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VOLUME 146, ISSUE 27 | THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2023

THEAGGIE.ORG

UC-AFT, students call for reinstatement of music professor Erik Peregrine after new candidate hired for tenured music department role

The professor cited gender discrimination as one of the reasons for the hiring decision, which the department denies BY RACHEL GAUER

campus@theaggie.org Choir students and members of the UC-AFT union are calling for the reinstatement of Erik Peregrine, who currently serves as the director of choirs and as a lecturer in music at UC Davis. Peregrine, who identifies as transgender and uses they/them pronouns, initially signed a twoyear contract in 2022. However, when the department gained permission and funding to create a tenured faculty position for the role, they terminated Peregrine’s contract and conducted a national search for the new position, eventually selecting a different candidate. Peregrine first began as a lecturer in the Music Department at the beginning of fall quarter 2021. According to a timeline created by Katie Caceres, who is a secondyear environmental policy analysis and planning major and a student of Peregrine’s, Peregrine initially worked under a one-year contract that was meant to be reevaluated at the end of the academic year. At this time, according to Caceres, the university then granted them a two-year contract that was set to last from 2022-2024. This past January, Peregrine was notified that the position was going to be turned into one with a tenured track. As a result, Peregrine would have to re-apply for the position alongside the other candidates, effectively terminating their original two-year contract because of the nature of the new position being offered. Laurie San Martin, a professor in the Music Department and the Chair of Music at UC Davis,

provided a comment on the situation. She noted that when hiring for a tenured faculty position like this, the department is required to conduct a national search and open the role up to other candidates. “Erik Peregrine has done a wonderful job with the choirs at UC Davis these past six quarters,” San Martin said via email. “Last fall, the dean’s office granted permission for the music department to conduct a search for a tenure-track faculty member, who would serve as director of the choirs. [...] The final four candidates (one of whom was Erik Peregrine) were all very impressive. The search committee ultimately chose Nicolás Dosman for the position, and the department agreed with this choice. ” Caden O’Flaherty, a third-year sociology major who identifies as transgender, has participated in choir courses with Peregrine for the past four quarters. O’Flaherty said that they sent a recommendation to the department chair to encourage the rehiring of Peregrine on Jan. 28, but said that their email recommendation received no direct response. Later in the interview process, Peregrine was asked to present their research at a presentation that was open to students. Caceres said that the student turnout and student support for the professor were significant. “A bunch of other students and I all attended,” Caceres said. “It was so full, to the point where we had to bring in extra chairs.” At the event, students were asked for their contact information to be involved in the remainder of the hiring process. Caceres and several of her classmates provided the department with the information. “A staff member came up to us and asked us to put our names and emails on a notepad if we wished to be involved in the rest of the hiring process,” Caceres said. “I put my information down and later heard nothing.”

The department said that it was very open to receiving and considering student feedback during the search process, and received a variety of responses, which it says it took under consideration. In mid-February, shortly after the hiring process began, Peregrine was notified that they were not going to be rehired for the position. The students within the department were not notified until Peregrine informed their students on April 12. Throughout both their career at the university as well as throughout the hiring process, Peregrine cited experiencing various instances of misgendering and transphobia within the department. In April of 2022, Peregrine said that their pronoun sign by the door of their office was vandalized. “My ‘they/them’ pronouns were scratched through with a thumbtack, “ Peregrine said. “I reported a hate crime through Harassment & Discrimination Assistance and Prevention Program (HDAPP) and never received any follow-up from the university.” Peregrine also attributed not being rehired for the position primarily to “discomfort” surrounding Peregrine’s gender identity from Mika Pelo, the chair of the search committee. “[Pelo] misgendered me in multiple settings during the process, including the final interview with the full faculty,” Peregrine said. “No one else in the room — all my current colleagues — interrupted him to correct, so I did. I believe that his discomfort with my gender is a primary reason that I was not offered the position.” In response to Peregrine’s accusations, Mika Pelo acknowledged his misgendering of Peregrine but denied the accusation of this being a recurring problem. “I did misgender them once during the interview, and immediately emailed them to apologize,” Pelo said. “They accepted the apology. [...] That I misgendered

Erik Peregrine, the current choir director at UC Davis. (UC Davis / Courtesy)

them multiple times, is an outright lie. [...] I would never mean any mal-intent by mistakenly using the wrong pronoun. I think many like me, with English as a secondary language, would understand why this unfortunately can happen.” Previously, Peregrine used both he/ him and they/them pronouns, and Pelo said that prior to the interview process, he had read an outdated online biography for Peregrine which listed both sets of pronouns. However, Peregrine said that their Music Department biography was, at some point, changed to include these now incorrect pronouns without their knowledge or consent. Peregrine commented on their initial reaction to the termination of their contract and how they believe the decision will

affect other lecturers in the union at the UC. “I was shocked when my contract was terminated early and without any conversation involving me about my future at UC Davis,” Peregrine said. “My union (UC-AFT) fought so hard to finally win multi-year contracts for lecturers beginning this academic year. My layoff is a direct affront to that agreement between UC-AFT and the University of California, and it sets a very dangerous precedent for all lecturers teaching at a UC campus.” CHOIRPROF on 4

Is small crime in Davis going unchecked?

Julián Castro visits Davis for Yolo Davis residents share their perspectives about small crime in Davis County Democrats fundraiser event

BY ZOE SMITH

city@theaggie.org

Content Warning: This article contains discussions on sexual harassment On April 29, local bystander Steve Greco witnessed threats of kidnapping and sexual assault yelled from a moving vehicle at a woman walking her dog at the corner of 7th and D Streets. According to Greco, the perpetrator of this crime was a young man in the passenger seat of a dark blue Ford truck. Greco took a picture of the moving vehicle and attempted to use the AI technology AVCLabs Video Enhancer to identify the license plate, but the results were inconclusive. He made a police report to Officer Griffin at the Davis Police Department. Lieutenant Dan Beckwith has been with the Davis Police Department for 16 years. Beckwith said that this particular incident would fall under California Penal Code 422, a statute

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ALLISON VO / AGGIE that makes it illegal to communicate a threat to someone who could cause bodily harm. Beckwith talked about the investigation process that goes into incidents like these. “When we get calls from services like that we tend to do an investigation, go out, take a statement from the person that called us to determine if what they say happened meets the elements for a crime in the state of California,” Beckwith said. “I wouldn’t say that it happens very often in town.” Greco posted the details of the harassment he witnessed along with a picture of the truck on Nextdoor, an app that connects residents of local areas to spread awareness about current events in the area. Many community members commented on Greco’s post voicing their reaction to the incident, using the comment section to share similar experiences. One community member, who wishes to remain anonymous, commented on Greco’s post, trying to ID the make and model of the truck. The individual said they have witnessed and experienced this particular type of street harassment countless times. Since moving to Davis in 2016, the individual has reported seeing multiple instances of men catcalling female pedestrians and yelling slurs at people who are part of the LBTQIA+ community. The resident described one of their personal experiences with drive-by street harassment in Davis. “There were a bunch of guys, and they had their windows down,” the anonymous person said. “I was with a group of my friends who were also queer [...] and a few of them were women. And they were catcalled, someone yelled a slur.” Lieutenant Beckwith talked about how the police department takes

harassment like this seriously as it can lead to more crime. “We document those incidents,” Beckwith said. “Not specific to just queer people, but any incident that falls under any group, protected group. So if it’s a racial thing, perceived sexual bias, religious bias, anything like that, we do document that. It’s not necessarily a crime. We like to keep track of it because a lot of times that kind of stuff could lead to a crime. Which is something we take very seriously.” Davis RIMS is an interactive tool that allows the public to access local crime data. Davis RIMS shows that the most common type of reported crime in Davis is vandalism, another commonly reported crime is sexual assault/harassment. The anonymous community member talked about whether police take small crimes seriously in Davis. “That’s hard to say,” they said. “For this example, we have a truck, color [and] a year range — [...] it’s all very circumstantial. And then there’s a lot of property crime in Davis, there’s not really anything they (the police) can do about it. Because, simply put, there’s just so much of it.” Beckwith talked about the different types of daily reports the Davis Police Department receives. “We get reports through various means on a daily basis,” Beckwith said. “Some come in through phone calls. Some come in through our online reporting system, with different means of entry. Some are cold, meaning they’ve occurred sometime in the past [...] a few hours prior or even days, weeks or months prior — people are late to the game reporting. And some are actively occurring. I can tell you that the most common call type is theft, but there are various types, there’s a whole myriad of different types of stuff that we get.” Jeremy Taylor, a Davis resident, commented on Greco’s initial post that he believes the Davis Police Department puts very little effort into solving small crimes. “I once connected the dots of a crime committed against a friend using neighbors’ cameras, wrapped it in a bow and handed it to the police,” Taylor commented on the post. “Don’t assume they’ll do the work on their own.” When asked further about his opinion of the Davis Police Department, Taylor talked about his concern with small crime in Davis.

LOCALCRIME on 4

Yolo County Democrats, Davis Democratic Club, Davis College Democrats and others gather for spring fundraiser

Julián Castro poses at the Democratic Party’s spring fundraiser at the Veterans Memorial Center. (Katie DeBenedetti / Courtesy) BY MADELEINE YOUNG

city@theaggie.org On April 29, the Yolo County Democratic Party hosted its spring fundraiser at the Veterans Memorial Center, featuring former presidential candidate and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julián Castro. Castro talked about gaining momentum for the Democratic Party ahead of the 2024 election and, specifically, about winning back the House of Representatives from the Republican majority. “I wanted to come and thank you for what you’ve already done and challenge you to redouble your efforts to make sure the Democrats are successful in 2024 not only in the oval office but also in the Senate, which is going to be quite a haul,” Castro said. “This year, we have more than two dozen seats to defend and also the House of Representatives, to send Kevin McCarthy packing. I think that we can do it.” At the start of the event, Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry introduced Castro and talked about the issues facing the U.S., and Yolo County, within the last few years. “We gather tonight at a very unique moment in the history of our nation and I think of our world,” Aguiar-Curry said. “It’s fair to say that the last three years have been unlike anything that anybody on earth has ever experienced

before with the pandemic in 2020, 2021 and 2022. [...] The more than a million Americans that have lost their lives because of COVID and complications related to it, the recession that it brought along and in May of 2020, the murder of George Floyd, which reignited a push for racial justice in our nation and the deep polarization and anti-democratic forces that we have seen.” The fundraising chair of the event and assistant deputy supervisor for District 4, Oliver Snow, explained the purpose of the event. “We’re doing our first big fundraiser since the start of the pandemic, and sort of our first big fundraiser even before that since we didn’t have many big ones,” Snow said. “We have Secretary Julian Castro coming into Yolo County, [and we’re] really excited to have him. We want to raise money, but more than that, we want to see it as sort of a relaunch of the county party, because it’s been a difficult few years. We want to sort of make an effort to say, ‘Hey everyone, we’re back in Yolo County, we’re ready to get to work, we’re ready to rebuild and we are going to greater heights than we had.’” The event featured a silent auction and hosted chapters of multiple democratic clubs across the county, including the Davis Democratic Club, Davis College Democrats, Woodland Democratic Club and more. JULIANCASTRO on 3