Campus News

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.

In a Wednesday night talk in Wellman Hall, Professor Aquiline Tarimo spoke about changing the international approach to human rights.

He said it needs to change its focus from what is mostly political pragmatism and academic discussion-without-action to addressing the needs of the poor and fighting poverty.

"Unless the human rights debate recognizes the needs of the poor, it will dissolute its relevance and meaning," said Tarimo, a Jesuit priest and human rights scholar from Africa, citing a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, where the poor lack clean water, health care and sanitation services. Unemployment is high and the"lack of proper sewage system creates stagnant water, [which] becomes a breeding ground for [disease-carrying] mosquitoes," he said.

In a primary full of twists, turns and uncertainties, two UC Davis students could play a critical role in determining the outcome.

An Apr. 13 caucus of Democratic voters from the First Congressional District elected Don Gibson, a sophomore biotechnology major, as a delegate for Hillary Clinton. Ryan Loney, a sophomore environmental policy and planning major, was elected as an alternate delegate for Barack Obama. Both students will attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver from Aug. 25 to 28.

According to quotas set by the state to ensure equal gender representation at the convention, there was one male delegate position from the First Congressional District available for Hillary Clinton. Gibson, who won that seat, said he sought to dispel the idea that only Obama attracts young voters.

This Friday and Saturday, olive aficionados will flock to the Hutchins St. Square conference center in Lodi to hear international experts discourse on topics regarding various aspects of the production of olive oil.

The course is aimed at olive lovers of all levels and will include discussion on economics in the olive oil industry, advanced methods of producing and harvesting olives, varieties of olive oil and pest control.

"The olive oil industry is growing very quickly in California," said Dan Flynn, executive director of the UC Davis Olive Center. "It's expected to quadruple in size over the next few years as the trellis system becomes more widespread and farmers get more volume from an orchard for less cost."

The courses are sponsored by the UC Davis Olive Center, whose stated goal is to, "Promote increased market share of California table olives and olive oil through education, research and outreach," according to its website.

UC Davis is harvesting more than just vegetables this spring.

The California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) has recently licensed the commercialization of several inventions that work to reduce the cost and increase the dependability of daylight harvesting systems.

The co-exclusive license agreements were with Watt Stopper/ Legrand, a Santa Clara-based company that manufactures energy-efficient lighting controls and sensors, and Axis Technologies Inc., which both designs and manufactures a line of energy-saving and daylight harvesting devices.

The Cancer Survivors Network and UC Davis Colleges Against Cancer will hold the first cancer survivors panel in 194 Chemistry from 7 to 9 p.m.

There will be six to eight UC Davis student survivors on the panel as well as an American Cancer Society funded researcher and clinical social worker at the UCD Cancer Center, John Linder.

The event was inspired by UC Davis junior Brett Fontaine, a neurology, physiology and biology major, and senior Liz Creger, his UC Davis Cancer Survivors Network co-chair.

Plagiarism

A student of senior standing was referred to Student Judicial Affairs for failing to cite sources properly for a take-home final exam. The student included information from the class reader in the final essay, word-for-word. The student claimed to have misunderstood the professor, but the professor stated that he had clearly indicated that all passages should be quoted with the proper citations. The student agreed to disciplinary probation in which he completed 10 hours of community service in conjunction with the Learning Skills Center until graduation.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded $8.2 million in fellowships last week to 190 artists, scholars and scientists in the United States and Canada.

Out of more than 2,600 applicants, 18 of the selected few are University of California faculty, greater than any other system with just under a whopping 10 percent of the winners.

"[The UC system is] very pleased that 18 members of our faculty have been honored by this very prestigious award. The broad range of faculty recognized and their specialties highlights the tremendous strength of our faculty in a diverse set of fields," said Chris Harrington, spokesperson for the UC system.