April 21, 2022

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VOLUME 140, ISSUE 24 | THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022

PICNIC DAY MAKES ITS RETURN IN PERSON AFTER TWO YEARS OF VIRTUAL CELEBRATIONS The event’s theme for 2022 is “Rediscovering Tomorrow,” a twist on the past two virtual Picnic Day themes of “Envisioning Tomorrow” and “Discovering Silver Linings”

BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org On Saturday, April 23, UC Davis’ 108th Picnic Day will be celebrated in person for the first time in two years. Picnic Day is a studentrun event that serves as an open house for prospective and current students. It is a tradition for alumni, students, staff, faculty, family and the greater Davis community to gather together and connect with the university through a variety of events such as the parade, student organization fair, fashion show and doxie derby races. The schedule of events can be downloaded from the Picnic Day Website.

The Board of Directors selected the theme “Rediscovering Tomorrow,” a twist on the 2020 and 2021 themes of “Envisioning Tomorrow” and “Discovering Silver Linings” that took place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Picnic Day Chair and fourth-year community and regional development major Amanda Portier, when the board was choosing a theme during fall quarter, they were inspired by the campus navigating the return to in-person activities. “‘Rediscovering Tomorrow’ is really about

how everyone is facing these changing times, but how we can rediscover them and make them joyful in the process,” Portier said.

Portier attended Picnic Day during her senior year of high school, which she said solidified her choice to go to UC Davis as she was impressed by the passion people expressed for the community throughout the day. She has been a part of the board since her freshman year, now serving as the board chair for her fourth year.

“I think it’s been something that people have been holding on to, to look forward to as a sense of new beginnings and hope and looking forward to the future,” Portier said. “I think it will feel like a [...] true community celebration amongst everyone, and it’s been something we’ve been missing for so long.”

In planning the event, and knowing that it will be the first in-person Picnic Day for many, the board has focused on promoting what Picnic

KELLIE LU / AGGIE

Day is and what can be expected from it. The board has focused primarily on connecting with the student body by depicting the planning process through Instagram and by partnering with Aggie Studios to create promotional videos.

Picnic Day Vice Chair Jesse Goodman is a second-year economics major and will experience his first in-person Picnic Day this year. He said that Picnic Day 108 will be different from past years, as there will be a greater use of technology in the hopes of giving attendees a better experience.

“We are having an ASL [American Sign Language] live stream for the first time, so people at the parade will be able to watch that as well as people online,” Goodman said. “All of the Aggies that can’t make it out to this Picnic Day for whatever reason will have the livestream as well. It’s something we’ve learned how to do from the past few years of remote learning.”

Michael Navarro, the parade director and a second-year psychology and political science double major, described the parade as the kickoff for Picnic Day, with an Opening Ceremony that will include words from both Chancellor Gary May and the Parade Marshal.

PICNICDAY on 12

AN AGGIE-APPROVED GUIDE TO PICNIC DAY 2022 Check out don’t miss events, behind the scenes details from their coordinators and more

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org This Saturday, April 23, is the 108th annual Picnic Day at UC Davis, and as the open house returns in person for the first time in three years, many are excited to experience the day for the first time or return to their favorite events of the day after a two-year hiatus. Since the day is jampacked with hundreds of exhibits and shows, here’s a guide to some of the student-proclaimed “don’t miss” events to check out this year.

Picnic Day Parade Picnic Day will open as always with the opening ceremony, held on the North Quad across from Wickson hall, followed by the long-awaited return of the parade, which begins in the same location at 10:30 a.m. The parade will

feature performances by the UC Davis Marching Band, beautiful floats from Davis local businesses and UC Davis departments. The parade will also feature an appearance by this year’s Parade Marshal, Dr. Nam K. Tran. Michael Navarro, a second-year political science public service and psychology double major, and this year’s parade director, said that Tran was selected to be this year’s marshal because of his contributions to COVID-19 research at UC Davis.

“There’s a Parade Marshal that represents the theme and the values of this year’s Picnic Day which is Rediscovered Tomorrow,” Navarro said.

“We have Dr. Tran, [...] who helped work on the UC Davis [COVID-19] testing program and the procedures and different protocols when it came to the COVID-19 implementations here at UC Davis. It’s really great to see how we’re trying to rediscover tomorrow with someone as inspiring as him.”

The theme “Rediscovering Tomorrow” is a nod to the previous two years’ themes — “Envisioning Tomorrow” in 2020 and “Discovering Silver Linings” in 2021 — that occurred virtually. Navarro explained that having Dr. Tran as the parade marshal is very full circle, since his work has helped make it possible for us all to gather in person this year.

The opening ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the parade will follow at 10:30 a.m. For directions on how to find the grandstands and a full lineup of parade floats, check out the official Picnic Day 2022 Schedule of Events.

Doxie Derby In a long awaited return, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) second-year class will be hosting the annual “Doxie Derby,” a Picnic Day tradition since

1972, during which dachshunds, or ‘“doxies,” from near and far will race to be crowned the winner of the derby! Each heat of doxies will run twice, and the top three from each heat will advance to the finals. Sam McClusky, a secondyear SVM student who has been chosen as one of the Doxie Derby 2022 coordinators, said that this year, there will also be an “open class” heat, in which any dogs under 15 lbs can compete for the prize. McClusky said that the event generally attracts thousands of spectators, mostly there to watch all of the cute dogs running around — himself included.

“I don’t really care who wins or not, I just like hanging out with the dogs,” McClusky said.

The Doxie Derby will be held in the U Center (previously called the ARC Pavilion) from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. More information about the event is available on their website.

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PICNIC DAY THROUGHOUT THE YEARS The Aggie highlights notable photos from its archives of past Picnic Days

BY MARGO ROSENBAUM features@theaggie.org

1920s

Since its start in 1909, Picnic Day has become one of the most well-known campus events for the UC Davis community.

Students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff and local community members alike have come together to celebrate Picnic Day almost every year since the event’s inception.

The tradition of Picnic Day began in 1909 when about 2,000 people visited Davis to see the new Dairy Farm. After the ceremonies at the farm, attendees stayed and held a picnic. The university provided coffee and attendees brought their own food and utensils.

The event became an annual tradition, known today as Picnic Day. The University Farm planned and sponsored the event for three years, and in 1912, a student committee took over. That same year, the first livestock parade was held.

Now one of the largest student-run events in the nation, Picnic Day remains a celebrated tradition among students and the greater UC Davis community.

Since The California Aggie was started in 1915, the studentrun publication has covered Picnic Day and its various festivities.

This year for the 108th Picnic Day, The Aggie collected notable photos from its past issues to highlight the event’s return to an in-person format.

1931 Picnic Day Floats: In this undated photo from the 1920s, students, faculty, staff and community members gathered on the UC Davis campus to watch the annual Picnic Day Parade.

The following year, the Picnic Day program featured new events including the boys’ 3-legged race, boys’ pie-eating contest, baseball throwing contest, tug-o-war and a greased pig race.

Picnic Day Committee: Pictured is the Picnic Day Committee, which planned the special event in 1931. That year, the souvenir brochures cost 10 cents each, and the Associated Students Store sold tobacco during the event.

1974

1951

1979 Doxie Derby: Originally known as the Wiener Dog Race, dachshunds battle to the front of the pack. Now called the Doxie Derby, dachshunds have raced on campus every year since 1972.

Picnic Day Parade: In 1974, “Picnic Day Tricycles” rode through campus during the annual Picnic Day Parade. The first year the parade had a float was in 1917.

Livestock at Picnic Day: The lambs and wool produced by this Border Leicester-finewool crossbred ewe were on display during the 1951 Picnic Day. That same year, former California Governor Earl Warren came to Picnic Day.

2005

1988

1992 Picnic Day Board of Directors: The Picnic Day Board of Directors planned the 1988 event. The year prior, the first-place float of the Alpha Phi sorority caught on fire during the annual Picnic Day Parade.

Livestock Demonstrations: Livestock demonstrations are a Picnic Day tradition, though The Aggie reported in 1992 that this younger visitor seemed suspicious of the whole event. In 2001, a sheep in the animal events area ran away.

Picnic Day Set-Up: Student workers set up structures on the Quad before Picnic Day in 2005. Four years later, UC Davis celebrated its Centennial, and Picnic Day was chosen as one of the three major events for the celebration.

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

STUDENTS PROTEST IN FAVOR OF MASKING, HYBRID LEARNING

The rally organized by Davis Socialist Association and Cops Off Campus demanded accessible education through masking and hybrid learning

The Office of the Chancellor and Provost is located on the fifth floor of Mrak Hall at UC Davis. (Aggie File)

BY JENNIFER MA campus@theaggie.org On April 12, students gathered on the corner of 1st and A Street and marched to Mrak Hall to protest against UC Davis’ instruction policies during the pandemic. According to organizers,

UC Davis should make classrooms more accessible for people with disabilities, and the money spent on UC chancellor raises should be reallocated for increased accessibility.

Davis Socialist Association (DSA), UC Davis Cops Off Campus (COC), Students for Reproductive Freedom at UC Davis and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) Local 143 signed

a list of demands. This list included the following: hybrid modality for students in all lectures, discussion sections, labs and other instructional spaces without requiring formal requests for access through Student Disability Services; reinstatement of the mask mandate; provision of free, high-quality masks for all members of the campus community and permanently upgraded ventilation in all buildings to MERV-13 or higher.

Megan Lynch, a third-year master’s student in the graduate group of horticulture and agronomy, emphasized how important accessibility is for everyone.

“This is something that a lot of individuals, like all of us, need,” Lynch said. “We all pay for this public university. We all pay in the form of taxes and tuition and fees. It needs to be a university that works for the entire public that’s funding it.”

Lynch also addressed the Academic Senate’s statement that hybrid instruction creates an increased workload for instructors, lecturers and professors. “[The university wants] to punt the result of their lack of planning onto instructors and not give them enough resources, not give them the staffing they need, not give them the training they need,” Lynch said.

Peter James Russell, a third-year biological and agricultural engineering master’s student, echoed this statement.

“This is all admin’s failures,” Russell said. “No work or blame should be put on teachers for the way that classes are designed.

Admin needs to get their act together.”

Maxine Valkov, a third-year sociology and philosophy double major, believes that this is intentional.

“As much as the university loves to try to play toward values of progressive and liberal ideals, because of its history and because of how it’s organized systemically, it can only fail at that,” Valkov said.

“This is how the system was designed from the beginning.”

UC Davis’ Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Dana Topousis supplied a comment on the rally over email on behalf of Chancellor Gary May. “The faculty have sole authority over the curriculum at UC campuses, including the mode by which instruction is offered,” the comment reads. “Having said that, we encourage students to practice freedom of expression.”

NEW GRADUATE CENTER AT WALKER HALL CELEBRATES GRAND OPENING The new center had its official celebratory opening on April 8 for use by graduate students

BY SYDNEY AMESTOY campus@theaggie.org The brand new Graduate Center at Walker Hall had its grand opening ceremony on Friday, April 8 at 10 a.m. on the North Lawn in front of Walker Hall.

Chancellor Gary May, Dean of Graduate Studies Jean-Pierre Delplanque, President of the Graduate Student Association John Minnick and various campus planners provided opening remarks at the ceremony. A celebratory bell was rung to bring in a new era in graduate studies on campus and was followed by an official tour of the building.

The ceremony marked the official celebration of the new graduate center, although it has already been open to the public since fall quarter of this year.

“Due to COVID restrictions, we had to delay the grand opening ceremony to [April 8],” said Kyle Clayton, the Graduate Center manager.

The center aims to provide a place for interdisciplinary study for graduate students on campus within existing graduate groups, according to the Graduate Center website.

“At UC Davis, success is founded on interdisciplinary research,” said Jessica Falor-Ward, the development and external relations manager for graduate studies. “[The Graduate Center] provides space to gather and learn, specifically supporting those working towards an advanced degree.”

The center is home to the Office of Graduate Studies, the Office of the Graduate Student Association (GSA), the Postdoctoral Scholars Association (PSA) and many more facilities to support the unique needs of graduate students on campus.

“Some of our graduate students are parents, and we have the student-parent study lounge for those students to study and bring their children,” Falor-Ward said. “We also have a pantry for graduate students.”

The Graduate Center is located in the historic Walker Hall, which was built in 1928 and is one of the oldest buildings on campus. According to the Graduate Studies website, Walker Hall, originally the Agricultural Engineering Building, went through a seismic upgrade and numerous safety improvements to become the

The Graduate Center on the UC Davis campus. (Kayla Bruckman /Aggie) new Graduate Center.

“Since the building’s construction was state-funded, the money for naming rights from donors is going back into student fellowships rather than back into construction,” Clayton said.

The new center is open to students looking to study or use its various services from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. every Monday through

Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Friday.

“Anyone who is interested in Graduate Studies at UC Davis should come and check out the center, it is a beautiful building,” Falor-Ward said.

RESIDENT ASSISTANTS VOICE MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS According to four RAs, the job offers little work-life balance

Students ride their bikes along the Tercero housing area. (Aggie File)

BY JENNIFER MA campus@theaggie.org Resident Assistants (RAs) are student staff members that live in the dorms; they work in exchange for free housing and meals. Their duties include providing advice and support to those living in the residence halls, organizing weekly programs and more.

According to Alessandra Beelen, a third-year biochemistry and molecular biology major and an RA, these duties are extremely demanding; the hours are round-the-clock and there is a lack of work-life balance.

RAs have made significant effort to inform UC Davis Student Housing that they are expected to complete too many weekly tasks, Beelan said.

“We have to have programs every single

week,” Beelen said. “And on top of that, we do bulletin boards, we do occupancy checks.

We also do facility checks. They’ve been very adamant on keeping the similar work structure despite multiple complaints from all of us […]

I think it’s just the lack of trying to improve on things that’s kind of disheartening to hear.”

A third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major who requested to remain anonymous due to concerns about workplace repercussions also mentioned the taxing nature of weekly programs.

“They made us do programming once a week,” she said. “And last year, they said that was for COVID, so that residents would have the opportunity to be able to interact with other people. But then they just continued that this year.”

Priyal Thakral, a fourth-year international

relations and managerial economics double major and an RA for two years, stated that the university could be more receptive to feedback from its RAs to address RA grievances.

“I think one thing UC Davis can do better to support RAs is perhaps implement more of the feedback and suggestions we give, as I believe these suggestions could help improve the mental health of RAs,” Thakral said.

Beelen echoed this sentiment. “[UC Davis’ Student Housing department does] very little to ensure that our mental health is doing well,” Beelen said.

In addition to UC Davis Student Housing, Thakral shared that residents could be more supportive of RAs by making sure to follow the rules and respond to the emails they receive.

A third-year clinical nutrition and psychology double major who also requested anonymity

agreed with Thakral’s statement that students can make an effort to help RAs. “Some of us struggle with getting responses from students on their emails that they send out,” she said. “It’s kind of like we’re talking to a wall. I feel like I get it though. Everyone’s busy, especially as a first year. The last thing I was doing was going to my RA’s events and stuff, so I don’t really take that personally. I think it’s more on the university to do stuff [regarding mental health].”

According to Assistant Director of UC Davis Student Housing Lisa Papagni, UC Davis Student Housing puts in a significant amount of work to ensure that RAs have appropriate worklife balance.

“We restructured the positions such that they work in shifts, averaging 14 to 15 hours per week of shifted time with four to five hours of unscheduled time for things that come up and are unplanned,” Papagni said via email. “We schedule their work around their class schedules, and we have accommodated both academic and outside commitments.”

Papagni further elaborated on the steps UC Davis Student Housing has taken to address mental health concerns.

“All of our student staff members have regular meetings with professional staff members who support them with both academic and mental health resources as needed,” she said via email. “In partnership with the Student Health and Counseling Service department, we are in the process of hiring a Clinical Psychologist that will directly serve Student Housing and Dining students as well as the Community Advisors.”

According to Papagni, since restructuring, they have not had complaints regarding long shifts or mental health concerns.

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THURSDAY. APRIL 21, 2022 | 3

CARE PROMOTES AWARENESS ON CAMPUS DURING NATIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH

During April, the Center for Advocacy, Resources and Education hosts events across campus for students and faculty

BY ANGELINA ANGELO campus@theaggie.org

COMMITTEES PROVIDE QUARTERLY REPORTS, SENATORS PASSED MULTIPLE BILLS, RESOLUTIONS Unitrans, Whole Earth Committee and Fair Trade Committees provided quarterly reports, and the Senate table passed SB #68, #69, #71 and #72, along with SR #27 and #28

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE The Center for Advocacy, Resources and Education (CARE) is hosting events throughout the month of April in recognition of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). This year’s theme is “In Full Bloom.”

“Some of the most salient goals and aims of this month are to increase awareness and how these issues impact student lives,” said Education and Outreach Manager for CARE Rachel Henry.

This year, CARE is focusing on not only healing and survivor support but also prevention efforts. According to the CARE website, “In Full Bloom” represents stages of growth and healing.

This year’s events aim to empower survivors to name their experiences for themselves, on their own terms and in their own language.

CARE strives to create a safe and welcoming space for individuals, both survivors and their allies as well as aspiring allies to survivors, to be critical of the systems in which sexual violence is rooted and to highlight the different ways in which sexual violence is experienced within different communities, according to the CARE website.

A few events have already passed to kick off the month, including one that sought to inspire positivity and expression through painting. Henry said that the art pieces painted during this event will be available to take home during the Take Back the Night Event on Thursday, April 28.

Take Back the Night is a national event that happens throughout the nation on college campuses and local communities every year.

The intention is to support survivors, promote prevention and provide a safe space to share stories.

The first 30 minutes of the event will feature community tabling and resources, followed by an hour of performances. These will range from poems to speaking and musical performances.

CARE still has an open call for performers available on its website.

“While CARE’s fight to reduce sexual violence on our campus is year-round, SAAM is a time to join together with other organizations with increased determination,” said Isabella Masterson, a third-year psychology and human development double major and CARE student outreach assistant, via email.

“While Take Back the Night is an advocacy and educational space, it is also a community gathering and feels like a supportive, welcoming, and empowering space.”

A second-year community and regional development major, who requested to remain anonymous, previously attended Take Back the Night at UC Davis and shared how the event had impacted her.

“CARE has provided me a safe space to finally speak out about what happened to me, and last year during Take Back the Night, I was able to share my story publicly […] it was beyond empowering,” she said.

During SAAM, many events will continue to occur, such as restorative yoga, educational opportunities for faculty, denim day and more.

In addition to events, CARE, in partnership with Student Health and Counseling Services, launched the first-ever sexual assault climate survey at UC Davis.

“We hope students feel as comfortable as possible filling out this survey, it is completely anonymous, we do not collect email addresses or student ID numbers,” Henry said. “This campus climate survey is especially important to identify what sexual violence looks like on our campus and will better help us inform and plan our prevention efforts.”

For more information regarding CARE, resources, SAAM or the climate survey, visit the CARE homepage.

AGGIE FILE

BY ISABELLA KRZESNIAK campus@theaggie.org Internal Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez called the meeting to order on Thursday, April 14 at 6:10 p.m. and recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

Andrew Lee, who previously worked in the External Affairs Commission, was nominated for the controller position. After deliberation among senators, his nomination was rejected.

Lee was contacted for comment and provided a brief statement via email for The California Aggie regarding the confirmation process.

“I regret the decision of the Senate not to confirm my nomination for the position of Controller,” part of Lee’s statement reads.

J.T. Eden, an Internal Affairs commissioner, was confirmed as the commission chair, replacing Kabir Sahni.

Michael Logoteta, who had previously been involved in ASUCD’s Executive Office, was confirmed as the Donation Drive chairperson.

Jeff Flynn, the Unitrans general manager, provided the transit system’s quarterly report. Unitrans aimed to expand service during winter and spring quarters to pre pandemic levels, but this was hindered by a surge in the omicron COVID-19 variant, according to Flynn. He discussed the implementation of the V Express and V Limited services to West Village during winter quarter. Flynn anticipates the system’s driver shortage will continue through fall 2022. In response, Unitrans is ramping up recruitment efforts, he said.

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GRADUATE STUDENTS PRESENT RESEARCH PROJECTS AT THE UC DAVIS GRAD SLAM SEMI-FINALS UC Davis graduate candidates compete for a chance to represent UC Davis at UC Grad Slam Finals

UC Davis Grad Slam Semi-Final Round on April 6 in the Graduate Center. (Kayla Bruckman / Aggie)

BY MAYA SHYDLOWSKI features@theaggie.org You’re up on stage in front of a crowd of eager students who are ready to absorb all that you have to say about your life’s work thus far.

There are judges, academics, peers, people who might know more about your topic than you do and friends cheering you on in the back.

No, it’s not a TED Talk. It’s the UC Davis Grad Slam. And maybe it’s not your entire life’s work, but it is what you’ve dedicated at least four — and in many cases six — years of study to. And it’s probably similar to what you’ll be spending your career doing.

On Wednesday, April 6, 10 graduate students stood in Walker Hall in front of judges and supporters to give three-minute speeches meant to encapsulate the progress and impact of their research thus far in their respective graduate

programs.

According to the UC Davis Grad Slam website, contestants are judged on three criteria: audience engagement, effectiveness and focus of their presentations and ability to communicate their concepts.

Out of the 10 contestants, five prizes were awarded: first, second, third, people’s choice and the public impact prize. Only the first-place winner advanced to the University of California Grad Slam, but all five winners took home monetary prizes.

Alice Dien, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in biological systems engineering, received the $2,500 first place prize and the $500 public impact prize for her presentation on the innovation of drying in agriculture to reduce energy use and food loss.

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‘THIS JUST KEEPS HAPPENING. OVER AND OVER’: STUDENTS RESPOND TO SACRAMENTO SHOOTING Students, faculty and experts speak on Sacramento shooting that killed six and injured 12

BY CHRIS PONCE city@theaggie.org Content Warning: This article contains descriptions of gun violence and death which some readers may find disturbing.

On April 3 at approximately 2 a.m., police officers responded to a mass shooting in the 10th St. and K St. area in downtown Sacramento, according to a press release from the City of Sacramento Police Department. In a later press release, police stated they believe that the mass shooting, involving at least five shooters, was a result of gang violence.

Details on the mass shooting are still limited as of April 18, the Sacramento Police Department is investigating and tracking suspects. In a press release from April 12, authorities announced a suspect they believe to be one of the 5 shooters, Mtula Payton. Payton is wanted on other violent crimes, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Authorities called on the public to send them information that may assist in the ongoing investigation.

Some Davis residents say the mass shooting has left an impact on the community. Davis sits roughly 18 miles away from Sacramento. UC Davis’ Chancellor Gary May made an official statement on April 3 via the UC Davis website regarding the shooting.

“To our Sacramento community, we offer our condolences and support,” May said in the statement. “We are all interconnected, and days like this remind us that we must do all we can to prevent gun violence. We must put an end to gun violence that impacts families and communities long after headlines turn to other global events.”

Director of UC Davis’ Violence Prevention Research Program, Dr. Garen Wintemute, also made a statement regarding the Sacramento mass shooting. According to UC Davis Health, Wintemute is a renowned expert in the field of gun violence. Wintemute commented via email on his reactions to the mass shooting. “[I felt] Grief for those who died, and sadness for the thousands of others who are affected: those who were wounded and survived, family members and friends of all who were shot, the many others at the scene, and people all around the world whose painful memories of their own tragedies are reawakened each time they learn of an event like this,” Wintemute said via email.

Some students on campus have also been vocal about their opinions related to the shooting.

Many have expressed that it feels personal due to the short distance from Sacramento to Davis. Ava Hurley, a first-year student majoring in marine and coastal science, spoke on the shooting’s impact on her.

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

“It was really heartbreaking and unsettling to hear about the shooting,” Hurley said. “I think being less than half an hour away from the incident made it especially eye-opening. I feel that for myself and for other Davis students there was a personal sense of fear involved, as many of us have family in Sacramento.”

Madi Burns, a first-year landscape architecture major, shared her reaction to finding out the news regarding the shooting. Burns mentioned via Snapchat messaging that she felt desensitized to this kind of news.

“I found out about it through my mom,” Burns said. “To be honest, I’ve been a little detached from the news lately and mostly hear about it through her. It was scary to have it so close to home (being Davis)…but another kind of shameful part of me was not surprised. This just keeps happening. Over and over. I feel as though I’m being desensitized and that’s honestly troubling to me.”

There have now been eight shootings in 2022 around the Sacramento area according to the Gun Violence Archive. Governor Gavin

Newsom made a statement on the mass shooting in relation to gun violence on April 3 stating, “Sadly, we once again mourn the lives lost and for those injured in yet another horrendous act of gun violence.”

According to the Sacramento Police Department, another suspect, Dandrae Martin. was arrested for possession of an illegal firearm, and more than 100 expended shell casings were found at the scene of the shooting. Wintemute also pointed to the issue of firearms and detachable magazines in regards to the shooting.

“Mass shootings tend to involve firearms that accept detachable magazines, as was the case here,” Wintemute said via email. “They allow for a higher sustained rate of fire and more casualties.

Most mass shooters—80 percent or so—make their intentions known in advance. One of the most important measures is also one of the simplest: if you see something, say something.”

Hurley spoke out about solutions to the gun crisis in the U.S.. She said she hopes that those in power stop replying with platitudes and start responding with solutions.

“The need for increased gun control with effective and fair enforcement strategies is a necessity if we want to prevent more tragedies like what happened Sacramento and in so many other cities,” Hurley said. “I can’t imagine how difficult it is for the victims’ families to hear the phrase ‘thoughts and prayers’ time after time while there is no concrete progress in gun laws being seen. My heart breaks for these families, and I’m holding onto hope that lawmakers will start to listen and that these troubling gun violence headlines will start to lessen.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, a list of resources can be found at the Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center.

Students can schedule individual counseling sessions through the Student Health and Wellness Center at 1(530)752-0871, text RELATE to 74174 to confidentially chat with a crisis counselor or call Yolo County’s 24-hour crisis line at 1(530)7565000.

‘WE DO THESE SHOWS FOR THE COMMUNITY:’ BEHIND THE DAVIS-BASED MUSIC ORGANIZERS, FALLEN ANGELS COLLECTIVE The founders discuss getting started, future goals and maintaining artistic integrity

BY MONICA ROBERTS features@theaggie.org Fallen Angels Collective’s first show, held during summer 2021, was just a backyard show organized by UC Davis alumnus Desmond Chu. As a former UC Davis KDVS events director and festival director, Chu’s connections with Davis students and community members helped him gather a crowd of almost 300 people at Fallen Angels’ (FA) first house show, which allowed their success to grow quickly, he said.

“I went to a house show before and met some bands, and they expressed interest and wanted to throw a show together for me,” Chu said.

After FA’s first show, Chu said requests from both performers and fans started to flood in.

Chu partially attributes this quick success to the uniqueness of FA’s shows. He said that his style is heavily influenced by East Coast house concerts, since he participated in an internship in Washington D.C. during his time at UC Davis and attended a variety of house shows during his time there.

“I started to feel connected to the music scene in D.C. and the way they ran their house shows,” Chu said. “Their vibes inspired me to bring that same energy to Davis. All the house shows I have thrown through KDVS and Fallen Angels have been inspired by the template I got from D.C.” Chu said he was astonished by the music diversity in the D.C. scene and how many bands had such unique performances, like one whose guitarist led their band like a maestro or a rapper who made smoothies on stage.

Chu also admired how organized the D.C. scene’s house shows were, and has tried to bring that back to Davis with him.

“If I were to define Fallen Angels in one term I would say it is hyper-curated,” Chu said. “Everything is curated; the people that come, the venue, the sound, the vibes, even the bands. Before my house show organizing experience with KDVS, I had political campaign organization experience, which is where all the logistics came from.”

Brendan Carsel, the head of sales for Fallen Angels, reiterated that he believes part of the reason FA has gained so much success is because of Chu’s and Fallen Angels’ organization.

“He thinks about these parties in depth, and his visions come to life,” Carsel said. “When [Chu] is organizing a show in advance, he will allocate certain positions and put it onto a spreadsheet. It’s pretty clear what you have to do, and it makes my job as a runner easy.”

Aramis Westfall, the sound coordinator for Fallen Angels, said that many of the positions Carsel referenced are filled by a volunteer system.

“All of our shows have a revolving volunteer system,” Westfall said. “We set up the environment so nobody gets extremely rowdy.

We have never had to clean up too much trash because when you have the right amount of

volunteers, people feel like they shouldn’t destroy things.”

Chu said that FA always provides water at shows and strives to create an environment safe for attendees and non-disruptive for neighbors.

Westfall said that a major requirement for FA shows is booking bands that play music that appeals to a broad audience.

Breaking from its usual local in-home format, FA had their first venue show at The Scarlet Room at Harlow’s Restaurant and Nightclub in Sacramento in March 2022.

Chu said when he began organizing shows less than a year ago, he didn’t expect to be able to host a venue show so soon. Each member of FA said that a big draw of branching out to Sacramento was because they were able to bring in a different audience to that show.

“For the Scarlet Room show, we sent out fliers around town so we could get people who usually don’t come to these shows to know that there’s something going on,” Westfall said.

Although Chu said that the group is excited by their growth and success, he shared their plan to stay true to their roots in organizing small

house shows.

“When we get big to a certain point, we will be doing venue shows in the ‘front’ — promoting it publicly,” Chu said. “On the side, we would [continue] doing secret house shows just to make things more special. We want to avoid being overcrowded, for the fans and the neighbors.”

Chu said that each house show FA has planned takes about three months to orgorganize, while venue shows can be planned in about a month. He said that the time that goes into house shows is part of what makes them special.

“When you make it a full time gig it loses a lot of the luster, everything becomes a job,” Chu said. “A lot of our shows are special because we do them every three months or so. If I did them every week, it’s just like another show.”

Westfall said that the wait in between shows is also so that they can put more time and effort into them, since they want both fans and the bands to have the best possible experiences.

“We want all the bands to know that we care about what’s going on,” Westfall said. “When it becomes work then the individual bands start to mold together and they’re not going to [feel like

they] matter as much.”

Fallen Angels Collective tries to emphasize the importance of community. Chu said that he sneaks a quote that can be read in both Mandarin and Cantonese and translates to “you will never know who you are going to see” into every advertisement poster because he wants to represent that FA’s shows are opportunities to connect with new people.

“We do these shows for the community,” Westfall said.

The name Fallen Angels Collective comes from Chu’s personal connection with the director of the film Fallen Angels Wong Kar-wai. He explained that he is inspired by the themes Karwai writes about in his movies and wanted to pay tribute to Kar-wai in his own work.

“Wong Kar-wai movies are about people being stuck in a routine, having their heart broken, dealing with depression, but they still find a way to get back up and live their life and find hope in the tiny things,” Chu said. “Even though they have been cast aside, they still have a second chance in life.”

From left to right: Aramis Westfall, Desmond Chu, Brendan Carsel. The group, known as “Fallen Angels Collective,” hosts popular house shows in the Davis area. (Monica Roberts / Courtesy)

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 | 5

HOW SEWAGE WATER CAN HELP TRACK COVID-19 UC Davis sponsors wastewater surveillance in Yolo County and the Central Valley

BY LEVI GOLDSTEIN city@theaggie.org During the COVID-19 pandemic, with assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), wastewater treatment plants have been monitoring sewage to detect COVID-19 in communities before a surge in positive cases is detected through traditional testing.

According to the CDC’s website, the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) was launched in September 2020.

Participating wastewater plants send samples of sewage to laboratories, where they are tested for the presence of the virus. Krystin Kadonsky, an environmental systems Ph.D. student at UC

Merced, is one of many researchers working on surveillance projects in the state of California.

“Within wastewater and the sample, there [are] gene targets that you can look for,” Kadonsky said. “For COVID, we’re looking at SARS-CoV-2 RNA to do tracking for different levels of the virus.”

Data collected from across the U.S. is published online on a map. Since its founding, the NWSS has on-boarded a total of 755 testing sites. Sewage surveillance has been essential for pandemic preparedness and prevention.

“It’s a good supplemental tool to clinical testing to show the severity of an outbreak,”

Kadonsky said. “[It] can help indicate when to send supplies to those areas or how to prepare for it or if quarantine needs to happen. So it helps public health departments with their decision making on how to protect the community from the virus.”

UC Davis has been a central partner in these efforts. Healthy Davis Together expanded by starting a second branch, Healthy Central Valley Together, and partnered with UC Merced to bring wastewater surveillance to the central valley.

Since the project began in spring 2021, eight treatment plants have been brought on, according CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

to Kadonsky. Four of these are located in the Yolo County area, in Davis, Winters, Woodland and Esparto, and four are located in the Central Valley, in Modesto, Merced, Turlock and Los Banos. William Wong, the director of utilities at the City of Modesto, has been overseeing the project at Modesto wastewater plants.

“We had thought about doing this for a long time, but we didn’t have the lab to test for it,” Wong said. “So when the UC Merced-UC Davis team approached us [and said they] would provide testing services for us and all we needed to do was collect samples from our wastewater plant, we agreed to do so.”

Wong and Kadonsky agree that sewage surveillance contributes significantly to overall public health. An important part of the project for Kadonsky has been addressing health inequalities.

“Something that I wanted to promote for this project was, when we were looking at the treatment plants to onboard, […] we did an evaluation of California, and we saw where there was a lack of wastewater monitoring, and then within those regions we looked at the income levels or the health disparities within that area to identify the areas most in need,” Kadonsky said.

“The overall mission of the project is health equity and promoting that within communities and being able to give resources to the communities that need it the most.”

Wong also strongly believes in the project’s mission. He said that the testing is part of the Utilities Department’s commitment and responsibility to the residents of the City of Modesto.

Despite the need for wastewater monitoring that has arisen during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is potential for this practice to continue to grow and even become standard practice in the future, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. Wong said that the City of Modesto is working to develop its own independent monitoring system and a corresponding alert system for potential disease outbreaks.

“Knowing what’s in our wastewater, as we found out through COVID-19, is a really good indicator of what’s happening in the community,” Wong said.

CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL VALLEY DIVISION PROMOTES SAFE DRIVING THROUGH EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month

BY SOFIA BIREN city@theaggie.org The month of April marks Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Distracted driving has become more prevalent in recent years due to the increasing dependence on cell phones.

According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, 3,142 people died from car collisions caused by distracted driving.

In 2010, automobile accidents in Yolo County were the cause of 143 non-fatal hospitalizations and 24 deaths. Additionally, automobile accidents are the most common cause of death of people between five and 29 years old.

To combat the prevalence of accidents caused by distracted driving, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is using Distracted Driving Awareness Month to educate the California public about the dangers involved with distracted driving.

The CHP Valley Division, which serves the CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

Greater Sacramento Area, including Davis, is making efforts to educate drivers about the danger involved with distracted driving. Officer Mike Harris, a public information officer for the CHP, said via email that education is the main method used to decrease the occurrence of distracted driving. However, when education proves to be ineffective, they employ enforcement campaigns and continue their vigilance with regular patrol efforts.

“We also encourage our officers to be proactive and communicate with the public about why distracted driving is so dangerous,” Harris said via email. “From an officer’s standpoint, texting and talking on a cell phone looks like a DUI. Violators weave, speed up and slow down. Clearly this behavior is unsafe while operating a vehicle”.

Among those who feel strongly about the dangers of distracted driving is Valerye

Trevizo, a second-year community and regional development major. She said that when she was getting her license, her biggest priority was getting to her destination.

“Putting my phone in the glove compartment benefits me,” Trevizo said. “Because I don’t have to worry about my phone falling through a seat crack or go[ing] flying in a harsh stop.”

According to a press release issued by the CHP, “Any time drivers take their eyes off the road to look at or use a phone, they are driving blind. For example, looking down at a cell phone to read a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of five seconds - at 55 mph, that is the equivalent of driving the length of a 300-foot football field without looking.”

Trevizo said that in order to foster a healthier culture when it comes to driving, people must lead by example. She said that she hopes that her decision to silence her phone and put it in

the glove compartment or give it to whoever is driving with her helps create a safer culture when it comes to driving.

“Nothing on your phone is worth endangering a life when you drive,” CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray said in a press release. “Your primary focus should always be on the road and the task of driving your vehicle safely.”

Education and community engagement have proved to be successful thus far.

“We have gotten amazing feedback from the community about our efforts through social media,” Harris said via email. “We have conducted multiple media interviews. During our enforcement campaigns we have been able to make multiple contacts with drivers reiterating the dangers of distracted driving and helping to curb this dangerous driving behavior.”

6 | THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022

ARTS & CULTURE

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

REVIEW: DENZEL CURRY TOUCHES DOWN IN SACRAMENTO FOR ‘MELT MY EYEZ SEE YOUR FUTURE’ TOUR The rapper’s new artistic direction may differ from what fans seek at his shows

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org

Denzel Curry Performing at Ace of Spades Sacramento (Benjamin Cheng / Aggie) Florida rapper Denzel Curry hit the Ace of Spades in Sacramento on April 9 as part of the tour for his new album, ”Melt My Eyez See Your Future,” released less than a month ago.

The new album is part of a larger change for the artist. Over his past few releases, Curry has been swapping out his frenetic, aggressive vocals for slower and more constant ones to accompany a newfound sense of honesty in his writing. The new Denzel Curry wants to preach about himself and the world: no haughty personas, no jokes and no lies. The transformation appears to have reached its final stage in “Eyez,” and this show is one of the first opportunities to see how his ravenous fanbase feels about it.

If the show’s first moments are any indication, fans can’t get enough. The energy is indisputable, and a constantly moving mosh pit sends skulls and elbows flying, from which The California Aggie’s expensive camera equipment demands constant protection.

The Ace of Spades’ $14 beers lurch up and down and form a kind of sprinkler system propelling a fine, bread-scented mist throughout the crowd — it’s hard to tell which part of one’s body is wet from Modelo versus sweat.

And there is certainly sweat: the general admission line is about twice what’s typical for the venue, wrapping around the neighboring restaurants and nearly poking into the nearby residential area, and all those people are now packed onto the Spades’ warehouse-esque floor in a way that one imagines would jack up the blood pressure of an OSHA inspector. Plus there’s basically no ventilation there.

By the time the opening acts are done, it’s a very humid 90 degrees and AG Club’s Baby Boy looks like he’s been put halfway through a carwash.

Mr. Curry’s move toward a more personal, somber and gradual style — a shift that began with his crepuscular 2018 release “TA13OO” and developed further in 2019’s “ZUU” — hasn’t done all that much to diversify his audience from the adrenalineseeking mosh pit dwellers he first courted with “Nostalgic 64.”

This fact becomes harder to ignore once Curry hits the stage.

He’s wearing a white hoodie and quickly announces that he’s “sick as f***.” The rapper’s hobbled walk to the center of the stage guarantees nobody can misinterpret his usage of the word “sick”; he’s torn his anterior cruciate ligament and is suffering from some flu-like symptoms, he says. He also pauses between tracks halfway through the set and walks offstage, betraying that even his limited movement during the show is extracting a toll.

The situation seems bad enough that one can hear murmurs of speculation among the crowd that he might not last the whole set, but Mr. Curry seems to be drawing from some kind of spiritual reserves when he launches into the first track, “Melt Session #1,” the moody opener of his new album. The crowd is clearly antsy

REVIEW: ‘OLIVIA RODRIGO: DRIVING HOME 2 U (A SOUR FILM)’ PROVES THE YOUNG ARTIST AS A CREATIVE FORCE The documentary follows the making of her critically acclaimed debut album

DENZELCURRY on 12

BY ANGIE CUMMINGS arts@theaggie.org

Movie: “X” dir. by Ti West (2022) A slasher at its zenith, “X” is set in the golden age of horror: 1979. What do you get when three adult film stars, their older manager and a film crew of two college students head to an old cabin to capitalize on the emerging home video market? You get a great scary movie with just the right amount of corniness and comic relief. This movie features Mia Goth with her signature bleached brows and doe eyes, Kid Cudi being his usual cool self (no notes there) and everyone’s favorite rising horror it girl Jenna Ortega; what more could you ask for? “X” gives you all of that and an entirely off-their-rockers elderly couple in a rickety house out in the middle of nowhere, Texas. Not only does this movie give you the satisfaction of hearing Goth say, “I need to be famous, Wayne” in her high-pitched Southern twang, but it also leaves you asking so many questions that you’ll almost forget the eye-searing intimate scene that takes place between the aforementioned elderly couple. In terms of those questions that you’re left with, don’t worry — they’re all set to be answered in the follow-up movie “Pearl,” which has yet to be released.

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org

KELLIE LU / AGGIE Teen superstar Olivia Rodrigo is taking the world by storm. Bursting onto the scene in the Disney+ series “High School Musical: The Musical,” the 19-year-old sensation has far and away transcended her old costars, with her debut album breaking myriad records in its first few weeks. She shows no sign of letting up, recently walking away from her very first Grammys ceremony with a clean sweep and three shiny, new awards.

Her newest project is a venture back into familiar territory — another endeavor with Disney+, but this time, she stars in her own film documenting her sudden rise to fame. “Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film)” showcases the creative process behind the making of her debut album, “SOUR.” Shot in various locations on a road trip from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, the film goes through each track on the album, delving into the conception of each song as narrated by Rodrigo herself and followed by a performance of said track.

Her first performance begins as a strippeddown rendition of “happier” placed in a suburban-like home and sets the deeply personal tone of the whole film. Rodrigo is portrayed as a simple songwriter who sits on the floor of her room and belts out ballads to her keyboard — a creative choice that reflects her humble beginnings. “jealousy, jealousy” is an ode to the adolescent need for validation felt by so many, with the grunge-like performance reflecting that angst. “1 step forward, 3 steps back” is presented as an acoustic rendition set in a van moving across the picturesque Arizona landscape. These performances and each that follow vary widely in their artistic rendering, with some utilizing nothing but a guitar and others bringing in a full-fledged orchestra. They all serve to showcase Rodrigo’s versatility as an artist and, perhaps, represent the journey she’s been on to find her footing, both as a young woman and in the music industry.

The creation of “brutal” stands out as a scene that encompasses the purpose of the film at its core. Viewers see how quickly Rodrigo

for Curry to bring a level of energy that neither he nor the song immediately has; he’s backed by a subdued melody of piano and saturnine female vocals while shooting off intensely introspective bars like, “Why I feel like hiding a truth is finding a lie? / Dealt with thoughts of suicide, women I’ve objectified / Couldn’t see it through my eyes so for that, I apologize / I’m just hypnotized, working hard to empathize.”

The crowd is indulging both his sickness and the comparatively somber, sincere new material. He can sense it, and he directs the crowd in turning up for the track’s ending, which consists of repeating “I keep walkin’,” which they do with notable enthusiasm.

Mr. Curry is now jumping around in a way that can’t be good for his leg, and the crowd is matching him. But their reaction to “Melt Session #1” — if representative of how tracks from “Melt My Eyez See Your Future” have been going over on the tour until now — might play a role in the rest of the night’s tracklist leaning into his heavier material from earlier records like “Imperial.”

The sincerity of “Melt My Eyez See Your Future” has been building for a while. Curry expressed the two-pronged sentiment in an interview with Loud and Quiet, where he said that he wanted to capture on his new album how “we avoid facing the truth ourselves when it’s right in front of us” and that the chaos of smaller shows was losing its appeal for him.

“I knew I had to have bigger songs, something that people could enjoy,” Curry said. “I wanted people to sing my songs this time. Yeah, they can mosh all day, but that’s venue stuff. I want stadiums.”

But Mr. Curry is touring venues for the time being, and the combination of his sickness and the sensitivity of the new record is revealing a sort of struggle between his desire to create bigger, more sensitive music and the intractable venue-sized energy of his Sacramento fans.

and her producer, Dan Nigro, are able to create the song seemingly out of thin air after Rodrigo lets the viewers (and her record label) know that she wants another “upbeat” track on the album five days before the tracklist is set to be released. Nigro laughs, but once he realizes that she’s serious, quickly strums a motif on the guitar, and the rest of the song flows from there. Seeing their creative genius bounce off each other to create (in my opinion) one of the album’s best tracks speaks to the impressive natural talent and passion the two both have for music. It also helps that immediately following this scene, viewers are treated to a punk-rock performance in an abandoned airplane hangar that perfectly encapsulates the angsty rage of the song: headbanging, platform boots, Blu DeTiger and all.

More than anything, the film feels very personal — almost as if viewers are getting a look inside a dreamy, artfully staged version of Rodrigo’s brain itself. In one scene, she reflects on her upbringing as a child actor and how the constant praise and lack of criticism caused her to default to the other end of the spectrum, unable to accept any compliments and being much too harsh on herself. This form of imposter syndrome defines many young people’s experiences transitioning into the adult world, even among those who don’t have three Grammy awards under their belt. Through her unyielding expression of vulnerability in “driving home 2 u,” Rodrigo shows that under it all, she is still just a young woman beginning to find her place in the world.

“I’ve grown, like, five years worth in one year,” Rodrigo said with a laugh as the screen showed sweeping shots of Malibu beaches. Through releasing the film on the same platform on which she found mainstream success only a few years ago, Rodrigo is able to prove this statement correct. Her creative voice shines through bright and clear, from the artistic renditions of her own songs to the reflective tones of her narration. “driving home 2 u” is a love letter to herself, while at the same time serving as a reminder to be proud of your own journey into adulthood.

Book: “Frank O’Hara: Poet Among Painters” by Marjorie Perloff (1977) Poetry is sometimes seen as an inaccessible and pretentious art form that some people only pretend to understand or enjoy in order to seem cool and cerebral. Admittedly, there have been many years that I have sided with the poetry skeptics, but I’m here today as a fully converted believer, all thanks to the work of Frank O’Hara. This book is not a collection of O’Hara’s poems but instead functions (at least for me) as a crash course on why his poetry works so well.

If you aren’t familiar with his work, I’d highly suggest reading at least one of his most famous (and one of my favorite) poems, “Having a Coke with You” (1960). It recounts an experience of sharing a soda with a lover in the park, and every ounce of love O’Hara felt can be found in that poem. Marjorie Perloff analyzes O’Hara’s unique and spontaneous poetry through the lens of his personal history because, as the title suggests, O’Hara was around a lot of famous painters while living in 1950s and ‘60s New York City. Working as an art critic and a curator at MoMA and dabbling in visual arts in his spare time, O’Hara wrote poetry in the written form of the incredibly popular action painting that was taking over the abstract expressionist scene. Quite often, Perloff analyzes his poetry as one might analyze a friend’s abstract artworks, taking into account the content, context and even the form of the poem (all of these being tenants of formal analysis that art historians swear by). Perloff fully explains why O’Hara’s short lines of words make me feel so much, revealing that it’s for many of the same reasons that art like that of Lee Krasner’s (a friend of O’Hara’s) stirs up equivalent levels of emotion.

Album: “Under the Blacklight” by Rilo Kiley (2007) Don’t be fooled by the pared-back album cover or the generally sad and bleak lyrics veiled by smooth and funky sounds — this is not a hidden gem classic rock album from 1978. It truly shocked me when I came to this realization after years of jamming out to songs like “Moneymaker” and “Smoke Detector” in the backseat of my mom’s minivan. Rilo Kiley was an indie and alternative band active from 1999-2007, and I have yet to figure out why they released this (perfect) final album in a way that bears such little resemblance to the rest of their discography. Even though their glitzy turn to disco might be seen as selling out or just a riskless move, I honestly don’t care: This isn’t a deep album that has much at all to say about the human condition. It sounds good and has a fun retro feel. Even at eight years old, I knew these 11 songs were gold, and, since rediscovering the album in high school, I can tell you with certainty that it stands the test of time. With prominent drums or bass paired with lead singer Jenny Lewis’ beautiful voice in every song, this album is a great one to power walk to. Playing it at a volume in your headphones that some may deem “unsafe” really completes the experience. “Under the Blacklight” is a thoroughly enjoyable album with an incredibly coherent sound throughout. It basically transports you to a smoke-filled dive bar full of bell bottoms, feathered hair and bad decisions (in 1970s LA, of course).

Song: “Susie Save Your Love” by Allie X and Mitski (2020) I really had to double up on the music this week (sorry to all the boring TV shows I could’ve chosen) because, for some reason, my favorite song from the very beginning of the pandemic has made its way back into my daily music queue. While it might not be the world’s most upbeat song, it is definitely a treasure from two masters of esoteric and sentimental music. “Susie Save Your Love” tells the all-too-relatable narrative of unrequited love and is made complete by both Allie X’s hypnotic and melodic voice and the strength of Mitski’s paired vocals. I discovered this song pretty quickly after it came out even though I had no idea who Allie X was — this was, of course, due to the great drought of Mitski music that the world endured from 2018-2021. I had no expectations going in with this song; I only hoped to hear Mitski’s familiar voice once more.

Little did I know that Allie X had so much to offer me as well. I am unfortunately unable to go into much detail on precisely why this song is so effing good, simply because I don’t know much about music theory or technicalities. I’m sure, however, that someone who is knowledgeable on the subject would agree that everything about this song is perfect in every way.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 | 7

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEYS OF WWOOF Students tell their Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) stories and what they learned from their volunteer experiences

BY SIERRA JIMENEZ arts@theaggie.org Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) has become a popular way for individuals to get outdoors and have experiences outside of everyday life during the pandemic.

The mission statement of WWOOF is to create “a worldwide effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.”

WWOOF provides free experiences around the globe in which visitors work on a property in exchange for housing and food. There are currently 1515 organic host farms to choose from in the U.S. and in over 132 countries around the world.

Whether participating in the program for sustainable agriculture, to learn new skills, travel or meet new people and immerse yourself in new cultures, anyone and everyone is welcome to volunteer.

Holly Murphy, a fourth-year environmental policy, analysis and planning major, volunteered for three weeks in the summer of 2021, using the filtering tool to search for the farm that would best fit what they were looking for. Murphy decided that they wanted a queer-friendly farm as a priority, and ended up finding the perfect spot for themself in Curtis, WA. Advertised as an anarchist-queer farm, Murphy joked about how “chill” their experience was because of this preliminary information.

Murphy explained how the hosts were pro-fair labor and established a relationship with them with a position of “do what you can, we’re just starting out so it will be a relaxed environment,” they said.

On a small, start-up farm, Murphy spent most of their days watering the small gardens, cleaning up forestry for an upcoming project, doing archery, learning how to make mortise and tenon joints, listening to music and podcasts and relaxing. They would start the day eating breakfast with the hosts, work through the morning and then have time for themselves the rest of the day.

“It was just really restorative,” Murphy said.

Murphy went as far as deleting social media, dedicating their time to reading and drawing instead of the common habit of scrolling on a cellphone. Living in a tent for three weeks, Murphy was able to “scratch that itch” for the outdoor experience they were looking for without the burden of renting or buying expensive outdoors gear.

Murphy explained that their experience was a positive time of solitude and self-reflection, and would recommend WWOOF to others. The big thing they wish they did differently was having their own form of transportation to give them even more freedom for exploration.

Additionally, they recommend talking to the host prior to committing to make sure the farm is a perfect match for you. Murphy had an interview with the host to discuss the expectations of both parties, day-to-day activities and ask questions to

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE make sure the farm was the ideal spot for them.

Other WWOOF-ers agree that it’s important to do your research prior to committing and departing to your chosen farm. For Allison Rose, a third-year international agriculture development major, her WWOOF experience was not what she expected.

In the summer of 2021, Rose ended up in Laupahoehoe, a small agricultural region of the Big Island of Hawaii, for about three weeks. She initially decided on this farm as a way to be close to the ocean and in Hawaii during the pandemic.

However, she soon realized that she was nowhere near the ocean, and the area where the farm was located was completely isolated.

The host seemed to be a liberal-minded individual, which was very important to Rose, advertising organic farming and “liberal fishing,” but Rose said he ended up being completely the opposite: a Trump supporter, Rose’s worst nightmare.

Rose said her host ended up being manipulative, making her feel undervalued and wondering “why am I being gaslighted into feeling like I owe this guy something?” She said

STOP MOTION ANIMATION: HOW THE ORIGINAL CGI CAME IN, OUT OF FASHION And what makes this technique so sentimentally special

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

BY CORALIE LOON arts@theaggie.org During the first screening of “The Lost World” in 1925, audience members watched a shockingly realistic T-rex tower above a group of human explorers, seemingly unphased by the humans’ gunshots. The whole thing was enough for a journalist of the New York Times to suggest that the “monsters of the ancient world or of the new world which he has discovered in the ether, were extraordinarily lifelike.” When the person screening the film refused to explain how the images were created, some speculated about the filmmaker’s spiritualist abilities.

But it wasn’t an elaborate magic trick that materialized the dinosaurs: In fact, the film in question was a black and white silent film, and the dinosaurs were created by stop-motion animation.

Stop motion, a technique that is now seen as more quaint or nostalgic than visually impressive, is a relatively simple process: take a series of photographs, each one slightly different from the last, and play them together at a rate of 24 frames per second. Although typically performed with clay figures or puppets, stop motion can involve any object from the real world, including kitchen utensils, paper drawings or even people.

Despite taking hours of manual labor to produce a few seconds of animation, the technique has lost much of its early prestige and respect, seeming to slip farther and farther from the public spotlight.

Today’s discourses about animation tend to pit computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation against hand-drawn, but these conversations often forget about stop motion, or place it on the backburner. Compared to both CGI and hand-drawn animated films, stop motion films haven’t done nearly as well

in the box office. According to databases of box office earnings, every one of the top 50 CGI animated films made at least twice as much as the highest-earning stop-motion film, “Chicken Run” (2000), which made almost $225 million worldwide.

Even traditional hand-drawn animation outpaces stop motion in the box office. The original “The Lion King” (1994) made $968 million worldwide, with the next three most successful films all grossing more than $500 million. Despite being a pop cultural staple, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993) only grossed $91 million worldwide in the box office, comparable to the $90 million in earnings of the promiscuous “Fritz the Cat” (1972) that no one seems to remember watching.

Considering the meager-to-moderate success stop motion films have had compared to their counterparts, it’s easy to forget just how important stop motion has been in the history of animation. After all, stop motion in many ways served as the original CGI. Though special effects artists may laugh about it now, “The Lost World” (1925) was an impressive display at the time of how stop motion could be used to bring mythical creatures to life and create elaborate (but affordable) sets.

Stop motion animation techniques were used in the original Star Wars trilogy. Those seemingly miles-tall AT-ATs at the infamous Battle of Hoth? Those were really constructed for the film, although they stood maybe a foot tall.

In movies and especially TV shows, stop motion animation was used because of its relative cost-effectiveness. Before CGI offered quicker and cheaper ways to create fictional worlds, stop motion sets were a great alternative to building life-sized sets that could cost much more. According to Stop Motion Magazine, stop motion as the “most utilized visual effects technique” peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, but after this point was when things went downhill.

Pixar’s “Toy Story” (1995) was the first solely CGI-animated feature film, made possible by huge technological improvements that, as the years went on, only continued to improve. CGI made much possible that hadn’t been possible before. However, it also “improved” (or else mimicked) what stop motion animation had been doing the whole time.

STOPMOTIONANIMATION on 12

the host expected an absurd amount of work while holding the fact that he was giving the volunteers food and housing over their heads, Rose explained.

Rose had to walk 30 minutes every day to the one cafe near the property for Wi-Fi because the host did not let the volunteers use the Wi-Fi. Rose ended up leaving early from her unexpected Hawaii getaway.

Although Rose did not have the best experience through WWOOF, she still recommends the program under different circumstances. Rose recommends bringing a car for transportation to allow more freedom of movement. She was quite confident that her experience would be a lot better if she had a car to move around.

She also recommends bringing a friend with you during the experience to have a buddy and have more “bargaining power and a step up” in case of a host like hers. She believes that having an open mindset and trying to get along with the other volunteers is what saved her through her unexpected experience.

Moral of the story, make sure to do your research and talk to your host about expectations on both sides before committing, especially somewhere as isolating as an island. Also, be sure to check surrounding towns, transportation and hosts before making a final decision.

Despite Rose’s WWOOF unexpected experience, there are lessons to be learned from those stories, and still other WWOOF-ers have had much better experiences. Abby Golde, a fourth-year animal science major, got everything she wanted out of her WWOOF experience in Devon, England, even if it wasn’t exactly what she thought it would be.

In the summer of 2021 during the pandemic, Golde decided to pack up and leave the States to mimic a study abroad experience she didn’t get to have in her college career. Her motive to participate in WWOOF was to travel cheaply and immerse herself in a new country and culture — and that’s exactly what she got.

In her free-time, she would travel around Europe via train, a 30 minute walk from the property, with the other various volunteers. The property always had a minimum of 10 volunteers which meant it was bustling with individuals from around the world.

“We would have a tea break at 11 because we were in England, and that was cute,” Golde said.

With group meals and constant travel buddies, her stay was very communal.

“It’s a really cool experience, especially if you are young and don’t have money. You could just fully live in somebody else’s life and experience all these things you would never be able to do, and meet all these cool people,” Golde said.

However, from her own experience, Golde warns potential WWOOF-ers to be prepared for an experience that is different from what was described. You have to be able to be flexible and have an open mind going into the process.

“I got fully catfished,” Golde said. “It was a little less of a farming experience… he had two cottages on the property and rented them out as Airbnbs which we cleaned for turnovers.”

The host had advertised himself as a beekeeper with various animals and a big garden with different crops, but in actuality, Golde said there were a few sheep, a small garden and no bees. Nobody had a good relationship with the host out of frustration for his false advertising, she said.

Although Golde said her host situation was not ideal, “I met 20 cool young people, lived with them, traveled around and ended up traveling by myself afterward,” Golde said. “WWOOF totally gave me what I was looking for.”

All individuals who have had experiences with WWOOF, good or bad, recommend this program to people thinking about volunteering on a farm. It is a mostly free way to have a place to stay wherever you are, learn about new cultures and tools and meet new people.

All past WWOOF participants who told their stories remind potential volunteers to keep an open mind and research, research, research beforehand!

June 3, 2022

volunteer duties:

https://forms.gle/BjR3 DmGGFkKj7RyM9

form due Wednesday April 27th @ 11:59pm

8 | THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

OPINION THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TOR I AL B OAR D ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SOPHIE DEWEES Campus News Editor MADELEINE PAYNE City News Editor EDEN WINNIFORD Opinion Editor

STUDENT JOURNALISM IS A PRIVILEGE AND A SERVICE The Editorial Board reflects on the important role of being UC Davis’ official, student-run newspaper

KATIE DEBENEDETTI Features Editor ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor MICHELLE WONG Science & Tech Editor

KATHLEEN QUINN New Media Manager BENJAMIN CHENG Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director JOELLE TAHTA Layout Director ANNE THISELTON-DYER Copy Chief SABINE LLOYD Copy Chief DARSHAN SHIVAKUMAR Website Manager ANTHONY NGUYEN Social Media Manager

With Picnic Day upon us and a notably larger community on campus this week, the Editorial Board thought now would be a perfect time to re-introduce ourselves — and highlight our work here at The Aggie.

Everyone on the Editorial Board feels that working for The Aggie is an immense privilege that we do not take lightly. We feel honored to share stories within the UC Davis community and bring to light issues we observe.

Being a student journalist is also a service. As students, we are often able to offer an inside perspective different from nonstudent-run Davis news outlets and university media. We write as the members of the community who are affected by the university’s policies and practices, and we understand the importance of holding UC Davis and its administration accountable when these policies are not just.

Student journalism is something that any student can participate in and we encourage anyone who’s interested to give it a try. Part of the beauty of many student-run publications is that you don’t have to have reporting experience or a lengthy list of prerequisites to get started. Anyone can be a journalist, as long as you are curious and paying attention.

Not everyone who works for The Aggie, including some on managing staff, wants to be a journalist after college either. There’s so much to be gained from working at a newspaper other than pre-professional experience; working with others, communicating

effectively and looking critically at and learning about local communities are necessary skills for life.

Acknowledging where we fall short and where we can grow is also critical. A lot of trust is placed in us to report for and about our community — by both the people who read The Aggie and those who offer their stories to our writers. We work hard to continue to earn that trust, but also acknowledge that we aren’t even close to perfect. Being journalists means constantly assessing our own biases and calling attention to how they might be present in our reporting.

It is also clear that as much as we work to address our personal biases, a key to a strong newsroom is a staff with diverse perspectives.

This is why we began releasing annual Diversity Reports in 2020 and have been working to more accurately reflect the student body within our staff.

The Aggie is also a platform for guest opinion columns, which offers people the opportunity to share their perspective. Anyone in the Davis community can submit an opinion piece. As long as it is factual, respectful and relevant, a submission will be taken into consideration by the editorial team.

The Editorial Board wants to share how honored and grateful we are to have this platform on UC Davis’ campus and how excited we are to continue our service as UC Davis’ official, student-run newspaper. Have a fun— and safe — Picnic Day. Support your local journalists, and go Ags!

JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager JENNA HEATH Marketing Manager

WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

JELENA LAPUZ Outreach Director LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

A CASE FOR JOURNALING Everyone should give expressive writing a try

BY OWEN RUDERMAN opruderman@ucdavis.edu

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

I’m willing to bet that most students at UC Davis write on a daily basis. Texts, academic papers and discussion posts are a few of the most common forms of writing for us. But those are all for school or for other people. When was the last time you wrote for yourself?

In the past, I’ve attempted to keep a journal.

I tried to write by hand in a little notebook or to keep my feelings on a Google Doc. I even tried to record myself talking as a way of cataloging my thoughts. But none of it stuck.

This quarter, I started to keep a journal again, and I’ve finally figured out the trick: Just write. I know that sounds obvious, but in the past I had specific expectations about what sort of things I was supposed to write about, and for how long, and when and where. I realized that the content of your journal can be about anything. It can

be as much or as little as you want. It can be composed at any time of the day, and it can even be revisited only once or twice a week. At the end of the day, there is no word count requirement for your journal, no deadlines. It’s just for you.

As I wrote in my journal, I began to notice a subtle shift in the way I viewed myself. Now that my thoughts were more organized and I could read them over, I began to know myself better.

Journaling has allowed me to think more clearly about my stresses and issues.

I also began to develop healthier habits with writing. Now that I have rid my mind of all expectations about what journaling is, I am free to do whatever I want with it. Whenever something pops into my head that seems like an insight into myself, I quickly write it down in my notes app. I’m more in touch with myself than

before, and it’s only been a few weeks.

Additionally, I’m getting the opportunity to flesh out my creative side. Before I started my journal, thoughts would come and go throughout the day without much of a filter. I had no interest in catching the good ones and storing them away for further use. But now that I’ve begun to listen to myself more, it’s easier to come up with ideas for various stories and projects.

For some, the journal might become more like a diary. For others, it may become an incubator for ideas. For others still, it may look like a fusion of both or something entirely different. There are no downsides, no judgment.

It’s just a risk-free way of talking to and getting to know yourself.

There are a lot of stresses and anxieties that come along with college life. We aren’t sure what

we’re doing or what the future holds, confusing things happen, classes are hard and sometimes it feels like everything is falling apart. I truly believe that keeping a journal can help one work through these feelings.

But don’t take my word for it. Expressive writing can quite literally heal you, according to a study. This research suggests that writing about emotions and stress can boost your immune system. Another study states that expressive writing can boost your IQ and self-confidence.

I can’t recommend journaling enough. Next time you feel like you just need to vent, consider picking up a pad of paper or opening your notes app. Remember: Just write.

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

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 | 9

OPINION

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF FAILURE? A discussion on how failure contributes to learning and success

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

BY ALEX MOTAWI almotawi@ucdavis.edu We hear it all the time: “Two steps forward, one step back,” “For every good idea there are thousands of bad ones” and “Nobody succeeds on their first try.” What I want to ask first: Who is “nobody” and how can I emulate them, and second: Are all of these sayings really true? As we all know, failure is a part of life experienced by everybody, but does it inhibit or accelerate

learning? Does failure make people give up or try harder? How does failure shape me as a person, and how much of it is healthy? We spend an awful lot of time talking about the thing we try to avoid most, but I believe that failure is better for us than we think — in small amounts.

In my opinion, it feels like we do need to fail a bit in order to push ourselves to do better. If

everything I did resulted in a resounding success, I think I would stop trying as hard and put less effort into my next projects. Even if those next projects are still successes, maybe I would stop innovating and trying new things and instead just stick to what’s working versus improving for the future.

We see this in competitive sports all the time. Professional sports call it a “hangover,” referencing the fact that teams often falter the season after winning it all (or getting close).

Whether it’s because the athletes got complacent due to constant success or burned out from committing the extra hours it takes to be the best, it’s a real phenomenon. Maybe the real advantage for the future goes to the teams that are hungry to do better after failing in the largest moments of their lives the season before.

However, constant failure definitely doesn’t feel like a recipe for success either. Consistent failure can just feel so degrading that it gets hard to stay committed. It makes people (myself included) feel like they just aren’t cut out for the task in the first place and that their time would be better spent somewhere else.

It makes sense that there is a certain “Goldilocks” zone where we succeed enough that we are inspired to keep working but also fail enough that we are hungry to fix our mistakes and understand that there’s always an open avenue for improvement.

Thankfully, this is a question science is trying to answer. It seems like there really could be a certain wheelhouse where failure is present but not denigrating, and current research points toward following the “Eighty Five Percent Rule

for optimal learning.” The rule states that the theoretical best failure rate for learning is a failure rate of 15.87%. If you love doing experiments and deciphering math, there are plenty of proofs in the breakthrough study, but for someone like me who generally trusts in science along with his gut, a failure rate of around 15% just feels right.

Now before you go parroting this “magic number” around to your friends, understand that it’s calibrated more toward things like learning math and not the reason why you are having a hard time finding a date. However, a similar theory does apply to teaching 7- to 8-month-old infants and has been a part of learning strategies without being scientifically known for ages.

With all the nerd stuff out of the way, does that mean getting a B (or anywhere around 85%) in my college class means I’m doing the best learning? And if it’s the best learning, shouldn’t it just be an A instead? Well, our college classes have a lot of variables, so that doesn’t quite check out. You aren’t going to be able to change the minds of your teachers with it, but maybe it can provide solace to all of our struggling GPAs. If you are acing all of your homework and exams, then it’s simple to say that you might learn better if you had more of a challenge. If you are scoring around the B range on these sorts of assignments, bask in the glory of knowing that you are experiencing optimal learning right now!

In the end, it does seem like failure truly does contribute to success and that it’s been researched a lot more than one might think. The most common proverbs about failure aren’t perfect, but their words do have some wisdom after all.

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.

HUMOR

PICNIC DAY 2022 GOES OFF WITHOUT A HITCH, LEAVING EVERYONE DISAPPOINTED “Honestly, I expected some kind of terrible incident of global proportions. Instead I just spent a wonderful day with my parents’’

BY IAN COSNER iacosner@ucdavis.edu Yes, it’s back and hopefully better than ever! Picnic Day 2022 marks the first Picnic Day in three years, and many students are just brimming with excitement for the holy day. But said expectations are apparently not as righteous as UC Davis administration would prefer. With most of the current student body never having participated in Picnic Day before, the senior class has taken it upon itself to inform other students of as many totally fake true tales of terrible disasters from past Picnic Days. Many would be confused to find that such events have dramatically increased the hype for this year’s picnic. And such, I have decided that it’s time we deduce the source of appeal from this fictitious Picnic Day trash fire.

Many of the sources of such blatant exaggerations seem to have stemmed from Reddit. The UC Davis subreddit has been awash with all kinds of recounts of previous Picnic Days, and, while I’m not legally allowed to credit their validity, I will present to you some of the most popular and counter with what I have allowance to say about each event.

The most popular conspiracies include: Picnic Day 2018: The marching band accidentally played so loud that they woke up the 100-foot-tall Gunrock clone that sleeps in its tomb under the Death Star, and it tried to recruit everyone to the club golf team.

Official UCD Statement: Yes, there is a 100-foot-tall Gunrock clone that sleeps under the Death star, and, no, it doesn’t force anyone to

IAN COSNER / AGGIE play golf. That would be insane.

Picnic Day 2015: The ghost of Linda Katehi came back from the grave and stole all the pepper from the food trucks.

Official UCD Statement: No, Linda Katehi did not come back from the grave. She is still alive and currently teaching at Texas A&M for an unreasonable amount of money. Yes, she did steal all the pepper from the food trucks that year for reasons that have still been left unexplained.

Picnic Day 2008: The California Aggie released an article joking about a murder mystery happening during Picnic

Day, but then all the murders actually happened.

Official UCD Statement: No, The California Aggie did not release a murder mystery story that came true. The article was actually a mock romance novel about Gunrock and the administrative building Egghead. The two are still currently together to this day.

Picnic Day 1986: The sun stopped working for the day.

Official UCD Statement: Yes the sun stopped working for the day, but that was due to the fact that a giant tomato covered up the sky and not for any unnatural reasons.

With such believable tales of past Picnic Days ever-present in students’ minds, the internet

is rife with speculation for this year’s Picnic Day, and it feels as though the entire campus is holding its breath, awaiting what possible, great calamity will befall the campus. But with such reasonable explanations for such events, it’s still strange that students are expecting some kind of horrible, global disaster to be inflicted this year.

Now to attempt to understand why the senior student body would associate such travesty with Picnic Day is unclear. Being a senior myself, my whole freshman year feels like a distant blur.

I have vague memories of forest fires and smoke, men with machetes milling about on campus and bears walking into classrooms. And since all those things actually did happen, I guess the likelihood of someone accidentally awakening Otis, God of Bovine and Weiner Dogs, on the quad doesn’t sound too implausible.

But in all likelihood, what Picnic Day is really going to end up being is a good time where new potential students can get a first look at the next four years of their life, and current students can complain to their friends and family about the last four years of their life. There’ll be cool exhibits, good music and plenty of delicious food.

And, who knows, you may just have a wonderful evening on campus. What are the odds?

So I hope you all have a very delightful Picnic Day, from all of us here at The Aggie. Picnic Day is not only a celebration of UC Davis but also of the people that teach, work and attend.

So Congratulations, Aggies! You deserve it.

Oh, and if you happen to cut your hand near the cows, whatever you do, DO NOT let them lick your hand. They’ll get a taste for human flesh, and no one wants a repeat of Picnic Day 2019.

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

A UC DAVIS SQUIRREL THREATENED ME Hi, stop feeding them Oreos and half-smoked joints

BY ANNABEL MARSHALL almarshall@ucdavis.edu Picture this. You’re alone at a table in the Memorial Union. It’s one of those black tables, the kind typically occupied by a pre-health fraternity or some club that wants you to try underwater calisthenics or something equally unhinged. You open your laptop, a symbolic nod to the fact that you have four missing assignments. You reach into the smallest pocket of your backpack, digging between Rite Aid receipts and empty granola bar wrappers, searching for the birdnest tangle of your headphones. It rustles like the crushing of dry leaves and empty granola wrappers. This is your mistake.

Look up. You’re face to face with a squirrel.

But for the look in its eyes, you might as well be face to face with a WWE wrestler, muscles plump with testosterone and vanquished childhood dreams. The squirrel, who considers your specific life a hilarious accident of God, twitches its tail, which is simultaneously wormy like a rat and linty like a dryer filter. It pities you.

Freshmen have been feeding it pizza crusts.

It resembles a water balloon that’s been filled with chili. Its walk is more of a lazy lumbering crawl. Unlike you, it has no biology midterms.

Its girlfriend has not been harassing it about its lack of a bedframe. This squirrel’s sole purpose

is coercing innocent students into handing over food. And their feeling of safety on campus.

You have no offerings. You don’t even have food for yourself, despite the fact that your last meal was 4 a.m. coffee. The squirrel does not care. It creeps closer, closer until it is four inches from your knee. It is daring you to move.

People are walking by. You have a choice.

Keep calm, hope that this bush-tailed vermin doesn’t hop in your lap and give you the gift of rodent rabies. Or you can run, make a scene and inevitably face plant in front of your English TA. This is your future. If it hasn’t happened yet, it will. Your torment awaits patiently.

Side note: Have y’all been seeing those two ducks? I want to pick them up and take them home. I want them to sleep in my bathtub and protect me from evil spirits and vengeful TAs. One time I was walking through the Quad and a duck offered to help me with my anthropology homework and mend my relationship with my mother. I never want to hear the words “relationship goals” unless they are being applied to those ducks.

Anyway, back to the squirrel. This quivering hell beast will maintain eye contact for a solid 40 seconds until someone walks by and says,

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE “Oh, how cute!” and you have to pretend you’re not in the fight of your life. Eventually, you’ll realize there’s only one thing you can do. Leave.

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

Abandon your things, run. Your laptop belongs to him now. There’s nothing you can do. Maybe he’ll learn R Studio.

10 | THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC DAVIS STUDENTS DISCUSS ‘DREAM JOBS’ GROWING UP, WHETHER THEY ARE PURSUING THEM NOW Childhood dreams don’t always come to fruition, but for many of these 12 students, they inspired their future careers

Gabrielle Peralta. (Jalan Tehranifar / Aggie)

Sarah Hull. (Jalan Tehranifar / Aggie)

Briana Fedwik (left) and Alex Ikuma (right). (Jalan Tehranifar / Aggie)

BY JALAN TEHRANIFAR features@theaggie.org

This story will be showcased on The Aggie’s social media. Check out our Instagram account to see the students behind these dreams and current career paths.

Most children grow up with an idea of a career they want to pursue when they get older — oftentimes something inspiring and farfetched, like being the first astronaut to land on Mars or being a rock sensation. As wonderful as these ideas may be, life doesn’t always go as planned, and people often change their minds about what they want to do in terms of work. ​​Many students attend college to study in order to qualify for a good job, be successful at their desired work, learn new things and grow as a person. Part of this is deciding whether or not to pursue your childhood dream job or find a new one.

Savina Bouathong, a fourth-year nutrition major, grew up with the hopes of becoming

Brian Kumar. (Jalan Tehranifar / Aggie)

Rishi Thakkar (left), Alexander Korobkov (middle), Vincente Valdenbenite (right). (Jalan Tehranifar / Aggie)

a chef. Although she didn’t pursue cooking as a career, she still enjoys it as a hobby and finds herself working in the food industry.

Bouathong talked about how her experiences growing up inspired her to take on cooking.

“My dad was always sick, so I wanted to go into a profession that prevents chronic diseases,” she said. Bouathong would study ingredients and chemicals in food products. “I’m not a chef, but I do cook on my downtime,” she said.

Sarah Hull, a third-year psychology and human development double major, said when she was in fifth grade, she wanted to be a veterinarian.

“Animals, I love ‘em,” Hull said. “But now I am interested in psychology, and I want to be a social worker maybe. I guess I didn’t want to be a vet anymore because you have to go through a lot of schooling. With psych and human development, you still get to help people, but you don’t have to go through the years of science.”

Jessica Bracken, a third-year communications major, grew up wanting to be an artist but now sees art as a hobby. “[Communications] seemed interesting,” Bracken said. “I’m trying to go into editing now.

I’d rather have [art] as a hobby, it’s more fun that

way.”

Selena Yepez Alanis, a first-year design major, wanted to be a teacher as a child but changed her mind when she realized she would have to work with children all day, every day.

“I don’t like kids that much,” she said. “I like artistic things, and I fell in love with art.”

Brian Kumar, a fourth-year human biology major, grew up with the dream of becoming a firefighter but chose a different path, still with the hopes of saving lives.

“Someone said to me that I could be a pediatrician, and that they saw me in that area, and I guess I took that and ran with it,” Kumar said. “I feel like I’m letting my younger self experience the world how he wanted to.”

Gabrielle Peralta, a fifth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, said her childhood dream was to become a professional ballerina, but her dreams were crushed by her flat feet.

“I couldn’t tiptoe,” Peralta said. “My feet were very fat, and I just couldn’t dance. I don’t have a sense of rhythm. I don’t feel like I let my younger self down though; I think I just grew up.”

Brianna Fu, a fourth-year human development major, wanted to become a teacher

Jessica Bracken. (Jalan Tehranifar / Aggie) as a child and though she’s considering giving up teaching as her dream, she’s still passionate about working with children.

“I might minor in education, so I’m still thinking about it, but I kind of want to go into healthcare for kids,” Fu said.

Rishi Thakkar, a third-year computer science major, gave up on his dream of becoming an astronaut because of his height but fell in love with computer science and the world of technology.

“I’m studying computer science — but that’s because I was too tall to become an astronaut,” Thakkar said.

Alexander Korobkov, a second-year sustainable landscape design major, dreamed of becoming a rockstar, and he has yet to let that dream go.

“I’d say I’m on the way there,” he said. “I’m a musician studying architecture now so I’m an artist, I guess. I’m studying architecture so I can have a job and then I can go play [music].”

Vincente Valdenbenito, a third-year sustainable environmental design major, wanted to be a NASCAR driver and design his own cars.

However, he is currently studying a different type of design.

“As a kid, I wanted to be a racecar driver,” he said. “I wanted to pimp out cars and stuff. Now, I’m not really doing that. I don’t know what I’m doing honestly. I’m trying to figure out what I want to do.”

Briana Fedwik, a first-year computer science major, dreamed of going to space as a child but grew up and found a different dream.

“I wanted to be an astronaut like everyone else,” she said. “I love space, and I really wanted to go to space, but it was just a dream job. I’m studying computer science, because now I want to make video games instead of going to space.

I’m fulfilling my dreams in a different way because now I can make games about space. “ Alexandria Sato Ikuma, a first-year physics major, didn’t have an idea of what career she wanted to pursue as a child.

“I didn’t know then, and I still don’t know,” Ikuma said.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 | 11

SUDOKU Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces.

Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

Answer to previous puzzle 04/14/22

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie CROSSWORD Answer to previous puzzle 04/14/22

Scan this QR code to subscribe to The California Aggie’s Newsletter!

12 | THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

PICNICDAY

SENATE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

“Most of the events from previous years were virtual, but the parade was unable to occur [virtually], so that’s one of the main things I’m excited for,” Navarro said.

The Parade Marshal represents Picnic Day and is picked based on their active participation in the community, their positive impact on others and their embodiment of the theme. Professor and Senior Director of Clinical Pathology at UC

Davis Health Dr. Nam Tran was chosen as the 2022 Parade Marshal.

“The thing I’m looking forward to the most is seeing our community of students, faculty, alumni and community members come together again,” Portier said. “Since the pandemic, we haven’t really had an opportunity like this to celebrate in the same capacity [as] Picnic Day.”

PICNICTRADITIONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 FADS Fashion Show: “Prism” The UC Davis Fashion and Design Society (FADS) fashion took place virtually in 2021, but it will be back in person this year, featuring designs from the design (DES) 179 “Signature Collection” course at UC Davis, the capstone class for design majors with an emphasis in fashion. Julia Dang, a secondyear design and English double major and the internal affairs director for FADS, said that the theme for this year’s show, “Prism,” reflects on the students’ in DES 179’s work over the last year and throughout their undergraduate careers.

“We’re using some mirrors and some crystals to shine a light on all of our designers’ work,” Dang said. “There will also be a museum exhibition inside the MakerSpace that’s not a part of the fashion show, but will display a lot of pieces like textile work, illustrations and other fashion pieces that weren’t involved in the show.”

In addition to showing support for the DES 179 students and other UC Davis students featured as models in the show, Dang said that attendees might even catch Leshelle May modeling one of the pieces.

The show will be held in the Cruess Hall Courtyard, part of the department of design’s Makerspace that opened in Fall 2021. Shows will be at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and tickets are available on their website. The proceeds from the event will fund next year’s show and the Department of Design at UC Davis.

Cockroach Races After two years of grueling training, the cockroaches of UC Davis are ready to race. A familyfavorite Picnic Day tradition — the annual cockroach races presented by the Entomology Grad Student Association (EGSA) — will return this year, along with the various displays of creepy and cute critters set up by the EGSA. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m in front of Briggs Hall, roaches will be running around a mini track, vying to be crowned the king of the roaches (not really, but

they will be racing for hours). Stop by to cheer for and bet on your favorite. More information on the EGSA’s entire display can be found in the Picnic Day events list.

Battle of the Bands End your day with some goodspirited competition and jazzy music at the Battle of the Bands, coordinated by the UC Davis Marching Band. This year’s battle will feature the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band, Humboldt Marching Lumberjacks, USF Marching Dons, Cal Poly Pomona Bronco Pep Band, UC San Diego Pep Band and the all-time defending champions, the UC Davis Marching Band. From 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., bands will compete to see who can play for the longest amount of time without pausing the music or repeating a song.

Claire Inouye, a third-year wildlife conservation biology major and the current student manager of the UC Davis Marching Band, said that UC Davis’s band has one or — if not the — largest song book of most college marching bands across the country, and they’re ready to face the competition. Even though the bands are technically competing though, Inouye said she’s most looking forward to a moment during the competition when all of the bands come together to learn and perform the same song on the spot.

“We all play one song together that we learned on the spot by looking at [...] somebody else’s fingerings in the band that’s teaching the song to us,” Inouye said. “I don’t know how long, but we’ll all learn a song together and play it together on repeat for a little bit.”

The Battle of the Bands will take place on the Mrak Hall lawn from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The specific location and campus maps can be found in the Picnic Day schedule online.

Whatever event you’re most excited for this year, The Aggie is excited to celebrate Picnic Day with the UC Davis community in person again.

Members of The Aggie’s staff will be tabling at the new Aggie office, on 116 A St., from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Stop by to say hi, and pick up a copy of The Aggie. Happy Picnic Day!

GRADSLAM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 She will also advance to the UC Grad Slam, where she will compete for additional awards. Savannah Free, a second-year Ph.D. candidate in integrative genetics and genomics, was awarded $1,500 as the second place winner for her speech on the interaction of tumor cells and blood platelets in cancer research.

Paige Kouba, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in ecology, received third place and a $750 award for her work looking at the effects of different carbon dioxide levels on trees to simulate future climate changes. Andrea Guggenbickler, a firstyear Ph.D. candidate in public health sciences, received $500 as the people’s choice winner for her presentation on how more comprehensive sex education can improve public health and reduce the risk of teen pregnancy.

Dien had one thing that the other winning contestants did not: no experience with public speaking. Free and Guggenbickler said that they had competed in debate in high school, and Kouba had participated in theater. Dien said she was never trained for public speaking, but her confidence came from enjoying the event and being passionate about her research.

“I had rehearsed my speech so many times and tried to deliver it the same way every time,” Dien said. “But actually, it was a little bit different when I was on stage because it really came from my heart. I was just enjoying the moment and being there.”

Dien, like many graduate students, are very passionate about their research. All four of the award winners mentioned how fun it was to present their research to a larger group of people, especially people outside of their fields of study.

“I have always wanted to give a TED talk,” Kouba said. “I think about how exciting it would be to pitch your biggest, best idea or the thing you’re most excited about. I actually ask that of my students a lot, like, ‘What would you talk about if you had the stage for just three minutes?’

So I was kind of putting my money where my mouth is.”

However, Free said that one of the biggest challenges for many of the graduate students who are preparing their talks is taking the technical jargon from their research and translating it into words that the majority of a university-level audience would understand.

“As graduate students, we get kind of bogged down in the very minute technical details of our work,” Free said. “It’s good sometimes to come up for air, and take a look at your work from an outside perspective.”

Not only did the graduate students need to translate their research, but they also needed to do that within a three-minute speech, which Kouba said proved to be challenging since she could go on for hours about her work.

“The question of how to tell such a big, global-scale story with such a short time frame was a real challenge at the start,” Kouba said.

Additionally, the presentations needed to be polished. To enter the competition, each contestant submitted a video recording of their speech. The top 10 students were selected and given feedback for revision. Then, they were able to have a one-on-one mentoring session in which their presentations were further critiqued.

Dien said that she initially had a slide with multiple images that she wanted to use to illustrate the broad range of products that require industrial drying in agriculture. The judges told her that an elaborate slide would cause the audience to focus on the screen behind her, rather

than the content of her speech, so she would have to go without it.

Similarly, Guggenbickler said that she practiced her speech endlessly to make sure that the audience could focus on her content rather than any mishaps in the delivery.

“I wanted to sound confident and knowledgeable because I feel like people are more likely to listen to what you’re saying if you’re delivering it in an impactful way,” Guggenbickler said.

The first step was drawing in the audience.

Some topics were immediately relatable to the audience, like Free’s research on cancer or Guggenbickler’s research on sex education.

Others had to be more creative with their approach.

Dien said that not everyone knows how important industrial drying is in food systems, so she started by talking about the increase in energy prices. This has raised the cost of drying staple crops like grains and nuts, which could eventually lead to higher prices for these pantry staples. With other options for drying, energy use can be reduced, limiting how energy supply and demand impact the cost of food.

How these important scientific discoveries and innovations are communicated to the public is critical, Free said.

“I kind of came into the competition thinking that everybody is familiar with cancer,” Free said. “Everyone knows someone who has had cancer, so everyone’s going to have a basic understanding. But even if that’s true, people usually have a more clinical understanding or general understanding. They might not have a very biological understanding.”

The UC Grad Slam aims to allow graduate students to develop their communication skills and engage with a larger community. Each contestant also has the opportunity to describe how their research affects the larger community.

Four of the 10 students who presented at the UC Davis Grad Slam were acknowledged as Global Education for All recipients, a designation awarded to research that has a global impact.

“I like to think I can touch everyone’s life with this,” Guggenbickler said about her work on improving sex education. “And that’s the goal, right?”

For many, the impact of their research has started with their own story. Kouba remembers growing up climbing Douglas fir trees with her sister — now she’s studying how they’ll fare in the future. Free found cancer research to be a “puzzle” that has affected most people’s lives, including her own. Guggenbickler said she grew up in a small town where sex education consisted of two sessions between middle and high school; now, she says she wants to be the one to destigmatize talking about sexual health for future generations.

Dien is passionate about reducing food insecurity, so she chose to focus her research on one of the biggest causes of food loss and energy use in agriculture. She said that she plans to bring her best to the UC Grad Slam final on May 6 where she’ll be representing UC Davis.

“It’s exciting, but it’s also a lot of pressure,” Dien said. “I entered into the competition thinking I’m just going to share my research, and now I’m representing UC Davis.”

You can find a recording of the UC Davis Grad Slam semi-finals online and tune in on May 6 to watch the livestream of the final UC Grad Slam on their website.

Flynn spoke about the university hiring process through UC Path and said that Unitrans employees have experienced confusion about the procedure.

“People get impatient during the hiring process and just get lost,” Flynn said. “It’s just really complicated, and I don’t quite know why.”

Three of six electric buses as part of the Capital Program have arrived. Additionally, Unitrans is soliciting feedback for service change proposals for the 2022-2023 school year, which include modifications to the V, P and Q lines. All proposals are available online.

Fair Trade Committee (FTC) Organizer Itzel Gallardo provided the organization’s quarterly report. The committee is seeking to hire new members and a chair for next year, as many members are graduating this spring. The committee will finish a guide for the role of chair in order to ensure a smooth transition. In addition, FTC will finalize its 2022-2023 budget.

Unit Directors Cozette Ellis and Nancy Marshall gave a quarterly report for the Whole Earth Committee. Ellis and Marshall expressed the need to work with ASUCD in order to expand recruiting efforts for the event. They discussed how cultural appropriation was an issue at the event in the past. In response, the committee has sent a statement to potential attendees to set a standard of mutual respect. They also expressed frustration with the Unit Relocation and Space Allocation Committee (URSAC), which, according to Ellis, has not been cooperative or attentive to the Whole Earth Committee’s needs.

“From our perspective as unit directors, it’s one of the most important committees for us,” Ellis said. “And now, we’re facing making the festival happen when it hasn’t happened at full

scale for two years, and then immediately after, moving our unit into a completely new space.”

Officers provided their weekly reports and Election Committee members were confirmed remotely.

SB #71, which allocates money to the Donation Drive Committee, was proposed as new legislation and was passed.

Senator Harris Razaqi drafted the emergency bill SB #72 in response to concerns expressed by the unit directors of the Whole Earth Committee.

The bill modifies the structure of URSAC. The bill was passed unanimously.

SB #68, authored by a member of the public, Calvin Wong, was passed unanimously. The bill places the Elimination of the Intercollegiate Athletics Portion of the Campus Expansion Initiative Fee (CEI) Referendum on the Spring 2022 ballot which, if passed, would eliminate the portion of student fees that funds athletic scholarships.

SB #69, also authored by Wong, was passed unanimously. Similarly, this bill places the Elimination of the Intercollegiate Athletics Portion of the Student Activities and Services Initiative (SASI), a ballot measure that would eliminate student fees that fund team travel and sports equipment, among other things.

SR #27 recognizes challenges some students face regarding their mental health and pushes faculty to take these into consideration. The resolution was passed unanimously.

SR #28 urges the City of Davis to increase housing availability and affordability. This resolution was passed unanimously.

Past meeting minutes were approved.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:29 p.m.

DENZELCURRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 This doesn’t seem to be much on anyone’s mind, though. Once Curry starts feeling himself with the older songs, things get explosive again.

He’s shouting the bars and moving as much as he’s able, and when it’s time for the encore, he’s about as drenched as Baby Boy was. Whether it’s because of sickness or the stagnant heat of the room, it’s hard to tell. He closes the show with “DIET_” off of 2020’s “UNLOCKED,” and retreats from the stage to operatic applause.

The night was successful, especially when one considers how hard it must’ve been for Mr.

Curry to keep up with the show’s intensity in his condition, but it offered little in the way of indication regarding whether or not the new direction of his music will allow him to reach the heights he so clearly craves. The solid but not reverential critical reception to “Eyez” doesn’t suggest that this is the album to push him over the edge into superstardom — it’s possible there’s still an ingredient he needs to discover if he’s to reconcile his own musical past and present and combine them into something larger.

STOPMOTIONANIMATION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 While it may seem like stop motion animation has been discarded in favor of more efficient animation techniques (because, let’s face it, it has), it still holds a place in popular culture.

The production studio Laika, for example, has been consistently releasing stop motion films, including “Missing Link” (2019) and “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016). Considering the “impracticalities” of stop motion, it should already be dead and gone: Why waste time creating expensive and elaborate sets, all the more elaborate as the world’s expectations and standards for visual effects increase every year?

The very fact that stop motion is still bringing in enough money for prominent production studios to release stop-motion films is evidence of its pervasiveness in culture. There is something unique about the half-real worlds of “Coraline” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox” that is simply not captured in CGI films.

While people’s love of stop-motion perhaps used to rely more on the thrill of realism, it seems

that the appeal of this animation technique is its more natural or “hand-made” appearance. An opinion article by Kim Taylor-Foster theorizes that a societal-wide love for stop motion is due in part to “the massive market for nostalgia” that “goes hand in hand with a move towards a rediscovery and reappraisal of the handmade.”

In a way, this could be a promising outlook.

If stop motion used to be valued as the best that could be done with what was available, its success alongside modern CGI technology could show a love for the artform that is deeper and more honest, that appreciates not its ability to mimic something, but to take up space as a unique art form and style. It is the style and sensation of stop motion, its existence somewhere between the real world and the fictional, that no technological improvement has been able to replicate.

So, what is the future of stop motion animation? Whatever it is, it will surely not let up without a fight.

DEMOGRAPHIC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 “Are your events accessible to those with physical disabilities?” Hernandez said via email.

“What about members who may require childcare? [...] Mentoring programs and scholarships are [also] a great way to provide better access to a broader STEM community.”

Hernandez went on to say that improving survey accuracy and inclusion is one way for STEM organizations to live out mission statements that often emphasize innovation — according to Hernandez, bringing a diverse set of “experiences and ideas” into a field is one of the best ways to put an emphasis on innovation into practice.

She also said that diversity can encourage scientists who are minorities by allowing them to see themselves represented in leadership or conference speakers.

“Whether it was hearing a particular speaker at a conference or meeting someone who would eventually serve as a mentor, it was seeing these similar experiences expressed openly that really allowed me to push through some of the harder

moments,” Hernandez said. “It was very much an ‘if they can do it, so can I’ sort of moment, and I think that having these relatable moments is important for those of us who may not see these similar stories at our universities or company spaces.”

Burnett clarified the purpose of the paper, saying that overall, it is meant to be more of a commentary than a criticism.

“We’re holding up a magnifying glass to how STEM thinks about diversity,” Burnett said.

“It’s not a study on just surveying techniques, but it’s a survey of attitudes towards diversity — that’s what we are wanting to change or improve within STEM.” King said that to her, the biggest purpose of improving surveying is just for organizations to recognize and acknowledge the diversity within their ranks.

“To me, it boils down to this,” King said.

“You can’t help folks if you don’t know that they’re there.”

SMOKECLIMATE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 These particles are able to scatter and absorb solar energy, create clouds of rain or snow and change other properties of an existing cloud.

Even at the low concentrations of aerosols that were measured, these particles can impact climate and human health significantly.

“These results can be used to better understand and model the formation and transformation of aerosol particles in wildfire plumes,” Zhang said via email.

Additionally, since many previous studies only looked at the changes that occurred after

the first few hours of emission, Farley added how these results can be used to help parameterize global climate models and understand aerosol changes over the time span of days.

Looking at future studies, Zhang explained how they are performing lab-based experiments to better understand the chemical aging of aerosols and precursor gasses. Farley hopes that future research will help scientists understand how the aerosol chemistry changes over a larger timespan.

SBVSCSUN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 “I’m not chasing wins in the jobs that I choose to take; I mean that’s awesome, and that’s great, and I think it should be celebrated. If you ask me, I should’ve been there a long time ago, but it is kinda cool to know.”

With 13 games left in the season, the odds are in favor for coach Thorpe to secure her well deserved 400th career win.

Big West Conference The end of the season is approaching, UC Davis (6-9) is sitting in the seventh slot in the standings. Cal State Fullerton (12-3) is in first, Long Beach State (12-3) is in second, Hawaii (96) sits in third, Cal Poly (9-6) is in fourth, UC San Diego (8-7) is in fifth and UC Riverside (78) is in sixth. CSU Northridge (6-9), UC Santa

Barbara (3-12), and CSU Bakersfield (3-12) all sit behind the Aggies in the standings.

The Aggies play Cal in Berkeley (4/19) in a non-conference game. They end the season against conference foes such as San Diego, Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Hawaii. UC Davis can still finish within the top three but they must win the series against their conference opponents.

“It’s one of those things were we got to keep them focused on continuing to get better and fighting, and a lot of it is going to come from inside them as a group as well and their belief in each other; learning and understanding of what they’re capable of and believing in that and then going out and playing a little more confident,” Thorpe said.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 | 13

SCIENCE AND TECH UC DAVIS HEALTH’S POST-COVID-19 CLINIC FINDS PATTERNS OF SYMPTOMS PERSISTING MONTHS AFTER INFECTION Long COVID includes sets of symptoms that usually last for three to six months after the infection, but no cause for this phenomenon is known

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org A study published in PLOS Medicine found that about one third of patients infected by COVID-19 experienced symptoms three to six months after their diagnoses, and up to nearly 60% of patients experienced at least one acute symptom during the entirety of six months following their diagnoses. These post-symptoms have to do with what researchers and clinicians have coined “long COVID.” This term is used

to describe the prolonged effects of the viral infection following the virus’ disappearance in the patient.

Dr. Mark Avdalovic, a professor of clinical medicine and vice chair of the Department of Medicine at UC Davis Health, explained the context around the emergence of the PostCOVID-19 Clinic that opened in November 2020, for which he serves as the director.

“The definition for a long COVID was that you would have persistence of symptoms approximately four weeks after the onset of your acute infection,” Avdalovic said. “There was a wave of healthcare workers who caught COVID-19 very early in the pandemic, and so amongst our own colleagues, we started to see in the late summer of 2020 and early fall that there was a persistence of certain symptoms. So many of us were curious and thought that this was an important aspect of the disease for us to understand better, leading us to open up this Post-COVID Clinic.”

Despite the countless patients hospitalized due to COVID-19, Avdalovic noted that he could not pinpoint a root cause for these long COVID

symptoms that seemed to last for months after the infection. However, the clinic had found patterns of long COVID symptoms that could help physicians group patients so they could be referred to the right specialist. These categorized symptoms ranged from respiratory side effects, including shortness of breath but no coughing, to rheumatologic symptoms, including joint pains and muscle aches.

“The symptoms do not necessarily align with any kind of blood tests that certify that their symptoms are due to a known inflammatory process, for example lupus or rheumatoid arthritis,” Avdalovic said. “So what I mean is they have symptoms where their body aches and their joints ache but nothing that would give them that distinct diagnosis as we currently understand, so it’s really a collection of findings.”

Dr. Bradley Sanville, a pulmonary and critical care physician who helped launch the Post-COVID-19 Clinic, further elaborated on the difficulty in finding a cause for these cohorts of symptoms.

“When we started the clinic, we expected that a lot of the people who had been hospitalized and

on ventilators would have really damaged lungs,” Sanville said. “We expected to see a lot of bad fibrosis. But personally, I haven’t seen much fibrosis, and, for whatever reason, the COVIDrelated damage seems to improve over time.”

Both Sanville and Avdalovic underscored that with time, however, the symptoms naturally subside. Despite the mystery behind the long COVID symptoms that have afflicted many patients, one can still be hopeful in knowing that the symptoms will disappear.

“If you’re coming to see me and you’re greater than three months out and still with persistent symptoms, sometime in the subsequent three to six months your symptoms likely will either subside or completely go away,” Avdalovic said.

“We’ve had some successes with enrolling patients in monitored exercise programs that slowly keeps an eye on their heart rates in response to exercise.

After the program, around seven to eight weeks later, folks are able to do more exercise, with their exercise capacity being objectively improved, as well as quality of life scores. So there is hope that a gentle exercise does seem to result in some improvements.”

STUDY FINDS GAPS IN DEMOGRAPHIC DATA COLLECTED BY STEM ORGANIZATION SURVEYS The study, led by a UC Davis postdoctoral student, found that many organizations lacked data on employee demographics, especially on sexual orientation and disability status

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org Professional science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) organizations are at times ineffective in their collection and application of data from demographic surveys, according to a study published on March 31 in Science.

The researchers surveyed 164 U.S.-based STEM organizations, 73 of whom responded, according to a recent press release about the study.

Each organization was asked about the categories of demographic information they collected on members and conference attendees, the range of answer options available for each category and what they did with the data they collected.

Nick Burnett, the lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department

of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior at UC Davis, said that they did see disparity between categories of collection — while 60% of respondents reported collecting at least some information on gender identity and race and ethnicity, only 15% collected information on disability status and sexual orientation.

“This data can equip [organizations] to know [their] membership, recognize them and give them the resources to make their experience in STEM better,” Burnett said. “The other part is [...] you need to be able to collect this information to identify these groups that are currently overlooked so that you can provide them with tailored resources.”

Emily King, the research coordinator for Biology Scholars at UC Berkeley, explained how the concept of resource allotment might be applied to demographic data.

“The resource I think about a lot is time,” King said. “If you think about conferences,

specifically, [there is] an overlap in events that are pertaining to various aspects of diversity or inclusion, with the most important science talks of the event. So attendees are like, well, do I go to the thing that is supposed to advance my career, or do I go to the event that might make me feel more well-supported in this group of scientists?”

King went on to give another example of how knowing demographic information about employees can help organizations supply resources accordingly.

“If a society knows, we have a large proportion of folks in our group who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, can we figure out how to already provide sign language interpretation without individuals having to ask for it?” King said. “I think there’s room for seeing what we can offer to people up-front, because we did the legwork already; we know who’s in our group.”

King acknowledged that some of these solutions for accommodation are expensive,

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE but said that they’re easier to justify when organizations can quantify what percentage of their groups would benefit from them.

Alyssa Hernandez, another researcher who worked on the study, offered more ways consideration can be given by organizations to venues and events, as well as general accessibility to the STEM community.

DEMOGRAPHIC on 12

CLOUDS OF SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES IMPACT CLIMATE, HUMAN HEALTH Research helps understand the latent impacts of wildfires on climate

BY MONICA MANMADKAR science@theaggie.org UC Davis researchers in the Department of Environmental Toxicology saw increases in aerosol sizes in older plumes — clouds of gasses, smoke and debris rising from a fire — from wildfires in a recent study. Aerosols are suspended liquids or particles in the air that help in cloud formation.

The researchers were interested in understanding the chemical and physical properties of aerosol particles that were injected into the atmosphere due to wildland fire activities, which elucidates the effects that wildfires have on air quality, human health and climate.

“Because wildfires are increasing in size and severity, it is important to study how the smoke impacts air quality,” said Qi Zhang, a professor in the Department of Environmental Toxicology.

Zhang continued to explain how wildfires’ environmental and climatic impacts are largely

driven by the aerosol particles in smoke plumes.

However, the properties of fresh versus aged smoke particles tend to differ significantly.

“Our study site was on the summit of Mount Bachelor [in Oregon] which is a location with very little influence from any anthropogenic emissions, such as traffic, making it an ideal location for measurements of smoke,” said Ryan Farley, a Ph.D. student at the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry.

Through the study, they were able to detect the presence of highly aged wildfire smoke particles at the summit of Mount Bachelor, where the air is relatively clean. Although the region had not had any wildfires recently, the researchers were able to identify smoke particles that traveled long distances, as far as Northern California to Siberia.

Using this site, the researchers concluded that old aerosol particles produced by wildfires may influence the climate in consequential ways.

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SMOKECLIMATE on 12

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Professor Qi Zhang at UC Davis sets up the laser vaporizer at the Mount Bachelor Observator which will scan the area for black carbon-containing particles. (Christopher Niedek / UC Davis)

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14 | THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS 2022 NFL DRAFT GUIDE

Major storylines, top players and more as we approach one of the most unpredictable drafts in recent memory AGGIE FILE

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org With the NFL Draft inching closer, the only thing we know at the moment is where the teams are picking — and even that is subject to change. Despite this year’s class not having that elite quarterback name that could change the trajectory of a franchise, it is a draft that will almost certainly provide teams with incredible players at other positions that can have a major impact from day one. From who’s getting drafted first overall to will there even be a quarterback drafted in the first round, this is the first draft in recent memory that there seems to be no consensus on who’s going where.

Who’s No. 1?

With the Jaguars holding the No. 1 pick again this year, their selection isn’t as set in stone as it was last year. After picking quarterback Trevor Lawrence last year, the Jaguars are looking to add a high-impact player to a team that needs a lot of rebuilding.

Although Oregon DE Kayvon Thibodeaux was ranked as the No. 1 prospect throughout the fall, the consensus has changed. As it stands, Michigan DE Aidan Hutchinson has the best odds to be the first overall selection. The 2021 Big Ten Conference Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year and Defensive Lineman of the Year had a dominating season that saw him finish second in the Heisman Trophy voting.

With 14 sacks and 16.5 tackles for loss, the standout defensive end gained momentum as the season went on — non more than a dominating performance against Ohio State. Whether it’s Hutchinson or an offensive tackle like North Carolina State’s Ikem Ekwonu or Alabama’s Evan Neal, 2022 will be only the second time since 2015 a quarterback is not selected with the number one overall pick — the last being Browns DE Myles Garrett in 2017.

Where will the quarterbacks go?

This is the question that a lot of people have speculated about, but none know for sure. Headlined by Liberty QB Malik Willis,

Pitt QB Kenny Pickett and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder, this year’s quarterback class doesn’t have a guarantee on who will be the first quarterback selected. If you search between different mock drafts, you are likely to find that everyone has their own opinion on who will go in the first round — if they even think anyone will.

According to Vegas Insider, Willis is favored to be the first quarterback selected. Even if some analysts believe that no quarterback in this year’s draft is a top 10 overall player, need will always trump that — especially at the most valuable position in the sport. Looking at the teams with the first 10 picks, the Carolina Panthers (#6), Atlanta Falcons (#8) and Seattle Seahawks (#9) standout as the teams that might roll the dice and select a quarterback. What these three teams have in common is no quarterback of the future. What they decide to do here can have ripple effects on the entire draft as the Washington Commanders (#11), New Orleans Saints (#16, #19) and others might be in the running for a new man under center if a player they like were to fall.

Wide receivers at a premium After the record-setting deals given to WR’s Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill this offseason, the wide receiver market has changed forever. This may have a ripple effect for this year’s draft, as it has now become another position (like a quarterback) where a team must take advantage of their rookie contract. As it stands, the belief is that five wide receivers will be taken in the first round.

Ohio State’s Garrett Wilson has a slim odds advantage over USC’s Drake London for being the first WR selected with Jameson Williams, Treylon Burks and Chris Olave behind them.

After teams like the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs traded their star receivers this offseason, they will surely be in the running to select at least one of them on Day One. With multiple first round picks and other draft capital, both teams will also be able to trade up if they feel great about one in general. Even outside of the top five, the position is loaded this year with Jahan Dotson, Christian Watson and Skyy Moore continuing to rise on some boards. The WR position has been one that has gotten more and

more talented as the years progressed. With the passing game being such an important part of modern NFL offenses, the position is more important than ever — and the 2022 draft will continue to show it.

Who’s rising and who’s falling?

Going back to a previous point about quarterbacks based on need, players like Ridder and Ole Miss’ Matt Corral have an opportunity to sneak into the first round if a team really wants them. WR Christian Watson from North Dakota State is another player who has gotten some momentum recently as his size, athleticism and quickness are all traits that teams around the league feel like they could mold. While other players who were projected in the late first round have risen to the middle like WR Jameson Williams, CB Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and QB Malik Willis, none have risen to the level of Georgia DE Travon Walker. Since March 1, Walker has seen his name in mock drafts rise from 17-20 position to almost a lock to be a top five pick — even No. 1 overall in some. His versatility, great tape and pre-draft testing has a lot of people thinking he will be one of the first names called in 2022.

In terms of those who might be slipping, none have gone to the degree of Oregon’s DE Kayvon Thibodeaux. As mentioned, he went from likely No. 1 overall pick to maybe getting chosen at the end of the top 10 or even outside of it. Whether it was injuries late in the season or questions about his passion for football, he has fallen a considerable amount for the player he is. On tape, Thibodeaux deserves to be one of the top three players selected in this draft so his fall has been interesting to see. Another player who saw their name in the top five and now is falling is Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton. His testing numbers not being good plus his position has many having second thoughts on where he might be selected. It remains to be seen where teams rank him, but having him fall outside the top 10 now seems to be a realistic possibility.

Most draft capital, least draft capital This draft is interesting due to the fact that many teams hold multiple first round picks. Both New York teams, the Giants and the Jets, hold two top 10 picks respectively. This allows them to have a lot of flexibility, as they could pick two premier players in the top 10 or trade down and accumulate more draft capital. A rare occurrence, eight different teams hold two first round picks in this year’s draft. Seven teams hold five Top 100 picks, including contenders like the Chiefs and Green Bay Packers.

On the flip side, after a huge offseason highlighted by the acquisition of WR Tyreek Hill, the Miami Dolphins hold only four picks in the entirety of the draft — and they don’t pick until the bottom of the third round. They can always use future draft capital if needed, but they will have to nail these picks. The Raiders have five picks, but do hold some in the middle of the draft while the Super Bowl Champion Rams don’t late third round. However, the Rams do hold eight total picks and have more of a possibility to move around if needed. While these picks may not seem like much, the later rounds of the draft are what elevates contenders and also what can hurt some waiting to get over the hump.

Expect the unexpected This year more than others in recent memory, there is no such thing as a guarantee. With teams doing their final due diligence, things may change and it feels like the majority of people do not know what to expect. Whether it be by trades, players going earlier or later than expected, it is shaping up to be a surprising draft filled with a lot of storylines. The NFL Draft is where the elite teams reinforce and the bad teams stay bad and with so many impact players available this year, there’s a great chance a lot of the players that hear their name called will have a major impact every Sunday from the beginning.

UC DAVIS’ OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES END IN SWEEP AT THE HANDS OF CSU NORTHRIDGE The Aggies offense continues to leave runners on base, losing five of their last six previously hit by a pitch, across home plate. The inning ended with two runners stranded on base, a common occurrence that has plagued the team throughout the season.

The Aggies left six runners in scoring position in their 3-1 loss. In total, they had fourhits throughout the contest and their best hitter, Dethlefson, was 0-3 at bat.

UCD SB vs CSUN (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY MARLON ROLON sports@theaggie.org Starting pitcher Kenedi Brown struggled on the mound, allowing three runs off four hits with four strikeouts throughout seven innings in game one of the double header against Cal State Northridge last Friday afternoon at La Rue Field.

The offense attempted to help out their pitcher, generating hits but struggled to bring runners home, ultimately falling 3-1 and 7-2 in game two after allowing five runs in the seventh inning.

“I don’t think today was [Kenedi Brown’s] best performance, but overall she’s done nicely in progressing,” said UC Davis Softball Head Coach Erin Thorpe. “It’s tough because we haven’t had a ton of offense behind her. She’s having to really work in that zone knowing that may happen.”

Opportunities came in the second inning for UC Davis after senior infield slugger Delaney Diaz doubled to left center field, advancing Libbie McMahan to third until she was called out attempting to cross home plate. A few plays later, first-year Reese Mattley reached second base while Diaz advanced to third only for them to be stranded after third-year Alyssa Ito hit a pop up fly to end the inning.

Trouble started for the Aggies in the top of the third after Brown walked a batter, allowing two hits, a home run and three runs scored.

“The 12 losses is not indicative of how well she’s pitched this year,” Thorpe said. “She’s doing a nice job of keeping a level head with that and having that understanding, and I think she’s doing a really nice job adjusting now into her second season of playing”.

UC Davis’ only run came in the bottom of the third off an RBI single by McMahan that brought sophomore Anna Dethlefson, who was

Game 2 Second-year pitcher Taylor Fitzgerald (4-6) started the game on the mound for UC Davis.

The second-year was off to a rocky start within the first three innings, allowing six hits, including a home run and two runs scored.

The Aggies offensive woes followed them early into game two, mustering only one hit throughout the first three innings. If they were going to be competitive, the pitching was going to have to be stellar to make up for the lack of hits early in the ball game.

That is when second-year Fitzgerald stepped up, keeping CSUN hitless from the fourth through the sixth inning.

“I thought she did well,” Thorpe said. “She’s come off a couple of tough performances, and it was really good to see her come out, struggle, but get out of some things early with minimal damage and to kind of really start to feel that flow. [It was] what she needed to do.”

Despite being in an offensive funk, the Aggies got their rhythm flowing in the bottom of the fourth when Mattley singled through the right side of the field. Diaz followed with a line drive through center field. On the next play, secondyear Bella Pahulu grounded into a double play to end the inning.

With Fitzgerald in a groove on the mound, she was keeping the Aggies in the game. In the bottom of the fifth, first-year Grace Kilday made an appearance in the hit column with a single down the left infield line. Her teammate Dethlefson smacked the ball to left field, but teammates third-year Sommer Kisling and second-year Sarah Starks could not get on base prompting quick outs to leave two runners stranded.

Being down 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning, UC Davis loaded up the bases off a McMahan single, Mattley walk and Pahulu hit by a pitch. Yet, the Aggies could not bring any of them home — Kilday hitt a pop up and secondyear Sarah Nakahara struck out.

“Through six innings, we had 10 batters come up with a runner in scoring position and we got 10 outs,” Thorpe said. “So it was kind of one of those things where we have the right people up in the right situations and today was not their day.”

Fitzgerald could only keep the CSUN’s dormant offense at bay for so long. In the top of the seventh, the second-year pitcher succumbed to the Matadors’ potent offense, allowing three hits and three runs.

Still in the same inning, the bases were loaded when UC Davis coach Thorpe decided to make a pitching change after a five score barrage.

Second-year pitcher Sara Reineman came in relief to close the inning.

Instead of going out quietly, the Aggies’ infielder Kisling smacked the ball down the right field line to get the offense going. Her teammate infielder Starks followed through with a powerful swing that sent the ball deep down into the infield line, giving enough time for Kisling to reach third base. After a pair of hits by Mattley and Diaz, the home team was finally able to cross home plate scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

It was too little too late as CSUN closed the show, 7-2, winning the double header Friday afternoon.

Game 3 In a close game, a home run in the fifth inning proved to be the difference in concluding the Big West Conference series between UC Davis and Cal State Northridge.

The Aggies started Kenedi Brown on the mound, looking to stop the team’s two-game losing skid. Brown got off on the wrong foot when CSUN’s Alexis Lemus crushed the ball out of the ballpark.

The second-year pitcher continued her slump in the second inning after Alexa Landeas tripled deep into center field. Then Brown proceeded to walk two consecutive batters, loading up the bases that eventually led to two runs off of two hits.

Aggie slugger Dethlefsen answered back with a single to left field. Starks would send her teammate to third base off a single to the right side of La Rue Field. Dethlefesen would cross home plate after an RBI from Mattley who has been consistent on the plate throughout the series for UC Davis.

The bottom of the second inning came to an end when Ito grounded out, leaving two Aggies on base, again wasting scoring opportunities which has been the theme in this series.

However, the offense reemerged in the fourth, the home team scored twice off three-hits from Ito, McMahan and Diaz evening up the score 3-3.

However, the tie didn’t last very long. In the top of the fifth, Brown recorded two easy outs and allowed a homer that saw the ball fly out of left center field. The home run would eventually be the difference maker in the game as the Aggies fell 4-3, getting swept in the process.

Overall, UC Davis had eight hits in the game while leaving 10 runners stranded on base.

Brown had another forgettable game, allowing five hits, six walks, four runs and struck out five batters. She fell to 11-12 on the season while the Aggies dropped to 18-21 and 6-9 in conference play.

“Not a lot of people hit Kenedi, so it’s kind of a surprise when they do. I think she really did a nice job of adjusting and working to determine what the strike zone was going to be. She did a really nice job,” Thorpe said.

The 400 Milestone Coach Thorpe has notched 397 wins under her coaching career. She won 50 games at Whittier College, 173 with Boise State and currently has 174 with UC Davis. While at Boise State, Thorpe was the first ever softball coach in program history, leading the Broncos to 30 win seasons three times.

“I think it’s awesome, it’s important for coaches to celebrate those milestones. All that really tells me is that I’m old,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe was hired in the summer of 2014 as the UC Davis softball head coach. She was brought in to change the culture within the program. In 2018 she did just that, leading the Aggies to their first winning record in 11 years (27-24). In 2019, she led them to an impressive 39-14 record.

“I kind of assess it in a different way, and I’m kind of a coach that’s gone into programs that were struggling; that’s been my M.O. or starting programs from scratch,” Thorpe said.

SBVSCSUN on 12