Campus News

Animal rights activists should consider leaving their red paint at home before attending the next PETA protest,as state legislators are now calling for the protection of university animal researchers.

AssemblyBill2296,authored byState RepresentativeGene Mullin(D-South San Francisco) and sponsored by theUniversity ofCalifornia,calls for a limiting of various tactics used by anti-animal research extremist groups that compromise the safety of university professionals.The decision to write the bill was triggered by various attacks,including arson,bombings,vandalism and harassment on researchers both in their homes and at work.

n an effort to protect mental health services from state budget cuts, ASUCD is urging administrators to retract cuts made to units other than Counseling and Psychological Services that provide counseling services.

University administrators proposed a 7 percentbudget decrease for all units,with some losing as much as $140,000 for next year's budget.The cuts will facilitate a university-wide cut of$1.4million.

ASUCD considersunits such as theCross Cultural Center (CCC),Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual,Transgender ResourceCenter (LGBTRC) and Women's Research and Resources Center (WRRC) crucialto university funding,as many utilize these services for mental health.

"These units do very important work and have a close connection to many students on this campus," said Paul Harms,ASUCD controller andjuniormanagerial economics major. "They shouldn't have to cut any of their funding."

Unlike most students, UC Davis' R4 recycling program was hard at work throughout Saturday combating the largest Picnic Day ever with one of their largest recycling events ever.

The Quad, Fire Station and the entire ASUCD Coffee House featured food booths using strictly compostable or recyclable materials with the goal of minimizing waste and recycling everything.

The Quad was the area most at risk of wasted recycling opportunities; due to the record number of Picnic Day goers, trashcans throughout the university were overflowing.

But Zero Waste coordinator Michael Siminitus and his group saw it coming, and were prepared for the rush.

"We handled the Quad better than any of our areas because we had staffed collection stations. We did have to have trash cans because people brought food in with them, some of which contained Styrofoam, but overall we diverted a great deal of waste to recycling or compost," he said.

DMCA Violation

A senior was referred to Student Judicial Affairs for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.She allegedly illegally downloaded a game on to her computer.However,upon meeting with an SJA officer,sheclaimed that shewas not aware of having the game in her computer's system.Peer-to-peer software mayhave uploaded the program into her computer without her being aware of it.The student's sanction was awarningfrom theuniversity.

President and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Joseph A. Aguerrebere will be giving a Distinguished Educational Thinkers Lecture titled "Toward a Strong Profession" today at 5 p.m. in the University Club Lounge.

Aguerrebere is hailed as a national expert on school reform and has held numerous positions in a variety of educational fields. These include service as an elementary school teacher and administrator, professor at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles, and deputy director of the Ford Foundation in New York.

"His lecture will focus on strengthening teaching as a profession," said executive director of the UC Davis Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools Center Mary Vixie Sandy. "It will also focus on the ways in which our systems support and do not support the development of education."

The endeavor to introduce more energy-saving products and services into the homes of Californians received a boost last week, as three donors collectively pledged $1.1million in grants to the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center.

Chevron Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will donate $100,000 per year for the next five years and Goldman Sachs is donating$100,000this year.Each company will also seat a representative on the center's board of advisors.

Founded in2006,theEnergyEfficiencyCenter's "mission is to accelerate development and commercialization of energy-efficient technologies," according to its website.The center has received a total of$5million in funds thus far.

Want to learn how to make spring rolls, sushi, masubi or just learn what these foods are? Some may be curious enough to participate in today's "Unwrap this: Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'" food demonstration event on Asian-Pacific dishes.

The event will be held today in MUII take place from 7 to 9 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the Asian Pacific Culture Week committee and Campus Unions, this free event will give students a hands-on demonstration on how to make many dishes popular in Asia and Asia-Pacific including vegetarian spring rolls, sushi, red bean ice or halo halo, and masubi, a rice and Spam dish popular in Hawaii.

"Food connects people. It is a venue through which people are curious to learn about different cultures" said Angelina Yu, director for Asian Pacific Culture Week.

Speaker Imam Mohamed Abdul-Azeez will discuss Shar'iah, a code of law based on scholarly interpretation of the Islamic scriptures today at 8 p.m. in 126 Wellman.

The event, titled "Shar'iah versus Democracy?" is sponsored by the Muslim Student Association in conjunction with the Muslim Law Student Association, and will address the code's relationship with democracy.

"There is an underlying assumption that the two are incompatible with each other," Abdul-Azeez said, adding that his talk will focus on "dispelling that myth."

Spring quarter is a time people tend to lay around on the Quad and turn the effort level down a little bit - except the Campus Unions department of operations, which has been hard at work on both the Silo Café andPuband second floor of the Memorial Union.

The most noticeable improvements to the pub's outdoor eating area are a new fleet of umbrellas and a green coat of paint on all the tables.

Doug Wiersig, a student assistant in the Campus Unions department of operations and junior crop science major, said they have reorganized the entire thing.

will discuss her documentary, The Mosques of Paris, as part of Islam Awareness Week.

The documentary describes Muslim efforts to shelter Jewish refugees during the German occupation of France during World War II.

Herskovits was a Holocaust survivor who was sheltered by Muslims in Paris at the time. She graduated from MIT with a doctorate in linguistics and is currently writing on human rights and political issues in the Bay Area.

Plant a tree and leave the car at home - it's Earth Day.

The ASUCD Environmental Policy and Planning Commission plans to teach UC Davis students about recycling, alternative power, sustainability and outdoor activities during Earth Weekbegan Monday and continues until Friday.

"We all should love the environment around us," said EPPC chair Jack Draper, a juniorwildlife, fish and conservation biology major.

Draper said that this attitude led to this year's Earth Week theme of "Enviromantic."

The University of California Center for Entrepreneurship announced today that world renowned energy consultant and physicist Amory Lovins will be the keynote speaker for the second annual Green Technology Entrepreneurship Academy (GTEA) held from July 7 to 11 at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences in Incline Village, Nev.

Lovins, a founder, chairman and chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), who is alsoan author and MacArthur Fellow, will be speaking on issues concerning marketing sustainable energy technologies for doctoral, post-docs and research faculty in the science and engineering fields.

After more than a year of student and worker demonstrations, the university announced Thursday that non-management Sodexho workers will become eligible for University of California employment. The move will cost the university approximately $2 million.

Sodexho is a national company which provides dining services across the UC Davis campus.

After worker and student protests in favor of university employment last year, the university began studying its food-service options in May 2007.

"There were things that gave me pause," said Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, adding that he was especially concerned about worker health insurance and retirement benefits. While the wages and benefits were competitive for the region, they were still low, he said.