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volume 131, number 36
TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 2012
Proposed Minor Alcohol Preclusion Ordinance put on the backburner City council unanimously votes to revise the measure
By ANDREW POH Aggie News Writer
The proposed Davis City Minor Alcohol Preclusion Ordinance has been pushed back amid strong opposition toward the measure. The Davis City Council unanimously decided on March 6 that the ordinance would be postponed until further changes could be made. If the ordinance had passed, Davis police would have been granted the ability to cite minors under the age of 18 who are intoxicated in public. Currently, though it is illegal for minors to purchase or consume alcohol in public, there is no law against a minor having alcohol in his or her system in public. At present, if a minor is found with alcohol in her or his system, the only thing the police can do is attempt to find the minor’s guardian. “Technically, now, a kid can just walk away,” said Police Captain Darren Pytel. “There’s nothing to prevent them from doing that.” The proposal has seen much debate since its induction in January. After receiving input from various community sources, it has undergone two revisions. The first revision granted criminal prosecution immunity to a
person under 21 if the individual called in for a medical emergency concerning a minor who has consumed alcohol. The second revision added a sunset date of April 1, 2014 to the ordinance. After the first t w o years, police would gather data over the interim that would be p rov i d e d to the city council. Ne v e rtheless, the revisions proved Irisa Tam
/ Aggie
insufficient, and the ordinance will see another round of revisions before being considered again. During the March 6 council meeting, Davis Police Chief Landy Black spoke about the proposal. “The most notable reason for us to act was the public conduct,” Black said. “It was causing disruption to neighborhoods, unsafe acts in public places and risky be-
havior to take place. “We have no misconceptions that we’re going to be able to actually cause youth to stop drinking. What we do want to cause to occur is that that behavior will have less of an impact on the neighbors and less of an impact on the community as a whole,” he said. As it stands, if members of the community are disturbed by rowdy teenagers, police will be dispatched to the location. The police will be unable to do much unless they see the minors committing an illegal act. Knocking over garbage cans, swinging on street signs and causing a general ruckus, though perhaps annoying, do not violate the law. Tia Will, a 24-year resident of Davis, shared her thoughts at the meeting regarding the proposal. “A collaborative approach is almost always better,” she said. “The students, the town people, the neighborhood residents — you want everyone to be involved in this, not just a kind of ‘catch-them-and-punish-them approach.’” ASUCD President-elect Rebecca Sterling and ASUCD Senator Bradley Bottoms attended the meeting as well.
See ALCOHOL, page 2
Make the most out of spring break Travel, skiing, live music await By DEVON BOHART Aggie Associate Editor
It’s around the corner and everyone is anxiously awaiting its arrival. No school, no homework, but plenty of free time and fun. Spring break marks the end of finals and the beginning of a week of care-free relaxation. But have you made your plans yet? If you haven’t, The Aggie has done some research to ensure that you can still make the most out of your week out of classes. If you are looking to leave the state or even the country, STA Travel Agency, located in the
Memorial Union, is the place to office so we help to further the go. Store Manager Leigh Depeters experience,” Depeters said. “For and the staff at STA work to find s p r i n g break, we do a great vising packagdiscounts for students who are job at dees that are cheaper.” looking for a good time, even on From a somewhat C o s t a low budget. Rica and Depeters Mexico to also said regional that using places like this as a resource Yosemite, Land ie leads to the “optimiProduct Manager gg A / zation of your trip.” Kathy Magan said Tam isa r I t h a t any vacation expe “We are extremely wellr i e n c e can be accommodated. traveled; everyone here has traveled abroad and we work very See SPRING, page 3 closely with the summer abroad
Yolo Federal Credit Union opens branch downtown Union opens new, environmentally sustainable building
Evan Davis / Aggie
The Yolo County Credit Union has been open to those who live, worship or attend school in Yolo County since 1997. A new branch is now open on G Street.
By CHLOE BREZSNY Aggie News Writer
As of 10 a.m. yesterday, the new
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Downtown Davis branch of the Yolo Federal Credit Union is now open for business. The new building, located at
501 G St., is the Credit Union’s fifth branch in Yolo County. They currently have two offices in Woodland, one in West Sacramento and now two in Davis. However, according to Christina Blackman, marketing manager for the Credit Union, the site in South Davis will be closed and replaced by the space in Downtown Davis. “The location in South Davis was not our first choice,” said Clyde Brooker, president and CEO of the Credit Union. “Downtown Davis is where we have always wanted to be.” That is why in 2009 when the G Street property came up for sale, the Credit Union jumped on the opportunity. “The property was discussed in November 2009 and the deal was made in December,” Brooker said. “A primary design was drawn up by our architects in April 2010, and after discussions with city planning and the neighborhood folks and our current design was developed from their input.”
Forecast It wouldn’t be winter quarter without the rain. Here marks the end of the sunshine. The rain is likely to continue until finals, with the possibility of a thunderstorm. Keep them spirits high and study hard! You are almost done! Raymond Chan, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team
See CREDIT, page 3 Wednesday
ASUCD does not approve institutionalization of ethnic celebration grants Ethnic graduation groups request funds from ASUCD senate reserves By MUNA SADEK Aggie News Writer
At an Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD) senate meeting last month, the senate table did not pass a bill which would have granted funding from the Club Finance Council (CFC) and the REACH event line item to specific ethnic celebration groups. The bill received a vote of 7-5, short of the two-thirds majority ASUCD spending bills require for passage. Ethnic graduation celebrations have taken place since 1984. In addition to attending the commencement ceremony for a particular college, students of ethnic or minority groups are given the opportunity to celebrate their graduation by inviting around 30 guests per student. Last year, during the Chicano/Latino graduation celebration, 162 graduates participated with approximately 2,500 guests. As stated on the Chicano/ Latino graduation celebration website, the first ethnic celebration, in 1984, was held by the University’s Chicano/Latino department to foster a sense of accomplishment and develop a culturally relevant opportunity for students to recognize their friends and family within a historically underrepresented ethnic group. Celebrations would usually include student and keynote speakers and cultural entertainers. Among these ethnic/minority celebration groups are Black, Southeast Asian, Filipino, Native American and LGBT student organizations, which are open to all majors. “The Chicano/Latino Graduation Celebration is a powerful motivator in helping students persist to graduate at Davis,” said Alma Martinez, staff advisor of the Chicano/ Latino graduation celebration. “Students have the opportunity to speak to their guests in their language of choice.” Graduation celebrations are usually granted loans from the Club Finance Council (CFC), which provides about $80,000 in grants and loans to eligible and registered undergraduate campus student organizations. However, this year ethnic graduation celebration groups were not able to ask for money from CFC, as a new rule states that any group that is department-sponsored cannot receive funds from CFC. According to ASUCD Senator Jared Crisologo-Smith, this rule was enforced this year. “After last year they were cut from those funds. So last year the [ethnic graduations groups’] only resort was senate reserves, which only a couple of them came to actually get,” CrisologoSmith said. Prior to the new rule, many ethnic graduation celebration groups came to the ASUCD senate to obtain necessary funds for their events. Former ASUCD Senator Miguel Espinoza said many of the ethnic groups are pushed toward requesting for smaller amounts than required. “Every year ASUCD struggles to validate why they need these funds,” Espinoza said. Among the senators who voted no on the bill, some felt that taking money from CFC was inappropriate, as doing so would be taking away funding opportunities for other clubs. “I personally see ethnic graduations having so much merit, but it is not the role of senate
Thursday
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to say that one event has more merit than another and no matter how much funding I would like to give to ethnic graduations, I cannot do it at the cost of another group or organization on campus,” said ASUCD Senator Erica Padgett, who voted no on the bill. Last year, senate bills 86, 87, 88, 89 and 101 were brought to the table that would allocate $1,165 to the Chicano/Latino celebration, $517.23 to the Filipino/a celebration, $345 to the LGBT Lavender celebration, $500 to the Native American celebrations and stoles and $607.18 for the Black celebration, respectively. Only SB 87 and SB 101 were passed. Crisologo-Smith said that he would like to institutionalize the money that ethnic graduations receive from senate. “We want to earmark them with the money that we are going to give them so that they know its there, so they don’t have to come and ask for it,” Crisologo-Smith said. At the senate meeting on Feb. 23, Crisologo-Smith introduced Senate Bill 67, to transfer funds to the “CCC/LGBTRC CommunitySpecific Ceremonies” line item from the “Club Finance Council” line item and the “REACH Retreat” line item in the 2011-2012 Grants Budget. Crisologo-Smith said he attempted to move money from the grants budget from one part of the ASUCD budget to another part to preemptively give ethnic graduation celebration money. The total amount of funding that the celebrations received in 2010 from senate reserves and CFC, which is also funded by ASUCD, was under $10,000. The bill would have taken money from CFC reserves and also from the REACH Retreat, an event organized by the Cross Cultural Center and the LGBTRC, which did not take place. The funds from the event would then go into communityspecific graduations, according to Padgett. $3,000 had already been granted to ethnic graduation groups last year, which carried to this year. Crisologo-Smith said he sought to amend a line item from $3,000 to $8,000, whereby funds would be transferred from the CFC line item to the LGBTRC graduation celebration ceremonies line item, from which ethnic celebrations receive their funds. “I had originally written a bill giving them funding from CFC, because it was already in the grant’s budget and I thought it was the most innocuous place to take funding from, but a lot of the senators objected in saying that it was hurting campus clubs by moving funds away from CFC,” he said. “I was trying to give them a set amount for money before the events occurred.” Many senators agreed that taking money from the REACH event that did not happen was acceptable. However, they differed on where they thought the the rest of the money should come from. Many had issues with taking money from CFC, especially if it meant that other clubs would have access to less money. “For me that is fine if an event does not happen and you just have money floating there, I would prefer for it to be put toward something that is going to be happening,” Padgett said. Regarding funding coming from
See ETHNIC, page 2 Look to your left. Now look to your right. There is a 1 in 2 chance that the person next to you is contagiously sick. Now give them a nice “f you” because you are now screwed for finals. (This statistic was completely made up.) Mimi Vo