Vet students, undergraduates balance pets with school

As students enter college, they also find opportunities to take part in adult activities — like adopting pets. For some UC Davis students, adopting pets serves as a way to focus their attention on something other than school.

“My housemates and I wanted a dog for company and also […] for therapy,” said Vyvy Ha, third-year evolution, ecology and biodiversity major and owner of a 6-year-old rescue dog named Lexi. “College is stressful, and dogs eliminate stress because they’re so cute and fluffy.”

Many UC Davis students adopt pets for various reasons, including mental health and comfort. Having pets also encourages physical health, since animals need exercise too. Students find that especially during exam season, getting out of the house with an animal is a great way to stay active. However, owning a pet can, at times, be a struggle to balance.

“It’s definitely a little bit difficult sometimes to make sure that [my dog] gets walked every day and has exercise, especially when it’s the middle of the quarter and midterms and essays are piling up,” said Kelsey Clausen, fifth-year psychology major and dog owner. “But it’s not hard to try and find 10 minutes at least to take her out.”

Students in search of a furry friends had the chance to adopt a pet of their choice on Oct. 23 when a group of UC Davis veterinary students collaborated with 20 different animal shelters to put on its annual animal adopt-a-thon. The event, which took place at Davis Central Park, included an Animal Health Fair as well as animal demonstrations such as agility races and frisbee competitions.

“I had such a great team of volunteers and people to help me out,” said Katie Krebs, third-year veterinary student and project director for the event. “Seeing […] the enthusiasm of the volunteers, […]  the rescue organizations and the people coming out to learn […] makes it an awarding event.”

The project was funded by a grant from the American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF), which holds an application process each year for projects, seven of which are chosen for the grant. AVMF has funded the adopt-a-thon project for the last three years.

“Being able to spread awareness is super rewarding,” Krebs said. “Companies like [AVMF and Banfield Pet Hospital] make it possible for us to do these things.”

The event allowed animals of all kinds, including dogs, cats, parrots and more, to come and enjoy services such as the free veterinary clinic, which gave free health checkups and vaccinations. At the Animal Health Fair, many of the veterinary school clubs presented different health topics from microchipping to household items hazardous to pets.

“We were hoping to […] spread awareness about […] animals, and make it a little easier for people to adopt an animal,” Krebs said. “[Adoption is] a way animals get a new lease on life.”

Yolo County is home to a number of pet adoption shelters, including the Yolo County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). The SPCA hosts adoption events on Saturdays at the PETCO on West Covell Blvd in North Davis. Some students live in housing where animals are not allowed, while others live in pet-friendly environments. Even though some people live with housemates who are willing to take turns with animal care, there are often still times when no one is home.

“Making sure that someone’s home with [Lexi] to […] take her out once in awhile [can be challenging], and my schedule is pretty busy this quarter,” Ha said.

To solve this problem, the veterinary school at UC Davis allows students to take their pets to class with them, which gives students the opportunity to exercise and spend time with their pets while at school. On days when she has a heavy schedule, Krebs brings both of her rescue labrador-mixed dogs to school.

“Being able to bring them to school gives me the peace of mind,” Krebs said. “When I tell my older dog we’re going to school in the morning, she gets so excited. I couldn’t imagine being in vet school without [both of] them.”

In particular, many students have animals for mental and emotional support. Similar to the “therapy fluffy” events that are held on campus, pets often provide personal comfort in times of stress.

“Whenever I’m having a bad day, I’ll just pick […] up [my cat] and cuddle with her,” said Lindsay Hedgecock, fourth-year community and regional development major. “She’s super sweet.”

Despite the challenges that balancing schoolwork and a pet can pose, animal adoption can be overall beneficial to both the owners and the animals. Students can return from school to see a rescued furry friend, but more importantly, the animals find loving homes.

“I’m a dog person. I’ve had a lot of dogs growing up,” Clausen said. “I love [that] they  cuddle up with you and then they fall asleep and snore — it’s so cute.”

Written by: Allyson Tsuji — features@theaggie.org

How note-taking shapes college campus

Entering a UC Davis lecture hall during class on an average weekday, there are hundreds of students. Some are sleeping, some are on their phones, but most students are taking notes.

Students can use notes to annotate class material, retain and process what they learn in class and study for their countless exams. Regardless of the class and type of notes, some students on campus aren’t able to take the notes for themselves due to learning or physical disabilities. In this case, the UC Davis Student Disability Center (SDC) pays some students to work as note-takers.

“I try to find somebody in the same class [as the client] that’s been a notetaker before,” said Danielle McAlister, administrative assistant of the SDC. “After I connect them, it’s up to [them] to determine how they want to do things.”

Students who need a paid notetaker are evaluated by the SDC specialists, who work to figure out what will work best for the client.

“[This service] is important to our clients on our campus, [they are students] who don’t have the ability to take notes and need a note taker,” McAlister said. “They can learn just like other people in class, they get the same information and they have something to study. They get to participate fully in class as opposed to not [at all].”

Styles of note taking vary. Some students, whether for themselves or for another classmate, prefer to take notes by hand. Others prefer to type their notes on a laptop or another device. In many classes at UC Davis, it doesn’t matter what style you decide on. However, in a select few classes, some professors prefer one way or the other.

Second-year economics and political science double major Maryam Awwal took an introductory linguistics class during Spring Quarter of 2016. Her professor, Raul Aranovich, banned the use of technology during lecture.

“Basically on the first day of class he told everyone that he has a no technology policy because it is distracting and he doesn’t think that typing notes is the best way for students to actually learn,” Awwal said.

According to Awwal, Aranovich would give the lecture slides to students beforehand and expect them to print them out and bring them to class.

“I think no technology is definitely a good rule to have in classes,” Awwal said. “Any time that people actually bring their laptops to class they’re always just on Facebook, and I can see them scrolling through their newsfeed and watching Tasty videos — I stop paying attention and end up watching those Tasty videos too.”

It just so happened that Professor Laramie Taylor of the Department of Communication was scrolling through Facebook when he came across a discussion regarding banning laptops in class. It motivated Taylor to go out and look for research on the topic, which led him to designate a section of the hall as a technology zone during his lectures.

“There is research that shows pretty conclusively that, not only does using a laptop in an instructional environment reduce the attention of the user, but it also reduces the attention and the learning of those sitting around the user,” Taylor said. “It becomes a justice issue. If you want to use a computer and harm your own education that’s fine — that’s your choice. But if that’s not what you want then you have the right to be free from those distractions.”

Taylor provides every student in his class with a fair opportunity to learn in their own way. Taylor found that about a quarter of his class sits in the tech zone. The tech zone is meant for students who wish to use any type of technology as well as students who are indifferent to technological distractions.

“My favorite study is actually an experiment where they randomly assign people to have either a laptop or not have a laptop or sit next to someone with a laptop,” Taylor said. “Even with random assignment […] they find that sitting near someone with a laptop hurts.”

Students who don’t sit in the tech zone are taking all their notes by hand. According to Taylor, writing notes by hand forces students to process and consider the material, which makes it more likely to move into long-term memory.

“It turns out that unless computers are highly integrated into the course by the instructor, using a laptop in class impairs learning,” Taylor said.

Unlike Taylor’s classes, almost every student in Professor Anna Uhlig’s Greek, Roman and Near Eastern Mythology lecture has a technological device out during lecture per her instruction. Uhlig uses a platform called Top Hat to keep students engaged in class. Students can answer questions as if using an i>Clicker, except that they answer using their laptops or phones through the Top Hat app and are able to respond to the interactive questions in their own words.

“One of the things that I really appreciate about Top Hat is that it allows, particularly in a large-format lecture class, for students to immediately respond and try [to] simplify some of the things I’m talking about in their own head,” Uhlig said. “So much of [this course] is based in technology [that] it makes sense […] to use the most up-to-date technology.”

Uhlig’s Classics course follows a hybrid format, with parts of the material administered online. In her previous large lecture classes, Uhlig used i>Clickers to encourage class participation and has only made the switch to Top Hat this quarter.

“[Large lectures] have so many students and you know that they’re thinking so many interesting things, [but] you get to hear almost none of it in the course of your teaching,” Uhlig said. “The clickers really only allowed for a one-size-fits-all multiple choice question […] but the thing that Top Hat allows is, in particular, these student-generated responses.”

In addition to the technology used to contribute to class discussion, Uhlig also finds that a number of her students prefer to have the lecture slides in front of them in class so they can take notes alongside them.

“There’s a lot of terminology that I use from the ancient world […] that I think can be a little bit challenging for students,” Uhlig said. “Having the slides on their computer and being able to see how the words are spelled […] was something that students had in fact requested and found helpful.”

Written by: Fatima Siddiqui — features@theaggie.org

University Airport of UC Davis provides aircraft services, flight training for community

An airplane takes off and flies miles above Davis. The student operating the plane looks out the window at an aerial view of campus, identifying the oval shape of the Aggie Stadium, the roof of the Mondavi Center and the painted bike circle logos. For students who want to experience flying an airplane, the University Airport of UC Davis is the ideal destination.

Managed by UC Davis Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS), the University Airport is a public general aviation airport located on the west side of Davis. The airport was first founded by C. Harold Hopkins in 1946 and officially became part of UC Davis in 1950. It provides various aviation services, from aircraft storage to fueling.

Aircrafts that do not exceed 12,500 pounds are allowed to operate at the airport. The airport hosts approximately 35,000 take-offs and landings each year, and stores about 60 based aircrafts. For storage, the airport offers rentals for hangars and tie-down spaces.

Moreover, the airport is home to the Davis Air Repair and the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers, which offer additional services to the aviation community. The Davis Air Repair provides repair and maintenance services for aircraft, while the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers offers flight instruction to anyone who is interested in learning how to fly an airplane or even obtaining a pilot’s license.

“[The Cal Aggie Flying Farmers] is a flying club,” said Cliff Contreras, director of TAPS. “It is a host of pilots that provide instructions [to the public] on how to fly, whether you’re a student, staff, faculty or someone within the community.”

There is no set amount of lessons that a student is required to take. Students can register for as many classes as they need to develop the skills necessary to obtain their pilot’s licenses. Students who only wish to fly once may ask for a demo flight, in which they get 30 minutes in the air. Flight instruction at the University Airport consists of both classroom training and air training.

“Each time you go there, you have a brief demo with a little toy plane, and the instructor will tell you […] how the air flows and what you can do with the plane,” said David Fung, a fourth-year applied statistics major and former student of the flight school. “Then you go into lesson and you practice those skills. It’s a mixture of both class and going in the air — and then coming back down and having a debrief of what you did right and what you did wrong.”

In addition to offering flight training, the Cal Aggie Flying Farmers also provides aircraft rentals for licensed pilots.

There are only about 20 airports nationwide that are university-affiliated. UC Davis is the only UC campus to own an airport.

“The fact that [the airport is] owned by a public university [is] almost unprecedented,” Fung said. “Also, the flight school [is] non-profit, so if you were to get a training course for a [pilot] license, this would probably be the cheapest place to get your flight lessons.”

Students believe that the University Airport and its training classes are a great way for those with an interest in aviation to gain hands-on experience with aircraft flying.

“I believe there’s a liability in the [flying] classes, but I think that it’s a good idea because it opens opportunities for people,” said Kasy Tu, a third-year managerial economics major. “I think it just depends on the regulations — who can be teaching the classes, who can fly and when — but overall I think it’s a good idea.”

With the airport’s many resources in aviation training, Contreras hopes to establish a stronger connection between the airport’s programs and UC Davis academics.

“We think it’s quite the jewel within the university resources to have our own airport,” Contreras said. “We are starting to build more interest from the academic community, and seeing the airport as something that can help the university serve its mission. If we can tie ourselves more closely to academics, then that’s our goal.”

More information about the airport and its services can be found on TAPS’ official website.

Written by: Jennie Chang — features@theaggie.org