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volume 131, number 71
THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2012
194 Chemistry to be renamed Peter A. Rock Hall
Building named in honor of dean of Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences he [was] very passionate about the quality of teaching — and as you know, Chemistry 2 is really fundamental to many and the quality affects the campus as a whole. And not only that, he felt passionate about it. He also taught a lot himself and his textbook in general chemistry, which he wrote with Professor McQuarrie, is a pretty well-known textbook, so we thought that we should honor him,” said current Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Winston Ko. The Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is under the College of Letters and Science — which is celebrating its 60-year anniversary this year. Ko feels that renaming 194 Chemistry in Rock’s memory is very fitting during the 60-year anniver-
By LILIANA NAVA OCHOA Aggie News Writer
Aaron Juarez / Aggie
Starting Fall 2012, the Chem 194 building will be called Rock Hall.
In Fall 2012, 194 Chemistry building will no longer be Chem 194. Instead, the building has been renamed Peter A. Rock Hall. Beginning Fall 2012, Peter A. Rock Hall, or Rock Hall for short, will be the new name for 194 Chemistry, named after Peter Rock, the founding dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences for eight years before retiring in 2003. Rock had worked at UC Davis since 1964. Three years later, on June 14, 2006 he passed away and now, six years later, 194 Chemistry will be renamed in his honor. “He’s my predecessor and
Safeboats keeps on sailing Aggie Staff Writer
This Memorial Day weekend, the Safeboats program will once again return to Lake Shasta to protect Houseboats attendees from themselves. The program, which was initiated in 2005 following the death of a UC Davis student at Houseboats, educates students on how to take safety precautions for the weekend and provides essentials throughout the event such as water, sunscreen, bandages and condoms. As many of the students in attendance partake in the consumption of alcohol, student injuries are more or less an annual occurrence at Houseboats. However, since the beginning of Safeboats, there have been no UC Davis student casualties. For this reason, many argue that Safeboats is an essential accompaniment to the excess of Houseboats. “[Houseboats] is different from other off-campus partying done by Davis students in that students are isolated on the lake,” said sophomore Senator Anni Kimball, an international relations and psychology double major. “With no cell phone reception and over an hour of transportation to the nearest hospital, Safeboats becomes a vital link between students and
medical attention.” By mooring a boatful of EMTs on the lake right alongside the rest of the houseboats, Safeboats ensures that there will be medical service available to any partygoer in the event of their injury. Within a relatively short period of time, Safeboats has already proven itself to be very effective in preventing injuries and death, according to various sources. Several personal accounts written by Davis Wiki users on the Houseboats page describe the experiences of past attendees who have injured themselves, with the severity of these injuries ranging from bumps, bruises and alcohol poisoning to severed arteries. Many of these personal accounts credit Safeboats with preventing such injuries from turning deadly. However, while few would morally question Safeboats’ efforts to protect students’ lives, many — including members of the ASUCD Senate — remain divided over the program’s sources of funding. The ASUCD subsidy for the Safeboats program was one of the most hotly debated issues at this year’s budget hearings. Members of the Senate were largely divided over whether or not to cut the size of the subsidy contributed to the over $5,155 cost of the event.
See ROCK, page 2
News iN Brief
City names Scott Kenley as Interim Fire Chief
Despite funding cuts, program will still provide medical services at Houseboats By DYLAN GALLAGHER
sary of the College of Letters and Science. In order to have a building named after someone, it is a requisite that the person have been deceased for at least two years and the chancellor makes the renaming proposal to the president that comes from the department dean, according to Ko. Ko said the chemistry chair made the case to rename the building and then he proposed it to the naming committee. Neurobiology, physiology and behavior junior transfer student Lillian Ghaly said she didn’t see any problem with the name change. “I don’t think it makes a difference. I mean maybe at first
Although Safeboats receives funding from organizations such as the Water Safety Council, in previous years about $1,000 of its annual funding has come from ASUCD subsidies. In next year’s budget, Safeboats will only receive $370 for Safeboats and $130 for Safeboat education. ASUCD’s budget, of course, is largely funded by student fees, which is where the contention begins. Because funding Safeboats is an inherent acknowledgment of the unsafe activities which occur at Houseboats, many view ASUCD providing money to the program as an endorsement of Houseboats itself. Furthermore, certain students have expressed disagreement with the notion that their student fees are paying for part of an event which is only open to a fraction of students. Some students, including ASUCD Senator Justin Goss, a senior political science and philosophy double major, believe the answer is the gradual transition to private funding. “Houseboats is an inherently, empirically dangerous student event,” Goss said. “My main problem with it is that when you engage in a dangerous activity knowingly,
See SAFEBOATS, page 2
As of May 21 Scott Kenley became the city of Davis’ interim fire chief. The city manager Steve Pinkerton made the announcement as Interim Fire Chief William Weisgerber leaves. Weisgerber served as the interim chief for the city since March 2010. Kenley has been active in fire services for over 40 years. He has experience ranging from firefighter operations to fire chief. “I look forward to working collaboratively with the men and women of the Davis Fire Department, the city and the community to set the stage for the new fire
chief,” Kenley said in a city of Davis press release. “The goal is a smooth transition from three years of an interim management team to a more permanent management team with a long-term vision for the department.” A recruitment effort is underway to hire a permanent fire chief. “We appreciate the fine service provided to the city of Davis by Bill Weisgerber and look forward to working with Scott Kenley and utilizing his many years of experience in fire services,” said City Manager Steve Pinkerton in the release.
Tour de Cluck is Saturday Tickets for the Bicycle Chicken Coop Crawl sold out, but there are still other activities associated with the event people can attend. Tour de Cluck begins at 8 a.m. with the Fowl Food Fair at the Davis Farmers Market.
The Community Kickoff and Courage to Cluck Exhibition will be from 9 to 10 a.m. and the Tour de Cluck Silent Auction from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Raffle drawings will also be held at 1 p.m. — Angela Swartz
Judo team throws City of Davis releases annual down the competition Water Quality Report New members first introduced to sport at ARC
City doesn’t exceed Maximum Contaminant Levels By ANDREW POH Aggie News Writer
Group or event
By ISAIAH SHELTON Aggie Features Writer
As this progressively warm spring weather seeps into a baking summer, students are finding many new outings and hobbies to keep themselves cool and entertained. While many lounge at the Rec Pool, some frequent the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) instead — but not in preparation for a shirtless Houseboats. The UC Davis Club Judo Team grapples with achieving other aims, practicing during these hot months to constantly build their stamina, coordi-
Today’s weather Sunny High 80 Low 52
courtesy
nation and strength in preparation for local tournaments and, ideally, win National Collegiate Judo Championships. Judo is a form of Japanese martial art. Opponents start by standing up and the goal is for one person to throw the other to the floor — getting them on their back which signals a win. If an opponent is on the ground and not on their back, one must grapple, choke, arm bar or pin them for more than 20 seconds in order to get the opponent on his or her back.
See JUDO, page 4
If, when skimming through your mail, you regularly throw out the letters that seem impertinent to you, you may have already thrown out a very pertinent pamphlet that may have innocuously been disguised as spam. The city of Davis recently distributed its Water Quality report for the year of 2011 — statistics abound. Upon unraveling the neatly-folded pamphlet, a wealth of information is catalogued before your eyes. On one side, a thorough background on the report gives the reader some exposition before they dive into the Excel spreadsheet of water statistics on the flip side. The report was prepared in accordance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California
Forecast
Friday
Department of Public Health regulations that require water providers to report annual water
Irisa Tam / Aggie
quality information to their customers. It outlines all of the components found in our water, where said water comes from, how the water compares to state and federal standards and other related information. Davis’s water is pumped from 20 municipal wells which draw water from aquifers deep below the surface level. The newest addition to these wells is located on 3608 Chiles Road and taps into water at depths ranging from 735 feet to 1560 feet below the surface.
Saturday
Below average temperatures are expected for Friday, along with a slight chance of scattered showers/thunderstorms within the valley Chance of showers Partly cloudy and foothills. Hopefully a nice thunderstorm will pop up so everyone High 72 High 77 can go storm chasing on their bikes! Or maybe not. Low 51 Low 51 Matthew Little, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team
T h e pamphlet goes on to mention that, “The water is filtered naturally by sands and clays as it passes through geologic formations.” In addition to the natural filtering, each well has an assigned chlorine tank designated with the duty of injecting a 12.5 percent solution of sodium hypochlorite into the well site. Turning it over, one is confronted with a detailed chart delineating the amount of a certain substance found in our water, showing whether it meets or exceeds Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), or Public Health Goal (PHG) standards. Most constituents of our water managed to stay below the Public Health Goal Level — which is the level of a contaminant in
See WATER, page 2
For those of you who still need to knock skydiving off your bucket list, you can now consider making the jump without a parachute. Defying all oods, Stuntman Gary Connery jumped only wearing a wing suit. Amanda Nguyen