October 7, 2021

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VOLUME 140, ISSUE 3 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021

ALICE WATERS INSTITUTE FOR EDIBLE EDUCATION HOPES TO CHANGE THE WAY PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACH AND STUDENTS EAT Waters discusses 25 years of the Edible Schoolyard Project and partnership with UC Davis

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org As Alice Waters celebrates 25 years of her Edible Schoolyard Project in Berkeley, the chef and activist is looking forward to extending the success of the program at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School (King Middle School) by partnering with UC Davis on the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education. One goal of the institute, which will be located at Davis’s Aggie Square campus, is to bring programs similar to that at King Middle School to public schools across California and the U.S. The Edible Schoolyard Project, which Waters founded in 1995, was meant to revolutionize the K-12 public education system. Waters said that she was inspired to do the project when it came time for her own child to go to school.

“I was remembering that when I went to UC Berkeley, it was number one,” Waters said. “And so was the UC system — it was number one in the world. I thought to myself, what’s happened to the public schools?”

Waters said that she was shocked that California was ranked so low for K-12 public education compared to other states, so she began talking to Berkeley community members about the issue. As she was discussing the issue with more community members, the principal of King Middle School reached out to Waters, asking her to come help the school change their curriculum and teaching style.

“There was something about that space,” Waters said. “I immediately said, “Oh, we’ll

put a garden over there, and it won’t be for teaching gardening, per se. It will be for teaching academics.’ So kids can be outside, smelling and tasting and experiencing nature.”

Waters’ vision was a “Montessori pedagogical” program, wherein children would learn a vast array of subjects through nature and culinary activities. Waters was trained in the style of Montessori teaching, which focuses on a holistic, sensory approach to education, so she believes that the issue with the education system is in the way that schools are set up.

“We learn best when all of our senses are engaged,” Waters said. “We have been teaching children in an industrial way where one size fits all and we’ve taken our school system and we’ve made it like our corporations. [Instruction] comes from the top down; we have to sit in these chairs, we have to learn to the standards, whatever they are, and I wanted to make an intervention.”

Waters said that through the Edible Schoolyard Project, students are not only learning to cook, but they are learning through cooking.

She explained that, for example, when students are learning about the Middle East in history class, they are making pita bread, hummus and spesifik greens in the Edible Schoolyard and learning about the geography of the region and where ingredients to make these traditional dishes are grown.

In addition to improving the students’ learning experience in traditional school subjects, Waters said that she is confident that upon graduating, all students will have the skills to nourish themselves throughout their lives.

“I was pretty certain that this would work,” Waters said. “I have to say that after 25 years, I know it does, because we had a very good test case of 1,000 kids.”

In the 25 years since the Edible Schoolyard Project began, Waters and her team have set up similar Edible Schoolyard programs in five more schools. She said that they wanted to ensure that the project was adaptable to different regions of the country and demonstrate how schools can set up their own adaptations of the program. Today, they have programs in New Orleans, Upstate New York, Brooklyn, North Carolina and Los Angeles, in addition to the over 6,000 schools that have independently introduced some variation of the program.

Waters and her team do not have the bandwidth to be directly involved in all of them, but through the new Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education at UC Davis, she hopes to reach many more schools and programs and eventually change the education system across the U.S. “It broke my heart that we haven’t understood that public education is our last truly democratic institution,” Waters said. “Every child goes to school — or should — and this is a place to make fundamental change.”

Waters Institute board of trustees and California farmer, also expressed that he believes that the most effective way to make change in the U.S. is through the education system.

“Students have fertile minds and are capable of doing the research and the fact-finding and the diagnostic work to be scientists and policymakers,” McNamara said. “[Students] have

Alice Waters. (Amanda Marsalis / Courtesy) the ability to find the solutions that are so critical to today’s challenges. At an institution like UC Davis, at the Alice Waters Institute, [students] will have the tools to do that and the physical space to bring people together.”

ALICEWATERS on 7

CHANCELLOR GARY MAY SPEAKS WITH ASUCD SENATE ABOUT THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR ASUCD held a special session to discuss with Chancellor May the resources and plans for students this year

BY EMILY REDMAN campus@theaggie.org The senate met in person at the Memorial Union for a special session dedicated to Chancellor Gary May and his messages to campus.

This special session was called to order at 5:46 p.m.

ASUCD Vice President Juliana Martinez began the special session with the UC Davis Land Acknowledgment.

The senate moved for an interim senate president pro tempore election, where an interim senate president is appointed. Senator Kabir Sahni was confirmed for this position with no objections.

The senate called a five minute break while awaiting the chancellor’s arrival.

At 5:54 p.m., May arrived, and the session was called back to order.

May began his presentation by sharing his excitement for the upcoming year. He attributed many of the successes this past year to ASUCD.

“Your leadership has been crucial to our success,” May said. “You give voices to our students, make sure they’re a part of the governance of the campus.”

May acknowledged ASUCD’s participation in the Healthy Davis Together Initiative which has been recognized by the New York Times and NBC News as a potential guiding program for other universities.

He gave updates on the current state of COVID-19 on campus.

“We’ve conducted more than 460,000 tests of asymptomatic people in the Davis community since September 2020,” May said. “The positivity rate has been consistently below 1%.”

Next, he discussed the Aggie Public Health Ambassadors located around campus responsible for checking symptom surveys at highly-trafficked buildings across campus. May informed the senate that there are still positions open on Handshake for health ambassadors.

He then spoke about the record admissions statistics from the past year, noting that the university saw a 12% increase in freshman admissions. He also celebrated the high rankings

UC Davis has received in the recent weeks from Forbes, and U.S. News and World Report.

Next, May expressed the importance of the UC Davis Principles of Community.

“These values foster a community of belonging and vibrancy,” May said. “They reinforce our commitment to diversity and inclusion.”

May then discussed the three task forces that have been put in charge of affordable housing, food insecurity and mental health.

These challenges can be addressed at the Aggie Basic Campus Needs Center located inside of the Memorial Union.

“When it comes to food insecurity, there’s no better support on campus than the ASUCD Pantry,” May said.

Next, May spoke about the current construction projects happening on campus.

“You might have heard that UCD now stands for: under construction daily,” May said.

An estimated 4,300 beds have become available to students in recent housing projects including Shasta Hall and The Green. May stated that UC Davis is close to being able to house half

of the student population.

May then provided an outline of upcoming events on campus including sporting events, the first performance at the Mondavi center in 19 months and the 2020 commencement ceremony.

“We haven’t forgotten about the class of 2020 which had commencement postponed due to the pandemic,” May said. “That class will have a make-up celebration planned for December 10.”

SPECIALSENATE on 7

UC DAVIS STUDENTS’ RETURN TO CAMPUS REVIVES DOWNTOWN DAVIS BUSINESSES

FIRE BROKE OUT AT A HOUSE NEAR CAMBRIDGE HOUSE APARTMENTS IN DAVIS

Businesses are optimistic about potential expansions

Nobody was hurt or injured

BY RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org

As school enters full swing, UC Davis students have been descending upon the city of Davis in droves, often going to places in downtown to satiate their appetites. Many students and parents go out for dinner after moving, according to My Burma manager Anne Guidici.

“We’ve had an influx of students returning to campus,” Guidici said. “A lot of our bigger groups in the past couple of weeks have been parents and students going out to dinner after moving in, or just getting to know the area before heading back to their respective homes.”

Handheld Davis co-owner Michael Sutton expressed a similar sentiment, stating that foot traffic has gone up for his food truck.

“I’m definitely seeing a lot more foot traffic,” Sutton said. “The majority of our business involves foot traffic. We did just start about three weeks ago, so it’s hard to compare, as we have only really had one week to compare with.”

Handheld has also benefited from having some local connections, according to coowner Stephanie Maroney.

“The majority of our customers are local Davisites,” Maroney said. “Michael has worked in food service in Davis for the last 10 years, so a lot of our first customers were people who have supported us in the past and who know us and who have found out about

On Sept. 24, a fire broke out near Cambridge House Apartments, according to a post by the City of Davis Fire Department (DFD).

“Last night at 10pm Davis Fire responded to a structure fire on Adeline Place,” the post reads. “The fire was quickly upgraded to two alarms due to its size and potential for spread to nearby structures.”

The post added that the fire was able to be contained.

“DFD, with support from @westsacfire, @ucdavisfire and @woodland_fire were able to contain the fire and prevent serious damage to surrounding structures,” the post reads.

“No injuries to firefighters or civilians were reported and the cause is currently under investigation.”

Brionne Kirkwood, a fifth year animal science and management major, was at her friend’s house at the time the fire broke out.

They got a bang on their door around 10 p.m..

“We walked outside and everyone was running around frantic, and we’re like ‘what’s going on?’” Kirkwood said. “This girl yelled out ‘there’s a fire!’, and I was like ‘where?’, and we turned around and it was right behind the apartment. There was the Cambridge House Apartments, and there was this big hedge, and then the fire was on the house right next to the apartment.”

Soon after, everybody was told to evacuate.

Downtown Davis. (Aggie File) our business from the Davis Enterprise.”

My Burma, on the other hand, has been open throughout most of the pandemic, Guidici explained.

“We had to make a lot of adjustments for ever changing regulations,” Guidici said. “We stayed as solely takeout for a while, and when the restrictions lifted, we had minimal outdoor dining. But with everything going on with the Delta virus, it’s kind of wishy washy on what we’re supposed to do. Currently we are open as dine-in and dine-out, and we continue to offer take-out, DoorDash and UberEats. We’re just making efforts to reach as many customers as we can.”

Guidici emphasized the role of friendly service in My Burma’s success, despite the lack of dine-in options throughout the pandemic.

RETURNOFTHESTUDENTS on 7

City of davis fire department battles housefire.

(City of Davis Fire Department / Courtesy)

“We were told to evacuate immediately, not even by the apartment but by residents that lived there,” Kirkwood said.

The situation lasted about one and a half hours, Kirkwood stated.

“I think the firefighters stayed at the house though — they stayed at the house all night — to make sure nothing else sparked I guess,” Kirkwood said.

Kirkwood later received a text letting her know that nobody was injured.

“Thankfully I got a text that the residents were okay, and the people and the neighbors, everything was okay,” Kirkwood said. “They evacuated, no one was hurt. The inside of the house was probably pretty bad. I don’t know how it started though, they just said everyone was okay and that was what I was kind of worried about.”

Despite the suddenness of the fire, nobody was hurt.

“Just a freaky thing to happen on a Friday, literally right next to the apartment,” Kirkwood said.

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UC DAVIS GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT TO OFFER NEW TUITION PLAN The interest-free deferred tuition pilot program will start in January 2022

BY CHRISTINE LEE campus@theaggie.org

The UC Davis Graduate School of Management is set to adopt an interest-free deferred tuition pilot program that will be available for eligible online Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students admitted into the January and April 2022 cohorts.

This initiative was created to reduce financial barriers and decrease student debt, according to Stephanie Young-Birkle, the chief of staff of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

“We wanted to align student outcomes with their investments in the MBA, and the cost of higher education continues to rise,” Young-Birkle said. “We were looking for innovative ways to provide more students, who otherwise might not get an MBA because they couldn’t afford it, to have access to that education.”

The program allows admitted students to defer tuition payments for the second half of the credits required to complete the degree. Up to $52,740 can be repaid with 0% interest.

Once the student leaves or graduates from the program, the repayment is calculated based on 10% of their income. However, payments stop with no extra cost when a student’s gross monthly income is below $3,334.

Offering this financial support, according to Young-Birkle,

is important because it encourages students to continue their education for a brighter and more successful future in the field.

“A lot of people pursue an MBA because they’re looking to advance in their careers or they’re looking to shift industries or be an entrepreneur,” Young-Birkle said. “Once they graduate and have their MBA, they should expect to see increased earnings.

They might not have the money when they’re in the program, but we hope that our graduates are well prepared and when they go out into the marketplace again, that they’ll have more earning potential. The concept is ‘buy now, pay later.’”

UC Davis is leading the way for interest-free tuition programs and is among the first to have this option open to students.

“It’s one more way to say that UC Davis is innovative in how we do things because there is quite a bit of work that has to be done by the campus to make these kinds of things happen,” said H. Rao Unnava, the dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. “Unless you have a whole lot of partners who are willing to do all the work necessary to make it happen, this kind of innovation doesn’t happen, so UC Davis is great that way. They are making these kinds of moves in the marketplace that is very competitive.”

Students enrolling in the Graduate School of Management can look forward to this new way to pursue higher education and get to be one of the first in the country to participate in the program.

“We are really, really happy to be able to do something like this

Graduate School of Management (Quinn Spooner/ Aggie) for our potential MBA students,” Unnava said. “This is a turning point because our guess is that most education in the future will be financed this way.”

ZOMBIE SKYDIVERS, ZOMBIE DRAG QUEENS, FOOD AND MORE IN 10/31 ZOMBIE BIKE RIDE Staff members take safety measures in event

BY ELLIE LEE city@theaggie.org Davis Odd Fellows and the Bike Campaign will put on the Zombie Bike Ride event on October 31st from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m., taking place along the 12 mile Davis Bike Loop at nine different locations. This is a free event, and bikers can see zombie actors from Bike City Theatre Company. From 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. attendees can join the after party, hosted by the Davis Business Association, at 500 1st Street to enjoy a variety of food, drinks and desserts and hear live music by DJ Duc. Aaron Wedra, the chairperson of the event, detailed that Bike City works with Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC) and LGBTQIA+ individuals in their performances.

Among the zombies, he mentioned there are three stations with drag queens.

“Everyone is invited; it’s family friendly,” Wedra said. “We don’t have scary zombies. They are comedy, comical theater sketches.”

Staff will follow COVID-19 safety precautions throughout the event.

“All of our volunteers and actors are going to be wearing masks, and the people facilitating the flow of traffic will have megaphones,” Wedra said.

Wedra emphasized the “grand finale” of the event where people will see zombie skydivers from Skydrive Skydiving.

During the after party, bikers can get free hot cider from the Davis Food Co-Op, while supplies last. Vendors will include Niknek Lemonade and Purple Tree Cafe. Another business, Handheld Sweet and Savory Pies, will be selling handmade

pies with unique fillings.

Stephanie Maroney and Michael Sutton, the founders of Handheld, are serving pies out of their truck at Community Park during the bike ride from about 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.. Their menu includes a variety of items, including The Handburger, the most popular item on their menu, according to Sutton. It is a ground beef and chorizo patty with melty cheddar cheese and onions, wrapped in flaky dough, served with Carolina barbeque dijon mustard. The menu contains meat, vegetarian and sweet options; they noted that they are working on expanding options for those with unique food needs.

Sutton and Maroney have been at Davis for over 10 years. Sutton previously worked as a chef in Phoenix, and Maroney started her PhD in cultural studies in 2010. Maroney explained it felt like the right time to start their family business when food culture was changing during the pandemic at Davis.

“All of our food is cooked in the commercial kitchen in the Odd Fellows Hall, and then we serve out of the truck,” Maroney said.

Pete King attended the 2020 Zombie Bike Ride with a painted skeleton face, and his two friends dressed in Halloween costumes.

“It was my favorite experience for Halloween that I’ve ever taken, and I love bike riding. It was really great to get outdoors with friends,” King said.

King enjoyed the concept of the event, but he admitted that he felt a little disappointed that there were not enough volunteers and staff participating in the stations.

“It wasn’t quite as developed as I was expecting it to be, but I think that’s in part because of the pandemic,” King said.

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

Nonetheless, King mentioned a few memorable moments from the ride. He described the experience as a little spooky and not too scary; he said the staff was mindful of the kids riding the trail.

“There was a part where some people had set up a chained-down zombie and run at you but stop right at the last minute. There was a setup where you could stop down for a second and watch some people perform the thriller dance by Michael Jackson,” King said.

Overall, King would love to come to the event this year, despite any flaws he observed last

year.

“I am imagining this year’s going to be way better than last year, and I still had a great time last year,” King said.

This Zombie Bike Ride takes place in an open area, and the chairperson and Handheld founders encourage students to join.

“We’ve been so fooled as to say we’re gonna save Halloween,” Wedra said. “People might not feel like going to parties where there’ll be crowds, but most should feel comfortable riding their bikes where there’s plenty of space outdoors.”

UC DAVIS OFFERS A VARIETY OF TRANSPORTATION OPTIONS FOR STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS Campus commutes are back with an emphasis on sustainability

BY YAN YAN HUSTIS HAYES city@theaggie.org After more than a year of distance learning, the return to campus also means the return to daily commutes. While many students may already be familiar with the different transportation services available to them, new students face the challenge of learning how to get around on and off campus.

For many students, this means a new bike.

ASUCD Bike Barn senior mechanic Oscar McBain said that the Bike Barn is a key resource for new and experienced bikers alike.

“The ASUCD Bike Barn has been on campus for 50 years,” McBain said via email. “Our goal

is to empower students for success at UC Davis by providing helpful service to keep you on the road.”

The most important thing for prospective bike owners and bike riders is to find a bike that fits their specific needs, according to McBain.

“Think of your bike as an investment and a tool; when selected and maintained correctly, it will save you lots of time, money and effort,” McBain said. “This means something different for everyone...consider your options and let the Bike Barn’s mechanics help empower you to enjoy your ride.”

McBain said that this is an exciting year for the Bike Barn both because of the return of students and new programs.

“We had an awesome move-in week and the

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

start of school — we sold out of almost all our bikes,” McBain said. “We will be launching... our mobile repair service using our TGIF-funded e-cargo bike to meet students where they are to provide assistance and spread the word about our services.”

While biking is the most common mode of transportation in Davis, those who do not bike also have convenient transportation options available to them, notably ASUCD Unitrans, which is free to all undergraduate students.

ASUCD Unitrans general manager Jeffery Flynn explained that the Unitrans bus system is a great resource for students and community members alike.

“We’re one of the very few public transit systems in America that is operated by students,” Flynn said. “We are the city’s bus system, we’re the campus bus system and it’s very, very rare to see a city and campus bus system that is totally operated by students — I think this makes it more fun, more friendly and more approachable.”

Flynn explained despite the fact that Unitrans is operating with fewer student drivers than what is typical. Multiple lines are operating with service running semi-frequently.

“We have 18 lines that go to almost every single place in Davis and while we’re not quite back at full strength for service levels, service is relatively frequent,” Flynn said. “Right now we’re running 30-60 minute service and as we get more student drivers we’ll be at 15-30 minute service.”

Like the Bike Barn, Unitrans has new plans to update its services in the coming years.

“Our goal is to never buy a fossil fuel powered bus ever again,” Flynn said. “We have about 50 busses and our plan is to start retiring those busses and replacing them with electric buses and within the next two to two and a half

years we’ll have replaced about 25% of our fleet with electric buses.”

Another useful on-campus transportation resource is UC Davis’ Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) which is the general transportation department for the campus. TAPS manages a variety of services including but not limited to parking, demand management, the bicycle program and the UC Davis airport.

TAPS Transportation Demand Manager Ramon Zavala explained that preparing for this school year was very different to prior years.

“Given the ongoing COVID pandemic we’ve put a lot of work into facilitating no-touch/ minimal interaction with our services,” Zavala said via email. “We were pretty certain that with the reduction of transit options (reduced Unitrans and Yolobus trips per day due to the driver shortage) and with people not feeling 100% safe in mixed household carpools, we were going to get a lot more vehicles on campus than normal.”

Because of this increase in the number of individuals commuting via car, Zavala explained that TAPS encouraged people to use alternate modes of transportation both because of the impact that would have on the availability of parking on-campus and because of the importance of choosing sustainable transportation options.

“Thus far it looks to have reduced week 1 parking demand 7-10%, so that was genuinely effective,” Zavala said. “Transportation Services is, at our heart, we’re a sustainability organization.

We want you to ride your bike, take the bus, and do whatever to not bring a car. If you get fed up paying for parking and decide to carpool with your roommates instead, that’s a success.”

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021 | 3

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF REGENERATIVE MEDICINE AWARDS FUNDING FOR UC DAVIS RESEARCH TO CURE ANGELMAN SYNDROME Angelman Syndrome is a rare neurogenetic condition that leads to developmental delays and motor and speech impairments

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) recently awarded David Segal, a professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine, with the Discovery Stage Research Project (DISC2) award for his research on a rare neurogenetic disease called Angelman Syndrome.

CIRM’s unique and competitive Quest Awards Program promotes “discovery of promising new stem cell-based and gene therapy technologies that could be translated to enable broad use and ultimately improve patient care,” according to their website. For Segal, this grant is crucial in facilitating the translation of his research — along with the collaborative efforts of the labs of Jill Silverman and Kyle Fink — from the lab bench to the patient bedside for a disease with no current treatment in place.

Silverman, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the UC Davis Mind Institute, described the rarity of the Angelman Syndrome.

“The Angelman Syndrome is a rare disorder that occurs in about one in 15,000 to 20,000 births,” Silverman said. “When you combine them, the overall effect becomes one in 7,000.

Altogether they’re not actually rare anymore; they’re common. And the key is we just have to figure out one cure that we hope will be able to help.”

For a disease that is rare, yet occurs frequently enough to demand attention, Segal, Silverman and Fink set out on the forefront of gene editing technology to find one cure that may pave the way for finding cures for other rare diseases.

Angelman Syndrome is a rare condition that leads to severe developmental decay, motor impairments, difficulty with ambulatory movements and emulation of speech due to the loss of ubiquitin ligase E3A (UBE3A) gene expression in the brain. To restore such gene expression, Segal and his colleagues are employing a cousin of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique widely used in mouse models to be translated in clinical therapy.

“We are using a member of the CRISPR-Cas family, and many people have heard of CRISPRCas protein as a nuclease that edits DNA, and that’s mostly done with the so-called Cas9 proteins,” Segal said. “We’re using a cousin of that, the Cas13, and instead of working on the DNA, it looks to target a piece of RNA. There’s an RNA that’s kind of holding that gene back from being expressed so if we could target that RNA with the Cas13, we think that UBE3A can then be turned on and expressed in the brain.”

Fink is an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Neurology, and his lab specializes in translating what Silverman and Segal test in mouse models into usable technology in potential clinical trials. Testing the gene editing approach Segal has delved into, Fink is working with pluripotent stem cells to be turned into neurons for patients with the Angelman Syndrome.

“We’ve been working with the stem cells for a while and understanding the duration of how long we have to maintain them and what are the necessary factors to push them into neurons,” Fink said.

Segal expressed gratitude for a grant that is difficult to come by: the $1.4 million, which the three labs are trying to receive in order to fund the Angelman Syndrome project.

“CIRM is a special resource that we have here in California that just really supports stem cell research,” Segal said. “In this latest version, they are also supporting gene therapy as well, so they’re really focused on translating these kinds of molecular research and molecular therapies to treating diseases in California and across the world. We applied to that and were ranked as the top grant in the state in that category across over 100 grants.”

The future for Angelman Syndrome and gene editing technology is ever evolving. Silverman echoed these sentiments in her work with her

Mouse models used in experiments to find cure for Angelman Syndrome. (Dr. Nycole Copping / Courtesy) colleagues as an opportunity to inspire other companies and researchers to support research for rare diseases like Angelman Syndrome.

“The idea and enthusiasm around gene editing and gene-based therapies and stem cellbased therapies is that we sort of just need one success story,” Silverman said. “Things aren’t so easy as copy-paste or copy and replace, but if [...] we’re able to get one, which we have one molecular therapy now in a clinical trial, that’s a success story for one rare disease. There’ll be one in 7,000 people, as opposed to one in 20,000 people. And that paves the way for all rare disorders and many neurodevelopmental disorders.”

THIRD SEASON OF UC DAVIS PODCAST ‘UNFOLD’ FEATURES CURIOSITY-DRIVEN RESEARCH The new season dives into exciting research happening at UC Davis and offers a hopeful perspective on today’s science world

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org After a year and a half of increasingly disheartening science news — from pandemic coverage, to wildfires, hurricanes and other environmental catastrophes — the third season of UC Davis’ podcast “Unfold” seeks to offer a more hopeful outlook on the science world by featuring “curiosity-driven research” happening at the university.

According to a UC Davis press release announcing the new season, the first episode was released on Tuesday, Sept. 28 and tackles the question, “Why do songs get stuck in our head?” Episodes will continue to be released weekly through Nov. 23.

Amy Quinton, the manager and host of “Unfold,” explained that the podcast was built around the idea of the “pillars” of what makes UC Davis great. Among these include food and agriculture, sustainability, global health and research. The first two seasons covered the first two pillars, but plans for a third season centered around global health were halted when COVID-19 came into the picture.

“We were going to do health this season, but I think after the pandemic, people really wanted a break, so hopefully we can tackle health next season,” Quinton said.

Instead, they shifted the focus to what they call “curiosity-driven research.”

“We want to showcase UC Davis expertise and research,” Quinton said.

“Curiosity-driven research, it’s sort of a large bucket — social science, engineering, earth and planetary sciences, history and so on.”

The press release dove further into this concept and how it will be showcased in future podcast episodes.

“Curiosity can lead to some of the greatest discoveries, like why songs get stuck in your head or what real-world engineering concepts you can learn from comic book superheroes,” the press release reads. “This season, we examine an archaeological discovery that raises new questions about the sexual division of labor in early huntergatherer societies. UC Davis researchers reveal what they found by peeling back the layers of a fish’s eye and by studying cute, pink, baby-faced axolotls.”

Kat Kerlin, the co-host for “Unfold” seasons two and three, has a career largely focused around environmental journalism and reporting on climate change. Kerlin said that for her, this season was a welcome break from often dismal environmental coverage.

“I love covering climate change, but it’s a downer, and it’s been so refreshing to look at some of the other stuff happening at UC Davis,” Kerlin said. “It’s not COVID, it’s not climate change, it’s just the wonder and the excitement of life.

These people are at the top of their field — they’re experts — but we also had a lot of fun.”

Crystal Rogers is one of the experts who was interviewed for the podcast. Her lab focuses on “the molecular mechanisms that control early development in vertebrate embryos,” including the embryos of axolotls, a type of salamander. In her episode, Rogers talks about one Twitter-famous axolotl in particular: Chonk.

“I had a bunch of little tadpoles, and Chonk was just so much larger than the others so quickly — she kind of ate one of her siblings, so we had to separate her,” Rogers said.

UNFOLD on 7

Season three of Unfold, a podcast by UC Davis, explores creativity-driven research — including an episode where researchers reveal what they found when they peeled back the layers of a fish’s eyeball, pictured above.

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4 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021

OPINION FACEBOOK OUTAGE REAFFIRMS ITS PLATFORMS’ ADDICTIVE NATURE AND OUR RELIANCE ON IT

THE

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EDITO RIA L B OA RD ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SOPHIE DEWEES Campus News Editor MADELEINE PAYNE City News Editor EDEN WINNIFORD Opinion Editor

For all their value, platforms like Instagram are toxic, leaving users to self-regulate social media usage

KATIE DEBENEDETTI Features Editor ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor

Waking up on Monday morning, many students might have panicked when they tried to open Instagram and found themselves unable to refresh their feeds. Maybe they restarted their phones, tried logging out of their apps, disconnected from campus’ dismal “eduroam” Wi-Fi, but these desperate attempts to view Instagram were without avail. Others might have tried to log on to WhatsApp to connect with family or tried to open Facebook to check for a post about the day’s club meeting or read up on their carefully curated news feed, with similarly disappointing outcomes.

This outage sent some people into a spiral — refreshing their apps every 10 minutes in case maybe this time their feed would load or worrying about who liked their posts from the night before. The outage was loud and clear proof of what Facebook’s leaked internal reports showed last week: Instagram is “toxic,” and it dominates many of our lives.

When news initially emerged about Facebook’s internal investigation into its platforms’ effects on mental health, especially that of teens, the Editorial Board was not surprised. We know that Instagram is damaging, but seeing the figures — one in three teen girls say Instagram has worsened their body image and 6% of American and 13% of British users credit suicidal thoughts to the application — and learning that Facebook tried to bury this information was distressing. Since 2019, the massive company has known that their apps were hurting users, and instead of taking steps to reverse course and correct these wrongs, they doubled down in March 2021, introducing the concept of an Instagram platform exclusively for children.

While in theory it’s easy to say that the Instagram app and

Facebook as a company are “toxic” and we should all just delete our accounts, lower our screen time, spend time in nature or read a book to improve mental health, it’s not that simple. As became obvious during the company-wide outage on Monday, people rely on Facebook’s apps for many reasons. Some use WhatsApp to communicate, many student-run organizations make announcements and plan events via Facebook groups and frankly, Instagram is hard to quit cold turkey.

It is not our fault as consumers that we have become reliant on and obsessed with these apps — they were designed to be addictive. But because the company has designed its algorithm to be so irresistible and platforms to be so universal, it should be held responsible for these consequences and called on to be transparent about and address data that show that its apps are harmful.

Instead of ignoring the damage done by its apps and looking to increase its profits by designing a social media platform for children — the very group that is hurt the most by its products — Facebook must look for ways that it can relieve some of the pressure of comparison, focus on aesthetics and obsession over follower counts, likes and comments that Instagram promotes. It has a responsibility to prioritize the health of its users and use the research that it has voluntarily conducted to address the damage that its platforms have done and continue to do.

If Facebook won’t hold itself accountable to protect users, it’s important to keep in mind the impacts these apps have on us.

While we don’t expect users to delete Instagram and Facebook, we encourage everyone to be conscious of their usage of these platforms and prioritize mental health above likes and followers.

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 KESHAV AGRAWAL Website Manager ANTHONY NGUYEN Social Media Manager JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager JENNA HEATH Marketing Manager JELENA LAPUZ Outreach Director LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

COTTON TOTES DO NOT SOLVE THE PLASTIC BAG PROBLEM Collecting cotton tote bags is not as eco-conscious as you think

BY ALEX MOTAWI opinion@theaggie.org

CONSIDER GETTING A FLU SHOT THIS FALL College campuses are especially vulnerable to flu outbreaks, so protect yourself and others with a flu shot

BY EDEN WINNIFORD opinion@theaggie.org

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE Plastic bag bans are becoming more common worldwide, which is a change for the better. It’s a wonderful thing that we are slowing their spread, since plastic bags dispense endless amounts of forever-around plastic particles into the environment. With the litany of problems our environment is currently facing, I am proud of how parts of the world have mobilized over about two decades to pivot away from the mass use of plastic bags. Still, some of our current innovators have taken the goodwill from the changes a few steps too far.

One of the most trendy replacement options for the traditional plastic bag is the tote bag, and while decidedly not plastic, they aren’t the be-all-end-all solution to carry things around in an ecofriendly way. Tote bags have their upsides, but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, so make sure to think a little longer when savvy businesspeople and clever marketers are trying to thrust them into your hands at any and every opportunity.

While the plastic bags that hold groceries at the convenience store or food at the take-out restaurant don’t biodegrade, they don’t drastically affect our environment because little energy and resources are used to create them. Technically called low-density polyethylene bags (LDPE), if you use them for your food and then once more for your waste before disposing of them correctly, the impact they have on the environment is low (a correctly disposed of LDPE bag is incinerated).

On the other hand, most tote bags, depending on material, are far worse for the environment because of the resources used to create them as well as the difficulty to recycle them. Organic cotton tote bags, the most trendy and “green” option for tote bags, are the worst of all common tote materials. You need to reuse an organic cotton tote 20,000 times for its creation to be better for the environment than just using plastic bags (normal cotton is 7,100).

Cotton uses so much water and labor that it’s not efficient for bags, and the fact that cotton tote bags aren’t compostable doesn’t help (unlike green single-use bags or many brown paper bags).

In addition, most cotton tote bags are a lot less recyclable than they let on, especially when they work as fashion statements. The actual bags themselves are usually recyclable. However, every single drop of dye pressed into each bag hurts their recyclability. The logocovered flashy tote bag that inflates its carrier’s ego to the max is probably covered with so much ink that most of it goes straight to

the trash bin. Recycling cotton is so inefficient that it’s almost as good for textile mills to start from scratch in the first place, so as far as impact goes, maybe they should head to the rubbish anyway (please recycle them if you can, some reuse is always better than none).

Sadly, businesses aren’t going to be part of this solution. “Green” bags are great for the company image, and totes are basically walking billboards. The value a company gets from a person toting around their organic cotton bag (20,000 times reused, otherwise inefficient) is so much that any marketer worth their salt will be begging for customers to take them. This problem is not getting any smaller.

We are stuck choosing the lesser of two evils. The best piece of advice I can give is to stop taking or accepting more bags and reuse the ones you already have. Nobody needs a tote bag for every outfit (lots of people have totes they never use, which is the worst), and maybe next time you are in line at checkout, think twice about whether you need a bag or bags for your items. Try and make do with all the bags, plastic, cotton or any other material you already have, and avoid taking more. Until there is an awakening and the bags used by the mainstream are plant-based and undyed so that they can be thrown into the compost at the end of their lifespan, there is no greater option than carrying your groceries in your own hands.

As a last aside, I wanted to put this issue into perspective and note that every small lifestyle change a person can make does have an impact in the world, so there is more action anyone can take in addition to forsaking their massive tote bag collection.

If you are trying to lower your impact on the environment even more, something like electing to bike instead of drive or forgoing airplanes whenever possible will make a much larger dent in your emissions. To make a long story short, doing the little things to help the environment does add up, and reusing bags as many times as possible before disposing of them correctly is a very easy way to make a positive impact.

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.

Flu vaccines should be a routine part of every autumn, like pumpkin spice lattes and flannel sweaters. But this year, flu shots are even more important than usual, since last year’s flu season was practically nonexistent due to social distancing and other pandemic precautions. Many people’s immune systems are out of practice when it comes to the flu, so all UC Davis students and staff should consider getting the safe and effective flu shot in order to keep our campus healthy.

Even during normal flu seasons, influenza can spread rapidly through college campuses due to high population density in the dormitories, lecture halls, cafeterias and sporting events. This is exacerbated by the fact that less than half of college students in the U.S. get yearly flu shots.

Flu symptoms typically last from five to seven days, which means a week or more of missing classes, tutoring and club meetings. In the quarter system, it would be incredibly difficult for a student to make up for missing that much material.

People shouldn’t have gone to school sick before the pandemic, but now sick individuals won’t be able to access campus at all without lying on their Daily Symptom Survey for that day, which they shouldn’t do. Even if it’s not COVID-19, students shouldn’t come to school sick.

Wearing face masks indoors, being honest on Daily Symptom Surveys and washing hands frequently are all helpful in decreasing flu transmission on campus, but the best way to reduce the likelihood of catching and spreading influenza is by getting a flu shot as soon as possible. Nobody wants to miss a week of school or infect their entire friend group, so get a flu shot if you’re able to — I got mine last week.

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, OCTOBER 7, 2021 | 5

LOGOS BOOKS: DAVIS’ ONE-STOP SHOP FOR AFFORDABLE BOOKS A volunteer provides insight on the used bookstore selling donated books at accessible prices

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org Logos Books, a long-standing Davis institution acquired by Friends of the Davis Library in 2017, is Davis’ one-stop shop for affordable books. The store has a wide selection of genres and styles, ranging from poetry to thrillers to fiction and everything in between.

Every book that’s for sale has been donated — a practical method of reducing waste that also keeps costs down.

“There were [used book] sales at the library every other month, but with an actual store, we could be selling books every day,” said Paul Takushi, the acquisitions manager and cashier at Logos. “We have so many books donated to us...

This way, we could funnel the best of the best through the bookstore.”

The library is another great option for getting access to books for relatively cheap, but there are definitely situations that require readers to possess their own copies, and Logos provides an easy, accessible way for this to happen.

Davis is a college town, which naturally

means that many of its residents live on a collegesized budget. Combine that with the academic nature of Davis’ demographic, and it becomes very clear that there is a need for cheap access to literature.

And this is not an issue unique to Davis — literacy rates have shown to be a strong indication of financial success, regardless of where the population is surveyed. Quite simply, affordable access to literature (especially in childhood) is a telltale sign of success later in life.

Of course, if there’s any town that will welcome a used bookstore with open arms, it’s Davis. Logos fits right in among the many other quirky, hole-in-the wall establishments that reside in Davis and are frequented by the equally unique population.

“It’s really gratifying to see more books going into the community, plus more money [going into] the Friends of Davis Library for literacy programs,” Takushi said.

Check out Logos Books at 513 2nd Street next time you need a book, feel like browsing or even just want to chat to their friendly cashier.

LOGOS Books on 2nd street. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

ST. VINCENT’S ‘THE NOWHERE INN’: A FIVE STAR STAY St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein’s new mockumentary shows us the greatness that follows from creatives coming together and combining their strengths into something new

BY ANGIE CUMMINS arts@theaggie.org The mockumentary is a sacred genre, and while “The Nowhere Inn” does honor the art, it definitely blurs some lines with its avant-garde absurdity (that is somehow not pretentious).

The film is co-written by and starring Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and her real-life friend Carrie Brownstein, who many might recognize from the TV show “Portlandia” or her band Slater-Kinney.

This mind-bending, meta and visually pleasing movie is marketed primarily as a

mockumentary in which things go horribly awry when two friends try documenting life on the road with St. Vincent, and while it definitely is that, these creative artists deserve a little bit more credit than that. It’s the kind of absurdity that encompasses the entire movie — as in you never know who’s acting or which version of the story is being seen at any given moment — that takes the weight of figuring out the “deeper meaning” or finding the clues right off your shoulders.

Clark is almost as talented an actor as she is a musician, which (as is dissected in the film)

is not surprising considering how dedicated she is to her ‘persona’ as St. Vincent during live performances, as well as music videos, and her success in creating entirely new eras and aesthetics with each album. Brownstein brings just as much to the performance, being the only one throughout the entire story to question what is really even going on. She goes from being the slightly inconsiderate director/friend desperate for a “more interesting” story to what was essentially a victim of St. Vincent’s metaphysical madness.

Clark and Brownstein were able to create an incredibly creative and innovative take on what can often become a fairly repetitive genre of movies. The two main facets that made this absurd film a success were the fact that they did not take this artform too seriously — evidenced by it being a mockumentary — and the fact that neither of them completely disregarded one medium for the sake of creating another, in regards to their own artistic backgrounds as a musician and comedian.

For a movie (or any art form for that matter) to be good, it does not need to be deep or function as a reflection of the state of the world. This is often a danger when creatives come together to create something at such a great scale, but “The Nowhere Inn” avoids the minefield of moralistic or overly-existential tropes by adding just the

right amount of self-aware comedy and absurdity to let viewers know not to take it all too seriously.

This is not to say the movie has no actual storyline or message, because it certainly does have something to say about the severed identity of the performer, friendship and just generally the dangers of fame, but it does not present these themes as if they were revolutionarily insightful ideas.

Clark brought with her the signature “artrock” aesthetic as well as her amazing live vocals, and Brownstein provided the signature witty and off-the-wall comedy style you might recall from her characters in “Portlandia.” “The Nowhere Inn” functions as a culmination of these two women’s varied strengths and presents the potential of what could be made when creatives work together and are not afraid to combine mediums to make something new. Essentially, this movie has the creativity behind it to make it genuinely fun to watch; Clark, Brownstein and the rest of the great cast felt like they were all being themselves (always a good sign for something that is supposed to resemble a documentary).

I’d also like to give one final shout-out to Dakota Johnson, for her role as Dakota Johnson in the film — she really did a great job however brief her time on screen.

St. Vincent. (IFC Films / Courtesy)

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.edu “Davis Jazz Night” (521 1st. St., 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m, last Friday of each month): Told in the format of interviews with members and friends of a fictional ‘70s rock band, “Daisy Jones & The Six” is one of the most captivating stories I’ve read, thanks to the intimate nature of the first-person tellings of the group’s history. The famous rock stars’ accounts, often contradicting each other due to ego, drugs or both, tell the story of the world-renowned band, Daisy Jones & The Six, with a focus on the complicated relationship of Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, the band’s main songwriters and vocalists. The trials and tribulations of sex, drugs, love and rock and roll take you on an exciting yet heartbreaking ride where, in typical rockstar fashion, the highs are high and the lows are low. A twist at the end leaves you wanting to reread the story with a new perspective — but it shouldn’t take too long, since this one’s tough to put down.

“The Basement Gallery Presents: Darkness Within” (Art Building Room 60, 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, Exhibit opens October 8): This Netflix limited series follows the newly appointed chair (played by Sandra Oh) of a dwindling English department at an esteemed liberal arts college. Oh’s character comes on with goals of modernizing and reinventing the department, only to be faced with firing tenured professors, an unhinged colleague and old white men dictating her new role, not to mention the implicit racism and sexism running rampant in the bureaucracy of collegiate institutions.

A campus scandal with the aforementioned unstable colleague (who also happens to be a love interest) highlights the fine line between accountability and cancel culture, only adding to the relevancy of the show. It’s funny, heartwarming and probably one of the most well-done shows I’ve seen in a while.

“Liszt Transcriptions of the Nine Beethoven Symphonies” (Jackson Hall, 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on November 6) Performed by the supremely talented Christopher Taylor, the Liszt Transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies have enjoyed a reputation as some of the greatest piano pieces ever written. This is just the first performance of a series, so if you miss it, there are plenty more opportunities to get a listen of Taylor’s playing.

“Manetti Shrem Museum of Art” (254 Old Davis Road, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday): After I stumbled upon a showing of this performance at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle this summer, followed by the stellar Nirvana exhibit around the corner, I immediately had this live album on repeat. The set includes both hits and lesser-known tracks, with a particularly sandpapery sound from Cobain on the live recording. The intimate performance comes through on the album, with snippets of the band’s comments lingering at the end of songs and blending into the following track — it’s worth listening to in order. Some standouts are “Dumb,” which I prefer to the original recording, and “Polly,” but their iconic cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” takes the cake — I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up at the top of my Spotify Wrapped this year.

“Traditional and New Music for Koto” (Anne E. Pitzer Center, 12:05 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on October 14): I think what made this film so good — other than Bourdain’s charm and the honest, enamored accounts of his life by friends and colleagues — was the pure quantity of footage we got to see of the beloved chef-turned-author-turned-TV-show-host. The movie starts with clips of Bourdain in his apartment, talking with his wife or at his restaurant, complaining about his fish delivery being late. He was filmed before his rise to stardom, and these moments humanized him, giving us a starting point from which to analyze the rest of his brilliant life. Much more of the footage, of course, came from outtakes or other filming related to the two TV shows he went on to host, which, while retaining his authentic character, developed into an on-screen persona we got to know, mainly on “No Reservations” and “Parts Unknown.” “Roadrunner” stripped some of that back, revealing who he was and why, or at least as much as his friends and the camera could capture about his curious, complex love of life.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021

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

Answer to previous puzzle 09/30/2021

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021 | 7

SPECIALSENATE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

ALICEWATERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Waters has lofty goals for the Institute for Edible Education, which was announced in January 2020 and will be located on UC Davis’ Aggie Square campus in Sacramento.

She explained that she wants the Institute to be sustainably built and to provide a space for researching regenerative farming and sustainability, gathering for summits and speakers and fostering community and teaching teachers how to use edible education in their own schools.

“The ways that we could do this in that building are endless,” Waters said. “I think we can have dinners that would be down in the wine cellar. We could show how to build a pantry.

We’re going to need greenhouses. We’re going to need cool places to store food as the world heats up. It’s very scary, and we need to be prepared for this. I want to teach everybody and learn myself, how do we plant an edible cover crop [...] that we can use instead of grass? How can we pull down carbon into the ground while we’re growing something to eat?”

As for her decision to partner with UC Davis, Waters said it was a no-brainer. She stressed that it is important for her to set up this institute in close proximity to the governing power of California in Sacramento and that the UC system’s mission aligned with her goals in a way no other institution’s did.

“The school system is so broken,” Waters said.

“It needs the leadership that can come from the University of California. There’s no other public institution that I’ve never heard of that the world has had the mission of building the economy of the state of California, that has always wanted students to be educated, that it was affordable for them to come. These were in the document in the establishment of the UC system — it was their mission — and I think this is realizing their mission again.”

While the Institute is still in the early development process, both Waters and the UC Davis team are taking steps to prioritize equity and benefit the surrounding community as

they develop it. Dean of the UC Davis School of Education and development director for the Alice Waters Institute Lauren Lindstrom said that they are working with the Oak Park community, where UC Davis’ Aggie Square campus is located, to ensure that they respect and enhance the community.

“Some of our early work has been talking with people in the community about what already exists,” Lindstrom said. “There are programs that address food and health, and we’re really trying to build on the strengths of the neighborhood, so that we don’t leave people out.”

Lindstrom also said that the UC Davis and Alice Waters teams have made it a priority to develop guiding principles for the Institute. These principles are still in the drafting process, but they lay out the main focuses for the Institute: their joint commitment to public education; teaching, research and public service; and making changes to the California public education system that can act as a model for other public education institutions.

Since the project was announced just over 18 months ago, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted school shutdowns and further exposed the inequity in the school systems in the U.S. Additionally, during the summer of 2021 alone, almost 1 in 3 Americans experienced a natural disaster, serving as physical evidence of the escalating climate crisis. Waters believes that despite the hardship of the last year and a half, these events have emphasized the importance of the Alice Waters Institute’s future work.

“I think what has shifted is an understanding of how important this could be for the whole University of California and the state of California,” Waters said. “I think we might be able to fund it more easily than I ever imagined. I thought that this would be a lot of work to fund, and I don’t feel like that anymore. I feel like we are looking for projects that are really meaningful, that are being the change we need to make.”

RETURNOFTHESTUDENTS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “We strive for the friendliest service possible,” Guidici said. “They know all the stations, so if they need to food run, if they need to bartend, they know how to do it. Knowing our cuisine, knowing our full menu, it’s just the staff, the service, the food.”

The recent good business has inspired My Burma to consider expanding to new locations, according to Guidici.

“We are hoping that we can open more locations, not necessarily in Davis, but in Sacramento too, to serve that community,” Guidici said. “A spot in downtown is ideal because it’s closest to the college in Sacramento.”

Handheld is a small family business, so it has limited hours. Even so, Maroney said that they eventually hope to expand the business’ hours and do more events downtown.

“We’re open from Fridays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and we also work with

the Davis craft fair,” Maroney said. “We have only done Fridays and Saturdays because it is a family business run only by me and Michael and our kids, so Fridays and Saturdays are the only days that work for us right now. We anticipate opening more hours in the future and also doing more special events around town; we are excited to work with other small businesses and support different causes in our community and try to just be a good neighbor in downtown Davis.”

The decision to open My Burma amid the pandemic may have seemed to be a bold move, and Guidici speculated that the owner was very confident about the quality of his cuisine.

“I have talked to the owner and he was pretty confident that his cuisine would be popular here,” Guidici said. “Davis is a very diverse place with a lot of very open people who are willing to try different things.”

The chancellor then fielded questions from the senate.

The first question addressed safety concerns on campus due to the high number of students.

“There is quite a bit underway,” May said.

“One example is more blue lights you can see at night. The goal is to put enough of those so that anywhere on campus you can see one from where you are standing.”

The next question expressed concerns about international students and the percentage of students able to attend classes in person after a year and a half online.

“I don’t have a percent definitely yet, but what I can say is that we have not had a great deal of concerns expressed from international students,” May said.

He added that if any students did not have access to a vaccine in the country they were living in, then they were vaccinated upon arrival in Davis.

A senator then asked about the location and shortage of health ambassadors. With their placement only in highly-populated areas, the senator was concerned about the possibility of students purposefully avoiding the daily symptom survey.

May said that they are hiring more staff for the public health ambassador program, and he encourages all students to adhere to the safety protocols available on campus.

May then addressed a question about students’ basic needs on campus. According to May, to break the stigma of asking for help, the Aggie Basic Needs Center is centrally located so it is easy to find and access. There are also initiatives underway that work to eliminate food insecurity at UC Davis.

Next, May responded to concerns about the over admission of students and the impacts this may have on class sizes.

“Making the class larger is not always the pedagogical thing to do,” May said. “So, I think more sections and bigger sections is the approach.”

A senator asked about the resources that are being provided for LGBTQ students on campus as they return from being distanced from their peers.

May responded that there is the LGBTQIA Resource Center which provides support, and a dozen more positions have been approved in counseling and psychiatry to address mental health and suicide. UC Davis has also been developing more telemental health resources that are available to students. In response to a similar question later on, May added that UC Davis counseling services are covered by campusapproved health insurance plans.

The next question regarded the diversity and inclusion initiative and how they are supporting new students.

“There’s literally dozens of things that the Diversity Equity and Inclusion office is working on right now,” May said. “The antiracism syllabus is a pretty big initiative, there’s a number of events that are being planned for all different demographics within the institution.”

A senator asked about parking on campus and how the administration plans to accommodate students who do not have access to the necessary technology for reserving parking.

May stated that there are some accommodations in place for students without smartphones although he is not certain what they are.

In response to a question about the price of new student housing and how administration will make it more affordable for students in the future, May said that as more supply is created, they project prices will go down.

The final question was about how the administration and ASUCD can work together to communicate more efficiently to better support the UC Davis student population.

“I meet with your leadership regularly,” May said. “If you want something more than that, I’m certainly happy to come to these meetings as often as you’ll have me, as well as my team.”

The meeting was adjourned at 6:32 p.m.

UNFOLD CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 “And then I tweeted about her, so she really took on a life of her own, and it honestly helped me to get through the pandemic.”

Rogers went on to describe the experience of being interviewed for an audio medium.

“It was kind of interesting because I’ve been interviewed by video before, but this time, I had to think about how I could show the sounds that the animals make and how I could be descriptive with my words instead of showing what we do with the animals,” Rogers said.

Quinton, who has extensive experience working in public radio, explained her take on the unique benefits of using audio mediums to tell stories.

“Ira Glass, who is the host of the podcast ‘This American Life,’ said that ‘audio is the most visual medium,’ because it allows you to create images inside peoples’ heads,” Quinton said.

“You can hear peoples’ emotions, and you really can’t in print.”

She went on to emphasize that podcasts in particular also offer flexibility in terms of length.

“In public radio, you might have three minutes for your news story,” Quinton said.

“Science stories are really complicated. There’s a lot to unfold, which is where we got our name from.”

Kerlin said that more than anything, she hopes that the podcast is a refreshing and inspirational break from the challenges of recent years.

“We made this podcast because we needed

this, and we really thought maybe everybody else needed this too,” Kerlin said. “Of course we need to know about these things, these huge life-threatening things, but we also need to hear about our amazing, beautiful world.”

Rogers added her thoughts on the importance of the project and podcasts as a whole.

“I think one of the things we recognized through the pandemic is that scientists don’t always do a great job of communicating with the public, and so multimedia platforms are really necessary to communicate our research and what we’re doing,” Rogers said.

Kerlin offered some final reflections on the frequently dispiriting reality of science journalism and how “Unfold” is a reminder that science can also be a beautiful, heartening and curiosity-driven place.

“I look at the world differently because of my work, and it can be good and bad,” Kerlin said.

“I guess the way I cope with it is […] by talking to other people, to scientists who are trying to figure out the problem and how to fix it. It helps me to see all of the people who are trying to help. It feels like it’s important, and I like being a part of that.”

To Rogers, curiosity-driven research is at the heart of what science is all about.

“I love the allure of answering questions that no one has the answer to,” Rogers said. “And that’s what science is. Yes, there’s a lot of pressure in this career to discover something, but really it’s about the joy of discovery.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

8 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2021

SPORTS KICKING OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT Almost halfway through conference play, the UC Davis women’s soccer team has already surpassed their win total from 2019.

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org In her third year at UC Davis, head coach Tracy Hamm and her women’s soccer team have enjoyed success early on. Already surpassing the win total from 2019, the Aggies have had their fair share of great results thus far. With a current record of 8-4, this young team has its eyes set on something bigger as they tread their way through conference play.

“I think we’ve just been really consistent and tried to focus on establishing a winning mentality,” said Hamm. “With a young team, you really want to try and get as much experience on the field as possible and learn how to win games. So far we’ve done a good job.”

Having had their 2020 season canceled due to COVID-19, their first game in almost two years came at the Las Vegas Invitational against the University of New Mexico on August 19—a game in which they held onto a narrow 1-0 win.

Their second game of the invitational was against the host UNLV, and despite falling in a 3-0 deficit, the Aggies clawed their way back to make it interesting, scoring two goals in the second half to cut into the Rebels’ lead. Unfortunately for UC Davis, they would come up just short, but the resounding takeaway was the grit of the young team—which consists of only three upperclassmen—to never quit.

Coming home for their first games at Aggie Soccer Field, UC Davis took on New Mexico State on Aug. 27. After conceding an early penalty, the two teams went back and forth before a second goal put them away for good. On a quick turnaround just two days later, they hosted once again, this time against the University of Texas, El Paso. Jumping out to a 2-0 first half lead, the Miners from El Paso stormed back to tie the game. But, a late rebound and putback by freshman forward Emma Vane in the 80th minute gave the Aggies their second win of the season.

After a pair of road games against Boise State and Idaho State—games they split—they rapidly approached Big West Conference play. A home Causeway Classic against Sacramento State on Sept. 12 awaited them however, and as expected, the game was hard fought. After opening the scoring in the 35th minute, the Aggies held on to win against the rival Hornets, setting up their final non conference game in Moraga, CA against Saint Mary’s. In a game that saw Saint Mary’s take the lead in the first half, time was running out late for the Aggies. Yet, as they had shown time and time again, the upstart Aggies

UCD Women’s Soccer Team against UCSB. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) scored two goals in the final 16 minutes to flip the score and hold on to the big win.

Entering the season ranked 8th in the Big West preseason coaches poll, not much was expected from UC Davis. After winning just two conference games in 2019, the program had not had a lot of success for a couple of seasons.

Starting conference play on the road, their first test came against the Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners in Bakersfield on Sept. 23. A pair of first half goals from Vane and sophomore scorer Leslie Fregoso proved to be all the Aggies needed, as they started conference play with a bang. Just a few days later, UC Davis went into Northridge to face Cal State Northridge. After a scoreless first half, the second saw a goal scoring barrage from both sides. Although Northridge made two, the Aggies responded with four of their own, winning by a final score of 4-2.

The conference home opener came against a powerful Big West opponent, the Santa Barbara Gauchos—who were tied for third in the preseason poll. Regulation proved to not be enough for these two, as they moved to overtime in a back and forth matchup. But, the Gauchos

capitalized a little over midway through the first overtime with a powerful shot that made its way in, spoiling the Aggies’ home opener.

Although the loss stung, the team had no time to dwell on it, as they hosted the leader of the conference, the Cal Poly Mustangs. Once again, Aggies pounced on the opponent in the first half and kept that momentum going, as a brace by sophomore Risa Yamada gave them a 2-0 shutout win, putting them tied for 2nd in the conference table, only behind the favorites Long Beach State.

With six games remaining before the conference tournament, UC Davis has their work cut out for them if they want to make their first postseason in the Tracy Hamm era. The team will travel to Southern California to play away games against Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside, on Oct. 7 and 10 respectively. From there, they will come back home to Davis to play the leader in the Big West Long Beach. In the highly anticipated matchup, the home field advantage factor could be the determining factor in this game between highly ranked teams. On Oct. 17, the team will once again visit Southern

California as they will play in Irvine against UC Irvine, before returning home and finishing the regular season against Hawai’i and UC San Diego on Oct. 21 and 28 respectively.

“At this point in the season, it’s not really about tweaking anything, it’s about trying to get injured players back on the field and staying healthy,” added Hamm. “We’ve had to move a lot of players around and look at different tactics based on injuries. Just trying to make sure we stay as healthy as possible and get as much rest as we can.”

Looking to get back into the Big West Tournament for the first time since 2018, this Aggies team has new life that has propelled them to their success thus far. As a young team, they are continuing to build confidence as the season progresses, and with the hope of key players returning from injury, their hopes to make a deep run could come to fruition. Yet and still, the Big West is once again proving to be one of the better conferences, and the Aggies will need to continue to improve in their final six games in order to

SUPERSTITIONS, A SPORTS TRADITION Even though they may not have any effect on the game, superstitions and rituals have always been a huge part of sports

BY KATHERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org As an athlete, game day is the most important day. These days usually consist of routines that become habits — also known as superstitions and rituals. In sports, these rituals can often seem odd from an outsider’s perspective, but athletes and their fans believe that accomplishing certain repetitive tasks can enhance their performance or else they may face a mental block. Many sport fans and athletes believe that these habits and routines will give them better luck to have a successful competition.

A ritual — similar to superstition — in sports can be defined as “a certain behaviour or action that a sports performer [or fan] carries out with the belief that these behaviours have a specific purpose, or power, to influence their performance; many sports performers believe that performing a specific ritual before a competition improves the outcome of their performance.” Such performances are normally played out before every single game.

Some of the world’s most famous athletes perform specific routines before a game.

Sometimes they prepare weeks prior to their performances — whether that’d be a baseball

player wearing his lucky socks, a soccer player blessing themselves before stepping foot on the pitch or a basketball coach chewing on a towel.

That is to say, baseball is one of the sports with the most superstition. According to Deborah Minter, a writer from “How They Play,” there are as many superstitions as there are baseball players. Every baseball player has their own unique rituals. Some common ones include never stepping on the chalk lines, never talking about a ‘no-hitter’ or ‘perfect game’ when a game is in progress, using repetitive batting stance and using lucky bats and gloves.

Notoriously known for having numerous superstitions was Wade Boggs — also known as ‘Chicken Man’. Boggs played for the Boston Red Sox as a third baseman in the 1980s and 1990s. Before every game, he ate large amounts of chicken which led him to become the author of a poultry cookbook titled Fowl Tips. He also wore the same socks on every game day, and he fielded exactly 150 ground balls at every practice.

These rituals eventually propelled him to the National Baseball Hall of Fame during his 18 year career, and he firmly believed it was because of his daily routines. Boggs famously said during one of his speeches, “Believe me, I have a few superstitions, and they work.”

Not only is the world of baseball filled with superstitions, but so is tennis. One of the world’s most famous tennis players, Rafael Nadal, is said to have 19 superstitions which begin as soon as he enters the court before the start of the game.

These habits are almost like step by step guide on how to be a great tennis player. Nadal insists on not calling them superstitions, but rather mechanisms to help him focus.

Nadal always enters the court with a single racket in his hands, makes sure the logos from his water bottles are facing the court and before his games, he takes freezing showers. “I do this before every match,” writes Nadal in his 2011 autobiography about his showering ritual. “It’s the point before the point of no return. Under the cold shower I enter a new space in which I feel my power and resilience grow. I’m a different man when I emerge. I’m activated. I’m in ‘the flow’.”

Athletes are not alone when it comes to superstitions. As for sports fans, once they become invested in a team, they believe they have the power to control the outcome of any competition.

For example, various types of ritual activities have been developed by fans, such as wearing team colors and celebrating patriotism at

UC Davis Health Stadium on the UC Davis campus. UC Davis student fees make up $23.5 million of the UC Davis 2018-19 athletics budget. (Aggie File)

international games by decorating their bodies with national flags.

Many fans of the NFL admit to sitting in the same spot the entire game, eating the exact same foods during every game and wearing a lucky outfit. These routines seem intense but with a season so short, NFL fans believe every game is crucial and by committing to these rituals, their NFL team could possibly win.

Anirudh Shenai, a fourth year cognitive science major at UC Davis and a fan of the English soccer team Arsenal has superstitions.

“My big superstition is, [before they play against] Chelsea, I will never google ‘Chelsea vs. (opponent)’ for team news. NEVER. Everytime I did that, Chelsea lost,” Shenai said.

Many people tend to develop superstitions when they are under a lot of pressure — especially in high levels of competition — because it reduces anxiety. Within a sport, superstitions have been shown to reduce tension and provide a sense of control over unpredictable, chance factors.

What this comes to show for athletes is that superstitions can provide reassurance and help reduce anxiety. Without these daily routines, athletes wouldn’t have the comfort to guide them in every game so that they can perform to the best of their ability.