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volume 131, number 92
thursday, november 1, 2012
Asian American Studies professor denied tenure Students fight for the reinstatement of Caroline Valverde By NATASHA QABAZARD Aggie News Writer
A group of UC Davis students has been petitioning for the reinstatement of Asian American Studies professor Caroline Valverde. After Valverde requested tenure and was denied, many in turn blamed the tenure process. Valverde is an international scholar and has served as an assistant professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis since 2003. The tenure process goes through a multi-system procedure, which includes a department vote, dean vote, CAP’s (Committee on Academic Personnel) vote, vice provost vote, provost vote and the
chancellor’s vote. At any level, the request can be struck down, which gives the professor one year to leave the school. “The tenure process is such a closed process, which leads to the corruption of power,” said Eddie Truong, fourth-year Asian American studies student. “Such hierarchy needs to be looked at and revised.” Additionally, a general University of California policy discloses that if a professor leaves or is dismissed from a UC, he or she may not apply to another UC for five years. Nolan Zane, head of the Asian American studies department and psychology professor, said specific tenure cases and the reason that Valverde’s tenure request was denied cannot be discussed to protect the privacy rights of those involved.
“We can ... say that tenure reviews are very methodical, thoughtful and comprehensive,” he said. “The process involves reviews by many faculty at all stages of the review. Faculty members have numerous appeal rights. We also can say that tenure decisions are not influenced by or based on gender, race nor ethnicity.” The decision to tenure a professor should be unanimous, and goes through various administrators and ultimately the chancellor, according to Zane. Zane was not able to disclose who rejected the tenure request. Zane said that although Valverde did not receive tenure, she has not been dismissed and as of now still has a full-time academic position in the department for a one-year period. Zane also said Valverde teaches a
Student Assistants to the Chancellor aim to encourage studentadministrator interaction Student assistants plan quarterly events to bring the administration to students
full load of four courses for this academic year, advises both undergraduate and graduate students, conducts her research, serves on department committees and fully participates as a faculty member in department meetings. The protest movement is at the stage of advocacy right now, and activists have recently met with Dean Jessie Ann Owens of the College of Letters and Sciences to plead their case. Additionally, students have been reaching out to administrators to understand the reason for the denial of tenure. “She met the standard and yet didn’t get tenure which leads us to believe she was judged unfairly,” said Iris Xie, third-year
See AAS, page 2
News iN Brief
Attempted robbery at North Davis CVS/ pharmacy On Oct. 31 at around 7 a.m., a man wearing a mask attempted to burglarize the CVS/ pharmacy at The Marketplace on West Covell Boulevard. The man fled when employees called for security. The suspect is described as a white male adult, about 6 feet tall. He was last seen wearing a black mask and a black sweatshirt with a marijuana leaf in a white circle on it. — Claire Tan
Fire started outside Olson Hall Wednesday
courtesy
Student Assistant to the Chancellor Artem Trotsyuk, Associate Vice Chancellor Rich Shintaku and fourth-year art history major Tara Da Re (left to right) engage in a round table discussion as a part of Meals with Mrak.
By LAUREN MASCARENHAS Aggie News Writer
The 2012-2013 Student Assistants to the Chancellor (SAC), Annemarie Stone, Artem Trotsyuk and Miguel Espinoza, hit the ground running this year, organizing events to bridge the gap between students and the administration at UC Davis. “We act as liaisons between the ad-
ministration and the students,” said Trotsyuk, a fourth-year biological sciences major. The student assistants all come from very different backgrounds, giving them the opportunity to bring something unique to the table. “We can approach things differently, but we work as a team,” said Miguel Espinoza, a fourth-year women and gender studies major. Espinoza served
as an ASUCD senator and member of the Gender and Sexuality Commission before beginning work as a Student Assistant to the Chancellor this year. Trotsyuk served as a member of the ASUCD Business and Finance Commission and as a research ambassador for the Undergraduate Research Center.
A fire occurred yesterday morning on the east side of Olson Hall, causing students, faculty and staff to evacuate the building. Both Olson Hall and Sproul Hall were evacuated. According to Nathan Trauernicht, UC Davis Fire Department fire chief, the department received a call notifying them of the fire at 9:14 a.m. The source of the fire was determined to be a pile of dead leaves in a metal grate outside the building. Trauernicht said the fire was likely unintentionally caused by someone dropping a cigarette on the pile, which produced a large amount of smoke. The flames, however, were small. “We knew it was small and easily resolved,” he said. Students reported smelling the smoke inside Olson Hall as well. “We could see the smoke coming out of the vents in the ground,” says Jordan Lowery, a student who was in the building for class at the time of the fire. Lexi Gritlefeld was in the middle of a midterm when the alarm sounded. “We smelled smoke maybe five minutes before the alarm went off. ... We came out and we saw the [UC Davis] fire station,” Gritlefeld said. — Jessica Grilli
See ADMIN, page 7
Vegan culture becomes Aggie Culture UC Davis runner-up for most vegan-friendly college By DANIEL RIESGO Aggie Features Writer
Shazib Haq
The Tofu Roja is a vegan option available from TxMx Grill at the ASUCD Coffee House.
Today’s weather Showers High 69 Low 49
Forecast In the spirit of Halloween: “Confounded storm had to go and make my joints hurt, those young whippersnappers have to go around and be so energetic to get in my way,” says me as an old man. Have a nice weekend, the weather will be nice for you too. Tyson Tilmont, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team
As students of UC Davis, we carry the honor of being called Aggies — but don’t forget the root of this title. We call ourselves Aggies because of our agricultural readiness and abundance of farms. According to peta2, more and more UC Davis students are taking this a step further and going vegan, awarding our university as runner-up in the nationwide most vegan-friendly college contest. The vegan station in the dining commons, the ASUCD Coffee House’s great variety of vegan meals, the Davis Food Co-op and city events like the farmers market have fostered the local vegan culture in recent years. “[Turning vegan] had always been in the back of my head because of animal cruelty and films like Food Inc., but the UC Davis dining commons gave me that small push that I needed,” said John Caccamo, a second-year biological sciences major and vegan of one year. “The Blue Onion’s wide selection of vegan foods made the choice much easier by
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Saturday
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High 71 Low 48
High 72 Low 48
exposing me to delicious foods I didn’t know I could eat if I became vegan.” While the dining commons are not easily accessible for students without a meal plan, there are many vegan options at the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo), serving tofu or other vegan-friendly replacements at nearly every food station. “I love the vegan food that they sell at the CoHo,” said Jessica Villa, a thirdyear political science and sociology major and vegan of four years. “Some of my favorites include the vegan pho, the tofu platters and the vegan burritos. Of course, you can always get a salad, but the CoHo does a really good job with the vegan varieties they offer.” A common problem for newly established vegans is being ignorant of what you can and cannot eat. According to Villa, many people are intimidated by turning vegan because they are afraid they will never have the opportunity to taste good food ever again. “People have this wrong notion that we only eat salad. I don’t eat salad and
See VEGAN, page 2
Election day next week! Don’t forget to vote. Amanda Nguyen