Comedian and UC Davis alum Hasan Minhaj formally invited to speak at 2023 commencement ceremonies

Students are rallying to create a social media campaign to catch the celebrity’s attention and convince him to accept the invitation

BY LILY FREEMAN AND SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org

Comedian and UC Davis alumnus Hasan Minhaj has been officially asked by the university to be the keynote speaker at one or more of the 2023 UC Davis commencement ceremonies, an invitation that, as of Feb. 14, is still awaiting a response.

Minhaj was born in Davis, attended Davis Senior High School and later graduated from UC Davis in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Throughout the early 2000s, he appeared in guest roles on various sitcoms and television shows, before joining The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2014.

Since then, he has had an impressive career; he was the featured speaker at the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, hosted a Netflix comedy show in 2018 called “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj,” was listed among Time100: The Most Influential People of 2019 and starred in a Netflix special called “The King’s Jester” in 2022 after performing a comedy tour across the U.S. the year before.

“Hasan Minhaj is probably one of the best known of UC Davis’ Alumni,” ASUCD President Radhika Gawde said. “UCD students look up to him, and it would be incredibly meaningful to hear him speak at commencement.”

Gawde and UC Davis Chancellor Gary May sent a formal invitation to Minhaj on Dec. 2, 2022, asking him to deliver the keynote address at one or more of the undergraduate commencement ceremonies for the class of 2023 on June 16, 17 or 18.

“As a UC Davis alumnus, your accomplishments as a comedian, actor and commentator on critical

Traffic in Silo bus terminal area raises concerns about bike safety

Unitrans and ASUCD are working on implementing measures to combat these concerns, including crossing guards and increased education current events and social issues are remarkable and inspiring, and many of your students look up to you as a role model and leader,” the letter reads. “We would love for our graduates to be able to hear from you as they prepare to leave the university and take the first steps forward into their own futures.”

The letter also notes that if he is not available on those days to attend the ceremony in person, the university “would also be happy to record [Minhaj’s] remarks” so that they can be played at the ceremonies.

An Instagram page with the handle @bringhasanminhaj gathered interested students through a Google Form in January, and the team behind it is now spearheading a social media movement to get Minhaj’s attention.

America Negrete, a fourth-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major, described her enthusiasm about the possibility of Minhaj speaking at the ceremony.

“He is definitely a figure that I look up to and knowing that he went to UC Davis and grew up here would make his words so meaningful,” Negrete said.

Joe Johnson, a fourth-year political science major, said that he would love to hear from someone like Minhaj, in part because he has the same major as him.

City Council considers four different proposals for continuing G Street closure, debates the future of the street closure

Last month’s council meeting included a presentation on different options to address public concerns about the continued closure

BY ANTHONY W. ZAMMIKIEL city@theaggie.org

Davis City Council agreed on proposal measures to address ongoing public concerns and suggestions for the G Street closure between Second and Third streets last month. This comes after a presentation made to the Bicycling, Transportation and Street Safety Commission on Jan. 12, at which the commission voted to keep the closure more permanently car-free and begin discussing ways to utilize the road as a common space for the public to gather outside the dining areas.

BY RACHEL GAUER campus@theaggie.org

The Silo bus terminal is one of the primary bus stops on campus, and many students rely on the bus lines that run in and out of the terminal to get to and from campus. The area around the bus station has been increasingly busy since the opening of the Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC) earlier this school year, spurring safety concerns for bus drivers, pedestrians and bikers.

Julia Shurman, a fourth-year English major and ASUCD senator, is involved with Unitrans through her Senate position. She commented on the impact that the TLC has had on some of the traffic issues at the Silo.

“One of the issues concerning the Silo terminal is the amount of bicycle and foot traffic in the area,” Shurman said. “After the opening of the Teacher Learning Complex, there’s been an increase in the number of students traveling through that area. This increased traffic is a concern for Unitrans because it’s more difficult for the buses to get through campus.”

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The TLC, which finished construction in spring of 2022, is located directly across from the Silo bus terminal. The building has lecture halls and smaller classrooms that can serve more than 2,000 students at a time, according to the TLC project website. With the increased amount of foot traffic from students going to and from the complex, the area has progressively become more congested.

ASUCD Senator Priya Talreja is a member of the Micro-mobility Education and Outreach Work Group (MEOW). She explained several measures that she said her teams hope to implement to combat the safety issues.

“We are trying to address the concerns with student safety and we want to implement more safety measures,” Talreja said. “One of the suggestions was to add crossing guards and move the bus terminal from the Silo area closer to the Latitude area because there is a lot less traffic over there.”

MEOW is a group that has recently emerged in order to both educate the public regarding transportation safety and create a safer infrastructure for transportation on campus. The group has listed multiple recommendations and agenda items that they strive to work towards. According to the document, some of these recommendations include encouraging students to wear bicycle helmets and “increase compliance with traffic rules.”

Jeffrey Flynn, who serves as the Unitrans Director, commented on the department’s efforts to prevent issues within the area as well as generally on campus.

“Unitrans’ top priority is safety — safety of our customers, safety of pedestrians, bicycles and other vehicles and safety of our drivers and staff,” Flynn said. “We’ve focused a lot of training efforts on safe driving around bicycles and pedestrians and in the Silo area over the past couple of years.”

Shurman recommended that until safety measures, such as crossing guards, are implemented, students should abide by traffic laws within the area and use extra caution.

“In the meantime, if students can continue to follow traffic laws as they travel through the area, this will help Unitrans drivers as they drive,” Shurman said. “The safety of UC Davis students is of the utmost importance, and this is one area where both pedestrians and bus drivers have noted their concerns.”

“The closure of G Street and use of downtown parking spaces and sidewalks for outdoor dining was initiated as a collaborative ‘Open Air Davis’ pandemic response effort to promptly assist businesses with challenges presented by COVID-19 restrictions and public health protocols,” according to the staff report delivered to city council. “Expedited, no cost, temporary use permits for outdoor dining were approved through the City’s Emergency Operation Center to enable businesses to operate outdoors. These temporary outdoor uses enabled businesses to continue to operate under emergency conditions and greatly contributed to the survival of many businesses that would have potentially faced closure.”

The staff noted that since the state of California elected to “re-open” in June 2021, the city has opted to continue issuing Temporary Use Permits (TUPs) to businesses located on the closed section of G Street to address public hesitancy toward dining indoors. Following meetings with the Downtown Davis Business Association (DDBA) in July of 2021, the city did agree to re-open the section of E Street between Second and Third Street, which was closed during the early pandemic. In a presentation given to the council by Ryan Chapman, Assistant Director of Public Works, the council received four options to consider for upcoming adjustments to the closed section. The first option includes reopening the section for vehicle usage, which would be how the section between Second and Third streets was before the pandemic closure started in 2020. The second option details how the section would remain off-limits for traffic, and that the section would be available for restaurants and other businesses to expand outwards on the street. However, Chapman notes that there are going to be protocols developed by the City Council to improve maintenance and to beautify the street for outdoor activities. The options proposed are not limited to re-opening or not re-opening, as Chapman notes. The third option allows for temporary closures, meaning that the street would be reopened to traffic, however, special events would be allowed, and the City Council could also consider whether select times of the week would require closing the section. The fourth and final option includes re-opening the northbound side of the road and keeping the southbound side of the road closed for outdoor dining, and additional room for outdoor activities.