The California Aggie surveys four students on how they would spend the university’s budget.
On Oct. 19, UC Davis initiated “Big Ideas,” a campaign that calls upon students, faculty and staff to suggest progressive projects that the university should undertake. Big Ideas allows members of the UC Davis community to go online to submit their proposals on how UC Davis should spend its multimillion dollar budget to better the university.
Big Ideas follows the university’s previous goal from May of 2014, which raised over $1.1 billion from over 100,000 donations. The university requests that the submitted ideas are transformational, single-concept, leading-edge and uniquely executable by UC Davis.
Submissions will be accepted on an ongoing basis with the final date for submissions on March 1, 2016. After all submissions are accepted, a committee comprised of deans, select administrators, faculty, students and staff will review the initial submissions and identify the projects with the most potential.
Big Ideas looks to build upon the unique niche that UC Davis currently holds. Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and provost Ralph J. Hexter stated why this initiative is so important.
“We ask that you participate in this process that is a critical first step in planning for the future of UC Davis,” said Katehi and Hexter in a joint statement. “We are looking for ideas from faculty, administrators, students, staff and other members of the academic community that will best shape our university in the coming decades. Ideas that, if given the proper resources, can change society.”
The campaign is in line with UC Davis’ “University of the 21st Century” movement announced in September, which looks to expand the university’s campus to Sacramento and build a new a veterinary hospital on campus. Concluding their statements regarding Big Ideas, Katehi and Hexter encouraged members of the university to take part in the campaign.
“This is your opportunity to take UC Davis to the leading edge and beyond,” Katehi and Hexter said. “The Big Ideas process, in concert with the ‘University of the 21st Century’ visioning exercise, will chart a course for excellence. We look forward to seeing the great ideas that are brought forward in the coming months.”
Several students voiced their own big ideas on how UC Davis should spend the campaign’s funds in order to better the campus.
“I think we should invest that money into the labs for tissue engineering, I think that’s the future,” said second-year biomedical engineering major James Hardin.
“I would like to see more initiatives toward the retention and admission of the students of color on campus. I would [also] like to see more efforts put toward the unity of these communities,” said fourth-year English major Camille Woods.
“We should allocate it toward fixing up our renewable energy. Things and projects that aid people in zeroing out their waste. Making recycling more interesting or appealing toward more people,” said third-year biological sciences major Harry Manasca.
“I think it would be fantastic if we could make a free program or extension part of our school for immigrants, so that they can assimilate. Along with this fantastic education that they’ll receive at UC Davis, they should be granted citizenship at the end of it,” said second-year biochemistry major Michael Diagle.
Students, faculty and staff can submit their Big Ideas for the university at bigideas.ucdavis.edu.
Written by: Nick Griffen – campus@theaggie.org
