes, stacks spewing pollutants into the air and dozens upon dozens of chemical storage tanks. The several oil refineries in my home state of Washington are a little more off the beaten path, so I found myself mesmerized watching these oily fin-

KI YO M I WATS O N / AGGI E

gerprints of the fossil fuel industry go past my window. It was a stark reminder that despite positive rhetoric and an outward appearance of being “greener” than most other states, California still has a spectacular distance to go in the fight against climate change.

Many others received this important reminder a few weeks ago when several chemical storage tanks at an oil refinery in Crockett were destroyed by a fire, sending flames and plumes of smoke into the air and flooding our news feeds with videos and images of the accident.

As an environmentalist, it’s difficult for me to reconcile the idea of California being a global leader on environmental policy while also remaining strongly tied to the fossil fuel industry.

The full version of this article appears online.

HUMOR

SWEET TURTLE TEARS

BY MARIO RO DRIG U EZ marrod@ucdavis.edu

KATHER IN E FR A N KS / AGGIE

STUDENT ASKS PROFESSOR TO ROUND GRADE FROM 67% TO 90%; IT DOESN’T WORK

If you had one shot, would you capture it or just let it slip?

BY JU L I E T TA BI S H ARYAN jsbisharyan@ucdavis.edu

Close your eyes and imagine this: You receive the startling notification that your final has been graded and posted on Canvas.

As expected, you hardly managed to scrape by with 71%, curved. Your A- that was hanging on by a thread has now dropped to a devastating B+. Your GPA is quaking.

Life sucks. You audaciously email your professor and hit him with that, “Round it, pwease?” email that he knows all too well.

He miraculously complies. You now have a 90% again. Life is good.

Now open your eyes. You’re actually failing and no curve or percentage bump is going to save you. And if that wasn’t bad enough, your study buddy wants to see other people. But that’s beside the point.

In short, it’s nice to dream every once in a while, isn’t it?

Last week, fifth-year Rob Cabot decided he wasn’t going to throw away his shot. Unflinchingly, he asked his professor to bump his 67% to a 90% — a bold move indeed.

Earlier this month, Cabot had plans to graduate at the end of Fall Quarter. The only thing stopping him was his lower-division communications class, which unexpectedly presented a challenge. His advisor suggested

that he enroll for Winter Quarter, perhaps even Spring Quarter as well, but Cabot was determined to graduate.

When questioned as to why a 90% instead of a more reasonable 70% round up, Cabot said that it just wasn’t enough.

“Go big or go home, right? Plus John will see that I’m a dreamer and knowing him, he just might respect that.”

Shockingly, John Obie, Cabot’s communications professor, declined the request and even lowered his grade after factoring in a couple of missed assignments.

“First of all, I’d like to clarify that I go

by Professor Obie. John is reserved for close friends and family. Second of all, no.”

When asked to elaborate on his answer, Obie threw his hands in the air and furiously responded, “What do you think?”

Due to Professor Obie’s noncompliance, Cabot will, unfortunately, need to retake the class next quarter in order to graduate in the winter.

“I guess I just thought John was different, you know?” Obie said, shaking his head.

He mumbled something to himself before standing up and leaving. As he walked off we couldn’t help but admire his valor. We wish him luck in his future endeavors.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

FROM WINE TO KOMBUCHA: EXPLORING DAVIS’ ZEALOUS HOMEBREW COMMUNITY Some students take their talents, passions for brewing beyond the classroom CO U RT E SY

BY H ANNAH H O LZER arts@theaggie.org

Television: “Maniac” This ten-part Netflix show co-starring the fantastic leading team of Emma Stone and Jonah Hill was written off by TV critics, but I was absolutely enamored with it and still am almost a year after it debuted. It’s full of kitschy, quirky, candy-colored goodness and so, so visually appealing. Ever-changing mini-stories run amuk as the main story arc plays out: Hill, a loner cast off by his family, and Stone, a junkie trying to forget past mistakes, enter a doomed drug trial governed by a computer with feelings — and Sally Field — and become intertwined in each other’s dreamworlds.

Movie: “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” A team of current UC Davis students and alumnus Eddy Kronfli (left), Keaton Crow (middle), and Joe Terre (right) are home winemakers that recently submitted Syrah wines to the California State Fair for judging in which were awarded a gold and double gold rating. (Courtesy Photo)

BY ANDREW WILLIAMS arts@theaggie.org Northern California has matured into one of the best places in the world for upcoming and established winemakers and brewers.

From the Napa Valley vineyards to the many specialized breweries scattered across Northern California, the beverage industry and experience has become an inseparable part of the “NorCal” identity. At UC Davis, students actively partake and expand this culture, maintaining and advancing Northern California’s long-standing reputation as a go-to place for tasting some of the world’s best beverages.

The UC Davis Viticulture and Enology and UC Davis Food Science programs have consistently ranked as some of the best in the world.

Wine and beer aficionados flock from all over to experience Davis’ brewing programs and earn one of the most respected degrees in the industry. As these wine and beer enthusiasts become entrenched in the community, many take their talents from the classroom to the garage, implementing their skills and harnessing their passion to vinify and brew original concoctions.

Joe Terre, a 2019 UC Davis alumni who has a Bachelor of Science in viticulture and enology and now works as a cellar hand for Sterling Vineyards in Calistoga, embraced the home wine-making community during his second year at Davis through the Davis Enology and Viticulture Organization (DEVO). He plunged in, aspiring to learn the practical ropes of wine making and earn the gratification of making his own product. “[I] joined DEVO and they provided me with the necessary equipment to get started with this cool hobby,” Terre said. “I started with Keaton Crow who introduced me to DEVO and did it a year prior. I went under his wing for the first year, second year we tag teamed it and then the third year I took the reigns.”

Terre, alongside Crow, hauled a couple barrels into Terre’s garage in Davis and got to work. While trudging through the physical labor required by the home wine-making process, Terre gained valuable insight that wasn’t readily accessible in the classroom.

“There’s a learning curve with anything that involves skilled work with your hands, it just takes practice,” Terre said. “You can be the best person at taking a test in viticulture and enology and suck at making homemade wine.”

Terre discussed the skills he picked up while getting his hands dirty, singling out his improvement in racking — the process of removing all the juice from the solids or, in less appealing terms, the dead yeast cells.

“The first time I learned how to rack wine, I did not do a very good job,” Terre said. “First I got a bunch of crud, and then I got better and better.”

Sticking with the grind in the vineyard and the garage, Terre gradually learned the intangibles demanded by winemaking. Through routine, he became familiar with the consistency and discipline needed to create a high caliber bottle of wine regardless of environmental constraints.

“The biggest thing [to consider] is how much time and commitment it takes to make a quality product,” Terre said. “It takes all year and to be diligent. [You have to] always be checking up on it and can never put it on the back burner.”

For Terre and his team of home winemakers, their commitment paid off when they submitted two Syrah wines to the California State Fair.

“To our surprise they gave one Syrah a double gold and another Syrah gold,” Terre said.

“We were really proud as home winemakers to go up against others who were doing this for years on end and probably in better conditions than us.”

Local 11-member band brings elements of numerous genres to jam sessions BOMB A FR IED R ICE / COU RTESY

Local Davis band Bomba Fried Rice has been serendipitous since its creation. What began as a group of friends simply jamming for the sake of jamming became Bomba Fried Rice in 2013 when they were asked to play at the Davis Music Festival.

“Another band couldn’t play, so [the festival] asked us last minute if we would,” said Juan Miranda, who does the vocals and small percussion for the band. “We had to give them a name for our group, so we started throwing around names and joking around. Bomba Fried Rice was the funniest one.”

After pressing members for a concrete reason

Novel: “Trick Mirror” by Jia Tolentino I love Jia Tolentino so much that I weathered a literal flash flood in my attempt to get to her book talk. Granted, I didn’t actually make it to the book talk (I was soaked and afraid I was going to die in said flash flood) and, granted, I haven’t actually finished the book yet, but from the half of it I’ve read so far — and from the numerous articles I’ve read of Tolentino’s — I couldn’t recommend it more. Tolentino has her fingers on the pulse of current culture in a way few others do, but her true talent is describing modern phenomenons and obsessions like Shen Yun, IUDs, vaping, incels, high-profile sexual assault cases and the internet in almost frustratingly accurate and acute terms. She is the Joan Didion of the tech ara: formulating insight into topics the rest of us fail to effectively put into words.

Tolentino’s book, like her articles, is a cultural conversation with a mass audience in a hyperspecific, individualized manner, helping her readers process and understand nuanced topics for themselves.

Album: “Ritual in Repeat (Deluxe)” by Tennis I have listened to Tennis’ phenomenal, albeit limited, discography so many times that I almost cried when they released a new album last year. Even though it was a stripped down version of seven already-released songs, it was beautifully done. Tennis’ 2014 album, “Ritual in Repeat (Deluxe)” is the closest I’ve come to discovering perfection in an album. The band, a husband-and-wife duo (a combination I would usually find eye-rollingly cloying), has produced music so distinct that to compare them to anyone else seems a disservice.

I would inject the sentimentality and nostalgia in Tennis’ music and Alaina Moore’s sultry-sweet voice into my veins if I could. My most cherished song off the deluxe version of the album, “Mean Streets,” is hands-down my favorite song of the last five or more years — “Didn’t you know they would love you, baby/Even more now that you’re gone?” Others I’ve listened to countless times are “100 Lovers” (“And I will laugh until I’m tired/I will battle with a strange desire”), “Night Vision” (“Straining your night vision/For a chance to pierce the heavens/In the darkened light”) and “Needle and a Knife” (“She believes/That sacred things don’t need explainin’”).

H O ME B RE W ING on _

COUCH CONCERT: BOMBA FRIED RICE

BY CAROLINE RUTTEN arts@theaggie.org

Look, I’m as much of a Wes Anderson/Paul Thomas Anderson/Kubrick-Nolan-Hitchcock die-hard fan as the rest of you film nerds, but this piece of comedic genius, written

by Jason Segel, is one of my long-standing favorite movies. As if my immense adoration of this movie weren’t enough, my favorite film critic, David Ehrlich (a person I have never met but for whom I would die), frequently tweets about his love of the film, reaffirming that I, too, have good taste in movies. Segel’s character, a loveable chump who gets dumped by his celebrity girlfriend (Kristen Bell), decides to vacation in Hawaii to forget about her, only to wind up at the same resort she’s at with her new popstar boyfriend (Russell Brand). Plus Mila Kunis, Jonah Hill and the ever-charming Bill Hader are thrown in the mix. This movie has a dracula musical performed only with puppets — what more could you possibly want?

behind the iconic band name, a myriad of meanings and messages emerged.

“Bomba means many things,” Miranda said.

“Bomba rice is the specific rice for paella. It also means bomb. It is also a genre of music from Puerto Rico. We’re a mix of many genres. Sometimes we will have more than one genre in a song.

Maybe ‘bomba’ is the collision of a lot of different types of music.”

Indeed, Bomba Fried Rice has taken different styles and forms based on the members who make up the band. There are currently 11 members — not all of whom are original members, but each have a distinct physical and musical background.

Miranda grew up in Mendoza, Argentina; Guillaume Luxardi, who is from Normandy, France scratches on vinyls; Pauline Millard, also from

Normandy, France, plays piano; James Mayoral, from Dixon, Calif. plays the trumpet; Bårt Van Der Zeeuw, from the Netherlands, is on the drums; Felipe Becerra from Colombia plays the congas; Alvar Escriva-Bou from Valencia, Spain is on tenor saxophone while Heron Scow from Davis, Calif. plays alto saxophone; Luis Avila from Peru plays guitar; and, finally, Jason Burns from Hawaii is on bass guitar.

“Everyone who has played within the group is a talented musician,” Mayoral said, who joined the band in 2015 after he met Miranda, who was his teaching assistant in the Spanish department.

“They all have different backgrounds, whether they were a classical musician or a jazz musician.

But it’s cool because they bring those elements and creativity to the table that makes each rehearsal or performance a little different.”

The band’s eclectic membership makes the indistinguishable quality of Bomba Fried Rice’s sound.

“People don’t think about this: when salsa started it was in New York,” Miranda said. “It was that pot of people bringing their own rhythms and finding a common ground, showcasing their piece. They come with a set background, but people also learn their own style with what they already have.”

Similar to the conversation concerning their name, the band members could not coin the genre of their sound.

“Latin would be a very simple way to get out of the question,” Miranda said. “There are different influences, from the music to the lyrics.

Everyone brings something and then [if ] we like it and we keep it. I’m sure there is some stuff that we don’t even know where it came from, but it’s there. There is a lot of latin music, rock, ska, hiphop, spoken word, salsa, cumbia and variations of it.”

According to Miranda, playing a combination of multiple styles ensures the audience doesn’t get bored: there is continuous innovation and the way they play with sound is unique to the band.

“It is more of a matter of feeling, and how it will translate with what we do with our hands,” Luxardi said. “It’s not like the scratching that I do is ‘French.’ It’s my own feelings.”

Bomba Fried Rice might better be described as a musical space than a band in the traditional sense. Based on availability and interest, not every person plays in each concert or gig. Yet cohesion of the band rests on the talent of each individual member.

“You have to prepare by yourself,” Miranda said. “Coming to rehearsal to prepare is too late.

If you know your part, then it is easier for everyone. These are theatrical performances of music […] we have some songs we work on, or someone comes with a song and people come and build on it.”

Their performances, therefore, are intended to showcase the different sounds of the band.

While each song has a foundation, a set guitar riff or drum beat, the goal of each performance is to create a new listening experience.

“People consume music from different angles,” Miranda said. “For some, you listen to music as a chunk that makes you dance and feel good. For others who are more trained, you can separate the different sounds, know different beats, and see what everyone is doing to merge.

It gives the band the freedom to express more if they want to. The public sees that in their faces.

If you are enjoying what you are playing people see that and that’s contagious.”

This style of performance allows surprises to emerge.

“There have been performances where some mistakes happened, and we somehow made them part of the song,” Miranda said. “There was this one festival we played at and the [power] went out. But we were lucky and we had a lot of percussion, a lot of brass and I sang with a megaphone. We didn’t have a guitar, bass or a piano.

But then the electricity came back on, you could hear the sound of the music coming back, and we finished the song with all the instruments.”

Bomba Fried Rice considers their music a matter of attitude, allowing for mistakes, allowing for discovery, allowing for fun — “You see people dancing, and it’s honorable,” Miranda said.

“We just want to have fun,” Luxardi said.

“We want to share our love for the music and people.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

8 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

AGGIE STYLE WATCH: LILY SOTO, UNIQUE AND UNINTENTIONAL An exploration of Soto’s approach to self-expression through style TI MOT H Y L I / AG G I E

TCA: What’s your favorite accessory?

BY ALLIE BAILEY arts@theaggie.org Lilly Soto, an undeclared second-year student, shared her personal style with The California Aggie Arts Desk. The Aggie met Soto in her backyard, where she wore a translucent green button-down with baggy khakis and orange Converse.

The California Aggie: How would you characterize your style?

Soto: Grandma with ’90s Nickelodeon cartoon, but also like a 12-year-old, but also like a sexualized 12-year-old which is like... ew. It’s not intentional; it’s not what I’m trying to be.

It’s just what happens.

TCA: Do you try to communicate anything in particular with your style? Is it deliberate or more random?

Soto: It’s not like a particular message, more just what’s going on in my mind with colors or what type of fit, like baggy or tight.

It’s not deliberate; I wake up in the morning and maybe think of one thing to wear and the rest falls into place.

TIMOT H Y L I / AG G I E

TCA: Do you have a style icon? Where do you get inspiration from?

Soto: I would say that it’s a big mixture of all the TV and music and artists [I follow] that influence what I like, but I’m not thinking about them when I pick out items. The music [inspires me] but also the artist cause a lot of the artists I listen to dress the f-cking dopest, like Dev Hynes.

TCA: Where do you shop and why?

Soto: I almost exclusively thrift, I might buy a random plain t-shirt from Target or something, or I will get stuff at Urban if it’s in the sale section and cheap. It’s a way to find the most unique items and it’s just less generic, and [to] reuse your shit! And old stuff is just better I feel, and because it’s old it adheres to my grandma vibe.

Soto: Mmm! I don’t know what my favorite is because I have to always have my rings on and my earrings in; I never take those or my necklace off. I would also consider nail polish an accessory I like wearing, and also my tattoo adds an element.

TCA: If you had to pick three closet essentials, what would they be?

Soto: At this exact moment, I would say my off-tone blue sleeveless sweater, my fleece brown jacket with a mountain scene running along the bottom and my corduroys. But also, I love my khaki men’s pants I got the other day.

TCA: What article of clothing/accessory do wish you had?

Soto: I really want the ASAP Nast collab with Converse [shoes]. He’s coming out with flame [shoes] that are an off-tone red, and I’ve been waiting for them to come out for months.

TCA: What advice would you give to someone looking to build their closet and develop a sense of style?

Soto: Whenever you think something might be kind of weird, always try it on because then you might find items that you really love that you weren’t anticipating.

TCA: What’s a trend you love?

Soto: I love layering, like a tight long sleeve with a baggy short sleeve, and obviously high-waisted things.

TCA: What do you think the importance of fashion is/ what is the value in self-expression through style?

Soto: Well, if you dress how you feel, it’s way easier to go through your day and the world more comfortably, and you’re telling people about yourself at the same time. So you’re just presenting the best version of yourself that you possibly could.

ANTISEMITISM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

UC Davis is not the only campus that has been targeted: incidents of bigotry have occurred at UC Berkeley and UCLA in previous years as well. At UC Berkeley, anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered on a bathroom wall, and in some instances, members of the student body, rather than outside organizations, have been the perpetrators of anti-Semitic rhetoric. For example, political assumptions have been made about students simply because they are Jewish.

At UCLA, when then-undergraduate Rachel Beyda was confirmed into the student council’s judicial board, she was asked whether she would be able to maintain an “unbiased view” of campus matters due to her activities in Jewish organizations, according to The New York Times. When she left the room, the council debated whether her membership in a Jewish sorority and her participation in Hillel would interfere with her ability to handle governance questions impartially.

The controversial session was posted on YouTube and later removed. The council initially rejected her nomination in a 4-4 vote, and then accepted her and apologized following faculty intervention with a 9-0 vote. Jewish community leaders condemned the council’s initial behavior. Roughly a year later, perhaps in response to these concerns, the UC Board of Regents authored a resolution stating that, “Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.”

Sascha Recht, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major who is involved with several Jewish organizations on campus, described her reaction to the fliers found at UC Davis over the past couple years.

“I have to say, it’s very disheartening,” Recht said. “I’m proud that [the Jewish community on campus] is very proactive, we see this and we immediately think about what we can do to get it removed — our response is very quick and very precise — but those are not the kind of images you want to see, you don’t want to condone hate in any way.”

Asa Jungreis, president of UC Davis’ Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and a third-year community and regional development and sustainable agriculture and food systems double major, spoke on behalf of his fraternity.

“I am disheartened by the continued presence of vitriolic fliers on campus,” Jungreis wrote in an email. “Although the school has improved in their response to the anti-semitic alt-right propaganda anonymously littered on campus the lack of repercussions faced by the responsible parties that makes them comfortable enough to continue spreading hate is frustrating and worrying [...] Organizations that I’ve been affiliated with [...] have faced direct anti-Semitic actions. Any and all anti-Semitic behavior, or acts of hate targeted at any race, religion, or minority group will not be tolerated.”

Recht expressed concern about the university’s response to such acts.

“There are ways to address the student body when something like this happens and I feel like the administration hasn’t utilized

those tools effectively,” Recht said. “I’ve met with members of the administration personally and it goes in a file somewhere until something else happens and so it’s unfortunate.”

Jungreis described the nature of the university’s response to anti-Semitic actions on campus as “formulaic,” noting that he is “hard-pressed to think of anything notable beyond vague condemnations via newsletters.”

The SPLC notes that there was significant effort on the part of white nationalists to “rebrand” following the Unite the Right rally.

The fallout from the rally led to “infighting” and, as social media platforms sought to limit online hate speech, various groups began to splinter.

“Very early in [the American Identity Movement’s] evolution they started doing this campus flyering,” Beirich said. “They claim to get out their message, and they probably try to recruit smart college students. I don’t know if this works at all in terms of recruitment but it certainly gets them publicity, so that’s part of the reasoning for this, for engaging in this tactic. After Charlottesville, after Heather Heyer was murdered [...] [white supremacists] were saying it was a bad idea to engage in these street protests, because it made [them] look bad.”

Subsequently, Integrity First for America (IFA), a non-profit, filed a lawsuit against 26 individuals who participated in the Charlottesville rally. Roberta Kaplan, a New York City based lawyer best known for her landmark work on the 2013 Supreme Court case United States v. Windsor which addressed same-sex spousal rights, worked on the case.

“A lot of people named in [the IFA lawsuit] had to hire lawyers, and they were pissy,” Beirich said. “And the other thing that happened after Charlottesville is that Paypal started pulling their accounts so [these groups] couldn’t raise money and they couldn’t move money and they started getting banned from Facebook and Twitter, they were deplatformed in a big way,” she added, noting that the SPLC had been lobbying Facebook to more vigilantly monitor hate groups even before the events in Charlottesville.

Barry Klein, the co-president of Congregation Bet Haverim and a retired Vice Chancellor of Research at UC Davis, also believes that recent events in Davis mimic a national trend of intolerance happening both on and off college campuses.

“The general issue [...] is that there’s been a resurgence of intolerance in the world right now,” Klein said. “It happens from all directions. Certainly it’s very clear, and there’s the so-called right wing groups that are fostering anti-Semitism and [there’s] left-wing intolerance too. We’re at a place in the world right now where the center seems to have vanished, where the dialogue in the world has really degraded.”

Klein added that Davis “isn’t necessarily an outlier in the rise of anti-Semitism and hate things in general. The most uninteresting voice [for me to listen to] is my own. I want to listen to [other] people. We can argue in a respectful way [...] to get to the place we want to be.”

Recht has experienced assumptions similar to those made of

GUNS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

oppose the center’s research.

One group, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), has stood in ardent opposition of research. FPC is a “coalition of hundreds of thousands of Patriots organizing to take back [the] Constitution” and defend their right to bear arms, according to its website. Spokesperson Craig DeLuz renounced the validity of the research itself in a KCRA article.

“From the beginning, it’s been about fabricating statistics to support their already predetermined conclusion, which is increasing laws and gun control,” DeLuz said. “We are not against research at all, but research has to be objective. Treating firearms or firearm violence like a disease is completely wrong because it

removes the component of human behavior.”

Notably, all three studies published focus on human behavior, mental health, alcohol abuse and public opinion as these factors relate to gun violence, rather than focusing on guns themselves.

Beyda during classes at UC Davis.

“People will assume you’re not loyal to the U.S. if you’re Jewish, that you’re loyal to the Jewish state [Israel] first,” Recht said. “It’s a very strange and unfortunate question — it will be assumed that you believe certain things because you’re Jewish.”

Recht also mentioned protests on campus where people were chanting that “[Jews] should have learned from Germany. There’s no gray area there, that’s a blatant insult.”

Recht made a distinction between individuals who take issue with the policies of the Jewish state and those who have problems with its existence in general. Similarly, Klein expressed concern about the conflation of Israeli policies with Jewish identity.

“The people who have criticisms of Israel, those criticisms [sometimes] spill over into criticism of the Jews,” Klein said. “Jewish people don’t speak with one voice, on-campus or off. Being Jewish and being pro-Israel are not the same thing. The pro-Israel thing has a lot more complications.”

Klein views the Jewish community as being in solidarity with other minority groups.

“We’ve always been champions of the underdogs, of people who are oppressed, separate from Israeli politics,” Klein said, recalling the cooperation of Jewish community leaders and African Americans during the Civil Rights movement andJewish involvement in labor and women’s rights movements. “You can get involved with the contemporary politics in the Middle East and you can get lost in all these political things and lose sight of the camaraderie.”

Klein hopes to increase communication between Congregation Bet Haverim and students on campus, describing plans to create a community outreach group that will work with Hillel and other campus organizations in order to “put a face a face on [the Jewish community]” and “invite other groups to our synagogue.”

Similarly, Jungreis wrote that he hoped “UC Davis [would] grant Jewish organizations greater autonomy in raising awareness regarding and responding to anti-Semitism by promoting Jewish organizations and outreach on campus. While the majority of UC Davis faculty and staff are in no way friendly towards anti-Semitic behavior, I feel that more has to be done to make explicitly clear to all students and faculty that harassment of Jews on campus can come in various forms, and is not limited to such blatant acts as the recent flyers.”

Recht also discussed the importance of interfaith unity in combating hate in all its forms.

“We stand in solidarity [with minority groups] in the sense that we understand what it’s like to be persecuted for superficial reasons,” Recht said. “We have been supported and we’re very fortunate because we have certain relationships with the Muslim and Christian communities. If something happens in one of our communities we support each other. It’s a reciprocal thing and I would like to see that be stronger. Discrimination affects all of our communities.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 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, OCTOBER 31, 2019

SUICIDE 1 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“For a lot of advocates who are very passionate about wanting to prevent suicide, if they’re not measuring it, you don’t know if all that energy and passion is going in the right place and it becomes a huge opportunity loss,” Pearson said. “It might make them feel better and it might create some awareness, but if it’s not really changing somebody’s trajectory, it’s hard to say whether that’s the best investment because we have limited resources and limited time to track that investment.”

When asked if she thought schools and universities should publicly publish suicide data, Pearson said ultimately, it’s up to the insitutions.

“You can’t force them,” she said. “If you’re looking for a school that uses data to do better, that’s a good thing.”

Mental Health America (MHA), the nation’s longest-standing mental health advocacy organization, strongly supports the collection of suicide data in a standardized way.

“If we collect good data about the ultimate stage four event — which is losing one’s life to a mental health condition, usually that’s gone untreated — we can do a much better job in the future of changing trajectories of lives before people get to these crises stages,” said Paul Gionfriddo, the president and CEO of MHA. “It starts from understanding what’s happening [...] in order to be able to quantify the benefits we can get from intervening earlier.”

Universities aren’t required to keep suicide data.

But should they?

There is no mandate, at either the federal or local level, requiring that public universities collect or report suicide data.

An official with the California Department of Public Health confirmed to The Aggie that the department does not require universities to report student suicides nor does the department collect this data from universities.

Given that there is no requirement for schools to report this data, there exists, then, a discussion over whether there is any incentive for universities and schools to collect the data in the first place — as well as whether there is an incentive for them to do the exact opposite and not collect the data at all.

“Many schools are tracking this data, they just have no intention of sharing them outside of the school,” said Dr. Victor Schwartz, the chief medical officer of The Jed Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on suicide prevention for the nation’s teenage and young adult population.

Schwartz, who formerly served as the medical director for New York University’s counseling services, continued to say that this data does, for the most part, exist, but it’s just not released to the public “because there’s no incentive.”

Most of the country’s large universities don’t track this data or, if they do, they do so in an inconsistent manner, according to a 2018 investigation done by the Associated Press.

The AP “asked the 100 largest U.S. public universities for annual suicide statistics and found that 46 currently track suicides, including 27 that have consistently done so since 2007. Of the 54 remaining schools, 43 said they don’t track suicides, nine could provide only limited data and didn’t answer questions about how consistently they tracked suicides, and two didn’t provide statistics.”

Based on the findings, the 100 universities examined by the AP were split into four categories: schools that don’t have statistics or don’t consistently collect them, schools that did not provide statistics, schools that provided limited data but did not answer questions about the consistency of their tracking and schools that currently keep statistics on student suicides.

Of the six UC campuses examined for the study, all six — UC Davis, Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara — were placed in the fourth category: schools that do keep statistics.

Collin Binkley, a reporter from the AP who worked on the report, responded to a request sent by The Aggie asking how the publication decided to categorize UC Davis, among the other UCs listed, in this way. Binkley forwarded a completed CPRA request from the UC Davis public records office listing student suicides from 2006-2017 (there were a total of 25 deaths during this time

period).

The responsive records Binkley received were formatted in a manner identical to the format of the responsive records received

by The Aggie. In both instances, the responsive data was gathered from the UC Davis Police Department and the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs.

“It is important to note that the Police Department only holds information on those cases to which they respond, and Student Affairs data is only noted once a death has been confirmed by a coroner,” the email sent to Binkley from the public records office stated.

By comparison, the eight California State University campuses examined for the study — Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Pomona, Fullerton, Fresno, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Northridge — were placed in the first category: schools that don’t have statistics or don’t consistently collect them.

“We do not collect this type of data. No policy mandates it,” said Hazel Kelly, a representative from the CSU Chancellor’s Office, via email.

While there are no policies or requirements to report this data currently, Schwartz said there have been efforts on a state level to collect and publicly report this data, but there are also fears that there may be “perverse outcomes” from enforcing a mandate of this kind.

“If schools know that they’re going to have to report the number of suicides on campus, it may change the threshold for trying to force students who have suicidal ideations out of school with the thought that, “‘Well, if a death occurs off campus it’s a tragedy, but it’s not going to be on our statistics,’” Schwartz said. “Schools might wind up spending some time trying to game the system […] by making their statistics look as good as possible rather than doing what’s in the best interest of the student.”

Indeed, a class-action lawsuit filed in 2018 accused Stanford of discriminating against students struggling with their mental health by attempting to convince them to take a leave-of-absence and return home, rather than providing treatment through the university’s on-campus resources.

Schools and universities might fear they will be blamed for a suicide, Gionfriddo said, but this fear should not be a reason for inaction. When it comes to the collection of suicide data by institutions in a standardized format, Gionfriddo believes this is an obvious and necessary action.

“We need to press upon anybody who interacts with younger people [that] this data should be collected, it should be reported, [it] should be standardized and we shouldn’t be afraid to do that,” Gionfriddo said.

When asked whether she believes UCOP should implement a policy requiring that UC campuses collect and report this data, Margaret Walter, the executive director of UC Davis’ Student Health and Counseling Services, said she thinks about suicide data as parallel to the collection of data responsive to the Clery Act and the subsequent confusion this information sometimes causes when it is publicly released. The Clery Act is a federal statute requiring that colleges and public universities disclose certain campus crime statistics.

“The Clery data [...] would never encompass all the issues of interpersonal violence that happen to our students in a given year [and] it only reports the numbers that were disclosed,” Walter said.

“Having that number highlights the need to work on prevention and response to that issue, but it also creates a lot of confusion as parents look that number up when their children are applying for school and think that it means, ‘Oh, UC Davis and UCLA are different because these numbers are different.’ When really, you can’t assume that.”

Commenting on the university’s most recent release of Clery Act data, Sarah Meredith, director of the Center for Resources, Advocacy and Education, said in a previous article in The Aggie that statistics released through the act do not necessarily reflect the actual number of instances of a certain reportable event. For example, sexual assault numbers are not “necessarily reflective of the entire number of sexual assaults that occurred in a given year,” instead representing those campus community members who “felt they could disclose their experience to someone who happened to be a [mandated reporter].”

Walter said she believes tracking suicide data might “encourage more dialogue which could benefit prevention and response” which she sees as a positive, but because the data might always be “inadequate, it might also create confusion.”

and, from there, a group of campus officials is notified.

When asked whether Student Affairs keeps a record of previous student suicides in order to document and track this information, Student Affairs Vice Chancellor Emily Galindo said via email that it only keeps a copy of the letters sent out to the families of those students listing available resources. Student Affairs does not notify families in the case of a suicide, a coroner does.

Galindo was also asked whether information collected by Student Affairs related to student suicides is used in any decision-making processes, such as in the allocation of funds for mental health services. She did not directly answer the question.

In an interview, when discussing the estimated 20 student suicides that have occurred over the previous decade at UC Davis, Walter said she does not know whether that number “really reflects the experience of our campus” because it is “simply the number that Student Affairs knows about.”

At SHCS, once officials are notified of a student suicide, they look at whether the student received services there.

“If they were served by a counselor, we would reach out to that counselor to talk to them,” Walter said. “We also do a chart review if the student was served here to look and see [if ] they followed up. We just want to know if there’s any opportunity to work on prevention.”

break or a leave of absence, which might disqualify such a death from being recognized by a university.

“Not all suicides happen on site, so should they be counting that or not?” said Dr. Jane Pearson, the National Institute of Mental Health’s (NIMH) special advisor to the director on suicide research. “Do you want to count over the summer? How many months after somebody graduates? I don’t know if anybody has come to some consensus on how those should be counted.”

Officials from campuses including UC Davis and UC San Diego said that any death of a student by suicide, classified as such by a coroner, would be recognized, regardless of the circumstances.

This was not the case, however, at UCSF which recognizes only deaths that have occurred on campus. In 2018, approximately 15% of UCSF’s total student population lived on campus, according to a university spokesperson.

Because there exists virtually no standards at any level regarding the collection and reporting of this data, it becomes challenging to accurately assess the importance of such information. Proponents of collecting this data, however, affirm and emphasize its importance.

“Something as simple as reporting [is] fundamental to [...] understanding what happened at the end and being able to look back and figure out what happened over the rest of that time,” said Paul Gionfriddo, the president and CEO of Mental Health America, a long-standing mental health advocacy organization. “That’s how people need to look at this.”

Currently, though, if UC Davis wanted to assess the numbers it had on file, it would not be as easy as pulling up a spreadsheet.

If pressed, Walter said Student Affairs “could probably go back and look at all of the emails they’ve sent” to assess student suicide in recent years. Adding the SHCS could, if asked, look at their files as well, but “it’s something we’d do detective work to go back and find.”

Suicide rates in the U.S. are rising. What role can statistics play in prevention?

Suicide rates have gone up 30% in half of the states in the U.S. since 1999, but the changes in rates of suicide and suicidal ideation are perhaps the most pronounced among college-aged individuals.

Suicides among individuals aged 18 to 25 increased as much as 56% from 2008 to 2017, according to a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology which looked at nearly 8 million survey responses.

Between 2008 and 2017, suicidal ideation rose by 68% among the same 18 to 25-year-old age group. Suicide attempts increased by 87% among the 20 to 21-year-old group and, among the 22 to 23-year old group, attempts rose by 108%, according to the study.

Walter said the rising suicide rates align with higher incidents of anxiety and depression among the young-adult age group.

“Within the space of mental health, we are seeing students who are experiencing loneliness [and] anger at higher rates than ever before,” Walter said.

On a national scale, suicide rates have increased in nearly every state from 1999 to 2016 — California’s statistics, specifically, have seen an increase of 6-18% during this period, according to the Center for Disease Control. And the rates are steadily increasing: “The U.S. suicide rate increased on average by about 1% a year from 2000 through 2006 and by 2% a year from 2006 through 2016,” according to an article in Bloomberg.

Pearson said when she first started at NIMH, “we felt hopeful, and then slowly the rates have been going up.”

Internationally, other countries, including Japan, have seen suicide rates fall. In the late 1990s, Japan had some of the highest rates of suicide among industrialized countries, but around the 21st century, “Japanese citizens began to view suicide as a public health problem rather than as a personal problem to deal with in private,” according to an article from the American Psychological Association (APA).

As part of a plan to deal with rising rates of suicide, Japan mandated that detailed suicide statistics be released each month — “that step allowed suicide prevention resources to be matched to communities with the greatest needs,” the APA article states.

From the viewpoint of Schwartz, collecting suicide statistics is not the “end all be all,” as researchers have a general sense of the rate of suicide attempts and suicidal ideations on college campuses in the nation. In efforts to collect information, questions from universities should be framed from the viewpoint of: “What is it that would be helpful for the system to actually know that it doesn’t know now? And how might that better be gotten,” Schwartz said.

Generally speaking, there must be more done to help college-aged and high school-aged individuals, Gionfriddo said.

Gionfriddo was a former state legislator in Connecticut in the 1980s. He said that at that time, policymakers — himself included — were not doing enough to understand best practices for creating access to services and support systems. We’re still not doing enough, he said, but change can start with taking up the issue of reporting suicide statistics.

“If you don’t report adequately, if you don’t report properly, if you don’t report at all, it doesn’t change the fact of the death or the cause of the death, all it does is put our heads in the sand and minimize the value of that life and minimize the impact of that particular death on family, on friends, on peers, on the university community, on a broader community and on a state,” he said. “It should be a fairly easy thing to say, ‘Let’s just do this consistently, and let’s do it right.’”

The number for the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is (800) 273-8255.

SUICIDE 2 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

• UC San Francisco: Zero deaths by suicide — a UCSF spokesperson said this estimate is correct, adding via email that “unless a suicide happens on campus, it is not included in these statistics.”

• UC Los Angeles: University officials provided an incomplete data set, with the years 2008 through 2014 missing. There were 10 confirmed suicides from 2014 to 2018, with an additional six “possible suicides” reported during this same time period. Although numerous officials at the university were repeatedly asked to explain why the university did not provide six years of requested data, The Aggie did not receive a response by the deadline for this article.

• UC Santa Cruz: University officials failed to provide any responsive documents to The Aggie after numerous requests for the data. When pressed in Oct. 2019 about why the university had not responded to a formal public records request submitted in Sept. 2018, the university said “the review process is progressing more slowly than originally anticipated.”

Recently, officials said they would deliver “a more substantive response within the next three weeks,” but that did not arrive by the deadline for this article.

Where is this data coming from?

As there is no systemwide standard for collecting suicide data, the data reported by each campus cannot be directly compared.

In view of the fact that the UC has no systemwide definition of “suicide,” The Aggie reached out to the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) directors at each campus to request their university’s operational definition.

Dr. Myrla Seibold, the associate CAPS director at UC Merced, sent the following response via email: “As Chair of the UC CAPS Directors I met with all the UC CAPS Directors this afternoon and everyone said that suicide is determined by a coroner.”

Once a death is classified as a suicide by a coroner, each campus has a different response protocol. At UC Davis, Student Affairs is the first campus body to receive notice from the coroner’s office

What does this data mean?

There are a number of reasons why the data reported by the campuses varies so widely.

“If one college was more diligent than another in tracking numbers, it could appear to have a crisis on its hands when, in reality, another institution could have equal or higher numbers,” said Chris Brownson, the associate vice president for student affairs and director of the counseling and mental health center at the University of Texas at Austin, in a 2018 article from Inside Higher Ed. Additionally, there is no standard detailing when a university should — or should not — count a student suicide as such. This means that there may be certain circumstances, such as a school

The number for the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is (800) 273-8255.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 | 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

RATING

BUS CONTROVERSY

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bike storage, rider capacity and reliability of the buses — all grievances previously addressed by the riders in documents sent to UC Davis officials back in July. According to the survey, bike storage and punctual service were the two most important aspects of the buses to riders.

Riders also expressed discontent with the fact that, if new stops are added, the commute time would increase significantly. Those in charge of the round table meeting, which included Dulcich, TAPS Transportation Analyst Anthony Palmere and representatives from Yolobus and SacRT, proposed the idea of having an express service with fewer stops during peak hours. This option, however, is not present in a proposal to the board of SacRT dated Oct. 14.

According to the SacRT website, the proposal “will be presented to the SacRT Board of Directors for approval on November 18, 2019.”

New stops must be added because the bus service must be open to the public and no longer be a charter service in order to be eligible for the grants given by Electrify America.

Another issue brought up at the Oct. 4 meeting was the question of why UC Davis has decided to discontinue the shuttle service it provides for its employees. The shuttle has been operating since at least 2006, and, according to the survey conducted over the summer, most people ride it everyday as their “primary or only means of transportation.”

Dulcich, who is in charge of the project from the UC Davis side, said that the service changes are due to declining ridership rates in recent years — a statement which some riders question.

Doubts among riders concerning claims of decreased ridership was amplified by data recently shared on the riders’ listserv. Jason Moore, a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and frequent shuttle rider, requested and received access to view the proposal to receive a grant to purchase the electric buses. He also received the data used to justify the purchase of the new buses and shared this information with the riders listserv. Postdoctoral researcher Derek Young analyzed the data and found several inconsistencies.

The data received came in the form of three different data sets, all with different methodologies and missing data points, making it difficult to draw conclusions using the information.

Data from 2006-2017 came from an average of five or sometimes four days per month and data from 2017-18 provided only monthly estimates. But perhaps the biggest inconsistency came from data collected from February, June, July and August of 2019. During these months, ridership data was collected almost daily, except for days left blank and days that report zero riders. For much of the summer months, the total ridership was taken only from the monthly pass users, leaving out day pass users entirely. Both of these issues brought down the average for these months.

Dulcich did not directly respond to questions about the data inconsistencies.

For now, riders await answers to their questions and attention to the input that they have given. According to Dulcich, riders should receive information this week.

“Written details about the service expansion, routing options, the new buses and further opportunities for input will be ready next week,” Dulcich said via email. These details, however, were not available at the time of publication of this article.

For many riders, the longer commute on the new bus due to added stops means they will simply switch to driving, meaning that the electric buses meant to reduce pollution will put cars on the road that were not there before. For others, the shuttle is their only way to get to work or school on time.

Chue Xiong, a research administrator at the UC Davis School of Medicine and an hourly employee, said via email that the current traffic already causes her to occasionally be late for work and she now worries that the future number of stops would make her late for work everyday.

“I believe that students and employee(s) would be discouraged to take public transit if it is not going to be reliable,” Xiong said.

Russ Zochowski, a disability specialist at the Student Disability Center, said via email that he relies heavily on the shuttle and its current stops as someone who is blind.

“If/when this money-driven change occurs next April as anticipated, then getting from home to work [...] will be much more difficult [...] for many other faculty, staff, & students with disabilities who rely on the current shuttle service for independent travel,” Zochowski said.

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really was. Nonetheless, Hawkins could not have been more encouraged by his team’s attitude and approach in the face of adversity.

“I’m super proud of our guys,” Hawkins explained. “That’s probably as proud as I’ve been of them since I’ve been here. Just the resolve, fight, sticking together and not batting an eyelash. That’s Aggie Pride.”

Weber State received the opening kickoff and appeared to go three-and-out, but caught the Aggies off-guard with a fake punt that extended the drive and led to a touchdown.

On the ensuing kickoff, sophomore defensive back and return specialist Jaylin White caught the ball deep in his own endzone and promptly sped 100 yards for the special teams touchdown to tie the game. This would prove to be the lone first half bright spot in an evening full of horrors for UC Davis.

Later in the quarter, UC Davis surrendered its first turnover of the game when sophomore running back Ulonzo Gilliam lost a fumble, ultimately leading to a field goal by Weber State.

Later on, the Aggies got even with an interception in the back of the end zone by sophomore corner Devon King, but, unfortunately, gave the football right back on the next play when senior quarterback Jake Maier was picked off an errant throw behind his wide receiver.

Weber State took advantage with another field goal and eventually carried a 16-7 lead into the halftime intermission.

At the start of the second half, White fumbled the opening kickoff and Weber State recovered the ball before firing another field goal

to make it 19-7.

Several minutes later, the Aggie offensive finally started to show signs of life with a 75yard scoring drive, capped off by junior wide receiver Jared Harrell’s third touchdown catch of the season. All of a sudden, UC Davis was only trailing 19-14 with an opportunity to erase all of its misfortunes of the previous two and a half quarters.

“I never thought we were out of it, from the start when they jumped ahead,” Gilliam said.

“We play hard when we’re behind and never give up when we’re ahead.”

But the Wildcats made sure there would be no happy comeback story for the Aggies and swiftly rattled off the next 17 points to put the finishing touches on their fourth straight victory in this series.

UC Davis made the score look a little more respectable with a two-yard touchdown catch by junior fullback Christian Skeptaris on the team’s final possession.

After nine grueling weeks of physical and mental duress, the Aggies have finally reached their bye week. The team hopes to use the extra time to get healthy, reset and prepare itself for a trio of tough opponents to close out the season.

Each team — Portland State, Montana State and Sacramento State — has a realistic shot to make the playoffs and will have everything to lose when they face UC Davis.

The Aggies return to action on Nov. 9 when they take on Portland State in the City of Roses.

gram include ensuring that any hospital services a child might need will be offered in Sacramento, according to Farmer. The hospital does not want families with sick children to have to leave the area because certain services are not offered.

“It’s just too hard to drive, and park and stay in the Bay Area anymore if you have a sick child,” Farmer said. “Sacramento is large enough and growing fast enough, and serves such a diverse geographic region that it’s a moral responsibility to provide all the care that any child might need-from emergency trauma care-to cancer care for children-to fetal surgery for babies still in the womb. UC Davis, together with our partners at Shriners children’s hospital, does indeed provide the highest level and most complete array of surgical care in the region.”

Semkiw emphasized the excellent care provided by nearby hospitals.

“Families do not need to go to the Bay for pediatric subspecialty services,” Semkiw said. “The Children’s Surgery Program elevates children’s surgical care which our Bay Area colleagues cannot compete with at this time.”

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Camron Clifton, a 2019 UC Davis alumni with a Bachelor of Science in food science and a brewing assistant at the local 3 Mile Brewing Co. started homebrewing beer after his interest was piqued in his food science classes. “[I] did some research on it and realized it was a pretty easy thing to get involved with as far as initial barriers to entry, so [me] and a couple buddies split the price of a homebrew set and decided to start trial and erroring our way through it,” Clifton said.

Clifton noted that the homebrew industry has made the practice much easier for beginners like himself, who use malt extract to craft their beers rather than implementing the traditional all grain process.

“We only used extract because we didn’t want to make that additional investment,” Clifton said. “Making the step from extract to all grain is completely doable and it isn’t that much more pricey, but it is a lot more technical and it requires a little bit more knowledge to make sure everything is going correctly.”

As a food science major, Clifton had access to people who shared in his interest and readily provided support and insight into the hobby.

“They have experience, so that was a really good resource,” Clifton said.

Clifton found the practice to be a great way to solidify his interest in beer brewing and a great introduction into what’s required in the industry itself.

“Beer is made the same way in a once gallon batch as it is in a ten thousand barrell batch — it is the same kind of ingredients,” he said. “It reaffirmed that this is what I wanted to do as a career.”

Clifton also noted that it helped prepare him for undergoing the more tedious facets of brewing.

“Homebrewing is a labor of love, and so there are some things that suck about it,” Clifton said.

“But after working in a commercial brewery, it’s not all just the fun parts, there are parts that aren’t as fun. There’s a lot of sanitation and cleaning, which isn’t very sexy but it needs to be done, if you don’t want the beer to taste like vinegar.”

Occasionally, through the many trials and tribulations, Clifton would make a product that impressed him, a reward for all the time and effort poured into the homebrewing process.

“Sometimes we had some beers that were absolutely awful, but when we had beers that were drinkable and it was a success, [...] it was like holy s***, I made this.”

There are also less capital and work-intensive home brewing opportunities for ambitious UC Davis students. Noah Yardeny, a third-year pharmaceutical engineering major, set his sights on making his very own kombucha. Yardeny, a resourceful college student, grew tired of paying

for the expensive beverage and took matters into his own hands.

“Kombucha is really expensive on the market, more so than coffee for each bottle,” Yardeny said. “Being a college student, I’m trying to be a bit riskier and see if I can do this myself.”

For Yardeny, who practiced homebrewing beer with his father, kombucha was an easy transition and a far simpler endeavor. Making kombucha is a relatively stress and cash free process: it requires only tea, some sugar, a gallon glass tank and scoby, also known as a symbiotic community of bacteria and yeast. The scoby is self-sustaining, producing a twin scoby in each kombucha batch which supplies the brewer with a never-ending source of bacterial starter.

“You brew a certain amount of tea and then you add some sugar to it and a scoby, which just eats up the sugars that are in the tea and add the .5% of alcohol content,” Yardeny said. “You add the tea into the glass jar with two cups of scoby starter, which is the old kombucha from the previous batch. It’s quite resilient.”

As Yardeny was getting started, he found a vibrant online community dedicated to brewing and helping fledgling kombucha brewers get a hang of the practice.

“It’s really social as well, I know all these subreddits giving away their kombucha recipes,” Yardeny said.

As Yardeny continued to explore the world of kombucha, he discovered interesting kombucha facts and practices. Long lineages of kombucha brewers pass down the family tradition.

“There’s all these people that have their great-grandmothers’ scoby passed down and are keeping it as a family scoby,” Yardeny said.

Yardeny himself got a pleasant surprise when he decided to show off one of his first batches of kombucha to his family.

“I made this batch and surprised my family with some watermelon kombucha, which was probably my best batch,” Yardeny said. “It was sweet, it was ripe and it was this golden red color when you poured it. It was beautiful. I gave it to my grandparents and they were like this is ‘grib’ (Russian for fungus). They actually used to make homemade kombucha back when they were kids in Russia.”

For Terre, Clifton and Yardeny, homebrewing provided an outlet to explore their passions and make beverages. Their endeavors yielded new skills and knowledge, but more importantly, they all emphasized the love of sharing their work — and for Terre, sharing the quite literal fruits of his labor with friends.

“You’re learning, you’re making wine, you get to give it to your friends for no cost,” Terre said.

“They pat you on the back, and it honestly makes you feel like a thousand bucks.”

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Hannah Janson, who scored a 77.0 and was awarded the Most Outstanding Player for the event.

In her second ride of the day, and this time in the flat event, Marquardt was able to earn the fifth and final point for UC Davis with a ride that scored a 64.0.

An aspect of the season thus far that the Aggies can certainly pride themselves on is their reining team, which tied a now-ranked Delaware State squad on Oct. 5 and captured a victory on Saturday against Oklahoma State.

Fortunately for the Aggies, they will have

Surgical Association and the Society of Pediatric Anesthesiology, Grant said.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital is currently the only California hospital with this designation — 21 hospitals total have received level one verification as of Oct. 21, Semkiw said.

“This is a relatively novel program and many hospitals nationally are scrambling to meet the standards which are not easy and very detailed,” Semkiw said. “UCSF and Stanford are both seeking this verification in the coming year.”

Even though the UC Davis Children’s Hospital was verified as a level one hospital in 2016, high-quality services were offered long before then, said Eric Kurzrock, a urology professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, in an email.

“The ACS verification is just that, a ‘verification’ of what we have been doing,” Kurzrock said. “Families should feel comfortable and confident that they have a superb, comprehensive children’s hospital in their region when their children need care. Many of our programs rank in the Top 50 nationally.”

Future goals for the children’s pro-

the home-arena advantage for the next two meets as well, when they host Fresno State on Nov. 15, and then Auburn at the end of January. The large time frame in between matches will be beneficial to this young, rising squad, as Don noted.

“Just as long as we continue to practice hard and work hard, we should keep doing well and getting better,” Don explained. “I think that getting better will come naturally, we’re just super young and such a young program, that good things will definitely come in the future.”

that it would not broadcast the games, and they were played without ad sponsors or media sessions for either team.

According to NBA data, the league received a total of about 500 million viewers throughout the 2018-2019 season. More people watched the deciding Game 6 of this past NBA Finals between the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors in China (21 million) than did in the U.S. (18.33 million). And in July of this year, the NBA announced that they had reached a deal with China’s Tencent worth $1.5 billion over five years to continue being the exclusive broadcast partner of the NBA in China.

A conservative estimate based on public information of the NBA’s revenues from China is about $500 million, according to USA Today. The prospect of losing some or all of this revenue would have far-reaching consequences for the league. Lost revenues could have a significant impact on the NBA’s salary cap, for example, as some teams are already preparing for an estimated drop of around 10 to 15%. International TV deals and the global expansion of the game has allowed the salary cap to increase more and more each year. Losing some of that growth would have drastic effects not only in terms of league revenues, but also in terms of the direction certain teams would need to go in.

“The losses have already been substantial,” Silver said at the summit. “Our games are not back on the air in China as we speak, and we’ll see what happens next. I don’t know where we go from here. The financial consequences have been and may continue to be fairly dramatic.”

Since Morey’s tweet, the NBA as a whole has endured a massive amount of criticism for how it has handled the situation. A league most often viewed as progressive and free-thinking seems to be limiting its voice when it comes to this topic. Lebron James, the league’s outspoken superstar, came under fire for comments he made that were critical of Morey, showing that even players are facing pressure on an issue not with the NBA, but with global politics as well.

Many will say the NBA mishandled this situation — and rightfully so — as the league has been very careful with what it has said. This situation, though, seems to be one that is unwinnable from both the league office and the players’ side, as whichever decision they make will have a major impact one way or the other. As the season goes on, we will continue to see whether all of this eventually gets fixed or if the NBA must adjust to the huge losses in its global market.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019

AGGIES FALTER IN CRITICAL HOME LOSS TO WEBER STATE

AGGIES DROP TOUGH MEET TO THIRD RANKED OKLAHOMA STATE

UC Davis’ playoff hopes take crucial blow in ugly defeat

Young riders, reigning team thrive in promising afternoon for UC Davis equestrian

JU STI N H A N / AG G I E

JU STIN HA N / AGGIE

UC Davis defensive back Jaylen White (10) bypasses the Weber State defense to score the first touchdown of the game for the Aggies on a 100 yard return. The Aggies would eventually lose the game 20-36 to the Weber State Wildcats at the UC Davis Health Stadium on Oct. 23, 2019. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

BY BRENDAN OGBURN sports@theaggie.org The UC Davis football team suffered a crucial 36-20 loss to visiting Weber State on Saturday night at UC Davis Health Stadium.

The defeat, which drops UC Davis’ record to 4-5 overall and 2-3 in the Big Sky, likely erases any sliver of hope the Aggies had left of landing a spot in the FCS playoffs.

Weber State, a top-five team in the country, suffocated the Aggies in every way imaginable for the full 60 minutes of play. The Wildcats had possession of the football for nearly 42 minutes and completely dictated the flow of the game on both sides of the ball.

They ran twice as many offensive plays as the Aggies and were just as dominant on defense, holding UC Davis to season-lows in total yards (204), first downs (9), passing yards (160) and rushing yards (44).

“They’re big, strong, fast, physical and well-coached,” said UC Davis head coach Dan Hawkins. “They got the whole combination. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit.

They played very good football.”

Instead of leaning on their productive run-heavy offensive attack, the visitors came out and set season highs in passing yards, completions and attempts. This was a stark contrast to what the Aggie defense might have been expecting leading up to the game.

“They do enough things to throw you off balance, so they don’t just stay static the whole time,” Hawkins said. “They’re going to mix it up.”

UC Davis did an impressive job shutting down the vaunted Wildcat running game, allowing only 3.2 yards per carry on an astonishing 52 attempts. Hawkins was proud of the performance of his defense, which recorded three sacks and a turnover and kept the team within striking distance by forcing Weber State to settle for five field goals in the red zone.

“There was a lot of leadership and guys stepped up and showed their heart,” Hawkins said. “They were great against a physically-imposing team.”

The Aggie offense was never able to find its footing on Saturday, turning over the ball twice and amassing just 35 total yards in the first half. UC Davis didn’t score its first offensive touchdown until midway through the third quarter and ended up punting on seven of its 12 drives. It was a truly forgettable night at the office and one that established season lows in almost every major statistical category.

It’s no secret the team has been hit hard by the injury bug, as key contributors like running back Tehran Thomas and wide receiver Carson Crawford have missed large chunks of time. But nobody inside the home locker room will use that as an excuse for any struggles on the field.

Despite a valiant defensive effort for the majority of the evening, it was apparent that the Aggies were significantly outmatched.

The final score does not even tell the whole story of how lopsided the contest FBVSW E B E RSTAT E on 11

THE SITUATION BETWEEN THE NBA AND CHINA EXPLAINED NBA placed in an unwinnable situation M A RIO R O D R I G UE Z / AGGI E

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org In recent weeks, a controversy between the NBA and China has unfolded, resulting in many criticizing a league that always seems to be on the forefront of progressive values. Attempting to balance political and business interests, the NBA has been put in an unwinnable situation throughout.

On Oct. 4, Houston Rockets General Manager Darryl Morey tweeted (and then quickly deleted) his support for Hong Kong, a region that has been engulfed by a surge of protests over government-sponsored legislation that would allow suspects of crimes to be extradited to China.

These protests have been ongoing since June and have garnered media attention from across the world.

While the protests were initially only over the legislation, over the last couple of months the focus of the demonstrations has shifted toward a push for democracy. Some Chinese officials may have taken Morey’s tweet in support of the Hong Kong protestors as intending to criticize the Chinese government.

“We are deeply shocked by the erroneous comments on Hong Kong made by Mr. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets,” the spokesperson for the Chinese Consulate in Houston said in a statement released just two days after Morey’s tweet. “We have lodged representations and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Houston Rockets, and urged the latter to correct the error and take immediate concrete measures to eliminate the adverse impact.”

There was talk over whether Morey would lose his job and, according to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, China asked for the league to do just that.

“We made clear that we were being asked to

fire [Morey], by the Chinese government, by the parties we dealt with, government and business,” Silver claimed at Time 100 Health Summit. “We said, ‘There’s no chance that’s happening. There’s no chance we’ll even discipline him.’”

China has denied the claims, but the ramifications that the Houston Rockets and the league has had to deal with are significant. Since the Rockets drafted Yao Ming in 2002, they have become the most popular team in China, a country whose NBA fandom has increased year by year.

But after many Chinese sponsors boycott the Rockets, the team could potentially lose an estimated $25 million from those deals, an article by The New York Times reported.

The financial hits didn’t stop there, as sportswear brand Anta, which has deals in place with players like three-time NBA Champion Klay Thompson, suspended its contract renewal talks with the NBA. Another brand, Li-Ning, announced that it would also suspend its ties with the league.

Days after Morey’s tweet, the Chinese Basketball Association canceled a scheduled game between G-League affiliates of the Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks that was set to take place in China. The Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to play two games in China as well, but after that announcement there were many questions still up in the air about whether the game would go on as planned — especially after an NBA Cares event involving the Nets in Shanghai was canceled as well. Posters promoting the game were taken down and there was a growing belief that the game would be canceled.

Confusion filled the air for both the fans and players, but ultimately the games were played as scheduled. But Tencent, the NBA’s official partner for broadcasting games in China, announced NB ACH INA on 11

The UC Davis equestrian team competes at its first home match against Oklahoma State on Oct. 23, 2019 at the UC Davis Equestrian Center. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

BY AJ SEYMOUR sports@theaggie.org The UC Davis women’s equestrian team was defeated 13-5 by the third-ranked Oklahoma State Cowgirls in a rigorous third matchup of the season. The Aggies garnered at least a point in each of the four events and outscored their opponents in reigning, but the skill and experience of Oklahoma State was enough to down UC Davis.

This was the Aggies’ first home meet of the year, and although the home team typically has the advantage of competing on its own horses, Senior jumping seat rider and captain Stephanie Don described how there can also be less favorable aspects.

“Home games are always really hard because we have to do all the preparation ourselves, we run the whole thing, so I’m so proud of [the team].”

Nevertheless, UC Davis was still able to remain competitive in the defeat. Impressively, this is only the second year the Aggies have competed as an official NCAA level team, and continue to show flashes of brilliance even against the high-caliber of teams they’re already competing against.

“I’m super proud of our girls,” Don continued. “All of the lineup girls tried really hard and we worked really hard all this week leading up to [the meet]. On the hunt seat side, we had really good rides. All of our horses were behaving, too, and they did great as well.”

The meet opened with the fences event, where Don was able to grab a point for the Aggies with a score of 76.0 in the final draw.

Sophomore Keely Laughlin and senior Sabin Marquardt were also able to put together rides that scored 74.0 and 78.0, respectively, but were outdone by the Oklahoma State riders they went up against.

Meanwhile on the outdoor arena, teams competed in the reigning event, where freshman Kendal Scheiner and junior Charlize Zuraek were both able to collect a point for UC Davis with rides of 65.0 and 68.0, respectively.

Freshman Macey Newkirk scored a team-high 73.0 on her ride but was unable to come away with a point because her OSU opponent finished with an identical score.

Two points turned out to be enough for the Aggies to outscore the Cowgirls in reigning, as two of the five head-to-head rides ended in a tie — so UC Davis took the event with a 2-1 score.

“I think that’s one really important aspect of this game is that we have huge 1200-1300 pound animals that have to do their job, too, just like how we have to,” said senior reigning rider Bobbie Piddock. “And so they all really came to play today. They all gave us their heart, and the girls did too. We laid out really good rides, really fun rides, so it was cool to watch.”

In the final two events of the afternoon — horsemanship and flat — sophomore Sarah Finkel and freshman Ella Longo had highlight rides for the Aggies. Finkel scored a 73.0 for her horsemanship ride, collecting UC Davis’ lone point of that event. In the flat event, Longo scored a team-high 75.0, but was unable to top her competitor, Oklahoma State senior EQVSOKSTATE on 11