serving the uc davis campus and community since 1915
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volume 130, number 107
tuesday, november 1, 2011
New film club Third and Fifth Street redesign comes to UC Davis plans in engineering phase New club one of many to bring students together with film
Aggie News Writer
A new film club has been established at UC Davis after the paperwork to become a registered student group was finalized a couple of weeks ago. The Film Club aims to look at film through a broader angle by discussing film theory and production. This will enable group members to engage on an intellectual and social level while expanding knowledge and perspective of films. “We started the Film Club because we like films,” said Christina Deniz, a fourth-year sociology and film double major and publicity coordinator for the Film Club. “We wanted to talk about film not just in theories, but in all aspects of production as well. We wanted to have a broader approach on film itself.” The new film club’s first meeting was held on Thursday of last week at 6 p.m. in Olson 158. Meetings will be held every other week at the same time and place. To get involved, the club encourages those interested to show up to meetings and to visit the Facebook page. There are other registered film clubs on campus, such as Filmmaker’s Ambition, which was established in 2002. Filmmaker’s Ambition differs from the Film Club in a few different ways. Filmmaker’s Ambition aims to provide a network for aspiring students who are interested in the process of filmmaking, while also giving
By CLAIRE TAN
students who are not as seriously interested in filmmaking an opportunity to participate in the process, as well. “Our goal is to not have [the club] like another film class. We want to actually make films,” said Michael Figlock, a senior film studies major and president of Filmmaker’s Ambition. Filmmaker’s Ambition meets Wednesdays at 6 p.m. in Wellman 26. During meetings, the goal is to work in small groups to make a film that reflects genres or director’s style that was discussed in club meetings, a relatively new idea for the club, Figlock said. Other clubs on campus, such as the Davis Anime Club (DAC), utilize film as a means of building community from students who enjoy a specific genre as well. “We use anime films as a means of building community. Many people engage in the anime community online, but here we are able to engage in it through a social club,” said Miles Thomas, a junior English major and president of the DAC. The DAC, which was established in 1992, is a social club that focuses on creating community among students who are interested in Japanese culture and the media that it produces, Thomas said. Meetings for the DAC are every Wednesday and Thursday in Wellman 126 at 8 p.m. For more information, visit the Facebook pages for the clubs. ALICIA KINDRED can be reached at campus@ theaggie.org.
Aggie News Writer
The construction phase of the Downtown Davis Third Street and Fifth Street redesign projects will be underway by the summer of 2012. For Third Street, the main goal is to appropriately connect downtown to the UC Davis campus. For Fifth Street, bike lanes and turn pockets will be created for bicyclists. The overall cost of redesigning Third Street will be about $5.5 million, whereas the Fifth Street project will cost approximately $1.1 million. The city also received a $863,000 community design grant for the latter project. “We’re in the engineering phase as of now [for Third Street],” said Brian Abbanat, transportation planner for the City of Davis Community Development and Sustainability Department. “There are three phases: the planning outreach phase, the engineering or design phase and the construction phase.” Abbanat said the planning outreach phase was completed in June. He said it dealt with coming up with a design concept, getting everyone pointed in the right direction with how to deal with circulation and what role the street should play. “We had to resolve how we want to allocate to different users — that is, to bikes, pedestrians, cars and parking,” Abbanat said. “We are redesigning the street for three objectives. One is for the street to function better for bikes and pedestrians, the second is to dedicate the street to primary users which are bicycles and pedestrians and third, we want to cre-
ers approve them in the next statewide election. If approved, “courtappointed officials would have to set interim boundaries for use in the next statewide e l e c t i o n ,” according to
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Last Wednesday, The California Supreme Court unanimously rejected two Republican backed lawsuits to the new state redistricting lines, thwarting GOP attempts to gain political leverage in the upcoming elections. “In the absence of a written opinion, we can only speculate as to why they made this decision, but we are resolute in gathering the signatures necessary so that voters can weigh in on this matter,” said California Republican Party Chair Tom Del Beccaro in a press release. Members of the State Supreme Court summarily rejected the lawsuits without listening to oral arguments. The decision was held in a closed-door meeting. The lawsuits “failed to provide any facts showing the [California Redistricting Commission’s] work was an unreasonable application of the redistricting criteria,” according to the redistricting commission in an earlier press release. The only significant remaining contest against the new district lines is a Republican-backed ballot referendum that would summarily reject those lines until vot-
Attorney General Kamala Harris’ website. In order to succeed, the party must collect 504,760 signatures by Nov. 13 to get the measure on the ballot. The new redistricting lines have disquieted many incumbent lawmakers, many of whom may face a new direct competition against each other. Yolo County’s Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), however, faces little opposition in her re-election bid with the new 3rd State Senate District. Her district would still encompass much of Yolo
Community Development Block Grant and tree preservation funds. “There’s been a vision to dramatically improve Third Street since the 1960s,” Abbanat said. “This fulfills the long-term vision of strengthening the connection between the university and downtown.” The Fifth Street redesign project is also in the engineering phase. “We will have a community meeting hopefully in December to start the design phase after we get input from residents,” said Roxanne Namazi, senior civil engineer for the city of Davis. “Our goal is to be under construction by Aug. 1.” According to Namazi, two car lanes will be removed and bike
See REDESIGN, page 5
Website offers endless networking opportunities
One hurdle remains for newly minted legislative districts Aggie News Writer
ate a distinctive district.” According to Abbanat, the plan calls for a better gateway between the university and downtown. He said the designers want to create a corridor and an attention-grabbing visual to draw people over to the campus site and vice versa. The drainage issues will also be addressed, subsequently improving the drainage on adjacent streets. “There is localized footing during heavier rain events, so much of the rainwater is conveyed on the surface and there are very few drainage inlets on the street to tuck that water away,” Abbanat said. “It turns out using permeable pavers is the ideal solution.” Abbanat said the funds come from a combination of development impact fees, utility enterprise funds, dedicated pots of money from public works, the
A users’ guide to LinkedIn
State Supreme Court rejects redistricting lawsuits By Ramon Solis
Madison Dunitz / Aggie
Road redesign projects will begin in downtown Davis this summer to make room for more bike lanes and allow for more drainage.
and Solano but also gain parts of Napa, Sonoma and Contra Costa Counties. On Aug. 15, the California Redistricting Commission passed a new set of legislative district lines after months of deliberation and heated public comment. Legislative redistricting occurs every 10 years. This is the first time citizens conducted the redistricting process as a result of a 2008 voter approved measure. Previously, California lawmakers were responsible for drawing up their own districts. The Citizen Redistricting Committee is composed of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four Independents. One of the members is Yolo County’s own Stan Forbes, co-owner of the indie bookstore, the Avid Reader. According to the redistricting committee website, Forbes also helps operate a family ranch where he grows almonds. He is registered as Decline-ToState. The general election is still more than a year away, but for most California politicians and political junkies, election season is never over. RAMON SOLIS can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
By LANI CHAN
Aggie Features Writer
In a few years, perusing through the job experience and education of complete strangers may be just as exhilarating as clicking through friends’ photos on Facebook. The same way that Facebook profiles can help to find out more about where an individual fits into any given social scene, LinkedIn profiles have become a way for both companies and those entering the job market to see where job-seekers might fit in the professional world. “Most of the students I talked to about LinkedIn have never heard of it, or have created an account but haven’t really started using it,” said Lisa Sanders, a program coordinator at the UC Davis Internship and Career Center (ICC). “I stress that it is a really helpful research tool. Nobody has
time to do an internship in every interest that they have, and LinkedIn provides a way to find and reach out to people who are well established in any field of interest.” Users can create a profile on LinkedIn free of charge. Under the “Experience” tab, users input information about their past jobs, creating a virtual resume. Education history, recommendations from past employers and a personal “summary” can also be included. The site also allows users to include personal websites, Twitter accounts, phone numbers and photos. Through the “Connections” feature, users are matched with others who have similar jobs. The “Groups” feature allows users to search for and join professional groups, providing a forum to ask fellow members questions about their
See LINKEDIN, page 2
Irisa Tam / Aggie
By ALICIA KINDRED
Plans will make streets more bike and pedestrian friendly
ask shawc SHAWCing Tip Cleanest Stall
#1:
Closest
Stall,
Warning: Reading The Aggie in the restroom? We suggest you move to the first stall. Bathrooms are awkward places. For a place that makes our bodies vulnerable to bacteria, they’re awfully disgusting — but not in the ways you might think. Microbiologist Charles Gerba, after studying restrooms for over 20 years, claims that the most bugs, germs
Today’s weather Sunny High 73 Low 41
and bacteria in public bathrooms are not where you put your behind, but where you put your hands and whether you place your bag on the floor (Hint: don’t). Based on his clinical experience, Gerba also claims that the first stall is the cleanest. A psychology study done by researchers at UC San Diego measured item positioning on choice selection in supermarkets, public bathrooms and standardized tests. To determine which bathroom stalls were used
Forecast It looks like our luck with the weather has finally run out. Expect rain by Thursday. Maybe we should start doing a naked run on the first big rain of the year like they do at U.C. Santa Cruz? There’s nothing like excessive nudity to distract you from big tests. Alex Neigher, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team
the most, they recorded how many rolls had to be replaced, and which rolls (they placed four in each stall) were replaced the most. In both cases the ends were used the least. Forty percent of the finished rolls came from the end stalls. It seems like people have a preference for the middle. We think it’s because the closest stalls are the most revealing and folks perceive the farthest stalls as the most used. SHAWCers Favorite Bathrooms on Campus: Lower Freeborn, Dutton Hall
Wednesday
Thursday
Mosty sunny
Chance of rain
High 72 Low 46
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(second & third floor), Hart Hall (second & third floor) and the ARC. The ASUCD Student Health and Wellness Committee (SHAWC) aims to promote and address important health-related issues on campus. We serve as the liaison between ASUCD and campus health organizations, clubs and resources. If you have SHAWCing suggestions, questions or tips, please e-mail us at shawcucd@ gmail.com and/or “like” our Facebook page. Remember, everybody poops.
It’s the first day of November. Get ready for cold(er) weather and the frantic rush of registering for classes. But don’t forget about the light at the end of the tunnel: Thanksgiving and break from school right before finals! Amanda Nguyen