A look inside the minds of Davis’s diverse academic community

UC Davis may be generally regarded as a STEM-focused school, but this view ignores the university’s considerably sized humanities departments. The perceived dominance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics on campus leads to interesting interactions between students of different majors — from the ways students form communities within their majors or view research opportunities to how much time they spend in class on a given week.

A number of students from a wide variety of majors spoke to The California Aggie. From these interviews, it appears that the sheer population size of the College of Biological Sciences and the College of Engineering makes it easier for new students to find classes and resources and to form communities as early as freshman year. 

Alexander Dillabaugh, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior (NPB) and Spanish double major, described the differences he has observed between his two majors in terms of advising. 

“I usually see my Spanish advisor more often,” Dillabaugh said. “I feel like there’s so many NPB majors that I […] just ask people and use my friends as my advisors, or people older than me, but there’s not as many Spanish majors, so I go to [the advisors] for advice more.”

NPB and other popular STEM majors on campus such as biology and animal science, have well-developed resource programs that host events, such as major-specific meet-and-greets during Welcome Week — introductory events that are seemingly lacking for humanities students. 

Some STEM majors may also choose to get involved with mentorship programs wherein first-year students can ask questions and get advice from older students. Taylor Silva, a third-year NPB and English double major, is part of Mentor Collective — as part of the program, Silva helps one or two first-year students who are also science majors with their transition to college. 

These mentorships programs — such as BioLaunch Mentor Collective which, according to the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences website, “matches new and returning students for academic and social support” — are especially prevalent in the College of Biological Sciences.

Although the humanities departments are usually smaller in size and lack some of the university-sponsored programs that STEM majors have, humanities students, including Silva, said they had better luck forming relationships with their professors because it is easier to get one-on-one time with them.

This seems to be an experience shared by students who are studying both humanities and STEM curriculum — Dillabaugh also said he was more likely to go to office hours for his humanities courses because they felt more personal. 

“In my Spanish language or history classes, I always go to office hours because that’s the most helpful,” Dillabaugh said. “[In STEM classes], there’s more people, they just go through the material again. It’s not one-on-one help.”

Another misconception among students is that humanities majors might not have as much access to professors given that they may not work in labs and on trials with them. According to many students, however, humanities professors are just as eager to make connections with their students.

Along a similar vein, another difference relates to students’ opinions of the importance of STEM versus humanities research.

“It’s more of a stigma that STEM research is more important,” Dillabaugh said, adding that even though Spanish is his other major, he forgets that Spanish professors are also doing research.

As a research university, most every professor at UC Davis is involved in some kind of research. In general, more STEM students are involved with their professors’ research than humanities majors. And, because of this, humanities research may be overlooked.

“[Working in a lab] definitely would have been my answer [to what research is] in high school, but after being at Davis, it’s changed,” said Lauren Christie, a second-year human development major. 

Since coming to Davis, Christie sees research in a broader sense that includes data input and visualisation, the basis of much of the research being done in the humanities fields. Additionally, fourth-year communication major Julia Sabey said that questionnaires, surveys and online polls come to mind when she thinks of research, given that that is the type of research communication majors are generally exposed to in their classes. 

A majority of STEM majors, however, said they relate labs and hard sciences, first and foremost, to research. Hannah O’Toole, a fourth-year biomedical engineering major, said that her personal experience of working in a research lab shapes her view of research — “I think of experimental design and a lot of chemistry because that’s the kind of research I do,” O’Toole said.

STEM majors, on average, spend more time in class, with an average of about 20 hours of class a week. Humanities majors mostly responded that they spent 10 to 15 hours in class per week.

 First-year psychology and English double major Alik Sultan said he spends “around 10 hours” in class “and probably less than five” doing homework in an average week. Similarly, Sabey reported that she spends three hours a day in class on average and spends about nine to 10 hours doing homework while O’Toole said she spends 22 hours in class a week and around 25 to 30 hours a week on homework.

Despite inherent differences, studying both STEM and humanities curriculum can be mutually beneficial. For example, Dillabaugh does volunteer work with Clinica Tepati, a student-run clinic that serves the Latino and Hispanic communities in Sacramento.

“Most of the people there are STEM majors […] but it’s a great way for me to practice my Spanish,” he said. “It’s a great way for me to connect Spanish and [NPB].” 

Written by: Katherine DeBenedetti — features@theaggie.org

West Village responds to students’ complaints

Construction of the new apartments in West Village, called The Green, began in Feb. 2019. Anticipated to hold approximately 1,000 beds by Fall 2020 and be ready for occupancy by Fall 2021, The Green is a part of UC Davis’ initiative to provide more housing for undergraduate students. The building is also aiming for Net Zero Energy, meaning the apartments will produce as much energy as it consumes on an annual basis. 

The Green is not owned by West Village, nor does West Village manage the construction. It is instead owned by UC Davis Student Housing, which is in charge of construction of the new undergraduate apartments in the West Village area. Currently, West Village, managed by Greystar Real Estate, resides on land owned by UC Davis. 

The construction of The Green, however, has proven to be a disturbance for current West Village tenants living across from the construction site. Tenants living adjacent to Tilia Street expressed concerns about the construction noises waking them up and bothering them when they are studying. 

“It’s Monday through Saturday, so it’s six days a week,” said Adam Graubart, a second-year chemical engineering major. “They start at about 7 a.m. every morning, so I’d say that more than half of the days, it wakes me up. We live about 30 feet from the construction site, so it’s insanely close.”

Some students have reached out to West Village management to complain about the noise, looking to receive some sort of compensation for the trouble. 

“This is supposed to be a quiet area,” Graubart said. “I can’t really study during the day. There have been times where I’m trying to record something on the piano, and the truck beeping in the back gets in the way and I’d have to rerecord it. It’s annoying. I didn’t sign up for this — there was nothing in the lease agreement that said anything about construction.”

After receiving complaints from their residents, West Village issued a notice to affected residents which was obtained by The California Aggie. 

“The Sol at West Village leasing office has received some complaints and concerns regarding the noise from the construction adjacent to our community,” the notice states. “Please be advised that this construction project is owned and managed by UC Davis. This is not our project, and we do not control the plans for the development or the related noise.  We have contacted Real Estate Services on behalf of our residents and asked that the developer be reminded that they are working in a housing area and that development noise needs to be limited in the early morning.”  

  The notice emphasizes the fact that the leasing office has no control over the project nor any control over construction schedules and all questions, comments or concerns are to be directed to UC Davis Real Estate Services at 530-752-3776.

Rumors have circulated about leasing agents at West Village lowering rent for certain tenants who have complained while maintaining original rent prices for tenants who did not complain. Officials from West Village did not comment on these allegations. 

This is not the first occasion at West Village concerning tenant complaints about construction noise, according to a 2011 article from The Aggie. At that time, most of West Village had been finished and it began leasing. Not all the Viridian units, however, were completed, yet management still leased finished units to new tenants. 

The graduate students living in these apartments were unhappy with their units because not all amenities they thought they were promised were given, they claimed their apartments were dirty and their appliances were not working. 

The noise from the construction of the rest of Viridian was also bothersome, so much so that management placed Viridian tenants in the Hyatt hotel rooms on campus. 

The construction of The Green is expected to be finished by Fall 2021. Until then, it is unknown how West Village will continue to handle the complaints they receive for current and future tenants.

Written by: Linh Nguyen — features@theaggie.org

Interest groups say SAT, ACT tests discriminate on basis of race, disability, wealth

A letter sent to the UC Board of Regents on Oct. 29 and signed by several low-income student advocacy groups, including the Compton Unified School District, demanded the removal of SAT and ACT requirements from the UC application. The letter claimed that the standardized testing requirement on the application discriminates based on race, disability and wealth. The groups that signed on requested a meeting with the UC Regents within ten business days, stating their “hope that litigation is unnecessary.”

  The letter comes in light of the Regents’ general board meeting in mid-September, at which time a discussion on the impact of the standardized testing requirement on the application was first brought up.

In April of this year, the academic senate assembled a standardized testing task force as part of an effort to decide whether the UC would continue to include a request for SAT and ACT scores on its applications. The task force, chaired by Dr. Henry Sanchez of UCSF, has 17 UC professors from a variety of fields on the committee, as well as one student representative. They meet approximately once a month and often ask experts on standardized testing to speak at these meetings.

There are a variety of different courses of actions the task force could recommend: all or part of the standardized testing requirement may be eliminated, the tests may be made optional or different tests, such as the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium may instead be used for admissions.

The task force is focused on current UC testing practices and assessing whether or not these practices provide an adequate assessment of applicants in the holistic review process. The task force will also be looking into how these testing practices are affecting the diversity of UC applicants. 

The recent letter sent to the Regents claims that current practices violate the California Constitution under the right to equal protection as well as several government codes. 

The task force hopes to make preliminary recommendations to the board by Feb. 2020, but the letter sent to the board emphasizes the urgency of the matter. It is unclear when any potential changes would be implemented, but members of the Regents hope to make changes soon.

UC Regent Eloy Ortiz Oakley, who is also the chancellor of California Community Colleges system, commented on the potential benefits if the test requirements were removed from the application process in an interview with The California Aggie. 

“The sooner the better,” Oakley said. “We have a lot of students spending a lot of money on the test prep and if we’re going to make a change they should know when and how we’re going to make the change. Most of the data that’s been clear across the nation [is] that standardized testing like the SAT/ACT say very little about a student’s ability to succeed in college. [It] says more about their wealth or their zip code.” 

Jenny Pelliconi, a first-year animal science major, agrees with Oakley’s view, especially given her ACT experience.

“I don’t think I did that well, but I feel like I’m doing really well here,” Pelliconi said. “People are not very good at taking tests sometimes, it’s a certain skill and some people don’t have that, even if they are successful.”

The numbers suggest that any decision made by the UC will have a widespread impact as the system is widely regarded as one of the best public higher education systems in the country, bringing in 176,695 freshman applicants across all UC campuses this year. 

If the UC were to eliminate the SAT and ACT requirement, it would be joining thousands of colleges across the U.S. that have already done so, including the University of Chicago and the University of San Francisco.

Though the board is focusing on admissions-based exams at the moment, other standardized tests, such as the Advanced Placement exams that many high school students take after the completion of an AP course to gain college unit credit, may also be assessed by the board in the future. 

Regardless of the outcome, there was a general consensus among the Board of Regents that an evidence-based decision will be of the utmost importance.

“We’ve been very careful not to insert any prejudgement about what recommendations they ultimately forward to this board,” President Janet Napolitano said during the general board meeting. “Whatever we do will be a national precedent, and so we want to get it right.” 

Written by: Lei Otsuka — features@theaggie.org