Antisemitic vandalism found in UCSD dorm bathroom 

A bathroom in the Kaleidoscope building of UC San Diego’s Sixth College faced vandalism with swastikas written in feces, the UCSD Guardian reported.

StopAntisemitism, a watchdog organization dedicated to exposing antisemitism, posted an Instagram video of the vandalism on Tuesday, May 9.

Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Residence Life at Sixth College Anthony Jakubisin said in an email to Kaleidoscope building residents that the antisemitic symbols were quickly removed and that the university police have launched an investigation into the vandalism.

“Sixth College Student Affairs and Residence Life offer our support to anyone who may have been impacted by this unfortunate incident. Acts of racism, intolerance, and bigotry are not accepted in our community,” Jakubisin said in the email. “We uphold the UC San Diego Principles of Community and expect our community members to do the same.” 

The Office of the Chancellor released a university-wide statement condemning the incidents, as well as antisemitism on campus as a whole.

“We were greatly disappointed to receive reports of antisemitic behavior and vandalism on our campus,” the statement read. “The incidents aimed at our Jewish students not only hurt them deeply, but also hurt our entire community and undermined our shared commitment to inclusive excellence.” 

UC Davis researchers collaborate with UC Berkeley, UCSF to reduce cows’s methane emissions

Researchers at UC Davis, alongside UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, recently received a $70 million grant to fund a project aiming to reduce methane emissions from cows, The California Aggie reported.

The funding for the project comes from The Audacious Project, an initiative that shapes projects into viable multi-year plans, according to the organization’s website.

The goal of the project is to reengineer the genome of gut microbes — organisms that ferment the food that cows eat — to minimize the methane that cows emit in their digestive processes and consequently reduce cows’s impact on climate change. 

“We will basically be developing tools that will not only allow us to hopefully solve the problem of methane emissions from livestock but really allow us to reverse-engineer microbes in the environment,” UC associate professor of animal science Matthias Hess told the Aggie.

UC Berkeley researchers Jennifer Doudna and Jill Banfield will conduct the genome-editing portion of the project, while Hess will test the edited microbes in a laboratory setting.

UC San Francisco researcher Sue Lynch will also work with Doudna and Banfield to apply the microbes to relieve childhood asthma and generally improve human health. 

“It will be this whole interconnection between tool development, animal health, human health and ecosystem health,” Hess said. “So really it’s a great project in many different dimensions.” 

A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the May 18, 2023, print edition of the Daily Nexus.

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Alex Levin
Alex Levin (he/him) is the University News Editor for the 2023-24 school year. Previously, Levin was the Assistant News Editor for the 2022-2023 school year. He can be reached at alexlevin@dailynexus.com.