idk the breakdown of who voted but in this case an organized abstention might have been most effective way to keep turnout below 20% and win by default.

Results were announced today - 79% in favor of getting rid of the athletic fee, however only a 12% voter turnout. They needed 20% turnout for a quorum, so it’s technically null. Also passed was a resolution to request the administration to change the mascot from Gunrock Mustang to a cow. Interestingly 12% turnout is a 470% increase from recent elections.

So basically a vocal minority was able to convince about 10% of students with a noisy get out the vote campaign while the other 90% just didn’t care enough to participate in an online vote.

My recollection is that elections always had a very small turnout driven by the Greeks and some single-issue activists (ie groups with strong opinions on Israel and Palestine always tried to pack ASUCD). Are there enough single issue activists who care one way or the other on ICA? I don’t know. The referendums to initiate these fees had future start dates, so the students voting were doing so on behalf of future students and never paid them themselves. Who doesn’t like raising taxes on someone else? The math could be different here if the tax cut would be immediate and personally beneficial. If the PE thing was what set this unrest in motion, then it was indeed a misstep, although I think in the fine print these referendums are technically advisory and the chancellor isn’t bound to them. On one hand I agree that fees are too high, probably, in my opinion, because too much general fund money gets blown on pet projects leaving basic services in need of special fundraising. But on the other hand, it is important for Gen Z to understand that part of life is paying taxes that may benefit others or the community at large without huge personal benefit.

Competitive cheer is an interesting animal because with no national sanction like ncaa it is entirely privately owned. One side of the equation is Pop Warner cheer - technically non profit but the cash cow that keeps the youth football organization in business. The other side is Varsity Inc, privately held by a billionaire who owns pretty much every cheer league that isn’t Pop Warner, as well as vertical integrations like the companies that make the uniforms, produce the music, arrange the travel, and take the photos. These two organizations despise each other and kids don’t tend to participate in both simultaneously because the rules and techniques are different. The organizations trade barbs of who is more committed to safety vs profits. Varsity further has two camps- the school based teams and the private club teams. The deeply committed kids do both. By far the ugliest stuff happens on the private club teams because you’re dealing with people who have money, are willing to win at any cost, and who’s poor behavior goes unchecked until it rises to the level of involving the sheriff. The school teams behave a little better because they usually get the “don’t embarrass the school” talk from the principal. But in both cases you have kids being thrown in the air with really no safety equipment and “coaches” who’s only qualification was being a cheerleader 20 years ago. In fairness, inappropriate behavior from coaches of private teams is not limited to cheer. If there is one stereotype being broken, however, it is that cheer is no longer exclusively “hot girls”—they have grown to accept people of varying body sizes, gender ambiguities, and disabilities—anybody who has a parent with a checkbook.

I went to nations in Davis a few times as a kid but it was gone by the time I was a student. If I had reason to be in Vacaville I would go out of my way to stop at the one there. A different kind of place but I was also disappointed when Habit burger pulled out. What I gathered from someone who worked downtown was that most all the commercial real estate was owned a by a couple landlords who drove a hard bargain on lease renewals.

no, it was funny. Probably offensive, but funny.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yup, they released the actual emails between Vaughn, Flushman, and Blue in the full report.

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.

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.

Whelan is a stud and deserves all accolades given. However, excellent teams tend to brag about their kickoffs, not punts.

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.

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.

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.

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.