April 29, 2021

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VOLUME 139, ISSUE 24 | THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

DAVIS CITY COUNCIL UNANIMOUSLY VOTES TO MOVE HOMELESS SERVICES OUT OF THE DAVIS POLICE DEPARTMENT Members of the Davis community call for independent Department of Public Safety in letter with over 700 signatures

BY SHRADDHA JHINGAN city@theaggie.org During the April 6, 2021 Davis City Council meeting, the city council members voted unanimously to move homeless services out of the Davis Police Department (DPD). All of the city council members also said that there are other service calls that should be dealt with non-sworn and non-armed personnel.

Morgan Poindexter, a UC Davis Immunology graduate student and member of the research team at Yolo People Power (YPP), a volunteer group that focuses on promoting justice, explained that “police do every job in society that is not desirable to be done by someone else,” such as dealing with unhoused people and traffic as there is often not enough money allocated to these issues by society and toward creating systems that work for these services.

“What I would like police to do in our society would be essentially just the jobs that they’re trained for: only the things that they go to academy and train specifically for, which would be apprehending criminals, dealing with violent crime and not so much arresting people for loitering, giving people traffic tickets—all of sorts

of those things which are non-violent and in some cases even victimless crimes, like people who are arrested [for] drug possession,” Poindexter said.

Only 4% of calls to 911 or the police in Davis are for violent crimes, according to Poindexter.

Instead of focusing on punishment and “punitive measures,” Poindexter said that there needs to be more focus on “support for people before they become unhoused.”

In a letter dated March 22—which has amassed the support of more than 700 signatures and organizations such as YPP—members of the Davis community called for the city to create an independent Department of Public Safety, separate from the Police Department that is “staffed by social workers, civil servants, and mental healthcare professionals.”

Poindexter explained that while YPP was working on its Time for The Nine campaign to educate community members about its nine recommendations for public safety, YPP also connected with Yolo Democratic Socialists of America and the United Auto Workers Local 2865, Davis Unit (UAW 2865).

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Davis City Offices in Downtown Davis. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

UC DAVIS PARTNERS WITH UNIVERSITY CREDIT UNION TO RENOVATE AND RENAME PAVILLION The credit union will provide free membership to students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees and oversee the addition of two new ATMs on campus

BY MADDIE DULEY campus@theaggie.org A new partnership between University Credit Union (UCU) and UC Davis will fund maintenance for the ARC Pavillion on campus and provide students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees a free UCU membership.

“University Credit Union will provide financial literacy, financial well-being programs, student employment opportunities as well as specialized offerings to help students achieve their educational aspirations,” said David Tuyo II, the CEO of University Credit Union.

The company intends to support all individuals affiliated with UC Davis, according to Tuyo II. “The vision of the founding body of [UCU] member-owners was to create a financial alternative to the big for-profit banks serving all within the university community, leaving no one marginalized or outside of participation in economic prosperity,” Tuyo II said. “In 2021, we are projecting to give back an amount equal to 100% of our net income to the university community and create value for our memberowners that is 500% of the same amount.”

UCU has hired a UC Davis alumni member to serve on campus, and they are planning to hire additional students and alumni for their advisory center that will be located at the Memorial Union (MU).

The university’s choice to partner with UCU was deliberate and due to the credit union’s mission to support universities and give back to the community, according to Heather Hunter, the executive director of the university partnership

program.

“The partnership will initially support graduate student travel awards, student employment opportunities and student financial education and wellness programming,” Hunter said. “As the partnership evolves, we will work with Student Affairs to identify additional areas to support student initiatives.”

In addition to supporting student groups on campus, UCU will also offer aid to individual students.

“University Credit Union will provide free membership to our students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees,” Hunter said. “Our campus stakeholders will have access to the great benefits that University Credit Union provides its members.”

The partnership will allow the credit union to be an accessible financial resource for students.

“Financial decisions that students make now will have an impact for years to come,” Tuyo II said. “University Credit Union will help guide students and provide the knowledge necessary so students are empowered to make the best and most well-informed decisions to accomplish their goals.”

Students will also be benefitting from the partnership due to the upcoming renovation of the Pavillion. On July 1, the Pavilion will be renamed the University Credit Union Center (UCUC).

This name change will be accompanied by updates to the center, notably a new video board.

“The new Daktronics video board [is over] 13 ft high and 46 ft wide; [it] will show replays and real-time statistics,” Tuyo II said. “The videoboard can also be used for campus events throughout the academic year, in one of the largest on-campus multiuse facilities in Northern California, with

The UC Davis Pavilion will be renamed University Credit Union Center as UC Davis and University Credit Center enter a 10-year partnership. (UC Davis) seating capacity approaching 6,000 for basketball games.”

The credit union has a longstanding relationship with the University of California and the sports conferences, including the Big West, in which Davis students compete.

“This partnership will benefit our athletics department as well as our broader campus community,” said Jim Les, the head coach for men’s basketball. “Our core values of building champions for future success align perfectly.”

In order to offer accessibility to students, the UCU will be installing two ATMs at UC Davis.

Although they are still evaluating a couple of

locations, they are predicted to be located in the MU and the new UCUC. Student Affairs will be meeting with UCU annually to identify areas of need for undergraduate funding, beginning in the 20212022 academic year, according to Hunter.

“This partnership between UC Davis and University Credit Union will set an example for how such a relationship can grow beyond the naming of a building, with initiatives that will benefit our whole campus,” said UC Davis Chancellor Gary May in a news release.

LOCAL FIRE AGENCIES PREPARE FOR WILDFIRE SEASON THROUGH MEETINGS AND WEBINARS Officials urge residents to learn about evacuation routes and how to protect their homes

BY ELLIE LEE city@theaggie.org

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Yolo County fire prevention agencies are currently in the process of preparing for this year’s wildfire season. The Green Valley Fire Safe Council, the Yolo County Resource Conservation District (Yolo County RCD) and other local agencies held a webinar on April 26 about wildfire preparedness.

Julie Rose, a Yolo County resident and owner of Fiddler’s Green Farm since 1991, has been forced to evacuate three times throughout the over 25 years she has lived in Capay Valley. During the lightning strike fires in California, she said there was no availability for fire departments to assist them in the sparsely populated area, and she was evacuated for about six days.

“From our farm, we could look to the west and in a quarter of a mile, see the flames approaching our property,” Rose said. “The air quality was super bad.”

As a member of the Capay Valley Fire

Auxiliary, Rose recently attended a virtual meeting with several other agencies, including Yolo County emergency services and fire departments. There were about 35–45 people there, half of whom were representatives of different agencies. She explained how the meeting taught her that there were many actions they could take to prepare for the next fire season.

“I basically just had gone in thinking I was going to help provide food [for the firefighters during the next season], and that’s important to me in itself,” said Rose. “[The representatives of different agencies] were included to think bigger than just providing food.”

Rose highlighted a few aspects of wildfire preparation that the agencies discussed, including evacuating livestock, creating a database to store information, how volunteers could label addresses on properties and identifying which residents may need additional assistance in an evacuation.

She highlighted the importance of preparing for wildfire season well in advance.

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Alumna helped innovate the recently flown Mars helicopter, Ingenuity Sara Langberg, a UC Davis 2016 graduate, details her experience in bringing Ingenuity to life and how her studies at UC Davis led to her work with NASA

BY LYRA FARRELL features@theaggie.org Sara Langberg, who graduated from UC Davis in 2016 with a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering, has helped to build and test the first ever helicopter to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The experimental helicopter, Ingenuity, first arrived on Mars attached to the Perseverance rover on Feb. 18 of this year and made its first successful flight on April 19, followed by a second flight on April 22. Perseverance is the fifth rover to be sent to Mars.

“It was absolutely surreal and breathtaking to see the video come back and see images of it flying, to see pictures that it had taken of its shadow on the ground using its navigation camera,” Langberg said.

“We were really excited to get that imagery back and to get the data back and see that it had finally flown.”

Langberg said that during her time at UC Davis, she had never anticipated being able to help innovate the first helicopter to lift off the surface of the red planet. This project could ultimately lead to new discoveries, such as seasonal water, by capturing images of environments that are inaccessible to rovers.

“I get the question a lot: ‘Is this my dream job?’ and I’ll be honest—it’s not my dream job because I never could have imagined working on a project like this,” Langberg said. “It’s just mindboggling how cool this project is, and I’m so honored to have been a part of it.”

According to Langberg, she’s been conducting work on Ingenuity for about five years, starting when she graduated in 2016.

An internship that she began in the summer between her junior and senior years at AeroVironment, a company that manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles, led directly to her working on the project

when the company began a partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

“AeroVironment has been [...] partnered with JPL starting [in] 2013, so we’ve been working on this for a really long time,” Langberg said. “It’s been more than just a year of waiting, we’ve really put our heart and soul into this project.”

Mars’ atmosphere is about 1% of the volume of Earth’s atmosphere, making it the second thinnest atmosphere in the solar system, which created unique challenges while designing Ingenuity.

According to Langberg, Earth-based helicopters usually aren’t suited for flying above an altitude of 10,000 feet. The atmosphere of Mars equates to a much higher altitude on Earth.

“It’s similar to flying at roughly 100,000 feet on Earth, and very few aircraft have even gotten close to that, one of which is some of our own high altitude, long-endurance aircraft that AeroVironment has done,” Langberg said. “Using what we learned on those programs, especially for propeller design, fed directly into the design of Ingenuity.”

Langberg gained much of her hands-on experience with machinery at UC Davis’ Human/Robotics/Vehicle Integration and Performance (HRVIP) Lab, where she was mentored by Stephen Robinson, a retired NASA astronaut, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the director of the lab.

“I’m very lucky to have connected with [Robinson] like I have, he’s really encouraged me academically and professionally and really opened my eyes to what’s possible,” Langberg said.

To celebrate Ingenuity’s status as the first helicopter to perform controlled flight on another planet, a piece of fabric from the original Wright Flyer, the first airplane to take flight on Earth, was attached to the helicopter.

“A small scrap of that fabric is wrapped around the cables that

Sarah Langberg (Class of 2016) holds the backbone of the Mars helicopter, Ingenuity. (Sarah Langberg / Courtesy) attach the solar panel to the rest of the helicopter,” Langberg said.

Langberg offered advice to UC Davis students who aspire to make similarly impactful contributions to mechanics and aerospace engineering in the future.

“You’ll learn ten times what you can in the classroom by building things and learning how things go together,” Langberg said. “The classroom stuff is important too, to help you get to that point, but there’s nothing that can replace the hands-on experience of building something for yourself.”

A day in the life of an Aggie Public Health Ambassador UC Davis 2021 graduate Lauren Alimento shares her experience working as a campus public health ambassador

BY KATIE DEBENEDETTI features@theaggie.org Since September 2020, anyone walking across UC Davis campus or visiting downtown Davis has likely come across Aggie Public Health Ambassadors—student employees who encourage students to follow safety protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the roughly 250 ambassadors is Lauren Alimento, a UC Davis winter 2021 graduate and an Aggie Public Health Ambassador.

Alimento said that working in the Silo is one of her favorite shifts as a Health Ambassador.

At the Silo, Alimento sits near the entrance and checks daily symptom surveys of students and staff, makes sure they are following mask-wearing and social distancing rules and grants them access to the building. She also helps visitors access the visitor symptom survey and educates them about the safety precautions that the university has in place.

“Usually, it’s a lot of students who walk in,”

Alimento said. “Students know what to do—just flash their symptom survey and then walk by— but there are a lot of [community members who] come in without masks, and it’s a lot of educating them about how you’re supposed to properly wear masks.”

In addition to these tasks, Alimento has been able to interact with many prospective students touring the campus.

“A lot of visitors come, and I explain things about campus to them because we’re the only students who are working on campus right now,” Alimento said.

Aggie Public Health Ambassadors work at the entrances of campus buildings with the most traffic, such as the Silo, Memorial Union and the three Dining Commons. They also have “floater” shifts, during which ambassadors are assigned to walk around campus or downtown to enforce social distancing and mask-wearing and give out rewards to groups and individuals following public health protocols.

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Senate Resolution #12 requests consideration for Muslim students observing Ramadan, budget deficit projected by budget director at April 15 ASUCD meeting The resolution requests that dining services provide more options for students and asks faculty to factor in potential sleep disruption or scheduling conflicts when taking attendance

BY KATHLEEN QUINN campus@theaggie.org Senator Kabir Sahni called the April 15 ASUCD Senate meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. in the absence of Vice President Emily Barneond.

Senator Maahum Shahab introduced emergency legislation Senate Resolution #12, requesting faculty members and staff to accommodate Muslim students observing Ramadan, which runs through the middle of the Spring Quarter, from April 12 to May 12 this year.

“We just want to remind professors and admin again that it’s Ramadan and students may need just a little bit of accommodations when it comes to synchronous classes and things like that,” Shahab said. “From personal experience, it’s tough. As much as I love the beautiful community feeling during Ramadan, it takes a huge toll.”

The resolution requests faculty to be thoughtful in marking attendance for students observing Ramadan due to the fasting requirements of the Muslim holiday as well as recognizing some student’s sleep disruption due to waking up before or staying up until dawn to eat.

The resolution also asks Food Services to be aware of food restrictions and that Halal food be available for Muslim students. It also requests an extension of dining services to 8:30 p.m after sundown.

“Obviously fasting takes a toll on someone’s ability to perform in academics, so they should have that accommodation,” said Yalda Saii, the chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs

Commission (ECAC).

The resolution passed unanimously.

UC Davis is facing a potential $200 million deficit if no action is taken to mitigate the funding gap, according to the Campus Budget and Institutional Analysis presented by Laurie Carney, the assistant director of the Budget Office, and Sarah Mangum, the assistant vice chancellor and budget director.

The presentation showed that at its current funding rate, UC Davis will be unable to pay for current employees’ salary and benefits through its core funding.

Core funding consists largely of student and family contributions through enrollment. Costsaving adjustment measures will need to be made over the next four years to compensate.

“Back in 2010, students started supporting our operations more than the state—students and their families,” Mangum said.

Since the state had a reduction in funding allocated to the university this year, there is a larger gap between what is funded by students and their families and what is funded by the state, according to Magnum.

“I will also say these are projections based on assumptions, that’s what we budget people do,” Mangum said. “We might be a little conservative; we try not to be too conservative but be realistic as well.”

Mangum said that they will be looking at more options for funding than just cuts, such as endowments or philanthropic contributions, so that they have minimal impact on the student experience. Magnum added that the budget

reduction plan was not related to COVID-19.

Senate Bill #71, which passed unanimously, established a Research and Data Committee.

“It’s honestly a very much needed piece of legislation,” said Internal Affairs Commission Chair Julian Garcia. “We thought it was a really good idea to set up a committee that tries to consolidate all the research and data efforts within the association.”

Senate Bill #77, which also passed

unanimously, renames the previously known “Davis Housing Discrimination Committee” to the “Aggie Housing Advocacy Committee” and increases the breadth of advocacy activities related to housing.

“The purpose of the committee is to do what the commission was meant to do: be a body that’s meant to uplift the voices of students when it comes to housing,” Shahab said.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 | 3

City of Davis and UC Davis collaborate on ‘Reimagine Russell Boulevard’ Community invited to participate in the planning stage of project

BY RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org On April 28, the City of Davis and UC Davis hosted a virtual community meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in an effort to get the community involved in the planning process to improve Russell Boulevard.

The project grew out of a memorandum of understanding that the city, the university and Yolo County established in 2018, according to City of Davis councilman Dan Carson. He explained that cooperation was vital since campus activities also impact the city as a whole.

“The impetus for this planning really came out of the 2018 memorandum of understanding that involved three parties: UC Davis, Yolo County, and the City of Davis,” Carson said. “The gist of the agreement was: how was our community going to work together with these different parties to deal with the impacts of growth from the campus, which impacts housing and transportation?”

Carson explained that community members have brought forward a variety of ideas and considerations for reimagining Russell Boulevard.

“In my district, some of the ideas that are bubbling up in the conversations are things like creating a traffic circle where Arlington and Russell converge and installing other controls at other intersections on Russell to make it safer for bicyclists and pedestrians to cross,” Carson said.

Carson also noted that additional funding for this project is derived from the University Mall.

“When the University Mall project was being considered, future monies generated from that project were earmarked for making improvements both on the north side of Russell, where the University Mall is now, but also on the south side of Russell along the area of that project to try to create a safer passageway both for bikes and pedestrians,” Carson said.

Senior Transportation Planner Brian Abbanat specified that there would be financial limits to the feasibility of some traffic solutions.

“There’s a lot to consider, there’s a lot on the table—we haven’t

Russell Boulevard in Davis, CA. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) excluded anything, and there are going to be some natural limits from a cost standpoint,” Abbanat said. “There will only be so much space in portions of the corridor, and that will all be taken into consideration when we go through the process.”

The project may also involve Yolo County, as Abbanat suggested that the project leaders might extend the western boundary of the project to include the intersection with County Road 98, where Yolo County is building a roundabout.

“It’s a long stretch of road, three miles, so we’re also talking with the county to consider extending the western border,” Abbanat said. “The western boundary of our project ends at Lake Boulevard.

There’s approximately two-thirds of a mile between Lake Boulevard and County Road 98. In this case, there was consensus that it would make sense to continue the planning effort to extend all the way to

the intersection with County Road 98.”

Abbanat focused on bike lanes as one area for improvement.

Segments of Russell lack dedicated bike lanes, which is a hindrance to bicyclists who must navigate through high-speed, high-volume traffic as they move west.

“In terms of bike lanes, there are segments of Russell particularly between Anderson and A Street where there aren’t bike lanes on the street at all,” Abbanat said. “In the westbound direction, that’s really problematic, because if somebody’s traveling on Fifth Street, through downtown, they’ll want to go to University Mall, or just continue westbound. It’s really uncomfortable to continue on the street, because they are now sandwiched between parked cars and fast moving, high volume traffic.”

Yolo County District Attorney’s Office launches new criminal justice transparency portal Hey, stop throwing dice at me!

April 9 “Subjects threw dice over fence at respondent after trying to address noise issue, party of 20-30.”

April 10 “Group of 25 subjects playing kickball and drinking from a keg.”

April 12 “Has ‘feeling’ someone might be breaking into his apartment.”

April 13 “Called 911 because her mom wouldn’t ‘leave her alone.’”

April 14 “Subjects setting off fireworks inside of closed apartment.”

April 17 “Party with loud music 40 subjects not wearing masks.”

April 18 “Subject rolling large chunks of asphalt into roadway.”

New portal provides community with access to Yolo County DA’s Office case data to increase accountability in the criminal justice system

BY YAN YAN HUSTIS HAYES city@theaggie.org The April 1 senate meeting was called to order at 6On April 6, the Yolo County District Attorney’s (DA’s) Office launched Commons, its new criminal justice data transparency portal. The project was developed in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Measures for Justice in an effort to increase accountability.

During the inaugural livestream for the database, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig explained that the motivation for reaching out to Measures for Justice was a continued lack of reliable data as a prosecutor.

“I’ve been a prosecutor for 24 years and in order to have any real, meaningful, actionable conversation about criminal justice or criminal justice reform, you have to have thorough and accurate data,” Reisig said. “What’s frustrated me over my career is how difficult it’s been to get that data from all levels of government.”

Commons enables the community to see this data for themselves, Reisig explained.

“Commons has what people want,” Reisig said. “People in Yolo want a policy goal that the prosecutor commits to every month, assurance that the data wasn’t cooked, a monthly stream of data and the ability to filter the data.”

Justice Fiona Maazel, the director of communications for Measures for Justice, explained that personal stories about problems within the criminal justice system need to be accompanied by data.

“Most people would agree the system needs CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

work,” Maazel said via email. “Mostly what we hear in the news and from friends and colleagues are stories. Stories and anecdotes. Which are very powerful but not powerful enough to make a lasting change.”

Maazel explained that this is why Measures for Justice focuses on attaching meaningful data to these powerful stories.

“Combined—stories plus data—we’re able to see the humanity and the trends and patterns attached to it that expose what’s happening in the system every day,” Maazel said via email. “Data ratify experience.”

Although Measures for Justice just finished launching Commons in April, Maazel said that it has no plans to slow down.

“We are expanding,” Maazel said via email.

“We are already bringing Commons to markets in New York, Albuquerque and Louisiana. Since Commons launched in Yolo, we’ve been flooded with requests.”

Maazel encouraged Yolo County residents to visit the Commons portal and provide feedback.

“These are your data and they reflect the experiences of your community,” Maazel said via email. “Commons is all about opening up pathways for communication around a common set of facts. Most importantly, tell us what you think.”

Tessa Smith, the chair of the Multi-Cultural Community Council (MCCC) for the Yolo County DA’s Office, explained that the MCCC became involved in the Commons project in an effort to uncover more information about the Yolo County criminal justice system.

“Information was submitted to the counsel

that sparked an intense conversation that required further input,” Smith said via email. “We wanted ‘the rest of the story.’ Yolo Commons is an attempt to provide the rest of the story to our community.”

Smith described how residents can create systemic change by looking into the data.

“When the truth (data) is at hand, the community can use it to shape a narrative that systems—in the face of facts—can not refute,” Smith said via email. “We can chart the successes of systemic issues being addressed in real time so that in challenging moments of collective angst, we can stand with a system that has shown interest, commitment and effort toward dismantling systemic issues.”

Conversations about recent tragedies and enduring traumatic historical realities are difficult but necessary, according to Smith.

“The truth of our American history requires that we meet in that truth and plot our way forward together—it requires a willingness to be uncomfortable together,” Smith said via email.

“There are already disparities and disproportionate involvement documented for Black and Brown and First Nation groups.”

Smith explained that in order to have meaningful change, conversations around criminal justice reform must be based on data.

“What does it take to mitigate, reduce and address these statistical facts? That is the conversation moving forward,” Smith said via email. “Innovative approaches to systemic failures can be addressed, policy initiatives are born and reform can happen.”

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First female-focused hackathon from UC Davis aims to promote gender diversity in tech industries Lovelace Hacks, organized by SacHacks, offers a chance for women and gender minorities to explore the worlds of computer science and design

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org Lovelace Hacks, the first women-focused hackathon hosted

by UC Davis, took place virtually on the weekend of April 23–25 in an effort to promote gender diversity in the traditionally maledominated field of computer science. The competition, led by the organization SacHacks, offered both beginner and experienced programmers and designers a chance to learn new skills.

SacHacks was founded in 2018 at UC Davis and currently hosts a variety of hackathon events each year. This particular event is named after Ada Lovelace, who has been called the first computer programmer, in line with one of the event’s goals of recognizing female contributions to the tech industry.

Derek Lee, the executive director of SacHacks, graduated from UC Davis in fall of 2020 with a degree in computer engineering.

Lee explained the general schedule of a weekend competition like Lovelace Hacks.

“During hackathons, students will assemble into teams and use data and technology from different sponsors to develop solutions and projects to be judged from industry professionals and UC Davis faculty,” Lee said via email. “Throughout the event, there will be keynote speakers, technical and non-technical workshops and fun activities.”

According to Jen Jeon, a fourth-year cognitive science and design double major, a designer at SacHacks and the president of Davis Women in Computer Science (WiCS), coding is not the only aspect of hackathons, but design also plays a huge part in the success of tech projects.

“In terms of hackathons, designing and coding come together in that design works to serve as a roadmap to how the project will look and feel,” Jeon said via email. “That design is then implemented with code.”

Joen said that planning Lovelace Hacks was a collaborative process, with the WiCS board also taking large part. “[WiCS] seeks to empower and build community among women pursuing computer science specifically, but also the technology industries broadly as well,” she said. “The WiCS board worked in conjunction with SacHacks to market and plan the event to ensure that it is an event that is inclusive and welcoming, as well as educational and community-building.”

Lee elaborated on the goal of inclusivity.

“Lovelace Hacks exists to provide those who identify as women and gender minorities the awareness and opportunity to explore technology, regardless of skill level and background,” Lee said.

“By fostering the importance of women in computer science and STEM, we hope to get more individuals to try computer science, demonstrate that women and gender minorities can thrive in this male-dominated field and bring awareness to all the women that built the tech industry.”

Lee highlighted keynote speaker Sadie St. Lawrence, the founder and CEO of Women in Data.

“I have been in touch with Sadie St. Lawrence for many years as I have tried to have her be a guest speaker for the SacHacks events as she is from Sacramento,” Lee said. “Thankfully, she was finally free the weekend of Lovelace Hacks to be our keynote speaker. As

The SacHacks team posing for a group photo during an event in February 2020. (Derek Lee / Courtesy) the founder and CEO of Women in Data, she is a very inspirational person for the tech community.”

Mary Bangloy, a second-year statistics and communication double major who holds leadership positions at both SacHacks and the UC Davis branch of Women in Data, described the importance of female-focused hackathons.

“We currently live in a world where women and gender minorities don’t feel as welcomed in tech careers,” Bangloy said via email. “Through hackathons like Lovelace Hacks, women and gender minorities can embrace the energy and ideas they bring into the world of technology.”

Lee detailed how Lovelace Hacks came about, explaining that although the idea of female-focused hackathons is not new, it is new to UC Davis.

“I always thought UC Davis had enough opportunity for students to participate in hackathons and that this type of event did not need to exist in UC Davis,” Lee said. “However, in my last quarter of college at UC Davis, I took ECS 188 [...]. In that class, professor Patrice Koehl had a lecture dedicated to women in technology and sparked a lot of discussion about what it is like to be non-male in technology.”

According to Lee, listening to his classmates talk about their experiences in the tech industry made him realize that an event like Lovelace Hacks might need to exist, and after the lecture, he had a

one-on-one with Koehl to discuss the idea further. Following his graduation in fall of 2020, Lee worked with WiCS to create the initial plans before training Davis students to organize the event as part of SacHacks’ expanding organization team.

Any undergraduate student or graduate student over the age of 18 who identifies as a woman or gender minority was welcome to sign up for free to hack or even just attend workshops. Lee also encouraged allies to participate as mentors.

Jeon encouraged people to try participating in a hackathon, especially beginners.

“Even if you have no experience in technology at all or [are] scared of the prospects, hackathons are a perfect place to learn more,” Jeon said.

Lee said that this goal of inclusion for new programmers and designers was a success, detailing that 63% of UC Davis students who submitted a project to Lovelace Hacks were first-time hackathon participants. “[This] shows to me that we succeeded in supporting our Lovelace Hacks Three Core Values of Awareness, Thrive, and Exposure,” Lee said. “This amazing statistic would not have been possible without UC Davis Engineering Alumna Tran Nguyen sponsoring the event.

Her insights on how isolating it feels when you’re a minority for the duration of your career gave us the guidance on how to empower and inspire in this important and progressive initiative for women and gender minorities in tech.”

Student leaders share about UC Davis’ virtual Picnic Day The hard work of the student board contributed to a successful virtual event

BY ITZELTH GAMBOA arts@theaggie.org This year’s annual Picnic Day took place on April 17 and intertwined asynchronous events with live virtual Zoom events held on ASUCD’s Picnic Day website. In light of the pandemic, the student-run board had to focus on finding a way to continue the beloved Davis tradition with all of the fun involved. When the planning for this year’s event started, the team had no indication of how Picnic Day would go.

“In dealing with so much uncertainty, one thing was certain,” said Alexis Tornero, a third-year managerial economics major and Publicity Director for Picnic Day via email. “As Board members, we have a love for Picnic Day that cannot be shaken and we know like ourselves, there are many students, staff, faculty, and others in the Davis community who love and look forward to Picnic Day every year. Because of this, we knew it was important to keep up the Picnic Day tradition not just for us, but for all Picnic Day enthusiasts.”

Poster for UC Davis’ 107th Picnic Day. (ASUCD Picnic Day)

With over 100 years of hosting Davis events under their belt, there were plenty of virtual activities planned, including animal events, a scavenger hunt, the children’s discovery fair and different exhibits. The Picnic Day board worked hard to continue the fun for everyone this year, offering a wide variety of at-home activities.

“The general consensus from our Exhibits Awards Polling seems to be that most people enjoyed Cockroach Racing, Biomedical Engineering & Biomedical Engineering Society present Escape the Genome and Biomedical Sciences Facility as well as A Virtual Fashion Show hosted by the Fashion and Design Society,” said Erxue Wang, a third-year managerial economics and music double major and the Exhibits Director for Picnic Day. The ranging events also included live music performances, several activities including a yoga class, an exhibit on how plants communicate and a pancake breakfast. In order to cater to all of the typical Picnic Day audiences, they also held family-friendly activities. The Children’s Discovery Fair included DIY lava lamps, origami crafts and slime.

“This year’s Picnic Day was very exciting, it was a very rewarding

experience to see how everything turned out after all of our hard work and planning. Our LIVE Children Discovery Fair craft tutorials went very nicely and the kids really enjoyed making some crafts,” said Jade Cervantes, a fourth-year animal biology major and Entertainment Director for Picnic Day. The board continued to stick to tradition by naming a theme for the event, but they wanted it to represent the events that everyone has gone through. This year’s theme, “ Discovering Silver Linings,” was a fitting choice.

“We chose this theme because despite all that has happened this year, the UC Davis community has continued to find silver linings everywhere,” Tornero said.

As UC Davis created a bubble around the town and its civilians, people have persevered and continued on with their attempts to make the most out of their days and trying to keep everyone COVID safe.

“It’s been a very challenging year for all and I have faced a handful of challenges myself,” Tornero said. “When faced with these challenges, I pushed myself to find silver linings in every part of my life, including the continued love and support from my family, friends who reached out constantly despite not being able to see one another, and last but certainly not least, the Picnic Day Board who have also supported me and helped me become the leader I am today.”

The “Discovering Silver Linings” theme followed throughout the event and while the process of creating Picnic Day wasn’t the same as previous years, the board members found that through their hard work and organized planning, Picnic Day was a success.

“Last year I learned that patience is key, which I took into consideration this year because being entirely virtual comes with a lot of patience not only for navigating new ideas to do things virtually, but to make Picnic Day just as engaging as it was in person,” Cervantes said.

The first Picnic Day was held in 1909, as the University Farm celebrated their new dairy barn and invited the community to view it, giving away free coffee to the visitors. 2,000 visitors attended the event, but over the years Picnic Day has grown into a grand celebration and student-run event, bringing together both Davis community members and visitors from afar.

“My first goal for this year’s Picnic Day was to focus on solidifying the great relationships that we had already built with our past [year’s] Picnic Day participants,” Wang said. “This is all the more important for us this year as Picnic Day became virtual and our only form of communication with the participants was through emails and the occasional phone call.”

This year’s multitude of activities created a welcoming environment for all those who long for the normality and excitement that Picnic Day once provided. This event went smoothly thanks to the student board who worked to put on the event completely virtually.

Tornero described the board’s motivation in creating the best experience possible for the event.

“We worked hard this year to provide a virtual experience so that Picnic Day could hopefully be a silver lining in someone’s year, something they could still look forward to.”

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 | 5

OPINION FEMALE ATHLETES DESERVE EQUITABLE RECOGNITION, SUPPORT, OPPORTUNITIES Organizations, including universities, need to do more to advocate for their female athletes, provide them with the support needed to achieve success and highlight their success, just as they do for male athletes The members of this Editorial Board have grown up watching male athletes dominate the media. We all have attended Super Bowl parties, dressed up in themes for high school football games and heard someone say “Kobe” after managing to accomplish throwing a wadded up piece of paper into a trashcan.

Women athletes are rarely talked about with such reverence as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps and so many more. Even if you aren’t interested in sports, chances are you’ve heard those names but are less familiar with Billie Jean King, Katie Ledecky, Yolanda Griffith and Diana Taurasi.

To the Aggie fans reading this, did you know the women’s basketball team has been the Big West Conference regular season champion five years in a row? Or that the women’s lacrosse team will play in the Mountain Specific Sports Federation championship for their third straight year and are the top seed this year? But you may more easily recall the electricity and packed stadium when the UC Davis men’s soccer team played in a Second Round NCAA Tournament.

This is such a large societal problem, it’s difficult to even pinpoint where the system is failing women in sports. In their P.E. classes, through the media and even at home young girls learn at an early age that aggression, especially in sports, is meant for men—nearly one-third of American parents think that boys are better at sports than girls. This reflects a cultural understanding that girls and women will never be the same athletes that boys and men are, no matter how hard they try.

Even girl athletes have less exposure to positive role models in their sports—almost every member of this Editorial Board who participated in sports had mostly if not all male coaches. At the college level, coaching is consistently male-dominated; as of 2019, only about 40% of women’s college teams and 3% of men’s college teams are coached by women. This sends the message that not only is playing sports male-dominanted, but coaching sports is as well.

These cultural values systematically reinforce themselves in practical ways that prevent female athletes from reaching their full potential or keep women out of sports altogether.

Girls have fewer opportunities than boys in sports at young ages, which often stops them from reaching their full athletic potential, allowing people to point to what seems like “lesser play” to justify inequitable gender treatment. Not only do many Americans hold the belief that women athletes are inherently worse than men athletes, but also these beliefs translate into practical implications when women

athletes at the collegiate and professional are treated poorer, given less attention to and paid astonishingly less than their male counterparts.

Most recently, the NCAA came under fire for the stark differences between the weight rooms provided to female basketball players and male basketball players at the biggest tournaments in college basketball. This discrepancy was exposed in a video by University of Oregon forward Sedona Prince. In the video, it can be seen that the women had only a small rack of dumbbells while the men had extensive stateof-the-art bars, racks and stands at the March Madness tournaments. Rather, the March Madness and NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournaments, because the NCAA has refused to brand the women’s basketball tournament similarly.

In addition to the lack of equitable equipment, the NCAA also provided less accurate COVID-19 tests at the women’s tournament than the men, packaged meals to the women and buffets for the men and differing quality and amount of player gifts. How many inequities do women athletes face that do not go viral and do not receive widespread outcry?

This issue extends further than women student-athletes.

The gender pay gap between professional men and women’s sports teams is simply unacceptable. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) have back-to-back defending world titles, while the last time the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) qualified for the World Cup was 2014 and the team has never won a world championship.

Yet, the USWNT players would make 89% of what the USMNT players would make if both teams won 20 straight matches. After losing a World Cup qualifying match, USMNT players receive $3,000 more in bonuses than USWNT players would make after winning such a match.

This is all despite the fact that the USWNT brings in the same or more revenue from games than the USMNT. The pay gap is even more extensive in other sports—on average, WNBA players make $116,000 while NBA players make $7.5 million in a season.

We believe there needs to be a societal shift towards accepting that women belong in sports just as much as men do—this needs to be reflected in equalized pay, media coverage and opportunities for women in sports. Although structural changes are needed, we encourage you to make change on the individual level simply by attending and watching games by female athletes. There are 16 NCAA Division I women’s teams at UC Davis that are filled with extraordinary Aggie athletes who deserve your attention and support just as much as our men’s teams.

THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

EDITO RIA L B OA RD

ANJINI VENUGOPAL Editor-in-Chief MARGO ROSENBAUM Managing Editor SABRINA HABCHI Campus News Editor EDEN WINNIFORD City News Editor CALVIN COFFEE Opinion Editor SOPHIE DEWEES Features Editor ALLIE BAILEY Arts & Culture Editor OMAR NAVARRO Sports Editor MADELEINE PAYNE Science & Tech Editor

CAMERON PERRY New Media Manager JUSTIN HAN Photo Director KATHERINE FRANKS Design Director JOELLE TAHTA Layout Director KAITLIN ARAGHI Copy Chief ALEX WEINSTEIN Copy Chief KESHAV AGRAWAL Website Manager BEN CHENG Social Media Manager JOSHUA GAZZANIGA Distribution Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

Statistical insignificance and dire consequences: How public health data fails marginalized groups Native Americans are excluded and mischaracterized in COVID-19 data, undermining the severity of the pandemic’s impact on their community

BY RENEE WANG reswang@ucdavis.edu How does the collection and portrayal of data influence public perception of an issue? The presence of data during a pandemic is a source of consistency and comfort. It connects you from your screen to every disembodied death toll, new COVID-19 case and now vaccination numbers. Data is consistent: its perceived neutrality removes it from an untethered, qualitative human nature that is hard to process.

Data, however, is not entirely untouched by the individual or institution. Recognizing the malleability of data and the human hand that shapes it does not weaken the power it holds, but rather awards it a new power central to how data has the ability to quantify and add value to things and people, thus responsible for the making of worlds. Public health data represents a type of responsibility that on one hand is grasping at the lives of those in need and on the other holds the solutions to aid them.

The body between these two hands are public health professionals and the general public. According to Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology at Harvard University, the ways data is collected and reported to public health professionals and the public impact the support or opposition for public health programs.

To make it into the conscience of public health professionals and the public, you need to be included in the data.

So what about the groups who do not have a hand in data and are grasping for entry into public conscience?

Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. As of Feb. 4, one in 475 Native Americans have died from COVID-19 compared to one in 825 white Americans and one in 645 Black Americans.

Yet in the first year of the pandemic, Native Americans have been erased, mischaracterized and rewritten out of public health data. An analysis by The Guardian revealed that of the 80% of state health departments which released racial demographic data about COVID-19, half of these states did not include a separate

category for Native Americans and relinquished them to “other.”

Even in areas with large Native populations, states like New York and California did not include Native Americans at all in their data collection at the time the study was conducted.

Other data collection problems persist as well, such as mischaracterization and listing the incorrect race on death certificates. In California, doctors often assume a person of Native descent is of Hispanic or Latinx origin because of their surname.

Because of this racial misclassification, the data on COVID-19 for Native Americans may be more drastic than reported.

In doing so, the stories, needs and disparities experienced by Native Americans are not weaved into the narrative of public health data and are instead written out of existence. If data can “make up worlds,” the way public health data is collected creates a reality where Native Americans are excluded from resource allocations, media coverage and public awareness. It is in this vein that data can be weaponized against a community—by erasing problems from existence through exclusionary or careless data collection, we bear no social responsibility to them.

Behind each dataset is an individual and institution with a situated viewpoint that is limited to their singular set of experiences.

When so few standpoints arrive at the table, the way that data is collected and produced conceals issues and populations from necessary discourse.

The ongoing data collection issues faced by Native Americans have persisted for years, according to Abigail Echo-Hawk, the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute who has spoken at workshops and testified before Congress for the ethical inclusion of Native Americans into public health data.

Public health data has not only failed to include Native Americans in an essential data narrative, but has made accessing existing information an uphill battle. Echo-Hawk’s institute, along with other tribal epidemiology centers, were initially denied access by the Centers For Disease Control from data about COVID-19 testing and cases due to privacy concerns, although this data was made available to states.

A Navajo Nation officer and others over a COVID-19 victim’s grave in Tuba City, Arizona. (Brian Van Der Brug for Los Angeles Times / Getty Images) The lack of ethical inclusion of Native Americans in public health data is an example of “undone science,” where research is underfunded, incomplete or ignored despite community groups and activists urging its importance. As Native American communities and activists fight for inclusion into data that has systematically excluded them, it is more essential than ever to recognize how data can be weaponized to erase people from our public conscience because ignorance becomes organized.

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, APRIL 29, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

OPINION The inevitable death of Snapchat has arrived Maybe it’s high time we ghost the Ghost

BY ISABELLA CHUECOS ifchuecos@ucdavis.edu

CATHY TANG / AGGIE

Snapchat is a wondrous little app. From its inception, users were marveled by the novelty of posting a Snapchat story or sending a dog-filtered Snap to their friends. In the past ten years, Snapchat has dominated the social media world as one of the most popular social media apps of the past decade.

I was barely starting middle school when Snapchat made its debut on the App Store. I’d been on Facebook for all of two months—much to the chagrin of my mother—and Instagram for even less than that. When I downloaded on the app I was instantly drawn to the disappearing nature of my content. I could send my buddies a pimply, brace-faced selfie and it’d be gone in a matter of seconds; we would even challenge each other to try to sneak in a screenshot in a snap that’d only be appearing for one second.

It’s a bit sad, then, to see how Snapchat has fallen from its high praises. The app of our early social media childhood has been pushed aside not only by other platforms, but by our own ever-evolving personal tastes.

My early attitude towards Snapchat could really be characterized as a sort of wonder towards the little yellow app. The novelty of being able to message your friends in a way that was impermanent

was intriguing. It also reflected earlier sentiments about the Internet at large. We’d been taught that what goes online exists forever, including your Facebook profile pictures from fifth grade (and yes, mine is still up). When we got the ability to go online without the penalty of things being permanent, we were all excited.

Now, however, folks have gotten pretty used to the idea of things staying on the Internet. We’ve been able to develop archives of old posts and memories on our profiles and we’ve welcomed these nostalgia breeders on our platforms with open arms. Snapchat’s formerly cool feature has just become a reflection of old ideas about how we create and view content online.

Snapchat users also frequented the news section of the app, which provided short, story-form bits of current events presented like your everyday news channel. Prominent news sources like NBC launched “Stay Tuned,” a story that updates with breaking news stories multiple times a day. As teenagers, we felt that getting our news on Snapchat was like killing two birds with one stone. We got to check our streaks and feel like adults by checking the news.

Ever since Trump’s presidency, however, the desire for more concrete and trustworthy news sources has been pushed to the forefront of everyone’s minds. NBC’s “Stay Tuned” may be connected to a valid news channel, but the fact that it’s on Snapchat gives it an informal connotation that has people turning towards more substantial sources for their current events.

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.

SNAPCHAT on 11

HUMOR

Major League Baseball versus the Georgia Voting Laws Nobody knows who they’re sticking it to

BY EAN KIMURA etkimura@ucdavis.edu New voting laws passed in Georgia in order to appease former President Donald J. Trump, and supporters of the “Stop the Steal” campaign have responded had responses from all over the political spectrum. The Democrats’ opposition has blasted these new laws as racist voter suppression, while Republican backers have praised them this as a measures that ensures the security of the ballot box. Meanwhile, former President Trump has blasted these laws as “too weak,” and decried the Republicans in support of the Georgian law RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).

Shortly after these new laws were passed, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that the 2021 MLB All-Star Game would be moved out

of Atlanta—one of the many corporate responses to the new voting laws in the wave of economic backlash in response to the new voting laws.

GOP lawmakers have had a strong response, with Republicans sSenators putting forth legislation to end MLB’s antitrust exemption, a huge move that could change the business of baseball. On the other hand, Republican Senator, Senate Minority Leader and filibustering fiend Mitch McConnell warned CEO’s to stay out of politics. According to reports, in order to really stick it to these meddling corporations, McConnell remains staunchly opposed to raising corporate taxes.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, President Joseph R. Biden encouraged the MLB to move the Aall-Sstar Ggame out of Georgia by

labelling these new voting laws as “Jim Crow on Steroids.”. President Biden would have probably been closer to the truth if he had said that Jim Crow was this new Georgia law on steroids with a hidden camera in center field. Surprisingly, MLB decided to condemn something that was allegedly on steroids before it made them a ton of money.

Reactions to the MLB’s move in the political sphere seem to be divided along partisan lines, with many on the left praising the bravery of a multibillion- dollar corporation that pays its minor league players poverty wages, and with many on the right deciding that corporate power is a problem only when it is turned on them.

All this continues without asking the important questions like: hHow effective will this move by the MLB and other corporations be in

Removal of the 2021 MLB All-Star sign in Atlanta, Ga. (AP) changing legislation? Why do corporate interests have this much power? And without all this would anybody care about the MLB All-Star Game?

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

Terrible news: Two CARTOON Too Little Too Late people you hate just started dating

BY RUSHI TAWADE rntawade@ucdavis.edu

BY ANNABEL MARSHALL almarshall@ucdavis.edu Theodore was in one of your classes. He’s undeclared but keeps telling people he’s planning on majoring in cComparative iInternational eEconomics, which isn’t even a major at UC Davis. Or, in fact, anywhere else. He’s against all forms of government but when you asked him, “So, anarchy?” hHe responded, “No, I’m against all forms of government.”

Jessica is your friend’s roommate. She’s dedicating herself to a moral vegan existence, which you know more than enough about because she’s brought it up in every conversation, including the one where you tried to talk about your grandfather’s death. (No one was asking you to eat the body, Jessica). At restaurants, she never tips.

Through the gravity of fate, they’ve fallen together—and now they won’t shut up about it.

Individually, they may be terrible, but

CATHY TANG / AGGIE

They deserve each other, but the worst among us don’t deserve them

together they’re infinitely worse. They’re a pool party and electricity. They’re stale tortilla chips and a toothache. They’re Romeo and Juliet, but, you know, how it actually ends.

She’s an amateur actress; he’s a writer.

Together, they’re conspiring to create the worst one-woman show to exist.

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

COUPLES on 11

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

Taking a minute to humble Trader Joe’s I’m losing friends over this

BY KATE HARGES klharges@ucdavis.edu

KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

I bought a pair of boxing gloves and scheduled an appointment with a therapist just for this article—I’m ready for the backlash.

I like Trader Joe’s. Shopping there is consistently a fun experience. Between their Hawaiian theme and wide range of products, I often mistake the aisles for being a nautical-themed Disneyland ride. Not to mention, the products are more affordable than other grocery stores, making it a smart option. I’m simply here to shed light on the negatives of Trader Joe’s—considering that no soul ever dares to do so.

Let’s begin with the decor. While I think the Hawaiian theme is fun and playful, let’s not dismiss it’s tackiness. It looks like a Florida retirement home up in there. There’s probably an elderly couple living in the Keys with the same tiki torches by their “Welcome” mat. Oh, and as for the Trader Joe’s font, it’s the same font used to say what beers are on tap at no-longer-hip bars.

On to the employees. I’ve never met a rude staff member at Trader Joe’s.

Considering how friendly and helpful they are, I shouldn’t even bring attention to their minimal flaws. I’m just going to say that I may or may not consistently get roped into a 10-ten

minute conversation with the cashier. We start by discussing which Joe- Joe’s flavor is the best and within the next minute, I’m learning about their difficult relationship with their step-child.

As for the food itself, I actually can’t trash- talk it. (Oor as I like to call it, “Trader Joe’s talk it”...”

Kkidding.). All the food is good and exciting to try;, I’ll just admit it.

As I’ve poorly stated my argument in opposition to Trader Joe’s, I’d like to take this time to highlight the beauty of a Raley’s gGrocery sStore.

Ugh, Raley’s feels like home. You never quite know what character’s you’ll find there or which no-longer-available products you’ll find at the back of the shelves.

I hope that this deep dive into the flaws of Trader Joe’s didn’t offend you too harshly. I have asked that my family members make private their Instagram accounts private and that my location remain unknown, as I’m afraid of how you all will react to my take. Forgive me.

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

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 | 7

Professors discuss global vaccine inequity and its potential consequences With growing vaccination rates in the U.S., three professors share their thoughts on the consequences of the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines

BY LIANA MAE ATIZADO features@theaggie.org While vaccination rollout in the U.S. is well under way, with about 42% of the population at least partially vaccinated as of April 25, there are still many countries who have not been able to vaccinate even 10% of their population. According to experts, this inequitable distribution of vaccines has epidemiological, political and economic consequences, not only within the countries that have limited access to vaccines, but throughout the world as a whole.

Bob Gilbertson, a distinguished professor of plant pathology at UC Davis, pointed out two factors that contributed to a lack of vaccine access in developing countries. First, Gilbertson stated that many countries struggled to respond quickly to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and lack the information needed to produce vaccines. Second, many countries lack resources and funds to produce their own vaccines and are outcompeted by countries such as the U.S. and the U.K. Before herd immunity is reached, more COVID-19 variants can arise. The more the virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to mutate. These variants, which have the potential to be more transmissible or more pathogenic, can spread not only within developing countries, but also to different parts of the world.

“We know this virus does not respect countries’ borders,” Gilbertson said.

Gilbertson emphasized the importance of trusting science. He hopes that the U.S. will continue ramping up vaccine production so the government will be able to assist other countries that cannot produce enough vaccines for their population on their own.

“I continue to tell students that one of their jobs today is to go out as ambassadors for science and that they have to try to be aware, reasonable and argue against anti-science,” Gilbertson said. “People need to get the message out that these decisions are based on solid scientific research and that these vaccines are totally safe.”

Jeannette Money, a professor in the Department of Political Science at UC Davis, stated that many developing countries do not have the research base to create their own vaccines. While some countries, such as Cuba, have been able to develop their own vaccine, others have turned to countries such as Russia and China to supply millions of doses.

Another barrier to vaccine-related information is the Trade-

KAITLYN PANG / AGGIE

Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) agreement, made between all the nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This agreement protects intellectual property, including patents on vaccines and other technologies used to fight against COVID-19.

The WTO is negotiating to waive some provisions of the TRIPS agreement, which would allow developing countries to access the information needed to produce vaccines.

“It might be politically dangerous for countries to ship off vaccines to other places while they haven’t vaccinated their own population,” Money said. “But it doesn’t mean that you couldn’t grant patents or share intellectual property with countries of the global south so that they could manufacture their own.”

Money noted that although the U.S. has expressed a willingness to donate funds for vaccine production in other countries, the vaccine production within the U.S. is not without problems. For example, one factory made a manufacturing error in producing the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which resulted in 15 million nonviable doses.

“Even in the U.S., production is not necessarily universally forward and without problems,” Money said. “One of the main factors in the U.S. is the lack of supply. But I do think that the United States indicated a willingness to chip in whether or not it will provide

the necessary funding and the necessary vaccines.”

Selva Demiralp graduated from the UC Davis Economics Ph.D. program in 2000 and is now a professor of economics at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. Demiralp stated that even if the entire population was vaccinated and herd immunity was attained within the U.S., there would still be significant economic costs of vaccine inequality.

For example, if the pandemic is still active in Turkey, COVID-19 would continue to negatively impact the Turkish—and in turn, world—economy. Turkish production would still be limited due to lockdowns, and Turkey would not be able to export as many goods to other nations.

According to Demiralp, this would impact the U.S. economy because the U.S. imports intermediate goods from Turkey. For example, Turkey might export steel to the U.S. that can be used in car production. If Turkey cannot produce as much steel, then it will reduce car production in the U.S. If the populations of richer countries are vaccinated within the first half of 2021 while lower income countries can only vaccinate half of their populations, the total costs of the loss of exported goods worldwide will be $3.8 trillion, according to Demiralp. Up to half of the total cost will be borne by the richer countries, Demiralp said.

To prevent further economic loss, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and other institutions put together the COVAX initiative. Their goal is to initiate a cooperative effort to manufacture two billion doses of vaccines to inoculate 20% of each country’s population.

“Our research highlights that it is not an act of charity but an act of rationality to contribute to efforts such as COVAX,” Demiralp said via email. “This is because in the absence of equitable distribution of vaccines, the wealthy countries would need to pay trillions of U.S. dollars, which is much more than the cost of producing enough vaccines to inoculate the world population.”

Virtual Picnic Day 2021 comes to a close Students reflect on the second Picnic Day spent in a pandemic

BY NORA FARAHDEL features@theaggie.org Picnic Day, a yearly UC Davis event, took a different course this year and last due to the COVID-19 pandemic. All official Picnic Day operations were completely virtual, creating a new reality of online activities for students and the community. UC Davis students adjusted to these new circumstances by celebrating Picnic Day safely as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Caitlyn Liu, a fourth-year English and communication double major and the Picnic Day Chair, shared that the Picnic Day board operated completely virtually while preparing for the event.

Although this is now the second Picnic Day that has taken place virtually, Liu shared that the board worked to create new events specifically designed to the online setting this year.

Liu shared her happiness with the way the event turned out, which mimicked in-person Picnic Day experiences, such as musical entertainment and a scavenger hunt.

“I think the event was a success,” Liu said via email. “For those who wanted to attend a virtual Picnic Day, we gave them the best experience we could.”

In fact, Liu revealed that this year’s event had increased attendance compared to last year’s virtual Picnic Day. While it is not yet known if Picnic Day 2022 will be in-person or virtual, Liu celebrated this year’s success in including students during an isolating time.

“My favorite part was that we got to create an online space for

students to continue to feel connected to campus while we’re all away,” Liu said via email.

Yesenia Morales, a second-year animal science and management major, participated in the virtual Picnic Day event this year. While Morales is not currently living in Davis, she was determined to experience this Davis event online. Morales participated in the online activities and said her favorite parts were the animal events.

Morales shared that despite not physically being at Picnic Day, she felt a sense of belonging through the virtual event.

“I still felt a part of this special day through the fun activities such as the exhibits, entertainment and animal events,” Morales said via email.

As a second-year student, Morales has never attended an inperson Picnic Day. Looking toward the future, Molares hopes to one day attend Picnic Day in Davis, enjoying the fresh food from the vendors and spending time with friends and family.

Anya Sturm, a third-year mathematical analytics and operations research major, celebrated this year’s Picnic Day outside with her housemates. She shared that while this year’s experience was not the same as previous years, she felt a sense of solidarity while celebrating the day.

“It felt nice to wake up and be like, ‘Okay, everyone is waking up to Picnic Day, and whatever it looks like for them, it’s still going to be

a good day,’ and to know that everyone in Davis was celebrating it in some way,” Sturm said.

Sturm shared that Picnic Day is an important part of the Davis experience, as it’s a day when the whole city comes together to celebrate.

“It’s the day that really makes the Americana old farm town and the college town really overlap,” Sturm said. “I think the rest of the year, it’s very much residents of Davis and college students, whereas Picnic Day is the one day where everyone’s just together.”

Reflecting on her Picnic Day experiences, Sturm looked back to Picnic Day in 2019, when she celebrated with friends in Davis.

“It was just like hanging out with what felt like the entire city in Central Park, and then just going around to various friends’ houses, and all of them had live music and small concerts going on,” Sturm said.

Looking forward, Sturm is ecstatic at the prospect of experiencing Picnic Day in person once again with live music and the Davis community. As the timeline for a return to normalcy remains in the minds of many, Sturm reflected that an in-person Picnic Day next year could be a happy indicator of normal life.

“I feel like Picnic Day is such [a] cool benchmark of like, ‘Well, maybe things will actually look normal by then,’” Sturm said.

CHRISTINA LIU / AGGIE

8 | THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Despite challenges, Muslims continue to celebrate Ramandan during the pandemic Students share their experiences handling COVID-19, being full-time students and trying to fast for over 16 hours a day

By M U H A M M A D TAR I Q arts@theaggie.org Currently, roughly 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide are celebrating their second Ramadan during a pandemic. From sunrise to sunset, practicing Muslims all over the world will not eat a single bite of food or drink a droplet of water.

This year, Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, began on April 12, and will last until May 12, 2021.

Ramadan is a 30-day time period, usually the ninth month of the lunar-based Islamic calendar, where practicing and able Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. So why do Muslims fast and how do they celebrate Ramadan?

Firstly, Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam and is a commandment for those Muslims who have the resources and physical ability to engage in the practice of fasting. It is also the month in which it is speculated that the Quran was revealed to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

For Muslims, it is the holiest month, as Allah’s Messenger said, “When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained.”

Omar Altamimi, a third year political science and religious studies double major, explained his views on Ramadan.

“First and foremost it’s a commandment,” he said. “God commanded us to fast and so we do. A lot of it is about depriving yourself of materialist, worldly things and the things that aren’t spiritual.”

Rawan Karaki, a fourth year biological sciences major, related to this belief: “To get closer to Allah is the main point of the month of

Ramadan.”

Practicing Muslims will usually wake up before sunset to have their pre-fast meal, known as suhoor, around 4:00 a.m. They will then most likely engage in the first of the five daily prayers, Fajr.

Throughout the day, practicing Muslims will try to pray each of the five prayers, which includes Fajr, the prayer before sunrise, the afternoon prayer Dhuhr, the late afternoon prayer ‘Asr, the sunset prayer Maghrib and the final evening prayer ‘Isha.

They will then break their fast once the specific time of the sunset has occurred, a practice known as iftar, which includes the first bite of food since sunrise and then usually a large dinner or feast.

Those who are exempt from fasting are often those who are pregnant, have an illness, are traveling, those who menstruate and young children.

There is some discussion regarding exactly what actions break a fast, however, the general consensus is that a fast is invalidated when one engages in any of the following: intentional eating and drinking, intentional vomiting, engaging in sexual practices between spouses and other sexual behavior.

Many regular practices can even break a fast, such as applying make-up or nail-polish or even listening to music. A fast is also undermined when a Muslim engages in cursing, lying, gambling and practicing other sinful behaviors.

In addition, another intended effect of fasting is to bring Muslims’ faith closer to their creator and for them to empathize with the suffering of the less privileged.

“One most basic reason is to feel with the poor even just for 30 days, because they don’t have the blessings and privileges we have,” said Cenna Abboushi, a third year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major. “When you fast, we feel that empathy. It’s good once a year to refresh your body and mind.”

Muslims celebrate Ramadan in their own subjective ways, but one common sentiment is building a sense of community and breaking fast together.

The act of breaking fast with family and

friends is one thing many Muslims have been unable to do because of COVID-19.

“Celebrating Ramadan during the pandemic has definitely been challenging,” said Malika Haji, a second-year managerial economics major.

“I’ve been doing my best to make the most of Ramadan by attending daily [virtual] meetings with other sisters in the community and reciting the Quran every night.”

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MARIO RO DIG U E Z / AGGI E

Commentary: RuPaul’s restrictive drag culture “RuPaul’s Drag Race” propelled drag into mainstream media, but it has fallen short as new forms of expression counteract restricting expectations

BY A NG I E C UM MI N G S arts@theaggie.org

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org

Movie: “American Gigolo” dir. by Paul Schrader (1980) Director Paul Schrader Bingo—fill out a 3-by-3 note card row by row with the following: 1. Protagonist conceals their true nature with superficial charm. 2. Romance with a soft-spoken woman. 3. Extreme violence in the last 20 minutes. 4. Protagonist has a bizarre or questionable relationship with sex. 5. Protagonist is a lonely, alienated male (free space). 6. Religion. 7. Protagonist engages in self-destructive behavior throughout the film. 8. Box office under $10 million. 9. Semi-autobiographical. And we have like three bingos, baby. “American Gigolo,” with its Giorgio Moroder soundtrack and slick ‘80s sleaze feel, doesn’t stray far from the mean of Schrader’s filmography. Actor Richard Gere gives a fantastic performance in the lead role and, despite a whimpering finale, the film is calm and brilliant.

Book: “A Cup of Rage” by Raduan Nassar (1978) Promotional image featuring the queens of season thirteen of RuPaul’s Drag Race. (RuPaul’s Drag Race) “RuPaul’s Drag Race” is indisputably a great piece of reality television and competition show, as proven by the show’s 19 Emmy wins and 29 total nominations. Not only has drag queen RuPaul Charles’ show been met with incredible success and popularity in its original form, but it has also quite literally taken over the world with multiple international spin-offs, All-Stars seasons, yearly conventions and much more.

Now that it is clear that drag is fully settled in mainstream media and entertainment, we have to ask if the media we are consuming is holding the art form back or letting it grow.

RuPaul and what appears to be his drag empire have been consistently followed by controversy and ridicule, ranging from critiques on the editing of the show to recent questions about the source of RuPaul’s authority over the biggest force in drag culture right now.

The TV show host, singer, self-proclaimed “Supermodel of the World” and apparent oil fracker has most notably come under fire for some remarks pertaining to why he would not let either trans or cisgender women compete in his drag competition. His reasoning was rooted in some incredibly outdated views on correlations between gender, gender expression and strict adherence to what is now so clearly a defunct binary in drag (and the world at large for that matter). While RuPaul has since apologized for his remarks, and most recently has cast the show’s first openly trans contestant, his vision of drag and his show continues to create an incredibly rigid box for what—in the real world—is an entirely fluid art form.

RuPaul continues to view the core of drag as solely the act of dressing up in an overly feminized fashion and continues to emphasize the

importance of some shift between the performers’ presentation out of drag and how they look in character. More often than not, this sadly works to reinforce a gender binary, at least in terms of presentation, or what it means to “embody femininity” as a drag queen. The most prominent example of RuPaul’s limited vision of drag constraining some of his own show’s contestants is with the drag queen Ginny Lemon on the U.K. version of the show. Lemon and Bimini Bon Boulash, another contestant on the show, spoke openly about being non-binary and viewing their drag as their purest form of creative expression, a way to play with people’s expectations of how they should dress.

When it came time for Lemon to strut the runway on the show, they stayed true to their personal, often androgynous, campy and loosefitting outfits. On multiple occasions, RuPaul and the judges had something to say about Lemon’s presentation, and essentially forced them to choose an extremely feminized and sexy look consisting of a pink bodycon dress, hip pads, and a breastplate—something Lemon was not entirely comfortable doing. The problem here is not that RuPaul encouraged a contestant to step outside their comfort zone, but rather that he could not accept Lemon’s unconventional drag style and the range they showed within that—with body hair showing, an un-cinched waist and entirely theatrical makeup.

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Following the singular spiraling argument between an isolated farmer and his journalist lover, author Raduan Nassar hits notes of furious cruelty and confession. This book is extremely short (65 pages) but every line is brimming with psychosexual anger and confusion. For every uncomfortable moment, there’s some exaltation: a step toward a resolution that never really arrives. The prose is vengeful and tons of fun, never snapping out of the delirious state it introduces from the very first line. It can be difficult to stomach, but it’s worth pressing through to the end.

Album: “Les Cinq Saisons” by Harmonium (1975) “Les Cinq Saisons” is awesome. It takes diverse, beautiful folk tunes into uncharted territory, fusing them with contemplative and expansive progressive improvisation. Despite “Les Cinq Saisons” marking only the band’s second release, Harmonium had already brought this combination near to perfection. It’s impossible to separate the folk from the prog here, not that you’d want to anyway; the product is pressing and beautiful the whole way through.

No single note is out of place. While the shorter, sweeter tracks deserve attention in their own right, the true star of the album is the closing track, the 17-minute “Histoire Sans Paroles,” which gives the band’s compositions ample time to breathe, revealing the magnitude behind it all. I forgive the superfluous nature of French-Canadian culture for this reason only.

TV Show: “Xavier: Renegade Angel” (2007) This show is an absolute nightmare, somewhere between surrealist comedy and philosophical horror. It goes to extreme lengths in the name of never being lucid for more than a moment, and describing the plot of any individual episode is an impossible task. This is one of the few good shows to come out of Adult Swim and, despite its cheap presentation, there is real passion behind it. It straddles a line between funny and off-putting with surprising skill, never becoming predictable or ambivalent—it defies explanation. Unfortunately, it received just two seasons before its 2009 cancellation. But both are magical.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 | 9

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

Answer to previous puzzle 04/22/21

crossword

Answer to previous puzzle 04/22/21

10 | THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

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SCIENCE GRADUATING SENIOR DEVELOPS WEBSITE TO INCREASE ACCESSIBILITY OF COVID-19 TESTING SITES Interactive map has over 1400 testing locations organized by distance, insurance, testing method, fee and doctor’s referral

BY AARYA GUPTA science@theaggie.org In July of 2020, Matthew Kwong, a fourth year design major at UC Davis, was potentially exposed to COVID-19. As he scoured the internet to find a COVID-19 testing site, he was dumbfounded by how difficult it was to find a test he qualified for, let alone one that was nearby.

Disappointed with the lack of resources available to easily find a COVID-19 test, Kwong was inspired to take action, and launched his project: Find My COVID Test.

“I realized that if a 20 year-old is having trouble finding a COVID test, many others will too,” Kwong said. “I thought about my own grandparents, and how they definitely would not be able to find a test without my help, or someone else’s help. This was scary because COVID-19 is definitely affecting elderly people the most and people with pre-existing health conditions.”

Kwong created his first prototype later that month. Using his social media networks to gather valuable insight, Kwong asked his followers on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to fill out a survey regarding their personal experiences with finding a COVID-19 test. From the responses he collected, Kwong concluded that the average time it took for an individual to find a COVID-19 test was 16 minutes and 40 seconds.

“That’s when it really kind of hit me that it

just wasn’t me who had this problem of trying to find a test,” Kwong said. “This is definitely a thing that many others do struggle with. That’s how the filters came about, through this user research.”

Find My COVID Test streamlines the process of searching for a testing site. Users are able to filter through approximately 1,400 testing locations in California, based on their preferences for the following five criteria: distance, insurance, testing method, fee and doctor’s referral.

“We have to think about how humans work,” said Simon Sadler, a professor and chair of the Department of Design. “Humans are a lot harder to work with than technology. One of the things that designers, like Matthew, are doing, is figuring out how to match up technology with people. [What] makes this design so terrific is it is so straightforward to use.”

The concepts taught in Associate Professor of Design Thomas Maiorana’s DES 166: “Human Centered Design” class underpin Kwong’s project.

Maiorana defines human centered design as an approach to a design challenge where people are the point of inspiration rather than technology or business.

“What do we actually need in the world?”

Maiorana said. “What are people, communities and society asking for, or not asking for, but clearly demonstrating some kind of need for something? And then, let’s build that instead of

Findmycovidtest.com, developed by UC Davis student Matthew Kwong, allows website users to find a COVID-19 testing site in their local area based on different criteria. (Photo by Kit Nga Chou, Graphic

by Aarya Gupta / Aggie) figuring it all out ahead of time and then hoping people like it.”

After taking Maiorana’s class in fall of 2020, these concepts of human centered design resonated with Kwong, who approached Maiorana with his idea for a COVID-19 interactive map. Maiorana was impressed with Kwong’s work and then became his advisor for his independent study.

“[An independent study] really is about the student’s own drive and sense of autonomy,” Maiorana said. “Really what I am there to do is provide feedback [and] give pointers. In Matthew’s case [...] some of the things we were talking about were figur[ing] out how to get this overall goal of outreach and creating awareness of this project.”

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UC DAVIS INTEGRATES NEW VIRTUAL PATIENT CARE TECHNOLOGY IN DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION PROGRAM NeuroSphere, an app that connects to patients’ implanted devices, expands telehealth to make healthcare more accessible remotely

KATHERINE HUNG / AGGIE

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org The Departments of Neurology and Neurological Surgery at the UC Davis Medical Center recently became the first hospital in Northern California to adopt NeuroSphere, a remote patient care system created by the medical device company Abbott Laboratories. Utilized in tandem with its device as part of the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) program to help relieve movement disorders, the app has revolutionized telehealth to provide better patient accessibility to health care.

Neuromodulation therapy involves modifying the way the nervous system processes electrical impulses. The DBS program is one established form of neuromodulation therapy that focuses on treating patients screened and diagnosed with movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor and dystonia.

Laura Sperry, an adult nurse practitioner and the program director for the DBS program at the UC Davis Medical Center, described how health care providers previously required inperson visits to adjust the device for DBS patients undergoing neuromodulation therapy.

“The only way that we could connect with the patients, modify their settings, check their battery status and see if they have any abnormal impedances that might indicate a fractured or damaged system was in the clinic,” Sperry said. “Patients needed to be within a few feet from us so that we could connect with them through Bluetooth or a wire, depending on the system that we’re using.”

For these patients with motor disabilities, the device operates internally, being embedded in the chest of the patient with a wire connecting through the back of the neck to electrodes surgically implanted on the brain. Following surgery, patients would oftentimes have to make multiple visits to the hospital to have their devices fine-tuned, which could be burdensome for any patient, let alone those who live outside the area.

Dr. Kiarash Shahlaie, a professor in the department of neurological surgery practicing cranial surgery and conducting research at the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, emphasized how NeuroSphere expands accessibility of health care to patients by just requiring them to have a Wi-Fi connection.

“For a hospital like UC Davis, which has such a big geographic catchment area, we’re the only academic medical center all the way

up to the Oregon border,” Shahlaie said. “So we have patients that live hours and hours away that come here because we’re specialized, and we have this ability to to do these operations and implant these devices. Some of the devices require pretty frequent visits early on, especially if you want to really fine-tune it, so this platform is pretty exciting because it allows us to treat patients anywhere in the world. As long as we can get online and get access to their device, we can have a visit with them.”

Dr. Lin Zhang, a clinical professor in the department of neurology and the co-director of the DBS program, further described the convenience of NeuroSphere for both health care providers and patients.

“The significance is being able to give the patients the convenience to not have to come to the clinic and to be able to receive the same level of care as if they were here in person, at home,” Zhang said.

During the pandemic, the expansion of telehealth with NeuroSphere is a big step toward enabling access to health care for many who cannot travel or fear in-person visits at hospitals.

Shahlaie provided a glimpse of how NeuroSphere might shape the future of healthcare with smarter and precise technology.

“We think these devices are going to get smaller, so we certainly anticipate the implants to get smaller,” Shahlaie said. “They’re certainly getting smarter, meaning that the systems that used to all be open-loop, kind of just stimulating [the brain] blindly all day long, are now becoming closed-loop. They have an input and a decision to stimulate the brain, and so we anticipate some degree of AI, where computers have algorithms and they get better and better over time to modulate the brain more effectively, since every brain is going to be different.”

UC DAVIS EMERGENCY MEDICINE RESIDENTS WIN SIMWARS COMPETITION A team of UC Davis Air Force residents beat out residents from Navy, Airforce and Army programs across the country in a military medicine simulation

BY JUSTIN WEINER science@theaggie.org On April 8, 2021, the emergency medicine physicians in the UC Davis Emergency Medicine Residency program participated in a head-to-head competition against military emergency medicine residents from across the country. The competition, called “SimWars,” was organized by Air Force Lt. Col. Dr. Roderick Fontenette, the military associate program director at UC Davis Health.

“The SimWars competition is a competition against military emergency medicine residents from across the country—it’s Army, Air Force and Navy residents,” Fontenette said.

The competition was part of the annual Government Services Symposium organized by the Government Services Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. The SimWars competition gives residents from across the country and across the branches of the military the opportunity to compete against one another in simulated patient scenarios. This year, more than 30 residents from seven teams competed in the SimWars. Each participating team, including the Air Force team from UC Davis, was composed of emergency medicine residents, varying from first-year to fourth-year residents, as well as registered nurses and respiratory therapists.

This year’s competition and conference differed from previous years as it had to be hosted online remotely. Every team competed from their home campus, using scenarios written by Fontenette

and their home facility’s simulation centers. Some schools had to drop out due to these technical constraints, dropping the number of teams from nine to seven, according to Fontenette.

The simulated scenarios were designed to resemble situations that military physicians are likely to encounter in the battlefield, but ones that civilian physicians might not ordinarily face.

“They were real cases,” Fontenette said. “It was a mass casualty event, multiple patients coming in. First patient came in after stepping on an IED, had traumatic amputations, had to be intubated, altered mental status, most likely a traumatic brain injury. Then the other patient came in, penetrating gunshot wound to the left chest with a reported 13 other patients coming in. Just like you would take care of the patients in Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa, you had to take care of your patients because these are all military residents and I wanted to make sure they had military-type scenarios.”

In order to complete these scenarios, each team had to utilize their facility’s simulation labs, employing high-fidelity manikins that can “produce pulses, heart rates, hemorrhages, sweat, vomit and speak,” said Dr. Ian M. Julie, an associate professor of emergency medicine and the medical director of the simulation center at UC Davis, via email. These high-fidelity manikins were ideal for this type of simulation because they could be programmed to meet the needs of the SimWars scenario.

“If you want practice cutting open a chest and repairing an injured heart, you need an animal model,” Julie said via email.

“But if you want dozens of medical students to practice assessing

The UC Davis Health residency team of Air Force service members won the SimWars competition on April 8, 2021. (Megan Hansen / Courtesy) a very sick asthma patient who requires diagnosis, medication and intubation, [...] a manikin can do it repeatedly, the same way every time and without ethical dilemmas.”

These simulation manikins allowed each team across the country to have a patient with the same vital signs that responded the same way to any interventions.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021 | 11

HOMELESSSERVICES

COUPLES

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “And so those core three groups decided to co-author and sort of form a coalition together to in our own separate ways help to push the city council toward the creation of this new department,” Poindexter said. “So we created this open letter which essentially is calling for the creation of an independent department of public safety, which would essentially prioritize the wellbeing and safety of all members of our community, divert calls away from the police department and really look at things like code enforcement, parking, traffic, mental and behavioral health calls, welfare checks and all of that.”

UC Davis Associate Professor of Sociology Ryan Finnigan explained the role that policing typically plays in society, particularly in relation to individuals who are experiencing homelessness.

“In general, policing is not a constructive way to provide social services, especially for people experiencing homelessness,” Finnigan said via email. “Research in Los Angeles and San Francisco has shown that police themselves often feel ill-equipped to provide social services. Police generally have a limited range of options when called to address homelessness, which frequently result in shuffling off people experiencing homelessness, writing tickets, and sometimes more extreme outcomes (like arrests or violence).

Police often recognize that these actions do little to address homelessness and can often make it worse.”

There are currently three non-sworn personnel at the DPD working in homeless services and doing homeless outreach. They sometimes corespond with officers, but Poindexter explained that separating city employees from the police can help reassure unhoused individuals that the city employee’s “boss is not the police chief, that they’re not in danger of being cited for trespassing.” Instead, the city employees can help the individuals and provide them with the services they need.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 Moving homeless services out of the DPD is economically beneficial and will allow there to be more of a focus on homeless services, according to Poindexter. She explained that the police chief receives funding, “which right now is 30% of all the discretionary funding of the entire city” and has a duty to allocate this funding to protect officers and make sure their equipment is working well.

“That’s his duty as the police chief,” Poindexter said. “So housing something like homeless outreach inside the police department means that the police chief is necessarily going to have to make a decision between ‘do I buy a new vehicle, do I invest in this new training’— whatever his consideration is—versus ‘do I fund the homeless outreach team.’”

Finnigan further described how those experiencing homelessness usually do not see police as an ally.

“Even when police accompany outreach service workers, police presence can deter people experiencing homelessness from accepting assistance,” Finnigan said via email. “People of Color, especially Black People, are overrepresented among those experiencing homelessness.

Racial trauma associated with police violence compounds this disconnect.”

Finnigan added that this is also the case “for mental health crises or other social issues among other systematically disadvantaged communities, more generally.”

Overall, Poindexter believes that moving homeless services out of the DPD will benefit the city positively.

“I think the move will have a positive impact in our community; I really would like to see this city take the next step and create this independent department of Public Health and Safety because I really think that that would have the biggest net positive benefit for Davis as a city,” Poindexter said.

WILDFIREPREP CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 “We can hopefully more easily support our firefighters,” Rose said. “I do think it’s better that we are planning for the worst.”

In explaining the importance of fire education for residents, Yolo County RCD Program Manager Tanya Meyer emphasized that most homes that have burned down in wildfires were not prepared to withstand ember storms.

“We’re doing as much education as we can through the Fire Safe Council, both ours and our neighbors in Solano County,” Meyer said.

“Education can save a home because oftentimes the homes will ignite when the fire is far away.”

Meyer said that the webinar included several speakers, including Aaron Latta, the CAL FIRE Battalion Chief for the Sonoma Lake Napa Unit, who discussed the current state of California wildfires. Speakers also presented on evacuation.

Meyer explained that the webinar will also teach residents how to protect their home.

“We’ll talk about things you can do around your home outside in a defensible space,” Meyer said. “Another topic will be what’s called home hardening, like cleaning gutters.”

CAL FIRE Information Officer Will Powers

urged residents to always be aware of the risk wildfires pose.

“Evacuations have been taking place throughout the last five years with the major fires we’ve had in the unit,” Powers said.

CAL FIRE also provides information about preparing for wildfires, including items to put in an emergency supply kit. The CALFIRE app allows users to create personalized wildfire preparation plans and keep updated on active incidents.

Powers emphasized the importance of being prepared, especially during the summertime when the weather may be hotter and drier. He noted that wildfire season is year-round in California.

“Know your evacuation routes throughout your residential areas,” Powers said. “Sign up for any Facebook pages throughout your sheriffs or fire departments within those counties.”

Rose shared that preparing for wildfire season occurs on a community-wide scale.

“Fire preparedness is sort of an expression of care for the community, work for the community and each other,” Rose said. “That is really hope.”

It’s about “childhood, remembrance and homophobia.” They’re both straight, and it’s a musical.

Oh, God help us—they just made a joint Instagram account. They want you to immediately follow it and like all their posts.

They’re wearing matching outfits they’ve “thrifted” from a store that sells $50 Guns N’ Roses t-shirts. The caption is an Ed Sheeran quote.

Look at this one: “You stole my heart, but I’ll let you keep it #mywholeworld #loveofmylife.”

First of all, they’ve been together for a month and have broken up twice already. Second, how do you MLA cite an Instagram post in your villain origin story?

He’s serenading her now. Where did he even get that ukulele? Was that thing in his bag this whole time? Sorry, “organic hemp tote.” He’s playing Wonderwall. At some point, it’s gotta

COVIDSITE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 According to Kwong’s website, his three overarching goals for his independent study were to increase website visits, expand his testing location database and boost engagement on social media.

Kwong said that he has noticed a 200% increase in traction on his website and an 800% increase in Instagram impressions, according to his post on LinkedIn. Kwong attributes this surge to extensive marketing efforts, like filming and uploading a TikTok video.

Kwong said that his project is a harmonious blend of his passions: design and web development. By spending hours on self-learning, experimentation and watching YouTube videos, Kwong said he learned a lot along the way, including how to integrate the Google Maps Platform API. “I have a Google sheet that has a list of all the COVID-19 testing centers—with their names, whether they have insurance required, test method, if there’s a fee and doctor’s referral— as well as the geolocation,” Kwong said. “That is automatically uploaded to Google’s Firebase.

When someone opens up the site, it pulls that information from Firebase and plots it on the Google Map’s interface you see on the screen.”

In retrospect, Kwong said he believes that

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 The UC Davis residents completed and filmed their scenarios in the UC Davis Health Center for Simulation and Education Enhancement.

During the pandemic, the center was modified to incorporate virtual learning so it had all the equipment needed to compete in the SimWars and record every step along the way using Zoomenabled workstations and wall-mounted cameras.

Air Force Capt. Dr. Jasmine Neeno, a thirdyear emergency medicine resident at UC Davis, was the team lead for the UC Davis team. Neeno led the team to victory this year, narrowly beating out the Army team from the Medical College of

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Abboushi shared discontentment with the transition into celebrating Ramadan through a virtual format.

“It’s not as much of a big celebration,” Abboushi said. “In Davis it now feels like a chore because you miss the community. With my roommates, [we] try to eat iftar together or read the Quran together. For my friends who have been vaccinated, there’s really small gatherings [we have].”

Ramadan during a regular year is difficult, but during a pandemic it is made even more difficult, as there is such a lack of community interaction and support.

Despite continued struggles of celebrating Ramadan during a pandemic, Altamimi explained improvements this year in light of eased restrictions.

“Ramadan is definitely community-based so not being able to gather with friends and family as much as pre-COVID times really takes out an important part of this month,” he said. “But this Ramadan is better than the first pandemic Ramadan because there are now less community restrictions due to advancements with the COVID situation.”

Karaki echoed this sentiment: “Because of the pandemic there is less getting together with friends and family so Ramadan can seem a bit lonely in a way,” she said. “But I am grateful to be able to at least celebrate Ramadan with my direct family.”

In addition, there is also the added stress of being a full-time college student who is fasting during a pandemic—which can be quite a struggle.

Since many colleges do not make official accommodations for many fasting Muslims who are also taking classes, some students say that practicing can be challenging.

“It’s been rough trying to make time to perform religious activities when balancing school, extracurriculars, work, and a pandemic on top of it all,” Haji said.

Abboushi agreed: “Being a student, the most difficult part is fasting without being home with your family, just because when you are at home, your family is preparing meals and you go to the mosque after. I have to focus on school all the while I can’t eat. And I have to worry about

daily symptom survey. Then there are a handful of people who just roam around making sure people are keeping their masks on.”

Alimento said that she applied for the Aggie Public Health Ambassador job over the summer because it was a way to spend time on campus while all of her classes were online.

Alimento said that she has realized that Aggie Public Health Ambassadors have had a significant impact on UC Davis’ campus culture during the pandemic.

“I know most people know how to wear masks. It’s just a few people that could be problematic, and having ambassadors who help clean up those loose ends ensures that every single person on campus is safe and wearing a mask,” Alimento said. “We’re all in this together and the ambassador program really emphasizes that.”

SNAPCHAT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 2016 was one issue, but the true kicker of the app came in 2020. Like most things in our lives, the pandemic made an absolute fool of Snapchat this past year. Why? There was nothing to take pictures of. The concept of posting your daily life was completely destroyed; everyone was living the same life and it really wasn’t worth posting about. Once the pandemic began, I gave up Snapchatting my friends almost entirely, save for a few posts on my private story. It even started to feel weird to still be on the app—almost juvenile.

I’d like to leave with a question: is Snapchat dying, or are we just getting older? The fall of Snapchat may be apparent to college students, but there’s a chance that the app can remain popular with the help of younger generations patronizing its fun photo-sharing capabilities. Either way, the app’s fate is in the hands of millions of users across the planet. It’s up to us to decide.

RUPAULDRAG CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 This is not to say that there are not queens who found success on Drag Race who go out without altering their entire bodies to create RuPaul’s favorite “female illusion”—it just so happens that they all have a few similarities. These queens are most often (I am currently unable to find an exception) thin, tall, hairless and essentially present like runway models (i.e. Violet Chachki and Naomi Smalls)—an established form of androgyny that RuPaul can accept in drag.

RuPaul’s Drag Race has done so much to introduce millions of people, regardless of their gender or sexuality, to the art of drag, and the passion and talent it takes to be a drag queen.

Georgia.

“We did a really good job of communicating and listening to suggestions and advice when we had difficult patient situations, which I think is what ultimately carried us to victory,” Neeno said. “[All teams] practice similar medicine, but I think the difference was that I felt that we worked better as a team.”

As the UC Davis residents celebrate their victory this year, they look forward to returning back to an in-person conference and competing again next year to defend their title.

RAMADAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

We can speculate forever about the features of Snapchat, but one of the main reasons why Snapchat doesn’t do as well as other platforms is that you can’t truly cultivate your online persona on the app, which is sort of the reason why we go on social media. The permanence of posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all contribute to our personal brands. If everything you post on Snapchat eventually disappears, could there ever really be a sense of a persona?

That’s why the beginning of Snapchat’s slow demise came in August 2016, when Instagram launched “Instagram Stories,” an obvious dig at one of Snapchat’s most distinctive features.

Instagram chose to combine the best of Snapchat with the powerhouse platform that they’d already developed. Why would users choose to go to Snapchat when they had everything that used to make it unique on Instagram?

the biggest challenge he experienced was “pure imposter syndrome,” but he was determined not to give up.

“He didn’t get deterred by moments that got a little hard,” Maiorana said. “I think it’s really inspiring to see him push through those moments of discomfort or boredom or setbacks. That’s what you need to make change in the world.”

Kwong said that watching his project come to fruition was a rewarding experience. He started with tedious work, manually entering testing sites into his website and contacting each testing site individually. Now, Kwong has partnered with Curative, a company devoted to building heath infrastructure, and Project Baseline by Verily—a life science and healthcare company launched in 2015.

Additionally, Kwong has presented his project to Healthy Davis Together and met with President Kyle Kreuger from ASUCD. “With human centered design, what you can do, and this is what you can see with Matthew’s design, it anticipates how people are going to use technology,” Sadler said. “They just want the information as clearly as they can possibly get it.

That’s what I thought made this design so great. It was just there and anybody could use it.”

MILITARYCOMP

HEALTHAMBASSADOR “A lot of times we have little gift cards that we’ll give out, like a $5 Yolo Berry gift card or a $5 student store gift card,” Alimento said. “It’s mostly trying to encourage [health guidelines] in a positive way to make it a healthy, happy experience of, ‘We all want Davis to open up, so thank you for keeping your mask on [and] distancing.’”

Alimento said that one of her other most common shifts is in the library, where she and fellow Aggie Public Health Ambassadors have to check symptom surveys, but they also “float” around the library, enforcing social distancing and mask-wearing.

“Usually there are three to six ambassadors there, and we rotate every hour,” Alimento said.

“One person will be in the front desk checking people in; one person will be at the next desk. You have to check at two different desks to show your

be legal to hack into their account and shut this whole thing down.

Oh no, they’re talking about getting a dog.

Call PETA. You just know they’re going to make an Instagram account for it too.

Are we really back on the musical? Did you tell them you can’t go? No, I already used the dentist excuse. Say something else. Oh my holy Lord, tickets are $40? For a show that takes place on the balcony of her apartment? All of the songs are just “Mamma Mia!” with the words rewritten.

No, we have to get out of this conversation.

Fire, tell her there’s a fire. Killer bees. I don’t care where. C’mon.

Oh no, they’re onto us. You have to leave me behind. Run, please, while you still have the chance. Theodore’s trying to pitch his new idea for an experimental reggae-EDM album.

Remember me.

However, after almost 13 years, it’s high time to ask for a more contemporary representation of this creative community. Since the show aired in 2009, drag has changed drastically, and it is hardly fair for RuPaul to impose his own vision of what drag “is” (as if it was one singular thing) on queens who are coming up with entirely novel and often much more fluid ways of expressing themselves. Old-school rules simply do not work when the game has completely changed, and RuPaul should accept these changes and adapt his show accordingly, or allow for a new perspective to step in.

having to prepare my meal, which is basically taking more time from my study time to prepare the food to break fast.”

Yet, Ramadan is also a celebration and something many Muslims look forward to, even with the loss of meals and constant dehydration. “[My favorite part about] Ramadan is breaking my fast with my family,” Haji said.

“There’s something about Ramadan iftars that just hit different. The food we prepare at home is unmatched and I look forward to it all year.”

Abboushi also appreciated the feeling of being connected to others and sharing a meal. “[My] favorite part of Ramadan is the family and friend iftar parties, even if they aren’t happening this year because of COVID,” she said. “It’s the one time during the day everyone has to take a break from school or work and we all eat together. You get to see everyone and catch up on our lives and with people you haven’t talked to in a while.”

For Altamimi, spirituality is an important part of the celebration. “There’s this background of spirituality during Ramadan,” he said. “The major focus is to strengthen your relationship with God. And also the great food is a plus too.”

Karaki explained the feeling of accomplishment that comes with completing a fast.

“Besides being surrounded by family and friends, I would probably say that my favorite part would have to be the wonderful feeling of accomplishment you feel after you break your fast. It’s a really gratifying and humbling feeling in my opinion.”

One major event many Muslims look forward to is the smaller celebration known as the Eid alFitr, which in Arabic means “the feast of breaking the fast,” which usually falls directly after the 30th day of fasting.

For many Muslims, Ramadan is a month full of blessings, of becoming aware of one’s own privileges and abstaining from sinful behavior. According to these students, ramadan is a testament of practicing Muslims’ devotion to becoming both better human beings and becoming even closer to their God, especially as they continue their traditions in the face of a pandemic.

12 | THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 2021

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS President Biden’s Executive Order on gender identity discrimination has been met with backlash from states Some states in the U.S. have passed several bills regarding a ban on transgender athletes

BY KATHERIN RAYGOZA sports@theaggie.org Since stepping into office on Jan. 20, President Joe Biden has issued numerous executive orders, including one that focuses on discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. Since it was signed, the order has become subject to criticism and is a focal point of some lawmakers in certain states.

After Biden issued this order, dozens of states filed laws to counter it. These laws ban transgender women and girls from competing with cisgender women in school sports teams.

Several states, like Mississippi, Arkansas, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee and other southern states, have passed laws that ban transgender athletes from competing in college and high school female sports this year. As more state legislators continue to push their respective bills, some have done much more than others.

In the months of March and April, the North Carolina state General Assembly introduced three new bills that would restrict transgender individuals in sports, health care and genderaffirming care.

In late March, Republican representatives of North Carolina Mark Brody, Pat Mclraft, Diane Wheatley and Jimmy Dixon presented House Bill 358, titled “Save Women’s Sports Act.” This bill only allows individuals to compete in sports that align with their assigned sex at birth and prohibits transgender individuals from competing in sport teams that do not correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

About two weeks after the “Save Women’s Sports Act” was introduced, three more representatives filed other bills of their own.

These bills were titled “Youth Health Protection Act” and “Health Care Heroes Conscience Protection Act.” The bills would make it illegal for healthcare providers to give medical attention to anyone under the age of 21 who does not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. These

bills would also allow health care providers to refuse service to transgender people—something that has the potential to lead to more transphobia.

As this topic has become widespread since Biden took office, Ryan Anderson, the author of “When Harry Became Sally”—a book critical of modern transgender topics—thinks that these next four years will create “legal headaches.”

“After the inauguration that addressed unity and healing, we got a radically divisive executive order from our new president,” Anderson said.

“The language says that it’s banning discrimination, it’s protecting equality, but you have to understand what [the Biden administration] views as discrimination. Our embodiment of male and female isn’t discriminatory.”

In the college ranks, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) remains supportive of the transgender athlete community as long as they follow the proper guidelines they have set in place. It requires “testosterone suppression treatment for transgender women to compete in women’s sports.” The NCAA is also hosting their championship events in locations that are discriminatory-free and a safe environment for all athletes.

“When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimation should be selected,” said a statement from the NCAA. “We will continue to closely monitor these situations to determine whether the NCAA championships can be conducted in ways that are welcoming and respectful of all participants.”

Ryan Kemey Russell, a professional football player in the National Football League (NFL), became the first openly bisexual player in the league when he publicly came out in an essay for ESPN in Aug. 2019. The defensive end, who is currently a free agent and last played in an NFL game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2017, spoke about the transgender athlete issue and said

they deserve to have the same opportunity as a cisgender individual.

“After the past few weeks, most trans children including those who have immense potential to be great athletes or, at the very least, find love and joy in sports, can’t even pick up a ball without legislation telling them they don’t belong,” Russel wrote. “Isn’t it important for trans children more than most to feel the belonging of a team, especially when society is questioning if they belong at all?”

These restrictive policies pertain to mainly adolescents and college students across these various states. “More inclusive” policies for transgender individuals are there, but like Grace O’Connor from The Chronicle said, they say that transgender athletes can only join high school or college sports teams after one or two years of

hormone therapy. This severely limits their time to play on a team and is very costly. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the more extreme policies require gender reaffirming surgery and frequently deny transgender athletes’ positions on sports teams.

“That’s what people are missing from this entire debate,” said Debi Jackson, a mother fighting against the transgender athlete ban.

“Trans kids just want a chance. They want to be a part of something. They want to have a connection with their friends and want to hang out with them. They are not coming in to steal opportunities or ruin anyone’s sport. They are just trying to be involved.”

A field in Davis, CA. (Markus Kaeppeli / Aggie)

NBA experiences the hard effects of shortened offseason Injuries to the league’s top stars have many questioning whether a condensed schedule was the right call

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org After the National Basketball Association (NBA) was forced to push the end of last year’s season until October 2020 due to COVID-19, a lot needed to be done to reshape the 2020-21 season. Long talks and endless planning between the league and the players’ association eventually landed them at a shortened 72-game season and a Dec. 22 start date—one that would limit the damage of revenue losses and would allow players to participate in the Olympics. Having announced this in November, teams were left with about a month and a half to prepare for the season, which was a lot less than they were used to—both mentally and physically.

The quick turnaround meant that the champion Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat that played in The Finals, would have just 71 days in between their last game and the season opener.

This is a far cry from the usual 127-plus days that teams get throughout the usual mid-June to late October offseason. This also affected teams like the Boston Celtics and the Denver Nuggets who made their respective conference finals and had less than three months to prepare for the season. League-wide, teams needed to ramp

CATHY TANG / AGGIE

up their processes and get in shape in so little time—something that had those in the medical field worried.

“The key to an NBA offseason is rest and regeneration. They optimize their prevention methods during that time,” said Dr. Matt Provencher, the Fox Sports athlete injury and performance analyst, back in mid-December.

“They optimize their prevention methods during that time. That is what these guys are very good at doing, so having that window shortened could be concerning to many of them. You are potentially losing some time that would be used for recovery and improving the body’s resiliency for managing the load during the season.”

Right off the bat, it was clear that the regular season would be a long one. There was a lot of sluggish and unbalanced play from teams who looked out of it on some nights, creating a very slow start to the season. As teams tried to find their rhythm, the postponement of 31 games did not help either, as most of these games were pushed into the second half of the season—one that has been gruesome.

Over the years, the NBA has made an effort to help the players rest more, like eliminating four games in five nights for teams. Due to the nature of the season and the congestion in the second

half, the schedule following the All-Star Break has been brutal. Teams were scheduled an average of 8.6 back-to-back game sets over 10 weeks, as well as some five games in seven day sets. Teams like the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs were the most affected by COVID-19 postponements over the first half of the season and as a result, had to finish their season playing 40 games in 68 days—not including two-day breaks. The short training camp and rushed scheduling has affected many in the league, including their very own stars.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this year’s 2021 NBA All-Stars have missed 15% of games this season. At the current rate, it would be the second-highest in the league’s history, and fans have seen their favorite players go down for extended periods of time. Players such as LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Karl Anthony-Towns, James Harden, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, LaMelo Ball and many more have missed at least 13 games or more—with Davis and Durant missing over 30.

That number is expected to grow as Harden, Leonard, Durant and James are all still sidelined with an injury.

All of those players have or are scheduled to eventually return to the floor. However, the injuries don’t stop there. Nuggets starting guard

and star Jamal Murray suffered from a torn ACL in mid-April. This injury will leave one of the league’s youngest and most popular rising stars sidelined until next season. Murray’s injury is especially concerning to teams within the league because the Nuggets were finishing up their very own stretch of five games in seven days. Although Murray had missed the team’s previous games, he had been struggling with injuries throughout the year, and it came to a head on that night.

Around the league, the injury was deflating and caused concern over just how big of an impact this quick and condensed season has had on all of the players.

“Hands down, it’s the worst schedule I’ve seen in 25 years in the league,” a veteran assistant coach told ESPN. “It’s utterly insane.”

“Going into the [NBA] bubble, we had all these different anxieties about the games, but without travel,” said an NBA head athletic trainer.

“This is literally exponentially more difficult. It’s such a cumulative effect.”

“Too many players getting hurt with this shortened season,” tweeted New Orleans Pelicans guard Josh Hart, who is also nursing an injury of his own. “[We] need to not do this one again.”

However, NBA data suggests that the injury rate this season has been down from last season, a possible cause for the magnification of injuries to star players. Because these star players handle a lot of the workload in any given game and play upward of 30 minutes a night, conditioning, pacing and preparation are key to health and wellbeing throughout a long season. With almost no time to prepare in training camp, limited practices and such a compact schedule, building up endurance has been difficult for NBA players.

While fans around the world hope their stars can return and stay healthy for a great postseason championship, the effects that COVID-19 has had on the league could run further than just this season.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hopes to return to a normal season that runs from October to June for the 2021-22 season. Although the offseason would be longer than the 71 days we saw this year, it would still be over a month less than the past. As it stands, the return to full normalcy for the NBA in terms of scheduling is a two year process—not just this year. The long term effects on players’ health, if any, remain unknown, but this season has had the teams and its fans holding their breath every time a player got on the floor.