Issue 27: May 8, 2025

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

@THECALIFORNIAAGGIE

SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

@THECALIFORNIAGAGGIE

@THECALIFORNIAAGGIE

VOLUME 148, ISSUE 27 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025

THEAGGIE.ORG

James B. Milliken chosen as next president of UC system

Milliken, chancellor of the University of Texas system, joins the UC as higher education continues to face pressures from federal government

BY RIVERS STOUT campus@theaggie.org James B. Milliken, the chancellor of the University of Texas System, was chosen as the 22nd president of the University of California system, the UC Board of Regents announced on May 2. He will replace outgoing President Michael V. Drake, who announced his intent to step down in July of last year and has served in the role since 2020.

“The University of California is universally regarded as the preeminent public research university in the world, and I am deeply honored to have an opportunity to join the many talented faculty, staff, and campus leaders in their vital work,” Milliken said in a press release. “It is more important than ever that we expand the education, research, health care, and public service for which UC is so widely admired and which has benefited so many Californians.”

Milliken has been working on the administrative side of the education field since 1988, when he was an executive assistant to the president of the University of Nebraska. He has since held positions at the University of North Carolina and the City University of New York (CUNY). He has been chancellor of the University of Texas system since 2018.

James B. Milliken, chancellor of the University of Texas system, chosen as next UC President.

(Charlie Palafox, University of Texas / Courtesy of UCOP) Prior to working as an administrator, he held various faculty positions with the University of Nebraska’s schools of law and public policy.

As head of the UC system he will be responsible for overseeing all 10 UC

campuses, 300,000 students and some 10 million patients annually.

Milliken’s board-approved annual salary is $1,473,000, an increase from Drake’s starting salary of $890,000.

“Chancellor Milliken embodies the

Co-operative living in Davis: Turtle House

Past “hatchlings” share allegations and incidents leading up to a mass departure of 17 residents

Turtle House, a housing co-op on 2nd Street. (Jessie Baltaxe / Aggie)

BY NOAH HARRIS features@theaggie.org “That’s when I learned that I would never be on the lease with 17 other people ever again, because you’re liable for whatever the fuck they do,” Piper, a former tenant of Turtle House who wishes to leave her last name anonymous, said.

Turtle House, a cooperative (coop) residence in Davis’ downtown, has faced issues with tenant-owner relations, as well as lease violations, that led to almost all of Turtle House’s occupants vacating the property in a less than two-week period.

Turtle House is known for their frequent concerts, which have mostly stopped in the last two years. Up to 600 people would typically attend these concerts, routinely utilizing the area in front of the house, according to numbers reported from various sources.

One of the first inciting conflicts for the residents of Turtle House began over the front lawn.

“Things really started to boil over starting from the grass,” Piper said.

Another past resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, expressed frustration with the situation, noting

that the owner, Michael Harrington, was being particularly strict about visitors standing on the lawn, which was newly renovated at the time.

“We had this big show planned and he told us [at the] last second, ‘Nobody’s allowed to stand on the grass,’” the resident said. “And we were like, ‘Well, where the hell are people supposed to stand?’ It was a big point of contention.”

For the event, the residents put mats over the grass, in an attempt to protect it from damage. One former resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the situation in more detail.

“We went and got all these carpets at Goodwill to cover them so that the actual grass would not be stomped on,” the resident said. “It was just kind of compacted under. And then after the show was over, we pull[ed] it up, let the grass breathe, water[ed] it and it was 95% fine.”

The damage done to the lawn resulted in Harrington charging residents a $2,500 fine.

This became a cause of tension, and many of the tenants asked lawyers for advice on whether they should pay the full charge and were advised to not pay Harrington for the damages, according to multiple anonymous

former residents.

Eventually, the amount of money Harrington requested for the damage was paid through the residents’ collective security deposit, which many residents alleged they later received only a fraction of the amount that they initially paid upon moving out of the house. Some residents believe they weren’t given the fair amount owed from their deposit.

Around the same time as the lawn damage, an injury occurred at a concert, which turned into a potential lawsuit against Harrington as there was no insurance that covered these events at Turtle House.

“Those kids weren’t buying commercial coverage for their profitable Venmo shows,” Harrington said. “They were using Daddy’s resources for free, right? If somebody’s seriously injured and there’s no coverage, guess who eats it? Daddy does, right?”

When wwthe injured individual’s attorney sent a letter requesting to speak with Turtle House’s owner, the tenants who received the letter debated how to proceed. One former tenant explained what happened after the letter was received.

“When we got the notice from the guy who injured himself, we were instructed [by other residents] to take the letter and rip it,” the tenant said.

Because the letter was allegedly ripped, it wasn’t until months later that Harrington learned from the single resident who stayed at Turtle House that a letter had been sent.

Later, a settlement was reached outside of court.

Another set of incidents that occurred at Turtle House was the usage of urine jars. Claimed by several past residents of the house, jars of urine were visible around Turtle House, including in public areas such as one of the house’s communal kitchens.

TURTLEHOUSE on 11

qualities and leadership experiences the University of California community needs at this moment,” Janet Reilly, the chair of the UC Board of Regents, said in a UC statement. “ He understands how critical UC’s

contributions are to the state and the country, and he has decades of experience leading public institutions during times of unprecedented change in higher education. Chancellor Milliken is simply the right person for UC at just the right time.”

Milliken, who is set to take the reins in August, enters the office during a difficult time for the UC. The system is facing state budget cuts, resulting in a UC-wide hiring freeze and reductions in federal research funding amid increased scrutiny on higher education nationally from the Donald Trump administration.

Still, many state officials hold high hopes for Milliken, with Governor Gavin Newsom being one of them. “ C a l i f o r n i a’s f u t u re depends on the strength of our institutions, and few are more vital than the University of California,” Newsom said in a statement. “Chancellor Milliken brings years of experience and the steady, strategic leadership needed to expand UC’s impact across the state. I am excited to see him drive the next chapter of innovation, talent, and progress that will shape California and the country for generations to come.”

Major changes to Lawntopia include adding ticket costs and move to indoor venue

The developments have sparked discourse around the new prices and the ASUCD’s potential role in creating them

BY SAIRAKSHA THIRUNAVUKKARASU campus@theaggie.org For the first time in the concert’s history, the ASUCD Entertainment Council (EC) began charging for this year’s Lawntopia tickets. The decision has been criticized by students, with many taking to the comment sections on the EC’s social media account, resulting in conversations between the unit and the student government in charge of their oversight.

The event, which is on May 8, features Don Toliver as the headliner with DJ Odd Mob as direct support and singer Umi as opener. Ticket offerings began with a 48-hour presale followed by a general onsale; presale offered upper and floor general admission tickets at $16 and $31, respectively, while the general onsale raised each tier’s prices by $5 to $21 and $36.

In a FAQ post on their Instagram, the EC claimed that the reason why tickets were not free this year was due to constraints placed on them by the

ASUCD Senate, who is responsible for approving their annual budget.

“The ASUCD Senate has decided that we would not receive a workable budget unless we met certain financial goals,” the comment reads.

Jonathan Ng, a third-year political science major and the EC’s unit director, said that his unit’s budget had faced cuts in the past and that ticketing proved one solution to address the problem.

“The EC’s budget had been absolutely decimated,” Ng said. “The senators [were] more comfortable in giving EC a larger budget if they just charged for one of their concerts.”

In the 2023-24 academic year, the ASUCD Executive Office proposed a budget for EC factors in a sold-out show held at the University Credit Union Center (U Center). Currently facing a roughly $200,000 deficit, ASUCD has already cut funding for this year’s budget for many of its units, including EC. ASUCD Senator Amrita Julka expressed her thoughts on the EC’s claim regarding the Senate’s involvement in ticket price increases.

LAWNTOPIATICKETS on 8

Box office at the U Center. (Sacha Chickering / Aggie)

2 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Davis May Day demonstration draws over 800 attendees

Hundreds of demonstrators march through downtown in support of workers

BY SUNNY LIU city@theaggie.org On May 1, hundreds of Davisites and UC Davis students converged in Central Park as part of a planned May Day demonstration. The protest is among hundreds of similar May Day demonstrations and strikes across the country defending labor rights. The demonstrations in Davis this May Day also demanded protection for immigrants and an end to President Donald Trump’s assault on democratic institutions.

The event was organized and sponsored by a number of community organizations, including the Davis Faculty Association, Indivisible Yolo, Democratic Socialists of America-Yolo, Sister District Yolo, Davis College Democrats, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement-Sacramento and the American Federation of Teachers at UC Davis.

Kelly Wilkerson, an organizer for the event representing Sister District Yolo, explained the purpose of the event.

“It’s May Day, which is international workers day, so that was our focus,” Wilkerson said. “Davis Faculty Association and some other unions were here, [...] so that’s one reason why we’re here. And then we’re here for all the other reasons, you know, our rights and my particular sign is pro-child, antiTrump. I’m really horrified by what’s happening. And so, you know, it’s kind of all of the above.”

Antonio De Loera-Brust, the director of communications for the United Farm Workers Union, commented on his organization’s view on the need to foreground immigrant labor when discussing labor rights in general.

“The Latino working class [is what] really makes Yolo County run,” De Loera-Brust said. “Whether you think about the fields and the [agriculture] all around in Yolo County, that’s really our bread and butter. Or whether it’s, you

Yolo Food Bank faces significant funding cuts $2 million budget shortfall comes from federal cuts to food assistance programs and expiring pandemic aid

Boxes of food at Yolo Food Bank, which is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Trump administration. (Christian Cendejas / Aggie) Davis May Day demonstration in Central Park on May 1. (Sunny Liu / Aggie) know, all the kitchens in Downtown Davis, right? Every time UC Davis students order DoorDash, right, it’s probably an immigrant Latino worker making that meal. It’s often immigrant workers who are delivering them, right?

So for us, we wanted to participate, to really elevate just the visibility of that workforce that doesn’t run Davis, but makes Davis run.”

The event kicked off at 5 p.m. with speeches from various sponsors and local labor organizations. Soon after 5 p.m., the group, many with homemade signs, marched around the downtown area. The protestors chanted slogans through 4th Street, G Street and then back through 2nd Street. Many roads along the march route were closed off to traffic due to the number of protesters and audience members present.

Wilkerson described the audience during the march.

“It’s great because there’s a lot of people on G Street for the Big Day of Giving, so we kind of had a built-in audience,” Wilkerson said. “Sometimes you have a march or parade and there’s no one watching, but we did have [a large audience].”

After the protesters returned to Central Park, the organizers gave a few concluding remarks and future announcements. De Loera-Brust encapsulated the sentiment expressed

by multiple labor groups and protesters at the demonstration.

“An attack on one worker is an attack on every worker,” De Loera-Brust said. “When any group of workers is afraid to speak out because they’re afraid of getting deported, that makes them less likely to report unsafe working conditions. That makes them less likely to report wage theft, and that makes not just their lives worse, but that puts every other worker, including U.S. citizen workers in the same danger. […] That’s our message that if we want to fight for workers. We need to fight for immigrant workers, too.”

After the event, Steve Murphy, the co-chair of Indivisible Yolo and an organizer for the event, spoke about the scope and size of the May Day demonstration. “[We are] part of the national movement, the national days of action,” Murphy said. “There’ll be another one in June, but this one was all about labor, all about solidarity, labor and the immigrant community. So getting all three generations of Davis out: the student population, the adults, the seniors like myself, getting all [...] three of those generations all up and getting incredibly invigorated [is important].

MAYDAY on 9

BY GIA LOOMIS city@theaggie.org This year, the Yolo Food Bank will experience an over $2 million loss from its federal funding. With an annual budget of $5.1 million, this almost 40% budget cut could have detrimental effects on their operations. These budget cuts are resulting from recent losses in both federal aid and emergency pandemic funds.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump’s administration has attempted to reduce inflation by cutting back government spending. As a result, on March 10, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cancelled $1 billion in national funding for Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) for schools and food banks.

Additionally, they have also cut around $500 million in funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). These cuts are resulting in a $750,000 hit to Yolo Food Bank’s upcoming fiscal year’s budget.

Furthermore, the food bank is also experiencing a large loss from expiring American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds. These are emergency funds for organizations from COVID-19. Yolo Food Bank will have $1.3 million in funds expiring this year. Consequently, Yolo Food Bank will suffer a $2.1 million reduction in their operating budget for next year.

With these recent federal cuts, there are concerns of additional cuts

in aid. The Trump administration is considering further decreasing USDA or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding.

In a recent press release, Karen Baker, the executive director of Yolo Food Bank, expressed concerns for the impact these cuts may have on the food bank’s distributions.

“If resources continue to decline, we may have no choice but to reduce the amount of food families receive at our public distributions,” Baker said. “We’re calling on local leaders, policymakers and our community to take action.

Without financial and legislative support, we won’t be able to meet the growing need. We’re doing everything we can, but we can’t do it alone. It will take all of us to keep food on every table in Yolo County.”

Declines in local food bank funding are an especially pressing issue in Yolo County. In recent surveys, Yolo County has consistently measured a high poverty percentage. In 2024, it sat at 15.3%, around 4% higher than the national average. Yolo Food Bank’s recent Yolo County Food Access survey also showed that 29% of households in the county are food insecure.

Food insecurity is a major concern in Yolo County that the food bank is working to combat. California Assembly District 4 Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry touched on the concern of falling resources and increasing need in the press release.

YOLOFOODBANK on 9

UC Davis’ student farm Human Relations Commission’s hosts the 2025 Semillas Muslim, Arab and Palestinian study y Culturas Summit draws contentious opposition

Seeds & Cultures Summit, a fully booked event, highlighted Mesoamerican foodways

People make their own tea bags during the Semillas y Culturas Summit.

(Christian Cendejas / Aggie) food. That’s definitely a big emphasis

BY PIPER AWEEKA of this event.” city@theaggie.org Dixon further described how the farm’s sustainability values align with On Sunday, April 27, the UC those of the event.

Davis Student Farm was abuzz with “Bringing people together to talk people attending this year’s Semillas about the knowledge, some of the y Culturas, translated to Seeds & traditions that are of California and of Cultures, Summit. Born from a desire to Mesoamerica, of the place where we are, raise awareness around the sustainable and be able to highlight the homeland agriculture of Indigenous Mesoamerican we’re on,” Dixon said. “Another communities, 2025 marks the seventh important aspect of this event is year the event has been held at UC bringing campus communities together.

Davis.

Bringing these different stories, different Through workshops, presentations kinds of expertise together so that we and speeches, attendees learned about can learn across communities and across what sustaining native foodways generations.” means in a world rapidly feeling the Melissa Moreno, the director of the effects of climate change and cultural Semillas y Culturas Summit, shared how interconnection. integrated seeds and culture really are.

Tiffany Herrera, a fourth-year “This is an interdisciplinary English and Chicana/o studies double collaboration,” Moreno said. “My major, highlighted the community’s training is in ethnic studies, native excitement surrounding the event.

Chicano studies, but we also have “This is my fourth time at Semillas farming [and] agriculture, as well as y Culturas; I really love it,” Herrera said. culinary knowledge. Bringing these “I first got introduced to the summit worlds together is the exciting part.” through one of my [Chicana/o studies] The food, catered by Savory Café, professors. After a food justice course, I is one of the main components Moreno find it really valuable.” sees as helping to share the Indigenous In sharing her admiration for the knowledge the event is all about. annual seminar, Herrera also honed in “We started with trying to raise on its collaboration with the university. awareness about the Mesoamerican “It’s a lot of people’s first Southwest and California regional introduction to the student farm and foodways,” Moreno said. “Every year, ecological garden,” Herrera said. “It the major food item is the cactus. This gets people on campus, and more year, it’s made by Savory Café, all from importantly, it gets people to engage scratch.” with native foodways.”

Moreno concluded by emphasizing Located at the edge of the UC the summit’s growth in popularity after Davis campus off of Hutchison Drive, the effects of COVID-19. the student farm is directed by Colin “This has been a beautiful seventh Dixon. Dixon elaborated on how summit in collaboration with [Dixon] the farm connects to the summit’s [and] Jacqueline Ross [co-organizer], objectives. as well as Juan [Barajas], the owner of “We do a lot of work here around Savory Café,” Moreno said. “When we food production [and] crop production started the event, we had 50, 100 and, but also food sovereignty,” Dixon said. at some point before COVID, we had “It’s the aspect of what it means to 200 attendees. Now, we’re building up not just eat food, not just grow food again. Today we even have a couple of sustainably, but also how to sustain people from UC Santa Cruz, all the way cultures through making and sharing here just to check this out.”

The HRC votes overwhelmingly to recommend further actions to protect marginalized groups

BY SUNNY LIU city@theaggie.org On April 26, the Human Relations Commission (HRC) met to discuss recent hate incidents and a three-monthlong research report on discrimination against Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians and their Allies (MAPA).

The commission first discussed a troubling rise in hate incidents in the Davis Joint Unified School District.

Vice Chair Leonie Pickett informed the group of one recent hate incident in a local Davis high school.

“There was an incident with a swastika drawn somewhere in Da Vinci High School,” Pickett said. “I know, there, it’s being investigated as hate speech as the school always would, and I don’t think we’ve quite figured out the details of it yet, but it’s a hate incident.”

One resident who identified herself as a teacher at North Davis Elementary School described the situation in the school district further.

“We’ve had several incidents this year,” the public commenter said. “I think the most recent was the swastika and the n-word in an elementary school bathroom, but it’s pretty regular. [...]

Some of the students have kind of just stopped reporting to us. I found out recently, because there’s just a lot of racism, antisemitism and sexism. [...]

And that’s my main concern, just that our young people are kind of swimming in this right now and I don’t think most adults are aware.”

Following the discussion on rising hate incidents in Davis schools, the majority of the time in the meeting was devoted to discussing the MAPA Report and the commission’s list of recommendations. The previous meeting held on April 2 presented the

report’s findings. The meeting on April 26 was intended to address only the commission’s recommendations to the Davis City Council.

Commission Member Ellie Kaplan provided some background on the research.

“These recommendations are coming out of three months of research [and] many, many conversations with Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians and allies within Davis,” Kaplan said. “We primarily took a qualitative approach for this. We really wanted this to be an opportunity for people to share their experiences, their thoughts [and] their feelings in a safe way. One of the things that came up is that there [are] enormous risks in speaking out for many members of this community.”

A Davis resident provided a comment to the commission and expressed their support for the initiative.

“I wanted to urge that the MAPA Report and recommendations be sent on promptly to the city council,” one public commenter said. “I wholeheartedly agree with the recommendations.

Institutional acknowledgement of the hurt and distrust in the community is the beginning step towards healing and building a healthier community. [...] I think that honestly recognizing that speech in favor of Palestinian justice is not antisemitic is important.”

Another supporter of the project thanked the commission for their work in highlighting the struggles faced by the MAPA community.

“I want to start by thanking the subcommittee for performing such a complete survey of the MAPA community and presenting your findings in such a clear and effective manner,” the commenter said. “This survey was so necessary because our community often doesn’t talk about hate

The Davis Human Relations Commission met in the Community Chambers on April 24, 2025. (Sacha Chickering / Aggie)

speech or incidents, or it’s so common that it doesn’t even register anymore as something new.”

The commenter continued by describing specific incidents and their relevance.

“I have youth in the community who just casually mention stories of other kids calling them terrorists and saying racist, Islamophobic comments, and I’m hearing them in shock while they say, ‘Oh, it’s fine, I just play it off,’” the commenter said. “We don’t want our kids thinking it’s normal for others to call them these things, and as was mentioned earlier, these comments are a reflection of what their classmates hear at home. And that comes back to this survey and the recommendations. It’s an actual opportunity to make change in the community.”

Despite the broad support for the recommendations from those attending the meeting, other Davis residents voiced their apprehension with the MAPA study itself. One commenter who was reading off a mobile device claimed to speak for David Siegle, a professor emeritus of medicine at UC Davis.

“Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment are serious issues in the [United States] and worldwide,” the commenter said. “That said, the Davis Human Relations Commission’s meeting on April 2, last month, did little to advance knowledge of or combat these problems. Rather, they presented a 45-minute biased report. [...] The report obstructed a deeper understanding of these concerns by making numerous false charges, promoting conflict and weaponizing Islamophobia and antiArab sentiment.”

The commenter continued by describing their perspective of the meeting.

“At the April 2 meeting, HRC members read long quotes from interviews, [interviewees] who supposedly represented a crop-section of the MAPA groups in Davis,” the commenter said. “It was quickly apparent that the quoted individuals were not randomly selected but were purposefully picked to spread carefully chosen political themes and falsehoods.”

Another public commenter further questioned the scientific rigor of the methods used to create the report.

“It is interesting to note that much of the report doesn’t actually include evidence or examples,” the commenter said. “Without clear examples and evidence, I worry that this report also serves to slander and libel community members. The Congregation Bet Haverim Counter Antisemitism Committee put on a presentation that is mentioned in the report.

HUMANRELATIONS on 12

THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2025 | 3

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Whole Earth Festival to be held this Mother’s Day weekend

The 56th annual festival is returning to the Quad

BY JESSICA YUNG campus@theaggie.org The 56th annual Whole Earth Festival (WEF), a student-run festival dedicated to sustainability and activism, will be held on the Memorial Union Quad on Mother’s Day weekend from May 10 through May 12. The event, which is free to enter, is returning to their long-time venue after being held last year at Russell Field.

WEF will feature live music, local performances, food and art vendors and service booths, according to WEF’s CoDirectors Jaye Duckhart, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, and Katherine Krinsky, a fourthyear English major.

“During festival weekend, you can plan to see two stages with live music all day, every day,” Duckhart and Krinsky said in a joint email.

WEF will also host over a dozen vegetarian food vendors from various different cuisines, plus over 120 craft vendors — both students and members of the larger Davis community.

WEF was founded in 1969 as an art class project titled “Art Happening” on the Quad.

“The students used art to teach visitors about the realms of activism, wellness, and environmental sustainability in an interactive and creative way,” the WEF website reads.

“Following the United Nations’ recognition of Earth Day in 1970, the event was renamed to the Whole Earth Festival [...] and has since evolved into a free student-run event, attracting over 30,000 visitors annually.”

Duckhart and Krinsky described the inspiration behind this year’s theme. “[‘Earth to the People’ reminds] us that action starts now, not later,” Duckhart and Krinsky said. “Our

festival artwork strives to bring that message to life, urging us all to wake up and step up for the world we love.”

The event will have various different places to engage in crafts and to explore environmental practices. These include service booths, offering services from henna to hair-braiding, an education space, an art space and a kids area.

“We also have an experiential dome that holds different experience-based activities, workshops, and performances throughout the weekend,” Duckhart and Krinsky said. “Our second dome is our staff dome, home for our staff members throughout the weekend, and also is where volunteer check-in occurs and all WEF questions can be answered.”

The event is dedicated to sustainable practices, such as reusing plates and dishes and prohibiting meat from being sold by food vendors.

“The Whole Earth Festival has been historically vegetarian in an effort to embrace food sustainability,” the WEF website reads. “The Whole Earth Reusables Cooperative (WERC) Dish program and our Compost and Recycling team work together to reduce waste throughout the three-day festival.

Our goal for zero-waste is to reduce our carbon footprint by contributing as little waste as possible to landfills.”

With so many offerings, the codirectors suggest that interested visitors do their research on programs and specific experiences to find what they might enjoy best.

“All of these different spaces have such variety in [what] they offer throughout the weekend,” Duckhart and Krinsky said. “We recommend checking out our program either at the festival or on our social media to find what interests you.”

$12 million grant for reach on sustainable transportation terminated by Trump administration The grant, which supported “accelerating equitable decarbonization” research, decreed as ‘woke’ by U.S. transportation secretary

BY JORDAN POLTORAK campus@theaggie.org United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Friday, May 2, that he would terminate a $12 million grant given to UC Davis’ National Center for Sustainable Transportation for being “woke.”

The grant was used to fund “accelerating equitable decarbonization that benefits both the transportation system and the well-being of people in overburdened and historically disadvantaged communities,” according to the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies website.

UC Davis was one of seven institutions that had their “woke university grants” revoked, according to Duffy, UC Davis’ grant being the largest. City College of New York and University of South California both lost out on $9 million for their grants.

New York University, San Jose State University, University of New Orleans and Johns Hopkins University each had $6 million in grant funding terminated.

“These grants were used to advance a radical [diversity, equity and inclusion] (DEI) and green agenda that were both wasteful and ran counter to the transportation priorities of the American people,” the U.S. Department of Transportation website reads.

The National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) grant totaled $20 million with $4 million per year over five years. Research focused on three areas: improving vehicle technology,

building better infrastructure and changing travel demands to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The NCST is one of five national centers funded by the Department of Transportation.

The NCST is led by The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) which is the leading university center in the world on sustainable transportation with over 60 faculty and researchers and more than 120 graduate students.

“Much of our work was in line with the previous administration and their priorities. We were addressing the [Joe] Biden administration in our proposal.

The current administration has very different priorities so we knew we had some vulnerability there. But we do a lot of work that is consistent with the current administration, with respect to the transportation realm. Projects like safety, impacts of transportation on the economy and some of my work has to do with the degree that widening highways reduces congestion,” Susan Handy, the director for NCST and principal investigator on the federal grant, said.

Her message to students is to not give up hope.

“A lot of good work will still continue at the Institute of Transportation Studies,” Handy said. “We receive funding from a lot of different sources including California agencies. We want to continue to fund the students we have committed to funding. We will have to work to find resources in other places that can support the important work that needs to be done.”

A UC Davis spokesperson provided

the following comment.

“The university has received dozens of notices from federal agencies related to specific grants or projects since the change in the federal administration. The affected grants cover a wide range of areas, including research related to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, food production and safety, renewable energy, basic science and a great deal more.

The federal notices vary significantly in their intent and need for action. In each case, the Office of Research is working directly with the principal investigator and campus leadership to determine the appropriate course of action.

In the case of research terminations, this may include filing an appeal directly with the agency, litigating matters in court and negotiating a financial settlement prior to winding down the research. These processes can take months and prevent us from sharing information publicly until complete.

UC Davis is a powerhouse for breakthroughs and impact. Our research plays a vital role in building the region’s economy and contributes to our nation’s global leadership in technology and innovation. As we navigate the complex landscape, we remain committed to maintaining and uplifting a robust research enterprise that fully serves our mission of teaching, research and public service.”

This is a developing story. Follow The Aggie for continued updates.

ASUCD Senate considers resolution to condemn violence at Turning Point USA event

Senate Resolution #10 was ultimately tabled over concerns that it failed to be as neutral as possible

BY AALIYAH ESPAÑOL-RIVAS

campus@theaggie.org The ASUCD Senate considered, then tabled Senate Resolution (SR) #10 at its May 1 meeting to affirm students’ right to free speech and political demonstration following a spur of violence at a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event held early last month.

Senator Mia Cohen who authored SR#10, explained the premise of the resolution and emphasized that it is nonpartisan and focuses on protecting student safety and free speech.

“I recognize that Turning Point USA and Brandon Tatum are controversial figures,” Cohen said. “However, this resolution does not take a political stance, nor does it endorse any particular viewpoint. Rather, it uses this incident as a case study to underscore a larger, more pressing issue: the urgent need to preserve human safety and protect the right to free speech on our campus.”

The resolution calls on the university to “provide a comprehensive analysis of the events pertaining to April 3, 2025, including any failures in communication, coordination, or response” and condemns the violence that occurred at the event. It also hopes to encourage respectful conversation between those with opposing viewpoints and to assert the right of protestors from being targeted based on their ideologies.

The Senate decided to table SR#10 and move it to the Internal Affairs Commission to undergo review.

Three commissions, tasked with reviewing legislation, recommended not to pass SR#10. Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC) Chair Tristen Dillard argued that because of TPUSA’s long history both on and off campus, their presence makes students uncomfortable and their violence should not be tolerated.

“Many students feel unsafe by [TPUSA],” Dillard said. “If we’re looking at this simply through condemning violence, it is important to look at it through the fact that verbal violence is still violence, there are still levels in which it is not just physical violence.”

The Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC) also did not recommend to pass SR#10.

EPPC Chairperson Annie Kanjamala believed the bill was only condemning the violence on April 3, despite other student groups facing similar violence at protests.

“We reiterated multiple times to [Cohen] that if the bill is about any violence, it should highlight violence [that] groups [like Students for Justice in Palestine] met during protests,” Kanjamala said. “We were told the bill would solely focus on the event of April 3. But we don’t believe it is appropriate for the [ASUCD] to unilaterally condemn the violence on April 3 as we can’t expect a speaker with a history of

Flyers left on the floor of the Memorial Union Quad following a TPUSA event. (Christian Cendejas / Aggie) violence to not be met with violence in response.”

Senator Siddharth Jasthi emphasized disapproval of the resolution from the commissions as an indication of the student body opinion and volume of unresolved comments on the document.

“I disagree heavily with most of the resolution,” Jasthi said. “I think on the basis that it went through different commissions and a total of 17 people voted ‘no’ on passing this, I think that should give indication as to where a portion of the student body stands on this. I don’t want to spend this meeting for an hour going through each point that every commissioner made and having us struggle through and reword it.”

Cohen responded by asking for input from the table to make the resolution neutral.

“I tried the best of my ability to speak with every member of the Senate table beforehand, and I really do want your feedback,” Cohen said. “I value it a lot, and I want to try to make this resolution as neutral as possible.

I recognize certain people find the language inflammatory, and to that I request that they make those edits in there so we can change them.”

Jasthi replied by again emphasizing the need for edits to be made before

the resolution was considered by the table and called for a new resolution to be introduced with all the edits from SR#10.

“I think you should have done those edits yourself, and listen to the recommendations of the commissions in making those edits before bringing it to the table,” Jasthi said. “I think we should just table the resolution or vote it down and reintroduce a new one with all the edits.”

Senator Solana Rodriguez also added to the conversation surrounding SR#10 mainly due to its focus on Turning Point USA. “There is nuance within this,” Rodriguez said. “But it is painting Turning Point USA as more of a victim in this specific instance. I think it is very difficult to be able to agree with this resolution when it paints Turning Point USA as an open dialogue group.”

Senator Ezra Rubin attempted to address the comments made by the table, pointing out the two different sides there are when addressing how to handle SR#10.

“We have the one side that [is] ‘violence occurred, violence is bad,’” Rubin said. “I think we all agree on that. There’s also the fact of hate speech.

I think that those things obviously aren’t mutually exclusive, but I do think they

are separate enough issues that are going to be really hard to tackle in one resolution.”

Rubin explained his perspective on the need to focus on April 3 as opposed to having a broader anti-violence resolution.

“The idea [that] this group is a conservative group and conservatives are particularly affected — we [as a Senate are] not really considering that,” Rubin said. “I do not support Turning Point USA; I think they are a bad organization. Frankly, I do not doubt they have engaged in hate speech.

But [SR#10 is for] the students that were affected by this event, conservative students who we do represent. After all, if we really want to say we represent them, and they have a space on this campus to express their views, I think we should condemn this event that did impact them in the same way we will condemn other specific instances of violence and focus specifically on those.

I do think we should reference other events that happened, but I do think there is a value in focusing specifically on this one event and showing conservative students at this campus that even if we might, as a table, not agree with them personally, we do accept their right to express themselves.”

Cohen had previously noted that

the Senate had passed a resolution specifically condemning violence at a pro-Palestine encampment at UC Los Angeles in May of last year. The resolution also had vocal support from meeting attendees who spoke in favor of SR#10 during public comment.

Bianca Miller, a second-year economics major who witnessed the TPUSA event first-hand, said she felt unsafe during the incident.

“There was clear hostility, disruption and violence,” Miller said. “That experience left me feeling unsettled as a student. I urge the Senate to reconsider and support this resolution, we as students deserve to live and learn.”

Jackson Bonard, a third-year political science major, also spoke out of his personal experience on April 3.

“What I saw unfold was deeply disturbing,” Bonard said. “If we allow one group to be silenced by mob pressure, then all students, left, right and center, lose the right to speak freely.

Growth comes from challenge, not from censorship. That’s the true purpose of higher education, is it not? I urge you all to support this resolution, not for the sake of one group, but for the rights of every student here on this campus.”

4 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2024

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Cold water, hot topic

Did I really just get nominated for this challenge?

BY NEVAEH KARRAKER nakarraker@ucdavis.edu We’ve all seen videos of the Ice Bucket Challenge by now — either done by a celebrity or peers. It’s no surprise that another 2010s trend has resurfaced; In fact, it may stimulate nostalgia for many who partook in the challenge during middle school.

The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge was a way to garner awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and this fundraising campaign raised millions for research on this chronic, life-altering disease. While a cure has yet to be discovered, these donations helped in the development and testing of a medication called RELYVRIO. This medication has been transformative in improving the quality of life of impacted individuals, significantly slowing ALS symptoms like muscle weakness and poor motor control.

The University of South Carolina (USC) “#SpeakYourMIND” Ice Bucket Challenge is a similar campaign to raise awareness for mental health and suicide.

It’s made its way across the country, with individuals of all ages hopping onto the trend — including UC Davis students. As of now, the challenge has raised almost $250,000 for the nonprofit organization Active Minds. This organization is focused on transforming the lives of youth who have been affected by poor mental health.

While many people remain enthusiastic about participating in the challenge and in its message, others expressed their vexation on social media by the implication of the Ice Bucket Challenge as a sensory representation of the symptoms experienced by those battling ALS. Yet, the purpose of this new campaign is not to minimize the seriousness of ALS but rather to shed light on another issue.

It is crucial to note that the individuals leading the campaign had no expectation of it going viral. The USC challenge was started by a small club at USC and piloted on Instagram, with the goal of raising only a few hundred dollars. These were students who took inspiration from a previously successful event with good intent — what student can’t relate to that effort?

However, instead of an awareness campaign, many saw it as an opportunity to gain popularity, have fun with friends and make jokes. While most of these are wholesome effects, it is undeniable that actions without purpose, especially when influenced by conformity, are ultimately meaningless.

On the other hand, these side effects also contribute to the appeal.

They reveal that the ice bucket challenge isn’t just a fleeting trend, but rather a symbolic and intentional act. The first step toward improving mental health is

“Recession-core” as the aesthetic of an anxious economy

DARIXA VARELA MEDRANO/ AGGIE

to find resources and build community.

In the challenge, participants tag their friends to join — creating social connections that link one person to another. It mimics the ways in which health advocacy can stem from one person and reach many people.

I doubt that many participants actually wanted a cold bucket of ice water poured on their heads and soaking their clothes. It looks miserable. Yet, that’s how degrading mental health can feel — overwhelming, abrupt and isolating. By voluntarily taking on brief, somewhat similar discomfort, participants act in solidarity and recognition, broadcasting a couple of things.

The first is solidarity — the idea that the source of any recovery is community: a reminder that we are not as alone as we may think. Mental health struggles are often hidden and suffered in silence, which frequently worsens conditions. The Ice Bucket Challenge forces visible, physical discomfort, illustrating the importance of exposing internal struggles for health-centered conversations.

The second is vulnerability — some of the most meaningful moments come from being transparent about your

thoughts and emotions. I, for one, have experienced countless times that a lot of my “core memories” are rooted in sadness. These memories stick with me, not because of the negative correlations, but because of the bonds that have been formed through this grief — like receiving a sense of strength and support from late night talks with the homies.

At some point in our lives, we have all endured the relief of vulnerability, and thus can relate to it.

The Ice Bucket Challenge allows us to break the stigma surrounding mental health. Getting drenched and squealing with shock on camera resembles the courage and vulnerability it takes to openly talk about mental health issues.

In the end, it calls for action. Similar to the 2014 campaign demonstrating commitment to ALS awareness, the 2025 Ice Bucket Challenge demonstrates the responsibility we all have to help others heal — oftentimes through sparking conversations.

Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

I have beef with love triangles

It’s time to ditch the drama and choose the better love interests

SAVANNAH BURGER / AGGIE

BY JHANA RHODES jsrho@ucdavis.edu Every other week, “Twilight” enthusiasts come out of the woodwork to discuss whether the franchise’s protagonist, Bella Swan, should have ended up with Edward Cullen, a 104-year-old high schooler with the personality of a brick, or Jacob Black, the portable heater with 30-inch locks.

While the choice between a sparkly, self-loathing vampire and a werewolf with no respect for boundaries can hardly count as a “better choice,” this consistent and frankly comical debate represents a timeless romance trope: the love triangle. This trope, so often seen in young adult media, draws our attention to a bigger issue found in many romance films.

Why does the protagonist always go for the first choice when the second choice is almost always better? Don’t get me wrong, Jacob Black is the secondworst example of this phenomenon regarding “secondary” love interests. The first-worst example is, by far, Daniel Cleaver from the film “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” That being said, while there are certain exceptions to this phenomenon, pop culture narratives often set up a dynamic where a second lead character could be the more stable and beneficial partner, if only the protagonist (and the plot) weren’t so fixated on the often more unbelievably toxic and dramatic

POV: You’re preparing for economic collapse

“first choice.” This tendency to prioritize initial and usually unhealthy attraction over genuine compatibility is already something I hear about from my friends’ bad dating choices, so I’d prefer if movies stopped romanticizing it.

Take the classic 2004 film, “The Notebook,” for example. Ryan Gosling’s character, Noah, and Rachel McAdams’ character, Allie, are the embodiment of a toxic relationship. Throughout the film, Noah acts obsessively with Allie, often making unwanted gestures — such as dangling off of a Ferris wheel — until Allie agrees to date him. When Allie was with him, she was constantly stressed, crying in every other frame. My jaw dropped when I found out (spoilers) that she didn’t end up with James Marsden’s character, Lon Hammond Jr. — Allie’s (ex) fiancé and a handsome lawyer who is the opposite of Noah.

However, for some odd reason, Allie leaves a life of happiness and stability to return to a summer fling.

More often than not, the “second choice,” initially made to be either an obstacle, plot progress or fallback, embodies traits that any reasonable human being would consider desirable in a partner. The second choice is often kind, patient and compassionate, someone who the protagonist feels safe confiding in and offers unwavering support without toxicity or dramatics.

This starkly contrasts with the first choice, where (depending on the trope) they are outright rude, condescending, impulsive and possessive (yes, I am

talking about Damon Salvatore).

Honestly, the protagonist’s total lack of regard for their own red flags baffles me. While dating the “bad boy” may seem exciting, the continuous prioritization of toxic relationships over healthy ones in the media teaches us to view toxicity as fun and stability as boring.

However, the second lead is sadly second for a reason. That is primarily because — to put it simply — we all love a little drama. Stories thrive on conflict and tumultuous character dynamics; the first love interest often provides the necessary fuel to create a good story. No matter how much we (and the protagonist) know that the second choice is better, the drama is much more enticing.

The bitterness I still harbor over Carrie choosing Big in “Sex and the City” and my undying adoration for Duckie Dale from “Pretty in Pink” highlights my dissatisfaction with love triangles. While individual viewers may have their favorite love interest, consistently prioritizing an often toxic “first choice” can reinforce unhealthy romantic relationships within our modern culture.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

CRYSTAL CHEN / AGGIE

BY MOLLY THOMPSON mmtthompson@ucdavis.edu “Recession-core trends I love and why.” “Recession-core breakfast.” “In honor of recession-core, let’s run this trend back.” “The truth about recessioncore.” “Recession-core makeup tutorial.”

“POV: You found recession-core.”

I’ve been unable to escape the voracious influx of “recession-core” content infiltrating my TikTok “For You” page in recent weeks. Every other video proclaims a sense of dread in anticipation of economic decline wrapped up in a thin veil of romanticization and nostalgia. Moneysaving tips, eggless recipes, vintage clothing styles and commiserative proclamations of an inability to access luxury products make up the viral trend — it’s taken over the Internet, but its societal implications run far deeper than “#recessioncore” might convey.

To set the record straight, economic experts believe that there is a real possibility that the United States could be headed into a recessive period. I don’t claim to have a comprehensive understanding of the economy, but the consensus seems to be that, while we’re not in a recession right now, current federal financial policy has us heading in that direction.

Understandably, that’s scary news.

Given the threat of a potential recession, the natural impulse is to prepare yourself to the best of your ability. That means purchasing goods efficiently, getting accustomed to generally consuming less and pinching pennies in any way you can. Hence, the trend of “recessioncore” was born.

The millennial generation, born between 1981 and 1996, came of age during the 2008 recession. For a lot of them, this was a pivotal event that served as a significant landmark in their development — now, they make up a large portion of the current social media zeitgeist surrounding “recession-core.”

One of the major pillars of the trend involves drawing parallels between 2008 and 2025. Parallels aren’t all doom and gloom, and come in playful forms, too, like trying to bring back clothing trends from the early 2000s, reminiscing about songs from the era or rediscovering childhood hobbies as a way to make light of an intimidating situation.

This sentimental throwback content serves a dual purpose. On one hand, it

indicates that people feel as though we are regressing back into the difficult times of the last major recession in 2008.

As humans, we’re naturally inclined to both seek out and follow patterns, so if we notice certain common themes between 2008 and 2025 (maybe specific grocery shortages or stock values), we’re likely to create similarities in other ways as well (like digging out our fringe-lined tank tops and Beyblades out of our parents’ garages).

On the other hand, it is also a selffulfilling prophecy, at least in terms of our perception. We start to notice these patterns, then start to follow and track them and subsequently we create a situation that looks all too familiar.

The more TikTok videos we see telling us that second-hand shopping and upcycling are trending because of the downfall of the economy, the more nervous we’re going to be about the state of the world. When we see the flood of eggless recipes in response to the egg shortage and in preparation for more resource scarcity — especially when those recipes draw parallels with historical economic crises, like the eggless, butterless, milkless “depression cake” from the 1930s that’s having a resurgence in popularity online — we start to panic and begin to prepare for the worst. The vicious cycle starts anew.

This is not to say that all the worry is baseless. Romanticizing a simplistic lifestyle (as “recession-core” touts) is a clear coping mechanism for stress caused by the threat of impending economic doom. It’s not a “boy who cried wolf ” indicator; it’s more of a bellwether.

But such is the way of humanity — we try to make the best of a bad deal.

If we don’t, we could crumble. So, on the precipice of what could be a very distressing financial situation, we bring out our childhood photo albums and test a new recipe for chocolate cake.

“Recession-core” certainly isn’t without fault, but it allows us to maintain a sense of lightness and whimsy. If nothing else, it brings us a sense of community — a parasocial support system. Sometimes, when threatened with impending economic downfall, the best we can do is brush the dust off our Beyblades. That’s #recessioncore.

Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

HUMOR

Lawntopia hustle

BY AILI KOGA aakoga@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: (This cartoon is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025 | 5

EDITORIAL

The Editorial Board interviews Congressman Mike Thompson

Thompson, representative for California’s 4th congressional district, discussed his work in the House, the Trump administration and the future of the Democratic Party WRITTEN BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

On April 18, the Editorial Board met with Representative Mike Thompson of California’s 4th congressional district, which includes the city of Davis, for an interview. This is the second year that The California Aggie has hosted Thompson for a sitdown.

Below is a transcript of the meeting, edited for length and clarity.

Q: How has the way you work on legislation and get things done changed since the last election? How has the way you work on legislation and collaborate with other colleagues in the House changed with the new Republican supermajority?

A: Well, it’s changed quite a bit.

We’ve talked about it before, but I’ve always been able to work across party lines on policy stuff, and I think that’s important to do, and I think you still need to do it. And probably a prime example is going back to those fire days. There were a whole bunch of Californians whose homes were lost, businesses were lost and they didn’t have adequate insurance to rebuild.

They were part of a big class action lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, and they won. What they got out of it was not enough to rebuild their home or their business, so they were still short, but they got something. The way the Settlement Agreement was crafted, they had to pay all of the tax liability with what they got, and they had to pay the lawyers tax liability out of what they got too. They did not get enough to do what they needed to do.

It was cut even further because of these provisions.

So, I worked on legislation to excuse their federal tax liability so they could spend the money fixing their house. And I was successful.

I got it out of the House, went over

the Senate — not so successful. I teamed up with somebody who I don’t have three things in common with — this guy. But a guy from Florida, Congressman Greg Steube, we put together a bill that addressed my fire victims, the train derailment in Ohio, wind damage for agriculture in Iowa and some flood stuff in Louisiana.

And we put together this bill, and we put the Child Tax Credit provision in it and sent it over to the Senate, and they said, “We’re not doing it,” and they weren’t going to do it because the ranking Republican on the committee had a pretty good idea that Republicans weren’t being charged.

So, he didn’t want to do anything that the Democrats got credit for. He wanted to wait until he was the chair.

Steube and I did something called a discharge petition. It’s an arcane procedure in the House. Basically, if there’s a bill that’s not moving, if you do a discharge petition, and you get 218 members of Congress to sign it, they have to take action on the bill.

It’s happened like two times since I’ve been in Congress, and Steube and I did that, and we discharged this bill for my fire victims, and it came up for a vote. We passed it over the Senate, and we got it passed and signed into law. So I’ll still work with Republicans, but there’s a real edge right now, because the administration has its own game that’s running, and they’re not interested in bipartisan stuff. They’re interested in providing this tax cut to people who just don’t need the money and, at the same time, reforming the United States of America in every way that you can imagine.

Q: Given the ever-evolving political climate we’re experiencing, where do you see the future of the Democratic Party heading?

A: Well, our fortunes are going to be strong, but I think that if you believe in government, and you believe that government can do things to help people, you have a different approach and a different explanation

than if you don’t believe that. If you believe that the Institution for representative government should be there for everybody to help create a level playing field, it’s more than a yes or no answer. Democrats — we get kind of wrapped around our own axle, trying to explain stuff, and it’s hard. I had a professor from UC Berkeley tell me in a group once that the problem is that Republicans speak in headlines and you guys speak in fine print.

It’s complicated stuff, so you can’t just say yes or no, and I think that’s the biggest problem that Democrats have, trying to explain themselves, what it is they’re trying to do to help people and how they’re trying to help. I also think that Democrats have suffered from some really bad choices in naming things — the one that comes to mind is “defund the police.” There’s just no way that that works on anybody except maybe robbers. You guys are all in the same situation. You don’t want to live in a neighborhood where you have to deadbolt, chain and nail your door shut at night. You don’t want to get rid of the cops. There was probably a much better way to say that. And whoever came up with “defund the cops,” I think, really hurt the Democratic party a lot. The only good thing I’ve seen that’s come out of the term “woke” is a deal on social media the other day where a woman said, “If you quit being so woke and stopped using that woke math, this tariff thing wouldn’t be near the problem it is.”

Q: How are you feeling about the next presidential election? Especially with comments from the current president making jokes about or alluding to a third term, what is your reaction and how do you feel right now?

A: I am incredibly worried about this guy. I’m incredibly worried that he, if he could, would take us into a constitutional crisis. But I’m also very aware that about 95% of the things he says, he says to make your head blow up. Don’t hang your whole hat

on it. I think you’ve got to keep that in perspective. I don’t know if he’s ever told the truth about anything.

As evidenced by this tariff stuff, you know, “No, no, no, no, 90-day freeze,” “No, no, no, no, I’m not going to do pharmaceuticals” and “No, no, no, no, not going to do phones.” So, you can’t take him on his word, because it means nothing and that’s a problem.

We’re going to beat him. He’s not going to be here in four years. In the short-run and in the immediate, we’ve got to win the midterms in 2026 because we need to win the House and be able to create that check and balance.

The rest of the interview can be found on The Aggie’s website.

The biggest present you can give yourself is being present Dealing with the monotony of everyday life

NOVA MAI / AGGIE

BY TARA ROMERO tcrome@ucdavis.edu Everyone says life is like a roller coaster with ups and downs, but why does it feel like I’m stuck in a loopde-loop?

Wake up. Go to class. Work. Sleep.

Wake up to do it all over again. We’ve reached the part of the quarter where we’ve settled into our routines, and I’m starting to get restless. Every day feels the exact same, and it’s getting harder and harder to tell each day apart.

Yet, limiting this feeling to just this quarter doesn’t do the monotony justice. We have 10 weeks full of midterms, papers, more midterms and then a final exam — and we’re on our third round just this year. Our hair

grows long and we cut it short again.

We clean the kitchen just for it to get dirty. Then the years go by, cycling through each season before the Davis heat starts to roll in and cook us all.

Life is cyclical. Every morning the sun rises, and every night the sun sets.

The moon rotates the earth and shifts into different phases. The earth does one cycle around the sun, and we call it a year.

These facts always fill me with a sense of dread. How are we supposed to escape this never-ending loop? If every day feels the same, then what’s the point?

I’ve been grappling with this feeling for years at this point, and I don’t think it’s in my power to change how the world works. Unfortunately, I can’t just stop the world from turning — and I know professors aren’t going

to want to skip out on their midterm cycle just because I asked them to.

Instead, we must continue to move forward, and we must learn how to live a cyclical life. So, how do we turn what feels like a circle into a spiral? How do we feel like time is moving forward if everything feels exactly the same?

While every day may feel identical, if we look closer we can see that everything is a little bit different than it was yesterday. There are so many moments that don’t seem like they matter — yet those are the moments we have to rely on. Maybe today you saw a gopher pop out of his hole on the ground by Bainer Hall. Maybe you noticed two women in your apartment complex propping up chairs and having a coffee together. Perhaps the air had a noticeably sweeter scent when you opened your window this

morning — or you noticed someone on campus almost trip and then regain their balance.

Little details like those make days memorable. All of those examples occurred around me on different days this past month, and, without them, the month would just be one big blur of “Wake up. Class. Work. Sleep.”

That’s not how I want to remember my life.

Making yourself present in the moment doesn’t mean you have to make the world your oyster every single day. While I can respect the “live each day as if it were your last” mindset, there are still everyday responsibilities we have to tend to — and those responsibilities can get tedious if you’re performing them robotically.

Focusing on the small details

around us is a good reminder that every moment is unique. It keeps us present and helps to differentiate the days from one another. We can get so caught up in our routines that we forget to look around and see life as it’s happening all around us. Observing and noticing different aspects of life reminds us that the world continues to move forward. Maybe we’re stuck going in a loop-de-loop forever, but that just means we get to see life from every different angle.

Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

6 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025

ARTS & CULTURE

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Is theater etiquette dead?

Reflecting back upon past years where box office success coincided with disruptive audiences

BY BELLA PETERSON arts@theaggie.org

BY IQRA AHMAD arts@theaggie.org Song: “Lady Love” by Thee Sacred Souls (2022) This gorgeous song is a soulful melody that captures the deep longing and desire for a second chance at love. With a smooth, vintage-inspired sound, characteristic of Thee Sacred Souls’ style, it evokes a timeless feeling, resonating with the yearning to reunite with an irreplaceable love. The lyrics reflect the narrator’s profound remorse over losing his “one true love” through his own missteps, admitting he clumsily mishandled her heart and broke it. The music beautifully complements his regret and enduring devotion as he hopes, waits and prays for her return.

Book: The “Sands of Arawiya” Duology by Hafsah Faizal (2019) One hides behind a mask to save her people; the other buries his heart to serve a tyrant. But destiny doesn’t care who they pretend to be. This fantasy duology lies in the magical lands of Arawiya, following Zafira, a girl disguised as a man to hunt in a cursed forest, and Nasir, the assassin prince known as the “Prince of Death.” Their paths intertwine as they both set on a quest to recover a lost artifact that could restore magic to their world, and possibly even save it. Through detailed storytelling, a slow-burn romance and characters learning about their identity and duty, this is a must-read for fans of epic fantasy with heart.

Album: “The Secret of Us” by Gracie Abrams (2024) Gracie Abrams has always had a gift for illustrating the beauty of vulnerability, but “The Secret of Us” takes that emotional intimacy to a whole new level.

This album feels like reading a diary you weren’t meant to find; it’s quietly confessional and bold.

With aching lyrics, Abrams captures the confusion, ache and hope that come with navigating relationships in your 20s. Every track pulses with quiet urgency, but there’s growth here, too, a sense that she’s stepping into her voice more fully, even as she admits she’s still figuring things out. So, whether you’re nursing a heartbreak or just trying to understand yourself a little better, “The Secret of Us” is the kind of album that meets you where you are.

TV Show: “Wayne” (2019) If you missed “Wayne” the first time around, now’s the perfect time to watch this gritty, surprisingly heartfelt gem. This series follows Wayne, a tough, quietly principled teenager from Brockton, Massachusetts who sets off on a cross-country road trip with his crush, Del, to retrieve his late father’s stolen car. What starts as a violent, fast-paced quest quickly reveals layers of vulnerability and emotion.

What really sets “Wayne” apart is its balance of chaotic and tender, absurd and sincere. It delivers explosive action and biting one-liners, but never loses sight of its relatable characters. “Wayne” is the kind of show that punches you in the gut and makes you care deeply while doing it.

Singer-songwriter Alix Page plays Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco

The budding indie-pop artist kicks off her second headline tour following the release of new EP, “Bug”

BY SAVANNAH ANNO arts@theaggie.org On May 1, musical artist Alix Page arrived in San Francisco to perform at Rickshaw Stop, a 4,000-square-foot venue that has hosted artists like Billie Eilish, The 1975 and Charli XCX early on in their careers. Following backto-back shows in San Diego and Los Angeles, Page kicked off her second headline tour by celebrating her largely Californian fanbase.

Born in Orange County and attending the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, Page has spent the last five years gaining traction as an indie singer-songwriter, releasing her first song, “Stripes,” in 2020. Page solidified herself as a strong lyricist with the acoustic track, using anecdotal details to flesh out the story of a breakup.

A past opener for Gracie Abrams’ “This Is What It Feels Like” tour in 2022 and more recently Sarah Kinsley’s “The Escaper Tour,” Page has gone from supporting shows at venues like New York City’s Bowery Ballroom to serving as their main act.

In a recent interview with The Luna Collective, Page discussed the impact of her time as a tour opener.

“The tour with [Abrams] was my first ever, so it was really special,” Page said. “The biggest takeaway was seeing how kind and generous she is with her fans. She treats them like friends and family, which was incredible to witness.”

At her show this past weekend, Page spoke to the intimately sized crowd between songs as much as possible.

Explaining that she wanted to return

Alix Page performing at El Rey Theater in 2022. (Justin Higuchi / Creative Commons, CC by 2.0) to her roots of playing shows with just herself and her guitar, her band left the stage for a portion of the concert and Page played a handful of songs acoustically.

Leading her band through an almost hour-long setlist at Rickshaw Stop, Page performed both new and old tracks, the most recent being from her newly released EP, “Bug.” “Bug,” which was released on all platforms on March 14, is an exploration of Page’s perspectives as she reflects on romantic relationships, her family and band.

“I originally considered calling the EP ‘Girlfriend,’” Page said in the interview with The Luna Collective.

“But my boyfriend pointed out, ‘how many of these songs are actually about you being a girlfriend, and how many are just about you?’ and I realized he was right.

ALIXPAGE on 12

Box office hits aren’t a new thing for theaters. Success for movies, however, has recently changed meanings and now represents its presence online more than anything else. With our pop culture being determined predominantly by social media, it’s no surprise that present-day movies’ online reception can be make or break. It seems, lately, that social media hasn’t just affected these movies online but has now evolved to feature viewer reactions in theaters.

Back in 2021 with the release of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the theaters were filled to the brim with audiences eager to see this newest installment. The film gained most of its exposure from the rumors and leaks that had spread online like wildfire — excitement was erupting from the fans as they realized that some of their favorite past portrayals of “Spider-Man” characters would be making a return.

Initially wholesome, the amount of fans that were joining together for this pivotal moment in “multiverse” history quickly turned obnoxious.

The first days of the film’s release saw dozens of theaters packed with fans reacting — to put it lightly — inappropriately to the screening. Clips went viral on social media platforms of fans erupting in cheers in their screenings of the movie. But this isn’t just about cheering fans; some screenings also saw fans throwing their popcorn, jumping up from their seats, doing backflips in front of the screens and even breaking out into fights. Fans’ reception to this movie was clearly positive — but was it okay?

The issue of theater etiquette boils down to one main thing: What is the purpose of going to see a movie in theaters? No one is forced to view a movie in theaters; The option of waiting until the film is released on streaming services — which is usually only a month or so — is always available.

However, the experience of going to the theater to see a movie doesn’t just come down to watching a film — it’s the feeling of being fully immersed into a project that so many people poured their heart into. Live reacting alongside strangers to unexpected twists and turns that the movie makes, whether it be crying together or laughing together, is a shared moment meant to foster a sense of community.

JASON XIE / AGGIE There was a similar situation with the newly released “A Minecraft Movie.”

Even before the release of the movie, many users flocked to social media as early as the movie’s first trailer to tease it; in a way, making their own inside jokes on the platform. Similar to the uproar that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” caused, “A Minecraft Movie” had cultivated a very unique impression by audiences before it hit the theaters.

The movie climbed its way to a very impressive position on the opening weekends’ ranking. Along with this success came a closely related audience reaction to “Spider-Man: No Way Home” — with loud reactions in the theater of clapping, yelling and cheering, to name a few. One theater even had its very own live chicken brought to the cinematic experience.

What matters is: Does this affect the cinema going experience? If a person finds themself in the same boat as most of the online population of being excited for a movie, do they have to worry about that experience being tarnished by a disruptive audience? Do people even care?

It seems that online reactions are mixed when it comes to this issue: some finding the feeling of community in being able to react alongside other people in a loud manner while others find it annoying to have to pay for an experience where they might not be able to fully enjoy the film.

The concept of “theater etiquette”

isn’t as commonly talked about as related topics like “concert etiquette,” but it is something that does exist — or rather “should” exist. Most movies feature a disclaimer before the screening that highlights behavioral expectations, requesting that the audience silence their devices and remain quiet during the movie. Spoiler alert, this isn’t present for no reason. The audience is told this for a purpose: to preserve the moviewatching experience.

Whatever displeasure anyone may express regarding this issue seems to go unheard; this isn’t an isolated event and it will keep happening. And these aren’t the only issues that theater etiquette faces. Is theater etiquette dead? It just may be on its last legs; It’s hard to solve something that not everyone can agree is a problem.

All that can be done for now is to remain considerate. If someone chose to view a movie in their local theater, they might want to first consider the other theater-goers in the audience who have paid for the same experience, along with the theater’s employees who will have to pick up after whatever mess gets left behind.

Going to the theater to see a movie you have been waiting for is a truly special thing and is honoring the practice of viewing a movie in its truest form — maybe it’s something more people should consider before they take it for granted.

Review: ‘Headphones On’ sets the tone for Addison Rae’s bold debut album, ‘Addison’

Review: ‘Headphones On’ sets the tone for Addison Rae’s bold debut album, ‘Addison’

BY SHREYA KUMAR arts@theaggie.org Addison Rae is cementing her transformation from TikTok star to mature indie-pop princess with the release of her new single, “Headphones On,” on April 18, 2025 under Columbia Records. This dreamy, toned-down song marks a significant evolution in her musical journey, showcasing a more mature and emotional side of Addison Rae that we’ve only just begun to see in her recent releases.

“Headphones On” is the fourth single leading up to the singer’s highly anticipated debut album, titled “Addison,” set for release on June 6, 2025. The album promises to be a culmination of her artistic journey, featuring a collection of tracks that showcase her versatility and depth as a musician in ways her fans have never seen before.

Addison Rae rose to fame in 2019 through TikTok, quickly becoming one of the platform’s most-followed creators thanks to her dance videos, polished appearance and approachable personality. Her involvement in the Hype House, a collective of young influencers known for their choreographed, high-gloss content, further cemented her status as a mainstream star. The Hype House didn’t just amplify Rae’s fame, it helped shape her image as the all-American “girl next door” and aligned her with conventional beauty standards and aesthetics that appealed to mainstream audiences.This is what ultimately made her surprise feature on Charli XCX’s “Von Dutch” remix last year so jarring. The song was a fast-paced, electric synth-pop anthem on the now-iconic “Brat” album representing a sharp pivot from Rae’s earlier persona.

By stepping into Charli XCX’s niche, defined by glitchy beats, high fashion and subcultural rebellion, Rae shed her squeaky-clean image and embraced a far more messy and real style. The feature was criticized by some and a surprise for most, but it succeeded in signaling her desire to be taken seriously in a space known for challenging the very norms she once

Cover art for “Headphones On,” Addison Rae’s new song. (Addison Rae / fair use) embodied.

Though many only began to take her music career seriously in the wake of her Charli XCX feature, Rae released her debut single, “Obsessed,” back in 2021. The track, originally intended to lead her debut album, was widely criticized by audiences, and the entire project was shelved shortly after. At the time, it seemed to most fans that her time in the spotlight had come to a close. But instead of retreating, Rae quietly regrouped. Her recent surprise singles, “Diet Pepsi” and “Aquamarine,” reframed her image, drawing comparisons to a younger Lana Del Rey with their brooding, retrotinged sound and aesthetic melancholia.

“Headphones On” continues this shift, blending elements of trip-hop, new jack swing and chill R&B to create a lush, sensuous atmosphere. The track explores themes of surrendering to life’s pain and finding escape through music, offering a more intimate look at her inner world. She croons about her parents’ divorce and her insecurities about her status as a celebrity, exposing the emotional cost of fame beneath the curated surface. It’s a moment of unexpected vulnerability, and shows that her reinvention isn’t just for aesthetics,

but also for personal discovery.

The music video, directed by Mitch Ryan, drives home the song’s ethereal and dreamy vibes. Filmed in the picturesque landscapes of Reykjavik, Iceland, the video portrays Rae escaping the monotony of everyday life through vivid daydreams. Wearing a blindingly bright pink wig and riding a white stallion or dancing on the beach in neon underwear, she finds herself lost in a hyper-saturated fantasy world of her music. The music video truly captures Rae’s own personal artistic brand, and sets a precedent for what “Addison” is going to look like.

With each new single, “Addison” takes shape as a project centered on finding hope and love even when dealing with somber emotions. Based on the singles we’ve heard so far, the album seems to blend influences from alternative pop, vintage R&B and electronic dream pop, all while remaining anchored in Rae’s personal storytelling. Rae is curating a very specific vibe, crafting a sonic identity that is far removed from the influencer culture that first brought her fame.

HEADPHONESON on 9

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025 | 7

ARTS & CULTURE Grab the glitter and glue sticks: it’s time to start scrapbooking

From snaps to scraps, read more about why and how to start preserving your memories JASON_XIE/ AGGIE

BY IQRA AHMAD arts@theaggie.org

way to preserve your experiences and ideas in a deeply personal, creative format.

Don’t let social media be your only archive of memories and magical moments. Let scrapbooking be a space where you not only store photos but also share your thoughts and dreams with yourself. It’s a tangible, handson experience that lets you reconnect with your story in a meaningful way.

It invites you to slow down, reflect and craft something that’s uniquely yours.

In today’s fast-paced world, scrapbooking can serve as an escape, offering a break from the constant digital bombardment and a chance to really be present in the moment. It’s a place to preserve the little details, the ones that social media may overlook, and turn them into something lasting. Whether it’s a ticket stub, a handwritten note or a pressed flower, scrapbooking lets you hold onto what matters and revisit it whenever you need a reminder of how far you’ve come.

With paper and pencil in hand, a pair of scissors at the ready, cutouts of magazines scattered around and a blank page, the possibilities are endless. Somewhere between sketching ideas and cutting dreams from paper, scrapbooking is the art of seeing the beauty in your life.

From scrapbook to screens So what is scrapbooking? It’s the art of combining snapshots of your life or the moments you wish to experience, wrapped around words and phrases that capture the ambience of your feelings. Scrapbooking has always been about more than just a crafty hobby. It’s a way to collect all the little moments in between — a photograph here, a handwritten note there — stitching memories together into something lasting. It’s a way to say: this matters.

People turn to scrapbooking for a plethora of reasons, whether it be to capture memories, to organize thoughts or simply to make life’s chaos look a little more beautiful on paper.

At its heart, scrapbooking is where visions take shape and daydreams find a home.

TikTok trends around vision boards for the new year and mood boards for changing habits have become a sensation, offering people a chance to picture a new and different future. For many, this ideal reality can be one that’s more productive, filled with adventure or brimming

with the moments they’re striving to experience. People even use colors and little details to evoke a feeling, think citrus fruits and honey-toned photos for dreamy summers at the beach with hibiscus flowers in your hair or mood boards with shades of red and gold, paired with coffee and plaid, to capture the essence of autumn.

Even if you don’t think you scrapbook, chances are, you already do. Through Instagram saves, Pinterest boards or just the pictures you snap, the tools might have evolved, but the

feeling remains the same.

Why we still love it (especially now) In a world where social media is often the go-to place for storing memories, it’s easy to forget the power of a more personal, tactile form of reflection. While Instagram stories and TikTok posts may capture the highlights, they can feel fleeting and easily lost in the scroll of time.

Scrapbooking, on the other hand, offers something more enduring, a

Pencil, paper, pinterest: pick your weapon and create So how do you get started? The first step to a meaningful scrapbook is to tap into what truly excites you.

What are you passionate about? What brings you joy or inspiration? Take a moment to reflect on what you want to surround yourself with, whether it’s nature, travel, fashion or certain colors and vibes. This is where you get to dream big. Once you’ve identified your passions, start gathering elements that reflect those interests. A vision board is a great way to pull it all together

and keep you inspired. You can even make it seasonal. Think flowers and sunshine to capture the essence of spring or photos of rollercoasters and beach piers to bring summer to life.

Now, it’s time to collect the visuals that represent your passions. Snap some photos of places you’ve visited or frequent, romanticize your daily life.

Finding images that evoke the feelings you want to cultivate or searching for quotes that inspire you can also be helpful in gathering all the pictures and elements that speak to you.

Remember, these images don’t have to be perfect; they just need to be about what you love and want to focus on.

Now that you’ve gathered your materials, it’s time to get creative.

Arrange your images, quotes and other collected items on a page in a way that feels inspiring and true to you. Don’t be afraid to mix things up; play with color, texture and layout. Glue, cut and add a personal touch, whatever feels right. And remember, there’s no “perfect” way to do this, it’s about what makes you feel motivated and connected to your vision.

So, whether you’re creating a vision board to map out your dreams, capturing memories from a summer trip or simply collecting your favorite things, scrapbooking is the perfect way to make your story tangible. It’s a creative adventure that lets you add a little more color to your life, one page at a time. So, grab those scissors, some glue and a sprinkle of imagination, and start crafting your own masterpiece.

After all, the best stories are the ones you create yourself.

HUMOR

A collection of apologies from all of your friends

They might be late and semi-anonymous, but at least they’re sorry!

NOVA MAI/ AGGIE

2.

3.

BY MADISON SEEMAN meseeman@ucdavis.edu Your friends are sorry. From not commenting on your most recent Instagram post to making excessive “Breaking Bad” references, they know they’ve messed up. There are a number of little crimes we commit in friendships — little knots in an otherwise beautiful bond. However, confrontation is hard and awkward: that’s where I come in.

I’m here to deliver a series of apologies — a collection of statements

that include everything from “I didn’t mean it” to “my bad” to even “oopsies.”

Like a slightly-more-cynical-but-noless-sincere cupid, I’m here to hit you with arrows of apologies. Think of me as a carrier pigeon of remorse or a pony express of regrets.

Anyway, here’s the list: 1. I bumped into a friend of yours yesterday who wanted me to clear the air about how many TikTok videos he’s been sending you. He thought they might give you a giggle. And

4.

really, isn’t it a compliment that he wants to share his laughter with you? And okay, maybe 22 TikToks a day is 20 too many.

He’s sorry! He won’t stop, but he’s still sorry.

Some of your friends have voiced regrets to me about not having watched the YouTube video you sent yesterday. Can you blame them for not taking the time to watch a 10-minute video?

Maybe you can, especially since they can set it at double speed.

Still, they feel bad and they’re sorry! They’ve all just added it to their watch lists for later.

A few of your friends told me that they’re really, really sorry they keep accidentally triggering identity crises with incredibly accurate reads that change the way you see yourself. They were just trying to be silly! They didn’t know telling you that you “give off Charlie Brown vibes” or “look a little bit like you were a horse girl” would be so devastating. It may be true, but they would all take it back if they could!

One of your favorite classmates has already seen that meme you just showed them. They do feel bad about it. I mean, it was

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

funny! But they have already seen it, so the laugh was maybe just a tiny bit forced. If it helps, they are sorry.

You also have a friend who just watched that TV show without you. The guilt is killing them, but it got too hard to avoid spoilers, and they’re willing to pretend they haven’t seen it before to save your friendship, if you count that as an apology.

One of your closest friends is sorry that your periods aren’t synced up. It doesn’t matter whether you’re not someone who even gets a period.

She’s worried it’s a sign your friendship is going south, and she apologizes if she’s done anything to put them out of sync.

Someone you know just can’t stop googling things midconversation — you can probably guess who. Well, they’re sorry for being too curious, and they feel some remorse for their ruthless pursuit of knowledge. Mostly, they’re sorry it’s annoying but not sorry enough to stop.

Um, ok, let me see who else.

One of your other friends has

Not very eco-friendly

BY LAUREN SWING laswing@ucdavis.edu

Disclaimer: (This cartoon is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

had trouble reading your frantic body language in public. She hasn’t quite put together that the way you’re pointing to the door with your eyes means you want to leave or that you’re trying to get her to — subtly! — look at the cute guy behind you. She feels a little bit like she’s failed you — or at least failed to bail you out of parties.

In the end, you may have some friends who are sorry about spontaneously bursting into song (but only part of the time), other friends who are sorry they can’t stop referencing shows you haven’t seen and friends that are just sorry they can’t remember your elementary school ex-boyfriend’s name (even though you talk about him, like, a lot).

But the beauty of friendship is that these little bumps won’t make or break a bond. Our relationships are stronger than jokes that don’t land and a little (or a lot) of off-key singing. Your friends are sorry, and they’ve sent me to deliver these incredibly compelling apologies to prove it.

Disclaimer: (This article is humor and/or satire, and its content is purely fictional. The story and the names of “sources” are fictionalized.)

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

8 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025

Aggies reflect on the habits that help them stay grounded UC Davis students share details of their daily routines

BY AMBER WARNKE features@theaggie.org

Having healthy habits and routines can help students start their day fresh and keep them regulated throughout the busy life of a college student. Whether it’s taking five minutes to reflect on their day before they go to bed or being mindful about the way they drink their morning coffee, starting out with small changes can turn into long-term routines over time.

Mariam Soifer, a second-year sustainable agriculture and food systems major, involves purposeful movement in her morning routine, taking time to start her day with a set of stretches.

“It’s just something that I feel like I need to start the day with,” Soifer said.

“It helps me get more limber from my night’s sleep and helps [keep] me [grounded].”

Stretching is known to have a variety of health benefits, including stress relief, improved balance and coordination and increased circulation. This is especially important for college students, who can spend hours a day sitting in lecture or doing homework, which can lead to poor circulation in the body.

Another habit Soifer has started implementing is completing daily meditations, which further help her stay calm amidst the stressors of college life.

“It was even just for five minutes, and I felt a really big difference from that,” Soifer said.

Meditation has been proven to be beneficial to mental health, decreasing stress, improving memory and attention and even decreasing blood pressure, depression and anxiety. The thought of meditating every day can be daunting to some, but it can be helpful to remember that meditation can last for as long as one wants, and even just a few minutes

spent doing it can have a huge impact.

Benton Buecker, a second-year environmental policy analysis and planning major, also benefits from the routines he uses to start the day.

“Usually with my coffee, I usually like to get my mind going in the morning by playing some of those [online] games, like the New York Times Connections, New York Times Mini Crosswords and Duolingo,” Buecker said. “I really think that it’s a good way to, at least with those games, [...] get your brain up and at them and thinking.”

Games like this are also proven to be good for the brain, boosting memory, improving focus and even slowing down cognitive decline in aging. One game Buecker particularly favors is called Juxtastat, which is free to play online and features trivia questions about geography. “[The games] get your brain thinking in different ways,” Buecker said. “It’s good for critical thinking.”

Ava Dillard, a UC Davis alumna, also has daily routines that allow her to engage her mind, including setting aside time to read nightly before bed.

“I think it’s great to have time away from my phone and at the same time be transported to another world,” Dillard said. “I fall asleep right away [after].”

Studies have shown that reading before bed can lead to better quality of sleep, helping reduce stress at the end of a long day and redirecting time that many people would spend on their phones before bed, which can make it more difficult to get a good night’s rest.

Another routine Dillard has implemented into her schedule is spending time in green spaces as often as she can.

“Every lunch, I will go eat in the community garden by one of my favorite parks, and it’s so lovely,” Dillard said. “I’m usually the only one there, and it’s just me and the bees.”

Spending time outdoors has immense benefits for mental and physical health, improving creativity and problem-solving skills, which can be particularly appealing to college students. It also correlates with better heart health, better sleep and less risk of chronic disease.

However, students don’t necessarily need to go backpacking to reap these benefits. Even studying outdoors, taking short walks outside and noticing the nature around them while biking on campus can be helpful.

While being intentional about your daily habits is beneficial at any stage of life, college students may find it particularly important, as they can set habits now to follow well after college and into their careers. What may start out as five minutes of meditation now can lead to better focus in the workforce and an improved ability to work well against a stressful deadline.

Building workout routines into one’s life now can turn into a healthier lifestyle for years to come, and spending just a few minutes sorting out your schedule the week prior can lead to better time management and planning skills.

“I think we’re at a time of our lives where we’re creating, establishing or solidifying certain habits, and if we want to bring those into our adulthood, then I think this would be a perfect time for that,” Soifer said.

Defining habits and routines can also be helpful in college due to the increased routines students can access on campus. Davis students looking for better or more structured exercise routines can join a workout class or a recreational sport at the Activities and Recreation Center.

UC Davis also offers free library books to students hoping to spend more time reading, as well as the Arboretum to Aggies seeking to implement more time in nature into their routines. Even

just taking a brief walk through the Arboretum a few times a week, reading for 10 minutes before bed or going for a quick run every few days can make a big impact on your day-to-day life.

Soifer believes that intentional routines and habits are not only helpful

but also an important element of selfgrowth. “[Forming habits] comes from a desire to work on yourself and feel good and comfortable in yourself,” Soifer said. “It’s an active love — like a service to yourself.”

CRYSTAL CHEN / AGGIE

UC Davis organizations work to support undocumented students

Amidst growing concerns, several on-campus organizations continue to provide resources for undocumented students

BY LAILA AZHAR features@theaggie.org On March 27, 2025, the United States Department of Education revoked waivers to California and Oregon colleges and universities which use federal funds to provide services to undocumented students.

Over the past month, the federal government revoked 23 UC Davis international students and recent graduates’ F-1 visas. While all 23 students whose statuses were terminated have had their F-1 visa statuses reinstated, these recent events targeting international and undocumented students may have exacerbated the fears of students who are not permanent U.S. citizens.

While these events are noteworthy, as Ximena Hernandez Ayala, a fourthyear economics and sociology double major pointed out, this is a longstanding issue.

“I understand the fear,” Ayala said.

“But sadly, I also know many of these students and their families have lived with this feeling long before recent events.”

Undocumented students and their allies have been organizing on the UC Davis campus for years, and many resources have been implemented to support current undocumented students.

For example, Ayala is a part of Students Promoting Education, Awareness and Knowledge (SPEAK), a student-run organization which has aimed to provide social and financial support to the broader immigrant community since 2006.

The group hosts events such as Know Your Rights and application workshops, as well as teach-ins.

LAWNTOPIATICKETS FROM FRONT COVER “It wasn’t the whole truth,” Julka said in a statement to The California Aggie. “I do find it discouraging that they were very quick to blame Senate for the tickets, just because it wasn’t even our current Senate table that decided [the budget], it’s actually theirs. And they knew that.”

Ng was an ASUCD Senator at the time the EC budget was approved.

Julka also noted that because the EC used many of its funds earlier in the year for Sunset Fest, which was free, they faced further financial constraints going into Lawntopia.

“Because they blew through their budget, they are not able to afford security for their event if it were to be on the Quad or on an actual lawn,” Julka said.

EC Assistant Unit Director Binh Do, a fourth-year economics and history double major and former ASUCD Senator, confirmed that both he and Ng voted in favor of the current budget at the end of last year. He also acknowledged that compromises had

“It’s all about building a strong network of support and community while advocating for the issues we care about,” Ayala said.

She particularly finds power in the group’s yearly retreat.

“During the retreat, we host leadership and mental health workshops as well as other activities, but the part that always stays with me is our storytelling session,” Ayala said.

“Sharing our stories is always extremely powerful. It reminds us of why the work we do is so important, why we must act now and do everything in our power so that future generations don’t have to go through this.”

An additional resource, Ayala noted, is the University of California Immigrant Legal Services Center, which provides free legal representation for undocumented and immigrant UC students and their immediate family members.

The center offers a wide range of services, from legal representation to Know Your Rights sessions and handles cases involving a variety of topics, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), consular processing, naturalization and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.

In 2014, the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center, now titled the Undocumented Student Resource Center (USRC), opened.

The center is the first physical space designed for undocumented students in the United States.

The USRC offers grants and scholarships to students and aims to build community through social events, mentorships, counseling services, workshops and other resources.

As Daniella Telles, the interim director of the center, emphasized, the center aims to provide holistic support to students who need it. been made in the process and that Don Toliver’s platform and profile are a step above previous headliners, which results in higher operating costs.

“This is the largest talent by monthly listener [record] that has ever come to UC Davis at the time of performance,” Do said. “A mid-sized artist was getting charged around $20 for a ticket [at UC Santa Barbara]. Despite Don Toliver being three times [larger] in monthly listeners, we were able to keep the price as low as possible.”

UC Davis’ EC has the smallest budget of any of the similar entertainment units in the University of California system, despite the university having the largest student government, according to Ng. He explained that the EC looked to other UC schools for inspiration to model Lawntopia but was never able to hold the concert on the same scale as their contemporaries.

“The U Center was not only the predetermined destination but also the best possible security option and production option that we have,” Ng said.

The expected revenue from ticket sales is $137,500; The EC has a total projected expenditure of some $676,000, according to the ASUCD 2024-25 operating budget.

Artwork displayed at the Undocumented Student Center on campus. (Ojas Mishra / Aggie) “All members of the UC Davis community at large are welcomed and encouraged to find community and access support through the services we offer,” Telles said. “USRC career staff have been and will continue to be open and available to listen and provide expert support to the student communities that we serve, especially to those that are directly impacted by current events.”

As Telles recalled, the center recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

“Nothing compares to the joy and fulfillment I experienced during the center’s 10th year anniversary celebration,” Telles said. “It was great

seeing community members and UC Davis alumni, faculty and staff who played a role with their presence in the creation of such a special place.”

Diya Sinha, a second-year political science major, noted the importance of these organizations.

“There’s a lot of misinformation around the rights undocumented students have and the kinds of resources that are available, so the programs that educate students about their rights and the resources they have are really valuable,” Sinha said. “As a campus, I think it’s important for us in recent times to support undocumented students and the organizations working

to ensure they can be here.”

As the groups across campus demonstrate, even in uncertain times, there are people across campus working diligently to meet the needs of students.

“There are many people on this campus who are committed to protecting [undocumented students], safeguarding their information and preparing for worst-case scenarios,” Ayala said.

Students who would like to learn more about SPEAK, UC Immigrant Legal Services Center or the Undocumented Students Resource Center can visit their respective social media pages and websites.

Marking another change, this year’s Lawntopia is planned to take place at the University Credit Union Center, a deviation from previous years in which it was held outside. Past venues have included the Memorial Union Quad and Dairy Field. Concerns over the availability of tickets due to capacity constraints have also been raised.

Capacity at the U Center is 5,500; Last year’s capacity at the Quad was some 6,000.

Lawntopia tickets sold out in less than five minutes during both presale and general sale this year, meeting maximum capacity within the U Center as well as the income requirement the EC needed to meet, according to Ng. ASUCD Controller Mostafa Rasheed, a fourth-year managerial economics major who acts as a chief financial officer of the ASUCD, explained how the money generated from tickets is distributed.

“Any money that [EC makes] doesn’t go [back] to that unit,” Rasheed said.

“It goes to general reserves, and then from there, that money is reallocated for everyone else.”

Rasheed also said that the distribution of income generated from the tickets and sponsorships secured for the event will be finalized at the

next budget hearing for the 2025-26 school year.

“ASUCD as a whole is not getting much money from external sources,” Rasheed said. “This was kind of like our trial period. Now we know that we can sell out quickly [but] with bigger venues comes bigger costs — with bigger costs comes higher ticket sales.”

Rasheed, Julka and both EC directors all emphasized their commitment to carrying out the student body’s demands amidst budget concerns.

“If they wanted to make Lawntopia free, they would have just had to have a different artist,” Julka said. “We would have to lessen our expectations on the artists for sure, so I don’t fully blame them.”

A fee referendum, which would implement a compulsory student fee of $10 per quarter to help fund campus events, was introduced earlier this year to be voted on during the ASUCD spring 2025 elections. Ng, inspired by similar referendums at other UC campuses, heavily advocated for the fee because it would help the EC run as a self-sufficient unit without having to rely on the Senate for money. It was later rejected by the vice chancellor and the Council of Student Affairs before it

would be placed on the ballot. Because the EC already falls under the ASUCD Basic Needs Referendum, the separate referendum solely for itself was vetoed, according to Do. While he expressed frustration with having to charge students, Ng is optimistic of the event’s success and remains thankful for everyone who has had a role in making the event happen.

“I couldn’t be more proud of [my team who] has taken all the nuances and challenges [...] and played such an amazing role in helping Lawntopia come to life,” Ng said.

The EC leadership told The Aggie that they plan to release a statement to the public after Lawntopia acknowledging students’ disappointment in the changes, further explaining the reasons as to why it was structured differently and whether this format will remain the same in the following years.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Crossword

THURSDAY MAY 8, 2025 | 9

Answer to previous puzzle 05/01/25

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.

Answer to previous puzzle 05/01/25

MAYDAY FROM PAGE 2 [It is] really important that we get everybody in Davis because it’s not a student issue, it’s not a faculty issue, it’s not a senior issue, it’s all of us.

That’s what the goal was and I think we accomplished that today. […] There were over 800 people [attending].”

Viki Montera, who was affiliated with one of the organizations sponsoring the event, spoke further about why she thought so many people turned up and the size of the event. “[With] all the energy, people need to express themselves,” Montera said. “There’s a lot of anger, frustration and we’re waking it up. […] Some people here said this is the largest [demonstration] that we’ve seen since the ‘60s in Davis. […] We’ll take them all. There [were] more [attendees] than we thought. We [originally] thought maybe 300 [people would attend].

[During the march, we] stopped traffic and everything.”

The May Day demonstration lasted over an hour. Information on related future demonstrations and actions can be found on the social media accounts of Indivisible Yolo or Sister District Yolo.

YOLOFOODBANK FROM PAGE 2 “Yolo County is facing a rising need for food and fewer resources to service those in need throughout our community, leaving our most vulnerable people in worse circumstances,” AguiarCurry said. “No one, especially our kids, seniors and working families, should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”

Since learning of funding cuts, Yolo Food Bank is pushing to increase fundraising in an effort to make up for some of their lost budget. The food bank recently participated in the Big

Day of Giving on May 1. Following the Big Day of Giving, Yolo Food Bank surpassed their initial goal and raised over $260,000.

“Every dollar will go directly to our Public Community Food Distributions, which feeds 9,300 families who rely on those distributions to make ends meet,” the Yolo Food Bank’s Instagram post reads.

Baker expressed gratitude for the support in a statement on the social media post.

“The generous response from our region has blown us away,” Baker said.

“On behalf of the families we serve, we thank every single one of you who has supported us during this time of critical need.”

People are being encouraged to help out the Yolo Food Bank in any way they can, from donating to volunteering.

Yolo Food Bank’s Creative Services Manager, Brittany Cornejo, explained how people can help in this strained time.

“People can help Yolo Food Bank by making a gift if they are in a position to do so at yolofoodbank.org,” Cornejo said. “[Or] by volunteering their time with us or helping us spread the word about the need in our community.”

HEADPHONESON FROM PAGE 6 As release day approaches, anticipation for “Addison” continues to build. Both critics and fans are eager to see whether Rae can carry the creative vision of her recent singles into a fully realized debut. If “Headphones On” is any indication of her future music trajectory, the album will not only solidify her artistic reinvention but also carve out a new niche for her and her fanbase. This debut is more than a career shift for Rae; it signals a deliberate break from the image that first brought her fame. Addison Rae is not interested in fitting into the mold that made her famous, but rather, in breaking it.

10 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

UC Davis research funding impacted by executive actions Leaders and members of the UC Davis research community share how funding cuts have impacted research

BY GRACIELA TIU features@theaggie.org Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, his administration has proposed and enacted a wide range of policies that have, directly and indirectly, reduced federal research funding to universities. Through budget cuts to federal agencies, which provide substantial amounts of funding for university research, and targeted cuts and restrictions to specific programs and efforts, universities like UC Davis have been doing their best to navigate through this transitional period.

Brandon Minto, the federal government relations director at UC Davis, outlined how the university has been receiving information about funding shifts.

“The university has received dozens of notices from federal agencies related to specific grants or projects since the change in the federal administration,” Minto said. “The affected grants cover a wide range of areas, including research related to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, food production and safety, renewable energy, basic science and a great deal more. ” The UC Davis Office of Research recommends that all federally funded grants, both domestic and

international, should continue unless otherwise directed by the supporting agency or UC Davis administration.

Researchers whose programs have been halted or suspended, whether by a stop work order, termination notice, budget reduction or other mechanisms, work with the school in sorting out changes.

Out of its $1,039,156,935 of total research funding, UC Davis received $441,123,729 — around 42% — through explicitly federal funding, according to the Office of Research’s annual report for the 2023-24 fiscal year. However, some federal funding flows through other areas, such as state and higher education, bringing the percentage of federal funding up to around half of the total amount, according to Simon J. Atkinson, the vice chancellor of the Office of Research at UC Davis.

The degree of reliance on federal funding also depends on the area of research, with areas such as fundamental research relying more heavily on federal support than others.

Atkinson entailed how an executive order temporarily freezing funding through foreign aid appropriations, particularly the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has subsequently affected many UC Davis research grants.

“We had a significant amount of funding from USAID, which was

effectively disbanded in the early weeks of the new administration,” Atkinson said. “We had a number of large grants from USAID that were all terminated, and they were all research with an international dimension, as you would expect. So things like pandemic workforce preparedness, innovative agricultural methods that could be applied in other countries, those kinds of things. That’s been a major impact for us.”

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a significant federal funding agency, has also been outlining its implementation of the new administration’s policies and guidelines. The agency has been revising its grant policies to align with new priorities, eliminating requirements for diversity-related plans in most applications and updating application instructions and forms accordingly.

Atkinson outlined other ways that support from the NIH has shifted in recent months.

“The NIH is our largest federal funder,” Atkinson said. “We’ve only had a small number of NIH grants terminated [thus far], but NIH has been very slow to release new awards, including awards that we expected would come because the grant proposal had gotten a really good review from the NIH reviewers, and there was every indication that the funding

UC Davis’ Julie Wyman debuts her documentary, ‘The Tallest Dwarf ’

Wyman, a cinema and digital media associate professor, shares her experience with filming

would come through. They’ve been releasing awards at a much slower rate than they normally do. The same goes for the National Science Foundation and other agencies.”

Altogether, federal funding agencies across the board have been impacted by executive-level policies and initiatives. Atkinson also added how attempts to cap indirect costs, also known as facilities and administration costs, which support research infrastructure, have been blocked in court.

“So far, two funding agencies have tried to cap direct costs at 15%,” Atkinson said. “The NIH was first, and then the Department of Energy.

Both of those attempts have been subject to court action that [have] prevented them from going into effect. We’re hoping that none of these attempts to bring indirect costs go into effect because we need that revenue to support our buildings, to support the personnel, who support research, keep the lights on, all of that stuff.”

Atkinson explained which units have been affected by the funding cuts thus far.

“I think it’s starting to spread to everybody,” Atkinson said. “I think the first units that were affected were in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Science[s] and in the School of Medicine — they were all affected by the USAID terminations.

That’s been the most severe effect that we’ve seen so far.”

Although certain departments felt an immediate impact, concern has spread through the UC Davis research community. ”But everybody is being affected because everybody is worried,” Atkinson said. “[Principal investigators] are concerned about their future funding. Graduate students are concerned about whether their funding will go away — postdocs, everybody who’s supported by the research funding that we receive, is anxious right now. So it’s not just the people who’ve been directly affected so far. It’s really the whole of our research community.”

Read the rest of this story online:

Senior Send-Off: William Jacobs on studying abroad, building career foundations and growing with Davis This spring, fourth-years reflect on their time at UC Davis and share their post-graduate plans

BY JALAN TEHRANIFAR features@theaggie.org

UC Davis Associate Professor Julie Wyman working behind the scenes on her documentary film, “The Tallest Dwarf.”

(Julie Wyman / Courtesy)

BY EVELYN SANCHEZ features@theaggie.org Many professors on campus have their own projects occurring beyond the courses that they teach — from lab-work research to writing papers to creating films. UC Davis Associate Professor Julie Wyman, alongside teaching cinema and digital media studies courses like small-scale production and experimental digital cinema, has also spent the larger part of a decade shooting her documentary film “The Tallest Dwarf,” which had its worldwide premiere at the South

by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas in March of 2025.

“The festival is very selective, and it’s hard to get in,” Wyman said. “And it was a really big deal to be selected for the program. We had three screenings there and it was very nerve wracking seeing it for the first time. It was screened in a 200-person theater, so it was kind of our launch.”

For Wyman, she used film as a continuation of a conversation surrounding bodies and their many forms, exploring their differences and prejudices.

“I had been making films already for a while,” Wyman said. “A lot of my films are about people whose bodies don’t fit in a lot of different ways.

I’m interested in looking at people in a different way so we can see the beauty and power of bodies that get marginalized.”

Wyman is interested in telling the stories of different bodies as a way of exploring questions about her own.

“I made a film about a [transgender] man and his partner before our culture talked about transgender people, and before it was a word in our culture,” Wyman said. “That came out in the 2000s. I also made a film about a fat synchronized swimming troupe called the Padded Lilies, and another film about a weightlifter who was heavyweight.”

Wyman’s film “A Boy Named Sue” followed the six-year-long transition of Theo and how the experience affected their life and relationship with their partner. Wyman’s other film, “Strong!,” documented Cheryl Haworth, a United States weightlifter and Olympic Games medalist, as she trained for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“These are all documentaries,” Wyman said. “The reason why I’ve

made these films is because I’ve had the feeling I don’t fit in [in] such ways.

After I finished ‘Strong!,’ I was kind of at a point where I felt like I needed to make a film about my own body.”

“The Tallest Dwarf ” was just that for Wyman. Engaging her lifelong questions about bodily belonging, the opening scene follows Wyman as she discusses her body with her parents and reminisces on childhood memories of difference and isolation.

“There’s hundreds of kinds of dwarfism,” Wyman said. “It seemed we might fit into one of them.”

The documentary follows Wyman’s journey as she discovers herself and finds community and understanding with other individuals with dwarfism. The film eventually leads her to the annual Little People of America National Conference, and one of the highlights is the interaction between the subjects and Wyman as the documenter, turning the piece into an artful collaboration of community.

“The way the project evolved is that it kind of leaned into this collaborative work with some of the key people in the film,” Wyman said. “One thing that has been said about my films is that they take a long time, and over time, I build close relationships with the people I’m making films about.

I think of my documentaries as collaborations in a way.”

UC Davis students who have viewed the film have responded very positively, including Taylor Harrison, a fourth-year cinema and digital media major, who attended the film’s premiere.

“I thought it was inspirational,” Harrison said. “It was very fun to watch, and I loved the comedy aspect within it. There were some funny aspects within it, [such as when] she was interacting with her family and the other little people.”

Harrison particularly appreciated the collaborative aspect of the film as mentioned by Wyman, with the authenticity of the people filmed standing out as a highlight.

“They were being themselves, and they weren’t trying to be anything other than that,” Harrison said.

The sense of collaboration, in time, guided Wyman back to her original question of personal identity.

“Eventually, I get a diagnosis within the film,” Wyman said. “You kind of see it [gradually] unfold, how I find that out, and I go tell my dad because I start with him. And then

you end up with me — I go back to tell him, and it’s a moment of reconciliation.”

Jatzira Gonzalez, a fourth-year cinema and digital media and history double major, also watched the San Francisco International Film Festival screening.

“You can tell it was a passion project,” Gonzales said. “It was super personal to her when she’s talking about herself. I think there were a bunch of things that were promoted and some things that were followed through, but some things were left unfinished. It kinda felt incomplete, but I understand if it was because she’s still living and learning.”

Even as an experienced filmmaker, Wyman naturally had reservations about capturing such an intimate story of herself.

“The main thing I was scared of was putting such a personal story on screen,” Wyman said. “I really wanted to do justice to my new friends and community and not overstep. It’s definitely very risky. I wanted to make sure I did it with integrity, that it was fair and that it lived up to the beauty and greatness of the people around me.”

Wyman also expressed her goals and ambitions she hoped to portray through the project.

“Artistically, the hope was to make something that kind of breaks some new ground in terms of little people representation,” Wyman said.

“And [the film] lets people have a complicated experience and doesn’t tell people what to think of it. On a cultural and spiritual level, it was to provide a form of beauty in the world and make space for lots of kinds of bodies in the world.”

“The Tallest Dwarf ” has thus far been showcased at the San Francisco International Film Festival in addition to the South by Southwest film festival, and the documentary’s team is currently working to get it to festivals taking place in the summer and fall.

Next year, the documentary will be broadcast and streamed by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), where it will see its national broadcast run.

To follow the documentary’s journey, visit @thetallestdwarffilm on Instagram or @thetallestdw4rf on Facebook.

William Jacobs came to UC Davis from Carlsbad, California, unsure of where he would end up. Four years later, the civil engineering major is graduating with a sharpened focus, a strengthened work ethic and a few extra stamps in his passport.

Jacobs said his favorite college memories were made during his summer abroad in the Netherlands.

He participated in the UC Davis Sustainable Urban Systems program in 2024 with Professor Kari Watkins.

“I really liked exploring the cities with the friends I made on the trip,” Jacobs said.

Studying abroad wasn’t the only experience that shaped him.

Over the past year, Jacobs said he’s seen significant personal growth — especially with time management and discipline.

“When I started school, I was pretty relaxed in the way I studied and organized my time,” Jacobs said. “But this year I’ve spent more time seeking additional degrees, participating in clubs, working and searching for jobs after I graduate.”

Jacobs picked up two minors during his time at Davis: construction management engineering and sustainability in the built environment, as well as joined the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), a club that gave him hands-on experience in the field. He said ITE helped him attend technical events at other universities, build industry connections and explore real-world applications of civil engineering.

“I was able to attend events at [UC] Berkeley and UC [Los Angeles]

and learn real technical skills that will help me later on in my career,” Jacobs said. “ITE also connected me with a lot of job opportunities.”

After graduation, Jacobs plans to spend a month traveling through Japan, Vietnam and Thailand. The trip will be a break from the rigorous schedule he’s maintained over the past year — a chance to recharge before diving into post-graduate life.

“I’m really excited to take some time off school and work,” Jacobs said.

The trip marks a pause, but not a slowdown. After his travels, Jacobs plans to return to Davis while he searches for jobs, hoping to eventually settle in the Bay Area. He said he’s ready for what’s next, but leaving UC Davis won’t be easy.

“College is the last place I’ll be where I’m surrounded by people my age,” Jacobs said. “I’m also going to miss the campus and downtown — I love how walkable everything is and using all the resources on campus.”

Jacobs said his favorite parts of Davis include Ali Baba, the Coffee House sandwiches, the Davis Farmers Market, UC Davis football games, Taqueria El Burrito and Bizarro World. But more than anything, he appreciated getting to know the city over time.

For current and future Aggies, Jacobs offered some advice on navigating the quarter system and finding balance.

“It’s important to stay on top of things, because the quarter system can sneak up on you,” Jacobs said. “It can be easy to fall behind when you’ve missed four weeks of lecture. But at the same time, make sure that school isn’t your whole life. Have fun while you’re in college because it goes by really fast.”

Fourth-year civil engineering major William Jacobs. (William Jacobs / Courtesy)

THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025 | 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SCIENCE AND TECH The chemistry behind collaboration: the 2025 Miller Symposium

The 2025 R. Bryan Miller Symposium brought together students, faculty and multiple Nobel laureates to share and advocate for scientific research

BY NAREN KRISHNA JEGAN science@theaggie.org From March 6 to 7, the UC Davis Department of Chemistry held its annual Miller Symposium, a conference where undergraduates, graduate students and guest speakers share their current research interests and findings through talks, poster presentations and flash pitches.

Named after the late Professor R. Bryan Miller, this year’s symposium featured some recognizable figures within the chemistry community, such as Nobel laureates Jennifer Doudna and Frances Arnold, as well as internationally renowned pioneers such as Dr. Kendall N. Houk, Alanna Schepartz, Dirk Trauner, Laura Kiessling, Ashok Bhandari, Wendy Young, Sundeep Dugar and Michael Marletta. In addition, multiple faculty members (Mark Mascal and Cody Ross Pitts) delivered talks about their own research interests.

Jennifer Doudna’s work: Doudna’s pioneering work in the development of CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, in collaboration with Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier, is widely regarded as one of the most significant discoveries in the history of science, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing is a biotechnology tool that allows scientists to make targeted changes to DNA. It uses a guide RNA to locate a specific DNA sequence, and

Guest lecturer presents chemistry research at the Miller Symposium.

(Ojas Mishra / Aggie) the Cas9 enzyme acts like molecular scissors to cut the DNA at that spot.

After the cut, the cell’s natural repair processes can introduce mutations or insert new genetic material.

Bacteria store DNA sequences of foreign pathogens, like viruses, in this “diary” after they have encountered them. These stored sequences are called spacers. Every time these bacteria survive an infection, they add a new entry (the DNA sequence of the virus) to their diary. When the bacteria encounter the same virus again, they can flip through their diary (CRISPR sequences) and find the exact DNA sequence they’ve seen before, helping them recognize the virus. This is where

Cas9 comes into play to cut the DNA. After the cut, the cell’s repair system kicks in. It tries to fix the break, but it doesn’t always do so perfectly.

This repair can have two possible outcomes. In non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), the cell “sticks” the broken ends back together but with errors, which can disable a gene (gene knockout). In homology-directed repair (HDR), if you provide a new DNA template, the cell can use it to repair the break more accurately, allowing you to insert or change genes.

CRISPR-Cas9 is widely used in research, medicine and agriculture due to its precision, efficiency and relative simplicity.

CRISPR technology

has been harnessed in the medical field, where novel therapies such as exagamglogene autotemcel (Exa-cel) have been developed to treat sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia by editing patients’ stem cells to reactivate fetal hemoglobin production.

Moreover, in her talk, Doudna confirmed the partnership of UC Davis to join UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco in the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI) to advance innovations in sustainable agriculture and climate change applications.

“One of the wonderful features of CRISPR is that it’s a technology that can be used on animals, plants, microbes — really any organism with DNA,” Doudna said. “I’m thrilled that we have now formally welcomed UC Davis as a full partner of the IGI, building on years of productive work together.”

Frances Arnold’s work: Arnold started her conference talk by weaving together a story about what she considered to be her greatest achievement in her career: her cameo in the TV show “The Big Bang Theory.” Throughout her presentation, Arnold delved deep into the world of evolution, quoting Charles Darwin as one of her biggest inspirations to pursue her area of research: directed evolution. Darwin’s 1859 publication of “On the Origin of Species” was one of biology’s most landmark studies, as it introduced the idea of natural selection — natural processes and survival of the fittest determine the

proportion of populations that will survive.

Arnold’s work on directed evolution focuses on artificial selection of enzymes, which are biological molecules who help speed up specific reactions. Although artificial selection has been applied into breeding animals, Arnold’s novel approach to applying this to enzymes allowed her and her team to allow enzymes to develop high specifications to perform functions in non-ideal environments.

Enzymes are made of chains of sub-molecules called amino acids. The sequence of amino acids in a cell can determine the structure and resultant function of the specific enzyme; even miniscule substitutions of one amino acid can have noticeable changes in the performance of the enzyme.

Arnold leveraged this power of mutations in order to kickstart the process of evolution. By evolving enzymes through subsequent generations, her work allowed for “enzymes to do the dirty work such as clean your laundry.”

“If you want something quite different from what you start with, then you have to iterate; [...] you have to accumulate those mutations over multiple generations,” Arnold said.

Read the rest online!

The incredible importance of a new LSD analogue

This new molecule, called JRT, has potential applications to treat neuropsychiatric diseases in ways that have not previously been possible

BY MADELINE HASS science@theaggie.org A team of UC Davis researchers within the Olson Lab, run by David E. Olson, has synthesized a new molecule named JRT that has the potential to treat neuropsychiatric diseases. This molecule is an analogue of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) with reduced hallucinogenic potentials yet many therapeutic properties, making it an outstanding candidate for treating conditions like schizophrenia.

The creation of this new molecule was accomplished over a five-year process, and it consisted of transposing two atoms within LSD that lowered the potential of producing hallucinogenic responses in humans.

This molecule’s close relation to LSD allows it to contain many plasticityproducing aspects and the ability to promote cortical neuron growth, both of which are necessary in the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases.

Cassie Hatzipantelis, a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics and key member of the study, spoke on the creation of this new JRT molecule.

“Lee Dunlap, along with many people in the chemical field, had identified this key interaction [in LSD] between the tryptamine core structure and the 2A receptor — this serine residue. He made this version of the molecule where you just take the nitrogen and you put it somewhere else,” Hatzipantelis said. “After this, it can’t make that interaction anymore, and it completely obliterates the hallucinogenic potential of the molecule.”

TURTLEHOUSE FROM FRONT COVER “I saw one on the back porch,” one former tenant said. “It was a gallon water bottle, like a Crystal Geyser water bottle.”

Piper made a similar discovery in a different location.

“I remember looking for my iron one day — like we were sharing an iron back and forth — and I went into the closet and found the jugs,” Piper said.

The origins of the urine jars came from one resident, who had previously joined a Facebook group of individuals who drink their own urine as a “joke,” according to multiple sources.

This wasn’t the only urine-related situation that occurred. When one former tenant brought a friend over to the house, they alleged that at the same time, other residents peed over the balcony railing that publicly faces the street.

“They just sat on the railing, like right there, and then they just peed over it when [the visitor] was there,” the tenant said. “It was kind of a free for all with the pissing.”

Other allegations surrounding the

STEPHANIE CHAN / AGGIE Before testing JRT’s therapeutic potential, the team focussed on confirming that this drug would not have the potency of hallucinogenic potential that is associated with LSD. The first step in this process was to create a general characterization of the molecule on the cellular level.

The team utilized a biosensor assay that they developed, called pyschLight, that will show if a drug is predicted to be hallucinogenic or not based on a fluorescence indication.

Hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic ligands within molecules will bind to pyschLight and showcase different fluorescence profiles.

“We know that hallucinogenic drugs versus non hallucinogenic drugs will induce a different confirmation; they kind of change in a slightly different way, so when this lights up we can say this will most likely be hallucinogenic,” Hatzipantelis said.

“We found that LSD has a really high

response and is incredibly potent, but our compound JRT was far less potent and way less active so it was predicted at this stage to be non-hallucinogenic.”

After confirming the reduced hallucinogenic potentials on the cellular level, the team moved to confirming this with a biological correlation. This was done via a study conducted on mice, which entailed giving each drug to a mouse and overseeing a head twitch response test, a famous method to test a drug’s hallucinogenic potency.

“We know that when you give a hallucinogenic drug to a mouse, they have this very stereotypical head twitch,” Hatzipantelis said. “And we know that the potency of a drug in a mouse head twitch is a near perfect correlation with the potency of the drug with its hallucinogenic potency in humans.”

Yara Khatib, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate and member of the Olson Lab, further commented on this part

house included resident applications and why some people were chosen to live at Turtle House over others.

There was one tenant who, according to multiple former tenants, set up meetings with applicants only looking for one specific demographic: white women.

Another tenant allegedly found evidence of significant bias in applications during their time at Turtle House when they were reviewing applications.

“One of my friends was in charge of [applications],” the former tenant said. “We were struggling to fill the house so we’re looking through the [Turtle House] email for any applications. We found a bunch of emails and applications that were sent in by people who were not white women that just were never responded to.”

Only one resident, who was a white man, was in charge of applications during this time, according to the source. One former resident mentioned that many who visited Turtle House observed a perceived lack of diversity.

“Honestly, when you looked at us in a picture, it kind of looks like a cult,” the resident said.

Multiple residents also alleged that someone wasn’t selected to live in the

house because of their appearance.

One resident who was attempting to leave the house and was seeking a subletter expressed dissatisfaction with the selection process.

“I [prolonged] my stay here and [had] to pay rent, which I [could] no longer [do],” the resident said. “It [caused] me financial issues, because you [all] [didn’t] like that he’s bald.”

There was also significant friction between members of the house and one specific resident. Based on meeting notes provided by an anonymous former resident, this individual was put up to a vote during a meeting, and the majority of tenants voted to evict them. However, the vote only held ceremonial power and was not enforceable, so the individual chose to remain a resident, despite being asked to leave multiple times by other residents.

In interviews, multiple former tenants expressed that this individual made them feel uncomfortable.

“I wouldn’t leave my female friends alone [in the house],” one former tenant said.

Additionally, during a “room crawl” held in the house — an event where people visit different rooms in a house and drink in each one — one room in particular featured multiple pictures of Harrington with his eyes

of the study.

“We found that when we tested JRT and compared it to LSD, there was a very significant reduction in the number of head twitches that we have,” Khatib said. “We saw the same number of head twitches you would see when giving a mouse just a normal saline injection, so that was really encouraging to us.”

Neuropsychiatric diseases have a wide range of indicators that are categorized into positive symptoms, negative symptoms and cognitive symptoms. Current antipsychotic medicines have shown success in treating the positive symptoms of these conditions, such as hallucinations and delusions yet have not been successful in treating cognitive or negative symptoms.

Defining features of the negative and cognitive symptoms are morphological and synaptic deficits.

So, one of the next steps of the team was to test the therapeutic properties of JRT, they wanted to see if it had the plasticity-promoting aspects and ability to cause cortical neuron growth that they had hypothesized, as well as the ability to treat many of the other aspects of negative and cognitive symptoms associated with neuropsychiatric diseases.

“For this process, we literally give the drug and then count the neurons,’” Hatzipantelis said. “We can see if the neurons get really complex and count how many branches and how many spines they have, how many synapses and if their synapses are functional.

A whole suite of structural and functional plasticity experiments are done to really assess if this is happening or not, and JRT was seen to be one crossed out with the letter “X.” There was also a photo of Harrington next to a photo of Mao Zedong, the former president of the People’s Republic of China.

For many involved, what happened at Turtle House was an emotional time and for some, it continues to be.

“Every time I looked at the house the first couple of months I walked by, I would tear up a little bit and be like, ‘Damn, the house is really beautiful,’” Piper said. “It was hard seeing new people there out front and [thinking], they don’t even know. They have no clue what happened.”

Co-operative living spaces can be complicated, as the events at Turtle House from August of 2022 to September of 2023 have shown.

Everyone involved — from the tenants to the owner — mentioned numerous issues inside of the house that contributed to 17 residents leaving the premises.

However, co-ops in Davis, as a whole, have provided a unique, collaborative space for students to contribute to a shared living experience. Turtle House continues to serve as a communal space for students in Davis, whether through its band performances or simply its recognizable exterior and central location within Davis’ downtown.

of the strongest plasticity-promoting compounds we’ve ever tested.”

Another test that was done was a sucrose preference test as part of the behavioral assay, in order to see if JRT could combat the symptom of loss of pleasure symptom, which is commonly seen in neuropsychiatric diseases. It consisted of first testing initial preference for sugar water in mice, then inducing a depressive model in them before administering JRT to see if it could restore their desire to drink this sugar water.

“It was a one-month process of working with the animals and seeing how their preferences change. After administering the JRT, we could see that the drug was able to restore their preference,” Khatib said. “It also had the ability to maintain that for weeks after. 10 days later, I set up the study again and saw that the mice with the JRT still preferred the sugar water relative to the animals that remained in their depressive state.”

There is still much work to be done before JRT can see wide-scale use or application, yet the creation of it alone is groundbreaking work.

It showcases that there is a way to lower the hallucinogenic properties while harnessing many of the positive properties of certain drugs, a discovery that will prove very useful as time moves forward.

“It’s a proof of concept that we can change the direction of drug development and the way that we approach the treatment of these conditions and maybe even make more scalable treatments that can reach a more sizable population,” Khatib said.

12 | THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS MEN’S BASEBALL

UC Davis men’s baseball faces tough losses against CSU Fullerton The Aggies fought hard in match against CSUF

BY DANIELLE WIRNOWSKI sports@theaggie.org The UC Davis men’s baseball team welcomed California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) to Dobbins Stadium for a three-game series from April 25 to 27.

Coming off of a win against Washington State University, the UC Davis Aggies were ready to continue that energy at home, facing CSUF. The Aggies, despite dealing with the losses of the weekend, put up a strong fight against Fullerton.

The Aggies started the three-game series strong against CSUF, preventing them from hitting more than two home runs.

Bryan Green, a fourth-year human development major, pitched for six innings, only allowing two runs, six hits, one walk and a total of four strikeouts against CSUF. Mason Lerma, a second-year human development major, continued Green’s work, only allowing CSUF to get one hit and three strikeouts in the three innings after.

While CSUF scored a home run at the top of the second inning, the Aggies secured a home run at the bottom of the third, as Tyler Howard, a second-year managerial economics major, led the offense for the Aggies.

But it was Braydon Wooldridge, a third-year human development major, who was able to score the home run for the Aggies.

However, the tie did not last long, as CSUF scored their final run for the

game at the top of the sixth inning.

This ended the first game with a score of 2-1 in favor of CSUF. The Aggies followed up in the second game of the series, stopping CSUF from scoring more than two home runs, just as in the previous game. Unfortunately, the Aggies were unable to get any runs on the board, despite the effort they put into the game.

Tyler Wood, a second-year managerial economics major, pitched for five innings, allowing just one hit with no walks and six strikeouts against CSUF. Alex Gouveia, a fourth-year human development major, led the Aggies at the plate, going two-forthree with a double throughout all nine innings.

The Aggies hit three doubles with fewer than two outs in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings. However, they were unable to convert into points.

This ended the second game of the series with a 2-0 score for CSUF. Despite the weekend’s second game ending unfavorably for UC Davis, the Aggies went into the third and final game of the series with a strong strategy and the desire to earn a win.

At the bottom of the first inning, the Aggies scored two home runs, one by Howard and the second by Gouveia. The Aggies secured another home run via Evan Gentil, a first-year human development major, at the bottom of the second inning.

The Aggies prevented CSUF from scoring any home runs until the top of the third, when they scored five home

Carter Delaney pitches in the last game of the series against Cal State Fullerton. (Julia Heron-Watts / Aggie) runs before the end of the third. CSUF prevented the Aggies from scoring again until the bottom of the seventh inning, where they secured two more runs against the Aggies.

Gentil secured his second run for the Aggies during the seventh inning, with two players still on the bases at the end of the inning, bringing the

score to 7-4.

The Aggies prevented CSUF from scoring during the eighth inning, while scoring another run at the bottom of the eighth. Jason Hanson, a fourth-year history major, secured the final home run for the Aggies during the game, trimming the lead to 5-7.

Ultimately, CSUF scored their

final run at the top of the ninth inning against the Aggies, finalizing the score of 8-5 for CSUF. Overall, it was an exciting game series with both teams fighting for a spot in the Big West Championships. The Aggies will return to their home stadium to host Utah Tech University on May 13 at 6 p.m.

TRACK & FIELD

Davis track and field hosts Sacramento State for Causeway Classic

Aggies close regular season at home, looking ahead to Big West ChampionshipsWest Championships

BY THEO KAYSER sports@theaggie.org On April 25, the UC Davis track and field team hosted Sacramento State University for the Causeway Classic dual meet. Dual meets, which differ from standard invitationals, involve a dozen or more schools with only two teams going head to head.

The meet events began at 9:30 a.m., with the first portion of the meet hosting throwing and jumping events.

The first event was women’s hammer throw, with UC Davis Aggies claiming first, second and third place. Hailey Hernandez, a third-year sustainable agriculture and ecology major, won the event with a distance of 50.46 meters, finishing just ahead of teammate Ashpreet Kler, a fourthyear biological psychology major, who threw 50.45 meters.

The UC Davis women’s team continued to shine in the throws during the javelin, where Brianna Nunn, a fourth-year economics major, claimed another Aggie victory, throwing 33.68 meters. This performance was followed up moments later by undeclared major Harrison Hansen, who came in first place in men’s javelin throw. Hansen dominated the rest of the field with a throw of 47.36 meters, more than 10 meters further than second place.

The final throwing event of the day was shot put, where Nunn again

HUMANRELATIONS FROM PAGE 2 Three different people called it Islamophobic and anti-Arab, yet, somehow, none of these people provided specific examples.”

The commenter furthered describing their perspective.

“So, how do we know it isn’t just slander? How do we know that it isn’t just weaponization to silence Jews talking about antisemitism?” the commenter said. “It makes me wonder, are you, the Human Relations Committee, putting Jews in danger? I don’t have any issues with any of your recommendations, but bad data in makes bad policy out.”

One public commenter spoke out in favor of the report by pointing out that the report’s findings and efforts to combat antisemitism are not mutually exclusive.

“Hate is not a limited pie, it’s extremely expansive,” the public commenter said. “The good thing is, justice is also expansive. Justice for one group does not take away from justice for another group. And I think that’s what is being impressed here today, is

claimed first for the women’s team with a distance of 14.66 meters.

Additionally, Jake Joerger, a first-year undeclared major, won first place for men’s with a throw of 16.03 meters.

In the jumping events, more Aggie victories came in the form of the long jump and pole vault events.

Third-year Daren Randolph won the men’s long jump, jumping 7.28 meters. Sarah Graessley, a fourth-year civil engineering major, and Aidan Hagerty, a third-year systems and synthetic biology major, won in pole vault for both women’s and men’s, respectively.

The latter half of the meet moved to running events. This began with the women’s 5,000-meter run, where Aggies came in first and second place. UC Davis teammates Lauren Villegas, a first-year communications major, and Dani Barrett, a fourth-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major, battled out for the top spot.

Ultimately, Villegas came in first with a time of 17:19:02, hardly edging out Barrett, who ran 17:19:42.

The men’s 5,000-meter went similarly, with teammates Zachary Graeber, a third-year computer science major, and Ethan Brooks, a third-year undeclared major, finishing fractions of a second apart, both with a time of 15:13.

After this began the 4x100-meter relay races. In the women’s heat, the Aggies were narrowly defeated

by under a second, running a combined 45.95 seconds, just behind Sacramento State at 45.03. The men’s race soon after ended with another close Aggie loss.

The Aggies got back on track during the 1,500-meter race, taking first place in both men’s and women’s.

Kayla Towne, a first-year psychology major, won with a time of 4:41 in women’s, alongside Jacob Lawrence, a first-year undeclared major, who ran 3:58.

The next four events were all won by runners for Sacramento State, who claimed victories in the men’s and women’s 100/110-meter hurdles, the 100-meter, 400-meter and the 800-meter. At the halfway point of the meet, Sacramento State, as a team, was leading overall in points, with their women’s team leading the Aggies by a score of 64-53 and their men’s team ahead by 54-49.

After running events and jumping events had finished, Sacramento State had finished ahead in team points, with their women’s team defeating UC Davis 87-84 and the men’s team winning in more convincing fashion by a score of 82-64.

The remainder of the meet saw a few more individual victories for UC Davis, as Maya Shinnick, a third-year undeclared major, won the women’s 200-meter, Kayla Rutz, a third-year managerial economics major, won the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase and

to give justice, to give voice, to give legitimacy to the experience of the Arab, Muslim and Palestinian community.

That does not take away [from] the need to give justice to other groups in this community who also feel hate.”

In discussing the merits of sending the report to the city council in addition to the recommendations of the HRC, Commission Member Deema Tamini addressed some of the comments.

“You might not like what the report says,” Tamini said. “You might not agree with what people feel, but this is what people feel. [...] We did qualitative work where we actually talked to people. We gathered information. A lot, because this community is very scared to speak up. So there’s that, but there’s also just low numbers in this community, so we did not do quantitative [analysis]. We have shown that through this qualitative analysis, this is the sentiment of a group of people, whether that’s two people or a thousand people, that’s the sentiment.

I think that the context is needed, but what we are not asking the city council to do is bless this report.”

Commission Member Edgar WongChen also spoke out about the need to take action despite concerns with the MAPA Report.

“What I also realized was that there

[were] a lot of people surveyed, and in my honest opinion, I don’t need a critical mass of people,” Wong-Chen said. “I just need a few good examples.

We’ve had people who have come to HRC meetings, a single individual who [...] brought up an issue, and we’ve taken it on, and we’ve formed subcommittees from a single person representing a single topic that they felt marginalized [on].”

Ultimately, the motion to move forward with the list of recommendations to the city council passed with a large majority. The sole dissenting vote was Commission Member Amir Kol, who then requested to include his dissenting opinion with the packet to be sent to the city council. His subsequent motion was not seconded. After the meeting, Kol explained his reasoning for voting against the motion to move forward with the recommendations.

“The report is not transparent, the methods are completely not transparent and biased and the recommendations are based on a report [where] the methods are flawed,” Amir said. “This report is not gonna heal anything in this community, just as we see again and again, it just deepens that divide, because it’s not about healing one community. It’s by definition, healing

Francesca Villain pole vaults for the Aggies. (Sacha Chickering / Aggie) Chance Tokubo, a third-year applied mathematics major, won the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase.

The meet concluded with women’s and men’s 4x400-meter relays, where Sacramento State walked away victorious in both. Overall, the Sacramento State University women’s runners defeated UC Davis 101-99, and the men’s runners defeated the

Aggies 102-83.

The Causeway Classic was the final regular-season meet on the Aggies’ schedule for the 2025 season. Athletes will have two more opportunities to compete this season at the Big West Conference MultiEvent Championships on May 9 and, finally, the Big West Conference Championships on May 16.

one community at the expense of another. Pointing fingers at another community. [...] The Jewish community has lost its trust in [Davis] City Council, and the commission as a body that can represent us and care for us and have our needs and interests in mind.”

The Davis HRC meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. The meetings can be attended in person at the Community Chambers at City Hall or viewed online at the city of Davis YouTube page. The MAPA Report and recommendations can be found online at the city of Davis website.

perspective of a loved one trying to figure out how she’s feeling, the soft song quieted the crowd as everyone’s full attention turned toward Page’s display of vulnerability.

Page also played older pop-rock, fan-favorite tracks like “4Runner” and “25,” the latter of which sits at the top of her discography with over one million plays on Spotify. Using the hit single to end the night, the crowd filled the small venue with a loud chorus of voices. Leaving fans buzzing, Page and her band filed off stage while tossing small plastic bugs out into the audience.

With two EPs and a handful of singles now under her belt, moving to larger venues for her second headline tour and gaining almost 50,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, Page has solidified her fanbase and a name for herself in the indie-pop scene. A discography filled with songs perfect for channeling your nostalgia, reflecting on a breakup or dreaming about your current crush, Page’s sound is appealing to any and every ear.

ALIXPAGE FROM PAGE 6 So when we ended up with ‘Bug,’ it felt like a more fitting title.”

Songs like “Girlfriend” and “Break the Band Up” highlight the indiepop-rock side of Page’s discography with building guitar tracks and catchy melodies, while “Bb” and “Prank Call” use more simple instrumentals and express a diary-like level of yearning.

The EP’s title track, “Bug,” refers to Page’s nickname given to her by her romantic partner. Written from the