February 2, 2023

PETA-backed youth organization protests UC Davis researchers’ experimentation on captive primates

The student organization “Students Opposing Speciesism” organized a demonstration on the quad where protestors wore monkey masks and sat in cages

BY MADELEINE YOUNG campus@theaggie.org

On Jan. 26, student activists with the PETA-backed youth organization Students Opposing Speciesism (SOS) gathered on the UC Davis campus for a demonstration opposing the use of animals in research at the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), which is an off-campus research unit associated with UC Davis.

The center houses over 4,000 primates, according to their website. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a recent press release that the experimentation done has in some cases resulted in the animals’ deaths.

Before the demonstration, SOS and other participants gathered on the A Street field at 11:15 a.m. and began to march toward the quad at noon with banners, live music and chanting.

The protest featured demonstrators dressed in monkey masks, locked in cages and thrashing against the cages before being doused in fake blood. Susana Soto, an organizer with the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere, talked about the rally.

“We are doing [this] to

Students protest the UC Davis Primate Research Center in the Quad. (Katie DeBenedetti / Aggie) rallying her peers to demand that the lab be shut down.

speak up about the inhumane research being done on monkeys at the school,” Soto said. “It’s such a savage thing to do; we’re in 2023 and still doing this.”

Kara Long, a fourth-year psychology major and the host and organizer of the event, said that she has worked with not only SOS but also Davis Organization for Animal Advocacy, in hopes of

“The CNPRC run by UC Davis imprisons over 5,000 monkeys for use in cruel and deadly experiments that do not benefit students,” Long said. “We are trying to raise awareness of their abuse and come up with alternative methods of scientific research that do

Peet’s Coffee in North Davis becomes the first location to unionize

After historic union vote, North Davis organizers say that the movement continues

BY ANTHONY W. ZAMMIKIEL city@theaggie.org

outside

North

DONATE TO THE AGGIE On Jan. 23, the North Davis Peet’s Coffee location announced in a press release that the employees at the location voted 14-1 in favor of unionization. The National Labor Relations Board certified the election, making the location the first of the chain to unionize.

The news comes nine months after workers at the North Davis location began collaborating with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 121 and Workers United, a prounion organization that has contributed to Starbucks unionizations throughout the nation, according to the press release.

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The release states that “The election, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, takes place against a backdrop of renewed union organizing, alongside regional victories like unionized Starbucks Corporation stores in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz.”

In the press release, Trinity Salazar, a barista at the North Davis Peet’s location, shared what unionizing means to them.

“This is the first time in my entire life that I feel I can stay in a job and be happy,” Salazar said. “We are all struggling, and we came together. Now, we’re more united. We have every right to be able to say how much we’re being paid, or at least negotiate it. If you’re sick, you’re sick. The company does not

when I am twenty-one years

old. I’m literally twenty-one with back problems because of coffee.” Alyx Land, a shift lead with the North Davis location, also discussed the difficulties of working without union representation in the press release.

“It’s the norm in the coffee business to have bare-bones staffing,” Land said. “Management puts the minimum amount of people they can get away with on the floor. Then we have to do a difficult job when we have a line out the door and mobile-order stickers down the counter. It’s really exhausting. I’m excited at what unionizing could do for our entire industry. I want to see our work become more sustainable because I am passionate about what I do and want to keep doing what I do. However, I cannot realistically keep doing this without having more protections and a more sustainable workplace.”

Organizers have shared that success with their election will not conclude organizing efforts for other Peet’s Coffee locations. Peet’s union leaders held a rally on Saturday, Jan. 28 at the North Davis location to help gain momentum.

Employees at the North Davis location continue to encourage community involvement with organizing efforts, and for community members to come into the store to express their support. The union plans to conduct member surveys to determine what workers’ needs are and to elect representatives for the location during future negotiations with Peet’s management.

not involve the use of nonhuman animals.”

First-year undeclared fine arts major Daphne Boyd was one of the students who witnessed the protest and voiced her thoughts on the situation.

“I had no idea that this was going on,” Boyd said. “I heard there was a primate [research center], but we’re

world renowned for the vet school, so I thought that it was such an animal-loving campus that we wouldn’t be involved in this. Small protests like the one today are a step forward to get the word out and to reach more people.”

Students, Davis leaders

hold candlelight vigil downtown after multiple mass shootings

in California

In wake of the Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay shootings, local activists call for federal gun reform

BY CHRIS PONCE city@theaggie.org

Content Warning: gun violence

On Jan. 26 at 8 p.m. organizers with Yolo County Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action at UC Davis and the Davis Phoenix Coalition held a candlelight vigil in Central Park in response to recent gun violence in California.

The vigil came in response to the Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay shootings, which happened in the span of a week. While given a short amount of time to organize, the “Community Vigil and Call to Action” had a large turnout.

Roan Thibault, a first-year political science public service major, is organizing a Students Demand Action chapter at UC Davis. He quickly organized the vigil with Davis District Four Councilmember Gloria Partida and Yolo County Moms Demand Action. Thibault shared his reaction to the shootings.

“I’m really just grieving with the rest of the state,” Thibault said. “It’s a state that I deeply love, a state that we all deeply love. And to see this kind of tragedy, this completely preventable tragedy, I just felt like something needed to be done about it. [We needed] somewhere we can gather and process our emotions and also somewhere we can have a call to action.”

Partida, who is the chair of the Davis Phoenix Coalition, introduced

speakers and organizers at the vigil — which included county supervisors and student activists. Partida encouraged those in attendance to notice which elected officials showed up to the vigil.

“It’s really important that you note which of your elected officials are here in moments like this,” Partida said. “Because those are the people that you want to vote for, and this is the way that you are going to get some change to happen. [It] is by making sure that people are in power that are reflective of the values that are important to you.”

Partida then introduced Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) members of the Davis Phoenix Coalition to speak at the vigil, stating that she believed it would be more impactful to hear from them. Anoosh Jorjorian, the director of Yolo Rainbow Families, a group within the Davis Phoenix Coalition, spoke about how her identity impacted her reaction to the shootings.

“Here we are again, we have had more mass shootings this year than we have had days in the year,” Jorjorian said. “And, my heart hurts so much that the shooting in Monterey Park was committed by a member of our own community. And my heart hurts that the shooting in Half Moon Bay was committed by a member of my community.”

GUNVIGIL on 7

Peet’s Coffee Workers labor union rally

the

Davis Peet’s Coffee location. (Jersain Medina / Aggie)

Student-run organizations present plans to combat housing insecurity

ASUCD senators, chairpersons and other campus leaders highlight their focus on promoting housing affordability as the search for next year’s housing begins

BY LILY FREEMAN campus@theaggie.org

As next year’s impending search for student housing quickly approaches, several student-run organizations have placed an emphasis on promoting housing advocacy campus-wide.

The re-establishment of the Aggie Housing Advocacy Committee (AHAC), an external ASUCD committee, marks major ASUCD efforts to increase affordable housing for students, according to their mission statement. ASUCD

Senator Priya

Talreja, a fourth-year environment policy analysis and planning major, explained the goals of AHAC, as she is currently spearheading the revival of the organization.

“The AHAC aims to address housing insecurity in the city of Davis,” Talreja said. “[It] will serve as a hub for all housing advocacy on campus, organize student voices at the university, city, county and state levels of government and will partner with other local housing advocates, such as Aggie House.”

Talreja went on to detail AHAC’s

past projects before it became inactive in fall 2022. Previously, the organization wrote legislation, such as ASUCD Senate Resolution #28, which called on the city of Davis to implement plans to make housing more affordable. She also described their efforts to increase pedestrian-, cyclist- and transit-friendly infrastructure in Davis.

AHAC is currently in the process of hiring its new chair, according to Talreja, but once the position is filled, the organization plans to find more ways to increase housing affordability as the time to sign leases for the next school

year approaches. Mehalet Shibre, a third-year political science and cinema and digital media double major and chairperson of the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission at UC Davis, has also been at the forefront of revitalizing AHAC.

“After deliberations with the past Housing Committee Chair, Chairperson Lopez, Senator Talreja and I determined the committee needs a more precise focus,” Shibre said. “This new housing committee will pay special attention to effective transportation along with housing advocacy.”

Shrey Gupta, a first-year computer science major and an interim ASUCD senator, said that increasing housing advocacy is a goal on every senator’s mind.

“We need to work with student housing and third-party apartment complexes to make living on or off campus more affordable,” Gupta said. “I want to work with student housing to improve amenities like increased water bottle fillers or more reliable laundry services. These are concerns that need to be addressed, and we are hoping to fix them through future legislation.”

In addition to the re-establishment of AHAC, members of Davis College Democrats (DCD) have also been increasing their lobbying efforts for legislation that addresses local housing issues. Zaid Arroyos, a third-year political science major and a member of DCD, explained the organization’s goals when it comes to affordable housing.

“We were lobbying for Senator [Scott] Wiener’s Senat Bill (SB) #4,” Arroyos said. “This bill essentially streamlines the process of building affordable housing.”

Arroyos highlighted UC Berkeley’s housing crisis last year, explaining that the school had to freeze thousands of admissions because of a lawsuit in which residents sued the university for violating the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). SB #4 would override CEQA, according to Arroyos, so that universities have fewer hurdles to jump through when it comes to creating more housing.

“I feel like what happened in Berkeley last year would’ve been a living nightmare for most college students, and that’s what makes this bill so personal to us,” Arroyos said. “It might seem scary to go talk to your representatives, but at the end of the day, that is literally their job, and they’re more than happy to hear from you. Making sure your voice is heard directly should really be treated as normally as any other civic duty.”

Aggie Icons: The history of UC Davis campus architecture that students know and love

How our agricultural roots and ever-changing history is reflected in our campus buildings

BY REBEKA ZELJKO features@theaggie.org

The UC Davis campus has grown tremendously since its founding in 1908, according to the UC Davis website. Over the last century, the campus has developed from a small agricultural branch of UC Berkeley to a leading university with over 35,000 students.

All of this history can be seen in glimpses throughout our campus, with many original buildings retaining the character and iconography that students still resonate with today.

One of these many iconic buildings is the UC Davis water tower. Kevin Miller, head of archives and special collections and the university archivist, said he thinks the symbolism of the water tower is crucial to the Davis identity.

“Before other things were built, it was really the only thing people would see that would signal there is a university there,” Miller said. “The water tower is like a beacon, you can see it for miles, and that symbolism goes back to our original university history.”

Miller says that the water tower iconography goes hand-in-hand with the Aggie identity. The imagery of the water tower was always embraced by students and the campus culture.

“It was sort of at the center of our campus,” Miller said. “One of the most popular activities during Picnic Day was to climb the water tower and get a 360 view of the campus. There was another time — I think it was around 1928 — when a few students got together in the dead of night [...] and painted the Cal Aggie block symbol. It was this unofficial logo, kind of created and embraced by the students.”

The water tower is a symbol that has followed UC Davis students for generations. Miller said that the structure has always been interconnected with student life on campus.

“All of the college experience was happening under the watch of this water tower,” Miller said. “Students were really attached to the symbol; it became an icon and a point of pride. It was just part of the UC Davis experience.”

Over the last century, three iterations of the water tower were built. According to the water tower exhibition website, the original tower stood from 1908 to 1928, standing at 84 feet tall. In 1922, the mid-century water tower stood at 103 feet tall until it was taken down in 1960. In 1957, the modern towers were built and still stand today at 155 feet tall.

The university’s origins are reflected in other parts of campus as well. Bree Hernandez, a third-year pharmaceutical chemistry major, said she still feels the history around campus.

“You can drive past the vineyards or drive past fields and say hello to the animals on campus,” Hernandez said. “And there’s also a mix of architecture on campus. A lot of it has a very NorCal

and agricultural feel. Dutton Hall has the cool wooden facade next to North and South Halls, which also look like wooden cabins.”

These cabin-like buildings, known as North and South Hall, are among the earliest built on the UC Davis campus. North Hall and South Hall were built in 1908 and 1912, respectively, according to the UC Davis library website. Both originally served as dormitories until they were converted into office buildings in the 1960s.

America Negrete, a fourth-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major, said that the architecture of the original halls is cleverly mirrored in nearby Dutton Hall.

“I really like the look of Dutton Hall and North Hall and how the more modern buildings kind of match the style,” Negrete said. “The outside is very cabin-like and quite different from the other building on campus. It definitely gives off that NorCal feel.” Negrete appreciates the character of the older structures and the quality it adds to the campus.

“The fact that we still have original buildings on campus is something that I love,” Negrete said. “They really stand out and cause students to reflect on how small the university used to be, and how much it’s changed since we were founded.”

The Silo is also original and unique to the campus. Hernandez said these buildings are characteristic of the agricultural background that UC Davis is known for.

“The Silo has such a Davis feel,” Hernandez said. “And it’s close to the barns, which all feel like a nod to our agricultural founding, which I like. It makes the campus feel uniquely Davis.”

Originally built in 1909 as a dairy barn, The Silo was one of the first buildings to be constructed on the university campus, according to the UC Davis website. It was later converted into the dining area we are familiar with in 1965.

“Next time you are in Peet’s Coffee, you can think about our origins,” Miller said. “It’s interesting how we have retained characteristics of certain buildings and reimagined them.”

Other reimagined buildings on campus are The Barn and the Bike Barn, located near The Silo. The Barn was built in 1914 to house beef cattle and was converted into an office space in 1968-1969, according to the UC Davis library website. The Bike Barn was originally constructed in 1916 as a judging pavilion but was later changed into a student repair shop for bikes.

“Since its inception, the Bike Barn has grown and changed with the needs of the growing campus community,” the

ASUCD Bike Barn website states. “In the early 1980s, the Bike Barn invested in a small fleet of rental bikes to cater to campus visitors and exchange students. Over the past three decades, this fleet has grown and evolved from cruisers to hybrid Biria citi bikes with over 115 straight and drop bar frames available.”

One of the most observable examples of Davis’s growth over time is the architecture of Shields Library.

“It’s a huge building that’s a Frankenstein of architectural styles, but it’s reflective of our history,” Miller said. “Depending on what side of the library you are standing outside of, you’re faced with a completely different architectural style.”

The library was built over the course of several decades, according to a timeline on the UC Davis Library website. The first part of the building was completed in 1915 and was replaced by the Reading Room in the 1940s. It was later utilized for training U.S. Army personnel during World War II. The current north wing was completed in 1940. This was followed by the completion of the east wing in 1964, the south wing in 1967 and finally the west wing in 1990. Matthew Conner, a librarian in the Student Services Department and author of “The New University Library: 4 Case Studies,” said the library’s

architecture has changed over time based on the campus’s needs.

“While the Shields Library retains its traditional core of the Reading Room, which sits in the library’s original footprint [...], the rest of the building has followed a more modern vision that influenced library buildings post-war,” Conner said in an email. “Looking to a more dynamic future, libraries were built to be modular and repurposable with partitions that can be added or removed to create new spaces. The library is actively engaged in this continual revision to continue serving the campus in the future.”

The decades of change and transition that the library has experienced are translated into its architecture.

“There’s a sort of art-deco facade facing the quad and a more modern style in other wings,” Miller said. “There’s this sort of square pane motif at the front of the building and in the windows, which coincides with the design style at the time it was built. All of the wings that were added sort of came together in this beautiful area surrounding the quad, with a beautiful turkey oak tree at the center.”

The UC Davis campus as it stands today is rich with tradition, history and diverse style, reflecting our founding and the generations of students that came before us.

Malcolm is one of the freshmen living dorms in the Segundo Residence Halls. (Shanna Punzalan / Aggie)

The ASUCD Bike Barn, founded in 1971, is one of the older buildings on the UC Davis campus. (Isabella Smithsuvan / Aggie)

UC Davis to participate in county universal basic income pilot project

Yolo County Board of Supervisors approves agreement with UC Davis to research Yolo County’s “YOBI” through 2025

BY MADELEINE YOUNG city@theaggie.org

KELLIE LU / AGGIE

Last April, Yolo County launched its universal basic income pilot project titled Yolo County Basic Income (YOBI). YOBI provides families whose income falls below the poverty line throughout Yolo County a stipend each month in hopes of raising them above the county’s poverty line. On Jan. 10, at the Yolo County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board approved an agreement with UC Davis, allowing the university to assist in evaluating the program through interviewing and tracking project outcomes.

UC Davis staff, professors and researchers have already been assisting in the pilot program, but according to the meeting agenda, the university will provide $350,000 by 2025 to research the economical effects of the pilot program. The meeting agenda details the responsibilities the university will have throughout the agreement.

“Under the Research Agreement, Yolo County will partner with the University research team to seek additional funding for more comprehensive analysis, dissemination

One UC Davis advisor’s role in establishing the student retention and community centers

How Kayton Carter advocated for cultural centers that today provide community and resources to underrepresented students

BY MARIA MARTINEZ CASTRO features@theaggie.org

Student community and retention centers on campus are communal spaces where students of color, often the most underserved and underrepresented populations in higher education, can access resources to succeed as scholars and prioritize their well-being.

While centers like the Center for African Diaspora Student Success (CADSS), the Native American Academic Student Success Center (NASSC) and the Center for Chicanx Latinx Academic Student Success (CCLASS) are now part of the normal and natural makeup of UC Davis, that has not always been the case. Their development and establishment is fairly new, as none of the centers have yet to meet their 10-year anniversary.

The journey to establish retention centers for underrepresented students started in 2015 with the opening of CADSS. Kayton Carter, now the Executive Director of Academic Advising Enrichment at UC Davis, is the founding director of CADSS, the campus’s first retention initiative targeting underrepresented student populations.

According to Carter, CADSS was the initial “seed” planted to continue to grow centers to serve other underrepresented communities such as the Chicanx/Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander and Native American communities. Carter is the seed-bearer for CADSS’s establishment and gave the initial push for the establishment of CCLASS and NASSC.

Carter joined UC Davis in 2012 as an academic advisor for the African American Studies Department, but he said that the expectations of this position prevented him from fully addressing student needs.

“In my previous position as an academic advisor for African American Studies, only 50% of my job was dedicated to the major,” Carter said. “So I’m 50% advisor, 50% Student Affairs Officer. The 50% Student Affairs Officer role entailed maintaining a pulse on the retention of the Black student population. And I realized that a task of this magnitude needed to be more than 50% of someone’s position description.”

According to Carter, that is when he began having conversations with colleagues from Native American

Studies, Chicanx Studies and Middle East/South Asian Studies about the declining rates of retention of these student populations.

Carter says that as a graduate student at Michigan State University, he remembered the Office of Minority Student Affairs. He began to question why UC Davis did not have that model for underrepresented students, too.

“The centers have to have a mission,” Carter said. “They have to be, in my opinion, addressing a gap in services, addressing a need within the student population. That gap [is] support services for underperforming students of color to increase [their] retention and graduation rates.”

Carter said that before establishing the physical centers for students to congregate and receive services, he first had to write the African American Strategic Retention Initiative.

“The initiative is what drives the operation of the center,” Carter said.

“The center is that communal space where folks can gather, but what you’re doing in that space is informed by the retention initiative [...] and so the idea in creating those spaces was to designate an office with staff whose sole responsibility was keeping a finger on the pulse of underrepresented populations on this campus.”

In order to meet the goal of providing services for students to grow and thrive academically and personally, centers such as CADSS and CCLASS collaborate with other resource groups on campus to provide services such as tutoring, academic advising and counseling.

“These retention centers are not supposed to do it on their own,” Carter said. “The idea is that when they collaborate, they form a web. The retention centers are at the middle of that web and all of its tentacles, touch the resources on campus, bring them to this space to centralize them so that when a student comes, they can get chemistry tutoring, they can get writing instruction, they can get a mentor [or] they can get food.” Carter said that centers catered to minority students in higher education can give them a sense of familiarity and communal understanding.

“Some of our underrepresented

students are in majors where they don’t see a lot of people that look like them,” Carter said. “So if we could devise a mentoring program, such that, when they’re in those classes of 200 or 300 — and it’s only like four or five of them — they can still come back to a center concept for a place of refuge to kind of regroup, rejuvenate and to collaborate, cross reference, share information, maybe gain some insight.”

Nyla Modeliste, a third-year forensic chemistry major, said that CADSS has been an important aspect of her academic career in gaining community and resources.

“I feel like it’s important because coming to a PWI [predominantly white institution], it’s kind of hard to find people that look like you,” Modeliste said. “Sometimes, that pressure can be so overwhelming to the point where you feel like you can’t really answer questions or can’t ask for help because you feel like, ‘I need to prove myself.’ [...] You have to work twice or thrice as hard. So with those centers, they’ll help you find resources that not many professors will give you right then and there.”

Francisca Dogbe, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, said CADSS has been a space where she feels supported and encouraged throughout her higher education journey.

“I also do think that it’s a good way to have a safe space,” Dogbe said. “It’s nice to have people that you are surrounded by that kind of know or have gone through similar experiences. It’s very empowering that I can be able to achieve greatness and have all of these people that are cheering me on. It’s all coming down to having a really strong support system.”

According to Carter, students are not monolithic and support within higher education goes beyond the academic; it must encompass the full human experience.

“There are no limitations to supporting students because we never know what the students’ needs are,” Carter said. “Your ability to go above and beyond, I think, caters to the success of supporting students. And I think students know the difference. They do.”

of findings, and long-term research goals,” according to the agenda.

Yolo County’s Health and Human Services Agency Director Nolan Sullivan explained that despite universal basic income not being a new concept, Yolo County’s program is unique because it focuses on pulling entire generations out of poverty.

“What we were noticing was the benefit amounts for these families were really low,” Sullivan said. “So through these benefits, we are simply keeping families in what we call functional poverty, which is just enough to keep your mouth above the water, but it’s not really enough to survive or thrive. The thought was: if we can stabilize these families with kids under the age of five for the first couple of formative years, would that make a difference to them throughout the span of their lifetime?”

Families in the program receive a specific amount of money monthly over the course of 24 months depending on their income and the California Poverty Measure, an index created by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, for the county.

“For example, let’s say the California Poverty Measure says the family has to make $2,000 to not live in poverty in Yolo County,” Sullivan said. “If the family makes $1,000, then their basic income grant is $1,001 for the 24-month period. Every family has a different benefit amount, so it’s not just $500 or $300, we are literally pulling families out of poverty in the county for 24 full months.”

The Stockton Seed program, which piloted five years ago, allowed lowincome families to apply for a random lottery with benefits from $300 to $500. That program raised conversations about UBI locally, according to Sullivan. Similarly, Yolo County’s model hopes to promote universal basic income across California.

“The intention behind this pilot is to not only change the lives of the 67 families and hopefully break that cycle of generational poverty,” Sullivan said. “What we’re really hoping to do is inform a larger statewide pilot and inform us on how to help families across California.”

UC Davis team snags first place in UC-wide esports tournament

The Esports club’s Valorant Gold and Blue teams both win big prizes for the Aggies

BY SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org

On Saturday, Jan. 14, the UC Davis Valorant Gold team (Val Gold) placed first in a UC-wide esports competition located in Santa Monica, and the next day, the Valorant Blue team (Val Blue) won in the online Pacific Esports League grand finals. The teams are part of the larger Esports club at UC Davis, which also includes teams that compete in playing Rocket League, Fortnite, Starcraft II, Overwatch and other games.

Valorant is a first-person shooter video game with five players on each team, in which the goal is to plant a “spike” on the other side of the map while simultaneously keeping the other team from doing the same on your side. Val Gold and Val Blue are somewhat equivalent to varsity and junior varsity teams, according to Val Blue Team Captain and fourth-year computer science major Joseph Yousofzai. There is also a Valorant White team at UC Davis, which is an all-women team.

The majority of esports tournaments take place online, Yousofzai explained, with two seasons each year split by semester. Each team plays weekly matches within their league, and depending on how well they do, they can compete in playoff competitions — some of which involve scholarship prize money. Chris Tran, a third-year computer engineering major and the captain of Val Gold, said that all of the UC esports teams were included in an online qualifier for the UC Esports Initiative (UCEI) event, but only the top four were invited to play in-person on Jan. 14 in Santa Monica.

“We were the lowest seed of this tournament, so winning it all, I didn’t expect,” Tran said. “The first team we played was [UC Riverside], which was ranked No. 7 nationally in collegiate esports. So honestly, going into it, I was like top four was pretty good anyways. I felt like we could beat them, but I wasn’t going to beat myself up over it if we couldn’t.”

The tournament was originally arranged as a double-elimination bracket, but Tran said that later the format was changed so that the winners of the semi-finals went straight to the grand finals.

“It kinda worked out for us, if I’m honest,” Tran said. “But I think we would’ve won regardless just because

of how we were feeling that weekend.”

Tran went on to say that the matches were tense, especially with the added pressure of playing in front of a crowd onstage, but that the moment they won made the stress worth it for him.

“We went to a super neck-and-neck overtime match in our second match, so my heart was racing, and there were a lot of emotions,” Tran said. “[But] to see us finally win something like this [...] feels like a culmination of everything we’ve been doing the past two years. To have this happen was honestly beautiful.”

Irwin Dang, a first-year biomedical engineering major on Val Gold, expressed similar feelings about how significant the win was.

“I’m truly proud of where we’ve gotten,” Dang said. “It’s unreal.”

Tran said that having played on the team since his freshman year, he’s enjoyed watching new students like Dang join the team and getting to help them grow as players.

“I really looked up to [my captain] as a role model,” Tran said. “Now looking at the freshman [on the] team, it’s weird because two years ago, I was like [Irwin]. Now he’s calling me old, and that’s what I was doing to my captain two years ago. It feels like deja vu playing with newer people and helping them learn the game and teaching them what I know.”

According to Yousofzai, recruitment for the Valorant teams happens at the very beginning of each school year, with the applications opening up to anyone who has reached certain skill levels within the game and has the time to commit to the team.

“On the surface, it might look like we don’t do a lot and kind of just play video games for fun, but we actually do commit a lot of time throughout the week,” Yousofzai said. “I would say five or six days out of the week we are doing something team-related, whether that’s practicing together, watching over a recording of a previous game or playing in a tournament or a match.”

So what’s next for the team?

“It feels really weird, winning,” Tran said. “You’ve had the moment that you feel like is everything you’ve worked for, and then you’re like, what now? Right now, I want to prove that we’re the best California school — that it wasn’t just a one-off.”

The UC Davis Valorant Gold team holds the trophy and poses for a picture after placing first in the 2023 UC Esports Initiative. (Justin Lu / Courtesy)

OPINION

Pakistani food guide

The best South Asian foods to try other than the “basics”

BY JENA TUFAIL jjtufail@ucdavis.edu

Growing up, all I ever ate was Pakistani food. I used to be jealous of my friends who ate school lunch or what I thought of as “normal foods,” until I got older and realized how unique South Asian cuisine truly is.

Recently, I have actually begun to see a rise in individuals— both online and people I know— beginning to eat South Asian food. However, whenever I hear friends talk about South Asian foods, I only hear them talk about the same list of cuisines. And whenever I go online, the only recommendations and cooking videos I see are of the same couple of dishes!

South Asia is an incredibly diverse place, full of not only a diverse assortment of people, but of dishes too.

Varying from North Pakistan to North India, South India, Bangladesh and so on, cuisines are different everywhere. South Asia is not just made up of “tandoori chicken,” “buttered chicken,” or “kheer.” As a Pakistani, I am here to give you some food and dessert recommendations that you can try that are different from the dishes you may always see online.

South Asia is home to an array of desserts, including ice creams, fried desserts and so on. Some that I really like are Kulfi, jalebi, Gulab Jaman and Rasmalai. However, my utmost favorite has to be “falooda” with ice cream, a cold dessert made of rose syrup, vermicelli noodles and milk. Perfect for a hot summer day, the dessert is not only refreshing but a perfect mixture of an array of flavors.

If you love mangos, “mango-lassi” is also a great cold drink to have in the summer. Made of mangos, milk,

yogurt and ice, mango lassi is a perfectly refreshing drink that is also easy to make from home.

Pakistani zarda is another dessert for you rice lovers out there. It is a sweet rice dessert, different from kheer, made up of almonds, coconut, raisins and a perfect blend of sweets and spices that many enjoy on a cold day.

When it comes to dining options, one of my favorites is called “biryani.” This is also a rice dish, typically made with either meat or chicken, potatoes, saffron and Indian spices. A great appetizer is also a “pakora,” a fried potato fritter that can be made with vegetables, or even with chicken. Gholgappe, or pani puri, is also another

The classified document chaos

Biden and Trump have both been caught mishandling confidential documents, but the situations are not the same

BY CLAIRE SCHAD cfschad@ucdavis.edu

Classified documents just keep turning up in places they don’t belong.

First, 15 boxes were retrieved from former President Donald Trump’s estate after a probe by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Then, there were an additional 150 documents discovered at Trump’s Florida home during an August raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

After many months of outcry from the former president and his supporters about the fairness, or lack thereof, of the raid, in January, President Joe Biden announced that he too was found in possession of classified documents. This resulted in calls for further investigation into Biden by Trump and his backers. The former president even put out a message on his social media network, Truth Social, suggesting that maybe the White House should be raided. Despite the similarities between the two situations, it is important to refrain from categorizing them as the same crime.

First, Trump’s and Biden’s responses greatly differed. Biden’s attorneys worked to cooperate with the NARA and the Justice Department throughout the entire process. It was reported that the discovery of a “small number” of documents in Biden’s office in a Washington D.C.-based think tank was reported to NARA the same day they were discovered by Biden’s lawyers. In addition, his aides and attorneys worked to invite the Justice Department to conduct a search of his Delaware home, where half a dozen additional documents were found.

In contrast, Trump failed to cooperate quickly and smoothly with both NARA and the Justice Department. In May 2021, five months after leaving office, Trump’s attorneys were contacted by NARA about some two-dozen boxes of documents that were not turned over during Trump’s departure. It wasn’t until mid-January of 2022 that NARA received fifteen boxes of presidential information from Trump’s estate, some of which were highly classified. However, in February, NARA announced that they were still

looking for additional presidential documents.

After six months of back and forth between Trump and the Department of Justice and NARA, a search warrant was executed by the FBI at Trump’s South Florida estate in August. During the raid, an additional 150 documents were discovered, some of which were marked with the highest possible security clearance.

Aside from the fact that they both concern classified documents, the situations are incomparable. While Trump took months to comply with the requests for all his presidential documents to be turned over, Biden worked to ensure that all possible documents were discovered. His attorneys even went as far as inviting the Department of Justice to search his home.

If the cooperation of Biden and his administration and the lack thereof from Trump was not enough to convince you of the difference in magnitude between the situations, maybe you will appreciate the stark numerical difference.

Biden was found in possession of

two or three dozen documents, all of which were recovered over a span of two months. Trump had hundreds of documents in his possession that were recovered via efforts that spanned over a year. That being said, Biden made one critical error during the process. When the documents were first discovered at his Washington office, it was only days before the midterm elections in November. The White House failed to announce the discovery to the public until early January. This lapse in transparency from the administration has left many people questioning his honesty and speculating about what could have happened in the days between the discovery and announcement.

In order to restore the public’s trust, Biden must acknowledge his error in judgment and not dismiss it.

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.

one of my favorite South Asian foods known as typical street food, and is made of crispy “puris” filled with boiled potatoes, vegetables and chutney. As someone who is from Northern Pakistan, I can only speak of dishes that I have grown up eating. However, there are even more dishes than I haven’t mentioned! If you have the chance, talk

to your friends, do some research and try different dishes from all over the continent.

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.

Studying local flora can strengthen your connection to Davis

Native Yolo County plants and their unique features

BY MAYA KORNYEYEVA mkornyeyeva@ucdavis.edu

Davis, California and its surrounding area are situated in a unique location for plant diversity. Located predominantly in the Central Valley, the region boasts a warm climate and an abundance of wetlands, making it a diverse site for both flora and fauna. Each and every species has a unique beauty, which adds not only ecological value to Davis, but is a constant reminder of something intrinsically special in the world we often take for granted. Below, I will share with you some of my favorite native Davis plants that I have come across in the past few months and how to identify them.

Black Willow These trees are similar to the famous “Weeping Willows,” with long, pointed leaves and a rich brown-black bark. The Black Willow can grow up to 60 feet tall, and its branches stretch upward rather than droop down. Due to their dependence on water, Black Willows thrive near water sources and have long-reaching root systems that prevent erosion and help with soil stability. You’re sure to spot one on a hiking trail near a river, such as Putah Creek in Davis.

Blue Elderberry

This shrub is a species that thrives in hot climates and relies on regular exposure to sunshine for optimal growth. Its dark blue berries are a primary food source for many small animals, birds and insects in the Central Valley. The tiny cream-colored flowers of the Blue Elderberry are scentless and look similar to Jasmine blooms. These bushes can be found in the fields on the outskirts of central Davis. outskirts of central Davis.

Gumweed

Like the name suggests, Gumweed is a quick-growing plant with distinct sticky buds filled with resin. Upon flowering, Gumweed has bright yellow flowers with a sweet smell that makes you stop and search for its source. Despite its prickly appearance, this native California flower has a long history of medicinal use, from curing inflammation to easing coughing and asthma when brewed as a tea or made into a tincture. Gumweed plants are quite common, and you can find plenty in flat open fields.

Purple Needlegrass

This plant can grow to be quite tall and sharp. It spreads its seeds by dropping them in the soil, where the pointy, needle-like ends burrow into the ground and secure the seed. Purple Needlegrass is excellent for preventing soil erosion, and its fluffy, purple tips are unmistakable. The plant has adapted to grow best in dry soil, making it a common staple in Davis parks and along highways.

These are just four of the many species that are native to Northern California. Next time you’re out and about, I encourage you to seek out native plant species and try to identify them. Learning a little more about Davis vegetation has not only made me more appreciative of the land we live on, but also a more keen observer of the natural world.

As broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough famously says, “An understanding of the natural world is a source of not only great curiosity, but great fulfillment.”

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.

NATALIE CHENG / AGGIE

Remembering Tyre Nichols: A father, a son, an artist, a skateboarder, a friend

In light of the recent shootings in California, we cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to gun violence

On Jan. 7, five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, pulled Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, from his car during a traffic stop and beat him severely. Three days later, he succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

Tyre Nichols’ murder has sparked national outrage and inspired continued discussions of police reform and ending state-sponsored violence against Black people. But amid protests and political action, Tyre’s family and friends have said that they mostly wish to celebrate who he was when he was alive rather than focus on his death.

Tyre grew up in Sacramento, California, and spent much of his time skateboarding with friends at the Regency Community Skatepark. He had a close relationship with his mother, RowVaughn Wells, and had a tattoo of her name on his arm. Tyre was also a father to a four-year-old son and he was always striving to be a better dad. Tyre loved taking photos of the sunset and had a website, called This California Kid, where he shared his photography. People who knew him describe him as sweet, kind, positive and a good person.

Accounts of Black men being brutally murdered by the police make headlines too often, and they tend to outweigh the number of positive

stories celebrating Black lives in major publications. Black people are often only shown in the media in reports of violence or racial justice movements. Bringing awareness to police brutality and racial justice activism is important, but these should not be the only stories that are told about Black communities.

Contributing to this one-sided depiction is a horrifying video of Tyre’s murder, which has been circulating the internet since it was released on Jan. 27. While video footage is important for understanding police violence and making sure police officers are held accountable, it also deeply traumatizes Black communities who already have to face tremendous feelings of grief and fear. Tyre’s mother had to look away when she was shown the video, and according to a CBS News article, Lora Dene King, the daughter of Rodney King, who was killed by police in 1991, said the video and Tyre’s death “brought tears all over again.” Sharing details of Tyre’s murder is not a substitute for political activism, nor is it contributing in a meaningful way to the conversation. Instead, if you wish to spread awareness, consider sharing his photography or videos of him skateboarding to remember him for more than just his death. If you

It’s week four of winter quarter: the time when midterms, burnout and 30 mph winds band together to test your limits. On top of that, Valentine’s Day is in two weeks! All this to say, you might be finding yourself in need of some solid advice. If so, you’re in luck; scan this QR code to submit your problems, and The Editorial Board will pick a few to respond to, putting our nine (genius) minds together to help you out with anything from relationship drama, to a Schedule-Builder-induced breakdown — same — and everything in between.

Seven popular New Year’s resolutions you’ve definitely already ditched

Good luck canceling your gym membership

BY ANGIE VELARDE avelarde@ucdavis.edu

NATALIE CHENG / AGGIE

want to get more actively involved, join protests, sign petitions and urge your local representatives to support police reform. Beyond this, we need to uplift Black communities and celebrate Black lives. February is Black History Month, but some prefer to call it Black Futures Month, a time to envision a better society and celebrate Blackness by “loving ourselves and each other, and basking in our excellence,” according to The Movement For Black Lives website. The celebration of Black Futures and Black History Month calls on us to spotlight stories of happiness and resilience in addition to reflecting on Black history in the U.S. For the many Black men murdered by police every year, we are told to say their names, but we need to remember that means to celebrate their lives, too. We need to show up for the Black community all the time, not just when acts of violence occur. Be angry for Tyre and mourn his death, but don’t let racial violence be the only stories that you read about Black communities.

WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

STEM Majors vs. Mental Math

BY LIDYA SHCHERBAKOVA lvshcherbakova@ucdavis.edu

New Year’s resolutions — most of us make them; nobody you know has actually kept one. Here are seven resolutions I know you’ve given up on already:

1. Going to the gym

Let’s be honest: if this was not already part of your long-standing routine, it’s probably never going to be. Maybe it’s the fact that working out in most gyms evokes the same feeling of being half-naked and vulnerable in the middle of a Target the week before Christmas. Maybe it’s because the ARC is located at the farthest corner of campus, and walking there twice was already more exercise than you did in the entire month of December. Either way, it’s probably fair to say that your new workout clothes will be gathering mothballs for the next 11 months.

2. Drinking more water You bought a water bottle that sends an alert to your phone when you haven’t picked it up recently. You finally bought a replacement filter for the Brita you purchased a year ago. But then the phone alerts started to blend into the background. Seems like remembering to fill your water bottle every morning before you left the house was a little too much to expect of your future self.

3. Eating healthier You were prepared this time. You bought food prep containers and stocked up your pantry. Your fridge was filled with something other than half a can of chili and a jar of mayonnaise. But now it’s full of slimy containers of old salad and your freezer is overflowing with frozen burritos. All is normal in the world again.

4. Learning to knit Nope.

5. Drinking less caffeine You bought replacement beverages. Your cabinet is now full of herbal tea, and you were using your dusty kettle every day for a whole week. But the first couple of weeks of classes were a little more tiring than you anticipated. Now, you’re sitting in the corner of your room shame-chugging energy drinks and trying to finish the reading for your physics class before lecture tomorrow. It was a good idea, in theory.

6. Deleting your food delivery apps The plan was practical. You’d save a lot of money. Probably eat a little better. But then you realized that cooking takes time, and so does grocery shopping, and let’s be honest: nothing you’ve ever cooked has ever been as good as a pizza from Woodstock’s. And then you thought to yourself, “Why should I deny myself the simple pleasures like a little burrito now and then or a gallon of Baja Blast?” Life is short. Order the panini.

7. “The Resolution” resolution You made a few. You decided to throw a handful at the wall to see which ones would stick. You heard that most resolutions are abandoned by the end of the first week of the new year, but your friend told you about a guy they knew who made a resolution to exercise and now he’s a professional athlete, so it gave you some hope. “Fine,” you thought, “maybe I won’t keep them all, but if I keep even one, it will be better than nothing.” But weeks went by (not that many, admittedly), and keeping track of which ones you had and had not already abandoned got too difficult. Don’t worry. You can always try again next year.

SCAN ME

AARON POTTER

ARTS & CULTURE

Recognizing the importance of films in society

The art form connects us through universal experiences and feelings

NATALIE CHENG / AGGIE

Celebrating tea: The Global Tea Initiative highlights the links between tea, science and society

Professor Katharine Burnett discusses the initiative’s mission and reasons to study tea

BY ADHITHI ANJALI arts@theaggie.org

On a campus as large as UC Davis, myriad opportunities and organizations can fall right beneath the radar of most students. The Global Tea Initiative (GTI) is one such example that almost slipped past me this quarter.

True to its name, GTI is focused on the study of tea through a global and interdisciplinary lens, asking what insight tea can provide about science, culture and industry.

BY SARAH HAN arts@theaggie.org

Films are inevitably part of our lives; from childhood favorites to recent hits, films have likely taught us at least something about the world around us. And as they continue to address modern-day problems, they might just be the perfect tool to teach us about society.

The key characteristic of a film is the theme, which is the overarching lesson or idea of the story. It’s generally a complex thought instead of a single word or phrase. For example, in the movie “Parasite” directed by Bong Joon-ho, the theme isn’t solely “social inequality.” Rather, it can be how social inequality distorted the rich and poor’s views of each other, how humans inherently desire something they don’t have or how kindness fails to persist in society.

The themes we see in a film can also vary from person to person, but that’s what makes films a good teaching tool; we can use a single story to send an infinite number of lessons. Everyone has different experiences and yet one film has the ability to send a message broad enough for everyone to relate to and understand. This doesn’t only apply to movies that address serious issues either. The same can apply to children’s movies or comedies. Take “Ratatouille,” for example. Directed by Brad Bird, it’s a story about Remy, a rat who embarks on a journey to practice his culinary skills in the human world. Although it’s a lighthearted, playful film, it communicates deeper messages about

society as well, like how people need to believe in themselves in order to act on their ambitions or how discrimination makes goals challenging to reach, but not impossible. The message can be anything, showing how even children’s films can reveal a lot about the real world.

Films also invoke universal emotions and feelings. Think about it: when have you ever empathized, cried, smiled or felt any other emotions when watching a movie? Probably more than once. Movies are culminations of everyday events that hold significant lessons or meanings. Indeed, the events can be shown in different ways through imaginative fictional scenarios; however, the foundational messages remain applicable to real life.

In addition to teaching us important lessons, films also educate us about new topics and inspire us to do new things. I remember learning a lot about working conditions and gender inequality after watching “Les Misérables,” a film about late-18th-century France. Although the film might not be entirely historically accurate, it did enough to display what people in the time period experienced.

I like to think that movies expose or at least ease the audience into a particular subject, all with the goal of teaching something new and inspiring viewers.

Overall, films capture, influence, educate and inspire our lives. Next time you’re watching a movie, notice if it changes your perspective or teaches you something new.

GTI has been in development since 2012, when Dr. Katharine Burnett, a UC Davis professor of art history and the founding director of the Global Tea Initiative, brought together a small group of faculty with the intention of studying tea. Eventually gaining attention from staff and tea industry professionals, former Provost Ralph Hexter set forth two goals for Burnett: “organize annual colloquia and make it blossom.”

Now, GTI has grown to more than 40 faculty members, including librarians, professors and students. They have held an annual colloquium on tea since 2016 and have just recently been able to return to an in-person gathering for their eighth annual symposium, entitled “Tea and Value.” Researchers from across the U.S. were invited to speak at the event on Jan. 19, as well as industry professionals spanning Europe and Asia.

Following the event, Burnett reflected on the art that brought her attention to tea and how GTI is uniquely equipped as an interdisciplinary organization to explore these broader questions of culture through tea.

“When I was a child, my mom and my grandmother would have people over and there would be tea, which I thought was incidental, as a little kid,” Burnett said. “I didn’t understand the organizing principle that tea had in people’s lives.”

The concept of sociality around tea, which is shared across cultures with a great appreciation for the drink, has also likely entered into the realm of art, according to Burnett. She has been exploring how much tea and art have respectively influenced and changed each other.

“I’ve been trying to write an article about late Ming tea culture and the relationship between the major art theorists of the time and their friends who were artists,” Burnett said.

Due to a sudden reduction in the size of the teapot as well as a change in material, these new teapots could achieve a wonderfully smooth finish and have no need for a glaze, but they also required a highly skilled artisan to create as the teapots could not be handthrown on a wheel.

This strange shift sparked questions about the culture that must have spurred it. Burnett said that she wants to recognize the philosophy and psychology behind tea and its art. She believes that “each [teapot] tells a story about the local clay, the local people, the local culture and what’s important to that culture.”

In more modern examples, Burnett points to the novel “The Tea Girl on Hummingbird Lane” by Lisa See. The story follows a young Chinese girl who returns to her family’s home and tea farm in China. See engages with tea in its practice and cultivation across generations, highlighting how tea’s cultural value has shaped some communities. Burnett also underscored how diverse GTI is in its approach to studying tea.

“My friends in nutrition or pathology or chemistry are analyzing the tea for different kinds of things,” she said.

Indeed, at their recent symposium, scholars such as Dr. Sandra D. Adams spoke about the potential antiviral

properties of tea, and others spoke to the tentative truth behind its value as a health food.

In the future, Burnett hopes to develop more opportunities to connect students with industry professionals. Her aim is to open up the space for internships and study abroad courses.

“We are on the cusp of becoming an institution, on the cusp of developing courses for our students,” Burnett said. GTI is aiming to release a 12-week program that will teach people in the industry and the public about tea and its business this year.

Burnett emphasized that students who would like to study tea now can do so through independent study with a member of the GTI faculty, and said that students should not feel limited by their field of study when it comes to seeking this kind of opportunity.

Currently, Burnett and second-year graduate student Hunter Kiley are in the process of rebooting the Global Tea Club, a space for tea-lovers to mingle and share their interest. They are aiming to hold their first meeting in February, and students can learn more about it at the Global Tea Club’s website.

The future of GTI seems bright. Though a relatively new presence on campus, the initiative has clearly taken advantage of the many facilities and resources UC Davis has to offer, and they hope to blossom further with the help of students.

NATALIE CHENG / AGGIE

The World’s Worst Expo curates a unique shopping experience for thrift lovers

BY ANA BACH arts@theaggie.org

The World’s Worst Expo, a monthly pop-up market with locations in Sacramento and San Jose, is a mecca of vintage streetwear that features up to 170 small businesses. At the Sacramento location, a vacant parking lot next to the Goodyear car garage and I street, locals peruse the different tents in pursuit of unique clothing items, all the while indulging in street food and live music and mingling with the fashion community that surrounds them.

Danielle Stubbs, a second-year biotechnology major, discussed the wide variety of both people and clothing she found at the Sacramento market.

“I had gone to their previous event and really enjoyed the experience,” Stubbs said. “I thought my friend would love it and so we decided to go this Sunday. It was pretty lively with different types of music… [it] just felt like a very wholesome place.”

Similarly, Mihika Deshpande, a second-year microbiology major, found herself bonding with buyers through their “joint appreciation and love for fashion and style.” She expressed her past endeavors at the Expo and her discovery of the event over social media.

“I first encountered the Expo on Instagram and have been going since the fall quarter of my freshman year. I would definitely define myself as an Expo regular,” Deshpande said.

Deshpande also spoke about her experience purchasing clothing from vendors and how often the items sold are sustainable pieces.

“Oftentimes the vendors post their sales and tag their customers,” Deshpande said. “Also, vendors are shoppers themselves and really enjoy complimenting their customer’s outfits. I’m able to get a lot of style inspiration by just seeing the vendors and other shoppers.”

Ivan Bonilla and Nancy Gallardo, independent vendors, run Instagram and Depop accounts that showcase their clothing finds, which they sell at

the Expo.

“We first started with Repop, a brand based in San Jose, and then we moved here,” Bonilla said. “I applied for like three months in a row and then they finally accepted me. It’s been really really good, surprisingly.”

Bonilla explained the general process that most vendors go through when trying to cut.

“When applications open, you send your socials or Depop, whatever you have more items on, and then they just review every one. There are only 170 spots, so you aren’t guaranteed.”

Before applying for and getting a stall at the Expo, however, vendors have to source items to sell. Most people find themselves digging through the Goodwill bins, knee-deep in generic fabric, hoping to find a Coach purse or vintage sweater under all of the material.

“Some people source in different ways,” Gallardo said when discussing the advantages of alternate methods for acquiring products. “Compared to us, we source at the [Goodwill] bins, so, you know, it’s a lot harder. There is not as much good stuff to go around for everyone, which creates competition.”

When asked about what brings the community together whilst also attracting new members, both Bonilla and Gallardo emphasized the need for uniqueness in one’s wardrobe.

“When you are buying vintage clothing, you [want to] get a unique piece, so I think everyone is sort of looking for something like that,” Gallardo said. “If you find one shirt here, you are most likely not going to find that shirt in the next thirty or forty booths.”

At the World’s Worst Expo, shoppers and vendors alike connect over clothing finds, admiring styles and sharing similar tastes in street food. The event offers a niche shopping experience if you are looking to expand your wardrobe with one-of-a-kind pieces.

Details about when the monthly pop-up events are held and more information can be found on World’s Worst Expo’s Instagram. The World’s Worst Expo

in January. (Ana Bach / Aggie)

Upcoming Events in February

Check out a clothing swap, live music, art exhibits and book clubs before midterms roll in

BY RUMA POUDELL arts@theaggie.org

Clothing Swap (Davis Night Market, 9–11 p.m. on Feb. 9)

Bring pieces of clothing you don’t wear anymore and swap them to renew your closet sustainably. For each item you bring, you can take another home. The swap includes a wide variety of styles, so you’re bound to find something you like. Meet with other swappers at Central Park and find more information on the Davis Night Market Instagram.

2nd Friday ArtAbout (Pence Gallery, 6–9 p.m. on Feb. 10)

Browse various art exhibits and connect with Davis-based artists at Pence Gallery’s art reception. The monthly event celebrates traditional and fine arts, specifically focusing on realism and craftsmanship. There will be live music and free wine for those 21 and older. The event is a self-guided walk — perfect for a casual stroll as you explore different pieces.

Folk Jam Session (UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, 12–1 p.m. on Feb. 17)

Come enjoy acoustic freestyles and expose yourself to a new genre of music. Musicians of all different levels and instruments will be playing Celtic, Klezmer and other styles of folk songs. Players will be freestyling, and anyone is welcome to hop in and play at the UC Davis arboretum. More information can be found on the UC Davis Calendar.

Romance Reader’s Book Club (The Avid Reader, 8–9:30 p.m. on Feb. 28)

To keep the Valentine’s Day spirit alive all month long, join other readers to discuss your picks for the best romantic books. Gain a recommendation or two and make new bookworm friends. The Avid Reader hosts monthly book clubs welcoming readers of all levels and will be organizing this Valentine’s Daythemed meeting at their downtown store to celebrate the holiday.

The Arts Desk’s weekly picks for music, movies and more

BY VIVI KIM arts@theaggie.org

Song: “Selfless” by The Strokes (2020)

The second track on their most recent album “The New Abnormal,” “Selfless” by indie-rock band “The Strokes” is a somber, guitar-centric ballad about love and longing. Casablancas’ harmonic, laid-back voice accompanied by string instrumentals makes for an interesting blend of sounds. Similar to the feeling of falling asleep in a car with the windows down or humming a melody with noise-canceling headphones on, the song is injected with upbeat but slowburning energy. While most of the lyrics are straightforward, others are more ambiguous. Overall, the song is impactful and subtle in both its instrumentation and lyricism. I definitely consider “Selfless” the most memorable track on the album and would recommend it for any mood or occasion.

Book: “The Walker” by Matthew Beaumont (2020)

In this insightful literary criticism, Beaumont draws from different pieces of literature to explore his own observations and the hidden philosophy behind walking. From Edgar Allan Poe to Charles Dickens, each chapter follows the writings of a notable author while analyzing the importance of walking and what it can really tell us about habits, culture and life. This book is definitely unique in its ability to both educate the reader on a rich literary history and help them meditate on meaningful themes. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of classic literary works and enjoys reading about these works in more depth.

TV Show: “Neon Genesis Evangelion” (1997)

Set in a post-apocalyptic fortress city known as Tokyo-3, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is a classic ‘90s sci-fi anime that is most famously known for reinventing its genre and exploring dark, philosophical themes. The protagonist, Shinji Ikari, is a 14-year-old boy who must pilot a human-made battle robot known as the Eva-01 to defend the city from robot-like monsters known as Angels. This seemingly simple story ultimately turns into an exploration of depression, trauma and self-discovery. I would recommend this show to any sci-fi fans, even those who are unfamiliar with anime. Aside from its brilliant plot, the show itself has had a significant cultural impact on the mecha anime genre and remains one of my favorite series.

Movie: “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” (2010)

Edgar Wright’s comic-book-inspired film “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” is a wildly fun combination of action, romance and comedy. Scott Pilgrim is a 22-year-old bass guitarist who has fallen in love with Ramona Flowers. At first glance, Ramona seems like your typical pink-haired manic pixie dream girl; however, the movie quickly reveals that she comes with fatal strings attached. In order to win Ramona over, Scott must defeat all seven of her evil exes, who happen to come in all shapes and sizes — from an action movie star with extreme skateboarding skills to a vegan guitarist with telekinesis. The geeky humor, dialogue and animated effects flashed in each fight sequence are just as bizarre and outlandish as the plot itself, making the movie an effortlessly fun one to watch.

MIRANDA LEE / AGGIE

“The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is a gift for the amateur sleuth

The murder mystery genre is criminally underrated

BY YASMEEN O’BRIEN yjobrien@ucdavis.edu

JOANNESUN/AGGIE

As a young girl, I was fascinated by solving mysteries. My father is a detective, so I like to believe it’s in my blood. I would turn simple tasks into stories to solve, assuming it would help me when I eventually followed in his footsteps. I read Nancy Drew by flashlight in my closet, believing it taught me to think critically, and snuck into my father’s case files when he wasn’t home. When I got a little older, he would occasionally ask for my opinion on a case — what story I thought the evidence told. Following clues made me feel intelligent and important, and it gave me a thrill like no other.

Rian Johnson’s “The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” carefully and magnificently gifts the audience with this electrifying thrill, making you feel giddy and accomplished when you solve the case. As the second installment in the series, it is sunnier and sillier than the first. With eccentric costumes, expansive shots of dazzling Greek scenery, plentiful clues and comedic relief, it is undoubtedly an entertaining and intellectually stimulating watch. The story unfolds as worldrenowned Southern detective Benoit Blanc travels to Greece for his latest case

after receiving an invitation to a murder mystery party on a private island. The island belongs to Miles Bron, a selfabsorbed tech billionaire who has also invited five of his long-time friends to participate in a game solving his own murder. However, it soon becomes clear that what bonds the five friends are their individual debts to Bron. Each one owes their current fame, wealth or career to him. As the weekend unravels, mystery and murder abound as truths come to light and relationships are brought into question.

The film begins during the height of the pandemic, taking us back to a familiar time of mandatory masks, empty streets, “pods” and elbow bumps. It conjures that feeling of restlessness we know all too well and becomes a time capsule of an era we won’t soon forget.

We meet the main characters as each receives an invitation to the island amidst their pandemic lifestyles. There’s Claire, the politician who is working from home with her husband and children; Birdie Jay, a washed-up model-turnedclothing-designer who is unflatteringly, though blissfully, ignorant of the world around her; Lionel, an accomplished scientist who respects authority; Duke, a

body-building, gun-loving professional video gamer; and Andi, the estranged co-founder of Bron’s very successful tech company. Each character is specific and calculated, as if they are pieces in a game of “Clue.” Clearly done with intention, this homage to the art of murder mystery makes “The Glass Onion” all the more captivating. Against the sparkling Aegean Sea, Benoit Blanc casts a shadow as the deliverer of justice. The audience views the film through his watchful eye, searching for clues alongside him. Slowly, you begin to realize you are being taught a lesson: If you are attentive enough to the people around you, the story reveals itself. Writer and Director Rian Johnson artfully brings out the sleuth in all of us. He has revived a genre that offers us so much. It teaches us to be observant, imaginative, questioning, thoughtful and aware.

It is no easy task to achieve a successful murder mystery. They often end up cheesy or predictable and are hard to sit through. This is not the case with “The Glass Onion.” With provocative characters, a stunning backdrop and a plot twist so juicy it drips, this film is a must-see for all.

GUNVIGIL FROM THE COVER

Jorjorian talked about the need for gun reform in the United States, comparing America’s history of gun violence to other nations.

“Nevertheless, we know that the problem is guns,” Jorjorian said. “Because in every nation on earth, there is mental illness. In every nation on earth, there is anger. But we (the U.S.) have the problem with shootings because we have the problem with guns.”

Following the speakers with the Davis Phoenix Coalition were representatives from Congressman Mike Thompson’s office and Assemblymember Cecilia AguiarCurry’s office. Both representatives read prepared statements on behalf of the elected officials. Jim Provenza, Yolo County District 4 Supervisor who was present at the vigil, also spoke.

“It’s clear that to many in this country, gun rights are more important than human rights,” Provenza said. “How else would they look away when a classroom of children is murdered? How else would they look away when a whole community is attacked?

SENATE FROM PAGE 8

Next, the Senate discussed SB #47, which would allow non-controversial confirmations for members or chairpersons in unpaid positions to happen via the consent calendar, meaning that certain candidates would bypass the typical process of introduction and questioning at a Senate meeting before being confirmed.

Senator Aarushi Raghunathan expressed why she is against the bill.

“I think that meeting people during confirmations is honestly very important,” Raghunathan said. “I have met so many great people from confirmations, and I don’t want that to go away.”

Senator Zeph Schnelbach also opposed the bill, explaining that they feel it is important for the whole table to evaluate each confirmed member of a committee.

“When we confirm [new members], we are making sure that we know that we are putting people in those positions that know what they are doing,”

When 10, 20, 30 people are killed. It’s important I think that we reverse that balance, that we show a recognition of the importance of human life. The other thing that I think is going on is there’s a growing acceptance that violence is an answer to our problems.”

Provenza talked about many people’s concerns that California, a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, is still experiencing these events. He said that “every gun law makes us safer,” and that the ones that have been put in place in the state are the necessary steps to combating gun violence, but that there is still more needed to be done to combat loopholes.

Rev. Dr. Eunbee Ham, associate pastor at Davis Community Church, who is a member of the AAPI community, spoke at the vigil about staying hopeful in times of tragedy and not becoming desensitized to mass shootings.

“It is hard for my heart at least; perhaps, it is hard for you as well to keep up with this series of shootings that threaten to pummel our hearts into numb submission, helplessness and apathy,” Ham said. “So I stand here today to resist that urge, to bypass the pain of these repeated massacres and to remind our hearts not to be desensitized by these tragedies and to remember we are not alone, and we can take action.”

Schnelbach said. “I am all for speeding up minutes in meetings; however, I think that there [has] to be another way we can do that.”

Fujimoto called for the Senate to consider other factors that this bill could improve.

“I urge this table to consider not only the student fees that are going into the time that we meet but also that we respect the time of our unpaid volunteers,” Fujimoto said.

SB #47 was passed 5-2-0.

Then, the Senate approved past meeting minutes before moving into public discussion.

During this time, Fujimoto mentioned a future event involving Turning Point USA, whose last event on campus in October 2022 turned violent.

“Turning Point USA has announced an event with their CEO Charlie Kirk on March 14,” Fujimoto said. “I think it’s really important that we prepare ourselves for this upcoming event [because] I don’t think it will be surprising if members of our community decide to protest. ”

Eden adjourned the meeting at 10:37 p.m.

New UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center documentary airs on PBS

The short film, “Dignidad,” offers a look at the struggle of domestic workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BY SYDNEY AMESTOY campus@theaggie.org

The UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) has released a new documentary, “Dignidad,” which aired on local PBS stations on Jan. 14.

“Dignidad” covers the steps domestic workers across the country took to gain protections such as health insurance coverage and paid sick leave during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release from EHSC written by producer Jennifer Biddle.

“Domestic workers in California were three times as likely to get COVID-19 compared with the state’s general population, according to research at UC Davis,” the release said.

This is the second documentary EHCS has helped produce, the first being Emmy-nominated “Waking Up to Wildfires,” which was released in 2019 and also aired on PBS. That documentary covered the survivors of the 2017 North Bay wildfires.

Paige Bierma, a filmmaker from San Francisco, directed both documentaries. EHCS approached her with the idea for “Dignidad,” according to Bierma.

“It was incredibly inspiring to work on this film with so many brave domestic workers and especially interesting to be able to capture the ups and downs of a grassroots political movement during the uncertain times of a pandemic,” Bierma said.

Bierma went on to provide more context relevant to the film, explaining how worker protection laws have changed over time and how they haven’t.

“In the 1930s, when the U.S. passed its first fair labor and worker protection laws, domestic workers and farm workers were the only two groups explicitly excluded from the laws,” Bierma said. “That was in large part because those workers at the time were mostly African-American. Today, a majority of domestic workers are women of color, and their legal rights and protections are still well below those of white males in this country.”

The research conducted for the documentary was a collaborative effort between the EHCS and the California Domestic Workers Coalition (CDWC).

Jasmine Garcia Montes, a researcher for EHCS, said that she was involved in facilitating the collaboration, partially through her work translating the researchers’ survey into Spanish and Tagalog.

“The survey began to examine the prevalence of access to personal protective equipment for frontline workers in essential jobs, or [those] whose work puts them regularly within six feet of others, and evaluate financial hardship among workers and their families whether laid off, working remotely or on the frontlines,” Garcia Montes said. “Then it was tailored to focus on questions that pertained specifically to domestic workers.”

The survey was released nationwide in September 2020 and concluded in April 2021, according to Garcia Montes.

“The COVID-19 Survey for Workers collected data from 164 domestic workers before widespread vaccination or the emergence of the Delta variant in the United States,” Garcia Montes said. “Most domestic workers interviewed for this research project were Hispanic women who worked as house cleaners, nannies and home attendants for seniors and people with disabilities.”

The survey was not the only research

Senate table takes extended break to attend community vigil during Jan. 26 meeting

conducted for the documentary, according to Bierma. Lots of historical background information needed to be recovered by the EHCS team and the filmmaking crew, as well as finding domestic workers willing to be interviewed.

“For the documentary, the producer Jennifer Biddle and I read many articles and reports on the history and current state of legal rights and protections for domestic workers,” Bierma said. “EHSC intern Kyle Kreuger researched and tracked California legislation on the subject, [and] the CDWC also put me in contact with many of their members and member organizations in order to meet and select the people we ended up profiling in the film.”

Bierma offered some concluding thoughts, reflecting on what she hopes viewers take away from the documentary.

“I hope this film helps to show the real-life results of these disparities [against domestic workers], as well as the kind of dedication and perseverance it takes to bring about real political change in this country,” Bierma said.

The 27-minute documentary aired on local PBS stations on Jan. 14, and is available to watch for free on the PBS website.

The meeting also featured quarterly reports from the Whole Earth Festival Committee, Picnic Day Board and SHAWC

BY RACHEL GAUER campus@theaggie.org

Vice President JT Eden called the meeting to order at 6:14 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 26. Senate recorder Rose Kazempoor took roll call, and Eden recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

Next, the Senate confirmed Christina Smith, a second-year political science public service major, to be the new External Affairs Commission (EAC) vice chairperson. During the questioning portion of the confirmation, Senator Stephen Fujimoto reminded Smith that their position is a paid role and asked them how they plan to treat unpaid volunteers who work below them.

“I’m not here for money; I am just here to be here,” Smith said. “[As for] the volunteers who are working with us who are unpaid, I’ll give whatever I can give and more to make sure their jobs are easier as volunteers and that they are enjoying the job.”

Smith was unanimously confirmed.

The meeting was running ahead of schedule, so the Senate pushed quarterly reports back until committee members arrived to present them. They instead gave elected officer reports, where members of the Senate table discussed their recent work and updates.

Next, Carla McEwen and Maddie Dei Rossi, the directors of the Whole Earth Festival (WEF) Committee, gave the organization’s quarterly report.

“Our staff is fully hired and we are in the process of getting [them] fully onboarded,” McEwen said. “We’re really proud of all of them.” McEwen and Dei Rossi also said that they have decided on this year’s theme but are keeping it confidential until the official announcement that is coming soon.

“[Now] that the theme is decided, it means that the poster contest is going to happen really soon so people will be able to submit their designs for posters and t-shirts,” McEwen said.

Next, Student Health and Wellness

Committee (SHAWC) Chairperson

Hibah Shafi presented their quarterly report.

“We currently have a super exciting project that has been in the works for over a year now,” Shafi said. “We are getting safer sex dispensers put up around the MU in the second-floor bathrooms.”

Shafi went on to note that though the committee wanted the dispensers to be in the first-floor bathrooms, which are typically more trafficked, the downstairs bathrooms had “physical restrictions” that prohibited the installation. However, they are planning to place signage in the firstfloor restrooms informing students about the upstairs option.

The Senate then decided to break to allow members of the Senate table to attend the community vigil being held in Central Park in memory of recent mass shooting victims. There was a unanimous vote in favor of adding this extended break to the schedule.

Next, the Senate confirmed two new members of the Research and Data Committee, first-year data science majors Maya Wiegand and Surangjana Sooraj, via Zoom.

After the confirmations, Picnic Day Chairperson Jesse Goodman presented the Picnic Day Board’s quarterly report.

Following a break, the Senate introduced new legislation, including SB #50, SB #51, SB #52, SB #53 and SB #54. Each bill was assigned to at least one committee for further review.

Then, they moved into consideration of the consent calendar; SB #46 was removed from the calendar, but the rest of the content was passed with no objections.

Next, they moved into the consideration of old legislation.

SB #46, which requires the Senate President Pro Tempore to present a quarterly report, was amended and then passed unanimously.

Ronald and Lydia Baskin Research Award

During the pandemic, domestic workers provided support and essential care for children, the elderly and the disabled in over 2 million households across California. (UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center / Courtesy)

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.

SCIENCE AND TECH

Virtual

veterinary visits: increasing access to cat care

UC Davis researchers find cats are less stressed during video appointments than in-person visits

BY LILLY ACKERMAN science@theaggie.org

Animal welfare epidemiology researchers in UC Davis’s Department of Animal Science are studying telemedicine for cats as a way to increase ease of access to veterinary appointments.

Virtual doctor’s appointments have grown increasingly popular in recent years as a convenient option for healthcare, and cats might benefit from this option for their veterinary visits as well.

Grace Boone, an assistant specialist at the Animal Welfare Epidemiology Lab at UC Davis, explained that some

barriers to cat care can be overcome via telemedicine.

“[Cats] don’t tend to see the veterinarian as often as dogs do, and part of that can be due to their perceived or actual stress levels when seeing a veterinarian as compared to dogs,” Boone said. “Some of it might also be a perception that cats are an easier pet and don’t need as much care, but they do need regular veterinary visits just like dogs do to keep them healthy.”

According to Boone, telemedicine can be an especially helpful option for cats whose owners have a disability, live far away from a veterinarian or are otherwise unable to make it to frequent in-person appointments. Cats can also be more difficult to transport than other

pets, making telemedicine an appealing choice.

In order to determine whether telemedicine might be a less stressinducing option for cats, researchers examined pupil dilation, respiration rate, ear position and lip-licking behaviors in 30 cats at mock virtual and in-person appointments. The researchers found that cats’ pupils were less dilated, respiration rates were lower and ears were in more relaxed positions at home as opposed to when they visited the mock in-person clinic. All of these results were significant and indicate a less stressful experience for cats when seen virtually, opening the door for further research into veterinary telemedicine.

“It does look like — based on our results — cats were calmer at home, which is what you would expect, so that’s good,” Boone said. “We have these validated stress measures, and we see that the cats are calmer at home according to those measures, so that’s really helpful to build off of.”

According to Boone, telemedicine can be used for follow-up appointments after a procedure, check-ups for cats with monitored ongoing health issues and even for emergencies; veterinarians can provide instruction when the owner is too far away to make it to a clinic in time.

After virtual appointments, owners expressed increased interest in telemedicine for their cats in the future.

They also tended to rate their cat’s experience with in-person appointments lower than with virtual appointments, highlighting the difference in stress levels the cats experienced between the two.

The findings provide a baseline that can be expanded to involve more cats, real clinic appointments and even other animals.

“Based on owners’ responses and also based on the cats’ responses, it looks like [telemedicine] could be a really really good tool for increasing access to care for these animals,” Boone said.

Innovative cloning of rice strain can help meet global agriculture demands

UC Davis plant biologists and geneticists working with researchers in Europe and Africa find solutions to reduce the costs of planting rice, maintaining year-round crop yield

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rice is a staple crop for more than half of the world’s population. However, for farmers, buying seeds annually in their hybrid genetic state, which has proven to perform more efficiently, can be expensive.

Fortunately, a recent breakthrough in consistently successful cloning of a hybrid rice strain has opened up new possibilities. Farmers may no longer have to purchase rice seeds every year. The study, led by plant biologists and geneticists from UC Davis in collaboration with an international team of researchers, suggested that this finding will help reduce the costs of planting the crop while maintaining its enhanced production and resistance to disease and climate change.

Hybrid vigor, which is described by plant biologists as a crop’s characteristic high yield and resiliency as a result of a specific genetic cross, has also been observed in rice and therefore, has become a point of interest for many farmers to improve the efficiency of the crop’s production. Venkatesan Sundaresan, a professor in the Department of Plant Biology and Plant Sciences, explained that the team’s goal to clone rice was rooted in this very scientific principle.

“Hybrid vigor is a phenomenon that people have observed in plants for a long time,” Sundaresan said. “This occurs when two inbred varieties of a type of crop are crossed or bred together, and the progeny are almost always more vigorous, high-yielding and resistant than the plant’s parents.”

However, when two hybrids are bred together, the following generation of plants does not exhibit the same level

of high performance. Sundaresan and his team sought to find a way through cloning to maintain hybrid vigor in rice, a seed that is typically expensive for farmers to buy in its hybrid state.

“These low-income farmers can only get this type of rice from a hybrid seed producer, but it’s much more expensive than when compared to corn, for example,” Sundaresan said. “It would be great to increase the yield of using the same land and resources, from which you could sell at a price higher by 25%.”

In addition to the cost of hybrid rice seeds, the weather’s unpredictability pulled subsistence farmers away from the prospect of investment.

China is the only country that grows the majority of its rice as a hybrid due to the large support from its government, whereas only about 5% to 10% of farmers in other countries do. To reduce the risks of investment, Gurdev Khush, adjunct professor

emeritus in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis and co-author on the study, highlighted the power of cloning in agriculture.

“If you can induce apomixis, the process by which some naturally occurring plants produce seeds that are exact, identical clones, then you can plant the same hybrid rice crop every year,” Khush said.

Inducing apomixis was only one part of the solution though. Rice does not undergo this process when producing its own seeds; rather, it undergoes meiosis, which creates progeny that are not genetic clones. Sundaresan and his team have found a way to prevent meiosis and artificially induce apomixis, ultimately maintaining hybrid vigor.

“The first step is to eliminate meiosis, which we did by genetically editing three genes called MiMe,” Sundaresan said. “The second step is to prevent fertilization, and we did

this by turning on this gene in plants called the ‘baby boom’ gene, which can turn an egg cell into an embryo. With these two steps together, we were able to create hybrid clones with rice with 95% efficiency after many, many years.”

While the specific gene modifications cannot be applied to other staple crops, the same approach can. Sundaresan said that the implications of this study are huge for a growing global population.

“Being able to maintain the high yield in these hybrid rice seeds will be greatly beneficial to low-income farmers,” Sundaresan said. “Our study can help meet the needs of both consumers and producers without having to increase the use of land, water and fertilizers to unsustainable levels.”

Cat shows minimal signs of stress while taking part in a mock virtual vet appointment. (Grace Boone / Courtesy)

Postdoc Imtiyaz Khanday (plaid shirt) and Professor Venkatesan Sundaresan photographed with cloned rice plants in a green house on the UC Davis campus. (Karin Higgins / Courtesy)

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

UC Davis dominates CSU Bakersfield in third straight win

The Aggies sweep the season series 2-0 against the Roadrunners

BY MARLON ROLON sports@theaggie.org

The UC Davis women’s basketball team is starting to gel together at the midpoint mark of the season, winning three straight Big West Conference games. On Thursday night at the University Union Credit Center, the Aggies cruised past CSU Bakersfield

79-57.

“We’ve had our ups and downs for sure,” said UC Davis Head Coach Jennifer Gross. “With so many new players, it’s really taking time to gain chemistry. The only way you can get it is by playing together and we just needed more time, and we are starting to see the chemistry take hold.”

Redshirt first-year guard Victoria Baker was a standout in the game, with 16 points off the bench in just 15 minutes of action. Another notable player was redshirt first-year Megan Norris, who has reached double figures in three straight games. She scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds.

Her efficiency inside the paint and her gritty defense in the post have been turning heads in the crowd recently. Gross praised Norris postgame.

“I think she is really starting to gain confidence,” Gross said. “She’s getting comfortable playing with her teammates. The number one thing she’s doing when she’s getting the ball is she’s just being patient.”

The Aggies opened the first quarter with five straight three-pointers, jumping out to a 15-5 lead over the Roadrunners early on. Forward Tess Sussman had a hot hand, draining three of those five three-pointers; she had nine points in eight minutes in the opening quarter.

“To see [Sussman] come out and hit shots right from the start was great,” Gross said. “She had a really, really solid day today.”

The Aggies ended the quarter with a three-pointer from second-year guard Sydney Burns, which put them up 207. Five Aggie players scored in the first quarter, and UC Davis had control of the game from start to finish.

“We have a ton of threats from this team, inside and out,” Norris said. “So it really opens it up for anyone to get the shot up. We have a ton of good three-point shooters.”

UC Davis continued to dominate offensively in the second quarter, with two threes from the second unit, including two 30-foot shots from first-year guard Nya Epps and redshirt

FOOTBALL

fourth-year guard Makaila Sanders. Gross utilized the rotational players throughout the entire quarter, allowing Baker to shine with seven points.

Within the first two quarters of play, the UC Davis bench scored 27 points compared to Bakersfield’s 17. The Aggies shot eight for 20 from the three-point line.

“Everybody contributed; the majority of our points in the first half were from our bench,” Gross said. “To have different people being able to come in and step in and take some of the scoring load is really nice. A lot of different people stepped up today.”

Although the home team scored 43 points in the first half, the leading scorer in the Big West, third-year guard Evanne Turner, was scoreless. However, Turner opened the third quarter with a layup to mark her first bucket on the score sheet.

A few plays later, Norris went on a scoring spree, scoring six straight points, that put the Aggies up by 27. With three minutes remaining in the third quarter, Turner hit her first three-pointer of the night. The Aggies were rolling with a score of 61-36.

In the fourth quarter, Gross gave the second unit valuable minutes and let most of her starters rest. With such a large lead, there was no need to risk injuries. The Aggies relaxed in the final quarter, only scoring 11 points, but they were significantly ahead on the scoreboard, winning by 22 points, 7957.

“When we step on the floor every day and we believe in our team and believe in ourselves, we give ourselves a great chance to win,” Gross said of her team’s performance.

UC Davis made 13 out of 30 threepointers along and 14 out of 15 from the free-throw line. The bench scored 45 points and the offense dished out 18 assists.

Two days later, on Saturday, Jan. 28, The Aggies’ three-game win streak was snapped by Long Beach State, 66-45 at the University Credit Union Center. Turner scored 20 points and made a team-high of six three-pointers, but no other Aggie player reached double figures.

UC Davis (9-11 overall, 5-5 in conference play) will travel to the University of Hawai’i on Feb. 2 to take on the Rainbow Wāhine (8-11 overall, 6-4 in conference play).

Senior Bowl preview

The Senior Bowl features a new coaching staff format and an opportunity for NFL draft prospects to impress scouts

BY PATRICK FIGUEROA sports@theaggie.org

The Senior Bowl is a college football all-star game, as well as the first stage in the NFL draft process. Players who have completed their college eligibility are invited to compete in front of NFL scouts from all 32 teams. Notable players that participated in the Senior Bowl include Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and UC Davis alum Keelan Doss. changed the format for its coaching staff. Instead of having two full NFL coaching staffs for each respective team in the Senior Bowl, NFL operations is implementing a “coach up” format. This means that NFL coordinators and assistant coaches from around the league will be coaching in elevated positions to promote professional development.

Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy will be the head coach for the American team. On the other side, Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will be coaching the National team. They will be joined by assistant coaches from various NFL teams, as well as four coaches from historically Black colleges and universities in honor of the Senior Bowl’s Minority Coaching Fellowship Program.

Nagy spoke on the new coaching format with NFL reporter Ari Meirov.

“What I do like about [the new coaching format] is the opportunity that these coaches now have,” Nagy said.

He elaborated that Graham and Getsy both will likely have future head coaching opportunities with what they have done in their careers so far, and the paths they seem to be on for the coming years.

Between the two Senior Bowl rosters, there are nearly 120 players expected to participate. Not only will these players have the opportunity to impress scouts during the game, but also during practices and behind the

running backs in college football, Bijan Robinson. This limited Johnson’s number of touches during the 2022 college season. The Senior Bowl provides Johnson with a better opportunity to impress scouts with increased reps.

Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Hendon Hooker was one of the most productive quarterbacks in college football, totaling 27 touchdowns and 3,135 yards thrown. However, he tore his ACL near the end of the season in a game against South Carolina. Despite the injury, Hooker accepted his Senior Bowl invite and will have the opportunity to interview with multiple TCU Horn Frogs quarterback Max Duggan will also be in the Bowl. Duggan was productive throughout his 2022 season, throwing 3,698 yards and producing 32 touchdowns. He was the runner-up for the 2022 Heisman Trophy and led his team to the College Football National Iowa State Cyclones wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson had the third-most catches in college football this past season. He is the most productive wide receiver attending the Senior Bowl and is currently projected to be a second-round pick by the Draft Network. If Hutchinson has good athletic testing at the Senior Bowl, he could improve his With a long history and national coverage, the Senior Bowl is an opportunity for both coaches and players. For players, there will be other opportunities and events along the way, such as the NFL Combine and College Pro Days, that will guide their paths to

going to have the top picks in each one of the rounds… [it’s] just a great experience for the players behind the scenes with half the league now.”

Longhorns running back Roschon Johnson. Part of the National team roster, Johnson is a powerful athlete, but he played behind one of the best

has the potential to be a three-down running back in the NFL. Showcasing his three-down skill set at the Senior Bowl could improve his draft stock.

The UC Davis women’s basketball team play against CSU Bakersfield in their Pride themed game. (Christine Minarik / Aggie)

Guard, Victoria Baker scores 16 points against the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners. (Kayla Bruckman / Aggie)