“It would have been nice if the UC Davis administrators driving this case had had such support rather than spending [students’] funds on a petty and ill-fated prosecution. For obvious reasons, they did not.” — The Davis Dozen in an email interview on reaching a plea deal.

“Imagine a world where the free exercise clause allowed people to get out of laws by claiming their religion made them do it. Rastafarians could smoke pot. Jonestown cultists could murder people. And I’d sign up as the first Pope of the new religion, ‘Destroy-all-leaf-blowers-ism.’” — Daniel Watts in his column Watts Legal? on the First Amendment.
“When we did the discussion about this, what we found is that a lot of the constituent groups have the same basic concerns: How safe am I to reveal my sexual orientation, learning disability, industrial or personal injury, etc.? [These] concerns were common across all constituent groups. It was interesting to see how cohesive the questions were because we literally just went, ‘How safe are you about revealing blank?’” — David Ritz, vocational rehabilitation counselor in the department of human resources, on the Campus Climate survey.
“Hate speech affects people on a psychological level, and if you’ve ever been told that your existence, your faith or that your ‘brownness’ is the reason for all evil in the world, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.” — Sonum Saeed, fourth-year psychology major and publicity coordinator for the Muslim Student Association, on the ASUCD “Islamophobia” Resolution (SR 21).
“You develop a sixth sense for seeing glass — I’ve only stepped in glass twice. You just adapt. I walk along the white lines on pavement and try not to get off my bike until I am as close as I can get to my destination.” — Elena Piotter, first-year international relations major, on her choice to never wear shoes.

“People would try to pet his stomach because he tried to roll over, but the costumes’ buns got in the way, so he couldn’t turn over completely.” — Nycole Copping, fourth-year neurology, physiology and behavior major and employee at the CoHo, on Rodney, the corgi mascot for the CoHo hotdog cart.

“There are some students who don’t have stellar GPAs or stellar test scores, but they have amazing stories — life has dealt them a real difficult hand, like the girl who was 14 [years old] and was raising her daughter while still being the student body president … We admit stories — quite frankly, stories of outstanding students.” — Walter Robinson, executive director of UC Davis Admissions, on competition in gaining admission to UC Davis.

“I’m Jewish, so I sat home by myself and then went to Denny’s on Christmas Day.”
— Jeff Ratti, third-year microbiology major, on his winter break horror story.

“The awkward saga continued when I had the entire Target team attempting to find temporary tattoos for me … I told one of the guys who was helping me that I would prefer some with ponies or princesses or something.” — Aggie columnist Marci Montanari on Target etiquette.

BEST QUOTES 2012-13 was compiled by MUNA SADEK. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

ASUCD Senator Yara Zokaie steps down
Oct. 30 — Following pressure from within the Association, ASUCD Senator Yara Zokaie, who is currently attending law school at the University of San Diego, stepped down from her position.
— Originally reported by Adam Khan

Tuition to increase by $2,400 should Prop. 30 fail, Student Regent says
Nov. 5 — Students faced a tuition increase of up to $2,400 if Proposition 30 failed during the November presidential elections. The proposition passed.
— Originally reported by Natasha Qabazard

KDVS receives $36,000 loan from ASUCD for new radio tower
Nov. 20 — KDVS received a $36,000 loan from ASUCD Capital Reserves to fund the radio station’s new radio tower.
— Originally reported by Mengshi Shao

UC suspends new logo in face of system-wide opposition
Jan. 7 — Following a 54,000-signature petition opposing a new logo, UC made a decision to suspend its use.
— Originally reported by Stephanie B. Nguyen

Pepper spray settlement finalized
Jan. 10 — The Nov. 18 pepper spray lawsuit was finalized, with each plaintiff receiving $30,000 and a formal apology from UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi.
— Originally reported by Muna Sadek

UC President Mark Yudof announces resignation
Jan. 22 — Mark Yudof, UC president of five years, announced plans to resign and teach law at UC Berkeley, effective August 31.
— Originally reported by Muna Sadek

Explosion at Russell Park leads to criminal investigation
Jan 22 — A UC Davis junior researcher was arrested following an explosion at the Russell Park apartments. He was charged with possession of an explosive, possession of materials with an intent to make explosives and two counts of possession of a firearm on campus.
— Originally reported by Natasha Qabazard

Students launch bi-weekly campus publication
Feb. 19 — The Davis Beat, a bi-weekly publication, made its debut Spring Quarter.
— Originally reported by Stephanie B. Nguyen

ASUCD Senate passes resolution condemning Islamophobia
May 2 — Senate Resolution 25, condemning Islamophobic speech at the University of California, passed senate with a 7-4-1 vote.
— Originally reported by Liliana Nava Ochoa

Davis Dozen settlement reaches plea deal before trial
May 9 — The Davis Dozen, a group of one faculty member and 11 students who were charged with obstructing movement in a public place and conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, following protests outside the Memorial Union U.S. Bank, agreed to community service hours and an infraction ticket before their set trial date.
— Originally reported by Muna Sadek

UC Davis to withdraw from UC Student Health Insurance Plan
May 16 — After the discovery of a $57 million deficit in the UC Student Health Insurance Plan (UC SHIP), UC Davis has chosen to withdraw from UC SHIP.
— Originally reported by Lauren Mascarenhas

Question: Can my roommates force me to pay the rent for a subleaser who’s replacing me? I’m moving out of my apartment early, and I found a subleaser to take over my room for the summer. The subleaser signed an agreement to take over the remainder of my lease, so she’s on the lease now — not me. But my roommates made me sign a second agreement making me responsible for the new girl’s rent in case the new girl doesn’t pay. Can they go after me for rent if the subleaser doesn’t pay her rent?
— Jennifer W., Davis, Calif.

Answer: Yes, if you sign an agreement to guarantee the new girl’s rent, you’re probably stuck with it.

Landlords and tenants have some flexibility in designing the terms of a rental agreement. Even though almost every landlord in Davis uses the Davis Model Lease, they don’t have to use it.

(I wish landlords wouldn’t use it at all, actually. The Davis Model Lease is a monster of a document, with a bunch of sneaky little clauses that are either void for violating California tenants’ rights laws or inappropriate for student tenants.)

Anyway, landlord-tenant law allows you to sign leases with varying terms. For example, you could agree to pay on the 10th instead of the first, or pay once every four months instead of monthly. The lease could allow you to assign your tenancy to subleaser upon subleaser into infinity, like nested Russian dolls. Or you could pay your rent in bitcoins or sheep. It’s up to you and your landlord.

Part of that flexibility allows people to “guarantee” another person’s lease (or any other contract, for that matter). Imagine if this new tenant had horrible credit, no job, no income and no savings; the landlord wouldn’t trust that she’d pay rent. A guarantor provides reassurance to the landlord that even if the tenant screws up, the landlord will still get paid.

This is actually a good thing for tenants, because it lets people with crappy credit find a place to live. It’s a good thing for people like you who are leaving their lease early, too. If you didn’t sign the guarantee agreement, the landlord might not have let this tenant move in to replace you, and you’d get stuck paying for the apartment over the summer.

So even though you’re on the hook for her rent if she bails, you still have recourse against her if she doesn’t pay. If you end up needing to cover her rent, she should have to reimburse you for it.

Question: I got attacked by a chihuahua in my apartment complex. Since I was sitting on the grass at the time, it jumped up, bit my face and tore my lip. The chihuahua had escaped from a backyard with a broken fence. I complained to the dog’s owners, and they said there’s nothing they could do because the apartment manager has refused to fix the fence. I complained to the manager, and they said they were sorry; the manager said that they knew the dog was dangerous but hadn’t had a chance to fix the fence yet. Can I get my apartment complex to pay my medical bills?
— Tasha Y., Davis, Calif.

Answer: Yes. The apartment complex and the dog owner are probably both liable for the injuries caused by the dog.

“The owner of any dog is liable for the damages suffered by any person who is bitten by the dog while in a public place,” according to California Civil Code § 3342(a). Yolo County and the City of Davis both require dogs to be on a leash or under the owner’s control at all times. When a law or ordinance imposes a duty on someone in order to protect the public, a breach of that duty will make the person liable for the resulting injuries, if the injury is inflicted on a victim who the law was supposed to protect. Here, the leash laws are meant to protect you from getting bit, and the dog’s owner breached his duty by letting the dog run wild.

The landlord himself has a duty to exercise reasonable care in the inspection of his property and to remove a known dangerous condition. In this case, your landlord should’ve told the tenant to remove the vicious dog or, at the very least, the landlord should’ve fixed the fence to enclose the dog.

Daniel is a Sacramento attorney, former Davis City Council candidate and graduate of UC Davis School of Law. He’ll answer questions sent to him at governorwatts@gmail.com or tweeted to @governorwatts.