Last week in Senate

ASUCD Vice President Adilla Jamaludin called to order April 13’s Senate meeting in the Memorial Union’s Mee Room at 6:10 p.m. All senators were present at quorum call.

The Senate began with a presentation from Darin Schluep, the food service director for the CoHo, who reported that the unit is continuing to work with the Manetti Shrem Museum on a CoHo cart and CoHo-To-Go, an on campus convenience store, which will soon be established. The CoHo recorded increased sales from the finals week library cart from Fall Quarter earnings of $39 per day to Winter Quarter earnings of $89 per day. Lastly, Schluep reported on the availability of açaí bowls all day and efforts to make horchata, poke bowls and more authentic sushi.

Next, Chief Information Office (CIO) Executive Advisor Carolyn Nordstrom presented a report on CIO. The report summarized the complexities of Information Technology governance and requested a student representative from ASUCD to sit on the committee. Controller Joe DeAngelo mentioned that there was a Campus Council for Information Technology (CCFITT) representative, but Nordstrom said that position has been defunct.

Two confirmations were made in the meeting. Stacey Wong was confirmed as the Experimental College unit director and Nicole Karine was confirmed as the Campus Center for the Environment unit director. There were no objections to either candidate.

Sexual Assault Awareness Advocacy Committee (SAAAC) chair Rachelle Fishbin presented a report on SAAAC. Fishbin requested more ASUCD representation at SAAAC events and meetings. SAAAC has also been working on an anonymous tip box on its website to share information to the university. Fishbin voiced concern that fraternities have never been fully investigated for sexual assault on campus.

Disability Rights Advocacy Committee (DRAC) was confirmed during the meeting. There were no objections to the committee.

ASUCD President Josh Dalavai then clarified to the packed audience that Senate Bill #76 was not made because of ideological reasons, but to protect ASUCD from legal risk.

Senate Bill #76 concerns the American flag not being compulsory at Senate meetings. But senators or ex-officios may request the flag by petitioning the Senate President Pro Tempore 24 hours in advance. During this meeting, no American flag was present in the Mee Room.

Many of the audience members were concerned with how this could put the Senate at legal risk and the cost of the flag. Others felt that the flag was necessary because their family members fought for the symbolism of the American flag.

One audience member who supported the bill said that the flag embodied an America of misogyny, genocide and sexual assault.

Senate Bill #76 was passed with seven saying yes, two saying no and three abstaining. Senator Matt Yamaguchi and Senator Michael Gofman voted no. Three members abstained to speak with public audience members outside of the Mee Room.

Senate Bill No. 61 concerns the scholarships to ASUCD volunteers for their service. The Student Government Administrative Office did not have record of the bill being voted on last quarter. The Senate introduced the bill as an emergency bill and it passed with no objections

Senate Bill #75 concerns changing the required amount of weeks the commissions have to meet from nine weeks to 10 weeks. The bill was amended and passed with no objections.

Senate Bill #79 concerns requiring the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic to provide giant posters for sororities and fraternities with contact information for sexual assault help lines. The bill passed with no objections.
Written by: Yvonne Leong — campus@theaggie.org

UC Davis professor helps to publish “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers”

Cassandra M.D. Hart, an education policy professor at UC Davis, along with Constance A. Lindsay and Seth Gershenson of American University and Nicholas Papageorge of Johns Hopkins University, published “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers” in March. This groundbreaking study highlights the importance of having Black teachers in the school system. The study, which looked at data collected from the records of 100,000 Black students in North Carolina, found that the academic progress of Black children heavily hinged on having teachers of the same race. The study showed that having at least one Black teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade decreased the probability of Black students dropping out of high school by 39 percent. The paper emphasized that teachers are more than just educators — they are role models as well.

“Teachers are some of the most influential adults that children encounter,” Gershenson said in an email interview. “They directly impart knowledge and academic skills, but also teach social skills, judgement and a sense of fairness, civic values, and so on. Students often confide in teachers and share things that they might be uncomfortable sharing with the adults in their households.”

For the Black community, which has been historically, and continues to be oppressed by educational institutions, having an authoritative adult that they cannot only confide in, but also relate, to is absolutely crucial in their development, according to the study.

“Economically disadvantaged black boys may lack role models and might thus conclude that high educational attainment is somehow not meant for them,” Papageorge said via email.  “Spending a year with an educated black professional might provide them crucial evidence that such outcomes are indeed for them.”

The presence of just one Black teacher in the lives of Black children proved to have an all-around beneficial effect academically. A second study conducted in Tennessee school systems showed that Black children who had teachers of the same race were not only more likely to graduate high school, but also were more likely to take college entrance exams and had stronger expectations to go to college. Racial stereotypes and the presence of negative adult figures often negatively influence Black children and skew their perceptions of what they can accomplish. Having Black teachers helps to counteract the effect.

“Seeing race-congruent teachers may help alleviate things like stereotype threat, and may help shape students’ goals for educational attainment,” Hart said in an email interview.

Giving Black children the initiative and confidence to succeed bodes well not only for their academic futures, but possibly for their professional futures as well.

“This study provides novel evidence that access to same-race teachers impacts Black students’ outcomes not just in the same year that they are in that teacher’s class, but down the line as well,” Hart said. “We’re definitely curious to see whether these benefits in the educational trajectory extend past high school; looking to see whether this extends to improving college outcomes or earnings in adulthood would be very interesting.”

Ultimately, the study conducted by Hart, Papageorge, Gershenson and Lindsay revealed that having Black teachers present and active in schools is absolutely vital.

“The pipeline for African American teachers is leaky at a number of spots: African American students are less likely than their white peers to go into teaching, less likely to pass licensure exams, and more likely to leave teaching than their white counterpart,” Hart said.

The researchers hope that their study can launch long term changes in school systems and spark important conversations regarding race and education in the United States.

“I think [our study] has already started some important discussions about how to better serve students of color, particularly those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds,” Gershenson said. “In particular, it raises the question of how to strategically assign students to teachers. It has also shone a spotlight on retention problems among teachers of color, and the longer-run importance of getting more black students into, and through, college.”  
Written by: Edward Zhu — campus@theaggie.org

Weeklong program builds connections, addresses issues concerning Native American communities

The UC Davis Cross Cultural Center held its 48th annual Native American Culture Days (NACD) from April 10 to 15.

The NACD is a weeklong program filled with various events and workshops designed to help local Native communities build connections and collectively address the social, cultural, historical and political issues concerning their communities.

The theme of this year’s NACD was “Honoring All Our Relations: Protecting Land and Water.” This theme was chosen because many indigenous communities are currently fighting to protect their land and water around the world.

“Native American Culture Days honors the culture, traditions, contributions and hemispheric unity of Indigenous people of the Americas,” said Karli Quintana, the coordinator of the NACD, via email. “The NACD also helps provide the campus community some knowledge about Native Americans and seeks to demystify some of the stereotypes surrounding Indigenous and Native American People.”

This year, the culture days coincided with the grand opening of the Native American Academic Student Success Center (NAASSC) located at the University House. The program started off with the Sunrise Ceremony, in which participants joined in song, prayer and reflection for the week, and ended with the powwow event.

A variety of other events took place over the course of the week. On Tuesday, April 11, Michelle Villegas Frazier, the director of the NAASSC, held a workshop teaching students how to cook and eat well as part of the effort to retain Native American scholars on campus.

The Cross Cultural Center held a film viewing of When Two Worlds Collide followed by a discussion on April 12. The film depicts the journey of an Amazonian leader who confronts the rules of the globalization game created by developed countries.

The next day, the sixth annual Native American Studies Graduate Symposium took place with the theme: “Currents of Resistance, Activism and Justice: Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism.”

On the last day, there was an indigenous arts market on the West Quad featuring indigenous arts and crafts vendors, food and live performances from student dance groups.

Other events included a silk screening workshop, hoop dancer demonstration and a workshop on making traditional medicine bags.

“The culture days provide visibility for native community and a way for us to talk about the different things that are going on in our community,” Frazier said.

Many Native American students found the culture days to be a rewarding experience.

“I got a very good sense of what struggles [Native Americans] are facing and the ways in which they’re able to come together as one and have conversations about what is university life, what kind of home lives they have and how the way I identify impacts me in all different aspects of life,” said Kealani Beltran, a third-year psychology major and a student assistant at the NAASSC who participated in the culture days.
Written by: Clara Zhao — campus@theaggie.org

Senate Bill #76 creates controversy surrounding patriotism

In order to keep ASUCD practices consistent with bylaws, the Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) created Senate Bill #76 to amend Section 1410 of the ASUCD bylaws, no longer mandating that the American flag be in the Mee Room during meetings. Instead, ASUCD senators will have discretion over whether or not to fly the American flag. The flag is not currently in the room and has not been for several years. The vote passed majority seven to two at a Senate meeting on April 13.

Itamar Waksman, a third-year international relations major and vice chairperson of the Internal Affairs Commission (IAC), authored the bill, amending Senate bill Section 1410. National news and media outlets have painted this legislature with a political brush, accusing it of being “unpatriotic.” Although Waksman maintains that this was apolitical and procedural, many major news organizations, including Fox News and Breitbart, have charged his bill with harnessing a political narrative or conviction due to its language about differing patriotism.

“In accordance with the understanding that the concept of United States of America and patriotism is different for every individual, and it should not be compulsory that the flag is in view at all times during Senate meetings,” the bill states. “Considering that the flag is seldom present at senate meetings, it should not be mandated by the Bylaws as a codified practice.”

On April 16, Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” ran a segment titled “Trouble With Schools: Fight Against Old Glory,” which featured the ASUCD bill. The following day on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” live program, Carlson told viewers that “two UC Davis student senators,” referring to Waksman and ASUCD Senator Jose Meneses, who introduced the bill to the Senate, “backed out last minute and stopped returning any of our phone calls” about talking on-air. On the program, radio host Tammy Bruce talked about how Waksman “is also a naturalized citizen […] they’ve come here not to become part of America, but to punish it.”

Waksman stated that Tucker Carlson “used the segment to bash me and [Meneses]” and was repeatedly calling Waksman that night asking him to talk on-air.

Previously, Section 1410 made it mandatory for the Senate meetings to fly a U.S. flag, yet there is no flag displayed in the Mee room, where the ASUCD meetings are held. Waksman views this amendment as a non-partisan and apolitical decision that solely corrects existing bylaws, keeping the ASUCD practices consistent with the codes.

“We many times have had to change the bylaw itself so that our actions are consistent,” Waksman said. “And that’s really a question of the legitimacy of an association. With that in mind, we were going through all the chapters of the bylaws and different inconsistencies in them, and then section 1410 came up, the one that said the flag shall be up at every Senate meeting. There has never been a flag there since 2005 or 2006. With that fact, I said I’m just going to change the language of this portion on the bylaw so we weren’t constantly breaking it. I just reformed Section 1410 to say that it should not be compulsory that the flag is at every Senate meeting. In ASUCD, we have our bylaws, and our issue is that there are a lot of inconsistencies between our practices and the bylaws themselves. And there are many, many examples of this. So, what IAC has been doing, because we deal with the institutional makeup of the ASUCD, we’ve been kind of scrubbing the bylaws for the last year plus.”

Waksman said that news stations and ASUCD members have pushed a bill that was aiming toward procedural legitimacy into a political narrative.

“I want to say that most of the articles that have been written so far are huge misrepresentations of what I did, what the bill is and my intentions,” Waksman said. “It’s clear that mostly right leaning media sources have been covering this, and they’ve definitely been adding a spin to it. The right seems to really have taken this, and certain individuals in the ASUCD Senate have used this for their political gain, in my opinion, and so have the other right wing media elements. However, this originally was really not over this kind of political debate over the flag and what it represents. It became that after individuals starting using it for their own political gain.”

Waksman said he understands that this bill cannot be completely apolitical for every person, even if it is for him.

“Don’t get me wrong, everyone has their view of the flag,” Waksman said. “Personally, I applied to be an American and I went through the process — it wasn’t just given to me at birth. I love this country, and I have very positive feelings associated with the flag, which is why it’s been sort of strange that I’ve been framed as this sort of ‘flag-hater.’ However, I do acknowledge, and I acknowledge in the bill, that certain people because of their experience in the country, or there people’s experiences in this country,  have a different view of the flag and symbols of this country. I didn’t want to take a side in this debate, and I didn’t want to use legislation to force the victory of one side over another.”

Michael Gofman, an ASUCD senator and a first-year political science and economics major, believes that Itamar’s decision was charged by political motivations.

“In my opinion, and what the author himself stated in multiple TV interviews, is that this bill had to do with patriotism,” Gofman said. “That patriotism means such different things to different people, and that the American flag can be found offensive to certain kinds of people.I think it’s great that there’s been so much attention put to this at a local level, national level, state level. I think a lot of it is very one-sided, and in reading articles, there’s so much misinformation in what’s going on, but I think it’s good that this makes people upset, because this bill made me upset and it’s good to see that a lot of Americans feel the same way.”

While Waksman assured that the decision was solely procedural, Gofman views this as a copout.

“This bill was proposed within Senate as if it was a logistical issue like the whole purpose is correcting a bylaw, like there’s some kind of misunderstanding within bylaws, and that’s the not the case,” Gofman said. “As I mentioned earlier, when talking with outside news agencies, when talking about it in any other format, all parties involved agreed that this was a political bill  and that’s why I was against it. I was against it from a political perspective.”

Gofman said that once the bylaw has been officially edited, he will submit another resolution, effectively to supercede the resolution that that Itamar authored. Gofman’s re-resolution will maintain optionality of the flag and allow any student to put the flag up in the Mee room.

“Once the bylaws are edited so that I can then submit a new resolution about them, I’m going to submit a new resolution which will sort of be a compromise,” Gofman said. “It will maintain the optionality so that if no one wants it there, it won’t be there. However, any student can, of there own volition, go up there and put the flag up on their own. And I actually have a few groups that are interested in paying for a new flag for Senate, because we already have a flag pole, we just need to get the flag back.”

When asked about why he didn’t uphold Section 1410 to physically place a flag in Senate until hearing about Waksman’s amendment, Gofman explained the multitude of bylaws. Gofman also asserted that Waksman brought this issue up first, not him.

“I am a brand new senator; I’m brand new to the school,” Gofman said. “I’m a freshman. This is going to be my third week right now of Senate. We have two-and-a-half-ish thousand individual lines of bylaws that I’ve read through from start to finish before. I will actually cite the fact that I actually just had not known this rule existed. Had I known — had I had more time to read the bylaws more carefully —I would have brought this up and said  ‘Let’s get the flag up there’. If I had read it, maybe I would have started pushing to bring the flag there, but I hadn’t. The only people that were pushing for this were people who were trying to get rid of it, and that’s why I think there’s a political agenda tied to this because this is so insignificant and inconsequential to anything on campus. If you’re focusing on the flag, that means you have a reason to focus on the flag.”

Waksman said that his intention was never to incite political polarization and that it is  unfortunate that “certain individuals in ASUCD used this for their own political gain.” He sees this ASUCD infrastructure adjustment as something minor and non-partisan that has been spun and narrativized.

“This is also an example of this amazing machine that exists in this country of fake news,” Waksman said. “They took this, which really isn’t a news story — a very localized, isolated event. On a national scale, it really gained traction only from right wing media sources including Fox News, and that’s because their spin machine decided ‘Wow, this is another great way to rile up our viewers and use it for our gain, and to ferment more outrage and polarization. What me and my friend [Meneses] have gone through in last few days with this article, and with the interviews we’ve done, they basically took it and turned it into fake news. It’s been amazing on a personal level to experience this incredible, incredible fake news machine in this country.”

ASUCD President Josh Dalavai understands the flag controversy’s sensitive nature.

“It’s the Senate’s decision and I’ll support what they do,” Dalavai said. “I will comment on the misinformation that’s been going on and has spiraled into something much larger than it actually is. People hear the word ‘flag,’ and it’s a symbol. It represents something, it holds value and because of that is very sensitive — understandably so. The ASUCD did not vote to take down the American flag; all they did is say that it shall not be mandatory to fly the flag.”

At the April 20 Senate meeting, Dalavai vetoed Itamar’s bylaw, which required that the Senate pro temp approve of a request in advance to display the flag. Dalavai will introduce his amended resolution, which gives any senator the instantaneous right to fly the flag, at the April 27 Senate meeting. The flag was flown at the Senate meeting on April 20.

Outside of ASUCD members and nationwide news, community members have also expressed anger towards what they view as anti-American counter-patriotism, even using threats and xenophobia. In an email with the subject title “Itmar,” one person named “RP McMurphy” emailed the ASUCD Senate.

“Your behavior is despicable,” the email said. “What you don’t understand, is that without the Flag and everything it stands for, you would not be here. Someone will grant you the wish. Suggestion: m—– f—–, keep your head down and your mouth shut. You are in the wrong alley.”
Written by: Aaron Liss  — campus@theaggie.org