December 7, 2017

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the California Aggie THEAGGIE.ORG

VOLUME 136, ISSUE 10 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

MEENA RUGH / AGGIE

uC creates Title IX student advisory board

UC seeks student input on sexual harassment policies

BY PRI YA N KA SHR E E DA R campus@theaggie.org

The UC Office of the President put out a press release on Nov. 14 announcing the creation of an “inaugural student advisory board” which will provide “input on UC sexual harassment and sexual violence issues.”

The board will be made up of nine undergraduate students and eight graduate students, one from each undergraduate UC campus. Board members will serve for 18-month terms beginning in January of 2018.

According to the press release from UCOP, the student board members will be expected to “serve as liaisons to students on their campuses and help advise the university’s system-wide Title IX office on its ongoing prevention and response efforts.”

Kathleen Salvaty, the systemwide Title IX Officer, stated her hopes for the input provided by the Student Advisory Board in UCOP’s press release.

“This board will play a crucial role by provid-

ing a much-needed student perspective,” Salvaty said. “I look forward to hearing students’ concerns and ideas, and leveraging their input so we can further improve university policies.”

Rebecca Nelson, the chair of the ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission, expressed her enthusiasm and support for the establishment of the Advisory Board.

“This was something that I was a huge proponent of,” Nelson said. “I think it’s really important, given that normally students don’t have access to that information or access to having [...] their own voice in regards to how hate crimes or hate violence are handled, or even sexual assault.”

According to Nelson, the majority of information about hate crimes and sexual harassment situations is limited to a few select individuals and is closed off from students.

“A lot of hate crimes and sexual violence reports are completely confidential and sealed from students for the most part, so the only people who see those are the director of Title IX and the directors of the Harassment and Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program,” Nelson

said.

Nelson also discussed the impact this systemwide change may have on UC Davis, potentially leading to increased transparency in university processes when dealing with situations regarding sexual harassment and assault.

“We have tried, and so has the Sexual Assault Advocacy Committee, [...] to ask for a task force that interacts with Title IX so students can get an idea of what’s happening on campus, [including] how frats are being held accountable,” Nelson said. “Title IX said no due to federal law and confidentiality. I don’t think that’s something that should bar students from being involved in issues that concern us and are being swept under the rug. I don’t think that administration has appropriately handled a lot of these cases and I think they keep the university’s public image in mind more, or [tend to] protect abusers more than hold them accountable.”

The application for the Title IX Student Advisory Board has been extended until Friday, Dec. 8. Applicants chosen for a seat on the board will be notified the first week of January.

ANH-TRAM BUI / AGGIE

Textiles and clothing major suspended by College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Major will not be offered in 2018-2019 school year

BY AL LY RUSSEL L campus@theaggie.org

UC Davis students arriving to campus in fall of 2018 will be met with one less major available to them. The university recently announced that the textiles and clothing major will be suspended for the 2018-2019 school year.

While classes will still be offered for the 44 students currently enrolled in the textiles and clothing major to finish their degrees, students will no longer be able to switch into or apply for this major.

Selina Rubio is a second-year textiles and clothing major and was disappointed to hear about the suspension.

“When I originally found out about the suspension last year, I was shocked,” Rubio said. “I personally disagree with the decision to suspend the major.”

Rubio asserted the importance of having this major available to current and future students.

“Although I do not have any clear idea why it was suspended in the first place, the fashion industry employs millions of people, so I know my major is relevant, important and valuable,” Rubio said.

Textiles and clothing chair You-Lo Hseih said she hoped to clear up any confusion regarding the suspension.

“The decision was made by our college administration and not based on quality nor needs of the academic programs,” Hseih said.

Hseih also asserted the relevance and importance of the major at a UC campus.

“California has the nation’s largest apparel industry and is leading the U.S. fiber, textile, apparel sectors into new apparel industry and is leading the U.S. fiber-related industry,” Hseih said.

you’re invited!

32ND ANNUAL

HOLIDAY MEAL december 24th, 2017

4:30—6:30pm, Veteran’s Memorial Center at 14th & B St A festive meal, offered COMPLETELY free of charge.

Join us for this wonderful Davis tradition!

Hseih also said she hoped to ensure current students, as well as creatively-driven individuals, about efforts being taken on the faculty’s part in response to the suspension.

“Our faculty has continued to seek creative ways to continue core curriculum by collaborating with other academic programs in our colleges and across campus,” Hseih said.

It is still unclear whether the suspension is temporary or will become permanent.

Sue Ebeler, an associate dean in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, revealed that plans to suspend the major have been in the works since 2009.

“A CA&ES Academic Prioritization Committee suggested disestablishing the Division of Textiles and Clothing and reorganizing the major,” Ebeler said.

Discussions of potentially reorganizing the major are underway.

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SHEREEN LEE / AGGIE

Social Services Commission meets to discuss West Davis Active Adult Community Planning committees address Davis housing crisis

BY AHASH FR ANCI S city@theaggie.org

On Nov. 20, the City of Davis’ Social Services Commission came together for its monthly meeting in the Community Chambers at City Hall. Among other issues, the commission discussed the proposed West Davis Active Adult Community and listened to a presentation from David Thompson, a co-principal of Neighborhood Partners, LLC, concerning the Affordable Housing component attached to the project. This meeting continues a series of discussions about the project carried out by concerned citizens, potential residents and community developers that began earlier this year. According to the proposal, 150 of the apartments built for the community will be dedicated to housing seniors who need affordable housing, both in and around Davis.

“We want to make these viable for those who are between 30 to 60 percent of the median annual income in Davis, so let us say $8,000 to $20,000-plus would be eligible,” said David Thompson, who is developing the affordable housing component. “Basically, 71 acres is a series of different forms of market-rate housing. But the remainder of the site, four acres, will be for sale to people 55 and above.”

According to Thompson, the waiting list for senior affordable housing on Eleanor Roosevelt Circle is over 200 applications long. The list grows to over 400 applications when all of the retirement communities in Davis are considered. The project would be built on the empty field situated between the Sutter Davis Hospital and the University Retirement Community on West Covell and Shasta boulevards.

The Social Services Commission still had several recommendations for the proposal, including ensuring that the seniors in the affordable housing area would be comfortably integrated with the rest of the Active Adult Community. The commission also advised creating a sliding scale fee for occupants to take part in the homeowners’ amenities provided to the rest of the community, such as the proposed community center.

“The housing issue is definitely an issue that our city council is paying a lot of attention to and is looking for appropriate ways to address it,” said Kelly Stachowicz, the assistant city manager. “The rent will be identified and collected separately, and that’s income-based. [...]

They [the Social Services Commission] don’t want to single out the residents of the affordable housing project — they want them to be as integrated as possible.”

Stachowicz noted that the proposal will continue to be modified as it makes its way up to the planning committee, which will give additional recommendations to the city council. The city council will review the proposal and recommendations and then vote on whether or not to place the proposal on a ballot. Because the community is proposed to be built outside of the Davis city limits, the ultimate decision comes from Davis residents, who will vote on whether or not the developers should undertake the project.

“This is a great location, and I don’t think we’re ever going to get another opportunity like this,” said realtor and developer Dave Taormino, who is devoting four acres of the entire 75- acre adult community to the affordable senior housing, in the Social Services Commission meeting. “Davis seniors […] and residents are facing problems with housing [...] This can help deal with some of those issues.”

According to Stachowicz, the proposal is scheduled to come before the Planning Commission in March or April of 2018. Thompson noted that the project, at its earliest, could be completed by 2022.

DAVIS FOOD CO-OP • 620 G ST OPEN DAILY 7AM—10PM

SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

2 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

BY C L A RA Z HAO campus@theaggie.org

On Nov. 16, the ASUCD Senate convened in the Mee Room of the Memorial Union for its weekly meeting.

Senators Matthew Yamaguchi, Khadeja Ibrahim and Marcos Rodriguez were absent. Environmental Policy and Planning Commission Chair Alice Beittel was also absent.

Darin Schleup, the director of dining services, gave a report on the CoHo. Schleup pointed out that September had been a “bit of a down month” for sales compared to last year, but they are expected to improve in December.

Schleup then listed a number of new items the CoHo had added recently, including a new breakfast-sized burrito at TxMx Grill, Tachos (cheesy tater tots) at TxMx and new, gourmet pizzas at Ciao.

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Schleup said that the CoHo anticipates at least an $85,000 price increase for January 2018 due to minimum wage increases.

The next part of the meeting was the Picnic Day quarterly report. Picnic Day Chair Grace Gaither, a third-year theater and dance major, informed the Senate that the Picnic Day team was fully hired.

The theme of this year’s Picnic Day will be “Where the Sun Shines,” and the team is aiming for zero waste.

During questioning, Gender and Sexuality Commission Chair Becca Nelson asked Gaither about the police involvement planned for Picnic Day. Gaither said her staff will work with Davis police and will be meeting with the police department in the near future.

The meeting then moved on to Disability Rights Advocacy Committee (DRAC) chair confirmations. Third-year computer science and statistics double

Police Logs:

major Andy Wu was recommended for the position.

Wu was described as an “active member of the community” and “has a proven record of work ethic.”

During questioning, Senator Gogineni asked Wu how he plans to increase areas for students with disabilities. Wu said that he wanted to create a space similar to the Shared Services Center for students with disabilities to come together.

Next, Tipsy Taxi delivered its quarterly report. A representative from Tipsy Taxi said that the unit is working with Unitrans to merge two units back together in an effort to receive more funding.

Additionally, it is working to get disability training in the training manual.

The meeting then moved onto the Judicial Council’s monthly report, followed by a public discussion and DREAM confirmations. Two candidates discussed

their previous experiences and a motion was made and seconded to confirm both to the DREAM Committee.

Time was then allocated for public announcements. Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission Chair Julienne Correa brought up the “It’s okay to be white” posters found on different areas of campus recently. The posters were immediately taken down. According to Correa, a resolution condemning the fliers will be written because the posters were written out of hate. Additionally, Correa plans to bring together people from different communities to help write the resolution and provide a safe space to talk about these issues.

KDVS and the Food Pantry seeking Senate support for their events and fundraisers was also brought up.

The Aggie Reuse store then delivered its quarterly report. According to the

presenters, the store has doubled its leadership team from last year and has over 1,900 likes on Facebook. It hosts free craft workshops twice a quarter. During the past quarter, the theme was Halloween. As of week six, it had made 33.9 percent of its yearly quota, and its goals for the future include increasing intern productivity, expanding intern roles and increasing intern skillsets.

The Senate then took a short break.

After the break, Senate Bill 16 was introduced, which sought to amend bylaw Section 616 by striking out the requirement of cutting the number of stipend positions within the budget by 12.5 percent while maintaining the 12.5 percent stipend increase.

The meeting concluded with ex-officio reports followed by elected officer reports. The meeting adjourned at 9:53 p.m.

COUNCIL TO HIRE POLICE OVERSIGHT CONSULTANT

City of Davis hikes up security JEREMY DANG / AGGIE

Something wicked this way comes Nov. 23 “Powerwashing from the shopping center — requested they be advised to start later.”

“Male subject inside store for past two hours, has been following customers as they leave.”

Nov. 24 “Group of teens playing near the fig trees and playground.”

“Sounds of female yelling.”

“Unknown subjects just broke open a whole unit of mailboxes and are now dragging it towards Wake Forest.”

Nov. 25 “Reporting party advised his wife was scammed out of $460 from someone offering to repair damage to her vehicle.”

“Open line — sounds like it’s in a pocket — no signs of distress.”

“Reporting party advised she received threatening text message from unknown subject at 0705 hours ‘you’re next.’”

Nov. 26 “Reporting party was moving items out of residence when threatened reporting party received text today saying he would set the apartment complex on fire.”

Nov. 28 “Dumped ATM machines behind business, negative surveillance.”

“Employee bought $10,000 in parts and paid with a check that bounced.”

BY PRACH ITA CH AW LA city@theaggie.org

The Davis City Council is set to hire police oversight consultants Barbara Attard and Kathryn Olson in order to finish implementing police oversight changes. The new city manager, Mike Webb, will be authorized to execute the contract. Both Attard and Olson have experience in the field of police oversight.

“Police oversight issues have been in the national, state and local news over the past few years,” said Assistant City Manager Kelly Stachowicz. “The city council discussed police oversight in Davis at a meeting in July. At that meeting, they passed a motion to develop a plan to look at police oversight in Davis. Last month, the council approved the hiring of a consultant team to work on

the effort over the next several months.”

According to a staff report and Mayor Robb Davis’ concept paper, the city manager’s office is set to appoint police oversight consultants to review the current system, historical documents and recommendations from the Human Relations Commission. In addition, they will be expected to participate in up to five public or sponsored forums as content experts for vulnerable groups who may not be willing to come to public forums. Davis-based facilitators could provide structure for community dialogue at the meeting, but the consultant would contribute accurate technical information input. Forums would be used to solicit community input on the goals, guiding principles and key desired processes for oversight. They would use their own experience, public input from forums, in-

put from the Davis Police Department and review of extant systems to recommend one to three options that would seem to fit in Davis given size, policing history and community needs.

“The ultimate end [goal] is to create a police accountability system that increases transparency, builds trust, and fosters policing practices and policies that create public safety for the entire community,” said Mayor Robb Davis in his concept paper. “This accountability must involve both the police as an agency and the behavior of individual officers.”

Attard has previously worked with UC Davis on recommendations for its police department. She is currently working with Accountability Associates, based in San Francisco. She previously served as the San Jose independent police auditor and has held police review positions both in Berkeley and San Francisco. Olson, who is a UC Davis alumna, held positions as the director of the Office of Police Accountability in Seattle and with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Seattle and Los Angeles. She has a long professional history working in the police oversight field, and is a practicing attorney in addition to being a current principal at Change Integration Consulting, which focuses on police accountability issues.

“This was a long time coming,” said Georgia Wills, a Davis resident since 2004.

“Since the last oversight official, things have gone downhill. We need someone experienced to make the situation better and fix what has been broken since [the previous official] left.”

The Davis Police Department did not respond to a request for comment.

FIRST GENERATION INITIATIVE PROJECT CONTINUES UC-WIDE MENTORSHIP EFFORT FOR FIRST-GENERATION STUDENTS

BY E LIZ AB E T H ME RCADO city@theaggie.org

JEREMY DANG / AGGIE

Leading and Breaking Barriers lecture series part of initiative

The Office of Undergraduate Education’s First Generation Initiative Project is associated with the Undergraduate Research Center’s Leading and Breaking Barriers series, which is being held at UC Davis through March of 2018. The series continues the UC-wide effort to reach out to first-generation students, who make up over 40 percent of all undergraduate students in the UC system.

The Leading and Breaking Barriers series began with a talk from Chancellor Gary May and his wife, LeShelle, sharing their backgrounds in STEM research and development. Young entrepreneurs Ridhi Tariyal and Stephen Gire, inventors of the “smart tampon,” spoke on Nov. 13 about their work in women’s reproductive health. In the coming months, Dr. Rebecca Calisi Rodríguez, Dr.

Talithia Williams and Dr. Oscar Dubón are scheduled to speak on their accomplishments in their respective STEM fields.

Lolita Adkins, the creator of the speaking series and a program manager in the Undergraduate Research Center, talked about the effect of the series on first-generation students at UC Davis.

“What I’ve found is a lot of students, especially first-generation students and students of color, [...] don’t see themselves as researchers,” Adkins said. “We thought it would be helpful if they saw people who look like them who have gone through research and done it and think, ‘Okay, maybe that is for me after all.’”

Students may recall some professors wearing T-shirts identifying themselves as first-generation students during the first week of Fall Quarter — this act, an introduction to the First Generation Initiative, oc-

curred across all 10 UC campuses. UC Davis introduced the initiative to faculty in April of 2017.

Carolyn Thomas, the vice provost and dean for Undergraduate Education, said she was pleased by the enthusiasm expressed to help first-generation students assimilate and excel in college life.

“Before we even knew it, we had 200 faculty in the system [...] — we have 400 faculty now,” Thomas said. “There was this huge outpouring of interest from our faculty to participate.”

Since its implementation at UC Davis, Thomas said the desire of staff to identify as first-generation and to serve as mentors for students was an effort to increase the amount of contacts available to first-generation students across majors and communities on campus.

FIRST GEN on 9

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017 | 3

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ju

rice

cereal

meat pea

s

bean

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soup evaporated milk

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

CHESS ANSWER Checkmate for this puzzle has several answers depending on opponent’s moves. Several options for mate in 3, and if your opponent blunders, there is a mate in 2.

Your first move is to get that Queen!

1. f8=Q! Your opponent’s king has options, but the inevitable awaits the King’s fate. if: ...Kc4 2.Qf2 Kc3 3.Qc2# or Qd4# ...Kc4 2.Qf2 Kd3 3.Qd4# ...Kc4 2.Qb4+ Kd3 3.Qb3# or Qd4# ...Kc3 2.Qb4+ Kd3 3.Qb3# or Qd4# ...Kc3 2.Qf2 Kc4 3.Qc2# or Qd4# ...Kc3 2.Qf2 Kd3 3.Qd4# mate in 2 ...Ke3 2.Qa3#

Sudoku Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain one of each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

ASUCD

ice

C I T Y O F DAV I S

UNITRANS

juice

4 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

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FORMER CHIEF OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHER PETE SOUZA SPEAKS AT MONDAVI CENTER Souza shares favorite photos, White House experiences during Mondavi Center Distinguished Speaker Series event

BY OLI V I A ROC KE MA N campus@theaggie.org

Pete Souza, the former chief official White House photographer, spoke in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center on Dec. 1. Souza was also the official White House photographer during the Reagan administration and is a freelance photographer in the Washington, D.C. area as well as a professor emeritus of visual communications at Ohio University.

The event was part of a speaking series in conjunction with Souza’s new book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait.” Prior to his presentation in Jackson Hall at 8 p.m., Souza offered a student-oriented moderated discussion where students and professors asked questions backstage in a more intimate setting.

Shelley Holt, a third-year transfer student and cognitive science major, attended the student-oriented discussion and said that she was interested in Souza’s role in documenting Obama’s presidency as compared to Reagan’s presidency.

“Obviously [Souza’s] enthusiasm for Obama is really high, so I’m curious to see how that progression went from the Reagan era to playing such a prominent role in Obama’s image,” Holt said.

At the backstage discussion, Souza shared his observations of former President Obama and his experiences as a behind-the-scenes White House

staff member.

“I knew [President Obama] for four years before he became president, when he was senator and I was working for the Chicago Tribune,” Souza said. “And I didn’t think he changed that much between when he was first senator and even throughout his presidency. The sort of core character of him stayed the same. The one thing that’s changed since he’s left is it’s as if [...] the weight of the world has been lifted off his shoulders — you forget how everything that was going on in the world and in the United States was on his shoulders when he was president.”

During his presentation in Jackson Hall, Souza shared some of the prominent photos from “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” which is currently No. 1 on the New York Times Hardcover Nonfiction bestsellers list. The photo slideshow was grouped into categories that included best and worst moments of the presidency, family photos, photos of Obama’s interactions with others and images of the final weeks of his presidency.

In his time as Obama’s White House photographer, Souza captured 1.9 million photos — sometimes up to 2,000 per day. Souza explained to the audience how he was able to capture so many intimate moments of the presidency.

“With President Obama, I asked to have access to everything he did,” Souza said. “I thought that

LOCAL NONPROFITS RECEIVE $13,500 IN SOCIAL ACTION GRANTS Congregation Bet Haverim announces 11 recipients of Social Action Fund Grants

N ICHOLAS CHA N / AGGIE

B RIA N L A N DRY / AG GIE

the only way to really document his presidency for history. I was trying, when I could, to also show the big picture of the presidency. From a photographic standpoint, you’re trying to capture candid moments, but you’re also trying to do scenes that are everyday. Sometimes those are little moments —

they’re not at big events, but they’re little moments that tell you a lot about him as a person.”

After Souza’s slideshow presentation, Scott Syphax, the executive producer, head writer and host

BY PRACH ITA CHAWLA city@theaggie.org

awarded each November. Current Biberstein Fund committee members are congregants Ernie Biberstein, Anne Gieseke, Amy Abramson, Sandy Jones, Joan Sublett and Shoshana Zatz.

“We go over all the proposals that we’ve received and identify the ones that seem to address the greatest need within the county and the ones that also seem to be using the funds that they’ve requested in the most efficient and innovative way,” Zatz said.

“We also make sure that the requesting organizations are nonprofit organizations. We go through each of the proposals and discuss their merits. Generally, we have between $12,000 and $15,000 to distribute.”

Organizations receiving 2017 grants are: Ark Preschool, Citizens Who Care for the Elderly, Mercer Veterinary Clinic for the Homeless, Woodland United Methodist Church’s Personal Care Pantry, Yolo Community Care Continuum, Suicide Prevention of Yolo County, Yolo Interfaith Immigration Network, NorCal Tryker, Meals on Wheels Yolo County, Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter and Make It Happen for Yolo County. A recognition gathering for the recipients will take place in the presence of the synagogue’s Religious School students in early 2018.

“We are very happy to make these awards,” Biberstein said. “We think they will make a meaningful difference to the organizations selected and to the Yolo County community. And it’s important to show our Religious School children the value of supporting the needs of their community.”

Yolo County nonprofit social services organizations that serve young children, the elderly, the homeless, the hungry and others in need will receive $13,500 in grants. Grants to 11 of these organizations are made possible by Congregation Bet Haverim’s Biberstein Social Action Fund and were announced in mid-November by Bet Haverim member Ernie Biberstein.

The Fund was established in 2002 by the Congregation Bet Haverim board of directors to honor Ernie and Hannah Biberstein, who were among the founding members of the synagogue and devoted much of their lives to community service and social justice in Davis and Yolo County.

“This is the 15th year for the awards program,” said communications specialist Joy Cohan. “It’s an annual program where the synagogue committee issues the call for proposals, reviews all of the proposals and recommends the grants, which are then ultimately approved by our board of directors [...] The whole impetus behind the beginning of the fund was really to honor the deep commitment that both Ernie and Hannah have [had] toward social issues in the community.”

Special consideration is given to new or innovative projects. It is approximately a four-month process, in which a call for proposals is released every fall. Grants range from $500 to $2,000 and are

SOUZA on 9

TUTORS FOR INMATES ORGANIZES “MENTAL HEALTH IMPACTS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT” EVENT Two ex-prisoners, California lawyer speak about solitary confinement

BY AARON L I SS campus@theaggie.org

On Nov. 29, Tutors for Inmates (TFI) at UC Davis along with the Department for Asian American Studies hosted an awareness event titled “Mental Health Impacts of Solitary Confinement.” Attorney Anne Weills described how solitary confinement within the Security Housing Unit runs contrary to the rehabilitative principles of criminal justice. Two former California prisoners who experienced SHU, Danny Murillo and Joshua Mason, spoke about life in prison, in SHU and the knowledge they gained.

Prior to the event, Anusha Sundar, the president of TFI and a third-year philosophy major, explained how TFI volunteers tutor inmates at California State Prison, Solano and Yolo County Juvenile Hall.

When asked about how the inmates react to the tutors, Sundar mentioned invisible contracts of trust that non-volunteer educators cannot form.

“A lot of programs exist through [...the] California Department of Correction or someone who’s paid in the prison,” Sundar said. ”One thing to keep in mind is, is there sufficient reason for the inmates to even trust in those individuals who provide those programs? One thing that’s special about us is that we’re volunteers — we don’t get paid. Once they’re aware that we’re going out of our way to care and invest in their future and education, that makes a pretty significant difference in our interaction.”

The Nov. 29 event focused on the negative mental health impacts of long-term solitary confinement in prison — the United Nations considers solitary confinement after 15 days a form of torture. The New York Times reported that there are over 75,000 United States prisoners secluded in solitary units. In the Pelican Bay State California prison, where guest speakers Murillo and Mason were housed, there are an estimated 1,123 prisoners in long-term solitary confinement.

A Fusion YouTube video and a Mother Jones

video were shown to the audience; both described the psychological damage of solitary confinement, marked by spending between 22 and 24 hours per day alone in a cell. The Fusion video stated that “sometimes, a bit of ceiling is uncovered, [and] this is the only time you’ll see the sky.” The Mother Jones video documented former Iranian prison detainee Shane Baurer’s visit to Pelican Bay; Bauer found Pelican Bay’s solitary confinement conditions worse than his Iranian prison.

Phone calls, letters and visits are withheld from inmates living in isolation. Debriefing, or snitching, is often the only way to escape solitary confinement.

Debriefing is questionable in its reliability as testimony and can result in violent retaliation from the accused.

According to Weills and a Stanford mental health study that was passed around, solitary confinement is categorically abusive and inhumane.

“There is no social contact [in SHU],” Weills said. “As human beings, we need social contact — people to hug us, touch us, kiss us. That is essential to our growth and humanity, and [some prisoners] were denied that for decades. The suicidal ideation, the depression, [...] anxiety, cognitive disabilities, confusion — [...] neuroscientists talk about how it shrinks the brain.”

Weills specifically addressed mass incarceration in California.

“The only way you can actually understand what our prisoners in California experience is dealing with them individually,” Weills said. “California has the worst prison system in the United States. We have more prisoners per capita in custody, and we have the largest security housing units in the country.”

According to Weills, conservative politics in the 1970s furthered mass incarceration through the war on drugs and increased legal severities, favoring punitive justice over restorative justice. Under conservatives like Ronald Reagan, “hundreds of thousands” of people were incarcerated for modest offences.

“[Some] European [countries] have a progressed, enlightened prison system,” Weills said. “They decided that in order to have a healthy society, they want to make [criminals] whole individuals again.

They bring all these resources — mental health care, [...] education, training [and] they involve their families. In the United States we have this very puritanical, harsh — I think Calvinistic — system, where you’re punished for life.”

Weills said inmates “cannot parole” when they are “in the SHU.” This means inmates can be in SHU for the duration of their prison sentence and cannot reduce it.

“Since 2011, I have been dealing with California’s prisons,” Weills said. “I have prisoners coming out of SHU through a settlement agreement in 2015 who are being denied parole because they were in the SHU and are gang validated. Many of these men refused to snitch, so they did 10 years [or] 20 years in this torturous situation, and now they’re out [of SHU but] they can’t get out of the system.”

The Fusion video explored the process of placing inmates in SHU. “Around the country, you can land in solitary for your art, your reading, your gender status, your sexuality, or your friends,” the video said. “Transgender prisoners are often put in solitary just for being trans. Very little evidence is needed to justify holding someone in solitary indefinitely. Solitary also enables abuse — in the privacy of solitary, guards beat and restrain prisoners.”

Danny Murillo, a former Pelican Bay prisoner, talked about his own experience in prison and in SHU. Murillo said he noticed how marginalized, under-performing high school students are not privileged with the same extra-curricular activities that higher-performing students are. Murillo talked about how he didn’t realize it at the time, but as a criminal he was “perpetuating microcapitalism within [his] society.”

“I wasn’t a very good student and I wasn’t allowed

FA RA H FA RJ OOD / AGG IE

Anne Weills on the baseball team,” Murillo said. “I had to find something else. I lived in a community involved in gangs, on a street where six or seven people were on probation or parole. It was already normalized, but not something I wanted to be part of it. By age 13, I was already initiated as a gang member. By 1995, I was busted for a bag of crack cocaine — I used to sell a lot of crack. I got out a few months after my friend was murdered. My first day out, I said, ‘Let’s go gangbang.’ March of 1996, I got arrested for two armed robberies, a carjacking and a kidnapping.”

After being sent to Pelican Bay, a maximum security prison in California, Murillo said he was greeted by guards telling him the only way to get out of SHU was “parole, snitch or die.”

Murillo told attendees that it didn’t take long for TUTORS on 9

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017 | 5

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MACL EA N HA RT FORD / AGG IE

UC Davis Coffee Center developing research, curriculum Interdisciplinary approach, global awareness could make UC Davis number one in coffee science

BY STE L L A SA P P I N GTO N features@theaggie.org

The average UC Davis student has likely had at least one experience of a peer trying to pressure them into taking ECM 1: The Design of Coffee. This course is iconic not only because it fulfills the Science and Engineering GE requirement for non-science students, but also because students get to drink their weight in coffee.

Grace McClintock, a current TA for the Design of Coffee course and first-year masters student in material science and engineering, explained what a student unfamiliar with the sciences may garner from the course.

“A lot of the people come into the coffee lab without a science background, and a lot of science is being able to communicate your ideas,” McClintock said. “[The students] work in groups of three, and they have to write their lab reports together, they have to do their final projects together, so they have to learn how to delegate different jobs, how to work together to clean up the space, to divvy up tasks dur-

ing the coffee lab because multiple things have to happen over the course of the class to finish on time.

So those are really important skills for science but they’re also important for life.”

The course is also outstanding to students because of the breadth of science and interest surrounding the study of coffee. Beginning students’ astonishment with the world of coffee may also be the result of a historical truth noted by chemical engineering professor and co-creator of the course William Ristenpart.

“Because coffee is not grown here, there was never any agricultural impetus or push for government supported research,” Ristenpart said. “And without that funding base through the USDA and other entities, there was just never any academic research, no academic professors, no curriculum, no classes. We saw this as a big need in the coffee industry, and the coffee industry has been extremely supportive.”

The support to which Ristenpart alludes has led to the birth of the UC Davis Coffee Center — the first of its kind and the future home to academic research and education which will speak to the geo-

KYLA RO UNDS / AGGI E

Environmental Justice comes into focus UC Davis on path to create environmental justice minor

BY MA RLYS JE A N E features@theaggie.org

The Civil Rights Movement was undoubtedly one of the most important movements of the 20th century. It was, however, more than a reclamation of ethnic identity and social power for minority groups, but also the catalyst of environmental rights awareness. Thus was born a

movement to fight environmental racism that today has developed into a concept widely known as environmental justice.

“Environmental justice is a set of social movements [and] policies, and it’s an academic field,” said Julie Sze, an American studies professor at UC Davis. “It’s a pretty broad umbrella term that means lots of different things; it has lots of different examples. I think the most classic one is that there’s racial disproportionality in environmental exposure, pollution exposure, but also unequal protection from the state from that pollution.”

When Sze was an undergraduate student at Berkeley in the 1990s, she was enrolled in a class called “Race, Poverty, and the Environment.” She learned how interconnected all of these topics could be, and today her research is largely centered around environmental justice. She has published multiple books on the subject.

In 1994, President Clinton issued an executive order stating that federal agencies had the responsibility to address environmental justice. With today’s media culture, environmental justice has become a relatively intuitive concept for much of the general public. With the prominence of events

J OR DA N C H OW / AG GI E

Video games provide opportunity for varied research Professors in different departments work to explore games from new angles

BY G ABRI EL M ULC A I R E features@theaggie.org

By their nature, video games mean different things to different people. To some, they’re simply toys; to others, they’re objects of technical interest, a means of showing advancements in computer graphics or computing power. But the possibilities of video games are much broader. Here at UC Davis, professors in several disciplines are exploring the potential interests of this technological art form.

Colin Milburn is a professor of English and cinema and digital media as well as science and technology studies. His research into the relationship between literature, science and technology has often involved video games.

“I’ve been studying games and gaming culture for about 12 years now,” Milburn said. “Recently, I’ve been looking at the role of games and gaming culture in shaping political attitudes, particularly around the politics of technology and the politics of science [...] everything from hacktivist groups like Anonymous or LulzSec, who may use video game technologies or software as part of some of their protest operations, to the role that video game imagery and motifs and memes have played in shaping political communities and online discourse.”

Milburn became deeply interested in the possibilities of video games when he realized the extent to which certain games were addressing the issue of na-

notechnology, another one of his research interests.

“I had been interested in games for most of my life, but I hadn’t actively pursued them as a research topic until that point,” Milburn said. “Then as I started looking into them I discovered that a tremendous number of commercial games were grappling with some of the social implications of nanotechnology. That was really my first research interest, and then I became convinced that games were a hugely important way of communicating technological and scientific issues [and] of engaging citizens in larger social questions and ethical debates.”

Milburn is also the director of the ModLab, an on-campus research group that focuses on the intersection of technoscience and society, and has studied and developed several video game projects.

“One of our major projects has been a Shakespeare-focused video game called Play the Knave which uses motion-capture cameras, Kinect cameras, to map players’ body movements onto avatars and asks people to put on performances of Shakespeare plays,” Milburn said. “It’s a way of getting people to engage with Shakespearean language and the conventions of theatrical performance, while also coming to address their own relationship to the computational interface by their engagement with the form of theater.”

GAMING on 11

graphical tendency to overlook the study of coffee.

Ristenpart draws parallels, or rather perpendiculars, between the study of wine and coffee on this campus and in the world.

“If you look at UC Davis we have a whole department for viticulture and enology,” Ristenpart said.

“There’s a whole department of food science and technology with a beer program that’s world famous.

If you look around campus there’s basically nobody focused on coffee.”

Although the Coffee Center is still in its devellike the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, many people seem to understand the presence of the environmental and social implications.

“It’s really easy to get these things on the radar, but it was also frustrating that while at the same time Flint was happening, we had [similar] water contaminant issues in California,” said Amanda Fencl, a fifth-year PhD candidate in geography. “[We’ve had] lead issues and arsenic and uranium and all these other water quality issues in our own backyard and we had celebrities sending bottles of water to Detroit but then nothing [to] Coachella Valley and the Central Valley, [which] have had these similar issues with similar people drinking bad water for years.”

Fencl’s current research strongly focuses on water quality issues in California, and she notes that there are whole branches of environmental justice scholars from all kinds of disciplines. Despite differences in field of study, Fencl recognized the importance of connecting people and the issues, which is why she established a graduate working group specifically for environmental justice. “[My friends and I] are working in different

opment stages, it is receiving a great deal of funding from Peet’s Coffee as a result of the interest of the Specialty Coffee Association. Ristenpart already understands the ways in which research and curriculum will intersect with its ultimate mission — to be the leading site for coffee science in the world.

“What I envision in the long-term is a whole curriculum based on coffee,” Ristenpart said. “If you scroll through the online course catalog, you’ll see in COFFEE LAB on 9

fields but we all have this common interest and passion for environmental justice work, so three of us made an email list [...] sent a Google form out to all the different graduate groups to ask questions like ‘do you think about environmental justice?’ and ‘are you interested?’ and ‘does it relate to your work?’” Fencl said. “We got maybe 60 plus graduate students to join this email list, so if there’s funding opportunities or research or meetings, we will use that as a resource. We’re trying to figure out that now that we have this coalition of graduate students that care and work on these issues, what’s next?”

UC Davis graduate students aren’t the only ones with environmental justice on their minds.

In 2015, a group of undergraduate students approached the faculty connected with the Environmental Science and Policy Department in order to get more course content in environmental justice for the majors. “[As] we started to talk to people as well as the students who were concerned, it became very clear that the issue is much greater than us as the department,” said Marcel Holyoak, the department EJ on 12

6 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion editorial board

the California Aggie EDITORIAL BOARD BRYAN SYKES Editor-in-Chief EMILY STACK Managing Editor HANNAH HOLZER Campus News Editor

Kill the (House) bill Not too late to protest graduate waiver as taxable income

KAELYN TUERMER-LEE City News Editor TARYN DEOILERS Opinion Editor GILLIAN ALLEN Features Editor ALLY OVERBAY Arts & Culture Editor VERONICA VARGO Sports Editor HARNOOR GILL Science & Tech Editor

CHIARA ALVES New Media Manager BRIAN LANDRY Photo Director CHRISTIE NEO Design Director AMY YE Layout Director MAXINE MULVEY Copy Chief OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Copy Chief JAYASHRI PADMANABHAN Website Manager ALEX GUZMÁN Social Media Mangager CARAJOY KLEINROCK Newsletter Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

The 440-page document passed by the House is one of two GOP tax bills passed in recent weeks. While the Senate has also passed a version of a tax bill, its contents are not as great a threat to the future of American education.

The proposed House bill includes a tax that would apply to graduate students who receive tuition waivers for teaching or conducting research. Under the bill, students would be responsible for paying the taxes on tuition wavers they receive.

This means the graduate student teaching your physics or English class or leading your chemistry discussion will have to pay taxes on money they haven’t even seen.

The Senate bill makes no mention of the graduate student waivers; however, the bill still has major flaws. The bill passed by the Senate, by a margin of 51-49 along party lines, includes an excise tax of 1.4 percent on 25 to 30 private colleges with large endowments.

Both bills are a disappointment to the Editorial Board: the House bill for it atrocious contents and Senate bill for the means by which it was passed.

With only two weeks to review the Senate bill, the vote occurred with day-of amendments in the margins and dreadful clauses remaining in its bounds. The future of American families rests in the hands of the Senate that treated it like a procrastinated paper due at midnight.

As both tax bills shuffle through Congress, a final bill in which the House and the Senate work together to reconcile their differences will be presented to President Donald Trump in the near future lest the government shuts down.

The Editorial Board is displeased with the House including the graduate student waivers as taxable income. Many graduate students on the UC Davis campus teach lower division classes and receive this waiver. The dozens who marched in the UC Davis’ Grad Tax Walkout are only a small sliver of Teaching Assistants and Associates who work on the campus and the thousands across the country.

The fight to remove the graduate tax from the House bill is not yet over. Students, faculty and community members have other means of making their voices heard. By calling their local representative, the nearly 40,000 students attending UC Davis can make their pleas resonate beyond their individual representative and into the White House.

The Editorial Board hopes that the members of Congress will not just flip the pages of a dense $1.4 trillion tax plan, but closely scrutinize the bill keeping lower and middle income households which make up 80 percent of American households, in mind. A majority of the households in America will be critically affected by the passing of this legislation, whether it be the House or the Senate version of the bill.

It is time for our representatives to think about the people they represent before killing the future of higher education and maiming public education as a whole. The Editorial Board urges all to join this fight by calling representatives in an attempt to not leave our fellow graduate students — and graduate students across America — in unrecoverable debt and maintain their much-needed active presence on campus.

The political evolution of a white guy I ALMOST TOOK THE PATH TO TRUMP. HERE’S HOW — AND WHAT — STOPPED ME JAMIE CHEN / AGGIE

BY NICK IRVIN ntirvin@ucdavis.edu I almost voted for Donald Trump.

Not in the physical, cast-your-ballot sense. I proudly cast my real vote for Hillary Clinton on that fateful November day last year.

Following her election loss, I was angry at my neighbors for voting Trump into office. I was angry with overhyped email scandals and character defamations. I hated how the Trump camp offered a conciliatory hand to Clinton supporters and pulled it back once the confetti had settled.

It was obvious how, instead of bringing the country together, Donald Trump was accelerating its divide.

But my anger did not go away after the election shock had worn off. It changed forms instead. I began feeling besieged by what pundits think is mandatory for understanding Trump’s victory — scrutinizing disaffected white people.

Trump rode the waves of angry white voters. I somehow felt im-

plicated, even though I’d voted for Clinton.

My anger morphed into the dubious haze of white, masculine grievance — the mindset that analysts generally ascribe to the huge section of flyover America that pushed Trump to the presidency. I am white, and I felt blamed.

In the weeks following the election, I began searching for answers about being white and male in America. I don’t fully know why I couldn’t extinguish these thoughts instead of fuelling them — but down the abyss I went.

My descent toward Trump had all the features of an angry white guy.

The online world helped fan the flames. I listened to bullies like Ben Shapiro who firebomb the feminist movement, LGBT community and minority groups with insults and intimidation. I tried to critically assess what I heard, but I failed. I didn’t fawn over these ideas. But I didn’t reject them, either.

In fact, I felt strangely validated when I found opinions online that countered my conventionally liberal values. A new world was opening up for me, and I couldn’t pull my eyes away.

The nadir of my downfall was the Milo Yiannopoulos rally here in January. At first, I was just curious to see the spectacle. That curiosity, however, slowly morphed into quiet indifference — even acceptance — for a man who didn’t seem to care if others thought he was bigoted and hateful. By this point, I’m ashamed to admit, I was almost ensnared by the vileness of Trumpism.

Looking back, this seems odd. The values I grew up with — and currently hold — are antithetical to everything Trump and his supporters represent.

Yet I was ready to cast my metaphorical vote for a man who had bragged about groping women, insulted disabled reporters, revitalized the racist birther movement and received a glowing endorsement from white supremacists.

I wish I knew exactly why I nearly took the path to Trumpism.

My support for Clinton never really wavered throughout the whole ordeal. It’s as if I was drawn by the simple idea that one man’s victory doesn’t mean defeat for the nation.

Maybe it’s natural to buckle down and get defensive when arguments blasting Trump elicit the whiteness of America. Perhaps it was because I attend a university with students who abhor Trump, as if I could balance the ideological seesaw by myself. Boy, was I wrong.

In any case, that same university helped set me straight. UC Davis’ intellectual campus environment has the power to refute Trump’s close-mindedness. Professors teach, of course, but they also discuss and provoke. Students don’t just ask questions — they challenge conventional answers.

In such a place, bigotry and selfishness yield to critical thinking and compassion. At a place like UC Davis — and many other institutions of higher learning — Trump’s odious brand of politics is justly grilled and skewered.

Exposure to the diversity on campus — of people, of ideas, of future career paths, of backgrounds — stopped my descent into political and personal chaos. This school helped me refute the silly (and scary) idea that Donald Trump could be sincere and vaguely presidential.

I was able to come to my senses. I managed to reclaim the person I always was.

What worries me is how easy it is to fall prey to Trump’s dogma. I almost did, even as a Clinton supporter.

There is still a large segment of America that loves this man.

Trump’s diehards will prod and prick our proper sensibilities until America’s true greatness fades away.

Leaders like Donald Trump tap into anger and malice. They unleash anchors of doubt and frustration into the minds of otherwise good people. And there are good people out there. Sometimes they just need a little help to figure it all out for themselves.

Societal norms teach men to ignore emotions rather than seek help MEN REMAIN SILENT ON THEIR MENTAL HEALTH DUE TO LACK OF RESOURCES

BY JOLENA PACHECO mspacheco@ucdavis.edu Mental illness can affect anyone regardless of age, race, socioeconomic status or background. It doesn’t strongly target one group over another, making every case equally important. However, it’s easy to recognize that there are groups that don’t get the same amount of attention as others. Specifically, I’m talking about the lack of awareness for men’s mental health. Men are acknowledged for their mental health issues in statistics, but there are hardly any such stories shared from men’s perspectives. Due to society’s constructed gender roles and stigma on mental health, men are less likely to open up about their illnesses and seek help to better themselves.

Men suffer from mental health issues at a rate similar to women, but they often refrain from seeking professional help. Max Birchwood, a professor of youth mental health at the University of Warwick, states that the biggest barrier stopping men from speaking up is that they don’t feel comfortable discussing their emotions with anyone. Gender

roles set men and women up with societal norms to follow, and when it comes to acknowledging feelings and emotions, men aren’t “supposed” to reveal themselves. They are taught to remain tough, independent and have control of their emotions, but when mental illness strikes it’s harmful to force oneself to maintain this composure. Boys are told to “be a man” and “suck it up” as they mature, which damages their mental health. These sayings deter them from sharing their thoughts because they recognize it as unacceptable behavior for men.

Due to the lack of personal testimonies from men online, I turned to a few of my male friends, asking for their thoughts on the issue of gender roles influencing the lack of attention on male mental health.

“A large part of the societal norms I’ve experienced growing up as a male is accepting the fact that, when things get hard, you have to suck it up,” said Erich Baur, a fifth-year mechanical engineering major.

“Crying, venting and other emotional outletting is seen as weak and feminine.”

Such statements support the idea that masculine conditioning contributes to men not acknowledging their emotions — let alone their

mental illnesses.

If men are just as likely to be affected by mental illness as women, then why aren’t there resources for them as well? Although evidence suggests that males are less likely to utilize mental health services than women, it’s still important that they have the option. Of course, there is the standard resource of professional therapy, but there aren’t organizations dedicated to helping men. If you search women’s mental health, several links provide access to resources. But when you search the same for men, most of the information that comes up is statistics for mental illness and suicide in the male population.

Creating more places for men to turn to for guidance could make a huge impact for them. Men are careful about whom they choose to open up to, but sometimes that’s still not enough to make them feel accepted.

“I was sent to therapy, which helped ease the tension in my life, but I received no such help from my family or friends,” Baur said.

PACHECO on 9

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

HUMOR

The proper etiquette behind an all-nighter at the library IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN

BY ROSIE SCHWARZ rschwarz@ucdavis.edu If I calculated this weird system of weeks correctly, I believe finals are approaching. But I also could be wrong and might be missing a final as we speak. I don’t know. Anyway, it’s that time of year again when everything you’ve had no time to do actually has to be turned in for a letter that determines your intelligence. What does this mean for you? It’s time to get cozy with Peter J. Shields. It’s cuffing season, and by that I mean you should cuff yourself to the library

because you have about three days to do two years’ worth of work.

It’s all-nighter time, and I’m going to guide you through the proper etiquette to having a one-night (or one-week) stand with the library and leaving with your dignity intact the next day.

Staying overnight at a place you don’t know too well with people you don’t know at all can really throw you out of your element. And during this jolly holiday season with no time to spare, it’s important that you don’t let the cold and uninviting atmosphere of the library get to you. My advice: Make it feel like home. Bring that Chance the Rapper poster from your dorm and maybe your roommate and

their annoying boyfriend, too. And please don’t hesitate to bring your Keurig into the library, because lord knows the CoHo will close before your all-nighter will even begin.

Toiletries are important, and if you’re going to make this work I suggest you bring them all. While there is no shower in the library (although there should be), there are sinks that you should utilize as best as you can. Instead of procrastinating by doing whatever it is you do, go wash your hair in the sink. Since the library is so cold, you’ll SCHWARZ on 11

Trump's wall will never be as tall as the emotional barrier between him and Melania AND IT COULD NEVER COST AS MUCH AS THE COLLECTIVE AMERICAN EMOTIONAL TURMOIL, EITHER

BY AARON LEVINS adlevins@ucdavis.edu One glorious day we will look to the south and see upon the horizon a monolith which stretches far into the sky. On that day no man, woman or child seeking to escape poverty and find a better life will be able to do so any longer. On that wonderful, momentous day Trump will be able to say: “My name is Trump, president of presidents; Look on my work, y’all rapists, and despair!”

Of course, there will be no way for our wonderful god and leader to be able to construct a wall higher than the emotional barrier be-

tween him and his fourth wife. However, we may look upon both as monuments to two very important rich-American ideals: the first a monument to the security of our borders from a nameless and vague threat, and the second a great monument to the emotional estrangement that men have from their wives when they don’t see women as human beings.

Truly, this will be a wonderful and great display of American greatness: opulence, waste of resources that could be used to feed the poor and — most importantly — the incessant need of Americans to make America, a nation built from and borne of immigrants, an exclusive item on a menu of whiteness.

I await the day when I can buy a sandwich from a restaurant on the

border wall while looking through the viewing window and laughing at everyone who does not have my very tasty sandwich made of fake meat and fake dreams.

Let us conclude this message with a prayer: “Dear leader, Give me the resolute nature, With which I can block empathy, And think spending $70 billion, On a big-ass wall , Is a good idea.”

This message was brought to you by American Aaron, soldier of the Great Trump Administration. Please report dissenters to the following email.

Allegations arise that Dining Commons puts food in its garbage RATS FOUND IN TRASH CANS REVEAL THAT STUDENTS HAVE BEEN WASTING GOOD MEAT

BY DREW HANSON andhanson@ucdavis.edu Allegations have arisen that the Dining Commons puts food in its garbage.

“I went in expecting the usual,” said first-year Christian Romero.

“But instead of used hypodermic needles and baby diapers, Tomato Street Grill was serving mostly real meat.”

“We found some rats in the trash cans,” said Head of the Tercero DC, literally just a floating head. “If students don’t plan on eating the rats, then they shouldn’t take them in the first place.”

A recent environmental leak from the Tercero DC killed all of the Tercero cows, which led to steak for dinner every single night.

The downside was that many students reported radioactive diarrhea, which was drastically different from the usual toxic diarrhea.

“We plan to destroy Cuarto,” Head of the Tercero DC said.

“Their meals are actually pretty good and pose a threat to our customer base.”

“We’re always following behind Tercero,” said the legs with a face for a butt that runs the Segundo DC. “Which is a problem since they’re like way behind Cuarto. You’d think we would be in second place because of our name, but we’re like fifth place since some stu-

dents prefer raiding dumpsters for scraps over coming here.”

“We were really going for the Ikea vibe with Tercero,” said heroof-the-people Linda Katehi. “Segundo was basically just to meet a quota. Cuarto was supposed to be a homeless shelter, but it turns out that the people that feed the homeless actually really care about food quality. Cuarto is an elitist hipster place like Whole Foods, which is why it needs to be destroyed.”

“I worked as a prison chef, and they kicked me out for making terrible quality food,” Chad Tucker said. “They called my prison HANSON on 11

When everything wants you to be merry but it’s finals week

BY ELLIOT WHITE

Gary May's Christmas Card

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DISC L A I M ER: Th e vi ews a n d op in i 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 o pi ni o ns hel d by The Cal i for n ia Ag g ie. Le t te rs to t he e d i to r can be addre ss e d to opin ion @ th e aggie.org.

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TAYLOR LAPOINT / AGGIE

Geodynamo research breaks through surface of supercomputer analysis Working group involves collaborators from universities across the country

BY JACK C A RRI L LO CO N CO R DI A science@theaggie.org

Imagine that one day the electrical grids covering the earth malfunctioned, all technology powered by electricity went out and it was impossible to access news sources and social media to find out what happened. What could cause this?

This question and others are being tackled by Computation Infrastructure for Geodynamics. The CIG, based in UC Davis, is home to a variety of working groups, one of which is the Geodynamo working group. This group is headed by Jonathan Aurnou, a professor of earth, planetary and space sciences at UCLA. Over a period of three years, the group was granted hours on the Mira supercomputer from the U.S. Department of Energy to run its computer simulations. The Geodynamo working group consists of researchers from UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, the University of Colorado, Boulder, the University of Alberta, and Johns Hopkins University.

The research focuses on the geodynamo, the self-sustaining process by which the earth’s liquid core maintains its magnetic field to protect the earth’s surface. Since a planet’s core is thousands of miles below its surface, researchers create simulations based on their observations to test different hypotheses as to what exactly is at the core of the earth. The supercomputer access expedites the information gathering by dedicating hundreds of

thousands of processing cores to run simulations.

“That’s why we have to model such [a] process from the simulation results,” said Hiroaki Matsui, an associate professional researcher at CIG. “That’s also why we need big simulations and a lot of information.”

Though the magnetic field is not detectable by the human eye, it is important in daily life. It protects the earth from cosmic particles that are in constant contact with the planet, according to Bruce Buffett, a professor of earth and planetary science at UC Berkeley.

However, the magnetic field does sometimes reverse polarity, on average around four times during a 1 million year span. This means the north and south poles flip, which, in theory, would weaken the protection of the magnetic field, as well as affect the way society functions.

“Things like electrical grids would probably start malfunctioning — cell phones, satellites, things like that,” Buffett said. “Understanding what the magnetic field is doing and the nature of the protection we get from it is, in some ways, a pretty important societal motivator. There’s no evidence that there are extinctions or anything, but from the point of view of a society that developed and relies on electrical infrastructure, it’d be a huge change to the way that we live.”

Buffett stated that the last polarity reversal was JUPITER on 11

Champion equine now healthy as a horse after botulism poisoning UC Davis Vet Med Center brought ill roping horse back to perfect health

BY NATALI E COWAN science@theaggie.org

An American quarter horse is now in stable condition after ingesting a fatal neurotoxin. John, a champion roping horse, fell ill with botulism after eating a bad batch of grain.

Prior to John, another horse in his herd died of the same illness. Consequently, John’s owner, Doug Parker, was in a hurry to find him help.

Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism, is seldom found in food, and the severity of the illness is fearsome.

“Once ingested, the toxin will spread through the digestive tract through the rest of the body,” said Maria Marco, an associate professor of food science and technology at UC Davis.

“The toxin is extremely potent,” said Linda J. Harris, a department chair in food science and technology, in an email interview. “It is a neurotoxin and thus causes paralysis. Symptoms include things that impact the eyes (double or blurred vision), the mouth (slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, thick-feeling tongue) and general muscle weakness. Patients often spend a long time on respirators because they cannot breathe on their own.”

The same bacteria that induces this lethargy is also the fountain of youth for many aging women.

Botox injections are made up of small doses of the toxin C. botulinum. The bacteria blocks nerve sig-

nals, weakening or even paralyzing facial muscles.

Prior to being placed in a syringe at a dermatologist, the bacterium is usually found in soil or water. C. Botulinum requires an anaerobic environment, meaning it thrives in places void of oxygen.

Accordingly, the bacterium rarely survives on the food we eat.

Nonetheless, those affected with the disease are met with debilitating symptoms and the prospect of death.

“When John came to us, he was very, very weak,” said Emily Schaefer, a resident at the UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Center. “He preferred to lay down for long periods and eventually became so weak that he could not physically get up without help. He was becoming paralyzed.”

After several months of treatment, John was the picture of health.

“John spent several weeks in the UC Davis Large Animal Lift, a large nylon sling that can be supported from a hoist on the ceiling,” Schaefer said. “­We also treated him medically with botulism antitoxin, anti-inflammatories, antioxidants and topical ointments for the abrasions he sustained from being down so much.”

Schaefer said that since John’s nerves were not permanently damaged, he was able to make a full recovery once all the toxins were flushed from his system.

“The level of work that John has been able to perform since his recuperation has made everyone here at the VMTH proud,” Schaefer said.

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Driverless Cars: Potential Solution to Climate Change Use of driverless vehicles could reduce transport-related carbon dioxide emissions by over 80 percent in 2050

BY KR I T I VA RG HES E science@theaggie.org

It’s predicted that by 2050 driverless cars will be a $7 trillion industry, meaning that they’ll potentially have a large impact on emissions and climate concerns. A recent report from UC Davis showed that driverless cars could reduce carbon dioxide emissions due to transportation by over 80 percent worldwide by 2050.

“Automation in transportation is an amazing technology that seemed to come out of nowhere (though in reality it has been cooking for decades),” said Austin Brown, the executive director of the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy at UC Davis, in an email interview. “It is one of those technologies that could change the very fabric of our world (much as the car did originally). Changes of that magnitude always have great benefits but also lead to major unintended consequences. In the research and policy communities, we're in the challenging business of trying to foresee unintended consequences and get ready for them.”

According to the report, to reap the most environmental benefit from this new technology, two things need to happen: the vehicles need to be elec-

tric and there needs to be more carpooling.

“There isn't much point in having solo driverless cars that run on gas (from an environmental perspective),” said Deb Niemeier, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, in an email interview. “The best that [solo driverless cars] would deliver is the ability to work or watch TV while your driverless car navigates you through congestion. In order for there to [be] any environmental improvement, we need for the vehicles to be electric (and ideally charged using solar).

For both environmental and improved traffic quality (i.e., less congestion), we need people sharing driverless electric cars powered by solar.”

The environmental benefits are calculated under the assumption that most people will have switched to driverless vehicles by 2050. Since there are over 20 years to go, the transition to primarily automatic vehicles will prove to be difficult, considering there will be a period where both automated and non-automated vehicles are on the road.

“There are definitely research questions out there on what a mixed fleet looks like and how people (pedestrians and human drivers) will interact with driverless cars in the meantime,” Brown said.

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The Glute-Ins and Outs of Celiac Disease About 1 percent of U.S. population suffers from Celiac disease, yet effects don’t receive much recognition outside afflicted community.

BY DYLAN HENDR I CKSON science@theaggie.org

Synonymous with carbs, weight-gain, faulty metabolisms and bad skin, gluten is often regarded as something to avoid in a modern, health-conscious society. According to a study from the NPD Group in 2013, 30 percent of American adults are reducing or eliminating gluten from their diet, largely because gluten products are seen as unhealthy.

Though the claim is unsubstantiated, the buzz around gluten and its supposed negative effects has overshadowed, or even totally ignored, those with actual gluten-related health problems, namely those with celiac disease and gluten intolerance.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder similar to type 1 diabetes and lupus wherein the immune system attacks the cells and organs of its own body. In the case of celiac, the presence of gluten, a storage protein found in wheat, rye, and barley, triggers the immune response. This can not only result in the expected gastrointestinal issues, like vomiting or diarrhea, but a litany of other seemingly unrelated problems. According to Justin Siegel, an assistant professor of chemistry, biochemistry and molecular medicine at UC Davis, someone suffering from celiac could expect osteoporosis,

anemia, infertility and other disorders resulting from autoimmune reactions.

It is estimated that 3 million people in the United States suffer from celiac disease. However, only about 500,000 of those have been diagnosed. Celiac disease is notoriously difficult to diagnose, owing to its wide array of symptoms. Kathryn Russ, an associate professor of economics at UC Davis who was diagnosed with celiac disease, suffered from recurring health problems most of her life and was misdiagnosed by doctors for years.

“I had chronic respiratory issues, stomach pain and problems [going into college],” Russ said.

“When I was in the peace corps, [doctors] thought it was a parasite. They couldn’t find one, but I had the symptoms.”

Even when she had a preterm birth caused by HELLP syndrome (Hemolysis Elevated Liver enzymes and Low Platelet count), a pregnancy complication that more frequently happens to those with autoimmune disorders, Russ was still not diagnosed with celiac disease. Meanwhile, her health continued to decline after the birth of her son.

“I had an emergency appendectomy. I had these weird episodes of pneumonia for months in the GLUTENDEMON on 11

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Don Roth, the executive director of the Mondavi Center and a self-identified former first-generation student, talked about his experience.

“I definitely felt more isolated,” Roth said. “My parents really had no familiarity with the experience.

I found college pretty challenging [...] my first year. I think it would have been nice to have a cohort of people who were in the same boat, but there was nothing like that at the time.”

First-generation students across years and majors, from STEM to the arts, are sought after by the initiative.

“I was definitely one who needed help,” said Alberto Davalos, the transfer opportunity program coordinator and a UC Davis first-generation alumnus. “[First-gen-

eration students are] an example to people who’ve gone through the whole process and graduated successfully.

If they ever need to reach out or want to talk to somebody, there are potential mentors on the campus for them.”

The Leading and Breaking Barriers series, and the increasing number of first-generation mentors on campus, are steps forward in the university’s ongoing pursuit to increase inclusivity.

“First-gen students come to UC Davis and because it’s so big, it can feel overwhelming and sometimes you can feel really discouraged,” Thomas said. “You can really feel like you maybe don’t belong here, but every file for admissions gets read multiple times. Everyone who’s here belongs here.”

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of “Studio Sacramento,” moderated a Q&A session with the audience.

An audience member asked Souza what the most difficult part of photographing the president was, and Souza said it was the grueling daily schedule.

In eight years, Souza only took three weeks of vacation and one sick day, mostly because he was worried that he might miss an important moment in history while he was away.

“I was literally with the president from 9:30 in the morning ‘til he went home at like 6:30 or 7,” Souza said. “The grind of the job, the 24/7 aspect of it, that was the hardest thing. But in terms of these stressful situations that maybe the people in the pictures were experiencing, I wasn’t under the same kind of stress they were. Over time, people came to appreciate what I was doing, and they took it seriously.”

Syphax was curious about Souza’s observations of President Obama as a figurehead.

“One of the things that’s interesting as you go through the book is that it’s a wide cross-section of people,” Syphax said. “But when I look at, for in-

stance, the entertainers, the celebrities and the athletes, it almost seems more like they’re the fans and he’s the star rather than the other way around.”

Souza explained that people gravitated toward Obama in a way that he had rarely seen.

“I think people just saw hope when they saw him,” Souza said. “I don’t mean to sound cliché, but they saw a man who was genuine, who truly was thinking long-term, thinking about what was best for the country.”

Reflecting on his time with Obama, Souza said that historical documentation was the most important aspect of his job. Although there were boring and tiresome meetings, he said that the Osama Bin Laden raids, the success of the Affordable Care Act and the debt ceiling crisis were some of the most rewarding moments to photograph.

“Hopefully I captured what the Obama administration was like, what he was like as a president, what he was like as a person [and] what he was like as a dad,” Souza said. “Hopefully people think that I presented a well-rounded view of his presidency.”

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him to “understand that Pelican Bay SHU was designed to break you — mentally, physically, and spiritually.” He talked about unlearning criminality and delving into philosophy and literature with figures like Marx. For Murillo, education, therapy and self-reflection helped him confront his mental health problems.

Murillo was released from Pelican Bay following a plea deal where his co-defendant with prior felonies received a life sentence as part of a plea bargain, granting Murillo 15 years in prison. He told the audience about how his motivation to never return to prison is anchored in his friend’s sacrifice.

“If he didn’t take that life sentence, we were all looking at 75 years to life,” Murillo said. “I couldn’t tell him to make that deal. He had to make that decision. And I never really thought about it. He swallowed a life sentence —and he’s still in prison now — so that I and my other friend could have an opportunity to come home.”

Following Murillo, former inmate Joshua Mason talked about how family relationships and poverty can predispose someone to crime and the cycle of dysfunction as self-perpetuating.

“A lot of us go to jail traumatized,” Mason said. “I started going to jail at 11. I had no sense of control.

My mom was a young teenager when she had me [and] my dad was much older. They come from generations of dysfunction and trauma, so it’s difficult to fault them for their errors. From a young age, I was just trying to see where I fit. I was labeled a gang member before I knew I was a gang member. [The system] certainly shaped my perception of myself.”

Mason explained his notion of self-worth prior to going to jail, and how living in poverty affected his identity.

“When my momma’s strung out on dope, and someone steals keys so I can break into a car to sleep, how are you gonna say that’s a bad friend?” Mason asked. “I was an intensely loyal person. I felt like it’s all I had to offer. My identity continued to get wrapped up in being a ‘homeboy,’ and you can depend on me. That was the only thing I was good at — the only thing that was ever celebrated, and the only thing than anybody ever noticed about me.”

Mason spoke about his brother’s murder, which he believes has helped form his ideas of the criminal justice system, as well as providing a traumatic catalyst for some of his own actions. A 14-year-old murdered Mason’s brother “over a girl.”

“That kid didn’t to jail, he went to juvenile hall for a very brief amount of time,” Mason said. “He got out and disappeared — and not in the way I was trying to make him disappear. His family […] said it was my brother’s fault that he got killed because my brother had been stopped with a knife before.

He never used the knife on anybody, [but] because of that incident years prior, the little kid’s family and lawyers could argue that he was defending himself against my brother.”

He spoke about SHU and his mindset as he occupied his day with monotonous activities, like working out and drinking water. Mason began taking college classes. “[In prison], I started taking college classes,” Mason said. “My first semester, I took two classes and I got a 3.0. I never graduated seventh grade! I hadn’t gone in a classroom in a decade. I challenged myself.

[I thought], ‘Next time, I’m gonna take all the classes they’ll let me and I’m gonna get straight A’s.’ So I did, and I did.”

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“Coming to terms with my mental health issues, there were a lot of people in my life [who] sort of just dismissed what I said,” added Anthony Aviles, a third-year undeclared student.

This concern demands more attention. Fortunately, the National Institute of Mental Health developed a project to do just that. They launched the Real Men, Real Depression campaign to edu-

cate society with stories from men about their experiences with depression. The campaign ran from 2003 to 2005 and became one of the nation’s first organized public efforts to build awareness on the dangerously silent issue.

No one is immune to mental illness, so why does society fail to recognize that men go through it, too?

many different classes [in coffee science] — all the chemical reactions that take place in roasting, all the physical chemistry of brewing, the stuff I’m doing research on right now.”

Ristenpart’s research is both disjointed from and integral to the study of coffee. He understands chemical engineering to be an ideal lens through which one can consider coffee because the roasting and brewing of the beans change the states of the molecules due to physical reactions.

“My research area of expertise is in transport phenomena and when you think about the act of brewing coffee [...] you’re moving molecules from one phase to the other and the final flavor profile depends on which molecules move at which rates,” Ristenpart said. “It’s all tremendously complicated and it’s a lot of fun for people to focus on that.”

While one of Ristenpart’s research projects involves re-evaluating a chart used to optimize dissolved solids in coffee and its flavor, one of the many unique aspects of the Coffee Center is the broad collection of faculty associated and the breadth of research they pursue. Irwin Ronaldo Donis-Gonzalez, an assistant cooperative extensions specialist in post-harvest engineering from the department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, focuses primarily on the drying of coffee beans.

“The Coffee Center will allow us to do multidisciplinary state of the art research, where we are working with chemical engineers, working with mechanical engineers [and] working with post-harvest engineers with physiologists,” Donis-Gonzalez said. “We’re combining all this expertise to try to enhance how coffee is grown, harvested and stored and everything from now on.”

Donis-Gonzalez’s experience as a coffee certifier in Latin America coupled with his focus on coffee drying efficiency in an era of climate change makes him essential to the Coffee Center and insightful about the challenges faced by small coffee growers.

“The problem now with solar drying is that it is, in certain cases, people can’t even do it,” Donis-Gonzalez said. “With all this global warming and global climate change [...] it’s just different patterns of weather throughout the whole world.

So in places where people would exclusively rely on drying their coffee with the sun right now

they’re getting [more rain]. So they are unable to effectively or efficiently dry their product.”

Donis-Gonzalez understands the Coffee Center to be both a project relevant to UC Davis and to the global community. Noting the interdisciplinarity of the center, the international aspect of the coffee trade and the impact of climate change everywhere, he thinks that the Coffee Center has the potential to make an impact on the world.

“This is the world market,” Donis Gonzalez said. “Coffee is an economy for many small families throughout the world so we can only highlight the importance of the Coffee Center because of the impact it might have on the world and it would be very, very positive. If we better one technology here and we can help a small family of five that are working very hard to produce coffee in Guatemala, the world would be a much better place.”

In addition to a heightened awareness of the growers of a product UC Davis students consume everyday, there are many exciting developments in coffee research and coffee study to which the community can look forward. The UC Davis community, outside of research, can also expect potential expansion of coffee courses and coffee study available to students.

“So we’re in the process of setting up a field station there in the northern highlands of Nicaragua,” Ristenpart said. “I’m actually working on a proposal to make kind of a summer abroad or a study abroad type of course where students here could go spend a few weeks down at origin and actually learn about how coffee is processed down there because the vast majority of the work is done at origin and not here.”

The Coffee Center, is also seeking funding for some limited coffee growing greenhouses, already having secured large-scale roasting equipment.

The facility will cater to both research and educational opportunities.

“Long term, I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for UC Davis to be a world leader in coffee science,” Ristenpart said. “We already are in wine, we are, depending on who you talk to, at least in the top three for food science, we’re already one of the best for beer. What I’d really like to do is have UC Davis be globally recognized as the place to go to do serious research in coffee science.”

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Winter Traditions

How students spend breaks with family

BY C E C I L I A M ORA L E S arts@theaggie.org

Early winter is a time to reflect on the (almost) 12 months of 2017 and to self-analyze, as a new year will soon be within our celebratory, firework-accompanied reach. Sometimes this means confronting the fact that you called your mom maybe once a month or didn’t take the time to catch up with a family member while visiting home. College, with all it entails, means some aspects of life will be sacrificed to make room for others. Unfortunately for families back in hometowns, this usually means they are up on the chopping block.

Combining this state of regret with feelings of extra kindness, love and altruism often felt around this time of year can conjure up the need to engage in cozy, humbling traditions with your loved ones. If you are searching for a reminder of the family time you have to look forward to after finals or even some inspiration for your own lineage, reading about the following student traditions may help.

Bailey McCarthy, a second-year animal

science major, has several annual traditions.

“My family and I attend Christmas Eve mass,” McCarthy said. “I bake cookies with my sisters, nieces and nephews so that the kids have something to put out with their letters for Santa. On New Years my family and some extended family get together to have the Annual New Year Games.”

These games are inspired by the show “Minute to Win It” and require splitting up her large family into teams.

“The prizes also depend on the age groups, but they could be like gift cards, alcohol and of course bragging rights,” McCarthy said.

As the years have passed, McCarthy has developed a bond with the festivities and what they do to her family.

“I enjoy all these traditions because they bring the family closer together. I will probably pass on all these traditions because it would create great holiday memories for my family.” McCarthy said.

Gabriel Escudero, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, has a simpler but just as endearing tradition established with his family. “[...] for Christmas usually my family

is the one that holds kinda like this dinner with extended family so cousins come in from the next town over and sometimes different states,” Escudero said. “[It] almost rivals Thanksgiving sometimes. Then we stay up till midnight and open gifts with everybody.”

This holiday tradition stems from his roots in the Philippines.

“I know that that’s how they do it in the Philippines, [...] my family emigrated from there, right, so I’m the first generation to be born in the United States,” Escudero said.

“So they celebrate Christmas Eve and go to mass and then have Christmas day at midnight in celebration, so that is why they kind of brought it over here.”

For Escudero, the most meaningful part of what they do is catching up with family members he doesn’t see as much.

“It is nice to see all the family that comes over, especially if they are coming from other states and I don’t see them too often,” Escudero said. “Christmas has always been like a family kind of like get-together so it’s always good to see everybody have fun and exchange presents.”

Escudero highlighted the importance of reconnection once more, encouraging enacting traditions with your own friends and family, if not already in place. “[...] in my experience traditions bring people that you don’t see very often together for a night of fun and catching up and stuff like that,” Escudero said. “I’m sure for other people, having that opportunity to catch up with people that they might have not seen in such a long time but [that] they are close with — I think that’s good, especially during like the holiday season. I would, I guess, recommend it, even if it’s just with a small group of people you know.”

Madison Friend, a second-year animal biology major, takes part in an ornament gift exchange and Black Friday shopping as part of her family traditions.

“My whole family celebrates on Christmas Eve, and we meet at someone’s house with ornaments that we picked out and wrapped,” Friend said. “For Black Friday shopping, every year before I was even born, we have gone to South Coast Plaza to walk around with all of our cousins and friends and anyone who

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Cultural Holiday Recipes Recipes served at Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa

BY R OWA N O ’CON N E L L- GAT E S arts@theaggie.org

And just like that, Thanksgiving is over. Thus, the inevitable emptiness of a past holiday has taken hold. But don’t worry, the holidays are still in full force. As we move into December, a whole host of new holidays are coming our way. That means there will be more delicious food recipes to pair with the upcoming festivities.

To begin, we will start with a holiday classic:

Lady Bird: A Review Love Letter to Sacramento

BY SY D N EY OD M A N arts@theaggie.org

Set in the familiar city of Sacramento, Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut is astonishingly tender, unapologetically honest and hits almost too close to home. Gerwig’s writing is raw, with a comedic undertone that exhibits realness and authenticity, while successfully keeping you wrapped up in its story throughout the entire 94 minutes of the film.

Additionally, as a coming-of-age story, “Lady Bird” accurately portrays what it truly feels like to be 18 — a trait many of today’s young adult films seem to be lacking.

Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (played by Saoirse Ronan) feels trapped. Living on “the wrong side of the tracks,” Lady Bird itches to escape the dismal, boring town of Sacramento, which she refer to as “the Midwest of California.” Lady Bird wants culture, and she wants to be surrounded by an environment that accurately reflects her own lively boldness. She doesn’t have many friends,

peppermint bark. Synonymous around the world with the Christmas season, these delectable shattered pieces of chocolate and peppermint are beloved by many. The New York Times featured a recipe by New Jersey native Tom Faglon, in which he pushes the boundaries of peppermint bark to incorporate seasonal fruit. Faglon’s dark chocolate and pomegranate bark is a must this holiday season. His use of fresh in-season pomegranate seeds elevates the bark to a new a level of flavor. He also adds candied ginger and sea salt, save the scene-stealing Julie (played by Beanie Feldstein), and her social skills are eccentric but wholly endearing. She continuously fights with her mother, who, like her, is fiercely passionate in all that she does. This brings up one of the centermost focal points of the film — the strained yet loving mother-daughter relationship between Lady Bird and her mother (played by Laurie Metcalf ).

Ronan, playing a somewhat autobiographical version of Gerwig herself, brilliantly leads the film as she portrays its title character. She makes Lady Bird’s somewhat unreasonable antics fiercely believable, with an intensity and level of earnest naivete that can only exist in a real teenager.

Throughout the film, we follow Lady Bird through her senior year of high school. Gerwig expertly transitions from scene to scene and month to month as the story goes on, showing off her true strengths not only as a writer, but also as a director. From experiencing her first ever heartbreak to applying to her dream universities, Lady Bird lives through the anxiety-ridden transition period from teenhood to the adult world that resonates deeply with college students everywhere. When the odds are inherently

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CoHo showcases gourmet food items

Student-popular eating spot adds new, fancier items to menu

BY CAR OLI NE R UTTEN arts@theaggie.org

The CoHo, a go-to eating spot on campus, just added new items to many of its menus. While these additions are not necessarily unorthodox, the new meal choices seem to follow a similar pattern: highquality, more sophisticated dishes. According to Darin Schluep, the ASUCD Food Service director, such items include acai bowls being served all day at Swirlz, flakey pastries called “kouign-amann” also at Swirlz, poke at Chopstixx, more chicken breast in the hot sandwiches at Ciao and gourmet meat and veggie pizza options.

“I feel like there are more grab-and-go options, like sandwiches and wraps,” said Kathleen Pan, a second-year managerial economics major and frequent CoHo customer. “I’ve also noticed more quantity and options at the sushi section. I think they are also trying to keep up with current food trends” The CoHo continues to strive to add more menu items in order to maintain student interest and appetite.

“We don’t ever want to get complacent with our menu,” Schluep said. “We know that we have a very loyal customer base that visits on a regular basis, so we want to be able to provide new options for folks to try that will hopefully keep them satisfied and coming back.”

Danny O’Brien, a second-year environmental science and policy major who used to work at the CoHo, agrees that having new items added to the menu is beneficial because “items can get old after awhile.” However, he does recognize the strain it can have on the student workers who make up the employee population.

“There was a big problem in the beginning of the quarter having a bunch of new people and a bunch of new items on the menu and a bunch of new work to do, so it made a bunch of veterans like me

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culminating in a delicious combination of sweet pomegranates, salty flecks and spicy ginger. Above all else, this recipe is simple and can be whipped up in minutes.

Next up we have another Christmas dessert: Bûche de Noël, aka Yule Log. A famous French Christmas dish, this dessert consists of a cake, rolled up, frosted and adorned to look like a wood log. The cake is traditional in many northern European cultures. The New York Times featured a recipe by famed baker Dorie Greenspan for a nuanced gingerbread bûche de Noël.

While this cake is exceedingly complex, Greenspan’s version seeks to simplify the procedure while maintaining all the delicious taste. She implements new gingerbread-style flavors and a sweet texture, with a showering of candied pecans when finished. If you’re feeling up for it, this cake will be a showstopper for any holiday parties.

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah or not, odds are you’ve tried a delicious potato latke in your life. The famous potato patties are shredded, then mixed with onion, egg and spices all before frying in a hot oil. The result is a delicious fried patty that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Martha Stewart’s recipe for sweet potato latkes is a new take on the potato latke. She uses both yukon gold and sweet potatoes, ensuring you don’t miss your original latkes too much. If you make these at your next holiday get together, they’re sure to please.

For a sweet dessert at Hanukkah, look no further

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than traditional sufganiyot similar to jelly donuts.

These delicious treats are consumed every year during the holidays. Deep-fried and filled with jelly or custard, the donuts will leave a lasting impression on any guest lucky enough to try one fresh.

Chowhounds has compiled a recipe for sufganiyot that is straightforward and beginner-friendly, so there is no need for big deep fryers. If you are looking for a challenge, you can always up the ante by making your own jelly for the donuts. Regardless, this recipe will have guests begging for more.

During Kwanzaa, a series of African recipes are eaten. Senegalese chef Pierre Tham provides us with a recipe from his own cookbook. The recipe for sweet potato mango spice cake implements many of the popular ingredients utilized during celebrations of Kwanzaa.

Your guests will leave in a trance from the mangoes that impart a moistness to the cake — along with a spicy bite from the ginger.

Lastly, a more savory approach to African recipes is provided by Sanura Weathers. Her recipe for roasted sweet potatoes stuffed with spiced couscous and yogurt is a testament to the incredible flavors present in African culture. Couscous and yogurt brings to mind Moroccan and Egyptian tastes, while sweet potatoes round out the dish with a traditional starch. Weathers’ recipe is a delicious savory option to serve prior to a slice of Tham’s sweet potato mango spice cake.

Happy Holidays!

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stacked against you, how does one coincide dreams with reality? This is a question that Lady Bird constantly struggles with, as she yearns to go to New York, despite her mother’s wishes and her family’s struggling financial situation.

As an audience member, it’s easy to feel frustrated with Lady Bird, not because we dislike her character, but because her actions reflect upon our own lesser

qualities. She’s selfish, naive, full of angst and self-centered at times. She screams at her mother, disregards her parents’ hard work, mistreats her best friend and changes herself for a brief time to impress a boy that she likes. And still, we root for Lady Bird, not in spite of her flaws but because she is genuinely kind and loving. She LADY BIRD on 12

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Patrick LeMieux, an assistant professor of cinema and digital media and a member of the ModLab, has been involved in game design for over 20 years, making games like Speculation, an alternate reality game about Wall Street banks.

“Overall, I’m interested in the way in which play reveals the material histories and community practices of different discourses — from conceptual art to finance capital,” LeMieux said.

LeMieux has collaborated with Stephanie Boluk, an assistant professor of English, on both research and teaching. LeMieux and Boluk recently published a book called “Metagaming: Videogames and the Practice of Play,” and they co-teach Cinema and Digital Media 172: Videogames and Culture, which is cross-listed for English, cinema and digital media and science and technology studies.

“Rather than treat video games and culture as two distinct categories that play off one another, in this course we examine how play has evolved alongside video games as a mass medium, cultural commodity and digital technology,” LeMieux said.

“And even though it’s a large lecture with about 200 students, we also put these theories into practice by close playing video games like Braid and Portal, learning how to speedrun retro games on Twitch TV, recording audio reviews of audio games designed by and for players who are blind or have low vision and commenting e-sports competitions together.”

Jorge Peña, a communication professor, has a lab

which approaches video games from a different perspective than the ModLab. The Virtual Interaction and Communication Technology Research (VICTR) Lab focuses on the more immediate effects of video games on players.

“The work that we do at the VICTR Lab is looking at how exposure to video games, virtual environments, avatars, et cetera, can change people’s attitudes and behaviors in the real world,” Peña said. “For example, I was interested in whether randomly assigning people to thin or obese avatars would change people’s amount of physical activity as they’re playing a virtual tennis game; for that, I used the Wii Tennis game, in which I was able to modify the appearance of the participants and their virtual opponents.”

As with LeMieux and the ModLab, much of Peña’s work also involves collaboration, with students who work in his lab and with students who help design some of the games he uses for experimentation.

“In the laboratory I have the opportunity to work with students who are interested in building games,” Peña said. “I connect that to my own research interests, and I connect to students that are maybe communications students, that want to learn how to run experiments and how to do their own studies, so they help us in the laboratory to run the experiments [...] essentially it’s a collaboration between faculty and students.”

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“If driverless cars behave differently than human drivers (even if that involves driving more safely) it can cause confusion, at least for an adjustment period. However, there are hundreds of demo cars out there and while there are anecdotal reports of some bad behavior it doesn’t seem widespread or all that worrying yet. In general, adding safer vehicles that don’t make the human errors that currently lead to well over 90% of accidents is likely to make the system safer.”

The next steps for the research team will be applying their findings to policy requirements.

food ‘death row’ because I successfully killed more people than the lethal injections. The DC is alright, but I miss having better ingredients to work with.”

“I believe that the quality of my life diminished ever since I started eating at the DC,” said a horribly mutated student whose name we could not understand through their guttural groans. “Something has gone horribly wrong with my life. I think I’m dying. They wok’d all over me.”

“Most of this article is filler,” said writer Drew Hanson. “Just like the food at the DC. The difference is that my writing won’t give you the shits.”

“We like to be environmentally friendly here at Davis,” the campus overseer said. “The water is

poison. The walls are made of asbestos. The roads look like they just suffered an earthquake, especially near Wellman. We like to rebuild things that don’t need to be rebuilt and let important things like the arts facilities rot and decay. Ever noticed we only rebuild things that will allow us to rake in more money? The MU. The Silo. Our reputation as a respectable administration. We’re very progressive.”

“I think the dining commons are great,” said second-year political science major Richard Hicks.

“If you feed people trash, they will just keep eating it up. Just look at my hero, Trump. That’s what he does.”

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probably want to bring a blow dryer. Good thing the Main Reading Room has outlets! Trust me, this study break will leave you feeling clean and refreshed and ready to tackle that honors thesis you were supposed to be working on all quarter.

The thing about an all-nighter is that you’re not supposed to sleep. But if you’re doing this in the healthy and clean way, then you’ll probably want to take quick short naps to restore your REM cycle in intervals of 23 minutes. If you’re like me and can’t sleep on anything other than a Sleep Number mattress on level 45, it’s going to be rather hard for you to adjust to the stiff chairs and fake tile floors that most common folk usually sleep on during their all-nighter power naps. So

you probably want to bring your mattress from home. Also, since this requires a strict timer, make sure you choose a proper alarm that will wake you up from your princess slumber calmly and effectively.

The final thing I suggest about an all-nighter in the library is that you try and avoid it at all costs.

By all means, please partake in the “all-nighter” festivities of stress and bonding over said stress, but do it with the security that you already have everything done. It’ll be nice to feed off of how unprepared everyone else is, and you will get to partake in all the fun typical actions of not having an outlet or place to sit. But deep down you won’t even care — you’re a prepared student!

“We are looking into the policy requirements in more detail, as well as the relative costs of various ‘use cases’...from a policy point of view,” said Lewis Fulton, the co-director of the UC Davis STEPS program, in an email interview. “Two of the key things seem to be a) push AVs toward shared fleets, keep them out of households, and b) encourage higher ridership levels (sharing) in shared vehicles — both of these will be challenging to promote and policies may be unpopular, such as ‘pricing’ (vehicle ownership or road use taxes).”

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about 780,000 years ago, meaning the earth is likely overdue for another magnetic field reversal.

“The good news is we’d probably have lots of warning,” Buffett said. “Presumably with these sorts of models and a little more sophistication, we might be able to make forecasts of whether there’s reversal coming or not.”

According to Matsui, there isn’t a consensus on whether or not earth’s magnetic field helps foster life.

Geomagnetic fields have many unknowns, but new information is coming in through seismology observations and other related research.

“All of the scientific software we develop at CIG is open source, and a big part of our mission is teaching students to develop and use high-quality scientific software in their own research,” said Louise Kellogg, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis, as well as the director of the CIG, in an email interview. “Our students go on to a variety of careers in industry, government, research, and teaching, and they bring with them the technical expertise they learn here.”

Matsui’s code to model magnetic field and core simulations, called Calypso, was first developed when he was an undergraduate in Japan about 20 years ago.

That code is still being used and updated today by Matsui. It can be downloaded by anyone, though people without access to supercomputers are limited

in what simulations can be run. The Calypso code is being used in conjunction with Nick Featherstone’s Rayleigh, which will most likely be distributed by CIG in the near future.

“UC Davis is the headquarters of the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics, which is funded by the National Science Foundation to advance research using high performance computing for problems like the geodynamo, plate tectonics, and earthquakes,” Kellogg said. “These computer runs on the world’s 6th fastest computer were made through an allocation of computing time on the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. These are essentially a large experiment, generating very large datasets, and the team will be analyzing the results over the next year.”

Matsui is excited to get started on the next phase of research, which includes collecting more data and fine-tuning the results through the use of the supercomputer.

“If we know the solution and we’re going the right direction and everything goes well [from the start], it sounds kind of boring,” Matsui said. “[Research] not going well is pretty fun. But fatal results is almost impossible to make into a paper — who would want to read a paper on something not going well? But, honestly, such fatal results, yes, that teaches me lots of stuff.”

GLUTENDEMON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

winter, I was starting to lose my hearing,” Russ said. “In every aspect of my health, everything was going wrong.”

Taking the advice of a physical therapist who suggested she may have celiac disease into consideration, Russ decided to try a gluten-free diet, but waited a year to heed the therapist’s advice.

“At the time, I was approaching tenure, I had a child, I was travelling a lot, I didn’t know what celiac disease was, or that it could kill you,” Russ said. “You hear all these things in the press ‘demonizing gluten’, that it’s a just a fad, a fashion — so I was really skeptical about it, even though my physical therapist […] seemed to know [what she was talking about].”

Finally, she decided to give a gluten-free diet a chance. The change was almost immediate, with the majority of her health problems totally disappearing.

The current gluten-free trend, the one Russ was hesitant of being associated with, has been a double-edged sword for those with celiac disease, according to Talia Machlouf, the director of advocacy and research for the Celiac Disease Foundation. On one hand, it was not long ago when gluten-free options in grocery stores were limited or nonexistent. In addition, the term “gluten-free” as a label was not regulated by the FDA until 2014,

when it was defined as a food having 20 parts per million or fewer of gluten. Before 2014, any food could claim it was “gluten-free” and still cause illness in those with celiac. The gluten-free diet has led to greater awareness of gluten labelling.

The increasing popularity of these diets has, on the other hand, contributed to the rising cost of gluten-free foods and a lack of legitimacy given to those with gluten intolerance. Russ’s own preliminary research shows that, as a whole, gluten-free households spend 242 percent more on groceries than gluten-consuming ones, in part due to the increased cost of operating a gluten-free production for food suppliers, but also in part due to price inflation of retailers. Adding to that, restaurant staff will often not take those with gluten-free requests seriously, putting celiac patients at risk.

“They think the gluten option is healthier, but then splurge on something with gluten,” Machlouf said. “[Celiacs get] generalized with the health eaters and their requests don’t get taken seriously. If you cook eggs on the same surface as buns, then someone with celiac could get sick from that.”

Organizations like the Celiac Disease Foundation are educating both the public and health care providers about celiac to prevent years of misdiagnoses common with celiac patients.

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

12 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

LADY BIRD

COHO

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reminds us of ourselves.

For UC Davis students in particular, “Lady Bird” speaks volumes. Sweeping shots of Sacramento highways, the Tower Bridge and rural skylines evoke some sense of pride for the surrounding area of our favorite college town. While Lady Bird resents the fact that she was accepted into UC Davis — for its close proximity to her home and its fame as an agricultural school — she still deeply appreciates her hometown, although she may not see it quite yet herself.

So do yourself a favor and go see “Lady Bird.” See it with your mom. Remind her that you love her and that you do miss home more than you care to let on. See it for the hilarious references to our beloved UC Davis. Remember the feelings that you felt when you were in Lady Bird’s exact place as a high school senior. Immerse yourself in all that Gerwig has to offer to the audiences of “Lady Bird.” Remind yourself that you are young, naive and probably a bit selfish, but that sometimes, that’s okay.

EJ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

chair of Environmental Science and Policy as well as an environmental science and policy professor. “I think we came to realize that there’s something that’s much broader on campus where’s there’s quite a lot of students that feel like they’re not getting the coverage of environmental and social justice [...] in a way that they want.”

There are opportunities at UC Davis to gain snippets of environmental content in various courses like human and community development, history, English, sociology, environmental studies, American studies and Native American studies. However, there is no succinct pathway to a comprehensive education in environmental justice. This is what led to the idea of creating an environmental justice minor.

“Julie Sze teaches one of the most relevant [EJ] classes, but it has a small enrollment, and similarly Jonathan London at the Center for Regional Change teaches a human and community development class and has that content as well, [which is] probably the biggest class on campus that’s most directly relevant,” Holyoak said. “As a department we weren’t doing much, and it’s clear that something more coordinated was needed across campus.”

A lot of work has gone into the preliminary steps of creating this minor so far. With a scoping meeting last spring and a significant amount of homework over the summer of what other college campuses are doing in the way of teaching environmental justice, a list of relevant courses at UC Davis and enough other information has been gathered to get the ball officially rolling. But Holyoak points out that the process of creating this minor is still in its early stages.

“We need to get some resources from the Deans in different colleges for things like some

more undergraduate advising, some peer advisors [and] a faculty coordinator,” Holyoak said.

“If we can get that kind of buy in and would seek letters of support from the relevant departments, and then we would submit it as a formal proposal to the academic senate as a minor [...] we’re hoping we can get it done in a year.”

Consolidating the veins of science with community-led research into a comprehensive minor would create a platform for students to develop the proper interdisciplinary education needed to inform policy. Sze sees a number of other benefits to the creation of a minor, including catering to the desires of changing student demographics at UC Davis.

“Students are becoming more and more reflective of the demographics of California, and more and more are students who are first generation or Latino who are interested in these issues,” Sze said. “I’ve met a lot of people [in] the environmental sciences and environmental policy [fields] who are Latino and/or community college transfer students, [who] come in and want to do a certain type of engaged scholarship that’s connected to their communities, but they’re not getting that here.”

Another benefit Sze recognizes is how an environmental justice minor can give students the tools and knowledge they need to realize that they have a responsibility to face the issues exposed by environmental justice.

“I think a white, middle class environmental person also has a moral responsibility to understand environmental justice,” Sze said. “If you go and work in environmental fields, in environmental policy, say at the California Environmental Protection Agency, environmental justice is a real thing you have to engage with. So I think that’s really important to train that population.”

have to pick up the slack,” O’Brien said. “It would definitely impede the process to add more to our repertoire. They would kinda throw it at us out of nowhere.”

The CoHo staff considers these potential difficulties.

“The impact on our staff and the resources needed to make any menu addition is always taken into account with new items,” Schluep said. “There is always an adjustment period to new items, but we do our best to make it a smooth process for our employees. And we will constantly evaluate an item’s success to determine whether or not it is ‘successful’ or whether we may need to go back to the drawing board to make adjustments or try something altogether new.”

In addition, for many students, like Pan, the CoHo is an attractive eating spot on campus because of the cheap options available. By adding more fancy items

to the menu, how the prices of items will change is brought into question.

“I understand why they are making these nicer items, but the CoHo is known as a cheap and affordable place for students,” Pan said. “But the poke bowls are pretty expensive in CoHo terms, where you can get a bagel for $2. I understand the pricing of it, and I guess it is up to the customer if they want to spend that much money. I don’t really even know how many people actually buy the poke bowls, so I don’t know if the demand matches the supply we are putting out.

They are not necessarily replacing cheaper options but giving more options in general. But from an employee standpoint, it can put a lot on employees who have to make these items. It’s a weird balance.”

Time will tell whether or not the new items gain popularity and are worth the cost of adding them.

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Gross also echoed Bertsch’s well-rounded game.

“It’s probably going in [when Bertsch has the ball],” Gross said. “She has a knack for putting the ball in the basket. She’s worked extremely hard on her game and it’s paying off and she is just a very tough match up. She can score outside, she can score inside, and I thought down the stretch she hit a couple big shots to kind of give us a little breathing room.”

Bertsch remained consistent and confident as she went on to set a new career high of 29 points, one point short of being the first Aggie since 2005 to score 30 points. Nafekh and Bertsch continued to be powerhouses for the Aggies for the remainder of the game, sending the Hornets back over the causeway with a loss.

The Aggies continue to be the only undefeated team in the Big West. But Bertsch expects more than an un-

defeated reputation.

“I think we kind of knew coming into the season that it’s going to be a special team and this is the team that could do amazing things. So its awesome and it’s amazing and it’s something that should be celebrated but I think we should just all know that we are not done yet,” Bertsch said. “That [the 7-0 opener] is not going to be the thing that everyone remembers us for. There’s going to be a lot of greatness coming out of this team and I think that we just gotta keep the ball rolling.”

The team’s 7-0 opening season success surpasses the UC Davis Division I history made in 1994. The team’s homestand will end after the Dec. 7 doubleheader game at 5 p.m. in the Pavilion against San Francisco. The team will then head to Moraga, Calif. to take on the 5-2 St. Mary’s Gaels.

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wants to join. After shopping all day, we go back to my cousins house and play games.”

The Black Friday shopping tradition was started by her grandma in order for the family to have some fun after celebrating Thanksgiving. However, the ornament exchange idea began as a way to make their gift giving a little more meaningful.

“For the ornament gift exchange, we started when all of the cousins got older because the only thing we were giving to each other was gift cards, and it wasn’t as exciting as when we were kids,” Friend said. “This is now much more entertaining and fun, and we plan with our siblings how to steal the good ornaments.”

Friend enjoys these traditions mostly because she gets to be around her family and enjoy the memories they create from being together.

“I love being with my family. We get to catch up, hang out and share lots of laughs,” Friend said. “There are new jokes made every year that we never forget.”

She expressed a similar sentiment to McCarthy’s on how traditions have impacted her family.

“It builds connections and brings you closer to your family,” Friend said. “It gives everyone something to look forward to each year that you can add new twists to or keep just how it is. I think it is a special thing to see pass down the families.”

From the Aggie archives

Photo by Tomi Kelley

Photo by Tomi Kelley

Photo by Neil Michel, 1991

Photo by Mehdi Saghafi

13 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS TEAM OF THE QUARTER: MEN’S SOCCER

N ICHOLAS C HA N / AGG IE F IL E

UC Davis men’s soccer wins division title, nearly makes NCAA tournament

BY B REN DA N O G B U R N sports@theaggie.org

After enjoying one of the most successful seasons in program history, falling just one win shy of reaching the NCAA Division I tournament, the UC Davis men’s soccer team was an easy choice for The California Aggie’s Fall 2017 Team of the Quarter.

The team captured the Big West North Division crown in the regular season and advanced all the way to the finals of the conference tournament, finishing with a record of 11-7-3 and a 7-2-1 mark versus Big West opponents.

The Aggies received a number of awards and accolades throughout the campaign for their performances both on and off the pitch.

Redshirt junior defender Roy Boateng was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year and head coach Dwayne Shaffer was honored as Coach of the Year. In addition, senior midfielder Onah Power, redshirt freshman Nabi Kibunguchy,and Boateng were all selected for the All-Big West First Team.

Senior defender Chase Rhode and redshirt junior forward Matt Baringer were both selected for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District First Team, an award that annually honors the finest student-athletes across the

country.

One of the most memorable moments of the season was the team’s dramatic victory over CSU Northridge in the Big West tournament semifinals. After squandering a 2-0 first half lead, the Aggies battled back and scored a pair of goals in the final 22 seconds of regulation to steal the win. UC Davis overcame a grand total of six yellow cards and two red cards, most of them in the late, critical stages of the contest, to move on to the finals.

After a slow start to the season during non-conference play, the Aggies hit their stride during the back half of the year and finished strong with five wins in the final six games of the regular season.

“We had some unfortunate results early in the year, but we rebounded and we stayed strong,” Shaffer said.

“We had an unbelievable run. They should be proud of themselves.”

The turnaround can largely be attributed to the vast amount of experience on this year’s roster, which included eight seniors.

“Midway through the season, the eight of us all made a decision that we were going to be at this spot at the end of the season, and we fought towards that,” said senior forward Noah Wilson. “We focused on every minute and every half, playing our game, and then the results came.”

DUO on 12

Redshirt sophomore forward Adam Mickelson was the team leader in points, finishing with a total of 15, as well as assists, with seven. Wilson, one of only five players on the roster to start all 21 matches, had a knack for coming up clutch in the most important moments, tallying two game-winning goals on the season.

Honorable Mention: Women’s Volleyball The UC Davis women’s volleyball team wrapped up the season with an overall record of 16-14, including an 8-8 mark against conference opponents and a fourthplace finish in the Big Sky conference.

The Aggies played their best ball of the season in the middle portion of the conference schedule, winning seven out of nine games from October through early November. The team also enjoyed a hot streak in a couple of the early-season tournaments, going undefeated in both the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Invitational in Las Vegas and the UC Davis Invitational at home.

UC Davis was led by freshman outside hitter Mahalia White, who finished the season with a team-high 398 kills. She was rewarded for her efforts by being honored as the Big Sky Freshman of the Year and selected for the All-Big Sky First Team.

AGGIES WIN WWPA CHAMPIONSHIP, FALL SHORT IN NCAA TOURNAMENT UC Davis men’s water polo team finishes season as Western Water Polo Champions, loses 13-12 in NCAA tournament

BY RYA N BUG SC H sports@theaggie.org

With a 22-7 overall record and its second undefeated conference season, going 7-0, the UC Davis men’s water polo team captured the Western Water Polo Association Championship on Nov. 19, defeating the UC San Diego Tritons 9-6. This is the second year in a row the Aggies earned the title of WWPA champions, having beaten the Tritons in the 2016 season. Senior attackers Spencer Galli and Morgan Olson-Fabbro as well as senior utility Cory Laidig each scored two goals in the championship game. The impressive season for the Aggies guaranteed them a spot in the NCAA Championship. Last season, the

Aggies were defeated in the play-in game by Harvard 16-15 in overtime, and being guaranteed a spot in the tournament, the Aggies wanted to prove they could compete.

Tied for eighth by the NCAA, UC Davis was selected to play against the fifth-ranked University of the Pacific Tigers, after Pacific defeated Pomona-Pitzer in the opening round game. The Tigers came into the game with a 20-5 overall record. The winner of this contest would move on to face UCLA in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Beginning the game, the Aggies trailed early on in the first period of play 2-0. Fabbro was able to put the Aggies on the board with five minutes left in the first, but one more goal from the Tigers brought the first

period to a 3-1 Aggie deficit.

The second period of play was when UC Davis began to make its comeback, scoring four goals in the period compared to the Tigers’ two, bringing the end of the second period tied at 5-5. Galli, sophomore attacker Holden Tamblyn, junior utility Nick Coufal and freshman attacker Jack Stafford all put in goals for the Aggies in the second.

Fabbro and junior utility Riley Venne put goals in the back of the net, Fabbro scoring his second of the game. However, Pacific’s five third-period goals gave the team the edge, and brought its lead on the Aggies to 10-7 rounding out the third.

Trying to come back from three goals starting the fourth period, Stafford scored for UC Davis to get the

ball rolling. However, the Tigers offense continued to power through, scoring three unanswered goals in about two minutes of play, bringing the score to 138, with 3:34 left in the game. Being in that five-goal deficit with such little time left, the Aggies began to surge offensively with 3:20 left, as junior utility Ido Goldschmidt led the offensive charge for the Aggies, scoring an amazing three goals in a two-minute span of play. Sophomore attacker Yurii Hanley also scored a goal for the Aggies in the fourth, but the five-goal deficit in the short amount of time proved to be too much to come back from, and the Aggies took a 13-12 loss.

Even though the Aggies took the loss, it is no secret that their play, their regular season record and their conference record speak to the high quality of team.

STUDENT-ATHLETES PRACTICE, COMPETE DURING HOLIDAY BREAK No ski vacations for in-season UC Davis athletic teams

BY LIZ JACO BSON sports@theaggie.org

While most students pack their bags and head home after finals, UC Davis student-athletes continue to train and compete throughout December and January. Men and women’s basketball are right in the swing of their seasons.

“The teams in season certainly practice during the winter break,” said Mark Honbo, the assistant director of athletics communications via email. “They do generally take a few days off for the holidays, but

they will certainly be back in the gym by December 26. Bear in mind, the men’s basketball team has four games from December 19 through 30. Women’s basketball has a home game on the Sunday immediately after finals week, then a road game that Wednesday, plus two games in New York on December 28-29.

So those two teams are very much in season.”

While they don’t get to spend a lot of time at home or hit the slopes in Tahoe, a few UC Davis men’s basketball players are looking forward to winter break because it’s an opportunity to log a lot of hours in the gym.

“Personally, I like winter break a lot,” said junior guard Siler Schneider. “You don’t have to worry about school, and it’s just straight basketball and time to take care of your body and kind of relax.”

Senior forward Chima Moneke agrees.

“It’s just a lot of free time in terms of practice and shooting free throws, but not worrying about school

BY BREN DA N O G B U R N sports@theaggie.org

The women’s basketball team added to its historic opening season winning streak in this year’s Causeway Classic against Sacramento State. With the Hornets ready to sting, the Aggies had to be quick on their feet to win the game 79-72. The Causeway Classic rivalry is now tied between the two teams at 29-29.

At the end of the first quarter, senior forward Pele Gianotti had yet to miss a shot, shooting 3-3 from the field and 1-1 threepoint shots along with junior forward Meg-

CAITLYN SAMPL EY / AGGIE

on the details,” said head coach Jennifer Gross. “And the fun thing about this team is we’re 7-0, but we’re still hungry and we still want to get better and have a lot of areas where we feel like we can improve, so this week is about improvement.”

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL MAKES HISTORY WITH 7-0 OPENER

ANH-TRAM BU I / AGGI E

BY VERO N I C A VA R GO sports@theaggie.org

is always a good thing,” Moneke said. “It gives us more time to stay in the gym.”

Women’s gymnastics trains a little lighter during the break, but because the season starts on Jan. 8, the team will be back in the gym right after the holidays.

Women’s swimming and diving is also in season but will enjoy a break from training.

“That team has an unusual year: a bunch of meets in the fall, a championship-style meet in November, a long break, then meets in January and February (including the conference and NCAA championships),” Honbo said via email.

Winter break for student-athletes may be a break from classes, but it certainly isn’t a break from working toward their goals. UC Davis women’s basketball will be using its break to hone in on what they feel needs improving. “[We will be] fine-tuning our habits and just making sure that we are going back and kind of focusing

Causeway Classic win over Hornets full of new records

an Bertsch, who went 12-17 in field goals for the night.

Sacramento State was eager to get the ball, applying constant defense on Aggie possession and proving to be a quick-footed team that kept the Aggies constantly in motion on the court. This aggressive pace allowed the Hornets to make opportune shots and keep the game within one or two points throughout the second quarter.

“Sometimes you kind of forget when you don’t play against Sac State for a while what kind of pressure they bring and what kind of game it is going to be,” Bertsch said.

That pressure was felt in every position,

as junior guard Kourtney Eaton continued to keep the ball moving on the court.

“We know that’s the type of style they play — they run they press, they shoot a lot of threes pretty quick, and I think we struggled a little bit in transition defense right away, but we turned it around,” Eaton said. “It was kind of the first test we faced all year, in the fourth quarter like that and it’s good for us. It’s a learning experience. I thought we knocked down shots when we needed to. We got a lot of stops when we needed to. It’s kind of a confidence builder knowing we can play in that sort of game and when it gets down to the wire, we have the strength necessary to come back, find a way to win.”

The Hornets fell short at the end of the first half as Bertsch lead the team with 14 points with 4-4 from the free throw line, her final field goal of the half locking in the Aggies’ smallest halftime lead of the year of 31-27 against the Hornets.

“When [the offense] breaks down you

just drive, kick and keep the possession going and keep the defense scrambling, and it’s been really successful for us,” Bertsch said.

Head Coach Jennifer Gross knew the rivalry game was packed with emotion, but credited her team for willing to work a little harder for better play.

“I think that is starting to define our team: the way that we share the ball, willing to make the extra pass,” Gross said.

“That’s what I love about our team. It’s a selfless group, and tonight showed that. Before the game we talked about passing up a good shot for a great shot, and we know that when we get great shots we can make those shots.”

At the start of the second half, the Aggies reclaimed their lead by 15 points, but the Hornets kept the pressure on to narrow the Aggie lead to only two points at the end of the third quarter.

With two minutes left in the third quarter, Bertsch had already secured a spot on

UC Davis’ all-time scoring list and by the end of the game accomplished a total of 1,128 points for 13th position, pushing the previous holder to 14th.

An intense fourth quarter kept the game close. The game paused for a brief moment as senior guard Dani Nafekh got back on her feet to a tied game of 60-60 before adding a trey to retake the lead. Nafekh, who also set records against Sacramento State tying for eighth in the all-time list for assists with a total of seven in the game, 688 career along with Eaton, did not hold back as the game came to a close.

“It’s my job to get the ball to the hot hand or in the post, and Morgan [Bertsch] was scoring so much tonight,” Eaton said.

“It’s not an assist if it doesn’t get in. so just credit to my teammates. They are amazing shooters, and Morgan [Bertsch] is an amazing post, and they made shots, I just make the passes.”

CAUSEWAY on 12

14 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

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