March 15, 2018

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the California Aggie

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NICHOLAS CHAN / AGGIE

VOLUME 136, ISSUE 20 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

WeRise Rally takes place at Silo, Sproul Hall

KAILA MATTERA / AGGIE

UC-AFT union representing lecturers, librarians promotes solidarity on campus

Living within a culture of academic pressure

UC-AFT UNION MEMBERS TABLE IN FRONT OF SPROUL HALL IN AN EFFORT TO RAISE PUBLIC ATTENTION

UC-AFT, a union representing lecturers and librarians on the UC Davis campus, held a rally on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Tabling in front of the Silo and Sproul Hall, union members were eager to talk to passersby about concerns regarding the Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME. In this case, Illinois public employee Mark Janus is arguing that his requirement to pay fair share fees to his union — although he is not a member — is a violation of his free speech. Fair share fees are dues that workers who are not members of a union pay to the union that represents them. Arguments for this case were heard by the Supreme Court the Monday before the rally took place.

“This rally is called WeRise and what we’re doing is getting all of our union members together and aware of this Supreme Court case that is happening right now, which is called Janus v. AFSCME, which basically is being viewed as sort of an attack on all public unions around the country,” said Katie Rodger, a lecturer in the University Writing Program. “All of us could be affected by this Supreme Court case. Today is an information campaign and also a launch of what we are calling a recommitment effort, where we are going to ask our existing members to recommit to staying strong and part of our union.”

Rodger described the recommitment process and why it is significant to union members and leaders. “[The recommitment effort] entails filling out a recommitment card which is a card that just says ‘I’m sticking with the union,’” Rodger said. “If the Supreme Court rules, for example, that we would need to start over again and sign people up for the union from scratch, this would be a way for us to know which people are already on board. It’s also a way really to energize people who might just be going to work everyday and [who are] not really too engaged with how the union has helped secure contracts and better wages and benefits for them.”

When asked how the union might approach individuals who do not want to sign a recommitment card, Rodger said union members were just hoping to get the chance to talk to those individuals.

“There are a lot of people who have problems or concerns about our union, and we would really like to know what those things are because it is a union that represents all of us and we want it to be representative of people’s concerns as well,” Rodger said. “[I hope this rally will] raise our presence and visibility on campus, to get people excited, to get people really ready to act. We are not sure what action is going to look like yet; we are waiting for the Supreme Court to send down their decision but really being ready, I think, is primary.”

John Rundin, a lecturer in the classics department and the president of UC-AFT on the UC Davis campus, explained the different arguments of the Janus v. AFSCME case.

“For the longest time, the right wing in this country has wanted to defund unions and has wanted to basically destroy unions,” Rundin said. “Their strategy in this case was to claim that [the payment of fair share fees] is forced political speech. That is, when we force people to give us money even though they are not members, we are essentially forcing them to engage in political speech and that is against the First Amendment of the Constitution because you have a right to free speech.”

Rundin explained the union’s disagreement with this position, stating that a large portion of union fees supports efforts such as contract negotiation.

“The union has a lot of business here; we have to talk to the university and negotiate contracts and we also have to represent our members in various university administrative and legal proceedings,” Rundin said. “In other words, we have a lot of expenses that we incur that have nothing to do with politics, it’s simply the manNICHOLAS CHAN / AGGIE

agement of the workplace. Currently, if you’re not a member and you don’t want to support the political work of the union, what you can do is opt [...] out of paying the portion of the money you pay that goes towards politics. It is true that we do a certain amount of lobbying and stuff like that, but you don’t have to pay for that [...] and that’s been the state of affairs for a long time.”

Explaining the significance of fair share fees to the union, Rundin made a comparison between public sector unions and city councils.

“We are actually chartered by the state of California,” Rundin said. “We are really sort of a body of governance within the union and within the workplace. We are very democratic and we are kind of like a city council in that city councils are created by the state government.

City councils have the right to raise taxes on those people who they are overseeing. Just because you don’t agree with the politics or whatever of the city council, that doesn’t mean you can stop paying. Essentially, when you say that people who are not members don’t have to pay union fees, it’s kind of like saying, ‘Oh, well, if you don’t agree with the city council, you don’t have to pay your taxes.’ That’s just not true.

In order to have a functioning society, people have to pay taxes and fees of various sorts just to maintain things and keep things going. That’s our opinion: that we are doing nothing different from many other bodies.”

Rundin said he feels it is fair that both union members and non-members pay dues because the union has to represent all workers in its jurisdiction. Rundin expressed his thoughts on what he believes the Janus v. AFSCME case symbolizes.

“Basically, this is an attempt to defund public unions,” Rundin said. “It’s a major attack on the middle class. There is something like 21 million RALLY on 11

UC Student-Workers begin lengthy negotiations with administration Student-Workers hope to shift current power structure of UC

BY AL LY RUSSEL L campus@theaggie.org

The UC Student-Workers Union (UAW Local 2865) at Davis hosted the first day of contract negotiations on Feb. 28 at the Memorial Union.

UAW 2865 represents more than 14,000 academic student employees across UC campuses.

Students presented their demands, which will be heard at the formal negotiations held at UC Berkeley.

The UC Student-Workers Union represents teaching assistants, associate instructors, lecturers, readers and undergraduate tutors across all nine UC campuses.

Demands include maintaining wages to keep pace with rising costs of living, ensuring regular and consistent pay and benefits, increasing access to public transportation and parking as well as aiming to extend current Academic StudentEmployee benefits. Beginning six months before their current contracts expire, graduate students and members hope to reach an agreement with administration soon. Although agreements are

usually reached through a lengthy process of weekly meetings at different UC campuses, sometimes administrators and student-workers fail to come together before the current contract expiration.

The group also aims to ensure ASEs have access to affordable housing and protect UC students and workers by declaring all UCs sanctuary campuses. It also hopes to further efforts to promote diversity, inclusivity and safe workplaces, extend childcare benefits and expand union rights, while maintaining all currently existing rights.

Civil engineering graduate student Ellie White became involved with the Student-Workers Union after her own access to secure housing was threatened.

“Our houses are going to be torn down in 2020,” White said. “Solano Park is the only semiaffordable place left to live on campus and the university is trying to replace it with units that will be much, much more expensive.”

Looking forward, White is hoping to see housing reform demands come to fruition during negotiations.

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Ph.D. sociology candidate Duane Wright is another member of the UC Student-Workers Union. Wright aims to tackle the clear relationship between the union’s demands and the failure of the university to meet students’ demands.

“I see all the issues as interconnected, stemming from the undemocratic and mostly corporate nature of the university system,” Wright said.

“It’s absurd that there’s an executive class that makes hundreds of thousands per year, mismanages mental healthcare funds and pepper-sprays protesters; meanwhile, students are paying more than ever and class sizes are increasing.”

Amara Miller, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology, has been a member of UAW 2865 since entering the Ph.D. program in 2011. Miller described past issues reaching an agreement.

“Our last contract campaign in 2013-2014 lasted around a year and wasn’t resolved until after several strikes and strike threats,” Miller said.

Many students enrolled in the UC system will be taught at some point in their undergraduate

How much is too much?

BY EMI LY NGUY EN features@theaggie.org

To most students, finals season is understood to be a dreaded time plagued by all-nighters, excessive periods of time spent at the library and copious intakes of caffeine. High levels of stress cause many students to experience mental and physical health deterioration during this time, but few students acknowledge and address the issue.

Shrishti Tyagi, a third-year biological sciences major and a team coordinator for the Mental Health Initiative, attributes students’ overwhelming stress levels to the overly-competitive environment created for students attending a renowned research university.

“I think as a UC school it’s very competitive in general, and a lot of students are not only doing academics, they’re also working part-time, they’re in clubs, they’re doing research,” Tyagi said. “I think it’s just the stress of everything else we do in our lives, and all of it adds up. Finals week is just kind of that build-up where you have to be able to balance everything out and make sure you’re still doing well.”

According to Catrina Chan, a fourth-year psychology major, the publicity director for the Mental Health Conference and a former member of the Student Health and Wellness Committee of ASUCD, students’ unwillingness to acknowledge their stressinduced physical or mental health issues and seek out help derives from their lack of knowledge of the different services and resources that were specifically made to help students deal with stress.

“I think that it’s a lack of knowledge of all the resources that we have on campus,” Chan said. “Even I’ll admit, I’m in my fourth year now, and there were resources that I did not know about until Winter Quarter last year. We have the counseling center, the mind spa, the nap map, the hammocks in the quad and massage chairs in the Women’s Research Center.”

Maria Navarro, a third-year Chicano studies major, places societal norms at the root of the problem, saying that in today’s culture, admitting that you need to seek out help for any matter is heavily frowned upon.

“I think it has to do with societal norms and how we’re not really used to seeking out help,” Navarro said. “Growing up, we don’t realize that it’s okay to ask for help. Sometimes it takes so much to get to a certain point where you can feel comfortable doing so.”

Many would argue that we live in a culture that glorifies mental and physical health decay when it comes to academics. All too often, we see or hear students trying to outdo one another in terms of who has a heavier workload, who is more stressed out or who has had the least amount of sleep. According to Tyagi, this type of mentality has become ingrained into students’ minds to the point of normalization.

“I think there’s that notion of ‘If you study more, you’re a better student,’ which I don’t think should be the case,” Tyagi said. “I think it’s so in-built now that even someone like myself doesn’t realize when I do it.

It’s such a norm to [say] ‘I had two hours of sleep and I’m on my fifth cup of coffee right now.’”

This process of normalization starts early on in students’ academic careers and resonates with them through college, according to Shreya Deshpande, a second-year cognitive science and sociology double major and a staff member of the Mental Health Initiative.

“When students prepare for [the] college admissions process, it’s a competitive environment,” Deshpande said. “This competitive mentality carries through college and it translates into students thinking that the more work they do, the more they’re valued as a student, which causes them to make these sacrifices.

FINALS on 11

UAW on 11 REVIEWS FROM GOOGLE:

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BY SABRI N A HA BCH I campus@theaggie.org

2 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

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ASUCD TOWN HALL HOSTED AT CENTER FOR AFRICAN DIASPORA STUDENT SUCCESS Fear, anger expressed at first public forum since controversial election results

of the space for the meeting and apologizing for any perceived intrusion. She stated that the reason for the town hall being at CADSS was because the government wanted to better engage with communities face-to-face, “especially those who are most marginalized.”

“In my opinion, I think that we’ve done a terrible job,” Jamaludin said in regard to ASUCD’s student engagement.

The floor was opened up for questions shortly after the introduction of

each ASUCD representative. Attendance included outgoing ASUCD President Josh Dalavai and incoming President Michael Gofman and Vice President Shaniah Branson, as well as most senators and commission chairs. The intended structure of the meeting was to alternate between questions from those in attendance and questions that had been gathered online.

The floor opened with a member of CADSS speaking about how she felt ASUCD was encroaching on CADSS space. She noted that most members of the African diaspora in attendance were only there because ASUCD had come into their space while they were studying or otherwise utilizing the center.

The student stated the demographic was “still the minority in this space.”

Senator Gaven Kaur said she felt responsible for feelings of encroachment.

She mentioned that while she conversed with Dr. Kawami Evans, the Interim Associate Director of CADSS, about uti-

lizing the space, Kaur failed to contact the organizers of the community. The purpose, she said, of the town halls is to promote inclusivity, not make people feel isolated in their own spaces.

A question was then read from the online form, asking how commissions came to be within ASUCD. Gofman answered and said that commissions have been created throughout the timeline of ASUCD. He was cut off by Becca Nelson, the chair of the Gender and Sexuality Commission, who criticized Gofman for speaking about commissions when he had not attended any of her commissions’ meetings.

Another member of CADSS turned the topic to newly-elected Senator Jumoke Maraiyesa. Mention of Maraiyesa was met with cheers from the audience, and a question was asked concerning how those returning to Senate would be helping Maraiyesa achieve their goals.

Julienne Correa, chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, said

she had already begun working with Maraiyesa on stopping hate crimes on campus, mentioning that a task force was in the works to address such incidents and relay the information to university administrators. A few other senators also included that they had talked with Maraiyesa and looked forward to working with them on achieving their goals for the upcoming term.

A little while later, Maraiyesa joined the crowd, having left class to attend after being informed of their role in the discussion.

“None of you made any attempt to talk to me during my campaign,” Maraiyesa said. They later said they felt obligated to come to the event because they did not want people to put words in their mouth and wanted they and their community to be properly represented and respected by ASUCD. One senator responded that there

Media and replace the body with a singular marketing position.

Creative Media introduced Scott Stevenson, the current business relationship manager within Student Affairs Divisional Resources as well as a UC Davis alumnus, as the desired person to fill such a marketing position.

The pair brought up marketing issues within Creative Media as it stands now.

They also said the elimination of the committee would increase efficiency and transparency.

Park discussed inefficiency within the Technology, Internet and Networking Committee, another internal committee of ASUCD. He mentioned outdated technology Creative Media uses and said the situation is contradictory to the purpose of TINC which, according to

the ASUCD website, is “to recommend the allocation of computer and networking equipment within ASUCD, research methods to reduce costs of computer purchases, and prioritize all Networking and Internet related requests.”

Park made a plea to the Senate table to perform its job with the benefit of ASUCD and its units in mind.

“If you want to keep TINC, make it better,” Park said.

The table questioned Stevenson about his qualifications and the goals he would pursue in the marketing position. Stevenson already works in marketing within Student Affairs, worked in graphic design at The California Aggie during his time at UC Davis and expressed interest in developing sponsor partnerships by highlighting student accomplishments.

“The biggest asset we have as a university is you, the students,” Stevenson said.

Next, during discussion of old legislation, Senator Rahi Suryawanshi brought forward a Senate resolution regarding limited housing for graduate students.

Representatives from the Graduate Student Association and the association’s Housing Task Force spoke on behalf of the resolution they helped write.

The resolution, according to the ASUCD website, expresses, “solidarity on behalf of undergraduate students for graduate students and workers’ bargaining season.” The status of housing in Davis was described as a crisis, with high rent and low unit availability for students.

There was disagreement over whether to keep a line in the resolution which

pointed out how UCOP “wasted money on parties” and hid $175 million in funds. A vote determined the line would stay in the resolution and the authors defended its placement as money, stating they money could have been allocated toward affordable housing.

In a vote containing 10 yes’s and two abstentions, the resolution passed as amended.

Third-year electrical and computer engineering major Stacey Wong, the director of Experimental College, then delivered a report on the unit’s status. New classes on meditation and breathing are now offered, and the quarter’s projected income is $7,960 — last quarter’s income was $5,093.

TAYLOR LAPOINT / AGGIE FILE STUDENTS PACKED TOGETHER WITH ASUCD REPRESENTATIVES IN THE SMALL CADSS COMMON ROOM TO ASK QUESTIONS AND AIR COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION.

BY TAY LOR L A P OI NT campus@theaggie.org

The ASUCD Senate held a public town hall in the Center for African Diaspora Student Success on March 8, reinstating what is, according to the ASUCD Bylaws, supposed to be a quarterly gathering.

Outgoing ASUCD Vice President Adilla Jamaludin began the town hall by thanking the CADSS for allowing usage

BY EL I Z A BE T H M E R C A DO campus@theaggie.org

ASUCD Vice President Adilla Jamaludin called the weekly Senate meeting to order on the third floor of the Memorial Union in the Mee Room on Mar. 1 at 6:11 p.m. Senators Danny Halawi and Jesse Kullar were absent from the meeting and Senator Andreas Godderis arrived late to the meeting at 7:09 p.m.

Quorum was established.

The meeting began with public discussion. Alex Park, the director of Creative Media, and Sophie Maquiling, the marketing co-director of Creative Media and a third-year design and computer science double major, discussed the unit’s opinion regarding a bill to dissolve the marketing committee within Creative

Downtown Davis shows decline in alcohol-related incidents

JA MI E CH EN / AGGI E

March 1 “Female transient sitting just inside store by the carts — was banging her head on the ground at one point.”

“Group of five to six college-age subjects going between their vehicle and the bathroom — subjects have been at the park for the past 30 to 40 minutes.”

“Subject at the window is stalking the females.”

March 2 “Reporting party found $100 bill on the street in front of her workplace today — wanted to document in case anyone calls — reporting party will drop it off tonight after she gets off work — incident number given to reporting party to reference.”

March 3 “Female pulled up to reporting party at light and waved a metal rod and yelled ‘don’t mess with me.’”

March 4 “In plot of complex — two male subjects appeared passed out, both covered in vomit. Reporting party asked if they needed assistance and friends declined help.”

“Occurred over the weekend, door kicked in, but nothing appears to have been stolen from inside, but unknown if subject entered residence.”

March 5 “Reporting party and several other employees receiving vague threats via text message from recently fired employee.”

March 6 “Concern of a subject dressed up in a full clown costume sitting in a maroon Toyota Highlander in the handicap parking space at the bank for the last hour.”

SENATE on 12

CHANGE IN CLUB SCENE

Police Logs:

Stop “stalking the females”

TOWN HALL on 11

BY STE LLA TRAN city@theaggie.org

Downtown Davis has seen a significant decrease in alcohol-related incidents since the Entertainment Permit Ordinance was enacted in 2016 in response to a fatal stabbing at KetMoRee. Brett Lee, the mayor pro tempore of Davis, explained that the ordinance, along with other precautions, were implemented in order to make downtown Davis safer.

“It was because of the murder at KetMoRee,” Lee said. “Unfortunately, someone was stabbed to death there. Because of that, we wanted to increase the safety for folks, so we implemented a variety of measures.”

Paul Doroshov, the public information officer for the Davis Police Department, explained the extent of the ordinance and how it may have caused a decrease in alcohol-related incidents.

“The Entertainment Ordinance was implemented as one of the efforts the city has been making to crack down on safety in the downtown area surrounding specifically alcohol consumption and establishments,” Doroshov said. “I know there has been a decrease in alcohol-related calls since then.”

However, the ordinance comes with limitations, one of which included a requirement for nightclubs and bars to have a soft closure at 1 a.m. According to The Davis Enterprise, Tom Jobst, the owner of Froggy’s Bar, is against the ordinance, believing that there is no specific correlation between the limitations businesses now have and the lack of alcohol-related violence.

“The students at UC Davis are simply not the same students we were dealing with 20 years ago,” Jobst said in an article for Davis Enterprise. “Alcohol consumption was out of control, and that’s significantly changed. The way that people socialize is far different.”

Doroshov stated that there may be some correlation, but there are other factors that could also have contributed to this decline.

“I think the soft closure does help because a lot of times, fights and aggressive behavior break out right around that kind of hour,” Doroshov said. “I think the soft closure helps prevent that big, huge crowd on bar nights, which [also] prevents conflicts, [but] I can’t say the Entertainment Ordinance is responsible. I don’t know if any one thing is responsible — I think, if anything, it is probably a combination of serious efforts.”

Other efforts include different policing methods in downtown.

“We implemented more community-style policing where officers are around on foot engaging more that way instead of just responding when there is a fight,” Doroshov said. “We have more preventative policing, [and] we work closely with the downtown bars. We’ve made various efforts across the board to enhance safety altogether.”

Similarly, Lee emphasized that there is no direct causality between the ordinance and the decline in such violence.

“I think there is a correlation, [but] I don’t know if it’s causality because we did a fuller package of things,” Lee said. “For instance, there is better screening for people going in and out of bars, making sure they aren’t carrying weapons. The security guards who

work at bars now have a higher standard of training that they have to meet. There’s improved ratios so that there’s more security staff per number of people in the bars. I think those have had an effect.”

The soft closure requirement was only one of the tactics used to lessen alcohol-related crime.

“It seems to be an important component of what we implemented. However, it is part of a package as a part of an intervention,” Lee said.

Lee also acknowledged that some of the bar owners have expressed concern, as the soft closures are a disadvantage for their businesses.

“What we asked the police to do is to work with the bar owners,” Lee said. “Some of the bar owners seemed to have really improved the security for bar patrons. Many of the bars are not happy with the soft closure, feeling as though they are losing business. What we really want to do is to take a look and see if we can change that 1 a.m. soft closure and see if we can maintain a safe environment downtown while being more accommodating to the bar owners for those who are seriously taking the changes we are making.”

Nevertheless, Doroshov noted that there is still room for improvement.

“It’s a new ordinance, [and] I think it will need time and feedback to fine-tune it,” Doroshov said. “The ordinance is not always a one-size-fits-all, depending on bars and their venues — which have different requirements — so I think that keeping that in mind helps because not every establishment is the same.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018 | 3

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Second SDS administration meeting held; two administrators present

SCREENSHOT FROM SDS FACEBOOK

BY AA RO N L I SS campus@theaggie.org

On March 2, Students for a Democratic Society met with Sheri Atkinson, the interim associate vice chancellor, and Mayra Llamas, the interim executive director of the Community Resource Centers. Atkinson and Llamas were the only two administrators in attendance. Students at the meeting voiced disappointment over Chancellor Gary May and other administrators’ absences.

Amara Miller, the head steward of the UC Davis unit of the UC Student-Workers Union UAW 2865 unit and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology, moderated the meeting.

Students posted the same signs in the meeting room in Olson Hall that were shown at the first SDS administration meeting. Two of the signs stated: “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit” and “We are on stolen Patwin land.” Another sign said “Students over Profit,” with a link to the “Rollback, Redistribute, Restructure the U.C.” petiton and a fourth sign listed May and other administrator’s salaries — many of which exceed $400,000 annually.

Students and administrators at the meeting addressed the topics of coordinating meeting times for the future, reviewing student necessities and accessing timelines to correct student problems. SDS members encouraged further proactivity and initiative by administration, expressing that they do not want to be the only ones advocating for their success as students at a public university.

Students also discussed the problematic nature of UC Board of Regents meetings being held at UCSF — the only UC campus with no undergraduate students. Students centered their discussion on directing administration to advocate for future meetings at more convenient locations for undergraduates.

However, Atkinson told attendees that while she’s “happy to continue to have meetings, [...] having a continuous space set up like this [monthly] is not something that” both parties are in agreement of.

Thomas Jara, a second-year biotechnology major and a SDS member, was vocal at the meeting. Jara and others were under the impression that the meetings would be monthly. As students ran out of time at the one-hour meeting that day, they talked about how there are plenty of important issues to address at future meetings.

Connor Gorman, a fifth-year physics graduate student and a trustee on the statewide executive board of UAW 2865, outlined the current necessity for meetings until demands are met.

“It’s clear there’s material for quite a few meetings,” Gorman said. ”If, in like four years you actually address all the concerns and we were in a fully democratic university that prioritizes students and workers — and not admin and policing — then we can discuss not having regular meetings. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen for a while, and having regular meetings is a great way to get people to come.”

Sydney Lewis, a third-year English major and SDS member, talked about how students do not want this to be an echo

Discussion centered around student transportation to UC Regents meeting chamber of empty agreement.

According to Lewis, if they “funnel it into small action groups, then it’s going to be 10 students talking for everyone,” which Lewis said is what they are fighting against.

Miller outlined student necessities that were agreed upon at the previous SDS-administration meeting.

“Admin will let the whole student population know far in advance if and when tuition hikes are proposed,” Miller said. “I do want to note that Gary May did agree to this and did say yes to this demand. Admin also agreed to reach out to UCOP and inform them that Regents meeting scheduled on non-school days would be preferable, and live-streaming them, and that we shouldn’t have to go looking for those dates or locations. Admin did acknowledge this.

We haven’t yet received an email that this has been discussed with UCOP.” The agenda picked up where the last meeting’s agreements over student access to Regents meetings left off. Miller read off this agenda to attendees. UC administration has agreed to set up need-based transportation to the Regents meeting, and students who are interested must sign up using the UC Regents Meeting Registration Form Google Doc. “UC Davis will bus and house students for free to any UC Regents meeting provided that students stay the whole day and provide a written account of the experience,” Milller said. “UC Davis should be responsible for advertising this program that would allow students to attend the UC regents meetings and confirming transportation to March 14 and 15 Regents meetings. Admin will advocate for these needs to legislators and show actual support for students and workers in a public way. This includes advocating to UCOP for salaries made equitable across UC workers, including impoloring them to reduce salary of chancellors to prevent another Katehi-level event [and] working with city government to establish rent control.”

According to Miller, administration has done some work to start conversations around food and housing insecurity, but could do more.

“Admin did commit to provide more affordable housing, but didn’t commit to a certain price, saying they would follow the market,” Miller said. ”They were willing to explore affordable and free food options, they are currently working on increasing availability of fruits and vegetables. Discounts including lowering prices at MU and Silo, increasing community gardening space and enhanced communication about food availability.”

Regarding re-evaluating the militarization of the UC Davis Police Department, Miller mentioned vagueness from the administration in the face of these demands at the last meeting and read off their language verbatim. “‘The police are looking at the way cops are being trained — no information has been given yet about exactly what that training is or the ways UC admin is looking into that,” Miller said. “The ‘are you opposed to lethal force’ question — it’s unclear what the answer actually is.”

Atkinson did not reply to the demilitarization demand. She did mention that three

task forces have been set up following the last meeting on the issues of mental health, food insecurity and affordable housing. According to Atkinson, the task forces have already been chaired and that, “If you want to send follow-up feedback, you can contact those people.”

One student asked about student input on the task forces. Atkinson said a number of students were appointed to each task force, but did not have any specific names or other information about the process of that choosing.

Students in the meeting mentioned how the March 14 and 15 UC Regents meeting is scheduled for week 10 of Winter Quarter.

The meeting is also located at the UCSF campus, creating a geographic barrier for UC Davis students. According to SDS, UC administration needs to advocate for accessible meeting times and locations with greater student input.

SDS member and first-year sociology major Aj Ballesteros called for more student control of the UC Regents’ meetings times and locations.

“The upcoming Regents meetings is in week 10 — that’s literally a week before finals,” Ballesteros said. “Also, the fact that it’s in the other half of the state makes it inaccessible to us distance-wise. If we don’t go, it’s because we aren’t able.”

The UC Regents are set to consider a tuition hike at the March meeting. Jara stated that it is imperative for as many students to go to the meeting as possible because tuition hikes increase food and housing insecurity, especially for those already suffering financially.

Fourth-year psychology and Spanish double major Becca Nelson talked about how, with limited spaces available for free transportation, students who need free transportation must be prioritized.

Atkinson was interested to hear input on how the administration should select students to go if not all students who want to go are able to. Nelson urged Atkinson to ask May to send out an all-student email to inform students who may be unaware that the university is providing access to Regents meetings.

“Sounds like folks are interested in centering the centers and marginalized communities,” Atkinson said. “I want to make sure we’re on the same page for what that [outreach] email would include.”

Students talked about advocating to the centers that support marginalized communities and having students from the Cross Cultural Center go, especially in light of funding cuts to the CCC. Ballesteros talked about prioritizing students of color and students from disadvantaged socioeconomic statuses for free UC transportation and housing, because tuition hikes “disproportionately affect people from those groups.”

Nelson talked about not wanting to make people self-select their labels and identities and mentioned an open space for free-form answers. Some students found issue in having to “prove your worthiness” in explaining their marginalization, and that certain students within certain marginalized groups should be prioritized without explaining any experience.

SDS on 12

MORGA N T IEU / AG GIE F IL E

City Planning Commission meets to discuss cannabis dispensaries Four cannabis dispensaries set to open later this year

BY AHASH FR ANCI S city@theaggie.org

On Feb. 28, the City Planning Commission met to discuss the cannabis dispensary permit applications, continuing the Conditional Use Permit process, which will end with up to four cannabis dispensaries opening in downtown Davis later this year. The applications were all submitted before Oct. 13 last year and have been under review since then. During the meeting, as part of the application process, the commission heard presentations from each of the 12 applicants and received public testimony from residents and local business owners regarding the prospective dispensaries.

“Overall, I’m very pleased with the process and the applicant pool,” said Darryl Rutherford, a member of the City Planning Commission, via email. “I believe that City leaders, staff, and commissioners have learned a lot about this industry as well as a very complicated law that guides the structure of our City’s ordinance. There are a lot of questions that come to my mind: If we allow them downtown, how will they impact the limited parking we already have? Will businesses that are an all-cash business and have so much of and variety of cannabis products have a negative impact on the health and safety of our community?”

Both Manna Roots and Good People Farms dispensaries had workers or applicants who said that introducing the vendors to the downtown economy would bring more customers from around the city to the downtown marketplace.

The CUP applicants argued that opening the dispensaries would lead to higher foot traffic patterns throughout downtown. The applicants also pointed out that residents in Davis already use delivery services to bring cannabis into the city, yet the city receives no tax revenue from these purchases. If the city were to allow the four dispensaries to open up in town, they would be able to tax and profit off of them.

Many of the applicants and owners are from Davis, and all 12 claim to be looking to integrate into and benefit the downtown market and Davis as a whole.

“Our project supports the City’s stated goals in their Downtown Plan to ‘create a diverse and eco-

nomically-resilient downtown and encourage local entrepreneurship,’” said Mary Kay Hoal, an applicant for the Good People Farms Dispensary. “We appreciate the City’s thoughtful approach [...] In addition to helping to revitalize downtown, we will provide a larger economic impact on Davis residents, businesses and well-deserving Davis organizations. The Good People Farms is committed to investing in its hometown.”

But there are still other members of the community who are averse to dispensaries opening up downtown.

During the public testimony, business owners and residents alike expressed concern about the increased traffic the dispensaries might bring in. Many had other qualms with the cannabis industry spreading into Davis, some mentioning the odor that might result from users smoking downtown or the potentially impacted parking space. A few residents have even mentioned concerns regarding “unsavory clientele” — as said by Mark Blake, the owner of Blake’s Heating and Air, in an article for The Davis Enterprise — that the dispensaries might attract.

“We’re all quiet, low-volume neighbors,” said Stacia Rusakowicz, the owner of Pomegranate Salon, which is located next to a cannabis distributor. “But we’re looking at these businesses having about 200 people a day visit them. This is a pilot program — given the issues that plague downtown Davis already, every potential impact of retail cannabis sales needs to be carefully considered.”

The applications for each of the conditional use permit dispensaries are posted on the City of Davis website, which allows residents to look up who will be owning each dispensary and where each vendor can potentially open them. The Planning Commission will continue to provide comments to the applicants before they submit their recommendations to the council.

The City Council will then decide which four of the 13 applicants who have applied — one of the 12 businesses has two proposed locations — will be permitted to open their doors downtown on June 12, 2018. Customers over the age of 21 will then be able to purchase from these stores and consume marijuana in their own homes and locally allowed spaces.

4 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

G E N E S I A T I N G / AG G I E FI LE

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Gun control debate in wake of Parkland, Fla., shooting Importance of paying attention, how to stay safe on campus

BY G R AC E SI M M O NS features@theaggie.org

On Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., 17 were killed in what was pronounced the second worst school shooting in U.S. history. The New York Times reports that over 400 individuals have been killed in over 200 school shootings since Sandy Hook in 2012.

In the wake of the shooting, a national conversation and movement has ignited, known as the “we call BS” movement led by the students from Douglas High School. This is proving to be a pivotal point in the gun control discussion because unlike previous debates following mass shootings that have fizzled out, this one has stayed strong.

Regardless of one’s stance on gun ownership and control legislation, there are tactics used by all parties to advance their agendas.

“Both parties use framing strategies,” said Sam Collitt, a political science graduate student. “Mental health is a frame used by Republican politicians, gun advocates or owners that is used to focus attention on that rather than gun control, in the sense that who can own or purchase. By shifting the debate to mental health it limits the amount of attention that gun control issues get.”

Collitt also noted that this is true in reverse for liberal views, which tend to lean toward stricter gun laws.

“Given the news cycle speed, if you’re able to divert attention from gun control, for as long as the public is paying attention to it you create less de-

mand for gun control legislation, the status quo is easier to maintain,” Collitt said.

“It makes it easier to preserve status quo in Florida in talking about mental health,” Collitt said.

“Whereas in California, it is easier to preserve the status quo in talking about gun control because it is more restrictive. It is much harder to change status quo than it is to preserve it.”

NBC reported that on Mar. 7, Florida’s House of Representatives passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, which raises the age to purchase a firearm to 21, puts a three-day waiting period on obtaining a gun, prohibits bump stocks and implements mental health programs in schools to impede gun use by mentally unstable individuals.

Following Florida, The New York Times reported that California will expanding its gun control policy already in place, which prohibits the purchase of a handgun by peopleunder the age of 21 and is widening to include longer guns.

California already has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. It is illegal to purchase or possess military grade assault weapons; the state bans firearms with “detachable high-capacity ammunition magazines” and magazines are limited to 10 rounds. There is also a “gun violence restraining order” which allows police or family to temporarily remove firearms from a potentially unstable individual.

In an interview in the Los Angeles Daily News, Garen Wintemute, the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis, said, “a gun

Unpacking the parking issue Students upset with parking inconvenience, TAPS input AL E XA FO N TA N I L L A / AGGI E

BY SAHI T I V EM UL A features@theaggie.org

Student parking spaces, or lack thereof, have been an issue of contention in recent years at UC Davis. Students who drive to campus from their off-campus housing and those who commute from neighboring cities such as Woodland have voiced their complaints of a lack of parking spaces, and some are concerned that this will be exacerbated by an expanding student body.

Clifford Contreras, the director of the Transportation and Parking Services on campus, shared some statistics on various facets of the issue and offered explanations of some of the questions students have had regarding the rationale behind permits and their prices. The total inventory of C permit spaces available throughout regular business hours on campus is 7,502. If the L permit spaces are included as well, then the total comes to 8,529. However, these spaces are not exclusive to the C permit. In the first number presented, A/C/Visitor share the spaces, and in the additional 1,027, A/C/L/Visitor permits share the space.

“The reason we put A there is because As can park in any C spot,” Contreras said. “They typically park in every A spot that’s available [and] they usually don’t park in C spots, but because they can, we put that letter there. Every C permit [space] is also available to anybody that buys a daily permit. We can’t separate that out because we know how many dailies are sold, but we don’t know how long they’re there.”

The revenue gained from selling parking permits and parking citations is used to run TAPS, an entirely self-supported entity. As Contreras expressed, TAPS must generate an independent source of revenue in order to maintain operations and pay for the construction and maintenance of facilities, since it is not a university-funded program.

During the 2016-2017 school year, 29,300 parking citations were issued and 9,844 citations were appealed, with 65.6 percent of the appeals being granted. Citations that seem to fall under the arbitrary notion of a “simple parking violation” category have a decent chance of being forgiven.

However, citations are not appealed for rationales such as lack of space to park in a valid C permit area.

According to the numbers, there are enough spaces for all C permits. 5,254 variations of C permits were sold during the Fall 2017 and there are 7,502 C permit parking spaces available, meaning there was no numerical requirement to cap the number of permits sold.

“We do quarterly utilization surveys, including the summer,” Contreras said. “We count every vehicle in every parking space, and we do it three times

a day, three days within a week, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. We keep track of what those utilization numbers are, and if they’re starting to get over 90 percent, we start thinking that we might have to do something as it relates to building additional facilities. In the 31 years that I’ve been here, we’ve never capped the number of permits that we sell because we’ve always had a sufficient number of spaces” As Contreras suggested, although there are enough physical spaces in total throughout campus for C permits, student unrest typically surrounds the idea that people are no longer able to park where they used to, in part due to a greater campus population. The main hotspots for students are the Quad and Pavillion parking structures, which aren’t able to meet the high student demand. Contreras and other officers have noticed that students will stay double parked in their cars, for instance in the Quad structure, waiting for a space that they can occupy as people may clear spaces during class breaks.

“They stay in the car, and they’ll sit there listening to the radio or doing their homework and the car is turned on, unfortunately, so you got emissions going into the air,” Contreras said.

The main source of contention, according to Contreras, is that students prefer to park in the “hotspot” areas close to classes, such as the main parking structures, but those two areas simply cannot meet student demands. Students who want drive to campus must be prepared to park in less convenient locations that may be farther away from their classes.

“What happens is this lodged complaint that there isn’t enough parking to accommodate [student] needs, which isn’t really true, because our statistics bare out that there is,” Contreras said. “It’s just not where they want it to be — it’s further away.”

Jyotsna Natarajan, a third-year genetics and genomics major, shared her experiences with driving to campus.

“I’ve been driving for a year and a half or so, and definitely I’ve realized you have to come before a certain time and it depends on if you’re going to [the] Pavillion Structure or the Quad Structure,” Natarajan said. “I have a mental timetable. If I drive to campus, I won’t move my car after 9 a.m. or before 4 p.m., [otherwise] I won’t get parking once again.”

Mounika Bhaskara, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, voiced similar frustrations with her campus parking experiences, especially since she commutes from her home near Folsom — a 45-minute commute without traffic.

“Campus parking sucks, to put it in one sentence,” Bhaskara said. “I have such a hard time finding parking every single day because I commute from home now. It’s honestly a competition, because there are so many cars trying to take one spot. It’s so unfair because right next to it, you see the A park-

violence restraining order could have made the difference [in Florida].” Wintemute was unavailable for an interview with The Aggie at this time.

These proposed gun control legislations directly impact the safety of U.S. citizens, especially for students on school campuses.

“Anytime a major incident like this happens, police and law enforcement always want to try and make sure we’re prepared and we’re doing the best we can,” said UC Davis police officer Ray Holguin.

The UC Davis campus is unique in that it has its own police department right on campus offering services such as 24/7 campus patrol, Aggie Safe Ride and WarnMe. “WarnMe is our mass notification system, anybody who has a UC Davis email, faculty, staff or students, can sign up for it and we highly encourage it,” Holguin said. “This will send out a mass notification whether it be an active incident where a gun is involved, or just a chemical spill.”

In addition to this, the UC Davis Police Department is committed to proactive efforts in ensuring campus safety.

“One thing we really push, we have a simple saying here at the university. ‘If you see something say something,’” Holguin said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a crime or not, if something to you doesn’t look right or feel right, always give us a call so we can come and check it out and assess the situation. We highly recommend this, we want people to feel safe to call us no matter what.”

The UC Davis Police Department also conducts an Active Shooter Survival Workshop to educate faculty, students and staff on how to stay safe in the event of a firearm-related emergency.

“We really want to emphasize the mindset that if something like this does happen on campus what can we do, what should we do,” Holguin said. “We just had one on Mar. 1, right after the incident, and what we teach in that is homeland security has what they call ‘run hide or fight,’ and that’s what we focus on.”

These hour-and-a-half classes are held on campus six times yearly and aim to prepare the UC Davis community in the event of an active incident.

“Now with more and more incidents happening, more and more faculty, staff and students are saying ‘we need this training,’” Holguin said. “We have seen an increase in demand for the training.”

In the wake of the Florida shooting, many campuses are initiating new protocols, but UC Davis is ahead of the game with its current procedures that have been in place and practice for years.

“We are reinforcing protocols already set in place.

However, our management is always looking to work with the EOC, which is the emergency service center here on campus,” Holguin said. “We’re always working together and collaborating and making sure the information we are giving out is still the best and most up to date.”

In addition to campus safety resources, students have many options for getting involved and staying informed on this issue of gun violence.

“There are quite a lot of ways to get involved,” said Eric Medina, a third-year public service major and member of Davis College Democrats, J Street and Students for Justice in Palestine. “There is the Davis Political Review, they write on this issue without taking a stance. Then there are Davis College Democrats and Davis College Republicans who do [take stances on issues].”

ing, which is absolutely empty. Sometimes I’ve had to either risk parking in the A permit to go for my midterm, or luckily, if I have quarters, I put them in the meter. I’ve gotten tickets because sometimes you have to park in the A and just go.”

As a commuter, Bhaskara has no other option but to drive to campus. She cannot utilize services such as Unitrans that Davis resident students can. She expressed that this issue has significantly affected her stress levels, and she has found it to be a systemic reason for her self-acknowledged parking violations.

She would like to see certain changes made, such as a change in the ratio of A to C permit spaces, along with a potential dynamic display of the number of spots available in a given lot, so that students can save time from circling around the lot looking for availability. “[The parking issue] is important because it causes so much of an inconvenience,” Bhaskara said. “You get delayed for everything. If it’s midterms, what am I going to do? It’s not like I can just leave my car somewhere, and parking tickets are expensive, who wants to risk that? I think physically the space needs to be expanded, because we are a huge campus and you can’t expect somebody to park in one [area] and walk all the way across. We should open up some of the A parking to C parking. Particular places like the arboretum […] there’s two huge A parking [lots] right across from each other and there’s one tiny C parking there, and it’s always full. We obviously have a lot more students than faculty.”

TAPS has launched some initiatives in order to address student concerns such as those voiced by Bhaskara and Natarajan. One such initiative that has been in place since this Fall 2017 is the stacked parking service available in Lots 25, 47 and the Quad Structure. This service has increased the number of parking available in each of the lots by approximately 20 percent.

Out of the 304 additional spaces cumulatively created by stacked parking in the three Lots, 236 spaces are currently being utilized by students, with the most underused spaces being in Lot 25 east of the ARC. The outside vendors that provide this service are insured, and they are professionals, meaning that risk for students handing their keys to them should be relatively low.

“It’s an expensive service that we outsource,” Contreras said. “We contract out to an outside vendor [...] but right now, if we didn’t have it, there’d be almost three hundred people that wouldnt be able to find a place to park sort of in the immediate area, and we felt it’s important to be able to accommodate their access needs.”

However, counterbalancing the notion of increasing campus parking space is the UC campus-wide initiative stipulated in the UC Policy on sustainable practices.

The initiative states that “By 2025, each location shall strive to reduce its percentage of employees and students commuting by SOV [single occupancy vehicles] by 10% relative to its 2015 SOV commute rates.”

With this, and the fact the UC Davis is the most sustainable campus in the world, there is an inherent contradiction to increasing parking space. But nonetheless, there is still immediate student necessity to address. To walk that tightrope, TAPS has been working with Alta Planning and Design, an outside consulting firm that is supposed to help their Trans-

portation and Demand Management program.

“They’re helping us put together a suite of options that expand our existing TDM program that says we need to create an incentive that encourages and rewards people who choose an alternative to driving alone,” Contreras said. “Right now we provide subsidies to people for taking the train. But maybe that isn’t enough [...] maybe we ought to reduce the cost of carpools to even lower rates so that more people choose to carpool.”

When TAPS started this program 30 years ago, it decided to base the permit prices on access, meaning those with the greatest access to the parking inventory would be paying the highest prices. In this case, the most expensive would be A permit, and next would be C. However, this doesn’t take into account the convenience factor. A permit spaces are rarely full, whereas C permit spaces are rarely empty. C permits often have to find spaces farther from their most desired location, and they don’t have the flexibility of leaving campus and returning without running the risk of losing an option to park again.

“Now people are saying we ought to consider a different approach to pricing,” Contreras said.

“That’s what we’re working with Alta on. One of the approaches they want us to consider is the convenience factor.”

Currently, TAPS is working on a three-year plan that is meant to address these issues and set into motion the potential changes, such as building new parking facilities and pricing to accommodate generating that revenue. This plan should be ready to share with the campus by the end of this fiscal year.

“I know it’s not just me, because everybody complains about parking all the time,” Bhaskara said. “I feel like that’s something that the campus needs to address before they try to make other changes.”

Klan said. “Since we were able to move from the Student Health and Wellness Center to the MU, the numbers for the people who have attended have increased a ton. It really makes a difference in terms of actually getting food accessible to students where it’s really centered on campus. The Aggie Compass is something new coming to campus that will help students apply to CalFresh, in addition to accessing all sorts of other resources, and will hold an expanded Fruit and Veggie Up! program.”

The Pantry and Fruit and Veggie Up! are among the several campus food resources offered to students (more information on all food-related resources offered can be found on the Aggie Food Connection website), but students do see room for improvement. Rosa Martinez, a fourth-year human development major and unit director and manager for The Pantry, stresses that food insecurity is a pressing issue facing many UC Davis students and should not be left on the back burner by the school’s administration board.

“Food, housing and basic needs must be a priority to the administration on this campus,” Martinez said. “No student can focus on their academics if they are worried about where their next meal comes from. EBT on our campus has the potential to expand to all stores on campus. [...] Food sold on campus is overpriced and attributes to food insecurity.

If the UC system wants to combat food insecurity among other issues, then they need to stop giving students an ultimatum between attending a university and their livelihood and wellbeing.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018 | 5

If you’re achy and you know it, wait at home.

Urgent care made easier.

When you don’t feel well, it’s a good day to see a doctor—but that doesn’t mean you should spend any more time than necessary in a waiting room. Dignity Health Medical Foundation’s East Woodland Urgent Care Center makes the process easier with our InQuicker Online Waiting Service.™ Simply visit dhmf.org/woodland/urgentcare, select a projected arrival time, then wait at home—or wherever you’re most comfortable.

East Woodland Clinic Urgent Care Services 2081 Bronze Star Drive Woodland, CA 95776 In the Costco Shopping Center 530.668.2600

If your primary care doctor can’t squeeze you in for a same-day appointment, come to our Urgent Care Center for treatment of non-emergency conditions such as flus, colds, sore throats, rashes, earaches, headaches, abdominal pain and more.

To learn more or schedule your projected arrival time, visit dhmf.org/woodland/ urgentcare.

Medical services provided by Woodland Clinic Medical Group, a Medical Corporation

6 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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

editorial board

Pay your interns Unpaid internships minimize diversity, detract from workplace

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

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

For graduating seniors looking for a full-time jobs and continuing students applying to a summer programs, the phrase “unpaid internship” is all too familiar. And while the idea of gaining hands-on professional experience may sound enticing, accepting an unpaid position is a luxury many students cannot afford.

In addition to basic costs like food and travel, many summer programs require students to relocate and find and pay for temporary housing. Students are expected to fund such costs of living while working jobs with little or no compensation. For many, this is an impossible task. Many students, especially those of low-income backgrounds, simply do not have the means to work without pay.

The result of such exclusionary employment is simple: Students with less money are restricted in their opportunities to gain work experience — and ultimately, in entering the job market.

In January of this year, the United States Department of Labor issued new guidelines as to how unpaid internships are defined and issued. The new standards require that the work of interns complement rather than replace the work done by paid employees and that interns be trained in an “educational” manner rather than an instructional one. These new standards are bundled under a “primary ben-

eficiary test,” which lists the requirements employers must pass before hiring an unpaid intern. Many have argued that these new guidelines make it easier for programs to hire interns without pay.

Students applying to full-time, paid positions after graduation are only eligible if they have prior work experience — say, the kind of experience acquired during an unpaid internship. But according to a 2017 report by the nonprofit group Pay Our Interns, low-income students and people of color are less likely to successfully enter a job market after graduation because they lack prior experience.

The report further describes unpaid internships as “a blight marring the face of the American job market.”

Preventing a diversity of students from applying to such positions only furthers a homogenous workforce. The diversity of its constituents — whether in terms of background or experience — is the driving force behind improvement and ingenuity. Asking students to perform work at the level of a professional without pay is not only questionably unethical, but also damaging to the future job market.

This spring, while college students apply for those sought-after internship programs that put their classroom knowledge to the test, remember that such positions come with a price — or rather, for none at all.

“The Big Sick”: Films with minorities don’t get a pass KUMAIL NANJIANI AND EMILY V. GORDON’S FILM REAFFIRMS THAT DETAILS MATTER

BY SA M VA R D H I N I S R I D H A R A N smsridharan@ucdavis.edu

After years of #OscarsSoWhite and in the throes of the #MeToo movement, it wasn’t surprising when the Academy of Motion Pictures nominated a diverse group of actors, producers and directors in 2017.

A persistent and vocal public has begun to shape the course of film, and movies must tell a variety of stories, to which people all over the country can relate. There’s still a lot of progress to be made, but this year’s lineup was far better than those of years past.

While Asian Americans have been nominated for the coveted Oscar trophy, few have won in a major category. Until recently, Asian Americans played mostly technical roles in film. Admittedly, as a South Asian, there’s still a small thrill when movies about other brown people come to the Hollywood big screen — even if they fall flat most of the time. But “The Big Sick” looked different. Produced by Judd Apatow and starring Ray Romano and Holly Hunter, the movie had a strong comedic backbone. If anything, viewers would be guaranteed a laugh.

The plotline of the semi-autobiographical movie follows the tropes of most romantic comedies. Kumail Nanjiani (played by Kumail Nanjiani), an aspiring comedian, is heckled by graduate student Emily Gardner (played by Zoe Kazan) at one of his shows. Soon, they fall in love. Behind the scenes, Nanjiani’s parents, Sharmeen and Azbat (played by veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher), are trying to arrange his marriage to a Pakistani woman. Nanjiani can’t tell his parents about Emily, and Emily soon finds out about the arranged marriage, causing their acrimonious break-up. Soon thereafter, Emily is hospitalized and put into a medically-induced coma. Kumail comes face-to-face with the Gardners at the hospital, who know all about his evasiveness and lies and aren’t happy. Nanjiani is persistent, wins over the Gardners and finally wins over Emily, too.

The plotline isn’t anything revolutionary, save for the aspect of an interracial couple. And “The Big Sick” didn’t make a lot of money for that reason — it could easily be something for Netflix or Amazon Prime. But for those who decided to spend money on a ticket, the contributing factor was the film’s promotional tours. The claim was that the movie was going to show Muslims as “normal people.” It’s important to remember “The Big Sick” was released during the travel ban — and such a message was more than welcome. Cinema can really influence people’s opinions, and in a political environment that is so contentious, it’s wonderful to see actors and producers try to chip away at prejudice. Showing Muslims as “normal people” was a theme present throughout all of Nanjiani’s day-time talk show appearances and various other outlets. If the movie was going to do that, then it was only fair to spend money and support it.

But despite the hype, “The Big Sick” failed in several ways. It was more the underlying tone than explicit comedy that diluted its power.

The main point of contention with this film is that brown women in cinema are not props at which to be laughed. All the women who came to visit the Nanjiani family were portrayed as weird and awkward and given the personality of a shoe. In contrast to this, every single white female had a character arc, even the minor ones. Not only were they portrayed as cool and funny, but they were also promoted as “desirable” in some way. Was the audience supposed to laugh when brown woman after brown woman was rejected because Kumail couldn’t be honest with his parents? Were they supposed to laugh when those women were so unbearably awkward? You do not

need to embarrass brown women to raise a white woman, who is doing just fine in terms of audience likeability.

Emily held privilege over all the women who visited Kumail — at least she was given a chance. This juxtaposition illustrates why it’s so difficult to make a film that shows color: The audience suddenly becomes innately aware of their race. Kumail had so much disdain for the Pakistani women — one must wonder if it’d make other brown women feel that they need to be white to be desirable. Colorism and shade-ism are trends that need to go, and this film certainly didn’t help their exit.

The issue Emily’s film parents had with Kumail had nothing to do with him being a Pakistani Muslim — it was because he wasn’t straightforward. His parents’ expectations, on the other hand, were so racially inclined that it made them look backward; Emily was white, and therefore she was off limits. His mother saying the one thing she wanted was for him “to be a good Muslim and marry a Pakistani girl” could have been something he experienced in real life, but put next to the white family who were “progressive,” it didn’t come off well. It’s upsetting that Nanjiani and Gordon decided to make race a recurring point of conflict, but not from the family the audience expected.

As wonderful as it is that stories about interracial marriage and blending families are being produced, these films are only launched if there is a white protagonist involved. Usually the person of color must battle the world to be with them because they are just so worth it. And “The Big Sick” played into that cliché exactly: Emily didn’t even try to understand Kumail’s culture. Mainly, arranged marriages aren’t what they used to be, especially for immigrant families in the United States. In fact, many South Asians would view the Nanjiani family as broad-minded for giving him choices and chances and second chances. Unfortunately, the film used American culture as a benchmark to assess progressiveness, and that’s not fair.

When a film about people of color is released for a primarily white audience, it should portray people of color in the best possible light.

As a society, we haven’t reached the point where minorities can discuss their issues — it shades the majority perspective. For many Americans

— as crazy as this sounds — “The Big Sick” was the first time they had ever seen a Pakistani family or an interracial couple. South Asians would prefer to see themselves on screen reflective of the way they are in real life. Of course, “The Big Sick” did not use banal stereotyping, but are subtle stereotypes any better?

Moreover, the movie promised to further political dialogue with Nanjiani’s claim that it showed Muslims as “normal people.” But “The Big Sick” didn’t do that. There was one normal Muslim in the entire film, and that was him. His family surely wasn’t normal. Whatever the audience saw of them was confrontational and difficult. Moreover, viewers were able to see the Gardners accept Kumail, but the same could not be said of his Muslim family (when in real life they were welcoming).

We know that many “traditional” American families have large hearts and broad minds — but the same cannot be said of Muslims and South Asians in films. If showing Muslims as “normal people” is as easy as not portraying them as terrorists, that’s an awfully low standard.

I suspect that part of the hesitancy to point these things out is an emerging fear to criticize people of color. That fear stops dialogue — it screeches it to a halt. No one should feel obligated to like or agree with someone because of their race, gender or sexual orientation. To do so would distill the power of all parties involved. More importantly, when a film is made to provide social commentary, even if it wasn’t the main purpose, the rest of the world can, and must, weigh in. Dialogue and dissent shouldn’t shut down just because the party at the other end is a minority; it’s almost as bad as silencing them for their opinions.

Writing this, it’s clear that the alternative to movies like “The Big Sick” are those that show South Asians as caricatures. And while there’s a lot of progress to be made with showing minorities on the big screen, what has been achieved through this film is momentum. Now, South Asian actors have bankability, and movies about them aren’t just for South Asian audiences anymore. However, viewers must not settle.

Now that the ball is rolling, it is imperative that films about minorities become more nuanced.

It’s not just exposure to different cultures that matters — it’s about getting the details right. To get them wrong is arguably as bad as failing to discuss them at all.

ALLYSON KO / AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

GUEST

Unitrans 50 years ago PRESIDENT OF ASUCD FROM 1966 TO 1967 SHARES THE STORY OF UNITRANS’ CONCEPTION

BY BOB BL AC K

In the fall of 1965, I had just returned to UC Davis for the beginning of my second year. I was 18. One September night, in 100 Hunt Hall, I heard the journalist Robert Scheer speak about the history behind the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Already skeptical about the war that was behind the drafting of several of my high school friends — the ones who didn’t go to college — I made a deeply personal commitment to help stop the war and bring our troops home.

So in the spring of 1966, I was putting together a platform for a long-shot bid to become ASUCD President. I had heard that the administration at UC Santa Barbara was running buses between Isla Vista and the campus. Since Davis had high concentrations of student housing on Sycamore, Anderson, F. Street and J., I thought a bus service was something that could work in Davis. And I thought ASUCD should run the service.

I ran for office as an anti-Vietnam-War candidate, certainly not as a let’s-have-a-bus-system candidate. In May 1966, I was elected. Soon I joined 99 other student-body presidents from across the country in signing a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the U.S. to begin the process of extracting itself from Vietnam. Although we could take out an ad, probably few of us could vote, since being 21 was a requirement.

Still, we could try to undermine the prevailing in loco parentis — in place of our parents — model of university-student relations.

In June, I met with Ed Spafford, one of Chancellor Emil Mrak’s closest advisors, and told him that ASUCD was interested in buying a couple of busses. We wanted the administration to approve the purchase and agree to maintain the equipment.

Ed Spafford was a savvy guy and he offered this: The campus would allow two of its existing small fleet of busses to be used for a trial run.

This was okay with me as long as it didn’t undermine the plan for ASUCD to run the trial, and eventually the system, if it came to pass.

Spafford agreed.

We ran the trial over several weeks in the fall of 1966. We totaled up the ridership. Since we had no data to measure the results against, we declared the trial a success. Then we began to plan for the service that eventually became Unitrans. In Spring 1967, at the end of my term, Rich Klecker, the incoming ASUCD Vice President, took the baton and, with Tom Maddux, the first student manager, made it happen.

Today, Unitrans carries 4 million riders a year. Without it, Davis would be very different in terms of congestion, fuel consumption, pollution and acres devoted to parking.

How do we view all of this? It’s tempting to see Unitrans through a private-sector lens, like a kind of a startup company: inspiration, concept, test-marketing, branding (How brilliant was it that the first two busses were London double-deckers? Not my idea, by the way.), business plan, seed money, going live, strategic partnerships.

It’s tempting, but that description misses the mark because it mischaracterizes the motivation at work. And it takes the inception of Unitrans out of its true historical context.

Let’s look at what was happening in the world at large around the time of Unitrans first ran on Feb. 28, 1968: First and foremost, our friends and contemporaries were being drafted, killed, wounded, lost and traumatized in a war that made no sense; But if you were 18, 19 or 20, you were not allowed to vote; Phase one of the TET offensive, which exposed the disinformation about U.S. progress in the war, was just coming to conclusion around Feb. 28; Senator Eugene McCarthy had mobilized a peace army, mainly young, mainly students, to accomplish the seemingly impossible task

of deposing the incumbent President at the ballot box; On Mar. 12, McCarthy took 42 percent of the vote in New Hampshire; Robert Kennedy joined the race a few days later; on Mar. 31, Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the race for president; On Apr. 4, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was in the process of becoming a leading voice against the war, was assassinated. On June 5, Robert Kennedy, the only electable anti-war candidate, was killed in a hotel kitchen in Los Angeles.

Richard Nixon would win. The war would drag on for six more years. Tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters were cut down, as well as more than a million Vietnamese in their own country.

We, the young, the students, the draftees, wanted a say, wanted a voice and wanted the vote. And to get those tools, we were willing to show — had to show — that we could build stuff and run things — things like Unitrans, the CoHo, the Experimental College, an FM KDVS and a daily Cal Aggie.

The 26th Amendment, declaring the right to vote at the age of 18, took effect on Jan. 1, 1972. On Apr. 11 of that year, I was privileged to be elected to the Davis City Council. At the time, public transit was on the radar in Washington and Sacramento. The City partnered with ASUCD in pursuing legislation that would allow municipal transportation funds to be passed through to Unitrans.

Again, around 1980, I was lucky to be representing Davis on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors at the inception of YoloBus, another great partner of Unitrans.

Dozens of people joined their volunteer efforts together to make Unitrans a reality. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have built it out and continue to do so. Their contributions were and continue to be profoundly communitarian. And, as they have been to me, these contributions were profoundly rewarding to all who made them.

Bob Black was the ASUCD president from 1966 to 1967.

HUMOR English major realizes everything can be a phallic symbol if you think hard enough 8=====D (WHAT DOES IT MEAN?)

BY AARON L EVI N S adlevins@ucdavis.edu

Now let’s just think for a minute. What is a penis?

This is not a rhetorical question. Seriously, what is a penis? What do you use it for? Is it a kind of trout? Perhaps a writing utensil? An eating utensil? Please write your answer to the following email because I’m too scared to ask Mommy for the truth: adlevins@ucdavis.edu.

Anyway, today we are gonna talk about phallic symbols, which, as

we all surely know, is a fancy way of saying that something that’s not a dick does, in fact, look like a dick. What kinds of things am I talking about, you ask? What? You’ve never seen a dick? Hah. Things like pencils, crayons, spaceships, bananas, zucchinis, solar eclipses, the extreme tippy top of Mt. Everest, the sword that Beowulf holds in the 2007 movie adaption “Beowulf ” that Angelina Jolie (who is Grendel’s Mama) is stroking and then melts, and it’s kind of uncomfortable (no doubt compounded by the fact that Ray Winstone is playing Beowulf and also that everything inexplicably looks

super CGI and did not age well).

ANYWAY, another indication that something is a phallic symbol is if any given English professor arbitrarily decides it is a phallic symbol. This could be anything: your Dad’s bald head, or perhaps your 2012 Subaru Impreza, even a slice of Hawaiian pizza. Anything can be a phallic symbol if you so choose to pretend it is. Think about it.

Is this saying that phallic symbols make me roll my eyes because of how overused they are? Oh certainly not! I like dicks!

(Mom, I’m sorry I wrote this article).

I thought I would never find my passion at UC Davis. And I was right.

FUNNY HOW LIFE DOESN’T SURPRISE YOU AT ALL AND HAPPENS EXACTLY HOW YOU IMAGINED IT

BY L ARA LOPT M A N lrloptman@ucdavis.edu

If you have seen the movie “Lady Bird,” then you have probably heard of UC Davis. This ag school just west of Sacramento is home to many attractions, but student passion is not one of them.

Much like the protagonist of “Lady Bird,” Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson, I too am angsty, love telling lies to gain popularity and have a strong aversion to UC Davis. The only real difference between myself and Lady Bird is that she figured out that Davis is a barren wasteland far before I could even dream of reaching such an accurate conclusion.

In my time at UC Davis, I definitely thought somewhere along the way I’d find out what my passion is. Instead, UC Davis has tricked me into believing that true passion is taking four midterms in a single week, every week, for 10 weeks. While this may sound

like a very impressive and cool passion to have, it’s only one of my many passions, and it’s not really my true passion.

I have searched far and wide at UC Davis for my true passion during my four years here.

At one point, I thought I had found my passion at the CoHo, but then I remembered that there’s, like, never any Pamplemousse La Croix there whenever I look for it, so I knew that my passion wasn’t located there.

I tried taking classes that interested me, but it turns out that nothing interests me because all I care about is La Croix and making “Lady Bird” references.

Then, one day, when I least expected it, it all finally clicked. Just when I thought I would never find my passion at UC Davis and that all that searching was for nothing, I realized, yeah, I was totally right.

Funny how life can just surprise you like that. But it’s even more

Lucas College and Graduate School of Business

funny how life doesn’t surprise you at all and happens exactly how you imagined it.

After four years of naïvely believing I would never be able to find something at UC Davis that truly interests me, it’s crazy to me how incredibly accurate my beliefs turned out to be, but even crazier how I am not actually surprised at all and am just trying to sound humble on paper.

In the end, my impeccable guesstimation skills have once again earned me the reward of accurately predicting yet another character flaw of UC Davis. I guess that’s why people call me the Lady Bird of the West (of Sacramento).

“Lady Bird” references aside, discovering that my passion does not exist at UC Davis has been a real journey. I didn’t learn anything about myself along the way, and if I could do it all again, I absolutely would never. In fact, I would just skip going to college altogether and invent La Croix instead.

Attention Accounting Majors!

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DISC L A I M ER: The views a n d o p i n i o n s ex p re ss e d by i n d i vidual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The Cal i for n ia Ag g ie. Le t te rs to t he e d i to r can be addre ss e d to opin ion @ th e aggie.org.

ISSUE DESIGNED BY AMY YE | CHRISTIE NEO | CINDY CHEUNG |JONATHAN CHEN | PATTIE CHEN | SHEREEN NIKZAD | LILY LEAVESSEUR | GENESIA TING | NICKI PADAR

8 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

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SCIENCE+TECH BIOLOGY POP / COMMONS

Is the end of the pandemic era approaching?

Global Virome Project aims to find majority of all unknown viruses

BY R AC HEL PAUL science@theaggie.org

An increasing collection of government agencies and scientific research centers are collaborating on a project, called the Global Virome Project, to find a majority of all viruses that exist in mammals in the next 10 years. By having information about viruses that may “spill over” from wildlife populations and infect humans, the world would be more prepared to deal with and end pandemics.

“I’m really excited by the idea that we can bring about, I think, the beginning of the end of the Pandemic Era,” said Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance. “People talk about this time as a period when pandemics just happen every few years. I think we’ll see an end to that.”

Together with the UC Davis One Health Institute, EcoHealth alliance is one of the multiple partners of the Global Virome Project and has previously worked with UC Davis and internationally affiliated organizations on the PREDICT project, which also sought to find viruses. Established by the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2009, PREDICT works to increase surveillance and detection of emerging viral threats.

Working in 28 countries, PREDICT determines the risk of a virus outbreak in an area based off a number of factors that include how humans interact with the animals in that area, what viruses

NICKI PADAR / AGGIE FILE

Improv-ing your communication skills Storytelling, improvisation come together to help scientists engage with audience

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

Communication issues occur in day-to-day life, and a recent science communication workshop tackled these issues. Participants included faculty, students, staff from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and, an actor known for his role on “M*A*S*H,” Alan Alda himself.

The primary focus of the workshop was to use storytelling and improv to improve the effectiveness of scientists’ communication with the public, who usually do not have the same level of expertise and knowledge that a researcher does.

“Most of the time, we think people know what we’re talking about,” said Kat Kerlin, an environmental sciences news and media relations specialist for the Office of Strategic Communications. “And a lot of the time they don’t. You have to be really careful about that when you’re trying to get across a message.”

The workshop lasted three days and featured a variety of activities, including recorded mock interviews, emotional storytelling and nonverbal mimicking.

“It might be my most amazing three days of work that I’ve spent,” said Carson Jeffres, the field and lab director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. “A lot of it is based on improv, so a lot of the instructors are actors. If you’re telling a story, one of the ways that people remember your story is making some sort of emotional connection.”

the animals are carrying and more. It then builds laboratories that can discover viruses and works with researchers to determine if the newly found viruses pose a threat to animal and human health.

The Global Virome Project is more focused on just finding viruses, but used PREDICT to show this method of detecting and discovering viruses is possible on a large scale.

“The Global Virome Project will collect a wealth of information about viruses, their host species and related ecological data, which will enable us to change our current approach to emerging infectious diseases from chasing after the last outbreak to proactively preparing for the next pandemic,” said Eri Togami, a public health veterinarian based at the UC Davis One Health Institute.

By finding benign or harmful viruses that already exist in animals, scientists would have a greater head start on developing counter measures in case the viruses turn out to be dangerous to humans.

“The main contrast from the Global Virome project and PREDICT is, PREDICT isn’t out there to discover all of the viruses in mammalian species [...] for PREDICT, it’s more real time, in the here and now, where are the areas where more resources need to be better developed to improve surveillance and detection where we think are at or are the highest risk... for a potential new threat to emerge and cause, like the equivalent of a 1918 influenza [pandemic],” said David Wolking, the

Getting people to pay attention is the first step and keeping that interest with an emotional connection and story is the next. However, another hurdle is walking through the complexity of the research.

“The point isn’t to dumb it down, it’s to simplify it,” Jeffres said. “When you have a simple message, it’s often clearer, and that’s really important. You don’t want to sound condescending by dumbing it down, but you do need to simplify it because we do speak a different language, even amongst the scientists. [...] People will listen if you’re interested and excited about the subject as well, so being able to convey your enthusiasm along with an understandable vernacular will help tell that story.”

Kerlin added that stripping out scientific jargon and explaining research through straightforward and relatable metaphors are some of the most helpful ways to simplify the information. Continuously talking to people who have limited knowledge of the research allows a scientist to practice their explanations. Sharing pictures of the work or the researcher in the field also keeps people interested.

Actively seeking ways to help citizens understand science and helping them learn to trust the researcher’s work is one of the driving forces for Ann Willis, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Willis created a program called Scientists for Public Engagement and Knowledge, which focuses on expanding scientists’ toolkits in expressing their work to the public in an engaging way.

“It was the morning that the news headlines were about President Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris Accords,” Willis said. “I just thought, enough. We can no longer sit on the sidelines. Scientists can no longer feel insecure about talking about what we do and what we say, because what we do is critically important. It literally saves people’s lives, and decisions like that will endanger people. We have a responsibility as professionals.”

Some UC Davis researchers have noted that because of their academic style of speaking, citizens see them as more cold and robotic rather than another human being who has interests and passions.

One of the main points of the workshop was to remind scientists how important a personal connection is to the citizen.

“So much of [the workshop] wasn’t about, ‘how COMMUNICATION on 12

senior global operations lead for PREDICT. Although viruses from virtually any mammal can pass to humans, the groups that researchers are most concerned with are rodents, bats and non-human primates. Many of these animals live close to human populations and carry viruses that pose a risk to people.

“But I think that the big picture is, it’s not just the animal, it’s what we do with the animal. So if bats have viruses and we don’t go out and hunt bats and kill them [...] we’re not going to catch the viruses,” Daszak said. “That’s the real problem, our relationship with nature, we’re connected so closely and they’re so many of us on the planet now, eating so many things in remote areas so we’re getting exposed to these viruses that are a natural part of an animal’s life [...] When they [viruses] get into us, they become lethal diseases.”

Deforestation, hunting new animals and globalization have all been hypothesized as factors that increase the risk of pandemics. All of these forces are man-made.

“Humans are really the force behind pandemics,” Daszak said. “It’s unfortunate, we all get very shocked and surprised when a new disease emerges and starts to kill people. What we don’t realize it’s us that’s driven that process.”

An algorithm that is used to estimate animals in a population has estimated that there are 1.7 million unknown viruses. Based off the 28 countries PREDICT has worked in, Daszak believes the Global Virome Project can find 71 percent of those viruses in 10 years with a budget of $1.2 million.

The Global Virome Project has been likened to the Human Genome Project, which sequenced the entire set of human DNA. This led to many advances in gene therapies as well as gene sequencing techniques. A few of the researchers have expressed hope that the Global Virome Project will go down a similar path, that in time technology for detecting viruses and their potential to harm humans will become better and more readily available. Aside from the task of identifying most viruses that are currently unknown to science, the Global Virome Project is also developing infrastructure and training scientists across the world.

“The Global Virome Project is not just a big science project — it is a capacity building project and a global partnership,” Togami said. “In the long-term, we want to bring people together, especially between sectors that did not have the opportunity to work to with each other before. This collaborative approach will build a lasting effect to help us prepare and respond to viral threats in the future.”

MORGAN TIEU / AGGIE FILE

How Prenatal Stress Impacts Postnatal Environment New research shows that prenatal stress promotes developmental plasticity

BY KR I TI VAR GHESE science@theaggie.org

Research by experts at UC Davis, through the behavior of prairie voles, challenges earlier beliefs that prenatal stress is the sole factor in children’s health and development. This research shows that, contrary to popular belief, the negative impact of prenatal stress can be reduced by the postnatal environment.

“Pluess and Belsky originated the idea that prenatal stress may increase developmental plasticity [or] increased sensitivity to the environment,” said Sarah Hartman, a postdoctoral scholar working with Jay Belsky, a professor of human development, and Karen Bales, a professor in the Department of Psychology. “Although there is some work in humans that support this idea, the studies do not answer the question if prenatal stress actually causes increased developmental plasticity like an experiment would.

Furthermore, in human research, the quality of the prenatal environment is often predictive of the early postnatal environment. For example, a mother stressed during pregnancy by situations like an unstable relationship or financial difficulty will likely experience the same challenges following birth.

Therefore, it is difficult to tell, in human studies, the effects of the prenatal environment separate from the postnatal ones.”

To combat this issue, the research team conducted experiments in Bales’ lab on 78 prairie voles because they have unique, human-like emotional capabilities.

Pregnant mothers were either put into environments that induced prenatal stress or served as the control.

The prairie voles in the prenatal stress condition experienced one social stressor per day during the last week of pregnancy and the the voles in the control STRESS on 12

SHUJIA WANG / COURTESY

Computer science professor named one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” in science Zhou Yu recognized for work with multimodal analysis in AI

BY MAT T MAR CUR E science@theaggie.org

Assistant Professor Zhou Yu of the Department of Computer Science was named one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” in the field of science for 2018.

Holding a doctorate from the Language Technology Institute from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as undergraduate degrees in computer science and English, Yu’s research is interested in the intersection of language and machine learning. Beyond receiving the accolade, Yu is excited about the possibilities it will bring her.

“It is very hard for me to get exposure to the general public, not only in my academic community,” Yu said. “So it opens up different opportunities for me to collaborate with other people so they can hear about my research.”

She develops intelligent interactive systems that are able to meaningfully communicate beyond simple commands. Unlike personal assistants like Apple’s Siri, which operates on a natural language interface, where linguistic data like verbs and claus-

es function as controls, Yu works with multimodal analyses of language for her machine-learning work. This means that data is not only being pulled from linguistic information, but also from spatial and visual cues. In other words, multimodal analysis looks at the meta features of language, such as nonverbal communication, to create a more sophisticated chatbot. Equipped with all this data, these multimodal chatbots are able to do more than communicate.

“My work is very interdisciplinary within the AI field itself, and it also has a wide application field,” Yu said. “Having worked on different applications for example, I collaborated with Educational Testing Service to work on automatic systems that could help people to improve their language conversational abilities, like learning English.”

She also collaborated with researchers from the University of Southern California during her Ph.D. on an interactive chatbot that could give a prediction if the interlocutor with the AI had depression FORBES on 12

THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018 | 9

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Sudoku

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

Chess

This week’s puzzle is difficult and there won’t be an answer posted as next week is finals so let this be a final puzzle. Black to move and mate in 5. Major hints: start with a queen check, force the king to move with double checks and finally a smother mate.

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS CHESS ANSWERS Had an alternate if the the king moves to ka3 the knight will mate just the same.

1. b3+ Ka5

2. Nc4#

For this week’s sudoku, crossword and chess answers, email editor@theaggie.org

The California Aggie is seeking 15 daring and creative artists to modify 15 of our newly repainted newspaper stands! You will be using recycled bicycle parts donated by the Bike Barn to create whimsical and engaging art pieces that maintain the full functionality of a working newspaper distribution stand.

Artist inquiries and design submissions accepted through:

April 12th, 2018

Completed projects done by:

May 21st, 2018

CA AGGIE

News You

Can Use Pick it up Every Thur sday

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10 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

ARTS & Culture ZOË R EIN HA R DT / AGGIE

Review: “It’s Bugged”

Art to give you butterflies in your stomach

BY CARO L I N E RUT T E N arts@theaggie.org

The phrase often goes that “art is all around us.” If one counts a bug as a medium or representation of art, then there are 10 quintillion individual examples and 30 to 40 million species of such art. That’s a lot of art.

“It Bugged: Insects’ Role in Design,” an art and design installation, is currently on display in the UC Davis Design Museum, located in Cruess Hall. The exhibit features work from the JoAnn C. Stabb Design Collection, insect specimens from the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology and original work from faculty and students — all of which incorporate bugs either in design or in the production of raw materials.

Placed all around the small exhibit are

various insect specimens (in glass cases, don’t worry), not only adding a sense of context and scientific legitimacy to the exhibit but also placing these bugs as art themselves. Without having to face the potential of being stung or touched by one of these insects, their bodies, wings, legs and antennae become fascinating to study. Their colors are bold, their bodies and legs oddly shaped. Inspecting such bodily details and comparing them side by side with other bugs took up the vast majority of my time in the exhibit.

By emphasizing the physical bug as a piece of art, the stage is set for a grander appreciation — if they themselves are spectacular, what they produce is even more so. Ann Savageau’s stand-out piece of the exhibit was her “Wasp Trilogy,” which utilized paper made of hornets’ nests. Each piece of her trilogy layers the wasp

paper to create an intricate swirling design with an open space in the center. One could speculate that such open space is the central nature of bugs in our ecosystem and the various ways they take form and importance.

Savageau also had “Totems” located in the back of the exhibit. While credit is due to the artist for her embellishment and paint work, the main attractions of the piece — the etchings “carved” on the large tree branches — are made naturally by the larvae of beetles in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. No two totem poles looked the same, each etching with a different thickness or line shape.

In addition to celebrating the natural beauty that bugs produce, it should be noted how humans utilize their talents. The process of extracting silk from silk bugs was emphasized in the exhibit, as well as the significant role bugs have in the creation of red dye. Indeed, bugs produce carminic acid as a defence mechanism, which can also act as a natural red dye.

Two silk Asian robes and a bright red “Peruvian Highland Textile” display demonstrate the end product of using these two raw, bug-made materials, respectively. Bugs then become a part of our creative process, a necessary means in the beauty that we create.

This exhibit illustrates the centrality of bugs in our society. Even the sheer number of bugs that share the Earth with us puts into perspective how great in quantity they are needed for a functioning ecosystem. Moreover, through our interactions with them, they have gained a place in our modern society: from the functional use of fabric development to the natural beauty that they help produce, they hold a pinnacle role. While these roles can be overlooked and all too often taken advantage of, “It’s Bugged” makes one appreciate our small insect friends and the beauty they add to our experience. No if, ands or bugs about it.

The installation is open until April 22 and is free of charge. More information can be found on the UC Davis Arts Administrative Group’s website.

J ESSE ST ESHEN KO / AG GIE

Cafe Culture: Delta of Venus

Davis cafe boasts down-to-earth atmosphere

BY I SAAC FLOR ES arts@theaggie.org

With spring break just around the corner, many students are looking for cool spots to hang out together during the brief but sweet interim between Winter and Spring Quarters.

Brightly colored, homely and eccentric, the downtown Davis cafe, known as Delta of Venus, is perfect for getting work done, hanging out with friends or spending afternoons preparing for the coming quarter’s coursework. The venue boasts indoor seating as well as an outdoor patio.

“It’s really lovely in the springtime,” said fourth-year studio art major Diane Molandes. “Especially when you can sit outside with some iced tea.”

Prince candles, vases and votive figurines line shelves amid hanging collections of art and photography. Overseeing the soft clamor of the cafe with a loving eye is a neoclassical-style painting of a fullfigured Venus.

Other Venus-like figures, faintly reminiscent of the Venus of Willendorf, adorn walls while baristas pour steamed milk into cups of

and his work in an exhibit called “Equivalencies: Abandoned Bodies.” An entrance fee of $10 seems a small price to pay for a thought-provoking experience.

AL LYS O N KO / AG G I E

Uncover museum gems Art to fill your week of spring break

BY CEC I L I A M O RA L E S arts@theaggie.org

If you’re not recovering from finals stress by relaxing in Hawaii or partying in Cabo this spring break, join the club. For those staying local this break (or for those looking to plan future Saturday outings during the quarter), the following is a list of museum destinations in the area. As you wait for Spring Quarter to arrive, spend a day or two exploring the broader world of Bay Area art.

Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco According to its website, “MoAD offers programs that showcase the art, history, and cultural richness of the African Diaspora. Our goal is to explore and celebrate the beliefs, practices, traditions, and customs connected to these movements.” Starting March 28, three new exhibitions will be on display. Along with “Digitalia” and “After the Thrill is Gone,” MoAD’s emerging artists program will focus on Andrew Wilson

San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose SJMA showcases modern and contemporary art.

Some of the exhibitions and collections being featured during break include paintings by Raimonds Staprans, works by The Propeller Group (ending on March 25), “Show Your Work: Art and Math,” and “Crossroads: American Scene Prints from Thomas Hart Benton to Grant Wood.” With a college ID, tickets are $6. Visit SJMA’s website for hours and more information.

UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley BAMPFA hosts a multitude of events differing every day from gallery talks, lectures and discussions to art labs (drop-in art making) and workshops to readings by poets and other writers. Take a look at the online calendar to see which days are of most interest to you. Saturdays and Sundays have the most events lined up every week.

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento The Crocker Art Museum was one of the first art museums established in the United States. Most notably on display right now (through May 13) is “Power Up,” which features pop art by famous nun, printmaker and activist Corita Kent. The museum is also showcasing

UC Davis alumnus releases debut EP

CAFE CULTURE on 11

“Hopes Springing High” and “Faith Ringgold: An American Artist,” which are in recognition of Black History Month. College students pay $8 for admission or can get in for free the third Sunday of every month. Other nearby museums can be found on the Sacramento Area Museums website.

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Through its collections, exhibitions and programs, the Asian Arts Museum aims to “inspire new ways of thinking by connecting diverse communities to historical and contemporary Asian art” The exhibitions currently on view include artist Fu Shen’s paintings and calligraphy, “When Pictures Speak: The Written Word in Japanese Art,” “Ascend” and “Collected Letters” by Liu Jianhua.

Students pay $10 instead of $15.

Mexican Museum, San Francisco Although garnering recent controversy for a majority of its oldest artifacts turning out to be inauthentic, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco still boasts an authentic contemporary collection. Currently the museum resides in Fort Mason, and its only exhibit on view right now is one dedicated to the works of Fernando Reyes.

However, in 2019, the Mexican Museum will move into a new $86 million home. The Fernando Reyes galleries will end on March 15, so check out the museum’s website MUSEUMS on 11

DEL IL A H T W ERSKY / COU RT ESY

Nate Hernandez is Kisos

BY JOSH M A D RI D arts@theaggie.org

UC Davis alumnus Nate Hernandez, known by his stage name Kisos, released his debut EP, “Voices,” on Feb. 16. He also started a public relations firm that represents those who identify as queer, people of color or both. Currently residing in New York, Hernandez talked about his new music and his journey that led to his big release.

Prior to his time here at UC Davis, Hernandez had no experience singing live in front of an audience. Opportunities presented to him in college helped to bring out his inner performer — with full confidence.

“I never sang in front of people, but then as I went through college, I started to get a little less shy, and my girlfriend thought I should try joining an a cappella group,” Hernandez said. “That was my first experience with music at UC Davis.”

Hernandez mentioned that although he had a girlfriend in college, he now proudly identifies as a queer gay man.

He had his fair share of embarrassing moments that are enshrined on the internet.

“We performed on stage on Picnic Day, and I hope they’ve hidden those videos from YouTube because let me just say, it was a windy day, I was nervous and my throat was dry,” Hernandez said. “You could probably find them if you try, but I hope you don’t.”

Living in New York has never been an easy task. Hernandez willingly slept in a hammock in a living room. Turns out the price of admission is a kink in your neck from the lack of a mattress.

“My boyfriend at the time, whom I’m still really good friends with, saw the idea on Reddit to put a hammock in the living room to save $300 on rent,” Hernandez said. “I turned it into a bit of a studio by putting up a curtain [...] I could survive on a lot less money than I thought.”

However, the seeds of his hard work have started to sprout. Hernandez collaborated with another artist named Demoda in New York, which gave him some attention and recognition.

“That was something that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been in New York,” Hernandez said. “Someone I knew at the company I was working at ran an indie music blog, and then he started an indie music label and marketing

company. DeModa was one of his first artists, and he reached out to me because I was releasing more original pieces as well as covers. He asked me if I was interested in writing the lyrics to his track. At first, I didn’t know if it is really my thing, but then I wrote some stuff and I really liked it. That was something that opened a lot of doors for me.”

He was willing to share the inspiration behind the title of his EP, “Voices.”

“I know it’s a bit basic, but there are so many voices in your head all the time,” Hernandez said via email.

“Your own voices, voices from friends and family giving their opinions, voices from society speaking up when they should shut their mouth, voices from random self help gurus or writers/philosophers that mess with your mind and make you feel like you aren’t living right. This album is rising above the cacophony, and only focusing

on your own voice and what you choose to value.”

He described his music as being introspective, vulnerable and rebellious. He further explained what he meant by “rebellious.”

“Being yourself is rebellious because everything in society is literally telling you not to be yourself,” Hernandez said. “Every marketing message for everything is saying you’re doing something wrong.”

Hernandez also shared the secret origin of his stage name.

“I ended up getting the K-I from the first two initials of my elementary school, and the S-O-S is the first three letters of my area code (707),” Hernandez said.

“At the time, I didn’t like it as much, but now I love it.”

His conscious lyrics bring realness to the human HERNANDEZ on 12

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public employees in the U.S. and this is something that is aimed right at them in an attempt, more or less, to kick them out of the middle class. In most places, being a lecturer is a horrible job: it’s low pay, lots of work and no job security. Our union has managed to win for us livable pay, relative job security and all sorts of protections that other people lack. If they kill our union, that stuff will all eventually go away and eventually this job will become a very bad job.”

Rundin mentioned another reason why the union relies on fair-share fees in order to function, which has to do with temporary lecturers. There are a significant amount of lecturers on campus “here for just a quarter or two quarters” and it can take a while before the union has “a good list of who the lecturers on campus are.”

“If [the Supreme Court] decides that non-members don’t have to pay fees, we need to have people informed about how important the union is,” Rundin said. “If you talk about permanent lecturers here, lecturers who are career lecturers here, like me,

tend to be members at really high rates. But, [for] lecturers who are here for a quarter or two quarters or maybe a year, [the rate] is much lower because they never even had a chance to hear from us. There is a big portion of our population that consists of lecturers who might not even be aware the union exists and therefore haven’t joined. Right away, if you’re [just] talking about those people, that’s a big chunk of our revenue that we would lose immediately [if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Janus].”

According to a flyer given out by UC-AFT members at the rally, better working conditions and the continuation of livable pay for lecturers impacts not just them, but also students: “[lecturers] support students by holding office hours, mentoring and advising, writing letters of recommendation for internships, jobs, and graduate school, nominating students for awards.” Their slogan is “lecturers’ teaching conditions are students’ learning conditions.” According to another flyer, the union will be holding workshops throughout March in support of union activity.

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row and eighth time ever that the Aggies have been home to one of the league’s top freshmen; she joins her current teammates Nafekh and Bertsch in that honor.

For the second consecutive year, the Aggies’ first place standing clinched an automatic berth into the Women’s National Invitational Tournament

— making this year the sixth time in 11 Division I seasons that the women’s team has made it into the postseason. The performance of the women’s basketball team lead the seven members of the sports desk to unanimously select them as the standout team of Winter Quarter.

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“Talking about self care, calling out the unhealthiness of a lack of sleep and keeping conversation positive is one way to get folks to realize the importance of putting your health first,” Deshpande said.

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were 22 candidates in the election, so it was hard to meet everyone before the results came in. This statement was met with a groan from the audience.

Maraiyesa also mentioned during their emotional speech that there was a rumor that law enforcement would be in attendance at the town hall. This statement was met with shock and anger from the audience, with members of CADSS specifically outraged.

One student in attendance asked how anyone could think it was a good idea to bring law enforcement into CADSS, knowing the strained relationship between the black community and law enforcement.

Dalavai interjected to clear up the confusion; he said that Aggie Host Security offered services to ASUCD after hearing rumors of a student protest unrelated to the town hall gathering. He said that this was not the first time such an offer had been made from law enforcement, and that each time Aggie Host asked if security was needed at an ASUCD gathering, their offer had been declined.

The elections results, which have been a source of controversy since their announcement, were also brought up. Kelechi Ohiri, a fourth-year sociology major and one of the student assistants to the chancellor, asked to address the “elephant in the room.”

Ohiri asked for Gofman and Branson to clarify their platforms, their commitments to campus communities, and their steps to action items that Ohiri believed were not clear to many of those outside of ASUCD. Gofman and Branson reiterated their platforms and talked about their commitments to increasing transparency, ending housing and food insecurity and bridging the gap between the four-year student experience and the transfer student experience.

Branson said that she recognized that the election has caused a lot of controversy, and said that students are right to feel that way. She also said that

uate student and other union members’ paychecks allocated to paying rent, many are left without sufficient funds to pay for food, health care and other life necessities.

“Our membership has been reporting that most pay over 50 percent of their income on rent, with many paying more than 75 percent and some paying literally 100 percent of their income just for rent, while being forced to take out loans just to afford food and other necessary living expenses,” Miller said.

CAFE CULTURE

FINALS Deshpande believes that while it may be difficult to completely eliminate this toxic mentality from students’ minds, there are steps that can be taken to help prevent students from succumbing to it.

careers by graduate students and lecturers.

“Graduate students are responsible for nearly half of all instructional hours at the UC system and are often the main point of contact between students and faculty,” Miller said.

Although student-workers are committing to achieving all of their demands, Miller in particular is concerned about ensuring affordable housing for students, an issue for undergraduate and graduate students alike. With a significant portion of grad-

allegations that Gofman is racist are “not something we stand for.”

Other criticisms of Gofman included his relationships with the Davis College Republicans and Aggies for Israel. Gofman refuted these criticisms, saying his personal political views have nothing to do with his capacity to act as ASUCD’s new president. Gofman encouraged people who wanted to have a conversation to come to his office so he could begin reaching out to communities.

“I am not the best advocate for any of your communities,” Gofman said. “But I want to make sure that the people who are are given the proper resources.”

A student in attendance countered Gofman’s point by saying that is not the responsibility of campus communities to come to Gofman, but his responsibility to reach out to the communities and initiate these conversations. Gofman took the contact information of a few students who wanted to talk.

Nelson criticized Gofman’s relationship with his agricultural fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho. She levelled claims against the fraternity concerning sexual assault, rape and racism.

“I don’t feel safe sitting at the same table as you,” Nelson said to Gofman.

Russell Thomas, a third-year gender, sexuality, and women’s studies and American studies double major, asked for Gofman and Nelson to publicly denounce white supremacy, gay and trans oppression, ableism and Zionism, among other ideologies.

Gofman said that he refused to denounce Zionism, saying he that as a member of the Jewish community he does not wish to denounce a historically-oppressed group’s movement.

Gofman and Branson agreed to denounce the other listed ideologies with nods and quiet affirmations.

espresso. The sense of an easygoing and friendly community is abundant in this space.

“I have been coming here for eight years, since 2010. I like the atmosphere insofar as the people that come here,” said hydrology Ph.D. student Gugu Zikalala. “This is one of the few places I’ve been where people actually want to connect.”

Hip, urban and laid-back without being overtly hipster, the eclectic collections of art — ranging from photography to collage to sculpture — give the cafe a very open and accepting atmosphere. Plus, the unique architectural layout of the shop maximizes the sense of homeliness of the space.

Overall, Delta of Venus boasts a down-to-earth and poignant feel, and the coffee was good to boot.

“There is the daytime vibe, which makes it very quiet and an amazing place to sit outside and work,” said hydrology Ph.D. student Katie Markovich. “The nighttime aspect is that Delta actually has a pretty thriving social scene around it. It is a community hub. The food is awesome, too.”

Although Davis isn’t a big city with lots of coffee options, it does have its quaint charms. With its comfortable atmosphere and well-priced beverages, undergraduate students may really enjoy Delta of Venus as a place to get work done and hang out with their peers.

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for updates on a new exhibition.

Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma SVMA’s mission is simple: “Building Community through Art.” For those into contemporary art, the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art has recently moved into “modern and contemporary work, bringing a new perspective to the area.” Current exhibitions on display through April 15 are “An Eye for Adventure: Photographs by Jack London” and “Libros de Artista: Artist’s Books from Mexico and the Mexican Diaspora.” With ID, college students pay $7 for entry. di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa Another financially friendly option is the di Rosa museum, located in Napa. For $5, it has two galleries on view dedicated to the exhibition “Be Not Still: Living in Uncertain Times,” with different artists featured in each gallery. In pictures, the museum itself seems like an art piece. The metal building contrasts with the green foliage all around it and the body of water in front.

The Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco The MCD is “devoted exclusively to modern and contemporary craft and design” and “showcases designers, makers and artists through an exciting and distinctive series of craft and design-focused exhibitions and public programs.” Available to experience until May 20 are the exhibitions titled “Tom Loeser: Please Please Please” and “t.w.five.”

With ID, students get $2 off general admission price.

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, Novato A free option, the Marin MOCA is hosting “Nathan Oliveria: The Figure Over Time” until April 22.

The following are all quirkier museums and more focused on a single object as opposed to traditional concepts of art.

Pacific Pinball Museum, Alameda With a collection of over 90 playable pinball machines, the Pacific Pinball Museum’s mission statement is “to teach science, art and history through pinball, and to preserve and promote this important part of American culture.” It is located in Alameda and admission is $20 with no discounts for students. However, the entrance fee gives you access to play on all the machines. It also allows you to come in and out of the building throughout the day in case you need a break from all that pinball playing.

American Bookbinders Museum, San Francisco In North America, San Francisco is the place to be if you are at all interested in the exploration of bookbinding and bookbinders. The American Bookbinders Museum hosts daily tours at 11 a.m and another round at 2 p.m. for $15. The museum brings up a good point on its website that might make you more curious about what it has to offer: “In the age of digital media our relationship with the book is evolving, making this the ideal time to tell the history of this object and memorialize its significance in regards to where we are today.”

Western Railway Museum, Suisun City For $10, you can learn all about electric railways and even take a ride in some vintage cars.

Starting on April 4, there is a limited time 11-mile scenic ride available that takes passengers through the vibrant green California countryside brought on by winter rain. Visit the museum’s website for more information.

Yamato—The Drummers of Japan Chousensha

These taiko masters put on a spectacular visual performance, combining riveting musicianship and high-energy movement with evocatively designed costumes and a remarkable assortment of wadaiko drums.

SUN, MAR 18 • 3PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $12.50

Zurich Chamber Orchestra The orchestra pays tribute to Yehudi Menuhin, one of the great violinists of the 20th century, with Daniel Hope as music director and violin soloist.

MON, MAR 19 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $22.50

John Cleese

Live on Stage plus a Screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A not-to-be-missed experience for fans of this comedy legend and his cult classic film!

WED, MAR 28 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $63.50

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Chick Corea One of the finest jazz ensembles in the world is joined by Grammy winner Chick Corea.

WED, MAR 21 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $13.50

UC Davis students:

• Your first ticket is FREE! • 50% off all tickets, everyday Restrictions apply. See mondaviarts.org/uc-davis-students for details.

12 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

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SDS

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Nelson said instead of asking about a student’s socioeconomic status, it might work to ask the student if they believe they are financially secure enough to not need university transportation.

At the first SDS-administration meeting attended by May, requirements for attending the Regents meeting were set forth, including documentation, having students take notes and keeping a list of students in attendance. Lewis said these requirements are condescending and that administration was asking for unnecessary proof that students went to the meeting. Lewis proposed a sign-in sheet and Atkinson said that was open for discussion.

“I understand wanting documentation — that students actually went to the [Regents] meeting, but what was proposed at the last meeting was more like a homework assignment,” Lewis said. “It seemed a little excessive.”

In reference to how May talked about students returning to campus with a “write up,” Jara proposed that students returning from Regents meetings could conduct a public forum at UC Davis to relay information to others who weren’t able

to attend. Jara wants administration to focus more directly on student outreach — ‘‘I really want to stress emails,” they said.

According to Ballesteros, “an email isn’t enough.”

“It should be done, but I wanted to see it taken further,” Ballesteros said. “I think there should be awareness campaigns of what the Regents are and how they’re making decisions that affect us and we have no control over that.”

Kelechi Ohiri, a third-year organizational studies major and a student assistant to the chancellor, questioned the positionality of students in the room.

“My question is: who are we centering when are doing this advocacy?” Ohiri asked. ”As the [...] only black woman in this room — and no disrespect to anybody, but I’m just being honest — I wonder, when we talk about these things in rooms where folks most directly affected by these problems are not present, we at least speak that and name that.

I’m very aware of positionality.”

According to Jara, the meeting was ultimately ineffective. Jara acknowledged the university’s willingness to bus students to Regents

meetings at UCLA and UCSF but said that it is nonsensical for Regents meetings deciding on undergraduate and graduate policies to be held at UCSF, a campus without undergraduates.

“The real question is [whether] the administration will continue to work with us or give us just another town hall and no action after,” Jara said. “Students should be included in the process of the university — not just consulted from time to time.”

While Atkinson publicized new task forces, Jara believes that mental health care and food and housing security should be a right given to students automatically, not something that task forces must be created for.

“We wanted [all] the admin [present] and all we got was Sheri in a small room which is a repeated process of admin.,” Jara said via email. “Also, the task forces made by the admin only do so much (their job is to send a report not necessarily an action) and the task forces will split up the Students. Also it seems absurd that we have to make task forces for mental health, food and housing in the first place those things are human rights.”

sign when they do that. Her first reaction was to call me. When she called me, she cried and my heart clenched. My daughter is one of the strongest young ladies you would come across, she doesn’t cry about too much of anything. As she was with me over the phone, I definitely knew something was wrong, and I was almost in tears myself.”

Those afflicted with cancer are not the only people who battle with the disease. Doctors, researchers and medical experts also need to grapple with disparities in the world of cancer research.

Around 1.4 million cancer patients are diagnosed every year, Mahalia White is one of 70,000 cancer patients diagnosed every year in the United States that fall in the adolescent young adult population, which makes up 5 percent of the cancer patient population.

Dr. Marcio H. Malogolowkin, the chief of hematology oncology and professor of pediatrics at UC Davis explained the competitive environment of funding for cancer research.

“Pediatrics researchers are competing with other researchers who research for the other 95 percent; it’s very hard to compete,” Malogolowkin said. “So we depend on foundations, like St. Baldricks, those are important dollars because we don’t get it from the government.”

Malogolowkin highlighted some important aspects of UC Davis’ Comprehensive Cancer Center that other centers cannot do. Like the

cross pollination with adult oncologists like Dr. Scott Christensen, medical director of UC Davis Cancer Care Network, who works primarily with adult patients.

“Where we are very unique is when compared to other centers, we are co-located, so that the pediatric program and the adult program work at the same building,” Malogolowkin said. “So, our interaction and our ability to share, co-share and integrate these patients is much easier than other programs.”

Malogolowkin hopes to improve outcomes for patients like Mahalia White who are part of the adolescent young adult group. Unfortunately, outcomes for the group have not improved as quickly as patients under 15 and older than 39.

This may be for many reasons, according to Malogolowkin.

“This could be biological, psychosocial, or a lack of experience with this patient population,” Malogolowkin said.

With her diagnosis and experience with stage IV Hodgkins Lymphoma, White wants to advocate for childhood cancer awareness one day.

Donations can still be made through the end of the year through St. Baldricks.

Patsy believes her family’s experience with cancer will help Mahalia in her battle against cancer.

“She comes from a strong line of women who have had cancer and are survivors,” Patsy White said. “She’s a fighter.

coupled with machine learning, I think there’s more of a likelihood of more and more creations passing the Turing test,” said Amber Kumar, a fourth-year design major who is minoring in computer science and communication.

The Turing test was developed by the computer scientist Alan Turing in the 1950s and is essentially a metric to determine if a computer exhibits human-like intelligence.

“In regards to Zhao Yu’s work, I believe that her focus on linguistics is especially fascinating and important, as the proper use of words can create a setting for the user to feel more at ease with the technology,” said Kumar.

Yet with the strides in artificial intelligence shortening the gap between us and robots, many feel an unease. There is even an aesthetic principle to describe this feeling: the uncanny valley. It theorizes that there is a point in robotic development where the human-likeness of robots, described as an uncanny similarity, will bring a feeling of disgust in the human viewer. However, this disgust, which can lead to a neg-

ative understanding of robots, might not mean much about whether the production of artificial intelligence is good or bad.

“I don’t think that human apprehension surrounding human-like robots tells us anything about whether these developments are good or bad,” said Zoe Drayson, an assistant professor in philosophy and an affiliated faculty member with the Center for Mind and Brain. “There is lots of research on human disgust reactions which suggest that what we find distasteful doesn’t track any moral properties of the world, and I’d be inclined to think the same is true of our tendency to be ‘weirded out’ or feel uneasy around human-like automata.”

As for Yu, she is compelled in her research to develop algorithms that directly benefit human well-being.

She wishes people weren’t so suspicious about artificial intelligence.

“It’s more about trying to help people, pushing humanity forward instead of saying robots are going to take over humanity,” Yu said.

“That’s totally not what we wanted from the first place.”

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everything, but every time I jumped and just moving in general really killed my back.”

Even though back pain affected her play, White still had a team high 17 kills that game in October 2017.

“You gotta’ do what you gotta’ do,” White said.

Mahalia’s mother, Patsy White, has noticed the outpouring of support for her daughter and reflects on how vital it has been.

“Everyone lives up to the standard of Aggie family, it’s a beautiful support system she’s been given,” Patsy White said.

Patsy White believes that the support from her team and herself will help Mahalia’s battle with this advanced stage cancer. Patsy White is a cancer survivor herself who had her final chemotherapy treatment in July 2017 and knows too well the struggles that Mahalia faces and will continue to face.

“I know what it feels like, that news from the doctor that you have cancer,” Patsy White said. “Your first reaction is ‘oh my god, am I going to die?’ ” White recalled the day she learned of her daughter’s diagnosis.

“I remember it was Dec. 4, 2017 — I’ll never forget the date that I got the call from her,” Patsy White said. “I knew she had the MRI done, and that they finally had the results.

I remember me telling her that they called her into the office and closed the blinds, and that’s never a good

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or PTSD. The system would look at linguistic cues, facial affects and rate of speech to make its prediction.

The system is not only built around the importance of what you say, but in how you say it, Yu explained.

Many people with depression have what Yu calls “a cold flow” of speech, or a choppy voice, and the machine would pick up on this and quantify it for its prediction.

Yu is currently working on a project for Amazon where she received a $100,000 grant to create a chatbot for the Echo platform. The work is part of a challenge to develop a social chatbot that can maintain a conversation for the longest period of time possible. She is also working on how to evolve robots through the combination of natural processing for both dialogue and vision.

Yu is very excited about the current state of AI development overall, and feels very hopeful about its future. UC Davis students shares her enthusiasm.

“I think that the position that AI is currently in is astounding, and as we’re converging into an era with an emphasis of human thought

After the Experimental College unit report, the DREAM committee reported on its partnership with the lending library and the materials it has distributed to students, including iClickers and goggles.

Fair Trade UC Davis presented on its initiatives, including protecting biodiversity and advocating for equal pay.

There was a 10-minute break at 8:22 p.m.

The table reconvened at 8:35 p.m.

The table participated in a Strategic Planning Activity that involved writing down areas within ASUCD they would like to see addressed on large pieces of paper.

During consideration of old legislation, Senate Bill #39, which would dissolve the Marketing Committee, was passed as amended.

Senate Bill #40, to dissolve TINC, passed as amended, as did Senate Bill #41, to dissolve the Underwriting, Sponsorship, and Advertising Committee; Senate Bill #45, to allocate $1,400 to the Whole Earth Festival budget; Senate Bill #46, to expand the jurisdiction

of the Judicial Council to serve subpoenas and Senate Bill #47, to reinstate the Student Health and Wellness Committee.

Jamaludin reprimanded the table for not keeping commissions updated when bills regarding them appeared. This lack of communication has led to commissions approaching Jamaludin for information.

The Internal Affairs Commission then delivered its quarterly report.

Ex officio reports were given followed by elected officer reports.

Senator Godderis announced he will finish Winter Quarter in ASUCD, but will be stepping down from Senate due to academic scheduling conflicts with as well as a research position.

During public announcements, Environmental Policy and Planning Chair Alice Beittal announced she would be studying abroad Spring Quarter and offered her Vice Chair Lois Kim as a suitable replacement.

The meeting adjourned at 11:07 p.m.

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condition were left undisturbed. The pups were put into the care of either low-quality or high-quality rearing parents, a process called cross-fostering, within 24 hours of birth. The pups were tested for anxious behavior and the stress hormone corticosterone after 75 days.

“Prairie voles are socially monogamous, and adult males display a lot of social behaviors that you don’t see in other lab rodents like rats or mice,” Bales said. “The eventual goal of the study was to look at all of these social behaviors and their relationship to prenatal stress [and the] postnatal environment.”

The voles that experienced prenatal stress and had high-quality rearing were the least anxious, whereas the voles that had low-quality rearing parents were the most anxious.

For the voles that didn’t experience prenatal stress, the quality of rearing didn’t matter.

This conclusion shows that the prenatal environment plays a big role in the sensitivity a child will have towards the postnatal environment.

“Don’t assume prenatal stress is inherently bad for the child, but appreciate that if a postnatal environment is highly stressful, prenatal stress will undermine healthy development,” said Belsky. “We need to improve postnatal environments given this situation.”

The results of this research will hopefully relieve stress for women who are worried about creating a healthy prenatal environment.

“The results of this study could help ameliorate some of that worry because it points to not all stress being bad for babies,” Hartman said. “In other words, just because a mother may experience some stress during pregnancy doesn’t mean that the baby is now damaged or flawed. In addition, I think the results of the study could also inform intervention work with mothers known to have had a stressful pregnancy. Because prenatally-stressed children might be especially developmentally sensitive, it may be of great benefit to provide resources and programs that would enhance and improve their early environments.”

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do you message your science,’ [but] it was just, ‘how do you connect with another human being, period’,” Willis said. “First look them in the eye, then mirror their gesture, and tell them a story that’s just a story. You know you can do this since you’ve done it all your life, and now you just have to remember how to bring the humanity back into the science and humanities. That was not a big part of any classroom training I’ve ever had. When you present at conferences, that’s definitely not the model that’s presented for new and developing scientists, so part of it, I think, is that we’re just inheriting this tradition of bad communication habits, and there aren’t better models out there.”

As a self-proclaimed lover of the environ-

ment and environmental sciences, Kerlin said she wasn’t sure what to expect taking up a journalism job as someone who didn’t directly study what she had to report on. However, she stated that her lack of knowledge in these situations actually helped her, as she could ask questions that citizens may have had and quell those fears or clear up confusion.

“I didn’t realize how much I didn’t trust scientists until I sat with them and heard about their kids and lives,” Kerlin said. “I learned about them as fuller people and saw the work that they do and was so impressed by it that I came to trust them. Most people don’t get to do that. So it’s my job to at least relay some of that to others and hopefully put across some of that trust.”

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experience. Tracks like “Symmetry” put Hernandez’s raw emotions on full display — a trait present throughout the EP. In the track, “Symmetry,” Hernandez sings, “We’re afraid to make mistakes / Fear has us writing in white so we don’t make mistakes / We’re writing in white all over the page [...] The voices from within block out all the noise.”

Hernandez’s work as Kisos has benefited from the big-name artists who have protested against streaming their music on apps such as Spotify.

“Overall, I think it’s good that some of these bigger artists are protesting,” Hernandez said. “I think it’s a step toward getting more compensation [as a small artist] for the work that we are putting in, the money that we’re spending and just valuing our art.”

Miller Place is the public relations company that Hernandez founded because he wanted to give back and support others like him on the same journey. The name is inspired by the street that he grew up on.

“I call it more of an artist collective,” Hernandez said. “The artists I work with are pretty early in their careers, and I help them with social media and branding. I also like to call it a collective because there wasn’t a whole lot of collaboration going on at the public relations

firm I worked at [...] I wanted to be able to create a tight-knit community because that’s what we all need — we all need each other.”

He showed his appreciation for the contributions and experiences that Davis provided him with. “[UC Davis] provided the catalyst for me,” Hernandez said. “I had an amazing experience, and I met so many people. The fraternity that I was in, Alpha Sigma Phi, gave me an opportunity to learn how to be extroverted and meet people. It really helped me break out of my shell to network and talk to people [...] I think the most obvious was gospel choir.

Choir made me more comfortable with singing and being in front of people.”

Now that he’s made it this far, Hernandez reflected on what’s next for him and his music.

“I feel like right now isn’t even the beginning for me, it’s still the prologue,” Hernandez said. “I’ll revel in voices for a while, continue to find ways to bring it to new audiences. I worked on it for two and a half years, so I want to give it the proper run it deserves before flying into the next thing.”

From Davis to the Big Apple, Kisos encompasses it all in perfect symmetry. “Voices” is available on all major streaming apps as well as Apple Music.

13 | THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS AGGIE SPORTS DESK TEAM OF THE QUARTER: WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Team earns title due to record, player stats, multiple conference recognitions

J OR DA N K N OW L E S / AGGI E

BY KEN N E DY WA L K E R sports@theaggie.org

UC Davis’ women’s basketball team had another record-breaking year in leading the league with a 24-5 overall record, earning them the title of Team of the Quarter by The California Aggie’s sports desk. The team earned a second conference regular season title with a 14-2

record in conference play and earned the league title. The Aggies enjoyed a 10-point win over UC Riverside on Feb. 24 during “Senior Day,” and secured the first place title with still a week left to go in the regular season. UC Davis is the first Big West school since 2009 to win outright conference regular season titles, matching the team’s record for Big West wins with a number of 14.

On top of its record, the women’s team, including head coach Jennifer Gross, received several honors towards the end of the regular season. Gross was named the Big West Conference Coach of the Year for the second year in a row, following in the footsteps of previous women’s head coach Sandy Simpson, who received the honor twice for the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 seasons. This is the first time since 2001 that a coach has received the award for two consecutive years.

MAHELLYEAH! BRINGS DAVIS COMMUNITY TOGETHER FOR HEAD-SHAVING FUNDRAISER Fighting for a cause in Davis

J U L I P E R E Z / AG G I E

BY B OBBY JO HN sports@theaggie.org

Keaton’s Child Cancer Alliance and the St. Baldricks Foundation hosted and partnered with SuperCuts to shave heads at de Vere’s Irish Pub in downtown Davis to raise money for childhood cancer research on Thursday, March 9. The event, “MaHellYeah” was held for UC Davis’ freshman outside hitter Mahalia White.

40 heads were shaved and $26,000 was

raised, donations are still being made.

White was diagnosed with stage IV Hodgkins Lymphoma the day after her 19 birthday in December. White, one of the UC Davis women’s volleyball top performing players earning the Big West Freshman of the Year title, fought through her freshman season with unexplained back pain starting halfway through the season.

Stage IV Hodgkins Lymphoma is an advanced stage cancer of the blood, and when it reaches this stage, it has spread to other organs outside of the lymphatic system.

The atmosphere was positive at de Vere’s as people chatted in line to get their heads shaved. At de Vere’s, no hair was safe, including beards. The event drew a diverse crowd, all of them enlisted themselves in the battle against childhood cancer.

While White was unable to attend the event due to her chemotherapy treatment,

Junior forward Morgan Bertsch made the the All-Big West first team for the second season in a row. This honor marks Bertsch’s third time being an All-Big West selection, and she is the third player from UC Davis to make the team twice in a single career. She scored double figures in each of the 29 regular season matches; her standout night was on March 1, when she scored 34 points against Cal State Fullerton — third on UC Davis’ all-time single-game list. Bertsch also shot .561 from the court, the third best in the league, and led her team with a 19.8 ppg, the second best in the league. The junior Aggie is only 27 points away from tying Staci Stevens’ single-season scoring record from the 1987-1988 season. Bertsch’s honors round out by placing third in the league on blocked shots (1.7 bpg) and fourth in free throw percentage (.777).

Aside from appearing in the most career games in UC Davis history, fourthyear forward Pele Gianotti received a special nod in her selection for the AllBig West second team. She has set the university’s record for games played and consecutive games played at 125 and has

not missed a single game since enrolling at UC Davis. In addition to tying a career-high 26 points in a game this season, Gianotti is in the top 15 in the entire league in six different categories and led the team in rebounding at 5.7 rpg, putting her in the top 15 in the conference.

Senior guard Rachel Nagel received the first honor of her career when she was selected to join her teammate on the conference’s second team. Nagel rounded up the season by hitting double figures 14 different times and earning a career-best 23 points during the team’s contest against Seattle in late November. She finished third on the UC Davis team in scoring with a 10.4 ppg, shooting 47 percent from the field and set the bar high by shooting 43 percent from passed the arc — the best number of the entire team.

Fourth-year guard and forward Dani Nafekh finished up the senior class’ nominations with her honorable mention selection. This is Nafekh’s second all-league honor, following in the footsteps of her second-team nod during her junior year season. She ended the season with 72 assists, a 66.9 ppg, shooting 42 percent from

the field, and shooting about 41 percent from beyond the arc. Nafekh also finished in double figures seven times over the course of the season and broke her own season-high in mid-January with 18 points when she and the team faced UC Riverside.

Freshman forward Cierra Hall represented women’s basketball’s newest Aggies by being one of five student-athletes to be selected to the All-Freshman Team.

She appeared in all but one game this season and similarly reached double figures seven times. Hall also set two career highs with 12 rebounds in mid-January against UC Riverside and 17 points during the contest against Long Beach State on Feb. 1. Hall concluded her first season at 6.5 ppg and 4.8 rpg and she was on par with her older teammates’ numbers with shooting 42 percent from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc.

UC Davis’ program is the only one in the entire Big West Conference to have one first-team player since they joined the Big West Conference in 2007. Hall’s achievement makes it the fourth year in a

she still watched the event via Facebook live streaming and spoke to The Aggie.

White is very appreciative of all the participants willing to shave their heads.

“When I started losing my hair, I was very depressed about it,” White said.

“When I shaved my head, I felt better, but I still didn’t look the way I wanted to look especially when it wasn’t my choice. So, when I see people willingly lose their hair for people like me going through treatment, all the support means a lot to me.”

UC Davis women’s volleyball Head Coach Dan Conners stepped in to fight for the cause.

“It feels great, I feel free,” Conners said after having his hair shaved.

Conners spoke on White’s diagnosis in a post-shave interview.

“Obviously we’re all bummed out, but Mahalia is a resilient kid and she’s got such a positive spirit about it,” Conners said.

“We’re just supporting what she needs, which is more of that positive spirit.”

The women’s volleyball team has responded to news of White’s diagnosis with open arms and support.

“We visit with her when we can and defi-

nitely try to see how she is feeling every day,” said sophomore blocker Jackie Graves.

The team has also responded by creating bracelets with the label “MaHellYeah” to help create awareness surrounding the disease. Then students and supporters started tweeting with the hashtag #MaHellYeah to help spread the word through social media.

Other sports within UC Davis athletics also supported White for this event.

Men’s water polo redshirt freshman attacker Jack Stafford has family members afflicted by cancer and wants to support other athletes as much as possible.

“When I found out another student-athlete had cancer, I wanted to do anything I [could] to support them,” Stafford said. “As a college student, I don’t have a plethora of money, so the best way to do this was to shave my head.”

Loyal fans of UC Davis women’s volleyball came out to support White and the team. UC Davis alumnus Martin Mangrich has been a fan of women’s volleyball ever since he graduated in 2005.

“I can get my head shaved to help with cancer research,” Mangrich said. “I

should do it.”

Volleyball season has ended, but the team is currently practicing, and the team misses her energy.

“We definitely feel her absence on the court,” Graves said. “But we understand how positive she is and how much she wants to be with us, and it allows us to keep moving forward for her.”

For the 2017-18 volleyball season, White was the team’s top offensive generator with 398 kills. White performed consistently throughout the season, despite some pain in her back about halfway through the season. White believed her position as outside hitter caused her back pain since the outside hitter needs to constantly jump and results in excessive impact on the spine and knees.

White recounted an away game at UC Irvine when she had to be pulled out of the game because of excruciating back pain.

“Something about that day my back was in pain for the whole day, it wasn’t like the other days where it would go away,” White said. “I warmed up and

UC DAVIS BASEBALL’S PLUSCHKELL AWARDED PLAYER OF THE WEEK The Aggie sat down with shortstop to talk current season, future

A N H-T R A M B UI / AG GI E

BY LIZ JACO BSON sports@theaggie.org

Senior shortstop Brad Pluschkell was named Big West Conference Field Player of the Week on Monday, Feb. 19.

This Big West honor is the first of Pluschkell’s career and the first nod awarded to the Aggies this season. Pluschkell was named Player of the Week after the Aggies won their road series against Bakersfield, 8-1, 15-1 and 14-7.

The Aggies are currently 3-6. After a weather postponement, the UC Davis baseball team split their most recent series against St. John’s University. In the first game of the doubleheader on Sunday, March 4, the Aggies lost 8-0, but made a comeback in the second game, winning 10-6.

Aggie: When did you start playing baseball? Why have you stuck with it?

Pluschkell: I probably started playing back when I was like 6, [playing] tee-ball. But of all the sports I played, I don’t know, I’ve just always liked it the best. I grew up playing it. My dad played in college, so I think that kind of helped, too because obviously everyone kind of looks up to their dad. And then honestly just playing with all the

guys, just like consistently having a solid group of guys really keeps me going with it.

Aggie: Who is your baseball hero?

Pluschkell: Well my favorite baseball player is Robinson Canó. I just love his swing. He kind of plays the game lazy, some people think, but he’s so good that he can get away with it.

Aggie: Why did you decide to play at and attend UC Davis?

Pluschkell: Well I wanted to go and play Division I baseball, so that was the main thing, but [UC Davis] also offered me the opportunity to pursue mechanical engineering. A couple of other schools didn’t really give me that option, so it was kind of a combination.

Aggie: What do you want to do after you graduate next year?

Pluschkell: I’m applying for a couple of internships. I’m hoping those kind of give me an idea of what I want to do.

If I get a chance to play [baseball professionally], that’s the goal, but if not, mechanical engineering for a sport industry like baseball or golf would be awesome.

Aggie: You were named Big West Conference Field Player of the Week after your performance in the series

against Bakersfield. You batted a teamhigh .833, had an on-base percentage of .846, and had a slugging percentage of .917. How does that feel?

Pluschkell: That was pretty awesome. It was a fun weekend. It was opening weekend and we got the series win, too, which definitely helped.

Aggie: The Aggies are currently 3-6.

How do you feel the team is doing right now?

Pluschkell: I think we got a lot of potential and that we’re just not quite there yet. Once we clean up our defense and some smaller parts, I think we’re going to start winning a lot of games.

Aggie: What will you be focusing on in practice and hoping to execute in games?

Pluschkell: I’m just trying to see the ball well right now. It comes down to getting like the same routine down every day and working on the things I need to work on. [What we’ll be focusing on this week in practice is] nothing different. We’re just trying to focus on the small details, the stuff that will win us games down the road. We have a good offense; we just need to put together our defense.

Aggie: How are you feeling about facing Oregon? How about Santa Clara?

Pluschkell: I’m kind of excited to go out there. It’s always fun playing Pac-12 schools. We compete with them every year, so we’ll go out there and try and steal a couple of wins and it will be exciting.

The Aggies faced off against the University of Oregon in a 5-game series the weekend of March 9. After a rain postponement on March 8, the Aggies prevented a sweep by the Ducks by winning Sunday’s game 9-7. The Aggies improved their season record to 4-9 overall. The Aggies returned home to face Santa Clara University on March 13 and host a 4-game series against Northern Colorado the weekend of March 16.

TEAM OF THE QUARTER on 11

MAHALIA on 12

SOFTBALL FIELD UNDERGOES FIVE-MONTH RENOVATION PROJECT THANKS TO MARYA WELCH INITIATIVE La Rue Field receives complete makeover in time for new season

DIA N A L I / AGG IE

BY RYAN BUGSCH sports@theaggie.org

The UC Davis softball team officially kicked off its 2018 home schedule on Thursday afternoon at the newly-renovated La Rue Field, following a fivemonth project that gave the facility some much-needed repairs and upgrades.

The team will enjoy new dugouts and bullpens as well as a new clubhouse and locker room beyond the outfield fence.

Some major changes were made to the playing surface as well, including fresh sod in the outfield. To help handle inclement weather around the year, the renovations also involved leveling off the playing surface using laser technology and installing a completely redesigned drainage system.

For Aggie supporters, there were new bleachers built behind home plate, in addition to an outdoor press box at the top of the seating section. The field’s scoreboard and sound system were also revamped in the process.

The renovation project was originally scheduled to commence back in early 2015, with estimated costs hovering around $3 million to $4 million at the time, but was pushed off until this past fall.

The remodeling of the field began in early October and was partly funded by

the Marya Welch Initiative for Women’s Athletics, which promotes women’s sports on campus and raises money for the 14 UC Davis women’s NCAA teams. The group comprises UC Davis fans and former student-athletes, among others, and ultimately strives to provide the best opportunities for current Aggies and give them the tools to compete at the highest level against their opponents.

“We have a tradition of success throughout the history of our program and, on this 50th anniversary season, we are so excited to see the fruits of the labor of all the wonderful women who have paved the way and laid the strong foundation for the UC Davis softball program,” said UC Davis softball head coach Erin Thorpe in a press release on March 5. “These facility improvements are a testament to all the student-athletes who have pulled on that Aggie jersey and represented the university with ‘Aggie Pride.’”

La Rue Field is located at the corner of La Rue Road and Russell Boulevard, directly across the street from the Segundo Residence Halls. The UC Davis softball team will play a total of 24 home games this season in their new digs.

The team began its schedule with 18 consecutive road games in February, compiling a record of 11-7. The Aggies played a pair of games on Thursday to officially reopen the field, beating Nevada by a final score of 9-4 and then falling 2-0 to Utah State. UC Davis will play another five games over the course of the next four days, including a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. against Valparaiso.

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