April 11, 2024

UC Davis community celebrates ‘Year of the Eggheads’

Events and campus-wide activities celebrate the 30-year anniversary of Robert Arneson’s Egghead sculptures

BY MADISON PETERS campus@theaggie.org

On April 4, UC Davis officially kicked off the celebration of the ‘Year of the Eggheads’ to commemorate the 30year anniversary of having the Egghead sculptures on campus.

According to the new Egghead website, artist and former professor Robert Arneson was commissioned to create the Egghead sculptures in 1990. The website suggests that Arneson’s inspiration for the Eggheads came from his trip to the Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy in which he observed small, Egghead-like sculptures. To celebrate the Eggheads’ birthday and Arneson’s legacy, the UC Davis community participated in a range of activities that took place throughout the day, including Egghead exhibits in the lobby of Shields Library, a campuswide Egghead scavenger hunt and a jazz performance and poetry reading put on by the Music Department and select Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students.

Additionally, students enjoyed 30% off discounts on things from games at the Memorial Union Games Area to breakfast burritos with eggs at the Coffee House and new Egghead

merchandise at the UC Davis Store.

For those who wish to learn more about the history of the UC Davis Art Department and Arneson’s works, the first part of a new documentary titled “Unexpected Legends: Robert Arneson, Eggheads and Arts at UC Davis” is now available on the UC Davis Youtube account.

Chancellor Gary May opened the documentary by commenting on the significance that the Eggheads hold in the UC Davis Community.

“Robert Arneson’s Eggheads are a defining element of UC Davis,” May said. “They symbolize that we’re serious about all we do, but we are also comfortable being a little quirky, a little unconventional. The Eggheads represent our commitment to public art on campus. Not only do outdoor sculptures like the Eggheads enhance our environment, they encourage us to think critically, to appreciate our surroundings in new ways and leave us inspired by their artistry.”

The Manetti Shrem Museum participated in the celebration by unveiling a new Egghead display titled “Hatched: The Making of Robert Arneson’s Eggheads.” This display features a behind-the-scenes look at Arneson’s process of creating

the Eggheads, and includes early clay models of the sculptures. Another photo display titled “Aggies with Eggheads” is also available in the museum lobby.

Sandra Shannonhouse, UC Davis alum, artist and widow of Arneson, spoke at the museum event and delved into Arneson’s intentions for some of the Eggheads. She revealed that some of them have a deeper, more political meaning such as the Eye on Mrak Egghead, which signifies “keeping an eye on authority,” a popular motto used in the 1960s and 70s. Shannonhouse then elaborated on her experience as a student with the UC Art Department. “[Taking art classes at UC Davis] changed my life,” Shannonhouse said. “[Those of] you who are students, take advantage of this university and get yourself out of where you think you have to be, or where your parents think you have to be and find yourself. Whether you are making art or doing something else, it all comes from [the heart]. Don’t lose that.”

Following the speech by Shannonhouse, Trevor Bradshaw, an MFA candidate for creative writing, recited a ballad dedicated to the Eggheads and their public perception. Bradshaw revealed his interpretation of the Eggheads in relation to the Antonio Gramsci quote: “We are living in the time of monsters.”

“I thought it was interesting to think about the relationship of these various kinds of heads as a form of protest art,” Bradshaw said. “In my mind, I started to think of the Eggheads as a kind of playful monster, kind of like a Pokemon. Like any other monster, the Eggheads also function as a mirror. We project onto them our own fears since they show us what is monstrous about ourselves, such as turning a blind eye to suffering to better our careers or pursue knowledge in the name of profit, power or fame.”

This interpretation of the Eggheads as a form of protest art proved to hold

some truth in that the night before the event, many of the Eggheads were vandalized by an anonymous party. The graffiti included objections to Gary May’s role on the Leidos Weapons board and pro-Palestinian sentiments.

However, the graffiti was removed before the morning of April 4, and no comments were made by any members of the UC Davis administration.

The event concluded at 7:30 p.m. with a ceremonial lighting of the Eggheads, in which many UC Davis community members gathered around the sculptures and wished them happy birthday.

Egghead celebrations will be continuing on throughout the next month, including special Eggheadthemed menus being featured at the Dining Commons through April 12, and Egghead tours hosted by the

and his fellow artist educators, giants on whose shoulders we now stand, built a heaven for creatives here,” Atekwana said. “A place where artists are empowered and encouraged to test the boundaries of their creativity, and push beyond true greatness. That legacy continues to pay its dividends all around our campus today. Thanks to [Arneson’s] spirit and tenacity, we have become something far greater than some of our [counterparts], and

economics major’s unit requirement. The major was brought to fruition by the Joint Working Group for the Creation of the Business Major, which spanned three different academic departments. Its six-member team included Professors Joseph Chen and Hollis Skaife from the GSM, Giovanni Peri and Derek Stimel from the Department of Economics and Stephen Boucher and Jeffrey Williams from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Peri spoke on how the group worked to create a major that is distinct from existing ones.

“One important thing was for [the departments involved] to create a new business major but also maintain and value the major that we [already] offer and create something which is differentiated from that,” Peri said. The new business major will share many prerequisites and courses with existing degrees in the cluster, but will emphasize preparing students to work in the industry rather than larger economic theory. The Joint Working Group hopes that approximately 150 incoming firstyear students will enroll in the major in its fall 2025 debut. Transfers, both from external institutions and by UC Davis students who wish to switch into the major, will not be allowed to declare until 2027.

Additionally, the major will be selective, meaning that students will have to complete the prerequisites for the major in order to be eligible to switch. The goal is to eventually have a graduating class of approximately 300 students from the major each year, according to Skaife.

The results for Measure N, a parcel tax of $768 a year, were confirmed as of March 21, 2024. The measure passed with 68.24% of the Davis community voting in favor of Measure N while 31.76% voted against this legislation. Measure N meets the two-thirds supermajority threshold to be passed and will not need to be renewed in subsequent elections like previous measures.

In this way, Measure N is a more permanent continuation of Measure H, both of which intend to help supplement state funding for extracurricular programs and teacher salaries in the Davis Joint Unified School District. Evan Jacobs, a volunteer with Yes4Students and an advocate for Measure N, expressed optimism for the longevity of DJUSD teachers, athletics and music programs. “By not having to vote on this every four to eight years, we can give the school district more security and certainty in planning its budgets,” Jacobs said.

Funding provided by the parcel tax

would account for around 10% of the budget for the district. Jacobs believes that this amount of resources left hanging in the air leaves the job security of the teachers in question. Seeing how this need for supplemental funding has remained consistent over the past 40 years, Jacobs said he doesn’t foresee any reason to have to continuously renew this parcel tax, especially so in coming years.

“The state has a really tough budget situation this year and across the state, school funding is going to be cut as a result,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs is concerned about the consequences that could arise if DJUSD were left to rely on this state funding. He believes that the way that teacher pay scales are calculated — based on certifications and seniority — means that rather than simply reducing individual pay, the district might be forced to layoff teachers qualified in instructing advanced placement or higher-level classes.

Jacobs also mentioned how the quality of DJUSD educators and programs make the city of Davis a more desirable place to raise families in. The property values for homeowners, the growth of the city and its local economy benefit from the pull of Davis schools

and the families who for that very reason choose to settle down here. Thomas Randall Jr., treasurer for the NO PARCEL TAXES political action committee, was very skeptical of Measure N and had urged voters to express caution.

“The economy is all out of balance right now, but going to the citizens and wanting to tax more and more and more just creates a greater burden on the poor,” Randall Jr. said.

As cost-of-living increases, Randall Jr. believes that exceptions from the parcel tax should be expanded for those on disability or welfare, on top of ones granted for seniors and those on fixed incomes. And while the permanence of the measure could be seen as security, Randall Jr. feels as though this change could make it harder for voters to voice their concerns.

He also mentioned the concerns of parents like Beth Bourne, the Yolo County Chapter Chair of Moms for Liberty, who did not want to financially support an institution that teaches with alleged “anti-parent policies” or “gendersexual ideology.” MEASUREPASSED on #

ASUCD Senate passes SB #55 to make campaign financing more equitable on Feb. 22

The bill aims to make rules about regarding ASUCD campaign financing more clearer and more efficient also with the hope of increasing voter turnout

BY RIVERS STOUT campus@theaggie.com

On Feb. 22, the ASUCD Senate amended and passed SB #55 after a lengthy debate between the senators. The bill was authored by Zachary Boggeln, the Vice Chairperson of the Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) to ensure that elections are “more transparent, equitable and efficient,” according to the language of the bill. The goal of the bill is to make elections fairer for running candidates who don’t have connections willing to give them significant donations.

“I served on the elections committee for a year now,” Boggeln said. “I’ve also been one of four committee members to assess violation reports where fraud is suspected [in ASUCD elections], or if there is any reason to believe that any candidate or campaign at any point violated the rules that the association has set for a campaign.”

Boggeln described multiple reasons for the bill’s writing, including difficulties investigating possible instances of expenditure fraud or poor finance management in running senators’ campaigns.

“The trouble was, and still is, that the expenditure reports are due immediately after the voting cycle has ended [on Friday night],” Boggeln said. “The elections committee has until Sunday at midnight to release the results.” Within that two day periodcrunch, the committee has to go through all campaign expenditure forms and ensure that the campaigns followed the guidelinesrestrictions placed. This can be a tedious process, and an election with suspicious expenditures can be time consuming to investigate.

“There was a problem with one campaign in which we couldn’t identify the source of the materials that were donated,” Boggeln said. “SB #55 was written to make that process easier for

the elections committee to investigate.” Boggeln went on to explain that the ambiguously constructed rules around campaign finance were hard to interpret and effectively act on. His bill was ultimately a way to make the rules more concise, allowing for better action to be taken when expenditure fraud is suspected, while hopefully making it more difficult and less likely to be committed in the first place.

The Eye on Mrak Egghead during the ceremonial lighting of the Eggheads for “The Year of the Eggheads” event. (Summer Sueki / Aggie)

ALLISON VO / AGGIE

City of Davis purchases 120 acres of farmland for agriculture conservation

Davis now owns part of a $960,000 agricultural conservation easement primarily facilitated by a parcel tax intended to protect open space

BY HANNAH SCHRADER city@theaggie.org

The city of Davis has made a concerted effort to protect its natural landscape through the Open Space Program, which was established in 1990 to protect farmland and habitats in and around Davis. The city now has 240 acres of protected land after its most recent 120-acre land purchase, which closed on March 15.

Measure O, a parcel tax in Davis that funds the preservation of open space, was passed in 2000. This tax enabled the city to create the Open Space Program Strategic Plan, which is an extensive plan that outlines land the city seeks to preserve and manage through 2030.

This most recent agricultural conservation easement purchase was made in partnership with Yolo Land Trust, an organization that helps landowners obtain long-term farmland protection.

Tracie Reynolds, the real property owner for the city of Davis and manager of the Open Space Program, spoke on the unique agricultural situation of Davis.

“Davis is really kind of at the forefront of [agricultural conservation],” Reynolds said. “There are not very many cities in California that have a special tax like that to support conservation easements. Davis is visionary in that regard.” Reynolds then talked about the most enjoyable parts of working with the Open Space Program.

“Over the last 10 years or so, [I’ve enjoyed] just seeing how native grasses and native plants and everything have really taken hold much more than they used to,” Reynolds said. “I enjoy working with these property owners that are around the city [...] to try to do these easements. I really enjoy [...] looking at that map and trying to help implement [...] that vision that a lot of people had way back [...] in the 60s and 70s.”

John Currey, the executive director of Yolo Land Trust, spoke about some of the organization’s goals and priorities.

“I would say that our primary goal, first and foremost, is to protect agricultural land, [specifically] primary cultural land in Yolo County,” Currey said. “The protection of farmland against the encroachment of urban sprawl is really the thing we do in partnership with the county and our urban centers: the city of Davis, city of Woodland, city of Winters and the Esparto-Madison area.”

Currey spoke about some of his favorite aspects of working with Yolo Land Trust.

“What’s most important to me is the relationship that we have with the farmers and the landowners,” Currey said. “These are relationships that have to last forever because these easements are forever.” Tracy Ellison, the conservation manager at Solano Land Trust, talked about the factors that go into landowners’ decisions to sell their development rights.

“To be a landowner means many, many things,” Ellison said. “So when landowners choose this conservation easement tool, they’re taking their ownership, and we call it in our world a ‘bundle of sticks.’”

Representative Mike Thompson presents $850,000 check for Walnut Park Library project

The initiative is meant to expand community services with expected completion by 2026

On March 25, Representative Mike Thompson secured a boost to the city of Davis by presenting an $850,000 check for the South Davis Library project. This funding was secured as part of the government funding bill signed into law on March 9, 2024.

The Walnut Park Library project has been long awaited. Davis residents first recognized the need for a library south of I-80 in 2001, and the demand for expansion led to the land allocation in 2002. Still, it was not until 2017 that the Yolo County Library Facilities Master Plan began Phase One of the project.

In 2020, community partners discussed service needs for a South Davis library branch and architects began developing design concepts. Significant progress was made in 2022 when the Yolo County Library received $8.7 million as part of the Building Forward Grant from the California State Library. The city of Davis’ commitment in 2023 granted $1.5 million towards the project and further advanced its progress. The Walnut Park Library, scheduled for completion in 2026, will be located at 2700 Lillard Drive at the west end of Walnut Park. The facility will occupy over 12,000 square feet, providing a vibrant space for learning and community engagement. The project’s total cost is estimated at approximately $21.3 million, with funding provided by the State of California and administered by the California State Library. This new establishment responds to the needs of an economically disadvantaged area that has experienced significant population growth in the last two decades.

“The South Davis Library will greatly benefit a community that

currently does not have access to a library by expanding library services and establishing literacy programs for children and adults,” Thompson said in a press release. Doubling as a community center, the library is proposed to be open six days a week, ensuring accessible services and resources for residents.

“I am glad that Davis leaders brought this project to my attention, and I am proud I was able to secure the funding in government funding bills. In addition, this space will help to protect our community from extreme weather by serving as a warming and cooling center and a place to shelter from smoke,” Thompson said. I look forward to seeing this project move forward and benefit the entire Davis community.”.

In 1968, Davis introduced its initial branch library, now known as the Mary L. Stephens Library, last renovated in 2010. However, by 2014, the Mary L. Stephens Library reached maximum capacity and continues facing challenges such as inadequate seating, tables and parking.

Thompson’s new funds for the South Davis library prove a significant investment in community infrastructure and a promising step towards addressing the needs of underserved populations in Davis.

“The Walnut Park Library project will be a tremendous asset to the South Davis community,” Davis Mayor Josh Chapman said in a press release. “The funding support received, including $850,000 from Representative Mike Thompson’s office, $8.7 million from the California State Library and the City’s own donation of $1.5 million, will bring invaluable services and programs to the children and residents of this community. I am so proud to have been a part of this collaborative process to provide a state-of-the-art library to South Davis.”

A bundle of sticks refers to the rights landowners have to do various things with their land including the right to: develop on their land, allow others to use their land to develop, or allow others to farm on their land and so on. Conservation easements occur when landowners voluntarily give up the right to ever develop on their land. Ellison then referenced the fact that landowners are entirely in control of whether they sell the development rights to their land or not.

“They have an opportunity as landowners to make a decision about what to do with those rights,” Ellison said. “Some of those rights are free and clear. There’s no policy, there’s no requirements or restrictions against them, and they can do what they want with them.”“They

Police investigating six suspects after assaults downtown

Two victims were assaulted by a group of people downtown, leaving one victim severely injured

BY CHRIS PONCE city@theaggie.org

On March 29, there was an assault on two individuals near 2nd and F Street, according to the city of Davis Police Department. The assault left one victim “severely injured” and “unable to provide needed information.” Due to surveillance footage from a nearby business, authorities have received footage of the assault and have determined there are six suspects.

“At approximately 11:40 PM, two individuals were assaulted near the intersection of 2nd Street and F Street,” the City of Davis Police Department shared on Facebook. “There were reported to be 5-6 suspects, some of whom were wearing masks. The suspects approached the two individuals and began to assault them, severely injuring one.”

In a later Facebook statement made on Thursday, April 4, authorities

confirmed there were six suspects and released four clips from the nearby business that recorded the incident. The suspects wore hoodies and at least some wore face masks. The footage is not clear enough to determine the identity of any of the suspects. One clip shows one of the suspects chasing and punching one of the victims down 2nd Street until the victim falls to the floor.

“Unfortunately, the video is not clear enough to provide a firm identification of the 6 suspects,” Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel shared on Facebook. “It is evident they are wearing hoodies and at least some, if not all, have facemasks, which is consistent with a victim’s statement. Complicating the investigation, one of the victims was seriously injured and is unable to provide needed information.”

Davis police have not received more information about where the suspects came from or how they fled the scene. However, the footage shows them running westbound on 2nd Street.

Authorities have also not yet determined if there was a motive.

“And, at this point, no clear motive has been identified to determine why this incident took place,” Pytel said in the statement. “The victims and suspects came from two different directions, and it is not yet known if they had engaged earlier in the evening.”

Police are currently investigating the crime and asking anyone who was downtown at the time of the assaults to contact them if they saw the suspects. Authorities are asking witnesses or anyone with footage to contact them by calling 530-747-5400 or emailing PoliceWeb@cityofdavis.org.

“As more information becomes available, it will be shared with the community. In the meantime, a very active investigation is occurring,” Pytel said in the statement. “This was a particularly brutal crime and finding those responsible, and holding them accountable, is of the utmost importance.”

Yolo County Library hosts celebrations for Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros

Día brings community members together to celebrate children and encourage literacy

BY OLIVIA HOKR city@theaggie.org

Día de los Niños/Día de los Libros, also commonly referred to as Día, will be celebrated by various Yolo County Library locations throughout the month of April. Día is a nationally recognized holiday that aims to honor children and recognize society’s next generations while promoting literacy and cultural diversity.

On April 6, the Yolo Branch Library held the first of many celebrations. The festivities began with storytime and interactive children’s songs led by Ana, an employee from the West Sacramento Branch and an organizer of the Día celebration. Books and songs were spoken in both English and Spanish to highlight the origin of Día.

This was followed by various activity stations for children and their families to enjoy, including coloring, crafts, bubbles and building blocks. The grand finale was a performance by Nā Keiki O Hawaii Dancers. A display of books was available for families in attendance to choose from and take home with them. Hundreds of children’s books were donated and fundraised for the library in honor of late community member, Violet Hansen, who is remembered for her love of reading. The Violet Hansen Memorial Funds were created by her family to provide thousands of books for the library and for the expansion of Violet’s Corner in the library. They hope to encourage reading and literacy in children. To honor Violet, books were donated for giving away at the Día celebration.

A Yolo County Library employee from the Davis branch and an organizer of the events, Gaby, shared why they

A Yolo Branch Library volunteer helps a child pick out books to take home. (Jenna Lee / Aggie)

bring these Día celebrations to their communities every year and how it aims to educate and entertain families and their children. “The events are to celebrate youth, celebrate books, celebrate literacy and make [literacy] accessible for the children in Yolo County. We like to bring culture into it and bring in performers for families to enjoy,” Gaby said.

A significant part of the celebration is to provide the opportunity for families to engage with others from their community. At the Yolo Branch event, nearly twenty families were in attendance and were able to enjoy a welcoming and interactive space. Children played and sang together while learning about the importance of education.

The Family Yolo County Literacy Organizer Leticia Flores is a community member and mother who attended Día on April 6. She emphasized the importance of promoting early literacy

and of spreading knowledge of the available local library services, especially in small rural areas.

“I think it’s important to bring the community together and, especially with kids, have these types of handson events to bring people together,” Flores said.

Flores was one of many women who were there to celebrate Día with her family but also to share information with the community regarding the organization. Yolo County Library provides many services and resources for literacy and education. This includes classes to improve reading and writing skills for both children and adults and overall easier access to reading materials.

To celebrate Día de los Niños/ Día de los Libros and engage with the community, people can attend an event at your local Yolo County library. Each celebration will include a special performance and offer free take-home children’s books.

Representative Mike Thompson presents the city of Davis with a check for $850,000. (Courtesy / Melanie Rhinehart Van Tassell)

Budget hearings, spending bills discussed in April 4 Senate meeting

The Senate allocated money to HackDavis, as well as to the upcoming ASUCD Cultural Festival

BY SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org

“I will be requesting money in the future,” Senator Nur Ambaw said. “And I hope the things you have to say against it are reasonable.”

He was speaking out after criticism against SB #50 during the previous meeting, a bill that he drafted but ultimately withdrew that would allocate money to purchase athletic gear for the MU. This was only one of a variety of budget-related discussions at the April 4 ASUCD Senate meeting as the table gears up for budget hearings in early May.

The meeting was called to order at 6:19 p.m. by Internal Vice President Aarushi Raghunathan. After calling roll and reading the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement, the Senate moved into President Pro Tempore elections for the spring quarter.

Senator Trinity Chow was the only nominee, and it was noted that she has both “a willingness to take on extra

responsibility” and the ability to “help facilitate mature conversations.”

She was unanimously selected and accepted the position, saying that she plans to help them become “a more cohesive table,” and to successfully represent units and commissions in the upcoming budget hearings.

Next, Recruitment and Retention Organizing Committee External Chair Ashley Perez Caron gave a quarterly report for the Student Recruitment and Retention Center. “Who has been to the SRRC, raise your hand?” Caron began. When several people raised their hands, she tacked on, “Omg, slayyy.” She then proceeded to give the Senate table a background on the history of the organization, and what they’re up to now. According to Caron, the program focuses on getting people into higher education, and keeping them there — especially underrepresented groups. One of the ways they do this is through hosting “nontraditional” campus tours for prospective students.

“For most of these students,

college is romanticized for them, so they may not realize they’re also going to struggle,” Caron said. “[In these tours], it’s more than, ‘Hey y’all, come to UC Davis, we’ve got good coffee.’ We talk about the challenges and struggles, and try and make sure the youth are being told the truth because they deserve to be.”

In terms of future goals, she highlighted the grant funding they continue to provide RSOs in order to support building cultural communities, and a fellowship that they’re planning to create for students.

After unit adoptions, during which Senators chose units and commissions that they wanted to focus on supporting this quarter, the table moved into public comment.

Senator Leah Jung noted that certain bathrooms across campus have started charging a quarter for pads and tampons, and said that they should continue to be free for everyone.

At 7:30, Raghunathan called a break for dinner (pizza and Insomnia cookies).

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The Pantry offers new translations of their services for international student community

The Office of the International Student Representative has been working to ensure all ASUCD units have translation services since 2022

BY SYDNEY AMESTOY campus@theaggie.org

Senate hears State of the Association by ASUCD President Francisco Ojeda

In his speech, Ojeda discussed both the challenges and successes from this academic year so far and announced that he will not be running for reelection

BY RODRIGO VILLEGAS campus@theaggie.org

Senator Trinity Chow called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. and read the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement to commence the meeting. The Senate then held several rounds of committee position and member confirmations for the Housing and Transportation Advocacy Committee (HTAC) and the Student Health and Wellness Committee (SHAWC). Each nominee introduced themself and answered various questions from the Senate regarding their respective positions. ASUCD President Francisco Ojeda then gave a State of the Association.

external affairs manager and a former international student representative in 2022 as a way to extend the services of The Pantry to the international community on campus, according to Qinyin Huang, The Pantry’s outreach manager.

The translations of The Pantry items and services include multilingual videos on The Pantry’s YouTube account, according to Huang.

Ojeda began his speech by mentioning the impeachment through his presentation’s title slide, where he wrote “By: (STILL) ASUCD President,” and directly addressed it.

“Thankfully, we were able to get back to work after the annoying and wasteful impeachment,” Ojeda said. “I hope, for the sake of the association and our mental health, we have moved on.”

He proceeded with his speech, where he discussed the new campuswide accounting system implemented on Jan. 1, which has become a significant issue that has affected the entire association.

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create a QR code. If students need to use the translations, they can use the QR codes to access it.”

Ahmed, who is nearing the end of his term, said there are plans to create a translation committee within this office that will handle future translation services within ASUCD.

“There’s only four of us in the office [to translate],” Ahmed said. “The one thing that we kind of like to try to make sure is that whichever language is the most spoken is being translated. We have Japanese, Korean and Hindi for this year.”

As The Pantry recently moved to its new location at MU 117 East Quad Avenue, it also released its translation services for the translation of products in several different languages. This project was sponsored by the ASUCD Office of the International Student Representative.

The project began as a crosspromotion between a former

UC Davis CARE center, UC Davis AB540 Undocumented Student Center commemorate Sexual Assault Awareness Month

with ‘Paint + Positivity’ events

These are the first of many events that the organization will be putting together throughout the month of April to advocate for sexual assault awareness and prevention

BY BENJAMIN CARRILLO campus@theaggie.org

On April 4 and April 8, the UC Davis CARE Center and the UC Davis AB540 Undocumented Student Center aimed to raise advocacy for Sexual Assault Awareness Month through their “Paint + Positivity” events. One of the co-leads on this event, Kelsie Sladen, a training and education specialist for the CARE, spoke on the importance of this being the first event to start the month. “It’s always been that this event is meant to use art as a sort of healing mentality,” Sladen said. “It’s always been a very feel-good event, which is harder to create in a month as heavy as this one. Painting is nice to break the tension and focus on a nice community.” Sladen then explained why CARE took a specific interest in Sexual Assault Awareness Month. “We are a free and confidential resource for students that have been impacted by any type of sexual violence,” Sladen said. “The other part of what we do is prevention and education. It’s really important to bring about awareness and talk about what [students] can do to better support survivors. With awareness months like April, we really lead the way in starting events and have an event calendar on our website with not only our events but any events hosted on campus to support survivors.”

In addition to this event, the

UC Davis CARE center specifically is hosting a myriad of other events throughout the month of April, all with the intention of raising awareness for sexual assault survivors.

Another Co-Lead of the event, Lea Harlev, a training and education specialist with CARE, described the initial reason for why painting was chosen as the first event of the month.

“The initial reason for this event was to create paintings for survivors to then see at our biggest event, “Take Back the Night,” which is happening April 9,” Harlev said. “We would use the paintings to decorate the space for [this event]. But over time, we’ve just wanted people to come and paint something they want to take home that is representative of self-love.” Harlev continued on to speak on the significance of painting as a healing mechanism and the importance of having a sense of community between survivors of sexual abuse.

“We try to offer alternative things to experience healing while also [creating] a community and [practicing] some self-care,” Harlev said. “There’s obviously counseling services and therapy offered through the school, but tons of students may not be ready for therapy or the lines are too long. We try to offer another method of healing that creates a safespace for students.

Students looking to find more information on the events being held throughout Sexual Assault Awareness Month by CARE can visit their Instagram or website.

“The mission of The Pantry is to help every Davis-affiliated individual with basic needs and food security,” Huang said. “To maximize our outreach and ensure that students are aware of our resources, this multilingual video project helps break down the language barrier and welcome those who can benefit from us.”

Asif Ahmed, a third-year economics major and the current ASUCD international student representative, said that during his term, he has continued the translation services for numerous ASUCD units that began under the previous representative. “Recently, we also started doing it with SAO [Student Government Administrative Office], but the translation stuff has been going on since before I was elected,” Ahmed said. “One thing that I wanted to do was keep that going because a lot of the stuff that ASUCD has to provide would be more accessible to more students.”

Ahmed described how other units have used a different system of translation for their items, such as the CoHo, showing menu translations in Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, Korean, Japanese and Arabic.

“For example, with the CoHo, they send us the menu, and within our office, we try to translate to the most popular languages [that] are spoken in Davis,” Ahmed said. “We translate it, [get] a document ready online and

Ahmed continued to say that a translation committee would ensure that there is consistency in the languages being translated within each ASUCD unit. Currently, the translations are dependent on individuals with Ahmed’s office, and having a larger committee would allow for a wider range of languages.

While the office has translations in Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and Korean available for certain units in ASUCD, other units still have basic translations for their services in Chinese and Spanish only. Unitrans General Manager Jeffery Flynn said these translations come from within Unitrans.

“We haven’t used ASUCD yet for translating,” Flynn said. “Unitrans has many students who are native speakers of non-English languages including Spanish and Chinese. We typically rely on our internal staff before reaching out for assistance.”

There are hopes that a committee would allow for more ASUCD units to have translations of more languages in the future, according to Ahmed.

“The long-term hope is making the entire ASUCD more accessible to international students or people who speak different languages,” Ahmed said.

ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission hosts first-ever drag brunch at Student Community Center

The event featured both drag performers from and outside of UC Davis and LGBTQIA+ trivia

BY JORDAN POLTORAK campus@theaggie.org

On April 5, the ASUCD Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC) hosted a drag brunch from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Student Community Center. The event featured four drag performers and an intermission of LGBTQIA+ trivia.

Two of the performers, Komolika and Srobin, are UC Davis students. Hard Kandi and Ivory Haze, drag performers who are not UC Davis students, were also contacted by ASUCD to perform. Komolika started the show to “Vogue” by Madonna with a lip-sync and dance, which received large cheers from the audience.

“There was more energy in this room than BearDive some days,” Ivory Haze said in regard to the bar where they typically perform.

Each performer brought their own style to the show. Komolika’s performance included elements of Bollywood in music, clothing and dance. Hard Kandi incorporated props such as a rotary phone and a fake guitar to smash. The intermission included LGBTQIA+ trivia from around the world. This allowed students to team up, get to know each other better and gain knowledge on LGBTQIA+ history as a whole. “You can be whoever you want to be in Davis,” Stella Moynihan, a third-

“It’s so fun to watch people express themselves. Everyone is so welcoming and so supportive of all the queens performing,” Chelsea Sun, a secondyear student, said. Throughout all of the performances, audience members cheered from every corner of the room. The audience’s enthusiasm was felt by Ivory Haze.

year student said. This is evident as Srobin is both a second-year statistics major and drag artist.

“I like the contrast between doing drag and being a math diva, but there is an intersection as well that I enjoy,” Srobin said.

Volunteers from GASC planned and ran the entire event, from decorating the space to inviting the drag performers and introducing each act.

This was the first drag brunch put on by ASUCD, and the event had so many attendees that those who had not signed up in advance were turned away at the door.

“Events like this are amazing because there is [a] huge overlap between the queer community and the bar scene,” Hard Kandi said. “For young queer kids, it is great to have events that are not necessarily linked to nightlife.”

The CoHo offers several food options from pizza and sandwhiches to Swirlz’s speciality drinks like Lavender Showers that coindcide with pop culture events of the month. (Maia Zhu/Aggie)

Thank your barista

Latte art as the mark of excellent coffee craft

BY MAYA KORNYEYEVA mkornyeyeva@ucdavis.edu

You walk into your local coffee shop and order a hot latte, noting that the line isn’t long and the atmosphere in the cafe is relaxed and uplifting. You pay for your drink, stand to the side to make way for the next customer and patiently wait for your name to be called out.

Once your order is up on the bar and ready for pick up — even if it took slightly longer than expected or you have grown cranky from your caffeine withdrawal — the sight of the beautifully rich espresso adorned with an intricate pattern of white foam makes your heart sparkle and your soul do a happy skip. It’s not just that the latte looks visually stunning; latte art is a telling sign of a well-crafted beverage — coffee honed to perfection.

The term “latte art” was coined by David Schomer in 1992 (alongside the infamously tricky yet successful pattern of the “rosetta”), and emerged into the commercial world at the turn of the 21st century. Latte art traces its roots back all the way to the first instance of milk being added to coffee in Austria (1697), where this revolutionary combination of ingredients became the predecessor of a whole new type of coffee beverage.

Latte art is a technique that can only be achieved if a barista creates a perfect, unexpired shot of espresso — with a fine layer of crema on top — and steams their milk correctly. To produce that perfect ‘microfoam,’ the milk needs to be steamed so that it increases in volume by around 33%. This expansion of the milk is a result of tiny bubbles, which are dispersed throughout the milk during the steaming process and give it that characteristically sweet and smooth texture. Without having a balanced shot of espresso and milk with microfoam,

PRINCESSPALS FROM PAGE 10

“We did bracelet making back then, and there was this one little girl who was like, ‘I made a bracelet for you,’ and I was like, ‘No, I can’t take your bracelet! You keep it, that’s so sweet!’ I just couldn’t do it, and she didn’t want to leave. It was so adorable.”

These stories are not unique to only the members who dress up and act. Helpers who attend events also have similar experiences. “I remember my first year, I went as a helper and there was this little girl that just kept being next to me and stood by me the entire time, it was really sweet. At the end, she drew me a little picture, and I still have the picture up in my room in Davis,” Ramirez-Leng said. “It’s little things like that that stick with you. You don’t even have to be dressed up, the kids just enjoy that you’re there.”

Even though the circumstances these children live with are emotionally heavy, the volunteers attempt to work through it with them and are happy to do so.

“Knowing that you can bring them just a little bit of joy, I think helps to keep us going and have a smile on our face,” Zamora said. “It’s meant to be a special experience for them, so you kind of take how you feel out of it just to give them a little bit of joy.”

During the spring, Princess Pals will have their meetings from 7 to 8 p.m. on Mondays starting the second week of the quarter and continuing every other week. More of Princess Pals and their work can be seen on their Instagram, @ucdprincesspals, and they can also be reached through their email, princesspalsatucd@gmail.com. New members are always welcome, and everyone who volunteers can help make a difference in the lives of children in the local community.

WELLNESS GOALS

FROM PAGE 10

“It was kind of hard for me to find time since I do commute, so I feel like coming here is so much more of a mental task, but I always set aside plenty of time for Animal Crossing,” Wicks said.

A short break is all it takes for most students to get momentary respite from a stressful situation or environment. It allows them to recharge and return with renewed energy, focus and clarity. “We are the type of girls to take a little nap if we need a break,” Ballard said. Desai described how important it was for her to recognize when she needed personal time to recharge.

“I tried to make time for my interests,” Desai said. “The best way I was able to unwind after a long day of classes and homework was to sit down on my bed and just watch a TV show. Doing that pretty regularly was really valuable for helping me calm down.”

When taking time off from any draining activity, students find it best to fully immerse themselves in their leisurely pursuits. Desai shared her desire to be intentional about how she spends her time outside of school.

“I am able to go home pretty regularly, so when I do go home, I try my best to not worry too much about my classwork,” Desai said. “Obviously I have homework, but when I’m home, I'm going to try to focus on being home.

latte art is extremely difficult to achieve. For instance, espresso shots that have been sitting out on the counter for over 30 seconds begin to “expire” and lose their crema layer, which is the crucial canvas for a latte art design. If the milk is aerated too much it becomes overly bubbly and foamy, and if it is aerated too little then there’s not enough microfoam: both very difficult conditions to work with.

As latte art was originally a staple of the specialty coffee scene, being able to create a cup with a beautiful design is the sign of skilled craftsmanship, and beyond that, it is the mark of high quality coffee. The process of measuring out your coffee grinds, tamping and distributing the coffee and brewing with the correct ratio of water and pressure are all variables that require mathematical precision. If a barista doesn’t perform these steps correctly, a shot of espresso could be nearly impossible to adorn with latte art — even if the actual coffee used was of a high caliber. Same with the milk; an improper positioning of the steam wand, a mistake in the temperature or initial aeration can create irreparable damage to the quality of the

I hang out with my dog and cuddle him and that’s just amazing for my mental health.” After all, many students look forward to connecting or reconnecting with a friendly face.

“One of my goals is just making friends and going out with people more because that’s really important to me, but I didn’t really have the chance to do that as much in previous quarters,” Desai said.

Social connections play an essential role in students’ mental health, but what students mainly struggle to balance is the academic rigor of college.

Wicks and Ballard revealed that their upperclassmen status has forced them to consider other objectives regarding their education.

“Get as many classes in as you can — I feel like that’s where we are at,” Wicks said.

“Now that we’re juniors, all I think about is if I’m going to get Cum Laude, like, ‘What’s my GPA?’ ‘Is my mom going to be proud of me?’” Ballard said.

The pressure to perform well can be overwhelming, especially when students are so close to the finish line.

Apart from simply stressing over letter grades, students may also consider what their future will look like after finishing their academic journey at UC Davis and what information should be retained for their career goals.

Wicks mentioned that she often asks herself: “Is the stuff we are learning in class going to be applicable to what we're going to do later?”

These types of questions naturally form when students near the end of their time in college, but being in a classroom with peers who share the same sentiment allows students to face unknown challenges together.

“Knowing people in our major has been so helpful because if we’re stuck on something and not understanding [it], there’s always someone that you can feel comfortable reaching out to,” Ballard said. “This is such a competitive atmosphere that when you have those people that you don’t necessarily feel like you’re competing with, it’s super helpful.”

It can be easy for students to forget their accomplishments when times get tough and the assignments seem unbearable. In these moments, Wicks, Ballard and Desai all said that taking deep breaths and repeating affirmations really helps ground them.

“I am a smart, beautiful, capable woman,” Wicks said is an affirmation of hers.

“You made it this far; you can’t give up now,” Ballard often reminds herself.

Desai takes a spiritual approach and puts her faith in the universe.

“I like to believe that there’s a rhyme and reason to everything that goes on, even if it doesn’t make sense in the moment,” Desai said.

As spring quarter begins, it is important to recognize the value and necessity of putting effort into your mental wellness. Before assignments and exams get the best of you, take the time to think about your mental, physical and emotional priorities and what you can do to alleviate stress — if you’re looking for a place to start, it’s always best to simply take a deep breath in, and out. DAYLIGHTSAVINGS

BY LANHUI ZHEN lazhen@ucdavis.edu

begin and end across the US. Federal law, as established through this act, allows for states to exempt themselves from observing daylight savings time by state law, but they may not resolve to be on permanent daylight savings time. Arizona and Hawaii currently use the permanent standard time, therefore refraining from switching their clocks biannually.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, more than 500 bills or resolutions have been proposed and considered during the last decade on this topic. Lawmakers have been torn over this issue for years, with many different acts and propositions being pushed forward to try and find a common ground.

There are many reasons that people hope to switch to daylight savings time for good. According to Harvard Health, continuing to change our clocks twice a year can result in various health consequences. Their study offers suggestions for people to prepare for time switches in advance, making preparations such as altering your bedtime preemptively, curbing alcohol or caffeine consumption and delaying parts of your daily routine.

Students at Davis have also reported that time changes can change how they feel in terms of daily productivity. Many have expressed that daylight savings time makes the days feel longer, and therefore allows them to get more of their work done while the sun is still out.

“I personally prefer having more daylight in the evening, since it allows me more time to get things done in the day without waking up super early,” Jenevah Harrison, a first-year English major, said. “I’m not someone who enjoys waking up early every day, so it’s nice that I can sleep in sometimes and not feel like the day is completely wasted. Overall, I think in this day and age it makes more sense to practice daylight savings since society functions much differently than it did in the past.”

Despite the constant back and forth of the time change debate, making a nationwide policy change requires a lot of moving parts. What may seem as simple as changing the clocks to give us more sunlight every day actually takes extensive legislative action, effort and time for national policy makers.

Hopefully, whether or not the U.S. plans to establish a standard time nationally will be determined during this calendar year, if not within the upcoming months before the next scheduled time change in November.

FOOTBALLUPDATEEVENT

FROM PAGE 12

Aside from the game, there were various activities and events, as well as prizes and t-shirts being given out to everyone, making for an entertaining and fun experience for the Davis community. The stadium was filled with fans, families and festivities, including food trucks, drinks and a DJ.

BASKETBALLPLAYOFFS

FROM PAGE 12

A narrow defeat of No. 4 seed Cal Poly kept their momentum going.

Their semifinal match-up was against long-time rivals and No. 1 seed University of Hawai’i. Having faced one another twice during the regular season, with each team winning once, the Aggies were looking for a tiebreaker win — and they found it. Turner was once again a key player, converting a three-point basket in the final minute of play to give her team a 51-48 victory and put them into the final match-up.

While spirits were high heading into the game against the No. 2 seed UC Irvine Anteaters, luck was not on the UC Davis teams’ side. The score stayed evenly matched for the first two quarters, but the Anteaters eventually took control, holding Davis to their lowest score this season. As tournament champions, UC Irvine advanced to the NCAA playoffs but lost in their first match. Despite the women’s defeat,

Shredville has also been incorporated into community programs. This summer, UC Davis will be hosting the Shredville Youth Camp, amongst other football training programs, to cultivate the next generation of Aggie athletes and increase community ties to the program. In more upcoming news, the program will also be hosting a Next Level Flag Football Season for grades K through six, further amplifying community involvement. Plough has made it clear that there will be a conscious effort to turn Davis into a football town.

Aggie basketball fans held on to hope that the men’s team would be able to bring UC Davis a victory in their final game. Coming into the tournament as the No. 2 seed, the men’s team was automatically placed in the semifinals, where they also defeated Hawai’i by three points.

However, the similarities between teams continued as the men fell to Long Beach State in the final. Despite third-year Ty Johnson’s 30-point performance, UC Davis couldn’t overcome the strong Long Beach offense and lost 70-74. Although they held a narrow lead for most of the first half, Long Beach went on a final unanswered run in the last minute of play. Long Beach State, similarly to UC Irvine, went on to lose in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. Despite disappointing outcomes for the Aggie players and fans, both basketball teams had stellar seasons of record-breaking performances. To reach the final match of the Big West Conference Championships isn’t an easy feat, and both teams did so in style with plenty of exciting moments for fans and players to look back on. As for now, both teams will say goodbye to several key graduating players and begin to look forward to the 2024-25 season.

What’s up with the recent solar eclipse?

Scientists have demystified the eclipse but that doesn’t dim our sense of wonder

WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse passed over North America — specifically, Mexico, the United States and Canada — creating an event that millions of people had the opportunity to witness. Before this, the last total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. happened on Aug. 21, 2017, and the next one won’t be until Aug. 23, 2044. It took the internet by storm, and we’ve all been reflecting on this rare event in different ways — a new start, a moment to reflect on our place in the universe and, of course, a scientific marvel.

During a total solar eclipse, the sun, moon and Earth completely align. While the moon is passing over the sun, light becomes obscured for anywhere between seconds to hours. Even though California was not in the path of totality for the eclipse,

about 34% percent of the sun was still blocked by the moon. The infrequency of a total eclipse can be attributed to the fact that the moon doesn’t orbit Earth in the same plane as Earth orbits the sun.

Looking at the total phase of the eclipse is actually completely harmless to your eyes — the corona, which is the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, is only about as bright as the full moon. The partial phase (what we saw!) is what you need to be wary of, as staring directly at the sun for even a few seconds may lead to permanent vision impairment and other eye issues.

Science aside, celestial events like a solar eclipse allow people to come together and share an appreciation for the natural world. It instills in us a sense of wonder about our planet and an opportunity to bond over a unique yet shared experience. Space is a realm that’s vast beyond comprehension, and witnessing an extraordinary piece of it reminds us of our place in the universe.

In some Indigenous cultures, a solar eclipse is also often thought to symbolize the rebirth of the sun, which means you can think of it as a new beginning for yourself too. In astrology, the moon’s passage to block light signifies darkness of the ego and the potential to embrace new changes in your life. Now’s the time to set new intentions that bring you closer to achieving your goals – think of the eclipse as a New Year’s 2.0.

Special events like the eclipse foster a sense of community and togetherness in places that get to witness them, and UC Davis is no exception. Students and teachers alike went outside with their eclipse glasses, with some lecturers even pausing their

College is a lawless place

BY MOLLY THOMPSON mmtthompson@ucdavis.edu

impossible to separate school from other aspects of your life, and that really takes a toll. In high school, the “school day” lasts from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., or whatever the specific various hours are. It starts at the same time every day and it ends at the same time every day. When it ends, you leave and it’s over. Granted, there is homework, but school itself has a definite endpoint. The same goes in the conventional workforce — you go into the office at 9 a.m. and you leave at 5 p.m. In college, anything goes. You can start at any time, you can end at any time, you can go in and out of classes throughout the day, you can go home in between and you can fluctuate between states of focus over and over throughout the day. There are no rules, no lines and no divisions.

It can be really hard to switch back and forth between routines and purposes so many times in a single day — from class in the morning, to a workout, to lunch, to studying, to relaxing in your room, to another class or two, to getting some homework done, to a club meeting in the evening and then back home again to wind down (if you’re not doing more work). There’s compartmentalization or division, there’s no school/life balance.

And because everything happens in one bubble, any boundary lines that would have existed are innately moot.

Especially as a freshman when you live on campus, every aspect of life happens in the same place. Work happens in the same place as leisure, which happens in the same place, as socializing, which happens at the same place as sleep, which happens in the same place as errands and chores, etcetera.

teaching to take their students to look at the sky. Even the CoHo decided to join in on the fun by selling an eclipsethemed drink — the “Upside-down Raspberry Ombre Mocha.”

Modern advancements in science and technology have also given us the comfort of understanding the principles behind various phenomena. A few minutes of eclipse-induced darkness sounds exciting because we would know exactly why and when it was happening, but it likely would be terrifying without NASA assuring us we had no reason to panic. Science allows us to predict the outcomes of new situations and gives us a sense of control over our lives, eliminating the fear that comes with the unknown.

In case you missed the eclipse this month or didn’t want to risk blinding yourself, there are plenty of other astronomical events you can witness in California this year. Meteor showers, such as the Perseids in August, the Leonids in November and the Geminids in December present perfect opportunities to watch a display of shooting stars. There will also be supermoons in August, September, October and November, which occur when the moon’s orbit is closest to the earth at the same time the moon is full. As a result, a saucerlike supermoon might appear to be up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than a typical full moon. Whether you’re an avid astronomer or just enjoy witnessing something new, the solar eclipse, along with other space events, allow you to reflect upon your life and are gentle reminders of the vast interconnectedness of the cosmos. Make sure to mark your calendars so you don’t miss the next one in 20 years!

a few hours later, the lines aren’t just blurred — they’re gone. School becomes home and home becomes school and neither truly serves its real purpose anymore. We now have hybrid inperson and digital classes that we take in our hybrid school/home rooms during our hybrid work/leisure time, and it all

gets messy. Compartmentalization is necessary for our success and well-being, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to achieve, especially in college.

The importance of media literacy

We

must do everything we can to combat misinformation

BY CLAIRE SCHAD cfschad@ucdavis.edu

As college students, most of us have gotten pretty good at identifying credible and non-credible sources. Many of our classes spend countless hours drilling the importance of research skills and careful source selection into our heads, helping us recognize the importance of forming our arguments with support from trusted sources.

In a dorm or a small apartment, this is exacerbated even more: your desk might be where you get ready in the morning, eat throughout the day, FaceTime friends and family, watch movies and study. You might hang out or relax, do homework and sleep in your bed. It’s kind of impossible to avoid a sort of “cross contamination” between different aspects and spaces of your life. All of this takes a toll on productivity, mental health, physical health and more. It’s difficult for the brain to figure out what “mode” it’s supposed to be in if so many different things happen in the same set of circumstances. You might get in bed to sleep, but your brain thinks it’s time to study so you’ll struggle to nod off. You might sit down at your desk to do homework, but your brain thinks it’s time to relax so you’ll struggle to focus.

People know this, it’s the reason that the rest of the world operates the way that it does. Finding a “work/life balance” is a whole thing because people recognize how important it is for wellbeing and productivity. But because of the way that universities operate, the possibility of drawing and keeping boundaries goes out the window when you enter higher education. We can all try to keep our laptops out of our beds or find a routine to stick to, but there’s only so much we can do — it’s too inherently seeded in collegiate systems to effectively combat alone.

One of the other main reasons that boundaries are important is that they help prevent burnout, which is especially (and increasingly) prevalent in college. When there is nothing outside of school because school is everywhere and everything is school, it can feel impossible to escape or catch a break. School is always, so there’s no time or space to step away and refresh from it. Inevitably, that causes burnout.

The digital, Zoom age is also contributing to the issue, since technology now allows us to bring work and school into our home spaces in a much more invasive way than we ever have before. When we’re attending classes in pajama pants from our kitchen tables and then sitting

However, gathering credible sources for a research paper often looks a bit different than most people’s daily news consumption. So, while it can be easy for many college students to decide whether a source is credible enough for their assignment, it is often not as easy to discern whether that news headline you saw on X, formerly known as Twitter, is true, misleading or completely false altogether.

It has never been easier to spread misinformation. The rise of the digital age has paved the way for new voices to be brought into the spotlight. While this undeniably has some positive effects, such as giving a platform to those who had previously failed to receive formal media attention due to societal biases, it has also given a microphone to those with ill-fated intentions. This means that digital media users are left to comb through a seemingly infinite stream of content, deciding for themselves what is true and what is not.

The process of evaluating media for its accuracy and legitimacy is deemed “media literacy,” a skill that most people have no formal training in, causing many consumers to be unable to discern if the media they are consuming is accurate and reputable. Falling for fake news can be especially easy on social media because as humans we often go to Instagram, TikTok or X, for entertainment first and news second, meaning our minds are on the hunt for entertaining content. This causes us to latch on to the most

dramatic or interesting headlines, often failing to recognize that they are fake or misleading. A study conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that fake news reaches people about six times faster than real news, demonstrating that entertaining or seemingly unbelievable headlines receive the most attention. The epidemic of fake news should cause us all to worry, and there is no sign of it slowing down. The emergence of publicly available generative artificial intelligence (AI) platforms has added an entirely new area of concern that makes fake media even harder to identify. Altered images, videos and audio commonly known as deepfakes have been on the rise, making it almost impossible for media consumers to tell the difference between altered and original content. One of the most troubling cases of this is occurring at high schools across the US, where students have non-consensually used photos of their fellow classmates to generate nude images and videos, which are then shared online.

However, it’s not just high schoolers who have been messing around with deepfake technology, those working to spread political misinformation can alter audio and video clips to depict politicians saying things they never really said. For example, earlier this year in New Hampshire, ahead of the primary elections, many voters received a robocall that featured what appeared to be President Biden’s voice urging them not to vote. “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” the voice said. As we head into the first Presidential election season where AI is being used widely by the public, it is hard not to think about the dangers that AI-generated fake media could pose to the election due to our nation’s low media literacy skills.

I’m sure many people think it’s easy to spot fake news or content by recognizing the surrounding context, however, it’s not as simple as you

might think. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that as many as three in four Americans overestimate their ability to spot fake headlines in the news. Another common misconception is that older individuals who are not as familiar with technology are the most susceptible to fake news. But this was also debunked by a study at the University of Cambridge that found despite their increased familiarity with technology, young people and heavy media users are more likely to fall for fake headlines.

It is clear that our society is lacking media literacy and it is scary to think of all of the ways that people could be misled by fake news. Given the growing reliance on technology and digital media, something must change. Despite the widespread acknowledgment of the danger that fake news poses, only four US states — California, New Jersey, Delaware and Texas — require media literacy education at all grade levels. While it is encouraging that states are starting to adopt media literacy into their education practices, more work must be done to ensure that all students across the country have access to this valuable curriculum, which has been shown to increase media awareness and the ability to identify false information. All states should work

ARTS & CULTURE

UC Davis events coming up in April

Students and community gear up to have a schedule packed with engaging and academic opportunities

BY ELIZABETH WOODHALL arts@theaggie.org

BY SOFIA BOZZO arts@theaggie.org

As we approach the end of the school year, UC Davis offers many engaging events for students to start spring quarter with a bang. Students have the opportunity to network with professionals and employers to solidify their professional future — and can join in on some engaging activities to take the stress off of school work.

Have you ever wanted to attend a TED talk? Are you ready to immerse yourself in enriching conversations relevant to UC Davis students and everyone worldwide? Now’s your chance! On April 13, TEDX: WholehearTED talk includes performances, networking and professional development. There will be three performers and seven speakers, and the topics range from self-directed learning to the history of female sexuality. The talk will happen from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in California Hall, and tickets are available on @ tedxucdavis.

The 49th Annual UC Davis Powwow is going to be happening on April 13 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Quad. “Powwow, as practiced today, is a social gathering intended to provide the campus and local community a space to learn about, engage with and celebrate the traditions and cultures of Indigenous peoples to bring visibility to the vibrancy of Native American music, dance and arts,” the UC Davis website states.

The UC Davis Annual Powwow is a student-run and student-planned event that hosts vendors, drum groups and dancers from all over California. This event will allow the Native

community to build connections and address the issues Indigenous people face today.

The Spring Career Fair will happen on Wednesday, April 17, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the University Credit Union Center. The fair catalyzes students’ professional careers where they will explore various fields and solidify their job search. Employers can connect with UC Davis students and alumni — and it allows students to learn more about the open internships and full-time jobs. Students should attend the fair if they’re interested in learning more about the opportunities available to them. Whether you’re getting ready to graduate or are just starting your journey at UC Davis, the Internship and Career Center and Handshake facilitate the connection between students and employers.

Picnic Day is happening just around the corner on April 20. With over 200 events to choose from, people come to UC Davis from all over California to join in on this tradition. Whether you’re going to see the parade, the science show or hoping to meet some furry friends, Picnic Day promises that your day will be packed with a whirlwind of events. There will also be a career fair to connect with companies and widen your career scope. UC Davis students can join in on the exciting lineup of events happening this month. Networking with professionals and connecting with the community is crucial to the college experience — so don’t miss out on these opportunities.

Book: “Devotions” by Mary Oliver (2017)

On the heels of a cold, tumultuous and thoroughly exhaustive winter finals week, my mind craved tranquility, and what better way to achieve tranquility than with a nice book and a poolside seat? Over spring break I began “Devotions,” a book of selected poetry by American poet, Mary Oliver. The collection teems with illustrations of the natural world and the ways in which it impacts the human experience. The central thrust of the poetry within “Devotions” is charged with joy, hope and perspective, forcing introspecting with an outward regard for the natural world that surrounds us. Amidst the stress of the end of an exasperating winter quarter, and equally, the stress of the beginning of a new one, “Devotions” proved a thoroughly delightful and relaxing read, serving as a comforting reminder of the world around me.

Movie: “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” dir. Ben Stiller (2013)

Don’t be fooled by the subpar rotten tomatoes score, this movie changed my life. I was nine years old when Ben Stiller first blessed the world with the self-directed “Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” and I’ve since come back to it throughout the most significant times of my life. The film follows a middleaged man, initially paralyzed in his mundane job, searching for purpose and adventure. The film alternates between reality and fantasy as the main character, Walter, imagines himself amid intense adventure, ultimately making it a reality. I returned to this film again as school, sports and life became overwhelming and consumptive. The movie holds principles of courage and presents themes of faith, not only in the surrounding world, but in oneself. I return to this movie when my life feels monotonous, overwhelming or when I’m seeking some inspiration. For anyone who occasionally shares these feelings, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is for you.

Four springtime films to watch this quarter

Spruce up your spring with some movies to add to your Letterboxd

BY NATALIE SALTER arts@theaggie.org

As springtime blooms here at Davis, one of the best ways to celebrate the start of the season is to watch films with your friends and family. If you’d like to keep in line with the bright, gentle presence of this season, here are four films that will help put you in the mood for the next few months.

“Kiki’s Delivery Service” (1990)

dir. by Hayao Miyazaki

When headstrong witch-intraining Kiki hops on her broomstick and flies away from home to learn the life of a witch hands-on, she finds herself swept away to a sprawling seaside town full of curious people and places. Inspired by her own acts of kindness, Kiki decides to start a delivery service with her trusty cat, Jiji — however, Kiki’s new job may put her in both trouble and good fortune. The film is equal parts comforting and exciting, and is friendly for viewers of all ages, making it an ideal watch for you and your friends and family. Just like springtime itself, “Kiki’s Delivery Service” captures your attention with vibrant scenes of the natural world in vivid bloom and strings you along on a tale ripe with childlike whimsy and enchanting playfulness befitting the season. It’s the perfect film to not only inspire you to enjoy the colors and events of the season, but to also make springtime a brighter place for everyone else around you by being kind and helpful unconditionally.

“Emma” (2020) dir. by Autumn

de Wilde Bright with pleasant pastels and floral patterned sets, “Emma” is a film alight with the aura of springtime. Set in Regency-era England and adapted

Song: “Morning Phase” by: Beck (2014)

If you’ve heard the name Beck, you might be imagining nineties break-beats and lyrical irony, yet Beck’s 2014 folk-rock album “Morning Phase” reflects his Los Angeles roots, harkening back to a sound heavily reminiscent of the sixties musicians of Laurel Canyon. If you couldn’t already tell, much of my artistic preference is dependent upon the change of season. I find this album reflects the feelings surrounding the shift from dim, somber winter, to the impending joyous spring. The album opens with a hauntingly beautiful string overture, ultimately fading into an upbeat folk ensemble as the second song begins. Beck constructs melodies to parallel the feelings intended within each song, never shying away from emotion and ultimately resolving with themes of morning, light and hope. If you haven’t already gotten into the prolific anthology of Beck, now is the time.

Award

from the Jane Austen novel of the same name, the film follows the wealthy Emma Woodhouse as she discovers a passion for matchmaking. Though she is clever and well-liked, Emma’s games entangle her in a web of relationships and rumors that even she might not be able to charm her way out of, leading to a series of comedic mishaps that put her in unexpected trouble.

Springtime is often associated with flirtation and playfulness. “Emma” is a film built around these characteristics. Lighthearted, romantic and humorous, the movie is certain to entertain and amuse viewers, tied together by lovely sets, costumes and cinematography painted in the delicate shades of spring. It’s an absolute gem of a film that is deserving of your attention if you’re looking for something to watch this season.

“The Sound of Music” (1965) dir. by Robert Wise

In 1930s Austria, stubborn and curious young nun-to-be Maria finds herself hired for the position of governess to the wealthy Von

Trapp family. Maria’s unconventional methods put her at odds with the seven children’s father, the Captain Von Trapp, but her relentless joy breathes life into the family and brings them all closer together. Music, romance, family and pure hopefulness are the foundations of this classic piece of cinema, and the scenery of Austria’s mountains and hills are touched by the unadulterated beauty of spring. As a musical film, the soundtrack of “The Sound of Music” is delightfully infectious, and the characters and story at its heart are touching and lovely. It’s easy to fall in love with the family central to this film, and Maria’s love for them is the perfect reminder to appreciate one’s own loved ones this spring.

“The Tale of Princess Kaguya” (2013) dir. by Isao Takahata Spring is the time of cherry blossoms, and if you want to watch a film that feels like one of these blooms brought to the screen, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya” is a lovely choice. Based on “The Tale of the Bamboo

Cutter,” a Japanese folk tale, the story follows Kaguya, a tiny girl who is discovered inside of a bamboo shoot. The film chronicles Kaguya’s life and happenings as she unearths her own identity while discovering the world, with an emotional final act certain to move any viewer. Gorgeously animated with lush pastel colors and delicate brush

strokes, “The Tale of Princess Kaguya” is as beautiful in its imagery as it is in its story. A film as exquisitely graceful as this seems perfectly befitting of the season, and as such deserves a place on your watch list this quarter. It is unexpected yet unforgettable and is sure to linger in your thoughts whenever you enjoy and reflect upon the wonders of springtime.

winning movie, Kiki’s Delivery Service follows Kiki as she naviagates a new town and new powers with her cat Jiji. She pioneeers a flying courier service and teaches audiences about the inevitable journey of dealing with failure. (Courtesy of Toei Company and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / fair use)

Based in New York, the Dance Theatre of Harlem will be performing in the Mondavi Center on April 17, 2024. They are a multi-ethnic company performing a repertoire of forward-thinking classics and innovative contemporary works celebrating Black culture. (Courtesy of Shubert Theatre New Haven/fair use)

Misner & Smith: the musical duo with a creative process fueled by gardening

Sam and Megan discuss their new album and inspiration from the Davis gardening community

BY GRETA FOEHR features@theaggie.org

Local musical duo Misner & Smith brings the Davis community together through their passions for music and gardening, which they often express simultaneously.

The duo is made up of Sam Misner, the guitarist and vocalist, and Megan Smith, the upright bassist and other vocalist. While the two share responsibilities on vocals, Misner writes most of the songs, bringing both lyrics and chord progressions to a piece. Smith, who has more of a classical background in music, enjoys writing vocal harmonies and bass lines.

They are also involved with the Davis community in numerous ways that go beyond their music, notably through gardening. For example, Smith has been closely involved with the Master Gardeners program in Yolo County since 2017. The Master Gardeners are an extension of UC Davis and take science-based information about gardening coming out of the UC system, specifically UC Davis, and use that to teach the public about best gardening practices. Both musicians are passionate about gardening and find joy, comfort and grounding through time spent in the garden. This passion for gardening is deeply intertwined with their understanding of music and their songwriting process. Smith sees a lot of similarities between her creative processes in the garden and in writing music.

“The garden really anchors me in the present moment in a way that no other thing in my life does, which then goes back and influences my musical ear and the way I approach arranging and creating music,” Smith said. “Being in the present moment is really important when you’re trying to create something new. It’s often difficult to create something and edit it at the same time. You have to shut the editor part of yourself outside and just let yourself be creative, and I think the garden is like that. I let myself go and I go crazy with what I plant and I try things and then I edit later.”

Misner had a complimentary take on the ways in which music and gardening intertwine.

“The creative process is so enigmatic in a lot of ways. Sometimes you feel inspired to write, sometimes it feels like you haven’t written anything in a long time. It’s about trying to retain the idea that you have to give everything time. A plant isn’t just going to suddenly be in bloom when you plant it the day before,” Misner said.

They don’t consider themselves genre-specific, allowing them to take more creative freedom in songwriting.

“Our music is definitely something that isn’t classified by one genre, it’s hard to put in a box. The same thing is true of the experience of the outdoors and nature and gardening,” Smith said.

Their new album, “All is Song,” will be released on April 12 on all platforms. They were planning to record this album in March 2020 but were delayed by the pandemic. Instead of recording their songs, they held live stream shows from their living room. This allowed them to workshop their songs while bringing joy and hope to their listeners.

“Once we got back into the studio in 2022, we both felt that the songs were kind of revealed to us in a way that might not have happened if we had gone right into the studio,” Misner said, When the pandemic hit, Smith wanted to stay involved with the Davis gardening community, so she and Misner started hosting neighborhood plant sales. Smith explained that gardening was a way for people to get through hard times and support mental health.

“I had all these extra plants, and I decided that it was important for me to try to support [something] that was happening in the community.” Smith said. “It was so much fun because I got to meet a lot of people in my community that I had never met before.”

She kept the plants affordable and found that it was similar to the work she does through the Master Gardener program. “Educating the public and helping them start their own gardens, and empowering people to grow their own food was just really cool,” Smith said.

Throughout COVID-19, Misner & Smith provided a space to enjoy the present through their music and plant sales.

“We need those experiences with nature and with each other, and with music and with art — things that can

Review: Does ‘Wonka’ really tell us how Willy became Wonka?

A warm family film that could’ve been explored more

BY INDRANIL BASU arts@theaggie.org

“Wonka,” directed by Paul King and written by King and Simon Farnaby, was released in December of last year under Warner Bros. Pictures. The film has been a commercial success and well-received by audiences and critics. It became the 70th-highest-grossing film of 2023 and was nominated for awards including the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (for Timothée Chalamet).

This musical fantasy comedy film is premised on the origin story of Willy Wonka, the well-known character from Roald Dahl’s famous children’s novel, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” starring Chalamet in the titular role. King uses Dahl’s body of work to visualize his backstory and create a fantastic exploration of the intriguing personality of Wonka. Set in a vague 1940s European city, Wonka arrives as a young man, inventor, magician and chocolatier after spending seven years as an innovative chef at sea. He is ready to make a fortune, and more

express and hold our emotions in a way that nothing else can,” Smith said.

“All is Song” makes them feel like they are a part of “something bigger” and hopes it will further inspire them to become a part of something bigger than themselves, according to Smith.

“I hope that it allows people to see life and music as deeper than what meets the eye at first glance and that there’s so many layers to our experiences,” Misner said.

Their music has had an invaluable impact on many of their listeners. Gail Kennedy, a Davis resident and long-

Review: ‘COWBOY CARTER’ is Kntry, not Country

Beyoncé recently released her first country album, despite the backlash she’s faced from the country music community

BY AALIYAH ESPANOL-RIVAS arts@theaggie.org

Amongst many people’s 2024 predictions, Beyoncé releasing a country album was not one of them. After announcing the release of new songs during a Verizon commercial at the 2024 Super Bowl, fans were shocked to hear two country songs. Following the release of the two singles, “TEXAS HOLD EM” and “16 CARRIAGES,” Beyoncé announced the album “COWBOY CARTER,” the second installation in her trilogy project to be released on March 29, 2024. “COWBOY CARTER” is Beyoncé’s eighth album, with 27 tracks that explore the criticism Beyoncé has received, the embracement of her heritage and calls to disrupt the traditional ideals people have when listening to country music. Similar to the first release in the trilogy, “RENAISSANCE,” Beyoncé has strived to go above and beyond expectations in both the house music genre and now country. While many may think this album came out of nowhere, according to a post on Instagram by Beyoncé, “COWBOY CARTER” has been five years in the making. “This album has been over five years in the making,” Beyoncé said. “It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed… and it was very clear that I wasn’t.”

Additionally, the album features multiple collaborations with other country music artists such as Dolly Parton, Willie Jones and Shaboozey. While “COWBOY CARTER’’ seems like a complete 180 for Beyoncé’s discography, the album proves her versatility as an artist, proving she is Kntry. “COWBOY CARTER” starts with “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” a gospelinspired song with accompaniment from instruments like the organ to the guitar and sitar. The song’s title serves as a hint of what’s to come in the album, as a requiem is a traditional Catholic mass held to rest the souls of those who have passed.

With lyrics such as “For things to stay the same, they have to change again,” the song is a callout to the closemindedness of the country genre itself

and the warning that the album will bring forth change in ideas.

The song becomes increasingly intense as Beyoncé cites those who said she was “too country” and yet not “country ‘nough,” as she discusses how hard she’s fought to be heard and create the project. As the song concludes, Beyoncé once again tells the listeners to bury the “big ideas” they have before the following songs.

Amongst the album’s diverse tracklist, Beyoncé drew back to many country influences and artists to extensively display the different mediums of country music, the history and the oppression Black country artists have received. An example of this is in the second track, “BLACKBIIRD,” a cover of the Beatles song that was created as a hopeful message during the civil rights movement. Beyoncé, joined by Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts, four other Black country music artists, the song takes on an even deeper meaning.

Furthermore, the 10th track, “JOLENE” is a rendition of the same popular song by Dolly Parton, one of the most prominent female artists in country music. In Beyoncé’s rendition, the song turns into more of a warning instead of the begging tone the original has.

In addition to music collaborations, the album also features interlude tracks from prominent names in the country industry, such as Dolly Parton, Linda Martell and Willie Nelson. The interludes serve as mini radio segments for her “Kntry” radio station in between certain songs, with the artist sharing their sentiment for Beyoncé’s dedication to the genre. \

Specifically, in “SMOKE HOUR II” with Willie Nelson, he says, “Sometimes you don’t know what you like until someone you trust turns you on to some real good sh*t.” With major names verbally supporting the album, it shows how respected Beyoncé is as an artist in multiple genres.

While tracks like “16 CARRIAGES,” “PROTECTOR,” “MY ROSE” and “II HANDS II HEAVEN,” are on the slower side with some minor country influences, the album also includes tracks that tiptoe on other genres such as folk, pop and rock. Tracks such as “SPAGHETTI,” “YA YA,” “TYRANT”

so a life for himself, with his chocolatey inventions that he has perfected during his time and travels across the world. The film follows his journey of achieving that dream, one strongly connected with themes of family — both blood and chosen — and generosity. “Wonka” is well written, in terms of plot, dialogue and lyrics, as well as brilliantly filmed by Chung-hoon Chung and scored by Joby Talbot. The musical numbers are well-worked, performed (mostly) by Chalamet, and created but don’t stand out too much vocally in the way they are composed or sung. Chalamet as Wonka fits into the image of the beloved character in the overcoat, hat and cane, with a suitcase full of his inventions and dreams, as iconized in previous films by Johnny Depp in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005) and Gene Wilder in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),” though definitely drawing more from the latter in its characterizations. He seems out of place in his young boy-next-door looks with ruffled hair and American accent, which match Wonka’s background if we consider him American and the film as a modern interpretation of him (which it is in many ways). He is simple, friendly, innocent and giving, unlike Depp’s portrayal and, more importantly, the novel’s sassy, socially awkward, apathetic and androgynous Wonka who is the embodiment of eccentricity. The filmmakers run with the straighter 1971 version of Wonka who is none of those but innovative — rather an aspirational underdog the audience can relate to, which he perhaps was before making it as a chocolatier and becoming the pop culture phenomenon he is seen as in previous appearances. Although the filmmakers have stated that Chalamet was their top choice for casting, perhaps someone else could have captured the fantastic seed of eccentricity that must have still been in him as a young adult, one that the film could have explored

time Misner & Smith listener, is one of them. “Sam [Misner’s] lyrics are poetic; he’s a great storyteller and his stories conjure up many emotions in my heart. I often find myself joyful and tearful listening to their songs,” Kennedy said. “Megan [Smith’s] voice and their harmonies are evocative and mesmerizing.”

Misner & Smith are a beacon of light in the Davis community thanks to their colorful music and the work they do to encourage others to garden.

“[We’re all about] bringing people together around something that gives

more. The ensemble cast delivers wonderful supporting performances in the film: particularly Calah Lane as the orphan girl Noodle, whose character arc is significantly in parallel with Wonka’s; Keegan-Michael Key as the corrupt Chief-of-Police Paterson Joseph; Matt Lucas and Mathew Baynton as the “Chocolate Cartel” leaders; Jim Carter as the accountant Abacus Crunch; Olivia Colman as the evil Mrs. Scrubitt and Hugh Grant as the singular Oompa-Loompa of the film.

The film is definitely a “savage indictment of capitalism,” as the filmmaker has stated himself, especially in Western socio-political structures, with a hugely corrupt (three)-man monopoly (on chocolate) that is constantly colluding with the church and the police and using (chocolate as their currency of) bribe to maintain their hegemony and the large economic gap between them and the consumer.

Daydreaming comes with a fee in this economy. Some of the language, however, such as a chocolate “cartel” for the corrupt oligarchy of the three Galéries Gourmet Chocolatiers, or “monks” for the “chocoholic” clergymen, is fairly questionable. It makes a good critique of capitalism but falls just a bit short on Wonka as a character and leaves it to the viewers to bridge the gap between him at the end of this film and the beginning of Wonka as we know him.

“Wonka” is a good film to watch with family, with its themes of family, love and sharing over greed and dreaming. The movie maintains a visual spectacle with excellent set and costume design that absorbs the audience into an earlier fantastical era in Europe and its musical numbers. You will understand Wonka as someone just like us, and discover the story of his drive for spreading happiness by making chocolate. Be ready to shed a chocolatey tear of joy. “Wonka” is now streaming on HBO Max.

people hope,” Smith said. “We just believe so much in the good that you do. Keep doing it. It makes a difference. Nothing good that you do is too small, there are ripple effects that far extend beyond what you can see.”

Listen to their music on any streaming platform under “Misner & Smith” and learn more about them at misnerandsmith.com. Their new album, “All is Song,” comes out on April 12. They will also be playing live at Davis Music Fest on June 16.

Review: How ‘Some Like It Hot’ made waves breaking down barriers in Hollywood

and “SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN’” emulate both country and hip-hop, giving the audience a taste of the Beyoncé sound they are accustomed to.

Personally, I found “TEXAS HOLD EM’” to be my favorite track on the entire album, despite the backlash it has received in the media. The song is spunky, fun and a great tune to dance to while getting ready. The banjo and guitar notes work perfectly with Beyoncé’s vocals creating a Hannah Montana “Hoedown Throwdownesque” sound. “COWBOY CARTER” ends with “AMEN,” a sort of bookend with “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” another gospel song that discusses the fall of the idea of country music with her album. Notable lyrics include “Tell me, can you hear me now?” and “This house was built with blood and bones and it crumbled, yes, it crumbled.”

“COWBOY CARTER’’ is an amalgamation of everything Beyoncé. From upbeat to sultry to country twang, the album reminds us that there are no limitations in any music genre. Barriers need to be pushed in order to be heard, and Beyoncé has just done that. Now, going on to her 27th year in her music career, Beyoncé has proven time and time again that she is a force to be reckoned with. While one may view this album as simply country, it serves entirely Beyoncé and Kntry.

An unapologetically queer 1959 Hollywood film starring Marylin Monroe that is still worth watching today

BY SAVANNAH BURGER arts@theaggie.org

During a time when America criminalized all homosexual activities and forms of queer expression, the 1959 film “Some Like It Hot” broke free of the conservative constraints of the Hays Code and presented a film featuring crossdressing, sexual fluidity and tolerance to homosexuality. Starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon and directed by Billy Wilder, the gender-bending comedy continues to be tasteful and just as hilarious today.

The film follows Joe (Curtis) and Jerry (Lemmon) as the pair flees the mob in Chicago by joining an allfemale traveling band. To be able to go undercover, the two don female personas, named Josephine and Daphne, and successfully join the band heading to Miami. Along the way, they meet Sugar Kane (Monroe), and she throws a wrench in their caper, as Joe quickly has the desire to pursue her. Once they reach Miami, Joe juggles yet another persona as a male, rich softie to win her over. Jerry, however, finds himself actually liking being Daphne, and inadvertently attracts an old millionaire

named Osgood, played by Joe E. Brown, despite trying to shake him. While all these shenanigans ensue, the mob is still right around the corner.

Featuring crossdressing as a main component, the film bashed against the Hays Code, which, until 1968, prevented Hollywood movies from having any sort of lustful kissing, scenes of passion, homosexuality, gender fluidity or interracial relationships, among other constraints. To depict actors Curtis and Lemmon, who up to that point had always played strictly masculine and sometimes womanizerlike roles, as gender-bending feminine men who lean into their identities and don’t dismiss it as immoral, shook audiences back in the late 50s. Not only this, but the film’s smashing success was one of the key factors in abandoning the Hays Code almost a decade later. The movie is still refreshing to watch today because, unlike what is to be expected of a film of its age, it didn’t make fun of the queer community at its expense. All of the characters, including the all-female band and the audience, accept Josephine and Daphne for who they are.

Cowboy Carter is a blend of many genres of music like Black country music and Black cowboy culture. This album serves as the second installment of Beyonce’s trilongy project featuring a similar album cover to Renaissance released in early 2022. (Courtesy of Columbia Records and Parkwood Entertainment / fair use)

Staring Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka, Wonka is the third live-action film based on the novel: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl. The movie was released in 2023 and has a stronger emphasis on Wonka’s backstory. (Courtesy of Warner Bros. and Warner Bros. Pictures / fair use)

SCIENCE AND TECH

Climate change is contributing to the spread of infectious diseases

A new study shows that altered weather patterns are responsible for changes in animal migration, leading to an increased spread of pathogens

BY KATIE HELLMAN science@theaggie.org

Climate change is responsible for a dramatic increase in extreme weather events, like droughts and heat waves, as well as natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding and wildfires. These issues are becoming more prevalent with every passing year as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

Temperatures around the world have been increasing at alarming rates, according to a study published in JAMA.

“Primarily due to greenhouse gases released via combustion of fossil fuels, global average temperatures between 2011 and 2020 increased to 1.1 °C (approximately 1.9 °F) above preindustrial levels and are estimated to increase to 1.5 °C (approximately 2.7 °F) by 2040,” the study reads.

Infectious diseases can be caused by a variety of organisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. They can also be transmitted to and from many hosts, like from animals to humans (zoonotic diseases) and from humans to other humans.

George R. Thompson, lead author of the study and professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine, elaborated on how these diseases spread.

“Numerous infectious diseases are dependent upon environmental conditions for growth or their normal life cycle,” Thompson said via email. “This is highly pathogen-dependent, as some live in soil [and] others [are] propagated by ticks, mosquitoes, etc. A changing climate impacts all of these potential mechanisms of spread.”

Serious diseases like Zika, malaria and dengue are vector-borne diseases, meaning they are caused by pathogens

BUSINESSMAJOR

FROM FRONT COVER

Skaife noted that it’s unlikely that any student currently enrolled at UC Davis will be able to obtain a business degree.

“I would encourage [those students] to reach out and take a look at the minors that we offer [at the GSM], because they, too, are going to provide [a] solid business education,” Skaife said. “It’s just that, unfortunately, [these students] arrived in Davis too soon to take advantage of the business major.”

The announcement has raised some questions regarding the future of the managerial economics degree in particular, given the significant overlap in focus between it and the approved business degree.

Simulations done in the analysis for the working group revealed that managerial economics, more so than economics, will experience displacement from students leaving for the business major, according to Williams.

“About 90 students in [managerial economics] take the accounting minor, and about 30 or 40 in [the economics major] take it,” Williams said. “If we could go into the future, those people would probably end up in the new business major.”

Matthew Schwartz, a managerial economics major and technology management minor, is the vice president of the Managerial Economics Society (MES), the only official club associated with the managerial economics major.

“It’s hard to determine the impact of this development based on the current information available, but it’s easy to assume this would lead to decreased enrollment in the Managerial Economics major,” Schwartz said via email. “I’m confident that [MES] will be able to continue its existence, while making some adjustments to accommodate students in the new major.”

Despite these predictions, Williams said that the working group hopes that the Business Economics Cluster majors will complement each other, rather than create a “hierarchy,” and allow students to specialize in the degree that best suits them.

He also noted that while students — and with them, funding — may shift following the introduction of the business degree, Provost Mary Croughan guaranteed the hiring of five new positions to help support the degree while limiting the total number of students in the program, so as not to take away from existing majors.

Another group that has reacted to the announcement is the Economic and Business Student Association (EBSA), the largest business club on campus which runs quarterly case competitions for undergraduates from all majors.

EBSA President Annie Ding, a second-year double major in economics and design, believes that while there will likely be a shift toward the business major, it will take time given that the major is unranked and unfamiliar to recruiters.

“I think [only] after maybe five,

10 years or after [will] we see how the business major actually grows and [whether] people actually see success out of taking [it],” Ding said.

Ding also offered advice for current students.

“It’s important, if you want to market yourself more similarly to someone who has the background of a business major, to pursue [accounting and business-related minors] as well as pursue opportunities through clubs on campus like EBSA,” Ding noted.

EBSA Vice President Ashley Knauss, a second-year economics major, said that the new major will be beneficial for major diversity and discussion within clubs like EBSA.

“With the format of our club — with case competition members [that] are put onto teams — anytime [...] there’s [a] diversity of majors within the teams, [there are] going to be new perspectives and new knowledge [...] that helps the team,” Knauss said.

While EBSA leaders believe that the major will bring these and other positive changes for students and give them more opportunities to pursue and explore their interests, they said that they feel the most important factor is experience.

“When you apply for jobs, no one submits their degree,” Ojas Batra, a second-year managerial economics major and EBSA co-director of program development, said. “We submit our resume.” Batra then spoke more on the importance of experience in business.

“Looking at it from an industry perspective, if you look at numbers, MBA enrollments are going down,” Batra said. “That’s your go-to business degree, and people are enrolling less and less in even some of the top MBA programs in the country. That’s because they’ve realized that the return on investment on those programs or even the return of investment on an undergraduate business degree might not be the same as just going out to the industry and getting to work.”

Still, the working group emphasizes that the business major will bring in new attention and students, as well as career training, fairs and opportunities. They also note that while there is still some work to be done in the time between now and the major’s official launch, they are confident in its future at UC Davis.

“Building a new major at UC Davis is a complicated thing,” Peri said. “The fact that [everyone] from the Provost all the way down to the individual professors in each unit all supported it shows the commitment that the university [put into] this business degree.” ELECTIONPREP FROM

When it was to be voted on, the bill created a controversy in the Senate. With much of the Senate already gone, a few senators debated at length about the bill’s content with the morality of material donations and how they can create an uneven playing field. The bill originally banned all material donations

out of fairness in the elections and ease for the IAC, however the majority of the remaining senators eventually decided to allow material donations provided by students under $10, with receipts included.

“I liked it as it stood,” Senator Curtis Chen said. “I was surprised that it was a contentious bill, because in my opinion everybody is on the same playing field. When I ran, I didn’t spend any money besides the poster paper, and I feel like I had a pretty successful cycle. It was a good regulation on the election process and I’m glad that it passed.”

Chen then spoke on the benefit of the bill limiting donations, and how it will likely have a healthy effect on the elections.

“Having a monetary advantage on other candidates is just unfair,” Chen said. “It’s more similar to how the U.S. [elections] are, but we’re students, [and] I don’t think we should be winning based on how much money we put into elections. We should be winning based on our ideals and the communities we represent.”

Chen expressed that he was satisfied with the bill passing, regardless of the amendments made to it.

Reported suspicions of campaign finance fraud or other violations come from student voters, according to Boggeln. However, voter turnout in the last few years has been low, with the Ffall 2023 election cycle hitting just below 16%. It is difficult for the IAC to investigate cases of potential fraud with these low turnouts.

“Voter turnout is one of the things I wish to improve this cycle,” ASUCD Elections Officer Sriya Batchu, the new ASUCD Elections Officer, said. “My goal is more advertising. [The goal is to] get the word out there to different parts of campus that might not be as aware of elections and may not have much overlap with ASUCD in general.”

Batchu hopes to increase turnout by putting posters up around campus, increasing the online presence of the elections, utilizing raffles to increase awareness, tabling and asking that ASUCD events being hosted by ASUCD promote the elections.

“We’re trying to target freshmen, because I know that from when I was a freshman, they don’t know much about ASUCD,” Batchu said. “While I’m sure many of them are somewhat aware, they maybe don’t have one-onone interaction.”

When asked if the Elections Committee would employ any new tactics to increase engagement, Batchu said that they are going to expand on the strategies they have already used.

“Every election has been a little bit better than the previous one, in my opinion,” Batchu continued. “ I’m hoping that in this cycle we can focus on more advertising and getting out there more.”

While the IAC has existed for a long time, Batchu’s position of Elections Officer was recently created. It had up until now Until now, it had been primarily focused on organizing the logistics of elections, and didn’t prioritize increasing the election’s voter turnout.

SB #55 was ultimately an effort to make the elections more grassroots,

transmitted from animals like fleas, ticks and mosquitoes to humans. Since climate change is leading to altered rain patterns, short and warmer winters and longer summers, there are subsequent alterations in the time periods in which these vectors are active. The regions in which vector-borne diseases are diagnosed are shifting as well, with increasing rates of disease being detected further north and west than they have been previously.

Data has shown that these vectors have more time to infect people due to temperature shifts, according to an article by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Mild winters, early springs, and warmer temperatures are giving mosquitoes and ticks more time to reproduce, spread diseases, and expand their habitats throughout the United States,” the article reads. “Between 2004 and 2018, the number of reported illnesses from mosquito, tick, and flea bites more than doubled, with more than 760,000 cases reported in the United States.” Weather pattern disturbances are also causing changes in the migration patterns of animals and significant habitat loss. As a result, wildlife territory has more overlap with human territory, creating increased opportunities for disease transmission.

Clinicians are being urged to increase infectious disease surveillance methods so that pathogens can be detected and dealt with before they significantly affect human health.

“Surveillance is largely dependent upon reporting to state/federal agencies,” Thompson said. “Newer methods use wastewater for pathogen detection and can hopefully provide notice when the incidence is rising.”

and make the ASUCD Senate a better democracy, according to Boggeln. “I think this bill is great not because it asks people to look for big donors, [but to] look for voting students, and convince them that not only should they vote for them, but they should give them ten dollars to vote for them,” Boggeln said. “I think that will incentivize candidates to work really hard to craft a platform to appeal to students that’s meaningful, and also provide an opportunity for really qualified candidates to run a campaign.”

SENATE19

FROM PAGE 3

According to Ojeda, the new system came with bugs that have caused delays in purchases within its units, and other campus departments are also struggling to understand the new system. However, he assured the Senate that the ASUCD HeadQuarters (HQ) office is actively working to better understand the system. He continued, highlighting other challenges ASUCD has faced, like finding storage and office space for Aggie Reuse, as well as successes, such as Planet Her, Housing Week and EC’s recent Brain Freeze concert. Additionally, he previewed events for the spring quarter, like Lawntopia.

“I hear [the Entertainment Council] is competing with us, since we are holding budget hearings on the same day,” Ojeda said. “I hope they get lucky and have some five students join their concert, while the rest of the 30,000 undergrads hear budget hearings with us.”

He eventually transitioned to discussing ASUCD spring elections, mentioning that he is drafting a mass communication email to be sent on the first day of elections. Furthermore, he stated that he will not be running for reelection. Lastly, he ended his speech with one final statement before proceeding to thank everyone for their work.

“I would like to end by saying that during the impeachment weeks, most of you were fortunate enough to be able to mark those as work hours and get paid for it,” Ojeda continued. “Meanwhile, I was tasked with doing my job in addition to the impeachment hearings, with no pay at all. For those who were fortunate enough to receive that money, that’s what I call ‘good business.’”

Since Ojeda had to leave early, the Senate had to skip over the questions for him. Next, the Senate moved into public comments. The first comment criticized the Senate for their disorganization, pointing out their failure to publish the meeting agendas online and to correctly assign meeting minutes to the appropriate folder on Google Drive. The second comment advised senators to consider reallocating funds from the Office of the Transfer Student Representative and the Office of the International Student Representative to The Pantry next quarter.

Afterwards, Chow notified the Senate of her plans to introduce bills next quarter that impact how Senate meetings are conducted.

“They are rough ideas right now,” Chow said. “Essentially, the goal is to make the Senate run smoother, faster, get people home earlier and be more transparent in general.”

The meeting then moved into a break.

Once the meeting resumed, the Senate moved into the consideration of old legislation.

The table started with a review of SB #50, a bill that allocates $751.54 to the Office of Senator Nur Ambaw to purchase athletic gear for the MU. However, Senator Nur Ambaw ultimately chose to withdraw the bill to give himself time to adjust the language of the bill and because he was not present for the meeting.

Then they transitioned to SB #68, a bill to establish the Planet Her Committee as a committee under the Gender and Sexuality Commission. Senator Jonathan Ng initiated a long discussion by stating his concern with the bill.

“I talked to other UCs about how they run festivals like [Planet Her], and they told me that it’s all run through their entertainment board, and they allocate the budget to said entertainment board,” Ng said. “We create committees, then subcommittees and we go on and on. I don’t think that’s the direction we should be heading in when it comes to events.”

After a long discussion surrounding the bill, SB #68 passed. The Senate then considered SB #69, a bill to allocate $2,849.66 to the Pride Festival Unit for Drag Brunch, and SB #70, a bill to reform the violation point assessment and issuance process of candidates during ASUCD election, and both bills subsequently passed.

The meeting then transitioned to a review of written reports before eventually moving to an open forum. During the open forum, a member of the public expressed their disappointment with a particular pastry sold at the CoHo. “I’m here to talk about cinnamon rolls,” the member said. “I’m coming to you all, as the big people on campus, to ask if you could transition from the cream cheese icing to something more vanilla-based, for the sake of the community.”

After a quick, lighthearted discussion, the meeting adjourned at 10:35 p.m.

Zoonotic diseases spread between animals and people, and they constitute more than 60% of human pathogens.

(Courtesy / The Diplomatist)

Crossword

Sudoku

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

that.”

Controller Allyson Francisco

SENATE20

FROM PAGE 3

They reconvened at 7:47 p.m. and moved into discussing legislation.

All legislation passed in the previous meeting was signed by the president. New legislation included SB #72, which would reform quarterly reports, SB #73, which would give the Senate Table the ability to move Senate Meetings online and SB #74, which would establish an earlier deadline to notify parties mentioned in ASUCD Senate Bills, Senate Resolutions, and Ballot Measures. All three were assigned to the IAC for review.

Next, old legislation was voted on.

SB #75, which allocates $7,313.50 to HackDavis to cover meals for students attending and makes ASUCD a sponsor for the HackDavis 2024 event, passed with nine yeses and five abstaining, with the goal of serving as an advertisement for ASUCD, especially for more STEM focused students.

SB #76, which allocates $253.00 to the Office of Senator Chow for the ASUCD Cultural Festival on April 15, passed with 10 yeses and four abstaining Finally, the table moved into open forum. Raghunathan requested that senators ensure they are informing her beforehand when they are going to be late to or absent from a meeting.

“I get that it’s more relaxed here, but it’s still your job,” Raghunathan said. “I see on your timesheets that you’re saying you were here the whole meeting and you just weren’t. So I’m going to start being stricter about

reminded the table about upcoming budget hearings in early May, sharing tentative time frames for the table and encouraging them to take the process seriously. “You’re mandated to be here, and if you’re not ,there are consequences,” Francisco said. “This is why we had all these problems last year, is because people weren’t dedicated. And now we’re searching for money and wondering what happened. What happened is people weren’t really invested. So I’m asking people to come prepared.

She noted that there will be breaks, and if members of the Senate table have class, that is a reasonable excuse for absence. She also encouraged the Senate to talk to unit directors and commissioners before the budget hearings to make sure they have an understanding of how to best advocate for their needs.

Ambaw, in response to the spending bills that were passed, brought up his proposed spending bill to purchase athletic equipment for the MU, which he later withdrew. “No shade, but [my bill] was big on visibility,” Ambaw said. “We passed [the HackDavis bill] today on the bounds of visibility. My bill needed work, and I totally agree with that, but I will be requesting money [for bills] in the future and I hope the things you have to say against them are reasonable.”

After approving past meeting minutes, Raghunathan adjourned the meeting at 8:23 p.m.

SOMELIKEITHOT

FROM PAGE 7

Although a lot of the comedy is derived from Joe and Jerry’s antics as Josephine and Daphne, there are also moments where Jerry finds himself comfortable and confident in his newfound femininity. For instance, upon excitedly telling Joe that he’s been engaged, Joe asks who the lucky girl is. Jerry instantly replies with, “I am!” While the film doesn’t have a direct, iterated stance on queerness and homosexuality, it has nods of witty acknowledgment and respect. Joe, flabbergasted with Jerry’s engagement to the millionaire Osgood, says, “But you’re not a girl! You’re a guy, and, why would a guy wanna marry a guy?” Jerry snaps back, “Security!” Even with jokes, the writing never reflects a dismissal or degradation of queer love or attraction, something unheard of in 1959. This is coupled with the most famous line of the whole movie, which is in the very ending scene. Jerry attempts to explain to Osgood, who is set on their marriage, that they can’t go through with it, making up a myriad of reasons, but Osgood is persistent. Eventually, Jerry rips off his blonde wig and shouts, “I’m a man!” thinking that will surely ward off the millionaire, but is shocked when Osgood replies without hesitation, “Well, nobody’s perfect,” insinuating that gender doesn’t make a difference to Osgood; he’s in love with Daphne nonetheless. This act of unapologetic queerness is one of the many reasons that makes “Some Like It Hot” still relevant today — every act of queerness or gender fluidity is embraced and made light of in a classy way. In our current political climate here in the United States and beyond, it is refreshing to see a much older film have such an accepting take on queerness as a whole. This is especially true when it seems that 65 years later, not much progress has been made when it comes to accepting and respecting people’s identities, queer or not. So, if you’re looking for a hilarious, positive, queer-coded 1950s flick to watch, give Wilder’s classic a go.

WOMENSWAPO

FROM PAGE 12

Head coach of the Club A team, Annika Krueger, has helped to cultivate this excellence. A secondyear graduate student at UC Davis studying environmental policy and management, Krueger decided to coach after playing on the A team in her first year at UC Davis as well as playing Division 3 water polo at her undergraduate university.

“I’ve been playing water polo for 10 years,” Krueger said, reflecting on her decision to coach this season. “I was just interested in seeing a different side of it and thinking a lot more about the strategy and making plays.

I’ve been through a lot of different coaches and coaching styles so I feel like I’ve figured out what I like and what I didn’t like, and wanted to be able to try out some of those things that I’d learned.”

A key part of Krueger’s philosophy in coaching is cultivating the adaptability of her players. “Everyone is able to play almost

every position,” Krueger said. “It makes it harder for other teams to be able to anticipate who’s gonna be a shooter or who’s gonna be more of a threat, because everyone is able to take great shots, drive into the middle, post up and take shots from there.” This coaching style, as well as a commitment to excellence by the players and coaches, has been instrumental in getting this year’s team to nationals. Callie McClain, a fourth-year civil engineering major, joined the club A team this year and has already taken note of the special culture at UC Davis.

“We have a good group dynamic, and I think that when we’re in the pool, that really translates over,” McClain said. “We all play our part. Everyone has a good shot. Everyone can shoot from the outside when they need to, and [they] can go in to set when they need to.”

Beyond being able to compete at a high level of water polo in college, McClain also believes that being involved in club water polo has enhanced her overall educational experience at UC Davis.

“Being in a sport and being in a community helps you stay on top of your tasks,” McClain said. “It gives you a community where you can say, ‘Hey I’m going to the library, anyone wanna join me?’” Katie Jennings, a second-year history and political science double major who has played on the team for all of her time at UC Davis so far, has also reaped its benefits in her social life.

“It’s a really good group of people,” Jennings said, adding that she has met a lot of her friends from the team.

The water polo team is close-knit, connecting not only in the pool but also in other aspects of their lives. From hanging out at practice to studying together in the library to socializing on the weekends, the UC Davis women’s water polo team has formed a tight bond.

The unique culture of the team has evidently paid off in many aspects of the athletes’ lives, providing social, academic and health benefits. As the UC Davis women’s water polo team prepares for their fast-approaching national championship tournament, they take these important principles of teamwork and community with them.

SOFTBALLRECAP

FROM PAGE 12

The second game, following the extra-innings trend, had a final score of 1-0. Even with the extra time, the Aggie comeback just wasn’t enough and Long Beach took the victory. With one game left to go, the Aggies held on to their high spirits and prepared heavily. However, in the series finale — just coming up short against the defending Big West champions — the Aggies faced another loss with a final score of 4-1.

Aside from the losses, some of the athlete performances were undeniably stellar, with the most notable performance coming from Davis’ righthanded hurler fifth-year Kenedi Brown. Brown held

on to her composure throughout all of the games and had numerous strikeouts that prevented any one of the Aggies’ opponents from extending their scores.

Additionally, fourth-year Anna Dethlefson had a strong performance throughout both games with her many hits and base steals.

Dethlefson, the reigning Big West Conference Player of the Year, was the first UC Davis player to earn top honors since joining the conference back in 2008. She also stole her 93rd base, adding to her newly acquired title: Davis’s all-time stolen base leader. For the last competition set in March, the Aggies hosted CSU Bakersfield at La Rue field on March 28. This set would be no easy task for the Aggies as they had another loss in the first game. With a final score of 3-0 for the first game, the Aggies were looking to finally break their losing streaks and bring home a win.

As the team had a newfound confidence for the last two games of the set, the Aggies took two big wins on March 29, taking down Bakersfield 7-5 in the first game on Saturday and 7-1 in the second.

Despite being down 4-0 early on in the first game, base hits from fifthyear Leah Polson, fifth-year Sarah Starks, fourth-year Libbie McMahan and second-year Gia Felice helped the Aggies cut the deficit to 4-2. Firstyear Marley Panziera delivered an additional two runs batted in (RBI) base hit to tie the game.

Bakersfield restored its lead, but it didn’t last as fourth-year Sarah Nakahara and teammate Polson scored a combined three runs en route to a 7-5 win. Beyond the heavy offensive production, Davis’ victory was secured courtesy of a save by Brown, who threw three consecutive perfect innings.

In 2023, Brown was named Big West All-Conference First Team for the third straight season. Her performance looks promising to continue her streak for the fourth time.

Game two against Bakersfield provided another seven-run win with a plethora of base hits and an oppositefield home run from Panziera. The sixth inning was fueled by a threerun rally and led to UC Davis being awarded the series win.

Coming off of a strong 15-win season last year, a feat not seized since 2010, the Aggies hope to shine even brighter on the field this season. As they won’t be leaving Davis very often this spring, April will hopefully bring more home victories to add to their at-home winning record, which is currently 11-9.

UC Davis’ Princess Pals brings magic into local children’s lives

Club officers share memorable experiences and give insight into how the organization works

BY SABRINA FIGUEROA features@theaggie.org

Everyone needs a little light and magic in their life, especially kids. But that can be difficult to achieve for children who live under difficult circumstances such as being hospitalized with a critical illness or living in a shelter.

“Mental health conditions, such as anxiety, ADHD and depression, affect at least one in 10 U.S. children hospitalized for a medical condition or surgical procedure,” the PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia states. When a child is staying in a shelter, they are also more likely to develop anxiety and depression symptoms during their childhood and adolescence.

Princess Pals, an organization at UC Davis, is set up with the intention of bringing that magic and light into the lives of children who face these difficulties mainly by dressing up as beloved Disney princesses and princes. They also host activities for the children.

Daphne Mora, vice president of Princess Pals and third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, commented on the purpose of their organization. “[Princess Pals] aims to raise children’s spirits and create lasting experiences through art, overall fun, playing games, making crafts and participating in activities where the children elicit creativity and friendship,” Mora said.

Mora also explained that, along with their goal of helping children, they also aim to give UC Davis students the opportunity to be a part of a studentrun organization that gives back to the

local community by volunteering with children.

The club currently makes visits to hospitals, shelters and schools an average of four times per quarter. However, the actual amount of visits varies each quarter, with the most visits occurring in the spring and fall.

President of Princess Pals, Annika Zamora, a fourth-year design and Chicana and Chicano studies double major, described how the club arranges visits to children.

“We have an ongoing list that we’ve collected over the years as a club with [institutions’] contact information,” Zamora said. “About a month before each quarter, [the outreach coordinator] will send out emails to different places asking, ‘Is there some time that’s good for a visit that works for you guys during this quarter?’”

Recently, Princess Pals visited Kaiser Permanente in Roseville and Saint John’s Program For Real Change, a women and children’s shelter, in Sacramento. These are also the places that they visit most often.

In a club that emphasizes acting, the most important part is their members. Fall quarter is an important time for their recruitment because of the UC Davis Involvement Fair that happens every year, according to Zamora.

However, Princess Pals does not limit when students can join — new members can get involved during any quarter. In fact, the club doesn’t require their new members to fill out an application or have prior acting or volunteer experience.

“No prior experience is required, it’s more so we have our own requirements that can be completed once you join,” Mora said.

All members are required to sign a “costume contract” that asks the

student to acknowledge that they are responsible for their costume during the time that it’s in their hands. They are also required to complete a shadowing shift that requires going to an event as a helper. New members are also required to attend a workshop in order to see what costumes they fit into and if they know how to do makeup.

“We’re not too strict on the makeup because we understand that there are some people that either can’t afford makeup or just don’t know how to do it,” Mora said. “In either case, we can help them or it’s also optional, but highly encouraged.”

Valeria Ramirez-Leng, Princess Pals treasurer and third-year human biology major, also clarified that not everyone who joins the club has to dress up.

“If you just want to be a part of the club, feel free to sit in any of our meetings,” Ramirez-Leng said. “If you do want to dress up, you would have to do all of the requirements.”

There are also roles for everyone, including those who aren’t too keen on acting. Volunteers can choose to dress up and act as princesses or princes at events, but they can also choose to be helpers who assist the actors and also do activities with the kids.

Once people become members, their choices are not restricted in any way as long as the costume fits them, allowing students to dress up as different princesses or princes every single visit.

As volunteers, members can gain rewarding work experience that adds to their motivation for continuing the club’s important efforts.

“One time, I dressed up as Moana and we had an event at the Graduate Center for the kids of graduate students,” Mora said. “At the beginning, some kids will be a little shy while others will immediately run up to us, but I think

UC Davis students set mental health goals for quarter ahead, reflect on past wellness practices

Flowers aren’t the only things flourishing this spring

BY JULIANA MARQUEZ ARAUJO

As students prepare to shift their focus from spring break to spring quarter, they must also consider how to end the academic year strong without sacrificing their mental well-being.

Aarushi Desai, a first-year English and psychology double major, said that it has been challenging to rekindle the same vigor from the start of the school year. “I am honestly so tired,” Desai said. “I don't know why this week has been so exhausting.”

Kaitlyn Wicks, a third-year sustainable environmental design major, reasoned that students likely feel unprepared for the new quarter due to the short transition period between winter quarter and spring.

“I feel like I started off really stressed this quarter, just because spring break was so short, but I’m motivated for summer,” Wicks said. “I feel like I’m motivated to just get this year done with.”

Though it may be stressful, the start of a new quarter presents fresh opportunities to create a schedule or practice habits that work the best for

you. However, to make the necessary changes to thrive, one must reflect on the past in order to move toward a better future.

Wicks and her friend Dani Ballard discussed their recurring struggle with time management and listed some methods that they planned to continue in spring quarter to avoid procrastination.

“The ability to balance, not letting things stack up and then having a mental breakdown, [and] trying to avoid the mental breakdown before it happens,” Ballard, a third-year sustainable environmental design major, said. “Not waiting for the pressure to build and then to be like, ‘Oh, I guess now I can do it, now that I’m stressed about it.’”

In the process of reflection, it helps to recognize the important factors of one’s day-to-day routine.

“Sacrificing time for your mental health is so important,” Ballard said. “I feel like I definitely sacrificed school stuff to prioritize myself — especially to work out. I’ll put that above anything.”

Other factors may not be as easy to adjust, but students still manage to find solutions to these disturbances.

Davis Line Dance group warmly welcomes residents of all ages

The group offers $5 classes multiple afternoons per week at the Davis Community Church

BY EMMA CONDIT city@theaggie.org

The Davis Line Dance group, run by a group of women who volunteer several days a week, teaches line dancing to the Davis community. Each class, the volunteers break down each step combination into simple, digestible moves that have all of the participants jumping and kicking in perfect, lively unison. Davis Line Dance President Reeta Palmer shared the group’s journey.

“We started about a year ago,” Palmer said. “We all enjoyed dancing and wanted to get together and teach it as a group.” Palmer noted that the dance cooperative has over 50 dances in its repertoire. If you are unable to attend an in-person class, the group’s website provides videos, music and explanations of each dance so that you can practice and get moving at home. Palmer then commented on her particular inclination to line dancing.

“I discovered [line dancing] in a senior community, and it was so much fun and such great exercise,” Palmer said. “It was really good for my brain and my body, and the music was fantastic. I just love dancing to music and it’s a lot of social fun.”

At a Thursday afternoon class on April 4, a couple — the Walkers — enthusiastically learned to line dance. The Walkers moved to Davis in early 2020 and, in the four years they have lived here, dance classes, usually geared toward senior citizens, have helped the couple make friends and create a strong

little by little they all open up and it’s such a beautiful moment. Specifically, I remember two toddlers that would grab me by the hand and pull me to different places trying to show me things, and I thought it was so adorable.” Zamora also shared an experience

community. “We’re in another class [in Davis], and we met a couple [of] people in this class who said ‘come to this,’” Jim Walker said, referring to a one-day-aweek city of Davis-funded jazz class. “It’s for cognitive connection between the brain and the body.”

Jim Walker explained how their shared interest in dance classes has benefitted their relationship with the Davis community.

“I enjoy [line dancing] more [than jazz, it’s] really great,” Jim Walker said. “We’ve made a lot of friends here. It’s a very welcoming town. Dancing is a great outlet to meet people and expose yourself.”

Throughout the class, participants learned unique line dances to five different songs, and in a short time, the whole room was “handbagging,” ”swishing” and “mamboing.” Each dance had a different style, pace and difficulty level.

Though typically utilized by senior citizens, Davis Line Dance Cooperative classes are for participants of all ages. Younger participants, like college students, are welcomed to classes with open arms and can equally benefit from the techniques employed in line dancing.

Davis Line Dance classes are free for first-time participants and $5 for returners (usually paid in cash), with classes being held three to four times per week at Davis Community Church’s Fellowship Hall. More information can be found on their website at davislinedance.com.

she cherishes. “One of my most memorable memories was my first time dressing up, and I dressed up as Cinderella at a daycare event for graduate students,” Zamora said.

In March 2024, the biannual round of “Don’t forget to change your clocks!” comments commenced as usual. In California, there has been confusion surrounding the topic of daylight savings for quite some time, with constant back and forth in public opinion and legislation.

While some do appreciate the change of daylight savings, there is also widespread frustration with the biannual time switch. Many UC Davis students have commented that they wish a motion would pass to finally establish a permanent standard time. “I definitely prefer when it gets darker later in the day,” Madeline Hass, a first-year environmental science and management major, said. “I always look forward to resetting the clocks in March, and I wish it would stay that way year-round. Plus, having evening or night classes and leaving them to see that it’s still light outside is really nice.”

In November 2018, American voters passed Proposition 7, granting legislative power to change the daylight savings time measure, by an overwhelming number. This measure allowed the California State Legislature to change daylight savings time, either by establishing it year-round or abolishing it.

Actual change to the policy requires a two-thirds majority of both the Senate and the State Assembly, as well as a signature from California’s governor, Gavin Newsom. Making the permanent shift to keep daylight savings time also requires congressional action, which has yet to take place.

For many Californians, hope was sparked about ending these time changes through the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 (S 623), which was approved by the Senate to consider daylight savings time the new standard

time nationwide. Despite the Senate’s unanimous approval of this act, the House of Representatives chose not to approve it.

Following the time switch last month, many at UC Davis, particularly female students, have reported that daylight savings time makes them feel safer living on a college campus. During winter quarter it gets darker much earlier due to the standard time switch — which takes place in November of every year — and students with classes after 4 p.m. are all forced to make their way home in the dark. “When the days start getting shorter, I'm always relieved when daylight savings comes along. For me, it’s primarily a safety issue; I grew up in a big city, and I’ve never enjoyed walking home alone in the dark,” Phoebe Anzalone, a first-year American studies major, said. “In the winter, it gets dark as early as 4 p.m., so I frequently end up out and about when there’s no light out. Daylight savings brings me more comfort in the winter months, since I don’t have to worry as much about getting home before an early curfew.” In order for daylight savings time to become the permanent standard time,

it requires both House approval and a signature from President Biden. This bill was meant to be passed as of Nov. 5, 2023, but did not receive the necessary approval.

There has been much confusion since November; essentially, whether this change is going to be made is contingent on many moving pieces, all of which are currently pending. Whether or not we commence with the next time change in November of 2024 should be determined in the upcoming months.

Daylight savings was initially established on March 19, 1918, when the Standard Time Act was passed. According to the American Navy, standard time zones were established in 1883 in the United States and Canada, but weren’t officially incorporated into US law until the act’s passing. The Standard Time Act also established daylight savings time, but this was controversial, thus leading to its repeal in 1919. It was re-established during World War II in 1942, and was referred to widely as “war time.”

Members of UC Davis' Princess Pals club pose for a group photo at an event. (Courtesy / Princess Pals at UC Davis)

Line Dancing in the Davis Community Church to "Mamma Maria." (Sacha Chickering / Aggie)

SPORTS

WOMENS SPORTS

Celebrating and recognizing trailblazers in women’s sports

Acknowledging the women who pushed for gender equality within the industry

BY CAROLYN (CARI) FENN sports@theaggie.org

Within the U.S., Women’s History Month has been annually observed in March since 1987. The purpose of the month is to celebrate women’s contributions to history, culture and society. This includes women’s vital role in transforming the sports industry and inspiring future generations of young women to know that their dreams are achievable.

While there were some professional competitions in the late 1800s that allowed women to compete, the big advancement came in 1900 when the Olympics approved the participation of women. Sadly, there have been plenty of setbacks in advancing women’s sports in the 124 years following the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Althea Gibson

Before the Williams sisters entered the tennis scene, there was Althea Gibson. With tennis having been a segregated sport in the 1940s and 50s, Gibson broke barriers when she became the first African American player to participate in the US National Championships in 1950 and the first Black player to compete at Wimbledon in 1951.

While being the first African American player to participate in these prestigious competitions is incredible within itself, she did not stop there. Gibson continued to improve and in the 1956 French Open became the first Black player to win a grand slam tournament. Then in 1957, she became the first Black champion in Wimbledon’s 80-year history and the first African American player to win

Despite the setbacks in women’s sports due to the gender inequality that still plagues our society today, there are plenty of women who have made incredible strides in creating change. From Althea Gibson to Megan Rapinoe, female athletes across different sports are working hard to not only grow women’s sports but make sure that female athletes are given the same treatment as their male counterparts in the sporting world. As time goes on and more women continue to further gender equality in sports, it is important to remember the incredible accomplishments of the women who came before and make sure they are not forgotten.

BASKETBALL

the U.S. Open tennis title. When Gibson eventually retired from tennis, she was the No. 1 ranked player in the world and had won 11 grand slam titles. Despite playing tennis at a time when women were still not fully recognized and treated equally to males for their talent, she managed to pave the way for women in tennis, especially for African American women in the sport such as Venus and Serena Williams.

Billie Jean King

While Billie Jean King is one of the greatest tennis players of all time with 39 grand slam titles, she is also extremely well known for her work to promote women’s tennis and gender equality.

Most notably, King is recognized from the infamous 1973 tennis match known as the “Battle of the Sexes” where she played against Bobby Riggs, a previous No. 1 tennis player determined to prove that women’s tennis was inferior to men’s tennis.

At the time of the match, King was establishing the women’s tournament and threatening to boycott the U.S. Open if male and female champions did not earn the same prize money. This, along with the ensuing media

Aggies fall short in Big West Conference Championships

Both men’s and women’s basketball suffer tough losses in finals and miss out on March Madness

BY LUCIENNE BROOKER sports@theaggie.org

As confetti rained down on the court at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada, both the UC Davis men’s and women’s basketball teams watched as their opponents celebrated a new win. After strong regular season showings from both teams, the Aggies had a fighting chance as they made it into their respective tournament championships. However, neither Davis team was able to clinch the Big West Conference Championship and subsequent NCAA playoff berth.

Every drop of blood, sweat and tears shed by the Aggies over the course of the season pushed them closer to March 16, 2024. On this day, both the men’s and women’s Big West Conference Championship finals were scheduled, with the women’s match tipping off at 3 p.m. and the men’s three hours later.

The women’s basketball team had a tough road to the final. Coming into the playoffs as the No. 5 seed team

in a tournament of eight teams, they had to compete in a first-round match instead of skipping straight to the quarterfinals. With a decisive 81-56 defeat of Cal State Fullerton, driven by an

UC Davis women’s club water polo team notes importance of their close-knit community

Club sports provide opportunities for athletes to continue their sport in college

BY EMME DUNNING features@theaggie.org

Sports are an integral part of the high school experience for many teenagers. They provide a sense of structure, a way to make friends and a chance to play at a highly competitive level. After graduating high school, however, opportunities to continue playing sports dwindle greatly. NCAA-level competitions are highly selective and extremely timeconsuming, making it difficult for most high school athletes to pursue. While intramural sports are a great WOMEN’S WATERPOLO BASKETBALLPLAYOFFS on

way to continue playing sports in a low-stakes environment, they often lack the highly competitive aspect that many athletes crave. The solution? UC Davis club sports. As one of the programs of campus recreation, club sports provide students the opportunity to join teams for over 40 sports, ranging from basketball to bowling. Athletes attend regular practices, compete in an intercollegiate setting and train in their off-seasons, in many ways mimicking the intensity and structure of varsity high school competition.

In addition, these teams have the opportunity to compete for spots to

circus surrounding the match, increased the pressure on King to beat Riggs and prove him wrong.

In the end, King beat Riggs in straight sets with over 90 million people watching worldwide. King’s win came as a huge step in pushing for gender equality within sports as she proved Riggs and others within society who shared his misogynistic view wrong.

Throughout her life and career, King’s incredible skill and performance in tennis as well as advocacy for gender equality makes her one of the most influential women in sports of all time.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias

As one of the greatest female athletes of all time, Mildred Ella “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias was an Olympic gold medal winner and world record breaker in multiple sports. From very early on, Didrikson became accomplished in every sport she tried — basketball, track, golf, baseball, tennis, swimming, diving, boxing, volleyball, handball, bowling, billiards, skating and cycling. She earned her nickname “Babe” after the great baseball legend Babe Ruth as a result of her baseball ability.

A major moment of her athletic

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play in competitions beyond their own league in tournaments taking place regionally and even nationally.

The UC Davis women’s club water polo team embodies this spirit of competition. Their A team has gone undefeated in their league, boasting an 11-0 record that has earned them a spot in the 2024 Women’s National Collegiate Club Championship held in early May at Texas A&M University. The Collegiate Water Polo Associationsanctioned event brings together the top 16 teams from divisions across the country to compete in the highest level of play available to club water polo athletes.

The road to nationals has not been easy for the Aggies, but instead is the result of hard work against fierce competition. Although the official women’s water polo season begins in January, their work begins far earlier. Open practices begin in October, helping athletes practice fundamentals, develop plays and begin to connect as a coherent team.

At the end of the fall quarter, “nocut tryouts” are held to sort athletes into A, B and C teams, each with their own distinct skill and experience levels. To ensure they’re prepared for the challenges they face in league competition each year, the teams hold practice multiple times each week, with A team practicing up to four times per week during the regular season.

career came in the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Olympics when she won three Olympic medals — two gold and one silver — in the track and field events. Still to this day, she is the only track and field athlete ever to win individual Olympic medals in running, throwing and jumping events. After the Olympics, Didrikson pursued a career as a professional golfer, which is what she is best known for. Despite initially facing discrimination and resistance as a woman in golf, Didrikson excelled at the sport winning 82 tournaments and 10 majors throughout her career, and even helped co-found the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).

Despite March coming to an end, it does not mean that society should stop recognizing and remembering these important women and what they have done for society. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Billie Jean King and Althea Gibson are three exceptional women whose memory should not be lost with time. As women in sports continue to fight for gender equality, it is important to remember and look back on the exceptional women that came before.

Shredville finds a new mayor

New Head Coach Tim Plough ushers in a new era for UC Davis football

BY (MI’ZAUNI REESE) sports@theaggie.org

Last month, the UC Davis football team hosted their only spring game and prospect day, giving new staff, players and the Davis community a warm welcome to “Shredville” — a new program created by Head Coach Tim Plough. The event took place on March 9 and gave Plough a platform to showcase the new talent and skills that he has cultivated during the off-season. On CBS Sports Sunday, Plough discussed his goals for the program and what the future of UC Davis football would look like with new key staff members that will improve the program. Shredville is an idea created around 2017 with Plough’s SoCal slang. Shred, meaning to destroy, annihilate and demolish the competition, resonated heavily with players and thus resulted in the name Shredville.

Special Teams Coordinator

Eric Raisbeck from Penn State and Cornerbacks Coach Dumaurier Jordan from Midwestern State are some of the biggest names joining the coaching staff this upcoming fall. Plough was also able to retain multiple coaches who worked under past head

coach Dan Hawkins. This includes renowned Defensive Coordinator Matt Coombs, who has been with the program for five years and counting.

Aside from the coaching staff, Plough also mentioned in his interview a few key players crucial in maintaining the integrity of the team. Fourth-year running back Lan Larrison, second-year Rex Connors and fifth-year Miles Hastings are just a few players Plough mentioned his gratuity for as they return for another or final season.

Just before the spring game and prospect day, UC Davis football had seven athletes named part of the Big Sky Fall All-Academic team, acknowledging their academic prosperity as athletes. Not only are the Aggies strong athletically, but they are also a very academically motivated team. The spring game also proved to be an opportunity for the team to connect with the community. With aspirations to make this an annual event, Plough invited children and community members to join the players on the field, hoping to cultivate a stronger bond and support for the UC Davis football program.

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Spring in full swing for the UC Davis softball team

Aggies take two losses and one win

BY EMMÍA J RIVERA sports@theaggie.org

match, showing that they were just warming up for the season. The following week, the Aggies went back on the road where they were edged out by reigning Big West champion CSU Long Beach in three close games. Davis provided two fair fights, but ultimately fell short in the end. The first game of the series ended 2-1, where both teams battled for 11 innings and Long Beach held on to the lead.

Hawaii University’s baseketball team towers over UC Davis’s Guard, Kane Milling, as he looks for an openning to pass. The Aggies walked away with the win during the most recent game against Hawaii. (Andrew Huang / Aggie) electric 29-point performance from fifth-year Evanne Turner, the Aggies moved into the quarterfinals.

UC Davis softball player Sarah Reineman (#17) throwing a pitch against Saint Mary’s opposing team. (Andrew Huang/Aggie)