Campus News

ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Oct. 9 meeting location, the Memorial Union's Mee Room.

Acclaimed journalist and CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin visited the UC Davis campus on Oct. 10, giving two presentations.

One was held in 126 Voorhies and the other was a public speech at Jackson Hall in the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Transportation and Parking Services is holding its biannual bike auction Saturday morning at the new West Entry Parking Structure at the intersection of Hutchison and Dairy.

Bicycles may be viewed from 8 to 9 a.m. The bidding will commence at 9 a.m. and last until each of the over 425 bikes are sold.

Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef held his first quarterly brown bag chat for the 2008-2009 academic year on Wednesday in the Memorial Union to discuss the budget, the campus community book project and UC Davis' search for a new chancellor.

"To say [the budget's] sobering is probably an understatement," Vanderhoef said.

The iconic Budweiser Clydesdale team and wagon are on campus this week for an appearance at the grand opening of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Science today between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.

UC Davis has always been known as a farm school, and now with faculty and staff working towards establishing a sustainable agriculture undergraduate major, it can further that reputation.

"There is a big need to have a major that educates students broadly about agriculture," said Mark Van Horn, director of Student Farm. "The major will combine the natural sciences and technology as well as the economic and social issues and how those combine to make the totality of agriculture."

A severe lack of funding may soon render Shields Library obsolete, according to a recent report by the UC Davis Library Task Force.

The library is currently on a flat budget - it receives the same funding on a yearly basis despite economic inflation and rising book costs.

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

10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The formal grand opening of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science kicks off centennial week. The $73 million complex near Interstate-80 houses labs, classrooms and offices. Speakers at the event include members of the Mondavi family, Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and Martin Yan of Yan 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 by e-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 to 20 hours of community service for violating University plagiarism policies. The friend of the struggling student received no sanction.

In the aftermath of Seung-Hui Cho's massacre of 32 students, 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 were in effect well before the Virginia Tech incident, but campus officials have increased their efforts even more so since then. The Aggie sat 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 $140 million 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.