By STEPHANIE B. NGUYENAggie News Writer

Artwork abounds throughout campus thanks to the Aggie Public Arts Committee. The Aggie Public Arts Committee (APAC) is an ASUCD unit that works to encourage and install public-ly displayed art throughout the UC Davis campus and the Davis com-munity. “The committee contributes to the cultural enrichment of the UCD student body by adding art to public spaces that is aesthetically pleasing, thought-provoking, visually stimu-lating and of enduring value,” said senior community and regional de-velopment major and APAC’s com-mittee chair Deborah Schrimmer. One of these public spaces is the ASUCD Coffee House. The Juried CoHo Art Show was created in 2011 in order to both showcase the works of student artists and to bring art

into an otherwise art-less space. “The CoHo receives a lot of foot traffic, and the Aggie Public Arts Committee noticed the absence of art in its facilities,” Schrimmer said.

“We sought to activate a high-traf-fic but overlooked corridor on our campus. We implemented a juried

Today’s weatherSunnyHigh 82Low 52

ForecastIt’s finally starting to feel like summer!

Time to study at the beach? Sounds good to me!

By Amanda NguyenWeather courtesy of www.Weather.com.

Sunny Sunny

Thursday

High 95Low 59

Wednesday

High 92Low 57

If you need some inspiration to not give up on Spring Quarter, search “slinky on a treadmill.” If that doesn’t prove that you shouldn’t give up, I

don’t know what will!

Amanda Nguyen

serving the uc davis campus and communit y since 1915www.theaggie.orgvolume 131, number 73 tuesday, may 29, 2012

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs to leave UC Davis

Aggie Public Arts Committee showcases artwork on campus

Fred Wood to become chancellor of University of Minnesota, Crookston

Juried CoHo Art Show and bike murals among the committee’s projectsEast corner of Arboretum to receive

native California garden

UC Davis and City of Davis receive Urban

Greening Grant

By MAX GARRITY RUSSERAggie News Writer

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Fred Wood is putting on a heavy jacket and

heading to the University of Minnesota, Crookston after over 33 years of being a part of the UC Davis community. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Chemistry at UC Davis in the early ‘80s, Wood brief-

ly taught at a small school in Northern Idaho. The University eventually asked him to come back and he started to teach

The Davis Police Department is investigat-ing the Tasering of a male UC Davis student that occurred on May 23 at 2225 Glacier Drive. Police said the Tasering was in response to the student resisting arrest after being in-volved in a physical altercation with a female student around 10 p.m. that night, a police press release stated. Officers said that after the male student was handcuffed, he managed to get the handcuffs off in the back seat of the patrol vehicle. He then allegedly kicked open the rear door and pushed and punched an offi-cer in the face. The police proceeded to sub-due the student with a Taser. He was subse-quently transported to the Yolo County Jail. Police said despite numerous requests for the female student to keep her distance and not interfere with the male student, she placed herself in close proximity to the strug-gle. She was arrested, then released with a ci-tation for interfering with police officers. According to the press release, a review of the force used and an internal investigation into policy compliance are underway. The police said they have an audio and partial video recordings of the incident. Internal investigators will analyze all avail-able evidence and information to provide as complete a picture as possible of this incident, the release stated. The police urge witnesses to provide additional information and/or video recordings to the Professional Standards Unit of the police department at (530) 747-5400 to enhance the fact-gathering process.

— Angela Swartz

By ADAM KHANAggie News Writer

The east end of the UC Davis Arboretum is sched-uled to be remodeled in the early summer of 2013. The California Strategic Grant Growth Council recently do-nated $891,000 for the ad-dition of a California Native Collection to the empty field that currently sits be-hind the parking lot of Davis Commons. The garden will be cen-tered around species native to the Central Valley and will include thematic elements that encourage sustainabil-ity and appreciation of local

flora. The project was also fund-ed $40,000 by the Municipal Art Fund to create a symbol-ic “gateway” between down-town and UC Davis that will include a sculpture by artist Christopher Fennel, who was selected from a pool of 63 applicants for his work with recycled mate-rial. In addition, the park-ing lot of Davis Commons will be reconstructed to cre-ate a new pedestrian path-way that will run directly from the Commons into the Arboretum. UC Davis Assistant

News iN BrieF

Police altercation ends in Tasering

of student

On Saturday, Davis Farm to School hosted its third annual Tour de Cluck. From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., attendees milled around Davis Central Park, gorging on food provided by the Fowl Food Faire at the Davis Farmers Market and participating in activities involving chickens and bicycles. Egg-cellent examples of the city’s chicken-mania were events such as the Cluck Exhibition community kickoff, in which members of the community stood on stage to cluck and crow, and the Tour de Cluck Silent Auction that sold chicken-inspired artwork. People also wore full-body chicken suits and ran around the park. Known as Tour de Cluck’s Mother Hen, Events Coordinator Jacqueline “Jake” Clemens said the event was created as a fundraiser for Davis Farm to School. According to its website, Davis Farm to School is an organization that strives to encourage local, farm-fresh food in school food. “I was looking for how to make a contribution to a fantastic community,” Clemens said. “I found out about Davis Farm to School and researched possibilities to create some type of fundraiser to benefit [the school], and ran across the chicken coop tour in Portland.” Clemens said the idea was conceived in 2009, with the first Tour de Cluck taking place in May

2010. “My husband and I figured if we could find the sweet spot with chickens and bicycles, that’d be a great thing for Davis,” she said. “May is Bike Month and the community and city are really involved in it.” In addition, Clemens said the bicycling community has embraced Tour de Cluck, although she said there is never a guarantee that there will be one annually. Tour de Cluck’s signature event was the Bicycle Chicken Coop Crawl, selling out 700 tickets. With 18 chicken coops set up all over town, people of all ages biked along bicycle pathways and trails to view the displays. “The chicken coops are made by people who live in Davis,” Clemens said. “There are hundreds of chicken coops in Davis — it’s a whole backyard chicken-keeping culture.” Clemens said Tour de Cluck is a great community-building event. “It’s not just the activities the day of, but the process of putting it together and the connections that are made,” Clemens said. “It just involves all aspects of the community.”

— Written by Claire Tan— Photos courtesy of Tour de Cluck Flock Foto

Chickenfest at Tour de Cluck

Aaron Juarez / Aggie

Fred wood, Vice Chancellor of student Affairs, will begin his position at University of Minnesota, Crookston on July 2.

see wOOD, page 3

see UrBAN, page 5

courtesy

The Aggie Public Arts Committee works to display art across campus. They are in the process of re-painting the bike circles.

see ArTs, page 2

The season finale of “Modern Family” threw me for a loop, y’all.

Mitchell and Cameron tried so hard to adopt a baby/find a suitable surrogate/steal a child but inevitably gave up on ex-panding their brood for now after another failed attempt. That was nothing in com-parison to the curveball at the end: Gloria, who spent most of the episode helping her sons-in-law locate their soon-to-be-but-not-really child, revealed that she was pregnant, beam-ing with accomplishment. I almost broke my laptop with how hard I slammed it shut. (There’s a point, I swear, and I’m pretty sure I can find a way to make it coincide with post-grad advice too. Give me a sec to find it …) My biological clock is on the verge of exploding. I want to have a child so bad it hurts. I want the crying and the screaming and tantrums and the hatred and resentment a child feels towards their par-ents. I also want the joy of seeing yourself in your child. I want to watch them grow be-fore my eyes and learn and mature and finally recipro-cate the feelings I have for them. But, like the “Modern Family” ‘moes, it won’t be so easy to get what I want. Being gay blows some-times (yes, I know what I just typed) thanks to the hardships of trying to have a baby. Unless my science teachers were lying to me, gay people can’t make babies together the old straight way. Adoption and surrogacy are the roads that lie ahead for guys who want to have a kid together. But it’s often costly and filled with setbacks that put an emotional strain on the relationship. Others misunderstand my desire for children at my age. I feel like the ability to bear children may not be given as much weight by straight cou-ples as it is by gay or infertile ones. I get furious when I see parents yanking their kids’ arms in frustration or lack the patience to explain why they can’t buy a humongous Snickers bar in the grocery store. (I’ll do the same thing if my kids act like my sister

and I did.) All parents aren’t cookoo like reality TV moms, but the rest of us would like the chance to have a happy, unplanned accident thanks to a fun night and a bottle of tequila, too. Found the point! Preparation is key, and not just when it comes to ba-bies. We never had the need to plan far into the fore-seeable future since it was mostly written out for us. Elementary school, then middle, then high, then col-lege. We had some say in where we would end up but the steps were already laid out. Now, there needs to be some semblance of plan-ning in the career paths or lifestyles we choose because they greatly predict how our future will play out. Whew, I did it. I have babies on the brain and know my life won’t have much meaning if I don’t be-

come a great father. That’s why audition-ing is on the back-burner for

the moment. The chance for work comes few and far be-tween, and usually only pays enough to help buy grocer-ies. A full-time job where I get paid to produce art is equal-ly rewarding as performing it — except with stability and better pay. There will always be roles that need actors, but interning with a produc-tion company now will lead to good job later and put me in a better place financially to raise a child. You know how much sur-rogacy will cost ya? Upwards of $50,000 including medi-cal expenses, the donated egg and the expensive ass brace-let you buy for the surrogate so she doesn’t duck out with your seed. I previously said “money runs the world” for a reason. And a lot of states ban joint, unmarried adoption, making it a two-fold slap in the face to gays who can’t get married in the first place. Being picky with whom you date is a factor for any-one thinking of raising a family. Long-term rela-tionships should be be-tween like-minded people with shared life aspirations. Having a kid is difficult for couples regardless of sexual-ity and can be especially di-sastrous on couples who dif-fer on having them or not. That’s a conversation that’s okay to have on the first date. The “Modern Family” finale is an indication that all the ba-by-prep might be for nothing depending on the outcome (and possible unplanned sur-prise). Erring on the side of being ready for it either way can only help us out.

Share baby names with JAZZ TRICE at jazztrice526@gmail.com or twitter.com/Jazz_Trice.

One of the biggest paradoxes in re-search is the per-

ception of workload: I’m si-multaneously always busy and always have free time. At any given moment I un-doubtedly have work to do, but it can usually be put off until later. While a lot of this depends on your advisor and your research subject, it is indeed possible to have a very flexible schedule as a graduate student. You don’t need to work 9 to 5 or work weekends … but you probably will want to. Science doesn’t sleep. Research doesn’t take a va-cation. Even if I can’t do any more lab work for whatev-er reason (out of materials, study subjects died, bean-counters say I can’t afford any more Taq polymerase), I can always apply to new grants or read more scien-tific literature. Much of that type of work – reading journals, designing protocols, e-mailing collaborators, running statistical analy-sis and writing up results – is stuff you could do at home in your pajamas … which I do regularly, with an energy drink at the ready and Anamanaguchi blasting in my head-phones for motivation. This type of work is usual-ly the bulk of research, too: Every hour one spends in the field collecting insects or plants or archaeologi-cal treasures corresponds to 100 hours indoors sorting, identifying and labeling ev-erything. If you were hoping to go into archaeology and live the life of Indiana Jones, you will be greatly disap-pointed. I hope you like pot-tery shards! This system of study, to me, is the ideal way to struc-ture a life. You are nev-er bored because you al-ways have a task available, but your schedule is flexi-ble enough that you can hop among your various proj-ects and your extracurricular and social obligations freely. As long as you are productive and show your advisor signs of life or progress periodical-ly, you are still on track.

Admittedly, not every graduate student has this luxury, but the proportion is certainly higher than among most cubicle drones. I prob-ably work far more than 40 hours a week, but it’s work I enjoy at hours I can set myself. I don’t notice how much I’m working because the labor doesn’t interfere with my social life and I’m having too much fun doing it anyway. I know what some of you are thinking: Work can be fun? And not just work, but school-work? The kind of stuff you spend the first 18-21 years of your life wait-ing for the graduation cere-mony that marks you never having to do any of it again? How could that possibly be fun? If you’re one of the peo-ple thinking this, I have one word for you: Science! With a capitol “S” and an exclama-tion point, because that’s how

it sounds when I read it. If you still don’t get it, enjoy your future at Dunder

Mifflin, with your TPS re-ports and your stock options and six-figure salary, because that’s where you’re headed. The reason grad stu-dents put up with, well, ev-erything is because sci-ence is such a great moti-vator. It’s not just the re-sults. The very act of scienc-ing all the science for sci-ence is pleasurable. Science is about gaining knowledge where once sat ignorance. You have a question. You find the answer. Simple, yet deeply satisfying, like scratching an itch. The na-ture of the questions differs among scientists, howev-er. Part of graduate school is learning what types of questions drive you. Some scientists seek to progress humanity: cur-ing disease, solving the en-ergy crisis and all that cli-chéd crap that infests ev-ery college application ever. For others, it’s the quest for Truth. “Does the world work like I hypothesized? Let’s find out.” These big picture scientists have an overarching question that justifies their work, which fills in pieces of the puzzle. Then there are the sci-entists like myself who aren’t searching for an-swers, but for the ques-tions themselves. “What do we not know? What have we not discovered yet?” It’s not about “Why,” it’s about “Why not!” To find some-thing brand new, be the first to publish about it and have it named after me: That’s what gets me to work every day, or at least to my laptop.

MATAN SHELOMI is throwing Science! at the walls to see what sticks. Offer him a postdoc at mshelomi@ucdavis.edu.

page two The california aggie2 Tuesday, may 29, 2012

daily calendardailycal@theaggie.org

I get furious when I see parents yanking their kids’ arms in

frustration ...

This system of study, to me, is the ideal way to structure

a life

Senate briefS

One Shields Ave.25 Lower Freeborn, UCD

Davis, CA 95616Editorial (530) 752-0208

Advertising (530) 752-0365Fax (530) 752-0355

The California Aggie is entered as first-class mail with the United States Post Office, Davis, Calif., 95616. Printed Monday through Thursday during the academic year and once a week during Summer Session II at The Davis Enterprise, Davis, Calif., 95616. Accounting services are provided by ASUCD. The Aggie is distributed free on the UC Davis campus and in the Davis community. Mail subscriptions are $100 per academic year, $35 per quarter and $25 for the summer. Views or opinions expressed in The Aggie by editors or columnists regarding legislation or candidates for political office or other matters are those of the editors or columnist alone. They are not those of the University of California or any department of UC. Advertisements appearing in The Aggie reflect the views of advertisers only; they are not an expression of editorial opinion by The Aggie. The Aggie shall not be liable for any error in published advertising unless an advertising proof is clearly marked for corrections by the advertiser. If the error is not corrected by The Aggie, its liability, if any, shall not exceed the value of the space occupied by the error. Further, The Aggie shall not be liable for any omission of an advertisement ordered published. All claims for adjustment must be made within 30 days of the date of publication. In no case shall The Aggie be liable for any general, special or consequential damages.© 2009 by The California Aggie. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form whatsoever is forbidden without the expressed written permission of the copyright owner.

The California Aggie is printed on

recycled paper

Jason AlpertEditor in Chief

Becky PetersonManaging Editor

Alex TervoBusiness Manager

Grace SpragueAdvertising Manager

Hannah StrumwasserCampus Editor

Angela SwartzCity Editor

Elizabeth OrpinaArts Editor

Erin MigdolFeatures Editor

Trevor CramerSports Editor

Amy StewartScience Editor

Melissa FreemanOpinion Editor

Joey ChenCopy Chief

Jasna HodzicPhotography Editor

Michelle HueyDesign Director

Janice PangAsst. Design Director

Mimi VoNight Editor

Amanda NguyenAsst. Night Editor

Irisa TamArt Director

Moment of science

MatanShelomi

today

Hindustani Vocal ensemble12:05 to 1 p.m.115 MusicWatch this free performance of the Hindustani Vocal Ensemble with director Rita Sahai.

concert at luigi’s8 to 10 p.m.Luigi’s Fun Garden, 213 E StreetGo watch this performance with groups including White Fang, Fine Steps, Bad Daddies and Sneeze Attack. Tickets are $5.

wedneSday

chill dayNoon to 2 p.m.The QuadThe UC Davis Campus Judicial Board is hosting its annual “Chill Day” event in which they will be giving out free sno-cones. In light of upcoming finals, the theme is: “Chill out,” Relax and Don’t Cheat!

Senior recital3:30 to 4:30 p.m.115 MusicWatch this free recital as Amy Lui plays saxophone accompanied by John Cozza on piano.

farm to college event4:30 to 7:30 p.m.Segundo Area Central LawnFarm to College night is a biannual event hosted by UC Davis Dining Services celebrating Davis’ local and sustainable food system. The event will include educational activities and opportunities to explore where our food comes from and how it was produced, the power of our food dollar and our regional food community. It costs one swipe for meal plan holders, $14.50 for general public or $11.60 with UC Davis staff pin/ID card.

Uc davis Jazz bands performance7 to 8 p.m.Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi CenterWatch the UC Davis Jazz Bands with director Delbert Bump. Tickets are $8 for students and children and $12 for adults.

food addicts in recovery anonymous7 to 8:30 pmDavis United Methodist Church, 1620 Anderson RoadFree yourself from excess weight and/or obsessional thoughts about food and body image. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) is a 12-step fellowship based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Meetings are open and free to the public. Go to www.foodaddicts.org for other meeting locations.

tHUrSday

Shinkoskey noon concert12:05 to 1 p.m.115 MusicWatch this free concert with Susan Lamb Cook playing the cello accompanied by Gayle Blankenburg on piano.

biomedical engineering Seminar Series4:10 to 5 p.m.1005 GBSFListen to Kristina Ropella of Marquette University in her seminar entitled “Functional Neuroimaging Using MR: Moving from Basic Research to Clinical Application.” For more information, visit www.bme.ucdavis.edu.

two-part production from the Uc davis department of theatre and dance8 to 10 p.m.Main Theatre, WrightWatch this two-part production including the world premiere of and the snow fell softly on all the living and the dead by Granada Artist-in-Residence Ellen Bromberg and a celebration of the work of Professor Della Davidson through choreography and performances by her long-time collaborators. Tickets are $17-19 for general and $12-14 for students, children and seniors.

To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, e-mail dailycal@theaggie.org or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.

ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the May 24 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room. The ASUCD president is not required to attend senate meetings. Meeting called to order at 6:13 p.m. Rebecca Sterling, ASUCD president, present, arrived at 8:20 p.m. Yena Bae, ASUCD vice president, presentKabir Kapur, ASUCD senator, presentJared Crisologo-Smith, ASUCD senator, present, arrived late at 6:20Bradley Bottoms, ASUCD senator, presentJustin Goss, ASUCD senator, presentAnni Kimball, ASUCD senator, presentPaul Min, ASUCD senator, presentDon Gilbert, ASUCD senator, presentJoyce Han, ASUCD senator, presentErica Padgett, ASUCD senator, presentBeatriz Anguiano, ASUCD senator, presentPatrick Sheehan, ASUCD senator, pro tempore, presentYara Zokaie, ASUCD senator, present PresentationsSergio Cano, chair of the Internal Affairs Commission, presented a PowerPoint on the ASUCD election codes. He covered campaign finances and election violations and briefly presented past elections records.

Rebecca Sterling, ASUCD president, presented information on a matching campaign for scholarships. Appointments and confirmationsEmily Alice Gerhart was confirmed as the External Affairs Commission Chair.

Joshua Coronado-Moses, Roman Rivilis, Eric Renslo and Joshua Herskovitz were confirmed to the Internal Affairs Commission. Unit director reportsJason Alpert, editor in chief at The California Aggie, announced that the new editor in chief is Janelle Bitker. Hannah Strumwasser is the new managing editor. The Aggie has already hired a new ad manager and business manager. Andrew Florio, executive producer at Aggie TV, said there are over 2 million views on the YouTube channel and they have produced over 100 videos. As of today, they are working a deal with the UC Davis Bookstore to play their videos in the store. The Davis In A Day film is to be released on June 8. Rosa Gonzalez, director of The Pantry, said The Pantry has been doing well, and is currently looking at applicants for next year’s staff. The Pantry will be open during the summer.

Consideration of old legislationSenate Bill 111, authored by Cano, introduced by Goss, to amend the presentations and public discussions process for the ASUCD Senate. Cano said Internal Affairs thought this bill made the senate a lot more efficient. The bill passed unanimously.

Senate Bill 113, authored by Cano, introduced by Sheehan, to establish yielding remainder of speaker’s time guidelines. The bill passed unanimously. Senate Resolution 26, authored by Crisologo-Smith, co-authored by Torres and introduced by Crisologo-Smith, to condemn discriminatory marriage laws in the State of California. In a 9-3-0 vote the resolution was referred to the ASUCD Court. Crisologo-Smith, Anguiano and Zokaie voted no. Senate Resolution 27, authored by Sabrina Dias, co-authored and introduced by Kapur, in support of the recommendations given by the Reynoso Task Force concerning actions taken against protesters on Nov. 18, 2011 on the UC Davis campus. In a 4-4-4 vote, Bae broke the tie and the resolution passed. Gilbert, Goss, Sheeban and Min voted no. Han, Crisologo-Smith, Anguiano and Zokaie abstained.

Public discussionCaitlin Alday said she would not support Senate Resolution 26. Alday said it’s a matter of priorities and legalizing same-sex marriage is only a small part. Alday suggested something that prioritizes most marginalized communities, and she hoped the Senate listens more to GASC. Padgett said that ASUCD did not have the right to tell students how to feel about gay marriage. Crisologo-Smith said he didn’t want to comment on marriage itself, but that the nature of the discrimination is wrong. Sergio Cano said that he doesn’t think the Senate should be taking a stance on issues like this. Public announcementsEdward Montelongo announced Empowering Voices is Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room. Meeting adjourned at 9:14 p.m.

Open positions within ASUCD can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu. MICHELLE MURPHY compiled the senate briefs. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

accUracyIn the May 24 article titled “The 12th Annual UC Davis Film Festival,” it was implied that Ngoc Le is a male. Ngoc is a female. It was also stated that the mockumentary was a submission even though it was not in the lineup. The Aggie regrets these errors.

JazzTrice

Let’s make babies

icc’S coUntdown to SUmmer! Congratulations, you have made it to week nine of Spring Quarter 2012! Graduation is looming, and unless you’re struggling to find extra com-mencement tickets, your priorities have most likely shifted from finishing school to starting your career. If you have been following the Internship and Career Center’s (ICC) Countdown to Graduation series hopefully you have landed some job interviews. You may even find yourself struggling to choose between three amazing job offers. From determining the cost of living for the city you might be mov-ing to, to negotiating for a higher sala-ry, the ICC is here to help you through this new and exciting process. We’re also here for continuing students.

Once you receive your first job of-fer, there are some important things to consider before accepting it. Be up-front, yet professional with poten-tial employers. Recruiters speak with one another and career karma exists. Don’t jeopardize your fledgling pro-fessional reputation. If you’ve been offered a position and you need more time to assess your options, express your interest in the job then ask if you can have time to evaluate. Mention the elements of the offer that appeal to you: salary, location, tasks, popula-tion served. Be sincere. It is far better to ask for additional time (within rea-son, no more than a few weeks) than to accept a position only to later de-cline. If you have been extended an

offer, you have confirmation the com-pany is interested in having you work for them. They want you to know it is where you want to be. They fully ex-pect that you have been interviewing elsewhere. Most organizations prefer to hire people that will stay with them long enough for the organization to see a return on the investment they make in training. If you need help de-ciding between two offers, don’t grab for a quarter to flip. Use the ICC web-site search bar to find the “Factors in Accepting a Job Offer” checklist. Better yet, come see us in South Hall. Salary is one of the obvious, but not the only, factor in choosing whether

See icc, page 3

art show that allows stu-dents of any background to submit. Pieces are select-ed by the committee, then displayed for a quarter. We pride ourselves in spot-lighting the talent of the en-tire student body, not just art or design majors.” Displayed art pieces have included photogra-phy, screenprinting, paint-ings, charcoal drawings and mixed media. “APAC plays a significant role in improving the aes-thetic quality of our cam-pus,” said sophomore math-ematics and political science double major and ASUCD senator Patrick Sheehan, who acts as a liaison be-tween APAC and ASUCD. Most recently, APAC re-painted the faded Aggie Pride murals within the bike circles that can be found throughout campus. “The Aggie Pride murals were in desperate need of a facelift, and we’re trying to

paint as many of them as we can,” Schrimmer said. “This project speaks to our com-mitment to campus beauti-fication and aesthetics.” Senior landscape archi-tecture and APAC member Brenna Jones agreed. “The committee’s goal is simply to bring art to cam-pus and make it a more beautiful place,” Jones said. “We have brought art to walls that were empty, and we have also fixed up existing art on campus.” According to Jones, APAC is in the process of bringing artwork to the Activities and Recreation Center (ARC). In addition, the committee plans to paint the inside of the bike tunnel that runs beneath La Rue Road with Aggie blue and gold stripes. Currently, APAC is seek-ing new members for 2012-13. Students who are interested should contact aggiepublicartscommit-tee@gmail.com.

STEPHANIE B. NGUYEN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

ARTScont. from front page

OPINION tuesday, may 29, 2012 3the california aggie

President Obama’s reelection campaign has made a strate-gic decision to focus on Mitt

Romney’s business record at Bain Capital. The goal is to paint a pic-ture of Romney’s past that is char-acterized by a willingness to shaft ordinary workers in pursuit of the biggest profit possible.

In case you don’t know the de-tails, Bain Capital is a private eq-uity and venture capital compa-ny that Romney co-founded and helped run for over a decade. The modus operandi at Bain is to ac-quire a struggling company, initi-ate structural reforms, and then, assuming all goes well, sell at a profit. This strategy has served the company well — Bain controls bil-lions of dollars and is currently one of the preeminent investment firms in the world.

In his campaign, President Obama has been focusing on the structural reforms that are inte-gral to Bain’s management strat-egy. In effect, “structural reforms” is a code-phrase that involves cut-ting a company down in size to re-duce costs, the end goal being to restore and increase profitability. The problem with this approach is that these cuts often lead to mass layoffs for workers. To add insult to

injury, those at Bain Capital often walk away millions richer while their proletariat brethren are left to fend for themselves, newly jobless and destitute.

Obama’s campaign has seized this issue as a main argument against Romney. After all, he argues, do you really want a president in the White House who made his fortune off the backs of savaged workers? It has become a central narrative for the Obama team, and it is one that he will no doubt contin-ue to use with in-creased frequen-cy in the coming months.

Predictably, this has sparked a negative reaction from Romney’s campaign. Less expected, howev-er, was the flack the President is taking from members of his own party. For example, Cory Booker, the Mayor of Newark and a promi-nent figure in the Democratic par-ty, called the attacks on Romney’s business background “nauseat-ing” and “crap.” They were harsh words, and they predictably had Romney’s fanclub crowing while Obama was forced to spend time defending his campaign strategy.

I can understand why Romney’s business legacy would be a ripe tar-get for criticism — there is nothing intrinsically appealing about the notion of ordinary Joes and Janes receiving pink slips while the Mitts of the world swoop off into the sun-set, a few million richer.

Yet to critique this reality seems to level criticism at the very na-ture of capitalism. It certain-ly would paint a negative picture of our modern, cutthroat, global-ized economy. The fact is that cap-italism today involves a desper-ate struggle to be the best, a type of social darwinism that is intrin-

sic in our economy. The rewards at the top are immense, and you are set if you can reach the pinnacle. But, by very definition of the word, not everyone can be the best. In order for there to be winners, there must also be losers.

With such a duality, any cri-tiques on capitalism Mitt Romney style – also known as “creative de-struction,” where it is no sin to break businesses and fire people –

become some-thing much deep-er than mere-ly a question-ing of Bain’s busi-ness practices. Such criticisms

raise deep questions about the sys-temic economic world we live in, and whether it is possible for such an environment to be either just or fair.

So whenever I hear President Obama attacking Romney’s back-ground in private capital and Romney’s ease at initiating layoffs, I recognize that such charges carry greater weight than perhaps initial-ly intended. To criticise Romney’s success is to criticize the environ-ment that led to his fortunes.

Maybe that is not such a bad implication. Maybe there is, in fact, something really messed up about more than just the current state of the economy. Of course, any conversation about the merits of the way our economy is struc-tured and how it is incentivized would be a serious discussion in-deed. And debates about serious, substantive issues that cannot be reduced to 10-second sound bites are apparently rather out of vogue these days.

Despite it all, JONATHAN NELSON still has a soft spot for serious conversations. E-mail him at jdnelson@ucdavis.edu if you’re interested.

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It certainly would paint a negative picture of our modern, cutthroat,

globalized economy

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Editorial Board

editorials represent the collective opinions of the california aggie editorial board. the opinion page appears tuesdays and thursdays.

Jason Alpert Editor in Chief

Becky Peterson Managing Editor

Melissa Freeman Opinion Editor

Hannah StrumwasserCampus Editor

Angela Swartz City Editor

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Trevor CramerSports Editor

Amy StewartScience Editor

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The Bain ofCapitalism

JonathanNelson

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The California Aggie welcomes letters from its readers. Letters must be typed and no longer than 200 words. As The Aggie attempts to represent a diversity of viewpoints on its letters page, we reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Publication is not guaranteed, and letters become the property of The California Aggie. All correspondence must be signed with the author’s name and telephone number. Unsigned letters will not be considered for publication, although names may be withheld upon request.

GUEST OPINIONS The California Aggie welcomes guest opinions from its readers. Guest opinions must be typed with an approximate word count of 600 to 800, or character count around 3,000 to 4,000. The same standards of letters to the editor apply to guest opinions. Guest opinions may reflect a variety of viewpoints. Any member of the campus community is eligible and encouraged to highlight issues regarding UC Davis, regional or national issues. Address letters or guest opinions to the Opinion Editor, The California Aggie, 25 Lower Freeborn, UC Davis, CA 95616. Letters may also be faxed to (530) 752-0355 or sent via e-mail to opinion@theaggie.org.

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air conditioning

Colder than Winter Quarter

Vice Chancellor Fred Wood and Associate Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro, both of Student Affairs, will be leaving UC Davis at the end of this quarter. While they are not the only univer-sity employees leaving after what can generously be de-scribed as a tumultuous year for the campus administra-tion, they are some of the most powerful. Both Wood and Castro were involved in the events surrounding the Nov. 18 pepper spraying, and their replacements will face the same responsibility.

Now that we have the op-portunity to move forward with new leadership, we would like to see replace-ments that reflect consid-eration of student needs on campus. The Aggie Editorial Board has made a list of the qualities that we would like to see in the future leaders of Student Affairs.

Youth. We need our ad-ministration to be relatable. There is a generation gap which the administration has failed to bridge. How do we explain to a generation that received near-free public ed-ucation the trials that follow from student debt?

Innovation. UC Davis used to be a hub of innovative projects, such as the Domes at Baggins End, which were built by students and even-tually taken over by Student Housing. Student Housing, which falls under Student Affairs, closed the Domes this fall. They were reopened in Winter following a massive

fundraising effort from stu-dents, alumni and faculty. Where has support for these unique and creative projects gone? It seems these days that if it’s not making mon-ey, it’s not welcomed at UC Davis.

Commitment. We need ad-ministrators who are ded-icated to improving the University for students, de-spite the external pressure to turn our campus into a po-litically correct profit hub. Additionally, the adminis-tration needs to start seeing students as partners, rather than adversaries. We are not “health and safety” violations to be prevented, or cows to be herded. Administrators work with us, and no vice chancellor that feels other-wise will be successful on this campus.

Interest. Administrators need to show a desire to seek out and actually listen to stu-dent opinions. Even if stu-dents don’t always actively seek out ways to meet Mrak, it is the administrator’s duty to know their campus.

Respect. In recent years, the UC Davis administra-tion has been paternal and oppressive in the interest of “the students.” Which stu-dents are they protecting when they contradict the students’ needs? If you think we as young intellectuals are not able to act autonomous-ly, you shouldn’t have the position.

To the unlucky souls who are hired this summer, wel-come to UC Davis.

Depending on where you’re from, the weather out-side presents itself as either completely beautiful or the Sahara Desert. But compared to the colder weather condi-tions of Winter Quarter, these temperatures call for one thing — less clothing.

As the number of weeks we have spent in Spring Quarter gradually increases, so do the numbers on the thermostats in our apartments. Not only does this weather lift student spirits, produce allergic re-actions and foster opportu-nities for sunburns, but it al-lows us to appreciate and welcome the air condition-ing of the classrooms we so dread to be in for multiple hours at a time.

However, students are finding themselves uncom-fortable sitting in these air-conditioned rooms, or what are now being referred to as ice chests. For some reason, the insides of campus lecture halls have turned into meat lockers. Maybe we didn’t no-tice it when we donned our fleece hoodies, wool mittens and rain pants a mere couple of months ago, but now the indoor temperatures are be-coming unbearable.

Not only is this over-use of air conditioning en-

vironmentally harming and a waste of energy, but it also causes disturbances in class. Occurrences of students leaving lecture early to seek solace in any sort of heat source have left professors perturbed. Some have even offered to bring blankets to class to maintain the turnout of students.

You would think UC Davis, being the biking capital of the nation and all, would re-alize that students don’t have enough room for in their satchels/man-purses or beat-en-up JanSports for Snuggies, heating blankets and winter jackets.

Doesn’t this campus have an atmospheric science de-partment? Aren’t we one of the top research universities in the nation, winning award after award? How about win-ning the hearts of the shiver-ing students by developing some sort of smart thermo-stat that realizes when peo-ple are in pain from the arc-tic winter winds produced by the air conditioning?

Perhaps if this problem was fixed, those of us who prefer to show off our tanned guns in bro tanks and sculpt-ed biking legs in mini skirts would happily attend and be able to pay attention in class.

introductory-level chemistry. Wood then found a calling for ad-vising, and through the years held the positions of associate dean of Undergraduate Advising in the College of Letters and Sciences, vice provost of Undergraduate Studies and finally his most recent position of nearly four years, vice chancel-lor of Student Affairs. In total Wood has spent six years as a student and 26 years as a faculty member of UC Davis. “I arrived on campus as a com-munity college transfer student in 1978,” Wood said. “My intention was to get my doctorate and leave and then go and teach at a small school.” During his years here Wood has helped countless students with problems inside and outside of the classroom. “I have many memories of help-ing students who were struggling get through,” Wood said, referring to some of his intro-level chemistry students. “They are all wonderfully intelligent students.” On the advising side of student

affairs, Wood aided students with problems that occur beyond the textbook. “I understood that student’s lives are impacted by financial situa-tions, family situations and work,” Wood said. “I was worried about students’ debt, and I was worried about getting them through quick-ly. It’s fine if students want to take longer, but I don’t want them to have to take longer.” Wood also has fond memories of the staff that worked closely along-side him over the years. The staff that has worked along-side Wood has had the same feel-ings about the Vice Chancellor. “I first met Fred sometime during the 1990s when he joined the Sexual Harassment Advisors group as a volunteer advisor for his college,” said Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Emily Galindo. “To be honest, he stuck out because we had very few male advisors. In look-ing back, that was probably the be-ginning of my respect and admira-tion for him because he has always been the type of person to reach out to others to the campus com-munity, students, faculty and staff to make their experience as posi-tive as possible. During the last five

years since he has been my direct supervisor, I have valued his guid-ance, support, sense of humor and most of all his friendship. He’s a wonderful person and will be tru-ly missed.” Wood’s family ties to Crookston, Minnesota, his mother being born in Crookston and both of his daughters attending Minnesota universities, along with his life-long goal of being part of a small school community, made his de-cision easy. In a press release, Robert Jones, University of Minnesota’s se-nior vice president for academ-ic administration, said that Wood brings “outstanding administra-tive and academic credentials, a passion for ensuring innovative and supportive educational ex-periences, and a strong under-standing of a multi-campus sys-tem with a land-grant mission.” Wood is determined to make an impact on the campus and sur-rounding community. “You really have a chance to im-pact the students, and even the re-gion,” Wood said.

MAX GARRITY RUSSER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

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or not to accept an offer. Use the NACE salary calculator on the ICC website to compare the salary of-fered for your position to similar positions in the same industry. If you will be moving to a new city and want to make sure that your new job will pay the bills, use the ICC webpage search bar to look up “salary” and you will be greeted with a plethora of tools as well as

salary negotiation tips and a cost-of-living index. Negotiating with employers af-ter a job offer can be a stressful and unfamiliar situation; get help by scheduling an appointment with a program coordinator at the ICC. It is important to remember that a job offer is not the final process during the job search. Keep a level head and think critically about de-cisions you will be making and the impact on your future. The first job you are offered will not always be the best and certainly will not be

your last. Remember to be polite and straightforward with recruit-ers; they are a tight-knit network and one that you want available to you in the future.

Brian Barnett is a peer advisor with the ICC. He recently negotiated his starting salary with Union Bank of California and looks forward to beginning his career in their Commercial Credit Training Program in early July. He does, however, need a few additional tickets for commencement ceremonies. The UC Davis Internship and Career Center (ICC), located on the second and third floors of South Hall and online at iccweb.ucdavis.edu, has decades of success helping to launch Aggies on their professional paths, and its services are FREE to currently enrolled UC Davis students.

ICCcont. from page 2

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Thursday’s puzzle solved

The california aggie4 Tuesday, may 29. 2012

By ISAIAH SHELTONAggie Features Writer

Cutting-edge platforms like Facebook all seem to result in the same old song. You know, the once close-knit community that has turned into what many would consider an alienating experi-ence, as such sites quickly begin adding millions of members and new ways to share content.

These days, one can easi-ly “Like” a person’s status from the comfort of their Macbook only to then awkwardly wave at the person when passing by in person. The Internet has per-haps made actual interaction too much.

David Bekour, UC Davis grad-uate, found the need for change. He found the need to hybridize the allure of social media’s micro-wave approach to sharing con-tent with the cozy texture of in-terpersonal letter writing. What he got was tripledigitlove.com.

“Tripledigitlove.com is a site that makes it easy to share senti-ments with important people in your life,” Bekour said. “We stay connected with our friends and family through all types of so-cial media, and with literally two clicks of the mouse, someone can send out their letter across Facebook or Twitter. Celebrations in our lives never happen alone, and to celebrate love is to share it widely.”

Bekour completed his under-graduate work at UC Davis in 2003 in English and sociology. He went on to graduate with his Juris Doctor degree from the UC Davis School of Law in 2006.

Bekour’s care and attendance to love is very much connected to his lifelong battle with a neuro-muscular condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

“When I was diagnosed with

Spinal Muscular Atrophy as a baby, my parents moved from Tahoe City to Auburn so I would have access to better schools and medical treatment,” Bekour said. “My parents sold their busi-ness and started fresh to give me those opportunities. For me, as an adult, there is one big lesson in their decision: Love is the greatest motivator that we can have in our lives.”

One thing Bekour hopes is that the site captures the multi-di-mensional aspect of love. Triple Digit Love hosts letters that range from children writing to their grandparents to widowers reflect-ing on eternal love.

“There is a whole spectrum of romantic love,” Bekour said. “If you spend a few minutes on the site you’ll discover there are as many different types of love let-ters as there are people. If you read a letter from a parent, it’s go-ing to have a different perspec-tive than if you read a letter from a child.”

Janet Nguyen, sophomore phi-losophy major, is pleased to find that Bekour has a shared interest in redefining intimacy as some-thing shareable and worthy or mass celebration.

“Writing has always been a big part of my life and my me-dium for remembering the im-portant things in life,” Nguyen said. “While I sometimes post intimate letters on Facebook or Instagram screen shots of them on my phone to maybe encour-age a friend or two, I think Triple Digit Love is ideal in establishing a place where love can be both harbored and spread between those who care.”

Like Nguyen, writing has been a natural outlet for Bekour as well.

“Love is best displayed not only through words but also through

action, and I think Triple Digit Love combines both of those in a meaningful way,” Bekour said. “Writing a few paragraphs to tell them what they mean to you isn’t like writing a midterm, but there is a certain degree of effort that makes it special.”

According to senior psycholo-gy major Erin Boldec, this effort is what gives the site an antiquat-ed touch to an otherwise modern medium.

“I haven’t written anything on the site yet, but from what I read, I feel like people dipped feathers in ink instead of pressed keys,” Boldec said. “There was a certain sense of nostalgia alleviated in the creation of this site. Whoever this guy is, he brought that old black-and-white Hollywood romance front and center, but packaged it in a way that our generation could understand.”

Triple Digit Love prides itself in this timeless feature, Bekour said.

“The important distinc-tion is Triple Digit Love pro-vides a space where your letter and a picture, your expression of love, will always remain,” Bekour said. “While there are built-in tools to share your let-ter through social media, the letter itself will never get bur-ied on your profile.”

The website is only three months old, but is growing slow-er than Bekour expected. He finds that perhaps people find it daunting to sit down and write a love letter.

“There is a popular belief that a love letter needs to be full of romance and perfect prose,” Bekour said. “But we simply en-courage people to write from their heart.”

ISAIAH SHELTON can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

Alumnus creates website to write about loveTriple Digit Love uses social networking to share sentiments

courtesy

UC davis graduate david Bekour created tripledigitlove.com in order to return to the age of personalized love letters.

The california aggie TUeSDaY, MaY 29, 2012 5

By DEVON BOHARTAssociate Features Editor

At 5 years old, Dieu lost both of her par-ents. She now lives with her grandparents, who have a very low income. Her grand-ma, the family breadwinner, recently fell ill and could no longer provide for the fam-ily; consequently, Dieu was unable to af-ford an education. This is where Thought Threads came in.

UC Davis students and an alumnus came together and over the past year and a half have developed a business plan for a nonprofit organization called Thought Threads, which now financially supports Dieu’s education.

“Our main mission is to subsidize edu-cation for students in developing nations,” said senior economics major Leo Thom. “We feel that education is something so basic and so primary.”

The organization raises money through the sale of T-shirts, hence the name Thought Threads. Thom, one of three co-founders, had an interest in the fashion industry and in charity and wanted to combine the two.

“We try to team up with a team in the area and a local designer,” Thom said. “It’s an easy way to give back and we think peo-ple can relate to this, especially being on a college campus. And you are going to buy clothes anyway, so why not have those funds go to a good cause?”

Co-founder and senior sociology and Asian American studies double major Daphne Nguyen is currently supporting two of her cousins who are going to school in Vietnam, which is why Thought Threads efforts are focused there.

“I became a part of Thought Threads be-cause I wanted to pass on the opportuni-ties of an education that I was able to re-ceive to others who are less fortunate than I am,” Nguyen said in an e-mail.

Nguyen also agreed with Thom that the organization makes it easy for people to

give back and it also applies to a lot of dif-ferent people.

“Thought Threads is a great idea because we are trying to do good in a creative way that allows a lot of different people to be-come involved,” Nguyen said in an e-mail. “From designers, to students, families and friends, anyone can be a part of all aspects of our organization.”

Thom, Nguyen and a third co-found-er, Bryan Hutchinson, a senior manageri-al economics and Spanish double major, came up with the idea of selling T-shirts to help subsidize education in other coun-tries just last year and immediately wanted to put it into action.

“We are entrepreneurial people and we wanted to channel that to a positive goal. So we started talking about starting a non-profit and decided this would be the best way to give back,” Hutchinson said.

The three co-founders met in their co-ed professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, and said that being part of it has helped them expedite the start-up process, such as introducing them to Calvin Chan, a 2006 graduate in computer engineering.

Chan, now the president of the orga-nization, heard about Thought Threads when he visited the fraternity and offered his expertise in starting a business to the young entrepreneurs.

“I think that education is really impor-tant; that’s one of the main reasons why my parents immigrated here from Hong Kong,” Chan said. “I feel fortunate because I know that there are a lot of children out there who do not have the opportunity, so I want to give them the opportunity to learn and go to school.”

While the organization is still in the be-ginning stages, having sold only a handful of shirts due to supply and printing diffi-culties, both Thom and Hutchinson said they have high hopes.

“If we have to put a monetary goal on it, in our first year we hope to generate at least

$10,000. [It] sounds like a really large num-ber compared to what we have raised right now, but I think that’s because we haven’t been out there yet,” Thom said. “We’re starting small, but have big plans.”

These big plans include expansion to other countries and eventually more than just sponsoring children: creating an entire foundation and even a school, Thom said.

With such big plans, it may seem questionable that a group of college stu-dents can pull off something this large, but Thom said that college is the best time to begin something like Thought Threads.

“People are often hesitant to start up some-thing while they are in college but I think that being in college is the best time to start up a company just because you are around so many different ideas and perspectives,” Thom said. “Don’t wait; if you have an idea just go with it.”

Thom, Nguyen and Hutchinson certain-

ly didn’t wait, and now a child in Vietnam is receiving the funds for an education, thanks to Thought Threads.

“Everyone in their heart has love, whether they want to show it or not, so buying a $20 shirt can help a little girl in another country go to school when otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to,” Hutchinson said.

The team said that by supporting chil-dren and their education, they would be indirectly helping the community as a whole.

“There is a huge correlation between education level and poverty level, mean-ing that a majority of impoverished com-munities don’t have kids that graduated secondary education,” Hutchinson said. “Not only are we helping the kids, but we are helping the community with fu-ture generations, one step at a time.”

To purchase a Thought Threads shirt, visit www.thoughtthreads.org.

DEVON BOHART can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

By JUSTIN ABRAHAMAggie News Writer

Last Thursday, over 70 attendees from UC Davis and the Sacramento area ar-rived at Olson Hall for “Poetic Resistance,” a reading hosted by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The event featured a spoken-word performance by renowned Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi and an open discussion led by Professor Sunaina Maira of the Asian American

Studies Department at UC Davis.Kanazi’s voice rang loudly in the modest-

ly sized classroom. He described his style as “angry poetry,” often pacing around the stage and gesturing animatedly towards the audience.

His poetry discusses political themes such as human rights, social policy and Arab-American identity and often takes in-spiration from current events.

“Not every 19-year-old wants to read an op-ed, but they might listen to hip-hop

and poetry,” Kanazi said.Flanked by a traditional Arab “kufiyah”

and a podium adorned with the flag of the Palestinian movement, Kanazi recalled how his background influenced his artis-tic career and motivated him to rediscov-er his roots.

“My maternal grandmother was from Jaffa, and her stories were filled with mem-ories from her homeland,” Kanazi said. “She played an important role as I began to be interested in my heritage.”

Kanazi was inspired to write after he saw Def Jam Poetry on Broadway in 2004 and when he was introduced to progressive politics at the University of Massachusetts. His writing intensified after 9/11 to com-bat the “vitriolic language” and racism that many Middle Eastern Americans face.

“Sometimes I would talk to someone and they would say something incredibly racist so I would think to myself, ‘Hey, I’m going to write a poem about you,’” Kanazi said.

The event is part of Kanazi’s nationwide campus tour in support of the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Kanazi’s appear-ance at UC Davis was a result of collabora-tion between himself, SJP and Maira, who is also affiliated with the BDS movement.

The campaign urges for various forms of commercial boycott in protest of Israel’s actions in its conflict with Palestine. During the discussion period, Maira intro-duced an academic boycott of Israeli uni-versities and academics in protest of what she considers a disregard for freedom of expression.

“As an American scholar, critique of Israel is subject to punitive measures,”

Maira said. “They are subjected to harass-ment by their peers and colleagues.”

Although BDS is a campaign targeted to-wards Israel, Maira describes how it is part of a larger movement for civil rights.

“It is important to make connections with our different movements,” Maira said. “We are coming together in the same way that we are working against the UC budget cuts.”

Kanazi’s poems also make references to civil rights figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi to bridge cultural and temporal difference between progres-sive movements.

“I’m not an ethnocentrist; it’s not about nationalism,” Kanazi said. “It’s that system of oppression we’re fighting against, whether it’s fighting mass incar-ceration or what the War on Drugs is do-ing to people.”

The reading was SJP’s final event of the academic year, which saw the shifting of the club’s function from spreading aware-ness to actively participating in the BDS campaign to promote Palestinian rights.

“With the boycott, we are trying to take our goals a step further and not just leav-ing it after awareness” said Lyla Rayyan, co-president of SJP and senior internation-al relations and communications major.

Despite initial difficulties in securing funding and departmental sponsorship for the event, Rayyan considers “Poetic Resistance” a success.

“I think that what is great about Remi is that he is able to take art, culture and pol-itics and show us that they can come to-gether,” Rayyan said.

JUSTIN ABRAHAM can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Buy a shirt, provide an educationStudents and alum create nonprofit to save education in Vietnam

courtesyThought Threads

Poetry encourages students to take actionStudents for Justice in Palestine ends the year with poetry reading

Brian Nguyen / Aggie

“Poetic Resistance,” hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine, featured a performance by Palestinian-American poet Remi Kanazi.

Director of Horticulture Emily Griswold hopes that the new installments will transform the empty lot into a flourishing point of interest. “This is kind of our prime opportunity for this space which has been neglected and [to] make it into a desti-nation place, or a kind major entry into the Arboretum,” she said. “Because the site is connected to the city green-belt system and bikeways, and is the closest place the Arboretum gets to down-town, we have this unique opportunity to connect the campus to the city.” The new garden is de-signed to celebrate the wildlife native to the re-gion. Large trees will define the perimeter of the field,

which will be filled with small meadows to form the center space. A central swale will drain the site into the Arboretum waterway. “A lot of people come to Davis and have no idea what was here before,” Griswold said. “Personally, I think it’s really important to have a demonstration of our local native plants. They’re so un-derappreciated and not even known about.” The plot of land will also be regraded into a shallower slope which will allow easi-er wheelchair and pedestri-an access from the walkway into the Arboretum. Another key issue planned to be addressed is the storm water management. The wa-terway used to be a former channel of Putah Creek, but has since become an elon-gated pond having been disconnected from the larg-er water system. The lack of

current, coupled with the nutrients from runoff and soil erosion, allows large al-gal blooms to float to the surface of the water in large, green mats. “We’re going to be work-ing with water experts on how to deal with this problem,” Griswold said. “Because it’s disconnected from the live Putah Creek, any flow must be done with pumping. Ideally we’re going to have a scenar-io with pumps connected to a solar array. This has been one of the most difficult issues to manage and we’re going to have to take into account various engineering criteria, maintaining the health of the collections, as well as a signif-icant amount of money.” Jennifer McKenzie, a ju-nior majoring in Wildlife Fish and Conservation Biology who works almost daily in the Arboretum, is excited for the new development.

“I think any attempt to get the Arboretum getting back to a native plant communi-ty is a good thing, especial-ly for the organisms,” she said. “It will be a more infor-mative and more valuable teaching tool if it’s a health-ier ecosystem.” The Arboretum expan-sion will also tie into a larg-er, citywide effort at urban beautification. John Natsoulas, owner of the John Natsoulas Gallery lo-cated on the corner of First and E Street, works closely with the Davis Transmedia Artwalk, which was recently expanded to 16 sculptures and two murals and will fea-ture tours guided by smart-phone technology. “The gateway is going to link the town, just like the Artwalk. That will be the predecessor,” he said. Holistically, the Gateway and California Native Garden

projects are only a few in a number of initiatives to make the Arboretum more accessi-ble and capable of facilitating academic pursuit. Other fu-ture initiatives include addi-tions to the Cole facility and a new parking lot located at the West End entrance.

“We want to make more meaningful landscapes around the academic de-partments that make more public the work of UC Davis,” Griswold said.

ADAM KHAN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

URBANCont. from front page

courtesy

was that the ceremony was held af-ter the game, when the players and coaches were free to express their emotions without having one eye on the upcoming match.

Biggest disappointment — UC Davis football vs. Humboldt State

Say what you will about Humboldt State’s impressive 2011 season — there was no excuse for UC Davis’ loss to a Division II program.

At a time when the Aggies were looking to build momentum after major losses to Arizona State and Hawaii, UC Davis fans were count-ing on a win over the Lumberjacks to help turn the season around. Instead, the Aggies were handed a

23-17 defeat that will go down as one of the worst moments of the year.

Look for more Rosenblum Awards next week.

TREVOR CRAMER would like to wish senior first baseman Eric Johnson a speedy recovery. He would also like to congratulate Matt “The Man” Yuen on being named next year’s sports editor. If you want to comment on this column or any sports story, please e-mail sports@theaggie.org.

CRAMERCont. from page 6

The california aggie6 Tuesday, may 29, 2012

THE BACKSTOP

It’s practically all over.Sunday’s baseball

game against UC Irvine was the last sporting event on the UC Davis cam-pus for the 2011-12 school year, and with the excep-tion of those athletes mak-ing their way to the track and field national champi-onships (congratulations to Sarah Sumpter and Ashley Hearn), Aggie athletics are over until August.

So with a full year of sports in the books, it is time to hand out some post-season awards, which I will call the Rosenblum Awards, in honor of the sports editor in charge when I first started working for The Aggie.

Of course you can still look out for The Aggie’s traditional Athlete of the Quarter and Athlete of the Year awards next week, but here are some categories not covered in our tradi-tional awards issue.

Best dressed — Jim Les, head coach, men’s basket-ball

While Les’ team strug-gled this season on the floor, the Aggies were con-stantly guided by a well-put-together head coach off it.

With the stylish suits and the slicked back hair, Les often looked more like a character in “Mad Men” than the head coach of a basketball team. His stylish looks may not have helped the team during its 20+ game losing streak, but at least Les was better dressed than his predecessor, Gary Stewart.

Honorable Mention: Mike Kurtz for the liberal use of bow ties.

Best comedy routine(s) — UC Davis baseball team

If you haven’t seen the videos of UC Davis baseball yet, put down this news-paper and head straight to YouTube.

The team notorious for getting along well, in a sport that often encourages a certain level of goofiness, the Aggies (in conjunc-tion with Assistant Athletics Communications Director Amanda Piechowski) pro-duced two videos that have caused fans to laugh out loud.

“Look at all our hits” sat-ires UC Davis record season in recording hit-by-pitches with Comcast Sports Net-style quality, while their dance to the LMFAO hit “Sexy and I Know It” gives the fans an idea of just how relaxed the team is.

Best game face — Blair Shinoda, guard/center, women’s basketball

If you know women’s basketball, then you un-derstand why Shinoda de-serves this award.

The look of sheer deter-mination displayed on the junior’s face as she makes her way down the floor is something that only hours of practicing in a mirror could yield.

The look is a perfect combination of focus, fe-rocity and poise that strikes fear into the hearts of op-ponents. Shinoda’s game face helped her to an im-pressive season in 2011-12, and Aggie fans can only ex-pect the face and the player to improve next season.

Best senior day — Volleyball

The perfect senior day is a combination of several ingredients: great seniors, a rousing speech and the outpouring of emotion.

The UC Davis volleyball team had just that when it said goodbye to Betsy Sedlak and Katie Denny this season.

The duo will go down in UC Davis history as two of the program’s greats, and they were lauded by fellow players and coaches as not only great players but great

TrevorCramer

Awards Part I

By RUSSELL EISENMANAggie Sports Writer

It was an up-and-down last weekend for the UC Davis baseball team, as it saw the careers of some key seniors come to an end.

While the Aggies were able to take the series from UC Irvine by winning on Friday and Saturday, Sunday’s disappointing defeat on senior day was one the Aggies would like to forget.

UC Davis finishes 27-30 overall, fifth in the Big West Conference at 12-12. The 27 wins are the highest win total for the Aggies since 2008 when they advanced to an NCAA Div. I regional.

Friday — UC Davis 4, UC Irvine 0In his final collegiate start, senior Anthony Kupbens threw a com-plete game shutout, giving up just five hits, all singles. No Anteater runner ever passed second base during the game.

“It’s incredibly rewarding while incredibly sad, because that’s the last time we’re going to see him out there,” said head coach Matt Vaughn. “UC Irvine is one of the best teams in our conference and they didn’t have a chance against him.” UC Davis got out on top of UC Irvine’s starter Andrew Thurman early, putting up four runs in the first three innings. Freshman Tino Lipson lead off the first with a single, moved to second on David Popkins’ ground-out, and then came around to score after a double from sopho-more Nick Lynch. Junior Paul Politi followed with a double of his own to score Lynch and give the Aggies a 2-0 lead. With one out in the third, Popkins was hit by a pitch, Lynch singled to left, and then Politi sin-gled to right for an RBI that scored Popkins. With two outs, freshman Kevin Barker singled to right to score Lynch and give UC Davis a 4-0 advantage.

“There’s no one hotter com-ing in as a pitcher right now than Andrew Thurman,” Vaughn said. “I think it speaks to what we’ve done as a team all month. We’ve never stopped playing hard. We were able to get enough early and Kupbens made it stand up. It was a great effort offensively.” Kupbens gave up a leadoff sin-gle in the ninth, got the next batter to fly out, and then induced a six-four-three double play to end the game. “I don’t really know how to put it in to words,” Kubpens said of his last start as an Aggie. “Just a lot of pride; we’ve put it in a lot of hard work. These guys behind me are fantastic. They played a great game for me today, just a lot of pride in this team.”

Saturday — UC Davis 3, UC Irvine 1For the third consecutive weekend, senior starter Tom Briner went the distance for UC Davis, throwing his fifth complete game of the year to lead the Aggies and claim the series against the Anteaters. Briner struck out just one bat-ter, did not allow a walk and sur-rendered just five hits in his final outing as an Aggie. “I’m running out of superla-tives for this pitching staff,” said Vaughn. “These guys are special. They’re setting the benchmark for what our guys have to be and what you have to do to be success-ful in this conference. All I’ve had to do is give them the ball. They’ve been incredible Aggies in this pro-gram from when they got here un-til their very last outing. It’s spe-cial. It’s very special.” Offensively, UC Davis jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the sec-ond. Senior Eric Johnson singled to short, advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt and lat-er scored on senior Brett Morgan’s single up the middle. Senior Ryan Allgrove followed with a walk and Lipson singled to right to score Morgan.

In the fourth, Allgrove sin-gled with one out and scored on Popkins’ double down the right field line to increase the lead to 3-0. Popkins, Lynch and Barker were all hit by pitches to bring UC Davis’ record-breaking total to 100 on the season.

Sunday — UC Irvine 10, UC Davis 1A very emotional Senior Day took a drastic turn when Johnson was injured when a UC Irvine runner collided with him in the first in-ning. After a delay of nearly 30 min-utes, Johnson was taken off the field on a stretcher, and the game resumed. Senior catcher Scott Kalush capped his Aggie career with a solo home run in the third, but UC Irvine avoided the sweep to spoil the home finale. The final game capped off the careers of Allgrove, Briner, Johnson, Kalush, Kupbens, Morgan, Popkins, Ryan Lucas and Dayne Quist, who were honored in a pregame ceremony. “I love this team,” Vaughn said. “We finished with our second-highest win total since we’ve gone to Div. I. We set a goal at the end of April to win 26 games and we ended up winning 27, so we exceeded our internal goals for the last month. We won our last four series against very good opponents. This group of seniors took it upon themselves to make sure everyone else did the work and it’s special when you have a group of guys like that.” Quist was given the loss in his fi-nal game as an Aggie to finish the season at 6-3 and fourth in the Big West in strikeouts with 85. After the game, the seniors took pictures and received an ovation from the fans, including Johnson, who returned with a cast on his arm.

RUSSELL EISENMAN can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

By VEENA BANSALAggie Sports Writer

Sarah Sumpter be-came the first woman in UC Davis’ five-year NCAA Divison I track and field history to qualify for the NCAA Championship Finals on Thursday. Sumpter finished 12th on Thursday night in the 10,000-meter run at the NCAA West Prelim Meet at-Texas. Sumpter, the Big West Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, secured the last

qualifying spot for the na-tional finals, which will be held at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa next month. She was timed in 34 minutes, 24.87 seconds, al-most three seconds ahead of Weber State’s Sarah Callister, who was 13th. “Sarah found herself in the unenviable position of bouncing between 11th and 13th place before lock-ing up a trip to the national championships on the final lap of the race,” said head coach Drew Wartenburg. Senior Ashley Hearn will join Sumpter in Iowa, af-ter qualifying for the fi-nals with a school re-

cord discus throw of 54.13 meters on Friday. Hearn’s throw, which converts to 177 feet, 7 inches, broke her own UC Davis mark of 173-05 set at the 2010 Big West Championships. “Ashley Hearn advanc-ing to the NCAA Finals proved to be the high-light of the second day,” said Wartenburg. “Her ear-ly mark held up well and now enables her to fin-ish her collegiate career competing with the best.” Junior Melanise Chapman, who holds the school record (11.67) in the 100 but entered the region-

al ranked 28th with a wind-aided mark of 11.59 sec-onds, advanced to the semi-finals in the 100m dash, but was unable to qualify fo r the finals, as she placed ninth with a time of 11.76 seconds. UC Davis junior Ethan Ostrom tied the school re-cord in the pole vault on Saturday, but narrowly missed advancing to the na-tional finals after a jump-off. Ostrom was one of four Aggies in action during the last day of the region-al meet. Senior Jonathan Peterson and sopho-more Alycia Cridebring were not able to ad-vance in the 5,000-me-

ter run while fellow pole vaulter Mike Peterson also did not advance. “Solid vaulting provided the highlights on the final day of competition,” said Coach Wartenburg. “Ethan saw his season close in bit-tersweet fashion with a school-record mark that earned him a jump-off for the final spot to nationals.” After qualifying for the finals this weekend, Sumpter and Hearn will now continue training for the NCAA Finals which will begin June 6.

VEENA BANSAL can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

Sumpter and Hearn qualify for national finalsOstrom ties pole vault mark at NCAA prelims

Emotional endingUC Davis seniors finish careers with fourth straight series win

baseball

Track

Shazib Haq / Aggie

brett Morgan was one of nine Uc Davis seniors who finished their collegiate careers this weekend in the games against Uc Irvine.

sporTs brIef

Lacrosse coach Elaine Jones resigns

UC Davis will not renew men’s tennis coach Daryl Lee

UC Davis head lacrosse coach Elaine Jones an-nounced her resignation from the University on Wednesday.

In 11 seasons as head coach, Jones amassed a record of 97-90,

but struggled in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, going just 14-35 in nine seasons in the conference.

“I am proud of the time I have given to de-veloping the program;

however, 10 years is a long time,” said Jones. “That being said, I feel that change can be good and now is the time for me to step away and al-low someone new to embark on their jour-

ney to carry UC Davis forward.”

The Aggies went 6-10 this season and finished tied for fifth in the MPSF standings with a confer-ence record of 2-5.

UC Davis Interim

Athletic Director Nona Richardson said UC Davis will conduct a national search for Jones’ replace-ment beginning in the near future.

— Trevor Cramer

Interim Athletics Director Nona Richardson announced Wednesday that UC Davis will not be renewing the contract of men’s tennis coach Daryl Lee.

“We’re grateful to Daryl for the time and effort he has put into

the men’s tennis program and wish him well,” Richardson said.

Lee went 146-206 in 19 sea-sons as head coach, and tal-lied a record of 5-20 in Big West Conference play during the Aggies’ six seasons at the Division

I level.His last season with UC Davis

was far from impressive, as Lee led the Aggies to a 6-16 record. The Aggies went just 1-4 in confer-ence play, but pulled a surprising upset over Pacific in the Big West

Tournament before having their season ended by Cal Poly 4-0.

Lee will officially leave the po-sition June 30 when his current contract expires.

— Trevor Cramer

see craMer, page 5