12 faculty members across nine campuses make up Systemwide Peer Review Committee

On March 18, University of California President Janet Napolitano sent a letter to the UC community addressing sexual harassment and violence on UC campuses.

In the letter, Napolitano announced that she was planning to expand the President’s Task Force on Preventing and Responding to Sexual Violence and Assault, a sexual assault awareness and training program created in 2014.

The program was expanded to create the Systemwide Peer Review Committee, comprised of faculty members across all nine UC campuses, to help address sexual harassment and violence, specifically when perpetrated by senior university faculty and staff.

“I established a new Systemwide Peer Review Committee that will review and approve all proposed sanctions for any senior university leader found to have violated our UC Policy on Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment,” Napolitano said in the letter. “Senior leaders include, but are not limited to, chancellors, associate and assistant chancellors, provosts and vice provosts, deans, coaches and athletic directors.”

The committee is made up of 12 people, including Julie Freischlag, the vice chancellor of human health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at UC Davis.

Napolitano says that the UC must do a better job of investigating all incidents of sexual harassment or sexual violence and holding those who are guilty accountable.

The committee is one of many efforts Napolitano has taken to help decrease sexual assault incidences on campus. In the past, she helped to establish Campus Assualt Resources and Education (CARE) offices and Advocate Offices for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Sexual Misconduct on every campus, ensuring that each UC has individuals to help respondents understand their rights as well as UC’s investigation and adjudication processes. These resources also strengthen the UC’s policy against sexual and domestic violence in compliance with the federal Violence Against Women Act.

V. Leilani Kupo, director of the Women’s Resources and Research Center at UC Davis, said that this new peer committee will continue to encourage members of the UC to pay attention to how sexual assault is addressed on campus. Kupo went on to say that she felt that the goal of this new peer committee aligned with the mission and vision of the Women’s Center.

“[The committee will continue to educate] people on what sexual harassment is and what forms that it can take and the ways in which it should be addressed and interrupted,” Kupo said. “There are a lot of really great opportunities to take a couple of different approaches to this and to say that this is not only a policy but making sure that this is seen as a critical part of who we are, that we don’t tolerate sexual harassment in our workplace, on our campus, or in our classrooms and we need to continue to have these conversations.”

Nicole Hage, a second-year animal science major, said that she was happy that the university was taking this kind of approach to sexual assault and hoped that it would be successful.

“I think it is a step in the right direction for the UC universities and if the committee holds true to its intent, then it will hopefully be effective in bringing justice to sexual harassment victims and stop it from happening in the future,” Hage said.

Written by: Sangeetha Ramamurthy – campus@theaggie.org

With growing demand for mental health services, UC hopes that new hirings will provide better access

On March 24, the University of California (UC) announced a plan to hire a total of 85 clinicians across the UC system. The increase is set to help with a growing demand for resources in student mental health.

“The [UC] is taking action to address the issue [of student mental health] and is hiring 85 clinicians across the system to increase access to mental health services, reduce wait times for students and complement outreach and prevention efforts,” said Alec Rosenberg, a representative for the University of California Office of the President in a press release.

The new positions are set to be filled by the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic year and will increase employment for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and case managers, with the UC emphasizing a push for diversity.

Sam Alavi, director of the Office of Advocacy and Student Representation, saw the hirings as a good start for the UC, but noted the technical issues that many campuses could face.

“While the hiring of the new clinicians is definitely a step forward, there is still a lot more that must be done across the UC in terms of mental health reform,” Alavi said in an email interview. “For most campuses, the new hirings will not solve the issue of long wait times for students, and some of the campuses barely even have the spatial capacity to hire enough counselors to really serve the need of the student body — they just wouldn’t have any place to put them.”

Since 2007, the UC system has seen a 54 percent increase in students seeking mental health access, while last year, 13 percent of UC students received help from campus counseling services.

Sofia Molodanof, a newly elected ASUCD senator who ran on a platform of mental health awareness, noted a recent evaluation of all nine campuses by the University of California Student Association.

“There’s a stigma of mental health that just makes people not want to talk about it and so having resources more accessible would just make it easier for students to be more comfortable reaching out and getting help,” Molodanof said. “From the UC, there’s always new things that we can better. UC Davis was ranked with a B-, but that’s not enough. We need to be an A campus. We need to be an A+ campus. We need to have as many resources as we need possible.”

The mental health evaluations by the University of California Student Association, which Alavi was involved in, assessed all nine campuses in three categories, including diversity, outreach and accessibility. The average letter grade received in the report was a C.

“We do not prioritize mental health,” Alavi said. “It’s disappointing that we still haven’t put enough resources and energy together to radically fix this broken system. We have been told by a number of staff members who work in the UC mental health field that our current counseling programs are structurally unable to provide adequate treatment for students. If there is a structural issue, we need to be fundamentally changing the conversation about what the future of mental health looks like, not just hiring a few more counselors on every campus.”

While hoping to increase resources for mental health at UC Davis, Molodanof also said that students should be more willing to seek those networks and talk about their day-to-day issues.

“What I’ve learned, through my past experiences, dealing with some anxiety and depression here and there, is that you can’t put it on the back burner because then it gets worse,” Molodanof said. “Talking about things, especially issues that are non-urgent, is just a way to get them off of your chest, and then you can feel a lot better. You can go on throughout your day, you can go to sleep, and wake up, and start your day over.”

Written by: Ivan Valenzuela  – campus@theaggie.org

Picnic Day Pre-Week activities to include contests, cow milking and concerts.

UC Davis will hold its annual Picnic Day Pre-Week festivities from April 11 to 15 leading up to the 102nd Picnic Day celebration on Saturday, April 16. Each day, a new activity will take place on the UC Davis Quad from noon to 1 p.m.

“Pre-Week essentially is publicity for Picnic Day,” said Daisy Sanchez, a second-year political science major who works as the Picnic Day special events director. “Our goal is to have students and people come out and have fun.”

Picnic Day Pre-Week will begin on Monday with the Pie Eating Contest. The winners of this event can win prizes worth up to $75.

On Tuesday, students can watch UC Davis clubs and organizations compete in egg-and-spoon and potato sack races during the Student Organization Tournament. The winning organization of the tournament will be rewarded with a free MCAT, GMAT or LSAT course offered by the Princeton Review.

In Wednesday’s Cow Milking Contest, Davis Mayor Pro Tempore Robb Davis, chemistry professor Bryan Enderle and newly-elected ASUCD President Alex Lee will milk cows and compete to see who can collect the most milk.

On Thursday, students can watch UC Davis a capella groups, such as The Spokes, The Liquid Hotplates and The Afterglow perform on the Quad. Students can also write about their favorite Picnic Day activities on chalkboards.

Pre-Week will conclude on Friday with Beats & Blankets, a concert featuring performances by Whee The People and Samantha Sipin.

This year’s Picnic Day will celebrate student life and campus culture.

“Our theme this year is ‘Cultivating Our Authenticity,’ so one of the main things we want to focus on is what makes our campus authentic, which is the students,” said Alex Espos, a fourth-year political science major serving as Picnic Day’s publicity director.

Picnic Day will commence with a performance by the California Aggie Marching Band-uh! and speeches by Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and Lee. Over 60 student organizations will be tabling on the Quad, and there will be 13 food booths.

“[I like] the memories of Picnic Day,” said Pedro Alvarez, a third-year economics and Spanish double major. “There’s always this build-up that makes it stand out from all the other days. I really enjoy the environment, and everyone’s always so friendly.”

For more information about Pre-Week, students can visit the Picnic Day Pre-Week Facebook page.