Campus News

The California Aggie Marching Band-uh! is on the defensive after details of a complaint filed by its faculty director were leaked to the media Monday. The Band-uh!’s faculty director, Thomas Slabaugh II, filed a sexual harassment complaint with the university in May after a series of “ridiculous, disturbing, and offensive” incidents, he wrote in a complaint published by The San Francisco Chronicle. Slabaugh, who is pursuing a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Washington, is on stress-leave from September through Nov. 8.

UC Davis formally broke ground on the $62 million Institute for Regenerative Cures on its Sacramento campus late September – the first such facility funded by the state in Northern California. The project is supported by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and will focus on team-oriented projects with the goal of discovering new methods to treat chronic diseases and injuries.

Robert Mondavi Institute Opening Friday Oct.10 10a.m.to12:30p.m. The formal grand opening of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science kicks off centennial week.The$73million complex near Interstate-80houses labs,classrooms and offices.Speakers at the event include members of the Mondavi family,Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and Martin Yan ofYan Can Cook.

Struggling student A professor noticed that two students turned in nearly identical papers for the same class,and referred both of them to SJA.The students were good friends and one of them was struggling on a paper.The friend of the struggling student sent the paper to his friend in order to provide assistance.The struggling student proceeded to copy entire sections of the paper received bye-mail,without informing his friend.After meeting with a Judicial Officer,the student took full responsibility for the violation.He agreed to a sanction of disciplinary probation in addition to20hours of community service for violating University plagiarism policies.The friend of the struggling student received no sanction.

In the aftermath ofSeung-Hui Cho’s massacre of32students,the Virginia Tech community had the horrific task of wondering why and how such a tragedy could have occurred. UC Davis officials hope they will never have to ask the same question. Efforts to prevent such an event from occurring at UC Davis werein effectwell before the Virginia Tech incident,but campus officials have increased their efforts even more so since then.The Aggiesat down with several campus safety experts to measure the progress.

Berkeley testing site of new athletic complex The tree-sitters may be gone,but what about the possibility of a Native American burial ground? Archaelogists at UC Berkeley are currently testing land adjacent to the Memorial Stadium on campus in preparation for the construction of a new$140million athletic center,according to an article in the Daily Californian.

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.