May discussed the Equestrian Team reclassification, immigration enforcement, campus safety and AI policy
On March 3, The California Aggie’s Editorial Board spoke with Chancellor Gary May, Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff Carl Engelbach, Chief Vice Chancellor of UC Davis Finance, Operations and Administration Claire Shinnerl, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Renetta Tull, Chief Campus Counsel Mike Sweeney, Director of Athletics Rocko DeLuca, Academic Senate Chair Kadee Russ and Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life, Campus Community and Retention Services Sherri Atkinson.
Below is a transcript of the meeting that has been edited for length and clarity.
The Editorial Board: On Jan. 9, the UC Davis D1 Equestrian Team was recategorized as a club team and the STUNT team was moved up to D1 status. Can you talk a little bit about what went into the decision and how the university is supporting athletes on the equestrian team during the transition?
May:
I think the most important thing to start with is that, you know, we are very committed to our student athletes in supporting them and that none of this had anything to do with the performance or the sport or the student athletes. I personally have a great deal of admiration and affection for those student athletes. They’ve been to my house on multiple occasions.
This is much more about a management decision. After a really comprehensive review of Athletics, we have asked the entire administrative and academic units on the campus over the past academic year, past year to fiscal year, to think about ways to reduce cost. We actually gave targets and we’re trying to climb out of a structural budget deficit and a years-long journey to do that. Athletics was not left out of that process. They also had to address some of the cost concerns.
Equestrian is one of the most resource-intensive sports that we have. So after a third party review, [DeLuca] made the difficult decision to transition equestrian from a Division 1 sport back to its status as a club sport — which it had been for most of its history.
Rocko DeLuca, Director of Athletics:
Obviously, the financial sustainability of the program with escalating costs related to care of the animals — in addition to the program itself — is unlike any of our other programs. The other element that weighed into the decision is that we’re only one of 14 schools that operate a dual discipline program, and the sport has been emerging with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for 28 years.
With no clear path forward to be a Championship Status Program, and with STUNT being recently named an NCAA championship from the program and multiple Division 1 Programs here in California, we felt that it was the most strategic and less impactful of all the recommendations that we put forward.
Obviously, we know it has an impact, but to impact one program and the staff was just an unfortunate byproduct of that. But, again, we are supporting the student athletes who are interested in transferring. Transfer opportunities [for] any Division 1 sport are limited, but our compliance staff is supporting them as they’re seeking to go elsewhere.
We’re also helping those who want to remain at Davis. They’re going to keep their scholarships, they’re going to keep the academic advising and tutoring and all the things we provide on the academic side of the house. The only difference is their competitive opportunity will be part of the club.
Editorial Board: Since the decision was announced, there’s been a lot of vocal support from students, parents and people in the community. Do you think there’s a chance that they’ll be reinstated as a D1 team in the future?
DeLuca:
Right now we’re focused on supporting the programs we have and then elevating STUNT. It probably will not be in my tenure if equestrian’s looked at as a future opportunity. I never say never.
Editorial Board: After recent anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests on campus, how is the university working to support students and ensure that immigration enforcement stays off campus? And what resources are recommended for students that are concerned for their safety or safety of their peers?
May:
We do have a federal immigration enforcement webpage which I hope you’ve had a
chance to look at, but please do if you haven’t. We will notify the campus community if any federal immigration enforcement action takes place in or around our campus, as is consistent with SB98.
We will give guidance for the community should ICE on campus for an enforcement action, not for routine recruitment or whatever else they might do on campus. We have many resources available for both the international and undocumented communities to support them, including the Undocumented Student Resource Center, the Immigration Services Legal Center, the Services for International Students and Scholars. There’s a UC Know Your Rights card that we’ve distributed to help people communicate their rights if they have encounters with ICE or others. Student Health and Counseling Services also offer support.
Editorial Board: Regarding student protest safety, are there any recent policy changes that students should be aware of?
May:
No, short answer. We made some changes after 2024-25 and there have been no substantive changes since then and they’re reflected on our free speech website.
Editorial Board: On Jan. 21, UC Davis held a Campus Safety Lighting Walk. What were some of the problem areas that were identified and then what are some changes that will be made to improve safety and light?
May:
Safety is among the highest priorities we have on campus, if not the highest. So we have an annual lighting walk and that resulted in 250 specific requests for lighting maintenance and improvements. We are two years into a five-year $20 million commitment for enhanced security infrastructure. $10.1 million of that was previously spent on projects along these lines.
Several key areas were identified for lighting upgrades. Four of those have already been finished. Three have been completed in February. There are new light fixtures and energy efficient LEDs that direct light downward to reduce light pollution and use the astronomical clocks to automatically adjust timing for season changes. That’s pretty fancy.
We’ve got emergency boxes, expanded from 26 to 35 of those blue lights — the beacons that you see — and they have a video camera and direct 911 connections for real-time assessment by dispatchers if they’re contacted.
There are also 11 new 360 degree security cameras near the Eggheads and major campus entrances like LaRue and Old Davis roads. The Aggie Access building security system was recently expanded in Mrak [Hall], in Veheimeyer and Briggs Halls. 10 more lecture halls [are] slated for upgrades this summer.
Claire Shinnerl, Vice Chancellor of Finance, Operations and Administration:
The Lighting walk was really successful. We had 75 people out there. It was freezing. About 90% of last year’s Lighting Walk projects were completed. It’s really great to engage the community on what they need from us in terms of where their paths of travel are.
Editorial Board: What is the timeline for the completion for the recent construction and renovation around the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo)?
May:
We’re excited about these upgrades to CoHo and the latest information on the design is available on the website.
Primary factors for the project change were to expand the outdoor seating area to the west of the Coffee House that adds an additional 100 seats and update the restrooms for all inclusive designs, which we’re going to [do] more and provide additional support to staff and students working there at CoHo. Bike parking was relocated and expanded across the street, and the project should be finished this fall.
Editorial Board: To follow up on the construction questions, what is the timeline of other projects on campus, including at Voorhies Hall and the Social Sciences and Humanities Building?
May:
These are, again, seismic improvements along the east side of campus: Young Hall and Social Sciences. We expect the work to be completed this summer. For the most part, that’s landscaping, exterior, interior lighting, upgrades to restrooms, HVAC, electrical, a new roof on Young Hall and restoration of [the] Voorhies Fountain, among other things.
It’s always a good sign when you see this construction. I know you don’t feel it in your heart like that, but it’s a sign of a healthy campus.
Editorial Board: What is the current state of funds that were indefinitely lost as a result of cuts by the Trump Administration? Are there any big changes to note regarding research funding, general funding, and funding geared specifically towards certain cultural objectives, including our Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) certification?
May:
Fortunately, it was not as bad as we thought it was going to be. The cuts were smaller than we first feared. We’re still monitoring everything very closely in Washington. I spend a lot of time in Washington having those discussions and doing advocacy. We want to keep the impact on our researchers to be minimal. Research dollars for this fiscal year are tracking closely with last year and the last three-year average as well. So, we’re pleased about that.
Now, some projects did get termination notices. Some agencies went away, like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), so obviously they won’t be funding anything. But some have been reinstated as well. We’ve appealed some of those decisions and had some success. But there are still many that remain unfunded or many that still are under appeal. Appeals have not been concluded.
The fiscal year budgets for 2026 at the federal level look not bad for the funding agencies that support us. I think the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a 1% increase, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) had a 3% decrease; basically, they’re flat. Those are the two federal agencies that fund most of the research at UC Davis. There are others, like Department of Energy and the Department of Defense and others, but those are the two big ones for us.
We were happy about that. It came from a lot of advocacy and work on the part of not just UC Davis, but all of our UC sister campuses as well as many of our Association of American Universities (AAU) campuses — research universities. That did a lot of work to keep that going, so we’re not out of the woods.
We continue to monitor things like indirect costs, which. There’s a new model that’s being proposed called the FAIR Model. FAIR is an acronym and I don’t know what it stands for, but all acronyms stand for something. I do know that. The basic idea is there’s a 15% floor for indirect cost recovery, but there’s a lot more direct charging that’s allowed or encouraged. And the hope is that with the more use of direct charging, we can get pretty close to the amount of costs that we were collecting before the change.
With respect to the HSI and Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) status, we became eligible for HSI status in 2025, but the Department of Education has now decided not to fund any initiatives in that area. We are still numerically an HSI at UC Davis, and we recently became a Black Serving Institution, which is a state designation. That one is a nice recognition that flags to our students that we are a supportive environment for that population — students and faculty and staff — but does not come with any resources, unfortunately.
We don’t just want these designations for the resources or for the pat on the back. We really want to use them as a way to support our populations in these areas as we support all of our demographic populations.
Renetta Tull, Vice Chancellor for Inclusive Excellence:
The only thing I’ll add is that this past weekend we just closed one of our crowd funds for the Cesar Chavez Leadership Conference, which is a big conference that helps to recruit students to campus. The Abanza Initiative, which is part of HSI, helps to put that on. They’re expecting over 1,200 students to come on May 16, but they reached 135%
of the goals. That shows that there are people who are still investing in it.
Things are still moving forward. A lot of people are saying, “I’m really happy that they’re here at UC Davis because of that level of support.” So between that kind of support, as well as being a green campus and all of those things, it becomes a point of pride for sure.
Editorial Board: To follow up on something you mentioned, you said that there were some programs that were terminated, but some came back. Do you know which ones came back?
May:
We can get you a list. Not a lot came back, but a few big ones did come back though. One in the School of Medicine, which is a really big one. I think another one, the transportation program, was originally Sustainable Transportation. You know, they cut everything that had words like sustainability, diversity. They had kind of a word search and just cut.
The School of Medicine [one] is interesting, because I think it had diversity in the title or somewhere in the description, but it really was about diversity of populations responding to a particular public health issue. It wasn’t, you know Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Not that DEI is a bad thing, DEI is a good thing. It was kind of indiscriminate the way they were cutting things. So we were able to get that one appealed and reinstated.
Editorial Board: As students access on- and off-campus housing for the next academic year, what resources does the university provide to ensure that students can find affordable and stable housing during their time at Davis? What steps are being taken or have been taken to minimize housing insecurity among students?
May:
I think it’s a pretty good story with effective housing. In my mind, it’s mostly a supply and demand kind of thing. We’re trying to improve, increase the supply so that the cost is eventually diminished. We added about 7,000 beds since I’ve been Chancellor and we have capacity on campus for 15,000 beds through housing and dining, which is roughly almost 40% of the undergraduate student body, and first-year students and transfer students have guaranteed housing.
I think we have a significant fraction of second-year students [who] have available housing on campus as well. We have support through housing advising for undergrads and community housing listing platforms. Aggie Compass does a rapid rehousing program and individualized case management for students with emergencies in housing.
If you read the news, the rents in Davis are down 2%; this is the first time that’s happened since I’ve been in Davis that they’ve gone in that direction. That’s a reflection, I think, of the supply and demand issue that I mentioned in the beginning. So, I think all this reflects the commitment toward improving the housing situation and making it available and affordable for students.
Editorial Board: UC Davis currently partners with 32 prestigious scholarship programs for current undergraduate students, recent alumni and current graduate students. Are there any prestigious scholarships or programs you wish more students were aware of and would apply for?
May:
All of them. I think our students are really competitive for these scholarships and should be applying for them. I hope you will encourage your peers to investigate the options that are available on the financial aid and scholarships website. Working on these prestigious scholarships really helps students to clarify their goals and their aspirations and their careers, define their support network [and] hone their skills. We have assistance available for the application process so the students can be prepared for their interviews and all those sorts of things that happen.
I’ll just note a few scholarships where we have [had] some success in recent years: Barry Goldwater Scholarship with recipients for eight straight years; The Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship with 500 students selected in the last decade; and the Fulbright U.S. Student Program with 80 recipients.
Others that I would like more students to consider: The Truman Scholarship, that one gives $30,000 of support for juniors for use in graduate school. At least one student I know made it to the interview stage for the Truman Scholarship. The Udall Undergraduate scholarship, which provides $7,500 for sophomores and juniors pursuing careers benefiting the environment when they’re a part of a federally recognized tribe and planning careers to benefit the tribal community.
Editorial Board: UC Davis recently received a $120 million donation to the School of Veterinary Medicine from philanthropist Joan and Sanford Weill. Can you talk a little bit about what the funds mean and how they’ll be allocated?
May:
It was the largest cash gift we’ve received in our history. We have an in-kind gift — a little land, a property that was a little bit bigger than that one. Both were received this year. So we really had a great year in fundraising.
As for the Weill gift, what’s really cool, [is] it’s the largest gift in the history of veterinary medicine in the world. We were very excited about that. It took a long time to cultivate the gift. I met the Weill’s when they brought their dog Angel to be treated in [UC Davis’] hospital seven or eight years ago. All that time we’ve been building, growing that relationship and cultivating that gift. That just tells you how long it takes to really get those transformative gifts.
The gift will name the school: It will now be the Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. $80 million of the $120 million will go for a new small animal hospital, and $40 million will go for research in veterinary medicine. We’re on a journey to build about a $750 million new veterinary medical complex. The new hospital will allow us to care for about 20,000 more animal patients per year. We do about 50,000 a year now; that’ll give us the capacity for 70,000 once it’s done.
The research funding will give us the ability to just fund more fundamental research in animal health. The interesting thing is how closely animal health translates to some human health concerns. One example we like to use is the spina bifida is a disease that bulldogs get and humans also get. We were able to cure spina bifida in dogs with a stem cell treatment. It turns out one of our faculty in the School of Medicine was able to use in utero on a baby that had spina bifida. She applied this modified version of the same stem cell treatment to the human baby, and the baby came out wiggling its toes. Really cool story.
Editorial Board: What, if any, updates have been made to Davis’ artificial intelligence-use policy? And then is there anything that students should note surrounding AI moving forward into spring quarter?
May:
We appointed our first Chief Information and Digital Strategy Executive. That office is held by Aisha Jackson. She reports to me and she’s responsible for, among other things, the implementation of AI initiatives across the campus.
We have an AI Steering committee which Aisha [Jackson] co-chairs with Academic Senate Chair Kadee Russ. We’re just moving through a very deliberative process that adequately respects human work and empowers students and staff and others to use AI tools responsibly to support their work. The AI Council was convened in 2024, and there was a report submitted at the end of the year which we’re happy to share if you’d like to see it. One of the subcommittees focused on student recommendations, on training students for using AI tools ethically and core coursework and collaboration with their faculty.
We do have a significant concern about the number of AI-related discipline issues that are arising, and we need to do something about that. I’m not sure what that something is yet, but we are aware of it and are trying to work on the problem. But we have all sorts of activity going on around AI.
Editorial Board: UC Davis is projected to have decreased student enrollment in the next academic year. This decreased enrollment and subsequent decline in student fees is impacting the ASUCD 2026-27 budget. Are there any other areas of campus life that might be positively or negatively impacted by decreased student enrollment?
May:
It’s not just affecting the ASUCD budgets. Enrollment fluctuates from year to year. We’ve sort of been on a pretty steady increase for the last several years, but it’s not uncommon to have enrollment decreases.
You asked about positive aspects of that. Because our graduation rates are improving, the students are not staying here as long — they’re getting out and graduating, going to the workforce. That part is positive. On the negative side, we have seen some declines due to the political environment around international students and both their desire and ability to come enroll here at the undergraduate level, but mainly at the graduate level. That has a significant impact on the campus.
It’s going to affect not just ASUCD, but Student Affairs, athletics, academic programs, etc. I personally don’t think that’s a trend. I think it’s sort of a temporary issue that needs to be addressed. I don’t expect that the enrollment will be declining for some extended period. We just have this current dilemma that we’re trying to address.
Editorial Board:
The CoHo recently introduced a six-month reusable container pilot program in partnership with Friendlier reusable packaging, which uses a digital deposit and refund system based on the tracking data built into the program. Are there any reductions in single-use packaging? What has campus participation in the program been like? Are there any plans to expand the program based on current feedback?
Sherri Atkinson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life, Campus Community and Retention Services:
It’s been positive. They’ve served over 11,000 meals in the containers and the feedback has generally been positive, but they haven’t gotten the return rates that they want. They’re still working on that. I think they’re at about a 40% return rate.
This is a pilot project, and we had to make a temporary adjustment. At the moment, the Coffee House is only using new containers while we work with the vendor to ensure that the California operations meet campus, local, state safety standards — things like that. Used UC Davis containers are being cleaned and reused, but not at UC Davis until we can work through some of those things. We’re hoping to get that resolved as quickly as possible.
This is why we do things on a pilot process. The vendor does continue to refund the deposits to Coffee House customers who are using the containers. The CoHo will continue to do outreach and tabling, and they’re planning to promote the awareness about the program and ensure that the customers know how it works and how to return the pieces and what the benefits are in that. We’ll have more to report after the pilot program.
Editorial Board: Are there any other things that UC Davis is doing to ensure continued sustainability on campus?
May:
Lots of things. I’ll just start by saying, you know, for the last 10 years running, we’ve been the greenest campus in North America, according to Green Metric, which is the organization that does the ranking. Certainly top 10, but maybe top five in the world. So we’re really proud of that, and we hope that it continues.
Shinnerl:
I would say the biggest emission is natural gas from our central plant heating and cooling. We’re in the process of shifting — it’s called the Big Shift — from using natural gas to using electricity. It’s a very expensive undertaking, but we’re committed to doing it. We’re in the middle of Phase 2B, and soon we hope to get approval for Phase 2C. We have to do it in phases, because it’s very disruptive too. You see all the dirt being moved around in fences — and it always makes Mike [Sweeney] late for work — but that is the No. 1 thing that will change our emissions.
May:
And there’s a sustainable transportation plan that’s ongoing around reducing emissions from our fleet, Unitrans and our other fleet vehicles. There’s a Climate Action Plan. There’s a Fossil Fuel Free UC Davis plan, which is a long-range plan that reduces fossil fuel use by 90% or 95% by 2040.
Editorial Board: IET is set to close their four Open Access Computer Labs this summer. How is the university working to ensure students have equitable access to software and technology to complete the work expected of them, and is there a chance that the labs may reopen?
May:
We’re in the process of redesigning support for computing and course-related software for the student community. Data actually has shown a decline in the use of the existing computer labs, believe it or not. So, we’re moving to a more affordable and a more flexible model that better meets your needs, committed to digital equity and success of all students’ access to computing as needed.
You know, printing — you like to print stuff. Printing remains a priority. The classrooms used for instruction are unaffected by this change. Computer labs provided by other campus units are also not affected. We’re going to launch a new pilot program this spring to test a support model that expands use and access to computing and software while remaining sustainable: physically and operationally. Through an expanded virtual computer lab, students will have reliable, easy access to the technology and software anytime, anywhere. So that’s the goal.
The four IET labs are available through June and one will continue through December. But we think this new virtual lab experience will give students on-demand access with your own devices. The change is designed to allow us to improve availability of course-required software. Increased access to virtual software anywhere, anytime, reduces the need for students to have powerful personal computers to run the course required software, reduces the need for expensive hardware, efficiently utilizes expensive software licenses and manages licenses based on usage, not on the number of computers in the room. So, that’s some of the motivation for dealing with the labs as to whether they’ll open again. That’s not the goal, but you know, anything can happen.
Editorial Board:
As of Feb. 24, the U.S. Department of Justice is filing a lawsuit against the University of California alleging that UCLA, specifically, has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by allowing antisemitic harassment and discrimination to “flourish on campus.” Previous demands asked for the UC to pay upward of $1 billion as a settlement for ongoing civil rights investigations. As of right now, what is the administrative response to this ongoing case and what would the implications of this look like if further action is taken against the UC?
Mike Sweeney, Chief Campus Counsel:
I’ve read that complaint. The allegations relate to the Los Angeles campus. Although it’s against the University of California, it’s entirely about the Los Angeles campus. None of it involves the Davis campus, and none of us are involved in the Los Angeles campus’ handling of its defense in that case. [The defense is] working with the Office of the President on strategies for that.
I would only be speculating as to actions they’re taking to address that, other than I did read in the Wall Street Journal today that Chancellor May’s counterpart at UCLA, Chancellor [Julio] Frenk, had a letter to the editor articulating the actions he has taken to address antisemitism at UCLA. I believe he asserts with confidence that those actions are effective at addressing those problems.
Editorial Board: If this, for example, were to pass at UCLA, where they determined that some behavior was antisemitic or not, how easily then, if that policy is established, would it be to translate across campuses?
Sweeney:
So, when you file a lawsuit, when the Department of Justice files a lawsuit, they’re filing it in federal court and it will have to go through a process until there’s a judgment. It has to go in front of a jury. A jury will have to determine that UCLA violated the law. That has not been determined. Those have been allegations, but that has not been determined. With respect to the Davis campus, there were very prominent articles in the New York Times and in ProPublica and the Chronicle of Higher Ed, where lawyers for the Department of Justice stated with crystal clarity that based on their investigation, they did not find similar problems at the Davis campus.
Written by: The Editorial Board
