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VOLUME 148, ISSUE 4 | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024

Pro-Palestine rally held at Quad South Patio on Oct. 7

The demonstration was counter-protested by pro-Israel students and community members BY RIVERS STOUT AND JESSICA YUNG campus@theaggie.org On Oct. 7 at 12 p.m., around a couple hundred students gathered at the Quad South Patio to show their support for Palestinians over what is often called “One year of genocide.” Speakers and organizers from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Revolutionary Student Union (RSU) and Davis Graduate, Medical, Veterinary, & Law Students 4 Palestine (Grads4Pal) attended the event. These groups also played a part in many of last year’s protests. The protest was the second of the year in support of Palestine, with the first taking place on Sept. 25 in which fewer than a dozen people protested in front of the library with a sign that read, “No back to school in Gaza.” The most recent protest featured a diverse set of movements, with chants and signs supporting Mexico, the Philippines and Armenia/ Artsakh. Many protestors held signs that read, “Free Palestine U.S. Taxpayers Fund Gaza War Crimes.” Throughout the protest, they shouted many chants, including “No, no normalization [...] we demand full liberation” and “Every branch, every olive tree.” Additionally, they reaffirmed their position against Chancellor Gary May’s directorial role with Leidos, an engineering company that has relations with the Israeli government and has

As pro-Palestinian protesters held a demonstration on Oct. 7, a pro-Israel protester marches into the crowd with an Israeli flag wrapped around their back. (Jenna Lee / Aggie) been accused of war profiteering, by chanting, “Gary May, how many kids have you killed today?” Behind the protest, a smaller group of fewer than 30 counter-protestors, including members from Aggies for Israel as well as various citizens of the Davis community, showed their support for Israel. A couple of the counter-protestors

walked over to the pro-Palestine demonstration, yelling and taunting pro-Palestine protestors by dancing in their direction. Additionally, they were chanting, “Hate is not resistance” and “Free the hostages,” while displaying a tarp depicting Israeli hostages. One of the counter-protestors held a sign reading, “On October 7th —1,400+ people were murdered, raped and

tortured by Hamas.” The pro-Palestine protesters attempted to block them with umbrellas, and the counter-protestors’ actions ceased once the pro-Palestine march began. The march went through the Memorial Union and Coffee House, down to Shields Library and the Silo, where there was a refreshment station

with water. Protestors primarily marched down streets and gathered in common areas. The pro-Palestine speeches at the Silo finished by 1:30 p.m. As of the date of publication, the University of California has taken no action against protestors or organizers.

Local Davis libraries and bookstores bring awareness to Gaius Ilupeju divulged the wrongdoing during the Oct. 3 ASUCD Senate meeting, before ASUCD officials attempted to stifle Banned Books Week publication of the issue

Breaking: ASUCD President inadvertently reveals hiring misconduct by former unit director

Mary L. Stephens Library, The Avid Reader and more take a stand against literary censorship BY OLIVIA HOKR city@theaggie.org

AGGIE FILE BY VINCE BASADA campus@theaggie.org An unnamed former ASUCD unit director posted a fake vacancy and disregarded employment rules, ASUCD President Gaius Ilupeju alleged at a public Oct. 3 ASUCD Senate meeting. “We found out this summer during interviews that a former unit director wasn’t hiring as they were supposed to, according to the bylaws, and weren’t abiding by fair hiring practices,” Ilupeju said. “[This unit director] put up a vacancy and they didn’t actually do interviews. They had their friends apply or people they knew apply and didn’t have the right people sitting in on those interviews [or] sending employment forms.” The unit and former director involved were not identified, and their motive/possible fiscal damages to the organization remain unknown. There was also no further information immediately given about the interviews that uncovered the mispractice or on any possible disciplinary action taken. The reveal of these developments to the press, which also seemed to be new information to the room full of first-time senators and commission chairs, was made inadvertently. Ilupeju disclosed the misconduct to the senate table without registering the presence of a reporter from The California Aggie.

No other individuals independent from the student government were present at the meeting at that time. “If that [hiring violation] gets out of this room, we could be facing serious lawsuits,” Ilupeju said to his fellow student government officers. Ilupeju and Internal Vice President Aaminah Mohammed attempted to strike his comments from the record and asked The California Aggie to refrain from publishing the information, a request to which The Aggie did not comply due to the Code of Ethics. Ilupeju later provided a written statement when asked for comment. “While we always strive to ensure that all of our units and services follow relevant policies to the best of their ability, that hasn’t always been the case in the past,” Ilupeju said. “The event I was referencing occurred last year or the year prior, but I only recently learned about it when I assumed this role. We are doing everything we can to prevent this from occurring again.” The information was revealed during a discussion over SB#1, enacting the ASUCD budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year as well as authorizing two capital projects to improve the services and operations of the Coffee House and Unitrans. The initial draft of the bill included wording that asserted the right of the ASUCD Executive Office to “suspend the budget of any entity in

violation of the ASUCD Constitution and Bylaws.” When asked by Senator Dhilena Wickramasinghe on the reasoning behind the inclusion of this clause, Ilupeju disclosed the alleged misconduct. “Since we’ve given our units semiautonomy, we don’t really scrutinize how they spend their budget,” Ilupeju said at the meeting. “We’ve had a lot of situations where people go over budget, and our current policy is that if [units] have debt, if they go over your budget, [and] if they end up spending more than they didn’t allocate, it comes out of general reserves.” “That’s not fair to students because it means that we’re not being prudent with the money we’ve been given, and that’s not fair to other units,” Ilupeju said. “There’s some units that go above and beyond to make sure that they’re double checking numbers, including receipts.” SB#1 was later passed unanimously, though with the section in question removed. Ilupeju also said at that time that he plans to hold closed session meetings to discuss the hiring misconduct further. Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story reported that the proposed clause in Senate Bill #1 gives power to the Senate to suspend a unit’s budget. However, SB#1 gives this power to the Executive Office.

Banned Books Week is an annual campaign that brings visibility to books that have been banned or challenged over the past hundreds of years within schools and libraries. This year from Sept. 22 to 28, librarians, writers, journalists and teachers focused on highlighting the diverse voices of authors who have been victims of these bans. The American Library Association implemented the theme “Freed Between the Lines” for this year’s unition against censorship as a political statement for the freedom of storytelling and reading. Yolo County Library took a public stance through their social media accounts and participated in Banned Books Week to encourage the community to unite against book bans. At an even more local level, the Mary L. Stephens Library in downtown Davis joined other Yolo County Libraries in shining a light on books that are being challenged and banned throughout the nation. Scott Love, the library regional manager in the West Yolo Region, shared that Mary L. Stephens Library produced a display of challenged books. Similarly, Logos Books in downtown Davis created a display for Banned Books Week that included a printed list of the 2023 most-challenged books.

“It is important to acknowledge the attacks on everyone’s right to have unrestricted access to free books to read,” Love said. “Yolo County Library feels strongly that each individual and each parent should decide what they and their children should read, not the library.” The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom shared data that showed a 65% increase to challenged books in 2023 compared to the amount in 2022. Public libraries and school libraries were main targets of censorship this past year. The most common reason for a book to be challenged is its representation of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC identities within the story, according to the data. Kayla Girdner, the administrative assistant and social media manager at The Avid Reader in downtown Davis, believes in advocating for the freedom of books year-round and fighting against the marginalization of authors. “They can’t ban the books from the bookstore, but they can absolutely ban them from being accessible to people who don’t necessarily have money to go out and buy the books from a store,” Girdner said. “[Banned Books Week is] a big push in schools and bookstores to celebrate those books and make them visible in places where maybe they wouldn’t be.” BANNEDBOOKS on 9

Banned books on display at the Mary L. Stephans Library for banned book week. (Sacha Chickering / Aggie)