Campus News

Waiting in long lines at the UC Davis Bookstore might be a thing of the past for some students thanks to davistext.com. The new website lists and sells textbooks specifically for the UC Davis campus. Organized by department, the site allows users to search for their books by class and professor.

There are over 2,500 international students and scholars on the UC Davis campus this year – a number that has continued to grow since last year.

California’s academic researchers now have a reason to breathe a little easier at night. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 2296 – The Researcher Protection Act of 2008 – into law on Sept. 28. The new law will enhance the ability of local law enforcement and prosecutors to protect academic researchers and their families from threatening and destructive tactics employed by extremist protesters.

UC Davis, renowned for its strength in the environmental sciences, is guilty of polluting Putah Creek. The Central Valley Water Board fined the university $78,000 for 34 violations over an eight-year period dating back to 2000. The violations were for excessive levels of aluminum, chlorine, copper, cyanide, coliform, salinity, sediment and acidity.

ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Oct. 2 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room.

University of California President Mark Yudof expressed tentative support for a faculty-originated plan to restructure the freshman admissions process at the regents‘ September meeting at UC Irvine. The plan,which would take effect in fall2012,aims to expand the number of applications entitled to review by eliminating the SAT II subject test scores requirement.Supporters say this would allow a pool of otherwise qualified applicants who failed to take the test to be visible to UC.

Graduate School of Management Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart has announced her intention to resign from her post in July and return to full time teaching and research in the fall of 2010 after a year-long sabbatical. “I had several projects that I wanted to see put in place,” Biggart said in an e-mail interview. “When I saw that these were all coming to fruition I thought it was a good time to step down and to attract my successor.”

Schools are used to giving grades– not receiving them.But when the tables are turned,the truth about a university’s real desire to “go green” comes out– at greenreportcard.org. The College Sustainability Report Card,found at greenreportcard.org,evaluates300schools in the United States and Canada across nine categories before assigning them a letter grade-aiming to identify colleges and universities leading in their commitment to sustainability.

The Friends of the Arboretum will celebrate the grand opening of the new teaching nursery this Saturday by holding its 34th annual Plant Faire. The sale features over 10,000 plants – mostly “All-Star plants” – Californian natives that have been hand selected by horticulturists on staff that will prosper in Davis’ Mediterranean-type climate.

California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi will speak at a rally on campus today at noon in Freeborn Plaza, between the UC Davis Bookstoreand Freeborn Hall. Garamendi, who announced his bid for governor in 2010 over the summer, will speak about what it means to be a Democrat as well as his support for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Prominent University of California scientists formally presented plans for a School of Global Health to the regents last month. The proposed school would be the first of its kind, spanning all 10 UC campuses in a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort to solve issues that threaten the health and vitality of society.

The Middle East/South Asia Studies program has come a long way in its evolution. Thanks to ME/SA, UC Davis offers more courses about the region in comparative literature, political science, history, art history, music and languages – includingHebrew, Arabic and Hindi/Urdu – than ever before.