Indeed an interesting paradox for some of the townies who want the students to drive the local economy but at the same time don't want the traffic, noise, etc. that their existence brings about. Will be interesting to see if the "open-ish" status of campus this fall keeps students living in town (presumably with some extra time for daytime consumption of Keystone Light) or if more people stay home and maybe commute to Davis once a week for necessary in-person labs. Jobs are a concern in all parts of the economy but perhaps acute among students-- if the ARC, Coffee House, etc. are closed or limited as likely necessary, that is a lot of student jobs evaporating which in turn might push enrollment down among those already on the financial precipice. Whenever we return to normal, it may well be a new normal. Continued quality distance learning options would be great for accessibility for people with careers, children, etc. who can't be in Davis at 11am three days a week. But I think there is still value in accessible residential college life-- I learned to live in 110 square feet with a jackass and how to tolerate an unshowered hippie slurping pungent pho soup in the back of Haring Hall -- so I hope that doesn't permanently go away or become only available to the wealthy because those are valuable experiences. I also suspect that the administration will try to use this opportunity to wipe away or remake things. I would not be surprised if Picnic Day, Whole Earth Festival, and the quirky factor of the Coffee House as we know them are permanently dead to reemerge in a couple years as highly branded and sanitized Learfield products under the thumb of a vice chancellor.

I don't want to speak for Thomson, because perhaps he is qualified and intends to complete a grad degree. But to illustrate your point 69, I had a football grad transfer in some masters classes when I was in school. The dude had crickets for brains and it was an open secret that the dean had directed the professors to give him B- grades. It was unfortunate that he took a seat from a bona fide applicant and it was insulting that the university thought my program was "easy enough" to hide a meat head in. And he did in fact disappear after the requisite bowl game.

You have a point that it is difficult to track the values of every company and if you get too choosy you won't be able to shop anywhere. Most publicly traded companies minimize direct political donations and funnel it through PACs that hedge their bets by donating to both sides of the aisle, although most tilt right because they want to keep their wage and benefit costs low. There are a few (tend to be privately held/family companies) like Hobby Lobby, Jimmy Johns, and Chick-fil-a that I choose not to patronize because of their owners' extreme stances. But in cases like Target vs Walmart, where they might be about the same on social responsibility, I tend to choose the former because their stores are cleaner with a better clientele. See peopleofwalmart.com for explanation. That said, my observation has been that mask usage in my town seems to vary to some degree by store, time of day, day of week, and likely other factors. I'm sure the big box retailers are using face masks as a data point in their research. They already use AI cameras to note what departments you go to first and how long you look at items before putting them in the cart.

Well, 69, I don't know if a coronavirus waiver of liability would be enforceable. And if an athlete declined, could it impact scholarships or other things? I'm sure we will see these questions tested in courts in the coming months and years. As far as racial justice, I am glad that the department is approaching this with a listen and discuss model to hopefully make needed changes and avoid kneejerk blunders. Presuming a semi-normal football season, I would guess there will be new scrutiny on fan behavior related to chants or taunting that could be seen as racial. Could also be a crackdown on trash talk on the field. Nationally, I predict there will be at least a few refs that land in hot water for inequitable enforcement or overlooking of rules and probably calls for greater diversity in the ref pool. I think it is a given that there will be people making statements of solidarity during the national anthem. Probably would be met with support in Davis, but maybe not so much at Montana or Southern Utah. Or do schools follow MLS and omit the national anthem to avoid the opportunity? There is always the possibility that a game with fans could be disrupted by a demonstration. Every stadium should have a plan on how to address this. Any plan that relies on riot shields and tear gas as a first choice would be a televised disaster. Including police as honorees in the annual military appreciation game would also likely be a tone deaf proposition that would encourage problems. And given the challenged history of the UCD PD, I would hope the University carefully considers the number of officers and type of equipment needed. Not sure that having an abundance of officers with German shepherds and automatic weapons will be welcomed by fans or athletes.

My state is actively lying about the numbers. I think that is worse than just withholding them or disregarding them. The fired statistician revealed that the state's calculation totals all negative tests but only one positive test per person and that people tested multiple times (like healthcare workers) are skewing the numbers, so that if one person was tested weekly for 10 weeks and got 7 negative and 3 positive, the state counts it as 7 negative "people" and 1 positive person to inflate the negative person count. I also think counting by county is deceptive in some cases. I live in an area where subdivision sprawl covers a 5 county area that blends together and county lines seem arbitrary. My particular county has lower numbers, but the next county over (about 2 miles away) is through the roof since Memorial Day so safety is relative. Masking rate here is low, but interesting to pay attention to who does and doesn't comply, for example in my non scientific observations, Lowes customers are more willing to social distance than Home Depot customers.

In the case of ECU, "pretty big" is not be confused with "pretty good." Just saying.

Even if it is not directly Newsom's call, I doubt the Regents will buck him. Most of the sitting Regents are Brown appointees who also happen to be big political donors and insiders.

I think DeSantis was trying to attract NFL teams to play in Florida, although he might take college too. The Citrus Bowl in Orlando is otherwise empty, but I doubt that University of Florida, Florida State, or University of Central Florida are too excited about the idea of sharing their facilities if they have a season. The NFL is actually a terrible roommate.

A true national champion determined head to head would be great and should be something FBS figures out in general. In what you suggest, the most entertaining part might be the Monday morning excuses where some big names would be out in round 1. Hopefully we learn more in June about what the powers that be are actually considering. It will be a challenge to get 50 states, just as many university systems, and many more localities on the same page. Just in our conference we have 6 states. If travel isn't going to work, maybe every team should be included in a football video game and we can have the computer run the matchups. Presumably we might find Ron Gould on the platform under the username Befuddled1.

Suppose the season were cancelled at all levels. Makes everyone 0-0, right? With the fickleness of determining an FBS national champion, do you suppose every single school would get to hang 2020 National Champion (tie) banners? Might be San Jose State's best season ever. Of course Bama would make the case that they were slightly more champion than anyone else based on literally no evidence.

Well, while we are on the topic of way-out-there ideas to make a season work, a fan joke that the NBA should rent out Disney World resorts and sports facilities to have an isolated made-for-TV season has apparently caught Adam Silver's eye. Just saying, Disney World has 17 lit football fields with TV hookups and 30,000 hotel rooms. Could you imagine a significant portion of college football locked up together in a resort at the same time?

Love these interviews. Great people who contribute to society and "get" what Aggie Pride is all about. I don't understand how the university community is full of these quality individuals while Mrak Hall has more corrupt oligarchs than a Soviet garden party. Polar extremes for sure.

FWIW, Mrs. Fugawe attended online classes from a major state university (not in California) and they waived most of the student fees with the understanding that if she wanted to use the things funded by them, like athletic events, parking, fitness center, etc, she would have to pay a la carte for them. So that precedent exists out there and honestly makes sense for students who aren't on campus. Universities act like a business and treat undergraduates like customers. In this case, the customers couldn't access the Memorial Union, ARC or athletic events they paid for so it doesn't seem unreasonable for them to want a refund. The problem of course is that athletic scholarships still have to be distributed, employees are still on the clock, and the Rec Pool still has to be chlorinated so expenses haven't dropped anywhere near zero. There are clearly damages, but the question is who should bear them? The customer or the business? In the private world, the business would be expected to bear it and fund it through savings, loans, or a government bailout. The university could be in a tough spot if their slush fund runs dry and the governor doesn't bail them out because a lot of their miscellaneous revenue from $50 parking tickets and $80 sweatshirts has also dried up. If it was just the athletics fee, maybe students wouldn't cry foul but all of the student fees combined are quite a burden and highlight an amoral system where a small quorum of students vote in a fee that sometimes doesn't take effect for a couple years, in essence voting to tax future students who have no say in the matter. A significant portion is debt service on capital projects that probably should have been on the state's nickel to begin with. Seems cheap to have a special student fee to pay for seismic and fire alarm code compliance.

However the judge rules in this case, I'm sure we can expect future contracts we sign for everything from concert tickets to gym memberships to have a pandemic clause in the fine print to try to shift liability to the consumer in the future situation like this.

Things I hope stay—

• +1 on the 6ft rule. We have a lot of NY/NJ transplants in my area and they still don’t get it.
• work from home - I can do 40% of my job and Mrs Fugawe can do 100% of her job from home. We are much happier without the aggravation of a commute.
• online order for pickup - I’ve realized I actually prefer not talking to anyone at restaurants sometimes. And some stores like Home Depot and Best Buy are pretty good about telling you online if an item is in stock so you don’t waste a trip. Grocery and houseware retailers need to figure this out because the instacart model doesn’t work.
• telemedicine - for routine items like renewing a prescription it is much better to have a video chat with the doctor rather than taking time off work to sit in a room full of sick people. Likewise, a video call with the pharmacist feels more private than trying to talk softly in a busy Walgreens.
• cleaning shopping carts - should have always been a thing.
• limiting number of people and party size in stores - makes shopping more pleasant for those of us who want to be in and out. Was so tired of families descending on the grocery store with 2 kids in soccer cleats running amok, mom taking on speakerphone, and dad just staring into the dairy case like it’s Narnia. Get out of my way, thanks.
• booze to-go - my state is allowing bars to serve to hard drinks in to-go cups and liquor stores to do home delivery. And nobody is really checking IDs because everyone has a mask on. Drunk driving is actually way down. Hope this can stay if people can keep their heads about them. It’s not a horrible thing to have a 32oz margarita delivered to my back porch.

A CNN/FoxNews survey reveals that truths, half truths, alternative truths, and wish-it-were truths posted on a football forum with a dozen regular offseason posters are unlikely to change anyone’s mind on political matters, but that 100% of those people agree that Sac State sucks.

Today is I think the first Picnic Day since WWII not held. Hopefully back twice a good next year. Go Ags!

I don’t think the question is about whether a particular game still happens but might be who still has football a year from now. March madness a revenue flop, football revenue in jeopardy, potential for state budget cuts, potential for reduced revenue from endowments and donors if market stays down. Question is how much are expenses also down and do schools have enough gas in the tank to get over this hill.

I hate to see people lose jobs, but I would venture there are tough times ahead for state agencies as a drop in tax revenue reverberates through the next fiscal year. Perhaps perspectives will change as to what jobs are “critical” moving forward. Also wonder if some students (and staff) might opt to stay online only/work from home permanently and how that might change the university’s structure.

Interim Vice Chancellor Emily Galindo came out with a statement today blaming coronavirus on the Band-uh students and their boisterous limericks. The university will be issuing a strongly worded letter condemning coronavirus for infecting people orally without their consent. They will also be hosting a Principles of Community virtual group hug and solar-powered carbon-neutral digital vigil.

the all you can eat may be referring to the dorm dining hall. A few years ago they changed the model from “x” number meals per quarter to a 5 day or 7 day per week option, where it’s as many visits as you want on those days. Idea being to encourage small meals and snacks throughout the day rather than holding out for a bomb of a dinner. They’ve had an Asian fusion station for 15 years at least, perhaps it has sushi now.

I'm not a fan of Best's style and I think even when he wins his tactics are in conflict with most self-respecting institutions. And the report is fair to point out that the Big Sky is no SEC when it comes to cash value. But I would venture that athletics are not the cause of the university's woes. Probably other things at play like location, majors offered, and cost to value proposition. Seems like faculty looking for something to cut as they don't want to admit that their life's work in comparative literature isn't really an in demand topic. As far as only 5% of the student body going to games, that's about the percentage of people colorblind to red. Nobody else can look at that field for 3 hours.