October 15, 2020

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

@THECALIFORNIAAGGIE

SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THEAGGIE.ORG

@CALIFORNIAAGGIE

@CALIFORNIAAGGIE

VOLUME 139, ISSUE 2 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

AGGIES ANTICIPATE UPCOMING ELECTION WITHOUT USUAL ON-CAMPUS MORALE Polling places at the MU will no longer be open, but students and UC urge voting through other avenues

A man deposits his ballot into the ballot box outside of City Hall in Davis, California on Tuesday, Oct. 13. (QUINN SPOONER / AGGIE)

BY HANNAH BLOME campus@theaggie.org While the federal primary elections ignited political activity and prompted accessible polling booths on UC Davis’ campus in February, the upcoming November presidential election demonstrates a drastically different scene on the desolate campus.

“In terms of actual, physical voting, there is no polling place at the Memorial Union this year,” said Aurora Schunemann, a third-year international relations major and the president of Davis College Democrats.

While in-person voting is unattainable on campus, Schunemann said the recently passed Voter’s Choice Act allows for increased ballot drop off locations in California.

“California was already working towards having more ballot drop off locations available, and having vote centers be open for voting three days before the election as well,” Schunemann said.

“It’s definitely less convenient than having a ballot drop off box at the MU, but in Davis we have four ballot drop off boxes [at] both Nugget markets, and there’s one right outside of City Hall.”

Absentee, or mail-in ballots, are encouraged as the primary voting mechanism for this election.

“You should mail out your ballots as soon as you possibly can,” said Dylan Chicorel, a fourth-year political science and English double major. “With everything that’s going on [...] it’s important to get your ballot out there once you adequately research and come to a decision about the proposals and the candidates of your choice.”

Chicorel is a staff writer and the copy editor for Davis Political Review (DPR), a nonpartisan political commentary magazine at UC Davis.

The University of California and UC Davis have encouraged students to vote through emails and UCweVOTE coalitions.

“A number of our members are a part of the Aggie Vote Coalition,” Schunemann said.

The University of California approved the coalition’s idea to place a virtual tile on “myucdavis” and on Schedule Builder in an effort to direct students to voter registration guidelines.

The Aggie Vote Coalition is coordinating with ASUCD to include voter registration during new student orientation, Schunemann said.

“I feel like the University of California, alongside Davis, has encouraged students to vote to the extent that they encourage the significance of what it is to vote as a youth,” Chicorel said.

“However, they haven’t done everything that they could, but, then again, there’s a lot of limited opportunities. The pandemic is preventing them from providing more opportunities to students to more easily vote.”

On a local scale, canceling classes and academic responsibilities at UC Davis on Nov. 3 would encourage more students to vote.

In the past, the quad and Memorial Union proved essential for student involvement and political activism. Transitioning to virtual instruction has limited the accessibility and essential role of the student hub.

“We [DPR] no longer have the opportunity to directly talk to our fellow peers about the opportunities that are available to them in terms of expressing their own voice and opinions,” Chicorel said. “We have to use social media platforms and the platforms of existing members of DPR to properly reach out to the student body and other interested parties.”

Blake Pariseau, a third-year communications major, said that tabling at the Memorial Union for Davis College Republicans (DCR) was a primary recruiting source for previous years and transitioning to virtual recruitment proves challenging. Pariseau holds the position of Sergeant at Arms for DCR. Despite barriers to in-person political participation this year, students understand the overwhelming saliency of Nov. 3.

VOTING on 11

YOLO COUNTY MOVES DOWN INTO RED TIER FOR COVID-19, SOME INDOOR SERVICES INCLUDING DINING ALLOWED Despite progressing into Red Tier, public officials urge residents to continue following safety guidelines

CATHY TANG / AGGIE

BY EDEN WINNIFORD city@theaggie.org On Sept. 29, the State of California moved Yolo County from the Purple Tier for COVID-19 down into the Red Tier. This action allows restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and other businesses to operate indoors with a reduced capacity.

Yolo County was able to move down a tier after maintaining a positive test rate of 4.2% and a

daily case rate of 4.7. Yolo County Supervisor Jim Provenza explained that this action demonstrates the county’s success in confronting the pandemic.

“The main thing is that it shows we’re making progress on reducing our numbers of COVID-19 cases and the positive test results in the county,” Provenza said.

Despite this progress, a Yolo County press release urges people to continue adhering to COVID-19 safety guidelines.

“Everyone has a role to play in keeping our

THREE POSITIVE COVID-19 CASES EMERGE FROM ON-CAMPUS HOUSING

communities safe and healthy, including wearing a face covering, social distancing, and not gathering with others outside their household,” the press release reads. “Older adults and individuals with underlying medical conditions should continue to stay at home as much as possible.”

Provenza echoed this sentiment, cautioning that the county can move back into the Purple Tier if people don’t continue following restrictions.

“We have to be very careful because those numbers can be reversed quickly and there’s still a lot of people in the community who are infected,” Provenza said. “We have to continue to double down on wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.”

Davis City Councilmember Dan Carson explained that it’s possible for Yolo County to move into the Orange Tier less than a month after entering the Red Tier if residents and students stay cautious.

“If the numbers bear out, it’s theoretically possible that within three weeks of our going to the Red Tier that we can move down another tier,” Carson said. “But it’s really hard to know whether that will actually happen or not. We’ve got our fingers crossed, but we know with UC Davis back in some operation, that there are now more students back in town.”

In an effort to keep cases low in the dorms, UC Davis has introduced a testing and tracing program for students living on-campus. There is currently no UC Davis testing in place for students living and working off-campus, however.

Provenza said that although UC Davis doesn’t yet have the testing capacity for all students, the county and city are urging the university to ramp up testing quickly.

“The university plans to expand testing offcampus, and we want that to happen as soon as possible,” Provenza said. “They’re rolling out a new testing program that will enable them to test more people at one time and get the results back quicker.”

Although there is some worry over students sparking an outbreak in Davis, Carson asserted that any community member could spread the virus, so everyone has to be careful to protect each other.

“Of course there’s a risk of an outbreak happening in the dorms, but there’s also a risk of an outbreak happening in Davis among our residents,” Carson said. “We don’t want to sound like we’re lecturing students, because it’s everybody in our community that has a responsibility to act appropriately. We’re saying everyone has to observe these rules. Nobody is immune from this virus, so we’re trying to work together on all fronts.”

Carson also expressed that this move into the Red Tier will greatly help Davis businesses keep their doors open through the ongoing pandemic and economic downturn.

“Every step we take along this path back to normalcy will help our businesses to survive this,” Carson said. “A lot of our businesses are used to having a quiet summer, but having a quiet spring, summer and fall is very hard for many of them.”

NAME / AGGIE

Testing currently offered to students living in housing managed by Student Housing, sorority or fraternity housing, The Green at West Village, student firefighters, EMTs

BY AARYA GUPTA campus@theaggie.org The university confirmed that three students living on campus had tested positive for COVID-19 for the week of Sept. 28, according to CBS Sacramento and KCRA. When recently asked about these students, Associate Vice Chancellor for Housing, Dining and Divisional Operations Mike Sheehan said via email that “there were no positive cases found last week and there is now only one person still in isolation on campus.”

Sheehan neglected to comment on why the broader UC Davis community was uninformed about these students, and said that Student Housing and Dining Services “outreach to possible contacts and determine the level of risk for spread.”

Students living on campus “can be expected” to complete weekly testing throughout the quarter. These tests are conducted at a COVID-19 screening kiosk in the Pavilion parking structure, where a saliva sample or nasal swab is collected.

Results are texted or emailed within 48 hours.

According to the UC Davis website, “everyone — students, employees, visitors — must complete a Daily Symptom Survey before entering a university-managed facility.” Individuals are expected to provide a screenshot or a print-out of their survey results, as it dictates whether they are approved to enter campus facilities or not.

UC Davis is launching a rapid screening and testing program in response to COVID-19.

At the moment, however, testing is available only for certain students and employees who are asymptomatic. Students displaying COVID-19

The Student Health and Wellness Center on the UC Davis Campus. (AGGIE FILE) symptoms are encouraged to contact Student Health and Counseling Services or their doctor, while employees are urged to contact Occupational Health or their doctor.

At the ASUCD Senate Meeting on Oct. 1, Chancellor Gary May said that a recent student survey revealed that out of approximately 23,000 to 25,000 students, around half of undergraduates and 70% of graduate students said they were

planning on living close to campus or on campus.

More specifically, about 2,650 students are expected to live in campus housing this fall, with about 1,800 students residing in residence halls and 800 in student housing apartments.

This article was originally published online on Oct. 13, 2020.

POSITIVECASES on 11

2 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC Davis establishes contact-tracing protocols as rates of infections soar among young people People in their 20s may experience milder symptoms, but should still socially distance and wear masks, experts say

A student spits into a vial during the saliva portion of a COVID-19 test, which was conducted at the Hutchison Drive parking lot screening center on Oct. 8, 2020. (QUINN SPOONER / AGGIE)

BY REBECCA BIHN-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org Amid soaring rates of coronavirus infection among young people, UC Davis has established contact-tracing protocols to protect the health of students, faculty and staff. College campuses around the nation have become hotspots for COVID-19, which can be seen in data collected

by The New York Times. As of early September, approximately 88,000 coronavirus cases were reported across 1,200 campuses.

According to a recent report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), young people currently make up the highest number of COVID-19 incidences in the U.S. Following the increase in cases among people in their 20s, people aged 60 and older also experienced a spike in infection rates.

A coronavirus study, which hasn’t undergone

peer review, said that the spike in cases this fall occurred following the reopening of college campuses. The study posited, however, that the increase in cases only occurred at universities offering predominantly in-person instruction.

And currently, most courses at UC Davis are only offered online.

Since young individuals with COVID-19 often have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic, they might not even realize they are infected, so social distancing and prevention measures are still critical.

On the UC Davis campus, positive COVID-19 results are reported to the Yolo County Department of Health. According to CBS Sacramento, there are currently 3 students living on campus who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. UC Davis Health confirmed this information, the article said.

Dr. Cindy Schorzman, the medical director of UC Davis Student Health and Counseling

Services, said that small or large gatherings— particularly without the necessary personal protective equipment—are often where people on campus have been contracting the coronavirus.

“Certainly one of the biggest parts of college is social interaction, and so the desire and tendency is always there to want to be together,” Schorzman said.

Positive test results occurring on campus are sent to case investigators at Student Health and Counseling Services, which is implementing contact tracing measures by identifying where the coronavirus was contracted.

“Case investigators relay pertinent information to medical professionals, who must be [made aware] of all positive COVID-19 diagnoses,” Schorzman said.

She added that case investigators and contact tracers will also work with students

to identify where they may have contracted COVID-19. Those who have tested positive on campus are alerted to their condition and given instruction regarding necessary isolation protocols.

“While they’re in that space they’re checked on daily by a medical professional to make sure they’re doing okay,” Schorzman said. “If a student is in a place where they can’t isolate, or if there are any barriers they face to isolating safely, we can provide them with housing on campus in one of the dorms. Meals are provided at no cost.”

Contact tracers for the university must also communicate with relevant authorities—who are referred to as “close contacts”—to provide up-to-date information about quarantine guidelines and measures.

The contact tracers must also inform Safety Services about any campus facilities used by the patient in question. These areas will then be appropriately disinfected.

Schorzman said that one of the biggest misconceptions about COVID-19 diagnoses is that identifying information about a positive case will be publicized or given to people not associated with the public health profession.

For a range of diseases—COVID-19 among them—patients must fill out a confidential morbidity report (CMR) which is reported to public health officials so that they can “appropriately keep track of and respond to diseases,” according to Schorzman When it comes to COVID-19 research, individuals must consent to the use of their identifying information as well. Any information traceable to a specific person cannot be released without the consent of the subject.

This identifying information is only given to the relevant public health officials in Davis, who are required by law to report the information to the Yolo County Department of Health. Any further sharing of such information would be a violation of doctorpatient confidentiality.

Schorzman also emphasized that students have mostly been handling coronavirus regulations well.

“I think they’re trying very hard and being respectful of the public health measures,” Schorzman said. “UC Davis students have mostly been very mindful. If you walk on campus, almost everybody is wearing masks.

With move-ins, people were very good about complying [to the regulations]. But everybody is human, and human nature is to want to try and have social gatherings. We really want to remind people not to do that.”

UC Davis launches ‘public phase’ of $2 billion fundraising campaign The campaign has raised $1.2 billion since its start in 2016

The Walter A. Buehler Alumni Center at UC Davis. (JUSTIN HAN / AGGIE)

BY SABRINA HABCHI campus@theaggie.org Last week, UC Davis effectively ended the “quiet phase” of its $2 billion fundraising campaign that began in 2016 and entered its “public phase” that will continue until 2024. The campaign has already raised $1.2 billion during the first four years and plans to address issues such as “pandemic response, climate change, public safety and more,” according to a UC Davis press release.

Of the $1.2 billion raised, $180 million has been specifically

raised for student scholarships and fellowships for graduate students, according to Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Relations Shaun Keister. Keister said that there is not a particular dollar goal for student scholarships because of the campaign’s donor-centered approach.

“When we talk with donors, we find out what areas of the institution they want to impact the most, and if they say scholarships, of course, we pursue that,” Keister said. “If you think about the fact that we’re halfway through the campaign and we’ve raised $180 million to date, it’s not to say that we would double that, but we will clearly raise a significant more amount for

scholarships and fellowships in the second half of the campaign.”

Many UC Davis alumni who have chosen to donate do choose to create student scholarships or fellowships, both of which Keister called primary focuses of the campaign.

“It’s actually something a lot of our alumni want to do, because they themselves, having been students here, understand that our students can use that type of financial support,” Keister said.

With regard to climate change, funds from the campaign will support key areas of climate change identified by a group of faculty and Smart Farm, an effort to make farming more efficient to feed a growing population, according to Keister.

“This campaign specifically looks at addressing climate change and there is a very broad group of over 100 faculty across different disciplines on campus who have come together and identified some very key areas where we are the leading researchers in the nation, in the world,” Keister said. “With philanthropy, we can really have a huge impact on these specific areas of climate change.”

Keister said the quiet phase is important for establishing an infrastructure for the rest of the campaign.

“We go to many of our donors who we know very well and who have supported us in the past,” Keister said. “During [the quiet phase], you’re testing different ideas, seeing if they resonate with donors, recruiting volunteers—we have over 600 alumni, parents and friends who are serving as volunteers for the campaign.”

The public phase is intended to reach a broader number of alumni, parents and friends of UC Davis in order to raise the remaining $800 million of the campaign’s goal. This will be done through much outreach, according to Keister.

“Our staff, university leaders, faculty are engaged in reaching out to donors and prospective donors around the world who might have an interest in supporting UC Davis,” Keister said.

“The volunteers are advocates for us as well in their communities around the world in reaching out to fellow Aggies that live near them or that they know through their networks. It’s a matter of

This article was originally published online on Oct. 13, 2020.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 | 3

CITY WILL LEASE EMPTY APARTMENTS TO MEMBERS OF HOMELESS POPULATION DURING UPCOMING WINTER Creative solution will shelter residents from cold, decrease spread of COVID-19

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org On Sept. 22, the Davis City Council voted to lease 25 apartments for six months—from October until March—to 40 members of the homeless community. This program is primarily for those with an underlying health condition or people over 65 years, according to an article from the Davis Enterprise.

The city of Davis has 190 unhoused people as of the latest Point-in-Time count in 2019, according to a staff report for the meeting. The city already has a number of programs to support and house members of the homeless population, including Project Roomkey—which currently houses individuals in 39 local hotel rooms—and more.

In the past 13 years, the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter (IRWS) has provided shelter for people in different properties, due to the cold weather. This winter, however, the program will not be possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID pandemic has made provision of services more complicated and costlier, and the community needs a solution to house people during the upcoming cold weather season,” the staff report reads.

Instead, IRWS and the City of Davis “have been working with together with other stakeholder partners to develop a solution to allow the community to safely house unsheltered individuals in a non-congregate setting, which greatly reduces their risk of contracting COVID-19 and/or transmitting it throughout the community,” the staff report reads.

This program is in “partnership of Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter, City, CommuniCare, DOVe and Yolo Food Bank,” according to the presentation presented at the meeting.

During the meeting, Assistant City Manager Kelly Stachowicz explained that there are many empty apartments in Davis since UC Davis classes are mostly online.

“Normally the vacancy rate for rental units in Davis is near zero,” Stachowicz said. “Right now, with UC Davis mostly virtual there are many apartments that sit empty.”

The program will aim to shelter approximately the same number of people as IRWS did in previous years.

“The program is estimated to serve approximately 40 people per night,” Stachowicz

KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE said. “That’s the max number that the IRWS was able to serve through most of their placements in a regular year.”

Leases and medical services will be paid for by the City from their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). Additionally, IRWS will use some of their regular CDBG funding for the program’s coordination and some of the case management.

Councilmember Will Arnold also commented that the program will reduce strain on local healthcare by proactively keeping the homeless population safe.

“Ensuring the health and safety of our fellow

community members, I mean that’s our most important job,” Arnold said. “And this includes protecting vulnerable populations, but also minimizing the strain on our healthcare system during this pandemic. And in the absence of a congregative shelter as an option, we found a creative solution in housing those in need during the winter.”

This program will also include wraparound services, such as “food, health checks and working to get folks into permanent housing,” according to Arnold.

Councilmember Dan Carson also expressed his support towards the program during the city

council meeting.

“We have to work together as a community to help [the homeless population] and to help our community as a whole,” Carson said. “So I’ll be supporting this.”

In addition, “the intent is to move participants out, into permanent housing, if possible,” according to the presentation.

Ultimately, the program will help to house vulnerable members of the homeless population during the upcoming cold winter months, despite the challenges presented by COVID-19 in providing shelter.

CHANCELLOR MAY RESPONDS TO CONCERNS

BY SENATORS ABOUT POTENTIAL COVID-19 SPREAD ON CAMPUS The university prepares for COVID-19 outbreaks by setting aside a 400-bed facility to house quarantined students

CAITLYN SAMPLEY / AGGIE

BY KATHLEEN QUINN campus@theaggie.org The Oct. 1 ASUCD virtual special senate meeting was called to order at 5:56 p.m by Vice President Emily Barneond.

Chancellor May kicked off ASUCD’s first meeting of the academic year by addressing COVID-19 outbreak prevention on the campus, as other universities throughout the country experience an uptick in cases.

A roughly 400-bed facility located at Primero Grove will work as quarantine and isolation for students who test positive for the virus, said May. Senator Hunter Ottman asked what the threshold would be to change mitigation plans if

an outbreak occurs.

“I would say if we get anywhere close to the 400 beds at Primero Grove, I think we need to be doing something else,” May said. “But we’re still working out at what levels we take different actions.”

There are a total of 35 courses being taught in-person on campus, with the remaining remote for fall. Approximately 2,600 students are in residence halls or other student housing for this quarter, May said.

“We’re trying to be very transparent about who’s being tested on campus,” said Kelly Ratliff, the vice chancellor of finance operations and administration. “And then we’re also tracking cases for people in our community, even if they might be working remotely.”

The UC Davis safety services dashboard shows 84 confirmed cases between faculty and staff with 24 considered active as of Oct. 11.

A mobile-friendly daily symptom survey is required for anyone entering the campus, but it relies on self-reporting.

“Just as with wearing masks and distancing, the daily symptom survey relies on the honor system and everyone doing their part to help prevent the spread of the virus,” May said.

COVID-19 testing is currently only being done at one location, however, May said that they are looking to expand to another location close to the Mondavi Center.

Ratliff said the administration is adapting their strategies as they learn more, but up until this point, it has worked better to combine

multiple smaller testing into one site at the Pavilion parking garage.

The ASUCD proposed budget was presented

by Senate Controller Alexis Eduardo LopezPerez. The presentation reviewed potential cuts to programs related to events and on-campus services to balance the budget as revenues fall due to the ongoing pandemic.

“We don’t want to be the cause of the COVID-19 outbreak, even if we were allowed to do in-person events,” Lopez-Perez said in reference to the elimination of events that the ASUCD would normally host.

The “Basic Needs and Services Referendum” passed in Winter Quarter was used to recoup approximately $2 million in losses the senate sustained in Spring Quarter when the pandemic caused a sudden shutdown of the campus, LopezPerez said.

The proposed budget was referred to the Business and Finance Commission for review.

Senator Mahan Carduny questioned the chancellor on how students are being compensated for the closure of recreational facilities on campus and change in the traditional format for courses.

“I mean, I have a professor this quarter reusing lectures from spring quarter, and it just doesn’t seem necessarily fair,” Carduny said.

Currently, there is an ongoing lawsuit related to refunding fees that were charged for oncampus services students were unable to take advantage of due to pandemic closures.

May relayed to Muhan that the state mandates tuition and that he does not have the authority to affect the cost of tuition.

“I will say this, setting aside the one professor you mentioned, the vast majority of your instructors and faculty are working probably harder than they have ever worked to deliver the remote instruction in a reasonable way,” May said.

Fees, which are not regulated by the state, are bundled in a way that makes it difficult to assess reductions and maintain facilities, May said.

“It’s not like you paying for a service; it’s not like you buy a movie ticket to go in,” May said. “It’s bundled with several other services, it’s bundled with the debt service to pay for facilities, so it’s not easy to pull that out and separate it.”

4 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Students return to Davis for fall instruction, boon for businesses but parties pose risk Clubs cancel Halloween parties, find safe ways to host events MARIO RODRIGUEZ / AGGIE

BY JELENA LAPUZ city@theaggie.org The first quarter at UC Davis since the COVID-19 pandemic has begun, which means more students have returned to Davis. Although roughly 50% of undergraduate students are predicted to live in Davis this quarter, the increase in students has still impacted Davis.

City of Davis Mayor Gloria Partida noted how the return of more students would leave a positive impact on downtown Davis.

“Most of the businesses downtown operate at a deficit during the summer and make most of

their profit during the school year when students are here,” Partida said. “There was quite a relief when it was known that some students would be returning.”

Rory Osborne, the president of Friends of the Davis Public Library, explained that Logos Books will most likely still have less business because fewer students will be returning to Davis. While Logos Books did not have any concrete plans for the upcoming year, the ideal plan would be to eventually return to normalcy.

Before the pandemic, Osborne described how customers who came to Logos Books often drifted over from nearby shops, making downtown feel more “open.” After COVID-19, they put in more

safety measures before reopening to the public.

Osborne considers the bookstore a mental haven for many, especially now from the stress of the pandemic.

“There’s so many people who are sort of mentally down and out with all the stuff going on so the bookstore gives them a respite,” Osborne said. “A lot of people just enjoy being in a bookstore—whether they buy something or not.”

Osborne further explained why Logos Books was a staple to downtown Davis and its contributions to the Davis community in general.

“We give 100% of everything that we make,” Osborne said. “100% of everything that we make goes to the public library reading programs, immigrant reading programs, [and] all sorts of various things that they are able to do because of the money that we give them.”

Despite benefitting the business community, Mayor Partida revealed that the community at large was concerned due to anecdotal evidence that gatherings and parties were still occurring.

To help combat this, an initiative called Healthy Davis Together was launched by both the city and the university to address the increase in COVID-19 cases seen by other college towns after the return of more students.

“We are really hoping that we have learned from lessons elsewhere and have a really good handle on students being safe and getting the awareness out,” Mayor Partida said. “We are trying to be as proactive as possible.”

Sydney Hamren, president of Ski or Snowboard Club at UC Davis, explained how Ski or Snowboard Club was notorious for throwing one of the most popular parties during Halloween weekend before the pandemic.

Known as the Halloween Crawl, partygoers

would purchase pre-sold tickets and dress up in costume the night of the party, which would usually span a few different houses. Unfortunately, Hamren stated that they are unable to host this event this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“Our club is really about inclusion and being social,” Hamren said. “It was kind of a hard hit [from] the pandemic because pretty much every single event [had] to be canceled.”

Although the annual Halloween Crawl is canceled, Ski or Snowboard Club has adapted in other ways. Hamren described how they have adapted from in-person meetings to Zoom meetings. They are also planning for contactless events this fall such as free ski tune-ups and a drivein ski movie premiere that involves a Red Bull partnership.

Despite everything, Hamren added a note of positivity for the upcoming school year.

“I do hope people aren’t deterred by the pandemic,” Hamren said. “[...] We do have a lot of fun stuff planned this fall and we are adapting.”

Mayor Partida also expressed hope that the upcoming Halloween holiday would not lead to large gatherings of people as it typically has prior to the pandemic.

Mayor Partida added a final comment about the return of more students to town. “[Students] are a big part of our community, and we are quite sincerely hoping that we can maintain their safety and that they are participants in that effort,” Mayor Partida said. “We hope that they are successful in their educational endeavors and that we can all get through this pandemic together safely.”

Understanding both sides: What to know before voting on Measure B Davis students and activists discuss how the measure may help or harm the city

The Davis City Offices building in downtown. (QUINN SPOONER / AGGIE)

BY LYRA FARRELL features@theaggie.org Everyone registered to vote in Davis for the Nov. 3 elections will see Measure B on their ballot.

The measure proposes that a new campus, the Davis Innovation and Sustainability Campus (DISC), be built on the northeastern corner of Davis, covering about 200 acres of land. For those in favor of the bill, the goal of the proposed development is to attract innovation, contribute to Davis’ affordable housing and improve city amenities. It will use “100 percent renewable energy” in the process, according to the Yes on B website. Some in support of the measure, like Gwen Chodur, a fifth-year nutritional biology PhD candidate, believe that the new campus will provide a space for students who want to expand their research.

“My vision of Davis with Measure B [...] is a place where there is a pipeline for industry and innovation from the university,” Chodur said. “And so graduate students specifically can build on the work that they’ve done during their dissertation and bring it to market.”

Jonathan Minnick, a third-year musicology PhD candidate, believes that UC Davis is currently lacking what Measure B might provide, and that leading universities set an example for what Davis could look like if the DISC were built.

“Many of the world’s top universities have a

similar campus to what is proposed by the DISC, and it works so well because of the proximity,” Minnick said, via email. “It allows for innovation and opportunities that are currently unavailable to Davis students and researchers.”

A main topic of consideration when looking at the DISC is its promise of environmental sustainability. Minnick sees the proposal as addressing concerns the community might have relating to global warming, and becoming a place where climate research could eventually take course.

“The focus on sustainability is also critical— we are facing a huge problem with climate change, worldwide and in California, and finding ways to address it is the only way we can truly think about the future,” Minnick said.

Others, like Alan Pryor, the current chair of the local Sierra Club Yolano Group and member of the City of Davis Natural Resources Commission, have expressed concern around the possible carbon emissions of vehicles traveling to and from the DISC, and how this relates to the city’s goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2040.

“The only way they’re going to get to neutrality, because 80% of the CO2 emissions are directly related to traffic, is to take a huge bite out of the traffic that’s going to or from the project,” Pryor said. “We’re living in a world now where we’ve seen the largest fires ever in the Pacific Northwest, Siberia, Australia and the Amazon, and we’re seeing the greatest number of ice melts

ever in Antarctica and Greenland. And we’re sitting here talking about increasing the city of Davis’ carbon footprint by 8% for this one single project. It’s simply unacceptable. It’s madness.”

In addition to his concerns about climate change, Pryor expressed his belief that Mace Boulevard, the major roadway that would lead to the development, wouldn’t look the same after its construction.

“I see the entire Mace Boulevard corridor being hopelessly congested,” Pryor said. “They really haven’t proposed any significant mitigation for that in terms of either expanding Mace Boulevard or its capacity.”

Minnick, however, believes that the benefits of Measure B outweigh possible traffic backup, which he says can be fixed.

“The traffic issues that people bring up are fixable, and if we only approved projects based on traffic, the town would not grow or change whatsoever from what we see today,” Minnick said. “It totally ignores many of the benefits that Measure B brings to our town.”

Roberta Millstein, a philosophy professor who is also affiliated with the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, rejects the notion of sustainability the measure puts forth, saying that a lack of public transportation would be problematic for levels of carbon emissions.

“The supposed ‘green jobs’ that the DISC would produce are based on empty promises,” Millstein said, via email. “Any project that plans on 5,600 parking spaces without any good public transportation options—clearly a commuteroriented venture—cannot be said to be providing green jobs.”

Despite the arguments against Measure B, for Chodur, the potential construction of the DISC would create the possibility of a lasting, beneficial space that would encourage students to remain in Davis after graduation.

“As a graduate student, I want [DISC] to be in Davis because this is a way for students to be able to stay in the community to really build a community,” Chodur said. “Having this new option for what will be very high skill jobs speaks to the potential to keep students here who want to stay here and [...] to continue to maintain the community that they’ve built, but then also to be able to give something back to the city that a lot of us really care about.”

AGGIE FILE

Stop screaming and dancing outside!

September 25 “Customer found a small baggy of what appears to be drugs.”

September 26 “Male was sawing at his 2nd story balcony.”

September 27 “Unable to open windows due to neighbors smoking pot in backyard.”

“Party complaint. Several females outside screaming and dancing.”

October 1 “Respondent requested more meat protein in his diet.”

October 2 “Leaf blower violation.”

October 4 “Respondent went to the carwash, carwash is broken so she went inside for her money. The employee threw the money at her and cursed at her several times.”

“People playing football without masks.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2020 | 5

OPINION OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM HAS FAILED THOSE THEY DEEM UNDIAGNOSABLE & UNTREATABLE The healthier everyone is, the more we all benefit

MARIO RODRIGUEZ / AGGIE

BY KACEY CAIN klcain@ucdavis.edu Last spring, I enrolled in a sociology class called Society, Culture and Health. Part of our final for the class was to watch a documentary and write a lengthy research paper. After much deliberation, I picked a documentary

THE

that demonstrated the challenges of living with medically undiagnosed illnesses. Though my original intent was to complete the assignment to the best of my ability and move on, I quickly became invested in the messiness that is our healthcare system and the lives it affects.

There are many physiological needs—like water, food, shelter and sleep—that are essential for our survival. Luckily, most of the time we are

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TOR I AL B OAR D

ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SABRINA HABCHI Campus News Editor EDEN WINNIFORD City News Editor CALVIN COFFEE Opinion Editor SOPHIE DEWEES Features Editor

able to access those resources easily. Resources that can be life-saving such as doctor’s visits, MRIs and medication, however, are less readily available for the majority of the U.S. population.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few barriers to receiving proper health care.

Most establishments won’t schedule an appointment without a silly, plastic insurance card. A card that proves you have insurance and that ensures establishments receive money for their services. Not to mention, it’s become increasingly apparent that factors such as race, gender, weight and ethnicity determine the quality of medical attention you recieve.

If you’re lucky enough to have a doctor’s appointment, it’s not guaranteed you’ll receive the answers in which you were looking for or any answers at all. There is an abundance of individuals who live with symptoms that are undiagnosable and sometimes untreatable.

They receive countless negative tests and quickly get lost in the sea of unknown. After multiple unsuccessful doctors visits, these patients lose hope and so do their medical professionals––creating a tumultuous relationship that further prevents proper care.

This is not to say that all experiences are negative and that all doctors’ actions or beliefs are the same. I realize how much work, time and effort goes into the profession and I am grateful for all they do. I do, however, think many people have been swept under the rug and haven’t received the attention they deserve.

I may be biased, but I, like many others,

have been left with no answers and no hope for a solution. It doesn’t take an expert to see there is a clear problem with how our healthcare system operates. It is a basic human right to have access to health care, yet the majority of people are not receiving the care they are promised or even the care they need.

It’s not fair that something that is necessary for life can be so unattainable.

This problem is not an easy fix. There’s a reason it’s a topic of debate and so many people are divided on this matter. We need to look at the big picture and see that the healthier we all are, the more we all benefit. That’s because health doesn’t just affect the individual, it affects communities and the world at large. To have a functioning society, you need healthy individuals who will build social capital. We can’t have healthy individuals in a society without proper and accessible health care.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

THE 2020 ELECTION IS ABOUT MORE THAN THE PRESIDENCY. GET OUT AND VOTE! UC Davis should postpone mandatory lectures, exams on Nov. 3 so students can focus on voting

ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor MADDIE PAYNE Science & Tech Editor

SIERRA JIMENEZ New Media Manager JUSTIN HAN Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director JOELLE TAHTA Layout Director KAITLIN ARAGHI Copy Chief ALEX WEINSTEIN Copy Chief ANDREW LEE Website Manager BEN CHENG Social Media Manager JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

Young people are told to vote every election, but this year it really is important to fill out our ballots, send them in and make our voices heard. The next president will be decided in November, but there are also local propositions, measures and other elected officials that will affect everyday life, where each individual vote has a greater impact on the outcome.

The Editorial Board urges UC Davis to take this into consideration and make voting easier by preventing professors from holding mandatory synchronous lectures or scheduling exams on Election Day. Since Nov. 3 is the last day in California to mail or drop off ballots, this action will allow students to focus on delivering their ballots to election officials. And if they procrastinate—as college students notoriously do—it will give them extra time to research the candidates and propositions to make the most informed choices possible.

In Yolo County, a seat for the U.S. House of Representatives is open, and Measure B could establish a new research facility and more affordable housing units in Davis. The propositions in California this year have the power to end the ban on affirmative action in public institutions, change Uber and Lyft gig drivers from independent contractors to employees and give voting rights to parolees and, in special cases, 17-year-olds.

Register to vote here if you haven’t already done so— the deadline is Oct. 19 in California and varies by state.

Voter registration status can be found here, and track where a California ballot is in the mail if it still hasn’t been delivered. You may need to reregister if you have moved or need to update your information.

Compare all of the candidates at once by typing in your voting address at ballotready.org. This site gives a condensed explanation of the California propositions— but remember to read each measure carefully on the ballot. Some are written with double negatives, so a vote “No” could actually mean “Yes.” Completed ballots can be mailed to your county’s

election official in California. For California voters, ballots will count as long as they’re postmarked by Nov. 3 and arrive within 15 days of the election. Sealed ballots can also be dropped off in any of these Davis locations by 8:00 p.m. on Nov. 3.

There’s a lot of information about voting, and it can seem like a daunting amount of research—especially on top of schoolwork, jobs and clubs. Young people have the lowest turnout rates for any age group, and they reference schedule conflicts and a lack of free time on Election Day as reasons for not voting.

Young adults historically have the lowest turn-out rates in elections, even though the results impact them for the longest amount of time. Not only should we vote, but we also have to tell our friends who “don’t care” about politics that our votes have real impacts on our counties, states and country. And as college students, we’re more likely than non-university students to vote, so we can’t forget to remind our non-university friends as well.

Even if the fractured state of U.S. politics today is demoralizing, remember that this election isn’t just about two white males over the age of 70. No matter where you live, local elections will have lasting impacts on everyday life for years to come.

By voting in November, we’ll form good voting habits and set a precedent for future generations. This year, we can learn how to make informed, unbiased voting decisions—rather than relying on only one news source for all of our opinions. More importantly, we can prove that young people have the power to sway elections and change the political landscape.

A strong youth turnout in 2020 can inspire even more young people to vote in 2024, and then the ballot could reflect the diversity and ideals we believe in. But we can’t change our country if we don’t take action, and voting is a great way to do so. Register to vote, fill out your ballot and turn it in by the deadline.

6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

OPINION VERY CLEVER FACEBOOK DAD CALLS DONALD TRUMP A ‘CHEETO’ You’ve really done it this time, Dave

BY ISABELLA CHUECOS ifchuecos@ucdavis.edu

C H E E T O !!

KATHERINE FRANKS/ AGGIE

Dave was tired.

The presidential debate Tuesday night was nothing short of pure, unbridled trash.

Dave watched it alone and much to his personal chagrin, without his cellphone (which was being repaired after he dropped it in the toilet while laughing hysterically at why the universe was punishing him).

Dave’s a good, upstanding 50-something who just wanted to livetweet his debate experience to his four followers (his seventeen-year-old son, his brother and two scantily clad Twitter bots).

As the debate went on, Dave grew angrier and angrier. He was furious at what the nation had come to. President Trump was the arbiter of this category five crisis, and at that moment, he felt powerless to do anything about it.

“I’ve done it all. I’ve posted the black square on Instagram. My first cousin three times removed went to a protest. I even donated twenty bucks to a charity one time!” Dave announced to no one, his LaZ-Boy groaning under the sheer weight of Dave’s passionate political fervor. “There’s only so much to do, I mean, we’re in a pandemic after all.”

When Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacy, Dave saw red.

This racist, bigoted, downright sorry excuse for a President couldn’t even do the bare minimum. He couldn’t say: “I condemn white supremacy.” It was infuriating.

As the moderator began his closing

statements, Dave rushed upstairs to his study with laptop in hand. His fingers preceded his mind as he logged into his Facebook account.

The “Write a post” button was beckoning him, winking at him, seducing him. It was simply begging for Dave’s astute political commentary. His posts were almost always liked by someone which, in Dave’s mind, meant he had a “platform to utilize.”

“It’s my duty, as a white man with more privilege than anyone else, to use my platform to enlighten people,” Dave said. He’d practiced that line in the mirror many times, almost always struggling at the “privilege” line.

Dave knew what he had to do. He racked his brain, desperate to find the words to describe the horrors he had just witnessed. Racist? Bigot? Imbecile? A threat to democracy?

“I don’t know what to say, honestly, but I know I have something to say. I’m gonna lay it on thick tonight,” Dave muttered to himself.

There were so many offenses he could point out: the innumerable coronavirus deaths, the racist rhetoric, the empty promises. Finally, his eureka moment was upon him. Smiling, he carefully typed his well-worded, eloquent takeaway that would encapsulate all of his frustrations from the debate and 2020: “Ugh. Stupid Cheeto man.”

Perfect.

(This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

“FADS ARE JUST A FAD, WILL GO AWAY EVENTUALLY,” EXPERTS WARN People love fads, but not enough to keep them around, apparently Tim Prairie: In other words, nothing new will stand out and garner widespread popularity for only the blink of an eye, because EVERYTHING will garner widespread enthusiasm and popularity for only the blink of an eye.

R.E. Porter: Wow. And I always thought that the seemingly endless cycle of new, exciting and novel fads and trends rocketing in popularity only to quickly disappear forever would never lose its novelty! Well now I’d like to bring the millennial and Gen Z perspective to this discussion of fads.

To do that, we’re thrilled to be joined by Ensley, Paisleigh, Ridge, Raylee, Jurnee, Jaxxon, Oaklynn, Oaklyn, Kynlee, Kannon, Kashton, Kai, Kaylee, Kaleigh, Kayleigh, Kaylie, Kayly, Kayley, Kaily, Kaley, Kyng and Queeen. So, do y’all think that The New Fad will stick around, or do you see yourselves soon growing tired of it?

KATHERINE FRANKS/ AGGIE

BY BENJAMIN PORTER bbporter@ucdavis.edu

Reporter R.E. Porter spoke with several fad experts to find out.

Our top reporter R.E. Porter is back from his summer cavation. No, not vacation, and not a staycation. A cavation. He spent the entire summer sitting in a cave, thinking. Despite repeated efforts to get R.E. Porter to report, he was reportedly suffering from Reporter’s Block, a condition in which reporters from the Fake News Media struggle to come up with good ideas that they can spin into entertaining and dramatically satisfying news “stories.”

Luckily, after drawing inspiration from the New York Times’ brilliant fictional investigation of President Trump’s taxes, R.E. Porter has emerged from his cave and put his imagination back to work, fabricating a fascinating news story about fads.

Even from within the social isolation of the coronavirus lockdowns, the latest fad has taken a bored and easily-distracted nation by storm (especially white people for some reason, but that’s a story of its own). But is The New Fad destined to suffer the fate of all fads and futile fixations that came before it, fizzling out into obscurity where it will be forgotten forever?

R.E. Porter: Hello, I’m here for a sociallydistanced panel with fad experts Tim Prairie and F.M Earl, as well as several random millennials and zoomers who are obsessed with The New Fad. Anyway, I’d like to start with this question: How long will The New Fad last?

Tim Prairie: Well, despite a meteoric rise in popularity over the last few weeks, we anticipate that interest in The New Fad will soon drop dramatically. In fact, if The New Fad fails in as major of a way as our predictive models suggest, then it could spell big danger for all fads in the long run, which is quite concerning.

R.E. Porter: That’s certainly disappointing for people who are really enjoying this fad, but not unexpected given that it’s just a fad. Why is this something we should be worried about? Aren’t fads, by definition, temporary and ephemeral?

F.M. Earl: Yes, that is true. But we are observing two trends that make us increasingly alarmed that fads themselves are just a fad that will

go away eventually and disappear forever.

Millennial 1: No! We don’t want fads to go away! We always love being “in” on all of the latest fads and trends!

Tim Prairie: You have to be careful not to confuse fads with trends. Trends rise slowly, have a large scope and reflect a need to fulfill a practical and/or emotional purpose; fads quickly surge and tank in popularity, have a narrow scope and typically fulfill no need for people other than the desire to be “in” on the fad.

R.E. Porter: I see. So what are these two concerning fad trends you referred to?

F.M. Earl: Firstly, young people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter by the microsecond, which is making fads last for shorter and shorter periods of time. And secondly, fads are becoming stupider and stupider. This concerns us because in combination, these two trends could allow for a paradoxical situation in which increasingly stupid and short-lived fads come to permanently define more and more aspects of our culture.

Ensley, Paisleigh, Ridge, Raylee, Jurnee, Jaxxon, Oaklynn, Oaklyn, Kynlee, Kannon, Kashton, Kai, Kaylee, Kaleigh, Kayleigh, Kaylie, Kayly, Kayley, Kaily, Kaley, Kyng and Queeen [in unison (?)]: NOT AT ALL! We totally LOVE The New Fad. There’s no way we’d ever get bored of this! Just like that last fad, that was so cool and fun, too! What was it called again?

Oh yeah, The Old Fad! Wow we forgot all about that! It’s been like a month, that’s like SOOOO long! We could go back to that, but why bother when we have The New Fad now? It’s so hard to make sure we’re up to date with all the newest fads and trends LOL. F.M. Earl: Again, there’s a difference between fads and trends. For example, there was once a fad in which stunningly white parents gave their children extremely bad names, but instead of dying out like fads are supposed to, we began to experience rapid “fad waves” as a trend in which the names have to become progressively stupider in order to actually stand out due to the fact that higher levels of stupidity are constantly being normalized.

Tim Prairie: Exactly. Stupid short-term and short-lived fads, like abhorrent white baby names, are becoming long-term trends, making the concept of a fad lose all meaning. And this is happening with everything in our culture, at this very moment.

(This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

FADS on 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 | 7

OCTOBER MARKS FILIPINO AMERICAN HISTORY MONTH Commemoration is through education, America’s history of oppression in the Philippines continues to be prevalent today

BY MARIAH VIKTORIA CANDELARIA arts@theaggie.org Filipino American History Month (or FAHM, as it’s widely known in the FilipinxAmerican (FilAm) community) is celebrated in October to commemorate the first recorded presence of Filipinos in the continental U.S. Many organizations hold events to bring attention to the significance of this month and educate the community on the history of FilAm people.

Although this month celebrates the beginnings of what is now one of the U.S.’ largest ethnic groups, it is mainly an opportunity for people to seek out information on their cultural background and the struggles of what the FilAm community has faced.

One of the most repressed narratives in FilAmhistory comes from how the U.S. was (and still is) complicit in the erasure of Filipino communities and culture, while refusing to truly recognize those effects.

The U.S.’ heavy-handed influence stems from the aftermath of the Philippine Revolution against Spanish colonialism. While the U.S. had originally offered their support for Philippine

independence, after the war the U.S. claimed sovereignty over the Philippines and overthrew the rising government.

Additionally, the U.S. government offered Filipinos American citizenship and land if they enlisted in World War II, but once the war ended, they were denied those things and were not recognized as veterans. Despite having used the islands as a warzone, the U.S. also refused to help rebuild the Philippines lands and economy, instead creating an imperial rule that mimicked the U.S.’s own system of government under the veil of democracy.

This bureaucracy still exists as the primary form of authority in the Philippines with its current president, Rodrigo Duterte, working closely with Donald Trump.

Much of the history is oppressed to hide the effects of colonization in the islands that continue to exist and to deter people from rising up against the current government. This is seen in the implementation of U.S. education in the Philippine school systems and by consequence, its erasure of indigenous history, which would reveal how the people have repeatedly fought against oppression through multiple revolutions.

Students learn the English language in their classes and more about the benefits of the U.S.’

KATHERINE HUNG / AGGIE influence rather than the indigenous peoples, called the archipelago, and their languages.

The use of the word “history” in FAHM is very intentional in that the purpose of the month is not just to celebrate Filipino culture, but also to recognize the struggles that the Filipino people have faced.

Saira Singh, a recent UC Davis graduate in biological sciences with minors in education and human development, currently works as an ethnic studies educator for Pinoy/Pinay educational partnerships and sheds light on more of the advantages and limitations of this commemoration.

“It isn’t just about the culture, like the food, music or art. It brings light to issues and provides

educational programming or publications that are beneficial to the community,” Singh says, “it’s about the history, the struggles, and the people.”

“America has a ‘heroes and holidays’ approach to commemorating history and groups of people when the best way to honor these groups is through integrated education of ethnic studies in history and recognition of America’s part in oppressing these groups.”

For those interested in learning more, UC Davis’s Mga Kapatid, Kappa Psi Epsilon Sorority, INC., BRIDGE, and other UCD FilAm organizations have educational opportunities for students to learn more about FilAm cultural history.

CATALYST THEATRE WILL PREMIERE ‘THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENED’ ONLINE The one-act show discusses relevant topics of race and police brutality

“This is How it Happened” play at the Catalyst Theatre. (CATALYST: A THEATRE THINK TANK / COURTESY)

BY ITZELTH GAMBOA arts@theaggie.org Catalyst: A Theatre Think Tank will be premiering the one-act show “This Is How It Happened” written by playwright and actor Anthony D’Juan. The free show will be streaming on Catalyst’s website, where anyone can register to watch on Oct. 15 and Oct. 16 at 5pm. “This Is How It Happened” was recently accepted into Catalyst’s catalog of plays for its chilling reflection of reality. The show focuses on the aftermath of a White police officer killing a Black man.

Director Lynsday Burc brings the words of this script to our screens for a short and never before seen showing. Professional actors Peter Story, Rob Karma and Danielle Moné Truit portray their characters at home, practicing social distancing, but nevertheless are able to bring their characters to life by using new technology.

“People involved in theater are just naturally creative,” said Tiffany Nwogu, assistant director.

“If you give them a stick, they’ll work with it. I don’t think this medium is any different. I think that this medium is just laying the groundwork for more possibilities to see what’s possible or what works and what doesn’t. So everything is a work in progress. But what comes out of it is putting everyone’s creative mind together. And that creates the finished product, the art form.”

With the recent Black Lives Matter protests and the unjust killings of Black men continuing, a play like this has the potential to hit society close to home. For actress Danielle Moné Truit, who plays Alyce, this play spoke to her personally.

“I have put together my own productions and things that speak to the misuse of police force,” Truit said. “I protest a lot and use my voice to bring awareness to what is happening.

And so this play definitely speaks to that. We get to uncover and talk about a lot of different issues and mindsets that people in this country have in regards to these situations. Anything that can help people think differently about the world that we’re in and about our laws and what is really right morally, I’m always very excited to be a part of.”

Truit’s character, Alyce, works for the police department. Alyce’s job is to devise a story for the public that will make a police officer seem innocent after killing a Black man. The story is one that the American public is all too familiar with. Truit’s task was putting herself into the head of a morally questionable character where she could never see herself.

“That was very hard for me when I first read the play and when I first did a reading of the play, because I’m the complete polar opposite; I would never do that,” Truit said. “I’ve had the opportunity to really spend time with that

character and think about what could really be going on in her mind. Maybe, she’s just doing this job because it’s a job and maybe when she gets in the car, she cries or she drinks a lot to numb herself.”

While presenting D’Juan’s impactful story online isn’t preferable, everyone has worked together to make this situation have the best possible outcome.

“Being an actor, or being involved in theater, you have so much energy in life that you want to bring [it] into whatever you’re working on,” Nwogu said. “And that type of energy just bleeds through the screen. With a story like this, we try even harder to make it come across.”

The first-time showing of “This Is How It Happened” comes with high hopes for playwright Anthony D’ Juan, whose friends hold the utmost respect and belief in his work.

“I’m looking forward to Anthony getting his work out into the world,” Truit said. “He is my dear friend, and he’s so talented, and he’s written so many things that are just really phenomenal.

I’m just so happy that UC Davis is taking it upon themselves to shed light on his work and give it a good production, give it a good cast, and promote it.”

“This Is How It Happened” will be filmed using technology called Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). Using OBS, actors are able to

have a green screen and microphones in their home, and the finished product will make it look like they are in the same room together, talking to each other and producing a live-action show that mimics what we usually see on stage. Except this time, it’s right through our computers.

Catalyst has embraced this new technology that has saved public plays as an art form and will continue to use it throughout the year as they produce performances and provide everyone the art form that the pandemic has made them crave.

“It’s a very, very challenging way of working,” said Mindy Cooper, theater and dance department professor and co-founder of Catalyst.

“It takes a bit of some of the organics out of it.

But for the audience, it’s pretty exciting in this day and age where a lot of us are just hungry for a play that looks like a play and feels like a play. So OBS has helped us greatly to embrace feeling like we’re back in the theater.”

This new technology has most certainly changed the way theater is produced and enjoyed.

Accepting this new medium as an art form comes with a loss of many aspects that live theater thrives on; it lacks the heart of the audience and the connection that is created by the actors and those sitting ten feet away from them. But it also has its benefits—especially with as serious a story as the one D’Juan has written.

“We can’t afford to not tell important stories right now,” Cooper said. “If we were to say, ‘Nobody needs to produce theater right now, let’s not do this; let’s just wait,’ then a year or a year and a half goes by and really important stories that need to be told today have missed their potent mark.”

This new medium allows for the continuation of storytelling, but also keeps students and actors sane, as Cooper recalls on the past seven months of pure online teaching and the necessity to stare at a screen and be productive for hours on end.

“Right now a lot of us need the arts in our lives, whether you know it or not,” Cooper said.

“I like to say, imagine the last seven months of your life without movies on Netflix, without your favorite Miles Davis song that makes you cry, a good cry. Without your favorite novel, without all of the arts. Imagine these last seven months without the ability to find yourself transported by an artist or a medium of some sort. We have the ability right now to continue to tell stories.”

“This Is How It Happened” was accepted into the Catalyst festival back in July. With a first-time showing and the availability of it to reach across the nation, it has the potential to reach a wider audience that it normally would have not received had the play been on stage.

Cooper hopes that with this first showing D’Juan gets to workshop this play around the nation at different stages.

“You know, I read a lot of plays every year, whether it is for the festival or my own work,” said Cooper. “I’m attracted to ones that suck me in and jump off the page and I can see them, I can feel them, I can hear them immediately. This play did that for me. And I can’t wait to see how this director has envisioned it coming to life.”

Perhaps when envisioning his play come to life, D’Juan never imagined it would be in an online setting, but instead on a stage before a crowd that filed in as the sun set. But the play itself still holds the message that he wanted it to carry when he wrote it, and the actors still portray the characters as they would in a live, inperson performance. The audience will have time to ask questions afterwards and provide insight on what they saw.

“Art is a great way to promote activism and to get people to change their mindset about what they see in the world and how they might experience it,” said Truit. “I think that’s one of the beautiful things about artistic expression: It causes people’s hearts to change.”

For those who miss the live viewing experience, registration to see the play is open now.

8 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

CULTURE CORNER The Arts Desk’s weekly picks for movies, books, music, television shows

BY LIVVY MULLEN arts@theaggie.org

Book: “Big Little Lies” by Liane Moriarty If you are a fan of the hit HBO show “Big Little Lies” (which if you read my last Culture Corner article you would know boasts a “stacked cast, incredible editing and possibly the best title sequence of all time”), the book opens a new door to the BLL experience. The novel is strikingly similar to the show with a few key differences. It is set in Moriarty’s native Australia and a few characters are axed, but besides that, very similar. Rather than comparing them, the show and book work together in a way other adaptations do not.

There were specific moments in the miniseries that felt empty, or a little unexplainable. With the aid of the book, those gaps are filled. The characters you love in the show are given a much more in-depth motive: their actions and reactions make more sense. This is especially obvious in Jane (played by Shaline Woodley), whose character was the least developed in the show. If you haven’t watched yet, the novel is a fun, easy read that keeps you engrossed from the first page to the last. It might be because it was the first book I read in maybe nine months, but reading “Big Little Lies” was an experience that stayed with me.

Movie: “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed” Dir. Raja Gosnell If I had a time machine I would go to the night “Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed” premiered in theaters and watch it the way it should be seen—on the big screen. The 2004 film is perhaps the only good live action adaptation ever made. Following the events of the first movie, Mystery Inc. is almost torn apart by a scandal that tarnished their name. Through the course of the movie, they take down monsters and explore their group dynamic. If you suspend your criticism and embrace the campiness, it really is so good. The set design and outfits are amazing, some standouts are the bright pink and orange 70’s inspired interior of the gang’s office and Velma’s forever iconic orange leather jumpsuit. It’s so well cast. Despite being high profile actors in a children’s movie, they really gave it their all. Everyone matches their 2-D counterpart perfectly, especially Mathew Lillard’s Shaggy and Linda Cardenelli’s Velma. It outshines its predecessor while making you laugh and feel genuine emotion. I predict in at least 10 years it will be added to the Criterion Collection.

And please, if you have the time, take a moment of silence for the third live action Scooby Doo movie we never got because this one absolutely bombed.

TV Show: “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Recently, the final season of Netflix’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” aired, and I was able to look over the show in its entirety and try to comprehend what it was. Over the course of its four seasons, we watch the antics of Kimmy’s life in NYC through a cartoonish and absurd lens.

Kimmy Schmidt’s strongest asset is utilizing a type of comedy that is completely unique to the show.

It teters the line between and silly and completely unhinged. This is only pulled off by its amazing cast, who fit their characters so well it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing them. Even though sometimes it feels like they put a quota on jokes per minute, the humor stays with you. I often find myself revisiting specific jokes (like the season four opener where they changed the theme song’s lyrics to “Little girl, big city this is the show now/little girl, big apple, it’s a fruit that’s bigger than people”). The show fluctuates in quality, sometimes losing its footing and diving headfirst into truly terrible takes (there is an episode that tries to take on cancel culture that gives me physical second-hand embarrassment). But throughout its four-season run, it never stopped being truly funny and entertaining.

Album: “Ungodly Hour” by Chloe x Halle I am incredibly lazy, to the point where making playlists is too much effort. When I want to listen to music, I click on an album and skip. Sister duo Chloe x Halle’s “Ungodly Hour” feels more like a curated listening experience than an album. Each track is engrossing, from the more upbeat dance songs (“Do It” and “ROYL”) to the slower, intricately produced tracks (“Don’t Make it Harder on me” and “Ungodly Hour”). It’s hard to define the gene of “Ungodly Hour” because Chloe x Halle have the rare artistic ability to take pieces from various types of music while having it remain cohesive. They utilize their voices as instruments. Older sister Chloe grounds the songs with her strong, controlled vocals while younger sister Halle’s floats atop the tracks.

You can hear the meshing of their artistic abilities; the dynamic produces unique music while keeping the sound uniform.

The production is what takes their music to the next level, and it is heightened knowing how involved the sisters were in the process.

One of the album’s best tracks, “Tipsy” was produced solely by Chloe. Not only is the music amazing, but through promotion, the duo has proved they are the best performers on the scene right now. They have given live performances on various shows, each time with new elaborate sets and outfits all fitting within the constraints of pandemic performing. Chloe x Halle’s “Ungodly Hour” has a song for any occasion. Nine months in and I can confidently say this is the best album of the year.

STUDY ABROAD AND OFF CAMPUS PROGRAMS ADAPT TO FUNCTION VIRTUALLY Programs continue to offer students opportunities and growth through remote platforms

BY NORA FARAHDEL features@theaggie.org While a majority of students spend the entirety of their college careers in Davis, many choose to participate in programs abroad and spend a duration of time learning in a new location. In the past, this might have meant learning beside the Eiffel Tower, the Lincoln Memorial or enjoying Italian gelato in between classes. Today, off-campus programs have switched to a new reality of remote functioning during a pandemic to create the same impactful experience from the comfort of each student’s bedroom.

Despite the inability to conduct study abroad in person, the Global Learning Hub has provided students with a number of alternative programs to continue this learning and growth. For example, they have provided students with virtual internships and have introduced a Global Career Development Series. Zachary Frieders, the executive director of the Global Learning Hub, explained that the adjustment to remote learning has been an ongoing pursuit of adapting with the times.

“At the start of the pandemic, our priority was to be as responsive as possible to needs and interests in this new environment,” Frieders said, via email. “We surveyed several thousand UC Davis students and received a strong response: students told us they were interested in remote internships, continuing to develop soft-skills, engaging with free opportunities, and continuing programs for credit.”

Despite changing circumstances due to the pandemic, the Global Learning Hub continues to offer students the chance to develop a global knowledge and understanding of the world, academically and professionally. While in-person study abroad will return when health directives deem it to be safe, Frieders encouraged students to take advantage of the programs that are available now remotely.

“We encourage students to look at the full array of opportunities for global learning and think about what their objectives are,” Frieders said. “So many opportunities are not limited or diminished by remote work. We’ve seen across the board that it’s possible to continue work, life and learning in remote context. We see, daily, the creative and innovative ways that communities are using to connect with each other despite the pandemic and remote interactions.”

The UC Center Sacramento has also transitioned to operating remotely with virtual courses and internships. Cindy Simmons, UCCS associate director, describes the center’s perseverance and commitment to continuing the program effectively.

“During this pandemic, UC Center Sacramento has not paused our programming,” Simmons said, via email. “We

MARIO RODRIGUEZ / AGGIE

are committed to offering our UCCS students the same amazing experience whether it be inperson or virtual. We have now been offering our program on a fully virtual platform for [three] quarters and our students continue to have a great experience at our Center.”

By providing services to students virtually, the UC Sacramento Center aims to prepare students for life after college. According to Simmons, the remote internships allow students to gain real experience in the workforce, which is becoming increasingly virtual with the pandemic.

“UC Center has been able to arrange for remote internships for 100% of our UCCS students in the same offices that were hosting students in person pre-COVID,” Simmons said. “Participating in internships (whether they be in-person or remote) is a great way to gain professional experience, build skills that you can use in graduate school or in your

professional career and network.”

The UC Washington Program has also quickly adapted to the circumstances of the pandemic by shifting online with remote internships, classes, mentorships and events.

Being remote also means expenses like housing and transportation are no longer applicable, leaving students only responsible for the costs of tuition and creating a more affordable opportunity for all students. In fact, Cheryl Purifoy, the director of the UC Davis Washington Program, shared that it has doubled their number of students participating through this remote period.

“We’re recognizing that, [...] by having it remote, more students are not only interested, but more students are finding it an equitable and inclusive program for them now,” Purifoy said.

As professional life everywhere continues to shift virtually, with Zoom calls replacing

in-person interactions, the program has also shifted their teachings to remote skills, such as soft skills and team building as well as offering special experiences like a dynamic speaker series. As a word of advice to students who are hesitant in participating in a remote, off-campus program, Purifoy emphasized the importance of gaining experience outside of the classroom.

“I would say to students, whether it’s the Washington Program or study abroad program or UC Sacramento program, they need to get some hands-on experience to be able to enhance their learning and to be able to make good career decisions,” Purifoy said. “The best way for them to do that is to take advantage of all that UC Davis has to offer in terms of extracurricular activity and experiential education.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 | 9

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

Answer to previous puzzle 10/08/20

Crossword Answer to previous puzzle 10/08/20

10 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Shop Sustainably: Fly Dye Students inspired by UC Davis course start clothing business using non-toxic and plant based dyes

Third-years Gracie Globerman (left) and Juliette Connolly (right) wearing two of the tie-dyed masks they made for their store, Fly Dye. (GRACIE GLOBERMAN / COURTESY)

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org The California Aggie spoke to Gracie Globerman and Juliette Connolly as part of our Shop Sustainably series, which highlights a green business local to Davis each month.

Spring of 2020 was full of many fads: Tiger King, Tiktok and, of course, tie dye. Two UC Davis students, in particular, decided that they could find an environmentally conscious way to stick with the trends and start a business in the process.

Juliette Connolly, a third-year human development major, and her friend and housemate Gracie Globerman, a third-year sustainable environmental design major, co-founded Fly Dye after Globerman was inspired by one of her classes.

“During spring quarter Gracie was taking ANT 104 which is a culture, politics and the environment class that was mostly toxicology focused, and she was explaining to our housemates how many toxins are in clothing dyes and products that we don’t always know about,” Connolly

said. “We decided to try and make our own dyes that were non-toxic and also natural […] it was something that she shared with us and it eventually became a passion project.”

Globerman added that this course taught her a lot about the many toxic chemicals in clothing and other everyday items that are not banned by the EPA. She said that learning about the danger of these chemicals—and encouraged by quarantine boredom—led her and her housemate to attempt making their own dyes.

“It started as a quarantine fun project,” Globerman said. “We shouldn’t be wearing clothes and accessories that are dyed with toxic dyes, and we shouldn’t have that close to our bodies and be breathing it in all the time so we found ways to make our own dyes.”

Once they started successfully dyeing their own clothes, Connolly and Globerman decided to start Fly Dye to sell their non-toxic dyed products.

Early on, they released a line of upcycled shirts, which Connolly said has been one of their more interesting projects.

“One of our most fun projects was that we went to the Goodwill in Woodland and picked up a bunch of white shirts, tank tops and long

sleeves so we did an upcycled line,” Connolly said. “We posted them as white shirts and people commented which ones they wanted and what color dye they wanted.”

Although they did sell premade pieces when they were getting started, now they mostly produce custom orders. People will send them a piece and a color or design preference and Fly Dye will customize it with their dyes. They set up an Instagram page, where their custom shirts, masks and other products can be purchased through direct message. Connolly believes that Instagram has played an integral part in Fly Dye’s success.

“Social media has been our best friend,” Connolly said. “We started an Instagram and followed people we thought would be interested, and then those people posted [Fly Dye] on their stories so more people saw. We don’t even have a website or anything, we’ve only sold through Instagram.”

Globerman emphasized that she’s learned how impactful developing relationships with customers can be for small businesses, since satisfied customers often want to share Fly Dye and continue purchasing from them.

“Building relationships with customers is really

important,” Globerman said. “It’s so easy to order something on Amazon, and it’s maybe cheaper, but when you create a customer relationship, people want to continue buying from you.”

Ali Wildman, a fourth-year international relations major, has done exactly that. She said that she heard about Fly Dye through friends, and has since made multiple purchases.

“I loved that they were so sustainable and used all natural ingredients and flowers for their dyes so I wanted to check them out,” Wildman said.

“I bought a t-shirt when they were dying thrifted items. I especially loved that it was thrifted because of the environmental impact of fast fashion and that shirt is my favorite thing I own now. It’s so soft and smells so amazing because they dyed it with indigo flowers. When they started making masks I got two for my mom and I and then we got more because we loved them so much.”

In addition to being a fairly new small business, Fly Dye is committed to using sustainable materials in their products, which makes their process more labor intensive and time consuming. “[Using sustainable materials] definitely makes it more hands-on, because we’re not just dyeing things,” Connolly said. “For example, we use avocado pits and peels that our households have eaten and are food waste [...] that is definitely a hands-on process, making the dye. We use a lot of waste, like old coffee grounds. The sustainable part comes in a long process but a fun pay-off.”

In addition to the added time it takes to use sustainable dyes, it makes the process more expensive.

“We could so easily just buy bad ingredients because they’re cheaper, but that wouldn’t align with what we believe in,” Globerman said.

Though they have committed to using sustainable materials to make their products, they hope to continue making their business as a whole even more environmentally friendly.

“Another goal in the future is to switch to compostable packaging,” Connolly said. “Right now we do a lot of local delivery so we wrap our products in twine and throw a business card in there so it’s very low waste packaging. When we do ship, we use the USPS packaging so a goal would be to switch to something more sustainable.”

Globerman and Connolly hope to continue growing Fly Dye via Instagram and possibly an Etsy online storefront to sell their masks. Eventually, they’d even like to team up with other local sustainable businesses to collaborate on products.

Globerman says that overall, they are committed to making sustainable and equitable products.

“A lot of the time when you find brands branded as sustainable they’re so expensive and really not attainable, so sustainable fashion becomes only attainable for wealthy people,” Globerman said. “I think our prices are pretty fair and competitive. [Our goal is] to create and promote sustainable and healthy fashions and to do that at a very socially equitable [price].”

All there is to know about facemasks Experts compare the efficacy of different masks in blocking particles

BY MICHELLE WONG science@theaggie.org

Although wearing masks in public has been common in some countries since before the pandemic, it was not until recently that masks have become a staple item in the U.S. Considering both the COVID-19 pandemic and the unhealthy air quality due to the recent wildfires in California, there are a myriad of masks to choose from that can mitigate both threats. Here’s what to consider when deciding what mask to wear: N95 masks N95 masks block 95% of particles up to 0.3 microns in size, according to You-Lo Hsieh, a professor in the department of biological and agricultural engineering. Compared to surgical masks, N95s have added filtration materials which provide further protection. Hsieh stated these masks block vapor droplets produced by humans when breathing, speaking or sneezing; these droplets can vary from small aerosol particles to much larger particles, up to hundreds or thousands of microns in magnitude. Santiago Barreda, an assistant professor in the department of linguistics, stated that there is variation among people as to how many particles they expel during these processes.

“The louder people talk, the more particles they put out,” Barreda said. “One way to help [reduce] the spread of coronavirus might simply be everybody just don’t talk so loud.”

Christopher Cappa, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering, emphasized that N95 masks are efficient due to their tight fit sealing around the face. If not worn properly, used in the wrong size, or worn with facial hair, the full potential of these masks cannot be realized.

Surgical masks Hsieh stated that although N95 masks protect others as well as the wearer, the purpose of surgical masks is to mainly protect others, such that the particles a surgeon expels do not infect the patient while operating. Although N95 and surgical masks are made of the same fine synthetic fibers, surgical masks are less effective due to their looser fit. “[For N95 masks], everything goes through the material rather than when you wear other face masks,” Hsieh said. “Homemade or surgical, a lot actually leaks around so they’re not as effective.”

KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE

Despite being less effective than N95 masks, Hsieh stated that surgical masks are still more effective than cloth masks because they are made of less-permeable fibers.

Cloth masks In a recent study comparing the emission of particles while wearing different masks, Cappa found that it was difficult to determine the efficacy of cloth masks because they would shed additional particles from the material of the mask itself. In looking at cloth masks of differing material, Cappa stated they were highly variable in the amount of particles they shed.

“Especially for cloth masks, we want to be aware that material might come off of the surface of those masks as well, and so we want to be careful when we’re handling the masks,” Cappa

said. “Especially if we’ve been wearing them in a very populated place where they might have gotten contaminated. We want to be careful, not shaking them around or just in general not touching the front of your masks as well.”

Although it is difficult to compare cloth masks, Hsieh stated that in general, more layers are better to increase filtration of particles. That being said, cloth masks are only able to block large particles because the pores of the material are large enough to let smaller particles through. For example, in terms of wildfires, cloth masks may be able to deal with ash particles, but cannot defend against the larger concern: PM 2.5. These particles are 2.5 microns or less in magnitude and can cause harm to the lungs. In addition to the material of cloth masks, the increased airflow along the sides of the

mask suggest it is the least effective option.

While Cappa encourages people to continue to wear masks properly, he emphasized that they are not the only measures necessary to address pandemic concerns.

“Masks contribute to helping. They’re helpful, but they’re not 100% helpful,” Cappa said. “We have to wear masks while still practicing social distancing, both inside and outside. We can’t forget [to limit] the number of people who we come in contact with in general [and] limit time inside of crowded spaces. Masks contribute to the overall picture, but by themselves aren’t a perfect solution.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 | 11

VOTING

POSITIVECASES

FADS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

“We have increased safety measures in place for those living on campus,” May said at the Senate meeting. “This includes increased sanitization procedures, monitoring symptoms on a daily basis, testing, contact tracing, isolation and quarantine. We’re hiring a team of undergraduates [...] to provide community education and outreach on campus.”

Data from the week of Oct. 5 states that 1,919 COVID-19 tests have been conducted on campus. This number is defined to be “the total weekly count of asymptomatic COVID-19 tests conducted through the Davis campus COVID-19 Screening Program,” according to the UC Davis website.

Ensley, Paisleigh, Ridge, Raylee, Jurnee, Jaxxon, Oaklynn, Oaklyn, Kynlee, Kannon, Kashton, Kai, Kaylee, Kaleigh, Kayleigh, Kaylie, Kayly, Kayley, Kaily, Kaley, Kyng and Queeen [together, as a chorus (???)]: No, this is all so wrong! Names like ours aren’t just a fad! Our parents gave us all such CUTE and UNIQUE names that are so TRENDY and POPULAR right now!

Everyone’s doing it!

“I’ve seen within the past few months that there is a priority on social media, YouTube and the media to go out and register now more than any previous election I’ve been alive to witness,” Pariseau said.

Chicorel addressed the importance of this election and the turnout of college students and other youth who are eligible to vote but historically do not register or cast ballots.

“This particular election is critical in the U.S.’s lasting democracy.” Chicorel said. “The results can really shape future generations of educated students. The most important thing is youth and college students standing up to vote. We are one of the lowest turnout groups that there is. If we want our voices heard, we have to start by actually voting.”

The deadline to register to vote in California is Oct. 19, and voters are encouraged to mail their ballot by Oct. 22 to ensure it reaches the election office in time. More detailed information about voting assistance throughout Davis can be found at https:// studentaffairs.ucdavis.edu/news/vote.

Tim Prairie: Yeah that’s kinda the problem…..

F.M. Earl: Wow. Y’all are so white you’d re-blind a blind man....

God: Funny how “cute,” “unique,” “trendy” and “popular” don’t always have positive connotations, isn’t it?

(This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional.

The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

SPORTS For those of you who miss attending UC Davis sporting events, take a look back at some pictures taken

by The Aggie’s photographers’ over the course of the the 2019-20 academic year.

Sara Tsukamoto of the UC Davis Women’s Tennis team. (AGGIE FILE)

UC Davis guard Katie Toole (13,middle) goes up for a layup during the match against the University of Hawaii on Saturday, Jan 11, 2020. (AGGIE FILE)

The UC Davis Women’s Swimming and Diving team wins its first meet of the season at Shaal Aquatics Center against Fresno State with a final score of 172-128 (AGGIE FILE)

Midfielder for UC Davis Monet Kunz (5,right) battles Saint Mary’s defender Hailey Prentice (4,left) for the ball at the September 27, 2019 women’s soccer game against Saint Mary’s College at Davis, CA. (AGGIE FILE)

The UC Davis equestrian team competes at its first home match against Oklahoma State on October 23, 2019 at the UC Davis Equestrian Center. (AGGIE FILE)

The UC Davis Women’s Gynamstics team competing on the balance beam during a meet against San Jose State on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. (AGGIE FILE)

12 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

LOS ANGELES: CITY OF CHAMPIONS ONCE AGAIN Lakers win 17th title in franchise history, bringing an end to the eventful NBA season

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org In what turned out to be a season long and the first of its kind, the Los Angeles Lakers captured their 17th title in franchise history, tying the rival Boston Celtics for the most wins in NBA history.

After almost a full year since the season tipped off last October, the pandemic turned this NBA season into one never seen before. Taking place inside the bubble located at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, FL, the NBA completed a successful three month journey through their playoffs.

Coming into the bubble, the Lakers held the best record in the Western Conference and, being led by Lebron James and Anthony Davis, were determined to make a championship run. Having a team of veterans and older players, many doubted the Lakers ability to get it done. Having Lebron James wasn’t enough for some and being the first seed in the west didn’t change that. The Lakers did not help their cause entering the playoffs, as they went 3-5 in the seeding games leading up. Having matched up with the Portland Blazers that made a scorching run into the playoffs, many believed that the Lakers had their hands full and could possibly even lose the series. Those voices were only amplified when the Blazers stole Game 1. The pressure was on (or so they thought), but a 23 point Game Two win got the ball rolling for the Lakers and they never looked back, winning the series comfortably, four games to one.

The Lakers’ second round opponent, the Houston Rockets, have had their fair share of playoff disappointment, but after acquiring Russell Westbrook in the offseason, they had their sights set on changing the narrative. After opening the series with a convincing 15 point win over the Lakers, many began to believe that this was the year for the Rockets and that they were a great matchup scheme wise for the Lakers. But, like we saw in the Portland series, the Lakers put their foot down and proved that the first game was a fluke, winning the next four games convincingly and advancing to the Western Conference Finals, where they thought they were convinced they knew their next opponent.

Many minimized the Lakers ability to get it down—even after their dominant performances in the first two rounds—and preferred their same-city rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. Both seemed to be on a collision course for the Western Conference Finals and was expected to be one of the most anticipated playoff matchups in a long time. From the beginning of the season in mid-October 2019, this was the series everyone wanted to see. After taking a 3-1 series lead and leading by 16 in Game 5, the Clippers were a quarter away from that coming true. Instead, they blew that lead, and went on to shockingly blow the 3-1 series lead to the Nuggets. 10 years after their

last battle, the Lakers and Nuggets met again in the Western Conference Finals.

The Lakers came out firing from the start, winning the first game by 12 but with the Nuggets on the verge of tying the series, Anthony Davis hit a buzzer-beating three that won the game for the Lakers and changed the direction of the series.

Although the Nuggets won Game Three, the Lakers never looked back and a marvelous performance

by Lebron James down the stretch of Game Five wrapped up the series, sending the Lakers to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2010.

On the Eastern Conference side, the Miami Heat began their run as an under the radar team that many saw can give a battle, but very few thought they would get to where they did. Led by their big free agent signing Jimmy Butler, the Heat swept the Indiana Pacers in the first round and set up a date with the team with the best record in the NBA, the Milwaukee Bucks.

A convincing win over the Bucks in Game One and a win in the final seconds in Game Two put Milwaukee on the brink of losing control. With the back-to-back MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, Giannis Antetokumpo, the Bucks knew they had to win Game three. They responded well through three quarters, holding a 12 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. But, a complete collapse in the fourth quarter that saw Milwuakee score only 13 points lost them the game, and eventually the series.

The Heat shocked the world and knocked out the Eastern Conference favorites in only five games.

Their toughness and elite shooting kept them in every game, and the only team that stood in front of them and another NBA Finals berth was another young and hungry team: the Boston Celtics. The Celtics came into the series focused and tested in close games. That, however, was not on display in the Eastern Conference Finals, as many Celtics collapses down the stretch allowed the Heat to take a 3-1 series lead. Boston bounced back in Game Five, but a determined Miami team finished the job in Game Six, making their first finals since 2014.

The matchup was set, a fiery Miami team going up against the dominant duo of Lebron James and Anthony Davis.

The Lakers were out to make a statement in the opening game, winning in blowout fashion. The loss proved even costlier, as Miami lost Goran Dragic, their playoff leading scorer, and Bam Adebayo to injury. Adebayo returned in Game Four, but Dragic suffered a torn plantar fascia, subsequently ending his ability to make a significant impact in the series.

An all time performance by Jimmy Butler in Game Three and Five gave Miami some hope, but in the end, the Lakers were too dominant, closing out the series in six games and winning another NBA Championship.

KATHERINE HUNG / AGGIE After winning his fourth Finals MVP and becoming the first player in NBA History to win that award with three different teams, Lebron James reminded everyone why he will go down as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) players of all time. The theme on the Lakers side was that they never got respect. No matter how many games they won, what seed they were in or who they beat, it seemed like it was never good enough. After every positive, a negative had to be mentioned and they were always picked apart, making it seem like their wins were lessened. Now standing at the top of the NBA, the Lakers now hold something that no one can take away from them: the Larry O’Brien trophy.

“We just want our respect,” James said in the postgame celebration. “Rob [Pelinka] wants his respect. Coach [Frank] Vogel wants his respect.

Our organization wants their respect. Laker Nation wants their respect.”

“And I want my damn respect, too.”

As of now, there is little known about the next NBA season. There is no start date and no timeframe, but according to Commissioner Adam Silver, the start of the season will be sometime in the beginning of next year. The hope is that they can hold a full 82 game regular season and a full playoffs. The possibility of fans is something the NBA hopes can happen, but everything as of now remains unknown. The one true date the league has set is the NBA Draft, taking place on Nov. 18. Aside from that, free agency, training camps, salary cap and opening night are still up in the air.

This season will go down as arguably the most memorable and unforgettable season in NBA history. From the hype coming in about the competitiveness of the league, to the tragic passing of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and from the pandemic stoppage to the NBA bubble, to the year long season left, it left many moments that will be impossible to forget. The league handled the pandemic in a perfect fashion, totaling zero positive COVID-19 tests in 172 games over three months of play. How this year’s championship Lakers are remembered remains to be seen, but the toughness and dominance they showed throughout this tough stretch, given the circumstances, will mark them down as one of the greatest champions ever.

The NBA deserves massive amounts of credit for the way they handled everything throughout the season. They showed the world that it is possible to play professional sports and keep everyone involved safe and healthy.

The sacrifices taken by the league, players, staff and everybody involved in the bubble will not go unnoticed and will not be forgotten. While there is not much known about next season, the NBA has shown enough to gain the benefit of the doubt that they will handle it to the best of their abilities.

UC DAVIS FOOTBALL HOPEFUL FOR SPRING SEASON With the FCS playoff scheduling being released, the spring season takes shape

UC Davis Health Stadium remains empty during Fall Quarter 2020 as sporting events have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (JUSTIN HAN / AGGIE)

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org Right around this time in October, the UC Davis football team would be in the middle of their season, battling to win their second Big Sky Conference title in three years and capture their second playoff appearance in program history. After what was a lackluster season last year, the team was ready to bounce back and be better this year. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, however, has put a pause on the football season for the Aggies.

As we got closer to the would-be season in August, the talk began about whether the season would even happen. After all, a lot of the conferences were located in states where gatherings, like a football practice, were not allowed. As time ticked on the season, conferences began to pull out, deciding to go in a direction of a spring season. Since conferences like the Big Sky and the Pioneer Football League opted for a spring season, a bulk of the FCS playoff contenders would not be participating and they would be unable to field 50% of the teams needed to hold a playoff. The NCAA was left with no choice but to move the season and playoffs to the spring.

There was always skepticism, even outside of the FCS, that college football would take place this year. The teams took a big hit when the Pac 12 and Big 10 conferences decided to postpone their season to the winter. Those were two of the biggest conferences in college football and doubts continued to creep in. Conferences like the Southeastern Conference, BIG 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference, however, remained adamant that a season would occur. In the end, both the Pac 12 and Big 10 decided to eventually come back for the fall and the season continues as close to normal as possible.

It was an easier decision for those conferences to return to play because they had a lot more to lose.

FBS schools, specifically the nation’s best, had to take into consideration the major revenue losses and consider whether the cost to keep the athletes safe was worth it. They decided that it was, and they are trying their best to keep everyone as safe and healthy as they could be with but the hope is that there can be Aggie football in the spring.

“Our football team looks forward to its season in the spring,” said UC Davis athletic director Kevin Blue in a statement to The Aggie. “We will continue to work with campus and public health officials to ensure that the team is able to safely prepare for the season. The game schedule is being finalized by the Big Sky Conference, and we expect games to begin in late February.”

As mentioned, there are a couple hurdles to overcome not only because of the state, but from the county as well. For example, student-athletes are not allowed to share equipment at this time.

This includes contact drills and even the passing of a ball. Factors like fans and media are still works in progress, as they are determined by what is allowed at the time of the games. The hope is that restrictions can be loosened between now and the start of the season in February so that the team will be able to practice normally before the games. It helps that the playoffs are scheduled in April, as this gives officials more time to see if any changes to the guidelines can be made.

Many things remain to be sorted out not just for UC Davis, but for the entire FCS. The release of conference schedules will help a great deal, as there will be an exact timeline to work under. The coming months will be crucial for all programs and there will be a better understanding of where the season stands as we inch closer to the start of the season.