THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE VOLUME 133, ISSUE 13 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2014
SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915
B R I A N N G U Y E N | AG G I E
Students bow their heads in front of the MU during afternoon prayers.
An Islamic State of Mind comes to UC Davis Muslim students from West Coast universities celebrate annual conference
RITIKA IYER features@theaggie.org
Over 1,000 people from all parts of the West Coast joined the UC Davis Muslim Student Association (MSA) on campus from Jan. 17 to 19 for the 16th annual MSA West Conference. Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi attended the conference opening ceremonies the evening of Jan. 17, welcoming students with a speech celebrating the University’s diversity. “First of all, I think this conference provides a very safe environment for students to have a dialogue about important issues,” Katehi said. “Sometimes the issues are very difficult to discuss, but I believe these are the right ways and right environments where difficult discussions can
take place and where people, through respect for each other, can develop trust for each other and can have safe dialogues that eventually can lead into some important solutions.” The MSA on campus was founded by students in the 1970s, but was officially recognized by ASUCD in the ’90s. “Our main goal is to have a safe haven for Muslim students on campus, and for community members to learn about Islam,” said third-year community and regional development major and MSA president Maheen Ahmed. “We want students to understand our religion, culture and our ethnicities to promote interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.” MSA West, an umbrella organization managing 31 individual MSAs
Davis finds knack for novelty Toad tunnel, endangered pot� holes, Ted the Titan preserve historic quirks
from universities across the west coast, helped manage the conference in conjunction with the UC Davis organization. “With this conference, we are able to have more students learn about the Muslim Student Association and create greater awareness for Muslim students on campus,” Ahmed said. “Even though it is an MSA event, the fact that it is held here makes it open to all UC Davis students.” Although the conference is held at a different university each year, this is the third year the Davis community has hosted. The University held the event in 2002 and 2009 as well. “I think it’s great for UC Davis to be able to host this conference, I mSA on 3
UC receives increased funding, still falls short of needs State’s proposed budget aims to bolster funding to education
SYDNEY COHEN city@theaggie.org
LUJAIN AL-SALEH features@theaggie.org
Often associated with bikes, big red buses and cows, Davis was once claimed to be America’s Weirdest City in the satirical Weekly World News. The town is home to peculiar urban legends, like historic potholes and Ted the Titan, and distinctive sites like the famous toad tunnel and Baggins End. The concept of a toad tunnel first sprang about when the city was in the process of building an overpass by Pole Line Road in 1994. “Helping the toads to find a happy little habitat was the intention,” said John McNerney, the wildlife resource specialist of the City of Davis. “The main idea is that they would encounter earthen berm.” Community members such as Julie Partansky, who later became the mayor of Davis, were concerned that toads would be inevitably mashed in the process of their hippity-hopping across the overpass. After much deliberation, Partanksy convinced
the Davis City Council to build an approximately 220-foot long corridor tunnel with an 18-inch diameter of corrugated steel pipe. According to McNerney, the core area detention basin was home to at least two different species of amphibians, the Western Toad and the Pacific Tailed Frog. “Although [the Western Toad] was not threatened or endangered, there was a general concern about the global decline of amphibians,” McNerney said. Word of the tunnel spread shortly after it was built, and it eventually appeared on “The Daily Show” in 1999. Though “The Daily Show” claimed that the project cost $20,000, McNerney said it was $2,000, and not a substantial amount of taxpayer money. He also, however, recalled that some people in the community doubted the effectiveness of the tunnel and whether it would actually work. Over time, McNerney has sampled the local
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget for the 201415 year includes a 5 percent increase of funding to the University of California (UC) system, a shortfall from what the UC Regents requested from the state during their budget meeting in November. The proposed budget leaked to the Sacramento Bee on Jan. 8 and Brown confirmed the budget in a press release the next day. The UC Regents expressed in the November 2013 budget meeting an aim for an additional $120.9 million in addition to the 5 percent, or $142 million increase. "We're putting $10 billion into the schools of California after years of drought and cutbacks and pink slips for teachers,'' Brown said in a press conference, the day after the budget was leaked. Of the 5 percent increase, the proposed budget apportions $50 million for Awards for Innovation in Higher Education, a program that sets out to increase the number of people in California that have bachelors degrees, allows for students to complete degrees in four years from the time of enrollment and eases the transfer of community college students to fouryear universities. In addition to increased funding on schools, Brown’s budget also increased spending on K-12 education, correctional departments and rehabilitation and healthcare. It also includes a rainy day fund of $1.6 billion, to building back the state’s reserves. The California Teacher’s Association said in a statement, “This budget will allow local school districts to continue to restore critical programs and provide the
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