February 11, 2021

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VOLUME 139, ISSUE 15 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021

UC DAVIS STUDENTS AND FACULTY EXCLUDED FROM DECISION TO TERMINATE PHYSICAL EDUCATION PROGRAM Both the Faculty Association and ASUCD said they heard from outside sources before hearing directly from administration about the change

By KATHLEEN QUINN campus@theaggie.org Physical education (PE) courses and the coaching minor are no longer offered at UC Davis as of the end of Fall Quarter. This came as sudden news to faculty and students who were not part of the administrators’ decision-making process.

One justification by administrators for the removal of PE courses was that the program had declining enrollment, according to Appendix 1 of the UC Davis Budget and Institutional Analysis.

ASUCD Senator Tenzin Youedon said declining enrollment was due to the decrease in courses offered as lecturers left and were not replaced.

“I read the data on students and enrollment and noticed that the section was cut by a large percent over a couple of years and enrollment declined,” Youedon said.

The estimated savings from the discontinuation of PE is over $1.2 million, but the cost savings will not be immediate, according to the Budget and Institutional Analysis.

Ari Kelman, the interim dean of Letters and Science said the program, which offered up to six units of for-credit courses in lectures such as volleyball and table tennis, was a potential avenue for misuse by student athletes looking to meet unit and GPA requirements.

“When a campus offers credit for PE courses, that can be a mechanism by which student athletes maintain their eligibility and other forms of misuse or misconduct take place,” Kelman said. “I do not believe anything like that ever happened on this campus.”

Student athletes are required to be taking a minimum of 12 units and maintain a GPA of at least 2.0 according to the UC Davis Student-Athlete Handbook. Since PE courses are taken for credit, they could be used as a way to meet the mandatory credit minimums or help athletes maintain their GPA by taking a course that may be easier to pass.

Madison Butler, a third-year human development major said she had planned on pursuing the coaching minor since she had already taken several PE courses, but found out that she would no longer have that option.

“We reached out to students directly who had not yet declared the coaching minor but had taken several PE courses and asked them if they wanted to declare the coaching minor,” Kelman said. “Those students have some minor requirements that we are going to make sure they can complete.”

Butler said she has taken multiple PE courses, including various levels of abs/back conditioning and interval weightlifting and has not been contacted by anyone from the university about this opportunity to declare the minor.

Lack of communication between faculty, students and administration prior to the decision being made The administration holds that the decision came after years of review. However, the Faculty Association stated in a letter sent to Chancellor May and Provost Mary Croughan on Oct. 10, that they first heard about the decision in an article published in The Davis Enterprise on Dec. 3 and were not consulted.

ASUCD President Kyle Krueger said he first heard about the decision when he was contacted by a concerned alumni of UC Davis.

Hickey Gym at UC Davis. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) “There is definitely, overall, between ASUCD and administration some tension because of this,” Krueger said. “With that being said, I think there are some members of the administration who genuinely wish they had done more consultation ahead of time.”

Youedon said the lack of communication with students prior to the decision was disrespectful to students.

“If they, on purpose, didn’t consult students, I’m disturbed by their refusal to think about us,” Youedon said. “I’m also disturbed by the timing of it because I feel like it was very on purpose.”

Butler was one of the co-creators of a petition that has received over 5,000 signatures to-date.

“Every signature matters because it shows you every Aggie or person who signs it is in support of PE and the value that it brings to UC Davis,” Butler said.

A Campus Recreation Committee has been formed in ASUCD to address the concerns that were raised by students and to help negotiate a potential replacement of some of the programs. “[Administrators] don’t have a plan,” Youedon said. “They made a committee for us to make a plan for them.”

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MEMBERS OF AGGIES FOR RECOVERY SHED LIGHT ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE Students and faculty discuss the stigma surrounding substance abuse and how COVID-19 has affected recovery affected recovery

By SNEHA RAMACHANDRAN features@theaggie.org

The logo for Aggies for Recovery, an organization that helps UC Davis students struggling with addiction. (Aggies for Recovery / Courtesy)

For information on addiction counseling at UC Davis visit: https://shcs.ucdavis.edu/services/other-services/intervention-services According to Defining the Addiction Treatment Gap, over 23.5 million Americans suffer from substance abuse. This statistic is equivalent to one in every 10 Americans over the age of 12 having some sort of an addiction.

Five years ago, Aggies for Recovery was founded at UC Davis as a way to support students who struggle with addiction.

During a typical school year, members of the organization would meet weekly to check in and discuss their recovery progress. The organization utilizes methods such as harm reduction and the 12 step program.

Angela Armstrong-Ingram, a first-year graduate student of anthropology, became a member of Aggies for Recovery at the beginning of this academic year. Armstrong-Ingram stated that the organization’s meetings have had to adjust since moving to an online platform.

“Every week a group of students and a counselor meet on Zoom and we check in with one another,” Armstrong-Ingram said.

“We are there to support each other through our individual paths of recovery. Everyone has their own goals, and we are a community that share those similar goals and help each other achieve them.”

Armstrong-Ingram struggled with alcohol addiction during her time as an undergraduate student at UC Davis. She stated

that college culture as it is portrayed in the media played a role in enabling her alcoholism.

“Pop culture has ingrained this idea that college has to be a place where you are constantly partying to have fun,” ArmstrongIngram said. “And there is that quote that goes, ‘It’s not considered alcoholism until you graduate,’ but I think alcohol addiction can be a problem no matter what stage of life you are in.”

According to her, alcohol functions as a social lubricant for many college students to help settle into the changes of university life.

“When you are a freshman coming into college, it’s normal to feel like alcohol can help you be someone who is more social, fun or attractive,” Armstrong-Ingram said. “But when you take it too far it’s easy to lose sight of the line between having fun and having an addiction, and it’s easy to miss out on the opportunities and education that college provides.”

Armstrong-Ingram noted how easy it is to glamorize addiction as an undergraduate.

“I remember during my undergrad I would say, ‘Write drunk, edit sober,’ but I didn’t really ever edit anything,” ArmstrongIngram said. “And I do this to myself where I bring humor into it, but the fact is alcoholism and addiction isn’t a beautiful or funny thing. It’s something that affects a lot of people and chances are you have someone in your life that it is affecting.”

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DAVIS JOINT UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT LAYS DOWN PARAMETERS FOR REOPENING Plan is contingent on widespread COVID-19 testing availability and Yolo County moving out of the purple tier

By RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org On Jan. 19 and Jan. 21, the Davis School Board held meetings to establish parameters for bringing students back to campus.

In a statement released on Jan. 22, Davis Joint Unified School District Superintendent (DJUSD) John A. Bowes explained the conditions which must be fulfilled for Davis high school students to return safely to campus.

Among the conditions under the DJUSD’s control, Bowes lists COVID-19 testing, social distancing, filters with Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values of 13 (MERV-13), air purifiers and various other safety protocols. DJUSD Public Information Officer Maria Clayton described the conditions outside of the school district’s control.

“There’s certain things that we have the ability to control,” Clayton said. “We’re ticking our way through the list—making sure all of our classrooms are fitted with air purifiers, making sure that the social distancing is possible with the desks and tables and doing all the disinfection that needs to happen. But as far as when the rollout of the vaccination for staff and how the county performs with the community spread of the virus, those are things outside our control.”

Since Thanksgiving, some students with urgent needs have been brought back to campus, Clayton explained.

“Small cohorts have been in place even while the district has been in the purple tier. There is the ability for schools to open for small cohort learning,” Clayton said. “Under 16 individuals can be in a cohort. That includes the teacher. We have limited

that to students that have been identified as having urgent needs.

It’s been invite-only, and it’s been asking the students that we are tracking who are not engaged or for whatever reason have not been successful through distance learning.”

Meeting these requirements is especially important since vaccines likely won’t be available to most children and youths until late spring and summer. Although Pfizer and Moderna have started researching the vaccine’s effects in children as young as age 12, a vaccine for children under age 16 has not yet been approved.

Clayton emphasized that the reopening plan would not proceed until all the parameters were met.

“Everyone is looking forward to the time when kids can come back to campus,” Clayton said. “Everyone would like things to return to normal—there’s absolutely no question about it. Both students and teachers want to be back in the classroom, but until those conditions exist, there is not a possibility to do that, and we’re working our way toward that.”

The process of devising these parameters involved many “stakeholders,” according to Clayton.

“It’s been an incredible stakeholder-heavy process, where we’ve brought different ideas before the community, the staff, the parent community and the different advisory groups of the school system to vet different ideas,” Clayton said. “So it’s been a slower process in some ways than in other school districts, but it’s been a much more inclusive process for developing different ideas.”

Clayton also described the benefits of establishing a final

deadline, which would keep students in distance learning until the end of the school year if the parameters are met too late.

“The thought is that [DJUSD] wants to make sure that kids can get back in class, so they set these parameters,” Clayton said.

“But they don’t want that to be the last week of school. Is there a point or threshold where it just doesn’t make sense to change everyone’s schedule and routine for a couple of days of school, or a couple of weeks of school?”

On Feb. 4, the board of education answered that question, approving a deadline of May 3-7 as the deadline.

Davis Senior High School. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

2 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

City of Davis offers water conservation tips in light of dry winter City officials and water experts encourage residents to conserve water after second dry year in a row

By YAN YAN HUSTIS HAYES city@theaggie.org On Jan. 7, the City of Davis offered winter water conservation tips for residents, a reminder to customers about the mandatory water-use restrictions still in place and an update on the city’s water system on their website.

The press release reminded residents to check appliances and fixtures around the home for unusual water usage.

“Toilets are the most common leak in the home,” the press release reads. “Other indoor leaks include faucets and showerheads, hot water leaks in slab foundations and water softeners running continuously.”

The press release urged residents to reduce outdoor as well as indoor water use.

“With shorter days and cooler temperatures in the winter, residents’ landscape needs less water, even if there is a lack of rain,” the press release reads. “Be sure to water with the weather; shorten the amount of time and or/number of days watering and turn your irrigation system off when it rains.”

In addition to these tips, the Conservation Coordinator for the City of Davis Dawn Calciano urged residents to check current conservation regulations along with additional resources.

“During the last declared drought, the City enacted additional conservation regulations that have remained in place to present,” Calciano said via email. “Some of the restrictions include: No watering outdoors during 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., no watering during periods of rain or for 48 hours after measurable rainfall [and] no excessive water flow or runoff onto pavement.”

Calciano explained that the city’s online water use portal, AquaHawk, is one example of how conservation efforts at the local level are uniquely positioned to focus on the needs, programs and services of a specific area.

“AquaHawk allows water customers to view daily and hourly water usage as well as set and receive usage alerts,” Calciano said. “The messaging in water conservation is tailored to our environment which is why our conservation tips include water-wise landscaping recommendations that will thrive in the valley.”

Faculty professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist in Water Resources Samuel Sandoval Solis explained that California’s water crisis has to do with its unpredictable weather patterns.

“The reality is that conditions in California are becoming bimodal,” Sandoval Solis said. “There is no normal in California. There are two different conditions—the first where it rains a lot, and the second where it doesn’t. We were in a drought for five years, then we had a wet year, but the problem is that we’ve had two dry years back-to-back.”

Solis explained that the recent rain does not mean an end to California’s water problem.

“When it rains a lot, it doesn’t mean the aquifers and reservoirs fill,” Sandoval Solis said. “All the water gets caught in the river and goes to the ocean—the water cannot be stored.”

Due to this inability to store water and the uncertainty of future rains, Solis explained that we need to make water conservation a part of our daily lives.

“It takes time to pass legislation, so doing our part by reducing our water consumption is the cheapest, most affordable way to practise the philosophy of water conservation in our everyday lives,” Solis said.

“Take shorter showers. Use the dishwasher instead of washing dishes by hand. Don’t open faucets all the way when washing your hands and brushing your teeth.”

Sandoval Solis also offered additional tips for outdoor water-conservation practices.

“Irrigate your trees properly,” Solis said. “Sacrifice things like flowers and vegetable gardens. You will save more water going to your favorite organic store or farmers market [than growing your own].”

Solis explained that while we still need to change, he has hope for the future.

Shallow waters along the Putah Creek Riparian Reserve in Davis, CA. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

“There are few things in life that are certain, but one of these is that a drought is coming, so we have to be prepared and change our mindsets,” Solis said.

Recent UC Davis graduate and hydrology major Erica Edwards explained via email that the relative scarcity of water and unsustainable water practices has, in some cases, caused irreparable damage.

“Of all the freshwater available to humans, groundwater accounts for more than 90%,” Edwards said.

“The pattern of taking more [than] nature can replenish is not unique to fossil fuels. Because California failed to regulate groundwater until 2014, there are many areas where groundwater overdraft causes land subsidence, and the damage to the aquifer is irreversible.”

Despite this, Edwards, who hopes to pursue a career in groundwater resource sustainability, is nevertheless hopeful for the future of water conservation.

“While regionally we are at the mercy of a warming climate, there is plenty of water in the global hydrologic system,” Edwards said. “It is more an issue of moving it to where it is needed, not polluting it and not wasting it.”

Sacramento issues new ordinance increasing shelter options for individuals experiencing homelessness AGGIE FILE

The pandemic has posed challenges for providing shelter safely, leading some shelters to reduce vacancy

By SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org

I’ll just clean up this tree by myself!

KAITLYN PANG/ AGGIE

On Jan. 19, the Sacramento City Council “adopted an emergency ordinance that significantly expands sheltering options for people experiencing homelessness,” according to a media release from the Sacramento City Express.

The ordinance permits the City of Sacramento to approve the “establishment of privately-run temporary shelter facilities” and rapidly provide permits for parking lots, tiny home communities and tent encampments that are “safe ground.”

Any temporary shelter that is established has a limit of 80 beds, and the ordinance will be considered active for the duration of time that the City of Sacramento is “operating under a declared shelter crisis,” according to the statement.

More information regarding the ordinance and its requirements can be found in the statement.

Media and Communications Manager for the City of Sacramento Tim Swanson described via email the sheltering options currently available in Sacramento.

“The City of Sacramento, in partnership with the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), funds and operates homeless shelters, scattered site shelters, tiny home communities, overnight warming centers and ‘safe parking’ areas to help people who are experiencing homelessness,” Swanson said.

Swanson explained that the new ordinance “followed an action by the Sacramento City Council that updated land use policy in the city and streamlined the administration process to allow staff to quickly issue permits for privately operated ‘safe-ground’ tent encampments, parking lots and tiny home communities.”

Another option for those seeking shelter in Yolo County is Empower Yolo, according to Executive Director of Empower Yolo Lynette Irlmeier.

“Empower Yolo has a 35 bed shelter for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and trafficking and a smaller 8 bed shelter for homeless victims of crime,” Irlmeier said via email. “We also have a rapid rehousing program for people who are homeless and need financial assistance to get into permanent housing.”

Other options for those seeking shelter in Sacramento include temporary shelters, safe parking, warming shelters, Transitional Housing with Supportive Services such as Saint John’s Program for Real Change, hotel or motel vouchers, tiny homes and Project RoomKey or Project HomeKey, according to the Office of Mayor’s Senior Policy Advisor Julia Burrows.

“People seeking shelters may call 2-1-1 to start the intake process,” Burrows said via email.

“They may also contact local outreach navigators who work with community based organizations directly in camps.”

Another option is utilizing Davis Community Meals and Housing, which will be increasing its sheltering options for families and individuals in the coming weeks, especially those who may be at a higher risk for COVID-19. However, the pandemic has made it difficult to run a shelter, according to Davis Community Meals and Housing Executive Director Bill Pride.

“Due to safety issues, we had to reduce our capacity to 2 individuals per room,” Pride said via email. “It has also brought up many issues that were difficult to enforce: mask wearing, sanitizing and cleaning on a regular basis.”

Although housing opportunities are currently limited, Pride encouraged those who are homeless to find housing or shelter in order to lower the chances of being infected or exposed to the virus.

Irlmeier expressed similar difficulties about running Empower Yolo.

“Running a shelter during a pandemic has been a challenge: we had to reduce the number of people we could accept in the shelter to allow for social distancing,” Irlmeier said. “We no longer have single clients sharing rooms so it cut our capacity in half. Of course, we had to increase cleaning protocols and offer PPE for everyone.”

The city of Sacramento received resources from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) to provide more emergency housing, according to Burrows.

“The City received significant resources from the federal CARES Act because it is a city of over 500,000 people,” Burrows said. “$20 million of the $89 million received was spent on emergency housing. However, the numbers of people losing their housing has increased and so even with additional spending to provide emergency shelter, the numbers of homeless have increased in Sacramento.”

The City of Sacramento has also followed various actions under the direction of city of Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, such as creating a Master Plan, according to Burrows.

There are also meetings that the public can participate in.

January 24 “2 teens on the roof of the school throwing things off the roof.”

January 27 “Subject using chainsaw to cut down a city tree—subject appeared to be a citizen and not an employee.”

January 28 “Motorists not yielding for signal outage.”

January 30 “Vehicle heard in area racing and doing donuts continuously.”

February 1 “Upset because she can only call 911 on her phone.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 | 3

ASUCD COMMISSIONERS CONFIRMED INTO SENATE DURING SPECIAL MEETING Meeting was shorter than usual due to previous weather-related cancellation

By REBECCA BIHN-WALLACE campus@theaggie.org A special Senate meeting was called to order by ASUCD Vice President Emily Barnenond on Tuesday, Feb. 2.

The previous week’s meeting was canceled due to widespread power outages caused by high winds, lightning and rains in the Yolo County area, including Davis.

The special Senate meeting began at 8:01 p.m. All Senators were present, establishing the necessary quorum. External Affairs Commission Vice President Maria Martinez was absent.

The meeting, called to confirm a number of commissioners into the Senate, was shorter than usual. No new or old legislation was introduced.

Ambar Mishra, Simran Chahal, Quincy Kumfert and Michelle Andrews were all speedily confirmed as internal affairs commissioners. The motion passed with unanimous consent.

Kabeer Thockcom, Shayan Shahbazi, Andrew Lee and Kaitlyn Lee were also confirmed as business and finance commissioners and alternates with unanimous consent.

Brooke Isrow, a third-year political science-public service major, was confirmed as an Aggie mentors committee chairperson with unanimous consent.

Bia Myanganbayar, a fourth-year psychology major, was also confirmed as a student health and wellness chairperson with unanimous consent.

Julia Camilleri, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, was confirmed as a sexual assault awareness and advocacy chairperson with unanimous consent.

The meeting adjourned at 8:42 p.m.

DAVIS DOWNTOWN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES HEART TO HEARTS PROJECT TO BENEFIT DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES Collective art project brings together community, business and art

BY JELENA LAPUZ city@theaggie.org

A bustling Davis Farmer’s Market pre-COVID-19. The Davis Farmer’s Market is a favorite spot for students and community members alike. (Justin Han / Aggie) The Davis Downtown Business Association (DDBA) launched a collective art project called Heart to Hearts that invites the community to create heart-shaped artwork in support of downtown Davis businesses. The opportunity to submit artwork opened on Jan. 25 and will close on Feb. 28. All proceeds will benefit downtown Davis businesses.

“We are looking for artists of all ages and skill levels to create hearts as an expression of love for small businesses and our community,” the official website reads. “Hearts can also be designed in

memoriam of those lost to us or as a symbol of hope for the future.”

The website detailed that submissions can be drawings, paintings, graphic design or other forms of media, but they must fit in the shape of a standard heart. After the submission period ends, the DDBA creative team will create collective heart collages for purchase online. Buyers will be able to select which business will receive the proceeds of their purchase.

DDBA Board Member Yelena Ivashchenko explained how she came up with the idea for a collective art project.

“I had this idea of how we can connect community [and] business in relation to the arts,” Ivashchenko said. “Instead of some cheesy Valentine’s Day gathering, I wanted to send a message to the community: let’s give your heart to your favorite downtown business.”

DDBA Event Coordinator Autum Batton described her hopes for high community participation.

“We’re giving the artists five weeks to submit their hearts to us, so we’re hoping that giving them enough time [will encourage] a lot of people to enter their hearts,” Batton said. “As a result, we’ll have a lot of people wanting to buy the local art to support not only the artists, but the Davis downtown businesses.”

Batton noted the larger benefit for downtown Davis businesses if there is higher participation from the community.

“The more people that submit the hearts and the more people that buy the heart collective at the end of February, the more money that we can spread around downtown and share the wealth,” Batton said.

Wedra added that the art will not only hold monetary benefits, but decorative benefits as well.

“The art will decorate the downtown,” Wedra said. “Once we have all these artists’ hearts, we’re definitely going to find ways to decorate downtown.”

DDBA Marketing Coordinator Aaron Wedra emphasized the importance of self-expression.

“We think everyone is an artist,” Wedra said. “This is for any age and any skill level.”

Ivashchenko further explained that this project acknowledges downtown Davis in general.

“It just additionally brings awareness to people that Davis downtown businesses are there for them,” Ivashchenko said. “In this pandemic, they’re still there. They’re still providing their services.”

Batton left a final note of encouragement for supporting the community through the Heart to Hearts project.

“Let’s all get together and show the love for our Davis businesses and just help support one another through all of these challenging times,” Batton said. “Art is a very good way to express yourself, so if you just want to get some frustration out on paper, this is the perfect way to do it.”

THE DEAN OF THE UC DAVIS MEDICAL SCHOOL DISCUSSES THE VACCINATION ROLLOUT, PATIENT CARE UC Davis is currently vaccinating patients 65 and older. To find out when they are eligible, patients can register for an account with MyUCDavisHealth

BY SOPHIE DEWEES features@theaggie.org Having only worked at UC Davis for six months before the outbreak of COVID-19, Dr. Allison Brashear, the dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, said that partnering with the UC Davis campus has been crucial when adjusting to the ever-changing conditions of the pandemic. On March 2, 2020, Brashear met with over 25 researchers and clinicians to discuss pandemic operations.

“We had a call to action on March 2, with the campus and the School of Medicine on what are we going to do about the pandemic, clinical trials, developing, testing [and] improving patient care,” Brashear said. “And everybody jumped in with both feet in terms of getting research approved and moving forward developing testing and really working as one team.”

Before coming to UC Davis, Brashear worked as the chair of the Department of Neurology at Wake Forest University for 15 years. Now, as the dean for UC Davis Health, she said that her role has evolved during the pandemic to focus on strategy and operations. She has also participated in new initiatives such as a Dean’s Call and a Deans Discuss Podcast in collaboration with the School of Veterinary Medicine.

“Beginning on March 2, we developed a daily Dean’s Call which we did for almost two months,” Brashear said. “We still have those Dean’s Calls twice a week, where we actually real-time problem-solve issues about surge testing [or] vaccinations.”

Less than two weeks after the meeting in early March, UC Davis Health developed its own internal rapid testing system where tests were run through an onsite machine instead of outsourced to a lab.

The university also pioneered the saliva test on Nov. 10, 2020, and initiated clinical trials relating to the vaccine, the most recent in late Dec. 2020.

According to Brashear, she is most proud of UC Davis’ adaptability and swift development of testing and clinical trials.

“I’m particularly proud of the inclusion of research in our day-to-day clinical care,” Brashear said.

“That goes from standing up a test in the middle of March to bringing clinical trials in record time to our patients at the bedside and in the clinics.”

Since the development of different varieties of COVID-19 vaccines, UC Davis has administered over 17,000 vaccines in total and is currently vaccinating patients 65 and older.

As the vaccination rollout continues, Brashear said that she hopes for other vaccines to be approved in the near future to allow for more widespread vaccination.

“There have been some challenges about the vaccine rollout,” Brashear said. “We are looking forward to additional vaccines being approved, including AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. In general, one of the challenges has been lots of people that want the vaccine but not enough providers to deliver the vaccine.”

According to her, UC Davis has thus far been a model in safety and in vaccination of its frontline healthcare workers.

“Our goal is to really vaccinate our health care workers so that we can make sure that they are all safe,” Brashear said. “Our frontline workers are a priority. About 82% of our [health care workers] have been vaccinated with at least one shot.”

Brashear stated that she is grateful overall for the work UC Davis Health has been able to accomplish, bolstered by a partnership with the campus.

“I’m really proud of the collaboration with main campus to really improve [the] health of our patients at UC Davis Health but also to move science forward,” Brashear said. “It’s really been a team effort over the last 10 months.”

To find more information about receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, patients can create an account with MyUCDavisHealth. Patients will be notified when they are eligible to be vaccinated.

Dr. Allison Brashear, the dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine. (Dr. Allison Brashear / Courtesy)

4 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

MALE CONTRACEPTIVE STUDY SPARKS CONVERSATION ABOUT RESPONSIBILITY, GENDER ROLES UC Davis clinical trial launched in June of 2020 could offer a revolutionary contraceptive method for men

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org Birth control and pregnancy prevention has mostly been considered a responsibility of women in the past, and many people have wondered: Why? Today, the only available methods of birth control for men are condoms and vasectomies; there is no approved hormonal equivalent to the birth control pill.

However, UC Davis launched a two-year long clinical trial in June of 2020 that is a step toward developing a contraceptive for men that is both reversible and effective. The study tests a gel, which is released from a metered pump and is applied by users daily to their shoulders.

Dr. Mitchell Creinin, the principal investigator at the UC Davis site for this trial, explained that the way the gel works is similar to the female birth control pill. The pill includes two hormones, estrogen and progestin. Progestin prevents pregnancy, but it also prevents the creation of estrogen, so estrogen has to be added back into the female body to allow it to function normally. Similarly, the male contraceptive includes progestin and testosterone for the same reason, though it takes more time to be effective than the birth control pill.

The study, which is to be conducted over two years, includes four stages: screening, suppression, efficacy and recovery. After a couple enrolled goes through a screening phase, where they receive all of the information about how the gel works and what will be expected of them, the man begins

the suppression phase, which Creinin describes as an “emptying” of sperm storage.

“So [the testis] is making sperm all the time and right above the testis is an organ called the epididymis, and I will explain it to people who are enrolling in the study to think of it like a big Amazon storage facility,” Creinin said. “The testis is making sperm all the time and dumping it into the storage facility. So for a woman, if you start using a birth control pill and it shuts down the ovary, you will stop making an egg, boom, you’re done, it works right away. For a man, [...] you have to empty out the storage facility first. So that’s why it takes a few months to get the counts all the way down.”

As Creinin explained, the extra time that it takes for the gel to take effect is inevitable.

Even with the additional time that it takes to take effect, Creinin said that the creation of a male contraceptive other than condoms and vasectomies is extremely important for societies across the world.

“This is an important step in furthering people’s ability to control their fertility when desired,” Ceinan said. “Having a male contraceptive that is reversible, that provides greater efficacy than a condom, is an important contribution to society.”

Eve Banas, a third-year evolution, ecology and biodiversity major and the president of the Students for Reproductive Freedom at UC Davis, agrees. In a recent Zoom discussion, the club addressed the topic of birth control and it’s past, present and future, which includes male contraceptives. Banas said that as the study

The UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, CA. (UC Davis / Courtesy) was taking place at Davis, she was interested in discussing it with the club. Other members were also intrigued by the idea, and Banas said that they were largely in favor of this new development.

“Male birth control isn’t something that is approved anywhere,” Banas said. “We were just kind of interested in talking a bit about why we thought that was and what institutions were blocking that from happening in the past, when there are so many forms of female contraceptives.”

During the meeting, the club discussed what reasons they felt were preventing male birth control from being developed in the past. Many trials of male birth control have been stopped due to side effects, which Banas said members pointed out were similar to side effects women commonly experience while taking various

contraceptives. She also said that pharmaceutical investment plays a big role in whether or not these options are explored.

“So a lot of these different forms of contraceptives, and different things and reproductive reproductive health in general, don’t end up being followed through with just because the foreign pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested in investing in a lot of things that would benefit women,” Banas said. “I know this isn’t true all the time, but it has historically been the case. If UC Davis is successful in this trial and other trials are successful, this will show that there is interest in male contraceptives and that will help get more funding for this, which will hopefully let it be released on a wider scale.”

CONTRACEPTIVESPANEL on 11

DELVING INTO THE TRUTH ABOUT FOOD ADDITIVES AND DISPUTED INGREDIENTS

HOW THE TURTLE HOUSE HAS REMAINED A CO-OP OF CREATIVE OUTPUT AND COLLABORATION

UC Davis students and a nutrition professor break down the myths surrounding food additives, ingredients and dyes

Residents share the sense of fellowship the Turtle House has provided for them during the pandemic

BY LYRA FARRELL features@theaggie.org

MARIO RODRIGUEZ / AGGIE

BY FARRAH BALLOU features@aggie.org This article is the first installation of The California Aggie’s Mind and Body series, which discusses nutrition, physical wellbeing and mental health.

Over the past few months, posts concerning fear over possibly harmful dyes, additives and ingredients in food have been circulating on social media. There have been particular concerns about food additives banned by the European Union (EU) but approved for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. Tatiana Diacova, a Ph.D. student studying nutrition at UC Davis and a member of the Graduate Group of Nutritional Biology, stated that although people are often worried about the food additives permitted in the U.S., these compounds actually function to make food safer.

“Basically, we need to find things we can add to our foods that would make them less friendly to pathogens but more palatable and appealing to the consumer,” Diacova said.

One of the controversial chemicals, potassium bromate, was banned by the EU but is still used in U.S. food production. According to Diacova, however, this chemical serves a useful purpose.

“Potassium bromate is added to flour because it makes the product extra fluffy and soft—and that is exactly how we like our burger buns,” Diacova said.

The EU, after conducting research on mice, banned potassium bromate upon discovering a connection to the chemical and the development of cancer. Diacova, however, stated that the study’s results do not directly translate when

considering human health.

“Usually, such studies use the raw and isolated version of the compound of interest and administer it to mice in very high amounts over the course of a few weeks,” Diacova said. “The problem is that under normal circumstances a human would not be able to consume such a large amount just through dietary sources.”

Furthermore, according to Diacova, the FDA has not banned potassium bromate because baking converts it into a harmless substance—bromide.

Meigan Freeman, a fourth-year clinical nutrition major and the president of the Student Nutrition Association at UC Davis, stated that restrictions relating to food dyes were approved in the EU after studies on food dyes became more prominent.

“There are studies that show food dyes have made kids, a small percentage of children, more hyperactive than they normally would be,” Freeman said.

Freeman stated that the UK banned food dyes after such studies were released, but that the U.S. kept dyes in production because there was not enough evidence of their possible risks. Freeman stated, however, that the overall impacts of food dyes are not detrimental.

“A little bit of hyperactivity is bad but it’s not dangerous,” Freeman said.

Although there are possible negative effects that result from consumption of chemicals and dyes, Freeman said there is a tendency to exaggerate the impacts of many of these ingredients.

“I think there is misinformation about how bad it is,” Freeman said. “When it keeps getting spread around on Facebook over and over it’s like the telephone game, it gets worse and worse sounding.”

FOODINDUSTRY on 11

Since the 1990s, the Turtle House—located on Second St. and named for the turtle that hangs in its upstairs balcony—has served as a hub of entertainment and creativity for its residents and UC Davis students. Until recently, the cooperative living house (co-op) has drawn in members of the UC Davis community by hosting regular weekend events featuring local bands. With an average of 20 students living in the Turtle House at a time, it’s known to foster free expression and openness. Anya Sturm, a third-year mathematics major, heard about the Turtle House through her brother and friends and began living there in September 2020.

“Turtle House is historically this place that is [...] whatever the community needs it to be in that moment,” Sturm said.

As a musician who practices American and Irish folk music, Sturm feels that the Turtle House has allowed her to be surrounded by others who share similar passions. Sturm added that some who are new to the Turtle House are quickly influenced by the interests of the other residents.

“I know housemates who came in not playing any music, and they’ve learned how to play drums and we’ve had these incredible dance sessions and recorded a bunch of stuff,” Sturm said. “I think it’s a good place [where] when you feel bored you can actually do something productive, which, when I started the pandemic not at the Turtle House, I was not able to do at all.”

Kobe Ward, a third-year psychology and sociology double major, learned about the Turtle House as a first-year by attending the parties they hosted and becoming involved in KDVS—UC

Turtle House co-op. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

Davis’ student-run radio station that has ties to the Turtle House. According to Ward, the Turtle House residents have maintained some of their routines, such as holding regular dinners, but haven’t been able to connect to the UC Davis community in the way they normally would.

“One thing that we do is family dinners, so Monday through Thursday somebody cooks and then we all eat,” Ward said. “We can’t invite people to come to those dinners anymore which is [...] one of the cool ways we connect to the community.”

Joseph Robson, a fifth-year geology major, learned about the Turtle House as a second-year when he stopped in front of it during a bike ride to ask questions and was invited to have dinner with the residents on the spot.

“I think [COVID-19] has changed our impact outwardly; we’re not able to really outwardly reach others,” Robson said. “For people in the house, it’s been a little bit more personal and almost a little bit more like a home.”

In weekly meetings, Turtle House residents plan activities for the week, review the applications of those showing interest in becoming new tenants and wrap up with group “appreciations,” where they take time to give each other positive feedback. According to Sturm, discussion around pandemic-related precautions has dominated the meetings lately.

“A pretty good portion of [the meetings] is taken up by COVID-related logistics now, and so it’s a space where you can ask for a mediator if you need to talk to someone specifically oneon-one and you guys are having problems,” Sturm said. “But I think we’ve mostly just been preemptive in addressing issues before they become anything big and problematic.”

TURTLEHOUSE on 11

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 | 5

OPINION EDITORIAL BOARD MEETS WITH CHANCELLOR MAY, UC DAVIS ADMINISTRATORS

THE

EDITO RIA L B OA RD

ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief

May, administrators discuss reopening campus, vaccine distribution and athletics Chancellor May, Provost Mary Croughan, Vice Chancellor Pablo Reguerín, Vice Chancellor Kelly Ratliff, Associate Chancellor Karl Engelbach, Dana Topousis, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Michael Sweeney, Campus Counsel, Richard Tucker, Academic Senate Chair, Rocko DeLuca, Acting Athletics Director Below is a transcript of the meeting that has been edited for length and clarity How will UC Davis work toward the UC wide goal of having in-person classes in the fall?

Gary May: We’re well on our way to the goal. A lot of it depends on things we don’t control explicitly, but let me just say that we expect Fall of 2021 to look almost the inverse of this quarter in terms of in-person classes to remote classes. Right now, I think we have 50 to 60 in-person classes and the vast majority of the curriculum is still remote. In the fall, our hope is to have a few remote classes and have the majority to be in-person.

Mary Croughan: We offer about 6,000 classes per quarter.

Spring Quarter will have about 100 to 120 classes that have already been approved for in-person instruction and it will probably be the flip of that for Fall Quarter. The part the chancellor was referring to being out of our control is vaccine availability. But, things there are starting to improve and if we are able to vaccinate a very large proportion of our university community, then it truly will be safe to return to in-person instruction in the fall. Even if we do so, because the vaccine is really meant to prevent with 95% effectiveness, it prevents disease and death, it does not prevent infection. So, it will be very important for all of us to continue the saliva-based asymptomatic testing and continue to wear face masks until the virus has left the human population.

Will there be a requirement for students, faculty and staff to be vaccinated before campus can reopen?

Gary May: So right now, there won’t be an explicit requirement.

For now, the requirement for employees is to be educated on the vaccine and you have to explicitly say no if you do not want to be vaccinated. There are legal issues involved in a mandate, so the system right now is not envisioning a policy where vaccines are mandated.

Michael Sweeney: The current vaccines have been authorized under emergency use provision. Most, if not all, employers and student positions of higher education have been shying away from mandating a vaccine that is authorized under emergency use. That said, more and more employers are starting to mandate it. There were a few splashes last week with some notable employers, including law firms. You may see a change in the months ahead. I think it will be important how the president wants this to unfold.

Kelly Ratliff: In mid-December, a policy was put in place regarding healthcare workers. It then followed in early January with a policy that applies to the rest of university employees. The plan for students has not yet been implemented and just has now started to be drafted. As it relates to students, there’s not even a policy that the chancellor said. The policy for employees says you must be educated and you must either get vaccinated or actively indicate that you are not. How that plays out for students will be a separate policy that has now started to be drafted by the office of the president.

If school does reopen for classes in the fall, will a remote option still be offered for students and staff who are unable to receive the vaccine and are concerned about risking their health?

MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SABRINA HABCHI Campus News Editor

Gary May: I think we did a pretty good job at taking into account people’s conditions and their safety throughout the pandemic and we will continue to have that. Safety is the number one priority.

EDEN WINNIFORD City News Editor CALVIN COFFEE Opinion Editor

Mary Croughan: We’re working on an accommodation process. This needs to be worked out more than likely across the University of California, but we are in the process of students, staff and faculty that are unable to return in person at this time and what accommodations can be made. We’ll create a process around that and it will quite honestly look a lot similar to the accommodation processes on campus, but much more specific around COVID related reasons that people can’t return.

SOPHIE DEWEES Features Editor ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor MADELEINE PAYNE Science & Tech Editor

Gary May: This is why we’ll have some fraction of the curriculum available remotely.

Despite five of the other 12 teams in the conference pulling out of the season, what’s the university’s thought process or motivation in trying to complete the football season given the pandemic situation in California and the high number of members on the team?

JUSTIN HAN Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director

Gary May: Our student-athletes and coaches want to play. That’s the biggest factor. We think that with all the infrastructure and testing we have at UC Davis, we think they can play safely, which is our priority.

Rocko De Luca: Our guiding principle has been exactly that.

If our student-athletes want to compete or opt-out, we fully support them. The second part of that is in consultation with our health professionals as well as the Big Sky Conference, if they deem it safe for us and give us the green light, we will do that. I think the teams that backed out within the league, many of them face cold weather challenges that we here in Davis are fortunate not to have. They have also not brought back their students to be back on campus, so they just weren’t able to safely practice.

We feel really fortunate to be in Davis and have an environment where we can do it safely, and again prepare to compete in football this year.

2020 was tied with 2016 as being the hottest year on record, and as the devastating fires in California last year have shown us, climate change is not going away anytime soon without drastic changes on an institutional and global level. How is UC Davis promoting other institutions, companies and agencies to consider their environmental impact while also working on becoming more sustainable itself?

Gary May: I’ll mention two broad areas. We have what we call a big idea in our fundraiser campaign called One Climate, which is primarily driven by how to better be environmentally friendly.

That is how we get the word out to others, through our research and promotions of such practices. On campus, we’ve been named the most sustainable campus by a green metric magazine and we have many activities. We have the Big Shift going on to make the campus even more environmentally friendly. We have a whole department of people who work on this.

Kelly Ratliff: Sustainability is a really important goal and we have faculty who does amazing research in so many different areas. We have tons of student involvement and student leadership as well. Just to round out the Big Shift, we spent some time coming up with that marketing campaign and it turns out during a pandemic, you can dig out big trenches around campus. We’re moving from steam to hot water in terms of major infrastructure and we’re the first university in the UC system that has taken this big step. We’re replacing old infrastructure with new infrastructure and it’s moving towards the electrification of the campus. Right now, so many of us are remotely working, so we are doing a reimagining of the workplace, seeing what we can learn from this event. It is co-

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sponsored by human resources and sustainability. Whatever the future is about remote work, we see it as equally important, both from an employer standpoint and in sustainability. We have a partnership right now with our office of sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion and global affairs, where UC Davis is the first university studying the U.N. metrics for sustainability.

We’re trying to self-review under the U.N. guidance, both because we think it’s important for UC Davis and we want to be a leader in this area. Lastly, I’ll get into parking. We just moved to daily parking rates because we want folks to make a decision everyday whether they should drive or not. The pandemic notwithstanding and some of the challenges with mass communication, we’re the first UC campus and amongst the first universities in the nation to do this. It will make it much easier for folks to decide every day and there is a clear financial incentive in a program like that. Those are a couple examples that come to mind.

What are all of you, and the UC Davis administration in general, looking forward to most about reopening in the fall?

Gary May: I’m just looking forward to seeing people riding bikes, walking around and enjoying campus. It’s a little bit of a ghost town these days and it’s hard to get energy or be motivated when there’s no people around.

READ THE FULL EDITORIAL ONLINE

HEY GAVIN NEWSOM, DO BETTER Gavin Newsom’s failed environmental commitments need to be addressed with actions, not words

BY JOE SWEENEY jmsweeney@ucdavis.edu From rumors of recall to criticism about his handling of reopening the state, Governor Gavin Newsom has been in the news a lot lately.

Although I wouldn’t go as far as endorsing an absolute recall, I would like to highlight Newsom’s many failures over the past few years.

I’ve never had a favorable view of Newsom despite his progressive policies. I feel that he has consistently chosen to set goals and promote superficial policies rather than encourage real, substantive change.

Newsom has repeatedly attempted

to capitalize on the momentum of the environmental movement and paint himself as a climate advocate fighting to protect California from the ravenous wildfires that have swept across our state the past few years. Despite his many public statements and promises, Newsom’s actions don’t exactly line up with that image.

In fact, a lot of his stances have been superficial from the start. Last fall, Newsom set multiple environmental goals including the promise to ban fracking by 2024 in the state and phase out gasoline vehicles by 2035. Despite these lofty goals, Newsom signed roughly 1,700 oil and gas permits on public lands in the last year alone.

This brings Newsom’s total well permits to nearly

California Governor Gavin Newsom at a budget proposal conference in 2019. (AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli)

8,000 since he was inaugurated in early 2019.

“Newsom has the power to stop new well approvals under state law,” remarked Kassie Siegel, the director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, in a recent Newsweek article. “He could put in a health buffer zone (a space between drilling operations and residential areas or towns). The political pressure on him will only increase to take similarly decisive action.”

Newsom’s plan for the Delta has also been widely criticized by environmentalists, farmers and local residents. The proposed tunnel is 30 miles long and estimated to cost at least $17 billion. Opponents of the plan call it both unnecessarily expensive and have listed the countless environmental and economic impacts on the local community, from harming wildlife to affecting delta tourism. With the proper funds— since Newsom seems to have an extra $17 billion to throw around—many other sources of water could achieve the same goals like implementing more desalination plants and water recycling plans.

Recently, Newsom has also been criticized for his handling of reopening the state, especially in the context of education. California has the lowest literacy rate of any state, which has motivated Newsom to make education a priority in the past. However, within the context of a pandemic, Newsom has been pushing for the return of normalcy at any cost. This has prompted criticism from multiple teachers unions, who proposed an alternative plan that prioritizes vaccinating teachers in addition to a plethora of other safety precautions necessary for returning to work.

“Get our educators vaccinated. That is the

most crucial thing that we can do,” said Richard Barrera, the San Diego Unified Board President, in an interview with CBS. “In San Diego Unified, if we could just get a few thousand of our educators vaccinated, that would be the first step to starting to bring students back to school in phases, and I just think we need to have a sense of urgency.”

Although the majority of research indicates that schools have not been as significant transmitters of the virus as previously thought, a lot of the evidence varies on a case-to-case basis. A recent study found that it is usually safe to reopen schools where rates of infection are already extremely low, whereas in-person instruction in communities with relatively high rates of hospitalization will likely increase the spread of COVID-19.

Newsom is not by any means some kind of evil Machiavellian politician, but it is important to hold our politicians accountable, especially when every decision impacts the safety and health of our communities. Speaking about injustice and condemning is always a good first step, but taking real meaningful action, even if he makes some mistakes along the way, is what we need to keep moving forward.

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

6 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

OPINION THE FLUIDITY AND INARTICULABILITY OF ASIAN AMERICAN IDENTITY We shouldn’t readily accept all forms of representation in media

BY RENEE WANG reswang@ucdavis.edu Asian American identity is both fluid and inarticulable, characteristics that betray its self-determined creation. In 1968, UC Berkeley graduate students Emma Gee and Yuji Ichioka coined the term Asian American to describe different groups of Asian descent; Its creation was a “radical label […] that indicated a political agenda of equality, anti-racism and anti-imperialism.”

Yet, throughout history, the Asian American identity has been fluid to the historical context of its time; It is fluid to the laws on Asian exclusion, on immigration, citizenship and later in the exclusion of other racial groups through the persistence of the model minority myth (MMM).

The MMM reconstructs the fluidity of Asian American identity as a success story: “the most prosperous, well-educated and successful ethnic group in America.” The myth is often used to underplay the role structural racism has on other minority groups, Black Americans in particular, despite the fact that this “success story” is very much a constructed convenience. The misplacement of “Black failure” and “Asian success” on an equalizing level in the MMM removes responsibility in redressing racism.

Asian American identity, according to the MMM, is constricted in a way that generalizes expectations and outcomes for

all Asian Americans. In the model’s blatant attempt to downplay the enslavement, segregation and police brutality against Black Americans, it also subtly rewrites the struggles of specific Asian American groups out of the narrative.

For example, Bhutanese-Americans have higher rates of poverty than other Asian populations. There is a significant achievement gap between South and East Asians; 13% of Hmong households hold a bachelor’s degree compared to 74% of Taiwanese households.

Further, South Asians are routinely left out in the Asian American narrative. In politics, news outlets have referred to Andrew Yang as the “first Asian American candidate” presidential hopeful despite former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal having run in 2016.

I appreciated the new wave of Asian American media such as “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Fresh Off the Boat” and “To All the Boys I Loved Before,” because it was all the representation I could get. Although these shows and movies do bring Asian American identity into mainstream media, it is essential to critically examine these forms of representation in how they take advantage of Asian American identity. Shows that push an unrealistic narrative only fall further complicit into the model minority stereotype and its many pitfalls. While we can appreciate the entourage of new Asian American faces on screen and feel a solidarity in the stories, we need to analyze the implications of their portrayals.

CATHY TANG / AGGIE

“Boba liberalism,” a term coined by suspended Twitter user “@ diaspora_is_red,” critiques a “dominant strain of Asian American politics,” centered in “buzzy cultural objects”, all while neglecting “true engagement” with Asian American politics. Boba has come to be the face for this critique as a form of iconography for Asian American identity.

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

BOBALIB on 11

HUMOR

UNCOVERED: DAVIS COWS ARE APPARENTLY ALL JUST UNPAID VET STUDENTS FORCED TO WEAR COW SUITS FOR CLASS CREDIT Don’t ask us where the milk comes from

BY IAN COSNER iacosner@ucdavis.edu

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

In a recent investigation, it was discovered that UC Davis’ iconic cows are in fact not livestock and are actually UCD students in costumes attending a class. Apparently, the general education class ASS101 (Animal Sociological Studies) requires pre-vet students to spend an entire quarter in cow suits, in order to familiarize themselves with bovine behavior and learn what it truly means to “be the cow.”

“The Davis cows are an important staple of the school,” said ASS101’s Professor Moo. “We allow our students an insight into that experience; I don’t think any other university has that.”

Moo, who promises that the class is simply educational, is a well-renowned scholar with a Nobel Peace Prize in ecological sciences for research on humane cattle practices. Sadly, no picture of the professor was available for The California Aggie to use.

When interviewed over Zoom, the professor would not turn on his camera, insisting that he had a spotty internet connection and that the loud mooing sounds in the background were merely educational videos he was researching.

The class may not be for educational purposes like the professor proposes. Students forced to take the course for their General Education requirements shared with us a shocking revelation—the Davis cows that students and alumni have loved for generations may have never existed in the first place.

“So according to our syllabus, the class was one of the first

to study animal behavior, and nothing screams education like a bunch of students dressed up like cows,” said an animal science major who had taken the class. “But over time, the costumes became good enough that non-animal science students couldn’t tell the difference. And that’s when the cult stuff started.”

Moo asked us to officially state that his course is not a cult and that its listing on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) cult watch list is probably a typo. Although The California Aggie is legally obligated to state that we cannot confirm or deny if Moo’s course is a cult, such a claim would explain the weird nightly drummings and strange cow-shaped crop circles seen on the university farm.

Despite the current FBI investigation, ASS101 will be available to pre-vet students next quarter. The class provides cow costumes and other materials, but textbooks and lamb’s blood must be purchased by students separately.

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

AN INTERVIEW WITH GHABIN NOOSUM He may or may not be Gavin Newsom KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

BY EAN KIMURA etkimura@ucdavis.edu This week, in a strange turn of events, I was contacted by a supporter of the movement

to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom, looking to share his view on the movement.

I politely told him that I was merely a humor writer and the content I write is purely fictional as it so clearly states in the disclaimer at the bottom of all my articles. He let me know that that was exactly why he needed me; he needed a non-journalist who lacks any sort of credibility, intelligence or sense of humor to put his words out in an article nobody will read or take seriously.

I was shocked by his response. Finally somebody who needs me. I agreed to do an interview with this man by the name of Ghabin Noosum.

We met on a Zoom call. I found myself face-to-screen-with-a-face-on-it with a man who could only be described as Gavin Newsom with a crooked, fake-looking mustache and aviators. We

GETTING INTO STONKS

BY KE LIN keylin@ucdavis.edu

exchanged pleasantries and began the interview.

I asked him what his problems were with our governor and his response surprised me. With a voice that could only be described as Gavin Newsom trying to hide his real voice with a bad British accent, he told me that he actually thought “Gavin Newsom wasn’t doing a terrible job as governor.”

I pressed him on this. Why do you want to recall Newsom then? He told me that he “felt sorry for the guy, it seems like Gavin could just kinda use a break.”

A dam had been broken open—Mr. Noosum ranted for a while about all the problems with California: “Why did we decide to put so many people in the desert?” “San Francisco is literally and figuratively full of crap” and “We’re always

on goddamn fire.”

At some point close to the 40-minute Zoom time limit, he finished his rant. As the meeting ended, he lifelessly whispered in a voice that can only be described as Gavin Newsom who has given up on trying to hide his voice, “And then came the virus. Soon. It’ll be over.”

Now you may be wondering, was Ghabin Noosum actually California Governor Gavin Newsom? I am too. I guess I should have asked him that. In hindsight that probably would have been a good question to ask.

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

REMEMBERING OFFICE HOURS AT THE DEATH STAR

BY RUSHI TAWADE rntawade@ucdavis.edu

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 | 7

Monthly open mics give first-years opportunity to connect

Lindsay Flores and Karlle Ilao encourage classmates to express themselves and make new friends during virtual performances

BY LIANA MAE ATIZADO features@theaggie.org On Saturday, Jan. 30, Lindsay Flores and Karylle Ilao, two first-year students, hosted their monthly virtual open mic night for all UC Davis students. The event was attended by around 15 students and featured music, poems, comedy and children’s stories.

The hosts began the night with an icebreaker, then introduced the performers who signed up beforehand. Audience members were muted during each performance, but they were able to show support through Zoom’s chat feature. They opened up the floor to any other students who wanted to perform before using the second half of the night as a midterms study hall.

Flores, a first-year animal science major, had the idea to start these open mic nights before her first year at Davis began. She started writing poetry during her freshman year of high school, but she could never find open mics for people under 18 years old.

During her senior year she began hosting open mic nights at a coffee shop that had opened up in her city and brought along the tradition to Davis.

“When the pandemic started and we went to college, I realized I missed hosting open mics and hearing people’s stories,” Flores said.

“So I thought it’d be really fun to bring that back as a way to get to know more people at the university while also getting to hear a bunch of talent.”

Flores shared her idea with Karylle, a first-year civil engineering major, and the two hosted their first open mic in September. Over 70 students attended and performed, most of whom were firstyears, and Flores stated that it was a great way for new students to get to know each other. She said that in addition to seeing other students showcase their talent, her favorite part of the open mics is watching students meet one another and become friends.

“Open mics are a really good opportunity to meet people,” Flores said. “Yes, it’s a place for talent, but it’s also a place to make friends and talk in a welcoming space.”

Flores encourages all students to attend and perform during the open mics. She said that they do not need to be a professional or even have a structured performance, but can express themselves in any way they would like.

“If someone were to come to the open mic and just talk about how their day went, I would love to hear it,” Flores said. “When people think, ‘I’m going to the open mic just to watch because I don’t have any talent,’ I don’t think that’s true. I think everyone has a talent that can be heard, even if they don’t realize it.”

Ilao agreed that one of her biggest goals for the open mics is to help students get to know one another outside of class, especially since many of the first-year students aren’t on campus this year.

Hosting the open mics has even helped Ilao connect with other students.

“It’s hard learning online and having all this new content being thrown at us,” Ilao said. “It’s been a struggle, but it’s been

helpful getting to know some people and having friendships where you know that you’re not alone. It’s been helpful to know that everyone’s going through the same thing and everyone’s struggling together.”

Both hosts have performed during each open mic night to encourage other students to feel more comfortable performing.

Flores recites her own poetry and Ilao usually performs songs on the guitar or ukulele.

“Performing online is definitely a weird experience,” Ilao said.

“I still get pretty nervous any time I perform, but when I do, I have that option of putting Zoom in a small corner of my screen and looking at something else.”

Ananya Yogi, a first-year genetics major, has attended multiple open mic nights. Yogi met Flores through an online group of UC Davis class of 2024 students and they planned on rooming together during their freshman year. Even though they were unable to live together due to the pandemic, the open mic nights have given them an opportunity to connect virtually. Yogi said that she has also performed at a few of the open mics.

“The open mics were really cool because everyone’s just really supportive,” Yogi said. “I think part of that was pandemic loneliness-related, and we were all excited to actually be able to see

and talk to a lot of people at once.”

Yogi had some experience with performing online, as she participated in a theater show on Zoom prior to the open mics.

She pointed out that though it is a great way to connect, there are more technical difficulties that can occur while performing through Zoom.

“For example, your mic can blow out if you sing too loudly,” Yogi said. “So you need to learn about tech and how to modulate it to your own needs. It’s interesting acting or singing from your chest up. And if you do want to move around, you have to make sure your camera angles make you look good. It’s a lot of mixing film and the stage.”

Despite the additional factors to consider when performing, Yogi continues to share her talent during the open mic nights because of the supportive environment.

“There’s a supportive nature that comes about, which is hard to find,” Yogi said. “There’s been a multitude of talents at the open mics and everyone just supports one another, because it’s hard to do that in front of strangers.”

The next open mic night will be on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 8-10 p.m. More information can be found at the UCD Freshmen Open Mic’s Instagram page.

MARIO RODRIGUEZ / AGGIE

Through product lines and sponsorships, social media influencers and celebrities are taking over the skincare industry Kylie Jenner, Jennifer Lopez and countless others have established themselves in the multibillion dollar industry, setting standards for beauty as they go

BY MUHAMMAD TARIQ arts@theaggie.org Have you ever wondered how your favorite celebrities and social media stars seem to look younger as they age? Some say it’s simply makeup or a healthy lifestyle while others credit their talented plastic surgeons and dermatologists.

Either way, there is no denying that skincare has become a universal commodity. No matter the age, at some point in our lives we have all used a lotion, sunscreen or face wash—and the most adept skincare enthusiasts have their very own 10-step process.

A study by Statista found that 52% of Americans use skincare products daily, with 62% of US consumers using anti-aging products.

The skin care products market is predicted to be worth $183.03 billion by 2025 with an increasingly high demand for natural, herbal and organic products.

Not only that, but as of 2020, the US skincare market is valued at $39.2 billion. It is safe to say, regardless of how many products we use or how much we spend on them, the skincare industry has become a staple in American culture.

So it comes to no surprise that an ultra-wealthy celebrity like Kylie Jenner, the infamous self-made billionaire, was one of the first big celebrities to jump into the skincare game with Kylie Skin—a simplistic skin care line with products ranging from a foaming face wash to a sunscreen oil. Her most affordable skincare product is only $15 and her most expensive product is $36. Her skincare line has garnered both positive and negative reviews but was described as “pleasant and easy to use” in Harper’s Bazaar with a one-size-fitsall approach.

In 2019, Jenner sold the majority share of both Kylie Skin and Kylie Cosmetics to Coty, an American multinational beauty giant which owns CoverGirl, Rimmel and Sally Hansen, for $600 million, solidifying her name in the skincare industry. Yet, many of Jenner’s products are not geared towards anti-aging or reversing the proverbial clock.

Lines, wrinkles and crow’s feet develop naturally as byproducts of sun exposure, age and the frequent use of facial muscle that create grooves within our skin for the lines to develop. There is nothing wrong with attempting to stall the caress of time on our faces.

But there is a potential issue when celebrities try to profit off these insecurities by selling skincare lines and products that are marketed as the “reason” for their youthful appearances. It’s almost become an accessory to their fame.

One such powerful and affluent celebrity is Jennifer Lopez who says it’s olive oil, good genes, hydration and sunscreen that keeps her looking so young at 51. It makes one wonder if somehow the fountain of youth runs throughout the filtered water of Los Angeles?

In an interview with ELLE Magazine back in December of 2020, Lopez denied ever having gotten fillers or even botox to maintain her looks.

In addition, when she announced her JLO Beauty brand on Instagram many of her fans were quick to accuse her of using cosmetic procedures to maintain her looks in the comments, to

KATHERINE HUNG / AGGIE which she responded with, “LOL that’s just my face!!! ....For the 500 millionth time... I have never done Botox or any injectable or surgery!! Just sayin’.”

Yet, many supporters and fans have been left confused by this claim as these mundane, every-day things cannot be the only the secret behind her “JLO-Glow” (which is something fans can now buy for an easy $118) that keeps her looking like she is in her 30s rather than her 50s. JLO Beauty product prices range from $38 to a whopping $176, with olive oil touted as the “miracle ingredient.”

Even prominent dermatologists and plastic surgeons took to social media to denounce Lopez’s claims. Medically-trained skin experts were also skeptical about how only good skincare practices, a healthy diet and exercise, olive oil and sunscreen afforded Lopez her famous glow.

In addition to celebrities promoting their own skincare lines, social media stars have been part of the skin care sponsorship game as well. A prime example are the sponsored posts for Curology, the dermatologist-founded, no-appointment-needed prescription skincare company geared towards Gen-Zers. Curology offers personalized skin care products for acne-related skin issues with a business model that offers one-on-one virtual consultations, without ever having to leave your house or pay the exorbitant price of seeing a dermatologist in office.

YouTube star Emma Chamberlain, with 9.86 million YouTube subscribers, and skincare influencer Hyram Yarbro, with 4.35 million YouTube subscribers, are a few of the most influential social media stars who have been sponsored by the skincare company. Millions of their young subscribers have been exposed to the company’s familiar YouTube ad that highlights “pay[ing] only $4.95 for shipping and handling” for a one-month supply of a custom skin care regiment.

In many of these sponsored posts and videos, the social media

stars often credit Curology for changing their skin or being a great option for people struggling with acne. Yet it is not usually disclosed if it was solely Curology that helped their skin or if they have used dermatologists and other skincare products as well.

There seems to be a lack of transparency in famous people’s endorsements of products—we don’t really know how much they like something, or how effective it really is. Celebrities and influencers typically neglect to mention other reasons they look the way they do, including world-renowned dermatologists, plastic surgeons, facialists, estheticians, personal trainers, nutritionists and private chefs.

Not to mention, they often have easy access to the latest stuff, usually in the form of free public relations boxes. And if they aren’t sent products, they also have the financial means to afford supposedly “magic” creams. One such example is the Creme de la Mer which comes at the hefty price tag of $1290 for a measly 250 mL, and happens to be a fan favorite of incredibly famous celebrities like Chrissy Teigen, Kim Kardashian and Kate Moss, who have promoted it on their social media pages.

This should remind regular consumers that it’s not just water, good genes or buying our favorite celebrities’ most promoted skincare brands that will help us look as young or as flawless as them.

The rich have access to the best doctors, most luxurious skincare items and live lifestyles that allow them to look as good as they do.

The skincare industry can feel inundated with so many opinions, celebrity influences and countless products to try.

However, we have to remember that beauty is subjective, aging is natural and celebrities don’t actually have all the answers. Even if we slather ourselves with olive oil, drink gallons of water, cover every inch of our bodies with sunscreen and use all the celebrity skincare lines, aging simply does not stop, no matter how much celebrities make it look like it does.

8 | THURSDAY, FEBUARY 11, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Review: A Glitch in the Matrix Rodney Ascher’s new film intrigues superficially

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org The press notes provided to The Aggie for this review read: “If director Rodney Ascher is interviewing you, chances are you’re obsessed with something.” This seems to be basically true, going by “A Glitch in the Matrix” and “Room 237” (Ascher’s debut).

Both films are chock-full of interviews with people of questionable expertise who speculate wildly about whatever topic is at hand: In “Room 237,” it’s reading way, way too far into Kubrick’s “The Shining,” and in “A Glitch in the Matrix” it’s simulation theory—the idea that reality as we know it is a simulation created by a species far more advanced than ourselves.

These press notes also revere Ascher for knowing what “creepypasta” is, which doesn’t seem terribly out of character for him considering how much of this film is dedicated to strangers from the internet hypothesising way out of their pay-grade and clips of Elon Musk on YouTube waving off discourse around simulation theory with cool declarations like “of course we’re in a simulation.”

There’s a surprising amount of breadth present for a film that appears on the surface to have a narrow subject: interviews with Reddit narcissists eventually give way to interwoven segments on Philip K. Dick’s intellectual downward spiral and, for the film’s penultimate section, a lengthy interview with the “Matrix Killer,” who in 2003 shot his parents out of (he claims) a belief that he was inside the simulated world of the 1999 action flick.

While the directions taken are interesting (to varying degrees), it often feels as if the film has its priorities misaligned: a special education teacher who believes everyone but him is a “non-player character” gets several times as much screen time as Nick Bostrom, who actually wrote the paper that formalized simulation theory.

Philosophically detailed perspectives on the matter seem to take a

back seat to general speculation that’s often not as convincing as the movie seems to think it is. The account of Philip K. Dick’s exegesis, too, is announced more than it’s genuinely explored—a product of the strange decision to cut up his speech and experiences across the film rather than localizing them to a single section.

The film also constantly edges between curiosity and silliness, tossing the viewer back and forth between thought-provoking ideas and B-roll of “Minecraft” worlds and unconvincing computer graphics.

The computer graphics shouldn’t go without note, either. It’s distracting and unconvincing, usually comprising reconstructions of interviewees’ stories or punctuating topics with imagery that’s probably supposed to be mysterious and interesting, but could be best described as wince-worthy. It’s possible that these sections are supposed to be cheap looking in order to evoke some kind of cobbled neo-digital aesthetic, but the final product is the same regardless of intention: it’s more reminiscent of old-school machinima than anything that belongs in a serious feature film.

“A Glitch in the Matrix” isn’t without its merits, however. It is, at times, captivating in its construction, and some of what’s presented is worthy of attention. It does manage to craft some essence of intrigue through its broad scope and sometimes strange choices of interviewee, and in some of the more bizarre production choices— such as many interviewees being replaced with motion-tracked digital avatars—a germ of charm can be found. Ascher certainly can’t be faulted for making a film that’s overly traditional or boring.

And trying something new is never a bad thing, whether or not there are stumbles along the way.

Independent of its faults, Ascher’s style of documentary is fast, interesting and free of the sludge and faux-objectivity of tradition.

What “A Glitch in the Matrix” demonstrates is that this style opens the possibility of new errors as much as boons.

Theatrical one-sheet for “A Glitch in the Matrix,” a Magnolia Pictures release. (Magnolia Pictures / Courtesy)

How to enjoy, survive or ignore Valentine’s Day The best movie, book and album for your V-Day mood

BY ITZELTH GAMBOA arts@theaggie.org

BY CAMERON PERRY arts@theaggie.org

Television Show: “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver In a seemingly endless slew of late-night talk shows, it can get a bit old watching the same ten comics/hosts joke about the same current events every weeknight. Sure, each one (or their writers) brings with them some refreshing take on otherwise dull or less than interesting news, but more often than not, the punchlines just fall short of their mark. Perhaps it’s the British character and humor of John Oliver, or the less restrictive language of HBO’s platforms, but Oliver’s weekly commentary is as calculated as it is hilarious. Again, this could be partly accredited to the writers, but they’re also given the whole week to compose material for a once-a-week show. If you’re someone that finds themselves switching back-and-forth between Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers and the likes of other late-night talk show hosts Monday through Friday… take a break and just catch John Oliver on HBO on Sundays.

Movie: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” dir. by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam (1975) In 1975, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam put together the second film from the “Monty Python” group as they follow Arthur, King of the Britons on his quest in finding his Knights of the Round Table, riding throughout England using… coconuts? While the film is approaching its 50th anniversary in just a couple of years, it’s deadpan humor and historical satire have aged almost too perfectly. Summarizing the plot or explaining any of the jokes—there are too many—would not do the viewer any justice. One could find themselves content simply laughing themselves into jerking a tear or two over the sheer absurdity of the film at their first viewing, while those with an especially dry sense of humor may find themselves hurting from laughing too hard. If you’re someone that appreciates dry humor, look no further. that I was sitting in a pool of my tears at the end.

Book: “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl (1946) “Man’s Search for Meaning” is one man’s firsthand account of his experiences in a German concentration camp accompanied by his own psychoanalysis of those experiences. However, grueling the circumstances and/or consequences of his internment, Frankl explains his own search for meaning in these grave situations and helping his fellow prisoners do the same during his time at the Nazi camps and afterwards. Frankl’s narrative and analysis offers readers a more in-depth look at the horrors of the Holocaust and it’s psychological affects on those who endured it. It’s a different format from what you’d expect from most firsthand narratives, but it is refreshing in that sense alone and is well worth the read.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, different emotions arise. You’ve got the heartbroken single folks that are bitter all day long, the love birds who use the day as an excuse to shower their partner with gifts and those who couldn’t care less but wait for the following day’s clearances on chocolates.

With these three groups in mind, I made a curated list of what to watch, read and listen to depending on your mood this Valentine’s Day. Heartbroken: I am a huge advocate for watching sad movies when you’re feeling down. Sometimes you just need to have a nice crying session. Releasing all of those feelings will (hopefully) make you feel better.

This is why I am recommending the saddest of sad recommendations for all of my heartbroken readers.

I was expecting a cute movie to take my mind off of things when I first watched “Irreplaceable You,” but I ended up on my bed in a pool of tears.

When Abbie is diagnosed with cancer, she makes it her last mission to find a new love for her fiancé Sam. I’ve always hated the idea that an individual wouldn’t be happy if their partner found love and married again after their passing—that’s such a selfish love, that isn’t real love. With that being said, seeing the lengths to which Abbie went to find Sam the perfect girl is heartwarming albeit slightly morbid.

I would also recommend the book “The Hearts We Sold” by Emily Lloyd-Jones. In this world, demons grant you a wish in return for a body part. With school on the line and abusive parents waiting for her to come home, Dee Moreno has no choice but to make a deal with a demon. But when Dee makes her deal, the demon doesn’t ask for a random limb; it asks for her heart for a year. She reluctantly accepts and from then on, she does the demon’s bidding. It was an easy read and it kept my mind off of things for a good while, but the ending broke me. Sometimes a devastating ending ties up a story with a bow. This book did exactly that. I fell in love with the characters and kept going for the romantic interest. When it finally ended, I felt sick: I was ambushed with a twist I never expected.

This book deserves more recognition than it gets.

Finally, my all-time favorite artist Taylor Swift wrote the perfect tragic heartbreak album back in 2012: “Red”, which includes gut-wrenching songs like “All Too Well” and “State of Grace.” This is the most emotional album, through which Swift makes you want to curl up into a ball on your bed and listen as she gradually makes you feel better knowing that you’re not alone.

In Love: Kumail Nanjiani wrote “The Big Sick” with

Album: “You Can’t Take It with You” by As Tall As Lions (2009) After two extended plays and two full length albums, “Lafcadio” in 2004 and a selftitled record in 2006, Indie/Alternative/musical wizards As Tall As Lions released their final work in 2009. The 11-song long play has range, and I mean a lot of range. It opens with “Circles,” a drum-heavy, almost tribal sounding introduction that has a circular feel about it that draws you in with some easy-to-follow and fun riffs to accompany the drums. “Sixes and Sevens” has the makings of an anthem, putting lead singer/guitarist Dan Nigro’s melodic vocals on full display. In the middle of the album, “Duermete’’ takes listeners on an entirely new journey for about eight minutes that culminates in seven words that repeat through it: “But I know that better days will come.” In each song, the group somehow finds that perfect balance of sound and lyric that brings you down only for the sole purpose of picking you back up again.

KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE

his wife Emily V. Gordon based on their love story and Gordon’s sickness. In the movie Kumail plays himself as a stand-up comedian trying to avoid all of the potential fiancés his mom has lined up for him. During one of his shows, Kumail meets Emily, but after a fight which leads to the couple splitting, Emily gets sick and Kumail forms a surprising bond with her family. I recommend this movie to everyone looking for a cute rom-com. It’s one of those love stories where the characters just match up together, and it makes you laugh. Most romantic movies will get a decent chuckle out of me, but none of them really make me laugh like this one did.

“I’ll Give You the Sun” by Jandy Nelson follows a set of twins, Noah and Jude, that grow apart during their teenage years. The story goes back and forth between the twins’ points of views, but in the end, the stories intertwine. This novel is perfect for those that are in love and want a small entrance into another romantic world.

Matt Maeson’s songs (especially the stripped versions) on “Bank on the Funeral” have me listening to them on repeat. They’re perfect for an individual in love as they ride in the passenger seat of their partner’s car on the way to a drive-in theatre.

Indifferent: I think we can all agree that “WALL-E” is a love story, but it’s much more than that. It touches on humanity and its ultimate love for Earth. It attests to trying to rebuild something from the bottom up with pure hope. This is why it’s perfect for people who don’t necessarily care for Valentine’s Day; it has a little bit of everything. It has the love between Wall-E and Eve, it has comedy, it has adventure and it shows the importance of perseverance in the human race.

“The Book Thief” by Marcus Zusak is a book you won’t want to put down. Let’s start with a line on the first page: “Here is a small fact: You are going to die.” If that jarring line doesn’t bring you into a book when you are indifferent to what happy couples or miserable singles are doing on Valentine’s day, then I don’t know what will.

Narrated by Death, the book focuses on Liesel Meminger, a young girl who is sent away from her family after her brother’s death. Liesel is left to live with strangers who teach her how to read, inspiring her love for books. When a young Jewish man secretly takes shelter in their basement, she describes the weather to him through the words she learns from the books she steals.

There’s something about Of Monsters and Men’s 2016 album “My Head Is an Animal” that makes me feel so calm. When Valentine’s Day comes around and you couldn’t care less about love, this album is perfect to nod your head to as you go about your day sans romance.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 | 9

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

Answer to previous puzzle 2/4/201

Crossword Answer to previous puzzle 2/4/21

10 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SCIENCE PARENT-CHILD CARE PROGRAM PROMOTES IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH AND POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WHILE TEACHING BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT Participation in parent-child therapy results in decreased behavior problems and improved caregiver-child relationships

BY MICHELLE WONG science@theaggie.org When we walk by a toddler throwing a tantrum in the middle of a grocery store aisle, we may unconsciously label the child as a troublemaker. But to psychologists, these behavioral problems signal something else—a cry for help. In order to help children better manage their behavior and to improve caregiver-child relationships, members of the UC Davis Child and Adolescent Abuse Resource and Evaluation (CAARE) Center have developed a treatment program called Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE).

According to Brandi Hawk, a psychologist at the UC Davis CAARE Center and co-developer of PC-CARE, the program was pioneered six years ago to offer extra support to families struggling with behavior problems in children or difficulties in caregiver-child relationships.

Susan Timmer, a research psychologist at the CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center, worked for many years evaluating a longer parent-child treatment program called Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT). When she found that approximately 50% of participants dropped out of the therapy before receiving substantial information about how to help their child, she—along with Hawk and Lindsey Almendariz, another co-developer of PCCARE—saw the need to create something new.

“We developed PC-CARE to be very brief—it’s only seven weeks long—so that we can help families identify what works best for them, improve caregiver-child relationships and set them on a good trajectory, while being short enough for families to be able to actually finish services and complete the treatment,” Hawk said.

Hawk explained that their team wanted to develop the PCCARE program to teach positive communication skills. Rather than giving attention to negative behaviors, PC-CARE teaches parents and children to highlight positive behaviors exhibited by the child.

“We start with teaching positive communication skills because those are foundational for a good relationship, and then we add on each week either self-regulation and coping skills or behavior management strategies,” Hawk said.

Timmer elaborated that in addition to the contents of each session, the order of the program was planned so participants had the skills needed to move on to the next intervention. For example, she explained the need to teach calming and coping skills before teaching more difficult behavior management strategies such as

From left to right: Colleen Allen, Brandi Hawk, Deanna Boys, Lindsay Armendariz, and Susan Timmer. The team that developed the PC-CARE program, which provides extra support to families struggling with behavior problems in children. (PC-CARE / Courtesy) effective commands or discipline skills.

“We finish with the emphasis on recovery because it’s so important that if we’re teaching behavior management strategies, we’re also teaching parents the importance of returning to a positive caregiver-child relationship and coming back to this idea that their child is a good kid and they are a good parent and that we can move forward from difficulties together,” Hawk said.

Ross Thompson, a distinguished professor in the department of psychology, explained via email that having the caregiver and child simultaneously involved in therapy is essential in addressing these behavior problems, as the child heavily relies on relationships within their family for support, behavioral regulation and a sense of well-being.

“In efforts to address a child’s behavioral problems, it is essential to also assist the family system that has had to accommodate these problems, or sometimes has contributed to them, but in any case has to change in order to enable children to change in healthy ways,” Thompson said via email. “It is not wise to consider healing children without healing the families in which they live.”

Recently, the co-developers of PC-CARE conducted a study in collaboration with the Department of Child, Family, and Adult Services to provide the program for foster children in the Sacramento

area. Hawk stated that at the end of the program, foster children showed decreases in difficult behaviors—such as noncompliance, aggression and tantrums—in addition to increases in independence, creativity and emotional regulation. The caregivers also reported an improvement in their relationships with the foster children.

Hawk explained that the CAARE team began this project after seeing that young children in the Sacramento area were moving foster placements more often than those in California as a whole.

The team wanted to see whether offering PC-CARE as a preventive intervention could help children stay in the same placement longer to promote their developmental wellbeing.

Hawk elaborated that all children in foster care have experienced a form of trauma, whether it is physical abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, neglect, a change in location or even removal from their primary caregiver. Thompson expressed via email that a thorough rethinking of the design and funding of the foster care system would prevent such problems.

“I have read experts on the child welfare system in the United States state that if we tried to create a system of care that would create stresses for children, we would create our foster care system,” Thompson said via email.

Due to the trauma foster children face, Hawk stated these children have a heightened risk of developing behavioral and mental health difficulties. She further explained that PC-CARE aims to direct foster children away from developing mental health issues and toward positive development.

“Oftentimes in young children, we see mental health difficulties start as difficult behaviors because children, especially when they’re pre-verbal or early verbal, don’t have the words to tell us that they’re feeling sad or scared inside, and they often don’t know how they’re feeling,” Hawk said. “What we instead see are behaviors like acting out, aggression, tantrum, clinginess. Those are a child’s way of saying, ‘There’s something wrong and I need help.’”

Although this specific project focuses on foster children, Timmer emphasized that PC-CARE is available to all children ages 1 to 10 who may be, or be at risk of, exhibiting behavior problems.

As this program is shorter than PCIT, Timmer hopes that the therapy may be offered in settings that are more accessible and familiar to a child, such as a primary care setting or their school.

Timmer added that they have recently received funding to begin a project providing PC-CARE to various schools.

Timmer highlighted that PC-CARE emphasizes the role of play in development as both a fun activity and an important component in promoting children’s mental health. PC-CARE provides an opportunity to not only help the children, but also remind parents how to have fun with their children and nurture a positive relationship.

“We want parents to feel confident and to be the best parent they can be, and for kids to feel safe and loved and happy within their caregiver-child relationship,” Hawk said.

UC DAVIS PREPARES NEW WALNUT VARIANT FOR THE MARKET

The novel nut variant, UC Wolfskill, can be harvested earlier than current varieties, increasing harvest efficiency

CATHY TANG/ AGGIE

BY FRANCHESKA TORRES science@theaggie.org UC Davis is getting ready to release their new walnut variant, UC Wolfskill, to farmers all over California after an 18-year process.

Researchers created the UC Wolfskill walnut after initially crossing the Chandler and Solano walnut in 2003, according to Pat Brown, breeder and an associate professor in the department of plant sciences. The variant is named after one of the first American settlers in northern California that donated the Wolfskill ranch to UC Davis for tree research.

Brown’s responsibility, along with coordinating the entire process, is to make new crosses annually by planting seedlings and deciding which seedlings are to become selections for cross breeding.

The best selections will be used in grower trials by farmers willing to dedicate a plot of their land to observe and report the progress of the new variant.

According to Brown, the most popular variety in California and the rest of the globe is the Chandler walnut, due to its ease of planting and because farming produces high-quality crops. The downside with Chandler walnut is that it harvests late, resulting in the investment of harvesting equipment, hauling equipment and drying equipment across California simultaneously for a narrow window of time. Brown noted this problem was the motivation for creating the UC Wolfskill walnut.

“Our goal in developing this variety is to have something that’s earlier, to spread the harvest window [and] to increase the efficiency of those big capital investments, but to maintain the Chandler quality,” Brown said.

The Chandler’s light golden color is also a reason it is in high demand, according to Brown. Chuck Leslie, a breeder with the UC Davis Walnut Improvement Program and specialist in the plant sciences department, knows that walnuts are desired based on their ability to crack in half. Growers receive more money for walnuts in halves than in pieces. The kernel weight, or measure of seed size, is also a factor, with buyers wanting 55-57% kernel weight per nut.

The Wolfskill cross occurred when Gale McGranahan, the past leader of the Walnut Improvement Program, and Leslie decided that instead of taking pollen from one tree and putting it on another tree, they would take pollen from a variety of trees—including Solano— and put it on the Chandler trees in what is known as a poly-cross.

Chandler and Solano crosses produced the most successful trees with the desired characteristics of earlier harvest and light color, according to Brown.

Although there were no genetic modifications done in the program, researchers used the genes of walnuts to make predictions about the walnut tree characteristics, according to Leslie. An example of what genetic markers can predict is when a tree will open its buds in the spring. The earlier the buds open in the spring,

the earlier the flowers will bloom and the earlier the harvest will be.

The genetic markers for different traits are developed from a fullsequence reference genome for walnuts created a couple years ago at UC Davis.

Walnut blight, a pathogen that spreads through orchards during the spring rains, is also a concern for both Brown and Leslie because it is hard to predict how the disease will affect UC Wolfskill once it is released to more farmers. The Chandler’s late harvest, however, causes its buds to open after the spring rains, reducing its susceptibility to the pathogen.

Although UC Wolfskill is not proven to be blight resistant, there is evidence from the grower trials that the harvest is still producing a significant quantity of nuts. It has been hypothesized that due to the high yield of walnuts, the harvest can afford to lose a small amount to blight, but according to Brown, it is still unknown. The Walnut Improvement program is currently studying this phenomenon.

Another problem the Walnut Improvement Board is investigating is the chill tolerance of walnut trees. Climate change is causing a continuous increase in Earth’s surface temperatures and the time period for the cool winter period is decreasing, according to Leslie. The orchards of walnut trees are expected to be in the ground for 40-60 years and will encounter the effects of global warming. The program will be studying the correlation of early leafing with low chill tolerance this winter.

The overall goal of UC Davis’ Walnut Improvement Program is to enhance the value of the walnut for the grower. It is funded by the California Walnut Board and the data is gathered by farmers who are observing the test variant on specific plots on their land.

“If things look promising, at that stage, then we will send or try to encourage commercial nurseries around the state to get graftwood,” Leslie said.

The nurseries, the majority located in the Central Valley of California, will have to apply to the university for a license to produce the trees. Denise Meade, the contact for nurseries that want to obtain a license, explained that any inventions developed on the UC Davis campus are required to be reported to InnovationAccess, the technology transfer office that takes care of this licensing process.

The office will then examine it to determine if the invention can be protected by a patent. In the case of seed crops, a Plant Variety Protection (PVP) certificate would need to be issued through the USDA office instead of the patent office.

In order to obtain a license, the nursery must be in the state of California unless they are joint with the USDA, and it must be already licensed with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to maintain the purity of the variety. Once the license is obtained, the nurseries have the right to sell trees anywhere in the U.S. Those who are first-in-line for the release of UC Wolfskill are farmers that already have it from the grower trials, according to Brown. There are plans for a batch of growers to get their UC Wolfskill trees this Spring, and Brown hopes that in four to five years consumers will start purchasing the walnuts.

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THURSDAY, FEBUARY 11, 2021 | 11

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Layoffs of lecturers Thirteen lecturers, one staff and one recall appointment received layoff notices informing them that the last day of Fall Quarter would mark their last day of work in that position.

According to an email provided to The Aggie, Barbara Jahn, the then director of physical education, sent an email letting PE staff know that as of 9:45 a.m. on Sept. 25, the Physical Education program would “cease to exist” and that they would be given layoff notices on Sept. 28.

“I want you to know that the decision was made without our input,” Jahn said via email.

“This is devastating news for all of us.”

Daryl Lee, the men’s tennis coach and former lecturer, said he was made aware of the decision to discontinue PE on Sept. 25.

“The next thing that happened was Sept. 28; that was when my colleagues and I received layoff notices,” Lee said. “They said that we were going to be done on Dec. 18.”

Kirsten Stevenson, the senior campus counsel for UC Davis, said via email that the 13 lecturers who had been laid off in all but one case will continue to be paid as if they were still lecturing for a 12-month period following the notice of dismissal.

Most lecturers were also coaches at UC Davis in a teacher-coach model that divided the position between teaching PE courses and coaching.

“This is called the ‘Davis way’; it’s been in existence for about seven decades,” Lee said.

“That’s the core and foundation of the program.”

Stevenson said that most of the UC Davis faculty that were laid off from their positions maintained a coaching appointment.

“And they weren’t a 50/50 split, most of them were 70/30 or 65/35, something like that,” Stevenson said. “Most of them retained their coach appointment and were pumped up to 100% coach.”

Lee, who no longer held a coach position at the university, said he no longer has employment at UC Davis.

The ‘Agreement’ The understanding by some faculty and students was that there was a longstanding agreement that if students paid for Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA)—which was entering into Division I at the time and has no direct benefit for non-athlete students—the administration would pay for PE courses.

“I was here when it all went down,” Lee said.

“May has only been here for three years.”

The agreement—reportedly struck in 1994—implied that students were under no obligation to continue paying the Student Activities and Services Initiative (SASI), which included ICA if the benefit of PE was removed.

The administration has pushed back against the criticism citing that PE is not directly paid for by students and therefore does not relate to SASI fees according to Chief Campus Counsel Michael Sweeney in an email obtained by The Aggie.

“And you know something?” Lee said.

“They’re right. But that’s not what the agreement was.”

Bob Franks, a former associate vice chancellor for student affairs at UC Davis, said he was around when the arrangement took place.

“So, were all these matters explicitly spelled out in SASI?” Franks said in an email. “No, of course not. It would have been as unnecessary as speaking of sunrise and sunset. These simply were the reality, and all involved parties understood the reality.”

The administration cites a lack of formal documentation and maintains it has not broken an agreement with students.

“The agreement is not memorialized formally in any of the documentation that I or anyone else has seen,” Kelman said. “So, what we have is, and it’s deeply regrettable, a significant discrepancy between what you might call ‘collective memory’

and the historical record.”

Krueger said the moral argument stands with or without a formal recognition of the SASI fees being involved.

“I think from a legal standpoint, I’m not sure if it holds up,” Krueger said. “But I think there’s a moral standpoint with which [the] administration should have consulted with students because of that agreement.”

Youedon brought a resolution to the table to force the administration’s hand to either bring back PE or consider revoking SASI fees.

“I decided I would be the one to get everyone talking about it, at least,” Youedon said.

Krueger said he vetoed the original version of the bill because of the threat to remove SASI fees that fund important student programs.

“There is a lot tied up in SASI fees: the CrossCultural Center and the Women’s Resources Center,” Krueger said. “So there’s definitely a risk with a referendum like that.”

Once the language about SASI was removed, the revised version of the resolution was passed on Dec. 10 with 11 senators approving it and one abstaining. However, the question about whether or not the move by administration was fair is still being debated.

“I choose to believe there is a connection between SASI and PE and over 5,000 students and alumni who signed the petition also believe the very same thing,” Youedon said.

Proposed solutions The proposal to move some courses to nocredit Campus Recreation raises concerns from students about the added cost, since PE courses are paid by tuition.

Kelman said the goal was to provide a little- to no-cost option for some courses through Campus Recreation.

“They made it clear that one of their concerns was that they didn’t want to see their constituents having to pay more for programming,” Kelman said. “And so the Provost and Chancellor agree that’s an issue and are planning to sink a lot of the money into programming through campus recreation.”

Notably, this is not a guarantee that new programs will encompass all of the courses that have been removed. Kelman said replaced programs will likely be related to health and safety.

“So this would be self-defense classes, swimming lessons—ways that our students can feel safer,” Kelman said.

Many students are not impressed with the solutions that have been offered so far. Butler said that if the programming moved to Campus Recreation, students would lose a sense of community.

Butler said she believed that the teacher-coach model was important to maintain because coaches themselves may have completed the coaching program and that they have a direct connection to the student experience.

“That teacher-coach model is just so important to have,” Butler said. “It’s just a whole part of their lives that you get to experience that now you won’t have with Campus Recreation.”

Youedon proposed that if the administration is unwilling to bring PE back, then they should create the same program through Campus Recreation, utilizing the laidoff lecturers, but only if Campus Recreation had an easier system for registration and the fees were eliminated.

The only solution, as Lee sees it, is to either refund students the amount they are paying to ICA or to reinstate the PE program.

“Everything ultimately circles back to the agreement,” Lee said. “If [Provost Croughan] decides on behalf of the administration to break the agreement, then why are they still charging you and your peers over $10 million annually to pay for the sports teams?”

CONTRACEPTIVESPANEL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

Banas said that members of the club expressed a sense that creation of more options and widely available male contraceptives would ultimately benefit women.

“We felt like it would further women’s rights in a lot of ways just because it takes some of the pressure off of people to take birth control, especially if it’s something that doesn’t react well with their body,” Banas said. “I think more options are better, especially with health care, things like that, just to reach a wider array of people.”

Creinin agrees, saying that his vision is to make pregnancy prevention a responsibility of both people in the future.

“I really see the future as being something where both [people] can participate,” Creinin said. “The man is using his hormonal gel and a woman is using her birth control pill, the likelihood that they as a couple will get pregnant, when they don’t want to be pregnant, is going

to be incredibly low. Typically pregnancy occurs because of two people, so if both people are taking an active part in preventing pregnancy with methods that are both effective [...] it can help The couple [can] have better control over whether a pregnancy occurs or not.”

Both Creinin and Banas expressed that the creation of this effective and reversible male contraceptive begins to more evenly distribute the responsibility for men and women in preventing pregnancy, which has been primarily the women’s responsibility. Creinin said that he hopes this can be a step in changing the way that we as a society look at and assign the responsibility of preventing pregnancy.

“I think this really changes the dogma, or has the potential to change the dogma of, well, the woman gets pregnant, she takes care of it,” Creinin said. “The man gets off scot free, he just gets to have sex and smile and not worry about anything. That’s not really how it should be.”

According to Ward, living among so many people during the pandemic comes with anticipated risks.

“Generally living here, we have this assumed level of risk [...] because there are just so many people,” Ward said.

To lower the risk of contracting COVID-19, the co-op residents have taken precautions when a known exposure has taken place, such as dividing the house into units and staying among small groups. Regular testing has also become part of Turtle House residents’ routines, according to Sturm.

“Most of us get tested once or twice a week,” Sturm said. “It definitely was a ‘hit the ground running’ with communication moving in because [...] your life is at stake and you’re putting [it] in the hands of 19 people.”

Robson noted that the Turtle House’s process of finding new residents isn’t based on a rubric and that there are no prerequisites required to apply.

“We don’t try to find a mold of a person, we’re not looking for somebody that looks a certain way

or has done a certain thing in the community or plays music or has a talent or anything like that,” Robson said. “There’s really no structure, it’s just a house and you can do what you want with it.”

In Sturm’s experience reviewing the applications of potential residents, the ones that stand out the most are from students whose personalities are a huge departure from her own.

“If I’m reading an application or I’m meeting someone and I think they’re so similar to me, of course I’m excited—you get excited when you meet someone who has similar interests,” Sturm said. “But the applications that I think everyone gets the most excited about is when you see someone who is so vastly different from yourself and I think that in that way, co-ops are really different from what people think.”

For Ward, life in the Turtle House has allowed her to feel comfortable exercising her eccentricities.

“It’s like an expanded comfort zone for being weird, it’s a way to feel [more comfortable] being a weirdo and then practice it for the rest of your life,” Ward said.

FOODINDUSTRY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

Freeman emphasized the necessity of reading peer-reviewed pamphlets and articles to gain an accurate and more comprehensive understanding of how these chemicals work.

Diacova also said that food dyes and additives are prevalent in packaged foods that already tend to be unhealthy. To maintain a healthy relationship with food, she stated that it is important to have both variety and moderation in one’s diet.

According to Debbie Fetter, an assistant professor of nutrition at UC Davis, knowledge of the health effects of food dyes is limited.

“Generally my rule of thumb for artificial colorings [and] additives [is that] there’s still a lot that we don’t know,” Fetter said. “I would recommend for people to generally consume most of their foods coming straight from the whole food source.”

Although eating whole foods is important, according to Fetter, it is safe to consume packaged foods in moderation.

“If having a serving of goldfish brings you joy, have your serving of goldfish,” Fetter said. “Don’t worry too much about the dyes that are coming from that, just don’t eat goldfish every day, for every meal, all the time.”

When assessing packaged products, Fetter stated that it is easy to be confused by food labels. For example, attempting to identify the amount of hydrogenated oil, which is artificiallyproduced trans fat, on food labels can be difficult

due to labeling laws that make them confusing to interpret.

“If a product has less than 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving, the manufacturer can list 0 grams on the label,” Fetter said.

Fetter stated that this can become a problem when people consume more than one serving, and thus may ingest more trans fat than anticipated.

“Products that have had artificial trans fat are things like Cheez-Its,” Fetter said. “How many people actually consume one serving of CheezIts?” In order to maintain a healthy diet, Fetter recommended setting aside 20-30 minutes each weekend to plan out a grocery list that will allow for healthy meal options. She recommended grocery stores like Trader Joe’s which tend to contain more affordable produce. Fetter, however, suggests remaining aware of the fact that all stores, even grocers like Trader Joe’s, can carry unhealthy foods.

“Trader Joe’s gets that health halo effect where people think that everything coming from Trader Joe’s is going to be super healthy,” Fetter said. “But their Joe-Joes are still Oreos; their cookies are still cookies. It’s always good to just be mindful of that.”

To obtain access to fresh produce during the pandemic, Freeman recommended the ASUCD Pantry, CalFresh or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to secure produce at affordable prices.

BOBALIB CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

The ebbs and flows of the popularization of certain foods associated with Asian American identity further pushes ever-changing nature of identity. The issue with boba, according to “@ diaspora_is_red,” is that it is inoffensive, sugarysweet and popular, but with no substance.

The use of food as a signifier of Asian American identity is exemplified in the romantic comedy, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” where the popular Korean yogurt drink Yakult is featured. In the film, Yakult acts as a bridge between the protagonist’s Asian heritage and the love interest’s declaration of driving to the other side of town to buy the “Korean yogurt smoothie.” The depiction of Yakult is striking against the following scene in the movie, where the protagonist and love interest are watching “Sixteen Candles” and a character named Long Dong Duk appears.

Long Dong Duk, an Asian foreign exchange student with a thick, bumbling accent, has been called “one of the most offensive Asian stereotypes Hollywood ever gave America.” The protagonist of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” and her sister overlook this offensive caricature and instead focus on the main character being cute, rather than using this as an opportunity to take a stand against the movie. In “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” the choice to go with the Yakult moment is another inoffensive bridge into Asian American identity that creates sickeningly sweet love metaphors, but offers little substance in its construction of Asian American identity.

Another prominent example is “Fresh Off the Boat,” an ABC sitcom set in the late 1990s, featuring a Taiwanese-American family’s move to Orlando, Florida. The sitcom is based on food personality Eddie Huang’s memoir, who has since criticized the sitcom for rendering his life story unrecognizable, stating that the characters were neutered and exoticized to make them more palatable for viewers who have never seen Asian Americans on screen. Huang has also criticized the show for stripping key narratives from his life to provide a baseline of relatability for audiences.

The show, Huang says, “totally stripped the pain and struggle of being an immigrant in this country and being a minority,” using Asian characters to

AGGIE RECOVERY CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

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tell “white narratives.” Why does a show about Asian Americans have to appeal to anyone besides those it seeks to represent?

As Huang puts it, it is easy to accept these forms of representations because that’s all that’s really offered. I read Huang’s memoir in middle school, and his experiences are very reminiscent of the experiences that Asian Americans I knew during that time went through, such as getting into fights with classmates who dole out slurs like “C*******” and “C****.” I especially resonated with the painful uncomfortableness with your Asian identity when it stands starkly against that of your peers—a feeling that “Fresh Off the Boat” tends to gloss over.

While the focus on Asian American representation in the media overshadows other important issues worthy of discussion, representation can also be an important nexus in bringing these issues into the mainstream, something the sitcom “Black-ish” does extremely well. “Black-ish” is unapologetic in its portrayal of Black issues in the mainstream, from discussions of colorism, intersectionality in feminism and stark, multi-layered discussions of police brutality. “Fresh off the Boat” misses an important opportunity that “Black-ish” took advantage of—the incorporation and discussion of crucial and even uncomfortable issues. The painful immigrant experience that Huang writes about in his memoir failed to materialize in the show’s adaptation.

“Fresh off the Boat” is the first network television sitcom in the U.S. to feature a family of Asian Americans as the main cast in over 20 years and I cannot underscore the importance of this and how essential it is for young Asian Americans to see themselves reflected on the screen. However, the creation of Asian American media like “Fresh off the Boat” and “Crazy Rich Asians” exposes two problems with Asian American representation: It takes advantage of the fluidity of Asian American identity to sell more “palatable” narratives and offers Asian American signifiers that are devoid of meaningful substance.

And just because this is all we have for now, doesn’t mean we should readily accept it.

12 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS American sports sees a lack of diversity in team, coach composition Although leagues have begun to make strides in increasing diversity, it is still a work-in-progress

BY KATERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org Diversity in American sports contributes to respect and helps people to value one another in society. It breaks barriers among people with different backgrounds and helps them form relationships that would have never otherwise been formed.

Today, major sport organizations like the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) claim to prioritize diversity, but often implementation of the idea is not visible within their coaching staff hires or player picks.

In 2015, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck wrote about the sudden loss of Black coaches in the NBA. “NBA teams, now more than ever, are seeking unconventional hires—college coaches, first-time coaches, foreign coaches, broadcasters, former video coordinators—and turning away from the standard pool of former players-turned-coaches, a pool that is, by definition, predominantly Black,” Beck said.

Even when putting aside race, gender representation seems to be an issue in the NBA as well. Becky Hammon became the first female assistant coach in the NBA for the San Antonio Spurs in 2014. It was the beginning of a huge culture shift that has led to there being 11 more women assistant coaches today. However, the NBA still has a long path ahead of them to diversify. In a diverse environment, the morale of players may increase and there will be more productivity for the NBA. In the MLB, 40% of the players on the 2020 Opening Day rosters were from non-white backgrounds, and only 7.5% were AfricanAmerican.

Colorado Rockies outfielder Ian Desmond announced last year that he wouldn’t be participating in the 2020 season. He said COVID-19 wasn’t a risk worth taking, but he also wanted to support his local little league baseball field because the MLB isn’t supporting

underprivileged communities. Based on his former experiences in youth baseball as a biracial kid, Desmond understood firsthand how difficult it could be to find support from others in the sport of baseball.

“Why isn’t there an academy in every single community?” Desmond said. “Why does Major League Baseball have to have a specific youth baseball affiliation with RBI? Why can’t we support teaching the game to all kids—but especially those in underprivileged communities?

Why aren’t accessible, affordable youth sports viewed as an essential opportunity to affect kids’ development, as opposed to money-making propositions and recruiting chances?”

By not assisting these underprivileged communities, the MLB may face serious consequences in the future by missing out on the recruitment of amazing young, talented players who just need support behind them to get a chance to compete in the professional levels down the road. Yet, as Desmond illustrated, the MLB is also missing out on the opportunity to affect meaningful change in the lives of young baseball players across the country, regardless of their possible contribution to the league’s financial success.

In regards to gender diversity, women are gradually gaining more representation in the MLB. Kim Ng became the first woman general manager in the MLB for the Miami Marlins in November of 2020. Ng is one of the most qualified people with over 30 years of experience. The barrier she broke serves as inspiration for many young girls and women to pursue their dreams in having a high position in baseball.

Last year, the NFL spoke about their commitment to the inclusion of diversity in its coaching positions. The league expanded its Rooney Rule that requires the club teams to interview two people of color for coaching positions, and compensated them with an extra third round pick. This past season was the first year since 2013 that only four minority coaches held head coaching positions. This new policy will have the NFL monitoring the interviews closely to ensure diversity amongst the 32 club teams.

“The commissioner has made it a focus area in league meetings for a good period of time but especially over the last year,” said former NFL general manager Rod Graves. “I think the awareness level regarding the issues of diversity in the league or lack of is higher than it’s been in quite a while.”

Even then, only two minority head coaches were hired in this past hiring cycle, leaving out Kansas City Chiefs talented offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy once again. The NFL has a lot of work to do when it comes to diversifying, and a lot of it starts from the top down.

A similar need for increased diversity has also been recognized in hockey. In June of 2020, seven former and current players from the NHL formed the Hockey Diversity Alliance. They operate independently from the NHL and their goal is to promote diversity in all levels of hockey, not just at the professional level.

These seven players, led by Akim Aliu and Evander Kane, partnered up with female hockey players across the U.S. and Canada and the Youth

Inclusion Committee.

“In creating our alliance, we are confident we can inspire a new generation of hockey players and fans,” the group said in a statement. “We are hopeful that anyone who puts on skates or sits in the stands and will do so without worrying about race, gender or socioeconomic background will be able to express their culture, identity, values and personality without fear of retribution.”

All professional sports organizations and athletes seem to be working towards improving diversity and developing new ideas to foster inclusive communities. It is going to take a lot of work, but in recent years leagues have begun to stress the importance of diversity even more.

The hope is that these efforts will eventually bring people of all backgrounds together in sports through diverse environments at both the professional and amateur levels, increasing access to and belonging within these communities for everyone, not just those who have been historically represented in them.

Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy of the Kansas City Chiefs looks on against the Miami Dolphins during the second half in the game at Hard Rock Stadium on December 13, 2020 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Mark Brown / Getty Images)

wild year for football Culminates in super bowl The most unpredictable NFL season in history ends with a familiar face on top

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org From being on the brink of possibly canceling the entire season, the National Football League (NFL) now celebrates the culmination of all 269 games. The bumpy road to get to Super Bowl 55 in Tampa Bay came with lots of stress, disappointments and uncertainty, but the result saw a familiar face once again.

Going into the Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the hottest team in the NFL. When six-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady signed with the Bucs last April, the expectation was what it always is with him—win. After starting off the season shaky and out of synch on both offense and defense, the Bucs were able to finish the regular season with a record of 11-5, clicking on all cylinders. A rough showing against the Washington Football Team left much to be desired, but their 30-20 victory over the division rival New Orleans Saints left Brady one win away from getting back to the big game, this time representing the NFC. To do that, he had to get past fellow great, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. In a game of momentum, the Buccaneers were able to hold on and make their first Super Bowl appearance since the 2002-03 season.

Waiting for the Buccaneers was the Kansas City Chiefs, who were able to make it back to the Super Bowl for the second straight year. The defending champions managed to improve from the previous year, going 14-1 in regular season games where superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes started. Having the luxury of the firstround bye, their first opponent was the Cleveland Browns. After smooth sailing through almost three quarters of play, Mahomes was knocked out of the game, putting the Chiefs on the brink.

In the end, they held on and set up a date with the Buffalo Bills. Their offense proved to be too much for the Bills, as they comfortably made it back to the Super Bowl, setting up the showdown between two stellar quarterbacks.

Having met once in the postseason, the Mahomes and Brady matchup was seen by many as a passing of the torch. Coming into the game however, the Chiefs were missing Pro Bowl left tackle Eric Fisher, now leaving both tackle positions to backups. The vaunted Tampa Bay pass rush of Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett had come alive in the playoffs, and if the Bucs had any chance of stopping the Chiefs’ offense, it would have to start from the front four.

At kickoff in front of 25,000 fans socially distanced in Raymond James Stadium, both teams struggled to move the ball, but on their third drive, Brady found his reliable tight end Rob Gronkowski for Tampa Bay’s first points of the game. They would follow it up with another connection to extend their lead to 14-3, and eventually go into halftime up 21-6. A frustrating first 30 minutes for the Chiefs left them with some adjustments to make, as Mahomes was constantly being pressured the moment he snapped the ball.

To start the half, Mahomes was able to set up a nice drive, but could not cash in the touchdown, settling for yet another field goal.

Meanwhile, the Buccaneers offense continued to roll, scoring another touchdown, further putting their stranglehold on the game. With every Chiefs drive ending in punts or turnover on downs, time eventually ran out, giving Brady his seventh championship, and bringing one home to Tampa Bay. Brady was named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the fifth time and finished the game completing 21 of his 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Mahomes on the other hand, was unable to give his team a touchdown, finishing with 26 of 49 passing, 303 total yards and two interceptions. The story of the night was the impeccable play from Tampa Bay’s defense led by defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, holding the number one offense in the league to nine points and not letting them see the

endzone once. Now having seven Super Bowl titles to himself, more than all 32 teams in the NFL, Brady further backs up his case for being the greatest football player of all time.

As this chapter has come to a close, another rapidly approaches. This successful close to a wild season only leaves more questions for next year, as it is still unknown what is going to happen or whether next season will be like the past one.

With free agency negotiation period starting on March 15, the time is ticking for the NFL to set their salary cap for next season. Although there is no official word, the belief is that the cap will be higher than what they projected with COVID-19.

Originally projected at $175 million, it is now believed that it will be at least five million more than that. As teams prepare for cuts and possible signings, the uncertainty of how much money will be available is something that they must live with as free agency approaches.

Even without knowing who will be moving where, player movement has started off with a bang even before the Super Bowl. In the off week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, the Los Angeles Rams completed a blockbuster trade for longtime Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.

The Rams agreed to send two first-round picks, a third rounder and former number one overall pick Jared Goff to Detroit for the rights to the disgruntled quarterback. With the pressure to get back to the Super Bowl, the Rams’ win-now mode

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

has caused these aggressive moves. Stafford was one of the hottest quarterbacks remaining on the trade market, but it seems as though there is much more left to be seen.

Finding a franchise quarterback in the NFL is one of the hardest things to do, so when a team does find one, it does everything in its power to keep him. But, this offseason looks to be one that breaks the mold, as it appears there will be much more moves left before we even hit the official start of the new league year on March 17. The biggest name on the market is reportedly the Houston Texans’ young star quarterback, Deshaun Watson. Mismanagement and lack of talent surrounding him has left Watson but no choice to ask for a trade, which Houston insists they won’t do. It remains to be seen what happens, but the compensation given in the Stafford trade may complicate things for a potential Watson move.

Drafted in 2016, just one year before Watson, Carson Wentz became a big name with a lot of talent. Many injuries and frustrations later, the Eagles are reportedly close to moving on from the young quarterback. After another disappointing season that saw him get benched, it seems as though the Philadelphia management believes it is time to move on. With 2020 second round draft pick Jalen Hurts waiting, the Eagles look to be heading in a different direction. Jimmy Garoppolo, Mitch Trubisky and Sam Darnold are all names that seem to be on the move as well, further proving that the NFL is the league with the quickest turnarounds and unpredictability.

As the NFL concluded the 2020-21 season, there will be many memories teams and fans will remember. Whether it’s seeing a big stadium with nothing but empty seats or adjusting to the fact that masks became a staple, this season will go down in history as one of the best and one of the weirdest seasons ever. Regardless of what awaits in the new league year, fans can be certain that no matter what, they will be entertained by the offseason moves, as the NFL hopes they won’t have to go through the same extensive process again.

“One of the things that I think I have learned and I think all of us have learned is try not to project too far in advance because it’s difficult to do,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“I know this: We’ve learned to operate in a very difficult environment. We have found solutions, and we’ll do it again.”