Third of four UC chancellors to call for UC’s divestment from fossil fuels in one week

Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter announced his support for fossil fuel divestment on May 15 following student protests at Mrak Hall. The movement is calling for the UC Regents to divest from the UC system’s $2.5 billion investments in companies that support fossil fuels. Hexter joins UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George R. Blumenthal and UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) Chancellor Henry T. Yang, who was the first UC chancellor to call for UC divestment from fossil fuels.

Fossil Free UC Davis members began their protests at the Memorial Union and later held a sit-in at Mrak Hall. Students chose to continue protesting despite threats of possible Student Judicial Affairs action and police confrontation. Sarah Risher, a third-year environmental policy and planning major, said that the organization contacted members of the UC Davis administration who said they would assist with efforts to speak with UC Regents members. Students were unable to gain support from UC Regent Richard Sherman.

“Hexter finally supporting the fossil fuel divestment movement is important because it sends a message that this is not something just the students want but something that UC Davis as a whole wants,” Risher said via email. “This puts more pressure on the Regents to act in the interests of the UC campuses rather than their own.”

Fossil Free UC Davis is a chapter of Fossil Free UC (FFUC), a UC-wide campaign calling for UC system divestment from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.

“The greater goal of FFUC is to divest fully from the fossil fuel industry,” said Evan Steel, a fourth-year environmental policy and planning major. “This sends a clear message that there are viable clean energy paths forward and that the UC system does not support the oppressive and destructive regime of the fossil fuel industry. Our goals align with efforts to hold the UC accountable to its students, workers, faculty and the public. Ultimately, we want to see the democratization of our education system in a way that centers the voices of those who have been historically and socially marginalized and oppressed.”

Global studies Ph.D. student Theo LeQuesne, the campaign coordinator for Fossil Free UCSB, said that Fossil Free UC Davis has played a crucial role in solidifying the support of chancellors around the issue. LeQuesne stressed the importance of every UC carrying out action similar to the sit-in.

“Interim Chancellor Hexter’s public endorsement of fossil fuel divestment is a testament to the momentum and support that students across the UC have built around severing ties with the fossil fuel industry,” LeQuesne said via email. “As the third of four chancellors to endorse fossil fuel divestment in the six days since UCSB’s 400 person sit, Chancellor Hexter is helping to solidify the kind of leadership that chancellors across the UCs must show in addressing the climate crisis and delegitimizing the fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, the UC Regents, and particularly Regent Sherman, continue to reject any such leadership and instead choose to side with fossil fuel interests over UC students, faculty, staff and chancellors. We need bold leadership from Regent Sherman, and we need it now.”

FFUC receives additional support from partner organizations like 350.org, an international environmental organization building a global grassroots movement to take on the fossil fuel industry and combat climate change. 350.org gets its name from the belief that the atmospheric concentration of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide is a safe upper limit.

Katie McChesney, the U.S. divestment campaign manager at 350.org, said that UC students and staff have been at the forefront of the divestment movement since its beginnings in 2012.

“In [the] last month alone, hundreds of students and four UC Chancellors have taken bold action on fossil fuel divestment,” McChesney said via email. “It is time that Sherman and the UC Regents heed the generational mission and divest from the rouge, destructive fossil fuel industry. In the era of Trump, it is up to every institution to pick a side, the side of a bright future lit by 100% renewable energy or one wrecked by climate and political chaos. Incremental divestment policies clearly show Sherman and the Regents have taken preliminary moral and financial warning signs, but it is time to divest the rest.”

Benjamin Houlton, the director of the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, believes the future risks of climate change for people and the planet will be greatly reduced by rerouting the energy economy toward carbon neutral resources. Divesting from fossil fuels is a critical part of this transition.

“UC Davis has a key role to play in the research and scholarship of climate change, and divestment sends a signal to the world that we are taking care of our own carbon pollution too,” Houlton said via email.  

Houlton explained that the path to reducing major threats of climate change will require all countries to adhere to rapid global emissions reductions and cut global carbon pollution in half each decade moving forward to reach climate neutral emissions by no later than 2050.

“The fossil fuel sector is subsidized by governments at [approximately] $400 to $600 billion annually,” Houlton said. “This subsidy slows the free market enterprise from unleashing the power of solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy sources that don’t emit carbon pollution. Divestment is a critical aspect of allowing the renewable energy industry to reach its full potential as quickly as possible.”

Following Hexter, UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla also released a statement in support of fossil fuel divestment on May 17.

Written by: Jayashri Padmanabhan — campus@theaggie.org

UC Davis graduate, producer for NBC News Bay Area’s piece about police misconduct on school campuses wins alongside Beyoncé’s Lemonade, FX’s Atlanta, HBO’s VEEP

Michael Bott, a UC Davis graduate and current producer for the investigative unit of NBC News Bay Area, has been awarded the most prestigious award in broadcast journalism for his piece on the misuse of police officers on school campuses.

During his time at UC Davis, Bott majored in international relations and wrote for the city news desk at The Aggie. As an undergraduate student, Bott had no intention of pursuing a career in journalism.

“I thought I wanted to get into politics, until I did a summer internship after my freshman [year] under Diane Feinstein,” Bott said.

After spending a summer abroad in Spain following his junior year, Bott applied to be a reporter for The Aggie.

“That was when I really realized that this is where my passion [is] and this is what I want to do with my life, to pursue a career in journalism,” Bott said.

Following his graduation, Bott worked at an ABC station in San Francisco as an entry-level production assistant, known as the lowest paid job in television. His next job was at the ABC affiliate station called News 10 in Sacramento, where he was offered a position as an assignment editor. As assignment editor, he was in charge of covering breaking news by sending out crews to cover what was happening.

“When I was just starting in this business at my first job in television the [veteran] reporters would look at me and tell me I’m crazy for wanting to get into this business now, at that time newspapers were laying staff off and a lot of people just thought that the media as it had existed for decades was dying,” Bott said. “I’m so glad I didn’t listen to those people, [journalism] is not a career that you’re gonna make a ton of money in, sometimes it can be stressful […] [but] it really is a rewarding job, I would go crazy if I had to do a desk job every day, [I’m] allowed to cover important stories, it’s always interesting, you’re meeting new people every day and you’re doing what I consider to be important work […] if you just [want] to make ends meet and collect paychecks, journalism is not the way to go but if you want to do something that’s really rewarding don’t listen to the people that doubt what’s out there.”

Bott began his position as an investigative producer for NBC about two years ago, when he first took action to look into the topic of police misuse.

“Nationally, black students are about 3 times more likely to be arrested at school than white students,” reads the NBC website. “Children with disabilities are also 3 times more likely to be arrested compared to their peers. In California, black students with disabilities — compared to white students without disabilities — are 16 times more likely to be arrested at school.”

This discrepancy ignited Bott’s interest, and he was curious to delve further into the dynamic of disciplinary practices across Bay Area school districts. He initiated the investigation by looking into the Department of Education archives of student arrests and citations at schools.

“The data was online but it was old and new data wasn’t going to be released for a while so we decided to go to each individual school district and see what their arrest and citation rates were for students,” Bott said.

According to Bott, this portion was the most labor intensive process of the reporting. Many districts were unresponsive to public records requests that were sent to them. From the 160 school districts sampled, some were not actively collecting data, even though there are risks of losing public funding if they do not do so. Others were not even aware that they had to be keeping track at all.

While Bott was the producer and the primary facilitator of this project, he collaborated with NBC reporter Bigad Shaban. The pair have been working on this investigative piece for the past two years, and they are still adding on to their work.

“Our actual investigation [has been for] two years but we submitted a year’s worth of work [ for the Peabody] to date we’ve done seven parts, but we continue to go in depth [with] stories that we want to continue to pursue,” Shaban said.

Bott discussed cases of students getting arrested on school grounds for minor behavioral issues. He added that, according to guidelines of the American Civil Liberties Union, it would be appropriate for school counselors or teachers, instead of police, to get involved in those particular situations, such as a student doing somersaults on the muddy school quad.

“There are so many students dealing with autism who may have all sorts of special challenges, I guess what is likely happening is that schools don’t have the staff trained to interact with those students, a lot of schools who have police officers on hand just call [them] […] counselors are trained to deescalate the situation, police officers aren’t trained to deal with kids they arrest bad guys […] when you’re putting them on a school campus and telling them to be the school disciplinarian, they’re going to do what they’re trained to do which is arrest and incite,” Bott said.

One particular case stood out to Bott, and this involved a 13-year-old student with autism spectrum disorder who police threatened with arrest over a minor issue.

“Adrian [from San Jose Unified school district] had been cited, which the same as an arrest on your record, for basically taking a small rock and scribbling his initials out on the sidewalk of the school, he was able to clean it off with soap and water,” Bott said. “This school called the police and they threatened to put handcuffs [on him].”

Later in the reporting, Bott and his team uncovered that several campuses had numerous police officers on the premise while lacking a single counselor.

“That was startling, [it] makes you question the priorities of these districts,” Bott said.

Another “key component” of the investigation became the report showing that many school officers do not receive sufficient training.

“The Department of Justice recommends 40 hours for a school based officer, but in San Jose school district they were training officers for 30 minutes,” Bott said.

Both Shaban and Bott are glad that their reporting led to some changes in the school system.

“It’s been wonderful to have the reporting make a positive change, whether it was local policy changes or catching the attention of the White House,” Shaban said.

Bott and Shaban feel very humbled and excited to receive the Peabody award among veteran nominees like CNN and 60 Minutes.

“It’s always nice to be recognized for your work, I certainly wasn’t expecting [to win the award,” Bott said. “I’ve won regional awards and local awards and that kind of thing but you know [the Peabody award] is a pretty big one so we were really shocked when they even announced we were finalists. You look at your name among the other finalist and national news power houses and you start to feel like a bit of an imposter.”

Shaban also expressed excitement for being a winner among other well-known entertainment names.

“It’s not every day that you’re on the same list as Beyoncé […] the Peabody is known as Pulitzer of broadcast journalism so we are really really proud,” Shaban said.

According to the Peabody website, the rubric that the contestants are judged on includes “[recognizing] when storytelling is done well in electronic media; when stories there matter. These are stories that engage viewers as citizens as well as consumers.”

This statement aligns with Bott’s mission as a journalist, which he said is “to hold the powerful accountable.”

“The public is on the other side of the coin, are having the greater appreciation for journalism now and understanding the importance of it, understanding that government and public officials don’t always have your best interest in mind and the media is the only force out there with the power to combat that and try to get at the truth, as a citizen you have no chance of fighting that power alone […] the press and media [in my opinion] is the best way the public can hold the government accountable because ultimately they should be accountable to public but unfortunately in many cases they’re not,” Bott said. “ [Private citizens can’t] […] hold [their] public officials accountable by themselves so they turn to us.”

Written by: Kimia Akbari — campus@theaggie.org

Underdog IPA released to public through Sudwerk Brewing Company

Four UC Davis students, who started brewing in a practical malting and brewing class, placed first in professor Charles W. Bamforth’s annual Iron Brew competition and earned the chance to work with Sudwerk Brewing Company to manufacture their winning beer.

The four students, Nayvin Chew, a fourth-year biotechnology and music major; Caitlin Ellis, a recent viticulture and enology graduate; Calvin Hsu, a fourth-year food science and statistics double major; and Eva Tran, a fifth-year food science major, had never brewed before taking Bamforth’s Food Science and Technology 102B class.

These underdogs, known as the Cracked Hops, made up for their lack of experience with dedication and tenacity. Despite the group’s first few brewing flops — one of which Tran claims their teaching assistant had to spit out — their grit and teamwork contributed to the creation of a stellar final product.

The team perfected their India pale ale (IPA) over the course of four different batches, progressively tweaking their recipe and carefully monitoring temperature fluctuation. Their tireless brewing resulted in a hoppy and refreshing IPA.

Bamforth, affectionately known as “the Pope of Foam,” is a distinguished professor of malting and brewing sciences at UC Davis and runs the annual Iron Brew competition. The competition tasks students with creating a recipe and then brewing and analyzing their beer before competing against classmates.

Bamforth aims to set students up for success. Competing students have the opportunity to interact with actual brewing professionals. As the winners of the competition, the Cracked Hops will get to work even more closely with noteworthy members of the brewing industry.

“They get to present their beer at the [Sudwerk Brewing Company] Dock Store on Friday and in various outlets across the city,” Bamforth said via email. “They get to be glad about a job well done, to have the best beer among a roster of great beers.”

Tran felt instilled with a passion for brewing because of Bamforth’s encouragement.

“When I came into Davis I didn’t really have a direction for myself,” Tran said via email. “Taking [a food science and technology class] changed my outlook. Though the professor wasn’t Charlie himself he managed to inspire something within me to pursue brewing.”

Their beer beat out 10 other entries and was applauded by the panel of judges, all of whom were brewing professionals from the Northern California area. Among the prestigious panel was Dave Gull, founder of New Helvetica Brewing Company. Gull was impressed by the success of the team’s IPA.

“The winning team executed a very clean brew, without any noticeable flaws — that’s hard to do for some seasoned brewers,” Gull said in a press release. “This beer is better than some professionally brewed beers I’ve tasted.”

Since the competition, the winners have been working with Sudwerk and the company’s head brewer, Thomas Stull, planning to transform their classroom IPA into one that will be produced professionally.

The Davis public had its first chance to experience the team’s award-winning beer on May 12, when it was served at the Underdog IPA release party. In the future, the beer will also be served at a number of local venues, including Sudwerk’s taproom.

Written by: Ally Russell — campus@theaggie.org

Three candidates for the position speak at public forums

The UC Davis Police Department is looking to hire a new police chief in the wake of former Police Chief Matthew Carmichael’s resignation in August. As a part of their interview process, three promising candidates will each be speaking at one in a series of public forums.

According to a press release, each candidate will be responding to the following questions: “What should be the primary objectives of the Chief of Police at UC Davis for the short and long term? What specific steps should a Chief of Police at UC Davis take to balance public safety, the needs of a diverse community, and free speech rights?”

The first forum took place on May 25 at Hyatt Place UC Davis and featured candidate Joseph Farrow, an alumnus of San Diego State University. Farrow has over 37 years of experience working in public safety via the California Highway Patrol, the largest state police agency in the nation.

“[The] policing world is the one occupation I can think of where [at] any moment in time any action by any member of the police department can impact somebody or some community’s life […],” Farrow said. “So I take the responsibility of policing very seriously.”

During his speech, Farrow emphasized the importance of leadership, policy and training for members of the police force. His style of leadership focuses on dialogue and positive interaction with both his staff and the community.

Farrow hopes to make the UCD police one of the top departments in the country so that students leave the school believing in the effectiveness of its police force.

“I’m looking for someone with a good education, someone who has demonstrated leadership and integrity, someone who has balance and understands the importance of family, community and the role of law enforcement in the community,” said Sergeant Danny Sheffield, another UC Davis police officer who attended the forum.

After Farrow’s speech, there was an open question-and-answer session. One issue brought up multiple times was how Farrow would handle student protests — a frequent occurrence on college campuses. In his response, Farrow emphasized his commitment to freedom of speech, stating that the police should be watchful and closeby but still give people space, taking action only when necessary. Farrow also emphasized the importance of communicating effectively with protesters to de-escalate tense situations.

“I think the role [of the chief of police] is important because we need someone who has a keen eye on safety on campus,” said Milton Lang, the associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs. “But in addition to that, we need someone who can really connect and partner with the different constituencies across the campus in a way to allow the community at large to become a partner of the chief of police and the UC Davis Police Department so we can all begin to work together to enhance safety on campus.”

The second forum will be held on May 30 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. at the Manetti Shrem Museum, and the third forum will be held on June 5 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. at Hyatt Place UC Davis. Each will feature another potential candidate.

“I think we have some good candidates, and we’ll see what happens and how this turns out,” Lang said.

Written by: Clara Zhao — campus@theaggie.org

Initiative hopes to raise awareness for environmental injustices within marginalized communities

ASUCD Senate passed a resolution on April 20 that was proposed by the Environmental Justice for Underrepresented Communities (EJUC) to make the topic of environmental justice a required part of the environmental policy and planning major curriculum at UC Davis.

The EJUC is a student organization at UC Davis that is dedicated to bringing awareness to environmental injustices within marginalized communities. The group addresses these issues through organizing activism, promoting environmental justice within environmental science education and creating spaces to voice environmental injustices faced by underrepresented communities.

“I did not learn about the issues of environmental justice until I took a random GE class on nature and culture and my professor had made it a class focused on environmental justice issue,” said Su-Lin Terhell, a fourth-year environmental science and management major who helped establish the EJUC. “It was really shocking that none of my major classes taught about this issue […] Environmental justice topics deal with public health, racism and how environmental harm affects certain groups of people […] It is something that should be taken in consideration when it comes to any job in the environmental field.”

The EJUC submitted an open letter to the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Environmental Science and Policy Department on April 7.

The letter asked for the creation of an environmental justice track offered through the department, the development of an Environmental Justice 001 course by the department, the inclusion of environmental justice courses that are already available on campus on degree worksheets and eventually the creation of an environmental justice major and minor. The letter was presented at the Senate meeting and received support from many senators.

“As a senator, I mainly felt that my job was to support students, especially those who felt that they weren’t getting what they needed from the school,” said Julie Jung, an ASUCD senator and second-year political science and art history double major. “EJUC came to Senate outlining how environmental science and justice majors weren’t being taught the intersectional materials needed in order to fully understand what environmental justice is. Due to our current political climate, I think it’s especially important to know what it means to be intersectional, and this was my way of supporting the idea.”

To gain support for its cause, the EJUC put out an online petition. Hundreds of students, faculty, organizations and community members who identified with the cause have signed the petition.

“While there are ethnic studies that talk about these issues, there have been instances of disregard about cultural awareness and intersecting with environmental injustices,” said Julienne Correa, a second-year psychology and sociology major who signed and advocated for the petition. “We come here for education and we pay tuition expecting to learn about important issues relating to what we want to pursue after college. This is a great initiative and I am very proud of the folks that are continuously advocating for it.”

Written by: Clara Zhao — campus@theaggie.org