March 8, 2018

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JEREMY DANG / AGGIE

Quizlet Chapter 7 Quiz

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

SOC 46A — Intro to Social Research, a sociology class taught by professor David Orzechowicz, has recently experienced turmoil due to allegations of multiple students in the class cheating by using Quizlet, an online site which allows students to study for tests using pre-made flashcards with answers, to answer questions on online exams. Answers to Orzechowicz’s quizzes were posted on Quizlet.

A third-year communication major currently enrolled in SOC 46 explained the way that the class is structured.

“Basically, we take our quizzes every Monday night or Wednesday night of the week,” the student said. “Every class we have a team reading quiz, which is basically pulled from the quiz the night before. As a team, we go through that and explain the question that everybody missed. Then, we usually lecture and then we usually do team assignments that are 10 points.”

The student commented on what occurred after she took her own quiz a few weeks ago.

“I took my quiz after my midterm on Monday night,” the student said. “The next morning, I got an email from him and it was a mass email that said ‘I have concerns that you have been involved in academic dishonesty.’ We really didn’t know what we did. We went to class, and the environment was really tense and everyone was really freaked out. He was like ‘If you got the mass email, you guys are pulled from your teams, I’m really disappointed by the 30 percent of students who engaged in academic dishonesty.’ At this point, I don’t really know what is going to happen.”

The student described how Orzechowicz told the students who received the email to come to his office hours to discuss future actions. According to her, Orzechowicz changed some of the quiz questions by switching the wording and students who “picked the answer that was the correct answer last year” were sent the email.

At Orzechowicz’s office hours, she explained the way that she used Quizlet when taking her quizzes.

“When I went to his office hours, I told him I used [Quizlet] to check my answers,” she said.

“He said, ‘Well, that’s considered academic dishonesty and if I could believe that all of you were checking your answers on it then it would be okay, but some of you did it within six seconds.’ And I was just like, ‘Well I’m not one of those people, I obviously checked my answers, I took a long time taking my quiz.’”

The student also discussed what happened during the class that took place directly after Orzechowicz’s office hours.

“He put us back into our teams but we all missed out on 20 points,” she said. “We had a 10-point penalty from our quizzes and the day that he took us out of the teams, we missed out on teamwork which is also 10 points.”

When asked whether Orzechowicz’s actions were justified, the student said the situation could have been handled better.

“If someone’s taking the quiz within six seconds, that means they’re not learning the material and that’s a bigger form of academic dishonesty where you should have concerns,” she said. “If people are taking it for 15 to 40 minutes, then they’re using Quizlet to check their answers. It’s different. [Also] everybody’s midterm grade was really low — mine was not low, but everybody else’s was low. That’s another factor. Why wouldn’t you look at people’s midterm grade? If they don’t know the material and they’re using Quizlet just to cheat, then their grade wouldn’t reflect that.”

Due to this situation, the student noticed changes in the class environment.

“The environment of the class is shattered,” she said. “I feel like we’re walking on thin ice — I feel like I have to cite everything, I feel very paranoid. The trust is really broken. I actually really like the class and I like Dr. O as a professor

VOLUME 136, ISSUE 19 | THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018

Cheating allegations in SOC 46A Controversy over academic honesty suspicions in sociology class and a lecturer. It just makes you paranoid and scared — it’s not really a good learning environment.”

The California Aggie reached out to Campus Judicial Board Advisor Shawn Knight for a response on this matter. Knight responded with information on university policy toward academic dishonesty.

“University policy dictates that a student cannot use outside resources to complete a quiz or exam, regardless of format (in person, take home, etc) without explicit permission form the instructor,” Knight said via email. “Whether or not it is Quizzlet [sic] or any other website, a student cannot look up answers to their quizzes or exams unless an instructor has provided explicit permission to do so.”

An anonymous mass email was sent by a student in the class to what appears to be all the other students in the SOC 46A class. The email was forwarded to The California Aggie. The author of the anonymous email expressed concerns about the treatment of the students accused of cheating.

“While I personally have no problem with Dr. O modifying the quiz questions upon suspicion that students in the class had access to quiz answers from previous years, his choice to address the class and accuse one third of students of academic dishonesty and to immediately exclude them from further participation was disturbing and disruptive for a number of reasons,” the email stated. “It created a classroom environment that was not conducive to learning [and] it was difficult to focus on the material.”

The author of the email stated they were not one of the students who used the Quizlet nor were they punished in any way, but they state that how the situation was handled was “inappropriate and damaging to the class as a whole.”

“In light of this, I’d like to suggest some SOC46 on 11

MICHELLE GORE / AGGIE

Sixth annual climate conference: growing resilient forests Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice holds annual climate conference

BY R A BI YA OBERO I city@theaggie.org

The Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice will be holding its sixth annual conference on Saturday, March 10 from 1 to 5 p.m., hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Davis.

Doors for registration open at 12:30 p.m.

The agenda for this year’s conference is “Deepening our roots, growing resilient forests.”

“Each conference deals with a different aspect of giving information about climate change and tries to have workshops to help people know what they can do about climate change,” said Jim Craner, a member of the Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice.

The conference features two keynote speakers: E. Gregory McPherson, a renowned urban forest researcher for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the Pacific Southwest Research Station in Davis, and Daniel Barad, the Sierra Club’s biomass campaign organizer, who will address the public on how to make California’s urban and Sierra forests more resilient to climate change.

“These are two very important speakers for anyone who cares about either the urban or the Sierra forests,” said Lynne Nittler, a Yolo Interfaith Alliance for Climate Justice organizer. “There has been a major study published last week with one set of ideas of what can be done, but our speaker has a different suggestion.”

McPherson warned about the threats that Northern California forests face.

“Maybe our biggest threat is ourselves,” McPherson said. “People abuse and neglect trees and take them for granted. Urban forests have a lot of species that are vulnerable to drought because they come from climates that receive more rainfall than here. Many of them have suffered and died.”

McPherson will talk about how to identify and protect trees as well as what should be planted where.

“My presentation will try to make the point that it really takes our continued commitment to our urban forests to create and sustain an urban forest that will benefit our children’s children,” McPherson said. “It is the legacy we have inherCHECK OUT OUR

DIANA LI / AGGIE

ited from generations ago — who put in the resources, time and love to plant and care for these trees. It is up to us to step up and perpetuate and improve what we have inherited.”

Nittler strongly encourages students to attend the conference.

“Our conference is free, but we do suggest a $10 donation at the door,” Nittler said. “We are so glad to have students attend. It is just a 20-minute bike ride from campus, entry is free and there will be a variety of workshops. Refreshments will be provided as well.”

The event will also feature a children’s literary group and a community singing group in between the two speakers. In the last hour, guests will have a choice of 10 different activities. There will also be two discussion groups, one with each speaker, which will allow guests to ask questions about the conference.

“It is a mission of building awareness and educating and then leading through action,” Nittler said. “We are in desperate times with the climate.

If we don’t stop it, it sweeps over everything.”

UC Davis student fighting for new city flag City Councilmembers reluctant to recognize new flag

BY R ACHEL PAUL science@theaggie.org

On Feb. 20, UC Davis student Aiden Ramey laid out his case for a new city flag to Davis City Council members.

Since mid-October, the Davis Vexillology Club — vexillology being the study of flags — has been working to create and implement a new flag with UC Davis design students.

DVC, led by Ramey, launched a website in December where anyone can vote for their favorite flag design. Ramey and his team have narrowed the list down to five flags, each of which is meant to represent the city of Davis through specific colors and symbols.

They also created a Facebook page to raise awareness and get people involved in the campaign.

“People sometimes say, ‘We have more important things to do than worry about a city flag,’ or, ‘Why does Davis need a flag,’” Ramey said, “and my response is, ‘If we had a great city flag, we would have a banner for people to rally under to face more important issues.’ In Chicago, police officers who have died are often buried with their city flag, not the American flag. Their flag is a source of pride and love for their city. Our flag should be that, too. Davis is a great city, and every great city deserves a great flag.”

Ramey was inspired by a TED Talk about flag design by Roman Mars, a vexillology aficionado and creator of the 99% Invisible podcast.

“For me, Davis has something special that I don’t think you can get from many other places, and I take pride in that,” said Andre Codner, who has worked on behalf of DVC to spread the word about the project. “I think this is why we need a flag. Flags — not seals or logos — show how much the community cares about where the flag is representing.”

Bob Bowen, the public relations manager for the City of Davis, thinks the city already has an appropriate flag: Davis’ city logo.

“It’s [the logo is] one of the most recognizable brands in the U.S., we have found,” Bowen said.

“It’s recognizable. It plays into our sustainability, our healthy lifestyle and the bicycles. The very rare occasion when we have needed a city flag, we had a researcher from UC Davis borrow one and take it to the South Pole, to the scientific research center there.”

At the meeting on Feb. 20, City Council officially recognized Davis’ city logo as the flag of the city for the time being. Mayor Pro Tempore Brett Lee encouraged Ramey to continue searching for a new city flag but preferred the city logo.

“I’m not ready to get a new tattoo,” said City Councilmember Will Arnold.

Longtime Davis resident Erick Lorenz thinks the logo is good for stationary and plaques and makes a perfectly fine banner when hung horizontally against a wall but loses its value when hung vertically or looked at from its backside.

“The designs proposed by the DVC avoid these problems by using geometric patterns and elements that work in any orientation and from any direction,” Lorenz said.

Although the DVC has already received over 1,100 votes, Ramey acknowledged that there is still a lot of work to do if they’re going to get their designs recognized. Ramey has pledged to get a tattoo of the flag if they accomplish their mission.

“A flag is not the most important thing that the city needs, but a well-designed official flag could be a point of focus for city pride and civic awareness,” Lorenz said.

There is no current end date for the project. Ramey and the DVC plan on continuing their efforts until they get recognition from the city.

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ing to say that members of ASUCD were elected by the entire student body when voter turnout was less than 10 percent.

Interviews with students in the CoHo revealed a great deal about the attitudes toward ASUCD and how a disconnect in communicating the importance of ASUCD’s work to the student body can

create indifference toward the organization.

“I got emails and have no excuse for not knowing about it, but with everything going on with school I don’t really put much thought into it,” said Alex Majewski, a third-year chemistry major. “Since I don’t really have an immediate answer for what student government does for me, I feel like if they made students more aware of how it might affect them it might give them more incentive to go out and vote or at least take more interest in it.”

An interview with Teak Hahn, a firstyear environmental science and management major, demonstrated the impact of spreading information about candidates by word of mouth, showing how engagement with certain interest groups can get more people to vote, even if they weren’t particularly engaged with the process in the first place.

“I’m on the women’s water polo club team and my captain Sophia told us all to vote for particular candidates because they said they would help us with the current issue with the Rec Pool,” Hahn said.

“Currently they’re trying to renovate it so they make a pool that’s a lot smaller than

the pool we currently practice in so we’re trying to fight against that. My captain spoke to some of the people running and the people she told us to vote for said that they would do something about that.”

Even though Hahn did vote, she said that she would not have if she had not been informed about the pool issue by her water polo captain.

“I do believe it’s important to vote but I’m a little bit skeptical about the power that these people have,” Hahn said.

“I honestly don’t know enough to say whether or not they have the power to make real change.”

Hahn shared why she thinks there is some disconnect in motivating people to vote.

“I think something that’s really important is that the issue is relatable for people,” Hahn said. “I noticed when I was reading the bios that all of the issues that they wanted to address were things that were relevant to them, but if it doesn’t resonate with the people voting, then it’s going to be more difficult to get them to vote for that cause if they don’t really believe in it.”

However, her case proved that when

issues are important to smaller groups, it can be a key motivating factor.

“I think people are lazy and if they don’t have enough faith in the system that it will create real change, they have to see the change, then it’s not going to matter to them and they aren’t going to vote,” Hahn said.

Parker Nevin, a fifth-year cognitive science major, revealed that he did not vote in the election and is bothered by how candidates seem to do such a large amount of promotion without actually informing people of their positions and qualifications.

“I don’t know much about ASUCD or their function or what their powers are,” Nevin said. “I see all of the advertisements everywhere but they’re not very substantive. It just doesn’t seem like they have much content. It’s just like, ‘BASED’ or some hashtag and I just don’t care.”

Nevin thinks that it would not be difficult for the candidates to be more effective in spreading more relevant information.

dice, stereotypes, racism, oppression and intersectionality.

Legislative matters proceeded after the training. First was discussion on the Administrative Advisory Committees Quarterly Report. The topic was the Degree Map template, which allows students to figure out what courses they need to take to fulfill their major and minor requirements. The Degree Map tool provides a template for students to enter the class loads at various points of their tenure at UC Davis. The tool also allows users to compare their major and minor requirements with other universities.

Discussion followed. Senator Jake Sedgley questioned if the presenters had heard of MyDegree as an alternative tool to use. The presenters acknowledged they had heard of MyDegree with a compari-

son of MyDegree and the Degree Map. Up next was consideration of old legislation. The first item was ASUCD Senate Resolution #5, which supports the requests of Student Advocates for Mental Health. A proposed $25,000 funding request for the resolution was debated. Controller Jin Zhang asked why the group included the $25,000 clause.

Officials from the group responded that the Beyond the Budget organizers will be able to identify the communities that need to be served within this legislation.

Also, the group wanted to assure autonomy in their community decisions free of administrative supervision. Additionally, a concern was expressed that Student Affairs would be denied funding if they had student advocates from the Mental Health Initiative. Further discussion

followed. Amendments were made. The measure passed without further objections.

Next was ASUCD Senate Resolution #X which would “demand justice” for student organizers who participated in the #DemocratizeUC movement and sit-in “against proposed tuition hikes and support their actions moving forward.”

Discussion of the resolution centered on the language of the resolution. After debate, the resolution passed without objections.

Senate Bill #42 involves the maintenance of compost vehicles. Discussion on how long the maintenance problem existed and where the funding of $70 will come from occured. Upon resolution, the measure passed without objections.

Other business included ASUCD

Senate Bill #43 to allow $80 to reserve the Memorial Union Patio for the Disability Rights Awareness Resource Fair.

The measure passed without objections.

Senate Bill #44 pertains to the increased price for renting out classroom and impact on KDVS broadcast operations.

This is a temporary resolution until a permanent solution is determined. SB #44 passed without objections.

New legislation was then brought to the table. Senate Bill #45 would allocate $1,400 for line item initiations that included Chaos Control, Education, WERC (Reusable Dishes Program) and Whole Earth Festival for fiscal year 20172018. No resolution was met.

Later, public discussion took place.

TO VOTE OR NOT TO VOTE TAYLOR LAPOINT / AGGIE FILE

Students explain importance — or not — of voting in ASUCD elections

BY BENJA M I N P ORT E R features@theaggie.org

With the winter 2018 ASUCD election cycle now over, the UC Davis student body has elected its new ASUCD president, vice president and senators for the next year. However, it is slightly mislead-

BY G E ORG E L I AO campus@theaggie.org

The ASUCD Senate meeting was called to order by Vice President Adilla Jamaludin on Thursday, Feb. 2 at 6:12 p.m. Senator Andreas Godderis was absent.

The meeting started with a Cultural Humility and Allyship presentation by Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission Chair Julienne Correa. The presentation included awareness training on how to work with individuals from diverse cultures on campus. An additional goal of the training was to bring awareness and understanding of issues that diverse groups experience regarding privilege of various demographics. Topics highlighted were identity, ethnicity, race, preju-

Police Logs:

Students bike in freezing conditions to help preserve Arctic

Why did the dog cross the road?

Feb. 21 “Transient male near the Covell entrance was pushing female down and sitting on her — female also had a small child in a shopping cart.”

Feb. 22 “Transient male has returned and is currently in the shower of men’s downstairs restroom.”

“Testing new phone system.”

Feb. 23 “Reporting party advised roommate is pounding on reporting party’s door and demanding to be let into reporting party’s room — reporting party has locked himself in the room and will stay separate till police department gets on site.”

“Reporting party’s vehicle was hit this afternoon and believes neighbor may be responsible.”

Feb. 24 “Unknown male subject rang doorbell and tried to open reporting party’s apartment door with a key.”

Feb. 25 “Cleaning, vacuum and buzzing noises coming from business.”

SENATE on 11

DAVIS STUDENTS PEDAL FOR POLAR BEARS JAIME CHEN / AGGIE

Feb. 19 “Heard only for last 10 minutes, loud yelling from male, repetitive statement, only thing reporting party can make out is the name ‘Monica.’”

“Male on Olive Dr. touching cars with a rock causing damage to vehicles.”

“Male outside randomly screaming.”

VOTE on 12

BY G E NE VIE VE MU RPH Y-S K ILLING vehicles burn fossil fuels.”

Davis is often rated as one of the top city s@theaggie.org

Eight elementary schools in Davis have been participating in a drive to aid polar bears for the last month. So far, they have raised enough trip points to ceremoniously adopt 18 polar bears, following the efforts of over 1,000 students over 18 school days.

Polar Bears International, the organization charged with protecting the adoptees, specializes in protecting polar bears. It conducts ground research, promotes its findings and forms outreach initiatives like the Polar Pedal. Melissa Krouse, the program manager of Polar Bears International, explained the importance of emphasizing other means.

“When we burn fossil fuels for transportation, we add more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Krouse said. “This buildup acts like a blanket that traps heat around the world, disrupting the climate and melting Arctic sea ice. Bike commuting improves health while reducing congestion and the carbon emissions that melt Arctic sea ice.

The link to polar bears is direct because most

bike-friendly cities. The city endorses a variety of programs in order to maintain this status. Safe Routes to School focuses on maintaining clear paths for students from their homes to their elementary, middle and high schools. In 2013, Safe Routes surveyed many of the bike paths lacing through the city and developed maps leading to every school in Davis. Lorretta Moore, the Safe Routes to School program coordinator, explained that parent volunteers are the key to inspiring enthusiasm in children.

“We organize programs, and they make them awesome,” Moore said.

Amber Welsh, a bike-to-school coordinator and parent of a student at Willett Elementary, explained that Davis schools are made for bikes.

“All of our elementary schools are built without parking,” Welsh said. “They’re designed as neighborhood schools. When people bring their kids to school in a car, they make a big impact on the neighborhoods by parking in front of people’s houses. It be-

comes a safety issue.”

Welsh is in charge of a school program that monitors childrens’ routes to school. By scanning a barcode on their backpack, parent volunteers can log each students’ mileage as well as inform their parents that they’ve made it to school safely and on time. This is the second year they’ve participated in the Polar Pedal, supported by a grant from Kaiser Permanente.

“When we do the Polar Pedal, we encourage kids to use these methods to get to school, even when it’s a little more difficult to do so — [such as] biking or walking in the rain,” Welsh said.

Moore and Welsh both congratulated students on persevering through trying conditions. Between Feb. 19 and 23, temperatures fell below freezing during commuting hours.

“Students were biking in a mean temperature of 38 [degrees] at 8 a.m. The coldest day that they biked for that month would have been 29 degrees,” Moore said.

Currently, Welsh and other parent volunteers are calculating which classroom accumulated the most trip points. The winning class will have a party with Klondike bars and will be able to name the adopted polar bear.

“Really what we’re hoping is that these kids have wonderful memories of biking or walking to school [and] will grow up and seek out communities that have similar infrastructure,” Welsh said. “That’s why we’re trying to encourage this at such a young level. It makes the kids think about how their actions are impacting other forms of life — like polar bears in the Arctic — and global warming.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 | 3

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE KY L A R O U N DS / AG G IE

New committee members to join Yolo County Financial Oversight Committee has open seats to fill

BY STE L L A T RA N city@theaggie.org

The Yolo County Financial Oversight Committee currently has positions open for volunteers to serve for a total of three years. The positions will be decided by the Board of Supervisors for Yolo County.

Beth Gabor, Yolo County’s public information

officer, believes that the committee doesn’t have a focus on improving its budgeting roles, but rather serves a different purpose.

“I don’t believe that is the role of the committee,” Gabor said.

Gabor directed information on the FOC to a written statement the county posted.

The document states that “the purpose of the Financial Oversight Committee (FOC) is to pro-

vide oversight on treasury operations, leadership and independence over the monitoring, review and audit of the County’s business activities; and provide oversight that helps to further ensure accountability and transparency over the budgetary and tax distribution processes to further demonstrate good stewardship of public resources.”

Furthermore, the FOC document states that FOC performs all of its duties in an advisory role to the Board of Supervisors and its chairperson has “the authority to perform all statutory duties of a treasury oversight committee and to initiate or authorize review of any matters within its scope of responsibility.”

Mary Khoshmashrab, the internal audit manager for Yolo County, said that the committee has responsibilities other than budgeting that continue to change.

“Goals are ongoing, every year, depending on the discussion we are having,” Khoshmashrab said.

“For example, for oversight and audit, they’re able to make comments and suggestions. That audit plan consists of risks that have been identified the prior year around the county, or we consider the grand jury issues and what they are concerned about.”

While the FOC does not currently have a goal to improve budgeting, it strives to maintain transparency and continue to grow with new changes every year.

“We take all those into consideration, and we develop an annual audit plan for the next year and we bring it to the committee for their perspective and views to finalize,” Khoshmashrab said. “We review that throughout the year, making provisions as necessary, and keep a quarterly report on the status of that and if we’re meeting those milestones.”

The process involves many different types of people within the committee as information passes along for clarification.

“The Committee shall advise the board on the selection of an independent, qualified, and licensed outside auditor to conduct an annual audit of the internal controls of the County,” Khoshmashrab said via email. “The auditor shall report to the Committee the results of the audit upon completion of the audit report. The Committee shall review the audit report and make recommendations to the Board related to the audit’s findings. The Committee shall advise the Board on the recruitment, hiring, and termination of the Chief Financial Officer.”

Khoshmashrab also elaborated on who the committee is looking for to volunteer to fill in seats, as it is a three-year term that affects many different parts of the board and the city.

“It’s an unpaid seat on the committee, and it depends,” Khoshmashrab said. “We have two board members like non-voting members who sit on that and external auditors. We have two public members [including] one member that represents the cities in Yolo, one that represents the special districts and one that represents education.”

The Chief Financial Officer will be seeking recommendations from committee members and any other appropriate sources to fill vacancies on the committee.

“Members shall be nominated by the CFO and confirmed by the Board of Supervisors,” Khoshmashrab said. “Each committee member is to be both independent and financially literate. At least one member shall have financial expertise.

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V E N OOS M OS H AY E D I / AGGI E FI LE

Chancellor creates three task forces to improve student life

Yolo Rainbow Families hosts workshops about gender-diverse children Workshop aimed to help parents understand children

BY H A N N A N WA L I U L L A H city@theaggie.org

On Feb. 24, Yolo Rainbow Families, a branch of the Davis Phoenix Coalition, hosted a workshop on gender-diverse children. It aimed to answer questions and provide information to the parents of gender-diverse children — children whose gender may not fully align with their biological sex.

The Davis Phoenix Coalition is an organization dedicated to eliminating intolerance in Davis. Yolo Rainbow Families, in particular, advocates for the rights of the LGBTQIA community. According to Anoosh Jorjorian, the coordinator for Yolo Rainbow Families, the event was organized by the DPC in concurrence with the UC Davis community campus book project based around Janet Mock’s memoir, “Redefining Realness.”

“Janet Mock’s memoir has a lot to do with her process of growing up and negotiating with her family and navigating the world without having many models, and so what we’re trying to do is really change that narrative for this generation of kids,” Jorjorian said. “Some of us are parents of gender-diverse youth, and as the LGBTQIA organization for families in the area, [Yolo Rainbow Families] concerns [itself ] with youth.”

Speakers included Diane Ehrensaft, the author of “The Gender Creative Child,” and Ben Hudson Jr., the executive director of the Gender Health Center in Sacramento. Afterward, the floor was open for the audience to ask questions, many of which were from parents of children who are gender-diverse.

One of the most important factors for a transgender child or teen, according to Ehrensaft, is parental support. She explained how the suicide rates of gender-diverse youth who had support from their parents went down from 57 percent to 4 percent. Rates of depression went down from 75 percent to 23 percent.

Ehrensaft broke down gender-diverse children into three categories: “apples,” “oranges” and “fruit salads.” Apples, she explained, are children who are declarative and assertive with their gender identity, while oranges have variable gender expression. Fruit salads would deal with both.

“To be or not to be is the critical verb here,” Ehrensaft said. “Typically, many of the apples will say, ‘I am a,’ versus [oranges saying,] ‘Sometimes I wish I were a.’ [Apples are] very declarative. They might say, ‘You got it wrong. This is who I am.’”

Ehrensaft went on to say that many apples have an affinity toward being transgender, while many oranges have an affinity toward being queer, lesbian or gay. Fruit salads could identify as genderqueer, agender, pangender or anything else not confined to the binary. However, just because a child shows signs of being gender-diverse does not mean that they actually are. Furthermore, people can still develop a trans identity later on in their lives.

“Gender development is a lifelong process,” Ehrensaft said. “It’s not gonna stop. All of us are still in flux — it doesn’t mean we have a stable gender identity, but what that means to us and how we express it is not static.”

David Hutchinson, who is transgender, talked at the workshop about his own experience growing up in a household with a gay father and a lesbian mother. He considered himself a “late harvest apple” because he transitioned in his 20s. He spoke how the issues that trans people faced were distinct from the ones that others in the queer community faced.

“What we’ve done is that we’ve drawn this line between heterosexual and something else, and everybody gets thrown into ‘something else’ if you don’t fit what heteronormativity looks like,” Hutchinson said. “As a late harvest apple, a lot of the reason why I probably didn’t transition before the age of 20 was that I grew up in a queer family. I grew up in a place that was actively trying to resist heteronormativity.”

Through the event, Jorjorian shed light on the issues concerning gender-diverse youth.

“There are certain areas [in Yolo County] that are more welcoming than others, but especially with gender identity there’s still a lot of confusion and ignorance,” Jorjorian said.

“The difference right now is between the folks that are well-intentioned and folks that are very obviously coming from a place of prejudice. There’s definitely a lack of knowledge all around, but certainly [there are] folks who are well-intentioned but just don’t have the information.”

Task forces to review affordable housing, food security, mental health care

BY JACQ U E LI NE MOOR E campus@theaggie.org

UC Davis Chancellor Gary May created three task forces to investigate and promote affordable housing, food security and mental health care. Each task force will submit an analysis report of recommendations for future improvements to the chancellor by June 30. On Twitter, May stated that the task forces were conceived in response to “critical student needs.”

“These are issues that have tremendous impact on our community,” May said via UC Davis News.

David Campbell, the associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, will head the affordable housing task force. Campbell holds multiple degrees in political science, and much of his research focuses on community engagement and promotion programs.

Campbell has given lectures on the importance of community involvement and is the author of several publications related to nonprofit organizations and public administration.

May appointed Francene Steinberg, a professor and chair of the Department of Nutrition, to lead the food security task force. Steinberg is a registered

dietitian for the American Dietetic Association. As the leader of the food security task force, Steinberg will be reviewing the the UC Davis community’s access to nutritious food.

According to the United Nations World Food Programme, a community’s food security must be determined based on three standards: availability, access and utilization.

Steinberg will analyze these components of food security at UC Davis, then provide the chancellor with a summary of her findings and recommendations for future improvements.

Cameron Carter, the interim vice chancellor for research at the Office for Research and a professor of psychiatry and psychology, will spearhead the task force for mental health. Carter is responsible for significant research by the university into human behavior and mental disorders and has authored a significant number of publications on cognitive neuroscience. Much of his research is designed to promote the advancement of therapies and solutions for schizophrenia, OCD and other mental disorders.

“How can we continue to provide the resources our students need effectively and efficiently?” May said to UC Davis News. “That’s what I’m asking the task force members to help me determine.”

4 | THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018

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DI A N A L I / AG G I E

The Bachelorette for dogs Vet students get paid to foster pups: The Canine Enrichment Program

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

Taking care of a dog can be a lot of work — walking it, feeding it, giving it all the love and attention it deserves. Within UC Davis’s renowned veterinary school, this dream job exists. Known as the Canine Enhancement Program, the program gives vet students the opportunity to care for dogs and get paid for it.

So how does it work? The purpose of the program is to serve both the dogs, who are referred to as “colony dogs,” and the students in the vet school. Every year, 15 dogs are chosen to be part of the program for the duration of the school year.

“We hand-pick [the dogs] from local shelters and select them based on their temperament,” said Tati-

ana Taylor, the senior animal technician supervisor for the Gourley Center and a kennel supervisor and adoption coordinator for the Canine Enhancement Program. “We want dogs who will be happy in this program and want to be loved and enjoy participating in student teaching.”

An extensive selection stage is necessary to ensure the colony dogs can fulfill the role of a teaching dog. Likewise, the students enrolled in the program, or “enrichment walkers,” are carefully selected and trained to ensure a good match and that the dogs are properly socialized. There is a six-week trial period where the enrichment students rotate walking all the colony dogs to get to know each other. The walkers then send in their top choices of which dog they would like to be matched with and are matched accordingly.

VEN OOS MOSHAYEDI / AGGIE

Cuts to the conveyor belt What proposed cuts to nutrition assistance program mean for students

BY EM I LY N G UYE N features@theaggie.org

The Trump administration recently announced its proposal to implement cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program, known as the CalFresh program in California. This proposal raises many important questions and concerns, especially for UC Davis students who rely on CalFresh for their daily nutritional needs.

SNAP is a federally funded program that assists low-income individuals in purchasing food items.

Eligible recipients are given an Electronic Benefit Transfer card, loaded monthly with a cash value depending on each recipient’s income level, which can be spent on groceries and produce. Trump’s proposal

would attempt to cut costs by replacing a portion of the money, which would have originally been given to SNAP beneficiaries to use at their discretion, with a federally-chosen produce package.

“I think this policy will have a direct impact on the UC Davis students that rely on CalFresh to help them receive money each month,” said Rosemary Medina, a fourth-year gender, sexuality and women’s studies major and intern at The Pantry. “CalFresh recipients only get up to $192 a month as a supplement to their estimated monthly food bills, [but] most students rely solely on this money and not as a supplement to other food funds.”

Nadaa Moharram, a first-year chemical engineering major and intern at The Pantry, believes replacing money for groceries with pre-selected grocery pack-

MOR GA N TIEU / AGGIE

Racial climate on college campuses Universities have a role in reducing racism by altering curricula

BY G EORG E UG ART E M EN D I A science@theaggie.org

Executive Director of the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center Dr. Shaun Harper spoke at UC Davis about his research on Feb. 22.

The seminar, titled “How Uni-

versities Sustain Racism in America,” was part of the UC Davis Forums on the Public University and the Social Good.

Harper and his team have visited 50 colleges and universities across the United States and collected data from 10,000 interviews with students, staff and faculty to better understand racial

climates in institutions of higher education. At each institution, 300 to 700 interviews were conducted and were compiled along with local news articles and questionnaires to create an image of the racial climate at each site. The findings are then compiled in a report delivered to the institution and include lengthy recommen-

“We match [dog and walker] to maximize the enrichment, to ensure a positive experience for the dog and the student,” Taylor said. “So if the student is a runner, I’m going to give them a lab versus a couch potato [dog]. We pick walkers who want to do activities with the dogs, are willing to potty-train them and properly socialize them, so that they are prepared for adoption at the end of the year.”

Though the dogs do have designated living spots on campus where they are cared for by a team of Gourley animal health technicians, enrichment walkers are encouraged to take the dogs home and spend as much time with their colony dogs as possible. Students are allowed to house them, take them hiking and on vacations, bring them home for the holidays and introduce them to friends and family.

“We have the freedom to treat the dog as if they were our own,” said Naomi Barney, a third-year veterinary student who has fostered three dogs through the program. “I take them out hiking and I get to do all the fun things you would do with your own dog.”

Barney currently cares for two dogs: Bia, a gray terrier mix who was her colony dog from last year whom she adopted, and Chevy, a lab/hound mix who is her colony dog for this year.

“My favorite part [of the program], wow, that’s hard to choose,” Barney said. “I really like being able to take care of these dogs, a lot of them come from shelter backgrounds, so being able to give them a home for a year and love them.”

At the end of the year, the dogs graduate from the program and are released to be adopted.

“Students get priority adoption,” Taylor said. “If the students aren’t interested we will open up applications to the public, if no other students or faculty line up applications to adopt.”

However, due to the extensive and personalized pairing process, most enrichment walkers end up adopting their colony dogs.

“It’s like ‘The Bachelorette,’ but for dogs,” said Kelly Morello, a third-year veterinary student. “We have a say in it, but Tatiana picks what is best for the dogs, and a lot of the time that means a forever home.”

Morello’s colony dog is a half German Shepherd, half Staffordshire Terrier named Tacoma.

“Tacoma is my best friend, she has gotten me through this tough third year as a vet student,” Morello said. “She is such an incredible dog, she is my doggie soulmate, the perfect fit for me. I cannot wait to officially adopt her.”

In addition to the colony dogs being an educational tool for their enrichment walkers, they also serve the larger student body.

The colony dogs’ main duty is to attend lab classes several times a month.

“Although we treat them like they are our own dogs, we do not own them,” Morello said. “The biggest difference is that they have class, they are working animals.”

The dogs attend classroom labs and provide educational experiences for students. These noninvasive instructional programs teach vet students about animal handling, PE, radiology, ultrasound, orthopedic examinations and behavior temperament examinations.

“They have to spend time away from us at school, so naturally they have higher stress levels,” Morello said. “So we are their guardian angels, we get to care for them and look for signs of stress. Our number one priority is their happiness.”

Every year, vet school students are given the opportunity to send in their applications and be added to a waitlist. Morello was on the waitlist for a year before she was selected. ​“Being a colony walker is a sought-after position, everyone wants to be a part of the program.” Morello said. “We get paid, but we do it for the dogs. We love the dogs so much.”

ages reduces the amount of choice that individuals have in choosing which foods they can purchase and consume. According to Moharram, the limitations of receiving pre-picked produce packages will have detrimental effects on students with serious dietary restrictions who must follow strict diet plans.

“Everybody’s body functions differently — many students [...] read the nutrition facts on the back of food products, and that is very important to people who are focusing on things like protein or carbohydrates,” Moharram said. “If you get a package that has peanut butter but you’re allergic to peanut butter, what are you going to do with that?”

Some students believe that implementing cuts to SNAP will exacerbate the problem of food insecurity that many students already face. Maria Wong, a fifth-year pharmaceutical chemistry major, says that in the case that further cuts to SNAP do get imposed, students will undoubtedly be forced to actively compete with other individuals for federal nutrition assistance. According to Wong, students’ situational statuses put them at a disadvantage in this realm.

“I think the student population will be the most affected,” Wong said. “Every time there are cuts, students get overlooked because we don’t have dependents and we’re not working full time compared to other people who might also be competing for the same resources. Since we are in a situation that requires us to need more money but only for temporary circumstances, other people who use the same resources are preferred over students. And that happens all the time.”

UC Davis has tried to tackle student food insecurity in the recent years, creating programs that aim to alleviate the problem. The Pantry, a student-run program on campus established in collaboration with ASUCD, strives to improve food accessibility among students by providing them with up to three meals per day at no cost. Moharram feels fortunate to be involved with a program whose mission statement is to provide the student community with

adequate nutrition in order to fuel their minds and bodies.

“I didn’t realize how big of an issue food insecurity was until I came here, but we get over 200 students every single day,” Moharram said. “We have fresh produce that comes in from the Davis farm, and we have students who get really excited about having things like fresh apples and fresh peppers.”

Moharram said that The Pantry is special because it gives students the opportunity to give back to their community in an impactful way.

“We have interns and external relations directors [who] meet every single week to plan how to maximize everything we get,” Moharram said. “We’re growing, and it does take some work, but we have students [...] who are taking a lot of time to maximize our potential.”

Fruit and Veggie Up! is another resource offered by the school in its efforts to minimize food insecurity without creating barriers to health. According to Elizabeth Von Klan, a third-year nutrition in public health major and nutrition and food access student coordinator for Fruit and Veggie Up!, the program aims to bring healthier and fresher food options to the student population.

“Fruit and Veggie Up! is a program that reduces food waste and increases food and vegetable consumption among students,” Von Klan said. “We’ve really grown over the years. We originally only got produce from the Nugget, and we’re really appreciative of having the Nugget to really get us started, but as the years have gone by we’ve gotten more donors like the Davis Student Farm and the Tandem Farm.”

Von Klan believes that the program, though it is relatively new, has taken huge steps towards combating food insecurity among UC Davis students.

“With Fruit and Veggie Up!, you are able to help the food insecurity issue by giving nutritious food to students while reducing food waste as well,” Von Klan said. “Since we were able to move from the

dations each institution can take to improve their racial climate.

Universally, minority students reported feeling isolated, overwhelmed and singled out at colleges and universities. Being the only minority person in their departments, faculty members, such as professors and advisors, reported a feeling of “onlyness,” as well as fatigue in dealing with daily grievances. All but one university out of the 50 surveyed had reports of racial slurs being said to minority students and staff.

Despite the great diversity in America, 87 percent of college presidents are white, and so are 79 percent of full-time university faculty members. Such grave imbalances have inspired Harper since he was a child to push for changes.

“Black people in my town were disproportionately very poor and not in positions of leadership and authority,” Harper said. “It’s not because my people don’t want to be in positions of leadership, or that we want to be poor. I knew it wasn’t that. I also knew that it wasn’t because we don’t work hard

or we don’t put forth the effort.

My mom cleaned white people’s toilets in their homes, doing backbreaking work. I knew there had to be larger explanations. I’ve been on a quest for this my entire life and career. Not just to better understand them, but to address them and correct them.”

UCD Provost Ralph Hexter, the director and series sponsor of the UCD Forums, said he was only slightly surprised by Harper’s results.

“Yes and no,” Hexter said.

“When I say, yes, this was so powerful and cogent an argument.

But when I say no, it’s because — though I wouldn’t be able to put it so forcefully, much less with the kind of research and experience behind it — I understand and have for some time understood that, to quote the titles of the first two chapters in [Harper’s] forthcoming book, ‘the university was born racist and still is racist.’”

Harper included in his lecture a clip from CNN where young children looked at images of people of different skin tones while being

SNAP on 11

asked questions about which color corresponded to being “dumb” or “beautiful.” The children, black and white alike, pointed to images of black and brown children as embodying negative attributes and white children as exemplifying positive attributes. Even at five years old, these children were equipped with damaging stereotypes that are often not adequately challenged in a school curriculum.

Children do not seem to be born racist, but rather become racist through teaching and learning.

“We need to change the curricula in our schools of education and our schools and be very, very intentional in doing the work to disassemble racism,” Hexter said.

By the time most students graduate from a university setting, they are unlikely to have had any formal curricula regarding race.

Dr. Maisha Winn, a professor in the UCD School of Education and the co-director of Transformative Justice in Education, said educational researchers in many age RACISM on 11

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THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 | 5

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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 8, 2018

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion editorial board

the California Aggie EDITORIAL BOARD

Corporations make change when government won’t Dick’s Sporting Goods, others restrict gun sales

BRYAN SYKES Editor-in-Chief EMILY STACK Managing Editor HANNAH HOLZER Campus News Editor 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

In response to the recent shooting in Parkland, Fla. that killed 17 students and faculty and the typical sluggish reaction by representatives to ban assault rifles and ammunition, companies have begun to take gun control into their own hands.

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced last week that it would no longer sell assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines or sell any gun to customers under 21 years of age. Other gun retailers like Kroger and L.L. Bean have also raised their age restrictions from 18 to 21, with Walmart further prohibiting the sale of any items resembling assault-style weapons.

These announcements came after multiple companies cut ties with the National Rifle Association, including MetLife, the First National Bank of Omaha and Delta Air Lines, which is consequently facing political repercussions from Georgia state leaders.

Each high-profile mass shooting in the U.S. has followed the same disheartening, sickening pattern: a national outpouring of shock, mourning and rage, public outcry for an improvement of laws to prevent these tragedies and, ultimately, political inaction — until the next

massacre, when the cycle repeats.

Each time, anti-gun control politicians credulously cross their fingers in hopes that, somehow, without any amendments to the law, this was the last one — yet over 1,600 mass shootings have occurred in the U.S. since Sandy Hook in 2012.

But this time might be different, thanks to the legion of courageous student-protesters demanding stricter gun laws from their state and national representatives. Activists partaking in the National School Walkout on Mar. 14 and the March for Our Lives on Mar. 24 plan to keep the conversation alive, refusing to yield until weapons intended for the battlefield are banned from civilian possession.

Companies big and small are using whatever power they possess to reduce the likelihood of another tragedy — because, as Edward W. Stack, chief executive and founder of Dick’s, proclaimed: “Thoughts and prayers are not enough.”

However, the efforts of corporate America and activists won’t accomplish the level of change necessary to combat the nation’s irregularly high rate of gun violence. Dick’s

and Walmart are only two out of the nearly 64,000 gun stores registered in the U.S. Many gun owners purchase their firearms from other sources, such as unlicensed sellers and gun shows, enabling them to bypass background checks.

Nonetheless, the Editorial Board commends the corporations’ decision to act and, at the very least, encourage discussion and pressure other gun retailers to adopt similar policies. This is not a move that will definitively curtail the frequency of mass shootings, but it’s a symbolic one that’s nevertheless critical and poignant.

The most influence still rests in the hands of GOP lawmakers, who, despite being put to shame by the students and corporations, have largely failed to budge. It’s time that Republican politicians take a cue from major retailers and millions of Americans demanding tighter gun laws. As representatives of the developed country with the highest rate of mass shootings, they must stop offering empty platitudes of sympathy and instead start putting the lives of their constituents above the gun lobby.

“Black Panther”: The importance of diverse perspectives in movies MARVEL’S NEWEST INSTALLATION SENDS A MUCH-NEEDED EMPOWERING MESSAGE

BY AKSHI TA G A N D R A agandra@ucdavis.edu

After most late-night movie theater excursions, I return home exhausted and only slightly emotionally piqued. However, walking out of the movie theater after watching “Black Panther” left me buzzing with excitement and incredibly squealish. I couldn’t stop thinking about the movie for days, and the soundtrack has been playing on repeat on my Spotify.

I have always been a Marvel and DC comics geek, and every superhero movie leaves me with chills after finally delving into the universe of which I wish I were a part. Besides being deeply invested in the epic storylines, I usually enjoy the films due to my emotional attachment to the characters on screen. But Black Panther is a relatively new character, having just entered the Marvel realm in “Captain America: Civil War” back in 2016. “Black Panther” brings a completely new perspective to the Marvel Universe, Hollywood and our own personal views, tossing the generic reasons for enjoying a film aside.

We don’t only love “Black Panther” because of the epic plot, the lovable, relatable, powerful aspects of the characters or even the amazing cinematography — which are all very significant factors in the film’s success. We love it because of the redemption it demands for a community that has been oppressed and discriminated against for too long, the lens through which it portrays a completely new vision of society and the realization that a superhero doesn’t need to conform to a stereotype. It’s a completely different movie that sets itself apart from other movies in the genre.

Through Ryan Coogler, a black director, “Black Panther” introduces powerful views that directly reference the struggles of the black community in a way that anyone can understand. The movie also sends a very clear message — we need more movies that introduce different perspectives in film, as proven by the widespread success of “Wonder Woman.” The DC universe film starred one of the most powerful female superheroes and differentiated itself from other recent films in the genre through securing a female director. “Wonder Woman” is a movie that empowered many women around the world, just as “Black Panther” has empowered many in the black community through the recognition of black culture and the acknowledgment of political and social issues that plague the community worldwide.

“Black Panther” is a film that echoes our current international society. The movie addresses political turmoils about the interference of large, powerful nations in other ones. The concept of the moral obligation to help struggling populations is brought to the forefront of the discussion in the film and very clearly scorns apathetic national policies. This political debate is something that plagues many countries around the world today, with problems like the refugee crisis and international human rights violations or discrimination. “Black Panther” condemns inaction toward issues of vulnerable groups, a powerful philosophy that many political leaders need to take into consideration.

I was also pleasantly surprised to encounter powerful, intelligent, hilarious women in “Black Panther,” whose personalities and strength superseded their looks and gender roles. In this movie, there were no women acting as empty shells whom I could barely relate to. Shuri,

played by Letitia Wright, is a technological genius who develops necessities for Wakanda and is hilarious, powerful, intelligent and brave — as well as much loved by her brother without being defined by him.

Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o, and Okoye, played by Danai Gurira, make a dangerous, entertaining, commanding pair. The women support T’Challa on their own terms, while each holds onto her own personal identities without being forced or suppressed into the typical role of taking care of men with absolutely no personal storyline or character development.

For the first time in a long time, I walked out of a movie theater with coexisting feelings of contentedness and fervor. “Black Panther” perfectly captures the essence of what it means to create a captivating film, demonstrate diverse perspectives and express powerful ideologies about tackling social issues. The success of meaningful movies over the same dull and trite ones will hopefully mean we can eventually see increased social awareness and more inclusivity in films.

CAITLYN SAMPLEY / AGGIE

The glorification of narco culture HOW BROADER CULTURE HAS GROWN TO LOVE CARTELS

BY AL EJAND RO L A R A amlara@ucdavis.edu

This article contains major spoilers for the Netflix show “Narcos.”

Television and news have consistently been complacent in glorifying and packaging narco culture for viewer consumption. This is most readily evident in “Narcos,” the popular Netflix series, which glamorizes drug use and cartel violence and at times makes the viewers sympathize with Pablo Escobar’s character.

The final moments of “Narcos” Season 2 show Escobar running for his life before he gets shot. Because the show humanized Escobar so intensely, I felt bittersweet watching this scene. Even though he ordered thousands of killings, I couldn’t help but feel sad for the man during his last moments. He lost everything.

Clearly, the media has an obsession with crime and violence. Hollywood has repeatedly shown mob bosses as heroes — just look at “The Sopranos” or “Scarface.”

Media depictions of narco culture blur the lines of reality and fiction for dramatization purposes. “Narcos” idolizes Escobar and cleanses his acts of violence through presenting his character as a family man. The show turned him into a martyr.

From an entertainment standpoint, I love “Narcos.” However, I am

critical of how the show inaccurately frames many of the atrocities Escobar committed. Even Escobar’s son has criticized the show for depicting false truths — for “insulting the history of a whole nation.”

As a result, the viewers take these scenes as the truth. I’m guilty of this myself. Even though “Narcos” is a TV show, I couldn’t help but feel that it was at times a documentary — I learned about historical events of which I had no prior knowledge.

For this reason, “Narcos” has caused outrage for Colombians. It has spread misconceptions about the country and continues to repeat the same old stereotypes about Colombia — that cocaine is readily available and that there is still massive violence going on. “Narcos” and Pablo Escobar do not represent Colombia as a whole. These are antiquated notions that repeat the same harmful messages that have circulated for years.

Moreover, the media has an obsession with the dangerous aspect of cartel culture. The popularity of “Narcos” has only further increased hype around narco television series.

“El Chapo” is another Netflix show that focuses on the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, Chapo Guzman. In this genre of television, there’s an overexposure to drug and cartel violence, and they only show the bad side of these countries while never showing the positive.

Moreover, it is important to talk about the prominence of how narco glorification has seeped into Mexican-American culture. According

to Time, “narcocorridos” is “the name given to the traditional-sounding foot-stompers that chronicle the lives of the drug lords and their murderous henchmen.” Narcocorrido is a popular genre of music that idolizes cartels, drugs and violence.

I grew up listening to narcocorrido songs, and it wasn’t until I was in one of my Spanish classes, where we analyzed the genre, that I realized the messages these songs were sending.

The song “Contrabando y Traición,” by the popular band Los Tigres del Norte, mentions drugs, killings and abuse. Many artists in the LARA on 11 ALLYSON KO / AGGIE

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

HUMOR Coho Hacks: Annual hackathon to be held while coders wait in line for their food A NEW TAKE ON MULTITASKING

BY ROSI E SC HWA R Z rschwarz@ucdavis.edu

You’ve heard of hackers, you’ve heard of the CoHo and you’ve probably heard of “Coho Hacks.” But what you probably haven’t heard of is a combination of the three. My job today is to explain what any of that means.

Commonly, when people refer to CoHo hacks, what they mean to say is “I’ve figured out a way to cheat the school of money” (I’m not here to get into the ethics of it). But I’m guessing what you’ve never realized is that the CoHo actually hosts an annual hackathon for students to battle their love of all things stressful in an environment that probably doesn’t need any more chaos added to it. The CoHo Hackathon is an event in which students eager to show that they took a ECS10 class are required to do whatever you do in hackathons — all while waiting in line for their food.

The thing is, you’ve probably never noticed this because it doesn’t

look any different than any other extremely overwhelming encounter you might have had at the CoHo. If you’ve ever stood in the vicinity of a student frantically typing on their computer, drinking a Redbull and standing somewhere inconvenient, you may have inadvertently been a part of the CoHo Hackathon. And let me tell you — there’s more to this event than anything you can probably wrap your nonhacker brain around.

Not surprisingly, this event has seemed to polarize the Davis community, like everything else in this school. There are two sides to every story, and this event specifically seemed to have both of them.

“I just think it’s a really cool way of integrating a high-stress environment with another high-stress environment,” one student said.

“I just don’t know why this school has to always do things like this,” said another student who wasn’t participating.

But regardless of whether or not you are a hackathon supporter… well actually, it doesn’t matter what you think because it’s happening anyway.

Many people are confused how this event started, but most people don’t care. Origin stories can be tricky, but after asking three different people, I came to understand a central theme: the CoHo. From there, I was able to deduce that this event was created by CoHo employees one winter morning (important detail) when they told an eager student that the best CoHo hack of all was programming software while trying to find silverware or drinking coffee while writing JavaScript (if that’s the correct terminology). From then, the hackathon spread like a virus and the possibilities became endless, prompting Davis students to push the boundaries of both technology and, most importantly, the students around them.

I thank the CoHo employees for gracing our school with such a beloved tradition that all the tour guides will be sure to touch on as they lead swarms of fourth-graders through the CoHo at lunch time.

So, please, I urge of you: While members of the CoHo eat lunch at their communal table, go up to them and ask what they have planned for the next annual hackathon. It’s the least you can do.

Budget Cuts: Select faculty to be sacrificed to Gunrock effigy ADMINISTRATIVE BLOAT GOES BYE-BYE

BY AARON L EVI N S adlevins@ucdavis.edu

This tape was found in a deep, dark room, hidden in the bowels of Wellman Hall: “I walked into the room, and all I could hear was a chanting, rhythmic and cyclical. ‘Guuuuuunnnrooooooccckk… Guuuuuuuuuuunnnroooooccckkk…’ echoed off the walls of this godforsaken corner of Wellman Hall.”

The tape skipped, crackling slightly.

“I could see, far in the distance (the room was larger than any kind of real-world proportions) some torches and a circle of hooded figures that were swaying, back and forth, back and forth.

“Suddenly, out of the darkness, a hooded man appeared before me. It was Gary May.

“‘Did you bring any sacrifices?’ May had asked me. He was smiling ear to ear, breathing heavily. I made no reply. ‘What department are you from?’ I told him I was from The Aggie. ‘Ah yes, very good.

Follow me.’

“I followed him to the other side of the room, where to my horror I found piles of charred bodies at the feet of an 100-foot-tall bronze statue of Gunrock, whose visage looked angry, but as it saw me, I could see his horse mouth turn up into a smile.” “‘Gunrock will be quite pleased with what we have brought him today. No money means budget cuts, which means a very happy Gunrock.’”

“Down in the flaming circle I saw faculty from every department, but mostly the humanities. In fact I think it was the entire humanities faculty — also the entire managing staff of The Aggie.”

The tape skipped ahead.

“I have hidden in a corner of the room, hoping that they won’t find me. Wait….I hear footsteps… NOOO-” That was all we found.

MICHELLE GORE / AGGIE

I LIVED IT: I survived being mansplained to AND I LIVED TO TELL THE TALE

BY LARA LOPT M A N lrloptman@ucdavis.edu

Last week, I thought I was going to die. Not because my questionable habits of drinking 17 cups of ShareTea boba per day or sleeping 30 minutes a week had finally caught up with me, but because I was mansplained to.

It started out innocently enough, as most interactions do. I was minding my own business at the CoHo with a very large set of headphones on and a sign around my neck that said “Do not talk to me” when the unthinkable happened: I was approached.

This guy came up to me, looked both ways before speaking and then knelt down to my level, because I am very short and he wanted to make sure I could hear him loud and clear. He later reevaluated

his stance and instead grabbed a chair and sat backward on it, like a teacher who was trying to be relatable.

“You know,” he started. At the time, I didn’t know, but was very curious about what input he had to contribute. “Women aren’t people,” he said with questionable confidence.

This made me think for a good minute. Was I not a person? All this time, I had thought that I was, but after a man had explained it to me, it all started to make sense. At that point I began to question everything, but part of me still felt the urge to resist because something about that statement just didn’t seem physiologically accurate.

I told him that I definitely was a person and wasn’t really sure where he got the idea that women aren’t.

Nevertheless, he persisted. “Well, actually, you’re wrong,” he continued. “Women aren’t people because that’s my opinion, so it’s a fact

now.”

I was fascinated and engaged all at once. His logic was rock-solid and there really was no disagreeing with it.

I smiled and told him I completely understood what he meant now and thanked him for imparting his wisdom upon me, a simple girl who was only knowledgeable about cooking, cleaning and ShareTea boba.

I guess the moral of my story is that being mansplained to actually isn’t so bad and is actually kind of helpful. When I was first approached, I was ignorant and afraid, thinking I was going to die, when all this poor guy wanted was to completely alter my thoughts and feelings in favor of his own. That’s obviously not terrifying at all, and I feel fine now! In the end, I was just being crazy and emotional and forgot my place, but I’m so glad I had a man explain it to me.

reduce. reuse. recycle.

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

8 | THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018

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SCIENCE+TECH DR. RANDY HAAS / COURTESY

Why cities are where they are Natural resources not the only thing dictating where cities are formed

BY DAV I D M A D EY science@theaggie.org

Cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco presumably grew based on agriculture and geographical resources. New research from UC Davis shows that factors such as migration patterns, economic opportunities and the availability of these resources all impact why cities are where they are.

Throughout the world, a hierarchy of cities exist in each country, with a large settlement within that country serving as the apex of its society.

Today, in the United States, New York City is an example of this. Then, you have lower tiers of cities that are much smaller. This pyramid structure is believed to not only exist in modern times, but also in hunter-gatherer societies of the past and present.

Randy Haas, an archaeologist at UC Davis, travelled to Mongolia in the fall of 2017, along with three of his colleagues, and found another reason as to how these complex societal structures formed.

“My expectation was, as we went back in time, that these hierarchical structures and settlement patterns ought to drop out, but they didn’t,” Haas said.

Cities act like reactors for manufacturing and production, while agricultural settlements tend to disperse people. Haas found that the same statistical pattern holds true for societies who do not have agriculture and cities.

NICKI PADAR / AGGIE FILE

California Tea Movement Tea farmers and researchers at UC Davis symposium discuss future of tea

BY KIR A BURN E T T science@theaggie.org

The kettle hisses and Katharine Burnett picks it up and pours the steaming water into a tiny, dark pot full of earthy-smelling leaves. After she’s filled it to the brim, she puts the lid back on, letting the hot tea spill over the sides and vanish into the raised wooden tray on her desk. As she waits for the puerh to steep, Burnett describes her hope for the initiative to encourage a burgeoning tea industry in California.

Burnett, an associate professor of Chinese art history and founding director of the Global Tea Initiative, and other faculty decided to start a research cluster around tea in 2012. Provost Ralph Hexter encouraged them to launch the initiative by holding a symposium. It was a great success among industry professionals, academics and enthusiasts alike, boasting attendance in the hundreds in its first year. This year, the Global Tea Initiative decided to focus on tea sustainability and preservation heading into the future.

Tea, also known as Camellia sinensis, is not a plant traditionally grown in California. However, with small farms like Golden Feather Tea producing high-quality tea in the Sierra foothills and the growing market value of tea in the United States, more people are becoming interested in the idea.

“I think most people kind of all chuckle when we talk about growing tea in California. They just assume tea isn’t going to grow here in California,”

“It’s not just natural resources that are structuring how hunter-gatherers moved through their environments, it’s also the cultural landscape as well — the way hunter-gatherers structured their environments,” Haas said.

As nomadic people settle from place to place, they leave behind some unit of cultural material — a stone tool, fire hearth, posts of a house, improved landscape and so on. The constant reuse of these landscapes creates economies of scale that Haas saw in his statistical model.

“We move a lot. And when we move, we tend to move where people have been already,” Haas said.

While in Mongolia, Haas found a feedback loop for how many times each site was reoccupied.

“The model worked,” Haas said. “The only way you could get that hierarchical pattern is through recursive use of landscapes.”

Jelmer Eerkens, a UC Davis alumnus and professor in the Department of Anthropology, also researches hunter-gatherer behavior.

“Most cities are not strategically placed or planned,” Eerkens said. “There isn’t an easy rule that defines why some locations became large bustling cities and other places were abandoned, or remained small towns.”

Most cities today typically began as a small village where basic resources like water, fertile soil, and trade were plentiful. For example, London had a population of 25,000 in 1200 A.D. and has

said Jeffrey Dahlberg, the director of the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. “Now it’s kind of the same attitude that happened when people started talking about growing blueberries here.”

Blueberries and tea plants actually share several characteristics, Dahlberg said. They both need acidic soil, originate from humid climates and are high-value crops. Today, thousands of acres of blueberries grow in California, where many farmers believed it would be impossible for them to thrive.

Two tea plant varieties, or cultivars, have grown at the Kearney Center since the ‘60s, when Lipton approached the researchers to study tea growth in California. However, the project ended a decade later. Now Dahlberg and his colleagues have taken cuttings to clone the plants and start experiments anew, hoping to figure out the best conditions for them to thrive in the Central Valley.

Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague, a professor of chemistry at UC Davis, thinks that microbes may be key to growing tea. Gervay-Hague spoke at the symposium about the relationship between tea microbes and the chemicals they produce, called glycolipids, that can modulate the human immune system.

Though the project only began recently, analyses show that microbes are cultivar-specific. In other words, different varieties have different microbes associated with them. If the presence of specific microbes in the soil helps tea plants grow, and these microbes are identified, then synthetic communities could be mixed and used as a farming application.

“So, at a very simplistic view, if it takes years and years and years for the natural migration of microbes, if we can identify what those microbes should be, perhaps we can do it that much faster,” Gervay-Hague said. “Perhaps we don’t have to wait for them to travel, we could introduce them right at the time of planting and facilitate the growing of tea.”

On the other hand, perhaps the plant could be altered rather than the habitat. Nigel Melican, a research scientist and the managing director of Teacraft Ltd. in England, explained that American tea plants have old genetics. The USDA does not TEA on 12

doubled in size every century. Nearly 8.8 million people live in London today.

As villages grow into cities, more and more people are attracted to the growing economy and populations grow exponentially. Cities improve commerce, breed markets and even create favorable dating environments. Small businesses lead to greater success by expanding upon previous advancements through trial-and-error.

“It’s a basic cultural transmission process,” Eerkens said. “As growing cities push the limits of natural resources to sustain them, people come up with solutions.”

These solutions could include increased access to medicine, improved technologies and new engineering developments.

“These ideas build on one another, involve trial-and-error innovation and involve many cooperating people,” Eerkens said.

People build dams to store water, roads to improve trade and homes to attract people. With these advancements, come newfound problems — war, disease, pollution and so on.

Humans need to live with other people. As a cooperative species, according to Eerkens, we are dependent on people we don’t even know to spread out the risk of not having enough food, water and shelter.

“These factors dictate where we live, today and in the past,” Eerkens said.

The same hierarchy can be traced to places like ancient Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Peru.

Generally, cities are densely populated, and agriculture is less so.

Haas traveled with the indigenous people of Dukha for six weeks throughout their homeland in northern Mongolia. The Dukha herd reindeer for a living and set up temporary homes each season before deciding to move elsewhere. Haas followed their settlement patterns and shared his findings with the Anthropology Club at UC Davis.

Jenny Chen, a fourth-year biological anthropology and English double major at UC Davis, transferred from UC Merced last year to seek out more internships opportunities in Davis. She is the treasurer for the Anthropology Club on campus.

Anthropology examines aspects of humanity such as culture, language and stories from our past, with the common theme of answering the question: What makes us human?

“Archaeology instantly captured my attention because people and things that have been preserved for thousands of years can tell us so much that can be helpful for gaining a better understanding of how we as humans come to be today evolutionarily and culturally,” Chen said.

Small objects are a reflection of human history, so it’s no surprise that we can learn a lot about changing worldviews through the evolution of dice. Cubic dice have been found in small numbers at various archaeological sites and date to the last 2,000 years.

A recent paper analyzes the design of dice to understand social changes in history.

“We have an increasing understanding of board games found in archaeological contexts,” said Alex de Voogt, a co-author of the paper and the assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History. “Game pieces and dice are usually found separately or in isolation. We started studying dice to answer some basic questions about their design and then [the paper] came as a follow-up when we started looking at them in more detail.”

The design of the dice isn’t the only thing that can tell us about human history. It turns out the materials used to make the dice could carry a story of their own.

“I would be interested in knowing exactly what materials these bone dice [were] made out of,” said Christyann Darwent, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and the chair of the Anthropology Museum. “Because they [were] probably made out of antler, they could be made out of limb bones of animals, but they could also be made out of ivory.”

Ivory at the time was a driver of the economy.

When Vikings made their way to Iceland, they wiped out the entire walrus population to attain the ivory found in their tusks. The impact on the walrus population back then, which made people move toward Greenland, is seen on elephants today.

When studying objects, archaeologists look at both style and functionality of the object. In the case of dice, style would be how the numbers are put on the cube, and functionality would be the shape of the

CITIES on 11

DICE on 11

ALLYSON KO / AGGIE

The Evolution of Dice The story behind the the common game piece

BY KR I TI VAR GHESE science@theaggie.org

JAMIE CHEN / AGGIE

A Co-op for Scientists Core facilities help faculty members, students share resources across campus

BY RACHEL PAUL science@theaggie.org

Scientists across UC Davis have become part of a co-op where they collectively share laboratory equipment. A relatively new program is helping researchers reduce the cost of experiments as well as employ experts on the technologies that people from any discipline can use.

“It’s called the Research Core Facilities Program, and it was created in 2015 [...] it was developed to do a better job of coordinating the shared scientific resources that we have,” said Julie Auger, the executive director of the RCFP. “So those are laboratories that have very expensive technologies or highly expert personnel, that are generally too expensive or too hard to find for individual faculty members to get access to.”

Instead of creating a lab and buying equipment for every scientist wanting to do research, the core facilities house a few expensive technologies that nearly anyone can use for their projects. There is also a listserv for individuals to find specific tools.

“They [the facilities] often start out when somebody wants to buy a very expensive piece of equip-

ment… these things cost 200, 300, $400,000,” Auger said.

After the initial purchase price, service contracts can be bought to insure the machines will be fixed if anything goes wrong. The contracts usually cost 10 percent of the purchase price every year.

“So after the first year of warranty is up, if you have a $400,000 electron microscope that you’ve purchased, you have to put out $40,000 that next year,” Auger said. “So if you have something where only one person has access to it and they only use it 20 percent of the time, because it’s unlikely that all of their research is dedicated to that one piece of equipment, it sits idle 80 percent of the time, yet that one person is responsible for all of the cost of maintaining it.”

Core facilities have a recharge for using the resources. The price varies due to the type of equipment needed, how much the facility staff needs to be involved in running the experiment and other factors. A recharge is leveled on researchers to cover the costs of running the facilities, as the core program does not make a financial profit.

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THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 | 9

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LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

CHESS ANSWERS 1. Ne5+ Ke8 2. Rg8#

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: White to move, mate in 2 moves.

Lucas College and Graduate School of Business Lucas College and Graduate School of Business

Attention Attention Accounting Majors!

Accounting Majors Prepare to become a CPA.

If you are interested in a career in tax accounting, a Master of Science in Taxation (MST) is a great way to meet the 150-hour requirement to become a CPA. • 30-unit graduate degree program • Full-time or part-time options available Or, if you are interested in a career in assurance or advisory, a Master of If you are interested in a career in tax accounting, a Master of Science Science in Accountancy (MSA) can meet your CPA needs in our full-time, 30-unit program. in Taxation (MST) is a great way to meet the 150-hour requirement to

Prepare to become a CPA.

become a CPA. Get more information at: • 30-unit graduate degree program www.sjsu.edu/lucasgsb/programs/mst/ • Full-time or part-time options available Or, if you are interested in a career in assurance or advisory, a Master o Science in Accountancy (MSA) can meet your CPA needs in our full-tim 30-unit program.

Get more information at:

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

10 | THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018

ARTS & Culture AL LYS O N KO / AG G I E

Film Review: Black Panther

Marvel film proves more than an action movie

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

The highly anticipated Marvel film “Black Panther” made its debut on the big screen on Feb 15. The movie uses its platform to address many social issues while incorporating classic Marvel humor. It’s an action thriller that makes time for talk. With a stellar cast of some of the biggest names in the African American community, such as Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Lupita Nyong’o, the film is projected to reach $1 billion at the box office worldwide, according to Bloomberg.

The score is the bridge between African and African American culture throughout the movie. African drums were met with engineered hip-hop sounds, which gave them

film two dimensions to play off of. T’Challa (played by Chadwick Boseman) was surrounded by sounds of Wakanda (a fictional African country). Erik Killmonger (played by Michael B. Jordan) represents a young, contemporary African American man. He was accompanied by familiar American music sounds. He grew up in Oakland, Calif., which has a musical vibe of its own, distinct from African sounds. The two worlds come together in the score and the exceptional soundtrack.

The CGI is absolutely breathtaking from start to finish: everything from the rural scenery in Wakanda to the streets of South Korea and the several action-packed fight scenes.

Movies like “Black Panther” are worth seeing on the big screen to fully appreciate their visual quality.

Aside from the visuals, messages embedded in the screenplay address several social issues facing our nation today.

Marvel is no stranger to acceptable, cheesy humor. Drawing inspiration from popular culture, phrases like “What are those?” make their way into a movie with a $200 million budget. However, the heavy word “colonizer” was used to address one of the two caucasian actors in the film, Everett K. Ross (played by Martin Freeman). A subtle way to get the watcher to think about a part of history in which the grave consequences had a rippling effect stretching to the present day.

It was empowering to see the guards and many of the strong warrior figures portrayed by women. The military general Okoye (played by Danai Gurira) defies societal gender roles with the determination to do what she feels is best. She plays a key role in preventing the technology of Wakanda from falling into the wrong hands. Shuri (played

by Letitia Wright) is the head of the technological advancements of the city as well as the younger sister of T’Challa. She is the head of Wakanda’s STEM industry — an industry that in our world is dominated by men.

W’Kabi (played by Daniel Kaluuya) touches on the highly controversial topic of immigration. His character believes that immigrants bring problems wherever they go and they must be kept out — it’s a mentality of “us vs. them.” However, T’Challa learns to understand that building bridges is better than building walls. Foreign aid and relief is necessary of those who can do more.

The film was spearheaded by African American director Ryan Coogler, known for his other works such as “Creed” and “Fruitvale Station” — a great example of diversity, not only in front of the camera, but behind the camera as well.

“Black Panther” is currently screening at Regal 6 on F Street in downtown Davis.

B RIA N L A N DRY / AG GIE

Davis trivia nights

From the hardest to the easiest trivia, everyone has a chance to win

BY CAR AJ OY KLEI NR OCK arts@theaggie.org

The city of Davis is certainly not short on trivia events. With four different nights of trivia to fill your heart’s desire, almost every night of the week offers an opportunity to test your general knowledge.

Some advice: Come with an eclectic group of people to ensure you have an expert for every category. Oh, and get there early — seats fill up fast.

Mondays The first trivia of the week is on Mondays at De Vere’s Irish Pub from 7 to 9 p.m. This is one of the few trivia nights that is open to all ages. The cost to enter is free, which is also uncommon among most events. Team sizes range from one to six people per team, and prizes are awarded to the top four teams. It’s not a bad idea to get there around 6:30 p.m. and take advantage of the happy hour prices for alcohol and food. The game consists of 30 questions from a variety of topics like history, literature, current events and pop culture.

Tuesdays The most well-known trivia in Davis is at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen.

So here are some of the women making the rock music we deserve — and good music, at that.

C I N DY C H E UN G / AG GI E FI LE

An Earful: Women Rock

A few of the front-of-stage women in rock music

BY AL LY OV ERBAY arts@theaggie.org

As a teenager, the alt-rock musicians that dominated my local radio station, headlined festivals and who ultimately cultivated my musical tastes were male.

Bands like Pearl Jam, Young the Giant, the Killers and Death Cab for Cutie were the formative sounds of my teenage years, but for many young females, the image of a woman standing

at the front of a stage, confidently wielding an electric guitar, remains an anomaly.

Jessica Hopper, a senior editor and music critic at Pitchfork, writes, “men writing songs about women is practically the definition of rock ‘n’ roll.” In her book, “The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic,” Hopper doesn’t pretend these females rockers don’t exist; she flaunts their talent. “We deserve better songs that any boy will ever write about us,” Hopper writes.

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Margaret Glaspy It’s not often I come across a lyrically deliberate break-up album and, well, like it. Glaspy’s first fulllength release, “Emotions and Math,” follows the trajectory of a long-distance relationship from its lovey-dovey peaks in “No Matter Who” to the wallowing loneliness of “Somebody to Anybody.” But no matter how clichéd the love lyrics, Glaspy growls her way through catchy melodies to produce, yet again, an incredible song.

And of course, she put on a stellar NPR Tiny Desk Concert.

Jay Som Underneath this Bay Area native’s whispery, lush vocals are loud lyrics — and even louder guitars. “Feel like a firefighter when I take off your shoes / And more that’s in-between / The knots are loose / I’ll cut them just to see you through,” she hushes in “The Bus Song.”

From more fun and polished tracks like “The Bus Song” to the garage-band feel of earlier works like “Rush,” Jay Som’s Melina Duterte doesn’t skim through her musical projects.

Duterte’s lyricism is a manifestation of her juxtaposing stage presence: a confident declaration of the stage, tinged by her modesty and grace — even when backed by a full band.

Haley Heynderickx Heynderickx is Portland’s newest burgeoning rock artist, and the distinctly folk sound behind her precision guitar playing gives her last name a dual meaning (she’s a declared Jimi Hendrix fan).

Her single “Om Sha La La” boasts fun back-up vocals and an increasingly aggressive declaration of “I need to start a garden” around minute two of the track. “First, I’m Sorry” explores not only the depth of her musicianship, but also the diversity of her lyricism; she describes in the caption of her live version that the song is dedicated to “the women who say ‘I’m sorry’ too much.” She croons behind a distinctly melancholic guitar riff, “You had me first / I’m sorry. / You are by my shelf / To hold up my own self / I’m sorry.”

Big Thief From a technical standpoint, Big Thief is a four-man, one-woman band. From a listener’s perspective, Big Thief is synonymous with Adrienne Lenker, the guitarist and lead singer of the musical project. The band’s 2017 album, “Capacity,” was acclaimed by many, with Lenker’s voice and emotional lyrics as the driving force of the work.

Lenker is the bright spot in the band’s dark and hazy music; she reels about familial relationships and losses in the track “Mythological Beauty,” circling the perspective of the lyrics between herself and her mother and even her future daughter: “there is a child inside you who is trying / to raise a child in me.”

Melee smashes its way into the present Cult following of 17-year-old game finds footing locally, internationally

BY NIC RAG O arts@theaggie.org

The video game industry is undeniably massive, producing plenty of games on the largest and smallest of scales throughout a calendar year. Typically, a game upon release will have a lifespan, depending on various factors like audience base and quality, that can last months or even years before the game is finally shelved and playerless.

While it sounds morbid, there are just too many games to keep each one relevant for all time.

So what about a game that came out in late 2001?

Shouldn’t it be shelved and dead? For most games, yes. If they were released 17 years ago, there usually aren’t many people playing it today. But there is an outlier: Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Commonly referred to as just “Smash” or “Melee,” this game not only has a fanatic fanbase, but a growing one. The game Melee is simple enough.

Players choose from a roster of 26 characters and fight each other until, inevitably, one player is pushed off the playable map. The presence of

Smash is commonly seen as a casual party game; it is what the game was made for after all, yet the growing community isn’t one of only friends on couches, but of competitors in tournaments.

In recent years, e-sports have become more and more relevant, yet mostly for the newest games and games being specifically designed with a competitive edge. Smash has neither of those prerequisites; it is neither new nor designed for competition.

So where is the appeal in this nearly 20-yearold game? Chris Do, an active member of the Smash community and a third-year English and political science double major, spoke about the unique aspects that may be convincing players to stick around and play.

“There’s always this drive that there’s someone who’s going to be better than you,” Do said.

“There’s always a goal ascertainable through the action of play. That differs from a lot of other games [...] Like if I’m playing Tetris, for example, the goal is just to keep playing. For Melee there is a goal, you have to get better everyday.

B AG OG A MES / [CC BY 2.0 ] _F L ICKR

You can see that [...] in post tournament matches. You can figure out what you were doing wrong afterwards [...] All the play is up for the player to decide.”

Michael Chase, a fourth-year English major, also shared his thoughts as to why Smash remains popular.

“I think Melee is a very complex game, you can never top out in skill,” Chase said. “Anything that is competitive just requires skill and a certain absence of randomness. [Melee] works on a competitive level because random elements are removed from the game and [...] there’s so much opportunity for mastery in all the different areas of the game. Whether it’s like, having to know 20 plus different [character] matchups in the game, having to also outthink your opponent, being able to recognize patterns on the spot and also the technical aspect of like teaching your hands to move

in a certain way and getting the internal timing of the game down.”

The most amazing part about Smash isn’t truly that it’s still played, but that its competitive scene is not only alive, but thriving with rankings ranging from local communities, like Davis, to the international level.

Michael Chase spoke about his experience in the more local competitive scene.

“I probably went to about two tournaments a month my first year [competing], just like local tournaments in Salinas, Monterey or San Jose,” Chase said.

“There was a point where I was like six months into competitive smash, and there was a player in my local community. I lived in Salinas at the time, in the SMASH on 12

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Ongoing outreach for the To Boldly Go Campaign was discussed.

Public announcements came next. Volunteers for the Suicide Prevention Center of Yolo County were requested. A moment of silence was observed for the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. The solemn moment was followed by an announcement that the Cross Cultural Center is hiring. Next was an announcement that the Cross Cultural Center will hold an event titled “Affirming Narratives for Shithole Countries” in support of ECAC’s event titled “Navigating Hate Crimes on Campus.”

As she has done in recent weeks, Jamaludin critiqued the state of the Senate. She also spoke about the upcoming ASUCD Senate Town Hall on March 8 at 6:10 p.m.

“First off, there have been people repeatedly who come to Senate who don’t help clean up and push the tables,” Jamaludin said. “Pick up your stuff before I start calling you out by name. [The] Town Hall is coming up. It’s going to be there at [Center for African Diaspora Student Success].

Please be punctual. This is our first Senate Town Hall in a long time and be prepared for some tough questions. I’m here for you all if you want to talk about how the association can do better. I want to give you what’s in my brain. I really enjoyed my meetings for those who came out to me.”

The meeting concluded with ex officio reports and a rundown of the elected officer reports.

The meeting adjourned at 11:11 p.m.

The UC Davis Anthropology Club meets weekly by bringing a variety of guest lecturers ranging from prehistoric arctic fishing to social organizations in the Quechua and Aymara.

“Some of our club members are also not anthropology majors, but just love learning about the nature and culture of what it means to be ‘human,’” Chen said.

Haas gave a talk at the Anthropology Club on campus. Chen was in attendance. “[The] meeting taught me that technology is constantly giving us more insight and more discoveries about people in general,” Chen said.

In his talk, Haas emphasized that he had the

opportunity to live and interact with people in Mongolia to better understand the data he was collecting. Rather than working with data in a lab and on a computer, Haas reiterated the importance of immersion and participation in the field.

According to Haas, the pyramidal settlement hierarchy is fundamentally embedded in human societies dating back 50,000 years or more.

“We don’t know if this pattern existed before that, but I suspect at least 10,000 years here in the New World and possibly much earlier among our Paleolithic ancestors in the Old World,” Haas said.

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‘Independent’ in this context means devoid of any potential conflict of interest.”

Khoshmashrab noted that the vacancies will only search for those who are the best fit for the position.

“Those vacancies get filled for the most qualified people,” Khoshmashrab said. “We also invite the current members to reapply, and from there we consider the most adept to benefit the oversight aspect of the county members.”

SNAP ment 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.”

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groups can work together to create better curricula regarding race.

“Higher education researchers help us think about what we should be doing in that P-12 age range,” Winn said.

After noticing schools had sometimes done little to change their institutional practices when delivered a racial climate report, Harper now revisits the site with his team to publicly announce the results of the studies.

“I don’t really know what everyone else in the class is going to do, but speaking for the 30 percent, I don’t think we are going to do anything,” she said. “He has that discretion as a teacher to take points away from us so it’s not really in our best interest to do anything about it.”

Orzechowicz did not respond to requests for comment.

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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 develop-

strategies to address this situation,” the email stated. “My intent isn’t to get Dr. O in trouble, but I want to ensure that this doesn’t continue to impact our class and that other students in the future don’t experience this again.”

The student who spoke with The California Aggie, however, said she disagrees with the author of this email.

Harper’s work indicates a disconnect from the values of diversity championed by universities and the painful experiences many students and staff still encounter.

“When you seek the truth from oppressed people, marginalized people, people of color on college campuses, they will give it to you,” Harper said. “But you have to be in pursuit of how they experience this place so differently than their white counterparts.”

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cube. Normally, it can be hard to tell if an object is designed for better functionality or style. The way numbers are put on the dice doesn’t affect the function of the dice; dice provide a convenient way to separate style and function, making it easier to analyze how style and functional attributes change over the years in ways that relate to peoples’ worldviews at the time.

“So what we think is that it didn’t matter so much in Roman times that a die was not exactly a cube because the way that the die rolled and the number that came up didn’t matter,” said Jelmer Eerkens, a co-author of the paper and a professor in the Department of Anthropology.

In Roman and early Medieval times, it was thought that the world was controlled by supernatural beings or gods. Nothing was random. Everything was dictated by a supernatural entity.

“The outcome of the games were thought to be predetermined by other things, not things like chance,” Eerkens said. “As peoples’ worldviews changed and concepts like probability and chance started to enter people’s’ minds, [it] affected the way the dice appeared and they became true cubes and they also eventually came to be essentially balanced in the way that the numbers were put on the dice.”

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cocorrido genre explicitly talk about killing and doing drugs, while some songs even praise and support El Chapo.

Nonetheless, these super-famous artists in the narcocorrido genre exaggerate and even lie about their lifestyles. The same thing can be see in the U.S. music industry. Rapper Future has gone on record and “admitt[ed] that the stories he tells in his music aren’t always exemplary of his actual lifestyle.” Artists who sing about living these crazy,

MORGAN TIEU / AGGIE FILE

drug-filled lifestyles are merely putting on a show.

I urge listeners and viewers of narco music and TV to be aware of fraudulent claims in the media, as these are constructed and packaged for consumption.

I want to see positive depictions of Hispanics for once. I’m tired of hearing and seeing the same stereotypes of narco culture being circulated with such popularity.

MARCH events calendar Enjoy a month of art, comedy, sports, gastronomic experiences

BY ROWAN O’CONNELl-GATES arts@theaggie.org

John Cleese, Live on Stage plus a Screening of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” Where? Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center When? Wednesday, March 28 at 8 p.m.

What is it? Famed comedian John Cleese is bringing his talents to Davis. The “Monty Python” co-founder will be speaking on his life and comedic career, followed by a Q&A with the audience and a screening of the cult classic “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Global Flavors: Risotto and Gnocchi Where? Teaching Kitchen at the Davis Food Co-op When? Friday, March 9 from 6 to 8 p.m.

What is it? Head down to the Davis Food Coop to learn all about gnocchi and risotto. The Teaching Kitchen at the Co-op holds monthly events that often involve learning to cook exciting dishes while enjoying a drink.

Lorde: Melodrama World Tour Where? Golden 1 Center

When? Monday, March 12 at 7 p.m.

What is it? Grammy-winning singer Lorde is coming to Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center. The young talent is on tour promoting her latest hit album, “Melodrama.” She will be joined by openers Run The Jewels and Tove Styrke.

“Wayne Thiebaud | 1958–1968” Where? Manetti Shrem Museum When? Now through May 13 What is it? A celebration of the artistic beginnings of the groundbreaking Wayne Thiebaud.

The exhibition gathers a collection of paintings from the former UC Davis professor’s portfolio.

Golden State Warriors vs. Sacramento Kings Where? Golden 1 Center When? Saturday, March 31, 7 p.m.

What is it? End March with a bang in the state capitol. The NBA’s defending champion, the Golden State Warriors, travel north to face the Sacramento Kings. Attendance not recommended if one is a diehard Kings fan. However, if one is impartial, the event will be studded with NBA All Stars and future Hall-of-Famers.

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 8, 2018

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

TEA

VOTE

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allow living plant material in, while countries breeding new varieties are careful not to let them out. Selective and transgenic tea breeding is necessary for local quality and adaptation.

“We have genomes adapted to cold and others adapted to heat, but recent weather patterns in the U.S. are making climate both hotter in summer and colder in winter — and rapid fluctuations between the two in spring and fall,” Melican said. “[We] need new genetics to cope with this. Drops in annual precipitation and even monthly distribution of rainfall predisposes more drought times — we need better drought-tolerant plants and, ironically, more waterlogging tolerance for times when flooding occurs.”

Melican, Gervay-Hague and Dahlberg all agree that it’s the small-scale specialty tea farms that show the most promise for California. Well-established tea industries overseas produce

quantities we can’t match at low prices. Large, standardized farms are also undesirable since tea doesn’t grow as well in a monoculture. Polycultures are both environmentally friendly (a plus in California) and improve quality.

“Between the birds, the bees, the insects, the worms, the microbes that are enriched by this diversity of plantings, the tea flavor is actually better,” Burnett said. “The number of quality nutrients actually increases. So the quality of the leaf — of the cup — actually is better if it’s ecologically farmed.”

The tea business in the US is growing by 10 to 15 percent every year.

The market for specialty tea, including environmentally conscious, ecological and artisanal teas, among others, is also growing. Burnett believes that with a network of small, uniquely Californian tea farms, the state could become a destination for tea drinkers and ecotourists.

An acquaintance and highly regarded food and beverage expert told Burnett at the end of the tea symposium that it reminded him of the start of the wine industry in California 50 years ago. People are striving against the odds with the same enthusiasm as they did back then. Hopefully that bodes well for the scientists, farmers and tea lovers who are working together to make tea a new tradition.

“We are answering a need, a distinct need, and Davis is the right place for this to happen because we are the most comprehensive of all the UC campuses,” Burnett said. “Which means [with] the expertise that our research scholars have to offer across the disciplines and together, through trans-disciplinary research, we can ask not only new questions, but we can ask new kinds of new questions and create new kinds of new knowledge that would not be possible, literally, anywhere else.”

Wednesdays Wednesdays are for University of Beer, a lesser-known trivia spot but still a popular one. Starting at 8 p.m., this trivia requires a two-drink minimum per team member to qualify.

Each week there is a different theme, which is hinted at on their Facebook page earlier in the day. This bar isn’t as big as the other two, but it gets just as crowded. The maximum number of people per team is six. The pace of questions is quite fast (about one question per minute) so make sure you sit where you can hear the quiz-

master. Prizes are awarded to the top three winners.

earn their own tournament brackets.

Chen placed 129th in the tournament out of 674.

“I beat some ranked people from other regions,” Chen said. “[I] almost took a set from one of the best SoCal players, and SoCal is known as the best region. There was a lot on the line for my pride and my region, and I think I represented it really well.”

While the Smash community is hyper-competitive, the game is classified as a “fighting game”; the real joy isn’t to be found in the often stressful tournament matches.

“In the end, we all come together for a common passion,” Chen said.

“That is the love of video games and the love of Smash [...] A lot of people are building bonds over just such a simple game.”

Chase’s enthusiasm similarly promoted interest in seeing the community grow and adding potential new players.

“I have never met anyone that puts

me off in this community. Everyone is so friendly,” Chase said. “We usually offer about two tournaments a week [in Davis] [...] The best way to start would be to follow the [Davis Melee] Club’s Facebook page because then you can find out when the events are and choose for yourself whether you want to go to a tournament, which might have a more competitive mindset, or just go meet some people and hangout.”

The 17-year-old game seems to be one of the sweetest fruits the video game industry has to offer. It may be focused on beating the life out of friends, family or strangers’ characters, yet the power it has to bring people together isn’t malicious. What you’ll see at tournaments and at home on a couch are not grudges or hard feelings, but a community of like-interested individuals hoping to have a good time playing a game they love. The Davis Melee Club meets frequently for any would-be competitors.

working with them can have access to the projects done in partnership with core facilities.

“Initially, what a faculty researcher will do is they would either have a master’s student or a PhD student that they would develop project protocol,” Pearson said. “If it’s a greenhouse related activity then they would present us with a space request. So then we would provide them with our perspective on where this could fit into the game plan,” For microscopic experiments, a core facility with a flow cytometer and related equipment are available elsewhere on campus. These machines examine cells and how they react to fluorescent dyes.

“I’d say predominately graduate students [are using the equipment],” said Bridget McLaughlin, co-director of UC Davis Flow Cytometry Shared Resource. “Sometimes, undergraduate students [use the equipment], and I think it’s a wonderful technique for an undergraduate to learn, to introduce to all aspects of cell biology and fluorescent detection.”

To examine elements at parts per billion or parts per trillion, the inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy technology can be used at the Interdisciplinary Center for Plasma Mass Spectrometry. This technique has been used to date artifacts, determine the

life history of fish based off their ear stones, or otolithes and see if there is a correlation between toxic metals and autism.

“It’s a pretty diverse range of things, there’s never a dull moment, there’s always a new method to tackle. We seem to be going international, we’re getting clients from all over the world that specifically want to do the fish-otolithe method, because we’re kind of known for that now,” said Justin Glessner, a spectroscopist in the facility. “We’re an all-inclusive facility, we feel like we are a public resource, we’re publicly funded, and we want to just have open access for this type of capability for whoever needs to use it.”

A common sentiment that is expressed about the core facilities is the idea of saving money, and that in the long run it will lead to further investment in new technology for UC Davis.

However, the advantages of consolidating expensive equipment to a few spaces extend beyond financial reasons.

“I think the chief benefit to having equipment that is available to investigators centrally located in a core facility is that those investigators have the access to the expert staff who have years of experience with the pitfalls and also the successful strategies for obtaining good quality data,” McLaughlin said.

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Also known for being the hardest and most fast-paced game, the event is every Tuesday from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. This event is 21-plus. There is a one-drink minimum per team member to play, and bonus points are only awarded if every team member has two drinks.

Prizes are given to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, which are gift cards for the restaurant/bar. The median score team also wins a bottle of wine, and the team with the best name wins a round of shots. They limit the number of teams to 40, so it’s advised to get there on the earlier side.

Thursdays Woodstock’s Pizza holds a trivia night every Thursday starting at 9 p.m., but it is suggested to get there at 8:30 p.m. to sign up and find a seat. This is a free event and open to all ages. It’s the easiest of all Davis trivia nights, and it’s broken into four themed rounds that change each week. A variety of prizes are handed out, and it’s all over by 11 p.m. — leaving enough time to enjoy the remainder of your night.

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Monterey area. He had been playing for about 10 years and I remember the first time I beat him in a tournament.

It was like the best feeling ever.”

The smaller tournaments can be found in the back of comic book stores or even in dedicated players’ homes, yet at the national level larger venues are required. GENESIS, one of the largest Smash tournament series, just wrapped up its 5th event on Jan. 21 of this year.

The event, properly called GENESIS 5, attracted an attendance of just over 2,900 people, awarded the winner of the Melee bracket over $6,000, and filled the Oakland Convention Center. Naturally, with the event so close, many from the Davis community made their way down for the event.

Brian Chen, a second-year biological sciences major, played Super Smash Bros. 4, a newer sequel to Melee, at GENESIS 5.

While Melee and Smash 4 are sequels, they boast enough differences to

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The RCFP just launched a program that offsets the cost of core facilities to scientists who are trying a type of technology they have not used before in their research. This Pilot and Feasibility Program may award money to researchers up to four times this year.

Instead of purchasing expensive lab equipment for new employees at UC Davis, the school offers them the opportunity to use core facilities for a negotiated period of time free of charge. According to Auger, it is more cost-effective for departments to cover the costs of using equipment at a core facility rather than buy new machines.

Garry Pearson is the Greenhouse Manager and oversees part of the 170 greenhouses and related facilities UC Davis has. As a core facility, Pearson and his team not only work with scientists to help set up their experiments, but they also design and create about 25% of the equipment used.

“We service about 100 faculty in their research projects, so I like to say that we grow everything from artichoke to zucchini and everything else the researchers can think of in between,” Pearson said. “We have approximately 170-180 projects, they are spread across all of the disciplines within the college.”

Even though most research is done by faculty and postdoctoral students, graduate or undergraduate students

“I think what they would have to do to get me more interested is show me what they’re capable of, what they’ve done in the past and what they plan to do in the future other than trying to spread hashtags around,” Nevin said.

While Nevin was outspoken regarding what he refers to as a lack of readily available information on the candidates, he admitted that he had never actively sought out information.

When asked if he had ever sought out information regarding ASUCD candidate credibility, Nevin’s response was telling.

“No — I suppose that’s on me, but I think it would be easier if there was some sort of information about them that was as readily available as the, I don’t want to say propaganda, posters with names and hashtags and phrases, then I would probably know enough,” Nevin said. “However, if I was really interested in voting in the first place, then I could seek out more information.”

Nevin later spoke on the topic of what he thinks makes certain people more likely to be involved with the process and to care about voting.

“My guess, from a sociological perspective, is that they probably know someone who is involved with ASUCD, or they are in a group that is directly affected by ASUCD,” Nevin said. “It’s possible that there are personality types that are more predisposed to go and search that out. I consider myself a very politically involved individual, but when it comes to ASUCD, I guess my assumption, to be completely honest, is that they don’t really have much real power, that it’s sort of a way to get talented kids into the grad school of their choice. I hate to be that cynical.”

The degree of cynicism and skepticism present in the CoHo interviews is given a thick layer of irony by the fact that ASUCD is responsible for running the CoHo. “ASUCD runs the student coffee house, a common hangout for students,” said Shellan Saling, a fourthyear international relations major and the campaign manager for the Unite! slate. “Without ASUCD, the Coffee House may not exist. Students should care.”

Saling continued by describing more of the important positions that candidates take and why their advocacy is important.

“ASUCD has also been at the forefront of fighting for more affordable student housing in Davis recently by showing up to Davis City Council meetings to represent the entire UC Davis student body,” Saling said. “Students need to understand ASUCD has a direct impact on us.”

Despite low turnout, Saling believes that the executive victory and three out of six senate seat victories prove that Unite!’s campaigning and promotion was successful in reaching students.

“Unite! won bottom line, therefore we are effective,” Saling said. “Our slate as a whole looks for issues that may not be as publicize[d], for example, the platforms increasing free entertainment ran on by Brandon Clemons, clubs and disability activism ran on by the executive ticket. These were issues affecting many of our students but had not been given representation yet. We also made a[n] effort to reach out to lesser known groups or groups not often represented in elections.”

ASUCD Elections Chair and fourth-year sociology and social services major Naeema Kaleem spoke on why she thinks it is so important to be involved and to make an informed vote.

“The folks that are elected decide what to do with a $13 million budget, some of which is comprised of student fees,” Kaleem said. “Our campus climate today scrutinizes how administration uses student fees, so why not hold other entities that utilize student fees accountable? Accountability is a buzzword thrown around in the Association, but it actually carries a lot of weight, as folks who are elected make decisions that directly impact communities across campus.”

Kaleem also explained how elected officials in the senate and executive office work with ASUCD units to try to improve the services that students engage with on a daily basis.

“The executive office and senators work with almost 30 ASUCD units that the average student uses almost everyday,” Kaleem said. “The elections committee worked extensively with our amazing creative media team to engage the student body with ASUCD units through events and social media efforts.”

Kaleem thinks that generating more interest in the elections process requires increased efforts from all parties involved.

“From an elections committee perspective, the responsibility of creating more interest in ASUCD elections [and] ASUCD as a whole lies with three groups: current sitting senators, candidates running in the election and the student body,” Kaleem said. “That was the point of this quarter’s tagline of ‘It Takes 2 Minutes’ — that if senators truly did their job and educated students on who to vote for, how to vote and how the Association impacts students’ daily lives, voting really would take two minutes.”

While Kaleem is optimistic about the efforts that can be taken to increase the level of student engagement with ASUCD, her insider experience has left her with some of the same cynicism that is reflected in the student body.

“Having been in ASUCD for two years and running two elections so far, I can say that the senate table does an abysmal job of educating voters and promoting elections and then complains that unqualified/undeserving folks are elected to office,” Kaleem said. “Candidates, however, have the responsibility of finding communities on campus to represent in their capacity as an elected official, and finding issues that affect those communities.

This is when the student body comes in — if they are unhappy with election results, instead of complaining, they must hold their elected representatives accountable by going to senate, committee and commission meetings and making their concerns heard.”

Kaleem believes that the key to making ASUCD’s work a greater concern in the minds of students is for the elected representatives to do as much as possible to ensure that the student body knows how to and feels welcome to be proactive in catalyzing change.

“Contrary to popular belief, ASUCD can be accessible — but only if those elected to represent students ensure that the space is inclusive and welcoming,” Kaleem said.

13 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS COLLABORATION BRINGS TOGETHER AT-RISK YOUTH, UC DAVIS MEN’S BASKETBALL

VE R ON ICA VA R GO / AGGIE

Boys from Progress Ranch interacted with favorite basketball players thanks to coordination of CMN 130 class project

BY LIZ JACO B S O N sports@theaggie.org

At the final UC Davis men’s basketball game of the season, there were a few special fans in the bleachers cheering on the Aggies. Five UC Davis students enrolled in CMN 130: Group Communications partnered with Progress Ranch to give young at-risk boys the opportunity to cheer on and interact with their favorite players.

It began with a group of UC Davis students who were tasked with completing a volunteer project in their community for the CMN 130 course. The project has made such an impact that some of the group members, like Jennifer Seymour, a second-year physics major, are considering changing their majors to communication.

“We knew that we wanted to [work with] at-risk children and we found out that Progress Ranch was located within the Davis community,” Seymour said.

Progress Ranch is a non-profit organization that houses emotionally at-risk

boys in Davis. Since 1976, Progress Ranch has dedicated itself to offering both residential care and treatment services for boys aged 6-15.

After consulting the boys at Progress Ranch and Activity Coordinator Leola Taylor, the group chose the final home game against Hawai’i for the special event. The students also coordinated with Kristin Moore, assistant director of athletics marketing. The boys then had the opportunity to watch the game in reserved seats and afterwards got autographs from the UC Davis men’s basketball team.

One young boy told The Aggie that he was excited they picked basketball as their event. “Number zero” junior guard TJ Shorts II is his favorite player. “[Coming to the game] makes me feel happy and it’s very fun,” he said. “[Shorts II] is super cool.”

He got the opportunity to talk to his favorite player and excitedly showed off his signed poster to his friends after the Aggies beat the Rainbow Warriors 7059.

“The kids were super energetic and hype [sic],” said Joshua Garcia, a thirdyear communication major involved with the project. “They all play football, basketball and baseball, so for them to come out and meet some of [the players] and the team… it was really cool to see their faces. It becomes more than a project, it becomes something special and near and dear to our hearts. It’s more than just getting an A.” Taylor expressed the importance of students and groups coordinating events such as this.

“It’s important to volunteer if you can” Taylor said. “It’s important if you see a group home that needs something and you’re able to assist, like donating or fundraising.”

This CMN 130 project created an opportunity for these young boys, whose struggles are often unseen, to interact with strong role models — UC Davis student-athletes.

“Kids are special,” Garcia said. “[Working with them], we know we can impact the future.”

AGGIES WIN BIG IN TRIPLE OVERTIME VICTORY UC Davis women’s water polo team beats University of Pacific Tigers 13-12 in sudden victory

BY RYA N BUG SC H sports@theaggie.org

With almost all of the stands packed with people at the Schaal Aquatic Center on March 3, the UC Davis women’s water polo team beat the University of Pacific Tigers 13-12 in a sudden triple overtime victory. Coming into the game, the Aggies possessed a 13-7 overall record, a 3-1 home record and were ranked No.13 by the NCAA. Their opponents, the No. 7 ranked Tigers had a 7-4 overall record coming into the game.

“It was an exciting win and we put in all the work,” head coach Jamey Wright said. “It is really exhilarating as a coach to see a group of people put in the work all week and then executing it. It was really awesome to see that.”

The first period seemed to be an acclimation of the match period for the Aggies, as Pacific put four goals in the back of the net at 7:28, 4:19, 3:10, and on a powerplay goal with 0:14 left in the period. UC Davis’ junior defender McKenna Hauss earned herself a goal on a powerplay opportunity at 0:51 in the period, brining the ending of the first period to a 4-1 Aggie deficit.

The beauty of water polo is that it is always anyone’s game due to the physicality of the sport, and with continual hard work, a team can take the lead. This was true for the Aggies in the second pe-

riod, with senior center Greta Kohlmoos putting two goals in the back of the net at 6:33 and 5:59, beating her opponent with pure physicality and strength in front of the net. Senior attacker Sammy Preston was soon to follow for UC Davis with a goal at 5:29 to bring the score to an even 4-4. One more goal for the Tigers at 5:13 and Hauss for the Aggies at 0:08 ended the second period with the match all tied at 5-5.

In a neck-and-neck game in the third period, Pacific and UC Davis began to exchange goals rapidly, the Tigers scoring at 7:00, 5:12 and 3:53. Senior utility Paige Virgil earned a goal at 5:36 and sophomore attacker Kathleen Schafle earned her hat trick in one period for the Aggies at 4:47, 3:33 and 1:54 respectively to give UC Davis the 9-8 lead. Pacific soon capitalized on an even-strength goal at 1:34 to tie the game at nine. Neither team could score another goal in the third, keeping the game tied into the fourth.

“I think [my shots] were very low percentage and you shouldn’t necessarily shoot them,” Schafle said about what contributed to her goals on the day. “Because my teammates were helping distract the goalie and helping take my player away from me I think it was the movement of the team [that helped].”

The first half of the fourth was a draw, both teams not able to score a goal and constantly swimming back-and-forth

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEARS THROUGH COMPETITION IN 2017-18 SEASON Aggies making a mark on program history

N IC HO L AS C H A N / AGGI E

BY RYA N BUG SC H sports@theaggie.org

The UC Davis women’s basketball team dominated the competition this season and boasted a 24-5 2017-18 regular season record, and 14-2 in Big West Conference play, the losses simply bolstered the Aggies’ resolve and the season saw mostly an upward trajectory with a desire to build on the success of the previous season.

“It kind of started last year, there was a process of going through that loss in the tournament,” head coach Jennifer Gross said as she reflected on the season. “Be-

ing able to play in the postseason and have some success in the WNIT, seeing what we are capable of doing […], we said we’re coming back to this season on a mission.”

Motivated by the program’s first Division I tournament postseason win in 2016-17 and the loss to Washington State that ended the Aggies’ postseason run in the 2017 Women’s National Invitation Tournament, the team started the 2017-18 season with a rematch and a vengeance.

The Aggies defeated the Huskies handily 91-76 on Nov. 11, 2017.

“With the opening game against

J U L I PEREZ / AG GIE

with change of possession. At 4:49, however, Virgil was able to score an even strength goal in an impressive swimming performance to gain one-on-one position with the opposing goalie. Pacific responded right away, finishing a goal at 4:33 to tie the game yet again at 10. With the chance to win the game with 30 seconds left in the match, the Aggies held the ball until 15 seconds left to run a play they felt would get them the win, showing the strategic aspect to water polo along with the physicality, something that might not be thought of as much with the sport.

A shot by Virgil hit the crossbar and bounced right on the goal line, forcing a no goal call and pushing the match into two three minute overtime periods.

On a bouncing ball at 2:38, the Tigers quickly took the 11-10 overtime lead.

Even though the match was in overtime, that did not affect the back-and-forth play on both sides, Schafle putting her fourth goal in the back of the net at 2:10 to tie the game. The goals kept rolling for the Aggies, Virgil earning her hat trick at the 1:35 mark to give the team the one goal lead. With just six seconds left in the period, however, Pacific capitalized on the wing for the 12-12 tie after the first overtime period.

The second overtime period proved to be missed shots and saved goals, and neither team could put a point on the board, moving into sudden victory (death) over-

time. In this sudden victory period, the teams play three minute periods until a goal is scored. First team to score is the victor.

On an amazing one-handed save from Aggie sophomore goalkeeper Caitlin Golding, the Tiger’s initial possession was stopped. It was at 1:48 in the seventh period when junior utility Emily Byrne placed a right lower shot in the back of the net, ending the game and giving the Aggies the 13-12 win.

After the nail-biting win, UC Davis is hungry to face its conference opponents in a week and a half, particularly Kohlmoos, who wants to make her last year at Davis her best after playing water polo for six years.

“I am super excited and ready to face good conference opponents,” Kohlmoos said. “Our conference is one of the most competitive, our team is ready and fired up and this being my last year, I want to go out with a bang so I want to make the most of every last second I have in the pool.”

UC Davis is now 14-7 overall and will finish its non conference play tomorrow, March 9 against Azusa Pacific University home at Schaal Aquatic Center.

“It is impressive for any group to be down 4-1 and come back,” Wright said.

“It would have been easy to roll over at that point but they keep battling so it was a lot of character and a lot of heart, which was good to see.”

Washington state, our players were just ultra-confident and very focused,” Gross said. “They performed on a big stage in front of a big crowd and I think that kind of set the tone for everything else that followed.”

From that point on, the women fulfilled the prophecy of clinching back-toback Big West titles as expected, according to the Big West 2017-18 preseason coaches poll.

The Aggies’ momentum led them to rack up nine game winning streak, along the way winning three consecutive road games by a 25-point margin. Junior forward Morgan Bertsch and the Aggies stomped the Sacramento State Hornets in the Causeway Classic, with Bertsch scoring a career-high 29 points.

In the offensive department, Bertsch led the Aggies’ offensive charge with a 20 point per game average, a four-point increase from her 2016-17 15.9 ppg average, and shot 55 percent from the field.

Senior forward Pele Gianotti was the Aggies top defender and grabbed the most rebounds for the Aggies with a total of 164 and an average of six rebounds per game.

The University of Central Florida snapped the Aggies’ winning streak, grabbing their first loss and bringing their record to nine wins and one loss.

After that, the Aggies and Gross made it to the championship game in the Fordham Holiday Classic, finally losing in the championship round to Fordham.

This brought them to the first matchup of Big West Conference play on Jan. 4, where they took down the UC Irvine

Anteaters 76-67. After that, the Aggies continued to dominate the Big West Conference and built a perfect conference record of eight wins and zero losses.

The Aggies were only shaken up on a road game in Northridge on Feb. 3, losing their first conference game to the Matadors 71-75 in overtime. Despite leading the Big West Conference up to this point, it took this loss for the women to step up the caliber of their play and mentally set aside their impressive record.

“I think we had been just a little complacent up to that game; we knew we were winning, and we were still playing hard,” senior guard Dani Nafekh said as she recalled the loss to Northridge. “But people were bringing their best games at us, and we weren’t giving our best, since then I think we’ve just played a lot more cohesively and come together a lot more.”

Having a winning streak snapped is not always a good thing, but Gross saw the silver lining in the loss to Northridge.

“I think we responded really well to that loss,” Gross said. “Having to regroup and look within and say O.K., where are we and what can we do to continue on our path.”

This loss did not hinder the Aggies for long; they continued on their path and bounced back with a win against Cal Poly in which the Aggie defense held the Mustangs to a field goal percentage of 36 percent. Bertsch’s 26 points combined with the team’s solid offensive performance gave them enough to sneak past Cal Poly 85-77. This game also moved Bertsch into third place on UC Davis’ all time scoring list.

Then came a shot at revenge against Northridge, this time at home. The Aggies’ steady defense held CSUN to a field goal percentage of 36 percent, and defeated the Matadors 72-46.

The Aggies clinched the Big West Conference on Feb. 24 at home — this was a huge goal for the team and they are fired up.

“We’re going to take some time and feel really awesome about what we’ve done,” Nafekh said. “But we know it’s not the final goal and we’re going to come back to practice ready to win some more games and win the tournament.”

Bertsch achieved a new career-high with 34 points in the Aggies’ win against Cal State Fullerton on March 1.

The Aggies wrapped up the final regular season game with a loss at UC Riverside 62-76 on Saturday.

After the postseason is all set and done, Gross’ Aggies will be losing key players to graduation: Pele Gianotti, Dani Nafekh, Rachel Nagel and Marley Anderson.

However, Gross understands that with new players comes new opportunities.

Gross spoke to the academic success and component of the team.

“When we recruit players here, we’re looking for the whole package, the basketball player, the character and the academics,” Gross said. “We have great starting material with this team, they’re motivated in everything that they do, but it is very tough to do what these ladies do.”

The team’s Big West Conference record is 14-2 heading into postseason play, with a total record of 25-4.

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