By THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE STAFF

June 5, 2:30 p.m., 2024

By RIVERS STOUT

PULP DISCUSSES AN ALLEGED USE OF AMMONIUM SULFIDE BY COUNTER-PROTESTER 

On the Morning of May 30, a masked individual threw a glass bottle of Smirnoff into the encampment, UCD PULP media liaison Stanford McConnehey claims. 

According to McConnehey, the bottle — which broke on impact — has the words “Fuck y’all” written on it. The bottle contained vials of ammonium Sulfide, with at least one of the vials shattering and releasing ammonium sulfide into the encampment. Nobody was injured from the alleged attack.

Ammonium sulfide is a skin, eyes and respiratory irritant. The substance is commonly used for stink bombs, and tends to not be lethal in small doses with limited exposure. However, those with respiratory conditions are more likely to experience more extreme affects. 

“This was an attack with poisonous chemicals,” McConnehey said. “Obviously the intent was that the glass bottle would break, and the [ammonium sulfide] bottles would break. 

McConnehey spoke on the accused person’s choice to wear a mask.

“People who are opposed to the encampment criticize campers and protestors for wearing masks,” McConnehey said. “Which we do to protect ourselves from Covid, which is being transmitted to people in our communities and to protect our identities when there is an open threat of doxxing and harassment. But, the same people wear masks when they come to assault us and to throw toxic chemicals into the camp, hoping that the vessels within them will break, and that they will harm people.”

McConnehey continued.

“This is engaging in terroristic tactics,” McConnehey remarked. “These are meant to terrorize people in the encampment, to threaten them, to make them feel like they’re unsafe, to make them literally unsafe. Often these are the same people aligned with one another that say they’re threatened just by the presence of the encampment, or the mere presence of disruptive protests in classrooms, or picket lines, or people chanting about Palestinian freedom and liberation, or even chanting about their support for one side versus another in a conflict.”

Police were not contacted over the matter, he shared.

“As always, we’re not going to stop what we’re doing, and we’re not going to be intimidated. Its obvious that this escalation and type of violence is a reaction to the marginality of the Zionist viewpoint and the justification, denial and actual celebration of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Specifically what’s going on in Rafah right now–which is where all of our eyes should be focused.”

Despite these challenges, the encampment has continued to grow. With the strike’s beginning, the encampment has seen an increase in check-ins. In preparation for the growth, the encampment was updated to make neat rows of tents that are available to all students. The strikers and campers now host programming together on the quad field.

While the encampment is likely to continue occupying space for the coming weeks, attacks against them are just as likely. 

“People need to understand the violence that Zionists are willing to commit against people speaking out against a genocide and realize who is threatening who,” McConnehey said on the attack. “Who is unsafe, versus who is merely uncomfortable.”

May 27, 2024, 9:10 p.m.

By RIVERS STOUT

UAW STRIKE

The United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811 announced they will be going on strike on Tuesday, May 28. The strike is over what the union believes to be unfair labor practices, including failure to protect the safety of protesters at the UCLA encampment. 

The Davis PULP encampment shared their reaction to the union’s decision. 

“We look forward to rallying with and supporting the striking UAW 4811 workers as they raise the issues of the unfair labor practices by the University of California, as it relates to speech and protected speech on campus, specifically as it relates to the matter of Palestine,” Stanford McConnehey, PULP media liaison said.

“We expect that the quad will be a space of collaboration between both undergraduate and graduate student campers and striking workers,” McConnehey added. “As always, all of our community is invited to engage in the public facing programming. We’re going to maintain this as a safe space for our community and we’re looking forward to accepting new people into the Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine.”

May 27, 2024, 6:20 p.m.

By RIVERS STOUT

PULP NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE

On May 22, the second round of negotiations between UC Davis campus leadership and the PULP members occurred. 

“This round of negotiations was a chance for the administration to offer responses to our initial five demands,” PULP media liaison Stanford McConnehey shared. “It was not a detailed response to our fully detailed list of demands. It was very obvious that it was vetted through UCOP [University of California, Office of the President] and the regents. What they offered was insufficient to meet the needs and the demands of this community. Going forward the administration’s engagement teams will be setting up meetings in real time with the relevant decision makers as they relate to each of our demands.” 

According to McConnehey, offers to schedule more meetings were made at the table.

“Basically it was just offered to set up meetings in exchange for us breaking down the encampment,” McConnehey said. “We’re not here to be in meetings, we were in meetings before the encampment started.”

The establishment of meetings with the engagement teams has given hope to the PULP movement.

“We’re going to move towards discussions that need to be had, with the people who have the information, the access to information and the power to make changes or make recommendations for changes at the various institutional levels on which our demands operate,” McConnehey said.

“This movement is diverse, it engages in a multiplicity of various tactics, of which the encampment is just one,” McConnehey said. “We’re looking forward to coming together as a community to push our demands, until our demands are met.” 

May 15, 2024, 7:39 p.m.

By CHRIS PONCE

PULP NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN

Earlier today UC Davis News & Media Relations shared that campus leadership met with PULP negotiators on Monday, May 13. 

“Campus leaders expressed appreciation for the students’ efforts to keep the encampment safe and peaceful and listened to the students’ concerns about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” the university shared in a statement. “UC Davis leaders said the conversation was productive and that they will continue to engage with the students about issues they are raising.”

The statement also shared Chancellor Gary May’s previous sentiment that the university won’t punish students for remaining within their First Amendment rights. 

“UC Davis cannot and will not discipline students for speech protected by the First Amendment, even though [May] recognizes that such speech sometimes distresses or inconveniences members of the campus community,” the statement reads. “We remain committed to keeping the campus peaceful and welcoming for people of all backgrounds.”

The statement did not discuss PULP’s fifth demand which asks that May resign from the board of Leidos or as chancellor of the university.

This is the second statement from university leadership, following the first on May 6.

“Our Student Affairs team is working closely with UCD PULP members to offer guidance or information today, and they will remain available to UCD PULP to discuss their needs,” May said in the previous statement. “We are reviewing the demands we’ve seen posted and are working on responding.”

May 15, 2024, 7:21 p.m.

By RIVERS STOUT

At 10:30 a.m., protesters gathered at the East Quad for a walkout on Nakba day. The walkout was organized by the UCD Anti-Imperialist Student Association (AISA) and the Spartacist League. They traveled across campus, drawing some students to their walkout.

The march included chants such as “Gay Mary you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” “Walkout for Palestine,” “The working class will take a side, down with U.S. genocide” and more.

“We called a walkout to defend the camp against Zionist provocation and to free Palestnie,” Jameson, an organizer, said. “Over the past few days there’ve been provocations at the encampment, disruptions to their classes and just kind of general aggressive behavior.”

Those that organized the walkout don’t believe that negotiations aimed at divestment should be the primary means of aiding Palestinians. Instead, they aim for a class struggle.

“The university administrators are not neutral, they are agents of the capitalist class,” Jameson said in a speech. “Overseeing control and operation of higher education. The time has come. Let’s divest these administrative parasites of their authority to control schooling and serve as the bulwark of genocidal imperialism on our campuses. Abolish the administration, for student, teacher and worker control of higher education.”

While the walkout organizers and PULP organizers both want a free Palestine, the groups have ideological differences. An AISA organizer said that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Revolutionary Student Union were too “liberal.” The organizations rely too heavily on working within the university to achieve their goals, they said.

“We’re happy to see people being active around the ongoing issue in Palestine,” they said. “I think there are differences in the political lines between some people who organize with PULP and AISA; In terms of their feelings about the settler-colonial reality in occupied Palestine and how to move through or past it.”

May 14, 2024, 4:10 p.m.

By RIVERS STOUT

Today at 9:45 a.m., a group carrying a sign that read “WORKERS UNITED AGAINST GENOCIDE” marched near the Quad. They chanted: “Palestina sería libre/Cueste lo que cueste,” which means in English “Palestine will be free/It cost what it cost” and “Viva Palestina,” which translates to “Long live Palestine.” 

Marchers consisted of members of organizations that work within the California Coalition for Worker Power. Many marchers were members of Trabajadores Unidos, a Woodland and Sacramento based worker center.

Alma Soto, executive director of jobs with Justice San Francisco, was a member of the march.

“We’re here because we’re a worker-led organization and we very much honor solidarity,” Soto said. “We have an analysis of what it means to be in solidarity, like with working people internationally, not just here in the United States.”

The group had plans to be in town for a workers’ assembly in Davis, and wanted to express their solidarity with the encampment while they were in town.

“Palestine has been an issue that has been raised from workers in our communities — communities that are primarily immigrant communities,” Soto said. “Imperialism has impacted a lot of the communities that we represent. We see that happening in Palestine and we have a commitment to continue to be in solidarity as workers in Palestine have asked for solidarity actions from workers across the country.”

May 13, 2024, 1:53 p.m.

By CHRIS PONCE

It has been one week since the PULP encampment was set up in the Memorial Union Quad. Since last Monday there have been counter protests, several donations made to the encampment and an alleged assault on a PULP member. A media coordinator with the group recently shared that negotiations with the university are expected to start sometime this week. 

“It’s going to be our first meeting [with the university this week], we just aren’t quite sure yet how things are gonna go,” the coordinator said. “But we are hopeful and have faith that our negotiators are going to do a good job.” 

In order to join the encampment, participants have to check in at the PULP entrance. The coordinator said there have been around 1000 check-ins since last Monday and that there are typically around 200 people who stay overnight.

“We have more systems in terms of dealing with food and dealing with cleaning up and maintaining the camp,” the coordinator discussed what has changed since day one. “At the beginning, there was such an influx of donations that things just kind of were not organized well. But now we’re getting much more organized and things are running smoothly.”

The coordinator shared why they feel hopeful about negotiations. 

“I think because we have so much community support, we feel hopeful,” they said.
“But we just are just really confident in our negotiators and confident that we’re going to stick to our demands.”

May 13, 2024, 11:48 a.m. 

By CHRIS PONCE

Today, Aggies for Israel (AFI) held a small demonstration in front of the Quad. They hung an Israeli flag from a tree and set up missing posters of Israeli Hostages taken by Hamas. Since Oct. 7, it is believed Hamas has been holding around 100 people hostage.

“It’s to bring awareness of the people that were taken hostage into Gaza, or kidnapped or murdered,” Elizabeth, a member of Aggies for Israel who didn’t feel comfortable sharing their last name, said. “I mean, so we’re just bringing awareness to the people that are still there since Oct. 7.”

It has been one week since PULP organizers set up their encampment in the Memorial Union Quad in support of Palestine. Elizabeth shared her thoughts on the encampment. 

“I don’t want to speak for everyone, but I know that I just want a peaceful campus,” Elizabeth said. “I just know that this is a very tough situation and some people are very personally involved. And I hope that those of whose family are also doing okay.”

Elizabeth shared she believes a sign in front of the encampment which reads “Davis to Gaza — Intifada,” is a call to violence. 

“It’s a little bit scary,” Elizabeth shared. “My reaction when they’re, you know, having signs that say ‘Intifada’ and things like — it’s a little nerve wracking. It’s a call for violence, it incites violence. And I know a lot of [the encampment members] say they don’t want that [violence]. And so I wonder if they know that that’s what [Intifada] means. I just really want a peaceful environment, I want everyone to be safe.”

She shared that there are misconceptions people have about their group and that there are also likely misconceptions held about PULP.

“I try to have empathy for them and understand where they’re coming from,” she said about the PULP encampment. “But I definitely want to encourage people to talk and have respectful and open dialogue. That’s what I would want. But yeah, I’m sure there’s misconceptions, those misconceptions on our side too.”

Elizabeth and another member, Ari, shared that they are cautious about supporting a total “prisoner/hostage for hostage” exchange in the war. They believe the Palestinian prisoners held by Israel are different from hostages that were taken by Hamas. 

“We want peace, we want to end the war,” Ari said. “It’s as simple as that. We want our hostages home, and we want Palestinians to have a government that doesn’t hold them hostage and that isn’t a terrorist organization.” 

Elizabeth has family in Israel and has been hearing about this conflict since she was a child.

“I mean, I’ve heard about this conflict since I was younger, it’s not something that just started now,” Elizabeth shared. “And every time I’ve talked to my family and to my family in Israel, there are so many different perspectives in Israel alone. So many people want to be able to live freely and be able to coincide and live together.”

Elizabeth believes that both Jewish people and Palestinians are indigenous to Israel and Gaza and that they can coexist.

“People can coexist and live on land that they are both indigenous to, that both have history and ties to,” she shared. “Palestinians do deserve rights and freedom and human rights and land. And so do Israelis and Jews, so I really think that’s just that’s where I would leave off — we really just want peace, we want to not be afraid for our family, of constant rockets and taken hostages.”

“I was so afraid that my family would be [one] of the faces,” Elizabeth gestured to the missing signs with hostage faces on them. 

May 11, 2024, 2:02 p.m.

BY RIVERS STOUT

On May 10, at around 5 a.m., 4-5 older men encircled the UCD PULP encampment and blew airhorns. People in the camp responded with chants. Camp safety volunteers prevented the men from entering the camp, according to PULP liaison Stanford McConnehey.

May 10, 2024, 4:18 p.m.

By RIVERS STOUT

On May 10, around 2:45 p.m., a late middle-aged man walked into the PULP encampment and punched a camp safety volunteer, according to media liaison Stanford McConnehey. 

The attacker was soon expelled from the camp. Afterwards, a group of middle-aged men continued to record campers outside of the encampment until around 3:40 p.m., McConnehey shared.

This is a developing story, more updates will be provided in The Aggie’s ongoing coverage.

May 10, 2024, 1:03 p.m.

By RIVERS STOUT

It is the fifth day since the PULP encampment was organized in the Memorial Union Quad.

A banner reading “JEWISH LIVES MATTER TOO” and “#BRING THEM HOME” as well as other phrases was placed in front of the PULP encampment earlier today. 

The sign previously appeared on Tuesday, May 7. A group called the Davis Oct. 7 Coalition claims responsibility for the previous sign. 

Campus News Writer Vince Basada contributed to this update

May 9, 2024, 3:28 p.m. 

By CHRIS PONCE

Stanford McConnehey, third-year law student at King Hall, had a final exam this morning and graduates tomorrow. On top of his academic work, McConnehey is a media coordinator with Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (PULP) and is a part of the encampment. 

According to the United Nations, 80,000 people have fled from the Rafah area due to Israeli involvement. McConnehey shared his reactions to the ongoing violence in the region.

“The logistics of the encampment have been taking up a lot of my attention,” McConnehey said. “So every time I open my phone, it’s horrifying. Words actually can’t describe the level of loss. We have members of our community whose families are trapped in and around Rafah, unable to get into Egypt. And nor should they have to be faced with the decision to go into Egypt, the United States needs to force the Israeli occupation forces to get out.”

McConnehey said he hopes all prisoners, both held by Hamas and Israel, are exchanged safely. He believes that a fully military withdrawal is also necessary for the region. 

“I personally am in favor of an all for all prisoner exchange,” McConnehey said. “That includes everybody that is held by the Palestinian resistance factions and every Palestinian that’s held by the State of Israel — including those in administrative detention should be swapped. There needs to be full military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and immediate attempts at rebuilding.”

He is feeling hopeful about the future of the encampment and shared that he believes negotiations between the administration and protesters are in process. 

“I think those talks are in process, as far as what negotiation would look like and how far they’re willing to come on our demands,” McConneyhey said. “And I think that might have to do with the Chancellor’s travel schedule.”

While there have been some counter protests, McConnehey said PULP is avoiding escalation. 

“We’re not here to get into fights with people,” he said. “We’re here to focus on Palestine. And so we’re trying to avoid any escalation. Obviously, there are some folks who want to come and take high resolution photographs of people’s faces inside in order to threaten them with doxing and things of this nature.”

McConnehey also believes that the encampments have provided a space for people to take action against the violence in Gaza and also grieve what has been lost. 

“Being able to share this space and collectively grieve and mourn and also act and take up this space and bring other people’s attention to it is a meaningful way to not normalize a genocide,” he said.

May 9, 2024, 2:31 p.m. 

By CHRIS PONCE

Today is the fourth day of the encampment protests at the Memorial Union Quad that was organized by the Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (PULP). 

Earlier today, Yolo County Moms for Liberty Chair Beth Bourne and other protesters gathered in front of the encampment to protest against gender affirming care for transgender children. 

“You know, they have their First Amendment right to free speech and I have my First Amendment right to free speech,” Bourne said about the encampment protesters. “So that would be my message for Chancellor May and all the administrators. If there’s a mother, father or grandmother who’s concerned that we have these new medical procedures and treatments and drugs that have never been given before to young people, then we should be able to be critical of it and question it.”

A media coordinator with PULP said they were unaware of the Moms for Liberty protest, but another encampment member who wished to stay anonymous referred to them as “transphobes.” 

“They’re just here to draw attention to themselves,” the coordinator said about Yolo County Moms for Liberty and counter protesters. “They’re here to get into arguments. They’re here to kind of distract from the reason we’re here — which is the ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

May 9, 2024, 2:05 p.m.

By CHRIS PONCE

PULP press coordinator shared that the group is working to make an on-demand pathway for people with disabilities and other accommodations to move through the Quad.

The post Live Updates: Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (PULP) encampment appeared first on The Aggie.

By BENJAMIN CARRILLO — campus@theaggie.org

Vice President Aarushi Raghunathan called the May 23 Senate meeting to order at 6:21 p.m. After roll call, she read the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.  

First on the agenda, the Bike Barn presented their quarterly report, discussing some of the issues affecting the Bike Barn in recent times. 

Teddy Mates-Munchin, the business manager for the Bike Barn, asked during the presentation if any lawsuit could arise from the Bike Barn publicly supporting Palestine.

“Would you pay for your own lawyer in that situation?” Senator Jacob Klein said. “Or would you expect that to come out of reserves?”

“I’m not sure why it’s only an issue of a lawsuit when it’s Palestinian rights in question,” Senator Yara Kadaan said. “Through a quick scroll through the Bike Barn’s page on Instagram, I see a post supporting Pride Month. And yet there’s no issue of a lawsuit there?” 

Next, the Senate approved Vanessa Sandoval, a third-year environmental science and management major, to be the internal affairs commission chair. With the previous chair, Thuyanh Truong, stepping down, she delivered a speech with her goodbyes and her time working with the senators.

“So much time I have spent here has been spent reflecting on the past, but I think now as I’m leaving I can say that I enjoyed my time here and that I feel as if I have made an impact with my time on the Senate,” Truong said. 

Afterward, there was a quarterly report presentation by the Whole Earth Festival (WEF) The presentation went through the highs and lows of the festival, which took place from May 10 to 12.

Senate President Pro Tempore Trinity Chow then gave her quarterly report and talked about the highs and lows of being a president pro tempore the last two quarters. The senators and chairmen all applauded Chow once she finished and thanked her for not only being a great president pro tempore but also for her kindness and care for the table.

Then followed public comment, where three students, including a previous senator, discussed their opinions of the recently passed Student Resolution (SR) #10, which affirms support for UCD Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (PULP) and the encampment going on in the Memorial Union Quad. 

“I’m not only hurt but scared about what this bill means and the nuance that ASUCD neglects to acknowledge,” one student said in their comment. “I’ve been stalked, harassed and bullied for my Jewish and Israeli identity.” 

Senator Katia Bouali said that no one should feel unsafe in this environment and most senators nodded in agreement.

A previous senator was the next to make a public comment. 

“Your commitment to democracy and transparency is disingenuous at best,” they said. “You all manage and vote for the budget you vote on. While you consider my ex-[Senate] table to be toxic, we would never usurp the democratic process.” 

Kadaan was the first to respond, saying that she didn’t want to give any validity to the undemocratic claims. 

Senator Bouali, Senator Nur Ambaw, Senator Gabriel Gaysinsky and Senator Jonathan Ng also answered this public comment, saying that there was no validity to the claim of undemocratic actions.

The senators then decided not to reconsider Constitutional Amendment #90 this meeting and postponed the voting to the next meeting. The table then passed the consent calendar, looked at the status of previous legislation and approved the meeting minutes.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:08 p.m.

Written by: Benjamin Carrillo — campus@theaggie.org 

The post Senate hears multiple quarterly reports, responds to concerns regarding SR #10 appeared first on The Aggie.

By JORDAN POLTORAK — campus@theaggie.org

On May 3, UC Davis opened the Coffee Center, the first center in the United States dedicated solely to coffee research. The 7,000-square-foot center will house pre- and post-harvest coffee science research. This includes brewing laboratories, experimental bean storage, a sensory and cupping laboratory and a pilot roastery.

“We have the expertise here,” Tonya Kuhl, a UC Davis professor and co-director of the Coffee Center, said. “There are challenges coffee faces because of climate change, and we want to improve how it is processed in a sustainable way. This is the place where this activity can be attacked from all angles.”

The space will house many classes, such as The Design of Coffee (ECH1) created by Co-Directors Tonya Kuhl and William Ristenpart. The center plans to offer over 50 fields of study, covering subjects from chemical engineering to plant science and sociology. 

ECH1 was initially created as a first-year seminar. In its beginning, the lab equipment featured many items that can be found in a home, like a drip coffee maker. 

“We made do with the original lab space until about 2016,” Kuhl said. “Then, we renovated the space and devoted it to the coffee lab. It was paid for by Chevron, the College of Engineering and an alum [named] John Watson.”

In the new space, Peet’s Coffee provided the initial gift for their pilot roastery, and $6 million were provided by private donors to complete the center.

Eventually, Kohl and Ristenpart’s class evolved from a first-year seminar to a full-fledged course. 

“Many students take the class as a general education requirement,” Kuhl said. “Students from all sorts of majors get exposed to chemical engineering, and every year, we pluck off a couple of those students and get them to change to our major because it’s really fun.” 

Isabella Engler, a fourth-year international relations major, discussed the benefits of the course. 

“Not only does the class allow you to put the theory and science discussed in lecture into practice, but your newly acquired understanding will enhance your own coffee drinking experience,” Engler said.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center, over 200 individuals attended. There were student research displays and roastings as well as espresso brewing demonstrations.

Having a dedicated place for coffee research allows UC Davis to be at the forefront of the chemical engineering field. Kohl and Ristenpart’s textbook, “The Design of Coffee: An Engineering Approach,” is currently used at colleges such as University of San Diego, University of Colorado Boulder and Auburn University to teach similar classes. 

“Before [ECH1], I was convinced coffee could only be enjoyable when used to enhance the richness of a chocolate cake when baking,” Engler said. “I now have a whole other appreciation for the science and artist license that goes into brewing each cup.” 

Written by: Jordan Poltorak — campus@theaggie.org

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By VINCE BASADA — campus@theaggie.org

United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811, the union representing academic workers across the 11 UC campuses, called on union members at UC Davis and UC Los Angeles to strike starting on Tuesday, May 28. This will be the second round of campuses to join the strike, following workers at UC Santa Cruz who began on May 20.

The union — composed of 48,000 teaching assistants, graduate students, postdocs, researchers, some undergraduates and other academic workers — is calling on members of selected campuses to stop all work-related duties, including teaching discussions, grading papers and conducting research. Striking members would picket and hold rallies upon the return from the Memorial Day weekend, similar to actions taken on the UCSC campus earlier this week.

In calling for a strike, UAW 4811 has cited several unfair labor practices (ULPs), including the University of California’s alleged failures in preventing attacks on the pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA and arresting an approximate 200 students and academic workers on May 1 and 2. The union has also taken issue with the university’s decisions to make “unilateral changes” affecting members’ workplaces and safety, as well as for disciplining and calling police on UAW members engaging in peaceful protests for workplace changes.

“The regents and office of the president [need to] take leadership to make sure that the situation is deescalated, because this is one university system and it is their job to make sure that it’s functioning well,” Emily Weintraut, a Ph.D. student in the UC Davis Food Science Graduate Group and UAW 4811 Davis Academic Student Employee unit chair, said.  “We’re ready. If they want to prevent an entire UC-wide strike, then it’s up to them to take action.”

5,700 workers are covered by the UAW at UC Davis, according to Weintraut.

The unions’ strike authorization vote was held from May 13 to 15 and passed with a supermajority. Weintraut did not go into detail on how the board and union leadership would choose which, and when, campuses would be called to strike.

On Friday, May 17, the University of California filed an injunction request which argued that the union’s strike was illegal. 

“Allowing the strike to continue will cause the University and its students irreparable harm — UAW members play a critical role in year-end activities like teaching, grading, and ongoing time-sensitive research,” one UC statement released Tuesday, May 21 read. “UAW’s strike is unlawful because the goal is to pressure the University to concede to a list of politically motivated demands closely linked to the protests occurring across California and the nation.”

On Thursday, May 23, the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) rejected the University of California’s injunction request. 

PERB said that the university “did not meet the threshold required for [them] to intervene,” according to an LA Times article. 

UAW workers previously striked in November 2022 to demand better wages and benefits. The contract dispute was resolved that December.

This story is developing, check back for updates. Last updated: May 24 (10:35 a.m.)

Written by: Vince Basada — campus@theaggie.org

The post UAW 4811 calls on academic workers at UCD, UCLA to strike starting Tuesday appeared first on The Aggie.

By SYDNEY AMESTOY — campus@theaggie.org   

The ASUCD Senate held a town hall session in the CoHo on May 16, giving students the opportunity to ask the table questions. The session was called to order at 6:20 p.m.

However, there were no questions presented from any member of the public, so senators and chairs were asked to give a brief report on their work from the quarter to those in attendance. The session was closed at 6:40 p.m., and the Senate moved to the Mee Room to call the Senate meeting to order.

The meeting was called to order at 6:56 p.m.

Next, the Senate addressed an emergency Senate Resolution, SR #10, authored by Senator Yara Kadaan. SR #10 asks the Senate to affirm the protest and demands of the Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (Davis PULP). 

“Things are developing very quickly both here on campus and in Gaza, Palestine and neighboring countries in terms of the aggression […] in the genocide that they are facing,” Kadaan said. “There is no time for us to wait, the negotiating team from the encampment is already in talks with the administration. We don’t have time to sit back and watch this happen or mull it over more, things are moving very quickly out there and we have to be caught up to it to the best of our ability.”

A vote was held to consider SR #10 as emergency legislation, which would require it to be addressed during that meeting. In the initial vote, there were seven yes’s, four no’s and two abstainments. The resolution would need a two-thirds majority to be considered an emergency, which wasn’t met in the initial vote and would push the debate on the resolution to next week’s meeting.

Internal Vice President Aarushi Raghunathan then moved the Senate to consider other legislation.

Constitutional Amendment (CA) #90, which seeks to institutionalize the hiring committee for interim senators, was discussed first. After a short debate, CA #90 passed with a vote of eight yes’s, two no’s and three abstainments. 

The meeting then moved to the quarterly report from the ASUCD Judicial Council (JC).

JC plans to update some judicial codes as positions within the council have all become paid roles. They also announced that for the remainder of spring quarter, judicial council meetings would be every Thursday on the third floor of the MU, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

With the conclusion of the quarterly meeting, the Senate moved into the consideration of SB #90, which seeks to allocate $1,658.75 to the Student Health and Wellness Committee (SHAWC) for an earthquake emergency kit building event on May 31 on the MU patio. 

After brief debate regarding the possibility of not all supplies being used, SB #90 passed unanimously. 

The STEM Committee then gave its quarterly report. The committee has been trying to increase equity within STEM, sponsoring STEM-related events and posting opportunities for STEM students on their Instagram. 

As the quarterly reports concluded, the Senate moved into public discussion.

Various anonymous members of the public came to announce their disappointment in the tabling of SR #10 until next week. 

“[The Senate] tabling a piece of legislation because you want to be nitpicky and sit with it longer is not okay anymore,” one anonymous speaker said. “You have students out there [in the encampment] risking everything.”

Public speakers were given two to three minutes to voice their opinions and concerns to the table. Discussion between the public and the Senate remained focused on SR #10 and continuing the encampment in the MU Quad.

“I have been at Davis for two years, and I’ve been here way too many times, defending the fact that I deserve to be alive, that I deserve to be defended and my existence is valid,” another anonymous speaker said. “I’m sick of it. The people who said that we should table this bill for next week, you’re ignorant, you’re cowards. [Students are] sitting on the ground. They’re not showering for days. They’re skipping their classes. They’re skipping their midterms to defend the fact that Palestinians should not be genocided off the face of the earth.”

There was discussion regarding recent sweeps of other encampments by law enforcement at other schools, including recently at UC Irvine and UC Los Angeles, and the fear of something similar occurring at UC Davis.

According to Kadaan, the decision to send in law enforcement is made by the UC Regents and the UC Office of the President.

Discussion of SR #10 ultimately led to a motion to reconsider the resolution as emergency legislation, which passed unanimously.

The Senate then moved into a brief Senate discussion on the resolution.

After a call of hands to see how the table members would vote, a motion was made to pass SR #10. With a total of seven yes’s and two abstainments, SR #10 passed unanimously. 

The Senate then moved into a closed session at 10:12 p.m., with all members of the public leaving the meeting. 

Written by: Sydney Amestoy — campus@theaggie.org

The post ASUCD Senate passes emergency resolution regarding encampment, protests on May 16 appeared first on The Aggie.

By VINCE BASADA — campus@theaggie.org  

Gaius Ilupeju, the two-time ASUCD Senator and current underrepresented students officer for the UC Student Association, ran unopposed and was elected ASUCD President during the spring 2024 election. The third-year political science, public service major ran on the Forward slate alongside Aaminah Mohammad as ASUCD Internal Vice President. They campaigned on an expansive platform of student advocacy which includes, among other priorities, the establishment of a tenant union, providing resources to student workers to unionize, expanding equitable access to parking and bringing back Tipsy Taxi. Set to take office in the coming months, Ilupeju sat down with The California Aggie to talk about his campaign, his priorities and his hopes for the upcoming term.

Below is a transcript of Ilupeju’s interview with The Aggie that has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q: How are you feeling now that the election results are out?

Ilupeju: I’m feeling great. I’m really excited to get to work with everyone [who] was just elected and to represent the student body to the best of my ability. I think that there’s a lot that we can accomplish in this next year, and I am really excited to do all that.

Q: Why did you run for ASUCD President? What motivated you?

Ilupeju: I ran for president because I was really unhappy with the current state of affairs. I’ve been there for the past three years, and we continue to face the same issues frequently. I just felt like, with the experience I had, I really needed to assert myself and put myself in the position of higher leadership to direct ASUCD where I think it needs to be headed. I think that this association has historically done plenty of amazing things for students, ranging from providing entertainment, fostering community [and] ensuring that university administrators make student-centric decisions. It’s really telling, when you look at this campus, how much ASUCD has contributed to every facet of student life and just improved the quality of living for students every decade. To me, it’s really difficult to see an organization that’s capable of so much doing so little in the past several years, especially in the areas that students care about. 

Q: Could you talk a little bit about your past with ASUCD, working in student government and your time as a senator?

Ilupeju: I served two terms as a senator, and that started my freshman year. It’s the longest that any person has served as an elected member of ASUCD since the adoption of a new constitution in 1995. In both terms, I was mainly focused on improving our engagement with marginalized communities and increasing the amount of basic needs services we provide. In my first term, I really championed pushing out a basic needs survey to determine where we could set up satellite pantries in other areas of campus. That same year, we were battling [COVID-19], and there was a resurgence in January. I worked with that Senate table to facilitate conversations with administration, primarily by sending out letters to make sure that students got an extension on virtual learning. During my second term, I was realizing that we provide so many services for students, but because our outreach and engagement with them is pretty bad, […] a lot of [them] go unused. At the end of the day, it’s just a misuse of student fees if you aren’t able to provide necessary services [and] make sure that they’re accessible and visible. Once I termed out, I became more focused on my role in the UC Student Association, where I serve as the underrepresented students officer. I tried my best to learn all the ways that relationships [between students and administrators] could be used to produce positive outcomes for students here on the UC Davis campus.

Q: Have you started to think about how you want to improve ASUCD outreach and how you want to engage with students next year during your tenure?

Ilupeju: I think that we have to take steps to improve our general marketing, communications and marketing strategy. We’ve already started that by hiring a new creative director who is going to work on marketing full time, and I’m excited to work with him. Also, changing how elected officials interface [with the] student body and kind of report on what we’re doing. We need to do more, and we need to hold more events that are visible to ensure that we’re really reaching as many people as we can. We need to improve the way we interact with other student organizations, so they know that they can receive financial and logistical support from ASUCD. That comes with introducing a new culture here where people keep engagement and outreach at the forefront of everything we do. I also think that it means setting up future student leaders for success. Finding ways to explain how we make use of student fees better so we can regain student trust is paramount, because we have a lot of money at our disposal, and it all comes from student fees. We don’t do a great job of explaining how we use it or how we intend to use it once students graduate. We’re doing all these amazing projects, some of them that won’t be finished until students are out of here. I think that if [they] were aware of how we were spending their money, they would really be happy with some of these investments we’ve made. 

Q: You ran with the Forward slate, and a lot of your platforms and campaign promises focused toward advocacy for students. They include: creating a tenant’s union, expanding satellite pantry locations and looking into having free laundry for first-years, among other things. Could you talk about how you and the rest of the slate came together to focus on what you wanted to do next year?

Ilupeju: I would say the foundation of everything that we decided to run on was conversations with our peers, particularly student leaders. A lot of these student leaders represent communities who talk about certain issues like improving housing: something that’s on everyone’s mind. Access to basic needs is something that people care about. So it was really having discussions between ourselves to see what was possible through ASUCD and also what students care about. I think it’s a mixture of these two that created the platforms we decided to run on.

Q: Do you think that during your year-long tenure you will realistically be able to implement or start all of these projects?

Ilupeju: Right now, we’re in discussion about when we would want some of these things to be accomplished. We know that our platforms are a bit ambitious, and sometimes you plan as best as you can but unexpected things happen, and the university works notoriously slow. So we, first of all, plan on hiring a lot of student workers and volunteers to help make this happen, but we’re also prioritizing the things we think […] are most important. We know that some of these things take multiple years, and so we’re very much fine with setting up future student leaders to follow up with some of these goals, but making sure that we’ve at least attempted to initiate them during the academic year.

Q: How do you feel about the current presidential administration under Francisco Ojeda? It’s been marked by impeachments and a lot of notable, if controversial, developments. As the year is coming to a close, have you been able to reflect on his time in office?

Ilupeju: I feel like the Ojeda Administration faced a lot of troubles because a lot of different difficulties converged to produce an overall unsatisfactory year for a lot of people, including the executive office. I have no doubt that they genuinely wanted to provide strong leadership and advocate for students to the best of their abilities. But I do think that a lot of different events happened, a lot of them unforeseen, [which] led to an overall unsatisfactory year for many students. I think that the best that we can do after their tenure is to look critically at all the things that went wrong and work as best as we can to prevent them and ensure that this never happens again and [that] we don’t repeat some of the mistakes that were made.

Q: What do you want our readers, the voters of ASUCD and the student population as a whole to know about you and your platform moving forward? Is there something that you think they should know about next year?

Ilupeju: They should know that fixing the issues on this campus and making sure that everyone’s voice is heard is a mission that we all have to commit ourselves to. That includes people within and outside ASUCD. Unless we build a sense of community and foster a culture of accountability, none of the things that we all want will happen at all. I want the readers to know that community oriented advocacy truly is the way forward for us all.

Written by: Vince Basada — campus@theaggie.org

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By MADISON PETERS — campus@theaggie.org

Internal Vice President Aarushi Raghunathan called the May 9 Senate meeting to order at 6:17 p.m. She then took roll call and read the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

The first item on the agenda was the confirmation of three new Internal Affair Commission (IAC) chairpeople.

Next were the confirmations for the ASUCD Housing and Transportation Advocacy Committee (HTAC). The new members proposed their various ideas on how to improve transportation accessibility and safety on campus and throughout Davis as a whole.

One new HTAC committee member proposed their Safety Cycling Project (SCP), which would involve an increase in education and traffic monitoring of cycling on campus.

“In [the] UC Davis Report in 2019 and 2022, [there was] a 43% increase in accidents involving a bike,” the member said. “One of the things I want to [implement] is once [a student] gets accepted into UC Davis, a crash course should happen about what you are getting into with biking and the rules. A very common idea happening in Canada and Washington that made a difference is cement barriers in the biking lanes. It lowered speeding and made biking more accessible and more encouraged because [people] feel safe.”

Annie Kanjamala, a third-year environmental policy and planning major, was then confirmed as the new chairperson of the Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC).

Kelly Abey, the ex-chair of EPPC, then gave her farewell speech.

“I’ve been a part of EPPC for the last three years,” Abey said. “This commission has evolved a lot over these years, and I found it very fascinating to see people come in and out of positions. I wanted to thank everyone who has been on EPPC this year and my fellow commission chairs for being very supportive.”

Next on the agenda was a presentation by Jenny Vaccari, a representative for Ombuds. Ombuds is a conflict resolution resource offered at many UCs aimed at confidential and informal problem solving, according to their website.

The Mental Health Initiative (MHI) then gave their quarterly report and discussed their Mental Health Awareness Month activities, which will be happening throughout the month of May.

After this report, the senators shifted their agenda to reconsider SB #86, which would allocate $10,816.04 to the Planet Her 3 event created by Senator Antonio.

The bill is imperative for the success of the event, but will likely drain the Senate reserves, according to Antonio.

Antonio then spoke on the importance of the bill for the Planet Her event.

“I know that this is a big sum of money, and I know that this will drain the reserve to almost nothing, but this is a really large event,” Antonio said. “We are trying our best here and this is really the lowest we can go, [so] we really hope for your support. This is likely going to be the last ASUCD event of the year, and it’s going to be one that really impacts student life in a positive way.”

Other senators expressed concerns regarding the sustainability of the decorations, and the overall cost of some of the items.

After much deliberation, the bill was passed with some amendments including canceling one of the two planned photobooths, which cut down about $789.

Next, Campus Information Technology (IT) gave their quarterly report which included details about their new ticketing system and plans to have more access points on campus to improve eduroam wifi.

Sonora Slater, editor-in-chief of The California Aggie, then gave The Aggie’s quarterly report. Issues regarding certain aspects of funding were discussed, since The Aggie budget is soon to be reviewed.

The senators read both the quarterly reports for the Coho and Unitrans.

Public comment was then opened before they moved on to the status of old legislation.

SR #8, which vows to uphold free speech on campus and condemn the delayed response by UC Los Angeles campus authorities and law enforcement after the violent attacks on pro-Palestinian protestors the night of April 30 and morning of May 1, was then passed and signed by ASUCD President Francisco Ojeda.

Additionally, SB #88, which will establish the ASUCD yearbook managing editor as a non-voting, ex-officio member of the IAC, was passed and sent to Ojeda.

The consideration of old legislation was then discussed.

SB #89, a bill that would allocate $2295.48 to the Office of Senator Binh Do in collaboration with Aggie Sports Analytics was passed. This money will fund the ASUCD Business Case Competition, a conference that will be held on June 5 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

After a brief five-minute break, SB #84 was considered. This bill, submitted by Gaius Ilupeju, would amend the 2023 to 2024 ASUCD budget to transfer $5,924.27 from a portion of the Entertainment Council’s (EC) budget towards the External Affairs Vice President Special Projects Line Item.

ASUCD Controller Allyson Francisco opposed the immediate passing of this bill since it had not yet been reviewed by the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission (ECAC).

The Senators voted on tabling the bill to be voted on again on May 23, and then moved into open forum.

Senator Jonathan Ng started by talking about the success of Lawntopia, but brought up controversy surrounding rude comments made by another senator about the event.

“The only incident that happened involved a member of this table [who] I will not mention by name, but they were extremely rude to the EC director and EC volunteers,” Ng said. “When asked to obey instructions by ASUCD personnel, their partner called EC volunteers ‘bitches.’ I just want everyone to be aware that this event happened, and I condemn it as disgusting behavior, especially from someone who is supposed to be representing ASUCD.”

Francisco then went on to call for better security measures at future EC events.

Ng agreed on the need for more security measures and pledged to improve these concerns at the next EC event.

Finally, the meeting was adjourned at 10:02 p.m.

Written by: Madison Peters — campus@theaggie.org

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By VINCE BASADA — campus@theaggie.org 

Senator Trinity Chow called the May 2 Senate meeting to order at 6:19 p.m. After roll call, she read the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

The Senate then heard a series of unit quarterly reports. The Pantry Unit Director Sergio Bocardo-Aguilar, a fourth-year political science major, began and spoke of The Pantry’s recent move, as well as the start of in-house data science collection and analysis.

Following Boardo-Aguilar was Student Health and Wellness Committee Chair Julia Miller, a third-year human development major. The committee only recently became an ASUCD unit, and Miller detailed continued efforts to distribute safe-sex products on campus and a survey on substance use to help the committee better understand how to serve the needs of the student population.

Miller closed by critiquing the Senate and asked them to attend the meetings of their adopted units.

“[It] is your job to overlook the legislative branch,” Miller said. “Please do that.”

Next was the report from the Sexual Assault Awareness and Advocacy Committee (SAAAC) Chair Rashita Chauhan, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major. Among other developments, she spoke of SAAAC’s plans to table at Lawntopia and an upcoming event in collaboration with the EDM club. 

Chauhan, after thanking the Senate for increasing SAAAC’s prospective budget for the next academic year, expressed her belief that ASUCD committee members were not being paid for as many hours as they deserved, nor given enough respect.

“[Committees] are strongly underappreciated in this association,” Chauhan said. “Committees are consistent. It’s just different from being a senator.”

Building off of Miller’s points on adopted senators, she expressed her own frustrations with the Senate. She acknowledged that Senator Jacob Klein had made an effort to attend all events but noted that senators often failed to check in with their committee chairs or stay up to date with their events and activities. 

The last quarterly report was from the Student Advocate Office (SAO), delivered by current Student Advocate Travis Haskin, a fourth-year Native American studies and political science double major. He raised concerns over a rise in Office of Student Support and Judicial Affairs (OSSJA) cases involving AI, which have resulted in the SAO hiring more staff to compensate.

“[The rise in AI cases is] an alarming indicator for what is happening within the student community,” Haskin said. 

Haskin said that the SAO is hoping to work directly with professors and academic departments to ensure students, who he says are often violating the rules when they use translation engines or grammar checkers, are fully aware of what constitutes academic dishonesty in regards to using AI-supported platforms.

Afterwards, Controller Allyson Francisco announced details on the upcoming budget hearings and owned up to a pair of errors in the prospective budget, which she promised would be rectified. The Senate then took a 30-minute recess.

After the break, the Senate quickly confirmed an External Affairs Commission (EAC) member not in attendance before moving forward two emergency pieces of legislation, SB #88 and SR #8, for consideration. 

SB #86, authorized by ASUCD Historian Kayla Lunde, a third-year environmental policy, analysis and planning major and yearbook managing editor, would establish the managing editor position as a non-voting member of the Internal Affairs Commission.

Lunde joined via Zoom to give insight into the bill, explaining that the legislation would help distinguish her two roles and help to institutionalize the yearbook, which was only revived last year. The bill passed 8-3-2, Yes-No-Abstain.

Next, the Senate discussed emergency resolution SR #8 to “uphold the principles of free speech and expression, and condemn the delayed and insufficient response from campus administration and local law enforcement to protect students from violence on the evening of April 30, 2024 and morning of May 1, 2024 at the University of California, Los Angeles.”

The resolution, co-authored by Senators Jonathan Ng and Binh Do, directly addresses the attack of a pro-Palestianian encampment by pro-Israel counter-protesters who deployed fireworks and caused several injuries, according to reporting from The Daily Bruin.

The Senate spent over an hour looking through the resolution and editing it line by line, with Ng and Do’s acknowledgment that the bill was written quickly and pushed forward in order to address the attacks in a timely fashion.

One proposed amendment clause discussed the attack of a Jewish student which occurred before the encampment attack that evening. Numerous senators expressed concerns that its inclusion and placement at the start of the resolution aligned with a narrative of victim blaming and justification for that night’s encampment.

“I’m very hesitant to add language to this bill that could even imply some justification for this [attack] happening,” Senator Yara Kaadan said. “It was very much racialized”

“When you have two very polarizing movements and things get violent, we have to be very, very particular about how we’re going to phrase this,” Senator Nur Ambaw said. “I’m just not very comfortable with the way it is being phrased right now.”

Senator Klein, who was vocal in either adapting or relocating the clause rather than deleting it altogether, said that the clause was not added with any malice and that it helped establish a chronology of the events.

The amendment was eventually voted on after senators acknowledged that everyone had decided how to vote and was removed.

After looking over final edits and resolving some issues over the sourcing of several pieces of information within the resolution, it was passed unanimously.

During open comment, Senator Chow announced that Senator Leah Jung, who was not present at the meeting, had previously handed in her resignation, effective immediately. Chow expressed the desire that those wishing to resign in the future would give greater notice.

Senator Chow adjourned the meeting at 11:06 p.m.

Written by: Vince Basada — campus@theaggie.org

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By VINCE BASADA and RIVERS STOUT— campus@theaggie.org

Approximately six to seven counter-protesters, largely members of the Davis October 7th Coalition, erected a banner on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 7 on the south side of the pro-Palestinian encampment facing the Memorial Union. 

The brown paper banner, spray painted on site, read, “Never again Oct. 7 // Jewish Lives Matter Too // #bringthemhomenow // Where were students on Oct. 7 and the Holocaust,” and was staked into the ground at 5:20 p.m., as witnessed by several students on the lawn.

A representative for the coalition, who asked to be identified as a Davis resident and UC Santa Barbara 2000 alum, said that the group’s actions were solely in support of Jewish students on campus and were not organized alongside any Jewish student group or club.

“We’re extremely worried about the Jewish students on this campus,” the alum said. “We want to make sure that they’re seen and they’re heard […] We care about them, and we want to keep them safe, and we’re going to continue to try to keep them safe.”

The coalition, which posted photos of the demonstration on Instagram, consists of around 200 members and includes members of the Davis community as well as UC Davis faculty, according to the alum.

The encampment, set up early Monday morning on the central Quad, was organized by the Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine (PULP). The list of their demands includes: The University of California system to divest from Israel; a total academic “cultural boycott;” investment in Palestine and Arab American studies; respect for free speech and “no repression” and the resignation of Chancellor Gary May from the executive board of Leidos or as chancellor of the university. 

“Obviously, we care about all lives lost,” the alum said. “It’s important to all of us, and we just want to be able to support everyone. I don’t like seeing the Gazan lives lost. I’m sympathetic to that as well. But you can’t just have one set of messaging.”

“It’s being very close minded,” the alum said. “You know, you’re essentially trying to brainwash your population here on campus when you’re only giving one set of messaging. There’s more to it.”

Stanford McConnehey, a student at the UC Davis School of Law and media liaison for PULP, spoke on the demonstration.

“The fact that Jewish members of our community continue to use that identity to intimidate people about speaking about an ongoing genocide is not going to deter people from being horrified and wanting to end institutional complicity,” McConnehey said.

At approximately 6:45 p.m., pro-Palestinian protestors began putting up their own sign in front of the coalition’s banner, reading, “Student Intifada // End the Genocide // Divest and Disclose.” After working to pole their sign into the ground, three PULP protesters held the sign up by the stakes. PULP protestors also used umbrellas in attempts to block counter-protestors from filming.

The coalition counter-protesters took down their sign at 7:14 p.m., removing it and its stakes from the grass and rolling it up. The PULP sign remained up for some time after the coalition’s banner was taken down. The coalition hopes to repurpose their sign in the future, according to the alum. 

Written by: Vince Basada and Rivers Stout — campus@theaggie.org

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By RIVERS STOUT — campus@theaggie.com

On April 23, the ASUCD Student Sustainability Career Fair (SSCF) was held at the Activities and Recreation Center Ballroom. The student-run fair is an annual event that invites companies and government agencies looking to offer jobs and internships to students.

“Our goal is to help students get exposed to environmental careers and potential job pathways,” Jordyn Kosai, chairperson of SSCF, said. “We try to get a full range [of organizations], because the environmental field is so vast.”

The fair had many employment opportunities from organizations such as the Department of Water Resources, CA Energy Commision and the Sacramento Tree Foundation. 

“[It’s important] to give students more opportunities to enter the field and job [search], [and] it’s helpful for people to know others in the field,” Kosai said. “We’re trying to expand our reach to way more student populations because the environmental field is not very diverse.”

Samantha Villegas, recruitment and outreach manager for the California Energy Commission (CEC), said that this event was important because of how many students at UC Davis are interested in energy, the environment and sustainability.

“We’re really excited to put our name out there, let students know about positions, our recruitment services, our student assistant positions and internship possibilities,” Villegas said. 

The CEC is in close proximity to Davis, being based in Sacramento. 

“We have a very inclusive and diverse environment, in all senses of the word,” Villegas said. “We have hiring positions for people from all walks of life.”

The CEC student assistant position is a paid position, and students can be placed anywhere within the commission, according to Villegas. This was one example of a job opportunity that was presented at the event.

Villegas continued with advice for students looking for work.

“Create an understanding of what your interest is and where it might lie,” Villegas said. “Always get a hold of recruiters. If you can research through their company website or LinkedIn for who their recruitment team is, it’s a really wise move as an applicant to contact them.”

Many booths were left waiting for traffic, giving those that did apply little competition. However, students who did show up were full of passion. 

“I’m really passionate about sustainability and planning specifically,” Emma Barnett, a third-year sustainable and environmental design major, said. “I’m really grateful, [and] I’m so happy all these companies came out to see what Davis has to offer.”

Many organizations who were invited to the fair were local, with positions not far from Davis. 

“UC Davis is educating a lot of amazing students in sustainability, [and] I think we’re pretty great at it compared to other places,” Barnett said. “It’s a reasonable ask for them to want to filter us into local and nearby companies so that we can help communities here in Davis.” 

Written by: Rivers Stout — campus@theaggie.org

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