Comments

  • Students to vote on defending ICA?
    no, it was funny. Probably offensive, but funny.
  • Students to vote on defending ICA?
    I mean, I believe UCD has some of the highest campus based fees in UC at around $3k per year, of which athletics gets about $650. Proposed increase of $69.30 total on the year, $50 of which is for ASUCD and Unitrans. I don’t know that I’d characterize it as a huge fee increase and doesn’t appear was driven by athletics. The dorms are insanely expensive and have been for years. Not sure why other than they can, but I think housing costs are a bigger obstacle than tuition for many because financial aid is much less available to help with housing. I agree the PE thing was a misstep because it didn’t seem like a very expensive program. My hypothesis remains that Campus Rec wanted to drive PE participants to paid activities at the ARC.
  • Students to vote on defending ICA?
    The Aggie is also funded by a referendum approved fee. Maybe it should be voted out too due to the narrow viewpoints it tends to publish. Earmarked fees also fund the Women’s Center and Cross Cultural Center, which have very narrow user bases. Dare someone to call for defunding those. Don’t get me wrong, I think student fees are too high and I don’t think student fees should be used to fund fire alarm upgrades or the financial aid office. But cherry picking the athletics fees without questioning why student housing, the bookstore, and parking all turn profits without clarity on where the profits are going seems like a little bit of a manipulated narrative. I wonder what chapped this guy’s hide? Seats too hard in the library main reading room?
  • New Covid Protocol - Vax or Neg Test required
    Florida here. Pick a different state to compare to. Desantis has been doctoring the numbers to suit his political ambitions and sending armed thugs to rough up dissenters. As such, testing is virtually nonexistent. The mass sites are long gone and pharmacies and health departments are “sold out” of tests. Naturally the less you test the less you find.
  • Week 12: Sac State @ UC Davis Causeway Classic 2021
    I won’t make the game but my company is hiring janitors, starting $17/hr w/ benefits/union, if anyone wants to pass out my card to the seniors on the Sac sideline.
  • Week 12: Sac State @ UC Davis Causeway Classic 2021
    the last one I saw was maybe 2007 near the aquatics center. If it reappeared after, it’s not to my knowledge. I’m afraid @BlueGoldAg is correct that at this point in time large open fires are probably not responsible. At the time they axed it I think the official line was environmental but largely understood to be a budget thing and a desire to distance from D2 traditions as having the football team do skits on a haywagon by firelight was maybe too campy.

    @movielover it barely made the news but CAAA bought property in Tahoe to build an alumni retreat but couldn’t get the neighbors on board and sold it a 7 figure loss. From the bits I’ve heard from insiders there was maybe things happening internally not by the bylaws that resulted in a management change. The new vision I’m told is to focus on things that have educational or career development value rather than just social.
  • Week 12: Sac State @ UC Davis Causeway Classic 2021
    Pajamarino waned in student popularity when they axed the bonfire afterward, around the time Aggie Stadium opened. While the Band-uh and alumni band were kind of the main attraction, the event was organized by the Cal Aggie Alumni Association. They used to charter buses to take a big alumni group to the Sacramento Amtrak station to ride the train back and have a big alumni arrival. CAAA had their own scandal a couple years ago and they cleaned house and brought in a outside hire to run it, so maybe it’s just not a priority anymore.
  • Final report on baseball team released
    Yup, they released the actual emails between Vaughn, Flushman, and Blue in the full report.

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  • Final report on baseball team released
    Report is far more detailed and transparent than previous performed by the outside law firm, which I applaud. But I think it’s important to recognize that the university is committed to “preponderance of evidence standard”, which is not well defined but generally acknowledged to mean you’re at least 51% sure a statement is true. This is nowhere near “beyond reasonable doubt” that some readers will assume. I’m guessing Vaughn took the fall because Blue was already gone, since Vaughn informed Blue he gave everyone a stern talking to in 2018 and Blue told him the matter was closed, but now the university thinks it shouldn’t have been closed. It’s also important to judge actions in 2018 or any other year by norms in that time, not by 2021 standards, which are rapidly changing. While I don’t support eating goldfish or drinking with the intent to vomit, I also feel that voluntary drinking games or strippers on personal time and private property need not be the university’s business. I do not support the existence of anything resembling a “hazing task force” because these typically turn into make-work departments that have to self justify and the training programs they produce typically amount to rehashes of the proven-to-fail “just say no” campaigns.
  • Dormzilla: UCSB plans Massive, $1.5B windowless housing
    This is a dumb design. The guy is 97. I’m sure the coastal commission and environmental impact report can be used to run the clock. I’ve stayed in hotels with windows facing interior atriums, like embassy suites kind of places and interior views can be workable. But this just looks like human storage. Kind of reminds me of a scaled up version of Leach Hall in Tercero, which was ultimately bulldozed as an ineffective design. I get the idea is that a bed is just a place to sleep and not every room can have an ocean view, but the cost for such an odd design is very high - about $330k per bed. The most recent dorm project in Davis was $131k per bed, which itself was expensive. Also not sure how this would meet fire code, where typically sleeping areas require two means of exit.
  • Week 8: UC Davis @ Cal Poly
    Whelan is a stud and deserves all accolades given. However, excellent teams tend to brag about their kickoffs, not punts.
  • Week 8: UC Davis @ Cal Poly
    I like the PxP guy, color guy is meh. It is odd to have no crowd mic and watch a silent game. Camera angle is weird and kind of making me seasick.
  • Anyone else see this tweet from Ch. May? DWade sighting...
    Facts about D Wade—
    1. Didn’t ever finish college and was academically ineligible for a substantial portion of his college career.
    2. Doesn’t actually make wine and has admitted knowing little about it other than enjoying drinking it. Has hired Pahlmeyer (FYI, not Black-owned) to produce it.

    A wine-maker he is not. He is an already-wealthy person trying to diversify his investment portfolio and monetize his name/image/likeness in new ways. Nothing wrong with that at all, but none of that suggests he should be the face of the finest viticulture program in the world unless it’s a vanity position for some forthcoming major donation.
  • Bob Dunning Makes His Case for UCD to Move to FBS
    Golden 1 Center was a $120M naming deal. Our deal with the much smaller University Credit Union is much smaller I'm sure. Separate discussion as to whether sports deals are an appropriate use of money for a non-profit credit union or public health system. UCD graduates a lot of people that make the world a better place on a daily basis, but relatively few that are titans of industry. The campus does work with beer and wine conglomerates, but their interests seem to be elsewhere from athletics. We also have a lot of involvement with the likes of Chevron, Dow, Monsanto, and Bayer - probably none of which want to advertise their affiliation too loudly and get activists riled up. And at this point I doubt unaffiliated companies like Southwest Airlines and Comcast would be lining up to buy wine-and-dine suites in Davis.
  • Bob Dunning Makes His Case for UCD to Move to FBS
    1. To be competitive in FBS you have to cheat— one or more of financial, academic, or behavior funny business. It’s not that Stanford is above this, it’s that they are much better about being subtle and covering their tracks than say Florida State. To date, Mrak Hall has been better at showing its a** in the Bee than covering it.
    2. There is a demographic problem. Until athletics either generate more interest among Asian and female students or demographics change, growing the student attendance is tough. If today’s students aren’t interested, they won’t be as tomorrow’s alumni either and I don’t think division changes that.
    3. Part of the money equation is corporate sponsorship. The biggest operations in the Sac area are government agencies, quasi government adjacent things like UCD health and SMUD, and credit unions. To Rocko’s credit we have tapped some of those. What Sac doesn’t have is home or hub offices for a lot of Fortune 500 companies that want to put their name on things and then buy a skybox where executives can get drunk and look at said logo.
    4. Neither UCD or CSUS have successfully marketed themselves to potential community fans with no ties to the university. Maybe there’s a case for division here but build-it-and-they-will-come is a risky gamble considering we would likely not be good for some time.
  • How do we beat EWU, JMU, NDSU
    agreed. UG is a great player, but if he runs into a brick wall on first, why run the same play on second hoping for a different result? Too many predictable third and longs. I often hear “the run will open up the pass.” From the cheap seats I see the opposite, that if you have TEs or WRs who need double coverage to contain and you threaten to use them at will, somebody has a wide lane for a run.
  • How do we beat EWU, JMU, NDSU
    Excellent teams keep their foot on the gas for 60 minutes. It seems like we are routinely willing to give up on drives at the end of the half and come back to have anemic 3rd quarter before turning the heat back on in the 4th.
  • Week 6: UC Davis @ Idaho State
    is that how it works? I was never really sure whether KHTK owned the broadcast or if UCD did and rented airtime. And I’m not sure how Learfield is involved other than they are. I looked up Buzzard and it appears he is available. The pandemic messed up his basketball camp and DJ businesses so he’s been delivering pizzas as of late. I have enjoyed listening to Marsh over the years but this last broadcast with BD was, as he might say, nothing doing.
  • UC Davis Baseball Team and Coaching Staff Suspended
    This is good news. It would seem to indicate that the accusations maybe weren’t so credible after all or perhaps existed in the past not involving the current students. I’m sure they have to slow walk any return to normal to avoid howling from self-proclaimed victim advocates, but whether or not the current staff turns out to guilty, my guess is they’re headed for pasture anyway based on performance.

    @NCagalum estimates exist that somewhere between 5-60% of students are a victim of some sort. The dept of education assumes about 20%, but the number is shaky. Because far fewer than 20% of students report anything, schools assume they have a huge under-reporting problem. In an effort to “fix” their percentages (and self justify their jobs) campus investigators frequently push for 100% conviction rates, often in absence of fact. As you saw, there are individuals who manipulate the system for other axes they want to grind. I’m sure administrators realize this but won’t admit it publicly for fear of appearing soft on abusers. Ironically, there is anecdotal evidence that some “real” victims don’t come forward because of the dog and pony show schools make of the noisy nonsense cases.
  • Week 6: UC Davis @ Idaho State
    Maybe they should call back Steve Buzzard. He was on the call for like 10 years and I think Marsh was color back then.