The California Aggie wants to make you hungry.
Starting this fall, we’re bringing you our first-ever food blog. We’ll have all your Davis food news in one place, plus reviews and fearless recipe-testers aimed at inspiring you to cook outside the box.
Interested in joining us? We’re recruiting a staff of food bloggers and are open to all or most ideas (yes, even that side-by-side comparison of vegan bacon varieties). Email editor@theaggie.org.
While we’re proud of MUSE and all the campus arts news, local entertainment reviews and commentary it brings you, sometimes we wish we had a lot more space.
Just in Davis, there are way more events worth writing about. And internationally, there are so many films, albums and artists we’d love to recommend.
Enter The California Aggie’s first artistically inclined blog, an offshoot of MUSE. Want to contribute? Email arts@theaggie.org.
The United States Supreme Court will be revisiting affirmative action this October in the case Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin).
On Aug. 13, University of California President Mark Yudof, alongside 10 University of California chancellors, submitted an amicus curiae brief, literally meaning “friend of the court brief,” to the Supreme Court in support of the University of Texas in Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin.
The plaintiff in the case, Abigail Fisher, graduated in the top 12 percent of her high school class and filed a lawsuit against the University after being denied acceptance, due to its selection of students not admitted under the Top Ten Percent Plan.
Under the Texas Top Ten Percent plan, an alleged race-neutral rule, students graduating in the top 10 percent of their respective high school classes are automatically admitted to the Texas State University system, Austin included. The plan aims to increase the diversity of the student body enrolling in Texas colleges and universities, according to the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA).
Fisher sued the UT Austin for allegedly violating her 14th Amendment rights by denying her equal protection of the law. The Brief for the Petitioner states that applicants less qualified than Fisher in the realm of academic achievements were admitted based on the consideration of race in admission decisions.
Though affirmative action is defined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as one of the most effective outlets to aid injustices brought about by the country’s historic discrimination against women and people of color, others consider affirmative action a form of reverse discrimination — the discrimination of members in a majority group.
In a recent press release by the UC Newsroom, Yudof and chancellors cite specifically the University of California system’s efforts to encompass a diverse student body, despite constitutional prohibition against race-conscious admissions.
Yudof affirmed the University of California’s decision to support the University of Texas at Austin’s consideration of race in student admissions.
“Ours is a unique story that shines a light on the obstacles we face as we seek to enrich the UC educational experience through diversity,” Yudof said to the UC Newsroom. “The facts tell us the educational and societal benefits from a diverse student body cannot be realized fully at the nation’s largest highly selective university system without the judicious use of tools that take race into account during undergraduate admissions decisions. Telling that story is the appropriate thing to do in the context of this legal case.”
UC Davis students stand both in support of and in opposition to the University of California’s decision to submit an amicus curiae brief.
“Though I can understand both sides of the argument, I wish UC Davis was more diverse, but I do not believe an applicant’s acceptance into a school should at all be based on race,” said fourth-year sociology major Lindsey Fling. “As an academic institution, acceptance should be determined by academic performance alone.”
Second-year nutritional sciences student Byron Tam reiterates Fling’s statement.
“I think college shouldn’t consider the race of an applicant. I believe those who work hard to earn a spot in college deserve being admitted. It is unfair to deserving students that schools admit less qualified applicants in an attempt to diversify the student population,” said Tam. “Every race has the potential to be at a level worthy of being accepted into college.”
Second-year exercise biology student Harjeet Singh Atwal, however, supports Yudof.
“I think that if a college only selects students without reviewing the student’s race, they will be damaging the educational environment because we learn from experiences and perspectives,” Atwal said. “Without diversity we will not have anything to teach future students. It helps destroy stereotyped preconceptions, help students think critically and enhance the communication skills that each student will use in a workplace.”
The Supreme Court justices will see the case on Oct. 10.
GHEED SAEED can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
The California State Assembly passed the Middle Class Scholarship bill with a bipartisan vote of 54-25 on Aug. 13.
The approval of Assembly Bill 1500 by the Assembly symbolizes a big step closer toward higher education affordability for California’s middle class students. The Middle Class Scholarship is geared toward helping students from middle class families with an income of up to $150,000 reduce tuition fees by two-thirds.
“Anytime you can get a bipartisan two-person vote, that clearly shows that there’s a lot of amends for the bill. We’re very encouraged by the efforts of student groups all over the state, including at UC Davis, who have been very strong in terms of helping us get the word out and get support built up for the Middle Class Scholarship,” said John Vigna, spokesperson to California Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez. “We just essentially need to keep the pressure and make sure that a handful of senators who need to pass the bill do the right thing and vote ‘yes.’”
According to Vigna, the upcoming weeks will be crucial in ensuring that senators understand the importance and positive effects the Middle Class Scholarship will have on the state of California and make the right choice.
Many students remain optimistic about the bill’s passage in the Senate.
“There are no substantial scholarships for middle class, Caucasian women, regardless of my honor roll GPA. Even if there were scholarships out there for someone in my predicament, I hardly have the time to apply for them between work and school,” said fourth-year political science major Angel Rogers. “I am very optimistic about AB 1500 and the Middle Class Scholarship because I want my brother and sisters to go to college, but I would never want them to have to go through my experience. I only wish that the Middle Class Scholarship and AB 1500 had passed sooner.”
In order for the Middle Class Scholarship – which is composed of two bills – to be funded, both AB 1500 and AB 1501 must pass and each must take effect. AB 1501 is the scholarship itself and AB 1500 will provide the funding for the scholarship by closing a corporate tax loophole.
“If corporations are going to be paying for our tuition breaks in the form of taxes, I don’t see anything wrong about this. I think it’s a great way to transfer wealth and make this state a place for more equal opportunities,” said third-year economics student Henry Shin.
The passing of AB 1500 indicates that it will now be considered by the State Senate along with AB 1501 which passed earlier this year. If both bills pass the Senate, it will be considered by the governor.
“We’re all very excited. This bill addresses a very critical issue facing the state which is obviously higher education affordability and tax fairness for California businesses. But it’s also, I think, symbolic of our larger efforts to rebuild and stop reacting to the recession that happened a few years ago,” Vigna said.
The Middle Class Scholarship would save an estimated 42,000 UC students approximately $8,169 and 150,000 California State University (CSU) students $4,000 annually.
“Most kids are taught to do well in school so you can go to college and … get your degree and get a decent job and have a good middle class life, and we’ve really undercut that commitment with these fee hikes over the last 10 years,” said Vigna. “And at a certain point we just have to say stop, enough is enough. And go back to the way things were, which worked very well for California. We need to make the decision, as a state, that we are going to move forward and [the] Middle Class Scholarship is definitely a part of that.”
LILIANA NAVA OCHOA can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
Will newly designed space rockets and vehicles be used only for exploration, travel and tourism in the coming decades, or will humans take the first major steps toward establishing multi-generational “colonies” of people in space?
Professors and students at UC Davis involved with Professor Steve Robinson’s upcoming research center on campus for the study of human/vehicle interaction will be debating such topics in the coming academic year. Students who take his “Introduction to Spacecraft” class in the spring will also participate.
“I think we’re a long ways from really putting colonies of people out there that would live their whole lives in space,” said former NASA astronaut John Glenn.
Robert W. Phillips, a former chief scientist of NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) program, agreed: “You don’t want to get too carried away with living someplace else until you’ve at least gone to visit and explored it to determine what’s there.”
Phillips, who graduated from UC Davis in 1965 with a Ph.D. in physiology and nutrition, trained as an astronaut in the 1980s.
While much of the debate about space colonies in the 1970s focused on the idea of creating space habitats in the “free space” between the Solar System’s planets, many experts today say establishing colonies on the surface of a planet (like Mars) or on the surface of a planetary body (like the Moon) would be much more feasible.
“Eventually you have to produce something that is of value to people back here on Earth or elsewhere,” Phillips said, adding that mining for helium-3 (He-3) on the Moon for energy use on the Earth is an achievable goal.
Since the amount of cosmic dust in free space is relatively small, natural resources there are limited, so it would be difficult for free-floating communities in space to make products for interplanetary commerce.
“If they don’t have exports, it will be a dying unit, because in order to get money coming in – in order to do other new things – they’re going to need help from the outside,” Phillips said.
Phillips is the author of the new book Grappling with Gravity: How Will Life Adapt to Living in Space? which explores these issues in depth.
The aging process in space was explored when Glenn flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery with Robinson in 1998. Glenn allowed himself to be studied as a kind of human guinea pig.
Glenn explained that the purpose of the research was to compare test results from him with results from younger astronauts, and find differences in the immune system, protein turnover and vestibular functions and the balance system.
A further step in aging research as it relates to possible human colonization of space is to study multiple generations of animals in space.
“We have absolutely no information on multi-generations in space, not even with rats,” Phillips said.
With President George W. Bush’s decision in 2004 to phase out the Space Shuttle program before a replacement vehicle was ready for use, opportunities for research of this type are reduced and NASA astronauts can currently only fly to the International Space Station on Russian rockets.
“I think President Bush’s decision to cancel the shuttle was just flat wrong. I just disagree with that,” Glenn said. Glenn retired from the U.S. Senate in 1999, five years before the decision was made. President Barack Obama did not reverse the decision, and the shuttle program ended in 2011.
“We’re in a newly competitive position around the world,” Glenn said, adding that more research in space and research at centers like the one planned by Robinson are needed in order to “expand our knowledge and continue research in keeping [the U.S.] in the lead in research in the world.”
“I think UC Davis is very fortunate to have gotten somebody like Steve Robinson,” Glenn said. “Steve is really an outstanding person. NASA’s loss is UC Davis’ gain.”
BRIAN RILEY can be reached at science@theaggie.org.
A steady trend throughout campuses across the nation has seen an increase in textbook rentals as opposed to textbook purchases. The most obvious reason for this trend is students saving money.
“I figure I’m most likely not going to be using the book any further after the quarter is done,” said Peter Eckes, a fourth-year chemistry major. “So why not just rent the book? That way I’m at least saving some cash and I won’t end up with a stack of books lying around that I’d never get around to selling back or using again.”
Eckes’ rationale may be echoed by other students, leading to the surge in textbook rentals.
In a study done by Student Monitor LLC, a college market research firm, students spent an average of $345 on textbooks in fall 2005. By spring 2011, the average had fallen to $252.
In addition, a press release by the National Association of College Stores (NACS) stated that students estimate they spend $655 annually on required course materials, down from $702 four years ago.
Though these numbers may not seem absurdly high or ground-breaking, the idea behind it all is that prices have fallen. In a world where tuition is constantly on the rise and the price of anything from a cup of coffee to an apartment’s rent seems to be climbing upward at a dizzying ascent, people are realizing that some things are actually on the decline monetarily.
If the choices for textbook rentals didn’t seem abundant enough already, Amazon.com has recently decided to enter the ring by offering textbook rentals with a free return shipping program. The program allows for 130 days of rental with a 15-day extension allowed for a fee. If you keep the book longer, you will be charged the full price.
The UC Davis Bookstore is in support of textbook rentals. At the start of the rental program in Fall 2010, 8,000 units had been rented out, consisting of 246 available titles. Subsequently, by Winter quarter, the demand for rentals had pushed the available titles to 383.
In a report by UC Davis Bookstore affiliate MBS Rental, Jason Lorgan, associate director of the UC Davis Bookstore, detailed his early trepidations with textbook rentals, which soon vanished given the success of the program.
“The rental program brought lower prices back to the bookstore, which was a big relief for students and professors alike,” Lorgan said. “Even though we drastically reduced prices, our store maintained the same margin. Now we can give students the options they deserve and let them decide.”
ANDREW POH can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
There’s nothing more relaxing to do during a hot summer day than lounging around the pool. And now you can do it online via atthepool.com, a recently launched social platform.
On Aug. 27, UC Davis students are invited to attend the exclusive launch of At The Pool (ATP for short) by signing up at ATP’s website. Then, students can request an invite using “UC Davis” as their invite code.
ATP was founded by Alex Capecelatro, a UCLA alumnus who graduated with a degree in materials engineering. He said that the site’s name references the pool because it uses the concept of “pools,” which is one of the site’s many functions meant to help people meet others who share similar likes. The site’s goal is to make daily introductions for its users with fellow classmates they’ve never met before on campus.
Though the initial meet-greet would be online, Capecelatro said that the hope is that it will ultimately cultivate into a group of compatible individuals who will meet up for outside excursions, such as catching that movie you really want to see but your friends aren’t as eager to.
Capecelatro got the idea for ATP when he was working at a tech startup in New York after graduation. During that time, he said he felt disconnected from everything around him and struggled to bond with new people.
“It was difficult meeting new people and it wasn’t until I was about to move that I serendipitously met someone at a diner who works in tech and shared a number of my interests,” Capecelatro said.
Once he moved back to California, he found himself in the same isolated position again, looking to connect with people who shared his own interests. He wondered why it was so hard to meet people who liked the same things as he did and stay in contact as well.
“I realized the Internet does a great job at connecting us with our friends and family, but a terrible job at introducing us to new people and getting us offline,” Capecelatro said. “Oddly, this is what Facebook used to be good at when it first started at colleges. It doesn’t do this anymore and it’s still incredibly tough to find like-minded classmates and we realized [ATP] would be a great tool for students.”
Jason Hsin, lead designer on ATP, studies entertainment design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. and has worked with ATP since its start. Hsin had a problem not unlike those of Capecelatro in that it was difficult to meet anybody outside his social circle who shared similar interests. Coincidentally, the two connected over the “same obscure passion for Flatland BMX.”
“This led us to the idea of remedying the problem that social networks were built to remedy in the first place: to actually connect you with other people you want to meet in real life,” Hsin said.
Hsin’s design for ATP is radically different from the familiar layouts of major social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter which often consist of a never-ending news feed, endless photos which are updated constantly and of course, a chat application similar to instant messaging.
“You don’t get to know someone by scrolling through an endless feed of inconsequential updates and check-ins to Starbucks. We center our design around making it clear to you why you’re being matched with someone through such factors as mutual friends and giving you a feel for their personality through fun and quirky Q&As. If you want to converse with your match, you have to be viewing their profile,” Hsin said. “We break the monotony and oversaturation of current social networks by focusing on singular but meaningful interactions.”
ATP introduces a new person to each user every 24 hours so matches don’t linger for too long.
Julia Rockwell, event coordinator at the University of Connecticut branch of ATP, got involved with ATP when she saw a flyer for the beta site which went by its testing name, Hyphos.
“I created a profile out of curiosity. Alex messaged me almost instantly as he’s very friendly and wanted to know my opinions on the site. We started talking and hit it off right away as we had many overlapping ideas on how to improve people’s lives with technology and more communication channels,” Rockwell said. “I believe in striving to make the world better, and as a communications major, I love studying how people interact with each other, so the ability to improve people’s interactions and social lives was a perfect fit.”
Rockwell said that she too had the desire to befriend new people and that the ingenuity of ATP was that it used the Internet to encourage people to turn off their computers and plan outings together in the real world.
“It’s different since it’s a step forward, working to get people over the stigma of meeting new people from ‘the Internet.’ I believe this stigma comes partially from skepticism and fear but the majority of people using the Internet are sane,” Rockwell said. “I hope [the stigma] starts to fade, as we deserve a means to meet one another offline and use the Internet as a tool to enrich our lives offline.”
MICHELLE RUAN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
WEDNESDAY
Exact change only
Someone was walking around downtown with a sign asking for $18 on Second Street.
An unmentionable crime
A burglar entered someone’s laundry room and stole 20 pairs of panties for the second time on Cowell Boulevard.
Comic Con
Somebody broke into an apartment and stole comic books on Sycamore Lane.
THURSDAY
Downright unholy
A female was reported screaming “Oh my God” repeatedly for over 15 minutes from inside her apartment on Linden Lane.
SATURDAY
Career criminal
A man dressed in all black wearing a dark blanket as a cape used a flashlight to peep into car windows on East Eighth Street.
Oscar the Grouch
Somebody is living inside the dumpster and scaring the residents on Covell Boulevard.
Police briefs are compiled from the City of Davis daily crime bulletins. Contact EINAT GILBOA at city@theaggie.org.
The annual KVIE Art Auction is including the work of 16 Davis artists in its collection from Sept. 28 to 30, with three of these artists winning the juror award.
Each year, Northern Californian households have the opportunity to tune into a parade of expression on their public access channel KVIE. The channel hosts Northern Californian talents every year and throws a preview gala to determine the best artwork in show.
The art show gathers an eclectic mix of artists utilizing different mediums. This year, three Davis artists received the juror award for exemplary rule in their artistic achievements.
“I paint… to make people see the things they don’t appreciate,” Marie Therese Brown said.
Brown is one of the recipients of the juror award, given to her for her plein air painting. The French words describe the act of painting in the moment.
She delves into the bustle of both the city and the wild to capture the life in objects otherwise overlooked. In this case, her choice of focus was the bridge over the Sacramento River.
She chose the bridge for its placidity — no one ever thinks of the bridge they are crossing. She took the time to appreciate the lights falling off the handrail and the water’s reflective nature. Brown said she wants to make people realize how beautiful things really are, adding that there is an endless supply of beauty in Davis.
Different artists use different mediums and in the case of artist Emma Luna, who is also a recipient of the juror award, her choice of ceramic cloth goes beyond the canvas.
“I always try to be very unique. In my work there must be an originality to it,” Luna said.
Luna’s artwork involves the manipulation of ceramic material and suggests a sort of elegance to the piece. Two pears sit side by side on a cloth that encompasses the fruit. Luna describes this as being synonymous with couples, transcending the artwork’s fruity nature.
In a way the metaphor goes beyond the fruit to rank statements on same-sex couples, male and female couples, peas in a pod, whatever can be coupled. To Luna, the piece makes a statement wherever there are couplings and can be interpreted by an inquiring audience to their own preferences.
Luna strives to give audiences an appreciation of everyday life from form, shape and texture.
“It’s always nice to have people enjoy your artwork,” Luna said.
In art sometimes there is a functional side and a sculptural side, said Thomas Post, another recipient of the KVIE juror award. In his piece, there is movement and physicality. Post describes his collages as accompanying feelings of space and openness.
Tune in to the three-day live auction on KVIE from Sept. 28 to 30, or view it online at kvie.org/artauction. The three Davis artworks are “American River Bridge,” “Two Pears On A Ceramic Cloth” and “Still Point.”
PETER AN can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.
Davis Farm to School will hold the Eighth Annual Village Feast on Saturday from noon to 3 p.m. in Davis Central Park.
An end-of-the-summer tradition, the event will bring around 300 members of the community. Buckhorn Steakhouse will cater and all attendees should bring their own plates and utensils.
Funds will go to the Davis Farm to School programs that promote school gardens, local produce served in school lunches and school recycling and composting. A silent auction will also be held, featuring food, wine, travel and entertainment items.
Tickets are $75 if purchased online at brownpapertickets.com/event/250881 or at the Davis Food Co-op, and $85 at the door.
— Claire Tan
Everyone looks forward to summer. Warm weather, no classes, maybe a tropical vacation and time to sleep in. But for a group of UC Santa Barbara students, such expectations were nonexistent this summer.
This summer, the Nourish International UC Davis chapter teamed with UC Santa Barbara to send a group of students to Nepal for three weeks to help local students.
Nourish International is a student-founded and student-run nonprofit organization that was first created under the name Hunger Lunch in 2003, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
To raise awareness about poverty, students served rice and beans for lunch on campus and the proceeds were put toward a project to help people suffering from malnourishment in India. After such a success, the students continued the program and rebranded it as Nourish International.
Kelly Phoenix, a UNC graduate, was part of Nourish as a college student and is now the current executive director due to her passion for combating poverty.
“Nourish International engages students and empowers communities to make a lasting impact on extreme poverty,” Phoenix said. “The students run social businesses on their campuses and they invest the funds that they earn on sustainable development projects during the summer in the developing world.”
The project in Nepal this summer was derived from the idea that athletics should be linked with education, so the students devised a plan to build a soccer field, along with various other services, at a school in Arupokhari-1, Nepal.
Third-year global studies major Miya Sommers of UC Santa Barbara was able to shed some light on the project that is still going on overseas.
She said that they had some difficulties thinking of a project that would fit all of their criteria.
“We wanted to find something community-based and has the students actively playing a role,” Sommers said. “There were other things that were crucial to development too; you want it to be something that is long-term and would mean something to the community.”
While the Nourish chapter at UC Davis played a major role in the project and the fundraising, none of the UC Davis students were able to make the trip this summer. However, new chapter director and senior sociology major Kimberly Chavarria said that she hopes to recruit more people into the program and wants to makethe Nourish name more well-known around campus.
The chapter was established in 2009 and in the past has held multiple trips for its members to help those in Ecuador, but switched it up this year to raise funds for Nepal.
UC Davis students helped to raise money in an online fundraiser called the Global Giving Challenge, in which the Nourish chapters of all 29 universities competed to raise the most money. UC Santa Barbara landed in fourth place.
“We were able to raise $3,000 with the help of the UC Davis chapter and that was momentous because when we started it was a bad economic time,” Sommers said.
When the group of nine arrived in Nepal, they not only built a soccer field, but also brought jerseys and cleats to distribute to the school children. On top of that, they donated books and organized the school library, painted the school, taught a computer class for the teachers and taught English to the students.
While there were many successes with the project, some problems did arise.
“This is our first project ever and I don’t think we got the community as involved as we should have, which is critical to making this a long-term project,” Sommers said. “I don’t think we planned it out environmentally, economically and socially-sustainable for the school.”
Sommers said that another problem was the language barrier, which definitely made things more difficult but also served as an important part of the learning process.
“I think it’s really good to gain that appreciation for another language,” Sommers said. “But it’s also hard because you want to share your experiences and ask questions and if you can’t do that you feel really muted and limited. That’s why it was good that we went as a group. We could experience life in Arupokhari-1 and then go to someone’s room and talk about it.”
While a main part of Nourish is to help those suffering malnourishment and poverty, the students gain a lot from their experiences as well.
“They immersed themselves in the community they were staying in in Nepal,” Phoenix said. “One of the key tenets of Nourish International is that it’s a partnership between the community and the students and that they each have something to learn from each other.”
Many of those involved felt this “cross-cultural experience,” Sommers said. While the goal of the project was to help the people of the village of Arupokhari-1, she said she thought that they helped her even more.
“I feel like they have helped me so much. They didn’t know me or what I was going to do, but they welcomed me into their house and shared their experiences,” Sommers said. “The children were so loving and I think that changed me because I realized that every child is so special. Even in our own backyard we need to invigorate these children because they are the change-makers and the most important thing for our world right now.”
DEVON BOHART can be reached at features@theaggie.org.
The Sierra Club’s Sierra magazine recently ranked UC Davis as America’s number one coolest school in its sixth annual ranking of the greenest colleges in the nation. Three years ago UCD ranked 24th, two years ago, 16th and last year, eighth.
“At UC Davis, sustainability is one of our core values,” said UCD Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi in a press release. “I am very proud of the students, faculty and staff who have worked so hard to make this achievement possible and to invest in a more sustainable future for our campus.”
The magazine received 96 responses and ranked all the participating schools based on an online survey called the Campus Sustainability Data Collector. This survey was created in collaboration with the Sierra Club, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Sustainable Endowments Institute and the Princeton Review.
Lifestyle Editor for Sierra magazine Avital Andrews said the main thing a school needed to do well on the survey was to do well in every category. The final rankings were calculated based on a scoring key. Andrews said there were 90 categories with specific criteria in each, with a total of 894.5 possible points.
“It’s hard to win this thing if you’re not really eco-conscious in every realm,” Andrews said. “So that includes everything from energy efficiency to energy sourcing, academics to purchasing, transportation to waste management, water usage, administration policies, endowments and investments. It basically includes every possible criteria we could have thought of.”
UC Davis obtained a score of 709.17, indicating that even the best school still has a ways to go and there’s no such thing as perfection just yet, Andrews said.
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability Sid England said UC Davis was able to achieve this ranking because of programs that range from energy efficiency to purchasing programs to waste management.
“We have our Smart Lighting Initiative, where we’re trying to reduce the amount of energy we use for lighting 60 percent in the next several years,” England said. “I think there’s a whole series of things when they looked at our submittals that led them to picking us as the top.”
Andrews said West Village really caught the Sierra Club’s attention since it’s the largest zero-net energy residential community in America.
“It’s really innovative in our eyes; the community produces as much energy as it consumes,” she said.
Davis is thorough about every aspect of good stewardship, according to Andrews. She said the school is very vigilant about using its purchasing power to buy things that are eco-friendly and that minimize harm on the environment.
“The waste diversion rate is very high; 67 percent of trash is diverted from landfills,” she said. “There’s a really extensive recycling and composting program compared to other campuses, and really good transportation solutions — more than 20,000 bike racks on campus, about 21,000 bikes on campus in any given day and the red double-decker buses are powered by natural gas.”
Two reasons were given when it came to the importance of schools to be green.
“One is just physical; campuses really operate like small cities, so they have the potential to create a significant environmental impact if they don’t make an effort to conserve and manage their resources,” Andrews said. “Also, kind of a more philosophical reason, if young people are surrounded by eco-positive lifestyles and educated about why it’s important and how to help fix it, it creates a desire in people to address the issues.”
England said UC Davis is continuing to invest in the statewide energy partnership program to increase efficiency of the school’s buildings.
“We’re constantly moving forward, trying to improve on what we already are,” England said. “We have to if we want to achieve the larger goals of sustainability.”
CLAIRE TAN can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
All things flow. Nothing stands. – Plato
Throughout history, many writers, scientists and philosophers have waxed poetically some version of the idea that we are the universe experiencing itself. At first, this seems like some hippie jargon about universal love and peace. But look deeper, and there is an astounding level of scientific and philosophical thought in that small phrase.
They say that whenever you take a breath, you take in air molecules from Julius Caesar’s dying exhale. His breath emanated from his body and dispersed across the globe, crossing oceans and continents, getting recycled through trees, and eventually ending up in the path of your morning run. Whether it’s every breath, or every tenth breath that has Caesar’s air, the romance of the idea is not lost. Every breath, every bite and every sip you take is far more than just what it consists of at that moment. We are pieces of everything that has ever happened.
A star goes supernova in a faraway galaxy. The abundant hydrogen and helium fuse together under the immense heat and pressure, and form the heavier elements required for life, like carbon and oxygen. The fusion of hydrogen and helium into heavier elements is what makes the stars burn bright and hot, and powers all life on earth. When the star explodes, those elements are hurled into space to finally arrive on Earth. Stars die so that we can live.
Millions of years ago, a dinosaur died and fell to the bottom of the sea. As it decomposed, it lost all of its oxygen, nitrogen and phosphorous, leaving just carbon and hydrogen. As the layers of decomposed matter became deeper and deeper, reaching depths of 10,000 feet, the heat and pressure changed that organic matter into hydrocarbons, a.k.a., oil. Along comes man, who pulls the oil out of the ground, loads it into cars and combusts it to get from A to B. When we are in the city, we are breathing in molecules that once belonged to a terrible lizard. Dinosaurs died so we could drive.
Water from the seven seas and every major river on Earth evaporates into the air, follows pressure currents and rains down. Where that rain falls, parts of every body of water are collecting into one place.
A farmer dies in Greece. His ashes are spread over the olive orchard that has been in his family for generations. The orchard gets watered with the rain, and the ashes seep into the soil. The ashes fertilize the soil and become part of the olives. The olives are transported using fuel from dinosaurs and come to our plates to become part of us.
This is not the same as a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil and causing a tsunami in Sri Lanka. This is not an abstract “butterfly effect.” This is real-life connections between everything. Every atom that we are made of came from somewhere else and went through its own journey to get to wherever it is in us now; our brains, eyes, ears, fingers, or anything else we use to sense the world around us. We are pieces of the universe put together into a thinking, conscious, self-aware package that can then experience itself.
Whether or not you can come to terms with breathing Caesar’s last breath or being made of stardust, we are all part of a larger system. In a sense, a person never dies. They simply become something else.
HUDSON LOFCHIE can be reached at science@theaggie.org.
THURSDAY
Planking is SO over
A man was reported lying facedown on J Street.
It’s in the cards
A person a girl believes to be her stalker left her a note saying they only have a little time left on Olive Drive.
School of Rock
Though no cars were present and all lights were off, the office doors were wide open and music was playing in the office of a school on E. Eighth Street.
FRIDAY
Wet reckless
A group of intoxicated people hopped the fence to an apartment pool on J Street, and one of the males was running around naked.
SATURDAY
Domestic foul
A group of roosters was believed to be wandering around and making noise in the cemetery on Regis Drive.
Stealing the spotlight
Somebody tried to steal a light pole out of a resident’s front yard for the third time, leaving a muddy handprint behind on Oak Drive.
Police briefs are compiled from the City of Davis daily crime bulletins. Contact EINAT GILBOA at city@theaggie.org.
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