Campus News

The Charles P.Nash Prize,which recognizes exceptional achievement in promoting shared governance and advocacy for faculty in both the Academic Senate and the Academic Federation,was awarded to adjunct professor Catherine VandeVoort on Monday. VandeVoort is the very first recipient of the prize,which was created to honor the legacy of Charlie P.Nash andtorecognize those who follow in his footsteps,according to Barbara Goldman,chair of the Nash Prize Committee.The prize will be awarded annually to a member of the UC Davis Academic Senate.

When a woman says,“It’s getting late,“ why do some men interpret that as a sign to speed things up and cut to the chase? A recent UCD study explains that college men often misinterpretindirect messages from women due to faulty male introspection. Introspection is whenpeople hearan indirect message and then think about what they would have meant given those circumstances,said Michael Motley, professor ofcommunicationwho conducted the research.

wo Mixtec migrant activists fromOaxaca,Mexico,Bernardo Ramírez Bautista and Centolia Maldonado Vázquez,captivated the room Tuesday afternoon with their knowledge and experience of the indigenous migrant worker situation. The event was held fromnoonto2p.m.in the HIA Conference Room in5211Social Science and Humanities.

Theft A first-year student was referred to Student Judicial Affairs for stealing a CD player from the bookstore. The student displayed suspicious activity while shopping in the bookstore, which alerted the attention of the security monitors. After purchasing a textbook from the bookstore, the student was asked to show his receipt and refused to do so. The student and his accomplice proceeded to make threatening remarks and then discarded the electronic device in a nearby restroom. The student agreed to pay for the damaged device and will be on deferred dismissal status until fall quarter 2008.

Freshman applications were on the rise for fall 2008, which means more competition for admission to UC Davis for the upcoming school year. Out of the 40,568students who applied this fall, 21,256, or 52.4percent were admitted to the university. About 5,000 of the admitted students are expected to enroll as freshman in the fall, said Pamela Burnett, director of undergraduate admissions at UC Davis in an e-mail interview. The number is an increase from the 34,854studentsthat applied for admission last year.Of the fall 2008 applicants, 20,473 – or 58.4percent – were accepted. The mean grade point average of UC Davis applicants has also increased from last year’s 3.89 to this year’s 3.94,according to a UC Davis press release.

This week Hillel, the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, and other organizations along with other UC Davis students will remember the Holocaust and raise awareness against genocide. Two events will be occurring this week including collaboration from the UC Davis Jewish community, Student Anti-Genocide Coalition (STAND), and the Baha’i communities. STAND and members of the Jewish community will be tabling in from of the Memorial Union today and handing out pamphlets. “We thought that this might be a good opportunity to approach random people walking past the Quad and tell them information on different cases of genocide,” said Mahrad Enayati, senior sociology major and intern for Hillel who helped organize this event.

In an abandoned gold mine inSouth Dakota,physicists are building a way to test for dark matter– invisible particles that affect theexpansion of the universe. The Large Underground Xenon Apparatus (LUX) is a collaboration of seven universities,including UC Davis.Physics professors Mani Tripathi and Robert Svoboda are designing part of the experiment that will be transported fromDavis toSouth Dakota. “Our role is that we are helping to build part of the instrument itself,” Svobodasaid. Dark matter got its name because though it has a gravitational force,it is not visible to humans.The name is also a pun,because the particles are a mystery to physicists,said Hitoshi Murayama,professor of physics at the Lawrence National Laboratory at UC Berkeley.

Monday marked the beginning of La Raza Cultural Days,a weeklong series of events that celebrate the traditions of Chicano and Latino culture while educating the UC Davis community about social and political issues facing Chicanos and Latinos today. “It is very important for the Chicano and Latino student population to come together,” said La Raza coordinator Gretel Quintero,ajuniorsociology and Spanish major. “We can’t forget our culture.“ The weeklong series kicked off in the main Quad with live music and activities fair at noon and an art exhibit featuring work from Magdalena Mora,a Chicana and labor union activist during the late1970s in the Memorial Union MU II room.

Two Mixtec migrant activists from Oaxaca, Mexico will be speaking today in an event titled “Indigenous Mexican Migration to the U.S. and its Impact on the Communities of Origin,” from noon to 2 p.m. at the HIA Conference Room, located at 5211 Social Sciences and Humanities. Bernardo Ramírez Bautista is an indigenous lawyer, and the other, Centolia Maldonado Vásquez, is an activist. They will be talking about the situation of indigenous migrants in California and Mexico, and sharing their own stories of struggle. Both have been very active in looking intoissues of social justice and the legal issue of migration. Stefano Varese, professor of Native American Studies, said it is a great opportunity to hear them share their own experience.

ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Apr. 10 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room. Meeting started at 6:14 p.m. Ivan Carrillo, ASUCD president, arrived at 6:30 p.m., left at 7:58 p.m.

UC Davis scored a victory in the court system, as a federal judge ruled in favor of the university in a Title IX lawsuit filed by four women who were dropped from the intercollegiate wrestling team. U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. ruled that the plaintiffs in Mansourian et al. v. Regents of the University of California failed to notify the campus that they were making broad allegations against the entire Intercollegiate Athletics program. Nancy Sheehan of Porter Scott, the firm that represents the university, said that while she was disappointed that the court did not render a decision on the allegations in the lawsuit, she was still pleased with the ruling overall. “I have strongly felt from the beginning that my client was not in violation of Title IX, and we’ve worked really hard on this case,” said Sheehan in a phone interview. “We would have loved to have a ruling on all the issues, but I understand why Judge Damrell did what he did.”

The UC Davis Arboretum is hosting a series of events for the public to enjoy throughout May. All events are intended to showcase the features of what many residents call the most beautiful place in Davis. Birds of Song and Clay Possibly the only event ever to combine folk music and clay bird making, Birds of Song and Clay will give participants the opportunity to make California birds out of clay while listening to the acoustic trio, MudLark. Professor and co-director of the Art-Science Fusion Program Diane Ullman will lead the clay bird making workshop. Participants will model their birds after those native to California, and contribute the birds to a large clay mural for Congressman Mike Thompson, who will display it in his office in Washington D.C.