Updates on university revenue, projects for classroom renovation, construction delivered

Chancellor Gary May delivered his first State of the Campus address in the Multipurpose Room of the International Center on Mar. 1 at 2:10 p.m.

UC Davis students, community members and the Representative Assembly of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate were all present.

Chancellor May welcomed the attendants and spoke on appointments made within the university, financial figures and plans he and his staff plan to continue.

Among May’s appointments were Kelly Ratliff as vice chancellor of finance, operations and administration, Joseph Farrow as the UC Davis chief of police and Dana Topousis as chief marketing and communications officer.

May discussed the “university-wide strategic effort” To Boldly Go, which focuses on the state of UC Davis 10 years from now. The effort is composed of 23 members and is accepting submissions from community members of ideas to implement.

“I personally read every submission to date,” May said.

May delivered UC figures related to revenue, specifically citing UC regents decision to delay a raise in tuition and fees and California Governor Jerry Brown’s proposition to increase 3 percent of the UC’s budget rather than 4 percent as he had in recent years.

It was said that UC Davis is nearing its 18 percent non-resident student cap. Plans to generate new revenue include increased masters programs and creating more “self-supporting degrees.”

Internal audits are usually conducted every five years if there is a change in leadership. Reportedly, internal audits are to be held every five years regardless.

Millions of dollars have been distributed to the university in research funding and millions have been raised in fundraising in the past fiscal year: $783 million in sponsored research funding in 2016-2017, $250 million in fundraising in 2016-2017 and $114 million so far in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

May reported that UC Davis is almost at its 39,000 enrollment capacity, with 95,207 applications submitted for the next school year — 3.6 percent more than last year.

Renovation on Walker Hall as a graduate student community center is set to open in Fall 2019. Other projects regarding infrastructure were discussed, such as the progression with what is temporarily being called California Hall, set to be the largest lecture hall on campus, seating 600 students for Fall 2018. $25 million are to be distributed for the renovation of classrooms across campus and 600 more bike parking spaces are to be installed as well as wider walking/biking paths.

Chancellor May addressed a student housing task force working on acquiring 6,200 to 8,500 beds for students through 2030. Three other task forces were announced: one on affordable housing led by David Campbell, the associate dean of social and human sciences; another on mental health led by Cameron Carter, the interim vice chancellor for research and a food security task force headed by Francene Steinberg, the chair of the Department of Nutrition.

May highlighted faculty and student excellence in his address, pointing to professor emeritus Gary Snyder being inducted to the California Hall of Fame and assistant professor Zhou Yu being honored by Forbes for her work in computer science.

Student-athletes were also highlighted, such as UC Davis alumna Brita Sigourney’s bronze win at the Winter Olympics.

With 44 percent of students at UC Davis being first generation students and a reported 27 percent of students representing underrepresented minorities, the university has now met the numerical threshold to become a Hispanic Serving Institution.

The address’ conclusion revolved around a project in partnership with the city of Sacramento titled Aggie Square.

Aggie Square will be a “new technology and innovation campus” built in Sacramento. The project has been in development between Chancellor May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.

“The public really needs to see the value of a research university in this political climate,” May said.

Four sites are in contention for the the Aggie Square innovation hub.

Chancellor May’s address ended at 2:56 p.m.

Written by: Elizabeth Mercado — campus@theaggie.org

Indian Student Association, Indian Graduate Student Association host annual Holi event

On March 3, the Indian Student Association and the Indian Graduate Student Association collaboratively hosted UC Davis’ annual Rang de Davis, celebrating the Hindu holiday Holi, which is commonly known as the “festival of colors.” Located on the lawn by the Arboretum Gazebo, the festivities began at 11:30 a.m. and lasted until 3:30 p.m.

Holi has been celebrated for over 2,000 years as a welcoming of spring and a festival of love. Historically, celebrants wore white and gathered with close community members to light bonfires, throw gulal (color powder), eat rich foods and dance. Today, most Holi festivals consist of family and friends spending the day playing Holi, which consists of smearing powder on each others’ faces, playfully throwing powder and playing with pichkaaris (water guns).

Students and community members in Davis paid the traditional celebration homage with vibrant, colorful powders and iconic Bollywood songs. At one point in the afternoon, it began raining, later even hailing. However, the weather did little to dampen the spirits of the dancing crowd, who responded by enthusiastically continuing to pelt each other with handfuls of rainbow-colored powder.

Hemali Patel, a fourth-year managerial economics major and the president of ISA, described the logistics and planning that led up to the event.

“Organizing events isn’t easy, but it’s something I love doing, so it’s always fun. We have been working on [planning the event] since mid-January,” Patel said. “It’s hectic, but it’s a lot of teamwork and collaboration.”

Patel went on to explain why ISA and IGSA put on this celebration every year.

“The goal is for everyone to have fun,” Patel said. “We want to celebrate what Holi is […] and it’s a great way for everyone to relax.”

For ISA, the profits made from various events held throughout the year helped fund the budget for this celebration. Patel stated that at the end of the year, after its culture show, ISA donates all of its remaining proceeds to charity.

ISA Vice President Vrinda Gupta, a third-year Asian American studies and international relations double major, briefly described the intertwining roles of ISA and IGSA in the event planning.

“IGSA and ISA really collaborated a lot and they really helped,” Gupta said. “ISA ordered the rang, which is the color, and figured out the DJ logistics and reserved them [the DJ]. A lot of it [the planning], after you get the administrative work down, is just promoting, advertising and selling tickets. Luckily for us, last year our Holi was really successful, folks were really excited just to come by word of mouth.”

IGSA President Satyabrata Sarangi, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering, elaborated on the event planning timeline.

“We started the preparation around September, once we were done with Diwali, and then we started the meetings with the Arboretum [staff],” Sarangi said.

Sarangi explained how IGSA and ISA planned to educate students who decided to partake in the cultural celebrations.

“We have three posters depicting the history of Holi and how Holi is celebrated in India,” Sarangi said. “Arboretum interns will be there to demonstrate things so whoever enters the event will know what the history of Holi [is] and how it is celebrated there.”

IGSA and ISA sold 400 tickets for the event. Including Arboretum staff members and the board members of both student organizations, the total number of attendees reached an all-time record of 450.

Gupta went on to relate the event to Indian representation and presence on campus.

“I think one of the biggest things for me, personally, and I feel like for a lot of ISA, is that it’s just really great to have this event so we can have some representation here on campus and to kind of just have a space where we’re able to celebrate ourselves and our identity,” Gupta said.

Written by: Priyanka Shreedar — campus@theaggie.org 

Fear, anger expressed at first public forum since controversial election results

The ASUCD Senate held a public town hall in the Center for African Diaspora Student Success on March 8, reinstating what is, according to the ASUCD Bylaws, supposed to be a quarterly gathering.

Outgoing ASUCD Vice President Adilla Jamaludin began the town hall by thanking the CADSS for allowing usage of the space for the meeting and apologizing for any perceived intrusion. She stated that the reason for the town hall being at CADSS was because the government wanted to better engage with communities face-to-face, “especially those who are most marginalized.”

“In my opinion, I think that we’ve done a terrible job,” Jamaludin said in regard to ASUCD’s student engagement.

The floor was opened up for questions shortly after the introduction of each ASUCD representative. Attendance included outgoing ASUCD President Josh Dalavai and incoming President Michael Gofman and Vice President Shaniah Branson, as well as most senators and commission chairs. The intended structure of the meeting was to alternate between questions from those in attendance and questions that had been gathered online.

The floor opened with a member of CADSS speaking about how she felt ASUCD was encroaching on CADSS space. She noted that most members of the African diaspora in attendance were only there because ASUCD had come into their space while they were studying or otherwise utilizing the center.

The student stated the demographic was “still the minority in this space.”

Senator Gaven Kaur said she felt responsible for feelings of encroachment. She mentioned that while she conversed with Dr. Kawami Evans, the Interim Associate Director of CADSS, about utilizing the space, Kaur failed to contact the organizers of the community. The purpose, she said, of the town halls is to promote inclusivity, not make people feel isolated in their own spaces.

A question was then read from the online form, asking how commissions came to be within ASUCD. Gofman answered and said that commissions have been created throughout the timeline of ASUCD. He was cut off by Becca Nelson, the chair of the Gender and Sexuality Commission, who criticized Gofman for speaking about commissions when he had not attended any of her commissions’ meetings.

Another member of CADSS turned the topic to newly-elected Senator Jumoke Maraiyesa. Mention of Maraiyesa was met with cheers from the audience, and a question was asked concerning how those returning to Senate would be helping Maraiyesa achieve their goals.

Julienne Correa, chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, said she had already begun working with Maraiyesa on stopping hate crimes on campus, mentioning that a task force was in the works to address such incidents and relay the information to university administrators. A few other senators also included that they had talked with Maraiyesa and looked forward to working with them on achieving their goals for the upcoming term.

A little while later, Maraiyesa joined the crowd, having left class to attend after being informed of their role in the discussion.

“None of you [except Rahi] made any attempt to talk to me during my campaign,” Maraiyesa said. They later said they felt obligated to come to the event because they did not want people to put words in their mouth and wanted they and their community to be properly represented and respected by ASUCD.

One senator responded that there were 22 candidates in the election, so it was hard to meet everyone before the results came in. This statement was met with a groan from the audience.

Maraiyesa also mentioned during their emotional speech that there was a rumor that law enforcement would be in attendance at the town hall. This statement was met with shock and anger from the audience, with members of CADSS specifically outraged.

One student in attendance asked how anyone could think it was a good idea to bring law enforcement into CADSS, knowing the strained relationship between the black community and law enforcement.

Dalavai interjected to clear up the confusion; he said that Aggie Host Security offered services to ASUCD after hearing rumors of a student protest unrelated to the town hall gathering. He said that this was not the first time such an offer had been made from law enforcement, and that each time Aggie Host asked if security was needed at an ASUCD gathering, their offer had been declined.

The elections results, which have been a source of controversy since their announcement, were also brought up. Kelechi Ohiri, a fourth-year sociology major and one of the student assistants to the chancellor, asked to address the “elephant in the room.” Ohiri asked for Gofman and Branson to clarify their platforms, their commitments to campus communities, and their steps to action items that Ohiri believed were not clear to many of those outside of ASUCD.

Gofman and Branson reiterated their platforms and talked about their commitments to increasing transparency, ending housing and food insecurity and bridging the gap between the four-year student experience and the transfer student experience.

Branson said that she recognized that the election has caused a lot of controversy, and said that students are right to feel that way. She also said that allegations that Gofman is racist are “not something we stand for.”

Other criticisms of Gofman included his relationships with the Davis College Republicans and Aggies for Israel. Gofman refuted these criticisms, saying his personal political views have nothing to do with his capacity to act as ASUCD’s new president. Gofman encouraged people who wanted to have a conversation to come to his office so he could begin reaching out to communities.

“I am not the best advocate for any of your communities,” Gofman said. “But I want to make sure that the people who are are given the proper resources.”

A student in attendance countered Gofman’s point by saying that is not the responsibility of campus communities to come to Gofman, but his responsibility to reach out to the communities and initiate these conversations. Gofman took the contact information of a few students who wanted to talk.

Senator Yajaira Ramirez Sigala criticized Gofman’s relationship with his agricultural fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho. She levelled claims against the fraternity concerning sexual assault, rape and racism.

“I don’t feel safe sitting at the same table as you,” Ramirez Sigala said to Gofman.

Russell Thomas, a third-year gender, sexuality, and women’s studies and American studies double major, asked for Gofman and Branson to publicly denounce white supremacy, gay and trans oppression, ableism and Zionism, among other ideologies. Gofman said that he refused to denounce Zionism, saying that as a member of the Jewish community he does not wish to denounce a historically-oppressed group’s movement.

Gofman and Branson agreed to denounce the other listed ideologies with nods and quiet affirmations.

Written by: Taylor LaPoint — campus@theaggie.org

Corrections (updated 4/3/18 at 9 p.m.)

A previous version of this article incorrectly quoted Becca Nelson. The comments were instead made by ASUCD Senator Yajaira Ramirez Sigala. 

This article previously stated that Nelson was requested to make a public denouncement, which is false. Shaniah Branson was asked to make the denouncement, not Nelson.

UC-AFT union representing lecturers, librarians promotes solidarity on campus

UC-AFT, a union representing lecturers and librarians on the UC Davis campus, held a rally on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Tabling in front of the Silo and Sproul Hall, union members were eager to talk to passersby about their concern regarding the Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME. In this case, Illinois public employee Mark Janus is arguing that his requirement to pay fair share fees to his union —  although he is not a member — is a violation of his free speech. Fair share fees are dues that workers who are not members of a union pay to the union that represents them. Arguments for this case were heard by the Supreme Court the Monday before the rally took place.

“This rally is called WeRise and what we’re doing is getting all of our union members together and aware of this Supreme Court case that is happening right now, which is called Janus v. AFSCME, which basically is being viewed as sort of an attack on all public unions around the country,” said Katie Rodger, a lecturer in the University Writing Program. “All of us could be affected by this Supreme Court case. Today is an information campaign and also a launch of what we are calling a recommitment effort, where we are going to ask our existing members to recommit to staying strong and part of our union.”

Rodger described the recommitment process and why it is significant to union members and leaders.

“[The recommitment effort] entails filling out a recommitment card which is a card that just says ‘I’m sticking with the union,’” Rodger said. “If the Supreme Court rules, for example, that we would need to start over again and sign people up for the union from scratch, this would be a way for us to know which people are already on board. It’s also a way really to energize people who might just be going to work everyday and [who are] not really too engaged with how the union has helped secure contracts and better wages and benefits for them.”

When asked how the union might approach individuals who do not want to sign a recommitment card, Rodger said union members were just hoping to get the chance to talk to those individuals.

“There are a lot of people who have problems or concerns about our union and we would really like to know what those things are because it is a union that represents all of us and we want it to be representative of people’s concerns as well,” Rodger said. “[I hope this rally will] raise our presence and visibility on campus, to get people excited, to get people really ready to act. We are not sure what action is going to look like yet; we are waiting for the Supreme Court to send down their decision but really being ready, I think, is primary.”

John Rundin, a lecturer in the classics program and the president of UC-AFT on the UC Davis campus, explained the different arguments of the Janus v. AFSCME case.

“For the longest time, the right wing in this country has wanted to defund unions and has wanted to basically destroy unions,” Rundin said. “Their strategy in this case was to claim that [the payment of fair share fees] is forced political speech. That is, when we force people to give us money even though they are not members, we are essentially forcing them to engage in political speech and that is against the First Amendment of the Constitution because you have a right to free speech.”

Rundin explained the union’s disagreement with this position, stating that a large portion of union fees supports efforts such as contract negotiation.

“The union has a lot of business here; we have to talk to the university and negotiate contracts and we also have to represent our members in various university administrative and legal proceedings,” Rundin said. “In other words, we have a lot of expenses that we incur that have nothing to do with politics, it’s simply the management of the workplace. Currently, if you’re not a member and you don’t want to support the political work of the union, what you can do is opt […] out of paying the portion of the money you pay that goes towards politics. It is true that we do a certain amount of lobbying and stuff like that, but you don’t have to pay for that […] and that’s been the state of affairs for a long time.”

Explaining the significance of fair share fees to the union, Rundin made a comparison between public sector unions and city councils.

“We are actually chartered by the state of California,” Rundin said. “We are really sort of a body of governance within the union and within the workplace. We are very democratic and we are kind of like a city council in that city councils are created by the state government. City councils have the right to raise taxes on those people who they are overseeing. Just because you don’t agree with the politics or whatever of the city council, that doesn’t mean you can stop paying. Essentially, when you say that people who are not members don’t have to pay union fees, it’s kind of like saying, ‘Oh, well, if you don’t agree with the city council, you don’t have to pay your taxes.’ That’s just not true. In order to have a functioning society, people have to pay taxes and fees of various sorts just to maintain things and keep things going. That’s our opinion: that we are doing nothing different from many other bodies.”

Rundin said he feels it is fair that both union members and non-members pay dues because the union has to represent all workers in its jurisdiction. Rundin expressed his thoughts on what he believes the Janus v. AFSCME case symbolizes.

“Basically, this is an attempt to defund public unions,” Rundin said. “It’s a major attack on the middle class. There is something like 21 million public employees in the U.S. and this is something that is aimed right at them in an attempt, more or less, to kick them out of the middle class. In most places, being a lecturer is a horrible job: it’s low pay, lots of work and no job security. Our union has managed to win for us livable pay, relative job security and all sorts of protections that other people lack. If they kill our union, that stuff will all eventually go away and eventually this job will become a very bad job.”

Rundin mentioned another reason why the union relies on fair-share fees in order to function, which has to do with temporary lecturers. There are a significant amount of lecturers on campus “here for just a quarter or two quarters” and it can take a while before the union has “a good list of who the lecturers on campus are.”

“If [the Supreme Court] decides that non-members don’t have to pay fees, we need to have people informed about how important the union is,” Rundin said. “If you talk about permanent lecturers here, lecturers who are career lecturers here, like me, tend to be members at really high rates. But, [for] lecturers who are here for a quarter or two quarters or maybe a year, [the rate] is much lower because they never even had a chance to hear from us. There is a big portion of our population that consists of lecturers who might not even be aware the union exists and therefore haven’t joined. Right away, if you’re [just] talking about those people, that’s a big chunk of our revenue that we would lose immediately [if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Janus].”

According to a flyer given out by UC-AFT members at the rally, better working conditions and the continuation of livable pay for lecturers impacts not just them, but also students: “[lecturers] support students by holding office hours, mentoring and advising, writing letters of recommendation for internships, jobs, and graduate school, nominating students for awards.” Their slogan is “lecturers’ teaching conditions are students’ learning conditions.” According to another flyer, the union will be holding workshops throughout March in support of union activity.

Written by: Sabrina Habchi  — campus@theaggie.org

Senator Andreas Godderis announces plan to resign from Senate

ASUCD Vice President Adilla Jamaludin called the weekly Senate meeting to order on the third floor of the Memorial Union in the Mee Room on Mar. 1 at 6:11 p.m. Senators Danny Halawi and Jesse Kullar were absent from the meeting and Senator Andreas Godderis arrived late to the meeting at 7:09 p.m. Quorum was established.

The meeting began with public discussion. Alex Park, the director of Creative Media, and Sophie Maquiling, the marketing co-director of Creative Media and a third-year design and computer science double major, discussed the unit’s opinion regarding a bill to dissolve the marketing committee within Creative Media and replace the body with a singular marketing position.

Creative Media introduced Scott Stevenson, the current business relationship manager within Student Affairs Divisional Resources as well as a UC Davis alumnus, as the desired person to fill such a marketing position.

The pair brought up marketing issues within Creative Media as it stands now. They also said the elimination of the committee would increase efficiency and transparency.

Park discussed inefficiency within the Technology, Internet and Networking Committee, another internal committee of ASUCD. He mentioned outdated technology Creative Media uses and said the situation is contradictory to the purpose of TINC which, according to the ASUCD website, is “to recommend the allocation of computer and networking equipment within ASUCD, research methods to reduce costs of computer purchases, and prioritize all Networking and Internet related requests.”

Park made a plea to the Senate table to perform its job with the benefit of ASUCD and its units in mind.

“If you want to keep TINC, make it better,” Park said.

The table questioned Stevenson about his qualifications and the goals he would pursue in the marketing position. Stevenson already works in marketing within Student Affairs, worked in graphic design at The California Aggie during his time at UC Davis and expressed interest in developing sponsor partnerships by highlighting student accomplishments.

“The biggest asset we have as a university is you, the students,” Stevenson said.

Next, during discussion of old legislation, Senator Rahi Suryawanshi brought forward a Senate resolution regarding limited housing for graduate students. Representatives from the Graduate Student Association and the association’s Housing Task Force spoke on behalf of the resolution they helped write.

The resolution, according to the ASUCD website, expresses, “solidarity on behalf of undergraduate students for graduate students and workers’ bargaining season.” The status of housing in Davis was described as a crisis, with high rent and low unit availability for students.

There was disagreement over whether to keep a line in the resolution which pointed out how UCOP “wasted money on parties” and hid $175 million in funds. A vote determined the line would stay in the resolution and the authors defended its placement as money, stating they money could have been allocated toward affordable housing.

In a vote containing 10 yes’s and two abstentions, the resolution passed as amended.

Third-year electrical and computer engineering major Stacey Wong, the director of Experimental College, then delivered a report on the unit’s status. New classes on meditation and breathing are now offered, and the quarter’s projected income is $7,960 — last quarter’s income was $5,093.

After the Experimental College unit report, the DREAM committee reported on its partnership with the lending library and the materials it has distributed to students, including iClickers and goggles.

Fair Trade UC Davis presented on its initiatives, including protecting biodiversity and advocating for equal pay.

There was a 10-minute break at 8:22 p.m. The table reconvened at 8:35 p.m.

The table participated in a Strategic Planning Activity that involved writing down areas within ASUCD they would like to see addressed on large pieces of paper.

During consideration of old legislation, Senate Bill #39, which would dissolve the Marketing Committee, was passed as amended.

Senate Bill #40, to dissolve TINC, passed as amended, as did Senate Bill #41, to dissolve the Underwriting, Sponsorship, and Advertising Committee; Senate Bill #45, to allocate $1,400 to the Whole Earth Festival budget; Senate Bill #46, to expand the jurisdiction of the Judicial Council to serve subpoenas and Senate Bill #47, to reinstate the Student Health and Wellness Committee.

Jamaludin reprimanded the table for not keeping commissions updated when bills regarding them appeared. This lack of communication has led to commissions approaching Jamaludin for information.

The Internal Affairs Commission then delivered its quarterly report.

Ex officio reports were given followed by elected officer reports.

Senator Godderis announced he will finish Winter Quarter in ASUCD, but will be stepping down from Senate due to academic scheduling conflicts with as well as a research position.

During public announcements, Environmental Policy and Planning Chair Alice Beittal announced she would be studying abroad Spring Quarter and offered her Vice Chair Lois Kim as a suitable replacement.

The meeting adjourned at 11:07 p.m.  

Written by: Elizabeth Mercado — campus@theaggie.org