May 17, 2012

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volume 131, number 67

UC Davis students start independent press Absurd Publications’ first book to be printed by end of 2012

thursday, may 17, 2012

University of California to consolidate shared services at UC Riverside All campuses to transition to new center by October 2014

By EINAT GILBOA Aggie Staff Writer

The University of California (UC) has announced that it will be consolidating shared services, including routine payroll, benefits, leave management and workforce administration, at UC Riverside as part of its Working Smarter Initiative. Each campus currently operates these functions independently.

This new center called UCPath (Payroll, Academic, Personnel, Timekeeping and HR), will begin by serving five locations in July 2013:

UCLA, UCLA Medical Center, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced and UC Office of the President (UCOP). All campuses will make the switch by October 2014 — stated the press release from UCOP. With the new center will come a new payroll and human resources information system to replace the previous one, now 30 years old.

“Right now about 6,000 people in the system have some part of the payroll and benefits function as part of their job and they are operating with about 11 different technology systems,” said Kris Lovekin, Director of

Media Relations at UC Riverside, in email. “Instead we will have one center of about 600 employees and one technology system.”

The new system is supposed to increase efficiency and allow UC to more effectively conduct and plan for its workforce needs — stated the website of the UC Working Smarter Initiative.

Merging the system will mean the transfer of individuals who currently work in some aspect of human resources on the campus level. UC

See SERVICES, page 8

Black Family Day to celebrate the African Diaspora Students prepare for a day of family festivities Aggie Features Writer

Anna Oh / Aggie

(from left to right): Seniors Corey La Rue and Evan White started their own printing press and are working to publish a book by the end of the year.

By SARA ISLAS Aggie News Writer

As Pablo Picasso once said, “action is the fundamental key to all success.” Most have heard some variation of this advice many times over; UC Davis students, Corey La Rue and Evan White, took it to heart.

As aspiring writers, La Rue, a senior philosophy major, and White, a senior English major, understand the difficulty of getting work published. Instead of leaving themselves at the whim and will of a publishing house, they decided to go independent and start Absurd Publications, Davis’s first-ever student run press.

“We have a business license, a contract with a bookstore and plans to expand,” La Rue said.

Absurd Publications, which releases its first anthology in coming months, aims to publish and distribute literature with artistic rather than industry quality.

“We do not compromise the voices of our writers in order to comply with any overarching form or style,” White said.

Founders La Rue and White call themselves editorial staff and consider themselves to be aids in the writing publishing process, rather than gatekeepers of publication services. They will work with authors to publish literary pieces that most clearly express their artistic and literary intentions.

See ABSURD, page 5

This weekend, the UC Davis campus will take advantage of its ability to be used as a forum for groups to celebrate their interests, skills and cultures. The 42nd annual Black Family Day will be hosted on the Quad on Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.

The event will include food, a children’s fair, student and local artist performances. Guests over 21 can enjoy a jazz and wine celebration from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Student Community Center multipurpose room. This

year, the Black Family Day will also be featur- i n g esteemed R&B singer

Irisa Tam / Aggie

By KELSEY SMOOT

Goapele, who is wellknown in the Bay Area.

Additionally, representatives from the Sacramento radio station V101.1 will be in attendance, DJing and raffling prizes at the event.

Senior communication and international relations double major Tiana Brawley, head of the Black Family Day planning committee, said the event is meant to celebrate the African Diaspora, while still including those outside of the community who wish to attend.

“What makes

Black Family Day so unique is that it is a space to showcase the African Diaspora community with a large, diverse audience of the people who attend Black Family Day. It is an inclusive event in which we encourage outside community members to come and check out the event and network,” Brawley said.

Brawley also said that the event gives members of the community a chance to take on leadership roles and culminate fellowship.

“The importance of Black Family Day speaks volumes on the UC Davis campus. It

See FAMILY, page 5

Creative Media expansion offers new student positions as demand for services increase ASUCD unit seeks graphic designers and programmers

By STEPHANIE B. NGUYEN Aggie News Writer

ASUCD unit Creative Media is currently hiring new student graphic designers and computer programmers to meet the increasing demand for campus-wide design services.

Creative Media is design firm that provides print and web design for students, businesses and ASUCD units

to help publicize events and services and to facilitate communication.

Creative Media is led by director and career staffer Alex Park, with all other employees students.

According to 5th-year psychology major and Creative Media marketing director Don Ho, the expansion will allow for a more streamlined marketing effort within ASUCD. “Currently, there is no cohesive or

all-encompassing planning and collaboration within ASUCD whenever any campaign or event takes place,” Ho said. “By garnering many of the social media and technological outlets available, coupled with Creative Media’s graphic design team, we hope to offer a cohesive and extremely effective marketing solution for

See CREATIVE, page 7

Solano and Orchard Parks Apartment Complexes to close in the near future

Family and graduate student housing will be redeveloped

By MEE YANG

Aggie News Writer

Family and graduate student housing apartment complexes Orchard and Solano Parks will be closing in 2014 and 2016, respectively.

This separation of closure is Brian Nguyen / Aggie to facilitate a transition for exStudent Housing will be closing, demolishing and replacing Solano and Orchard Parks, isting graduate students living on campus. These complexwhich are family and graduate student housing, in the next couple of years.

Today’s weather Sunny

Forecast Great weather this weekend and hopefully it doesn’t get much hotter! Stay cool out there!

High 80 Low 55 Matthew Little, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team

es are managed by UC Davis Student Housing and will be redeveloped.

This means that properties will be closed, demolished and replaced by a new building to serve a similar purpose, said Ramona Hernandez, director for business services in Student Housing.

“Orchard and Solano are old, antiquated buildings,”

Friday

Saturday

Sunny

Sunny

High 85 Low 56

High 85 Low 55

Hernandez said in an e-mail.

“They are in need of many improvements due to life cycle, such as: structural improvements due to dry rot, waste water plumbing line replacement, water supply line replacement, window replacement, roof replacement, appliance replacement, furnace replacement

See HOUSING, page 3

A new form of embarrassment has hit Facebook.

The new app Socialcam will now share every video you watch online with your Facebook friends. A little too much information? I think so.

Amanda Nguyen

page two

2 thursday, may 17, 2012

daily calendar dailycal@theaggie.org

TODAY

SATURDAY

Poetry in the Garden Noon to 1 p.m.

Wyatt Deck The UC Davis Arboretum invites fans of good writing and beautiful gardens to enjoy a reading by poet Justin Desmangles with musical accompaniment by Harley White Jr. The event is sponsored by the UC Davis Arboretum, Rebecca Morrison and Poets & Writers Inc., with the support it has received from the James Irvine Foundation. For more information, please call 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis. edu.

Shinkoskey Noon Concert: Zofo Piano Duo Noon to 1 p.m.

115 Music Attend this free concert as Keisuke Nakagoshi and Eva-Maria Zimmermann perform pieces on the piano.

Poetry Night Reading Series Noon to 2 p.m.

John Natsoulas Gallery The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to welcome the renowned poet, critic and essayist Dana Gioia for a special reading.

Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series 4:10 to 5 p.m.

1005 GBSF Listen to this talk given by Dr. A. Hari Reddi titled “Regeneration of bone and cartilage: A tale of two tissues.”

Panel Discussion: “Responsibility to Protect” Doctrine 6:30 p.m.

198 Young This discussion is held as part of Ceasefire, a week devoted to the awareness and prevention of genocide and mass atrocities, presented by genocide prevention coalition STAND.

Plant Sale: Some Like it Hot — Summer Bloomers and Sizzling Deals 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Arboretum Teaching Nursery, Garrod Drive Get ready for summer in the garden and find some great bargains on sustainable, beautiful plants at the Friends of the UC Davis Arboretum end-of-season clearance plant sale. For more information, call 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

Ethnobotanical Plant Walk and Meditation 2 to 4 p.m.

Wyatt Deck, Old Davis Road Join the UC Davis Arboretum Ambassadors for an ethnobotanical plant walk and meditation on Saturday. Learn about traditional uses of California-native plants for food, medicine and ritual, followed by tea and meditation. The free program will begin at 2 p.m. at the Wyatt Deck, located on Old Davis Road next to the redwood grove in the UC Davis Arboretum. Free parking is available in Visitor Lot 5, on Old Davis Road and A Street. For more information, please call 752-4880 or visit arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

Art Walk 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

1970 Johnson Ranch Drive, Roseville Join the third Saturday Art Walk and Night Out at the Museum. This is a free event; light refreshments will be served.

Early Music Ensemble 7 to 8 p.m.

St. Martin’s Church, Davis Watch the Early Music Ensemble and the director, David Nutter, perform Monteverdi: “Laetatus sum.”

SUNDAY Wild Family Day

7 to 9 p.m.

Freeborn This event features UC Davis’ a cappella groups The Spokes, The Afterglow, The Liquid Hotplates and The Lounge Lizards, and will be hosted by UCD’s Birdstrike Comedy Theatre. Tickets are $5 presale at the Freeborn Box Office or tickets.com and $10 at the door. For more info, go to davisspokes.com.

1 to 4 p.m.

Arboretum Gazebo, Garrod Drive Join UC Davis student group Wild Campus, in partnership with the UC Davis Arboretum, for Wild Family Day. All ages are invited to this free educational event designed to raise awareness about native wildlife and what the community can do to help conserve these special critters. There will be fun games and activities for all ages and supplies to make pine cone bird feeders which you can take home to bring the wildlife to you! For more information, e-mail WildCampus411@gmail.com.

American Red Cross Club (ARCC) General Meeting

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra: Family Concert

UC Davis’ LocalTones 2012 Showcase

7:10 to 8 p.m.

119 Wellman For more information, check out the website arccdavis.co.cc or the American Red Cross Club at UC Davis Facebook page.

FRIDAY

Master Class with Faith Prince and Natasha Burr 1 to 4 p.m.

Lab A, Wright Register for this class at minimoonproductions.com. It costs $35 in cash at the door.

Senior Recital 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

115 Music Watch this free senior recital for soprano Britney Haapanen.

Fabulous Campfires 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

1970 Johnson Ranch Drive, Roseville, CA 95661 Enjoy an evening in the museum amphitheater with family and friends around a campfire. Listen to native stories and songs under the stars and roast marshmallows for a sweet ending to the perfect family gathering. No reservations required. It costs $5 per person or $16 per family of four.

3 to 5 p.m.

Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center Watch music director and conductor Christian Baldini in this program featuring Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with Provost Ralph Hexter as the narrator and works with the winners of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra’s Concerto Competition 2012. Tickets are $6 for students and children, $12 for adults.

Gamelan Sekar Jaya 7 to 10 p.m.

Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center This special performance begins with a Kecak performance in the Corin Courtyard outside of the Studio Theatre by UC Davis students under the direction of Emiko Saraswati Susilo and I Dewa Putu Berata.

Afterwards the audience will move inside to witness new and traditional works, including the premiere of Dewa Berata’s new composition Kelenguan (“Swept Away

by Beauty”). Tickets are $8 for students and children, $20 for adults.

To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, e-mail dailycal@theaggie. org or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.

corrections In the May 7 article “Campus cashes in on big music,” the article incorrectly states that “a vast majority of this shows do meet this threshold.” It should say that a vast majority of the shows do not meet this threshold.

In the May 15 article “ASUCD continues to reject UCSA membership,” the article incorrectly states that UC Santa Cruz pays $7 per student to UCSA. In fact, they pay less than $2. The Aggie regrets the error.

The california Aggie

aware of our own mortality or sobriety of our futureselves. And that was before we even put it on loop.

After the third play, I realized that there was nothAndy ing else left to do but to text Verderosa everyone in my phonebook with “Call me maybe.”

I received a multitude of responses, some comical, some excited and some shocked that I would endorse such a “mainstream song.”

But this wasn’t about what is mainstream or what is cool.

In an hour or so, the song had his will come as no sur- transcended pop, music and mainstream culture. The line prise to anyone who spent more than three “call me maybe” is so multidimensional and telling of minutes with me this weekend, but “Call Me Maybe” by our generation that it’s almost Carly Rae Jepsen may just be shocking it took until 2012 for the crowning achievement of someone to come up with it.

The advent of cellphones has the human race.

Because I could write 8,000 made concrete plans non-exwords on the violin composi- istent. You can call me, or not call me; no biggie. tion alone I think it’ll be best to break this down in an orga- But the juicier meaning is probanized way. bly that of So first, I told them that believe it or not, the balthere’s the Justin Carly Rae was coming up next, ance between inseBieber/ but they weren’t having it curity and Selena confidence Gomez muin our modern dating scene. sic video of Bieber and his “Maybe” acts as a sort of crew lip syncing the song. barrier or shield as we’re The tween power couple hesitant to go “all in” in toinvited over some friends day’s “hook-up” generation. and made a terrible video, The line speaks to the power but I guess people liked it balance of courtship, mainenough and the song blew taining a nonchalance that’s up. I’ve been told Biebs undoubtedly attractive, essigned Carly Rae Jepsen to pecially in a casual sense. his label or something.

Next, the Harvard Baseball As I made my way to the bars, telling everyone I team did their own homage passed to “call me, maybe” to the song with a lip sync plus some dance in a van on was as much a proclamation of youthful empowera road trip. Although wellment as it was an invitation executed, the moves were boring and I still can’t believe to actually give me a ring on my telephone, maybe.

I watched the whole thing.

The next morning I was Now, fast forward to this weekend. For whatever rea- directed to the official music video which changed son, I woke up on Friday my life forever. In obviwith the song in my head, yet I only knew a few lyrics. ous opposition to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory, You know how that goes. I Carly, who is 25 but looks downloaded the song be16, creeps on a good-lookfore going out with plans ing guy from her bedroom to drop the song when the window. The guy takes his moment was right. shirt off to reveal a number At a friend’s house, I manned the auxiliary cable. of tattoos because I guess When I sensed the moment having “the sky is the limit” tatted across your collarwas right, I cued up my girl bone is what it takes to be a to play next. Before I could even get to the second verse male model these days.

Carly sings in a garage of my favorite Robyn song, with her band who looks I was approached by two such people who were look- like they just finished opening to hear “Call Me Maybe.” ing for Yellowcard and the video cuts to images of I told them that beCarly trying to get the guy’s lieve it or not, Carly Rae attention. When she fiwas coming up next, but they weren’t having it. They nally does, we are hit with needed it now. I sensed the the greatest plot twist in urgency and cut off Robyn. music video history since “Trapped in the Closet.”

The violins kicked in and Carly’s crush is gay. BOOM. soon the party was swing I’m just shocked. Carly’s ing its hips to the verse, building up to the crescen- flipped this whole song on its head. The video that do that is the chorus. seemed to be the defini When it hit, it was clear tion of male objectification, what was happening. We turned into a statement on party-goers looked into heteronormativity. What each others’ eyes withcan’t you do, Carly Rae? out shame or inhibition.

Strangers moments ago, now passengers togethIf you want to use a different gender theorist to dissect the video, you can e-mail ANDY er on a journey to the unVERDEROSA, maybe at asverderosa@ known, we sang loud and ucdavis.edu. without fear, never more

Call me definitely

T

it shouldn’t be a debt sentence! Although I believe that paying for education is the best investment in life, the proposed fees are too high and unjustified.

Kristina Another thing I don’t Simonaityte understand is why the current students are being affected by the raise. In the UK, the new tripled rates only apply to first-year students; those already studying will continue to pay the same amount as they did when they started. But here, while freshmen know what they’re n the afternoon getting themselves into, of Nov. 18 last older students are feeling year, my friend tricked — they didn’t sign and I had been sitting in up for this. the CoHo making travel plans for Christmas break.

I’m sad to see that there’s Afterwards I decided to go so much disagreement on to the library to work on such an important mata paper. It was grey outter. Worse yet, increases in side and I was worried that fees don’t automatically it might start raining soon. mean better-quality studBut then something much ies, newer facilities, highermore imrated teachportant was ers and so happening While I’m not a fan of occupation, on. I underjust 300 feet I fully support the backlash stand that away on the it’s a long against rising tuition fees Quad. process, but not enough Lots of is done to ensure that it will people, police cars, chaos, be students who benefit the firefighters pouring water most. over red-eyed students, all in a one-minute bike ride.

So nothing’s left but to What on Earth had happrotest. The events that folpened there?! I found out lowed the pepper spray insoon enough. Over Twitter, cident were incredibly movof course! ing and empowering of the My initial reaction to whole community. The inthe events on the Quad ternational coverage prowas mixed. Police actions vided an amazing opportuwere despicable and tonity to show the world what tally inappropriate. But UC Davis students are cawas building some tents pable of — a civilized, wellreally the best way to explanned movement with press your dissatisfacclearly formulated, smart tion with increase in tugoals. I was so proud to be ition fees? And to call that an Aggie.

“Occupation”? I’ll use As for the Davis Dozen, my “My home country that’s a whole other stowas occupied by Soviets ry. As a U.S. Bank customfor half of the 20th cener, I was affected directtury” card to make my ly by their “occupation” of point clearer — the whole the branch. Not being able tent village thing was just to use bank services bechildish. cause of someone blocking It’s really not my place to the door was annoying. But university administration have an opinion about the response – the black tape matter, though. As an exand some signs – was just change student, I am using the University’s services as ridiculous. and facilities without pay My selfish reasons aside, ing any tuition. But having I don’t think what protestexperienced this rise in fees ers were doing was smart firsthand in three countries, or achieved anything othI feel strongly about what’s er than driving U.S. Bank happening with our educa- off of campus. The sittion systems. in was not an appropri University fees went up ate method for the protesters’ goal, and their reain Lithuania just before I sons did not find support finished high school, affecting my classmates and on campus — that’s why it’s only a Dozen, and not fellow seniors. Last year, I a Thousand. witnessed the heated (literally!) student protests Nonetheless, we need to in London and followed speak up against these undiscussions in Scotland welcome changes. The reover implementing tuition sponse of the campus comfor students from othmunity and public in gener European Union couneral to the pepper spray intries. And now, it’s the cident was fantastic. I think University of California’s that’s what we need to acturn. tually start changing things for the better. So, peacefully While I’m not a fan and intelligently, let’s proof occupation, I fultest. ly support the backlash against rising tuition fees. Education You can reach KRISTINA SIMONAITYTE at should be accessible and ksimonaityte@ucdavis.edu.

On Occupy

O

campus judicial report Rethink About Regrading A junior economics major was referred to SJA for altering a quiz and submitting it for regrading after it had been graded and returned. Because copies of the graded quizzes were made before they were handed back to the students, it was evident to the TA that the student had added and altered her quiz before submitting it for regrading. The student agreed to 10 hours of community service and a sanction of Disciplinary Probation. This means that if the student is referred again for further misconduct, there would be grounds for suspension or dismissal from the University.

Mixed Accounts A first-year student in a sociology class was referred to SJA for allegedly using unauthorized materials while taking an exam. The student was reported along with three other students in the class who had all been sitting next to each

other while taking the test. During the examination period, a student witness in the class mentioned to the TA that the specified group was allegedly using unauthorized note cards and copying off of each other’s work. The witness had also claimed that the group was discussing how they were going to cheat before the exam period had officially begun. After hearing these allegations, the TA reported the students to SJA. The aforementioned student denied using note cards during the exam and there was no clear evidence showing that he had used unauthorized study aids. Therefore, the student and the entire group of reported students, received Administrative Notices. An Administrative Notice serves as a formal notice of University policies regarding student conduct. Because the student was not found in violation of the UC Davis Code of Academic Conduct, he will not have a disciplinary record.

Water: A Better Option

UC Davis Dining Services referred a student to SJA for bringing a concealed alcoholic beverage into the Tercero dining commons. The student, who was under 21 years of age, admitted that her unlabeled water bottle did contain alcohol, upon which the drink was dumped and the student was told to leave the facility. Both California law and University policy prohibit the possession of an open container of alcohol in public. In addition, carrying any outside beverage into the UC Davis dining commons is a violation of Dining Commons and Residence Hall policies. The student’s name will remain on file at SJA until graduation. If the student is referred for another instance of misconduct, this incident will be considered in determining a sanction.

Members of the office of Student Judicial Affairs compile the CAMPUS JUDICIAL REPORTS. Additional information about SJA and the Campus Judicial Board may be found at sja.ucdavis.edu.

Thirsty (for knowledge) Thursdays Jason Alpert Editor in Chief

Amy Stewart Science Editor

Becky Peterson Managing Editor

Melissa Freeman Opinion Editor

Alex Tervo Business Manager

Joey Chen Copy Chief

Grace Sprague Advertising Manager

Jasna Hodzic Photography Editor

Hannah Strumwasser Campus Editor Angela Swartz City Editor Elizabeth Orpina Arts Editor Erin Migdol Features Editor Trevor Cramer Sports Editor

Michelle Huey Design Director Janice Pang Asst. Design Director Mimi Vo Night Editor Amanda Nguyen Asst. Night Editor Irisa Tam Art Director

One Shields Ave. 25 Lower Freeborn, UCD Davis, CA 95616 Editorial (530) 752-0208 Advertising (530) 752-0365 Fax (530) 752-0355

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Views or opinions expressed in The Aggie by editors or columnists regarding legislation or candidates for political office or other matters are those of the editors or columnist alone. They are not those of the University of California or any department of UC. Advertisements appearing in The Aggie reflect the views of advertisers only; they are not an expression of editorial opinion by The Aggie.

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Reproduction in any form whatsoever is forbidden without the expressed written permission of the copyright owner.

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Applying for Grad School Thinking about applying for graduate school?

Whatever your interests are, the decision to go to graduate school is a very serious one, so be sure to think long and hard before committing yourself to a program. Nationally, at least half of all students who begin graduate degree programs fail to finish. On the other hand, a graduate degree may open up many more career options and increase your salary level quite significantly.

If you have decided that graduate school is the right choice for you, there are a number of great resources to help you prepare, polish your resume and tell you what to expect during the interview. On the UC Davis campus, the PreGraduate Advising Center, the Internship and Career

Center (ICC) and the Undergraduate Research Center are all wonderful places to start. Our campus also has numerous advising departments for specific fields of graduate study, such as the health professions and business.

Most grad schools require some sort of graduate entrance examination (GRE, MCAT, LSAT, etc.), which will likely take some serious preparation and maybe a few separate attempts on your part. Thus, it is very helpful to look into schools you are interested in very early on and begin preparing yourself for those tests. Be sure to leave yourself enough time to retake the test in case you are not happy with your first score. You can purchase materials to help you study and even take classes to improve your

scores. Be sure to keep an eye out for the many free practice tests and classes offered on campus!

While each school is unique, most graduate school applications require transcripts, letters of recommendation, test scores and a personal statement. The personal statement is most often the key to your invitation for an interview and is thus worth revising over and over again. Depending on the prompt, the questions may be rather vague or difficult to answer, so it is not a bad idea to look for sample essays written by students admitted to your target program. Be sure to keep your personal statement realistic and true to yourself because it is often the source of many interview questions.

Letters of recommenda-

tion are also a major part of the process of applying to graduate school and you should start thinking about these very early on. When considering who to approach for letters of recommendation, keep in mind that the person writing your letters will need to explain why you are an incredible candidate for the graduate program to which you are applying. In most cases, it is very helpful if he or she can cite a significant relationship or experience with you to exemplify your stellar qualities. Approach everyone that you are thinking about asking early so that they will not feel pressed to simply get out any old letter and so that you will have time to find other options should someone say “no.”

Get started early and good luck on that application!

OPINION

The california aggie

thursday, may 17, 2012 3

editorials

ucsa

Worth it?

In 2006, ASUCD chose to no longer be a part of the University of California Student Association (UCSA).

UCSA is a coalition that unites UC campuses to lobby for higher education.

One of ASUCD’s main issues with UCSA is the cost.

The minimum dues to the association is $1.30 per student. This cost is huge in a time when tuition is constantly increasing and more and more students are having financial problems.

However, being unified with other UC campuses is incredibly important right now.

The UC system is systematically falling apart, and now more than ever it is important to explain to the legislature the importance of higher education.

Being a part of UCSA would also be beneficial because individual UC Davis students would have the opportunity to have leadership positions within UCSA. If UC Davis rejoined UCSA, they would be able to make more informed decisions when issues arise that relate to our campus.

While UC Davis may reap the benefits of the work of UCSA without being a part of the association, it would be more effective if UCSA could officially represent ALL UC

campuses, not just nine out of 10. Furthermore, the UC Davis Law Student Association recently joined UCSA, showing some UC Davis students believe it’s beneficial.

ASUCD also has a Lobby Corps, that lobbies the legislature in many of the same ways that UCSA does. This may be sufficient for ASUCD, but joining forces with UCSA might increase our achievements at the Capitol. Many of the other campuses who are a part of UCSA also have their own Lobby Corps — which means they have double the amount of lobbying power.

The cost-benefit outcome of a relationship with UCSA is hard to see, and it’s understandable that raising student fees, even by $1.30, doesn’t seem like a good idea.

At this point, ASUCD has not found that the cost of joining the association is worth the benefits for UC Davis. However, our campus should continue to consider the idea of working as a united front with other UCs. Whether this involves rejoining UCSA or not, it is important that students make use of the fact that we are 20 minutes from the Capitol, and continue to tell the state government that higher education needs more funding.

allergies

Rain, rain, please come If you’ve noticed the number of sniffles and sneezes increase exponentially over the past few weeks, do not panic.

Avian flu hasn’t reached UC Davis and a new super-cold hasn’t started within the bodies of us college students. The culprit of the extra classroom sounds is allergies.

Davis lies in the fertile Central Valley of California.

Because of this, come springtime, flowers, trees and grasses bloom and release an explosion of pollen into the air.

This, combined with the vicious Central Valley winds, creates a vacuum of allergens that leads to sneezes and sniffles galore. And because of the dry winter and spring, this season has been worse than ones in the past.

Unfortunately for us allergy sufferers, there isn’t an all encompassing answer to solving this problem. We buy Claritin, rush through boxes of tissues and run the air purifier 24/7. Still, despite these preventive measures, we continuously sneeze and itch our teary eyes.

There are a couple natural solutions that can help mitigate the amount of pollen filling up the nostrils of college students. The easiest one is rain. The one thing that we loathed most about Winter Quarter and couldn’t wait to leave come Spring is exactly what we need now. Rain will literally wash away all the pollen floating around in the air, providing relief to everyone.

Unfortunately, rain won’t be coming anytime soon. The closer we get to June, the less likely those sweet clouds of alleviation appear and release their almighty water on the sun-scorched earth. So, it’s time for the bright minds of UC Davis to come up with another solution — a rain machine.

UC Davis boasts one of the top atmospheric science departments in the nation. It’s time for the future weather-people of the world to develop an artificial cloud that can dump buckets of rain and clear out all the evil pollen floating around in the air.

The obvious issue is where the water will come from.

Well, if they pull the water from a local reservoir, there will be no water lost as it will fall and then drain into the same body it came from. This is clearly a win-win situation.

The only other reasonable option to limit sneezing and sniffling is to cut down the trees and plants that release the allergens into the air. So, if the UC Davis think-tank can’t come up with this rain machine, they’d better get their clippers and saws ready to go.

We allergy sufferers aren’t going to take it anymore.

This may all be an overreaction. Allergies are probably the most annoying thing in the world. There is no simple relief, and unlike a cold, we don’t know when or if they will go away. So allergies, please and respectfully fuck off.

Editorial Board Jason Alpert Editor in Chief Becky Peterson Managing Editor Melissa Freeman Opinion Editor

Hannah Strumwasser Campus Editor Angela Swartz City Editor Erin Migdol Features Editor

Elizabeth Orpina Arts Editor Trevor Cramer Sports Editor

Amy Stewart Science Editor Jasna Hodzic Photography Editor

courtesy newsday.com

Jordan S. Carroll

Unpacking my MP3s

I

n a few years, it will seem almost quaint that anyone ever worked in a video rental store, a record store or even a bookshop.

Now that we can transmit movies, songs and books at megabytes per second, getting paid to stand in a room and sell physical storage media suddenly looks as strange and inefficient as sending a text message by bike courier.

At the same time, though, something is lost in this transition. When I lived in Louisville, Ky., I used to love visiting stores like Wild and Woolly Video and Ear X-tacy Records. Last fall, Ear X-tacy shuttered its doors and, though Wild and Woolly remains open, most other video stores have been crowded out by grocery store dispensers and web-based distributors.

With the closure of these businesses, there’s no longer such a thing as a fortuitous find. When virtually anything you might want is available for download, or for a modest shipping fee, it’s difficult to recover the thrill of discovery. Online, if I look for Master of the Flying Guillotine or the new Xiu Xiu album, that’s exactly what I will get.

Digitized, the aura of distance and rarity disappears — along with advice from the expert clerk and the fellow browser. It was always a gamble to get whatever staff or friends might recom-

housing Cont. from front page and electrical upgrades.”

Solano Park will be redeveloped and returned to the campus for other use.

In lieu of the closing complexes Student Housing is currently looking for a third-party developer to build, own and manage an apartment complex for families and single graduate students at the Castilian residence halls, which were closed in June 2011, according to Hernandez.

The Castilian Redevelopment project will open up with 250 spaces for graduate students in time for the closure of Orchard Park in 2014.

Solano Park is located at the southeast corner of campus and Orchard Park is located at the northwest corner. Both complexes have at least 200 unfurnished buildings with amenities that include laundry and storage space facilities, an office and a community center.

Cont. from page 6 4-1 lead after three innings.

In the first, Popkins doubled and scored on junior Austin Logan’s single. Politi followed with a double to score Logan and give the Aggies a 2-1 lead.

Freshman John Williams doubled in the second and scored on back-to-back wild pitches. Politi’s second RBI single came in the third inning after sophomore Spencer Brann singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch.

The Rainbow Warriors scored one in the sixth and one in the seventh to cut the lead to 4-3.

According to the Student Housing website, Solano Park has a deposit of $150. A two-bedroom costs about $838 per month and a one-bedroom costs about $716 a month. At Orchard Park, the cost of a two-bedroom is also $838 per month and there is no one-bedroom apartments. These costs are expected to rise next year from $838 to $850 per month.

The Orchard Park and Solano Park apartment complexes are popular among families and graduate students because of their affordability, close proximity to campus and safe environments.

“I think the most attractive aspects of Solano Park would be the location, price and community feeling,” said Daniel Moglen, a linguistics graduate student who showed interest in living at Solano Park. “I’ve looked at the Davis rental market quite a bit, and haven’t found anything that matches the value of the Parks.”

Because of these ame-

nities there typically is a long waiting list. Priority is given to students with children first, married/ domestic couples second, graduate students sans children third and undergraduate students sans children last.

Moglen is a part of a focus group that met up with Yackzan Group, Inc., a potential developer for the Castilian project, last week to discuss the necessities of graduate students who will be living at Castilian.

Yackzan is a local land development and property management company and the other company that could potentially develop Castilian is a huge billion dollar enterprise, said Moglen.

“We currently manage over 300 residential units across Davis and Sacramento communities,” the Yackzan website stated. “Our goal is to provide excellent service and to take the time necessary to understand the unique needs of our clients.”

“The needs that we [grad students] have are

different from those of undergrads in terms of housing,” Moglen said. “It is not uncommon for grad students to have spouses and/or children, and we are older too, so our needs are different.”

Discussions of the layout of the proposed apartment, rent, car/bike parking and other amenities were brought to the table in which Yackzan was attentive of, Moglen said.

Affordable housing is a prominent issue among many students and the closing of these affordable housing units raises some concern on the future existence of more affordable homes.

“Davis needs more affordable housing, and the University should be on the forefront of providing and advocating affordable housing opportunities to students,” Moglen said. “With the attempted closure of the Domes and the construction of West Village, this has not been apparent.”

MEE YANG can be reached at city@ theaggie.org.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

GUEST OPINIONS

The California Aggie welcomes guest opinions from its readers. Guest opinions must be typed with an approximate word count of 600 to 800, or character count around 3,000 to 4,000. The same standards of letters to the editor apply to guest opinions.

Guest opinions may reflect a variety of viewpoints. Any member of the campus community is eligible and encouraged to highlight issues regarding UC Davis, regional or national issues.

Address letters or guest opinions to the Opinion Editor, The California Aggie, 25 Lower Freeborn, UC Davis, CA 95616. Letters may also be faxed to (530) 752-0355 or sent via e-mail to opinion@theaggie.org.

The California Aggie welcomes letters from its readers. Letters must be typed and no longer than 200 words. As The Aggie attempts to represent a diversity of viewpoints on its letters page, we reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Publication is not guaranteed, and letters become the property of The California Aggie.

All correspondence must be signed with the author’s name and telephone number. Unsigned letters will not be considered for publication, although names may be withheld upon request.

Editorials represent the collective opinions of The California Aggie editorial board. The Opinion page appears Tuesdays and Thursdays.

baseball

mend, but at least you would have ly reproducible, losing sentimenthe small enjoyment of imagintal value through inflation. We no ing what led them to suggest it in longer have even the grace of forthe first place. Now, Amazon algo- getting in our own way. rithms just repeat back to us what At the same time, online data we already want but don’t know does not have the same visual and yet. Instead of risking disappoint- tactile permanence as its obsolete ment and broadening our horicounterpart. Unlike the spines on zons, we follow a computerized my bookshelf, my Kindle files do projection of our past behavior. not provide a daily reminder of Even the notion of wasting time novels read, nor does a screen of at an entertainMP3s have the ment store goes same historical In cyberspace, every childhood heft as a CD colthe way of the cobbler. Buying lection. Despite jingle can be replayed and or renting things a computer’s remixed ad nauseam used to involve all seeming abilisorts of indecisive ty to recall everyfaffing about, and that was part thing, a full hard drive does not of the fun. With the internet, meoffer the same fixity and reassurdia gratification can be nearly in- ance as older media collections. stantaneous, annihilating all anWhy, though, does the collecticipation. tor even need his souvenirs? Here Of course, the analog shopwe might consult the wisdom of ping experience was sometimes A&E’s “Hoarders.” Through its an enormous hassle. Outside cheesy television psychiatry, we of cities, inane chain stores like learn that compulsive hoarding Borders and Blockbuster domcompensates for some past trauinated the entertainment landma or insecurity. It is a way of scape. Meanwhile, the mom and storing up for a disaster that one pops often carried meager seleccan never fully prepare for. tions, and more than a few were Nostalgia, then, is the compulstaffed by judgy curmudgeons. sive hording of the past and the So, why mourn them at all? Part trauma it fends off is the foreof what’s depressing about the ex- knowledge of death, the end of tinction of places like video rentone’s time. We invent ever-sophisals and the record store is the un- ticated devices for recording the settling feeling that the world of ghosts of previous moments, but one’s youth is moldering away. quickly the institutions we’ve built We can be sure, too, that our around these specters change and ancestors before had quite simibreak down, too. Even if the arlar complaints. But then, as Peter chives don’t perish to fire or the de Vries once observed, “Nostalgia worm, the archivists soon will. isn’t what it used to be.” Instead of But now, even as rental DVDs Walter Benjamin’s book collector join the ranks of laserdiscs and unpacking the library to find the coin-operated gramophones, my dwelling places of his past inside, own memento mori will be transwe now have an effectively limitmitted online and stored by autoless capacity for collection, a nos- mated web-crawlers, perhaps untalgia machine of prodigious diread but, nevertheless, collected mensions — the Web. and saved by inhuman manifesIn cyberspace, every childhood tations of an insatiable desire to jingle can be replayed and represerve, a desire those machines mixed ad nauseam. Even as their will outlast. social context disintegrates, our media memories become infinite- JORDAN S. CARROLL is a Ph.D. student in English who

The Aggies responded with two more runs in the seventh, as freshman Kevin Barker plated Popkins and senior Eric Johnson’s RBI single scored sophomore Nick Lynch.

“It’s a challenge to play four games in a row, and they met that challenge today,” Vaughn said. “It speaks to their character and hopefully it speaks to us turning a corner.”

Tuesday — UC Davis 12, San Jose State 9 Barker went two-for-five and Politi hit his second home run of the season while driving in three runs as UC Davis held off a furious six-run San Jose State rally late to win the make-up game.

Junior Ben Burke limited the Spartans to

two runs with three strikeouts in five-andtwo-thirds innings while the Aggie offense scored a season-high 12 runs.

Things got started in the second with senior Brett Morgan’s one-out double that scored senior Scott Kalush. Morgan stole third, his team-leading ninth steal of the season, and freshman Tino Lipson knocked him home for a 2-0 lead.

Politi hit a solo shot in the third and UC Davis scored three times in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Logan hit a bases-loaded and clearing double in the fifth and UC Davis capitalized on one Spartan error in the sixth and two in the seventh to pile on the runs.

With the score 12-3 headed into the bottom half of the ninth, San Jose put togeth-

er a six-run rally to keep it interesting and set up some unnecessary drama for the Aggies.

Senior pitcher Tom Briner and first baseman Eric Johnson won the pitcher and hitter Big West Players of the Week, respectively.

Briner threw a 79-pitch complete game shutout in a 5-0 victory over Long Beach State last Saturday, while Johnson hit .467 (seven-for-15) for the week, reaching safely in all four games with two doubles, a homer, three runs scored and four RBIs. UC Davis will travel to Cal State Northridge for a Big West weekend matchup, first pitch Friday on Matador Field at 3 p.m.

RUSSELL EISENMAN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

4

volume

the california aggie ’ s arts and entertainment magazine

6, number 15

Elizabeth Orpina

thursday , may

17, 2012

The Avengers: In Review A failed fan fiction marketing gimmick

By JAMES O’HARA

Holy finale

E

veryone is dying. The world, scratch that, MY world is ending. It’s May, and all of my dear television shows are reaching their season finales.

As I write this, my roommate and I are struggling to load the seven-minute preview of tonight’s “Grey’s Anatomy” season finale. And let me tell you — I’m already willing to sacrifice my own firstborn child to save the character that is getting killed off tonight.

This year is bringing its game, I tell you. With producers and television companies realizing that building up suspense and anticipation is the key to maintaining viewership, I’m about ready to road trip to L.A. and break into multiple buildings and steal the scripts for next season’s round of shows.

Perhaps it’s due to my increasingly demanding academic and labor schedules, but I’ve been watching a lot of television lately. It was only a mere year ago that I started watching “Grey’s Anatomy,” giving me plenty of time to start “How I Met Your Mother” once I caught up to the current season months ago.

If I revealed my complete television schedule, I would probably be reprimanded by my mother and school officials. Hey, I want distractions from my real life and problems and to project my emotions onto fake Hollywoodcreated scenarios.

The next couple of weeks are the ones that are going to kill us emotionally. No, not because the second round of midterms passes through, or that our semester school friends are already in summer, but because our television shows are breaking up with us for a while.

Two days ago, my heart exploded and my brain oozed out of my nostrils when I watched the “Smash” season finale. It continued to stab me in the heart as I replayed the ending scene 10 times after and had to force myself to go on a walk to clear my mind. It resulted in hours of debriefing and discussion on what the hell happened and what’s going to happen next.

I’m not completely caught up on “How I Met Your Mother” yet, but from the many Facebook statuses that took place the other night, I’m guessing the season finale provided the much-needed jolt of “wtf” and “omg” to an entertaining but repetitive show.

What is it that gets me so invested in these shows? Is it the extremely relatable characters that so accurately represent my inner emotions and outer turmoils? Is it because I’m too bored with my own life to notice that my life is equally dramatic and emotional?

And what is with Hollywood and screwing with our faiths, emotions and everyday lives? How dare they lead us on, making us love characters and television shows, only to cancel them a couple of amazing seasons in? I definitely was not the only one ready to lobby to save “Community” a couple of months back.

I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life after this quarter ends. Not only will I lack an excuse to not hang out with people because of “homework,” but I won’t have any television to watch when doing said homework. My life is so hard.

There’s a silver lining, though. I do own every single boxed season of “Gilmore Girls.” And I have Hulu Plus and Netflix to entertain me.

But is it worth it, to fall in love with yet another set of characters and story only to be broken up with them eight seasons later? Yes. Because I have nothing else to do.

ELIZABETH ORPINA can be reached at arts@ theaggie.org. Please e-mail her column suggestions, as she’s running out of ideas and the copyreaders are getting angry when she asks them what they want to read that week (since they’re the only ones that do.)

Aggie Arts Writer

Rating: 2.5 The Avengers is the fruit of perhaps the greatest marketing gimmick of all time. Make no mistake, this film is so far from any sort of progressive artistic endeavor that we should all hesitate to grant it the rank beyond fan fiction. Fan fiction being the rehash, the ode to, the celebration of that which has come before and the promise of more after — what you love will be perpetuated, drawn out and squeezed of all its life so the loyal may lap it up off the floor.

The Avengers is painfully close to that definition, though it is not quite there yet. Jamming Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk and others into a brisk, shallow narrative, Marvel has created the illusion of freshness. For better or worse, it appears there is more to be squeezed from this series.

That may be because The Avengers is not

See AVENGERS, page 8

The Avengers

courtesy

Patti Smith

Singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist took Mondavi Center stage

Patti Smith

courtesy

By KARINA CONTRERAS Aggie Arts Writer

Patti Smith hit the stage last Wednesday, May 9 at the Mondavi Center in Jackson Hall. Smith read from and promoted her memoir Just Kids, sang some of her own songs and from other artists and talked about her life.

Smith wore a white dress shirt, a black tie and a black coat with brown boots. Smith’s appearance resembled that of a boy and she addressed how Allen Ginsberg, author of Howl, thought that she was a boy when he first met her.

Smith said that she and Ginsberg met while she was getting a sandwich and didn’t have enough

money to pay for it. Ginsberg saw this and told her that he would pick up the tab. While they ate, he realized Smith was a girl and said “I thought you were just a pretty looking boy.”

Smith’s humor created a light vibrancy in Mondavi Center — especially when she talked about the kinds of food she and Robert, her ex-lover, would live off of.

“I liked anchovy sandwiches,” she said. “But Robert didn’t like them. We would make lettuce soup and put bouillon cubes in there.” Smith spoke about how she and Robert would listen to the History of Motown together and how she knew when he was on LSD because he would listen to Vanilla Fudge over and over again.

With the audience’s loud laughter, she went to grab her water bottle and asked Lenny K if he would open the top for her and digressed to another one of her sporadic thoughts. “One thing I didn’t like about the women’s movement,” she said, “was that women didn’t want men to open the door for them anymore. I like men to

serve me.”

At the end of Smith’s performance, before the Q&A session, she sang Bob Dylan’s song “Boots of Spanish Leather.” Smith’s rendition of Dylan’s song was emotionally filling. Smith composed herself, sat down next to Christopher Reynolds, Professor and Chair for the Department of Music and answered the audience’s questions.

One audience member asked Smith how her sense of mortality affects art. “I just turned 65,” she said. “I seek to be more disciplined, organized, healthy, prolific, attentive, loving to children and [to] be present. I have a feeling I have a long life, but I think now it’s time to get serious about my work.”

Smith doesn’t consider herself to be anyone special and said that she was lucky to have made it big in her career. Smith made it clear that she didn’t go to New York City when she was younger because it was the “cool thing to do” but went because living costs were cheap in that time.

See SMITH, page 8

Light me a candle Review of Studio 301’s RENT RENT runs tonight through this Sunday, the 20th.

All shows are at 8 p.m., Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

Performances take place at Wyatt Pavillion To purchase tickets, contact the UCD Ticket Office at (530) 752-1915 Students $14 General $16

By MICHELLE RUAN Aggie Arts Writer

As much of an avid RENT fan as I claim to be, I sadly have never once seen a live staging of this classic musical. Even though I’ve watched many hazy clips of the Broadway version on Youtube, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to see actors acting and singing the musical in front of me. Lucky for me, Studio 301, a student acting company on campus, chose my all-time favorite musical to put on for Spring 2012. And that’s how I found myself standing outside the Wyatt Theater a few days before their opening night eager with anticipation to see how Studio 301’s version of RENT would turn out.

Inside the theater, the lights were low and glow-in-the-dark posters dotted the walls to convey a club-like atmosphere. The stage in the center had a table and a man wearing torn clothing was falling asleep in a nearby chair.

There was also a telephone booth across from

center stage and wire fences dotted the back of the stage.

For those who have never heard of RENT, it’s a story about a group of friends trying to make their dreams a reality in the harsh landscape of New York City. There’s a wide range of seemingly outrageous characters that are just as human as all of us.

As I’ve said before, I’ve only ever watched the film version of RENT. Studio 301’s staging of RENT is different because it follows the original script. I found it intriguing because the original script definitely plays up human interaction.

For example, the voice messages from the concerned parents are all sung. And frankly, I can’t imagine anything more embarrassing than having your mother sing out loud that you should keep your chin up and that it doesn’t matter if your girlfriend turned lesbian, right?

For the preview, the character of Angel, the drag queen with a heart of gold, was played

by Ulysses Morazan instead of Jason Phillips, who was sick. Morazan shone ridiculously in his role of Angel. If we were in kindergarten, Angel would be the new kid who I wanted to be best friends with, forever and ever.

Another standout was Malia Abayon as Mimi. Abayon’s Mimi is a sensual creature who, I’m sure after the makeup has been wiped away, was just a little girl mesmerized by all that New York and its underground

integrate projections, live video, wacky props, physical comedy, artificial words and the festivities of a massive office party.

Faith Prince Acting Workshop Studio 301: RENT Tonight through Sunday 8 p.m., Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

Wyatt Pavillion, $16 (general)/$14 (student) Studio 301 Productions brings the world-famous Tonyand-Pulitzer-Prize-winning rock musical RENT to Wyatt Pavillion starting tonight. The show is directed by Mitchell VanLandingham with musical direction by Elizabeth Tremaine and stage manager Marissa Saravis.

Tomorrow, 1 to 4 p.m., $35 at the door Arene Theatre in Wright Hall Tony Award-winning actress Faith Prince and acting coach/director Natasha Burr will teach a workshop on auditioning and the entertainment business. Participants must have a memorized monologue or song to work on.

The Memorandum Tonight and May 19 at 8 p.m.

Wright Hall, Lab A, free The UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance’s Institute for Exploration in Theatre, Dance and Performance presents The Memorandum, written

by Vaclav Havel, translated by Vera Blackwell and directed by Alejandro Torres. The production will

world had to offer. All the actors were powerful in their own rights, but you should trust my opinions after you’ve seen the play. An interesting aspect of this RENT was that they had their own live band playing the music to all the songs — giving off an intimate feeling.

The actors aren’t only restricted to the stage.

In fact, they slink around the seats, interacting with the audience.

At two-and-a-half hours with an intermission, RENT sounds a bit long. But, time passed by so fast as I got caught up singing along with the actors and seeing how they dealt with the many difficulties of life.

As the actors left the stage for one last time, but not before singing the infamous “Seasons of Love,” I reminisced about the messages that the play contained.

Life is difficult, everybody can agree, but it’s when we find our state of happiness that life seems to shine just a bit brighter. In regards with Studio 301’s staging of RENT, it was a performance filled with passion and love.

Admittedly, these student actors don’t have the vocal ranges of Broadway musical stars, but they wiped that away with their zeal and commitment to their roles. Overall, I enjoyed this version of RENT very much, and if given the chance to see it again, I definitely will take that offer.

MICHELLE RUAN can be contacted at arts@theaggie.org.

Endowment for the Arts, is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet, essayist, translator, and critic. He received his B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford University and an additional M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.

A Small Evening About Love Sunday, May 20 at 7 p.m., free The John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street Linda Bair and Jore Morejon present “My Hands/ Tus Brazos,” a passionate exploration in dance of love in a long term relationship. Poetry will be performed by Jill Stengel, Corey Rue and others. Readings will be

by Ann Murray Paige and Dave Griffin. “The Break-Up Letter” will be a hilarious look at ‘leaving and leaving and leaving.’

Saturday, May 19 from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Plainfield Station, 23944 Country Rd. 98 All ages, $10 KDVS presents its 12th annual music festival this weekend. This is a non-profit, community based, multi-genre music festival where all proceeds from ticket sales go directly to bands and the venue.

There will be shuttles and bike runs back and forth to Plainfield Station all day. For more information at www.kdvs.org.

Flourish Davis Poetry Night Reading Series: Dana Gioia Today at noon The John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street Dana Gioia, former chairman of the National

Operation Restore Maximum Freedom XII

Saturday, May 19, 7 p.m.

The John Natsoulas Gallery, 521 1st Street Flourish Davis is a benefit and silent auction event in support of the arts. The Cultural Arts Committee is throwing a landmark launch party and silent auction to help Davis flourish artistically.

The california Aggie

thursday, may 17, 2012

5

Class Schedule and Registration Guide discontinued Class Search Tool to take its place

By ROHIT RAVIKUMAR Aggie News Writer

For years, students at UC Davis have used the Class Schedule and Registration Guide (CSRG) to plan out their schedules.

However, starting in Fall 2012, the CSRG will no longer be printed, and a new Class Search Tool will take its place.

The primary reasoning behind the discontinuation of the CSRG was obsolescence. As class information regularly changes up until the time of registration, the CSRG often became erroneous right after it was printed.

The decision was also motivated by an environmentalist ideal, with the CSRG be-

family

ing useful only for the few weeks around registration. This was not considered worth the 100+ pages per booklet that were being printed.

Students did not directly participate in the decision to discontinue the CSRG, but careful attention was paid to student trends in the decision.

“Students simply did not seem to want to use the CSRG as much as they had in the past,” said student assistant Brian Bauer.

“Students were ‘voting with their dollars.’”

As an alternative to the CSRG, an online tool called the Class Search Tool has been created.

“This has been available since Fall 2010 and has been received very well with inyears, participation has decreased. This year, the event planners are hoping to have a larger turnout, of various ethnicities and cultures.

“In the past, Black Family Day was once as heavily populated like Picnic Day. Folks from L.A., the Bay Area and even people from out of state would plan to come to Black Family Day every year. It was used as a space for family reunions, barbecues, populated with greek organizations and of course, families. We would like to return to that tradition of a large attendance this year and generate a large, diverse crowd,” Brawley said.

Following the Black Family Day event on campus, the National Pan-Hellenic Council is hosting an after-party at Luigi’s, located on 213 E St. Sophomore biochemistry major Errin Hadnot said she is excited for Black Family Day because families who are not in Davis can come and see their loved ones and the work that they do.

“It’s important that we have this event; so because it allows families that don’t live close by to come and see what goes on at UC Davis amongst the Black community.

They get the chance to witness our interactions and interact with us,” Hadnot said.

Ultimately, the Black Family Day planning committee hopes to see attendees having a good time, forming friendships and enjoying family time.

“Black Family Day is a day of unity, love and tradition. It is a legacy on this campus in which the African Diaspora community is very proud of,” Brawley said.

Cont. from front page is a space which generates new leadership opportunities through volunteering, tabling and entertainment. It is an event that promotes retention and recruitment efforts in hopes that newly admitted or interested students can attend this event and become inspired by the community feel of that day,” Brawley said.

Brawley also said that the key element to the event is “family.”

“This year, we would like to see 200 families at Black Family Day. This is being emphasized because we would like to see diverse families of all backgrounds and representations come to this cultural event and learn more about UC Davis; our students and reflect on the work that we have accomplished this year. This is a familyfriendly event and is geared towards celebrating the family,” Brawley said.

Senior, community and regional development major Jamila Cambridge, who also worked to plan the event, said that Black Family Day is crucial, as it showcases a group of people that is relatively unseen on the UC Davis campus.

“It provides an opportunity for an underrepresented community on campus to come together and celebrate family, culture and life. Black students comprise one of the smallest percentages on campus.

It’s important for this event to teach others about our culture and for us to enjoy it,” Cambridge said.

In previous years, Black Family Day was a widely attended event; however, in recent KELSEY SMOOT can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

creasing usage each term,” said Senior Associate Registrar Barbara Noble.

The Class Search Tool contains many useful settings and options to streamline the process of registering for classes that were not available with the CSRG. “There are a bunch of options and settings that you can use to really narrow down the size of your search and refine it,” Bauer said. “Three big pieces of advice would be: use the ‘Open Only’ Tool, use the ‘Saved Courses’ feature and have SISWEB open at the same time to cross-reference courses.”

Though officials are optimistic that the Class Search Tool will significantly improve the process of class registration, they

absurd

are open to possible modifications.

“Occasionally we will get excellent suggestions for how to improve the Class Search Tool and we take those very seriously. Several of these suggestions have been implemented in order to make the tool more user-friendly,” Noble said.

In order to smooth the adjustment from the CSRG to the Class Search Tool, an electronic version of the Fall 2012 CSRG is available online. However, this may be discontinued in the future.

Both the online CSRG and the Class Search Tool can be found at registrar.ucdavis.edu.

ROHIT RAVIKUMAR can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

clusion for all participants and enhance writers’ voices.”

The workshops, which are not a typical component of a press, are a key pillar of Absurd Publications. They were established in an effort to remove the creative writing workshop from the university setting and place it in a public, non-graded, peer-reviewed environment focused on personal rather than scholastic growth.

“In the workshops, students can truly explore and develop, away from the establishment,” La Rue said.

The workshops also aim to provide feedback and creative writing practice to those who are unable to take creative writing classes at UC Davis, such as students with a unit cap, students who aren’t accepted to the UC Davis creative writing classes or Davis community members who aren’t enrolled at the University. Two of the upcoming anthology contributors are not creative writing majors.

La Rue and White attribute much of their ethos to a poetry workshop they took with UC Davis lecturer and local poet, Dr. Andy Jones. Collaboration, action, mutual respect and artistic quality were all things that Dr. Jones encouraged in his class and that the founders of Absurd Publications carried over to their operation, they said.

Absurd Publications will host their next workshop on May 19, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Wellman 107. There will also be a public reading on May 26 at ARTifact Gallery, 423D L Street, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Cont. from front page Both students spent over a year in the planning and creation of the press. La Rue spearheaded networking, while White focused on editing and resource building.

Despite many awkward rejections and unsympathetic ears, Absurd Publications rendered the necessary support, resources and time to create their first book, a collection of poetry and fiction titled, “All the Vegetarians in Texas Have Been Shot.” It features work from over 10 UC Davis students and members of the Davis community and will be sold at The Avid Reader as well as on iTunes and Amazon.com.

“The phrase ‘pulling the chicken’s teeth’ comes to mind,” White said of the laborious process of printing their first book.

“However we’ve created our footprints and set up the modus operandi so that printing books will be much faster and easier in the future.”

La Rue and White plan to publish several more books in the near future and intend to move toward printing collections of individual author’s work.

In addition to publishing literature, Absurd Publications dedicates a lot of time and effort to hosting workshops for interested writers and contributors. They also plan public readings.

“We put a lot of emphasis on engaging the writing community of Davis by hosting free and open literary workshops,” La Rue said. “We strive to foster a sense of in- SARA ISLAS can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

6 thursday, may 17, 2012

The california Aggie

Athletic Director Candidates Announced

Public Forums for candidates to begin later this month

By TREVOR CRAMER Aggie Sports Editor

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and Vice Chancellor Fred Wood announced yesterday the names of the final four candidates for UC Davis Director of Athletics.

The announcement is the latest step in a selection process that began in September and has included town hall meetings, third party reports and the advisement of the Recruitment Advisory Committee.

Each of the four remaining candidates will make a trip to campus to hold an open forum prior to the final selection. The first open forum will be held on May 23 and the last will be June 9.

Ray M. Purpur — Ray M. Purpur has worked within the Stanford University athletic department for the past 18 years, most recently as the Deputy Director of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation.

During his tenure at Stanford, Purpur has served as chair of the football operations committee as well as the Associate Director of Athletics from 2001-2005. While Purpur worked for the Cardinal, Stanford won 17 straight Division I Directors’ Cup for the best athletic department in the nation.

Purpur received a masters degree in sports science from Pacific in 1994. While earning his degree, he also served as an Assistant Director of Athletics.

Purpur’s open forum will be held on May 23 from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in Tercero South’s Wall Hall.

Desiree Reed-Francois — Desiree Reed-Francois is current-

ly the Senior Associate Athletic Director at the University of Tennessee. Prior to arriving in Knoxville, Reed-Francois worked in the athletic departments at University of San Francisco, Fresno State, Santa Clara University, San Jose State and the University of California, Berkeley.

She also spent one year as a legal associate for the National Football League.

While at Tennessee, ReedFrancois was directly responsible for men’s basketball games and related contracts. During her tenure, the Volunteer men’s basketball squad went to four straight NCAA Tournaments.

Reed-Francois has a degree in law from the University of Arizona and has used this degree throughout her working career.

Her public forum will be Tuesday May 29 from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. at the UC Davis Conference Center, Ballroom B.

Surging Ahead baseball

By RUSSELL EISENMAN Aggie Sports Writer

Monday — UC Davis 6, Hawaii 3 Senior David Popkins went two-for-five and scored twice, junior Paul Politi drove in two runs and Wolf tied a careerhigh with five strikeouts as UC Davis won against the future Big West Conference op-

Brian Nguyen / Aggie

Freshman Kevin Barker went 2-for-5 in the UC Davis baseball team’s win over San Jose State on Tuesday. ponent.

Playing for the fourth time in four days with another game on the way, Wolf gave up just two runs on six hits in six full innings of work and sophomore Harry Stanwyck earned his team-leading fifth save in two-and-one-third innings.

“We needed a six or seveninning start today from Evan [Wolf ] to help keep us intact for [the upcoming game],”

Foti Mellis — Foti Mellis has spent the last decade as a member of the University of California,

Berkeley Athletics Department, where he is currently the Senior Associate Athletic Director. One of Mellis’ biggest responsibilities at Cal was overseeing the renovation of Memorial Stadium, a project valued at $321 million.

Prior to joining the Cal Athletics Department, Mellis held the position of Assistant Athletic Director at Arizona State from 1998-2002 and the position of Director of Compliance at Tulsa.

Mellis attended UC Davis for both his undergraduate and graduate studies — ultimately completing a Masters in Education in 1996. During his time at UC Davis Mellis also served as Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach from 1990-1992.

Mellis’ open forum will be held on June 7 from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in Tercero South’s Wall Hall.

Editor in Chief Jason Alpert contributed to this story. TREVOR CRAMER can be reached at sports@ theaggie.org.

men’s golf PREVIEW

Aggies take both from Hawaii, San Jose State

With an offense that is consistently scoring, UC Davis baseball has now won four of its last five games after two midweek victories.

Sophomore pitcher Evan Wolf gave the team a muchneeded quality start on Monday and the Aggies scored a season-high 12 runs on nine hits in Tuesday’s make up game at Blethen Field in San Jose.

UC Davis improves to 22-27 overall and 8-10 in the Big West Conference.

Terrance J. Tumey —Terrance Tumey has been the Director of Athletics at Dominican University of California since April 2009, where he has overseen the Penguins’ transition from an NAIA university for a Division II program.

Prior to that time he worked in several capacities with the San Francisco 49ers from from 2001-2009, including five years as Director of Football Administration.

Tumey also has experience as an assistant coach for the Denver Broncos and for UCLA, the university where he received both his Bachelors of Arts and his MBA. Tumey’s open forum will be held June 4 from 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. in the Activities and Recreation Center Ballroom B.

said head coach Matt Vaughn.

“He knows that he needed to go deep into this game and he found a way to do it. It’s been kind of a roller coaster year for him, but he’s been able to put together some good starts and today was one of them.”

The UC Davis offense complemented Wolf’s outing with some early offense, taking a

See BASEBALL, page 3

Event: NCAA West Regional Where: Stanford Golf Course –– Palo Alto, Calif.

When: Thursday through Saturday, all day Who to Watch: Matt Hansen competed in the NCAA West Regional last year and showed no signs of first-year jitters.

The Los Osos, Calif. native made quite an impression at last year’s regionals hosted by Arizona, where he shot a nine-under to win the individual title.

Hansen has shown no signs of a sophomore slump and could be a solid contender for the title once again this season.

Did you know? It should not have been a surprise that the UC Davis men’s golf program won the Big West Conference Championship this year, seeing that it was the third time in four seasons.

And yet, when the Aggies seized the conference title, it was very unexpected. UC Davis brought a squad of three freshmen and two sophomores to the tournament with Hansen being the sole Aggie with prior Big West experience.

Sophomore Matt Seramin led the way for UC Davis — drilling a threeunder to grab fourth place in the tournament.

Preview: The Aggies have been to the NCAA regionals before, but this is entirely new ground for them.

This season, UC Davis defied expectations when it grabbed the Big West title and the NCAA berth that came with it.

In the 13-team field at Regionals, the Aggies are seeded 13th, but should not be counted out seeing their recent success.

“Ultimately, we’ll be confident based on how we’re playing, how we did in the last tournament, and how we do this week to get ready,” said head coach Cy Williams.

Seramin tied for fourth at the Big West tournament to lead the Aggies, who all placed in the top twenty.

UC Davis will be pitted against some stiff competition at Stanford, where several highly seeded Pacific-12 Conference teams loom at the top of the field.

Williams stresses they won’t be intimidated as the team seems to be playing its best golf of the season.

The Aggies will have to place in the top five teams in the regional field in order to advance to the NCAA finals, which will be held the following week at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.

“There is a certain comfort level with playing on a course close to home where we’ve played tournaments in the past,” Williams said. “The main goal is to play well, and if we do that, we’ll be able to beat enough teams to advance.”

—Matthew Yuen

thursday, may 17, 2012 7

The california aggie

CREATIVE Cont. from front page ASUCD.” Creative Media designs websites and print advertisements for many campus units, including Entertainment Council, KDVS, We Are Aggie Pride, the Pantry, the Bike Barn and The California Aggie.

“As technology becomes more inherent in our daily lives and within the ways we communicate and interact with others, Creative Media must adapt to the trend and grow,” Ho said.

Sophomore philosophy major and ASUCD senator Paul Min acts as the liaison between Creative Media and ASUCD and advocates for investment in the unit. Min emphasizes that the expansion will benefit both UC Davis students and the greater community by increasing transparency of ASUCD, increasing exposure for ASUCD units such as the CoHo, Aggie Threads and Aggie ReStore and allowing students to become familiar with their services as well as increasing the overall efficiency of these units.

“My vision for Creative Media is that it continues to make ASUCD more transparent to

students,” Min said. “Increasing transparency is crucial in keeping ASUCD accountable with how we spend student fees. Investing in Creative Media is essentially investing in all of ASUCD’s units.”

Junior design major and lead graphic designer for 2012-2013 Katherine Fukui agreed.

“We work to make sure the branding of ASUCD is unified and that it represents UC Davis as [a] whole,” Fukui said. “We try and make things as interesting as possible to gather attention in the most effective way.

The expansion will include a new marketing division that will aim to unify the identity of

every unit of ASUCD.” Ho has high hopes for the future of Creative Media.

“Creative Media has found a solution to keep ASUCD at the forefront of digital communication,” Ho said. “Many of ASUCD’s services are often unnoticed.

Our hope is that in the future, through our branding and capable staff, ASUCD becomes an iconic centerpiece of the student experience here at UC Davis.”

Creative Media job listings can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu.

STEPHANIE B. NGUYEN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

classifieds Transferred

by Elizabeth Urabe bethcomics@gmail.com

25 Lower Freeborn Hall, UCD One Shields Ave. Davis, CA 95616 Editorial: (530) 752-0208 Advertising: (530) 752-0365 Fax: (530) 752-0355 Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

CLASSIFIED AD RATES* Students: 20¢ per word/day General: 25¢ per word/day * Minimum 5 words LOCAL OPEN AD RATES $10.00 per column inch DEADLINES Publication Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Display Ads 4 p.m. Wed 4 p.m. Thu 4 p.m. Fri 4 p.m. Mon

Classified Ads 1 p.m. Thurs 1 p.m. Mon 1 p.m. Tue 1 p.m. Wed

Notice to Readers The California Aggie reserves the right to, without notice, classify all advertisements, delete objectionable words and phrases, and edit or refuse advertisements. Categories will be strictly adhered to. The Aggie reserves the right to change, without notice, deadlines for advertising copy, rates, rules, and regulations. The advertiser will not hold The Aggie liable for any claims resulting from publication of the advertisement. Further, the Publisher will not be responsible for any claim resulting from an agreement made between the consumer and advertiser.

Copy should be checked for errors BY THE ADVERTISER following the first insertion. Errors in

advertisements must be reported before 1 p.m. for correction in next issue. Credit for Publisher error(s) will only be given for the incorrect portion of the advertisement for the first publication date.

All phone numbers appearing in classifieds will be in the 530 area code. Only area codes outside the 530 area will be printed.

For placement or questions e-mail classifieds@ theaggie.org.

Wednesday’s puzzle solved

There are no refunds/credits for cancellations.

Services Rent a Rower from the UCD Men’s Rowing Team to take care of your around the house projects! Visit www. ucdcrew.org.

GRADUATING Spring? Take your senior portrait at our studio in Davis now!

Cap and gowns provided. www.vipportraits.com

Websites/Internet OVERPOPULATION IS SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED. http://motherlode.sierraclub.org/population/

House for Rent

Sudoku

4 Bedroom 2 Bath house on Sycamore Lane. Please call 415-305-8278 for more information.

HOUSE FOR LEASE FIVE BEDROOM $2400/M AVAILABLE SEPT. 1ST CALL (530)753-4770 CLOSE TO UCD.

Employment Career opportunities w/ Grassroots Campaigns making positive change by defending human & animal rights, protecting our natural environment, ending child poverty & more. Schedule an interview through the Career Center.

All majors welcome. Summer jobs also available at www.grassrootscampaigns.com.

Help Wanted STUDENTPAYOUTS.COM Paid Survey Takers Needed in Davis. 100% FREE to join! Click on Surveys.

Egg Donors Needed. Healthy females ages 18-30. Donate to infertile couples some of the many eggs your body disposes monthly. Compensation $6,000. Call Reproductive Solutions (818) 832-1494 donor.eggreproductive.com. Reproductive Solutions abide by all federal and state guidelines regarding egg donation as well as all ASRM guidelines.

EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS participants needed for easy 60-90 min. experiment. Perform group decisionmaking task. Must be 18 years or older to participate. Register: www.experimetrix2.com/ucdesp. One time participation only. You will be compensated $10-20. Payment determined in part by individual success in task.

Summer Jobs Summer REC Program Assistant Director. June 18-August 18. 3 quarter time $13/hour. Experience and reference required. email resume to daviskidsklub@aol.com (530) 220-4731

Very Hard Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit.

So must every column, as must every 3x3 square. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

8 thursday, may 17, 2012

The california Aggie

services Cont. from front page Riverside accessibility to the majority of the other UC campuses made it the best choice for the merge — according to the press release.

“The main reason is its proximity to a number of other UC campuses, giving it the ability to attract a wide pool of UC talent, providing job opportunities for UC employees,” said Brooke Converse, media specialist for UCOP, in an e-mail.

Other reasons Converse mentioned were labor costs, availability and condition of shared service center space, local housing, cost of living, public transportation and other quality-oflife considerations, as well as local buy-in and support.

Six other campuses submitted proposals to host the new center, including UC Davis.

Workers of shared services at UC Davis now face a somewhat uncertain future.

“At the moment, the details

behind the work associated with payroll and HR transactional activities in the UC Path project do not have enough specificity to fully understand what work will remain on campus in local shared services, departments or central units,” said Karen Hull, Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resources at UC Davis.

“This clarity will be forthcoming over the next several months.”

The impact of UCPath on UC Davis workers and shared services will remain unclear until Davis migrates to UCPath.

It has yet to be decided if UC Davis will migrate during Phase II or III of implementation, set to take place in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

That being said, the UC press release stated UC would be doing its best to keep layoffs to a minimum.

“Our goal is to minimize involuntary layoffs through attrition, re-training and re-aligning of responsibilities,” said UC Executive Vice President Nathan Bostrom in the press release.

Lovekin said the future of

smith Cont. from page 4 When she answered the question of “What’s your advice for young artists?” she stated, “Go to Detroit and [remember] what’s important is to do great work. If you want to

EINAT GILBOA can be reached city@theaggie. org.

achieve fame and fortune, go to New York and get ten roommates.”

Smith has lived an adventurous life, but she quit public life in 1979 to have children. “I developed discipline, and I believe that things are only in the way if you think they are,” she said.

After being asked about her late

News iN Brief

Annual Celebrate Davis! is today There will be a free community-wide festival organized by the Davis Chamber of Commerce from 4:30 to 9 p.m. at the Community Park located at 1405 F Street.

Celebrate Davis! is part picnic, part music festival and part business expo. Businesses

shared services workers could take multiple paths though not all necessarily that of UCPath.

“Some people will retire, some will be retrained and take on other duties on their own campuses,” Lovekin said in the e-mail. “Some will decide to relocate to the Riverside area.”

Whatever happens, one thing is for sure: UC staff and faculty who utilize shared services will be receiving less face time.

“For staff and faculty who use the services there will be more phone and web contact for certain things and less face-to-face contact,” Lovekin said in the e-mail.

But for students, Lovekin added, the impact will probably be minimal.

“I’m not sure that students will notice much difference,” Lovekin added in the e-mail. “But it’s always good news if the administration can do something that saves money that can be ploughed back into the classroom.”

and organizations will have booths. Davis City Council candidates Lucas Frerichs, Sue Greenwald and Dan Wolk will also have booths.

There will also be dinner options, live music and fireworks at 9 p.m.

— Angela Swartz

Avengers

erything about Captain America at one glance: He is a statue of leaden moralism. Thor is not far off, except that he is a demi-god and thus can’t really die. Which makes one wonder, where is the threat? The others are hardly even worth mentioning they are colored so gray.

Where the film ultimately fails is in its devastating emptiness.

Throughout the explosives and the carefully constructed development, Joss Whedon, the director, teases toward something more — a potential heart underneath the 200-millionplus hauberks. But as the credits roll, it becomes clear that The Avengers is slick and leans to a point of anorexia.

There is really nothing else there.

It is inevitable to conclude that The Avengers’ success is not justified by what it achieves on screen. It is a special sort of monster, less a film than an unrepentant celebration of our own commercial obedience, and the immense glorification of our deep cultural excesses. The film moves at lightspeed, and impresses itself skin deep. The Avengers 2, with more, will be out tomorrow.

Cont. from page 4 without merit. Often it is a penetratingly funny, engaging and an admirably constructed film. The leads, who we “know” from a dizzying array of loosely connected prequels, banter with each other at a mile a minute, and the film’s greatest sense of friction arises when the heroes prod each others’ borderline self-righteous chests.

Robert Downey Jr.’s Stark/Iron Man is what we’ve come to expect. His tongue is razor sharp, and his narcissistic wit is held up high — the flagship of his character. It’s the other scientist, though – The Hulk/Bruce Banner – that is the best thing going on here.

Mark Ruffalo plays the human part with a rare sense of emotional verve — we sense, magnificently, that there are various emotional dimensions at work in his superhero soul (and the CGI Hulk definitely “smash good”).

The other characters more or less blend into the backdrop of the scenery, which is not so much the fault of the actors as it is a deficiency of their dulled character types. We know ev- JAMES O’HARA can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

husband, Smith briefly talked about how Russell Crowe reminded her of her late husband Fred, who was “private, stoic, loved Beethoven, was a great musician and gave her two children.”

Even though it was a touchy and emotionally-charged subject, the fact that she answered the question

proves that she really does love her fans and thinks that they’re important enough to hear her story.

With silly stories of her two children Jackson and Jessy, Smith closed up the Q & A session with her song “Because the Night,” which was a song about when Fred was her boyfriend.

Smith’s humility and sense of humor is noteworthy making her extremely relatable. She’s very human and genuine making the hour-long wait for her autograph worth it.

KARINA CONTRERAS can be reached at arts@ theaggie.org.