New UC Davis athletics director appointed by acting chancellor

Earlier this week, Acting Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter appointed Dr. Kevin Blue as the new UC Davis director of athletics. Blue graduated from Stanford after playing on the men’s golf team, then traveled to Michigan State to earn his Ph.D. in sports psychology. He then returned to Stanford, where he worked for seven years in the athletics department and was appointed to the position of senior associate athletics director for external relations in 2013.

This decision by Hexter was made with the full authority of the Office of the Chancellor. Hexter, appointed by University of California President Napolitano following the placement of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi on investigative leave, told the media in his first press conference that he planned on filling the position of athletics director. Though Katehi has many legitimate complaints levied against her, she has only been placed on leave for 90 days. If cleared of her allegations, she will presumably return to work as the head of UC Davis. If this is the case, should a temporary chancellor make a decision that could significantly affect the athletics department for many years to come?

It is reasonable to assume that Hexter, already part of UC Davis leadership, had at least a baseline understanding of the search process and what the committee was looking for. In the past few weeks, Hexter has undoubtedly familiarized himself with any gaps in his knowledge on the search for athletic director. Regardless, given Hexter’s temporary and recent appointment, The Editorial Board hopes that this was not a hastily made decision.

Though it is too early to tell how the athletic administration will look under Blue’s leadership, one thing is for certain: he is a highly educated and qualified selection. He has personal experience from being an athlete at an academically rigorous institution and has a proven track record as an effective administrator. We hope that he will continue to stress academic excellence as a key component of the student-athlete experience and works to increase student engagement in athletics.

Blue looks to revitalize UC Davis athletics during his time at this university, and has said that he would like the Athletic Department to be more involved in the Davis community. He has also indicated a willingness to sit down with The Editorial Board, where we hope to learn more about his particular vision for athletics. Blue officially enters his position on June 21.

Go Ags!

So 2000s. What’s next? Lizzie McGuire and Pablo getting back together?

Remember the thrill of your first iPod? You had HitClips, but 45 seconds of your favorite song wasn’t enough! You wanted the shiny, new iPod shuffle. S/o to mom for getting you the magic white stick that inspired you to download Limewire, probably infecting the family PC with many a virus (and, if you were unfortunate, a call from the FBI), but ultimately led to your love for music. But what if you could experience this joy again?

You’re in luck, buckaroo! UC Davis has soooo much extra cash lying around from this year that they’ve decided to gift every student with an iPod shuffle! Yippee! But some students think the cash could be better spent on updating campus buildings or hiring a functional, non-corrupt chancellor.

“What the actual hell? iPod shuffles? Are you f***ing kidding me? And what do you mean extra cash? Then shouldn’t I be paying less tuition?” said Tina Wexler, a third-year international relations major.

Oh Tina. For tax reasons or something, that’s just not possible. It’s iPod shuffles or they’ll have to hire a team of infernologists to burn all the extra cash. HELLO, TINA, WE’RE NOT TRYING TO POLLUTE THE AIR???

Besides Tina, everyone else seems to have gotten with the program.

“Of course I want an iPod shuffle. It’s like, do I need to be able to see a screen to tell me what song comes on next? Absolutely not. I love when it goes from a soothing melody to heavy metal without any warning — it makes for some interesting naps. And the design is just so sleek! It’s a fantastic invention,” said Steve Jobs (don’t ask).

I know as soon as I get my shuffle it’s going straight into the drawer where I keep all my broken headphones. Yes, technically it’s called a ‘junk drawer,’ but I don’t want to insult my broken Apple products like that.

Lizzie McGuire would be happy to have an iPod Shuffle, and you should be too! Just be grateful the extra budget isn’t going towards paying professors and TAs a liveable wage (ew!).

ALEX GUZMÁN wrote this article by releasing a single ant onto her keyboard and letting him type. So if you hate it, blame him. You can reach her at almguzman@ucdavis.edu and on Twitter @cactasss.

The bathroom in my house locks from the outside — if you close the door as you’re leaving, whoever’s inside is trapped. I can think of several fates worse than death, and one of them involves being locked in a fraternity house bathroom.

My friend was using the bathroom one time as I was brushing my teeth. As I was leaving, I jokingly told him that I’d lock him in (I was still pissed that he beat me in basketball earlier that day). He replied that if I did lock him in, it’d be a “power move.”

But I don’t see the power in using my temporary moment of dominance, where by chance I was by the door and he was occupied doing something else, to lord over my friend and have him at my mercy. That’s not power. I could have locked him in, and the next day, he could make a similar “power move” by replacing my shampoo with toothpaste, by stealing my phone and writing something unsettling on my Facebook or by doing whatever other weird thing he’d do.

A power move is actually a move that brings other people up, that gives someone else the opportunity to do something they wouldn’t have been able to do.

It takes a lot of security in your own “power,” so to speak, to “relinquish” that power for a moment and give someone else the chance to do something great and feel good about themselves. It’s as if you’re so comfortable with your level of influence and capability that you don’t think that giving someone else a platform would threaten yours in any way, shape or form.

Leadership is something I think about all the time. I’ve been involved in many organizations, from youth groups to tech start-ups to marketing agencies to research labs. I’ve been at the bottom of the totem pole as an intern, I’ve served as a colleague and peer and I’ve managed teams. I’ve worked with some stellar leaders, managers and bosses, people who I still look up to and actively keep in touch with because I’m confident that they’ll change the world. I’ve also worked with nightmarish leaders who frankly need to read this article.

I’ve noticed a key commonality in my favorite bosses, something that the worse leaders didn’t pick up on. The good leaders focused their energy on building up their team. It went beyond just a generally supportive and encouraging attitude — they did dramatic things, like deferring all credit to the people they managed (even if it wasn’t 100 percent deserved); and they did subtler things, like taking an interest in how employees days were going (even when they’re slammed with things to do). They would understand failure, and were gentle yet honest in their feedback, and they would pump you up when you succeeded, letting everyone else know how awesome you are.

They were different in that they didn’t derive their meaning and success from them doing great work. They didn’t want to be seen as the best writer or the best salesman or the best engineer in the room — they wanted their people to be seen as the best collective around. They were so confident in the fact that they could do a great job at whatever field they were in that they didn’t need personal validation. Instead, they were committed to the results of the team that they were in charge of, finding that validation from the finished product.

I have a hard time with this because I’m too driven to be seen as the best. In high school, I had to work to stop my “lone wolf” tendencies. I felt like I had to prove myself all the time. When I interned at a start-up last summer, I was always the dumbest person in the room; the people around me were brilliant. Yet they went out of their ways to boost each other up, even the 18 year-old intern. That’s why I’m convinced that this company will thrive — the leaders are committed to a culture of empowerment.

To use a basketball analogy, people often think the best kind of leaders are the Kobe Bryant types — the individual talents that shine so bright that nothing else matters — the types that are so good at what they do that they can will their teams to victory. The good leaders are more like Draymond Green — those that can hold their own in individual elements of the game, but whose true value comes from their ability to set their teammates up for success with world-class passes and rebounds. To use a different analogy: Kanye West has put out seven impactful, polarizing and best-selling albums, and not because he’s in the studio doing everything. He gets the best producers, vocalists and sound engineers he can find. And he guides them with his vision, letting people better than him accomplish his ideas via whatever skill they bring to the table. You’d think otherwise because of his massive ego. But his massive ego comes from his objectively amazing body of work, and he’s so focused on producing the best albums that he can that he’ll put that ego aside in order to totally devote himself to the creative process.

My friend has lived on to tell his tale – he didn’t have to die an undignified death in the bathroom stalls of AEPi. No “power” moves were executed on my part. I was powerful enough to leave the door open and bring him some Febreeze.

I’ve written 1000 words about leadership, but I could write 10,000 more because I don’t think there’s anything more important in the world. Anyone who follows politics, regardless of ideology, can agree that our leaders in government have the potential to be much more competent and effective. And with humanity-defining issues including climate change and world hunger looming, we sure as hell need the best leaders we can get. At UC Davis, we need great leaders in our clubs and organizations: in ASUCD and in Mrak Hall. Great leaders leading great teams will take on anything life throws at them. They, and by they I mean you, will save our school, our country and our planet.

You can reach YINON RAVIV at ravivyinon@gmail.com, or tweet at him @YR195.

How courtiers can help us succeed

Perhaps one of the most inaccessible areas of study in American universities is the High Renaissance. From the contemplation of nude paintings to rich and dynamic texts admired by aesthetes and tourists alike, students often feel disconnected from the greater context of these works. For instance, Machiavelli’s The Prince is terribly underwhelming to those assaulted by the complex 24-hour news cycle that is now all too familiar. For us Millennials, it’s not at all shocking to believe, as Machiavelli once broke precedent by proposing, that statesman simply will not keep promises like normal people do. But of all the esoteric institutions within the period, it would seem that the most unrelatable is that of the court, which was once so integral to Renaissance life. But anyone who takes the time to read Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power will become intimate with it’s history and elegant machinations. However, Greene’s attempt to illustrate the opulence of courtly lives and how they weaved their calculated gestures and actions into an art form for the purpose of overtaking their fellow courtier’s opponents — and to gain favor from those above them — fails to interest anyone but the most ambitious of historians and networkers.

Even more remote in time period and prose, though, is Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier. Just hearing the very first sentence of the work — “The book written at the instance of Alfonso Ariosto and in dialogue form, in order to record certain discussions held at the court of Urbino” — is enough to make the eyes of readers our age glaze over. But there is more value in this book, both in terms of aesthetics and practical utility, than may first appear.

The work apparently claims to recall four successive discussions in the evening among some courtiers who are beholden to Guidobaldo da Montefeltre, the lord and master of 16th century Urbino. The book discusses cerebral challenges faced in Italy that are difficult to relate to, which include proper ways to speak Italian and why various forms of art are better than others. There’s even a maudlin and somewhat absurd assertion made about the power of love, which is so over-the-top that one can hardly imagine anyone saying it other than some overly-clingy high school romantic partner.

Despite all of these seemingly banal and arcane discussions, the text is actually not at all about simply being a dandyish man or understanding the particular merits of sculpture. (This, at least to me, is incredibly refreshing, as the surface topics discussed are incredibly boring). It would seem that the true goal of the book is to educate Renaissance nobles in perfecting their roles within the European courts. Castiligone even goes so far as to use his characters as a mouthpiece of what sports one should play, naming ‘…running, leaping, swimming and wrestling…an accomplished [horse]’ and that one must ‘…be a good dancer.’ He names everything from the sort of literature one should know to why oratory is an important skill to have.

Not only must these noblemen learn a staggeringly large list of skills and sports, but they must work so hard at them as to make it seem casual and easy. Or, as Castiligone puts it, “…[the courtier] must put every effort…into outstripping others…so that he may be…recognized as [above the rest].” But most important of all is how the courtier should conduct themselves in their performance. Through “sprezzatura” (literally translated from Italian as “effortless grace”), they must hide all their hard work and dedication so that it seems as easy as breathing.

The reason for all of this obsessive and severe professional preening and skill-building is so that he may “properly” advise his ruler and gain their favor. Supposedly, the courtier is ‘the sharpening stone’ and the prince ‘the blade’ — and it’s the former’s job to keep the latter sharp and righteous.

But there is a much darker, colder aspect to the work than simply how to love well and how to be moral. The author says, using one of his characters as a mouthpiece, “There is an adage which says that when our enemy is in the water up to his waist, we must offer him our hand and rescue him from peril; but when he is up to his chin, we must put our foot on his head and drown him forthwith.” That is an incredibly alarming piece of advice, and certainly does not sound “moral” in any sense of the word. But it may be difficult to see why all of this is pertinent to any of us. We are not princes, princesses, kings or queens; we are regular students, who hopefully will get a good job after graduation. So why worry about any of this at all?

It’s because it takes great pains to discuss the primary force within politics, and the professional world, which is power. The virtue of how to properly acquire power and how to maintain it — essential in any office, classroom or home — gives the practitioner an edge in any social environment one can imagine. And despite the lofty subjects discussed by the various characters in The Book of the Courtier, the banter and intimate conversations could, with updated vernacular, easily be discussed by any of us. While we should never, ever “put our foot on [someone’s head],” it is useful to remember that not everyone is what their appearance may suggest, and by reading this book, one adds that much more knowledge needed to succeed in the world, regardless of the pursuit.

You can reach RYAN DOWNER at rmdowner@ucdavis.edu.