Four UC Davis science faculty panelists, Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter attend first event of the “Dialogue and Discernment” series

UC Davis’ “Dialogue and Discernment” series of academic discussions rolled out its first event on Feb. 22, “Science In a Post-Truth Era,” featuring four science faculty panelists, a moderator and Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter.

The four faculty members provided opening statements affirming the dual importance of diversity in dialogue and discernment. The speakers described a perpetuated separation between science and society, and how scientists and the public must work together to shatter this wall and suture the two.

Hexter gave an introduction at the start of the round-table, orating his reverence for academia and upholding the value of scholarly process.

“Those that are part of the academic community have a special opportunity as well as a special responsibility to do better,” Hexter said. “This exploration of what is at stake and the idea of dialogue speaks to my expectation that its appearance in our survey title won’t puzzle anyone. But why did I also add ‘discernment?’ In my opinion, we must be skilled in employing discernment, which I define as a honed critical faculty encompassing knowledge, reason and more.”

The moderator, Deb Niemeier, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Education, spoke to the audience after Hexter, explaining the issues and goals that would be addressed in the talk.

“Generally speaking, the aim of scientists and the public would appear to be compatible,” Niemeier said. “And yet, scientists are facing marginalization and suppression from public and political leadership, so what is going on? That’s the purpose of this roundtable today.”  

The speakers focused on the importance of scientific expertise and discipline, highlighting that while bolstering diversity of hypothesis and scientific freedom is important, scientific standards must also be upheld in the process.

Benjamin Houlton, a Chancellor’s Fellow professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and the director of the UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, jokingly described climate change as one “of the issues that wakes me up in a cold sweat at night.” Houlton explained how he saw truth as a constant search with a multitude of hypothesis, and how absolutism within political and social contexts can damage science.

“Scientific process to me is like a limit function in calculus — you can approach the truth but never quite get there,” Houlton said. “Scientists don’t have the drop on truth — what we do have the drop on is a process that protects ourselves from ourselves. If you take the case study of climate change, over decades of intense research there’s been several hypotheses for why we see the warmth of the planet increasing. We now have a working model of the climate system which says humans are disproportionately responsible for changes in climate.”

Houlton and the other speakers referenced political administrations in misrepresenting the scientific and expert community with the public, corporate and political manipulation of science. The speakers posited that political influence on science has challenged free academic discourse.

Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has defunded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rolling back the clean water acts and revising former President Obama’s 2015 climate change regulation, which targeted coal-fired power plants. Trump’s administration has also removed online climate and environmental public data.

“Someone with fossil fuel connections is now part of the EPA,” Houlton said. “It’s an assault to society when we elect these officials.”

The panelists discussed how non-environmentally friendly institutions impede scientific progress.

Houlton cited that “one-eighth of people around the world die of air pollution” and that industry catalyzes this damage through a system in which “the less climate scientists do, the more institutions make.”

Tessa Hill, an associate professor of in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, ocean acidification expert and recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers views public opinion and scientific opinion as often unnecessarily at odds.

“The post-truth era is long lived for a climate scientist,” Hill said. “We have for a long time lived in a swirl of misinformation. An attempt to use misinformation was and is used against a growing body of scientific evidence and consensus in terms of where the scientific method brought us to where we are today.”

Veronica Morales, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, described scientific discovery as a “torturous journey to the truth,” and said that the full scientific process is often arduous.

Joe Dumit, a professor of anthropology and the director for the Institute of Social Sciences, illuminated his ideology on discerning between between corporate and public beliefs. He told the audience that he begins his class each day with the question: “What’s the difference between facts and public relations?”

In addition, Houlton described social media’s role in changing people’s views of climate change.

“Social media and internet has provided a voice to everybody, and suddenly everyone’s opinion kind of carries the same way,” Houlton said. “A single tweet from the POTUS about climate now carries as much weight as a couple decades of papers because of who it comes from. I think we haven’t developed a reasonable way to use this new appendage of social media and the internet.”

Jared Kohn, a third-year English major, similarly believes that the rise of internet and media misinformation has created a diminished expert opinion, sullying the respect for academic and expert findings.

“I don’t think the concept of a post-truth society begins and ends with Trump, I think it’s a situation that’s been developing and growing,” Kohn said. “I almost feel like it began with the inception of the internet because the expert opinion becomes diminished amongst information now being everywhere. An inability to trust the concept of expertise was facilitated by a rise of information.”

Attendees then had the chance to ask the panelists questions. One community member asked if it was time for scientists to hang up their lab coats and become activists, while others asked how science could become more publicly accessible, using examples like NASA artistic renderings or YouTube videos.

The next event in the Dialogue and Discernment series, titled “Milo War: Campus Activism and Freedom of Speech in the Age of Outrage,” was led by professor Robert Ostertag from the Department of Cinema and Digital Media on March 9.

Written by: Aaron Liss — campus@theaggie.org

Davis resident Mohini Jain sponsors chair on ancient Indian religion

To celebrate the creation of a new endowed chair in Jain studies at UC Davis, Middlebury Collect President Laurie Patton gave a presentation to a standing-room-only crowd on Feb. 21.

The Mohini Jain Presidential Chair for Jain Studies is backed by a $1.5 million endowment from Davis resident Mohini Jain. The chair will be housed in the Religious Studies Department.

“This evening’s lecture by President Patton honors Mrs. Mohini Jain’s long history of giving to UC Davis and the commitment to education and principles of robust dialogue [that are] a part of the university’s academic initiative,” said Archana Venkatesan, the chair of the Religious Studies Department. “[…] It has been truly a pleasure, a privilege, to know Mohini as a friend [and] a mentor.”

Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter gave opening remarks before Patton took the stage. Hexter thanked Jain for her donation to the university and explained the chief goal of the new position.

“This evening’s event is so special [because] it allows us to honor Mrs. Mohini Jain, a long-time and treasured friend of UC Davis,” Hexter said. “[…] Mohini and her family have endowed a presidential chair at UC Davis. This chair is dedicated to the study of Jainism in the religious studies department, and the hope is the chair will serve as an interdisciplinary leader on campus in the study of Indian religions and the religions of Southeast Asia more broadly.”

According to a statement by Jain to UC Davis Dateline, she is most excited to see the societal impact that this new chair will bring to the university.

“Jainism is a very ancient and important religion and philosophy that champions truth, nonviolence and a multiplicity of viewpoints,” Jain said. “In our multicultural, global world, it is important to escape boxed-in points of view. I am hopeful the impact of the chair at UC Davis will be a broadening of minds and a renewed focus on dialogue and peace.”

Susan Kaiser, vice dean of humanities, arts and cultural studies in the College of Letters and Sciences, highlighted the great educational value that the new chair will bring.

“The Jain chair will be used to do some wonderful things at UC Davis,” Kaiser said. “[…] The endowed chair will promote a robust research profile with peer-reviewed publications and books and articles, contributing to an international reputation in Jain studies […] The chair will greatly enhance the religious studies department […] making this department one of the truly accomplished religious studies departments in the nation.”

Patton then took to the stage to present a roughly 50 minute lecture.

“I just have to say: standing room only in a lecture on the early Indian religions,” Patton said. “Something must be going right with the world. It’s delightful to be here at UC Davis and to celebrate this new chair in Jain studies.”

The moral standing of this new chair is very important to Patton.

“The idea of a chair to explore the complexity of early Indian religions, with a focus [on] Jainism, and with a focus on how they can make peace in the world today, is a dream come true,” Patton said. “There are very few people like you who exist in the world and I really mean that.”

Jain said that she chose to donate to the religious studies department because the humanities at times can be undervalued.

“I also always have felt that the department of religious studies, humanities, have been undervalued,” Jain said. “For what they offer, somehow people don’t recognize always. Whenever the donations go and chair establishments, they go to engineering and many other departments that are more visible, maybe with immediate gains.”

Written by: Kenton Goldsby — campus@theaggie.org

TAPS to create alternatives to single auxiliary vehicular use

The colder, rainier months of Winter Quarter often lead to an influx of students driving to campus. To accommodate the increased numbers of vehicles, Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) implemented the stack parking program on Feb. 13.

The stack parking program started as a temporary solution to mitigate the augmented amount of cars being driven to campus during the winter months. The program is meant to be dissolved at the end of Winter Quarter, as more students decide to use active transportation, such as biking or walking, to get to campus during Spring Quarter.

“The number of spaces created by stack parking is contingent upon the parking facility’s space inventory and layout,” the TAPS website reads. “For example, the daily parking capacity in Lot 47 will increase by 100 spaces and in the Quad structure by 120 spaces.”

Based on fiscal estimates provided by TAPS, the program will cost around $45,000 to operate. The daily cost at the Quad Parking Structure is $1,750.50, which pays for seven hired attendants, and $631.50 for Lot 47, which has four.

A long-term solution to accommodate student parking would be construction of a new parking structure. Currently the campus has three parking structures, the largest being the Pavilion Parking Structure, which is six stories tall and can hold a total of 1,453 cars. According to TAPS Director Clifford Contreras, it costs approximately $30,000 per space to build a parking garage. By this estimation, the Pavilion Parking Structure would have totaled around $43.5 million to construct.

Additionally, Contreras noted that stack parking provides more flexibility in terms of its presence and use.

“At the end of the day when we don’t use [stack parking] anymore, it goes away,” Contreras said. “It’s so expensive to build parking on campus.”

Rather than spend funds on accommodating for extra parking, TAPS plans on creating new initiatives to encourage alternative modes of transportation. Alta Planning and Design has been hired to create programs, engage the campus and conduct surveys to identify ways to reduce the number of single, auxiliary vehicular use.

“We see this as a stop gap measure to put in place until we are able to create reward packages,” Contreras said.

Contreras did not mention what these “reward packages” will specifically entail.

According to a 2015-16 UC Davis Campus Travel Survey Report, on average 22.9 percent of students drive their cars alone onto campus.

“On an average weekday, about 87.1 percent of people physically travel to campus, (approximately 38,319 people) including those living on campus,” the report read. “Among these, 45 percent bike to get there, 7 percent walk or skate, 23 percent drive alone, 5 percent carpool or get a ride, 19 percent ride the bus, and 1 percent ride the train.”

UC Davis is currently working toward a 10 percent reduction in the number of cars driven to campus by 2025. Contreras hopes that this can be achieved with help from new reward package programs.

Written by: Lindsay Floyd — campus@theaggie.org