Campus News

Construction crews are currently in the process of repaving the100-year-oldpath that runs through theQuadas part of UC Davis‘ centennial celebration.Construction began on the new path in the last week ofSummer Session I,and will likely be completed at the start of fall quarter.

Representatives from the University of California,California State University and California Community Colleges gathered in San Louis Obispoat the beginning of August for theseventhannual California University Sustainability Conference. Over850students,faculty,staff and administrators attended the four-day conference to discuss energy-efficient,cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable solutions for the future of California higher education under the theme “Putting sustainability to work.“

Imagine learning how to navigate a virtual lab to splice a gene and extract DNA, then putting these newly acquired skills to real life use in a high school classroom equipped with top-notch lab equipment. Thanks to the UC Davis Partnership for Plant Genomics program and Biotechnology Kit Loan Program, high school students throughout the nation are able to use game-based software to acquire biotechnology skills.

Unitrans is making changes to several of its routes for the upcoming year. The adjustments went into effect Monday and will continue throughout the school year. While the majority of Unitrans routes will remain the same for the upcoming year, changes have been made to the K, W and P/Q lines, said Anthony Palmere, assistant general manager of administration for Unitrans.

UC Davis will partner with state, federal and private agencies to study carbon capture farming in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, in an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The collaboration is enabled by a three-year $12.3 million grant awarded by the state Department of Water Resources to the U.S. Geological Survey.

University ofCalifornia President Mark Yudof announced thecreation of an accountability programdesignedto assess UC’s performance on multiple levels and generate reports available to the public.The firstreport isexpected to be released this fall. The report isintendedto make theuniversity more transparent and accessible to the public,aid in future strategic planning efforts for theUniversity of CaliforniaBoard of Regents and assist in managing budgeting issues.

UC Davis expertsalongwith the Public Policy Institute of California concluded that a peripheral canalis the best solution to support both the economic and ecological value of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

As wildfires continue to blaze acrossCalifornia,one UC Davis group is aiming to learn more about the fires‘ potential effects on the ecosystem of theLake Tahoe basin. TheUC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center,a group of professors,researchers and graduate students studying sustainable use of the lake,recently installed a fourth air samplerdesigned to provide detailed analyses of the compounds and toxic materialsresultingfrom forest wildfires.

In the July28issue of The California Aggie,the article “UC to open two new medical schools” statedthat the UC regents granted approval for the opening of a medical school on the UC Merced campus.The article should have stated that UC Merced has received approval to plan a new medical school.The Aggie regrets the error.

An Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday to lift a February2007injunction against UC Berkeley that preventedthe building of a new athletic training facility next toMemorialStadium.The controversy over the new facility centers on its location.In order to build the structure next to the stadium,the university plans to clear44trees from a grove of about80oaks,redwoods and other trees.

UC DavisMedical Centerwas named among the nation’s top50“Best Hospitals“ for the16thconsecutive yearbyU.S.News & World Report in its annual survey of over5,000national hospitals.The results were made public July10online.

With the recent approval from the University of California Board of Regents for the creation of two new medical schools, UC is hoping to help alleviate the severe shortage of physicians in California’s rural and minority regions.