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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

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VOLUME 141, ISSUE 2 | THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

CAMPUS READY UPDATE FOR FALL 2022 Masking indoors and testing biweekly no longer required, other changes made to Campus Ready requirements for students

Student section at a UC Davis football game during the 2021 season — large gatherings like this are becoming common again at UC Davis as we begin the first full school year post-COVID. (Aggie File) BY JADE BELL AND SONORA SLATER campus@theaggie.org Students have returned to the UC Davis campus for fall quarter with many COVID-19 mandates lifted, such as wearing masks indoors and biweekly asymptomatic testing, according to the latest Campus Ready update. Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS) explained the process of altering

protocol in order to maintain the health and safety of returning students. “We are excited to welcome students back to campus this fall,” SHCS said via email. “We continue to work closely with our county public health department, including consistent implementation of their COVID-related recommendations.” The Division of Student Affairs sent out an email to students on Sept. 16 detailing the COVID guidance for fall quarter.

The Daily Symptom Survey will no longer be required for students to enter university facilities, and, while recommended, masks are no longer required indoors except at the COVID-19 testing kiosk on campus and in on-campus settings where healthcare services are provided, according to the email. Students who have no COVID-19 vaccination information reported in Healthe-Messaging or have not submitted a medical, temporary deferral or religious exception request

by Sept. 21 will have a temporary registration hold on their account, prohibiting them from making class schedule changes or editing their grade options. UC Davis is currently not enforcing any requirement for staff and students to get the new bivalent vaccine booster, according to the email; however, this may change in the future when the booster gains widespread availability. While regular testing is no longer required, students are required to get tested for COVID-19 once between Sept. 9 and Oct. 7, according to the email, or within a week of arrival to campus if arriving after Oct. 7. This can be done by making an appointment for on-campus saliva testing via Health-e-Messaging or by using an at-home antigen test and reporting the results in Healthe-Messaging. Audrey Pangemanan, a fourth-year psychology major, said that she is excited to be able to participate fully in in-person events and classes this year with restrictions lifted. “I’m most excited about being back in person with my clubs,” she said via Instagram Direct Message (DM). “[Like] my co-ed Professional Community Service Fraternity: Alpha Phi Omega. Especially since it’s [fall quarter] — new people, new experiences.” However, Pangemanan also shared some concerns. “Being back at school with no COVID restrictions makes me feel pretty wary,” Pangemanan said. “I still wear my mask from time to time but now that symptom surveys aren’t being checked anymore and bi-weekly COVID testing isn’t required to enter facilities, I feel less protected on campus.” Despite the lifted restrictions, SHCS said that student health remains a high priority. “The health and well-being of our students and our campus community [are] of the utmost importance to UC Davis,” SHCS said via email. “The public health division of [SHCS], formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is working to proactively prepare for public health crises on our campus, in close collaboration with our Yolo County public health officials and campus partners.”

FROM FARM TO FORK; HOW LOCAL AGRICULTURE IN DAVIS CULTIVATES A VIBRANT COMMUNITY

STUDENTS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES DURING SEPT. 16-19 ORIENTATION EVENTS

Yolo country celebrates local farming and smallscale production during “Farm to Fork” month

Participants and leaders expressed mixed opinions about the four-day mandatory programming BY SYDNEY AMESTOY campus@theaggie.org

A variety of vegetables are grown at the UC Davis Student Farm. (Christine Minarik / Aggie) BY LEVI GOLDSTEIN features@theaggie.org In 1908, UC Davis first opened as an extension of UC Berkeley in the form of an agricultural school — hence why students are known as “Aggies.” Ever since, the University’s agricultural roots have remained central to its image and academics. According to Yolo County residents, agriculture is a fundamental part of the local community. Davis’ location in the Central Valley means it is right in the center of the largest source of agricultural exports in the United States. The Sacramento Valley is known as the “Farm to Fork” capital of the country, according to a Yolo County press release. For Vince Marchese, the marketing manager of the Davis Food Co-op, the local farms are a gift worth appreciating. “It’s a shame, really, sometimes that people are [...] buying products that come from other places in the world when we have such good, high-quality local products that we all can benefit from,” Marchese said. “Not only are we giving them the best high-quality products that there are because they’re grown right in our backyard, but we’re also keeping our local economy alive and helping out our neighbors.” The local food is delicious, and it also offers an opportunity for human connection. The Davis Food Co-op, a local grocery store cooperatively owned by over 8,000 Davis residents, openly tries to create a space where community members can gather and socialize, according to Marchese. “We’re not just here to function as a grocery store,” Marchese said. “Food is such a big part of all of our lives. On a weekly basis, usually, people are coming and [...] they’re spending a lot of time at the grocery store getting the food that’s going to nourish them throughout the week. We feel the importance that while we have you

there, we can really show you the deeper sense of connection that goes into everything we’re doing in the store.” Marchese said that the Davis Food Co-op also prioritizes forming strong relationships with local farms. “If somebody is shopping [for] produce, right beneath the apples, they may see this local farm guide, pick that up, and now they get to learn a little bit more about the farmer that picked that apple, or the farmer that grew the tomatoes that are just right across from there,” Marchese said. “We have very direct and personal relationships with the farmers [who] grow that produce. We want you to feel that connection too. We are just a part of this bigger ecosystem, and we want to try to show the ways in which that entire ecosystem fits together.” In addition to in-store guides, the Davis Food Co-op publishes articles and recipes on their online blog and offers classes in their teaching kitchen for a hands-on cooking experience. Another local educational resource is the Hanna and Herbert Bauer Memorial Garden, located just outside the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Bauer Building in Woodland. Founded in 2013, it serves as an “outdoor classroom space” for programs hosted by the HHSA and the CalFresh Healthy Living program, according to HHSA Program Coordinator David Linebarger. “I’m a farmer at heart,” Linebarger said. “I really like to teach people how to grow food, and I like to see their journey with growing food and people getting better at it and seeing their surprise when they learn things that they didn’t know before, and just the satisfaction that gardening brings is really what keeps me doing it.” FARMTOFORK on 6

This year’s orientation process saw swarms of incoming freshman and transfer students across campus who were led by orientation leaders to various programs and events. However, student participants and orientation leaders shared mixed opinions about the mandatory event. “Some of the [...] programs were very specific,” Samual Ospinal, a first-year mathematics major and a participant in orientation, said. “Some subjects were touched on in-depth, and others were not considered.” The programs Ospinal referred to, according to the UC Davis orientation website, include events such as “Health, Wellness, and You,” “Aggie Success: A Professor’s Guide” and “Violence Intervention and Prevention,” as well as college-specific programming. Orientation leaders, the students in charge of guiding the first-year and transfer students through these programming events, offered a different perspective. “I thought the overall orientation program had improved greatly from last year, as the programs were more exciting,” Katie Tran, a second-year managerial economics and psychology major and an orientation leader, said. “Overall, I thought Aggie Success was very useful for the first years. They got to hear from professors and orientation

leaders on their experiences at UC Davis, as well as how to succeed while being a student here.” The official description of orientation on the UC Davis website describes the four-day event as an opportunity for “building support networks with faculty, staff, and peers, learning to navigate our campus to access relevant people and resources, addressing academic questions and concerns, experiencing first-hand the academic rigors of UC Davis, and finding support and community on our diverse, global campus.” However, not every participant said that they felt that these general goals were necessarily sufficient for a successful orientation. “We could have reviewed things like the halls our classes could be in,” Ospinal said. “If I did not take a tour of the university earlier in August, I would have been lost.” The weather also proved a challenge during orientation. On both Sept. 18 and 19, the final two days of orientation, there was significant rainfall in the Davis area, as well as on campus. Ultimately, Ospinal said that despite both the weather challenges and some room for programming improvements, orientation did promote community. “My orientation leader can only do so much, I reckon,” Ospinal said. “I think our orientation had a tendency to consist of team building and spirit. These are all details, and orientation was most likely a good thing for everyone.”

Orientation leaders wear two different shirts and each hold a personalized sign with their group number. (Kayla Bruckman/ Aggie)