News of Picnic Day’s potential demise quickly spread around campus over the past week and students are responding in full force.

A Facebook group titled “Save Picnic Day” attracted over 10,000 students within the first week of its creation and hundreds of wall-posts quickly crowded its page.

First-year communication and psychology double major Sam Sugarman, the group’s creator, said the general sentiment of the group’s members seems to be the same.

“The vast majority, if not 100 percent, feel that to eliminate a 96-year-old tradition is an unnecessary step that the school should not resort to,” Sugarman said. “However, many members do feel that precautions need to be taken by the city and university to ensure that the event does not get out of hand.”

Complaints of increased violent behavior, vandalism and public drunkenness during this year’s picnic day resulted in a move by the university and the city to re-examine the event and its continuation.

Members of the Davis community, including business owners, the chamber of commerce and the police department will meet with university representatives on May 10, during which the problems with this year’s event will take center stage.

“What happened this year was a big deal,” said Gary Sandy, the university’s director of local government relations. “I am only one part of the meeting’s group and I cannot prejudge what the group will decide, but all options are definitely on the table.”

Despite an outcry from many Davis business owners, who were forced to break up fights and clean up vomit outside of their shops, many say they are not looking to permanently cancel the event.

“The tradition of Picnic Day is important to our organization and to many in the community,” said Joy Cohan, director of the Davis Downtown Business Association (DDBA). “We hope to work collaboratively to find solutions to keep the event alive, but it can’t be alive in the way that it was this year, or even the past several years.”

Though the DDBA has made past attempts to work with the university and remedy some of the problems associated with Picnic Day, Cohan said that the event’s sheer size has prevented a lot of progress.

“The situation has simply gotten too large for just the university or just the DDBA to solve,” she said. “We need to bring the city in and perhaps look at ordinances and other regulations that will enable the police department to be more effective during the event.”

The May 10 meeting will be the first of a series of collaborative efforts between the city and university, Sandy said.

“Nothing will be decided at the first meeting,” he said. “This is just the start of a lengthy process and as of now we are only forming a planning committee … a whole tier of decision-making will be made later on.”

Due to space restrictions, the May 10 meeting will not be open to students or the general public, but student representatives will be present to voice their concerns.

“I am not sure what the city is advocating, but regardless, the city does not control the university,” said ASUCD president Jack Zwald, who will attend the meeting later this month. “Picnic Day is funded by the students and at the end of the day, any decisions must include city officials, campus administration and student leaders. There needs to be a consensus or else we will have this conversation every year.”

Former ASUCD vice president Chris Dietrich, who will also attend the meeting as a member of the UC Davis student liaison commission, said that the problem is largely due to both the increasing size of the event and the amount of individuals outside the Davis community in attendance.

“As the event has grown, it has gotten a reputation as a big party,” he said. “We are seeing higher numbers of people not connected to our campus coming in and just wanting to get drunk at Davis.”

Though problems in previous years led to discussion over whether to scale back on this year’s Picnic Day, Dietrich said it was never a serious option.

“In looking at issues with Picnic Day, the idea to take a year off from the event was brought up but it was never really considered,” he said. “It is more of an option on the table now but I think it is a last resort option – there are lots of other things we need to try first.”

Alumni also responded to the Picnic Day controversy with their own “Save Picnic Day” Facebook group, which attracted around 4,500 members. Many expressed sadness that off-campus partying was endangering the future of the event.

“I spent my whole day on campus and I only saw thousands of people having a good, wholesome time,” said Tom Stallard, a 1968 alumnus and this year’s parade marshal. “Picnic Day is a wonderful event that does a lot of good and I don’t want to see it jeopardized by the inexcusable, alcohol-fueled behavior in the town.”

Stallard is meeting with the president of the Cal Aggie Alumni Association and other members to look at ways that alumni can become more engaged in the event and ensure that behavior remains responsible.

“Other campuses have lost their open houses because of bad behavior,” he said. “We can do better. We will have to contemplate significant restrictions for the event, but we have a tradition of being a responsible campus community and I have great confidence in our university.”

ERICA LEE can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

A disembodied hand sends messages, one of which reaches a stick figure among many. The hand fools the figure into divulging its private information. Soon, the stick figure is a puppet for sending the same message out to the community at large.

This scenario plays out in a new video developed for UC Davis Information Education Technology (IET) to warn students about the dangers of phishing.

Phishing, the solicitation of sensitive information through deception, caught the attention of IET after they recently discovered that many first-year students did not know about the fraud.

“The simple fact was almost nobody knew what we’re talking about,” said Julie McCall, a communications analyst for IET. “A lot of parents knew. But a lot of students didn’t know. That was surprising.”

In turn IET has tried to spread the word as quickly as possible, canvassing dorms and the campus with fliers. The video, developed by senior design majors James Tang and James Kang, is the latest push in their information campaign.

“We want to reiterate the message from the video that because phishing scams can be disguised as reliable source,” Tang and Kang said in an e-mail interview. “Everyone is a target and anyone can easily fall victim to them if they are unaware of what to look for.”

McCall, who is leading this effort, said that phishing e-mails vary but there are common elements that should alert suspicion.

In their e-mail, the phisher typically poses as an official source, for example, university tech support. They request the recipient to enter his or her log-in ID and password, either by replying to the e-mail or entering it on a linked website.

Phishing messages usually contain threats, warning the user that his or her account may be closed or has been compromised.

Jourdan Perla, a computer resource specialist for the College of Engineering, warned that entering websites where users are redirected to other sites may put the user at risk for viruses or malware, which can also try to infiltrate users’ computers.

If successful, the phisher can use the account to send more spam messages or engage in additional fraud.

For those in the Davis community who want to avoid these scams altogether, McCall’s advice is: don’t give your account information because the campus doesn’t ask for it.

“UC Davis never asks students, faculty or staff to send us your password,” McCall said. “Even if you have a problem with your account, we never ask for your password.”

Students, faculty and staff should also avoid responding to e-mails asking for services, like bank accounts, that they don’t use.

“There’s no need to log in because it’s not legitimate,” Perla said. “Read your e-mail carefully before you start clicking on the links. The biggest thing is to be aware of what you’re reading. If it’s suspicious, get a second opinion.”

As recently as January last year, successful phishing scams caused several Internet service providers, among them Comcast, Hotmail, AT&T and Yahoo, to block UC Davis e-mail servers, paralyzing communication for more than a day.

If a user gives up their information, both Perla and McCall said the best option is to change his or her password to stop the phisher from accessing the account. They should also contact their banks if they suspect financial fraud.

For those who receive a phishing scam, McCall advises that they contact IT Express Computing services Help Desk (ithelp@ucdavis.edu) so they can block additional e-mails from the phishing address from reaching others.

For more information about how to avoid phishing scams and to protect your computer from cyber attacks, visit: http://security.ucdavis.edu/antiphishing.cfm and http://security.ucdavis.edu/cybersafetybasics.cfm

LESLIE TSAN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

When classes in “Nonverbal Communication” and “Witches: Myth and Historical Reality” count as promoting diversity, some students question whether there is a loophole in avoiding the general education socio-cultural diversity requirement.

To graduate from UC Davis, students are required to take at least one course from a long list of classes in socio-cultural diversity.

“[The classes are designed to introduce students to] the significance of the many patterned differences that characterize human populations – particularly differences of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion or social class,” according to the University Registrar’s general education guidelines.

While any of the hundreds of diversity-focused courses offered in Chicana/o, African American, Native American and women’s studies can count toward fulfilling the requirement, there are also dozens of courses in seemingly unrelated fields – textiles and clothing, nutrition, humanities and communication – that can be taken instead.

Monisha Newbon, a senior sociology major, is one of several students who has spoken out in demanding a more rigorous definition of the term socio-cultural diversity. On behalf of the Black Student Union, Newbon helped author and submit a list of recommendations to Chancellor Katehi, urging a more thorough look at UC Davis’ general education diversity requirement.

Among the suggestions submitted, Newbon urged that eight instead of four courses in diversity be required, and that courses be “more inclusive of all intersections of identity,” specifying that women’s and gender studies classes, ethnic and queer studies classes should be the only way to satisfy this requirement.

Newbon also argued that the list of socio-cultural diversity classes offered in the UC Davis catalog is too general.

“A food science, beer making class, or any other class that does not enhance, educate and bring awareness about diversity should not fulfill this requirement,” she said.

From the perspective of campus leadership, the need for multidisciplinary coursework in diversity is an important factor in promoting understanding between fields of study.

“At UC Davis, our number one goal is academic excellence, and without a deep understanding of diversity, that goal isn’t complete,” said Steven Baissa, director of the Cross Cultural Center.

“To know where you’re going in the future, you need to know what happened in the past. This requires that you have a curriculum that is rigorous enough, and challenges you to think critically about how you view yourself and others in any field.”

According to Baissa, the option of taking classes across disciplines allows students to consider viewpoints and perspectives out of their own comfort zone, and to be more tolerant of differences.

MICHELLE IMMEL can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Amid talk of Picnic Day violence, Cynthia Goldberg will tell you what sets UC Davis apart is not the debauchery that shrouded campus on Picnic Day, but the university’s common interest in serving the community.

UC Davis students gave 430,000 hours of community service during the 2008-2009 academic year, earning UC Davis a place on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

Aliyah Abdullah is one of 7,000 students who committed her free time to service efforts. Abdullah, a UC Davis law school student and director of community service for the Black Law Students Association coordinated programs in impoverished communities in Oakland and San Francisco to teach fifth through eight graders about law.

“Some of them had low self-esteem in the beginning,” Abdullah said about the mock trials and opening statements the children practiced. “It was amazing to see the transformation by the end of the day. They were so proud.”

The Community Service Resource Center (CSRC), a branch of the Internship and Career Center, informs over 5,000 UC Davis students of community service opportunities via its listserv and holds three weekends of service per year.

Universities honored were chosen based on the scope and innovation of service projects, percentage of student participation, incentives for service and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses. CSRC surveyed service activities on campus and pulled information from clubs to submit for review to the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Last week, CSRC announced outstanding members of the campus community who will be recognized for their involvement in community service.

Those who were chosen for the highest recognition are the spark of the group; they are the people who inspire the other members, said Goldberg, supervisor of CSRC.

HIV/AIDS researcher Koen Vanrompay is one of six who will be honored by the CSRC for outstanding community service at a May 12 reception.

Vanrompay dedicates his free time to Sahaya International, a non-profit organization founded in 1999. Based in Davis, Sahaya International provides assistance to social development projects in developing nations and is run completely through volunteer efforts.

Since its creation, Sahaya raised approximately $700,000, including an $110,000 grant from the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Through HIV/AIDS education and medical help, children who were on the verge of death at the time of the organization’s founding are now planning on attending college.

Initially only two small huts served as schools for nine children in a village six hours south of Chennai, India. Now, a large school accommodating 300 has replaced the huts.

“It’s touching to see the children in their school uniforms,” Vanrompay said. “When you know how to spend your money wisely [on helping others] you know how to live – I have gained so much friendship.”

Sahaya International raised $800 on Picnic Day and has a charity walk scheduled for October 2010.

In addition to the community service opportunities from the CSRC, the UCD School of Medicine runs six community health clinics in Sacramento and the Graduate School of Management provides free consulting services to non-profit organizations.

“Something about our campus is more service-conscious than anywhere else I’ve been,” Abdullah said.

GABRIELLE GROW can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Eraser marks

A sophomore was referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for allegedly altering an exam and submitting it to be re-graded in her upper division chemistry course. The exam, completed in pencil, featured one answer obviously erased in favor of a new, correct answer. The size and clarity of the correct answer over the erasure made it unlikely to have been missed by the grader. However, the fact that the grader’s “incorrect” mark was directly centered upon the correct answer, coupled with the fact that the problem would not have made a significant impact upon the student’s overall grade for the exam, provided some doubt that the exam was intentionally altered. The university decided not to pursue the case and the student was given an administrative notice, which is not a disciplinary action (because the student was not found in violation of the Code of Academic Conduct), but rather a formal notification of University rules and regulations regarding student conduct.

Using an old test

A senior was referred to SJA for allegedly plagiarizing a homework assignment in an upper division engineering course. The professor had released the solutions to this particular assignment the year before, and the student had managed to obtain a copy. The student admitted to misconduct, but insisted that they thought the solutions were “public knowledge” because they had been released. Furthermore, the student claimed not to have copied from the solutions verbatim but to have used them simply as a guide in solving the homework problems. This did not account for the fact that the instructor recognized that the student had plagiarized the solutions simply by reading a few of the problems. The student agreed to the disciplinary sanction of probation, which will last until graduation, and 10 hours of community service. The probation is not notated on the student’s transcript, however, any subsequent violations would likely result in suspension or dismissal.

Peer pressure

A sophomore was referred to SJA for allegedly copying during an exam. This was her third referral for the same violation, and – when she immediately admitted to the misconduct – her second violation. She claimed that a medical condition had prevented her from attending class regularly throughout the quarter, and since she had been placed on academic probation, she felt pressured to score well on this exam. Additionally, the student claimed to have three midterms in one day, something that heightened her level of stress and inhibited her ability to study. Nonetheless, the student agreed to a disciplinary sanction of a three-quarter suspension from the university, with deferred dismissal effective through her graduation from UC Davis. Deferred dismissal is a probationary status in which, should the student be referred again and admit guilt, or be found in violation at an informal meeting, she would be dismissed from the university.

Members of the office of Student Judicial Affairs compile the CAMPUS JUDICIAL REPORTS. Additional information about SJA and the Campus Judicial Board may be found at sja.ucdavis.edu.