October 21, 2021

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VOLUME 140, ISSUE 5 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

LECTURER PROTESTS CALL FOR JOB SECURITY, FAIR WORKLOAD COMPENSATION The two-day demonstration by UC-AFT lecturers brings attention to the fight for better work compensation

BY CHRISTINE LEE campus@theaggie.org Members of UC-AFT, the UC-wide union representing nonsenate faculty and librarians, gathered on the corner of 1st and A St. on Wednesday, Oct. 13 and Thursday, Oct. 14 to bring attention to issues surrounding job stability, fair workload and compensation across the UC system.

“We’re turning out to show the university administration that we have lecturer support, we have student support and we have ally support through senate faculty, other UC unions and even the communities in which our campuses are located,” Katie Rodger, the internship coordinator of the University Writing Program (UWP) and the local president of the UC-AFT Davis Chapter, said. “What we really want to signal to the university is that in spite of being at home and being separated we have not become [disunited], in fact we are stronger than ever.”

The UC’s offer on Oct. 11 included some pay raises, changes to contracts offered and more transparency in workload assessments.

UC-AFT argues that the raises will not keep up with inflation and the cost of living in California. The union is fighting for contracts that create a pathway for a career in teaching where instructors will be compensated for the work they do outside of the classroom.

The UC Office of the President (UCOP) provided a statement of their negotiations with UC-AFT. “We believe that this proposal is fair, equitable, and responsive to our lecturers’ concerns — and aligned with our shared values and mission as a world-class higher education institution,” Associate Director of Media Relations Ryan King said via email. “From demonstrating flexibility to incorporating union feedback, the University has made good-faith, earnest efforts toward achieving a contract.”

According to Sean McDonnell, a continuing lecturer at UWP, lecturers find it frustrating that the administration has not publicly made a statement about their efforts to change their working conditions.

“One of the things that is surprising, and quite frankly disappointing, is that the administration on campus and the system-wide administration, and I’m talking about people like Gary May and Michael Drake, have not even acknowledged that this is going on,” McDonnell said. “They have a whole team of highlypaid lawyers who meet with the union. All lecturer negotiators are volunteers. But we’ve never heard from Michael Drake, we’ve never heard from Gary May. I actually saw Gary May, he was a block and a half away yesterday and walked in the other direction.”

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UC Davis lecturers protest for greater job security and work compensation in light of a contract offer from the UC on Oct. 11. (Benjamin Cheng / Aggie)

ACADEMIC RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS IN QUARANTINE FOR COVID-19 Students who test positive and show symptoms for COVID-19 are required to quarantine, imposing academic interruptions and challenges

BY EMILY REDMAN campus@theaggie.org Although 98% of students on the UC Davis campus are vaccinated, and regular testing has helped to keep the campus safe, there is still a small percentage of students who have tested positive and are required to quarantine.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases has stayed at a very low number, 0.06%, during the week of Oct. 3-9 according to the COVID-19 Dashboard. For those who do test positive and show symptoms, there is a specific protocol for quarantine and isolation.

“If a student becomes ill with COVID-19, we will [...] isolate them and quarantine any individuals who were in close contact per CDC guidelines,” the Quarantine and Isolation page on the Campus Ready website states.

While in quarantine, students will not be able to attend classes. In these situations, students are responsible for their own communication with professors over missed assignments, instruction and assessments.

“Students should contact their faculty to alert them of their situation and coordinate regarding coursework,” according to the Quarantine and Isolation page.

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Memorial Union, September 2021 (Benjamin Cheng / Aggie)

UC DAVIS HEALTH OFFERS FREE MAMMOGRAM SCREENINGS FOR UNINSURED WOMEN IN RECOGNITION OF BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH After many delayed vital cancer screenings during the pandemic, UC Davis Health seeks to serve the community through their free screening program KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org Free mammogram screenings are being offered to uninsured women in the Davis community by the UC Davis Health Department of Radiology in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, according to a recent press release.

The screening mammograms are available for uninsured women aged 40 and older who are not currently displaying any symptoms.

According to Dr. Shadi Shakeri, Chief of Breast Imaging at UC Davis Health, the program began several years ago as a collaboration between the Breast Radiology Division in the Department of Radiology and the UC Davis School of Medicine student-run clinics. After a short lapse, the program was re-started last year.

“Everyone in our division, from front desk staff, technologists, trainees and radiologists to our department leadership is passionate about patient care and serving the community,” Shakeri said via email.

Screening rates are low among women who lack insurance coverage, a dangerous trend considering that consistent and timely breast screening reduces mortality due to breast cancer, according to Shakeri.

“Getting a high-quality screening mammogram on an annual basis is the most effective way to detect breast cancer early,” Shakeri said. “Early detection of breast cancer means that treatment could possibly be less extensive and have a better prognosis. Without regular mammograms, tumors can go undetected allowing [...] breast cancer to grow and possibly spread to other parts of the body. Early detection saves lives!”

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TECHNICAL ISSUES CAUSE CONCERN, WORRY FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES WhatsApp blackout highlights students’ reliance on messaging services for communication back home

BY KATHLEEN QUINN campus@theaggie.org On Oct 4., Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were all down for over six hours.

Though Facebook and Instagram may have been inconvenient, WhatsApp’s blackout cut off the main line of communication to friends and family for many UC Davis students, especially international students.

WhatsApp is the main telecommunication tool for many international students whose friends and family remain in India and South America, according to Business Insider. India in particular has the highest user base in the world.

Deepi Agarwal, a second-year master’s student in business administration, said she uses WhatsApp to keep in touch with her mother in India.

“It was Monday around nine, that was the time I generally receive a call from my mom,” Agarwal said. “I happened to observe there was no call.”

At first, Agarwal assumed it was an internet issue. When she finally got in touch with her mother through a standard international call, she learned that her mother had been trying to reach her and was worried.

Ayodeji Fagbohun, a first-year doctoral candidate in animal biology, said he uses WhatsApp as his main way of communicating with his wife and son back in Nigeria.

“It was so unusual,” Fagbohun said. “I was

really concerned because the previous day my wife had complained about not feeling well.”

Megha Ayyagari, a third-year design major, uses WhatsApp to keep a hold of her parents in India with whom she speaks to every day. If WhatsApp discontinued its service, Ayyagari said it would hinder her ability to stay in close contact with her parents.

“I think it would restrict how much we communicated because it is really expensive to text or call internationally,” Ayyagari said.

WhatsApp provides free text, phone and video calling which saves on what would be expensive international calls. For example, a call to India from California using AT&T would cost $5 base rate per call.

Though cost-effective, WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook, has recently raised concerns with some users about privacy.

“Some people really respect their privacy and want to keep it private,” Agarwal said.

Fagbohun said that for him, his main concern was reaching out to his wife and son through any means, and he tried almost every hour for six or seven hours.

“Last week taught me that there need to be alternatives to this,” Fagbohun said. “What happens if WhatsApp suddenly shuts down for a week? There should be alternatives, reliable alternatives, that can actually compete with WhatsApp.” The current alternatives to WhatsApp outside of the sphere of Facebook, with similar formats, are Chinese-based WeChat or Telegram.

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“One of my family members from the Middle East wants to use Telegram to talk to me,” Agarwal said. “Big countries that cannot use WhatsApp, maybe they can use Telegram.”

Despite the potential issues, Ayyagari said she has been using the app ever since she’s had a phone, and WhatsApp has revolutionized communication through allowing her to quickly

be in contact with her family.

“It reduces distances in a big way bringing people together from around the world,” Agarwal said.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT UC DAVIS’S COVID-19 VACCINE EXEMPTION POLICY Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Pablo Reguerín discusses the process of getting religious exemptions to UC Davis vaccine policy

BY LYRA FARRELL features@theaggie.org While the UC System used to allow only for medical exemption requests to be filed for mandatory vaccinations, during the COVID-19 pandemic, their policy has expanded to accommodate those whose religious beliefs prevent them from receiving certain vaccinations.

Currently, according to the campus dashboard, the vaccination rate for UC Davis students is 98%, meaning that those with both pending and approved exemptions represent just 2% of the population. As vaccination compliance rates reach 100%, the figure on the dashboard will

remain at 99% due to the continual process of new students becoming compliant.

Every UC school provides the same COVID-19 vaccine exemption form for students to fill out. The only difference between these forms is the verbiage of their titles: at UC Berkeley, the form is called a “Religious Belief Objection,” while at UC Davis, it’s referred to as a “Religious Exemption Form.”

Regardless of its title, each UC school’s religious exemption process begins with three questions for those submitting the form: They are asked to identify their “sincerely held belief,” explain how it conflicts with the UC’s vaccination requirement and provide any additional

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information that may be helpful in processing the request. After students submit the form, the processing of a case varies between UC schools, according to the UC Systemwide Frequently Asked Questions page.

At UC Davis, once a student has submitted an exemption request form, the Division of Student Affairs sends it to The UC Office of the President, where it is reviewed in a multi-step process to evaluate its sincerity. If approved, it is sent back to the student for their signature, confirming that they’ll follow certain alternate safety procedures. For COVID-19 vaccine exemptions, these measures include getting COVID-tested every four days (compared to every 14 days for vaccinated individuals) and wearing a mask both inside and outside on campus.

Although some institutions may require face-to-face meetings with students to gather information about their beliefs and assess their need for a vaccine exemption, UC Davis handles its requests entirely online, according to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Pablo Reguerín.

“There’s no face-to-face interview process,” Reguerín said. “There’s a paper application process [...] Students complete it [and] it’s reviewed by multiple committees. It’s a three-step process and the final outcome is decided upon.

If they’re not granted the exception, they have five business days to come into compliance [with necessary vaccine mandates] and we notify them and coach them through the process.”

While UC Davis handles the “sincerity” of exemption requests on a case-by-case basis and several different religions may be approved for exemption, regardless of denomination, two primary branches of religion whose beliefs conflict with the COVID-19 vaccine are Christian Scientists and the Dutch Reformed

Church. These are two small denominations of Christianity who hold different reasons for seeking exemption from the vaccine.

In the Christian Science denomination, some members value prayer for healing over use of medicine, while in the Dutch Reformed Church, some view the vaccine as interference with divine providence. However, neither of these religions have enforced laws against vaccination and it is up to each individual in their denominations to discern for themselves their own beliefs on the COVID-19 vaccine in relation to their religion.

The vaccine policy issued by the UC states that those with an approved exemption from the vaccine must “comply with nonpharmaceutical interventions to help avoid preventable transmission of COVID-19.” These non-pharmaceutical interventions refer to preventative measures separate from medicine that may conflict with one’s religious beliefs, like hand-washing, mask wearing and physical distancing.

According to Reguerín, students have little cause for concern when it comes to their safety while some of their peers remain unvaccinated, as these individuals on campus are few and far between and are unlikely to put anyone at risk.

“Students have done a wonderful job in response to the many public health measures that we’ve taken as a campus, and our practice with students coming into compliance [with vaccine mandates] has been a balance of compassion, opportunity and accountability with all the different processes,” Reguerín said. “For me, one of the silver linings in this pandemic has been to see the collaboration, the stewardship, of our students, both in wanting to be safe and making sure people are safe around them.”

ASUCD STATE OF EMERGENCY ENDS WITH 10-1 VOTE BY SENATORS Senators discuss work environment concerns and confirm new committee chairs

BY CHRISTINE LEE campus@theaggie.org This story is developing and will continue to be updated at theaggie.org ASUCD Internal Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez called the senate meeting to order on Thursday, Oct. 7 at 6:10 p.m.

Following roll call and the land acknowledgment, the Student Government Administrative Office (SGAO) Office Manager Sloane Ramras gave a presentation on the payroll procedures for ASUCD members. Additionally, Ramras provided information on how to reserve rooms through the ASUCD Room Reservation Agreement Form and how to create and navigate the ASUCD vacancy site for hiring positions.

Dr. Cory Vu, a UC Davis alumnus and the associate vice chancellor for Health, Wellness and Divisional Resources, presented statistics and projects to improve mental health for students. Initiatives include hiring 11 mental health providers and three psychiatrists, limiting high-risk spaces, implementing peerto-peer programming and establishing a task force entitled Health 34. The task force aims to provide Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and nurse services to urgent calls related to mental health with the goal of sending non-uniformed personnel to assess the situation.

“As a student, there are a lot of things in addition to academics and other things you all go through [that creates stress],” Vu said.

“It’s important for us to be able to help students succeed and focus on some of the areas that we need to address.”

Keven Zhou was confirmed as the interim international student representative, a new position aiming to represent international students within ASUCD, by Martinez Hernandez’s recommendation.

Dhanya Indraganti was confirmed as the library committee

chairperson by Senate President Pro Tempore Kabir Sahni.

Marcos Lopez was confirmed as the Aggie Housing Advocacy Committee chair by Martinez Hernandez’s recommendation.

Chairperson Jared Lopez brought to attention that Oct. 11 was Indigenous People’s Day, reading an excerpt from the article “Land-Grab Universities Expropriated, Indigenous Land is the Foundation of the Land Grant-University System” by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone.

“I am expecting us as a commission and you all at the table to do everything in your power to work with Indigenous communities on and off campuses to make sure the demands that they ever make of the university, or from us, [are] met with full support,” Lopez said.

Senator Owen Krauss shared concerns from overhearing ASUCD business manager Greg Ortiz raise his voice at Martinez Hernandez during a meeting.

“What I heard was not the vice president having a meeting with the business manager, but rather the business manager berating her,” Krauss said.

Krauss said he took notes of what he heard being said to Martinez Hernandez such as, “I can see in your body language you’re getting defensive” and “Everyone thinks [she’s] passiveaggressive.”

“This is nothing but disgusting intimidation and mansplaining by an unelected grown man whose responsibility is to support the members of the student association and student body,” Krauss said. “It’s our endeavors, not theirs. And their job is not to be degrading and disrespectful to the young elected representatives of the student body. I’m extremely disappointed in this behavior and I call for a formal apology directly to the internal vice president.

And I encourage this table to look into fair and proper measures to ensure that a situation like this never happens again.”

Senator Sergio Bocardo-Aguilar confirmed the account, and other members at the table who were bystanders apologized for

AGGIE FILE their inaction. Senator Kristin Mifsud also said that she has had similarly hostile encounters with Ortiz in the past.

Following an apology for staying silent in the meeting, president Ryan Manriquez recognized the work that needs to be done to make ASUCD a better work environment.

“I want to apologize, and I want to work together with everyone here to address that behavior,” Manriquez said.

As of Oct. 18, there have not been any updates to this, according to Manriquez. Ortiz was not available for immediate comment on Oct. 18.

Concerns about transparency within the association were brought up by Chairperson Radhika Gawde, and Martinez Hernandez stated that Manriquez was involved in a conversation regarding the state of emergency without the senate president pro tempore present. Sahni expressed frustration that a bylaw was violated.

ASUCD’s state of emergency ended with one negative vote and one absence.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 | 3

CITY OF DAVIS DISCUSSES PROPOSAL TO REMOVE 63 TREES FROM SUTTER DAVIS HOSPITAL, INSTALL SOLAR CARPORT PANELS Two appeals were discussed in the meeting

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org In a meeting held on Sept. 21, the City of Davis’ City Council discussed the 2000 Sutter Place Phase 2 Solar Project.

According to the 93-page staff report, the project was first approved on July 14 by the Planning Commision at Sutter Davis Hospital Campus and consists of “the installation of 11 solar carport/canopies over an existing paved parking lot and the removal of approximately 63 trees.” Although the project was approved, conditions of approval were also added, according to the staff report.

“On July 14, 2021, the Planning Commission approved the Phase 2 solar project at Sutter Davis Hospital Campus by a vote of 6-1, based on the findings and staff recommended conditions of approval,” the staff report reads. “However, the Commission added and modified conditions of approval to address its concerns about having vegetation within the planter strips and to require the applicant to transplant all existing Phase 2 mature trees identified to be in good condition (43 trees).”

Ashley Feeney, the assistant city manager for the City of Davis, explained during the meeting that two appeals have been filed.

Though the project was initially approved in July, there were two conditions of approval in the Sutter Appeal. The Sutter Appeal was then filed on July 23, according to the presentation during the meeting. Feeney explained what the Sutter Appeal encompasses.

“One of them is planting of additional shrubs and ground cover in the planter strips to ensure a fully vegetated planter,” Feeney said. “These are the existing planter strips that currently there’s trees that occupy those planter strips. They’re proposing to put in the photovoltaic rays, and then Planning Commission added this condition to vegetate those remaining planters in those areas.”

Feeney described the second condition that Sutter is appealing, which is the “transplanting of 43 mature trees onsite.” Subsequently, another appeal was filed by Alan Hirsch on July 26. According to the presentation, this was “the appeal of the Planning Commission decision to approve the Phase 2 project.”

“So it’s really an appeal of the entirety of the Phase 2 project, but also part of his appeal was an appeal of the Tree Modification Permit that was issued as part of the permitting for the approved Phase 1 project,” Feeney said during the meeting.

The staff report which was referred to in the meeting can be found in the agenda for the Sept. 21 meeting, alongside a copy of the presentation and other relevant documents. The Notice of Public Hearing for the meeting can also be found online, which explains the appeals that were discussed during the meeting.

The document explains that “the City has received two appeal

Save Sutter Trees (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) applications regarding the July 14, 2021, Planning Commision approval of the Phase 2 Solar project at Sutter Davis Hospital Campus.”

According to the document, the applicant made the first appeal “on behalf of Sutter Davis Hospital,” requesting “the removal of two conditions of approval.” The applicant described these conditions as “cost prohibitive and present[ing] substantial confounding issues that jeopardize implementation of the Sutter Davis Hospital solar array installation.”

Additionally, the second appeal was filed by Alan Hirsch, et. al, requesting that a few approvals be overturned, the details of which can be found in the Notice of Public Hearing. Ultimately, the City Council voted for Sutter Health to be able to remove the trees and install the solar carports, an article from KCRA reported.

OILED WILDLIFE CARE NETWORK SAVES WILDLIFE AFFECTED BY OIL SPILL IN HUNTINGTON BEACH Consequences are severe for wildlife when they are not rescued, according to OWCN members

BY ELLIE LEE city@theaggie.org

Bird cleaned by UC Davis researcher. (OWCN UC Davis / Courtesy) Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) takes initiative in rescuing many living organisms, as a result of the oil spill off Huntington Beach in Southern California. They have saved five total wildlife and one mammal from the oil as of Oct. 14. They also rescued four birds.

When they are rescued, oiled animals are transported to a medical facility, where they go through “intaking & processing” procedures, including a physical exam, and they are given prewash care, cleaning in warm soapy water, and conditioning. Dr. Michael Ziccardi, the director of the OWCN, explained how the organization responded quickly to the oil spill.

“The more rapidly we can recover them, the more likely it is they will survive,” Ziccardi said. “That’s one of the reasons why we have so many people trained to be able to respond quickly. We have over 1600 people that are available to us to respond in large scale emergencies. The longer animals are out in the environment without recovering, the less healthy they are.”

On top of saving wildlife that is covered in oil, he discusses how they work with other agencies to be prepared as possible.

Trained individuals at UC Davis continue to care for wildlife and to work on preventing damage that might occur from oil spills.

Oiled Wildlife Care Network is guided by four principles: readiness, response, research and reaching out. For readiness,

they maintain equipped equipment throughout California, test procedures regularly in exercises and drills and regularly conduct supervisors, volunteers and faculty members.

OWCN recruits professionals and organizations that respond to oil spills. This ensures that they can provide first aid to the organizations and access to at least one of the 12 wildlife rehabilitation facilities.

Members share knowledge with other organizations. They hope to ensure that the world learns about accurate, new information about how oil affects animals.

Network members research, test and explore innovative ways to improve ways to save wildlife; this includes donating over four million dollars to more than 180 scientific studies. In addition, they conduct self-directed research about enviornmental topics that they find the most concerning.

“UC Davis runs the world’s wildlife Prevention and Response Program,” Ziccardi said. “It’s something I’m proud of. The state should be proud of it, it’s definitely something UC Davis should be very proud of as far as our role in trying to address, saving animals in emergencies such as this.”

Ziccardi is also the executive director of One Health Institute program that addresses health issues between people and the environment, including animals. He directs the California

Veterinary Emergency Team, and he teaches free ranging and conservation in the UC Davis Veterinary School.

Kyra Mills, the OWCN senior manager of field operations, explains that OWCN has 44 member organizations as part of the network in the state of California.

“We take them to a rehabilitation center; in this case, the closest center for us is the Los Angeles Oil Bird Care and Education in San Pedro, California,” said Mills. “That’s where the birds collected as part of the spill are being cared for.”

Mills details that the impact of oiling depends on each species affected. The most serious impact is to the animals that depend on their waterproofing to keep warm, according to Mills.

“Seabirds are the most highly impacted,” Mills said. “When oil comes in contact with their fur, it disrupts the feather structure. If it doesn’t have oil in it, it acts as a drysuit and keeps them dryer and warmer when they are in the water.”

She adds that if they are affected by the oil, they stop eating.

If they are not rescued, they could die, depending on their species, the amount of oiling and the weather. Large oil spills do not happen too often but small ones happen frequently.

“Not all of them are marine; some of them are impacting in lakes, streams [and] rivers,” Mills said.

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4 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

YOLO COUNTRY PREPARES FOR 2021 REDISTRICTING The redistricting process could have significant impacts on community representation, according to Yolo County officials

BY YAN YAN HUSTIS HAYES city@theaggie.org Every 10 years, districts must be redrawn in order to have proportional representation.

This process ensures that each board member represents the same number of constituents.

This year, the redistricting process is set to be completed by Dec. 15.

According to Yolo County Communications Coordinator Frank Schneegas, the Board of Supervisors is tasked with overseeing the processes with help from other advisory boards.

“Redistricting happens every ten years and is the process of redrawing district lines to reflect how local populations have changed,” Schneegas said via email. “The Board of Supervisors oversees redistricting and is responsible for drawing supervisorial districts, with recommendations from the Advisory Redistricting Commission.

Alexander Tengolics is the Advisory Redistricting Commission Liaison.”

Schneegas explained that the Board uses census data in order to create an accurate reflection of changing populations in Yolo County.

“Census data is used to redraw the district lines to ensure that board members each represent about the same number of constituents,” Schneegas said via email.

“Redistricting determines which neighborhoods and communities are grouped together into a district for the purposes of electing a board member.”

While the latest census data should reflect the most recent changes in population, many Yolo County residents expressed concern in regards to adequate representation for rural communities at the Sept. 20 Yolo County Advisory Redistricting Commission meeting.

At the meeting, Yolo County Community member Rachel Long voiced her concerns about rural representation and districting.

“I live in Zamora where we farm, and I’m really concerned about the representation of rural communities in having a voice,” Long said.

“We only come up with 32 thousand people in our rural area and we need at least 10 thousand more people in order to find representation. The question is where do we get these extra people?

That has to come from cities.”

Chair of the Yolo County Advisory Redistricting Commission Marco Lizarraga addressed these representational concerns by stressing his role in this redistricting process at the Sept. 20 public meeting.

“One way to motivate the community to come to the official planning commission is to make their components and their views known,” Lizarraga said. “I am on the commission to serve and I will do that.”

Redistricting Partner’s Chief Operations Officer Chris Chaffee detailed three different ways that community members could become more involved with the redistricting process.

One way is by using Districtr, a website where you can draw districts.

“There’s a [few] ways that the public can provide input — a great way is to appear at one of

these meetings and provide comments,” Chaffee said. “A second way is to submit a Community of Interest form through the website and another great way is to draw your community of interest on Districtr.”

Chaffee outlined the submitted testimonials and explained that many of them share common themes.

“We started our outreach presentations in July and we can start talking about district plans,” Chaffee said. “There really are some basic themes with several community members asking that Winters be incorporated into current District 5

and with the rural unincorporated areas of the county.”

Much of the meeting concerned the need to adequately represent communities of interest.

This is defined by the Yolo County website as a group of people in the same geographically definable area who share common social and economic interests.

“Some common examples of Communities of Interest are senior citizens, LGBTQIA+ communities, people who live downtown or in a neighborhood, and residents who share a common language,” reads the website.

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CITY OF DAVIS HOLDS MEETING TO DISCUSS ALLOCATION OF AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN FUNDING Community can take survey to provide input on how funds should be used

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org On Oct. 13, the City of Davis held a meeting to discuss American Rescue Plan funding and how it will be allocated in Davis, according to a press release.

Also on Oct 13, the city launched a community survey that’s open until Nov. 1, the link for which can be found on the City of Davis’ American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding web page.

Barbara Archer, the communications and customer service manager for the City of Davis, explained that the survey will allow the city to get input on how the funds should be distributed.

The City of Davis is also encouraging those who have more input to reach out to them via email at cmoweb@cityofdavis.org.

“It’s a fairly extensive survey because we want to get community input on how the city should allocate the American Rescue Plan dollars,” Archer said.

The web page defined ARP and described the

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funds being distributed to Davis.

“The American Rescue Plan (ARP) is a federal stimulus plan approved by the United States Congress and President Biden that provides $350 billion of stimulus funding to State and Local governments,” the web page reads. “The share received by the City of Davis is $19.7 million.”

Additionally, according to the web page, the City Of Davis held a meeting on May 25. In this meeting, it obtained a staff report highlighting how the funds can be used and guiding principles for the allocation of funds.

“At its May 25, 2021, meeting, the Davis City Council received a staff report listing guiding principles for ARP funds use,” the web page reads. “In addition, there are federal guidelines for how ARP funds can be used. The City of Davis allocation of ARP funds is $19.7 million.

ARP funds are intended to be used to respond to the impact of COVID-19 and to assist with

efforts to contain COVID-19.”

The funding will be “encumbered by December 2024” and “spent by December 2026,” according to the presentation. The presentation also explains that the U.S. Department of Treasury “released initial guidance” on how the funds can be utilized. Three additional uses were also mentioned, including the “response to public health emergency and its negative economic effects,” “backfill for revenue reduction” and “infrastructure.”

According to the web page, more specific uses include providing “premium pay for essential workers,” addressing “negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency” and “[replacing] lost public sector revenue”.

Archer explained that along with the eligible uses mentioned earlier, the City Council also has its own Guiding Principles.

“When you get into the eligible uses for ARP

funds, they talk about mitigating conditions caused by the public health emergency,” Archer said. “And so there’s two uses, there’s the American Rescue Plan eligible uses and then when this topic was presented to the Davis City Council, the Council also created Guiding Principles of their own. Those are available on the website as well.”

The Guiding Principles include recovering from the economic losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, linking to the City of Davis’ City Council goals and more. The web page also states that the funds are not only limited to cities, such as Davis.

“In addition to cities receiving funds from the American Rescue Plan, states, counties, tribes and school districts will also be granted funds,” the web page reads.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 | 5

OPINION UC DAVIS COVID-19 ACADEMIC POLICIES NEED TO BE MORE CONSISTENT AND WIDELY SPREAD Administrators must set standards for COVID-19 accommodations With the return to in-person learning this fall, we are all in classrooms once again, surrounded by strangers, acquaintances and even close friends that we have not seen in a year and a half. While it’s definitely an adjustment, it’s exciting to be back on campus, and we can thank UC Davis for their work to ensure our safety.

We are thrilled that 98% of UC Davis students are vaccinated; it’s because of you all that we have safely returned to campus.

Mandating vaccines, necessitating symptom surveys and requiring frequent testing are important precautions that UC Davis has taken to protect our community. But beyond that, more work needs to be done to communicate the COVID-19 guidelines to both students and faculty. Although the administration has put public health policies and self-quarantine measures in place, this information is not actively disseminated and ambiguity remains as to what students should do when they are feeling sick.

To the Editorial Board, it seems like COVID-19 policies vary by the professor. Most of our instructors haven’t given us detailed explanations for what to do if we get COVID-19 beyond staying home. We’re told not to come to campus if we don’t pass the symptom survey, but protocols surrounding exams and mandatory attendance when we aren’t feeling well haven’t been made clear.

Many of our syllabi say to follow campus guidelines, but those instructions usually end there. With some professors refusing to record lectures and others saying it’s okay to come to school with a cough, we are confused about what is the “right” thing to do.

There have been professors who have been accommodating throughout this uncertainty by offering midterm drops or conducting quizzes via Canvas rather than in person. However, what confuses students is the discrepancy between different professors, sometimes even within the same department. The lack of consistency in implementing these public health policies forces students to navigate these ambiguities on their own, causing unnecessary stress during an already stressful pandemic. The Campus Ready guidelines instruct students to reach out to their professors or an academic advisor if they have to quarantine and miss class, but the burden should not be on already-sick students to secure accommodations on an uncertain, case-by-case basis.

While professors should absolutely have flexibility in instructional decisions, COVID-19 policy should be set by administration. Allowing professors to determine for themselves what constitutes a fair make-up policy can be unfair to students who have to choose between keeping themselves healthy and

keeping up their grades. Though COVID-19 has brought this issue to light, with the current flu season and potential future pandemics, there needs to be a standard for all professors to follow when it comes to navigating student illnesses.

Students shouldn’t need to scour the internet to find information about what to do if they get sick. It should be widely accessible, easy to find online and more broadly disseminated by campus administrators.

Online resources exist detailing mask, vaccine and testing requirements and mandatory reporting of COVID-19. These resources tell students to stay home if they feel ill or fail a symptom survey, but they lack explanations of what to do if you actually get COVID-19. If you do, you’ll be out of class for at least 10 days. Since not all lectures and discussions are recorded, it might be challenging to make up in-person classes and assignments. Catching up on classwork is already stressful enough, and if you’re really sick, it might be even more challenging to do so while recovering.

Getting reacquainted with in-person learning is not easy, but better communication about COVID-19 policies would help our transition. We hope the lack of accessible information does not cause people to lie on symptom surveys or come to class if they feel unwell. By informing students, faculty and staff of what to do if they get sick, people will likely feel more comfortable skipping class or work — they will know exactly what to expect.

While UC Davis continues to be a championed leader in many ways during the pandemic, the Editorial Board believes the administration has a responsibility to create and promote clear policies during this transition to in-person learning. And it’s okay for students to be stressed or anxious about the lack of clarity surrounding certain campus COVID-19 policies — the Editorial Board definitely feels it. We are still in a pandemic, and we would appreciate feeling that the university is prioritizing our mental and physical health.

UC Davis administrators can help ease this stress by more clearly communicating about how we will be academically supported if we test positive for COVID-19 or need to miss class because we are sick. It’s vital for campus administration to provide easily accessible information and spread it to as many people as possible.

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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 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 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

EDUROAM ISN’T SERVING NEEDS OF CAMPUS COMMUNITY Students need fast and reliable Wi-Fi everywhere on campus

BY EDEN WINNIFORD opinion@theaggie.org UC Davis students and staff need access to reliable Wi-Fi throughout campus in order to work efficiently and effectively, but eduroam has been slow and unreliable so far this year. Students may be able to take notes offline, but many other necessary functions, including accessing Canvas, completing iClicker prompts for attendance credit and verifying your identity with Duo are impossible without quality Wi-Fi. Eduroam’s spottiness isn’t just frustrating — it can be detrimental to our grades.

Despite the importance of Wi-Fi on campus, I’ve heard nothing but complaints about eduroam. There have been multiple instances where I’ve needed to wait five minutes for my laptop to connect to eduroam in lecture halls, and some of my friends haven’t even been able to access Wi-Fi in the library. Others report eduroam dropping their connection sporadically and have even made accounts for the UCD-Guest Wi-Fi in order to bypass eduroam.

Almost all of the people I’ve spoken with don’t remember eduroam being this unsatisfactory before the pandemic — it had its problems, but you could connect to it quickly and it would eventually load whatever you searched for. Now, that doesn’t seem

to be the case.

At the very minimum, high-speed Wi-Fi should be available in every on-campus building, especially high-traffic areas like the library and MU. Students should be able to connect to it quickly, and it should be able to load pages without dropping connections randomly and without warning.

Of course, eduroam’s problems may be outside of UC Davis’ control. As of April, the chip shortage had caused a 60-week delay in the shipping of internet routers, so I understand if this has caused a router shortage on campus or has forced UC Davis to use slower, outdated routers. The statewide worker shortage may also have an impact if any UC Davis tech support is understaffed, since providing Wi-Fi coverage to such a large area requires workers who are knowledgeable about picking proper equipment, managing the Wi-Fi network and optimizing coverage in different environments.

More transparency from the university about the reasons behind the laggy Wi-Fi would help me feel less frustrated when I’m stuck waiting for pages to load endlessly. I wouldn’t mind the sluggish connection and failures to launch if I knew this was a

problem the university was actively addressing and planning to fix as soon as possible.

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

AFTER YEARS OF DISRESPECT, UC DAVIS ARCHAEOLOGIST UNCOVERS UNTOLD TREASURES FOSSILIZED IN GUM UNDERNEATH DESKS ALL OVER CAMPUS “Who knew history could be so sticky!”

BY IAN COSNER iacosner@theaggie.org COVID-19 has changed a lot of things, but with the return of in-person classes and heightened public health concerns, students get to enjoy an unexpected benefit of this unique school year. In accordance with mandatory COVID-19 safety regulations, the university has finally had all desks and chairs throughout campus thoroughly de-gummed.

That’s right everybody, this means that for the first time since you arrived on campus, your legs will no longer brush against the hard, sticky, sugar-free goodness that has somehow inhabited every single chair you’ve ever sat on. No longer will you have to try and repress that your BIS 2A midterm rests only a mere inch above someone’s desiccated mouth juices petrified into resin, wax and elastomer. No longer — now you can lounge to your heart’s content during class and live a sticky-free life as long as no one ever chews gum again!

But for the historians out there, fret not, for UC Davis

archaeologists have preserved every piece of pasty, expectoratecovered plaster in hopes of uncovering the untold history of students. They have already discovered a myriad of wonderful relics going all the way back to the ‘90s. Whether it’s old Capri Sun packages, hacky sacks or pogs, it’s truly remarkable to know that this disgusting habit of leaving saliva-ridden garbage on a piece of public furniture has lasted throughout the decades.

But recently, UC Davis archaeologists uncovered something even more surprising than worthless ‘90s memorabilia. Using new, unlicensed cloning technology developed by UC Davis genetics students, researchers were able to revive a Gunrock clone directly from the ‘90s.

While this old-school Gunrock may be a bit different from our current blue-haired monstrosity, with its mohawk hair, unreasonable obsession with ska music and infatuation with “Xtreme” sports, it’s still the original horse that this university has, for some reason, based its entire identity around.

The new-old Gunrock, or Gunrock 2: The Sequel, will be seen around campus, taking classes, skateboarding through the Arboretum and absolutely demolishing folks at ultimate frisbee.

IAN COSNER / AGGIE

So if you’re feeling nostalgic for a decade that was best known for Will Smith and being “radical,” look no further than our lovely new mascot, a weird blue horse with a mohawk that keeps asking you if you wanna play pogs.

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

6 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

CITY OF DAVIS CHOOSES JULIA LEVINE FOR POET LAUREATE Levine plans to focus on ecopoetics, poetry of the Anthropocene, and creating a dialogue about poetry cross the city

BY RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org On Sept. 30, the City of Davis chose Julia Levine to be the new Poet Laureate of Davis, according to a press release.

“This honorary position celebrates the art of poetry and its impact on the Davis community,” the press release read. “Duties of the Poet Laureate include: representing the City of Davis and the art of poetry through outreach activities, presenting original works of poetry at official City events throughout the year, writing and submitting poetry about Davis for publication, presenting and discussing poetry at community events, in schools or with community groups, and acting as a resource for poetry and literary activities in Davis.”

Arts and Culture Manager Rachel Hartsough explained how Poet Laureates are chosen through a lengthy process.

“We have an application process, and there’s a selection committee that consists of a couple of members from our arts and cultural staff from the city, a couple of members from our Civic Arts Commission and a couple of members of the community who have expertise in the area of poetry and literary arts,” Hartsough said. “We receive applications and nominations, those are reviewed, and the committee meets with and interviews the finalists, and selects the laureate from those, and makes a recommendation to the arts commission, and the arts commission recommends that to city council.”

Hartsough explained that past Poet Laureates have focused on a variety of topics.

“James Lee Jobe, who was our most recent Poet Laureate, was interested in schools, but unfortunately his term overlapped so much with COVID-19, so that was really unfortunate timing,” Hartsough said. “He was writing poetry and posting everyday on a blog that he ran, and he ran some poetry workshops on a weekly and monthly basis. Julia is a little different in that she brings a more specific focus on the work that she’s interested in doing, so I think her term will be quite different from the previous poets.”

Levine describes herself as having three focuses, one being “the age-old question of why there is so much beauty and love and tenderness in the world besides so much horror and suffering,” another being the natural world — which she describes in terms of an ecopoetic and poetry of the Anthropocene and the last being an elevation of the ordinary world through meticulous attention.

Levine loves reading poetry and enjoys the works of poets like Jennifer Sweeney, Louise Glück and Eduardo Corral. She was mentored

by Brigit Pegeen Kelley, whom she describes as an unsung poet, and Frank Gaspar. Levine, surprisingly, did not always love poetry.

“I hated poetry in high school, I hated it,” Levine said. “Actually I was listening to KDVS when I was in between college and graduate

school, and I was sweeping, there’s actually a poem in my latest book called Song for Sylvia Plath on the Radio, it was the first time I’d ever heard Sylvia Plath, and the moon was coming up, and I just had this out of body experience. I just thought, oh my god, this is what poetry is? I want to do that.”

On the question of what constitutes poetry, Levine was encouraging.

“Any poem that you write that does any kind of work for you is worth writing,” Levine said.

“So, if you write a poem and something surprises you, and you feel like now you know something you didn’t know before, that poem has done its work for you.”

But as for what constitutes good poetry, Levine was much more specific.

“There’s a lot of subjectivity in poetry and very few rules that really apply, but I do think you will find that in the really great poets, there is a startling mysterious penetration into both mystery and truth,” Levine said. “And there also has to be the other really difficult thing about poetry, is there has to be some capturing of music and song in the language. If you have to work with image and meaning and sound, that’s a lot!”

Julia Levine. (Julia Levine / Courtesy)

AN ULTIMATE RANKING OF BIKING WEATHER, ACCORDING TO UC DAVIS STUDENTS Which types of weather do students love to bike in, and which do they dread?

BY SONORA SLATER features@theaggie.org The street is deserted, a torrent of leaves tumbles across the Russell bike path — for every inch students pedal forward, a vicious gust of wind blows them back two. Defeated, they wonder if choosing to bike to class was really worth avoiding the throes of a crowded Unitrans bus.

For all the convenience that bikers enjoy in Davis, there are a few significant inconveniences they face as well: people who don’t understand bike circles, overly bold squirrels… and weather.

Arriving to class drenched in sweat from cycling in 90-degree heat, contending with fog that limits visibility and conceals potential hazards, or tolerating a wet bike seat and a soggy backpack can all be challenging, but each weather also has its perks.

According to Davis students, how do the different biking conditions stack up? Based on data collected in a survey of 19 current or former Davis students ranking their experience biking in sun, wind, cold, rain and fog on a scale from one to five, the average of their ratings determined the (somewhat) definitive ranking of biking weather at UC Davis.

5th Place: Rain Rain had the lowest average score: 1.42 out of 5. There were a variety of complaints about the challenges that biking in rain poses — and since Davis has an average of 66 rainy days per year, student bikers will have to face those challenges frequently during the upcoming winter months.

Davis rain is so common that it gives name to one of the most infamous markers of a new student: the freshman stripe. Even for students whose backs aren’t damp from their bike tires and unfortunate lack of fender, Julie Daseking, a first-year graduate student in the UC Davis School of Education who also attended Davis for

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

undergrad, said it’s nearly impossible to get to class dry during a downpour.

“Horizontal rain is the absolute worst — say goodbye to dry pants,” Daseking said.

4th Place: Windy Wind followed close behind rain with a score of 1.53, though this data might have been negatively impacted by the recent windy weather.

Wind can be a truly dangerous condition to ride in; the fear of wind-struck fallen branches could possibly be the only thing that convinces students to actually wear helmets while riding around campus.

Nic Lattig, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major, acknowledged a potential benefit of wind but emphasized its hazards.

“Wind keeps the rider cool, but 30 mph

winds are dangerous,” Lattig said via Instagram Direct Message. “Wind is awful because you can’t see and you’re blown 3 feet back for each foot you pedal.”

On Oct. 11, a somewhat gusty day, secondyear biological sciences major Olivia Yoder gave her opinion.

“Today taught me that wind plus dirt plus biking is the least fun,” Yoder said via Instagram Direct Message.

3rd Place: Foggy Fog had a much higher score than wind and rain, with an average rating of 2.95 out of 5. When early-morning fog shrouds campus, it turns each tree into an indistinct shadow and each corner into a mystery. The conditions might be haunting, but students tended to agree that

they were less unpleasant than wind or rain.

As with rain, many students currently on campus have never experienced biking in fog, perhaps skewing the results toward their romanticized imagination of quiet foggy mornings but failing to account for the lack of visibility and dampness it creates.

One survey respondent who gave high marks for foggy weather acknowledged that they had not biked in either rain or fog before, and therefore did not know for sure how good or bad cycling in those conditions would be.

Alumna Kristen Krick, who’s had lots of experience with the Davis fog, expressed a more negative view.

“Fog makes riding sucky, due to the more potential cow poop smell,” Krick said via Instagram Direct Message.

Tied for 1st Place: Sunny and cold but clear Each achieving a score of 4.12 out of 5, opposites sun and cold, sans rain or fog, tied for the best biking weather. Despite the threat of sweat, a sunny, clear day was a favorite because of its perfect visibility and the comfort of warmth.

Others had a strong preference for cold and clear days, which allow riders to stay cool while avoiding the hazards of other winter weather.

Though cold and sun received high scores, the pool of respondents were fairly divided — and passionate — about their number one choice.

While many survey respondents expressed love for sunny rides, Lattig held an opposing view: “Sun is bad,” Lattig said via Instagram Direct Message.

As the Davis temperatures trend downward over the next few months, it’s likely students will experience all of these conditions. Regardless of your weather preferences, bike safely, and be thankful that so far, we haven’t experienced the weather favored by Raaghav Saxena, a fourthyear animal biology major: “It’s best when hailing, obviously.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 | 7

‘THE DARKNESS WITHIN’ EXHIBIT AT THE BASEMENT GALLERY SPOTLIGHTS STUDENTS’ TALENTS UC Davis’ student-led art gallery showcases both collaborative and personal, expressive artwork at first show of the quarter

BY ANGIE CUMMINGS arts@theaggie.org On Friday Oct. 8, UC Davis’ entirely student-run art gallery, The Basement Gallery, held its first in-house show since the COVID-19 pandemic — starting the first quarter back on campus with some exceptional student artwork.

The show was titled “The Darkness Within,” referencing “spooky season being around the corner,” as stated on their Instagram page. The show was not restricted by any medium, style or even size, as there were introspective photography works, whimsical ceramics, experimental video and sound pieces and much more.

In the center of the small basement room of the art building was a large-scale sculptural installation made up of unidentifiable reddish masses growing in size as they reached the very center, which consisted of a metallic cylindrical pole reaching the ceiling. There was no tag or written information regarding this piece, making it even more intriguing, and allowing viewers to take whatever they needed from the work.

Another conceptual and abstract work was playing directly across the sculpture on an old Sony TV. While it was just as unclear as to what you were looking at, this work by Kai MaurerMabanglo, a fourth-year design major, titled “Clean,” was paired with a succinct explanation about how their work reflects the way that “proximity of family affects the individual,” perhaps alluding to the sentiments of some students after spending much of the pandemic back at home.

One piece of art that cannot be ignored is the collaborative work painted directly onto the one support column in the room. To read the many

sentiments written on the column in sprawling black paint, you are forced to repeatedly circulate it, and before even finding the information tag, it is clear exactly what this artwork is. The artists created a literal opinion column to express their feelings toward the university and to more personal audiences — with statements like “WE OWE YOU NOTHING,” “goodbye and good riddance” and the wonderfully concise “F*** YOU” taking up an appropriately large amount of space. This creative play on words perfectly tied the show together, as it was a collaborative work in the center of a room, balancing out the extremely personal works along the walls.

It would have been impossible to leave this show without a renewed appreciation for the amazing work students can create when they are completely in charge. From the curation and promotion of the show to every aspect of its design and event organization, everything was done by UC Davis students, for other students to enjoy.

This show was the first of many more events for the 2022-23 school year. Next up is a ceramic showcase partnered with the John Natsoulas Center for the Arts (the one on 1st Street with the giant cat sculpture outside) coming up on Oct. 22. The other event announced so far is a quarter-long anthology series exploring the effects and experiences of over-sexualization in our society today, which will be shown during the tenth week of the quarter. Announcements and information about the gallery can be found on their Instagram, @ucd_basement_gallery, as well as on their website.

Art Gallery exhibited in Art Basement Gallery. (Benjamin Cheng/ Aggie)

THE WHEELS THAT KEEP THE SPORTS WORLD RUNNING The sports medicine internship at UC Davis assists injured athletes

BY KATHERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org Athletic trainers can be one of the most essential building blocks of an athlete’s life.

Without them, athletes and teams may not compete to the best of their ability.

According to SPINE-health, athletic trainers study sports medicine which “is an area of medical practice concerned with the treatment of injuries resulting from athletic activities.”

Athletic trainers must be certified to “offer rehabilitative exercises to help athletes regain strength and also develop exercise plans to prevent any future injury.”

This type of physician practices sports medicine which means they turn their attention to all sport-related services. These are health care providers that often are the first ones to tend a player’s injury on the field of play.

Many colleges and professional sports utilize athletic trainers to aid athletes through their medical needs. This may include preventative measures, such as conditioning and injury prevention, as well as treatments such as osteopathic manipulation — which can be suction cups or a massage — and rehabilitation.

An athletic trainer — not to be confused with a physical therapist — works specifically with athletes to help prevent injuries. Although an athletic trainer and physical therapist both assist people to regain or maintain mobility and recover from their injuries, a physical therapist works with patients and usually works closely with those who suffer injuries from illnesses or accidents.

Lisa Varnum has been the co-director of the UC Davis sports medicine internship program for 32 years.

“The goal of a physical therapist is to return someone to activities of daily living,” Varnum said. “The goal of an athletic trainer or intern [at UC Davis] is to return the athlete into an elite level of athletics Division 1.”

At UC Davis, the sports medicine program operates a year-round internship that welcomes undergraduate students who wish to pursue a career in sports medicine. Their services include, “treatment and rehabilitation of athletic injuries, providing protective equipment/supplies, assisting with nutritional and psychological concerns, being a site facilitator for the NCAA Drug Testing Program, serving in a liaison position with medical personnel and maintaining appropriate medical records.”

UC Davis’s sports medicine team is composed of a group of full-time athletic trainers, a fulltime physician, about 15 volunteer physicians and about 35 interns. This department provides

an encouraging environment to cultivate and expand the knowledge of students with hands-on experience that will serve important purposes for their futures.

Students must first undergo a process that includes three phases and can take up to a full academic quarter before they become interns.

Phase one is completing an application in fall quarter, phase two consists of having a total of 15 observation hours “shadowing” and asking questions to the staff members. The third and final phase requires an interview with the directors of the internship.

Although this may be a lengthy process, this is the time to show what the internship encompasses. Once a student becomes an intern, they are assigned a specific sport in which they must attend all games to assist the athletic trainer.

The reason why athletic trainers and interns attend games and practices is because “they are the number one contact, medically, for all of our student athletes,” according to Varnum.

It is extremely important for a medical and certified professional to be on the field or court as soon as an athlete becomes injured. In order for an athlete to receive the proper care, a medical physician would have the right knowledge for the steps that should be taken next.

“For you as a student, I’ll just use an example,” said Varnum. “If you get hurt, you can go to the student health center and you can see a doctor. Maybe you get x-rays and they refer you to physical therapy. Then a week or two later you might see a physical therapist, but you only visit them once or twice a week. We see the athletes at time zero, and we can see them once or twice a day, seven days a week. Usually, the student interns are with them.”

The reason why athletic trainers are an important part of an athlete’s life is because if an injury isn’t given immediate attention or the proper care, the athlete is at high risk of being injured longer and missing more time — something teams can’t afford in a season that moves fast.

“What you do, typically, in the first 24-72 hours can determine how long an athlete’s injury is going to take,” said Vernum.

Athletic trainers and volunteer student interns are a critical component that contribute to sports at UC Davis. Not having athletic trainers at the university or the sports world would be like not having a doctor for every day activities.

Vern Hickey Gym at UC Davis houses training facilities and the administrative offices of the UC Davis Athletics Department. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie File)

ARTS & CULTURE 8 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

‘THE CARD COUNTER’ IS MISSING SOMETHING Despite its resemblance to the successful “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader’s newest release lacks cohesion

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org If Paul Schrader (director of “First Reformed,” “Hardcore” and almost 20 other films in addition to his writing credits on myth-making films like “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”) has one defining artistic quality, it is endurance. How else could a man possessed of such rare skill film, script after script, lonely, male, deracinated weirdos struggling against a world that seems to have no place for them?

Not that any medium has a lack of artists oozing out the same ideas and themes from the cradle to the deathbed, but with Schrader, this repetition is less meditative and more blunt-force, betraying a willingness to mine his ideas for the entirety of their value. After the unexpected success of 2018’s “First Reformed,” Schrader appears to have doubled down on his recapitulations, condensing his retro stylings into a list of rules which translate quite awkwardly into the modern world portrayed in “The Card Counter.”

Schrader has always vocalized his love for the severe, antieditorial masters of the mid-20th century like Robert Bresson and Yasujirō Ozu (Legend has it that Schrader once had a licence plate that read “O-Z-U”.) Schrader has now used the ending of Robert Bresson’s “Pickpocket” (1959) in which the protagonist, detained by the authorities but finally self-aware, reconciles with the woman he loves through some kind of police-enforced barrier — if I’m counting on my fingers correctly — three times, composing nearly 10% of his filmography.

“First Reformed,” with its slim budget, appears to have been Schrader leaning into these films as much as he truly wants to: the lack of camera movement and 4:3 aspect ratio summon nostalgia that is clean and careful, perfect for the film’s inner-moving plot.

“First Reformed” is brilliant, but it stomps dangerously around the line between being an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Winter Light” (1963) and Bresson’s “Diary of a Country Priest” (1951) and using their shooting scripts as a first draft.

Schrader, emboldened, as far as I can tell, by the reverential (no pun) reception of “First Reformed,” has duplicated its approach in “The Card Counter” without reservation, down to the aspect ratio and self-effacing performances. The latter element embodies maybe the most confusing difference between the two: the recreation of Bresson’s “anti-acting” style feels very natural in the rural churchgoers and quivering protagonist of “First Reformed” but synthetic and almost psychopathic in the phone-bearing gamblers of “The Card Counter.” Rather than conjuring an almost dreamlike simplicity, it often feels as if characters are either badly performed or under the influence of hardcore tranquilizers.

The reliance on elements tested in “First Reformed” isn’t

surprising or condemnable, but it’s alarming how easily “The Card Counter” has slipped off-course despite their guidance.

Oscar Isaac’s performance as Willam Tell, a cold, elusive loner, is slow and delicious. He opens up over the course of the film in classic Schrader style, but his internal workings remain obscure enough to keep us absorbed the whole way through. His younger pupil, Cirk, to whom he’s connected by a mutual hatred of a highranking military slimeball played by Willem Dafoe (whose rotten, sideways grin is a joy in all of his brief appearances), feels robotic and awkward, as does William’s love interest, Linda.

But even William himself, despite being the most arresting personality on display, eventually gives the impression of having less going on under the hood than his strange furniture habits and cool demeanor initially suggest. His softness toward Cirk is evident from early on, and his own worries and weaknesses are eventually presented so clearly that there isn’t enough emotional tissue left by the film’s end to connect his various eccentricities, and so he ends up as just a weird guy. The figure isn’t uncompelling, but for a director who mastered this sort of character decades ago, William is undercooked.

The film gravitates around the shadow of the U.S.’ wars in the Middle East (once again, just like “First Reformed” with climate change) in a way that feels similarly insufficient. We get a good sense of how that cruelty ripples throughout these people, but the thread isn’t enough to transcend that basic sum of its parts. Brief scenes of blaring, visceral torture don’t infect the rest of the film like ravenous parasites; the viewer is inclined to forget they ever happened.

However, beauty is not absent: The patient photography retains impact, and lengthy moments of thought between characters feel rich and purposeful rather than painful. Breakneck cuts and sundry reaction shots are appropriately absent, and we get long looks at empty, sterile casinos. The only truly inappropriate moment (beyond a aneurysm-inducing scene involving Google Maps that intimates a truly boomerish understanding of modern technology) is a scene in which William and Linda go on a date to a sort of Christmas light forest and the camera abruptly and comically soars around on a drone. This and a few comparable but less drastic moments impart a feeling of incongruity that grows as the film approaches its climax; the subtle components of the filmmaking conflict with these dirtier, more modern parts, producing a strange aftertaste that lingers after you’ve finished the film.

It’s more stimulating than most large releases to see daylight recently, but there’s something here that doesn’t come together. If it were just relying on elements from “First Reformed” (Schrader

The Card Counter. (Focus Features / Courtesy) is hardly the first filmmaker to use an idea twice) or harboring some weak characters, it might still reach the heights of Schrader’s more cohesive films, but there seems to be another element at play.

Schrader needs to reexamine his approach after this one.

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org

Music: “Don’t Shut Me Down” by ABBA (2021) ABBA has been a global pop sensation ever since their debut at Eurovision 1974. Personally, I can proudly say that I grew up with ABBA — if my life were made into a movie, the soundtrack to the childhood scenes would be exclusively oldies. Fans of the legendary group were ecstatic when they announced new music coming out in 2021, and they were not disappointed. ABBA dropped two new songs in September, one being “I Still Have Faith in You,” a more grandiose ballad that features a swelling orchestral backing, but the standout to me is “Don’t Shut Me Down.” This song could have been released on ABBA’s debut album and I wouldn’t have questioned it. It’s so true to the group’s iconic style and combined with the slightly deeper, more mature voices of the group members, this song feels like catching up with an old friend after being apart for many years.

TV Show: “The Great British Baking Show” This British-born series is the epitome of a comfort show. Personally, I use TV and movies as a way to destress and escape into a less complicated world, if only for 30 minutes at a time. While American TV does have a variety of cooking and baking competitions, they aren’t relaxing like “The Great British Baking Show”. Contestants on American cooking competition shows are often racing against the clock, stressed down to the last second and challenged by a plethora of intensely difficult twists. On “The Great British Baking Show,” however, contestants are often seen helping each other out, cracking jokes and lifting each other’s spirits, all while whipping up delightfully obscure baked goods. The show’s friendly nature sets it apart from others and is a big reason for its global success and cult following.

There’s truly nothing more stress-relieving during fall quarter midterms than turning on an episode of “The Great British Baking Show” and relaxing on the couch.

Book: “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath (1963) Written by Sylvia Plath in 1963, the underlying message of this novel holds just as much relevance today as it did 50 years ago. The book is a semi-autobiographical journey into the human psyche and discusses issues of mental health with a refreshingly dark frankness. At the time that Plath wrote the book, mental health issues were still widely stigmatized and writing a book centered around a young woman’s mental breakdown was a bold choice for the time. Many critics compare “The Bell Jar” to J. D. Salinger’s 1951 classic “The Catcher in the Rye,” and while both Plath and Salinger touch upon the same ideas, the two novels differ greatly in their delivery. “The Catcher in the Rye” has a very masculine tone, tinged with an overwhelming sense of anger. “The Bell Jar” comes across much more depressed and almost subdued. Esther Greenwood, the protagonist, does partake in manic acts, but it’s almost still rational. Everything is described poetically, and some lines need a double take for the reader to realize that something out of the ordinary has occurred. It’s astounding that a piece published almost half a century ago is still so relatable, especially to adolescent women.

Movie: “Corpse Bride” dir. by Tim Burton (2005) In the tradition of “Jackass,” the early 2000s saw an interminable number of low-Halloween movies hold a special spot in my heart. They’re comparable to Christmas movies in the sense that they both evoke holiday spirit in their audiences, but Halloween films are special because there are far less of them. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of cheesy Hallmark movies and could probably recite every word of “Elf ” by memory, but the limited selection of Halloween movies gives each one their own spooky flair. “Corpse Bride” is, in classic Tim Burton style, hauntingly beautiful.

The colorscape of the movie feels almost physically chilling, with everything appearing in muted shades of gray and blue. I found that the soundtrack and character design, along with the simple love story at its core, gave the film an eerily romantic tone. Because of this, viewers can’t help but empathize with the characters, no matter how great their faults may be. “Corpse Bride” never fails to send a chill down my spine, and perfectly sets the mood for the cooler autumn nights to come.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 | 9

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 10/14/2021

CROSSWORD Answer to previous puzzle 10/14/2021

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

reduce. reuse. recycle.

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10 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

LECTURERPROTESTS

MAMMOGRAMS

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Protesting lecturers also brought attention to the contacts they sign with the university. Those under the continuing contract have security in their work, but many lecturers are hired as part time. At UC Davis, lecturers teach 30% of undergraduate credit hours, and a quarter of UC lecturers — whatever the reason — do not return to their jobs each year.

“Getting the strong contract we’re after will benefit students,” Rodger said. “Having teachers and mentors that don’t stick around because they don’t tend to last in the UC system more than two years on average is going to directly impact the quality of students’ educations. It’s going to directly impact the course of our lives and the livelihoods of our families. It’s also going to impact, frankly, the state. People who don’t work full time and can’t earn a livable wage end up

utilizing state resources to support them. So it’s good for all if we have a better contract.”

According to the lecturers who turned out to call for more action and greater consideration of their demands, they participate in these demonstrations with their students in mind.

“I love my job so much,” Cassie Hemstrom, a continuing lecturer for UWP, said. “I think that the teaching we do here at this school is amazing, and we’re a world-class institution. Our students expect to see a world-class education they’re paying for. It’s a promise that we’ve made to them, and we need to make sure we can keep that promise, but we can’t do that if the UC is constantly moving us out of our jobs, shifting us around, giving us only part-time work and undercutting the promise they’re making to students.”

COVID19POLICIES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Some classes have mandatory attendance and graded participation, and with the lack of hybrid options, quarantined students would not be able to attend.

“While they are required to be in isolation, they are not permitted to attend classes or access campus facilities, so this would be considered an excused absence if professors are requiring in-person participation,” Jennifer Butler, the director of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications, said.

Although students are given an excused absence, academic challenges may arise due to missed course material.

“If students experience academic challenges due to the impact of Quarantine or Isolation, they should contact their academic advisor,” the Quarantine and Isolation page states.

Advising offices on campus are giving students the option of virtual and in-person appointments.

“We are offering all L&S students the choice of in-person and virtual academic advising appointments,” said Mark Foncannon, the interim co-director of Undergraduate Education and Advising at the College of Letters and Science. “Students who are quarantining or have otherwise not passed the [daily symptom survey] will be routed to a remote appointment (if scheduled for an in-person appointment) or our virtual front desk for drop-in assistance.”

Another option to assist with academic struggles is to attend virtual appointments with the Academic Assistance and Tutoring Centers (AATC).

During this time, professors are encouraged to be forgiving with policies for quarantined students.

“A good practice would be to encourage students to have a back-up plan in the event they can’t attend classes,” the Classroom Instruction webpage on Campus Ready website states.

Answer to previous puzzle 10/07/2021

The Oct. 14 issue of The California Aggie included the wrong crossword solution. These are the correct answers for the crossword featured in the Oct. 7 issue.

Appointments are available on a first-come, first-served basis on select Saturdays in October, and the mammograms will be done at the UC Davis Health Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center.

Stephanie Winn, the senior public information officer at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, emphasized that Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the free screening program specifically, are even more important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Women have put off getting their routine mammograms and [we’re] concerned pandemicrelated delays will have dire consequences,” Winn said via email. “Breast cancer caught early is easier to treat, but if left undiagnosed it can prove fatal.”

Winn went on to offer some statistics about how pandemic screening delays may prove dangerous.

“The National Cancer Institute predicts almost 10,000 people will die from breast and colorectal cancer alone over the next decade because a third of adults have failed to get recommended cancer screenings during the pandemic,” Winn said.

Shakeri talked about why she believes this screening opportunity is so important.

“We want to raise awareness regarding the lifesaving potential [of ] mammograms to detect breast cancer early when it is most treatable,” Shakeri said. “We aim to facilitate the process

of getting screening mammograms for women, in particular for uninsured and underserved women.”

She went on to describe how collaborative the project has been.

“We have been working on this project for several months which requires support from multiple resources to make it possible,” Shakeri said. “We’ve partnered with our colleagues in finance and advertising, as well as identifying a clinic environment for patients who may need follow-up examinations.”

She concluded by reminding people of the significance of the month, emphasizing why they chose to offer the free screenings during October.

“There is no better time to offer this program than during Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” Shakeri said.

To schedule an appointment, please call (916) 7346145 and ask to book an appointment for a free Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) screening mammogram. Spanish-speaking representatives are available. Appointments are required and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Patients needing follow-up care will be referred to their primary care provider or other health care provider.

Free mammograms are offered for eligible, uninsured patients. For insured individuals, UC Davis Health will bill the insurer for the provided screening services, as appropriate.

SENATE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 Senate Resolution #2 passed unanimously.

Senate Resolution #3 passed unanimously.

Senate Bill #4 passes with a 9-3-0 vote.

Senate Bill #12 passed unanimously.

Constitutional Amendment #72 passed unanimously.

Martinez Hernandez adjourned the meeting at 10:48 p.m.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021 | 11

UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER FACULTY RESPOND TO THE RISE OF TREATEMENTS LIKE MERCK’S ANTI-COVID PILL Merck’s pill, molnupiravir, shows reductions of hospitalizations and deaths by 50% CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

BY YAN YAN HUSTIS HAYES city@theaggie.org Over a year and a half into the pandemic, with sweeping changes to the standard of living along with distressing upward trends of illness, hospitalizations and deaths, recent developments of treatments such as Merck’s anti-COVID pill offer hope toward a return to the status quo.

According to an article in The Sacramento Bee, “Pharmaceutical company Merck took the internet by storm when it announced Friday morning that findings from a recent study showed its experimental oral pill molnupiravir reduced COVID-19 related hospitalizations and deaths by 50%.”

Dr. Christian Sandrock, a trained infectious disease pulmonary critical care doctor at the UC Davis Medical Center, discussed the current state of the pandemic as being dominated by “downward trends in new cases by about 20% from where it was two weeks ago.” However, he highlighted that “hot spots” of cases remain in certain states and areas within the U.S. where vaccination rates are not as high as in California.

With the advent of continuing trials for new

treatments against COVID-19, a multi-faceted approach is necessary to reduce the impact of the pandemic, according to Dr. Rachael Callcut, the division chief of trauma and acute care surgery at the UC Davis Medical Center. Part of this approach, aside from initial prevention of the disease and treating the virus itself, includes risk mitigation and decreasing the chances of hospitalization by preventing the development of severe illness arising from the coronavirus.

“This particular oral agent is targeted at people who are at risk of developing severe illness from the virus, and it is something to be given early in the course of illness to try to prevent the development of complications,” Callcut said. “I would say that this is sort of analogous to the approaches that you see with things like pills that we give to patients who have influenza to try to prevent them from developing complications of influenza.”

Merck’s study is important to altering the current landscape of the pandemic and its ferocious impact on the global population in the past year. In the same vein, Sandrock summarized the promising results of the pill and its significance proceeding toward a hopeful end

to the pandemic.

“The data looks promising: the trial had just about a little over 350 people in each arm so, not whopping numbers but still reasonably high, and the key is the major endpoints of hospitalization and death were certainly down,” Sandrock said. “So I think that the big thing is it can be taken orally, and this changes the landscape to something that is a single pill.”

Other current treatments include the administration of monoclonal antibodies to the patient to combat the virus, and maintaining a steady supply of this product is relatively more costly in terms of price and time, according to Sandrock. For individuals who live further away and have little to no access to healthcare, reducing hospitalizations is key to facilitating a return to the status quo. With Merck’s antiCOVID pill, it has the potential to drastically reduce the burdens of both the patient and the medical professional.

“Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic has fostered collaboration among drug developers, academic medical and research centers as well as supportive funding agencies,” Dr. Allison Brashear, the dean of the UC Davis School of

Medicine, said. “UC Davis School of Medicine, renowned for its research expertise, is a trusted partner on many COVID-19 clinical trials at the forefront of efforts to cure this terrible disease.”

Callcut’s lab is also involved in one of the many ongoing clinical trials, working with mesenchymal stromal cells, cells that are stemcell like that aid in regeneration of damaged lung cells and reducing inflammation associated with acute respiratory disorders caused by viruses like COVID-19.

Hope is on the horizon for individuals actively fighting the pandemic with the race toward developing treatments attacking all realms of the virus. Callcut echoed this sentiment, encouraging the continual efforts in enforcing public health safety and support.

“There’s got to be a multi-faceted approach that resides on the principles of our public health initiatives, and the first is prevention of illness,” Callcut said. “One of the most effective strategies for that is vaccinations, specifically investing in increasing vaccination education and administering vaccines. These types of measures will be our most important defenses in leading to the end of the pandemic.”

PODCASTING RESEARCH: KNOWLEDGE MADE ACCESSIBLE Researchers share experiences in presenting their work through podcasts

BY VICTORIA MCJUNKIN science@theaggie.org The British Journal of Educational Technology advocates for podcasts as a valid channel for putting forth research, as the medium boasts a host of benefits for researchers hoping to communicate their work beyond academic journals and those who are already plugged into the literature. Storytelling and immersive audio qualities inherent to podcasts add a personalized dimension to research, allowing experts to explain it in a way that renders knowledge digestible to more general audiences.

UC Davis graduate student Ashley Teodorson-Taggart echoed these notions in a talk she gave in a series called “PhD Unlimited: Podcasting the Humanities.”

“There’s long been a feeling that podcasting is a cool and interesting form of production, but it’s not necessarily considered legitimate within academia,” Taggart said. “If you’re publishing a journal article or you’re writing a book, that is considered in a very different light than, for example, if you’re producing a podcast.”

Taggart works in performance studies, which is a field that examines how social and cultural conditions influence human expression and the construction of knowledge.

“We’re really interested in questioning knowledge production — questioning its form and the methods, and how we can be creative and effective at communicating our research,” Taggart said. “So podcasting becomes a really interesting sort of venue because it speaks to some of the benefits of new media, allowing knowledge to be more accessible, and for us to disseminate it more easily.”

Taggart’s talk focused around podcasting the humanities, but the implications for the medium can be extended to all areas of expertise; podcast production requires minimal equipment, available to any field interested in utilizing it.

When it comes to scientific research, podcasting can help in making technical information more digestible.

“So often when we’re reading scientific research, there is this sort of distance between the reader and what you’re reading — the data creates a space there,” Taggart said. “What podcasting allows is for some of that same research to be shared with a human voice behind it, and I think that that makes it a lot more accessible. I think that there really are some incredible opportunities to not only increase engagement with research but to really draw people in and allow them to connect in a more, sort of human way.”

Dr. Charan Ranganath, the head of UC Davis’ Dynamic Memory Lab, drew on his podcasting experiences to advocate for the medium.

“I’ve done quite a few podcast interviews now — I have been at UC Davis since 2002, and for much of that time print media, radio, and TV were the main vehicles for science communication,” Ranganath said via email. “But over the past few years, podcasts have become an amazing way to reach people, and now there are

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

many intelligent, thoughtful, and fun podcasts that can help us get our message out to the public.”

Ranganath was featured on the “Every Little Thing” podcast in May this year, brought on as a memory expert to answer questions like ‘Did that memory really happen?’ In the episode, he suggested tips to a live caller in order to figure out the legitimacy of a specific memory.

“That was fun,” Ranganath said via email. “It was not about my research per se, they really were talking to me as an expert on memory, and that’s fine because I’m actually writing a book for the general public about how memory works.”

Right now, Ranganath and the Memory Lab are studying how we use our memories to make sense of the present and plan for the future. They are also working on projects that track the trajectory of memory over one’s lifetime and over the course of Alzheimer’s Disease.

As Ranganath’s research begins to develop computational models to reverse engineer the brain, figuring out computational solutions and communicating these steps pose challenges for general communication.

“In general, I find that the challenge to science communication is that, as a scientist, you have to get deep into a topic in order to make progress, but for the general public, most

of the things we have to work through are not particularly interesting,” Ranganath said via email. “So you have to keep it simple and have a punchy message while still doing justice to the science.”

However, podcasts hold the potential to preserve the integrity of the information.

“On conventional TV, radio, or print media, you can talk with someone for hours and everything is reduced to a few soundbites or phrases,” Ranganath said via email. “With podcasts, I generally find that there is more of an exchange of ideas. Podcasters generally have a great deal of curiosity, so they are really excited to talk, and I find they can ask some really interesting and thought-provoking questions.”

Justin Cox, the communications director of the UC Davis-funded SeaDoc Society — a scientifically-based organization with the goal of affecting change whether by inspiring people or influencing policy, discovered just that when he launched its podcast “Pod of Orcas” in the middle of the pandemic. When science nights at a local theater were canceled, Cox was inspired to create the podcast instead of attempting to replicate an in-person event.

“It felt like an opportunity to tell the full, cohesive story about this specific endangered species,” Cox said. “The logic was this: in

addition to the people we get listening to it now, it will continue to exist. It almost feels like a book you can pick up and read over and over.”

The series consists of seven episodes of 40 to 60 minutes each. Cox spoke with a variety of guests who are experts in different topics. Here, science experts collaborated with communicators to create knowledge for the average listener.

“I don’t have that deep, deep level of expertise, but I think I was uniquely positioned to try to be a person that knows enough to ask good questions, and then maybe make this accessible beyond that bubble,” Cox said. “I think it’s smart enough and scientifically sound enough for it to be worth something that a scientific organization can produce, but also something that anyone could share with anybody, and they can learn about it.”

“The podcast fits into that in that it’s education and inspiration, and it’s meeting people where they are at,” Cox said. “And in making it, you just kind of take it one step at a time and hope the thing that you’re making at the end is good. I think that’s a beautiful thing about a lot of online media, but podcasting especially — there’s a low barrier of entry, which means there’s going to be a lot of bad stuff, but it also means anyone can try to make something that’s good too.

12 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS UC DAVIS FOOTBALL CELEBRATES HOMECOMING WITH A BLOWOUT WIN AGAINST NORTHERN COLORADO The Aggies spectacular defensive effort allowed 3 points in their homecoming win while improving their record to 6-1

BY MARLON ROLON sports@theaggie.org After suffering their first loss of the season last week, UC Davis rebounded with their stout defense leading the way, securing the homecoming victory 32-3 over Northern Colorado. It was not all smooth sailing however, as the Aggies offensive line had four sacks while junior quarterback Hunter Rodrigues threw two interceptions.

Prior to homecoming, Rodrigues struggled in the last two games completing less than 50% of his passes, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.

“In this league, guys just show us different looks every single week so we [have] got to be ready to adjust on the fly,” Rodrigues said. “We weren’t really expecting that much pressure. They weren’t a high pressure team going into this week.”

The Bears aggressive defense had Rodrigues scrambling early.

Northern Colorado’s defense forced Rodrigues into making bad decisions. With 9:28 remaining in the first quarter, Rodrigues snapped the ball and under threw his receiver, Carson Crawford.

The following play, Rodrigues operated from the shotgun, but Northern Colorado’s defensive pressure led Rodrigues to scramble out the pocket causing a poor throw behind his receiver’s shoulder.

With 9:17 left to play in the first quarter, Rodrigues started the play from the shotgun formation. He immediately scrambled out of the pocket trying to evade the sack while uncharacteristically throwing it into traffic and was easily picked off by the Bears linebacker Jace Bobo.

“It’s very interesting in this league you don’t always get exactly maybe what you thought you were going to coming in,” Coach Dan Hawkins said. “They did a few extra things there that gave us some issues. They got some good edge players there.”

The Bears looked to be in control during the first quarter, however, on 4th & 2UC Davis stopped the Bears running back Gene Sledge Jr., converting a turnover on downs. That particular play swung the momentum in favor of the home team, the Aggies offense suddenly looked alive.

Rodrigues, once again operating in the pistol formation, motioned to freshman running back Lan Larison, threw him a short pass in which he ran for 49 yards after the catch. Larison was elusive in evading defenders left and right, nearly scoring a touchdown. However, a late tackle inside the 25 yard line stopped him from scoring.

Northern Colorado’s defense kept breaking through to once again sack Rodrigues for a five yard loss. Eventually the Aggies settled for a 34 yard field goal attempt, kicker Isaiah Gomez missed the three point attempt, turning the ball over on downs.

In the second quarter, UCD made adjustments on offense.

As Rodrigues kept feeling the pressure from the Bears ferocious defense, the Aggies turned to their run game with star running back Ulonzo Gilliam Jr., leading the charge.

“Obviously we got some guys banged up on the o-line, so some guys stepped up allowing us to run the ball.” Rodrigues said.

“When we get the run game going, I think everything kind of opens up.”

The game clock read 10:12 during the second quarter, with Rodrigues handing the ball off to Gilliam Jr., as he sped across the field running through defenders for a 17 yard gain. The power run jolted the home crowd as UC Davis Health Stadium was as loud as ever. Gilliam Jr., rushed two more times for a combined 21 yards. The rushing attack led to Rodrigues throwing a touchdown to Jared Harrell off a quick slant at the goal line that was good for six points.

Instead of going for the extra point, the Aggies opted to go for the two point conversion with Trent Thompkins, also known as the “Magic Man.” Thompkins indeed showed off his magic as he effortlessly ran into the endzone putting the Aggies up 8-0.

Northern Colorado was looking to answer back on 3rd & 2 as they lined up on the power formation making it obvious they were going to run the ball. The Bears quarterback, Dyla McCaffrey had a miscommunication with the offense when he attempted to hand

UC Davis Football team run into UC Davis Health stadium. (Benjamin Cheng / Aggie) the ball off and fumbled in the process. The 360-pound redshirt freshmen Chubba Maae recovered the ball for the Aggies eliciting loud cheers from the crowd.

UC Davis continued to feed Gilliam Jr. the ball as he rushed in three consecutive plays gaining 23 yards to put the Aggies in successful field goal range. The score was 11-0 with six minutes remaining in the second quarter.

Coach Hawkins spoke about Gilliam Jr’s., production.

“He gets banged up a lot and he always has shoulder or ribs, he always has something but he never misses, never says anything he just keeps producing,” Hawkins said. “He doesn’t care if you give it to him 50 times, five times, he does what he can do and it’s really great having a guy like that. He loves to win, he loves to compete and he works at it.”

The Bears offense was no match to UCD’s defense, gaining only 10 yards in seven plays. Ultimately, Northern Colorado punted the ball back with the second quarter coming to a close.

Rodrigues finished the half with 122 yards, passing on 15 attempts. completing nine passes with one touchdown and one interception. Gilliam Jr., who added 63 yards on the ground with nine attempts, averaging seven yards per carry. Larison caught three passes for 63 yards and Crawford caught two passes for 51 yards.

To start the third quarter, UCD was intercepted off a tipped pass, making that the second interception Rodrigues threw for the night. However, Northern Colorado could not generate anything on offense, punting the ball back after three plays and only gaining six yards.

UC Davis focused on the run game utilizing Gilliam Jr., Thompkins, Larison and Crawford. Eventually, Tompkins swapped in as quarterback, playing off the shotgun formation. The “magic man” easily ran into the endzone for a five yard touchdown putting the Aggies up 18-0 with 2:44 remaining in the third quarter.

Northern Colorado could not find any sort of rhythm as they were forced to take more shots down the field by throwing the ball. The Bears quarterback McCaffrey attempted a short pass on first down as he darted a pass the ball was deflected and ultimately picked off by Erron Duncan for the Aggies.

When asked about the defensive effort Rodrigues said, “They played lights out, they got us good field position almost every single drive.”

UC Davis fed off the crowd’s roaring cheers as the defense sucked the life out of Northern Colorado’s offense. The third quarter came to a close, with the Aggies ground game eating up

the clock with 19 rushing attempts that was good for 81 yards. UC Davis dominated the time of possession with 10:33, meanwhile the Bears only had the ball for 4:33 during that span.

UC Davis opened the fourth quarter rushing the ball and mixing in throws to eventually land on the four-yard line. Once again, Tompkins was swapped in as quarterback. He bulldozed his talents into the endzone putting UCD up 25-0. Northern Colorado looked defeated and exhausted on the field making the game look too easy for a hungry UC Davis team.

The Bears looked like they wanted to leave UC Davis Health Stadium by running the ball to let the clock continue to run down.

They scored a field goal on a 44-yard attempt to avoid a shutout making it 25-3. The game turned into an all out rushing attack by both teams in an attempt to run out the clock.

The Aggies running back, redshirt freshman, Larison gained valuable game time experience by rushing six times in a row gaining 33 yards in the process and a touchdown to put the game away 32-3.

UC Davis’ defense allowed 11 first downs throughout the game while Northern Colorado allowed 24. UC Davis outgained the Bears with 398 total offense yards while allowing 254 yards.

“We have a good football team. I do think our defense played pretty well,” Hawkins said. “We were not being as productive as we wanted to offensively but our defense continued to play great.”

Rodrigues finished the game with 187 passing yards, completing 16 of 26 of his passes with one touchdown and two interceptions.

He was also sacked four times and pressured throughout the game.

Running back Gilliam Jr. rushed 22 times with 107 yards and 4.7 yards per carry.

The game came to a conclusion as the Aggies turned in a dominating performance in front of their home crowd.

“There’s a lot of ways you can measure a football team in the season. One of the ways I particularly measure a team is not losing two games in a row and I think that’s a credit to the staff and credit to the kids to pick themselves up,” Hawkins said. “That’s part of life, that’s part of football too. It’s okay if you got knocked down, you got skinned up, pick yourself up and keep going. Let’s not feel sorry for ourselves, so it was a good life lesson and a good football lesson.”

With the win, UCD improved their record to 6-1 after a disappointing loss last week to Idaho State. UC Davis hopes to ride the momentum into next week when they face off against the 1-5 Cal Poly.

HOMECOMING PHOTO GALLERY A collection of photos taken by The Aggie’s photographers from the UC Davis homecoming football game on Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021.

Photo by Benjamin Cheng.

Photo by Quinn Spooner.

Photo by Benjamin Cheng.

Photo by Quinn Spooner.

Photo by Benjamin Cheng.

Photo by Benjamin Cheng.

Photo by Benjamin Cheng.

Photo by Kayla Brucknan.

Photo by Benjamin Cheng.