The UC Davis Police Department (UCDPD) is conducting an investigation concerning an alleged hate crime that took place on May 12 and occurred on campus near Putah Creek Drive.

According to the police report, the victim was walking on Levee Road when a burgundy Jeep SUV slowed alongside the victim. The suspects allegedly exited the vehicle and began shouting “sexual-orientation bias slurs” and repeatedly assaulting the victim. The suspects then returned to the vehicle and drove down Brooks Road.

According to UC Davis Police Chief Matthew Carmichael, neither the suspects nor the victim is affiliated with the University.

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, along with Davis Mayor Joe Krovoza, sent a campus community email May 17, addressing the crime.

“While such behavior is inconsistent with our values, so, too, is silence or indifference in the face of such a crime,” the email stated. “Working together, we will do everything in our power to see that the perpetrators are identified and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Carmichael said that the police department has received some information regarding the assault, following the email.

“We are fortunate that we do not see it too often. However, one crime is too many,” he said in an email interview.

He said that if convicted, the suspects may be imprisoned in the Yolo County Jail not exceeding one year, or imprisoned in state prison for two to four years.

“If convicted of a hate crime as well as the battery, an enhancement of one to four additional years could be added to the sentence,” Carmichael said.

The Davis Police Department said they are not involved in the investigation, as the alleged assault occurred on campus. However, Carmichael said that the UCDPD often works closely with the Davis Police Department in crimes of this nature.

The police report stated that both suspects were white male adults in their late teens to early 20s, about 5’10”, 150 pounds, medium build, with light complexions, brown eyes and short straight brown hair.

Anyone with information regarding the incident should contact the UCDPD at (530) 752-1230.

– Muna Sadek

Question: I saw on the local news that a “pickup artist” in Sacramento got arrested for trespassing at Arden Fair Mall. When the reporter interviewed him, the pickup artist said he shouldn’t have been arrested because he had a “First Amendment” right to be there. Is that true? Can I just go to a mall and say whatever I want? (He also said the Founding Fathers believed in the “freedom to flirt,” but I think that was supposed to be a joke.)
— Alexis J., Davis, Calif

Answer: Believe it or not, the pickup artist is right — at least about the first part. He’s got free speech rights in malls, though those rights are grounded in Article I, Section 2 of California’s constitution, which states:

“Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press.”

The First Amendment to the federal constitution states that “Congress [and states] shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.”

Note the difference: In California, the state constitution affirmatively grants the right to “freely speak,” while the federal constitution merely restrains the government from “abridging” the freedom of speech. California grants an affirmative right; the federal Constitution restrains the government from abridging a right.

This might seem like a minor difference, but the California Supreme Court thought otherwise. In Pruneyard v. Robins, the court held that the California Constitution was indeed broader than the federal constitution. Because our suburban society only rarely congregates in town squares these days, the “mall” has become the modern-day town square. If a speaker wants to get in touch with people, he has to go to the mall, which has become the only town square-like public place where people congregate just to hang out and talk. In a public park or town square, your free speech rights are at their xenith; you cannot be kicked out of a park just because you said something offensive. As I discussed in an earlier column, such content-based restrictions on speech are almost always unconstitutional.

The ability to speak to people in person is especially important in California because of the referendum, recall and initiative processes established in our state constitution. You know those dozens of propositions on the ballot every year? Most of them are on the ballot only because hundreds of thousands of people physically signed petitions in support. Without petition signatures, Gray Davis couldn’t have been recalled, and we would’ve missed out on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s six years of mismanagement.

You might have realized the flaw in the court’s reasoning: the internet. Yes, people in the 21st century “congregate” online. If you want to start a revolution in 2013, you don’t go to the mall, you go on Facebook or Twitter. And Pruneyard is indeed an old case, dating from the late 1970s. However, although it’s been somewhat narrowed over the years, it’s been upheld as recently as late 2012, despite the ability to reach out to people online. In that 2012 case, Ralphs Grocery v. United Food, the California Supreme Court held that the common areas of shopping centers, including food courts, are still public forums. A mall’s sidewalks and corridors are not public, but the food courts and atriums are.

Back to the pickup artist you saw on TV. I saw that same clip on the local news and got in touch with the guy, whose name is Bryan Barton. Barton told me that when he speaks to people at malls, he does it in the food court. If this is true, his speech falls within the California Constitution’s protections, and the mall was out of line for kicking him out. In fact, since the video made it look like the mall security handcuffed Barton and physically detained him, Barton might have a good case for a lawsuit against the mall based on battery, false imprisonment and assault.

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.

The ASUCD Senate table discussed the Association’s $11.7 million budget for the 2013-14 school year from May 17 to 19. The California Aggie reported on the three days of budget hearings. The remainder of budget hearings will be continued during the May 23 ASUCD Senate meeting in the Mee Room on the third floor of the M.U.

FRIDAY

Meeting called to order at 6:28 p.m.

ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo) director Darin Schluep addressed the table about the changes the CoHo was undergoing. This included an increase in catering rates, a decrease in equipment purchases by 50 percent because of the CoHo renovation and an increase in labor payroll. He added that the CoHo will be seeing more hours and more student jobs.

“Sales are strong enough to where they do not need to raise prices on products,” Schluep said.

The table promptly closed the budget.

The $4.5 million proposed Unitrans budget was discussed next. Director Teri Sheets said that there aren’t many differences from last year’s budget. There are some changes being made to routes and night services have been extended. The unit is also working to help senior citizens use public transportation more often.

However, the unit is facing a deficit situation, and explained that they are three to four years early in requesting student fees. This, they said, was partly due to 2009 bus purchases and terminal remodels.

The budget was closed.

Next, the budget for STS Tipsy Taxi was seen.

“We’re projecting slightly lower income this year … We sort of set a high target [before] and I think this is slightly more realistic,” said ASUCD Controller Eric Evans.

They discussed increased expenses, as they are considering adding GPS on the buses. ASUCD President Carly Sandstrom said she appreciated that the unit saw an increase in income and a decrease in subsidy.

The table considered a compromise that would reduce the publicity budget from $1,000 to $750. A number of senators wanted the figure to decrease further, while the management team were friendly to a larger publicity allowance.

The budget was closed with only slight adjustments.

Bike Barn unit directors explained that they were able to consolidate certain line items in the budget and lower expenditures while hiring more people. The budget was promptly closed without many changes to the proposed budget.

The Aggie Reuse budget was seen next. The unit plans to add three positions, including a summer store manager and two store managers to extend hours during the school year, as it is only open three hours a day currently. Thomas motioned to increase employee pay slightly. The motion failed.

The table passed a motion to increase the publicity line item to $250. The budget closed.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:16 p.m.

SATURDAY

The meeting was called to order at 10:12 a.m.

The Creative Media budget was opened first. Director Alex Park stated that they have a larger need for expenses, but they also are experiencing an increase in income. Because they are creating new website designs, they have developed a way to “brand” the Association and increase reach across campus. Their publicity line item was increased to $1,550 and they have began to charge more for recharge services for other ASUCD units.

The Memorial Union Post Office budget was opened next. Unit directors said they are seeing a decrease in income and expenses because they are no longer selling stamps to the Bookstore. They are also no longer receiving flat operating fees and are having trouble predicting sales based on a new contract. The unit is also increasing stipends and salaries because the work period has increased.

Senators then moved on to the Picnic Day budget. The unit is spending more money in equipment purchases, and they are planning the Centennial Picnic Day. They are not marketing much because they do not want to draw an overabundance of people to the event. Senators voted to drop the advertising budget from $4,000 to $3,000.

The budget was closed without much change.

The Project Compost budget was then opened. The unit is seeing lower expenses and does not have a predictable way to forecast income. Unit Director Haley Proehl said they are doing well this year and are operating out of the Student Farm.

The Lobby Corps budget was opened and closed promptly, without changes.

The Whole Earth Festival budget was visited next.

“We’re building our fiscal sustainability for the future for a sustainable event,” Evans said.

This budget saw many small changes including a $200 decrease for equipment purchases, an increase in equipment rental from $960 to $1,000, a $400 decrease in the art line item and decreases in the compost and recycling, staff development, dish collection, food, transportation, publicity and parking line items. The hydration line item and replacement reserves saw increases as well. The budget closed with additional supplemental descriptions to the budget.

The Campus Center for the Environment saw a decrease in the staff development line item and an increase in programming. The campus club and event coordinator pay was decreased to $35 a week as well.

The Cal Aggie Camp budget was opened next. The directors of Cal Aggie Camp felt that they were operating on a “skeleton budget,” while some senators felt that they were receiving more money than they need to operate. In the end, the budget was altered in the storage and T-shirts line-items. The storage fee saw a large decrease to $75 from $828 and T-shirts were reduced from $2,500 to $1,525.

“We need a critical dissection of these budgets because everyone is struggling right now,” Sagala said.

The Pantry budget followed. During discussion of the budget, Unit Director Quincy Kayton said they wanted to increase publicity and awareness of The Pantry. She also discussed the amount for computer equipment, reduced from $420 to $180.

The Aggie Threads budget was then opened. Director Dan Caldwell discussed how the printer has not been functioning properly, and for that reason, they did not meet their projected revenue. The budget closed.

Vice President Bradley Bottom’s budget was then seen. Bottoms said he had to make small cuts with a tight budget. It closed quickly. Sandstrom pointed out that she had been using some of the vice president’s budget, as her budget was used up by the previous ASUCD president.

The Entertainment Council budget was opened next. The table discussed making The Buzz, a campuswide fall welcome event, directed not just to first-year students. The unit said they are seeing higher maintenance costs and will attempt to bring more midsize shows, with new types of artists that would attract a variety of students.

The City and County Affairs budget was then seen. Sandstrom wanted the table to motion to change the name to City and Community Relations to make it more attractive to prospective applicants. The table discussed first-year voter registration and the unit’s role in it. They said they can reach out to first-year students in Cuarto, as they are able to vote in city elections, unlike residents of other residence halls.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m.

SUNDAY

Meeting was called to order at 10:17 a.m.

Senate started the day with the AggieTV budget.

“I’m really happy to see a decrease in subsidy but an increase in operation,” Sagala said.

The table discussed how increasing the income would make the unit more commercialized. Sagala said that she believed the unit is an outlet for students to be creative and should not be viewed as one chiefly for generating income.

The Campus Copies/Classical Notes budget was then seen. The unit has received more printers and a new website by Creative Media. Unit Director Jessica Fitzhugh said she is looking to bring more readers on campus and buy better printers to remain competitive. The table discussed raising income, but Fitzhugh said she would rather maintain the same income goal at $84,300.

The table motioned to open the KDVS budget. Unit Director Renner Burkle said the unit is in a transition period, as they are switching from their old tower to a newer one. The unit has to pay for both towers during the transition, but anticipates making more money once the unit expands. Burkle said they would be lowering their income line item, as they do not make as much as projected during fundraisers. He also said a lot of equipment is breaking and that they have had to replace it.

After Senate closed the budget, Business and Finance Commission chair Rylan Schaeffer said the Senate shouldn’t have given KDVS a subsidy increase when the unit already spent over $30,000 for the new tower and hasn’t seen a change in revenue.

Senate moved on to the Refrigerator Services (RS) budget. Unit Director Eddie Truong said that while the budget implements stipend positions, he would rather pay the employees hourly due to the difference in working hours each quarter.

Evans and other members of the table said the stipend model makes more sense and that that’s what most other ASUCD units do.

“Going to stipend puts more accountability on expense,” Evans said.

Truong said this pay does not motivate students to work.

“Historically, this unit is always being punished. We make a lot of money for this association so I don’t understand why we are giving deference to individuals who don’t know what they’re talking about,” Truong said.

After a break to open other budgets, the table passed a motion for hourly pay, in an 8-1-3 vote, changing pay to $8 per hour for 20 weeks, resulting in a total of $800.

The California Aggie budget was opened. Evans said that the budget is going to be a realistic evaluation of the financial status of the paper.

Because this is a Campus Media Board unit, the table could either accept or reject the whole budget, but no changes could be made to it without media board approval.

“We are lowering our expenses in salaries. They’ve taken large cuts to make those changes happen… We are planning for a problem,” Evans said.

Janelle Bitker, unit director and editor in chief of the California Aggie, said that printing costs are estimated to decrease from $80,000 to $35,000 by printing only once a week. The unit is anticipating a deficit of roughly $17,000.

The Experimental College budget was opened. The unit lowered their income and expense projections. They are also looking to develop a cohesive marketing strategy. They passed the budget with ease at $55,000 in income.

The ASUCD President’s budget was seen next. Senator Maxwell Kappes said he is appreciative of the cuts Sandstrom made, and he liked the idea of more collaboration between branches because that would lead to more accountability.

The only change in this budget was an increase in equipment purchases from $407 to $820 and a reduction in the Chief of Staff pay by $10.

Internal Affairs Commission budget was then opened. The unit saw small increases in certain line items.

The Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission budget followed and saw a decrease from $2,500 to $1,800. The Presidents budget decreased all commissions’ budgets, as they previously gave money to ethnic graduations and opted to preemptively move those funds.

Aaron Hsu, Elections Committee chair, said he wants to hire more interns. The table said he should try to divide work between current employees and volunteers.

The Environmental Policy and Planning Commission saw an $800 cut last year, but they said they cannot cut anymore. Not many changes were made to the budget,

The Gender and Sexuality Commission proposed a $190 cut to the unit. They said that the majority of their budget would be used for scholarships and events. They said that the amount of money corresponds to the amount of money being used for their work, and it would be hard to accept any more budget cuts. Senators motioned to cut dollars from various line items in small amounts.

The table discussed adding a surplus to next year’s Educational Opportunity Program grants. They work with a rate of $2 per students at 25,260 student per quarter.

The table reopened the Elections Committee budget, and opted to close the budget at $3,500 after discussing the importance of getting students out to vote.

The ASUCD Controller’s budget was then opened. The table lowered the pay in a 9-3-0 vote, but immediately voted to raise pay back to its original amount after some senators suggested it was a bad idea.

Thomas, who called for pay cuts throughout budget hearings, pointed out that it was necessary to consider all parts of the budget, even if it meant decreasing pay.

“Budget hearings is not a personal thing, it’s to get the numbers right so we can make it a better association for the students,” Thomas said.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 p.m.

This year alone, three independent, student-run publications have emerged. The Davis Beat, which made its debut Winter Quarter, the Davis Political Review (DPR), which circulated its first issue on May 1, and The Third World Forum, which resurfaced after years of inactivity.

The Davis Beat and DPR utilized the Club Finance Council (CFC) on campus to receive grants for their projects. The Davis Beat received $1,675, but they have recently stopped printing due to a lack of advertising.

“We’re thinking about going online, but we’ll see if we can make print work. It’s definitely a tough ad market out there. So we’re on hiatus until we figure out our finances … I hope we can keep it going,” said Adrian Glass-Moore, editor in chief of The Davis Beat and third-year East Asian studies major.

To continue printing the publication, Glass-Moore said he hopes to be able to seek out funds from a variety of sources. He cited a potential combination of advertisements, donations and other grants.

DPR also received a grant from CFC, in the amount of $1,077, during Winter Quarter. DPR is currently UC Davis’ first and only commentary publication, created by Alex Tavlian, who said he felt that a campus in such close proximity to the Capitol should have a political magazine.

“I transferred to UC Davis this fall and was surprised to discover that, for a campus so close to the State Capitol, there was no outlet for students to write about issues being discussed by the Governor and State Legislature,” Tavlian said, editor in chief of DPR and a third-year political science major.

After reading political review magazines from Harvard and UC Berkeley, Tavlian asked his friends in the political science department about their opinions on a political commentary magazine and the process accelerated quickly from there. By December 2012, they elected an editorial and executive board for the magazine.

The issue that was released at the beginning of this month included topics like California’s high-speed rail project, gun control laws and the DREAM Act.

“The benefit DPR has, as a nonpartisan commentary magazine, is that each issue acts as a mosaic of opinions from all across the political spectrum on issues that Americans talk about regularly,” Tavlian said.

Tavlian hopes that the magazine can eventually expand beyond the scope of the UC Davis campus and be distributed around the State Capitol.

In addition to The Davis Beat and DPR, The Third World Forum has resurfaced this spring after not printing for several years. The independent, student-run political zine had its debut in 1971 and was once funded by ASUCD. The Third World Forum has a mission to stand against all forms of oppression, including racism, Zionism, sexism and heterosexism.

“We believe that the University of California has been designed to promote and uphold the system of imperialism and racism, which dominated the United States,” the mission statement states.

According to Dan Reimold, college journalism scholar and assistant journalism professor at the University of Tampa, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain print publications on college campuses.

“The sad reality is that the trend at the moment is toward less advertising, less readers and more trouble in print, which certainly is not good news for these startup publications,” Reimold said.

He adds that there has been a very recent and dramatic drop-off in advertising revenue, in even the bigger, daily student papers, that he said he would consider the “A-list of student press.”

Reimold said another emerging trend today is a reinvention of how one would come to define student papers.

“A small group of papers [is] trying to reinvent what students think of when they think of the student paper, in terms of existing as more than just a news vehicle.”

Reimold, who created and runs the leading student press blog in the U.S., College Media Matters, said that surveys are finding that people between the ages of 18 and 24 on campuses are not picking up their campus newspapers in print as often as they used to.

There are also multiple mediums, and in the case of UC Davis, multiple student publications that are vying for the attention of the student body.

The University of Wisconsin, Madison has been able to sustain two competing student publications, The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald, until most recently The Herald announced its decision to stop printing daily and opt to publish increasingly online, he added.

“It depends on how you look at it in terms of who won — some would say The Daily Cardinal won because they are the long remaining print paper. Some would say The Daily Herald is going to be the ultimate winner because they’re trying to innovate first,” he said.

SASHA COTTERELL and MUNA SADEK can be reached at campus@theaggie.org

Poolside Police
Three students were referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for possessing alcohol in the pool area of the dorms. The students were approached by two Residential Advisors (RAs) who asked the students if their bottles contained alcohol. The students stated that their drink did in fact contain alcohol, which was against Student Housing Policy. The RAs documented the misconduct and also stated that the students would be referred to SJA. When the students met with the SJA officer, they took full responsibility for possessing alcohol when they were not allowed too. The students agreed upon a censure, or a warning, for breaking the Student Housing Policy.

Not off the hook-ah
An RA referred two students to SJA for tampering with a fire alarm in their room. The two students were smoking hookah in their room when one of the floormates decided to tell an RA about the tobacco smell. The RA then proceeded to the students’ room where he found a hookah machine as well as a tampered fire alarm. The two students had been smoking, which is prohibited inside the dorms, and even removed their fire alarm to continue smoking. When the two students met with the Judicial Officer they admitted to tampering with the alarm to smoke the hookah. Both students took responsibility for breaking student housing rules and they both agreed to probation until 2014. This means that if the students break any other rules and are referred to SJA again they will most likely be suspended.

Rearranged
A group of students was referred to SJA for possession of alcohol and inappropriate use of furniture in the dorms. Two RAs were walking around the floor to invite students to a floor social, when they heard ping pong balls bouncing and someone yelling “shots” from a nearby room. The RAs went to the suspected room where they found a group of students with alcohol. Also, the students had moved a closet door to the living room, which was against Student Housing policy. The students were compliant and respectful to the RAs and handed over their IDs to document the misconduct. When the student who lived in the dorm met with the SJA officer, they took full responsibility and agreed upon a censure.