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Davis, California

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

UC Davis reveals new changes to on-campus facets, including new buildings, new payroll system

 Keep an eye out for these on-campus improvements made over summer

The UC Davis campus has undergone several major changes while students have been away on summer break, including the construction of new buildings, the hiring of new faculty and updated rules and policies. All these innovations are considered essential to maintain UC Davis’ widely regarded ranking as a top university — including by the Wall Street Journal.  

STUDENT HOUSING

Both Pine Hall and Currant Hall in Tercero have undergone construction and now feature updated windows to protect against water intrusion and leakage. Tercero will be opening a second dining commons named Latitude as soon as the Fall Quarter begins. Latitude will be located right behind Pine and Currant and will feature both indoor and outdoor dining areas. 

What used to be Webster Hall in Cuarto has been replaced with a brand-new dorm building named Yosemite Hall. This area has been under construction since the spring of 2017. Thoreau Hall in Cuarto has been renamed Tahoe Hall. 

Finally, Emerson Hall in Cuarto will be closed for construction starting this fall and lasting until fall 2021 for a redevelopment project. Once reopened, Emerson Hall will be renamed Shasta Hall. 

Director of the Office of Student Development Branden Petitt explained that changing times required the university to make some adjustments to the names of buildings. 

“We took the opportunity to change the names [of the Cuarto residence halls] since these are new complexes and we wanted to be more reflective of the California region,” Petitt said via email. 

BUILDINGS

Walker Hall will open in Jan. 2020 after a long period of seismic upgrade construction that began in 2011 finally wraps up. As of Aug. 2019, this project is still on track for completion sometime later this year. This hall will serve as the graduate and professional student center, complete with professional development workshop spaces, a commons area for graduate and professional students and general assignment classrooms.

According to the project updates on the UC Davis graduate website, the university will be “scheduling on-site tours with some of [their] leaders, donors and staff members.”

In other news, The Gunrock will be closed for renovations until early 2020. The restaurant closed at the end of Spring Quarter of 2019. Until its reopening, The Gunrock will not be accepting any reservations. During this time, all other services at the Silo will still be available, including Peet’s Coffee, various on-site food trucks and the Silo Market. 

RULES/POLICIES

For all employees at UC Davis, there will be a new payroll and personnel system as of Friday, Sept. 27 called UCPath. With the implementation of this new system, the university is also making changes to the accounting system. Paper paychecks will no longer be distributed on campus and will instead be mailed to an individual’s home address. Employees are encouraged to attend a ‘town hall’ meeting to learn more about UCPath.

Those who are not interested in direct deposit but would like to receive pay on payroll dates have another option: pay cards. 

“Pay cards [are] available to nonrepresented employees, and represented employees whose unions have approved,” states the UC Davis update on the new accounting system. “Each payday the university will load your earnings onto your pay card (to be used as a debit card).”

Additionally, the campus police department will be retrofitting the AggieAccess system so that the police department’s dispatchers will be able to remotely monitor the systems and control access quickly in more than 160 campus buildings. 

Written by: Linh Nguyen — features@theaggie.org

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