March 15, 2012

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serving the uc davis campus and community since 1915

www.theaggie.org

volume 131, number 38

thursday, march 15, 2012

Dept. of State releases new travel warning for Mexico

News iN Brief

Students urged to exercise caution when visiting By CLAIRE TAN Aggie Staff Writer

Students might want to think twice before heading to Mexico this spring break. On Feb. 8, the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BCA) of the United States Department of State issued an updated travel warning detailing the security conditions in Mexico. Due to the ongoing drug trafficking and violence in Mexico, the bureau recommends U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel. “Every six months or so, we update the travel warnings, so the update we just did [for Mexico] was redesigned for clarity,” said Elizabeth Finan, spokesperson for the BCA. “It has a state-by-state assessment that has information on security conditions in each region. We also added a map to the warning to help travelers locate where

they’re going to be going.” Finan advises travelers to avoid the border states. In addition, she said there are currently 14 Mexican states that require citizens to be more vigilant. The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) strongly advises spring breakers not to travel to Mexico. In a press release, the department stated rape and sexual assault continue to be serious issues in resorts, and the number of Mexican states to avoid increased by four since 2011. “The Mexican government has made great strides battling the cartels, and we commend their continued commitment to making Mexico a safer place to live and visit,” said Steven C. McCraw, director of DPS. “However, drug cartel violence and other criminal activity represent a significant safety threat, even in some resort areas.” The travel warning gives advice on each state in Mexico, although there are also states

with no travel advisories. “Generally, the resort areas and tourist destinations in Mexico don’t see the levels of drug-related violence and crime that are reported in the border region,” Finan said. Travel.state.gov states that the crime and violence occurring throughout the country have led to U.S. citizens falling victim to Transnational Criminal Organization activities such as homicide, gun battles, kidnapping, carjacking and highway robbery. “The number of U.S. citizens reported to the Department of State as murdered in Mexico increased from 35 in 2007 to 120 in 2011,” the BCA stated on travel.state.gov. The travel warning for Mexico is a reflection of the travel policy that has been in effect since July 15, 2010 for official U.S. government employees and their families, Finan said. They are prohibited from personal travel to places designated as “defer non-essen-

See SPRING, page 2

Irisa Tam / Aggie

Study hours extended on campus during finals week Study hours at many different study spots on campus will be extended throughout finals week. ASUCD Academic Affairs Commission and Campus Recreation have collaborated to extend study hours in order to provide students with more options when studying for their finals. Griffin Lounge and The Wedge will be open 24 hours. Study hours have been extended at ARC Meeting Rooms, Starbucks at the ARC, Student Community Center Meeting Rooms and other locations on campus. For a full list of the extended study hours, visit sa.ucdavis. edu/finals_study_hours.cfm. — Hannah Strumwasser

Bike fanatics of Davis bike through town together

courtesy of Krista Jackson

Davis’ Critical Mass has decreased in popularity over the last few years.

By MEE YANG

Aggie News Writer

Originating in San Francisco as the first bicycling tour in 1992, Critical Mass eventually became an instant hit in over 300 cities around the world. Taking place every last Friday of the month, bicyclists congregate and roam the city together to promote bicycling as an alternative to driving cars. There are different forms of Critical Mass, ranging from politically driven bike rides to rides just for fun. “A critical mass is an autonomous zone; it challenges the existing transportation system by testing it, and demonstrating that even in Davis, attitudes and infrastructure are not conducive to bikes as the main mode of transport,” said Darach Miller, a genetics graduate student. Given that Davis is known as Bike City, USA, it has its very own Critical Mass group that meets once a month under the Oak Tree at Central Park. During its prime time in the mid-2000s, Davis Critical Mass drew together many people who dressed up in various costumes with extravagant bike décor. Probably considered Davis Critical Mass’s most popular ride up to date,

Today’s weather Rain High 62 Low 49

Zombies Versus Pirates was held in September 2007. Bicyclists came together dressed up as a pirate or zombie to reclaim the streets from the car invasion. This car invasion was in reference to the Fifth Street corridor, which is, today, still considered a hazardous bike thruway because of its lack of bike lanes. According to daviswiki. org, Davis Critical Mass used to consist of about a hundred people. Since then, the number of participants has decreased. In addition, the original goals of Davis Critical Mass have shifted from protesting for bike lanes on Fifth Street to having a wonderful time biking with other community members every month. Boogabaah Weesnaah, who is one of the administrators for the Davis Critical Mass Facebook group and frequently attends the bike rides, said “the few rides that actually did occur last year [2011] seemed to be more for just fun than protesting anything.” She said that a nice mixture of both students and community members are involved with the group but that there is no set organization. Ideally, people show up whenever they feel like riding and create their own routes as

See BIKE, page 3

Blind UC Davis student fights for equal access to education Chemistry graduate student lobbies in Washington for audio textbooks By SARA ISLAS Aggie News Writer

“You don’t need vision to succeed,” UC Davis graduate student Hoby Wedler said. “However, you do need equal access to opportunities.” In Wedler’s case, equal access to opportunity came in the form of audio textbooks. He is currently lobbying at the White House and in Congress to grant all students who have sight and reading disabilities access to audio textbooks. Wedler is completely blind. He graduated from Davis with a double major in history and chemistry in 2010. Now he is continuing his education at UC Davis as a chemistry Ph.D. student. Wedler, who said that he considers being blind nothing more than a nuisance, said that he credits a huge part of his educational and life success to audio textbooks. “They leveled the playing field for me,” Wedler said. “If I failed, it was my fault. I could no longer blame it on not being able to see thanks to audio textbooks.” Audio textbooks, which were provided to him through a non-profit organization for the visually impaired called Learning Ally, are much more con-

Bijan Agahi / Aggie

UC Davis graduate student Hoby Wedler is fighting at the White House and in Congress to grant all students with sight and reading disabilities access to audio textbooks. venient, efficient and effective than Braille, the alternative, Wedler said. “The general chemistry book used at Davis is normally one very heavy, 500-paged book, but in Braille it is over 30 volumes of large books,” Wedler

said. “It is very difficult to work with 30 books.” On top of being inconvenient, Wedler said that Braille books take twice the

See WEDLER, page 2

Students complain about slow WiFi network on campus Too many devices could contribute to alleged “slow” network By RICHARD CHANG Aggie News Writer

On an average day in the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo), one can often overhear students complaining that the connection to Moobilenet, the campus Wi-Fi network, is slow. “The unreliability of WiFi leads to unprofessional presentations, embarrassment and apathy,” said Anna Hunt, a senior religious studies major. Many students, faculty and staff have complained that the wireless network is lackluster, noting that Moobilenet is often slow to connect in places such as the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo), Wellman Hall and Olson Hall. According to Hunt, it is not uncommon to see a professor struggling with their laptop, unable to Forecast

Rain is a real pain, but don’t complain, because if you use your brain, you will be able to detain the water droplets from soaking your mane. For tomorrow, be ready to repeat these steps again, because the rain will not restrain. Matthew Little, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team

load an online video he prepared for class. Mark Redican, director of communication resources, said that his unit hasn’t seen many problems reported. Despite the increase in wireless access points, from 300 in 2008 to 1,600 now, bandwidth is still an issue. The widespread adoption of smartphones has not helped, according to Redican. “ S o m e phones check e-mail every minute,” Redican said. The number of devices connectIrisa Tam / Aggie

Bicyclists roam Davis streets every last Friday of the month

Friday

Saturday

Rain

Showers

High 61 Low 45

High 56 Low 42

ing to Moobilenet is one aspect that contributes to the inconsistent wireless network. One campus department is actively adopting new technology. Tracy Bennett, director of computer services for Student Housing, believes WiFi is the way of the future. “Generally, it’s been good; not too many complaints,” he said of Resnetx, the Wi-Fi network in the dorms. However, Bennett said bringing Wi-Fi to the dorms has been a challenge. He attributes most of the issues to excessive

downloading, gaming and streaming movies — some of the activities college students like best. Redican said that it is difficult to assess the performance of the network if users don’t report the problems. He said that they have not received a large amount of complaints about Moobilenet. “If there are problems, we definitely want to hear about it,” he said. While this is an option for students struggling to connect, Hunt suggested that a bad connection may not always be such a bad thing. “The only benefit is that those addicted to Facebook can’t always get their fix during class,” Hunt said. RICHARD CHANG can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

The walls almost caved in on us last night as we were putting together the paper. Just kidding. But seriously, Steve Aoki was causing some serious damage in the basement last night. Hardcore bass beats, anyone? Aggie Night Crew


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March 15, 2012 by The California Aggie - Issuu