Students, administrators share summer session experiences

As the academic year comes to an end, many students are on the lookout for job opportunities or volunteer positions that may advance their understanding of their respective career goals. UC Davis also offers students the opportunity to take courses during a six-week period over the summer.

Danica Fisher, the director of UC Davis summer sessions, has worked alongside administrators and professors toward improving the summer session experience for the past year, primarily by accommodating classes of the most interest.

Fisher expanded on why she thinks taking classes during summer sessions might be beneficial to students.

“I think that some students will find that over the summer they enjoy having a shorter time period to focus on one, or maybe two classes,” Fisher said. “Some students enjoy having less traffic on campus so you get a better sense of a smaller community. The class size might be smaller depending on the course that you take, which is another thing a lot of students prefer.”

Spending six weeks focusing solely on one or two courses is an opportunity for success in classes students might find more difficult to balance in a regular 15-unit quarter. Fisher explained how during the summer, students have a lot more access to resources that can support them in their classes.

“Students might have a different level of access to a professor or instructor that they might not have during the regular year,” Fisher said. “Some of the same services that [the Student Academic Success Center] offers during the academic year they also offer during the summer, so tutoring, academic counseling, advising and academic success coaching. You have less students who are accessing those services over the summer so you get more one-on-one attention than you might get during the school year.”

Aside from academics, many students also are concerned with the social environment of the campus when school is not officially in session. Although there might not be as many club activities or parties to attend, Fisher explained what social events she hopes that these summer sessions and future summers might hold.

“I think the social opportunities are a little less, but one of my goals for this summer and the summers that follow will be to think about how we can implement more social activities on campus during the summer,” Fisher said. “I think there are a lot of resources, if not on campus then in the neighboring cities of Davis, Sacramento and the Bay Area that we can help promote and provide access to for students. We’re looking to do a lot more to sort of figure out how to make this space not just academically exciting, but also socially exciting for students.”

The university also offers on-campus housing for students who are considering taking classes during the summer. According to Fisher, on-campus housing for the summer is secured through conference housing.

“You can get housing in the summer and it’s short-term lease housing on campus which is ideal for most people who are here over the summer,” Fisher said.   

Moreover, students who are on financial aid also have the option of accessing the funds as long as they take a minimum of 6 units. In addition, this year students will also have access to Pell Grant money.

For the rest of the quarter, the summer session team will be tabling every week outside of the Silo and at other campus events. The registration freeze for summer session one will be from June 15 to June 19, and July 15 to July 17 for summer session two.

Alejandro Lara, a fourth-year Spanish and communication double major, explained his reasoning behind taking a summer session last year.

“I wanted to have a somewhat chill senior year and I didn’t think I would need to do [a summer class] but I wanted to have a relaxed Spring Quarter,” Lara said. “Right now I’m only taking 12 units and ever since my junior year I’ve been taking 16 units nonstop and it’s kind of nice to take a step back and not have to worry about taking a 20-unit quarter. I had an on-campus job, too, so I was able to keep working and take classes at the same time which was cool.”

Aside from the academic benefits, Lara described other social activities students can engage in to keep busy during summer sessions.

“I got to see the Davis fireworks on the Fourth of July which was kind of a cool thing to do,” Lara said. “I was in the pool almost every day and you kind of have to, it’s like 110 degrees. It’s ridiculously hot so wear sunscreen, but if you take a summer session you will have fun as long as you put in the time to do the work.”

Each summer session lasts about six weeks, during which students are expected to learn 10 weeks worth of material. While the quarter system is fast-paced, Lara explained how rigorous he found summer session to be.

“I think if you only take one class during summer session your workload will be very manageable,” Lara said. “Just know that you are taking accelerated courses, if you’re doing 10 weeks worth of material in six weeks you have to kind of move at a faster pace within and outside the class.”

Anupya Nalamalapu, a fourth-year computer science major, offered a closer look into the grading dynamics of summer courses.

“The classes are a lot smaller so the curve is definitely better,” Nalamalapu said. “The teachers are usually more lenient and you would think that the classes would be harder because it’s a faster pace, but it’s really not that bad because you can focus on a few classes at a time.”

Nalamalapu took concurrent courses during summer sessions including math, English and technology management. Nalamalapu offered her advice for any students considering attending a summer session.

“Don’t slack off because since [a summer session course] is so fast-paced you still can fall behind,” Nalamalapu said. “Classes are definitely longer, so more material is covered, so don’t be tempted to skip them.”

Written by: Sneha Ramachandran — features@theaggie.org

Sexual Assault Awareness Month fights for prevention, creates discussion around consent.

The UC Davis campus and a number of student organizations came together in April to raise awareness for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. From a calendar of events held throughout the month to symbolic pairs of jeans and teal ribbons on the West Quad trees, SAAM’s goal was to fight for prevention and create a discussion around consent.

SickSpits, a spoken word collective on campus, joined hands with the Sexual Assault Awareness and Advocacy Club to host an open mic event for SAAM.

“SickSpits strives to create a safer space where members of the collective can express themselves and join in a love for poetry and performance,” said Gloria Marin, a fourth-year international relations and Spanish double major and the SickSpits treasurer, in an email interview. “We worked with [SAAAC] last year and wanted to do this event again, and provide a space for survivors and warriors to share and heal. We made sure to keep performances limited to those related to the theme and ensure a respect for the survivors and warriors.”

Marin expressed the importance of creating a safe space where people are able to share and articulate difficult stories through art with people who are willing to listen.

“It was empowering to see our performers feel comfortable enough to share experiences that deeply impacted them,” Marin said. “It’s important to know that there are people willing to listen to even the most difficult things we have to say, and seeing performers take the stage is truly a special experience.”

Art such as spoken word poetry gives the performer an outlet through which difficult experiences and emotions can be expressed. In Marin’s opinion, art can help survivors recuperate from the past and make sense of the present.

“As a survivor of sexual assault, events like this Open Mic and Take Back the Night were key to my healing and acceptance of the past,” Marin said. “I really think there is something irreplaceable about art’s power to join people together and show support for one another when they need it most.”

Greek life organizations were also involved in raising awareness for SAAM. Zeta Beta Tau presented its annual Green Light Go philanthropy event on April 30 on the Quad. As elaborated on the Facebook event page, the program “aims to educate participants on sexual assault prevention, bystander intervention, and healthy relationships with their partners.”

The philanthropy event consisted of a game similar to the familiar version of “green light go” many have played for fun, where participants run as far as they can get during the green light, and have to stop at the red light. But Zeta Beta Tau added a twist called “yellow light” which was described as “a compelling analogy for consent in relationships where participants practice responding to Green as Yes, Red as No, and Yellow also as No.”

Dhruv Nandakumar, a second-year computer science major, was one of the founding members of Zeta Beta Tau in 2016. Nandakumar wanted to start an organization where he and his brothers could add their own direction to do something different on campus, particularly in terms of raising awareness against sexual violence.

“Sexual violence prevention is something that we need to incorporate more on campus and preventing rape culture and stopping the spread of rape culture dead in its tracks. It’s something that we are very passionate about,” Nandakumar said.

Nandakumar believes that the yellow light twist helped facilitate a discussion between partners in whether they want to proceed or take a step back, emphasizing the necessity of complete consent.

“It’s where you can move forward, but before you move forward, you to ask your partner if they’re okay with moving forward with you, and then you [can] take a step forward,” Nandakumar said. “And we feel like this really facilitates a discussion about consent and why it’s important. We gave them a lot of examples of what you can ask because we work closely with a lot of organizations on campus, like CARE.”

Nandakumar and Zeta Beta Tau emphasized the necessity of stopping rape culture before it takes a larger toll than it already has. They pointed out that sexual violence is a daily occurence and that preventative measures, along with raising awareness, are good ways to begin counteracting it.

“It is very, very important that we address this issue before it grows any further,” Nandakumar said. “And I think we addressed [that] in the speech [at the event] — that it’s very important we stop [sexual assault] dead in its tracks right now, before we allow more people to get hurt or allow the rape culture to grow or sustain. We need to stop it.”

Written by: Sahiti Vemula — features@theaggie.org

Asian-American media, film group breaking barriers in the industry

The Asian American Association will be hosting its annual film festival this year from May 7-10. The three-day event was created in an effort to acknowledge and celebrate Asian-Americans in the film and media industries. This year, the AAA has invited members of Wong Fu Productions to come and speak on a special panel about their journeys and successes as Asian-Americans trying to navigate their way through a non-Asian dominated industry.

Nearly 12 years ago, three undergraduates — Philip Wang, Ted Fu and Wesley Chan — began filming amateur videos from their college dorm room and ultimately decided to upload those videos to YouTube under the username Wong Fu Productions. The trio eventually gained enough momentum and support to launch their own media company based in Los Angeles. In 2018, Wong Fu Productions has over three million subscribers on Youtube along with an ever-growing fanbase, proving that Asian Americans can, in fact, be successful as artists and filmmakers.

“Wong Fu Productions has been a real leader in showing Asian American representation [in the film industry], and their work has inspired many,” said Nathan Kong, a second-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major and the events coordinator for the AAA. “Wong Fu has shown that just because you’re Asian-American, that doesn’t mean you can’t be in the film industry.”

One of Wong Fu Productions’ primary goals is to bring more Asian American representation to the world of entertainment, a sector that heavily lacks diversity and inclusion. Kong believes that mainstream media fails to see Asian Americans as serious actors in the industry because society imposes stereotypes and false generalizations onto Asian Americans, seemingly undermining their artistic capabilities.

“Most of the times when people think of Asian Americans, they think of the ones who achieve great things in the academic field — they’re expected to become either doctors or lawyers or engineers,” Kong said. “A lot of times there’s a stereotype that if there is an Asian in a movie, [they’re] either doing Kung Fu or some other stereotypical thing.”

Michael Ng, fourth-year international relations major and president of the Taiwanese American Organization, agrees with this sentiment, adding that these stereotypes prevent Asian Americans from acquiring eminent roles in various artistic fields.

“I think there’s a stigma that Asians aren’t so prominent in the entertainment industry — they are supposed to work on the more technical aspect of the job market,” Ng said. “I think it’s very patronizing. You can see that a majority of Oscar winners are white males and white females.”

Ng appreciates Wong Fu Productions’ attempts to integrate Asian American narratives into its media and film projects and give Asian cultures the exposure that they deserve.

“[Wong Fu Productions] brings a fair share of representation of Asian American values and cultures into more mainstream media,” Ng said. “It’s pretty refreshing and exciting to see the food you grew up eating [and] the values you were taught by your parents being represented on YouTube and having millions of views. It’s also about giving people outside of the [Asian-American] community a more nuanced way of looking at things.”

Progress for Asian American inclusion seems to be looming on the horizon as more Asian Americans are claiming their rightful presence in these media spaces. Liane Wang, a UC Davis alumna and current staff member of the Davis Christian Fellowship, maintains a positive outlook on the future of Asian American representation in all professions, saying that hope can be a real catalyst for profound change.

“I believe we are in a season of immense growth for the Asian American community, but of course I would like to see more representation in all types of media,” Wang said. “With topics dealing with race, I believe in being thankful for the change we see happening while maintaining hope for more.”

Kong stressed the importance of educating youth on the importance of diversity in order to give society the capacity to gradually move away from the negative attitudes surrounding Asian Americans in film, media and all other fields and truly acknowledge the work that they have done for those communities.

“To ensure more diverse representation, I’d really say it’s just [about] breaking down the stereotypes and barriers and viewing people as people,” Kong said. “For me, I feel like teaching is a really good way to do that. If [children] see that we all start out as equals with no biases, they’ll realize that it’s really just our experiences that differ us from each other.”

Written by: Emily Nguyen — features@theaggie.org