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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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VOLUME 141, ISSUE 1 | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

ANTISEMITIC BANNERS HUNG FROM OVERPASS DETERMINED ‘HATE INCIDENT’ BY UC DAVIS POLICE Chancellor Gary May later released a statement condemning the act BY SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org Content warning: This article includes discussions of antisemitic language which some readers may find disturbing. The UC Davis Police Department sent out a crime alert to campus community members at 6:07 p.m. on Aug. 28, reporting a “hate incident” involving signs that were hung on the Highway 113 overpass facing vehicle traffic with antisemitic messages written on them. According to the crime alert, the signs read, “HOLOCAUST IS ANTI WHITE LIES” and “COMMUNISM IS JEWISH.” The alert states that witnesses reported seeing three or four white male adults wearing black clothing and masks standing on the Blue Ridge Road Bikeway overpass at Highway 113 and hanging the signs at around 3 p.m. on the day of the crime report. One of the witnesses confronted the subjects and tried to take

the signs down which led to a verbal argument but no reported injuries. “The subjects were filming encounters with counter-protesters and law enforcement and may have been trying to [elicit] responses,” the alert reads. “They took down the signs and left on foot, later displaying their signs on the Russell Blvd overpass according to [the UC Davis Police Department].” The subjects were last seen on foot headed into the city of Davis through West Village, according to the alert. The incident “did not rise to the level of a hate crime,” according to the crime alert, but the UC Davis police did determine it to be “a hate incident of concern for our campus community.” UC Davis Chancellor Gary May issued a statement about the incident on the day the event occurred, noting that he had recently received a report indicating that a similar incident took

place during the weekend of Aug. 20-21. “We are sickened that anyone would invest any time in such cowardly acts of hate and intimidation,” May said in the statement. “We encourage our community to stand against anti-Semitism and racism. White supremacy, hate and intimidation have no place here.” May also directed students who need support in light of the incident to reach out to Student Health and Counseling Services and for faculty and staff to reach out to the Academic and Staff Assistance Program. Editor’s note: This article first appeared online at theaggie.org.

UC PRESIDENT, CALIFORNIA SECRETARY OF STATE SIGN JOINT RESOLUTION TO INCREASE STUDENT VOTER PARTICIPATION The resolution encourages UCs to facilitate easier access to a variety of voting options BY SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org A joint resolution signed by UC President Michael Drake, Board of Regents Vice Chair Richard Leib and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on June 29 announced an initiative that seeks to increase student voter participation across UC campuses. The resolution plans to build on progress that has been made in the past few years, according to a recent press release, including a permanent ballot dropbox installed on the UC Davis campus on April 19, 2022, and a UC student voter turnout of more than 75% in the 2020 election, up from less than 50% in 2016. Specifically, according to the press release, the partnership is committed to “facilitating greater access to ballot drop boxes or voting locations on [all UC] campuses,” as well as increasing awareness of voting options. The press release also states that the resolution requires each campus to designate someone to coordinate “the dissemination of voting information and […] voting center locations” prior to the November 2022 elections. The University of California plans to conduct outreach through both social media and the UC Votes webpage, which, according to a press release on April 21, was recently redesigned and relaunched ahead of the 2022 primary and general elections. The page includes information about voter registration, mail-in and in-person voting options and ballot content, as well as an email sign-up option for Election Day reminders. In a speech at a media event announcing the partnership, Weber reflected on her first voting experience as a student at UCLA and described progress that she has seen in both students’ and Californians’ voting access. “I remember how difficult it was to vote — I had to go all the way home to do so,” Weber said. “I remember how difficult it was, but nonetheless how determined I was to make sure that my vote was there, that it was counted, that I was making a difference in California. I am pleased that we are working constantly to make it easier for people to vote, to give them more days and more ways that they can vote.” Weber added that she wants to make students aware not just of the opportunity they have to vote, but also of their “responsibility [to vote] to make sure that this democracy lives.” “We can’t just be driven by the issue of the day,” Weber said. “We should be driven by the fact that we are Californians, that we are Americans, that we have the right to vote and we have the responsibility.” UC President Michael Drake also spoke at the media event,

UC Board of Regents Vice Chair Leib, California Secretary of State Weber and UC President Drake sign voting resolution at UC Davis. (Karin Higgins) offering his view on the goals of the partnership and echoing Weber’s sentiments regarding the importance of voting. “We want to do all that we can to raise awareness of options to vote, and the obligation that we really have to participate in our democracy and to vote,” Drake said. According to a press release about the event, Drake later stated that the University of California was “committed to cultivating and supporting civic engagement” among students, and that he was “pleased to sign this resolution affirming [the UC’s] partnership with the Secretary of State.” Weber also said that she believes it is important to ensure that college students — a historically underrepresented demographic — take the time to vote, and do so in an informed manner. “I could be a student, and I get one vote,” Weber said. “I could be secretary of state, and I’m going to get one vote. I could be the governor, and I get one vote. I could be the president of the United States, and I still only get one vote. That one vote is power.” Gwen Chodur, the President of the UC Graduate and Professional Council, also spoke at the media event, focusing to

the “importance of the student voice.” “Even though it’s not always convenient, it’s not always conducive to a quick answer, we benefit from having more voices in the conversation,” Chodur said. “For UC Davis students, we want to turn voting into something that is a norm, a practice, a habit for the rest of their lives.” UC Davis Chancellor Gary May commented on his view of the culture of civic engagement at UC Davis, saying that he felt it was strong, in part because of its proximity to Sacramento, which allows students to see “democracy in action,” but also because of a “strong culture of activism” among students. “UC Davis is committed to making voting easy and accessible to students of our community, who really are the future of our country,” May said during the media event. “The partnership we’re announcing today will help to advance that commitment.” Editor’s note: This article first appeared online at theaggie.org.

FEWER UNDERGRADUATES ACCEPTED TO UC DAVIS FOR FALL 2022 Smaller first-year class admitted in order to meet the university’s enrollment target, correcting for last year’s over-enrollment BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org For fall 2022, UC Davis offered admission to 44,661 first-year and transfer students out of a record 110,189 applicants, according to campus statistics from the UC Office of the President. There was a larger number of applicants admitted in fall 2021 with 52,254 applicants admitted out of 105,850. According to Robert Penman, executive director of undergraduate admissions, this decrease is because the university went over its enrollment target number of first-year students by several hundred students in fall 2021. “Over-enrollment has the potential to cause a lot of pain points on campus—everything from housing and course availability to academic advising to parking can be impacted,” Penman said via email. “We generally try to get as close to our enrollment targets as possible to avoid causing these types of pain points for students, faculty, staff and the community alike. With an applicant and admit pool the size of ours, plus the uncertainty of the pandemic, enrollment planning can be challenging.” The fall 2021 class increased by 13.4% from the previous year and was 10.9% above the enrollment target. Data from the UC Office of the President for fall 2022 also shows that the number of first-year applicants increased by 8.7%, and the number of international applications grew by 6.7% this year. Penman explained that in order to hit enrollment targets this year, the university had to make adjustments in its admissions approach, “We just took a more cautious approach to admission this year to ensure that we meet our enrollment targets, and that appears to have been successful,” Penman said via email. “In fact, if you compare our first-year admit rate this year to fall 2019 (the last prepandemic year), you’ll note that they’re virtually the same (37.4% and 38.9%, respectively).” In addition to over-enrollment, Chancellor Gary May also stated that fall 2021 was the first time that the university failed to meet the 2:1 freshman-to-transfer ratio since fall 2010. According to statistics from the UC Office of the President, 42,726 out of the 52,254 admitted applicants were of first-year status in fall 2021. For fall 2022, 35,563 out of 44,661 admitted applicants were of freshman status.

“UC Davis just experienced a period of substantial growth over the past decade, so our plans for the foreseeable future are to keep things rather steady in terms of campus enrollment, with only minimal growth at the undergraduate level,” Penman said via email.

According to Penman, with UC Davis being a land grant institution, there are future plans to open many doors for and focus on outreach efforts for the historically marginalized, firstgeneration college-going and limited-income students.

AGGIE FILE