Event follows recent hate crime against female African American student at West Village

On Feb. 22, members of the UC Davis African diaspora held the #BlackUnderAttack press conference and march to make demands for a safer and better campus after a female African American student was the victim of a hate crime at the West Village apartments earlier this month.

The conference, which included speeches from the UC Davis Black Student Union, ASUCD Senator Kamaal Thomas and President Mariah Kala Watson, was preceded by a march from the Memorial Union (MU) flag pole to Mrak Hall, with people from various communities joining in support.

The event included a list of demands by the community, which the demonstrators demanded be addressed by Feb. 29. Better lighting around the university and the city of Davis and allocation of funds for safety services such as Tipsy Taxi and Saferide were among demands on the list.

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who spoke at the event, insisted that UC Davis would do its best to focus on working with the African American community and the issues its students face.

Written by: Ivan Valenzuela – campus@theaggie.org

Regents Avi Oved and Marcela Ramirez discuss recruitment process for new student regent

On Feb 11, current University of California (UC) Student Regent Abraham “Avi” Oved and current UC Student-Regent Designate Marcela Ramirez held an informational session at UC Davis’ Student Community Center.

The visit is part of a 10-campus UC tour to discuss the recruitment process for becoming student regent. By the end of 2016, Oved will be terming out of his position as student regent and will be replaced by Ramirez for 2016-2017.

The meeting opened with a brief overview and history behind the position. In 1975, the UC student regent position was added in as a clause to UC policy during a time of heightened activism and an increased need for better representation.

Within that position, the student regent is granted a one-year voting position in all UC Board of Regents meetings. These meetings are held six times a year, with a two-day meeting happening every other month.

During the Student Regents term, he or she is also encouraged to pursue and represent other issues relevant to the UC system, including food security, homelessness and mental health training. In the past, student regents have been able to leverage campus-wide policies on tobacco use and pitched discussions on critical legislature.

Oved mentioned his own platforms as an example. Just recently, Oved’s Student Advisor Proposal was unanimously passed through the regents. With this proposal, Oved has added another non-voting student position to board meetings to help better represent students during the Regents meetings.

Ramirez and Oved also went over the application process behind the student regent position. The process starts with a three-part online application which asks for general information, a resume and a personal statement.

From there, the applications are narrowed down first by student groups and then by the Regents. In the beginning, the applications are reviewed and sorted out by each UC’s student government before moving on to the University of California Student Association (UCSA) for further review. Lastly, the remaining applications are sent to the Board of Regents for final decision.

According to Oved and Ramirez, each level of the process is in place to find certain aspects and strengths about an applicant. For instance, the UC student governments are judging a candidate’s local knowledge of the problems they wish to pursue during their term while UCSA is judging how effective the candidate can advocate for system-wide issues.

Sam Alavi, director of ASUCD’s Office of Advocacy and Student Representation (OASR), commented on the nature of the process and what UCSA is finding.

“The biggest thing UCSA looks for is whether the applicant has the best idea about what UC students, both undergraduate and graduate, have and need,” Alavi said.

During the meeting, Ramirez stressed a similar message to Alavi concerning the broad spectrum of representation that a student regent must hold.

“You are not just the student regent, like it’s a central part of who we are and why we’re at the table, but you also got to build alliances with staff and you also got to build alliances with faculty,” Ramirez said.

The concern for student voices is becoming increasingly more visible in light of recent decisions that were passed by the board. During the meeting, several students were able to voice their concerns over these decisions, such as increased admittance of California residents. There were several questions pitched over the lack of faculty and staff support alongside the rise in students. In response, Ramirez discussed the current and absent efforts of the university.

“There’s been a lot of faculty hiring across the system,” Ramirez said. “The staff conversation and the pressure, I think, that staff are under in terms of their workload with all these new people coming in […] there’s sort of advocacy and movement on that but the staff also needs our [Regent’s] help.”

All these comments further emphasize the weight and challenge behind the position of the student regent.

“It’s a balancing act, it’s a very, very thin line that you walk because you’re obviously there to champion student interests at the forefront,” Oved said. “But at the same time, when you cast your vote and you have conversations, they need to be reflective of the different stakeholders, they need to be reflective more comprehensive of UC as a whole.”

Written by: KATRINA MANRIQUE – campus@theaggie.org

UC Davis researchers explore reasons, uses for sexual selection of birds using robotics

On Feb. 11,  Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) hosted an art, science and technology speaker series in the Plant and Environmental Sciences Building at UC Davis. At this event, UC Davis professor of evolution and ecology Gail Patricelli held a lecture discussing her findings about the sex lives of birds.

“Darwin’s theory of natural selection is of course very powerful in explaining the evolution of traits like camouflage, coloration and lots of [other] different traits,” Patricelli said.

Patricelli discovered that certain species of birds develop features that hinder their chances of survival, but increase male birds’ chances of reproducing.

“Darwin’s theory of natural selection alone has a more difficult time explaining animals like the peacock, for these elaborate traits and behaviors seem to make the males in particular easy targets for predators,” Patricelli said. “His theory of sexual selection proposes that these elaborate traits like the peacock’s aid in reproduction.”

Patricelli travels with her team of researchers each spring to Wyoming to study male sage-grouse, which attract females through various movements and behaviors.

“You have to be able to experimentally manipulate this interaction between males and females,” Patricelli said. “That’s where the robots come in.”

To more closely observe the displays of courtship, the team used various renditions of robots that were disguised as female sage-grouse.

“The males puff up and strut around, and moving around amongst them there are females,” Patricelli said. “They will visit multiple males to watch their displays and keep moving until they decide who they want to mate with.”

This research allowed Patricelli to decide what makes certain males successful over others who also seek to mate.

“Show up and work hard is the number one rule to be successful as a [male] sage-grouse,” Patricelli said. “If a male is too intense too soon, then the male will freak the females out.”

The footage that was captured by these robots provided close-up evidence of sage-grouse mating behavior. During the presentation, various clips of the courtship rituals between the female robot and the male sage-grouse were shown to the audience.

“I think it’s interesting how animals present themselves to show they are the ideal mate,” said Richard Tu, a third-year economics major. “If I did something similar, people would think I’m mentally unstable.”

Anna Davidson, organizer and chair of LASER, chose Patricelli as a lecturer for this event due to an earlier rendition she had heard of the same speech at a previous event.

“I always think that sustainability and environmentalism is really important,” Davidson said. “Professor Patricelli does it in a really entertaining and fun manner. I feel like the audience can really connect with her.”

The next LASER event will be held on April 14 and is open to the community.

Written by: Nick Griffen – campus@theaggie.org

New program to financially assist AB 540 students at UC schools

On Jan. 28, the UC Office of the President announced a plan to launch a new loan program at the University of California (UC). The program, titled the California DREAM Loan, is intended to help undocumented students pay for college.

According to UC President Janet Napolitano, the program will accommodate over 3,000 undocumented students attending UC schools in an effort to ease their financial burden. The loan will be available starting next quarter for all AB 540 students.

Currently, undocumented students who graduate from a California high school and meet the California DREAM Act requirements are eligible for state and university aid. However, they do not qualify to receive federal aid, which, according to Napolitano, puts them at a severe disadvantage. This loan aims to close that gap.

“By reducing barriers and expanding access to higher education for undocumented students, the UC is investing not only in the future of these students, but also in the future of our state and nation,” Napolitano said in a press release.

The loan program began with California State Senator Ricardo Lara, who authored SB 1210 in 2014. The UC sponsored the bill because Napolitano recognized that access to student loans was a gap in what they were able to offer undocumented AB 540 students.

According to Claire Doan, a media relations specialist for the UC, in order to qualify for the loan, undocumented students will need to prove that they have financial need for the loan which the UC will ascertain through the California DREAM Act application. Students whose families are low- or middle-income have “financial need” if their ability to pay for tuition is less than the cost of college.

However, this loan is only for students who are undocumented and therefore fall under the AB 540 category. Students who are citizens of the United States have access to federal loans, but there are very limited loan programs for international students who are in the U.S. on an F1 or student visa.

The DREAM Loan program is said to cost $5 million for the first year. The California Legislature provided $2.5 million for the UC’s budget and the UC will be matching it with another $2.5 million from their own funds. After the first year, the UC and state government will decide on an annual basis how much they will need to spend to keep the program sustainable.

The UC has started informing California high school counselors about the loan program through electronic bulletins and in-person UC counselor conferences. The UC has also incorporated the California DREAM Loan into their financial aid materials used to advise undocumented students.  

So far, according to Doan, the feedback to this new loan program has been very optimistic.

“We’ve received very positive feedback regarding the California DREAM Loans program and its ability to provide much-needed financial aid to undocumented students who have relatively few options,” Doan said.

According to Andrea Gaytan, director of the AB 540 & Undocumented Student Center at UC Davis, several students who will qualify for this program are excited to have this loan as a backup in case they are unable to pay for tuition, though many are not planning to use it unless necessary. This loan program will make it easier for undocumented students to have a more normal college experience and may possibly open up opportunities for them, according to Gaytan.

However, Gaytan also expressed some concern about the possible lack of funds for the program, arguing that $5 million is not going to be enough for all 3,000 undocumented students at UC’s across the state.

“One of the challenges in implementation is coming up with a total amount,” Gaytan said. “If you multiply $4,000, the maximum amount the legislation has outlined to AB 540 students in one year, by the number of current AB 540 undocumented students on our campus, the number is over $1 million just at UC Davis for one year. That’s a lot of money.”

Although the funding is a concern for Gaytan, she said she is looking forward to the implementation of the program because it helps close the gap in financial aid between undocumented students and citizens.

“I think it’s very promising that undocumented students will have options to help fill that gap in funding, although it is still not equitable to what U.S. students have at their disposal,” Gaytan said. “But it’s something and something is better than nothing.”

Written by: Sangeetha Ramamurthy – campus@theaggie.org