Occupiers reach day six of occupation

UC Davis students occupying the Office of the Chancellor on Mrak Hall’s fifth floor have reached day six of their sit-in since beginning their occupation last Friday as part of the Fire Katehi protest.

“For the most part, the atmosphere has been really optimistic. People are really tired; it’s finals week, and when we aren’t talking about next steps or strategies, we are studying for our finals,” said Elly Oltersdorf, a third-year history major and Mrak Hall occupier. “People have been incredibly supportive of each other both inside and outside of the space.”

The occupiers, who have been rotating in and out of the chancellor’s office with food and supplies brought in by supporters, posted several posters across the office walls calling for Katehi’s resignation over her controversial moonlighting activities. Posters included phrases such as “$414,000 not enough?” and “Katehi. The Zodiac Killer,” as well as a cut-out of the chancellor covered in resignation forms.

“People have known for a long time that the chancellor doesn’t have the best intentions for students,” Oltersdorf said. “The instances of moonlighting just spotlighted her corruption.”

Additional issues the occupiers raised in a statement include Katehi’s alleged failure to address anti-Blackness and Islamophobia on campus, as well as increasing police presence at the university.

“The type of leadership that Katehi demonstrates is just so far removed from the student voice that students lose a sense of the fact that they have a say in how this university runs and how the administration behaves,” Oltersdorf said. “By taking up space, we are trying to take back that right. If students aren’t given a voice, we will make our voices heard and force the administration to listen, whatever that takes. Even if that means sitting in the building they work in for one week or two weeks or three weeks. We refuse to be silent.”

On Tuesday, March 15, Katehi spoke to the demonstrators after five days of their occupation. The meeting resulted in an approximate five-minute talk where Katehi remained tight-lipped on several questions, deferring to other faculty members for answers.

“I’m here obviously to listen to your concerns. You have a number of issues about the university and I wanted to hear your concerns about the institution. I’m here to have that conversation,” Katehi replied to a question asking if she was going to resign.

The chancellor, along with several other administrators, attempted to arrange a more formal meeting with the group to voice their concerns.

“I’ll tell you one thing. Of all those lists of issues you have outlined, a lot of what has said is totally incorrect and untrue. If you want to sit down and have a discussion and take each one of those, I’m willing to do that,” Katehi said. “I will bring my team because these issues, I’m not the only person as a leader of this institution that makes decisions. There is a team of us that make decisions together […] I will get my team together and have a discussion with you about what is untrue about the things that you mentioned and the issues of privatization and defining it and talking about it that is happening to this institution.”

According to Oltersdorf, many of the occupiers were frustrated with Katehi’s short response.

“Chancellor Katehi is not in touch with the students. She has no interest in speaking to them about their concerns or making changes that students are demanding right now,” Oltersdorf said. “It was honestly really frustrating for us to have been there for five days, and she couldn’t stay in the room for five minutes before she made it clear that she had better things to do than speak to the students of the university.”

Several university organizations have voiced their support for the occupiers in statements, including ASUCD, the Davis Faculty Association, UC Davis alumni and UAW 2865, the UC student workers union. In support of the chancellor, administrators such as UC Davis’ Provost and several college deans also released a statement backing Katehi as a university leader.

Written by: Jason Pham – campus@theaggie.org

Lee retracts bill amid criticism of altering commission’s intention, creating popularity contests

On Feb. 29, incoming ASUCD President Alex Lee withdrew the first of six bills designed to restructure UC Davis’ student government leadership by establishing a larger executive branch and dissolving the Academic Affairs Commission (AAC).

Lee’s retraction followed criticism that the bill would result in popularity contests and an executive branch-heavy assembly, which some argued detracted from the commission’s original intention of being comprised of students separate from the executive branch.

Lee presented his plan to create a more centralized and coordinated government at UC Davis.

“To ensure ASUCD is truly run by students for students, we must empower the chief decision makers of ASUCD with a better executive branch. By creating a more robust executive branch, we strive to establish a central authority to manage our diverse association,” Lee wrote in his outline of the bill. “The goal of these changes will be effectively managing the core issue areas and operations of ASUCD that the presidency is vested with.”

The executive branch under Lee’s proposal would have included a cabinet-style government, in which separate secretaries — appointed by the president with approval by the senate — would have worked as chief advisors representing their specific departments, including a Department of Academic Affairs, a replacement for AAC.

The Department of Academic Affairs would have comprised of an assembly, made up of 13 elected members representing the different colleges, or districts, at the university.

Several critics worried that by transforming AAC into an elected assembly, commissioners would be elected based off of popularity rather than qualifications. Critics also argued that the assembly’s college-based focus was too limited in scope and ignored the needs of other communities, including the Latinx, southeast Asian and Black communities.

Present at the meeting were several members of the UC Davis community and government, including Ritesh Mishra, chair of the AAC, who opposed the bill for what he called a lack of planning.

“Can you leave this room today with the same objective view that you were able to access this resource and tomorrow someone might not be able to?” Mishra said. “This commission serves 35,000 students here, the countless who have come and the countless who will have gone. Elections and popularity will not show who becomes the voice of academics.”

Adilla Jamaludin, an ASUCD senator and second-year environmental policy analysis and planning major, talked about the difficulties that the executive office and students would face with these new changes.

“It just sounds like it’s a lot of bureaucracy, and it feels like it’s going to be bogged down,” Jamaludin said. “If I want to go to AAC to talk about something I feel like I’m going to be going to exec. I’m not going to students on a commission, I’m going to exec, and I feel like that just ruins the entire idea of this commission.”

Including six senate positions and 13 elected assembly seats, the Fall 2016 elections would have included a ballot of 19 seats that would have needed to be filled under Lee’s bill. Lee argued that the elections would result in passionate individuals.

“My theory about electability is that you find people that are more passionate and become spokespersons for issues,” Lee said. “I say this as a person that ran for senate, like other senators in here, you’re compelled with your passion to do that and make that change, so you want to run for that office. So hopefully the districting will narrow those platforms.”

When referencing the need for a stronger executive office, Lee noted a report headed by Shaitaj Dhaliwal, a third-year international relations major and a research analyst for at the ASUCD Office of Advocacy and Student Representation. Dhaliwal is also an incoming ASUCD senator.

“A lot of other schools and AS’s function in a very cabinet-heavy kind of government. If you look at the report that [Dhaliwal] and her team compiled, they will have things like executive vice president, like internal vice president, what we have,” Lee said. “What they do, is that they put academics as an executive priority, because as president, you are representative of the entire association and by extent, the entire student body, because they put academics as one of their forefronts of their priorities and that’s what I want to do with this presidency.”

Dhaliwal, who was present at the meeting, responded to Lee’s reference, noting his misreading of the report.

“So I appreciate you mentioning the fact that my team and I made that UC report, but what you failed to do was read it,” Dhaliwal said. “You haven’t been a president yet, so you don’t realize how much time you don’t have. You’re not going to be able to contact your secretary to see if they’re doing anything or not. A lot of these UCs that have this type of setup aren’t working well. We did this report to realize that we as an association currently are one of the most productive AS’s in the UC system, and by changing that up, you might actually be ruining it and making it worse instead of reforming for the better.”

Written by: Ivan Valenzuela – campus@theaggie.org

Protest follows recent criticism of Katehi’s appointment on boards of two for-profit companies

At noon on Friday, March 11, approximately 40 UC Davis students, faculty and staff flooded the Quad in support of firing university Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. The protest, titled Fire Katehi, follows the recent controversy over the chancellor accepting paid board positions for two for-profit companies, sparking widespread criticism from students and state assemblymembers.

The protesters made their way across campus from the Memorial Union to Mrak Hall, where they sat in the Office of the Chancellor demanding Katehi’s resignation. They also called for her replacement to be selected and approved by UC Davis students and workers. The demonstrators taped resignation forms across the office walls and chanted phrases such as “Rain or shine, Katehi must resign” and “Katehi, you’re fired.”

“It’s my job here as a TA to advocate for students. My students are working-class and people of color. They are the ones that are mostly affected by Katehi basically incentivizing our tuition and expensive textbooks,” said Marco Rosales, a Ph.D. student in the history department. “As the chancellor of a public university, it’s her job to stand for public education and stand for education that has the interest of students and doesn’t have profit motives as her main interest.”

Adela de la Torre, UC Davis vice chancellor of student affairs, spoke on behalf of the chancellor who was not present for the sit-in. Torre, who explained that there is a long process involving the UC Board of Regents and UC President Janet Napolitano to a fire a chancellor, remained tight-lipped on the recent controversy.

“[Katehi] is not here, but I will relay any message to her. All I can do is listen and talk to you right now,” de la Torre told the crowd. “My opinion is that students have the right to voice their opinion. I think [the situation], is in the context of what I do. I work with students every single day.”

Duane Wright, a graduate student in the sociology, shot back at Torre’s statement, arguing that the firing process is inherently corrupt because it lacks student and worker involvement.

“We have to change who selects and who fires [Katehi]. It should be up to the students and the workers,” Wright said. “You say you work with students. I work with students all day. I make less than $20,000 and my tuition is paid because I have a union, but I still have to take out loans to pay my rent. I don’t have an extra job where I can moonlight and make an extra $400,000.”

Roughly an hour into the sit-in, Emily Prieto-Tseregounis, Chief of Staff of student affairs, informed the demonstrators that Katehi would not be able to address the demonstrators because she was in a meeting. Pizza was also brought in to feed the demonstrators while they sat.

“A lot of the [university’s] leadership is at an undisclosed location having a monthly leadership meeting. It’s supposed to be over at five,” Prieto-Tseregounis said. “We don’t know if she will come.”

In February, Katehi made headlines after news was released that the chancellor accepted a position on the board of Devry Education Group, a for-profit higher education corporation, for which Katehi would’ve been paid $70,00 annually. Days later, news was released that Katehi received $420,000 in income and stock as a board member for private textbook publishing company Wiley & Sons from 2012 through 2014.

Other controversies brought up during the protest included Katehi’s history with overseeing the pepper spraying of UC Davis students by campus police in 2011 and a historic lack of action taken in regards to sexual assault cases.  

Amid the criticism, Katehi stepped down from her role on Devry and issued an apology to the campus. In her apology statement, Katehi vowed to donate $200,000, the amount of stock proceeds she made while serving on Wiley & Sons, to a scholarship fund for UC Davis students.

“I take my responsibilities as chancellor of UC Davis, and to the entire University of California, very seriously and sincerely regret having accepted service on boards that create appearances of conflict with my deep commitment to serve UC Davis and its students,” Katehi said in the statement.

Written by: Jason Pham – campus@theaggie.org

ASUCD Executive Office issues apology following accusations of cultural appropriation and fat shaming

On Feb. 25, ASUCD hosted its Block Party on the Quad, where the association offered a myriad of activities for students to participate in as part of its Student Appreciation Week closing celebration.

Among those activities was an attraction in which students could dress in sumo suits and wrestle each other. The activity immediately drew criticism from members of the student body, who accused ASUCD of fat shaming and culturally appropriating Japanese culture.

According to the students who raised this issue to ASUCD, the sumo suits trivialized Japanese culture and the history of Japanese rikishi or sumo wrestlers.

Once the issue was brought to ASUCD’s attention, ASUCD’s Executive Office, consisting of President Mariah Kala Watson, Vice President Gareth Smythe and Controller Francisco Lara, immediately issued an apology for the incident and commended the students that brought the issue to light.

“We’d like to apologize for any harm the ‘Sumo Suit’ may have caused you all. This lapse in judgment is completely ASUCD’s fault and responsibility alone,” said ASUCD’s Executive Office in a Facebook post. “We are thankful to the student who courageously brought this issue to our attention […] This was an egregious oversight and it will hopefully not happen in the future.”

Scott Tsuchitani, a Ph.D. student in cultural students, believed the incident was evidence of the lack of awareness of the racism against Asian and Asian American students.

“My overall impression is that this conversation is in itself an expression of white supremacist anti-Asian structural racism. If people are genuinely concerned with the needs of Asian Americans, then why are Asian American voices not front and center in this conversation?” Tsuchitani said via email. “Instead, Asian Americans are treated as mute, hapless victims, devoid of agency, a.k.a. the ‘model minority’ stereotype. That is what I see being reinscribed by this conversation.”

Tsuchitani went on to say that he was not pleased by ASUCD’s apology and called for more action from the association.

“It is pitiful that the ASUCD would pathologize the so-called victims as in need of treatment instead of reflecting more deeply on what is needed to address ASUCD’s own failure in this situation,” Tsuchitani said. “From my limited perspective, I would suggest that the foremost need for treatment might well be for cultural competency training for ASUCD itself.  That is much more relevant here than any Orientalist history of sumo wrestling.”

Tsuchitani was not the only student who felt victimized and upset by the sumo suits. Phil Jones, a fourth-year economics student, said that he was shocked by the sumo wrestling event at the Block Party. He also claimed that the sumo wrestling showed insensitivity to overweight Americans.

“To be honest, I was shocked. February 19 was Remembrance Day for Japanese internment during WWII, and some of my Japanese friends were heavily traumatized by seeing their culture mocked in such a clearly racist fashion,” Jones said in a Facebook comment on the Block Party’s event page. “Not to mention, as a Heavy-American, I don’t appreciate the blatant Fat-Shaming involved with caricaturing one of the few sports traditionally enjoyed by Heavy individuals. I honestly feel reparations payments are in order to affected individuals, and that those responsible for the grossly negligent oversight should immediately resign from their ASUCD posts.”

However, not all students were as offended by the sumo suits and felt that the situation was blown out of proportion.

“This was obviously not malicious, this is just people finding something to be mad about,” said Taylore Kadin, a third-year international relations major, in a Facebook comment.

For more information on the situation, view the discussion on the Block Party’s event page or email president@asucd.ucdavis.edu.

Written by: Sangeetha Ramamurthy – campus@theaggie.org