May 27, 2021

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VOLUME 139, ISSUE 28 | THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

UC DAVIS RANKS #35 IN ANNUAL FORBES, QS RANKINGS FOR DIVERSITY AND EDUCATION Renetta Tull, the vice chancellor of diversity, equity and inclusion, said the rankings are a “motivator” for future work

BY REBECCA BIHN-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org

KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE

Forbes recently ranked UC Davis as #35 on their annual list of America’s Best Employers for Diversity.

“UC Davis is honored to be formally recognized as a top employer for diversity,” wrote Chancellor Gary May in an email to The California Aggie.

“This ranking shows that we are on our way to fulfilling one of the key goals of our ‘To Boldly Go’ strategic plan: to be a national role model in higher education for diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said.

Dana Topousis, the chief marketing and communications officer at UC Davis, also reflected on the importance of these rankings.

“This rating reflects the clear commitment that UC Davis leaders, faculty and staff have made over the years to prioritize our efforts in these

areas,” Toupousis said. “It’s a testament to how we continue to strive for excellence in all we do.”

In order to establish the diversity rankings, Forbes partnered with the research company Statista to “survey 50,000 Americans working for businesses with at least 1,100 employees and pinpoint the companies they identified as being most dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.”

The final list, which included UC Davis, ranked the 500 best employers that not only received the greatest number of recommendations but also those that had the most diversity in their board and executive positions and the most “proactive diversity and inclusion initiatives.”

The university also ranked highly in Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) USA rankings, being ranked ninth overall among public universities in the U.S. and being ranked fourth among public universities in the state of California.

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UC ELIMINATES SAT, ACT REQUIREMENT FROM ADMISSIONS PROCESS The UC reached a settlement in landmark standardized-testing case—enforcing the continuance of a “test-blind” approach to admissions

BY REBECCA GARDNER campus@theaggie.org The University of California will no longer consider SAT and ACT scores in admission or scholarship decisions, as a result of a settlement reached in a lawsuit filed by students against the university.

According to a May 14 press release, the settlement will extend the UC’s “test-blind” policy through 2025 and prohibits the UC from implementing its previously proposed “testoptional” admissions policy.

The settled 2019 lawsuit, filed by a coalition of students, advocacy groups and the Compton Unified School District, argued that the SAT and ACT are biased against students who are lowincome, disabled, Black and Hispanic.

The UC Board of Regents unanimously voted in May 2020 to suspend use of the SAT and ACT until 2024. Under then-President

Janet Napolitano’s proposed recommendations, submission of SAT and ACT scores would have been optional until 2022. The university would then adopt the “test-blind” model until 2024 while the university developed a new UC-wide standardized test to be implemented in 2025.

Napolitano’s previous recommendations to phase out standardized testing opposed the sentiment of the UC Academic Senate’s leadership assembly who voted unanimously to continue the use of SAT and ACT scores. The assembly’s decision was informed by a report conducted by UC Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) which found that ACT and SAT scores are predictive of academic success at the UC, more so than other measures.

Some opponents criticized the data and conclusions of the STTF report questioning their validity, according to The Los Angeles Times.

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HEALTHY DAVIS TOGETHER TESTING FALLS AS VACCINATION RISES Despite increased vaccination rates, officials encourage people to keep getting tested

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org Although the COVID-19 vaccination rate has been increasing in Yolo County, asymptomatic testing through Healthy Davis together has been decreasing. On May 12, 1,811 tests were administered, while only 164 tests were done on May 16—the lowest number of tests done in one day since December.

Yolo County On-Call Public Information Officer Frank Schneegas stated that testing has not just been declining in Davis.

“That’s a trend in most places,” Schneegas said. “Generally, once people have been getting vaccinated, they haven’t been getting tested and it’s not really a requirement anymore for a lot of things.”

As of May 18, 52% of all Yolo County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to Schneegas.

Schneegas added that the ease and convenience

of testing options available means there’s no disadvantage to getting tested, whether or not someone has been exposed to COVID-19.

“It never hurts to get tested, so if you have an exposure, it’s not a bad idea to get tested,” Scheengas said. “I mean especially if you live in Davis, it’s really easy to get tested at Healthy Davis Together. We also offer tests which you can find on [Yolo County’s] website. The state offers tests and so it’s not a requirement per se, but it doesn’t hurt to get tested.”

The decrease in testing demand has resulted in changes in terms of the various testing options available in Yolo County, Schneegas explained.

“We aren’t really pushing testing as much anymore,” Schneegas said. “People haven’t been getting tested, and because of it we’ve had to stop offering our own Yolo County testing as well as the State’s OptumServe or Orale, which is kind of a partnership between different organizations as well as Healthy Davis Together.”

COVID-19 testing center at the Main Gym in the ARC at UC Davis on May 17. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

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YOLO COUNTY SCHEDULING PFIZER COVID-19 VACCINE CLINICS FOR 12 TO 15-YEAR-OLDS Davis Joint Unified School District Superintendent says that vaccines are an important part of making in-person schooling safer

BY RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds. Since then, Yolo County has run several vaccine clinics targeted toward that age group, according to Yolo County On-Call Public Information Officer Frank Schneegas.

“We did a clinic at Woodland high school on Friday [May] 14—of course that one was for people below the age of 18, although we did vaccinate parents as well,” Schneegas said.

Schneegas added that adolescents in the 12 to 15 age group can get vaccinated at any clinic that offers the Pfizer vaccine.

“We’ll vaccinate anyone 12-15 who is with a parent, has a consent form or is able to give verbal consent from a parent over the phone or whatnot, as long as we have Pfizer,” Schneegas said. “So those are the clinics that we’ve focused on for that age group, but any clinic where we have Pfizer, we’re still vaccinating people in that age group. Those aren’t the only ones, those are just the biggest ones and the most targeted ones.”

A large number of adolescents have been vaccinated, Schneegas explained via email.

“Between Thursday and Sunday we have vaccinated 2,200 people between 12-15 years of age,” Schneegas said via email. “52% of Yolo residents have received at least one dose of vaccine.”

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Vaccine Clinic at the ARC at UC Davis. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

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Davis Joint Unified School District educators reflect on the COVID-19 academic year Jo Eberle and Jessica Beckinger share their experiences teaching during the different phases of the pandemic

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org Educators continue to adapt to the changing phases of the pandemic, and as the school year comes to a close, Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) teachers Jo Eberle and Jessica Beckinger reflect on this “demoralizing” year for educators.

DJUSD schools returned to campus after the district’s spring break on April 12, 2021, which Beckinger and Eberle both expressed concerns about at the time. Mainly, teachers were worried about the lack of adjustment time for returning to in-person instruction and the safety of students’ and their own families. Beckinger, a kindergarten and first grade teacher at Birch Lane Elementary, said that, luckily, the adjustment back to the classroom has been easier than she expected.

“I thought there would be a longer period of normalization, getting them into their routines and expected behavior,” Beckinger said.

“That actually happened pretty quickly, and it feels easier in terms of management as a teacher because it’s the smallest group I’ve ever had. In terms of getting every child’s attention or just behavior management in the classroom, it feels like a cakewalk because I have half the number of children I normally have in that room.”

Previously, Beckinger had expressed that she was worried about being able to balance teaching and lesson planning for her in-person students with preparing materials and lessons for her distance learners, but she said that she has been able to focus her afternoons on lesson preparation by simulcasting morning class to her distance learners while she teaches in person.

“I’ve freed up my afternoons now to prep [...] lessons for the distance learners and grade their work and respond to emails and prep for in-person lessons—all the things we need to do,” Beckinger said. “So I freed up two to three hours most afternoons to focus exclusively on lesson work for the distance learners.”

At Birch Lane, Beckinger’s kindergarten and first grade mixed class comes for in-person instruction from 8:30-11:30 a.m., so she is able to use time after lunch to record and prepare lessons for distance learners, as well as catch up on other work. Though Beckinger said that she still has to work harder to prepare essentially two days of lessons everyday, the real challenge of having

kids back on campus has been enforcing social distancing rules and COVID-19 restrictions, as every class is approaching the rules differently.

“My students are not having recess. They’re staying very strictly, three feet apart,” Beckinger said. “And they’re looking out our classroom window and there’s another kindergarten class having full recess, and that’s not fair to my students.”

Beckinger explained that her students, who are five and six years old, do not understand all of the restrictions put in place, and as much as she wishes they could go out to recess, she recognizes that as a parent, she would expect her childrens’ teachers to follow the protocols set by the district.

Eberle said that it has also been challenging to try to ensure that all of her students are receiving the same classroom experience, even while some of them continue to learn virtually.

“It’s hard to get the kids in the room to really put the effort into connecting with the kids who are still doing distance learning,” Eberle said. “If I make breakout rooms, or group work in Zoom, it kind of feels weird for students to be working with someone in the room and maintaining that connection, making sure that person at home is involved.”

Both educators also expressed that though they are happy to have students back in the classroom, and are looking forward to a more normal academic year in the fall, the pandemic has been challenging for teachers.

Eberle said that as a result of the reopening schools debate, many people were circulating inflammatory posts about teachers. She said she ended up unfriending high school classmates and neighbors on Facebook because of this. She also said that some of the negativity towards teachers during this time has given her space to reflect on her profession.

“It hasn’t affected my passion for teaching, but there’s been a lot of time for reflection on the effort that it takes,” Eberle said. “Do I always want to be working this hard for this payoff? It has been interesting to think about doing other things.”

Beckinger also said that she felt the rhetoric around teachers shifted during the pandemic. She remembers feeling like parents began to blame educators for their kids being stuck at home and feels that educators began to be deemed “lazy,” while she said she was working harder than ever.

Beckinger said that not only was she dedicating significant time and effort to teaching

Susan B. Anthony Administrative Center for the Davis Joint Unified School District. (Justin Han / Aggie) when working from home, but she had to work even harder to adjust to using Zoom and Google Classroom virtually overnight.

“For those of us who aren’t super techie, like my generation up, it was a big challenge,” Beckinger said. “Millennials maybe had it a little easier because they grew up with tech, but I didn’t use email until college [...] I didn’t even have a cell phone until college.”

She also said that in addition to preparing for classes, teaching from home and responding to emails, Beckinger had to take care of her own children, since her husband had work in person throughout the pandemic, and their daycare was shut down for much of 2020.

“I did not have help for a good while in any form until 6 p.m. each day, five days a week,” Beckinger said. “Our parents stopped helping because of the pandemic and since older people were getting so sick, so we had nobody coming in and giving us any breaks, and I still had to do my job.”

Beckinger said that the combination of trying to adjust to working from home while taking care of her own children and feeling like the community was turning against teachers affected her mental health during the past year.

“I got kind of depressed last summer and I remember one night just crying in the kitchen, telling my husband, [...] ‘I’m gonna lose my mind,’” Beckinger said. “It was hard. It was emotionally harder than I could have anticipated.

Harder than life usually is for sure.”

Eberle said that she felt very lucky because her children are teenagers and need less looking after during the day.

“I can’t imagine having small children who

need to be supervised and entertained—that just blows my mind,” Eberle said.

She said that throwing herself into her work actually helped take her mind off of the pandemic at times.

“So actually for some of us, I think being so busy really gave us a focus,” Eberle said. “It almost helped us handle this strange situation because our energy was in preparing for the classes, so it kept us grounded.”

Although this year has been hard on both teachers and students, for Eberle, the hardest past remained the same throughout: reaching her “unreachable” students.

“I’ve gone to people’s houses to drop off materials, but I don’t really have the capacity to do home visits with my personal family life and schedule,” Eberle said. “I can call home, but even if your parents think that you’re online, it doesn’t mean that you’re actually logging in. It doesn’t mean you’re actually paying attention to the lesson instead of doing something else on your computer.

If [students] don’t want to be reached, they can stay completely disconnected.”

Beckinger added that though she is looking forward to the fall and is excited to be back in the classroom, she is worried about how the pandemic might change the education profession moving forward.

“I do worry that we’ll go into a bit of a supply and demand issue,” Beckinger said. “I think people are leaving, or wanting to leave, more than people are wanting to come in after seeing the way teachers have been treated and what they’ve gone through this past year.”

LGBTQIA+ Resource Center organizes 2021 calendar of events for UC Davis’ Pride Month Who’s setting off bottle rockets? It’s not even July!

May 8 “Respondent can hear ‘large’ dog loose in the area—no visual, respondent thinks it’s big by the sound of its barking.”

May 11 “Driving ‘squirrly’ into the bike lanes and erratic speeds.”

“Several juveniles on the roof running around.”

May 15 “Respondent saw subject using a hatchet to chop at a tree.”

“Party with bonfire.”

May 16 “Complaint of bottle rockets heard going off in the Greenbelt area behind residences.”

May 17 “10 loud subjects in backyard. Loud music.

Subjects throwing bottles against fence.”

May 18 “Doing donuts in intersection.”

“Drums heard in area.”

Events are held weekly throughout May, ranging from supporting LGBTQIA+ survivors to making pride crochet plushies

BY NICHOLAS MURPHY campus@theaggie.org This year’s Pride Month theme, Queers in Bloom, is meant to provide a space for folks to showcase their individuality and highlight the importance of providing culturally conscious support for the LGBTQIA+ community.

Although Pride Month usually takes place in June, the overlap between Mental Health Awareness Month and Pride at UC Davis creates an important kinship between the two, both of which occur in May and have had ongoing events throughout this past month.

Jamie Lozano, a third-year cognitive science major, enjoys that UC Davis holds Pride in May. “The parallels between Mental Health Awareness Month and Pride Month at Davis give us a great opportunity as queer people and allies to have conversations about how mental health impacts the LGBT+ community,” Lozano said.

Rachel Henry, the education and outreach manager at CARE, facilitated a training event for UC Davis staff and faculty on Tuesday, May 18 titled, “Supporting LGBTQIA+ Survivors.”

This training was provided to increase understanding about community-specific forms of abuse and how this information can be utilized to better support LGBTQIA+ survivors.

“LGBTQIA+ survivors face many unique barriers to accessing services that may include, among many others, the danger of being ‘outed’ or the risk of experiencing transphobia or homophobia while seeking support,” Henry said.

The event provided professional development opportunities needed to increase the ability to support survivors, which Henry believes “is an imperative part of centering student experiences that might otherwise be left out of the important conversations on reducing sexual violence.”

On Wednesday, May 19 another event called “LGBTQIA+ Community,” was put on by the Mental Health Initiative (MHI) alongside the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center.

MHI has also provided a Spotify playlist for all of the LGBTQIA+ anthems.

Held via Zoom, the event focused on the intersectionality of mental health, the LGBTQIA+ identity and other personal identities such as race

and religion.

During the event, panelist Jon De Paul Dunbar, a community advising network counselor at Student Health and Counseling Services, brought up the significance of helping individuals find the strength within themselves or what he called “being your own cheerleader.”

Dunbar also shared how he felt about both Mental Health Awareness and Pride being in the same month.

“This allows students and the UC Davis Community to celebrate, raise awareness, solidify connections and spread information while the majority of students and staff are on campus, instead of during the summer when most are not,” Dunbar said.

Other Pride Month events include crocheting pride plushies.

In asking if Lozano was still able to feel connected despite the events being virtual, they said they were able to see the bright side of the situation.

“I found that it has been easier for me to reach out to my community through virtual events and

platforms like Discord,” Lozano said. “Through these virtual events, I’ve made more friends because I’m able to put myself out there, have conversations and ask questions virtually that I wouldn’t know how to word in person.”

Creating an environment that validates individuals’ experiences while also understanding that every person is different is key for Lozano.

“There is no one right way to be queer, to be trans or to be a human,” Lozano said.

“Inclusivity means incorporating every story and acknowledging that individuality is beautiful. Not every person has the same experiences, but we can find common ground with one another and foster positive and sincere relationships.”

On Thursday, May 20, the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center recognized Multisexual Awareness Day. Also known as multiromantic, multisexual is a term used to describe attraction to more than one gender.

For more information, visit ‘ucdlgbtqia’ on Instagram or the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center’s direct website.

The LGBTQIA Resource Center is located at the Student Community Center at UC Davis. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

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THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 | 3

Senate Bill #95 restructuring Chapter 15 of the Bylaws passed at May 13 ASUCD Senate meeting Three Transfer, Re-entry and Veterans Committee members were confirmed with no objections

BY CHRISTINE LEE campus@theaggie.org ASUCD Vice President Emily Barneond called the Senate meeting to order on Thursday, May 13 at 7:11 p.m.

The roll call was followed by Transfer, Re-entry and Veterans Committee (TRVC) confirmations. Juliana Oliveira, the vice chair of the TRVC, recommended Evan Rhoderick, Jaina Jogia and Oliver Snow to be committee members.

“I am excited to put them forward because all three would make strong candidates for our committee and represent a diverse set of backgrounds that would help us to establish a successful transfer student representative office in the fall,” Oliveira said.

There were no objections and all three candidates were confirmed as TRVC members.

Karl Liebner, the unit director of the Campus Center for the

Environment (CCE), presented the CCE’s quarterly report. The idea to use bikes to replace old Cyclop vehicles when collecting bins was introduced.

“We have the Bike Barn next to the Ecohub and it’s on campus, open everyday,” Liebner said. “It would be easy to fix as many of the bikes that have problems, and we are a campus full of bikes, so we thought it would make sense to have bikes.”

Some ideas on how to utilize bikes to replace the Cyclop trucks would be to attach carts to the back of bikes or have bins with bigger wheels. The CCE plans to apply for The Green Initiative Fund grant to fund this project.

Senate Bill #95, which moves the leadership of Committee on Committees to leadership of the Academic Affairs Commission in regards to Chapter 15 of the Bylaws, was passed with unanimous consent.

Barneond adjourned the meeting at 7:52 p.m.

Mental Health Initiative, Student Health and Counseling working to support students during Mental Health Awareness Month The town hall meeting hosted by MHI on April 30 raised concerns over the usability of Health-e-Messaging and advocated for counselors who specialize in LGBTQIA+ rights, the neurodivergent community and students with disabilities

BY MADDIE DULEY campus@theaggie.org ASUCD kicked off Mental Health Awareness Month with a virtual town hall on April 30 to discuss recruitment needs for Student Health and Counseling Services and to listen to students’ concerns surrounding mental health resources.

The event was hosted by UC Davis Mental Health Initiative (MHI) Co-Directors Aparna Manoj and Sammy Veres.

“For Mental Health Awareness Month, we are providing 20 fully online events in May that focus on the unique intersection of mental health and identity, culture, race and more,” Veres said. “We hope that students attending these events will join the discussion on the intersectionality of mental health and have a chance to learn more about communities that may differ from their own.”

According to Veres, MHI hopes attendees of these events will also gain a sense of solidarity and realize their individual struggles are real and valid.

“Advocating for students’ mental health is important because students often struggle silently and are not sure where or how to access mental health resources,” Veres said. “With student mental health organizations like MHI and many others on campus, we are raising awareness for students that may feel like they are alone.”

While MHI has had to hold community events virtually this year, Veres shared that it has been great to hold these events and interact with students in any capacity the members of the organization can.

At the town hall meeting MHI hosted, attendees raised individual concerns and suggestions regarding Student Health and Counseling and how it could better support students.

“There should be more incentive to develop

interpersonal relationships between psychiatrists and the students they prescribe medications to,” said Rowen Clayton, a third-year human ecology major. “Students should feel good about the diagnosis or about medication. It shouldn’t be something they are hesitant to take because they were just randomly prescribed it.”

Several attendees voiced concerns regarding the difficulty of navigating the Health-e-Messaging website students use to make appointments with a counselor.

“I had no idea that students could do a free trial with a counselor [and] I tried to do that, but I was so intimidated by how the website worked, that I just completely backed out of it,” said Gianna Santos, a third-year linguistics major.

Students also voiced the importance of having counselors who specialize in LGBTQIA+ rights, the neurodivergent community and students with disabilities.

MHI plans to use the feedback from the town hall to make hiring requests that best meet students’ needs.

In addition to MHI hosting virtual events for Mental Health Awareness Month, Student Health and Counseling is also supporting students’ state of mind this month.

“We are placing a highlight on students’ needs at this time,” said Katie Cougevan, the clinical director at Student Health and Counseling, via email. “‘Listening Sessions’ have been scheduled to hear about concerns from certain student groups (upcoming is one in collaboration with SISS and Global Studies to hear more about what our International Students need in terms of support).”

Student Health and Counseling is offering 26 different types of groups to meet student needs and foster the connection students are craving right now, according to Cougevan.

“Recent outreaches have also been highlighted

Student Health and Counseling Services is located at North Hall at UC Davis. (Justin Han / Aggie) to connect with students who identify as struggling with National events of hate crimes or targeted violence against specific underrepresented groups,” Cougevan said via email. “We offer safe spaces, processing of struggles in this current climate and exploration of how to address issues of social justice and advocacy.”

Due to the pandemic, Student Health and Wellness is offering free modules to help students dealing with COVID-19 and loneliness. Students can access these self-help modules by visiting TAO Connect (Therapy Assistance Online) and signing up with their UC Davis email address.

For students looking to learn more about

the campus’ mental health and counseling options, a great resource is the mental health flyer.

Additionally, students can make appointments through Health e-Messaging or contact mental health staff at their 24/7 hotline, (530) 7520871. For 24/7 crisis support, students can text “RELATE” to 741741.

“I think our campus has done a great job in reducing stigma around seeking assistance for mental health issues,” Cougevan said via email.

“I am excited that we have several recruitments in process and are bringing new counselors to campus for fall that reflect the diverse student body and needs of our campus community.”

Provost Mary Croughan discusses option of hybrid classes for Fall Quarter 2021 Fall registration is underway, and UC Davis is still planning for classes that create a safe environment for students returning to campus

BY EMILY REDMAN campus@theaggie.org With the release of vaccinations and nationwide rollbacks on COVID-19 restrictions, UC Davis is making plans for the instruction of Fall Quarter 2021 classes.

“We are planning for the vast majority of courses to be in person,” said Provost Mary Croughan, via email. “A very limited selection of courses [are] to be remote, [with] very few to no courses that would require an instructor to manage two modalities at once.”

In a meeting with The California Aggie’s Editorial Board, Croughan discussed plans for hybrid classes that will cater to students with medical needs and international students who will not be able to attend in-person classes.

“We assume that the term ‘hybrid’ is referring to a class where some students are attending the class in person, some students are attending remotely, and the instructor is managing the delivery of instruction in two modalities,” Croughan said.

The process for professors to request hybrid or remote classes will most likely be similar to that of requesting in-person classes during this past

school year, said Croughan in the meeting with the Editorial Board. Instructors may petition to have remote or hybrid classes. The administration is still working out the details for this request process and will notify the campus and professors when the forms are available.

“We have not designated any classes as having a remote option,” Croughan said. “At this time, we do not know how many students or instructors may have circumstances that would prevent them from returning to campus in the fall or from participating in in-person instruction.”

Croughan said before any decisions can be made on remote and hybrid classes, they must wait for information about student visas and other outstanding information from instructors and students.

“We anticipate that any adjustments will start being made in mid-July,” Croughan said. “As a limited number of remote courses are approved for fall, we will communicate that to students so that they may consider those options.”

The Registrar’s Office was still working on placing classes into classrooms during the first pass registration, so information on remote classes or location is not yet available on Schedule Builder.

“This work continues, and we know that it may cause some schedule changes for those

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students who have already registered,” Croughan said.

Croughan said that information on remote classes and in person locations should be available

after the adjustments are made mid-July and students who have already registered can make necessary changes during Open Registration.

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UC Davis students and faculty discuss Arab American Heritage Month With some opposition toward the heritage month, students and a faculty member discuss their perspective on creating tangible change for the community and acts of performatism

BY FARRAH BALLOU features@theaggie.org April was Arab American Heritage Month, yet this recognition sparked controversy among content creators who stated that the existence of the month is performative. The month’s history goes as far back as 1990, but has only recently gained more widespread popularity with recognition from the U.S. Department of State this year, the first branch of the federal government to do so.

Shayma Hassouna, a professor of Arabic and Middle East/South Asian studies at UC Davis, and Rassa Ebrahim, a third-year law student at UC Davis and a member of the Middle Eastern North African South Asian Law Student Association (MENASA-LSA), both mentioned that they were unaware of the existence of the history month. Ebrahim criticized its establishment, as he believed

that creating the month was performative and inadequate at solving racial issues.

“I didn’t even know it existed,” Ebrahim said. “Is every month a history month for a different minority now? I don’t see these history months as being particularly effective at changing the way social structures work in this society.”

Christy Rahal, a second-year political science major and the director of recruitment for the Empowered Arab Sisterhood, stated that she was briefly aware of the heritage month’s existence after seeing a few posts about it on social media. The posts, however, were minimal and Rahal said that they did not have a real impact.

“I feel like that month really hasn’t done anything because no

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one really knows about it,” Rahal said. “I just saw the post, and my life went back to normal.”

Both Rahal and Ebrahim said that the purpose of the heritage month seemed superficial and failed to bring tangible change.

“I think it was a performance tactic to make the government look less racist, to be completely honest,” Rahal said. “They do it with every ethnicity or group that they discriminate against. They’re always like, ‘Oh, we’ll have a month or a parade.’ In the background [...] they’re not actually fighting for us.”

Coming from a Lebanese-Palestinian and Chinese background, Rahal commented on the frustration she experiences when she has to idenitfy as white on government documents because many do not offer an option she feels comfortable identifying with. In fact, many Arabs and Middle Easterners similarly feel a loss of identity when being categorized in a group that does not represent them.

Though Ebrahim does not believe that the month influenced change this year, he said that in the future, it could be a push for education about the Arab American community.

“Perhaps the onset of the history month could help generate elementary school curriculums that substantially expose children from a young age to different cultures,” Ebrahim said.

Hassouna and Rahal said that change would be most plausible with events that showcased the Arab community in a relatable perspective. Hassouna noted that food is one of the best ways to bring people together and said that a greater way to gain unity would be through cultural events that showcased Arab dances like dabke, movie showings and street vendors.

Beyond creating change with the larger community, Hassouna also stated that it’s important to promote unification within the Arab community. She mentioned the necessity of embracing change between the different countries.

“We need to accept difference,” Hassouna said. “Iraqis do things different from Egyptians but [...] it’s not wrong. There is no such thing as wrong in a culture.”

Despite Rahal and Ebrahim considering the month to be performative, Hassouna believes that the establishment of Arab American Heritage Month may help overcome discrimination and negative stigmas.

“Any step is a step forward,” Hassouna said. “Ending the discrimination, that is so huge, but I believe that it ends with people actually meeting us and working with us and realizing that we’re all the same.”

New branch of Compas opens at UC Davis to support farm workers Compas at UCD provides essential services and mentorship to farm workers, aims to help their children succeed academically

BY LYRA FARRELL features@theaggie.org Compas at UCD, a new student-run branch of an organization originally founded at UCLA, is dedicated to advocating for farm workers and their families. Compas hopes to help the children of farm workers pursue higher education and overcome the language barriers they may face as immigrants in the U.S. The organization is mostly made up of members who have either had firsthand experience working in agricultural fields or are the children of farm workers.

Yesica Guzman, the administrative director and one of the founders of the original UCLA branch of Compas, said that she came to recognize a need for Compas as someone who has been working in agricultural fields since the eighth grade.

“Just seeing the exploitation, that even children were not protected by labor laws [...] it just seemed like an issue that really needed to be brought up,” Guzman said.

Luz Lopez, a first-year political science and public service major and the administrative director of Compas at UCD, initiated the new branch of the organization.

As someone who has worked in the strawberry fields alongside her parents since she was a child, Lopez said that she has seen many of the harsh conditions farm workers may face, one of which includes the California wildfires.

“The skies were orange and there were ashes on the strawberries,” Lopez said. “Your eyes would get watery because of the smell and the ashes that were flying around the air were really strong. I usually cover[ed] my face with a scarf. It still didn’t help that much—I would still get watery eyes and it would be hard to breathe.”

According to Lopez, in addition to the struggles workers faced because of the fires, such as being exposed to severely unhealthy air quality without receiving emergency leave, their employers may terminate them for failing to pick enough quality crops, regardless of the season.

“My parents actually got fired [...] because [their employers] were expecting high-quality strawberries, and it was at the end of the year, which is when there are no strawberries, and because of that a lot of people are actually fired,” Lopez said.

Because of this, Lopez said, Compas hopes to give farm workers the tools they need to advocate for themselves when they face similar situations.

“Compas is working on bringing awareness to these issues and trying to at least help farm workers get a little more information on how they could defend themselves and stand up for themselves in the strawberry fields,” Lopez said.

Being a firsthand witness to the treatment of farm workers, Guzman said that one of the main

Meeting of Compas at UCD over Zoom. (Courtesy)

contributing factors to farm worker exploitation is the fact that they aren’t included in certain labor laws. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), created in 1935, gives employees the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining, but farm workers are not protected by this act. Their exclusion from the NLRA means that farm workers may be fired for attempting to organize a union or collectively asking for increased pay.

Although farm workers can now receive overtime pay in California, the Fair Labor Standards Act, which gives employees the right to time-and-a-half pay, still doesn’t apply to farm workers in many other states.

Due to the long hours many farm workers with children spend in the fields, it is often difficult for them to help educate their children, according to Marylou Escobar-Gonzales, a secondyear sociology and human development major and the outreach director of Compas at UCD. Because of this, Compas provides mentorship services over

Zoom to children of farm workers to help them learn English and provide companionship services.

Escobar-Gonzales said she did not have access to these resources as a child of farm workers.

“When we were growing up ourselves, we didn’t have that type of mentorship,” EscobarGonzales said. “Our parents were out for several hours of the day, probably at most sometimes 12 hours of the day, so we only really had ourselves and our close family, [...] and most of our parents are immigrants who did not get an education themselves.”

Compas at UCD’s main method of outreach has been contacting the families within the direct sphere of the members of the organization.

“We sometimes know that our family or our family friends struggle, so whenever they do, we’re just like, ‘Hey, I’m in this club, and we do this; are you interested?’” Escobar-Gonzales said.

“From there, we draw connections. But we hope to expand and reach more than just the people

that we know. We want to expand throughout California, not just the main hotspots.”

Escobar-Gonzales said that through Compas, she’s gained a new perspective on having parents who work in the agricultural sector.

“Compas has made me realize that there’s no shame in what your parents do and the job that your parents have,” Escobar-Gonzales said.

“I remember growing up, I was kind of always ashamed and scared to tell people about what my parents did for a living. Now [...] I feel like Compas has really truly made me realize that there is no shame in telling people, ‘Yeah, my mom is a farm worker.’”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 | 5

OPINION THE EDITORIAL BOARD ENCOURAGES PROFESSORS TO RETAIN SOME DISTANCELEARNING NORMS Recorded classes, open-note exams and better professor etiquette should continue into Fall Quarter and beyond

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C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

EDITO RIA L B OA RD

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

All of the non-graduating members of the Editorial Board are excited to return to in-person learning. We can’t wait to socialize with our classmates and professors more easily, connect with people in our majors and engage in more active discussions. Despite our enthusiasm for in-person learning, the pandemic has brought many improvements to the educational system that should become permanent fixtures.

Recording and posting classes online gives students more flexibility to choose how to manage their time and succeed academically. It allows students to take classes with time conflicts, which could help to reduce the number of fifth-year students forced to take an extra year due to scheduling issues. For students able to attend class regularly, recordings would provide an opportunity to review material and utilize the pause feature to take better notes. Class recordings would also make it possible for students unable to return for Fall Quarter—either due to health reasons or international travel restrictions—to continue receiving a quality education.

It shouldn’t be difficult for professors to continue to record classes, since they already have the technology in the form of Lecture Capture and are familiar with the recording process from four quarters of online learning. Offering recordings of classes also likely won’t impact attendance rates—students will still go to mandatory lectures because they care about their grade, and students have always slept through optional lectures, even when there are no recordings.

The Editorial Board also believes that the ability to memorize facts is not an accurate measure of intelligence or a student’s understanding of the material, so some classes should continue to offer open-note midterms and finals. Although this isn’t feasible for all classes, allowing students to use handwritten notes reduces student stress and anxiety with no downside. It benefits learning outcomes and critical thinking as well, encouraging professors to write thought-provoking, comprehensive questions rather than relying on simple multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank.

In addition to offering open-note tests, professors should continue to offer asynchronous exam options. It’s more convenient to be able to take exams in 24-hour windows—who doesn’t dread

midterms at 7:30 a.m. or finals from 8-10 p.m.? Offering exams asynchronously would also give students the ability to take their exams in the comfort of their home, rather than the ridiculously tiny desks offered in many lecture halls. It’s miserable attempting to balance a scantron, exam booklet, permitted notes, scratch paper and a calculator on a desk barely larger than a textbook.

Another benefit of Zoom university is that professors can’t yell at students for being late, leaving early, going to the restroom or eating a quick snack. Students can simply stop their camera and walk away or click the “Leave Meeting” button. Before the pandemic, multiple members of the Editorial Board witnessed professors yelling at students in crowded, attendance-optional lecture halls for leaving early and demanding an excuse. One member even witnessed a professor chase two students down the hallway to confront them. We ask that professors let us do our thing in peace. As adults, we should have the agency to go to the restroom or to a doctor’s appointment without causing a massive scene.

We applaud the professors who have been accommodating and understanding during the pandemic, but we urge them to remember that returning to in-person learning will also be a difficult transition. Many students will likely be struggling with social anxiety, time management issues and busier schedules in general during a live Fall Quarter.

In-person lecture halls will likely be difficult for many of us to return to—awkwardly clambering over strangers to reach middle seats, bumping elbows while taking notes and getting sneezed on by someone in a back row will be strange and potentially upsetting experiences. Students will spend more time commuting, from home to class and back home again, which will cut into time they could have spent studying during the pandemic.

Even though we’re excited to return to campus, Fall Quarter won’t be easy for students and professors alike. By then, we’ll have spent almost a year and a half indoors with minimal social contact, and it will take a long time for many of us to return to our normal routines. Implementing these few, easy changes gives professors and university administration an incredible opportunity to make learning more enjoyable and less stressful for years to come.

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

CAMERON PERRY New Media Manager JUSTIN HAN Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director JOELLE TAHTA Layout Director KAITLIN ARAGHI Copy Chief ALEX WEINSTEIN Copy Chief KESHAV AGRAWAL Website Manager BEN CHENG Social Media Manager JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

LET’S TALK ABOUT NATIONAL PARKS Public Lands are inherently valuable and don’t need commercial value to warrant protection

BY JOE SWEENEY jmsweeney@ucdavis.edu I’ve read a lot of articles recently detailing lengthy lists of why we should protect public lands. There is always a new angle coming out, whether it’s the mental health benefits of green spaces or the incalculable economic value of their ecosystem services. All of these are completely valid and worthwhile angles, but I think sometimes they obscure the most important fact of all. A forest, a lake and a mountain have intrinsic value. They don’t need reasons to exist, they just are.

Despite its many flaws, environmentalism began with a simple idea: Man should not try to play God. American history has been characterized by a series of broken promises. With the genocide and exploitation of Indigenous peoples also came the degradation of our natural world. You can argue about intention all you want, but the results are undeniable: the Western world was founded upon the intentional extermination of natural places.

I often think about what the world was like before colonization, when streams were so imbued with fish you could walk across them, and bears and wolves were as common as cars. A landscape of dangerous unpredictability, but also capable of immense beauty.

At their best, this is what National Parks try to live up to: mere imitations of a long-gone reality.

Yosemite National Park. (John Davies / Getty Images)

This is why people go to National Parks. To capture those brief moments of wilderness, catch a glimpse of a wandering coyote or to hear the bugling of an Elk in the morning fog. Public lands have never been about stimulating the economy or being a part of some grand scientific crusade. Setting aside something just for the sake of itself doesn’t make logical sense, yet we continue to protect more and more land in the U.S. Why? Because there is something indescribably valuable about the vast expanses of the Grand Canyon or the cinnamon ancient giants towering over Redwood National Park.

This is also what makes them such an easy target for private enterprise. Look at Bear Ears National Monument, which was reduced by 85% by the Trump Administration after a big push by the oil and gas lobbyists. This reopened the area, which has some of the largest untapped coal reserves in the country, to drilling and put many sacred cultural resources of the Navajo, Hopi and many other Indigenous Nations at risk. Bear Ears serves as an unfortunate lesson in public lands conservation. Without continued public engagement and lobbying to keep them protected, these areas aren’t protected from commercial interests.

In my short time this year at The California Aggie, I’ve covered public lands extensively. From plans to permanently establish ranching in a National Seashore in our own backyard to opening up protected deserts to renewable energy development. In fall 2020, the Trump Administration even tried to reintroduce plans

for the disastrous raisal of the Shasta Dam. All of this happened in California just since September. California is widely considered one of the most environmentally conscious states in the country. If this is happening in California, imagine how bad it is everywhere else.

“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away,” penned John Muir, naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club. Although Muir was not the monumental progressive figure he is often portrayed as, we can learn from his writing and decades of advocacy.

Muir’s absolute uncompromising resolve, even in the face of the worst odds, is the reason why many California parks, including Yosemite, are protected today. He believed, much like I do, that conservation starts with the heart before it gets to your head.

Sometimes I get so preoccupied with a problem that I forget why I even care in the first place. Rolling up my sleeves and getting waist deep in a stream or halfway up a mountain is always a good enough reminder for me. These wonderful wild places will only stay protected if people like you and I care enough to keep them that way.

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.

6 | THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

OPINION ACCENT DISCRIMINATION AND THE PROBLEM WITH NEUTRAL ACCENTS In entertainment, individuals with accents are often reduced for comedic effect, while in the workplace they lose credibility

BY RENEE WANG reswang@ucdavis.edu In “Modern Family,” Sofia’s Vergara’s character Gloria Pritchett is known for her exaggerated accent and misnomers of the English language; while her accent works primarily for comedic effect, Vergara’s character also breaks down the sobering reality of the way individuals with accents are treated in America.

“Do you know how frustrating it is to have to translate everything in my head before I say it? To have people laugh in my face because I’m struggling to find the words? I know what I meant to mean. Do you know how smart I am in Spanish? Of course you don’t,” Vergara’s character said.

In a few lines, Vergara’s character demonstrates how for many individuals whose secondary language is English, it is a straddle between trying to stay afloat amid being constantly lost in translation—while also reconciling with the fact that many people will whittle aspects of them down to judgements on their accent.

In the U.S., a study evaluating American attitudes toward nine non-Anglo foreign accents revealed a distinctive hierarchy: French and German, languages with “higher non-stigmatized categorizations,” were rated more positively compared to accents like Arabic and Vietnamese. What is declared the “Standard American Accent” is not so standard but closer to the speech patterns of someone who is a white upper-middle-class nonrecent-immigrant.

Accent discrimination is a pervasive issue that occurs in

Hollywood and everyday job listings. Former President Donald Trump himself has reportedly mocked the accent of Asian leaders from South Korea and Japan, as well as Prime Minister Modi of India. For many with accents, they are ridiculed and not treated as intellectual equals.

In Hollywood, actors with accents are faced with playing a typecasted role or receiving no role at all; with the expectation that most productions will not hire someone with an accent, actors must seek neutrality by banishing their accents. Egregious solutions given to actors to remove the “foreignness” from their accents include not speaking to their families in their native speech. Roles that hyperfocus on a character’s accent as a basis of their characterizations are often reduced to a comedic effect where they are not laughed with but laughed at.

The acceptance of such accents in the mainstream is acceptable for entertainment value, but not so much in environments where accented English is rendered from its intellectual capability. Such is the case with LinkedIn job postings with preferences for “neutral accents” and the way having an accent destroys your credibility.

A neutral accent is a standard applied that is a “linguistic improbability, but socially constructed reality.”

Expectations of a neutral accent create a baseline that Anglo speech is the norm, and those that do not conform to the alignments of the “Standard American Accent” (someone who is a white upper-middle-class non-recent-immigrant) are rendered immediately unintelligible until they are closer to something they are not and should not strive to be. It is important to look toward

Sofia Vergara at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party, Feb. 9, 2020. (Axelle / Bauer-Griffin FilmMagic) our own and larger biases and dispel the notion that accented English is inferior—individuals who speak multiple languages and cater to our language that is ripe with contradictions—deserve nothing but respect.

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.

‘SPONTANEOUS SOCIAL MEDIA’ IS AN OXYMORON It’s impossible to make Instagram “casual” again

BY ISABELLA CHUECOS ifchuecos@ucdavis.edu

AGGIE FILE

I’ve always been impressed by people who could cultivate perfect Instagram themes. Whether it’s a certain border, filter or pattern of posts, themes are generally used to define a user’s account and personal style.

There’s a new calling, however, that is making its rounds on social media platforms far and wide: “make Instagram casual.”

One of the methods that people are employing in an attempt to make Instagram casual is the “photo dump.” Post a collage containing a few selfies, scenery shots and (most importantly) an air of spontaneity—you’ve got yourself a perfect “photo dump.”

Despite its less-than-elegant name, “photo dumping” insinuates that you’ve got a spontaneously perfect life. It also gives off the impression that you don’t care about the presentation of your feed and what people think about you.

This Instagram trend was popularized in 2020 and has followed us into 2021, which tells us that people are getting tired of the way that we’ve been posting for the past decade. Having a theme to your account is now considered passé.

I know that we’re all tired of hearing about COVID-19, but there’s no doubt that the pandemic’s reign of chaos touched all parts of our lives, including the online sphere. The shift toward spontaneous, unfiltered posting reflects our lived experience––one that was characterized by political turmoil and “unprecedented times.” Posting erratically gives us the chance to make sense of the world around us, to adapt our old concepts of reality to the new normal. This turn toward spontaneity also has a lot to do with the aging social media generation.

I got on Instagram when I was 11. Back then, Instagram felt like it was made exclusively for photo dumping. The only people who had themed feeds were famous people and the small beginnings of what would become Instagram influencers. The early years of Instagram were also rife with copious amounts of nostalgia-posting by self-proclaimed “‘90s kids,” ranging from “Rugrats” memes to old Tamagotchi screengrabs.

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.

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HUMOR

NATURE DOCUMENTARY FORCED TO RETRACT LITERALLY EVERYTHING

WE ALL DESERVE PARTICIPATION TROPHIES AFTER THIS YEAR

To be fair, you should’ve known not all cows are Geminis

BY KATE HARGES klharges@ucdavis.edu

The Sun rises over the rain forest. (Netflix)

BY ANNABEL MARSHALL almarshall@ucdavis.edu This week, Netflix released a massive apology due to misinformation in their latest nature documentary. Apparently, you can’t trust an unpaid intern to type up a “rough script” for a six-hour show. Netflix subscribers took the news without issue, mostly because no one had seen that documentary. They were all busy rewatching “Avatar: The Last Airbender” for the eighth time.

The real story, however, lies in the fact that 17 separate people approved this documentary before it was released to the public.

Yes, Netflix has gotten a bit sloppy recently.

(What’s going on with “Riverdale”? Not even the writers know.) But seriously, someone read this aloud in a room full of producers and sound engineers, and no one batted an eye.

And, no, obviously it wasn’t Sir David Attenborough. Have some respect. He’s a seasoned professional and would never imply

that penguins can be trained to smoke a joint. Don’t even joke about that.

Additional retracted statements include: • Camels’ humps invert when they’re thirsty • Armadillos instantly fall asleep to the sound of Samuel L. Jackson’s voice • Axolotls could live to be 100 but they choose not to out of spite • The red in a ladybug’s coloring represents passion, while the black represents the bubonic plague • Chameleons are all Libertarians • I am the Walrus • Zebras are both the perpetrators and victims of systemic racism • A duckbill platypus will hover about a foot off the ground when approached by a predator or by a Scientologist Some have raised questions about this mishap, painting it as evidence of our educational systems’ failures. Surely, they argue, any high school graduate should be able to find an issue with the statement “North American freshwater catfish are often secretly 60-year-old men.”

I, however, see this scandal for what it is: despicable carelessness on the part of Netflix.

Any self-respecting writer would never publish something that is so obviously flawed.

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

“You Tried.” Yes, quicktrophy.com, yes I did

I’d like to begin by outlining the participation trophies of my past: 2007: Little League Softball. “Everybody is a winner” (Oh please, Coach Rick. I sat in the dugout eating charred hotdogs that might lead to heart issues down the line. Winner is a bold statement).

2010: Swim team. “Most Improved” (If going from getting lapped twice to once in the span of three years counts as most improved, I’ll take it).

2014: Cross Country. “Participant” (Couldn’t have said it better myself ).

2021: Survived a global pandemic. “Your name here.”

1. A distressed woman laying on the floor after receiving her statistics grade, but like all trophy figures she’s super toned. I’d like to preorder this one.

2. A man with a blanket over his shoulders and a bag of chips in hands to represent the quarantine lifestyle. Unfortunately, quicktrophy.com said he’d also have to be ripped.

3. The Zoom logo with a slash across it because I think we’d all like to leave this application in our past.

As for plate engravings, here are some potential options: 1. “Your therapist is proud of you” 2. “Goodbye social distancing, hello new onset social anxiety” 3. “You did your best”

The trophies I received in 2007, 2010 and 2014 meant nothing to me. I was focused on the bag of sweaty orange slices and Capri Suns that accompanied the award ceremony. Receiving a participation trophy after this year of lockdown, however, would mean the world to me.

It’s been a tough year for everyone: dealing with isolation, working remotely, remaining healthy, unemployment, the removal of the feature on Instagram that allowed you to stalk what other people were doing on the app, etc.

A tough year to say the least. Which leaves me wondering: Where are our awards? The most I’m getting from surviving a year of college during the pandemic are some crappy grades and a stiff side hug from my dad. With this in mind, you could see why I’m suggesting that everyone deserves a plastic participation trophy for simply enduring this terrible year.

I’m hoping to be in contact with Chancellor May to make this happen. I expect to see firstyears posing like graduates in front of the Memorial Union with their trophy in hand rather than a champagne bottle.

Let’s consider potential figures and toppers for our trophies:

Trophy. (The Atlantic)

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

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 | 7

FILMS AND PLAYS TO WATCH DURING ASIAN AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER (AAPI) HERITAGE MONTH Members of the AAPI community share their recommendations of media celebrating AAPI stories

BY LIANA MAE ATIZADO features@theaggie.org As Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month comes to a close, reflection on the history and contributions of the AAPI community do not have to be confined to a month. One way to continue education about this community and the issues they face is by watching movies, short films and plays produced by and about AAPI individuals.

Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), screenplay by Adele Lim and Qui Nguyen This animated Disney film follows Raya, a warrior in the fantasy realm of Kumandra and Disney’s first Southeast Asian protagonist.

According to Katherine Parpana, the interim director of the API Retention Initiative, the cast and most of the production team were Asian and Southeast Asian.

“Disney animators and writers did a great job honoring Southeast Asian culture in the storytelling and design of this film,” Parpana said. “Everything from the five realms of Kumandra to the costume design was an homage to Southeast Asian culture.”

Minari (2020), dir. by Lee Isaac Chung Both Parpana and Trisha Talla, a second-year biochemistry and molecular biology major and the community service coordinator for the Filipinx Association for Health Careers (FAHC), recommended “Minari.” The storyline is about a South Korean immigrant family and their experience in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.

“It really highlights the importance of family and defines what makes a place home,” Talla said.

According to Parpana, “Minari” is one of the first Hollywood films centering an Asian cast since “Joy Luck Club” in 1993. It garnered many awards, including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, with Yuh-Jung Youn becoming the first Korean actress to win an Academy Award.

The Farewell (2019), dir. by Lulu Wang Both Parpana and Talla also recommended “The Farewell,” a comedy-drama film that follows a Chinese-American family. After learning their grandmother only has a few months left to live, the family decides not to tell her and schedules a wedding in order for everyone to gather before she dies.

“This story reminds me of my grandmothers, Lola and Inang, and all the things we did to protect them, respectively, and all these traditions that are archaic but we still practice them out of filial piety or familial pressure,” Parpana said. “It’s a great reminder of the things we do for family and how our ancestors seem to always just know.”

As the story follows an immigrant family, it explores both Chinese and American cultures, Talla said.

“The director really portrays the cultural differences between those who were born here in the U.S. and those who were born in China, without any bias as to whose approach might be best when it comes to dealing with death of a loved one,” Talla said.

Always Be My Maybe (2019), dir. by Nahnatchka Khan This romantic comedy film follows Asian American leads Marcus and Sasha, two childhood friends who grow up next door to each other in San Francisco, fall out of touch and reconnect years later. Parpana noted that themes in this film include the expectations of AAPI women around marriage and motherhood, expectations of AAPI men and masculinity and relationships with both immigrant and multigenerational American parents.

“I personally loved this film because it reminded me of my own time growing up in the Bay Area,” Parpana said. “Also, the music, which is so important for many AAPI folks, because so many of us relate to and enjoy the music featured in this film.”

Lilo & Stitch (2002) A well-watched Disney animated feature, “Lilo & Stitch” is one of few major film releases centering on Native Hawaiian stories. Parpana pointed out the importance of the AAPI adoptee

experience and how this film highlights this theme. She explained that many AAPI families do not fit the Western definition of a nuclear family, but instead are extended and globally located.

“Many of us are adopted into other families and grow up learning about our respective AAPI cultures and heritages in our own ways,” Parpana said. “This film is a great reminder that family is what we make of it.”

Short Films Julia Lu, a third-year civil engineering major and the copresident of the Asian American Association (AAA), recommended watching short films, including HBO’s Asian Pacific American Visionaries 2020 Winners: “Si” produced by Thomas Percy Kim, “Fine China” by Tiffany So and “Lonely Blue Night” by Johnson Cheng. Lu also recommended “In the Visible,” a short film directed

by Natasha Lee and produced by Lucia Tran, and “Cambodian Son,” a documentary that can be streamed for free on PBS.

AAPIHERITAGE2 on 11

THE DUMPLING HOUSE IS A DUMPLING HOME The Chinese restaurant remains a local favorite despite only coming to Davis once a week throughout the pandemic

Dumpling House at the Wednesday Davis Farmer’s Market at Central Park. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY ANGIE CUMMINGS arts@theaggie.org Food coming from The Dumpling House in its different iterations—both as a restaurant and a farmers market stand—is no stranger to The Aggie and UC Davis students alike. While the Davis restaurant has been closed for almost two years now, students and community members have still been able to enjoy delicious goods from the steamed portion of their menu each Wednesday at the Davis Farmers Market in Central Park. Additionally, over the

past year, The Dumpling House has opened three new locations throughout Sacramento, all with the extended menu not found at the farmers market.

After speaking with Linda Liu, the owner and founder of The Dumpling House, it is clear why this establishment has been such a consistent fan favorite. Liu has a love for the craft as well as an incredibly charming and warm personality that is echoed throughout the restaurant staff, making the trek to Sacramento for some dumplings on a non-Wednesday undoubtedly worth it.

Liu’s love for making and sharing dumplings is not new, as she learned all that she knows from her grandmother.

“My whole family would sit around our big round table and wrap dumplings,” Liu said.

Dumplings have always been communal for Liu, and she has extended that sense of community to all of Davis, even without a restaurant in the city.

“With the farmers market, we still go because of the community and students who might miss us,” Liu said. Thankfully, The Dumpling House will be returning to its original building on E Street right here in Davis early this fall.

“The entire inside will be brand new, but it’s the same Dumpling House as before,” Liu said. The UC Davis community will rejoice when those doors finally reopen, providing new and returning students and customers with a delicious dumpling experience that is only a short walk or bike ride away.

In the meantime, individuals can enjoy dumplings at one of Liu’s three current locations in Sacramento. I had the chance to visit the Midtown location—an adorable neighborhood I had never visited. This location has that perfect hole-in-the-wall look, with a simple interior made up of just the counter and a small

seating area off to the side as well as three or four tables outside— the perfect place to sip on a delicious Thai tea while you wait. This location also offers a few dessert options, one being a chocolate bao that I urge everyone to try at least once. This perfect little savory dumpling consists of the classic fluffy bao bun with hot melted chocolate right in the center. Each of the locations have slightly different menus, making it imperative to visit them all and try each one’s unique offerings.

Before opening the original Dumpling House in Davis over a decade ago, Liu traveled all around Asia and noticed dumplings were consistently popular everywhere she went. She left feeling inspired to come back to California and open a shop. Being the smart businesswoman that she is, Liu has always recognized that her primary customer base consisted of students in Davis, so she has always sold frozen dumplings at a discounted price for those nights you just don’t want to cook but still want some homemade food. Of course, the frozen dumplings are not only offered in Davis, and with the pandemic, this deal has come in handy.

“People are pretty lazy, and are now getting tired of cooking in the pandemic,” Liu said.

The Dumpling House and its masterful creations have become an integral part of the Davis downtown experience over the years.

Liu perfectly summed up her career in the restaurant business and time at The Dumpling House: “I’m 72 years young and I still love to cook.” The Dumpling House has won over Davis’ heart.

UNCOVERING THE NEW DEAL’S ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY IN DAVIS AND SACRAMENTO The Depression-era programs have left a lasting physical imprint on Northern California

BY BRANDON JETTER arts@theaggie.org Ask yourself: what do Shields Library, the Davis Central Park restrooms and the iconic Tower Bridge in West Sacramento all have in common?

If you’re a 20th century history buff or studying to become an architect, you might know. But for those who don’t, the answer may come as a surprise. They were all built as a part of projects funded by the New Deal programs of the 1930s. Whether it was when you were walking down the street in Downtown Davis or making your way through one of Sacramento’s countless parks, odds are you have passed by some of the enduring physical legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Enacted amid the Great Depression, the New Deal intended to provide immediate economic support and financial reform in the U.S. These efforts ranged from the formation of government agencies like the Social Security Administration to major changes in regulatory fiscal policy, all with the intention of restoring the broken American economy. Two of the programs most responsible for the New Deal’s architectural legacy were the Public Works Administration (PWA)—enacted as a part of the First New Deal in 1933-34—and the Works Projects Administration (WPA), which was established by the much more ambitious and controversial Second New Deal of 1935-36.

The intentions of programs like the WPA were two-part: providing jobs to the unemployed while building up America’s

infrastructure system. At its peak in 1938, the WPA employed 3.3 million people. In the end, 8.8 million jobs were created by the program.

“The workers would be helped by getting paychecks. Then they would spend their salaries on consumer goods, thus helping the economy as a whole to recover,” said Kathryn Olmsted, a UC Davis history professor and current interim chair of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, via email. “At the same time, the economy and the people of the United States would benefit from the roads, bridges, schools, airports, public art and other projects of the WPA.” The aesthetic provoked by the New Deal would become known as “PWA Moderne,’’ a unique architectural style heavily influenced by the French traditions of Art Deco and the neoclassical Beaux-Arts. The style favored linear and geometric decorative components, and the monumental aims of much of the New Deal’s engineering projects ensured that these buildings would leave a lasting physical and cultural legacy.

“The PWA and WPA definitely had a lasting cultural impact,” Olmsted said via email. “More generally, the art and architecture and public works projects of the New Deal continue to surround us and to influence artists and architects today.”

The PWA post office style, in particular, Olmsted noted, has become instantly recognizable. In the Sacramento metropolitan area, it’s easy to see the influence.

The north wing of Shields Library—presently containing the 24-Hour Study Room and Main Reading Room—for example, was completed as part of a PWA program in 1940. The oldest

Peter J. Shields Library at UC Davis is an example of New Deal architecture in Davis, CA. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) high school in Sacramento, C.K. McClatchy High School in the Land Park neighborhood, was likewise constructed in 1937 with funds garnered from both local sources and the PWA. It continues to be home to around 2,000 students.

The projects constructed by the PWA and WPA also helped spur the advancement of other architectural styles. The old Davis City Hall, notable for its iconic Spanish Colonial Revival look, was constructed by the WPA in 1938, and has since been used as a fire station, police station and most recently, as a component of the recently-closed Bistro 33. The Tower Bridge,

linking West Sacramento and Yolo County to the state capital, was built using a unique Streamline Moderne style. It has since become an iconic symbol of Sacramento.

So next time you’re logging a late night study session in Shields Library—or reminiscing on your alcohol-laden antics at Bistro 33’s Mojito Night—try to see if you can remember what programs were responsible for building the structures you use to this day. You might even impress someone with your worldliness (no guarantees).

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Review: Pence Gallery’s ‘Natural Abundance’ is worth a trip downtown The exhibit features work by local artists that is sure to put a smile on gloomy faces

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org Davis has an abundance of local culture to indulge in, including the Pence Art Gallery. An inconspicuous complex nestled in the heart of downtown is home to a surprisingly impressive number of exhibits featuring work by local artists.

“Natural Abundance: Gardens Flowers and Fruit” showcases paintings from various artists.

The exhibition is replacing the annual Pence Gallery Garden Tour, which has been canceled for a second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Natural Abundance” is open now through May 30.

The exhibit is located on the top floor of the gallery, above the gift shop and two other exhibits (which are also worth a look). On the way to the second story, patrons are treated to a hanging display of various donuts that look good enough to eat. Be warned though—these treats are enticing, but given that they’re crafted from various different inedible materials, they likely wouldn’t make for the best mid-gallery-stroll

snack.

Upon entering the room housing “Natural Abundance,” art lovers are greeted with a colorful display. The room has been curated to be reminiscent of a garden, though not all pieces are straightforward renditions of flora.

I must give props to the gallery curator for their thoughtful work. Even from the perspective of a relative art newbie, I could tell that the gallery curator did a good job with placing the paintings in such a way that the transitions between various art styles made sense, overall contributing to a pleasant walk-through.

The first wall features mainly vivid pieces, with the standout being “The Peony Tapestry” by Janet Crittenden. It is by far the largest artwork in the collection, and one of the few that incorporates human life into its landscape. There is clear inspiration from various other art styles and wellknown pieces woven into Crittenden’s work, and the result is a unique, skillfully-made painting that draws your attention right away.

Moving onto the second face of the square room, the first piece hung up on the wall is titled

Mira Malone in «Thanatographer» by Samuel Utomo. (Courtesy)

Best Films from Davis’ 21st annual Film Festival A COVID-19 sitcom stole the show

BY ITZELTH GAMBOA arts@theaggie.org The 21st annual Davis Film Festival took place on May 19 and 20 at 7 p.m., and was streamed on Vimeo. Fifty films were submitted to the festival and only 29 films made the final cut. The showing this year gave the audience the opportunity to vote for their favorites. Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties for the second showing and the festival sent an email to its registered audience that a live broadcast will be postponed to a later date.

While I did not get to watch the second round of films, I did enjoy watching Wednesday’s event with my bag of popcorn. Listed below are my favorite films shown on the Wednesday premiere.

“Episode 1” dir. by Sophie Martinez My personal favorite of the entire two-day event was Sophie Martinez’s “Episode 1.” The short film focuses on a family who is forced to stay at home during the pandemic. Like many other families during this time, they’re slowly driving each other to the brink of breaking. The days focus on the mother, who works in human resources and is trying to find a memorable acronym to motivate employees. The story starts off with the father, who is used to an online setting as he usually works from home, but as the film progresses we can see how boredom and frustration takes over each member of the family—except for the mother, who is likely the only one continuously upbeat throughout the film. She even sends a Zoom link to her husband while they are in the same room and excitedly tells him that now they can be together all of the time; cue the husband looking annoyed directly into the camera.

This short film looks at the family’s life in a sitcom style, clipping each sibling into the film and having a member of the family look directly into the camera out of frustration. I would watch this family making a sitcom over any other scripted reality TV show any day.

“Teddy” dir. by Charlee Wickemeyer The short film “Teddy” features a woman who draws dogs at animal shelters. It was the shortest film throughout the festival but it was the only one that made me tear up. In a matter of what seemed like a minute, Wickemeyer crafted the perfect story of a dog looking for a family. At the start of the lockdown, there were cases of animal shelters completely clearing out, each dog finding a home to go to.

Wickemeyer starts off the short film with a woman in an animal shelter drawing a dog with

their teddy bear. We see her move along in the short film, drawing all of the dogs, and a couple of days later a young boy and his mother take home the small dog and the teddy bear.

Anything with any animal is sure to make its way to my heart, but something about animals in shelters finally having a place to call home puts me in a wobbly mess like nothing else.

“The Danger of a Runaway Train” dir. by Sara Alquist Alquist compared her life to the train, always moving and fast-paced, until one day it was stopped and derailed, and suddenly she had to go through the process of figuring out who she was and who she wanted to be.

There’s something about someone unnervingly opening themselves up to an audience that automatically gets my respect. But aside from showing how she felt, it’s nice to see that other people are going through a similar situation. I always appreciate a short film or other artwork with the raw truth of what someone is going through. I have a tendency to get so caught up in my head about worrying what my next steps are in life and if they are the right steps that I sometimes forget I’m not the only person who doesn’t have it all figured out. But every once in a while, I’m reminded that we are all just a bunch of college students acting like we know what we are doing.

Alquest’s short film reminded me of that, and it was a comfort especially now toward the end of my last year.

“Flowers for the Knights” dir. by Linqi Sun “Flowers for the Knights” was one that I didn’t fully understand when I first watched it, but the story was interesting so I went back to watch it again only to discover a telling story about sacrifice.

The animated film focused on two warriors, one of whom has to go and slay a monster, but when the warrior gets infected, his friend, the knight, has to go and kill him. Our warrior, as infected as he may be, guides the knight’s sword to himself, understanding what needs to be done in order to save everyone else. As the knight plunges the sword into the warrior, flowers bloom out of his chest and those flowers are a remedy for those who are dying.

The story starts off with our knight passing through a hospital full of the sick and ends with him kneeling at a graveyard of all of the fallen warriors who had given up their lives to save others. Sticking true to the theme of sacrifice and bravery, Sun dedicated this film to medical workers and essential workers who stepped up during the pandemic.

“Covent Garden Tube Station, London” by Pete Scully. This caught my eye right away, as most other artists interpreted the assignment literally, but Scully took a more creative route and created a piece only loosely based on the theme. Although this does create some disconnect from the rest of the gallery, I enjoyed seeing an artist think outside the box and come up with something completely different. His work was also skillfully made (like every piece in the exhibit), with bold reds and blues overlaying a precisely sketched background that makes the piece come alive and almost transports the viewer from Davis to London.

Other pieces in this area included beautiful still lifes, as well as a few renditions of various garden landscapes. “Gloria’s Roses” by Sompol Chatusripitak, a delicate watercolor view of a rose bush, is so detailed that you can almost smell the floral scent wafting off the page, and “Daffodil”

by Kathleen Gamper is lifelike enough to make someone believe Gamper had simply pressed a daffodil in between the glass and called it a day.

There didn’t seem to be a clear theme for this wall, which gave it the slightly sporadic nature of an untamed garden.

The third wall features darker pieces that evoke a more introspective mood. I enjoyed the change of pace from bright yellows and pinks. The art displayed there featured a moodier color scheme with plenty of purples, dark greens and blues and rounded out the gallery by emphasizing the different dispositions Mother Nature can adopt.

Lastly, there is a colorful, fun wall. The paintings here screamed spring, and almost seemed to light up the room with their bright petals and bold brushstrokes. Some of the work here was a bit more abstract—the whimsical blues and oranges of “Garden Light” by Trish Mayer and the palm tree featured in “Horton Iris Farm I’’ by Deborah Hill spring to mind. These pieces certainly left the viewer leaving the gallery on a high note.

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Pence Gallery in Downtown Davis. (Nicki Padar / Aggie)

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.edu

Movie: “Sid and Nancy” dir. by Alex Cox (1986) Cox’s follow-up to the cult classic “Repo Man” follows the infamous relationship between Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and shrill teen groupie Nancy Spungen through the band’s collapse and a certain tragic event thoroughly cemented in Punk history. Cox’s style is rude and feverish, but at times beautiful. The film mocks the Sex Pistols (maybe justly) and makes no romance out of Sid and Nancy’s self-destructive lifestyles—here Sid Vicious is a talentless junkie and Nancy Spungen is a controlling, caustic harpy, and yet it’s impossible not to feel sympathy for them. The film flows like sloppy poetry, and a number of these shots stay with you regardless of whether you want them to—a reminder that great filmmakers are capable of locating beauty in what amounts to a wasteland.

TV Show: “Cromartie High School” (2003) Pretty much every line in this show is quotable in some capacity. It’s full of ironic, awkward charm and at no point pretends to have a cogent plot. One of the characters is Freddie Mercury (I’m not sure how copyright or likeness law or whatever works in Japan, but as seriously baffling as it is to me, they got away with this. I guess because he never speaks and they don’t ever say his last name?) and he’s one of the less compelling ones. This show is endlessly funny and more people need to know about it.

Album: “The Hollow Mountain” by TwinSisterMoon (2009) This is a mysterious Psychedelic Folk album from the solo project of Mehdi Ameziane, one half of Natural Snow Buildings, full of lush soundscapes and somber acoustic guitar.

It summons a natural aesthetic that sounds something like a fantasy version of “The Glow Pt. 2,” haunted by an implacable voice that drags you further into the wilderness. A friend of mine once described this album as “ritual-core.” Quaint guitar-driven tracks are found between stretches of spiraling ambience, making the whole thing feel as strange as it is soothing.

Book: “Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail ‘72” by Hunter Thompson (1973) Thompson’s book is one of the finest pieces of journalism ever written—every sentence runs somewhere on a continuum between “Basically Libel” and “Admission of Felony.” Thompson’s account of the doomed McGovern campaign is uncompromising and demonstrates, somehow, a kind of broken honesty, unmarred by any impetuous veil of objectivity. The whole thing comes together in a flurry, never staying too long in any one place and dangerously extracting fragments of the truth from sleazy conferences and Thompson’s own mescaline-fueled indiscretions on press trains and in crime-ridden streets.

The book swallows you whole until the last page—nobody has been able to do it quite like him since.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021 | 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 5/13/2021

Crossword Answer to previous puzzle 5/13/2021

10 | THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

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SCIENCE & TECH UC DAVIS SHEEP MOWERS HIGHLIGHT THE INTERCONNECTIONS BETWEEN SUSTAINABILIY, PRACTICALITY AND AESTHETICS Landscape architect’s recent sheep project explores the use of sheep in maintaining landscapes

BY MICHELLE WONG science@theaggie.org Imagine if all lawn mowers on campus were replaced with grazing sheep who worked shifts to maintain our lawns. This idea is one that Haven Kiers, an assistant professor of landscape architecture in the Department of Human Ecology, is exploring through her project, which was piloted from May 5 to May 7, 2021. During this three-day initial trial, Kiers split the Solano field into two halves to compare one half—which was mowed conventionally—with the other, which was mowed by sheep. Kiers was inspired to begin this project after reading an article in The New York Times about sheep grazing lawns in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

“There was just something about that,” Kiers said. “It was just so romantic, the notion of the sheep and the maintenance and the Eiffel Tower, that it just stuck with me.”

She initially thought of this idea while working at the Arboretum and took the opportunity to conduct this research project once she became a professor. Kiers emphasized that as a landscape architect, she does not want her landscapes to serve only aesthetic purposes, but also be used in a productive way to gather scientific data.

During her sheep experiment, Kiers measured grass length to see how successful the sheep were at mowing the grass and soil samples to see if the sheep added fertilizer while grazing and species biodiversity.

Miles DaPrato, an environmental steward of the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, explained that Kiers asked him

to help identify what kinds of plants were in the areas where the sheep would be grazing. DaPrato said that with his background in restoration ecology, he supports the idea of sustainable management practices that Kiers is implementing. “[The experiment is] trying to approach things a little bit more sustainably and see how we can just change the culture of what we do and how we do it, which is not easy,” DaPrato said.

According to other studies conducted on the effects of sheep replacing traditional lawn mowers, this experiment has been shown to benefit landscape management. In a study done in 2016 at the University of Edinburgh, researchers found that net lawnscape management emissions were reduced by over 30% by switching to sheep grazing. Although, in addition to the ecological benefits of using sheep in lawnscape management, Kiers is also interested in how people will react to the sheep project as a whole.

“I’m really, really interested in this idea of the healing power of nature and the concept of Nature Rx,” Kiers said. “I want to see if bringing in sheep to campus and having people able to view them can actually help reduce stress and anxiety, [...] much like when people are stressed, they go for a walk in the Arboretum.”

Kiers elaborated that the concept of Nature Rx, or having contact with nature even if it’s a view out of a window, can have a calming effect on people. Through the sheep project, she hopes that the sheep can become more integrated into the campus brand and become something that is engaging and that people want to be a part of.

Sheep graze on Solano fields as part of a trial run for UC Davis’ sheep grazing project. (Haven Kiers / Courtesy) WORKINGSHEEP on 11

NEW COVID-19 TEST COUPLED WITH MACHINE LEARNING ALLOWS FOR QUICK AND NUMEROUS SCREENINGS MILO, or Machine Intelligence Learning Optimizer, is used with mass spectrometry to rapidly identify the presence of COVID-19

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org The pandemic has lasted for over a year now with many travelling to health centers and venues to be tested and vaccinated daily. In light of the potential setbacks that frequent testing may pose, UC Davis Health has developed a new screening method for COVID-19

Partnerships with UC Davis Team helped develop new rapid COVID-19 test at the UC Davis Health Campus in Sacramento, CA. (UC Davis Health / Courtesy)

called MALDI-TOF-MS, or matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, that can retrieve testing results within hours while maintaining a high level of sensitivity and accuracy appropriate for detecting infectious diseases.

Dr. Nam Tran, a professor of clinical pathology at UC Davis Health in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, is the lead author of the study and helped develop the screening method and coupled it with machine learning to expedite the COVID-19 testing process. The current “gold standard” for testing has been reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR), known to be highly accurate and sensitive but with the huge tradeoff of speed and time where results would not be received until days later.

“High-throughput PCR testing is unable to achieve turnaround times that would be compatible with businesses and schools,” Tran said via email. “It’s less than ideal to wait for hours or days for results. In contrast, we also have ultrafast PCR systems now at UC Davis Health that can test for SARS-CoV-2 and Flu A/B in 20 minutes. However, these only test one sample at a time. Both the above solutions are also expensive and require various supply chains common to anyone doing molecular testing.”

The major problem of PCR, aside from its speed, was the shortages in the supply chain, where the reagents necessary to run the test are often unavailable.

“The problems that arose were supplies,” Tran said via email.

“Everyone in the world was competing for the same samples. As different places came up with alternative methods to bypass supply chain problems, we now have issues of different tests with varying degrees of accuracy and precision. Not all PCR tests are created the

same.”

The proposed method in the study went on an alternative route of antigen-based testing to detect proteins rather than the typical RNA test, which produced results at much faster speeds.

Dr. Hooman Rashidi, a professor and vice chair of informatics and computational pathology at UC Davis and the AI director for the UC Davis Medical Center, described the advantages and disadvantages of antigen-based testing that the team had agreed to optimize with machine learning.

“The antigen-based method is definitely way faster,” Rashidi said. “Instead of a few days and batch testing, they now can do them in four or five hours. But the antigen-based assay, if you see the performances and in the paper where we give a list of the most credible ones, their performance measures are not even close to those of the PCR method.”

The poor performance of antigen-based tests as compared to the current PCR methods were resolved with an automated machine learning platform called MILO, or Machine Intelligence Learning Optimizer, of which both Tran and Rashidi were involved in developing. Coupled with the mass spectrometer machine used, COVID-19 test screening could be expedited without sacrificing any performance measures or running into supply chain shortages to be as accurate as the gold standard of the PCR method.

The mass spectrometer MALDI-TOF shoots a laser at the sample to fragment the molecules into ions that produce a readout of analyzable signal peaks. MILO helps to read these signals and identify whether a specific infectious disease is present or not.

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SEADOC SOCIETY PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS THREATS FACING KILLER WHALES, PUSHES FOR POSITIVE CHANGE The SeaDoc Society, a donor-funded program of the UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, presents a collaborative project aimed to help save the wild southern resident killer whale population from extinction

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org “Free Willy,” which came out in 1993, portrayed killer whales as beloved and personable animals rather than killers—quite different from public perception of the marine mammals in the 1960s and ‘70s, when they were commonly hunted and deeply feared.

And yet despite current public empathy for the animals, the killer whale population is still facing a multitude of threats resulting from human interference.

The SeaDoc Society, a donor-funded program of the UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center, is based on Orcas Island in the Salish Sea off the coast of Washington and British Columbia, and part of their mission involves studying southern resident killer whales. These whales are one of four populations of resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest; the populations are separated by their own unique “culture,” a distinction which is tied to their main food source, hunting style, and auditory communication.

According to a post by the SeaDoc Society, the scarcity of salmon, as well as shipping traffic, boat noise and water contaminants have all factored into why only 75 southern resident killer whales remain in the wild today.

In an attempt to effect positive change, and in line with their mission to “[bring] together interested parties to share information, forge common understandings and design region-wide solutions,” the SeaDoc Society recently released a podcast series called “Pod

SeaDoc Society is based on Orcas Island in the Salish Sea, which is the habitat of many orcas such as the one pictured above. (Winston Rockwell / Courtesy) of Orcas: Saving Southern Resident Killer Whales,” which is comprised of seven episodes that each feature a guest speaker.

The series is co-hosted by Justin Cox, who is the SeaDoc Society communications manager as well as the producer of the podcast, and Kevin Campion, a member of the Board of Directors at the

SeaDoc Society. It explores various topics including whale culture, the history of captivity, the deep spiritual connection of the whales to the native tribes of the Salish Sea area and more.

Cox explained how the project began, saying that the organization would usually hold a series of events called “Ocean Nights” consisting of speaker presentations, film screenings and more, but this wasn’t held during the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“Ocean Nights wasn’t going to happen,” Cox said. “The idea of doing a series of Zoom calls over a weekend through the winter kinda depressed me. During quarantine, I messed around doing a podcast—one of those weird quarantine hobbies—and it surprised me how much I liked it.”

Cox went on to explain that he didn’t want a podcast that would go on indefinitely, given the amount of projects the SeaDoc Society was already working on. Instead, they needed a specific, directed topic—and they landed on the southern resident killer whales.

“This area of work is such a collaboration,” Cox said. “There were so many people we wanted to feature, shine a light on their work.”

Jason Colby, a history professor at the University of Victoria with a special focus on environmental history, was featured on episode three of the podcast. He emphasized how important he believes this collaborative viewpoint to be.

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DIVERSITY RANKING

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UC Davis also ranked 34th among all university institutions nationwide.

According to UC Davis News, the QSUSA rankings are based on 17 metrics in four “broad” categories. These include “diversity and internationalization, the employability of graduates, the learning environment and the impact of research.”

The diversity and internationalization category makes up 25% of a university’s total QS score and is based on both inclusiveness and how well the institution upholds United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, which include reducing hunger and gender inequality worldwide.

On top of UN goals, the category takes into account faculty gender diversity and gender equality in pay at the university, which each make up 2.5% of the total diversity ranking.

Additionally, the ethnic diversity of the student body, the ratio of undergraduates who receive Pell Grants, the proportion of international students and the number of Fulbright recipients each account for 5% of the diversity ranking.

In total, 38 of California’s universities were featured in the rankings, making it the second most heavily represented state in the QS-USA annual report, with New York being the first.

“We know that UC Davis is not a utopia, and being first doesn’t mean that our work is finished,” said Renetta Tull, the vice chancellor of diversity, equity and inclusion, via email. “We still have a lot of work to do, and our own standard for excellence at Davis is extremely high––it has to be––we are serving people, and they deserve our absolute best. Receiving the recognition is a motivator.”

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Plays by A. Rey Pamatmat Elijah Punzal, an intern for the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, recommended the works of A. Rey Pamatmat, a FilipinoAmerican playwright. Pamatmat’s play, “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them,” follows Filipino-American immigrant children Kenny, his sister Edith and their friend Benji, as they are abandoned in the Midwest. This family drama explores Kenny’s relationship with his sister and with Benji, as the two fall in love.

Another play by Pamatmat, “House Rules,” centers around two families: a pair of brothers

with their father and a pair of sisters with their mother. The play portrays how people’s expectations of one another can cause tension, especially when they are trying to make peace with the potential death of their parents.

“Theater is so magical because of the way that you can see yourself on stage very viscerally,” Punzal said. “That’s why I would suggest these two plays during AAPI Heritage Month because they explore what it means to be Filipino, and there’s also the expression and nuance of Filipino narratives that we don’t always get to see in media.”

UC Davis philosophy professor Dr. Robert May served as the chair of the UC Academic Senate in 2018-2019, charging the STTF in 2019. May said while he supports abolishing discriminatory practices in the admissions process, the elimination of the SAT and ACT isn’t an end-all solution to the lack of equity in college admissions.

“The real issue here is how we go about choosing from more applicants than we can take.

We have to look at all of the criteria that we use for selection,” May said. “In and of itself, the SAT is neither a good thing or a bad thing; it has been singled out, largely for political reasons, as one which is a bellwether for things that are wrong with the process.”

Other faculty members agreed political grandstanding has diverted attention away from empirical evidence on the validity of standardized tests.

“Using or not using standardized tests sends a certain signal and confers a certain message to the world about UC Davis, and I suppose the people at UC Davis have to keep that in mind,” said Dr. Christopher Hopwood, a UC Davis psychology professor. “Whatever the truth is about the validity of standardized testing, the university sends a message by either using the SAT/ACT or not using them.”

Hopwood researches psychological assessment, examining construct validity—how well a given assessment measures its intended construct.

“There’s not really a legitimate debate about whether validated standardized tests of academic ability are related to the things that predict

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They posted about how the newer generations would “never know” about certain cultural moments and fashions. Those who grew up in the social media generation are doing their own version of nostalgia posting by harkening back to the old days of Instagram.

Our lifetime experience with social media has also given us the opportunity to become critics.

We’ve become acutely aware of what does and doesn’t work in a social media platform, simply because we’ve had so much experience with social media. The growth of Facebook has leveled in the past five years, giving us the sense that it’s falling out of fashion. This could be in part because of the multiple privacy scandals it’s faced, but it also could be because the formulaic posting method is too established in the superficial. Scrolling through Facebook is like having your eyes assaulted by a barrage of humble-brags—we’ve become tired of it.

The use of platforms like TikTok and Snapchat are all significantly higher in younger age groups (ages 18-24) compared to platforms

like Facebook. My generation’s embrace of these platforms stems from something that we all have in common: casualness. Snapchat promotes onthe-go photographing and posting, while TikTok encourages users to make short snippets that spin off other creator’s sounds. No one looks at an average user’s TikTok account to get a sense of their personal brand. There’s no stress of creating a persona. “Photo dumping,” then, is a key effort in roping Instagram in with the “chill” social media platforms.

Regardless of all of the changes being made in Instagram’s usage, there’s still a question that looms: How much of this is going to work?

The app that we know and love has always been about the art of the inorganic façade. Every attempt to make Instagram casual (the addition of “stories,” for example) has eventually grown into a cultivated, formulaic act. It’s only a matter of time until the “photo dump” devolves into the “photo curation.” As long as we’re posting, the world of social media will never be casual.

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stick figure, I was struck by the talent of the artists.

Each piece had something unique to offer, and even though the majority of the paintings were still lifes of flowers, it was clear that every artist had put hard work into it. From the varying sizes of brushstrokes to the different mixes of colors, every artist did a phenomenal job and brought something different to the table. The end result is a beautiful collection celebrating community and the environment, with the steadfast resilience of nature being a perfect metaphor for that of our local community during these times.

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can actually evaluate all of those peaks, identify these peak patterns, and then ultimately to get these peak patterns to say yes or no, but also be able to change with changing populations literally within a day.”

Rashidi did note, however, that this new screening method with MILO coupled to mass spectrometry does not replace PCR methods.

Rather, it is a highly efficient screening method, and the true confirmation method is still the PCR test. With the advent of such a powerful tool for screening, Rashidi alluded to how this method of screening can be further extended to future infectious diseases.

“The goal is not just for COVID testing,” Rashidi said. “The goal is also this whole process— this whole pipeline—that we’ve built with our MILO machine learning platform with mass spectrometry and other things that are basically infrastructural stuff that are around them. These are things that we’ve put together that can easily be applied to the future pandemics.”

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Although testing through Healthy Davis Together has been declining, UC Davis Student Health and Counselling Services Medical Director Dr. Cindy Schorzman said that oncampus testing efforts have been going well. She explained that testing has ramped up since the Daily Symptom Survey, which is required to enter campus buildings or facilities, was revised to check when people were last tested.

“On-campus testing efforts are continuing to go well, and we have seen an increase in testing numbers since revision of the Daily Symptom Survey to include an automatic calculation of the individual’s last test (or same-day test appointment),” Dr. Schorzman said via email.

In addition to offering widespread testing to the Davis community, UC Davis is also administering vaccines. UC Davis Health Spokesperson Marianne Russ Sharp explained that UC Davis Health gives a few hundred people each day.

WORKINGSHEEP “I do want this to be more of an exhibition and a kind of spectacle so it really becomes [...] a destination to come watch the sheep,” Kiers said.

Kiers also expressed excitement at the vast potential for collaboration across disciplines for this project. From doing a cause-effect analysis of sheep versus lawnmowers with a professor of public health economics to collaborating with the design department to develop a way to integrate the sheep into the university brand—such as by naming them the UC Davis Sheep Mowers—this

project has opened a multitude of opportunities for multidisciplinary research.

“I really want my landscapes to highlight the value and the importance of designing for maintenance,” Kiers said. “That’s another reason to bring out the sheep or to create landscapes that show part of that landscape is the stewardship and the ongoing maintenance that’s required. So those three—practicality, science and aesthetics— all overlaid.”

PODCAST CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

FANCYTEST “For the COVID-19 test, MILO finds distinguishing patterns among the many mass spectrometry peaks and signals and deciphers which patterns correspond to the presence or absence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the samples,” according to a recent UC Davis Health press release. “MILO accomplished the analysis in a fraction of the time that a non-automated machine-learning approach would have taken.”

Rashidi further explained the power of machine learning in using mass spectrometry as the main testing method.

“The major problem with mass spec is that it gives you a ton of peaks,” Rashidi said.

“Imagine that you now produced hundreds and thousands of peaks, so it’s not humanly possible to figure out which peak patterns are specific for somebody who has COVID or somebody who doesn’t have COVID. The power of our MILO platform is that it can do this in less than a day.

It’s like having 50 to 100 data scientists doing the work for you virtually. And that’s the game changer of having something that powerful that

said. “So there are a couple of things we can all do, and it’s sort of this idea of a Swiss Cheese model of protective layers, both personal and shared responsibilities.”

Although he encourages eligible individuals to get vaccinated, Bowes said that receiving a COVID-19 vaccination would likely not be required for the return to DJUSD schools in the fall. “[Mandating the COVID-19 vaccine] would take a couple of actions by state organizations and federal groups,” Bowes said. “First, the vaccines currently in use are emergency-use-authorization approved; they would need to be fully approved by the [FDA], and then the California legislature and the governor would need to agree to add any fully FDA approved vaccinations to the list of required vaccinations for entry into California public schools.”

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

PENCE A standout artist to me was Naomi Bautista.

Various works of hers dotted the room, and each spoke to me on a deeper level. I was entranced by the way she made her subjects come alive. When you take a closer look at the canvas, it is obvious that each brushstroke is just that—a smudge of paint that had been placed there by someone.

But stand back, and the individual strokes meld together into a beautiful bunch of roses (“Roses”), a vase filled with sunflowers (“Sunflower”) or a bouquet of mixed blooms (“Spring Flowers”).

As someone who can’t successfully draw a

Schneegas explained that the overall vaccination rate in Yolo County is relatively high.

“We’ve managed to vaccinate a large portion of the county—that also includes 83% of ag workers,” Schneegas said. “I think we are ahead of the state average and ahead of surrounding counties, such as Solano.”

Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) Superintendent John Bowes explained that vaccines for students ages 12 to 15 can become part of a strategy to make the return to in-person school safer.

“We’re encouraging anyone and everyone who is eligible for a vaccine to get a vaccination, and that is part of a purposeful strategy to develop multiple layers of safety protections and protocols built into our systems so we can decrease the spread of COVID-19 in our community and have safe classrooms for teachers and staff,” Bowes

overall academic achievement,” Hopwood said.

“Every other method is likely to have more error and more bias than standardized testing. If you eliminate the best tool you have you’re only left with worse tools, so you’re likely to introduce more bias and do a worse job selecting students if you don’t have standardized testing.”

May said the “testing industrial complex” is clearly biased against low-income and disadvantaged students.

“To the degree that access becomes a barrier to certain groups, that is that it costs money or that prep is not available for certain groups, then that can introduce a bias that occurs before the testing begins,” Hopwood said.

UC Davis faculty advocated for a reexamination of the admissions process—looking beyond standardized testing to gain a more holistic view of how students are evaluated for admissions.

The UC system received a record number of applicants for fall 2021. Among this surge, there was a 21% increase in Chicano/Latino applicants and a 12% increase in African American students, according to the UC Office of the President.

May said that inequities apparent in the admissions process transcend the SAT and ACT—and rather than scapegoating validated standardized tests, advocates should be more concerned with funding for education in the lower grades.

“Until we address the real inequities, we are not going to really deal with this problem,” May said. “Yes or no on the SAT isn’t going to change, because that’s not the problem.”

“UC Davis Health is vaccinating several hundred people per day and our supply remains stable,” Sharp said via email.

Schneegas added that Yolo County has now also started vaccinating those aged between 12 to 15.

“Yolo County is vaccinating 12 to 15 [year olds],” Scheengas said. “We just had to wait for CDPH to say we could, but we did start doing that last week.”

As the university prepares to begin reopening, Schorzman encouraged people to get vaccinated if they can.

“As we prepare for increased inperson instruction, and as public health recommendations and restrictions are eased throughout the country and state, the only way we will succeed is for as many people as possible to get vaccinated,” Schorzman said. “Please consider getting vaccinated, if you are able, to help support our campus community as we move forward together.”

“I love how SeaDoc integrates different modes of thinking into one production,” Colby said. “The integration of different forms of knowledge... I wish they did it more. I wish historians talked to scientists more, and so on.

And I think that podcasts are great for that, because they have the time to go in depth and explore topics from a variety of perspectives.”

Colby explained how he came to be personally invested in the story of the whales.

“My father was actually in the industry to capture orcas,” Colby said. “I had this bouncing around in my head for a long time because as a child I watched him struggle with guilt and try to come to peace with his part in this story.”

Colby then gave an overview of what he talked about on the podcast.

“How did we come to care so much about this apex predator?” Colby said. “For most of the colonial and national history of the U.S. and Canada, humans have had this fear of ocean predators. My interest was in the transformation of the relationship between people and orcas.

What caused that?”

Cox detailed how he feels the podcast format enhanced the project’s effectiveness.

“A podcast can be a short series or a long ongoing thing, and my approach to making this one was [to] imagine a short, seven-chapter book where when you finish it, you feel like you’ve gained some sense of understanding,” Cox said.

“I wanted it to be accessible, even to people who have no idea about any of this.”

Cox then described how this idea of

accessibility translates into the SeaDoc Society’s overarching goal.

“SeaDoc Society is an educational society, but they specifically have a really big focus on science that makes an impact,” he said. “Translating complicated things into palatable things, which moves to caring, which moves to action.”

According to the SeaDoc Society’s website, this is even more important to their team than the scientific research that it builds upon.

“While performing world-class research is of paramount importance, ensuring that our findings effect positive change is just as vital,” the website reads. “One of SeaDoc’s unique strengths is translating science into action. We act as a catalyst.”

With the final episode of the podcast released on May 18, Cox talked about what he sees happening with the podcast’s platform moving forward.

“That feed is there, and while not totally knowing, it could be that feed exists where it constantly checks back in with killer whales,” Cox said. “It could bounce around from species to species. Being transparent, I don’t know what it’s going to be used for yet, but it’s definitely going to be used for something.”

Colby shared some final thoughts about the story of the whales and all of our parts in it.

“A hilarious misconception people have about history is that it’s only about people,” Colby said.

“One of the deepest relationships we have is with the natural world. We transform the world, and it transforms us.”

12 | THURSDAY, MAY 27, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS The ugly truth of European Football More recent attempts to mitigate racism within European football brings the age old issues to light once again

BY KATHERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org The reality of racism has struck many European football players within the past few years and numerous players have recently taken a knee before games to demand tougher actions from the infestation of racism occuring within the league’s fans.

Between September 2019 to February 2021, the European team Manchester United conducted its own research and discovered that of 3,300 posts online, 86% were racist and 8% were homophobic or transphobic. That meant that there has been a 350% increase of racism which was directed toward club players and members of the team.

Also in November of 2020, the Professional Footballers’ Association players union found 56 racist posts on their Twitter profile and 31 of them were not taken down as of April 2021.

“There have been other incidents in England, there is no getting away from that, and in Europe in general, there have been many many issues of racial incidents in one season alone. Especially in Italy,” said Craig Burley, an ESPN FC broadcaster.

One of the first major incidents was in 2018—aimed at Arsenal midfielder, Mesut Özil. He was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and plays for the German National team as well. He took a photo with the Turkish president, creating an opportunity and a platform for Özil to make a statement on behalf of the thousands of Turkish people mistreated, imprisoned, silenced and terrorized by the regime at the time. The situation in Turkey was only growing worse, and Özil—who was seen as well-liked in the football world—had the chance to possibly stand up for others. Özil’s grandparents are from Turkey and he wanted to bring awareness to the situations occurring in the country. Nevertheless, German football fans considered him an outsider and Özil faced a number of obstacles when it came to receiving hateful comments.

In a statement he released on Twitter Özil said, “I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.”

As a result, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) approved specific guidelines for club officials to follow if racism continued during the games—an occurrence that is well documented around Europe. In the guidelines, football fans in the stadiums only get two warnings and by the third warning the game is abandoned.

For the first warning, the referee has the authority to stop the game and make a public announcement if something racist occurs that affects the game, or if a player tells the referee. If the referee continues to hear racism coming from the stands or the problem persists, he can stop the game for five to ten minutes and request the teams to go into their dressing rooms. Again another announcement is made to that effect. As a final resort, if the racist behavior continues, the referee can cancel the rest of the game.

This had still been an ongoing issue and the protocols were first used when yet again the problem resurfaced during a match

Arsenal players taking a knee in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. (Arsenal FC) between Chelsea and Tottenham back in January 2020. A Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger, who is Black, was targeted with racist chants by Tottenham’s crowd. It was reported by Chelsea’s captain to the referee in the first half of the game.

The referee then went over to the sidelines to inform officials, and ultimately, not one or two stadium announcements were made, but three until the game was finally called off. In a big matchup like Chelsea and Tottenham, the action being taken let everyone know that this was a very serious issue.

“It is really sad to see racism again at a football match, but I think it’s very important to talk about it in public,” Rudiger posted on Twitter following the incident. “If not, it will be forgotten again in a couple of days (as always)… When will this nonsense stop?”

As of February 2021, the European football body launched investigations against a UEFA Romanian referee for referring to Pierre Achille Webo, a Turkish club Basaksehir’s assistant coach, in an inappropriate way. The referee was calling Webo racial slurs and the UEFA argued that the referee violated a code of conduct of the General Terms and Conditions for Referees that states to “behave in a professional and appropriate manner”—something he did not do.

This year in April, English soccer fans decided to boycott social media for four days in response to the ongoing and sustained discriminatory abuse received online by players and many others connected to the game. With no fans in attendance, the players and everyone have been put on notice of the uptick of abuse. The Premier League, English Football League, Women’s Super League, Women’s Championship, FIFA, the English cricket and rugby clubs, the British Lawn Tennis Association and the U.S. Open tennis tournaments all participated in this movement, not posting anything for that period of time to bring awareness to the big issue.

“I’m really proud to hear that there are so many organizations getting involved. I’m not sure why Formula One is not a part of that,” said the only Black racer in Formula One, Lewis Hamilton.

“I do believe that social media companies need to do more. There’s algorithms, there’s things they’re able to see, they’re able to take steps to help and create more of an anti-racist society. That’s what we’ve really got to be pushing towards.”

No matter the severity of racism, there will likely always be several sports and leagues around the world that are willing to speak up and implement new policies to protect everyone equally. The recent developments have been another move in the attempt to try to mitigate racist acts within European soccer.

Various sports at UC Davis were cancelled or delayed during the 2020-2021 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photos by Justin Han, Quinn Spooner, Benjamin Cheng & Kazim Jafri / Aggie Staff)