Happy Friday Aggies!
Well, that week went fast. I hope you all had a mellow and relaxing long weekend — a little taste of summer. Welcome to week 10 — just like that, the time went by too fast! I will be graduating this spring, so I will be passing the news briefing batond. It has been a true pleasure.
For the last time… here’s your news.
Campus:
Band-Uh! placed on interim suspension following accusations of hazing, sexual violence, misconduct. After the article published in The California Aggie and a subsequent investigation done by The Sacramento Bee, an investigation by an external law firm is under way and has placed an interim suspension on the UC Davis marching band Band-Uh!. “[The suspension is] what the band needs, because while there are extremely fun aspects — like music, like having pretty much a family in the band — it’s not something that can just cover up all the bad things that happen in the band,” Ema Seijas said, a former section leader in the band who still pays dues and a fifth-year animal science major. Read on.
Senate passes resolution #14 to recommend the disarmament of UC Davis Police — after a two and a half hour discussion, senate voted 7-6 in favor the resolution. Over 20 speakers gave their opinions and asked questions about the resolution, midway through, a mock vote was called resulting in a split, with two senators abstaining. When the discussion concluded, Deshpande cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the resolution, two senators were absent for the vote. The Judicial Council has since placed a temporary injunction on the resolution. Read on.
City:
ICE slams California’s sanctuary policy after fatal DUI crash in Yolo County — Undocumented suspect accused of killing three people in King’s Landing collision released on bail, drawing ire from ICE. On May 4 the alleged suspect, Ismael Huazo-Jardinez, veered off the road and crashed into a travel trailer home in King’s Landing, killing the three occupants inside. Huazo-Jardinez was released on a $300,000 bail, police told The Bee, and is now awaiting trial in ICE custody. “Individuals who enter our country illegally and commit crimes must not be released back into our communities where they are able to harm others,” Acting Director Field Officer Director Erik Bonnar said in a statement. “This is an important matter of public safety.”Read on.
Features:
Meet the organizers of Mental Health Awareness Month — student groups come together to promote wellness. May was Mental Health Awareness Month, and several student groups banded together to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. Shradha Shah, the co-chair of the Student Mental Health Coalition (SMHC) made strides towards uniting several advocacy groups on campus with the common goal of bringing mental health issues to light and increasing resources to students. Another group, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), offers free mental health first aid training twice a quarter which informs students how to recognize mental health conditions and respond appropriately.
Read on about SMHC, NAMI, and the other mental health groups and resources on campus.
Arts & Culture:
Bottlerock music festival 2019 — where music, food, booze live in harmony. Photo director Brian Landry and I went to Bottlerock last weekend, eating, drinking and dancing our way through the Downtown Napa Valley festival. Some of my best memories from the festival came from people-watching in the crowd: a circle of middle-aged women sipped glasses of cab and passed around a joint while shaking their hips to “Insane in the Brain” at Cypress Hill and a thirty-something year old man danced and twirled his mother to Mumford and Sons. The vibe was refreshingly mature, no pushing or shoving in large crowds — in fact quite the opposite. I often found myself conversing and dancing with the people next to me, exchanging smiles and good energy.
Read on for recaps on performances by Logic, Pharrell, AJR and Mumford and Sons.
Sports:
NBA Playoffs Recap and Finals Preview — Toronto reaches first finals in franchise history, Warriors reach 5th straight. “For the first time since the franchise was founded in 1995, the Toronto Raptors will represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals after a 100-94 victory over the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday. The Raptors will host the Golden State Warriors, who reached their 5th straight NBA Finals, in the best of a seven game series that will begin on Thursday,” writes sports reporter Omar Navarro.
Read on for his recap of the season.
Science:
The Epic Saga Of How A Single two-inch Fish Saved A Population — New research explores how the Gulf Killifish adapted to deadly pollution in the Houston Ship Channel.
A study published in Science by scientists from UC Davis and Baylor found that a population of Gulf Killifish adapted to deadly pollution in the Houston Ship Channel. In the 1970s, ships off the coast of Texas were found to be releasing toxic chemicals into the water, causing a catastrophic heart problems in a population of Gulf Killifish, leading to population shrinkage. Now, 50 years later, Gulf Killifish are thriving in the area. Andrew Whitehead, a professor of Environmental Toxicology at UC Davis, and his team painstakingly sequenced the full genomes of almost 400 fish and found that a deletion mutation had disabled a pathway that was previously being activated by the toxic chemicals in Killifish embryo’s and causing serious developmental problems.Read on.
Culture Corner — Caroline’s Weekly Picks
TV: “The Office” (Season 1-3)
Music: “Wideass Highway” by Dougie Poole
Book: “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara
Movie: “Pillow Talk”
Opinion:
Editorial — “On-campus parking should be more affordable for, available to students”
Guest — “UC Davis climbs ladder to a carbon-free campus”
Column — “Recycling is hard and it’s not your fault”
That’s all for this week. Check back next Friday for the last briefing of the year and to meet next year’s briefers.
Over and out.
— Grace Simmons
—-May was Mental Health Awareness Month, and several student groups banded together to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health.
Yes, May was mental health month, a time when we are inundated with the message, “there is a stigma to mental health”.
Dutifully, we repeat it.