Campus News

With California's hard-hitting budget cuts this summer, some are proposing drastic changes for the University of California system.

Before UC President Mark Yudof met with the Board of Regents July 16, 23 department chairs from UC San Diego wrote a letter to Yudof suggesting possible methods to aid UC. The most controversial suggestion: shut down UC Merced, Santa Cruz, and Riverside.

Research at the UC Davis School of Medicine will receive a boost in funding, thanks to a large grant provided by the federal government.

The $1.6 million grant was awarded as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was signed by President Obama in February and is part of a joint effort with the National Institutes of Health to support university research.

The money will fund six different projects at the school, including research studies in prostate cancer, radiation poisoning, traumatic brain injury and viral infections in airway tissues.

For the first time ever, former Japanese American UC students who were prevented from completing their education because of interment during WWII will be given honorary degrees by the University of California. A task force was prompted initially by UC San Francisco's inquiry to honor a Japanese American former student who was interned in 1941. The task force will determine how many other former students were prevented from earning their degree due to internment.

Chancellor-designate Linda Katehi's name was not among those accused of participating in a problematic admissions process at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

A report submitted last Thursday by the Illinois Admissions Review Commission identified several administrators, including the chancellor and an assistant provost, of having been involved in the admissions scheme.

WEDNESDAY

Wellness Wednesday: Overcome Negative Thinking

Noon

314 North Hall

Wellness Wednesdays are free hour-long workshops designed to enhance the general well-being. This workshop will help students learn to identify and refute negative thinking to aid in reducing stress and remain calm in difficult and stressful situations. Limited to first eight students.

A large portion of California's crops might be in danger in the near future as a result of global climate change.

A recently released study states that the number of chilling hours required for the production of orchards in the Central Valley has decreased 30 percent since 1950. It also states that plants that are dormant in the winter do not grow as well with fewer chilling hours.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of the California state budget the morning of July 28 confirmed University of California, Davis a $114 million cut. The grand UCD total is just a fraction of the $1.5 billion the UC must cut systemwide

The University of California's financial crisis is finally hitting employees where it hurts - the paycheck.

Almost all UC employees will take pay cuts between 4 and 10 percent beginning Sept. 1 as part of a furlough plan approved by the Regents last month.

The furlough plan requires faculty and staff to take between 7 and 26 unpaid days off per year. The exact pay cut and number of days off will depend on employees' salary levels.

In the past months, reporting has divulged an admissions scandal at the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana - the university where UC Davis chancellor-designate Linda Katehi formerly presided over as provost.

TODAY

Cal Aggie Band-uh! Summer Jam-uh!

7 to 9 p.m.

Lawn in front of Rec Pool, near Rec Pool Lodge

Join the UC Davis Band-uh! every other Monday during the summer for live entertainment. Bring a blanket or chair to relax on while listening to the Band-uh!'s award-winning music.

The world's foremost terrorist is an avid music listener, a stickler for grammar and has a great appreciation for poetry.

Yes, this is the same Osama bin Laden who orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Beginning July 31, the Coffee House will close its doors for renovations. The popular ASUCD-run business is scheduled to re-open fall 2010. In the meantime, limited services will be offered in the east wing of the Memorial Union. Campus Copies, the Aggie Student Store, Book Buyback and the U.S. Post Office will close to make room for temporary operations.

For many UC Davis students, the end of spring quarter means beach trips and BBQs - but for Transportation and Parking Services it means hundreds of bikes left on campus for the summer.

"We really encourage students not to leave their bikes on campus during the summer months," said David Takemoto-Weerts, bicycle program coordinator for TAPS. "Not only do excessive unused bikes take up valuable [bike rack] space and pose a tripping hazard, they are also very tempting for thieves."

Since Larry Vanderhoef became UC Davis' chancellor in 1994, the campus has undergone an explosion in growth. The university has completed $1.6 billion in projects over the last ten years alone and increased its faculty and student enrollment by over 40 percent each.

It may seem hard to believe, then, that just three years ago Vanderhoef was embroiled in a scandal that threatened to discredit his leadership. But regardless of how one feels about Vanderhoef's tenure, he will undeniably have a lasting impression on the campus.