April 25, 2019

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VOLUME 137, ISSUE 24 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

DOWN IN LOWER FREEBORN: AGGIE STUDIOS IA N JON ES / AG GIE

BY CA RO L I N E RUTT E N arts@theaggie.org In the depths of Lower Freeborn Hall, the basement of the MU, lives the creative offices of ASUCD — each a different medium exploring and displaying student life on campus.

Moreover, behind the misleading sign reading “AggieTV” (its old name) is Aggie Studios.

Aggie Studios, with a staff of 53 students, is broken up into two sectors: Client Media and Studio Productions. For Client Media, Aggie Studios acts as a resource to both ASUCD and external clients as they are able to create videos pertaining to events, campaigns and more.

“Client Media is all of the external client work that we are paid to do or requested to do via ASUCD,” said Shubah Chakravarty, the executive director of Aggie Studios and a third-year communication and cinema and digital media double major. “It is mainly ads, event videos and recaps.

We recently did a video for the Sunset Fest campaign, the Unitrans referendum, the Office of the Chancellor. They come to us with a video they want and then we come up with the concept.”

Jillian Nguyen, a second-year communication and cinema and digital media double major, acts as Client Media director. In her position, she coordinates with Aggie Studios and the client at hand, translating the original client vision to Aggie Studio’s for them to use their creative discretion.

“Every single client we have worked with have trusted us to be the creative professionals,” Nguyen said. “It’s never like, ‘We want a 40 second video and its needs to have these shots.’ Whenever we have the project, we have a lot of creative liberty. Obviously we have to constrain ourselves to what they want in the video. We get to have this creative outlet and give back to the university.”

According to Studio Productions director Ryan Wong,

a second-year managerial economics major, Aggie Studios does not “have to wait for ASUCD to tell us what to do every time. We can go with any direction with any video on the creative end.”

“Studio production is anything that we personally as a studio choose to create or cover,” Chakravarty said. “This includes, but is not limited to, news coverage, events on campus, any type of highlight we want to do on student life or an event. I see it as the official studio voice through video on campus.”

Each quarter, Aggie Studios produces 10 to 20 videos — a piece of butcher paper charting the progress of each videos hangs behind the door of the Aggie Studios office. Some videos can be finished in a weekend; more complicated ones could require work throughout the entire quarter. Especially this quarter, client videos have been in high demand because “ASUCD has a lot of videos that needed to be made.”

“Our main role within ASUCD is to be their video production unit, so that takes priority over everything else,” Chakravarty said. “We might be seen as a corporate ad, but the videos we make are about Picnic Day, Whole Earth Festival, the CoHo, Unitrans […] it is all about students, though.”

No matter the purpose of the video, Aggie Studios’ service to exploring student life takes precedence.

“We always talk about wanting to tell a story,” Nguyen said. “When you are covering an event, you want to know the pulse and rhythm.”

Storytelling through video requires Aggie Studios to be greatly prepared for videos while expecting the unexpected. The process and how much planning can occur depends on each video. According to Nguyen, “it’s a lot of you learn as you go.”

“For something like the Nerf Gun Club video, you don’t have a shot list,” Wong said. “You’re just going in there

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and trusting your videographers to get the shot and go from there. We can plan what day we are going to be there, how many people are going, what is our vision and what do I want to get, but not this specific shot. Usually it turns out really well as long as we are on the same page.”

The ability for Aggie Studios employees to “think on their feet” becomes essential.

“You need to know how to go out there, find a story and piece it together,” Chakravarty said. “What differentiates a good writer or videographer from an inexperienced one are the people who know how to respond. I’ve been to hundreds of Aggie Studio shoots, and they never go according to plan. There is always going to be some factor that you could not have planned.”

Video storytelling by design can pose great challenges to reporting that Aggie Studios has become accustomed to overcoming. Wong, Nguyen and Chakravarty each quoted a po-

tential or conquered hurdle in the filming process.

“The SD card didn’t work for the recording equipment at the Whole Earth Festival video,” Wong said. “We had to run back to the studio and get this large boom that we only use for in studio and hook it up to the camera.”

“There is lost footage, lost audio,” Nguyen said.

“We were once given the wrong location to the shoot, or the wrong time,” Chakravarty said. “I’ve been in situations where someone starts yelling at me, at more emotionally charged events like a strike. My skateboard has come in handy so many times. I always bring duct tape because something always breaks.”

Despite the challenges that may accompany filming, Aggie Studios has taken the initiative to expand its animation department.

“Last year, I had a concept to explain how the ASUCD

FREEBORN on 11

STUDENT HOUSING UPDATE: LATE-NIGHT SHUTDOWNS, ADDED TRIPLES AND MORE UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services attempts to keep up with low vacancy rates REB ECCA CA MPB EL L / AG GIE

BY CL A I RE D O D D campus@theaggie.org UC Davis Student Housing and Dining Services is planning on rolling out several changes in the next couple of years, including limitations on late night dining options, the opening of thousands of additional beds on and off-campus and more.

Many students may be aware of the extensive construction project underway in the Cuarto dorm area. The university has torn down Webster Hall, and in its place will be Yosemite Hall, a brand-new facility set to provide 400 beds for first-years in Fall Quarter of 2019.

The Cuarto area, however, will be nowhere near done with construction after Yosemite

Hall opens, the Associate Vice Chancellor for SHDS, Mike Sheehan, suggested.

“The next project in the Cuarto Area will be the replacement of Emerson Hall, which will be demolished this summer and being replaced by by Shasta Hall, a new 800-bed residence hall serving both first and second year students,” Sheehan said via email. “This new hall is set to open in fall 2021.”

Additionally, the university has been expanding the Tercero dorm area for several years, which they felt called for the opening of an additional dining facility on the corner of Tercero Hall Drive and Bioletti Way. Latitude, the new dining commons, opens Fall 2019 and will feature indoor and outdoor seating as well as a retail component.

Sheehan also touched on the closure of late-night hours in certain dining facilities.

“Over the past few years, late night dining (9pm-midnight) has experienced low participation rates,” Sheehan said. “Therefore, during the 2019-20 academic year, SHDS will be piloting a new program that will be consolidated in the central location at the Segundo DC. This new program will be connected with our residential education program intentionally to provide both social and educational elements.”

Lastly, Sheehan noted that all new dormitory construction projects, such as Shasta Hall, Yosemite Hall and the new dorms in Tercero, were constructed to house three people per room, commonly referred to as “triples.”

“All of our new properties have been designed at an appropriate square footage that allows for the ability to configure as triple occupancy,” Sheehan said. “The percentage of triples in our inventory has increased as we have been in construction with new buildings and replacing old buildings. Within our long-term plan, our goal is to provide the appropriate amount of triples to ensure balance of options for students.”

Grant Rockwell, the executive director of real estate for UC Davis, opened up about the ongoing West Village expansion, the continuing housing crisis in Davis and the role the university hopes to play in the new apartment complex.

Rockwell explained that the West Village expansion project

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is ultimately aiming to combat the housing crisis that both the university and the city are facing. The team hopes that by providing around 3,300 beds for students over the next two and a half years, vacancy rates will improve in residents’ favor.

“As you know, the UC Davis student population increased pretty considerably over the last five to ten years,” Rockwell said. “Housing stock both on campus and in the city just didn’t keep up with that.”

In keeping with the original purpose of West Village, these new apartments will be designated first for transfer students and continuing undergraduates. Rockwell mentioned that transfer students tend to struggle when finding housing, seeing that Davis students sign leases in January or February,

while transfer students don’t find out their admissions decisions until April. This gives them little to no time to plan ahead for housing if they’re unaware of what school they’ll attend.

The new West Village apartments will guarantee transfer students housing as part of their acceptance, allowing them a secure housing option in the likely event that all other housing options have been filled by current students.

All day-to-day operations in the new apartments will be carried out by SHDS, including management of student contracts, rent payment and more.

The current West Village properties are far less affiliated with the university than the

HOUSING on 11

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

CA IT LY N SA MPL EY / AG GIE

Resolution to disarm campus police fails at Apr. 11 Senate meeting

S PAC E A N D SAT E L LI TE SYSTEM S / CO URTESY

UC Davis MAPS team headed to NASA

Tension mounts between students who feel unsafe with armed campus police and senators who disagree with all or parts of the resolution

MAPS team at UC Davis named finalist in NASA’s BIG Idea Challenge

BY A L E X I S LO P E Z campus@theaggie.org A UC Davis engineering team known as MAPS was named one of the five finalists for NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing Idea Challenge. The MAPS team, a part of the Space and Satellite Systems Club, was selected for the final round along with teams from other prestigious academic institutions such as Harvard and M.I.T. This year’s challenge was centered around a Martian greenhouse. Participating teams were required to make and demonstrate designs that would be cost effective, have the ability to make it to neighboring planets such as Mars in the near future and be capable of sustaining food production.

As NASA looks to continue space exploration, it first has to find solutions to some of the biggest problems that plague space traveling. One of these is food production. With a trip to Mars being approximated at six months long, it would be too expensive to send spaceships back and forth. With the BIG Idea Challenge, however, NASA is looking to find ways of self-sustainability in regards to food production for its astronauts. The greenhouses that have been designed by these teams are meant to accompany the idea of the Martian habitat that NASA is working on.

The BIG Idea Challenge not only brings prestige to those who are selected as finalists, but it brings various incentives to participate. These range from new knowledge and research skills, to resume building and networking opportunities.

However the biggest prize of all is the shot at a summer internship at NASA if select-

ed as the winner.

The process of building the current UC Davis team was a lengthy one, starting in October of 2018 when a faculty member emailed the BIG Idea Challenge to one of the members of the MAPS team, Cory George. George, the systems engineer for MAPS and a fourth-year aerospace and mechanical engineering major, then got in contact with Duha Bader, MAPS team leader and second-year aerospace science and mechanical engineering double major. They went on to look for members who could complete the team.

“It was quite difficult forming a team because we did not know exactly how to approach a competition like this since it was our first time entering one,” Bader said.

The right people needed to be found to ensure that this project would have the capability of reaching its full potential.

Once these conditions were met, a team was assembled and the first general meeting took place in late October.

“That first meeting, we were right there coming up with ideas on the spot no matter how crazy or weird they were,” said Audrey Chamberlin, environmental control and life support systems lead and first-year aerospace science and engineering major. “I don’t even remember some of the things that we came up with, the stuff we thought about for two months then dropped.”

When designing a Martian greenhouse for NASA there are many aspects that must be researched and many obstacles that one must overcome. One of these obstacles that the team took into account was having a design that could withstand NASA CHALLENGE on 11

AFSCME Local 3299 UC workers hold

state-wide strike to protest unfair labor practices

Complaint filed accusing UC of bribery, instilling fear and coercion to break union lines

BY SAB RINA H AB CH I campus@theaggie.org The Apr. 11 ASUCD Senate Meeting was called to order by Vice President Shreya Deshpande at 6:10 p.m. Senator Noah Pearl was absent for the meeting.

The meeting began with a cultural humility and allyship training, during which controversy occurred between members of the table and ECAC Chair Rina Singh and Commissioner Yalda Saii, both of whom were providing the training along with Deshpande.

Senator Alexis Ramirez voiced concerns over a quote that was in the presentation, while Singh explained that the presentation was a hold-over from the previous ECAC chair. The training covered privilege, historical injustices and racial sensitivity, among other issues.

Following the training, the positions of vice controller and controller were confirmed by the table, with Shambhavi Gupta confirmed to the newly created position of vice controller and Kevin Rotenkolber confirmed as controller.

New legislation was introduced after the confirmations. Senate Resolution #10 was introduced by author and seventh-year sociology graduate student Blu Buchanan. The resolution intended to call for the disarmament of campus police.

“What this resolution is for is to recognize the harm that police do,” Buchanan said. “We are talking about managing and mitigating that harm by making it less easy for police to rely on fatal and illegal weapons instead of using other tactics: de-escalation, using crisis counselors, for example.”

Buchanan cited several other similar resolutions that have been passed by a number of institutions and organizations, including one passed by the student association at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Graduate Student Association at UC Davis has also passed a resolution similar to the one Buchanan presented.

Buchanan stressed that the resolution was based off data that suggests police disproportionately affect marginalized populations in a negative way.

“What we’re fundamentally asking for is to disarm police [and] come up with other alternatives,” Buchanan said. “We know that those alternatives exist — other places have been doing them.”

Public discussion over the bill continued for several hours, with some audience members and senators expressing concern over the lives of both police officers and students if police are disarmed, and others suggesting that opposition to the resolution indicated the lives of individuals who are part of historically marginalized communities were seen as less important. Those in favor of the resolution also emphasized that it has no power to effectively disarm the police. Instead, proponents of the resolution argued that SR #10 would signal to the UC Regents how the student body feels about armed officers on campus and potentially begin a wider discussion regarding the issue.

UC Davis Police Chief Joe Farrow was present at the meeting and made an effort to let the audience and senators know that this discussion was important

and that he would like to work with students to make their experience at UC Davis as comfortable and safe as possible.

“I have a long history of interest in mental illness, and we are trying to be the best department in the nation that can respond to people in crisis and give them help,” Farrow said. “We’re working hard to train every member of our department to understand what implicit bias is, what de-escalation is. The disarmament is a huge step — it’s going to take more than just a resolution, but what I would ask is that if we can concentrate on the things that I’m trying to do to try to make people as comfortable as they can.”

During Farrow’s last two years as Police Chief, there were zero incidents of use of any force by police officers, according to Farrow.

“Under our current instruction, we would be the primary [responders] for any incident that occurs on campus,” Farrow said. “If we’re disarmed, we don’t have weapons, [Davis Police] would be the department that would respond for any type of crimes, shootings, person with guns — they would have to come onto campus. Keep in mind what that means: we’re going through all the training that we’re trying to do to be very contemporary; we’re going to be one of the first departments in the state to be fully accredited with all the policies of the 21st century task force on police.”

Senator Andre Spignolio indicated that he would vote no on this resolution due to feeling uncomfortable with some of the statements made in it.

“There are a lot of things in this resolution that I understand and that I do agree with, but there are a few things in here that I don’t feel comfortable putting my name on,” Spignolio said. “First, the history of racial history and racial terror — that general statement is something I’m not comfortable putting my name on. Essentially, my point is I understand a lot of the arguments and I understand why the police officers on campus may not need firearms, but there’s statements in this resolution that I, quite frankly, just don’t feel comfortable putting my name on.”

Spignolio voted no on the resolution, and was referenced by an audience member after the resolution failed to pass because he did not move to amend the resolution. As a member of the table, Spignolio could have proposed changes to the text of the resolution to make it more acceptable to him.

In response to these concerns, Senator Anna Estrada said that particular statements in the resolution were there, because they “are lived experiences.”

Audience members in favor of the resolution were particularly upset that Spignolio and Senator Maya Barak, who also voted no, said they would like to see the resolution come before the Senate again. Audience members advocating for the resolution were dismayed, particularly because drafting the original resolution required a substantial amount of time and energy — things difficult to find as students with several other engagements. They felt that Spignolio and Barak were dismissive of their efforts and the additional work that would be needed to bring a modified version back beSENATE on 11

R AUL M O R A E S / AGGI E

BY A L LY RUSSE L L campus@theaggie.org 39,000 UC workers participated in a state-wide picket line and strike on April 10 to protest unfair working conditions, alleged instances of worker intimidation, outsourcing of jobs and the UC’s failure to meet contract bargaining demands. It was the fourth strike organized by AFSME Local 3299 in the past year.

AFSCME union representatives have been in contract negotiations with UC representatives throughout the last two years but have failed to come to any acceptable agreements for both parties.

Service and patient care workers across five UC medical centers participated in a one-day Union Labor Practice strike after filing an official charge of illegal conduct against the university, claiming the university unlawfully interfered with workers’ rights, according to a press release.

The complaint filed with the Public Employment Labor Relations Board includes allegations of UC representatives offering incentives for union workers to cross picket lines, instances of instilling fear into union members, UC supervisors bribing union members and other listed complaints.

Picket lines were held at the UCLA, UCSF, UCD and UCI Medical Centers as well as several UC campuses.

Strike efforts have garnered national news, gaining the attention of senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders who joined the UCLA union workers’ strike in solidarity three weeks ago. Sanders spoke to the crowd at the medical center, ex-

pressing his outrage at the UC’s treatment of its workers.

“I’m here today not as a candidate for president but as somebody who has spent the last 40 years of his life walking the picket lines for unionized workers,” Sanders said in a press release.

At UC Davis, students in solidarity with strikers participated in a rally at the Memorial Union. Students led chants as the group moved through the Coffee House to join workers picketing on the corner of Russell Boulevard and Howard Way. Sam Howell, a student organizer and second-year plant sciences and neurobiology, physiology and behavior double major, helped organize students outside the Memorial Union.

“I’m just a student trying to show solidarity,” Howell said. “These workers are literally the people who make the university run on a day-to-day basis.”

Workers represented by AFSME include service workers, patient care workers, technical workers, skilled craft workers, non-academic service workers as well as clerical and professional staff.

Raquel Navarro, a third-year sustainable agriculture and food systems major, was also involved in organizing the student rally.

“As students, we invest a lot of money in this university, so we have a lot of leverage when it comes to trying to demand respect and dignity for students and workers alike,” Navarro said to a crowd of onlookers.

Navarro, along with fellow speaker APRIL 10 STRIKE on 11

It’s the bee’s knees April 11 “Heard faint hello, reporting party unable to hear me.”

“Reporting party tried to get subject to leave. Subject left leaving all of his belongings at the apartment including his wallet. Subject wandered around and then tried to come back inside, reporting party/roommates would not let him in.”

April 12 “Loud party with amplified music/ bass; unknown on exact address.”

April 13 “Son playing with phone, negative emergency.”

April 14 “Swarm of bees in the nearby storm

drain.”

“Reporting party requesting assistance with cones or barricades of the nearby storm drain because of a swarm of bees that have been aggressive with passing.”

“Bees swarming around a rock near rose bushes.”

April 15 “Dumpsters pulled out from fenced in area, reporting party believes subject sleeping behind them.”

April 16 “Outdoor exercise group making excessive noise by dropping weights since 5:30. Reporting party would like officer contact after situation has been assessed.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 | 3

DAN I E L TA K / AG G I E FI LE

Yolo County seeks applicants for committee overlooking marijuana tax Applications for Cannabis Business Tax Oversight Committee due late April

UC Davis Medical Center notifies hundreds of patients of potential measles exposure Sacramento hospital sends letter warning roughly 220 patients

BY TIM L A LO N D E a nd REB ECC A BI HN -WAL L AC E city@theaggie.org campus@theaggie.org The UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento sent out a letter to roughly 220 patients treated on March 17 at the hospital, warning them that they may have been exposed to measles after a child treated in the emergency room on that date was found to be infected with the highly contagious virus.

The source of the potential exposure was an unvaccinated child from Calaveras County who was treated at the UC Davis Medical emergency room for respiratory symptoms on March 17, according to a statement made by County Health Officer Doctor Dean Kelaita to the Calaveras Board of Supervisors. The Calaveras County Health and Human Services Agency issued a press release on March 21, publicly confirming the measles case and recommending vaccinations, including the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The letter recommended the first MMR vaccine for infants 12 to 15 months, and the second for children four to six years old.

According to Kelaita, Calaveras County has seen a decrease in the number of children vaccinated against measles. The press release noted that the unvaccinated child had traveled abroad before contracting the disease.

“The unvaccinated child resides in the Valley Springs area and developed measles after returning to California from traveling overseas,” the release said.

The release also warned that some Calaveras residents may have been exposed to the virus and that the department would be notifying individuals potentially at risk of infection.

“Prior to being diagnosed, the child had contact with several members of the public in Calaveras [...] and Amador counties,” the release said. “Public Health officials are contacting the potentially exposed groups with information to prevent development of illness.”

Dean Blumberg, the chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UCDMC, said staff at his hospital did not suspect the child had measles and thus did not take typical precautions for treating a patient with a highly infectious virus.

“When the patient came to the emergency department, measles was not suspected, so they weren’t isolated, and measles is one of the most infectious diseases known to man — so that you don’t even need to have person-to-person contact to be infected,” Blumberg said. “So anybody who could even be breathing the same air within two hours could potentially be infected, because the measles virus stays suspended up in the air for up to two hours.”

After it was discovered that the patient had measles, Blumberg said, the medical center sent out a letter to roughly 220 of the people treated at the hos-

pital the same day as the patient. The letter, posted online by CBS Sacramento, encouraged recipients to inform their healthcare providers of their potential exposure.

“You will need to notify your primary health care provider(s) and your child’s provider(s) of this possible exposure to discuss your possible risk of infection, vaccination history, and other questions you may have,” the letter read.

The letter explained some of the symptoms of measles, which include coughing, red eyes and a runny nose.

Two to three days after the initial symptoms appear, “red, blotchy” rashes typically develop on the face, which soon spread to other parts of the body.

“This rash rapidly spreads downward to the chest and back and finally to the thighs and feet,” the letter read. “The rash fades after about a week.”

Though these symptoms may seem mild, Blumberg said, the illness can lead to more significant medical problems.

“Typically, patients with measles have fever, upper respiratory symptoms and rash, but it can result in complications such as dehydration, pneumonia and — in about one in every thousand cases — can result in death,” Blumberg said.

It seems that none of the patients potentially exposed to the virus on March 17 were actually infected, according to Blumberg, and the hospital has not seen any other related measles cases.

“We’re thankful that we feel there were no [secondary] infections that occurred from that exposure,” Blumberg said.

Blumberg said that measles outbreaks still pose a risk to Californians despite the successful containment in this instance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which declared measles eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, has noted a resurgence of measles outbreaks in America within the past decade, due in part to clustered communities of unvaccinated people. Blumberg said that in California these clusters often contain parents who are skeptical of vaccines and decide not to vaccinate their children.

“In California, what we worry about is many parents are vaccine-hesitant, and so they choose not to have their children vaccinated,” Blumberg said. “They tend to cluster within certain pools and communities — so if it entered one of those pools or communities, it could really just be transmitted very fast.”

As of 2019, there have been a total of 21 reported measles cases in the State of California, the highest concentration being in Butte, Calaveras, Shasta and Tehama counties. The thinly populated counties are listed together in the CDC website due to privacy concerns.

The best defense against measles outbreaks is vaccination, according to Blumberg.

“The vaccine works very well, so it’s recommended for people to get two doses of the vaccine, and that results in about 99% protection,” Blumberg said.

A N DR EA GON ZA LEZ / AGGIE

BY H ANNAN WALIU LLAH city@theaggie.org The Yolo County Board of Supervisors is in the process of forming a Cannabis Business Tax Citizens Oversight Committee. The purpose of this committee is to review the annual revenue and expenditure of funds generated by the tax on cannabis businesses.

“The cannabis tax is for general governmental purposes and revenue generated from the tax can be spent for criminal enforcement of illegal cultivation, early childhood intervention and prevention, youth development, substance abuse education and treatment for children and adults, rural infrastructure and programs and cannabis research and unrestricted general revenue purposes,”

according to a press release from the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.

The proposal for the ordinance was approved on July 24, 2018, according to a report provided by the Board of Supervisors. It was a proponent of Measure K, the marijuana tax. However, the idea has been in the works for longer.

“I don’t have a specific date to offer, but the concept of a committee had been discussed in Board of Supervisors’ deliberations prior to the Board’s approval to put Measure K (cannabis tax) on the June 2018 ballot,” said Beth Gabor, the Yolo County public information officer, via email.

According to the Yolo County website, the tax implemented by Measure K only affects unincorporated areas of the county, not the city of Davis. There is a 4% tax on cannabis and a 5% tax on commercial cannabis products.

The ordinance itself was composed of four actions. The first action was to allow cannabis cultivation for adult use. The second was to amend the Yolo County code to allow cultivation in unincorporated areas of the county. The third action was to establish the oversight committee, and the fourth was to develop a cannabis tax expenditure plan.

The ordinance regarding the creation of the oversight committee was voted in favor by all council members.

“The cannabis business tax ordinance requires the Board, by resolution, to establish a citizens oversight committee to act in an advisory role to the Board of Supervisors in reviewing the annual revenue and expenditure of funds from the tax, including an annual expenditure plan, CANNABIS COMMITEE on 11

Davis Community Meals and Housing hosts dinner Davis Odd Fellows offers community support FARA H FA RJ OOD / AG GIE

BY ST E LLA T RAN campus@theaggie.org Davis Community Meals and Housing will be hosting a dinner on May 5 to promote and raise funds for its programs. The annual fundraising dinner will take place at 5 p.m. at the Odd Fellows Hall on 415 Second Street.

William Pride, the executive director of Davis Community Meals and Housing, mentioned how the fundraiser will benefit its programs, directed at those who are low income or homeless.

“All the money raised from the dinner will support all our programs to low-income homeless individuals and families of Davis,” Pride said.

“We got a meals program, [with an] outreach, resource center and various housing programs — the money will support the costs of such programs.”

Lea Rosenberg, a member of the Davis Odd Fellows, noted that the group is supportive of community events. It dedicates a committee toward allowing the community to hold its events called the community support committee.

“We have a community support

committee, where we go through the applications that folks of their agencies would like to do a co-hosted event at the lodge, meaning that they get the lodge for their event at no charge,” Rosenberg said. “Obviously, there are other charges like the outside assistance and whatnot, otherwise they get the lodge for free.

We have a couple of standards that always apply.”

Rosenberg expressed how the Davis Odd Fellows support Davis Community Meals and Housing, among other community organizations, allowing it to host its dinner at the upper hall.

“Davis Community Meals is one, and we always let them have the upper hall at their chosen date, and they do their big events, which helps them because they don’t have the cost of renting a big building,” Rosenberg said. “They’re one of the agencies that we typically support every year.”

As Davis Community Meals and Housing is dedicated to serving the community, it aligns with the Davis Odd Fellows’ standards, which hope to give back to the community.

“We started as a nonprofit organization back in 1990, and served our first meal to homeless folks on

February of 1991,” Pride said.

In addition, the nonprofit noted that it especially has more programs to offer as it now has a foundation to provide housing.

According to Davis Community Meals and Housing’s event page for the dinner, the group is “excited that [their] long-awaited Creekside project broke ground in November 2018 and will be providing permanent supportive housing to 90 individuals and households by early 2020.

Modeled after our successful Cesar Chavez Plaza permanent supportive housing project, we anticipate providing safe, stable housing to many homeless individuals from the Davis community.”

The dinner will celebrate these goals, and Pride added that there will be more activities in addition to local chef Jeff Murphy’s preparation for a festive dinner.

“There will be some entertainment, a silent auction — we’re going to be serving Cinco-de-Mayothemed food and give a presentation by some of the presidents of the programs,” Pride said.

Rosenberg further praised how COMMUNITY MEALS on 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

4 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

STUDENTS RATE THEIR PROFESSORS ON SELF-SELECTIVE WEBSITE

LU IS LO P E Z / AG G I E

Through RateMyProfessors.com students can evaluate professors online

BY MARGO ROSENBAUM features@theaggie.org “Awesome, Good, Average, Poor, Awful” — all ratings available to assign to professors on a website students know well: RateMyProfessors. com.

Founded in May 1999, the website allows college students to rate professors and institutions from America, Canada and the United Kingdom, according to the website.

To use the site, one can search for either the university and then the specific department to

find a professor, or the name of the professor.

Individuals can then read reviews left by others or leave a rating themselves. Professors are rated on a scale of one to five, based on overall quality and difficulty. Students can also leave comments about what their opinions were of the professor and the class. Tags can also be added about common traits often seen in many professors.

“Most of the professors here at UC Davis are about three stars and above,” said first-year biochemistry and molecular biology major Katrina Matthews.

Students like Henna Kaur, a first-year undeclared student, said that recurring themes on

comments left for Davis professors include the amount of homework and reading, difficulty of tests, how the professor grades or how good of a lecturer the professor is.

Kaur said that like other students at UC Davis, she looks up professors on the website during the process of choosing her classes for the next quarter.

“I want to have a good professor and that will influence what classes I will chose,” Kaur said.

“So usually I will look at the ratings and see what people have to say about them.”

Matthews said that she uses the website to find classes with attractive workloads based on the reviews of other students, especially when she is trying to create a balanced schedule.

“I think it is a good tool just because it kind of gives you an idea of what the class is like before you go into the class for the whole quarter,” Matthews said. “Especially if you are taking a heavy load, especially for STEM majors, if you want to pick a GE, you want to pick one of the easier ones if you are taking multiple STEM classes at a time.”

Jaime Fisher, a professor in the German and cinema and digital media departments, said he used to check RateMyProfessors.com more often but does not anymore because he hasn’t received many ratings recently.

“My ratings are more or less positive, but not perfect, so I don’t worry about it,” Fisher said.

The negative reviews Fisher has found on the website about himself mostly has been about the class rather than his teaching.

“Usually the complaints are about the material, but of course we feel obligated to teach certain types of material,” Fisher said. “If there were more problematic things, I might check it more often.”

RateMyProfessors.com is not a perfect website. According to Fisher, the ratings do not give specific assessments or suggestions about the class

material, which would be most helpful to him and other professors.

“It’s much more general of whether the professor is effective or not,” Fisher said.

Also, who chooses to leave reviews is a self-selective process, making it difficult to get a more accurate representation of how all students feel about the class, according to Fisher.

“You may feel like you are more confident in the subject than everyone that is rating the subject, and they may give poor feedback to actually a professor that you would enjoy or a professor that you would understand based on their lecture style,” Matthews said.

According to Peter Wainwright, a professor in the department of evolution and ecology, receiving feedback about a class is best when it comes from a large student sample size.

“Without large samples from classes, it runs the risk of not being representative of student experiences,” Wainwright said. “So one major issue is that, at least in my case, only a very small fraction of students participate.”

As long as enough students write reviews, Wainwright said that he thinks the website can be fairly accurate in providing students with their peer’s impressions of professors.

“As long as you use it that way and there are enough responses, I think it should be an accurate reflection of student impressions and student evaluations of instructors,” Wainwright said.

Another drawback Wainwright has found is that students could use the website maliciously which could be complicated and awkward to back out of.

“I feel like some people go on there after they figure out that they are going to fail the class after the second midterm and then they put a really bad rating for the professor,” Matthews said. “But typically, I think it is pretty accurate in terms of R ATEMY P R OFESSOR on 1 1

LAWSUITS CONTINUE TO HALT DEVELOPMENT ON STUDENT HOUSING PROJECTS Environmental, traffic concerns to be resolved before construction on Lincoln40, Nishi begin

BY RENEE HOH city@theaggie.org Lawsuits against student housing projects — Lincoln40 Apartments and Nishi Student Apartments — are holding construction in limbo until the court’s ruling. Amid a housing shortage for UC Davis students, those opposed to the developments claim that due to environmental and health factors as well as cumulative traffic conditions, the locations are unfit for students and will negatively impact the city.

The lawsuits were filed under the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. Patrick Soluri, the attorney of the litigation, revealed that the petitions received support from local residents, but many were unwilling to be named in the lawsuit in fear of retribution. California licensed architect Susan Rainier is one of two individuals named in the Lincoln40 lawsuit and part of the unincorporated association named in the Nishi lawsuit.

“Those of us who oppose the Lincoln40 and Nishi projects are not opposed to more housing being built, especially student housing,” Rainier said. “We are opposed to the way it has been approved and, now, how it’s been done with the plan made by UCD and the city.”

Lincoln40 was approved over a year ago and was originally projected to be completed in fall of 2020 in order to service students looking for housing for the coming school year; however, construction will likely start this summer at the earliest, if settled in court. Alisha Hacker, a sec-

ond-year political science—public service major at UC Davis, articulated the urgent need for more housing to accommodate the growing student population.

“These lawsuits threaten new student housing projects that if built would elevate a large burden on Davis students who frequently struggle to find housing in the city,” Hacker said via email. “With 7% or about 2,300 students at UC Davis reporting being homeless for some period of time while at Davis, any additional housing would greatly benefit students and their ability to thrive while attending UC Davis.”

Environmentally, Rainier expressed concerns with the placing of Linoln40 in an existing high-occupancy area. She also noted how the Nishi project is surrounded by the I-80 freeway on one side and the Amtrak railroads on the other, noting the dangers of toxic particulates from the roads.

“The City of Davis leadership is incompetent,” Rainier said. “They have not conducted enough analysis of the cumulative effects of mega dorms on city systems and services, such as traffic, noise, circulation, waste water propensity and police.”

While statutorily exempt, the city conducted an Environmental Impact Report, which Judge Stephen Mock deemed sufficient at the hearing for the Lincoln40 project, according to The Davis Vanguard.

Paul Gradeff, the managing director of HighBridge Properties, first conceived the development in 2014, and the project was approved

JOR DA N CHOW/ AGGIE

by the city over a year ago. During the lawsuit, construction was ceased, leaving the property untouched while accumulating high costs.

“We have had exhaustive conversations with seven planning commissions, and the city performed an Environmental Impact Report,” Gradeff said. “Of course we’re very concerned about our impacts on the environment, so we have methodically gone through each piece that we have to to make sure we’re not causing any harm.”

The opposition argues that the EIR is not sufficient, specifically with regard to traffic conditions.

“One of the legal arguments has to do with the city’s refusal to adequately analyze cumulative traffic conditions and mitigate cumulative traffic

conditions,” Soluri said. “There is going to be a lot more cars on the road under cumulative conditions than estimated in the draft EIR.” According to Soluri, the sides are still waiting for results from the hearing on the merits regarding the Lincoln40 project, which happened earlier in April, and the Nishi project is expected to go to court in May. If allowed to continue, the Lincoln40 project will be built to provide student-oriented housing, allowing students to lease by the bed. Gradeff noted the development’s proposed affordable housing program for students, as well as amenities such as study areas, a pool area, game rooms and security.

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TWO PROFESSORS FROM UC DAVIS AWARDED GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS

Professors Ari Kelman and Elizabeth Miller two of 173 American and Canadian winners

Guggenheim JA MIE CHEN / AGGIE

BY ANJINI VENUGOPAL features@theaggie.org On April 10, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the 2019 recipients of the Guggenheim Fellowship. Of the 173 American and Canadian winners, two were from UC Davis: Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Academic Programs and history professor Ari Kelman and English professor Elizabeth Miller. The foundation receives around 3,000 applications annually and tends to pick around 175 recipients for the fellowship.

Both Kelman and Miller have received other fellowships, but the Guggenheim Fellowship stands out in multiple ways. They both mentioned the fact that the award can be given to artists or scholars from a number of different disciplines.

“The thing that makes the Guggenheim unusual is that it’s available to people from a variety of different fields, some academic, some not, as long as they’re engaged in creative activities,” Kelman said, who has also been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Huntington Library. “There are artists, [...] there are all different kinds of scholars,

novelists, etcetera so to be selected for something like this honestly feels surreal. I’m not quite sure how it happened, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. But at some point I imagine it’ll sink in, and I’ll probably feel really good.”

Miller added to Kelman’s sentiment, mentioning that Debbie Niemeier, a professor from the department of civil and environmental engineering, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2015. Miller also noted some differences between this and other fellowships she has received, which include the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, the Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowship, the Curran Fellowship and the Joseph R. Dunlap Memorial Fellowship.

“I think the thing that’s different about the Guggenheim compared to any other thing that’s happened to me in my career is that it’s such a known fellowship,” Miller said. “I’ve even had neighbors on my street who aren’t in academia congratulating me about it. People just have a sense of what it is, in a way that goes beyond the academy. So that’s been really cool and exciting, and definitely a new experience for me.”

About a month before the official announcement, Kelman and Miller were told that they were finalists. One day before the official announcement they were informed that they had received the award. Kelman was sitting in his office when he received the email while Miller was volunteering at her children’s school.

“I always make a point not to have my phone out when I’m volunteering there, but as soon as I’m done with my shift, I always check my email,” Miller said. “And that was when I found out. I just sat down on a bench in the playground and took it in for a minute before I went on with my day. It was quite a shock and a surprise, and obviously, I was really delighted.”

Both Kelman and Miller spoke to the amount of rejection that precedes an honor like this. For many academics, there are far more denials than

acceptances.

“I applied more than once,” Kelman said. “I fail at everything that I try and do many times before I succeed. And this was no different. I applied a total of two other times.”

Miller elaborated on how to handle the amount of rejection that comes with applications of this caliber.

“I’ve applied for lots and lots of things that haven’t worked out,” Miller said. “You just always have to assume that you’re not going to get it, but at the same time, put in the application.

And then when it does work out, it’s an amazingly wonderful surprise.”

Currently, Kelman is working on three books that will be supported by the award — “Liberty and Empire: How the Civil War Bled into the Indian Wars,” a book for the Oxford University Press’ Very Short Introductions series on Indian Wars from the colonial period through the end of the nineteenth century and a graphic history of the Northern Cheyenne people that he’s working on with two colleagues.

“One of the major projects that this is supporting is a revisionist history of the United States Civil War,” Kelman said. “[It focuses] on the experiences of indigenous nations, the ways in which federal soldiers during the era of the Civil War in part prompted by the United States Civil War, engaged in violent encounters, in practices of conquest and imperialism against indigenous nations or native nations, American Indians in the West.”

Miller will be using the award toward a book that she’s been working on for about five years on extractivism and mining in the Industrial Era. She is looking at literature, and using it as an archive to consider how ideas of the world changed alongside the industrialization of mining.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SYDNEE RODRIGUEZ / AGGIE

Quarter Abroad Australia: Immersing oneself in a foreign culture How studying abroad can be more than attaining credits in extravagant locations VINC EN T SA N C H E Z features@theaggie.org For many students, going to college is the biggest step they take when it comes to moving away from home and starting to build a life on their own. Traveling even farther distances may not be on everyone’s radar, but having the opportunity

to study abroad can be a great way for students to become integrated into a foreign culture and explore a new environment while still completing essential credits for their education. The Quarter Abroad Australia session, currently slated for Fall Quarter, is an option for students looking to find a rewarding experience both academically and in the workforce through internships.

ALLYSON KO / AGGIE

Underrepresented religious students balance school and their most sacred holidays Students discuss how they alter their celebrations to cater to the quarter system MIKI WAYN E features@theaggie.org Each year, students plan trips home and family vacations to coincide with religious holidays that fall during quarter breaks. Many, however, do not consider other students whose religious holidays fall on school days. Imagine having a midterm during Christmas. While it may be hard to picture, this is the reality for students from underrepresented religious groups.

First-year environmental science and management major Yonim Schweig is a Modern Orthodox Jew who has struggled with practicing his religion since coming to college. Having grown up attending Jewish day school, he has

been adjusting to the reality of having to balance school with religious practice.

“So far, several of the Jewish holidays have fallen during midterms or finals, so I have really had to advocate for myself to get them moved,” Schweig said. “Luckily, I have been able to, but you just can’t always count on that.”

Connecting with other religious students on campus has allowed Schweig to feel a stronger sense of community and understanding on campus.

“Living with five Muslim students in a multi-faith living community, I feel a level of

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

Houseboats on the horizon Will the culture of houseboats ultimately make it obsolete?

MIKI WAYN E features@theaggie.org Every Memorial Day weekend, hundreds of UC Davis students head to Lake Shasta for what they believe will be the weekend of a lifetime.

Groups of 15-20 students rent a houseboat, bring food and alcohol and spend the weekend on the lake. This has been a tradition amongst the UC Davis student body — specifically Greek life — for years; 2018 attendees, however, had quite a different experience.

Many 2018 attendees reported their boats being seized by police, getting into legal trouble or being mistreated by their chosen boat rental companies. Many of these attendees believe that this culture shift was due to what happened the weekend prior.

On May 19, 2018, a University of Oregon student tragically died while at Lake Shasta on a houseboat, leaving many uneasy about the choice to attend.

“The death of the Oregon student made police officers much more aware and strict,” thirdyear psychology major Alex Henderson said. “It was a good thing and made sense, but it also made it very different than previous years.”

Henderson’s boat, as well as many others were seized by either the police, or the perspective boat companies due to being over capacity.

In previous years, it was customary for attendees to overload boats in order to lessen the overall cost of the weekend and for police officers and boat companies to not take action against the attendees. Last year, however, boats were seized for being only one or two people over capacity, largely altering the once stress-free nature of the weekend.

“Instead of enjoying ourselves and letting loose, we were worrying the whole weekend about how many people were on our boat at a time, and kicking people off if there were too many,” Henderson said. “We ultimately ended up getting kicked off the island anyway.”

Dr. Carl Whithaus, the director of the University Writing Program and the current coordinator for the Quarter Abroad Australia session, spoke about the program and what students can expect from the experience.

“The program is really focused on professional writing and internships,” Whithaus said.

“Students will travel with me to Sydney and will be placed in a variety of professional organizations which are always related to their majors.

Students majoring in managerial economics can find an internship for an international bank, for example.”

Students can expect to complete roughly 20 hours of internship experience per week, and participate in three courses: writing with advanced composition, travel writing and a reflection on Australian culture and life.

As the coordinator for this upcoming session, Whithaus stressed the importance of not only academic and professional experience abroad, but also the great value in exploring a culture for the first time.

“I think of the program as having three main components to it,” Whithaus said. “There’s the global workplace experience and the classroom experience, but I also think being in Sydney and getting to visit an international city is incalculable. The exposure to Australian culture is as important as the other components; they all come together to create the synergy that is beneficial.”

The idea of teaching writing courses while immersed in a new culture is something that excites Whithaus due to the importance he places

solidarity surrounding observance, which I have really appreciated and have been able to learn a lot [from],” Schweig said.

Alumni Neil Singh practices Sikhism and has found it quite difficult to be apart from his family during significant holidays. Hailing from outside of California, Singh is rarely able to celebrate holidays with his family during the school year.

“I sacrificed a lot in terms of my family life and getting in touch with my roots throughout my entire time in college,” Singh said. “I think I would have been a much happier student had I had the opportunity to connect to my heritage.”

Regardless of the many obstacles Singh has faced while practicing his religion in college, he has found joy in sharing his heritage with other students. Holi, an ancient religious festival, fell during Winter Quarter finals week this year, so Singh took this opportunity to share his practice with friends. He celebrated the tradition of throwing pigmented powder and taught the meaning of the holiday. He was not only given the opportunity to celebrate this holiday, but he offered others the opportunity to take a break from studying and learn about another culture.

“The fact that everyone had so much fun and got a break from finals was great,” Singh said. “It showed me that there is a way I could be better about bringing these things to my friends, in order to feel like I have some sense of home.”

First-year undeclared major Danyal Ghori also acknowledge the challenge of being away from his family during holidays but believes it is even more rewarding to practice when it may not be convenient. As a Muslim, Ghori will be celebrating Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr — two significant Muslim holidays — in the upcoming months.

“The inability to be with my family during Ramadan and Eid will be a challenge, but it will also be a new experience,” Ghori said.

Ghori grew up in a predominantly Muslim country and therefore will be celebrating these

Third-year political science and economics double-major Callyn Kammermeier’s boat met the same fate. After being warned by Shasta police to kick the excess people off her boat, servel members of the boat attempted to get off, walk along the island and be picked up later on. They were unsuccessful.

“The police claimed they had been following us and photographing us” Kammermeier said. “I have never seen the photos personally, but knowing that makes me feel pretty uncomfortable.”

Those who had their boats confiscated also were concerned with the financial pressure of the situation. Between the cost of the boat, security deposit, food, drinks and other expenses, houseboats can cost anywhere from $400 to $1000.

This all became for nothing when boats were seized after the first or second day, leaving attendees with excess supplies and less than 24 hours with the boat itself. Additionally, if a boat was seized, the passengers were forced to pay their security deposit in full.

“It was raining the first day of houseboats, and our boat got seized on the second day, so we essentially only had the houseboats experience for a few hours,” Kammermeier said. “I essentially spent $400 for nothing.”

This also raised concern for third year computer science major Kayla Peters as she left her backpack containing her keys, phone and wallet on a different boat than her own on the first night.

“I couldn’t remember which boat I left my stuff on so I spent the whole weekend worrying that the boat with my keys on it had been seized and that I would have no way of getting my car home from Shasta,” Peters said.

The stress of houseboats 2018 is one that many students still recall.

“I am over it now but I was angry at the situation for a really long time,” Kammermeier said.

“Everyone looked forward to it all year, just to have it taken away from us in a moment.”

Around this time of year, students are usually gearing up for another year of Memorial Day weekend houseboating. This year, however, many are hesitant to commit, acknowledging the po-

on not only showing students a new environment, but also in generating a positive reception toward extending professional writing outside of the comfort zones of many students.

“I really think that having global experience that connects with various professions is immensely important,” Whithaus said. “As a writing teacher, you just can’t find that experience unless you go out and do it. It’s different from doing research or working with other colleagues.

The chance to work with students overseas is truly exciting.”

The intimidation that comes with studying abroad may hold students back from attending a program, but Whithaus hopes that students will find comfort knowing they have numerous resources to turn to during their stay that can help ease them into their foreign environment.

“The idea of taking part in a study abroad program is an intimidating and big step,” Whithaus said. “Coming to Davis from Los Angeles or San Diego is a step, but going to Australia, Hong Kong or London for an extended period of time is huge for students. One of the things our program does well is that we have a really good support structure. Sydney offers 24/7 support for the students to get in touch with individuals who can help them.”

Whether students choose to stay in an apartment with other Davis students or in a family house living with Australian natives, the sense of community is always present to help students

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holidays outside of a Muslim community for the first time this year. This, Ghori believes, will be an opportunity for self-reflection in regards to his religious practice.

“I value my religious community both at home and away because community is an important concept in Islam,” Ghori said. “Being away from home will encourage me to think about what these holidays and religion means to me.”

Ghori has found that the teachings of Islam have been central in his ability to maintain balance between religion and academic success.

“Islam as a religion is not supposed to be a burden on its people and encourages focus on all aspects of life, especially encouraging gaining knowledge,” Ghori said.

Both Schweig and Ghori believe it is the responsibility of professors to enable students to accomplish both their religious and academic goals.

Schweig believes it is important for professors to educate themselves on different religious practices in order to better understand the needs of their students.

“I think if all professors are really clear about what exactly Jewish observance entails, they will understand just how limiting having a test or project on the same day as a holiday might be,” Schweig says. “In Judaism there really is no flexibility or leeway.”

Similarly, Ghori believes that professors should be willing to accommodate the needs of religious students.

Singh, on the other hand, feels that it is students who have the power to establish change on a larger scale. He believes that through coming together, different religious organizations can alter the status quo by encouraging professors to be cognizant of their academic schedules.

“I think the student body needs to speak up about their needs,” Singh said. “If there were a way students could come together, they may be able to create accommodations for themselves.”

tential for a repeat of the previous year.

“In the past there was no question about whether or not i was going to attend houseboats,” Henderson said. “This year it has been a really hard decision.”

There has been talk amongst the student body about potentially sparking a new tradition and straying away from houseboats going forward.

While many are resistant to this change, the decision is ultimately dependent on the event’s of this year’s festivities, the responses from police and the strictness of the rental companies. Only attendees of houseboats 2019 will know if last year’s culture shift will remain permanent.

“I still want to go this year,” Peters said. “But I’m not sure houseboats, as we know it, will last much longer.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

6 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

Opinion THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TO R I AL B OAR D EMILY STACK Editor-in-Chief

Individuals can only do so much amid corporate environmental destruction Immediate action necessary to rectify blatant disregard for planet

OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Managing Editor KENTON GOLDSBY Campus News Editor KAELYN TUERMER-LEE City News Editor TARYN DEOILERS Opinion Editor OLIVIA LUCHINI Features Editor LIZ JACOBSON Arts & Culture Editor DOMINIC FARIA Sports Editor HARNOOR GILL Science & Tech Editor

SYDNEY ODMAN New Media Manager BRIAN LANDRY Photo Director TREVOR GOODMAN Video Production Manager OLIVIA KOTLAREK Design Director JONATHAN CHEN Layout Director HANNA BAUBLITZ Copy Chief CECILIA MORALES Copy Chief ZOË REINHARDT Website Manager HALI ZWEIGORDON Social Media Manager GRACE SIMMONS Newsletter Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

For many, Earth Day is an annual day of reflection on the health of our planet. But in 2019, each and every day demands a reflection on the precarious and escalating effects of climate change. With weather patterns transforming and global sea levels rising dramatically, one constant in our lives is the looming threat of the heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere.

Flooding due to melting ice caps, ocean acidification, intense heat waves and extinction of coral reefs and other ecosystems are just some of the major threats our and future generations face.

Smothered by the dangers of a warming world, we ponder, pace and fret, racking our brains for sustainable solutions. We keep a wary eye on the length of our showers, electricity use and car mileage, desperately trying to reduce our carbon footprint in our own small ways, which we should. Being conservative with our energy usage is a pertinent skill, and one that we will undeniably require in the future when our finite fossil fuel reserves have been depleted. In the 20th century, the scientific community came to a consensus about anthropogenic climate change. But institutional complacency and outright denial have exacerbated the problem such that we now require emergency grand-scale action to do damage control.

Our inability to shed our dependence on environmentally unsound practices is leading us toward ecological catastrophe. Instead of adopting renewable sources, giant fossil fuel companies –– such as Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP –– continue to burn predominantly coal, oil and natural gas to heat our homes and power our cars. Since 1900, 80% of to-

tal energy consumption has been derived from fossil fuels in the U.S., one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions.

The commodification of nonrenewable sources, which first skyrocketed during the Industrial Revolution, has driven major energy markets ever since.

Capitalism allows the exploitation of resources like fossil fuels, and industries have, time and time again, chosen profits over the health of the environment.

Despite the climate change data pooled by environmental scientists, fossil fuel industries have been able to enrich themselves despite a rapidly changing climate.

It is still important, of course, to turn off the tap water, cut the plastic use and be held accountable for our habits. We should refrain from being environmentally toxic at an individual level. Performing these small actions raises consciousness of climate change and perhaps alleviates one’s misplaced personal guilt. But individual consumers alone can’t make the radical changes needed to improve atmospheric and ecological conditions. To even attempt to halt the rate at which climate change is progressing, we need sweeping policy reform and large-scale collective transitions to renewable energy, such as San Francisco’s initiative to have all commercial buildings use 100% renewable energy by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2050.

We’re already past the point of irreversible climate change. The mitigation steps we take now will determine to what extent the earth as we know it can recover or survive.

“Our Planet” is the most entertaining and depressing show you’ll ever watch NETFLIX AND DAVID ATTENBOROUGH TEAM UP TO STRIKE THE PERFECT BALANCE BETWEEN ENTERTAINMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL ALARMISM

BY DA N I E L O R O P E ZA daoropeza@ucdavis.edu Free from the conservative shackles of BBC, David Attenborough, notable narrator of “Planet Earth,” takes nature documentaries where they haven’t been before with “Our Planet,” a new series on Netflix — and it works.

BBC is one of the biggest and oldest broadcasting corporations in the world. It has gained the nickname “Auntie,” short for “Auntie knows best,” due to its unwillingness to listen to criticism, advice or requests from anyone.

This stubbornness certainly transferred over to its Natural History Unit, the department that focuses on wildlife series.

The NHU, which brought us Planet Earth I, II and many other nature documentaries, has been criticized for its ambiguous stance on climate change. The debate reached its boiling point when BBC controversially brought in a climate change denier for a climate change interview under the guise of a “balanced” discussion.

It should therefore come as no surprise that BBC’s latest groundbreaking nature program, Planet Earth II, had its faults as well.

Despite its beautifully captivating quality, as its images of bobcats leaping through freezing-cold rivers are, Planet Earth II’s actionable activism for conservation falls short. BBC’s response to these criticisms has been to captivate viewers with its footage in hopes they take action. But its goal is too ambitious and shifts the whole burden of taking action onto the viewer, when the responsibility should be shared with the content creators as well.

So when David Attenborough got the call to make a nature documentary series from the independent entertainment giant Netflix, he jumped at the opportunity and held on tight, like a hungry lion clenching his precious prey.

But Attenborough had to be careful. “Every time the bell rings, every time that image [of a threatened animal] comes up, do you say, ‘Remember, they are in danger’? How often do you say this without becoming a real turnoff?” Attenborough said in November 2018.

How do you keep an audience entertained while simultaneously educating them about

the perils of climate change?

In the second episode of “Our Planet,” Attenborough takes us to the cold coastal waters of northeastern Russia. Walruses, after having their crustacean and sea cucumber feast, try to find ice sheets to rest on — but come up short.

In the absence of their usual resting habitat, the walruses scramble to their closest land, a rocky, narrow island. The largest gathering of walruses on the planet, over 100,000 of them, is forced to compromise and adapt to their current circumstances. Packed like sardines, the clumsy, two-ton mammals scramble over each other in search of space, killing smaller walruses and resulting in vicious encounters and deadly stampedes.

In the quest for peace and rest, some walruses make it through the crowded mob, only to find a steep rocky incline leading to a heavenly space to rest. The determined walruses use forelimbs designed for swimming to crawl up the steep slope and reach the promised land.

But as we all learn at some point in this cruel world, there is no heaven on earth.

After waking up from their lengthy slumbers, the walruses start regrouping and making

their way to water for another feast. And the lucky walruses up on the rocky cliff have no intentions of being left behind. But with their lack of agility and poor descending skills, the heavy and ungraceful walruses are stuck on an 80-meter rocky cliff. Hunger leads us animals to great lengths, some never meant to be reached.

With their poor eyesight, the naïve walruses’ desperation proves too great to ignore any longer, and the desire to regroup and aching hunger leads them to take a leap of faith. The walruses fall 80 feet to a rocky end. And as the camera zooms out, we see a pile of corpses, hundreds of walruses, pushed to limits beyond their natural capabilities in order to adapt to their changing environment. The foreshadowing of overpopulation issues and resemblance to climate refugees are hard not to see.

Throughout the series, Attenborough doesn’t shy away from telling us that we are responsible for these issues. But the alarmism is compensated with hope and optimism, showing how the amazing footage you’re watching

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Facebook says it’s a “*de facto* good” — (ha!)

FACEBOOK FUELS TERRORISM, LYNCHINGS, CONSPIRACIES UNDER GUISE OF CONNECTING PEOPLE

BY HA N A D I JO R DA N hajordan@ucdavis.edu “So we connect more people. That can be bad if they make it negative [...] Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good.”

This comes from a leaked company memo penned by Facebook’s vice president Andrew Bosworth in June of 2016 amidst mounting allegations regarding the platform’s gross mishandling of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The core message of the memo is that connecting people — Facebook’s self-proclaimed objective — outweighs the site’s contribution to violence on a global scale. As Bosworth later stated in the memo, “That isn’t something we are doing for ourselves. Or for our stock price (ha!). It is literally just what we do. We connect people. Period.”

The memo is patently intended to comfort employees while absolving Facebook of responsibility for its role in the 2016 election interference, which might be justified if Facebook were simply a platform, but it isn’t. While

Facebook does not commit violence directly, it feeds and encourages people’s basest emotional impulses regardless of whether those impulses are racist, violent or irrational. Based on the memo, Facebook only seems to care when it’s in damage control mode.

The algorithms employed by Facebook and other platforms like YouTube and Twitter filter what each person sees based on what will keep them on the site longer — most often the posts that make us linger on the site are those that rile us. When angry and hateful people go on Facebook, the search algorithm intended for Facebook’s growth will supply those people with fresh provocations, feeding and exacerbating their rage. But it’s not just anger; Facebook trades in the conspiratorial and irrational. As Mark Zuckerberg’s former mentor Roger McNamee said, go on Facebook and investigate vaccines, and in a year you’ll be protesting in the street over a mythical government conspiracy.

Facebook does more than connect people — it enrages people. The ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was incited, and made very successful, by Facebook. Rightwing terrorists have attained much of their ideological ammo from incendiary and false posts on Facebook. At least two dozen people have been murdered in mob lynchings in India

in 2018 — killings ignited by rumors spread on WhatsApp (a Facebook-owned messaging service). In Brazil, citizens avoided a government-mandated yellow-fever vaccine because messages on WhatsApp falsely claimed the vaccine was dangerous.

Facebook also sells its users’ data to third party sites like Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm that harvested data from 87 million users and Geofeedia, a social media monitoring company that attained special access to Facebook’s user data and sold it to police departments targeting Black Lives Matter protestors.

Connecting people is good; making the world “unified” is good. But when Facebook and other platforms purportedly “connect people” by hoarding them into an enraged echo chamber, by selling their data so law enforcement can target minorities, that is not connecting people — that is exploiting people for profit regardless of the consequences. Bosworth said that because Facebook supposedly connects people, it’s okay if there is a terrorist attack or if an innocent person is ripped apart by an angry mob. Following an admission of its role in terrorism with “we connect people” exposes the fallacy of Facebook’s proclaimed objective.

With a continuous stream of scandals and

apologies followed by more scandals, it’s painfully obvious that Facebook pritorizes growth over the safety of its users. For Facebook to say this is because it’s solely driven by connecting people is not only false but absurd. Facebook isn’t trying to grow by connecting people as much as possible because it’s ultimately a “de facto good” for society — if that were the case, it might strive more toward regulating the spread of false information.

Facebook grows by connecting people because it’s profitable — profit is why Russian hackers were able to pay $100,000 (at least) in ads to undermine American democracy. Profit is why Facebook has failed to make a genuine, concerted effort to regulate the spread of false

JORDAN on 11

information. Profit is why Facebook’s user data isn’t private, or safe.

JAMIE CHEN / AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 | 7

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HUMOR

Video games change the way we experience stories STORIES ARE TOLD BEST THROUGH THE INTERACTION AND EXPERIENCE THAT VIDEO GAMES CAN PROVIDE

BY C A LV I N COFF E E cscoffee@ucdavis.edu I love stories. Storytelling is one of the most fundamental aspects of what it means to be human. Our culture is defined by the stories we tell and what we learn from them.

The natural progression of storytelling has evolved from shared tales around a campfire to the movies we see on the silver screen. And the next step in how we will tell stories is already becoming clear: video games and their interactive narratives.

Video games have only been around in their modern form for about 30 years, and they are finally maturing into their optimal storytelling form. The interaction they provide may not be as relaxing as kicking back and watching a movie, but a lot of times I don’t want relaxing stories. I want stories that’ll make me never want to leave that world. I want stories that will keep me up all night because I just can’t get enough.

When I was first introduced to video games, they immediately captivated me. The idea that I could actually be one of the characters in a digital world seemed too good to be true. Whether I was just a frog trying to cross the street in “Frogger” or a clone trooper defending facilities on Kamino in “Star Wars: Battlefront II,” my ability to determine the player’s fate made video games captivating. I was the one who “died” or the one who “lost.”

The character on the screen was as much me as I was him or her.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but having agency over my experience made all the difference. I could finally understand all of the motivations of the characters in my control. I could understand the frustration of characters, the struggle it takes to beat a game and that final feeling of exhilaration once winning.

The game that opened my eyes to the full potential of storytelling was Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us.” I remember my time with “The Last of Us” well. The story of Joel and Ellie’s journey to end a zombie-like outbreak in the post-apocalyptic United States may not sound special, but it most definitely is. It’s a story I’m proud to say I’ve only experienced once — were I to go back and play it again, I fear I would ruin the distinctness of my memories. Still,

its impact has stuck with me nearly a decade later. It’s a dark, beautiful story that feels like a permanent part of me. Joel and Ellie’s tale is the baseline for me as I experience new stories across all mediums.

One moment that sticks out in my mind is the environmental storytelling I came across about halfway through the game, in the form of a boy’s journal. I found myself in tears as the boy told the story of the outbreak: the first signs of chaos, his school being cancelled, his parents arguing with each other. And ultimately, the boy was forced to drive out to the woods, remove the collar from his dog and let him go free because the wild was where he belonged.

Most people who played the game probably didn’t notice these random pages of a boy’s journal scattered across an ordinary house.

But I did. And that’s why that moment was so special to me. That’s why it brought me to tears. Those pages didn’t alter the main narrative of the game, but they were a reminder of what the world had become. Those pages reminded me of the deteriorated humanity in that world.

This elevated emotion and immersion is what makes games so powerful. The ability to make games feel like a personal story, like in these delicate moments about a boy and his dog, is why storytelling feels more visceral in games.

Video games give you the freedom to enjoy immersive and interactive stories and play them in the way that you want. You go from a passive observer to being actively involved at the epicenter of stories when you experience and interact with them.

The future of great storytelling is in video games. And it is only getting better. The industry just needs to do a better job of welcoming new gamers to enjoy this groundbreaking ways of experiencing stories.

UC Davis plant scientists invent deodorant for smelly white trees PRODUCT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL BEYOND BE-LEAF

BY MADE LINE KU MAGAI mskumagai@ucdavis.edu Ahhhh, Spring Quarter! It’s a wonderful time to get outside and witness nature at its finest. The bees are buzzing, the sun is shining and the frat boys are engaging in a game of beer die on their lawns.

And, of course, there’s them.

Those trees with the malodorous, white blossoms.

You know which ones I’m talking about.

You may be thinking, “Hey, aren’t you talking about the smelly cu—” Yes, I am.

That colloquialism, however, is not appropriate for a school publication, so you will have to make do with the euphemism I have chosen. If you have never had the distinct displeasure to cross paths with these odious, odiferous blooms, all you need to know is that they smell like moist mushrooms left to ripen in a middle schooler’s gym sock.

But fear not! The researchers in UC Davis’ top-ranked plant sciences program have found a solution to this putrid perfume.

Introducing the new Treeodorant, made in partnership with the brand Axe. If you’re walking to class and start to smell eau de sperme, grab your stick of Treeodorant and rub it on the trunk of the offending tree. The combination of chemicals was specifically designed by plant scientist Dr. Manny Flowers to mask the floral funk.

“It took a long period of testing and many

trials to finally perfect Treeodorant,” Dr. Flowers said. “We had to use high-concentration perfumes to mask that, erm, unique smell.

It was difficult coming to lab every day. You hate how the blooms smell? Imagine what it’s like sitting in a hot, cramped greenhouse filled with those lil’ white demons. But I made myself do it, for science, and for the good of allergy-ridden Aggies everywhere. The final formula is strong enough to mask the scent of a corpse plant!”

“We’ve also had unpaid suckers — I mean student researchers — test Treeodorant on campus. They all agreed that the product masked the plant B.O. perfectly,” Dr. Flowers continued.

Since the smelly white trees are dioecious, their flowers have both male and female reproductive organs. Treeodorant comes in two varieties, one for the male parts of the flower and one for the female parts. The female Treeodorant costs twice as much and comes in patronizingly pink, floral packaging. You can find Treeodorant anywhere that Aggie merchandise is sold!

CAITLYN SAMPLEY/ AGGIE

CAITLYN SAMPLEY/ AGGIE

BY R OSEY M O RE ART Y rosey@morearty.org

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie D ISC L A I M ER: Th e v iews a n d o p i ni o ns ex p re ss e d by i nd i vidu al colu mn ists be lon g to th e colu mn ists alon e and do no t necessari l y i ndi cate the vi ews and opi n i o n s h eld by The C al i fo rni a Ag g i e. P l e as e addre ss le tte r s to th e e ditor to opin ion @ th eaggi e.o rg.

ISSUE DESIGNED BY JONATHAN CHEN | PATTIE CHEN | CINDY CHEUNG | ADAN JUNAID | OLIVIA KOTLAREK | SHEREEN NIKZAD | YOON RHA | SYDNEE RODRIGUEZ | AMY YE

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8 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

SCIENCE+TECH A BI G A I L M A D D E N / CO URTESY

MEATING AND EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS UC Davis Meat Lab Team excels at collegiate California Association of Meat Processors’ Cured Meat Competition

BY M I C HEL L E WO N G science@theaggie.org Sweet and Spicy Meat Candy. Bourbon’s Revenge. Asian Invasion Jerky.

These are just a few of the jerky products that placed at the California Association of Meat Processors’ Cured Meat Competition. These same products allowed the UC Davis Meat Lab team to gain back possession of the Norm Eggin Championship Cup, a trophy awarded to the team with the highest sum of three individual scores. After losing the cup to Cal Poly by 10 points last year, the Meat Lab students struck back by winning first, second, fourth, fifth and eighth place.

While the category for this year’s competition was jerky, last year’s cured meat was one that UC Davis students were much more familiar with: bacon.

According to Jared Hickory, a student supervisor at the UC Davis Meat Lab, the students at the Meat Lab had never experimented with jerky since he had begun to work there in 2018. In order to prepare for the upcoming competition,

the students went through a continuous cycle of brainstorming, testing and perfecting each of their products from the beginning of December, when the category of the year was released, to the day of the competition in the end of February.

According to Caleb Sehnert, the Meat Lab manager, the recipe ideas are completely in the hands of the students aside from a few pointers and words of advice. He explained that the ideas range from building off of recipes from the students’ heritages to testing completely new ones.

“A lot of my decision was based upon what I thought others would be entering,” Hickory said.

“Most college students love spicy food, so I figured they’d be entering spicy jerkies. I decided to go the other route and go with a sweeter bourbon tone with black pepper to give it crisp mouthfeel and heat. I also generally try to take into account what the judges would enjoy and play to the eye of the beholder. A lot of them are professionals that make jerkies themselves and would be looking for something innovative and distinctive.”

Mario Valdez, a fourth-year animal science and management major and meat lab employee, who

placed in second with his pastrami jerky, explained that one difficult aspect of the preparation process was smoking the meat in the smokehouse. Sehnert attested to the dedication of the students, as he described how students would come early before class or late at night to take the jerkies out of the smokehouse to test.

Sehnert believes that this consistency from the students is what allowed them to excel in the competition this year. After talking to coaches from other schools, he learned that other students brought their jerky to dry at home rather than placing it in a smokehouse.

“I think the fact that our students were coming in here in the middle of the night and testing them out and pulling them out of the smokehouse and really working with consistent [use of the] smokehouse every single night and not doing it at home and part of it here, that’s why they did so well,” Sehnert said.

Having taken first place 10 times out of the 11 times they have competed, returning members of the UC Davis team were determined to win back the trophy.

“The atmosphere was intense,” Valdez said.

“We all wanted to win, but wanted to maintain a friendly relationship and have good sportsmanship. In social events prior to the competition, we set our rivalry aside and had a good time. On the awards night, little to no eye contact was made.

The only time it did was through the reflection of our gaze in the trophy.”

Valdez believes it was the union and lack of competition between the members within the UC Davis team that led to their success. He explained that everyone contributed to each other’s recipes and shared the collective goal of taking back the trophy regardless of individual placement.

“I think a lot of our success came from us pushing each other to succeed and put the best product out there that we could,” Hickory said.

According to Sehnert, the continued success of the UC Davis Meat Lab team places a target on their backs that motivates the students pushes the students to work hard and continue the legacy.

“I have to admit that we are anxious to compete next year,” Valdez said. “It was a fun experience and many friendships were made.”

M A RKU S KA E P P E L L I / AGGI E

ZACHA RY LACSON / AGG IE

THE CITY NATURE CHALLENGE COMES TO SACRAMENTO

AGGIE AIR PROMOTES A HEALTHIER CAMPUS

Competition encourages public to get outside and experience nature in cities

BY P ET E R SM I T H science@theaggie.org This weekend, residents from over 150 cities across the world will compete in the City Nature Challenge to determine who can find and record the most wildlife species. The Sacramento area will compete for the first time. Anyone in Davis, Sacramento or the surrounding counties can contribute by taking a picture of wildlife, from April 26 to 29, and uploading it to a smartphone app called iNaturalist. Whichever city documents the most nature wins. Organizers hope the event will push people to experience nature that is hiding in plain sight.

“The goal is to get people to notice that there is nature in cities and urban environments,” said Sarah Angulo, a community education specialist at the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, who helped organize the Sacramento portion of the challenge. “You don’t have to go far to find nature. It’s all around you in your backyard. It’s on the streets you walk on every day.”

To facilitate public involvement, the challenge will be executed entirely on smartphones.

All photographs of species captured for the challenge must be uploaded to iNaturalist, which uses computer vision to help identify what species were captured. “iNaturalist is an app that’s more of a social learning space than anything,” Angulo said. “You take a picture of something out in nature, or you upload sounds to this app, and you can have their amazing artificial intelligence identify it for you, or you can have experts and scientists from all over the world take a look at it and help you figure out what it is.”

In addition to assisting the public identify nature, the application allows researchers to use the collected data for research.

“The point of iNaturalist is to provide data for scientists about where organisms are, what they are doing and what times of year and times of day they are active,” said Laci Gerhart, a professor of Evolution and Ecology who helped organize the challenge in Sacramento.

Gerhart said data from the application has been used in scientific studies, and is often used informally by researchers to help guide projects.

According to Gerhart, the app is also being used by different organizations to track invasive and rare species.

“Some cities are tracking invasive organisms that they are trying to keep an eye on, or looking for things that are rare,” Gerhart said.

Since the advent of the smartphone, soliciting data about the natural world from the public has become a powerful tool for researchers. Two years ago in recognition of this powerful new way of doing science, the UC Davis School of Education established The Center for Community and Citizen Science which is supporting the Sacramento portion of the event. Ryan Meyer, the director of the center, hopes the event will have multiple benefits for the community.

“We know that when people get outside and engage with nature, there are all kinds of benefits that accrue from that; both in terms of their awareness of their environment, and the concern and care they might have for it,” Meyer said.

“Also there is a sense of connecting people to a place in a way that makes them feel proud of it.”

There will be an organized UC Davis Campus BioBlitz on April 28 where students can get together to start identifying organisms.

UC Davis Smoke and Tobacco Free Program launches Aggie Air across campus

BY FOXY RO B INS O N science@theaggie.org UC Davis celebrates its fifth anniversary as a smoke and tobacco-free campus with Aggie Air, an online campus engagement tool for the campus community to track litter and smoke and tobacco usage.

“A lot of us want to tell somebody our concerns about tobacco litter, e-cigarettes and environmental concerns,” said Elisa Tong, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Internal Medicine.

By tagging campus areas, students, staff, faculty, neighbors and visitors can take an active role in the campus environment.

It keeps the campus clean from smoke and vapor litter, reduces smoking behavior and provides supportive resources for members who use smoke and tobacco products.

The tool works similarly to TherMOOstat, an online tool for UC Davis students, faculty and staff to indicate their temperature preferences for buildings across campus to save energy and comfort.

“The tobacco industry is investing in social media influences,” Tong said. “It’s a new era of how the tobacco industry promotes their products and bypassing regulations. You hear ads. They market and promote to sell multiple e-cigarettes with flavors. It’s a new space for reinvention for them, but it may be just as harmful as traditional smoke and tobacco products, if not more.”

The American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment found among UC Davis undergraduates, 5.4% use smoke and tobacco products within 30 days while 0.7% use smoke and tobacco products every day.

“Students are excited to come to UC Davis because it’s a smoke and tobacco-free campus,” said Raeann Davis, a health promotion specialist at the UC Davis Student Health and Counseling Services. “It’s a deciding factor.”

Students who do use smoke and tobacco products face stigmatization, leaving them to search for ways to conceal their habits.

“Some students walk far off campus to smoke,” Davis said. “They try to hide their habits.”

The Smoke and Tobacco-Free Program aims to take a positive approach to students, offering quit kits, cessation classes and one-on-one support with student ambassadors and health specialists.

Every year, the program assesses litter across campus over a 48 hour period through Environmental Butt Scans, clearing an area on campus and returning to assess smoke and tobacco usage.

“One of the locations popular for smoking is the bridge near Tercero by the cows,” said Audrey Maskiewicz, a first-year biological sciences major and Spanish minor and student ambassador for the UC Davis Smoke and Tobacco Free Program.

“Every time I walk there, there’s someone smoking.”

Students can also participate in the campus cleanups, taking pride in their campus environment and the health of students by showing their support.

“When I did the environmental butt scans, I collected over 700 butts on a Tuesday morning,” Maskiewicz said. “When I returned there on Thursday, there was still about the same amount of butts.”

Aggie Air hopes to serve as a pilot program for other college campuses interested in implementing smoke and tobacco-free policies and engagement strategies.

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 | 9

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AGGIE CLASSIFIEDS Unitrans Hiring Now

JOBS ASUCD NOW HIRING Campus Center for the Environment Unit Director $108./11 per week Unitrans Transit Driver $14.25/hour Whole Earth Festival Unit Director $134.55/week Creative Media Graphic Designer $12.50/hour All postings and more at https://vacancy.ucdavis.edu/

Restaurant / Bar All Positions

The Davis Graduate is hiring for All Positions.

Apply in Person: The Davis Graduate 805 Russell Blvd Davis CA Email dannycee@davisgrad.com

We're trying to hire as many people as we can to train during summer to get ready. If you have students who need summer jobs and work next academic year, please let them know we're hiring!

Training starts at $12/hour and then goes to $14.25/hour when you get your license. Wage increases to $15.25/hour on January 1, 2020. We offer very flexible work hours, supervisory and management opportunities, and it’s FUN to drive the buses!

Apply at vacancy.ucdavis.edu or go to https://vacancy.ucdavis.edu/listings/3170/

Optician/Optometric Assistant, P/T & F/T Optometrist office in downtown Davis.

Must be available Monday through Saturday 8am-6pm. Now filling Part time and Full time positions. Duties include: - Optical dispensary - Patient reception/front desk - Optometric technician - Patient retention - Office coordinator - Accounts receivable / Billing If applying, be sure to INCLUDE A COVER LETTER explaining why you may be a good fit for our practice!

Saturdays are required.

WANT TO BE PART OF OUR TEAM? The Co-op is one of the friendliest places to work in Davis!

Previous experience in optical/eye care is not necessary, but very helpful.

Strong organizational skills, great interpersonal skills, desire to serve patients, attention to DETAIL, computer competency, and RELIABILITY are necessary.

Join our team! Applications available here:

Email djguerrieri@gmail.com Or call (530)758-4000

Davis Food Co-op is hiring!

https://davisfood.coop/sustainability/employment

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10 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

Creative Freedom: The Musical Ingenuity of Solo Artists The bigger the waves, the smaller the band

BY EMI LY STACK arts@theaggie.org

Television: “Derry Girls”

DAV I S W H A L E N / AGGI E

BY C L AY A L L EN R OG ERS arts@theaggie.org In 2009, a fourteen-yearold musician named Thebe Neruda Kgositsile (at the time known as “Sly Tendencies”) logged onto Myspace and received a message from a fan, Tyler Gregory Okonma aka Tyler, the Creator, who was interested in linking up to skate and make music. Not long after the Myspace days, Sly came to be known as Earl Sweatshirt and then joined the rap collective “Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All.” Despite the international fame of the rap unit, solo tracks from Earl and Tyler (as well as the other members Casey Veggies, Frank Ocean, Domo Genesis, Hodgy, etc.) began to gain more popularity than expected. This inevitably caused OFWGKTA to split up and thereby allowed Earl, Tyler and other members to flourish as solo artists.

Together, these artists created music. Apart, these artists are creating a movement.

OFWGKTA produced classic tracks to vibe to — some you may remember skating and rapping along to while wearing AUX cord headphones, “Yeah we’re swervin’ in the Jeep, while I’m rollin’ up the tree / Litter Life don’t give a f*ck, that’s why we f*ckin’ up the trees.”

Safe to say though, “Litter Life” is dead, and so are the homophobic references in Earl and Tyler’s music. Now, in their most recent albums, audiences can pick up themes of existential insecurities, sexual exploration and racial dilemmas of the 21st century.

In the case of OFWGKTA, the dichotomy between the lyrical integrity of the group versus solo artist is grand, which poses the question: what’s changed? The times, surely. But what causes the lone wolf to grow more

aware when it’s separated from its pack? Could it be that all solo artists have more space, time and creative freedom which ultimately allows them to create songs that not only tell a story but tell society’s story? Or is it that creative differences tend to arise more often when a group is formed?

Around the same time of OFWGKTA’s formation, a band called The Dee Dee Drums was in its infancy and circulating its way through the Australian pub scene in 2005. After a few more local sets, the frontman, Kevin Parker, began to write and record his own music, releasing it online under the name “Tame Impala.”

Parker’s lyrics, too, have made a distinct transition from his early music which told stories of unrequited love to his later albums which uphold deeper, existential themes that are akin to human concern. As his name grows in popularity and him in maturity, so does the quality of his music. That’s not to say that his, nor OFWGKTA’s, early music was totally superficial. However, as they grow more comfortable into their solo career, so too does the importance of the messages within their music.

The creative freedom the solo artist has in the creation of their music is undoubtedly a facet of their genius — no expectations to be met by other band members.

Only a service to the self is required. Admittedly, this is the story of a plethora of artists: Mac Demarco, Father John Misty, Beyoncé, Lauryn Hill, George Harrison and even Elvis Presley. The list is endless. And either these artists have once diverged from their larger group or have focused on their solo career from day one, which has allowed these artists to create the immortal jams we know

today.

Maybe an equation has been found for the reason why a number of bands have broken up over creative differences. Everybody has a story to tell. When too many creative minds gather in one place history shows there to be two outcomes: the creation of masterpieces or the division of masterminds (thinking specifically of Rage Against the Machine — a band that planned to change the world through their political message but couldn’t keep it together due to their differences).

Nevertheless, it was required of Rage Against the Machine to split up for frontman Zack de la Rocha to produce his solo album — a 20-song composition on which he speaks freely about his revolutionary politics, thus solidifying his name in rock ‘n’ roll history as a “revolutionary legend.”

Of course, Rage was considered one of the most politically charged bands in history long before Rocha’s solo album, but it was only in that album where he was able to speak to his ultimate purpose in “joining the millions worldwide who have stood up to oppose the Bush administration’s attempt to expand the U.S. empire.”

When an artist is left alone with their creativity, a story of their individuality begins to surface. But what are the chances of other individuals being alive and facing the same sort of story?

Kendrick Lamar, though he has no background of breaking from a group of musicians (being a solo rap legend and all), does well with relaying stories of his upbringing as an African American who grew up on the streets of Compton, Calif.

In his studio album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” the medley

of songs on the album create a powerful visual image of the mass incarceration rate of black Americans by way of his lyrics. He brought to life a visual aesthetic during his 2016 Grammy performance, as he and several other individuals took the stage burdened with shackles and chains, attempting to dance and perform to their fullest potential despite their metallic oppression. All of this was a statement specific to Kendrick’s own vision — his own story to tell but surely the story of others, too. 2.3 million others to be exact.

The solo artists’ story finds its way to the individual — multiple individuals — who can then relate to that story as a petrol to create their own; all of which results in a collective story, a social movement. Of course, a group of musicians can surely create stories that result in the same outcome, but the creative freedom that solo artists have is unprecedented.

And considering that musicians, artists, activists, etc. are all humans alike, it goes to show that these stories they tell are likely to be much similar to ours. Maybe this is the reason why we grasp onto these singular artists and build them up as idols and representatives of our deepest dispositions.

2019 is shaping up to be a big year for some of these solo artists, with talks of Kendrick Lamar releasing a new album, as well as Tame Impala, who goes on tour for the rest of the year, starting with Coachella. Plus, Mac Demarco is soon to drop his new album, “Here Comes the Cowboy,” which is confirmed to release in May, around the same time he will begin touring. This year is shaping up to be an important one for the solo-artist… more so for Earl Sweatshirt, not really for Elvis.

Earl Sweatshirt and Friends Rapper’s concert left audience feeling like one of the gang

WA I T I N G FO R P H OTO

BY LI Z JACOBSO N & ROSI E SC HWA R Z arts@theaggie.org Upon arriving to see Earl Sweatshirt in concert last Thursday, the energy and excitement manifested in the longest line we’ve ever seen for a concert at Ace of Spades.

The line was filled with edgy teens donning Odd Future and Golf Wang apparel, hipster 20-somethings in bucket hats and us, two UC Davis students just trying to chill in our Dickies and floral shirts.

Once we entered Ace of Spades for the “Thebe Kgositsile Presents: FIRE IT UP! A tour starring EARL SWEATSHIRT & FRIENDS” show, everyone crowded the stage, eager to see an act that wouldn’t go on for another hour still.

Just the energy from knowing that Earl and his friends were backstage was contagious.

We were surprised at how the audience’s time was respected. It easily could have been very Odd Future-esque, with the artists coming on late, yelling for a few minutes and then

dropping the mic. However, MIKE, one of said “friends” who would be performing, stepped onto stage right on time.

MIKE’s set was great and the whole audience was vibing to his lyrics and the beat. He was excited to be there, which made for a great opening act.

Even if the crowd didn’t know all of the words, his on-stage crew did.

The second opener, Liv.E, is one of our new favorite artists. When Dallas-native Liv.E walked on stage in a cowboy

hat with a pink toy gun and began to sing and rap, the audience was captivated. Regardless of familiarity, Liv.E had a sound that was easy to dance to. Giving off Erykah Badu vibes, Liv.E commanded the stage, swinging her hips to her songs.

Earl Sweatshirt, born Thebe Kgositsile, was originally known for being part of Tyler, the Creator’s Odd Future rap collective, but he has since created a crew of his own artists with a different, more soulful vibe. While there has never

If you’re not watching Netflix’s “Derry Girls,” you’re missing out on one the most screamingly hilarious shows in recent memory. It follows the shenanigans of Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle and Michelle’s English cousin James as they navigate teenage life in Northern Ireland in the 1990s. “Derry Girls” is undoubtedly a comedy, but the Troubles loom in the background, and the serious moments when the sectarian violence comes to the fore are handled deftly. The pure hilarity of the gang’s hijinks has broad appeal, though a certain off-color sense of humor is required to laugh at the group lying to a hot priest about a dog pissing on a statue of the Virgin Mary to get out of their final exams. “Derry Girls” is witty, thoughtful and worth a binge-watch.

Movie: “Fried Green Tomatoes” A wholesome, feel-good comfort movie if there ever was one. “Fried Green Tomatoes” narrates both the story of the Threadgoode family in 1920s Whistle Stop, Ala. and the impact of that story on Evelyn Couch, a dissatisfied housewife in Birmingham who hears the tale from Ninny Threadgoode, whom she meets while visiting a nursing home in the 1980s.

The protagonist of the Whistle Stop story is Ninny’s sister-inlaw Idgie, a feisty tomboy with a heart of gold. Though the movie isn’t as explicitly queer as the novel it’s based on (which you should read first!), it’s widely considered a lesbian classic, and it’s hard to deny that the relationship between high-spirited, fiercely loyal Idgie and sweet, strong, steadfast Ruth is a love story for the ages. Have tissues on hand.

book: “Bread” by Scott Shershow “Charming” is a word not often used to describe scholarly monographs, but that’s what “Bread” is. I was hooked by the book’s opening –– a passionate declaration of love for bread –– as I, too, am a worshipper of this crusty carbohydrate. “Bread” is readable poolside, which isn’t a knock on its scholarly rigor; rather, it’s to say that the clarity of the prose and of the argumentation make the book not only a fascinating read but a genuinely pleasurable one. Astute analyses of the political and economic significances of bread and its centrality to organizations of civilization and society are woven in with personal stories of sourdough starter misadventures and the intense sensual pleasures of kneading dough. It’s a wonderful read for object-oriented scholars, cultural historians or simply lovers of bread.

Album: “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen If you weren’t baptized into the Church of Springsteen as a child like I was, go dig “Born to Run” out of your dad’s attic and give it a listen. Springsteen’s ability to give voice to the tenderness and vulnerability among expressions of classic red-blooded American masculinity is unmatched. Is there a more perfect, more evocative image in English verse than “Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge / Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain”? “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” has nothing on that. Ideally “Born to Run” is listened to while roaring down an open stretch of highway in an old Chevy with a pretty girl by your side on a sultry summer night, but if you can’t manage that it’s just as enjoyable through headphones on the way to class.

been any question as to whether or not Earl is a serious artist, seeing his presence on stage and the talent of the artists he surrounds himself with affirmed his commitment to music and his unique sound.

After a short intermission, Earl casually walked on stage in a tour shirt and sweatpants.

Sipping his water, he took his time getting into his element and jamming to the opening of “Molasses.”

Both of us having been to multiple shows at Ace of Spades, this show commanded a unique presence that drew everyone to the stage as hands bumped up and down shouting “Aye.” Earl’s most recent album “Some Rap Songs” was full of experimental beats and sounds that might have been hard to perform. One example is “Riot!” which is completely instrumental. However, Earl added his own live touch, asking everyone to sing along. The audience then hummed the chords of “Riot!” together, just like we do when we’re listening on our own.

Earl performed an hour of straight music. Up on stage, he was in his element. Earl often had his back turned to the audience, not out of snobbery or shyness but simply so he could face his friends. It felt like we were in his living room just watching him dance and tell his story. Earl commanded the stage in a very different way than Liv.E, but he commanded it nonetheless. The stage became his space to share with his friends.

“Some Rap Songs” is a very cohesive album that can’t be easily broken up, and Earl performed it just like that.

To our surprise and delight, it translated well onto stage, sounding exactly like, if not better, than the album. With songs like “Grief ” and “Faucet” from 2015’s “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album

by Earl Sweatshirt,” the audience could hear his transition as an artist.

Another thing we noticed was the amount of phones out at the concert. While of course people have their phones out for an occasional picture or video, most of the audience was so tuned into the music that phones were at a minimum, which made for a refreshing change of pace.

Everyone was so respectful of each other; there was no pushing or aggression because our fellow Earl fans were so genuinely invested in the musical experience that it was all they cared about. Earl fostered this feeling because he, too, was just vibing to the music.

Occasionally during his breaks he would stop and say “What’s up, Sacramento?” but other than that it was mostly just the music.

Overall, we both left the concert feeling euphoric as we looked around and saw everyone soaking up the moment with a smile on their face and in no rush to leave.

It seemed that everyone there had been waiting to see Earl for years, and this was a moment that they wanted to cherish forever.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 | 11

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legislative process works,” Chakravarty said. “I went up to Jillian, and I asked her if she wanted to work on this project. I had an idea where I wanted it to be drawn, and charts and branches.

We created this video and it was our first animated video. And then this year, when I became Executive Producer, I thought there was a lot we could do for graphics. It’s good for explaining hypotheticals or breaking stuff down. So I made a call out for animators and we had an incredible turn out. We saw their skills, and it was fantastic they were so good.”

The Unitrans video, with over 20,000 views on Facebook, was Aggie Studio’s first dominantly animated video completed by the new animation team. It took an entire month and a half to complete. “[The Unitrans video] was a leap of faith,” Nguyen said. “When Shubah started the department, we didn’t know how to animate. So when the animators would have their meetings, it was like they had their own language.”

According to Chakravarty, there were five or six animators on the team who took a great lead in the creation of the video.

“They put together mood boards and style boards,” Chakravarty said, “Every single one was in the same style, they picked all the same colors.

I think that video was the pioneering force in the animationa realm for us. I also think it set the bar very high. If I could show the ideal process of how to make a video that was it. It was the only video where it came out exactly the way I pictured it.”

Not only did the aesthetics come out according to plan, but the purpose of the video, too, represented the true purpose of Aggie Studios.

“A lot of our videos are about clarifying a concept, telling a story, telling the student body they haven’t heard before” Chakravarty said.

“Unitrans is something almost everyone uses, but there is so much we don’t know about it. To

make a video that explains it in a few minutes, everyone’s knowledge goes up a little.”

For Wong, videos like this give back to the university as a whole.

“It represents who we are and what we do for the university,” Wong said. “Some videos have blown up based on viral content, but I think it represents us the most. We are here for you and this is what we do.”

Such vision has even reached national recognition. This year, Aggie Studios entered two of their videos in the American Advertising Federation awards for the first time, taking home multiple awards.

“I’m so proud of this,” Chakravarty said. “It’s a huge award. We started off in the local level, the greater Sacramento area, and in the student section. We submitted the Sunset Fest campaign and the ASUCD legislative process explanation video. The legislative one won Silver, and Sunset Fest swept and won Gold for Integrated Brand Identity Campaign, and we won Judges’ Choice and People’s Choice. Then we moved onto Regionals, and we won Silver in that, so now we’re going to Nationals. Nationals is the top tier of everyone in the country. The one that hit the most was Judges’ Choice and People’s Choice.

The judges were top industry professionals and people were all the people who attended the event.”

With an animation team solidified and awards under their belt, Aggie Studios will continue a trajectory of creating innovative quality videos concerning student life.

“I want to continue representing the student voice, making videos about what it’s like to be a student here and in Davis,” Chakravarty said.

“The dorms, the activities, where to eat. Our tagline is ‘Your Source for All Things Aggie,’ and I want to embody that to the max. I want to be a source for students by students.”

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-fore the table.

Senators Alexis Ramirez, Sean Kumar, Rebecca Gonzalez and Ricky Zapardiel voted no, along with Barak and Spignolio. Senators Tony Chen, Sahiba Kaur, Victoria Choi, Shondreya Landrum and Anna Estrada voted yes. The resolution failed six to five. Zapardiel clapped after

the resolution failed to pass and both Zapardiel and Ramirez left, without comment, shortly after the resolution failed, although the meeting had not yet been adjourned. Chen also left the meeting, citing the difficult emotions that the resolution evoked for him.

The meeting adjourned at 11:30 p.m.

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Genessis Garcia, a third-year economics and human development double major, rallied the crowd of students, explaining to onlookers why workers were striking and students were standing in solidarity.

“These workers support our community, they feed us, they take care of us,” Garcia said.

“AFSME 3299 workers are 85% women, immigrants and people of color, so this fight is not just about economic equality; it’s about racial and gender equality. These are the lowest paid workers on our campuses.”

According to strike organizers, black female workers are the lowest paid demographic of UC employees. Speakers repeatedly referenced the statistic that it takes six years on average for black women employed by the UC to achieve the starting salary of white men hired for the same positions.

While UC representatives have offered union

workers raises of 3% and raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour, without adequate coverage and benefits, union workers have rejected UC offers.

Even at a $15 an hour minimum wage, workers employed full time would still not earn enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual report. In California, workers earning the current minimum wage would have to work 93 hours a week to afford a modest, one-bedroom rental home.

Moreover, wage discrepancies between UC service workers and chancellors are growing increasingly disparate. As of 2017, UC Chancellor and President salaries ranged from $495,000 to $531,000 a year, according to a report published by the University of California. At $15 an hour, union workers employed full time would only earn $31,000 a year.

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and reviewing an annual accounting of the previous year’s expenditures,” according to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors’ report.

According to the Board of Supervisors’ public information office, there aren’t any qualifications in the application to send to the board, as long as applicants are familiar with Section 4 of the ordinance.

“There are no qualifications, per se, but the committee is expected to perform the duties articulated in Section 4 of the enabling legislation (ordinance),” Gabor said via email.

According to the report, each supervisor will appoint one member for the committee. The committee itself will then nominate two addi-

tional members for appointment. Each committee member will serve two years, and there will be no term limits.

The report states that board members should have been selected by December 2018. However, the application deadline was pushed to March, and eventually further extended to late April.

“The deadline was extended to ensure a robust pool of applicants,” Gabor said via email.

“The committee is expected to perform the duties articulated in Section 4 of the enabling legislation.”

Currently, none of the members for the board have been selected. Interested residents can apply on the Yolo County website.

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Davis Community Meals and Housing has hosted successful events, like many others that have partnered with the Davis Odd Fellows with its events at the lodge.

“Some have attended many of these events

— they’re very nicely organized, their publicity shows that it’s co-hosted by the Davis Odd Fellows,” Rosenberg said. “And they all do wonderful setup and decorations, it’s really a beautiful event.”

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-ibility or leeway.”

Similarly, Ghori believes that professors should be willing to accommodate the needs of religious students.

Singh, on the other hand, feels that it is students who have the power to establish change on a larger scale. He believes that through coming together, different religious organizations can al-

ter the status quo by encouraging professors to be cognizant of their academic schedules.

“I think the student body needs to speak up about their needs,” Singh said. “If there were a way students could come together, they may be able to create accommodations for themselves.”

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“This lawsuit is impacting the students directly,” Gradeff said. “It’s impacting no one else but the students. [Lincoln40] is going to be a great environment for students to live and study,

and recreate, socialize and have a wonderful community there. That’s so desperately needed in Davis.”

“There is not a lot of research about whether or not you could freeze earthworms for six months and have them survive, so that just takes a lot of outside research.”

Along with the MAPS team, there are various prestigious institutions participating in the challenge and many of these universities have various resources at their disposal. A clear example would be the number of faculty members that are participating. While the Davis team has one faculty member, other schools have up to five faculty members. And within some of the schools those members specialize in fields related to this challenge.

Along with the various resources at the disposal of some of these schools, their teams are also composed of graduate students and undergraduate students who are currently in their upper division coursework.

The Davis team, though, consists of one senior with the rest being first and second years, so many of them have not yet started their upper division coursework. Due to this, they have had to do a lot of structural analysis and research on their own to truly understand the concepts that they were applying to their design. As a result they have developed not only a real sense of pride representing UC Davis but an underdog mentality.

“I feel really cool representing UC Davis as kind of the underdogs,” said Lucas Brown, irrigation lead for MAPS and first-year aerospace science and engineering major. “These other groups are upper divisions students with a lot of advisors, and we are going in there [on the] same [level] as everyone else.”

Many of the other team members are also excited to compete against these schools, not only building their own reputation but helping build the reputation of UC Davis.

“It gives a name to how amazing Davis is and a name to the amazing resources that we have,” Chamberlin said.

The team members showed no concern about the opportunity of internships since they are still relatively young compared to those who usually receive internships from NASA. They believe they will have plenty of chances for future internships especially with their new-found experience.

The team will go and present its idea on April 23 and is keeping an open mind about the results that it may face at NASA. The members explained that even if they aren’t able to come home with a victory, they feel that they have already won. The knowledge, skills and recognition they have received for themselves and their university is irreplaceable, as they continue to compete and build on this experience.

“Even if we win or don’t win it was amazing that we made it to this point,” Chamberlin said.

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future ones will be — originally, the existing West Village owners acquired the property from UC Davis, developed the project themselves and were responsible for all marketing, leasing and other operations.

“With the new phase of West Village, it’s going to be considerably different,” Rockwell said.

“We have the developer building the property for us, we have a non-profit entity which will technically be the owner of the property, but marking, leasing and program operations will all be run by [UC Davis] Student Housing and Dining Services.”

He speculated that this will change several dynamics of the transfer student experience for the better.

“The upside to that approach is, now you have student housing and dining directly involved with these students lives, which we think is a good thing,” Rockwell said. “Especially for transfer students, who are going to be new to UC Davis and new to the city of Davis. It gives them a level of connection into their housing lives, whereas before they were just doing private housing.”

The developers predict that by Fall 2020, around 1,000 beds will be available for rent, with the rest opening up in the following Fall 2021.

Additionally, according to a press release announcing the start of the West Village project,

the university secured funding for the expansion through a bond sale — more specifically, a $575 million dollar sale that marks the largest-ever bond issue for an individual student housing project in the United States.

“The successful sale of tax-exempt bonds is an exciting milestone and represents a vote of confidence by the financial markets for this ambitious student housing project,” said Kelly Ratliff, the associate vice chancellor for finance, operations and administration, in the release.

More specifics were also included in the press release, including details about the design.

“The new complex will comprise nine four-story apartment buildings along with indoor and outdoor community space and recreational fields, occupying 34 acres,” the release read. “A 10,000-square-foot community building will house a fitness center, multipurpose room and student support services.”

Rockwell commented briefly regarding the status of Orchard Park, another housing development part of UC Davis’s Long Range Development Plan.

“Orchard park is going to be 1,500 beds, geared for single graduate students and students with families,” he said. “As of right now, we’re on track to get that one open in fall of 2022 or fall of 2023.”

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For the Guggenheim Fellowship, applicants must complete a career narrative. In it, Miller talked about the continuity of her two published books and the one she is working on. She described “the attempt to understand literature within a historical context, within an economic context” and the ways in which literature reflects and also changes political ideas.

“Even though I’m looking at the 19th century, the project is really also engaged with discussions around climate change today and trying to think about the origins of environmental crisis and how they can be traced back to the beginnings of a coal fired economy with the Industrial Era,” Miller said.

Last year, three faculty members from the

College of Letters and Science — Mika Pelo, associate professor in the department of music, Annabeth Rosen, Robert Arneson Endowed Chair in the department of art and art history, and Archana Venkatesan, associate professor in the department of religious studies and the department of comparative literature — were awarded with Guggenheim Fellowships.

There are now 39 Guggenheim Fellows from the college.

“I think it’s unusual for a single campus to have multiple recipients in two years running.

And I think it just speaks to the incredibly high quality of the work that’s being done on this campus,” Kelman said, “[...] and you know, this just feels like a pretty lucky thing.”

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their teaching style.”

For Fisher, he said that he spends more time looking at the actual class evaluations administered by the university at the end of each quarter because he finds them to give more useful feedback that is specific to his classes.

“We do those end of quarter surveys, which are pretty much the same thing just more formally,” Kaur said. “That would be a way to see what students really think.”

Overall, Fisher said that receiving any feedback about a professor’s teaching is important and valuable.

“Transparency about our teaching is good,” Fisher said. “I don’t know whether RateMyProfessors.com is the best vehicle for it. It’s probably a flawed vehicle because of the self-selection problem, but probably some vehicle is better than none.”

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has been possible because of conservation efforts. The end of every episode always segues to ways viewers can help, and directs them to the series’ website for actionable steps to conserve

the Martian atmosphere. Bader explained there are many key systems that need to withstand various conditions.

“It is about structural design making sure that the greenhouse has very high psi [pounds per square inch] levels, so that way it none of the materials would break or to ensure they won’t sheer from any storm on Mars,” Bader said.

Other constraints they had to take into consideration when building their model was weight.

If the project is too heavy, it would be too expensive to take to Mars. Radiation on the planet of Mars is harmful so the team had to think of ways to avoid radiation from affecting the greenhouse, such as their solution of implementing ice cell walls. They also needed to take into consideration what type of plants they would use for the greenhouse, since they had to ensure that the plants they suggested were capable of meeting the nutritional needs of the crew members who would travel to Mars.

Nonetheless, out of the various creative solutions that the team had, none were more interesting to NASA than the idea of the type of soil they were planning to use for the greenhouse and the idea of of bringing earthworms along on the trip to help with various functions such as the fertilization of plants. The team decided that for their design they would not be using soil from Earth but they would be using soil from Mars. This itself came with many questions such as how they would transform the Martian soil to a substance that is useful.

“NASA was really interested in that part [the soil] of the design and they wanted us to research it further,” said Journey Byland, soils lead for MAPS and second-year aerospace science and engineering major. “There are a lot of safety considerations having to do with soil. As long as we make sure it is safe and farmable, once it’s in the greenhouse there are a lot of opportunities.”

The team is very confident about their design for various reasons, including their technology efficiency levels (Technology Ratings Level, or TRL), and the methods that they used to create their greenhouse.

“We put together what works and what is proven to work over many years and because of that we are able to stay confident in our design,” said Jackson Liao, the structures lead for MAPS and second-year aerospace science and mechanical engineering major.

The team did acknowledge the unknown.

Though they are using methods that have been proven to work, there are still some components to their design that need more research in order to know if they are truly feasible.

“Although we do have things that have a high TRL, we have things that might not work, such as the earthworms in the soil,” Chamberlin said.

our planet.

And that’s “Our Planet,” striking the perfect balance between entertainment and environmental alarmism.

information. Profit is why Facebook’s user data isn’t private, or safe. Profit is why Bosworth wants his employees to feel that what they do is a “*de facto* good” in the face of all the evil that has been done. And when that profit comes not from selling a product or service that improves lives

but inspires anger, irrationality and injury, that’s exploitation.

With a market cap of $509 billion, employing some of the most highly educated and accomplished people in the world, does anyone believe Facebook is accidentally exploiting people?

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE OFFERS CALIFORNIA NATURE AS SPRING QUARTER EXTRACURRICULAR

BY ISABELLA BERISTAIN features@theaggie.org

TRE VO R G O O D M A N / AGGI E

Campus department offers trips in whitewater rafting, hiking and more

With Spring Quarter comes lots of sun and lots of fun in said sun. Everyone wants to get outside and enjoy all of the activities Davis has to offer. First-year economics major Edita Astaguana spoke about how excited she was to participate in outdoor activities during Spring Quarter.

“Coming from a place where it is always spring and always summer, this quarter makes it feel like I am at a home away from home because I am finally able to try out the outdoor activities I want to do,” Astaguna said.

With over 800 student organizations to join, however, it can be hard to find one where you will fit in and find what you want to do. Outdoor Adventures is a nonprofit organization that operates under the umbrella of the university, specifically under the department of the Memorial Union.

OA began at Davis in the ‘70s and has been here ever since.

“In the ‘70s there was a large push [and] a lot of interest for outdoor adventure sports,” said Beck Van Horsen, OA’s assistant director. “They were sort of birthed in the ‘70s, if you talk to any organization they just kind of started then. These students were just sort of interested in starting a program at UC Davis and then there was

this conference in Oregon and at the end of the meeting they came up with the OA program.”

OA provides students with the opportunity to get outside.

“OA is a program at the university that wants to get people outside on any adventure that we can pretty much think of,” Van Horsen said.

OA organizes day hikes, backpacking trips, camping trips, teaches students how to paddle-board, whitewater raft and even manages the climbing wall in the ARC. “All of our trips are designed for the beginner but are fun for people who have done it before,” Van Horsen said. “Our whole mission is to get people outside and have them do things they have never done before by giving them the necessary tools to do it, and take away the barriers that people perceive to going outside like price and equipment. I think often people are nervous that they will come out and not be accepted but this is a space where any type of person who is interested in this will be accepted.”

First-year computer science and engineering major Jiss Xavier is glad that this program exists and cannot wait for the opportunity to get outside.

“It would be a great opportunity to gain a feel for the outdoors found in California, considering I have lived abroad all my life,” Xavier said.

SHREM’S LAST THIRD THURSDAY OF THE QUARTER

Museum ends off with the theme Game On!

BY ITZELTH GAMBOA features@theaggie.org The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art hosted its final Third Thursday event of the school year on April 18 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. The theme was “Game On” and gave students the opportunity to play videogames with on-campus student organizations. The Game Development and Arts Club, Aggie Gaming, Davis Melee Club and Davis Anime Club were all involved. With Game Truck Sacramento, Shah’s Halal and a photoshop experience, the museum’s final Third Thursday was a fun goodbye.

Since the Manetti Shrem is relatively new, it has only hosted about 10 Third Thursday events.

Each Third Thursday is meant to connect the current exhibit to students, but this event was unfortunately pushed back on the calendar. “Game On!” was scheduled to premiere in November as a birthday party for Shrem. After shutting down the museum due to the Butte County Fire, however, the event was pushed back to April.

“So I decided we’ll take the same theme, bring it back in April and kind of use it as our closing event for Third Thursdays,” said Liz Quezada, the coordinator for student engagement at the Manetti Shrem. “This is the last Third Thursday of the school year. So I thought, let’s go out with a bang.”

The themes for the Third Thursday events are decided by a student coalition. General meetings are held every other Thursday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Shrem. Open positions are listed on the Shrem’s website.

“It’s really great to look at aspects of [Third Thursdays] and say and think to myself that’s happening because the student coalition is here and the students are wanting to be here and they’re wanting to engage with the museum,”

Quezada said.

Even if students are not in the organization and they have an idea for a Third Thursday event, Quezada is always open to suggestions.

“One of the main parts of the museum mission statement is that we’re here to be available for students, to have experiences here at the museum,” Quezada said. “So I’m trying to have that student involvement in several different ways.”

While the event’s theme was “Game On,” it was by no means exclusive to those that are video game experts. Student organizations were tabling outside in the courtyard while the movie “The Game Changers: Dreams of Blizzcon” played in the collections classroom.

“I totally didn’t think of video games as a profession,” Quezada said. “And [when] I first saw [“The Game Changers”], I was like, ‘Wow, that is a huge community.’ And I thought it would pair really well with the video game theme and you know, kind of eye opening in a sense as well.

Because what if you’re a student who’s studying and really enjoys gaming and doesn’t know that that can be an opportunity for you?”

Some organizations brought their own video games to the event so students could have a chance to not only get a look at what their organization does, but to take a little time off on their Thursday night to enjoy a few rounds of games.

“So many people think games are just coding,” said Sam Lee, a fourth-year computer science and engineering major and the President of the Game Development and Arts club. “It’s the exact opposite stigma. Because it’s a creative thing, it’s how people can express themselves.

[People] think games are only Pong or Pac Man or Assassin’s Creed. But they don’t realize there are all sorts like these tiny expressive games.”

With four clubs tabling outside and board games in the center, it may seem intimidating for

ZOË R EIN HA R DT / AGGIE

shy students to reach out to these communities.

But Jack Concordia, a third-year communication major and the president of Aggie Gaming, assures students that there is more to lose out on by not attending these events.

“Lots of us are introverted, I think that’s a pretty fair statement to say,” Concordia said.

“And as much as I can be outgoing, or as much as anyone else can be outgoing, we still have those moments of ‘Should I actually come up to talk to them? What if I look dumb?’ Everyone gets that. And it’s okay to feel that way. The way that I always look at those situations, though, is what do I lose out?”

A N DR EA GON ZA LEZ / AGG IE

SAYONARA SENIORS!

Graduating seniors express nostalgic feelings during their final quarter

BY MARGO ROSENBAUM features@theaggie.org College is often referred to as the “best four years of your life,” and they go by too soon. In a few short months our seniors will leave the comfort of our quirky campus and make their way into the “adult world,” but before they leave they have a few nostalgic moments they would like to share.

Fourth-year genetics and genomics major Cole Williams has lived in Davis since he was five. Williams explained why he chose to further his academic career in Davis.

“Both my parents graduated from UC Davis

[...] so it was kind of a no brainer,” Williams said.

“The city of Davis is a perfect college town and I didn’t want to leave. Everyone I knew who went to UC Davis had nothing bad to say about their experience, I didn’t think twice about attending.”

One of Williams’ favorite memories took place during his freshman year.

“It was pouring rain and my friend and I decided to swim in the Arboretum,” Williams said. “ It was actually really clean because it has been raining so much, kinda like swimming in a swimming pool.”

Over the past four years Williams explained how he has gained confidence both socially and academically. Williams elaborated about his time

working in various genetic labs and the lessons he learned.

“It sounds cliché, but the most important lesson I learned is to follow your passion,” Williams said. “When you’re passionate about something, it is easier to succeed and it feels better when you do succeed. My sophomore and junior year I was working in a lab doing work I was not passionate about and it showed. Now I work in a lab and am so passionate about my work; it has opened up so many opportunities for me.”

Following graduation, Williams plans to apply to Ph.D. programs in the fall. Williams spoke on his feelings toward leaving the college town bubble.

“I’m excited to graduate and start working,” Williams said. “[But] I am sad to leave Davis, I’ve been here almost my entire life and I feel so at home here. There is truly no place like Davis in the world, so I know wherever I go it will be a new experience, which is both exciting and scary at the same time.”

Osamu Yasui, a fourth-year biomedical engineering major, said that the only thing lacking with Third Thursdays is student involvement.

“I would like to see more students out here,” Yasui said.

The museum will once again host their Third Thursday events beginning in October.

“I didn’t realize at first that the Shrem Museum had offered such cool events,” Concordia said. “And I felt pretty happy that they reached out to us for a game event, because you know, we’re a gaming club. I thought was pretty cool.

And I’m excited to see whatever else the Shrem Museum has to offer.”

Williams offered some sincere advice to incoming freshman and returning students alike.

“Don’t do things just because you think they’ll look good on a resume,” Williams said.

“Do things that you truly want to do. If you don’t want to do research, don’t do it; if you don’t want to work in a clinic, don’t do it. People are impressed by passion — graduate schools, employers want passionate people, not robots with a laundry list of activities.”

Danielle McCabe, a fourth-year economics major, will be moving to Austin in the fall to work for technology company Box. Although excited for the future, McCabe disclosed her feelings of nostalgia as she begins her last quarter at Davis. McCabe explained how she has changed during her time in college.

“I’ve become so much more aware of myself and what I stand for,” McCabe said. “I was extremely impressionable freshman year and oftentimes I found myself [doing] things everyone else was going even when the situations that weren’t making me happy. As I have gotten older I have realized that I’m someone that likes to have a blast, go out with friends and be a goof, but I [also] sometimes just want a movie night by myself and that’s not something to be ashamed of.”

McCabe’s newfound independence and sense of self is one of the many lessons she learned at university.

“I think to sum it up, I have learned how to honor my feelings and passions,” McCabe said.

When prompted with the question, “What do you think the most underrated thing about Davis is?” McCabe gave a wholehearted answer.

“The people,” McCabe said. “There are amazing humans that walk the campus and I truly believe that this small cow town is full of some of the most kind-hearted, down to earth and driven people. Sure, we may not be nationally ranked for every sport or every academic program, but we have exceptional people and that’s what makes our school a truly hidden gem.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019 | 13

STUDY ABROAD SURVIVAL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

find comfort and support.

Daniella Giancarli, a third-year cinema and digital media major and participant of the Quarter Abroad Australia program last fall, spoke about her experience in the program and what she gained from it.

“I’d always wanted to go to Australia since I was a kid, and I also realized in my schooling that I wanted to be part of the writing minor, so the program was perfect for both of those things,” Giancarli said. “While I was there, I had two internships. One was with a digital magazine company and the other was with a freelance YouTuber. I would write and edit articles one week and switch to YouTube, helping with shooting videos and editing the content, the next.”

Giancarli described the first few weeks as having a steep learning curve as she tried to adjust to balancing work experience and writing courses.

“Putting your mind in that zone of work and then moving to think of school is so different,” Giancarli said. “When my work day would end, I just wanted to be done, but I had to find a balance and say, ‘Okay, I can’t be finished Wednesday because I need to do my homework so I’m not cramming the next day.’

Having that willpower and understanding that, yes, I’m here and I want to have fun, but I need to balance things out as I go along.”

Giancarli decided to live in an apartment complex offered through the program with other Davis students, and she described how being around her peers encouraged her to find new things to do and to explore a lot more.

“It was an eight-person apartment complex,” Giancarli said. “So you share a room with one other person, but you get your own bathroom.

Everything else is shared among the group. The living arrangement made you get out more. If I had a really comfortable space instead of what we had, I don’t think I would have met as many people or done as many things as I did.”

Coming to Davis was already a far journey for Giancarli, but she used her growing independence and naturally adventurous drive as fuel to fully embrace everything Sydney had to offer her.

“Since I’m a six-hour flight from home, I think that experience prepared me to be even farther away,” Giancarli said. “Learning how to be independent here helped me transition in Sydney because I was already on my own.

I didn’t know people in my program, so being alone like that, I had to trust myself even more.”

Giancarli’s stay proved to be a fruitful one as she was being offered jobs even after her internships concluded. She even looked into universities around Sydney, but eventually decided to return to Davis. She finds comfort knowing she already has doors open for her to pursue her career interests.

Cyprus Van Inwegen, a fourth-year communication major and previous Quarter Abroad Australia attendee, shared similar sentiments to Giancarli’s experience that the trip was well worth the time spent.

“I would definitely describe it as life-changing,” Inwegen said. “Not in a sappy way, but just in the sense that it’s such a cool experience.

My writing internship was the first time I ever conceived myself as a professional writer. You’re doing so much, but it’s all great things. You feel overwhelmed but in a good way.”

Inwegen described her time as one of the most hands-on experiences she’s had with her schooling, even citing how her friends now ask her for advice on how to write professional emails and letters.

Through previous traveling experience, Inwegen felt prepared to take on Sydney for an entire quarter, but still found herself dealing with bouts of culture shock.

“It wasn’t harrowing or anything, but just weird and very interesting,” Inwegen said. “Australia feels like another western country, except when it doesn’t. There is a large presence of Aboriginal culture, which has a huge effect on things. When I walked around in some parts, it was almost like traveling back to how I imagine things would have been in the 1950s. A huge part of the shock was from going from Davis to a huge city.”

Inwegen did her own research on navigating the city, using various terminology and exploring in an environment foreign to her.

For students who may have anxious feelings about traveling, Inwegen stressed the ease with which the Australian program introduced her to a taste of life in a new environment.

“For someone that hasn’t traveled before, to pick a foreign culture to totally integrate yourself into, I would say Australia is a very good choice,” Inwegen said. “There are still enough similarities in place that you don’t feel unable to function, but it still is different enough that it holds that wow factor and the excitement.”

Inwegen explained some of the fun leisure activities she and her friends participated in to break up the cycle of school and working.

“One of our favorite things to do was go to the beach and enjoy the nice weather,” Inwegen said. “I personally loved going on solo field trips on the train since the train can take you way into the mountains. For sightseeing, there was a lot of great bars and restaurants to go to. I loved hanging out in coffee shops and doing work there because those cafes are like none other.”

When these students reflect on their time studying abroad, they remember an engaging experience that combined work, academics and leisure in unexpected but exciting ways. As students prepare to take on Sydney in the fall for next school year, they can be assured they are signing up for a unique experience.

KEELAN DOSS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

Assuming he gets selected by an NFL team at some point during the seven rounds of the draft, which run from Thursday until Saturday afternoon, Doss will join Denver Broncos punter and 2017 graduate Colby Wadman as UC Davis alum on an active NFL roster. Despite what most people may think, Doss doesn’t believe that coming from a small school like UC Davis will hold him back from achieving his dreams and ascending to the top of his game.

“You kind of control your own destiny and how good you want to be,” Doss explained.

“You see a lot of guys come from smaller schools and even get drafted later or go undrafted, but they become the stars. Why is that? I think it’s just the work ethic. Everyone is talented in the NFL, no doubt about it. You can always be great, in my opinion, if you work hard.”

Doss is not devoid of self-confidence and embraces the opportunity in front of him, as well as the grueling physical and mental journeys that come along with it.

“My mindset is that I’m the best player on the field 24/7,” Doss admitted. “For me, it’s the

hard work and consistency that I pride myself in and it’s just something I always dreamed of as a kid. I don’t care if I’m coming from UC Davis or Alabama. At the end of the day, it’s just football and I think I can compete against the best of them.”

When the dust settles, there’s no doubting the legacy that Doss has left behind on this little town in Northern California. Besides departing as the all-time school leader in career receiving yards (4,069), catches (321) and 100-yard games (9), Doss put the football program back on the map and reinvigorated a sleeping giant.

Fresh off a first conference title at the Division I level and arguably the greatest season in this school’s history, it’s impossible to imagine that Doss could’ve left the Aggies in any better position for future success.

No matter how his NFL career pans out, Keelan Doss will surely remain the same humble, hard-working human being that he’s been his whole life. The positive memories he brought to both Aggie Stadium and this entire community will live on forever.

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

Storm Large & Le Bonheur FRI, MAY 3 | 8PM As her name portends, Storm Large is every bit the natural phenomenon. With her longtime band, Le Bonheur, Large leads a bold show that includes the Great American Songbook, Broadway standards, rock anthems and some of her own original songs.

Student tickets start at $12.50

Go Boldly!

William Shatner Live On Stage A Screening of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

SAT, MAY 11 | 7PM Set phasers to stun and beam yourself to the Mondavi Center for an unforgettable night with the one and only William Shatner, live on stage in conversation with our very own Chancellor Gary S. May. Enjoy a screening of the classic film Star Trek II: Thedavis Wrath of Khan on the Mondavi graduate Center’s big screen.

Student adtickets start at $37.50

FAQ #11

Q: Is the student discount limited to certain sections or seats?

A: No! The discount can be applied to any level of ticket price. (Subject to availability).

#mondavicenter

mondaviarts.org mondaviarts.org/students

BACKSTOP

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

14 | THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019

Q U I N N S P O O N E R / AGGI E

AGGIES HEAT UP IN APRIL Beach volleyball wins six of eight heading into conference championships

BY A J SE YM O UR sports@theaggie.org Though it may appear that the women’s beach volleyball team faced a unique challenge playing through the pandemonium of Picnic Day weekend, as one of the newest additions to the Aggie Athletics family, women’s beach volleyball made its mark on the UC Davis sports season with a 3-2 victory at its first official home opener.

The team’s first two games in early March were originally scheduled to be played at Sacramento State’s facilities, but extenuating circumstances forced the games to be moved to UC Davis.

Following the announcement of two new women’s division I sports teams — beach volleyball and equestrian — in April of 2018, UC

Davis began construction for the new volleyball team’s home courts late last year. The courts’ inaugural practice was held this past February, less than a month before the team’s first home match.

The courts themselves sit right off of Russell Boulevard on Howard Field, directly in front of the North Entry Parking Structure. They feature “amphitheater-style seating” for spectators.

“I thought the courts looked amazing and I think all of my teammates did too,” said freshman Nicole Andrade. “We were all really impressed with how it looked. I truly believe we have some of the best courts after traveling a lot this season.”

Fellow freshman teammate Rose Holscher also commented on the new court and how she thought it added to the first game’s experience.

JERE M Y DAN G / AGGIE

TIGER DEFIES THE ODDS, TAKES HOME GREEN JACKET

Tiger Woods secures fifth master’s win, now has second most all time

BY RYA N BUG SCH sports@theaggie.org In one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year, with tickets to the weekend of events selling for a minimum of $2,000, Tiger Woods captured his fifth Masters championship and 15th major win in his career. While many people contributed to the 15% rise in ticket prices from 2018, to fans wanting to observe the pure beauty of the Augusta National course, it was Woods’ return to the green that had fans flocking in the thousands to witness one of the most historic comebacks in sports history.

After an 11-year absence from the green, Woods faced multiple injuries that left doubts if he would ever play again. Several knee surgeries, a torn Achilles tendon and back fusion surgery had many believing that Woods would never win another major championship again. Even with an impressive practice run on the course a couple days before the event, shooting a 65 through the course (compared to the average around 75), there weren’t many sports outlets that predicted Woods would even finish in the top 10. However, the resilient golfer took to the green to prove to his family, to himself and to the world that he is still one of the greatest golfers in the game.

After the first round of play, Woods put up a score of 70, or two under par, hanging in with the other golfers as almost everyone in the tournament finished the round with scores ranging between 65 and 70.

It wasn’t until rounds two and three that Tiger started to up his game and show his top contender merit. Earning similar scores closer to his practice runs at Augusta, Woods shot 68 (two under par) and 67 (three under par) in rounds two and three respectively.

Going into the final round 11 under par, Tiger kept his stroke through the final day on Sunday and set himself up for a shot at the championship.

Beginning Sunday, Woods was tied for seond, two strokes behind the Italian national Francesco Molinari. It seemed as if Molinari had the championship secured, until he shot double-bogeys on hole 12 and 15, giving Tiger the chance to soar to the front of the pack.

Taking it down to the wire at the 18th hole, a roar of anticipatory cheers from the crowd gave Woods the confidence he needed on the green. With a par four on the final hole, Woods had a large enough lead to take five strokes to secure the win.

Wood’s took them all, shooting a bogey on the final hole. Woods’ final talley was 13 strokes under, one stroke ahead of the three second place finishers.

“When I tapped the putt in, I don’t know wat I did, but I know I screamed,” Woods told news outlets after the win. “To have my kids there, it’s come full circle. My dad was here in 1997 and now I’m the dad with two kids there. I couldn’t be more happy and more excited and at a loss [for] words, really.”

Walking away with his fifth masters title, Woods has the second most masters wins of all time, second to Jack Nicklaus (6). This victory also marked Woods’ 15th major win in his historic career. Taking home a little over $2 million in prize money along with his green jacket, there is no telling if this win was the one to cap off the career of one of the best golfers in history, or simply the beginning of a new era of Tiger dominance. It was one of the most storybook endings seen in sports, and Woods’ response after putting on the illustrious green jacket says it all.

“It fits,” he said.

“I thought our first ever home beach volleyball game was an amazing experience for our program and the school,” Holscher said. “It was awesome to have such nice weather and get to use our new courts which looked very professional. I think the atmosphere was inviting and welcoming for all our fans.”

Friday featured a morning to afternoon double-header against the University of Oregon, played in sunny but windy conditions. In the first contest, the duo consisting of senior Heather Reed and sophomore Savanah Schroeder won the third and deciding match for the Aggies, clutching their last two sets after losing the first and solidifying UC Davis’ first official home win by a score of 3-2.

After the high winds caused an injury during

the second game, the match had to be suspended.

Essentially, without an official bench or area to rest around the courts, teams would huddle under pop-up umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun during timeouts. In a sudden sequence of events, the winds rapidly picked up, tore an umbrella out of the ground during a timeout and hurdled it directly toward a live match. A UC Davis player was struck by the umbrella and taken to the hospital. The player was later said to be in good condition.

Despite the scare, the team was able to stay upbeat when the day was over, content with its well-earned first win. The Aggies had to claw their way back from an 0-2 deficit in the first match, winning the last three matches to secure the victory. The second game ended in a 2-2 tie after the suspension, but not before the pairs Andrade and sophomore Ally Reyes along with Reed and Schroeder won their respective matches, going undefeated for the day.

The Aggies are firing on all cylinders leading into the playoffs, winning their Saturday match against Pacific 3-2, and their Wednesday matches against Sierra College and Gavilan College. Having only lost once in April, things are coming together at the right time for UC Davis.

“After our big win against Oregon on Friday, we were all pretty thrilled and we took that energy and skill into our game on Saturday and our games on Wednesday,” Andrade said. “All of us continue to grow day by day as we work to improve ourselves and our team. All the games that occurred on Friday, Saturday and Wednesday are preparing us for our championships next weekend and, in my opinion, we are ready to take that on.”

Following the team’s final match of the week on Wednesday, April 17, the Aggies now enjoy a nine-day break before traveling to Zuma Beach in Malibu, Calif. for the Big West Conference Championship. The championship games will take place on April 26 through 27 and will be a double-elimination style play.

“Our coach has made a point to create a culture that is focused on growth so all of us went out on Friday with that intention and it paid off,” Andrade said. “I’m very proud of my teammates and how we have all performed in our past few games and [... I’m] very grateful to have such amazing coaches to help guide us and can’t wait to kick butt at the championships.”

JU STIN HA N / AGGIE

DOSS STAYS TRUE TO HIMSELF AS NFL DRAFT APPROACHES Former Aggie wide receiver is ready to make it on the biggest stage

BY B RE NDAN O G B U RN sports@theaggie.org It started off as just another early spring morning in Davis, with a steady mid-morning drizzle and overcast skies.

A nearly silent stadium of 10,000 empty seats looked on as close to a dozen young men underwent the ultimate job interview. The only audible sounds in the arena were the grunts of hard-working football players exerting their bodies to the maximum, in an effort to impress the scouts of over half the 32 franchises that make up the National Football League.

The backdrop was essentially the same as it’s always been for Keelan Doss. Without too many eyes on him, he is a man on a mission to prove himself to the world and unleash his special talents of running and catching a pigskin.

Doss was barely recruited coming out of Alameda High School and despite being a finalist for the Walter Payton Award following his junior season at UC Davis, he still flew under the radar nationally.

But it’s all coming together for Doss now. After leading the Aggies to a 10-3 record, falling two wins shy of reaching the FCS National Championship game, he was invited to play in the prestigious Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, surrounded by many of the top college football players in the nation.

Doss made a name for himself throughout that pressure-filled week in late January, raising the eyebrows of coaches and fans alike for his performances on the practice field. He topped it all off with an impressive showing in the Senior Bowl game, catching four balls for 55 yards and earning the admiration of Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, who showed his approval by slapping a pair of Raiders logo stickers on his helmet.

Doss initially bumped into Gruden on an elevator ride during the week, foreshadowing an unforgettable memory for a kid who grew up donning the silver and black.

“It was a surreal moment because I grew up watching him on TV,” Doss explained. “Just being in the same elevator talking to him was a cool moment.”

Doss looked to keep the positive momentum going at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis at the beginning of March. Unfortunately, an early pectoral injury during the 225-pound bench press limited him to just eight total reps and forced him to forgo all other drills at the event.

“The most frustrating thing about it was that it happened on my second rep of the bench press, so I wasn’t even able to do anything,” Doss said. “We got the MRI results and it wasn’t as bad as we anticipated.”

The injury also meant that Doss had to postpone his Pro Day at Aggie Stadium by three weeks. Heading into this private and much more subdued workout, he knew that he had a lot left to prove to the scouts who were still eager to get an up-close glimpse of his exceptional abilities.

“They’ve seen me run routes at the Senior Bowl and on tape during the season, but they really wanted to see my explosiveness and I was able to show that today,” Doss said.

After initially deciding to skip the forty-yard dash, Doss elected to run it at the last minute and ended up with a solid time of 4.45 seconds, which would’ve placed him in the top-15 amongst wide receivers who ran the drill at the NFL Scouting Combine.

He also participated in other typical drills such as the vertical leap and long jump, in addition to running routes all over the field.

At the end of the day, by moving the Pro Day back from its original mid-March date to the first week of

April, Doss allowed for greater publicity for the rest of the UC Davis seniors trying to make a name for themselves.

“For me personally, I wanted to move back the Pro Day a little bit just so we could get the most amount of scouts here, whether they’re here for me or want to see somebody else,” Doss said. “I wanted the most exposure possible for the program.”

Some of the other Aggie players who worked out for scouts included cornerbacks Vincent White and Isiah Olave, linebacker Mason Moe and running back Namane Modise.

“The guys that performed out there are great players,” Doss said. “I strongly believe a couple of them have a strong chance to play in the NFL.” Doss’s display of unselfishness on this specific occasion was just a small testament to the unbelievable character and attitude he’s shown over the past four years. Throughout this draft preparation process, NFL teams are starting to take notice of the excellent type of person and teammate they might be receiving if they take a chance on Doss.

“I feel like the one trait everybody should have is being a good person and treating others the way you want to be treated,” Doss explained to the media, following his Pro Day. “That’s kind of my motto and its always been like that.”

UC Davis head coach Dan Hawkins and other Aggies have constantly raved about this aspect of Doss’s identity, which manifested itself further when the consensus All-American decided to return to Davis for his senior season.

“I came back for the team and wanted to work on some things that I could improve on, but really just to help UC Davis out,” Doss said. “They believed in me at first so I wanted to give them my all.”

KEELAN DOSS on 14