After a 14-month construction period and a highly anticipated opening on Oct. 11, the new ASUCD Coffee House seems to be thriving.

Student opinion of the CoHo is generally positive and business is going well.

“I think it’s a great atmosphere for eating and studying and a good place to hang out in between classes,” said Emily Neary, first-year international relations major.

The renovation cost approximately $9 million and was funded by a 2004 referendum that devoted $8 a quarter per student from student fees. The redesign includes the addition of menu items such as smoothies, located at Swirlz, and sushi, which can be purchased at Chopstixx.

The goal of the remodel was to improve seating, increase efficiency and to present the CoHo as an individual and unique part of UC Davis, said Darin Schluep, food service manager of the CoHo.

“We’ve renamed all of our service areas,” he said. “We’re just trying to brand the coffee house venues a little bit and give them all their own personal identities.”

While there have been some changes, the CoHo still includes many customer favorites.

“A lot of stuff has come back that people really loved, and it seems as if our customers are happy with the changes,” Schluep said.

Some students have complained about a rise in prices. However, Schluep points out that while some item prices have been raised, other prices have been lowered.

“For example: a bagel with cream cheese. Its price has been reduced, but I know our coffee prices did go up. We tried to keep prices the same as much as possible, but there were some fluctuations, both up and down,” Schluep said.

Some students agree that while the prices have fluctuated, there were no outrageous changes in prices.

“TexMex is a little bit more on the expensive side, but other than that I feel like the bagels and pizza are pretty much the same,” said Rosio Gonzalez, senior Chicano/aO studies major.

With the remodel, both employees and patrons are still getting used to the new set-up. Despite the goal of efficiency, lines seem to still be long and unorganized, said Sarah Johnson, senior animal science major.

“I hope it slows down a little bit because I’m not encouraged to come here at lunch,” she said. “You spend half of your lunch inside waiting in a line.”

While the numbers are still being compiled, the new CoHo is doing slightly better business than when they first closed for construction over a year ago. However, this is a significant increase compared to sales of the interim CoHo, which were at roughly 60 percent.

“We weren’t able to open on the first day of school, and that’s a problem because students and the university community develop habits of where they can eat,” said Mark Champagne, ASUCD business manager.

Champagne also suggested that the lack of a significant increase in sales could be related to the general economy and the considerable increase in student fees.

However, while sales have not seen a major boost quite yet, Champagne is optimistic about the future.

“We expect sales to go up significantly with the more people who find out about us and the more people who give us a shot,” Champagne said.

HANNAH STRUMWASSER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Ten years ago, UC Davis students paid $2,716 in student fees per year. Five years later, they paid $5,406. This year, students pay $9,402, and with the newly proposed 8 percent fee increase, students could pay $10,154 next year.

UC President Mark Yudof announced this proposal yesterday in a media briefing and an open letter to California, along with other proposals for the UC Board of Regents to vote on at their meeting next week. The meeting will take place Nov. 16-18 at UCSF Mission Bay.

“These won’t be the last tough decisions the university will face,” Yudof said in the letter. “But they are essential steps upward out of a hole that was a long time in the digging.”

The fee increase would be effective in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, totaling roughly $822 per student and bringing system-wide fees to approximately $11,124 annually. A third of the money raised will be allocated for financial aid, leaving an estimated added income of $116 million.

“This added revenue will put the university on a footing that allows campuses to reinvest in faculty, expand course offerings, improve academic support and generally begin to recover ground lost last year to crisis,” Yudof said. “It will ensure the resources needed to maintain excellence.”

Yudof ensured that his proposed plan would extend financial aid to more than a third of UC undergraduates under a raised Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan. The plan would include families with incomes less than $80,000, which is $10,000 more than the current plan. These students wouldn’t have to pay tuition.

Additionally, students from families that make less than $120,000 would not have to pay the fee increase for one year. This is approximately 55 percent of UC undergraduates, Yudof said.

UC is still not receiving adequate funding from the state, Yudof explained. While the state increased the UC budget by $370 million, it does not entirely make up for the $637 million cut in state funding last year.

Claudia Magaña, UC Student Association (UCSA) president, said that the state’s increased funding should be no excuse for raising student fees.

“Legislators increased UC funding by $370 million this year to keep UC affordable and accessible,” she said. “The fee hikes from last year bring in an additional $350 million. These combined increases more than make up the loss in revenue caused by decreases in state funding that started two years ago.”

Furthermore, nearly three-fourths of the UC $21.8 billion operating budget is restricted to specific uses. For example, 25 percent is reserved for the medical centers and 17 percent is reserved for government contracts and grants.

Raising student fees has not been UC’s only action to address budgetary problems, Yudof said. UC enacted furloughs and downsized the UC central office while campuses cut course offerings, reduced the number of incoming freshmen, laid off more than 2,600 staff and eliminated 1,400 positions.

Nonetheless, some students find the potential increase intolerable.

“The administration must find another way to fund the university, as students and their parents are shouldering too big of a financial burden already,” said Sameer Khan, chair of the UCSA Council on Student Fees (CSF).

Khan also said that CSF will work closely with each campus’ Student Fee Advisory Committee to ensure student service fees are strictly used to benefit students and not substitute cuts in other areas. Currently student fees cover 41 percent of the cost of education.

JANELLE BITKER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Oct. 21 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room.

Meeting called to order at 6:10 p.m.

Jack Zwald, ASUCD president, present, left early at 6:55 p.m.

Previn Witana, ASUCD vice president, present

Abrham Castillo-Ruiz, ASUCD senator, present, left early at 11:33 p.m.

Adam Thongsavat, ASUCD senator, present

Alison Tanner, ASUCD senator, present

Andre Lee, ASUCD senator, president pro tempore, present, left early at 9:34 p.m.

Bree Rombi, ASUCD senator, present

Don Ho, ASUCD senator, arrived late at 6:21 p.m., arrived late from a break scheduled to end at 7:20 p.m.

Joel Juarez, ASUCD senator, present, arrived late from a break scheduled to end at 7:20 p.m.

Levi Menovske, ASUCD senator, absent

Liz Walz, ASUCD senator, present

Osahon Ekhator, ASUCD senator, arrived late at 6:18 p.m., arrived late from a break scheduled to end at 7:20 p.m.

Ozzy Arce, ASUCD senator, present, arrived late from a break scheduled to end at 7:20 p.m.

Selisa Romero, ASUCD senator, present

Presentations

A representative from Student Housing came to give an update on renovating the domes and tri-cooperatives.

Appointments and confirmations

Rosemary Hall, Elizabeth Matthews and Sarah Deremer were confirmed to the Aggie Public Arts Committee.

Omar Tejera Cespedes and Gabby Muntuno were confirmed to the Academic Affairs Commission.

Brianna Castro, Steven Zhang, Joanne Okow, Anna Ha and Hassan Rezakhany were confirmed to the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission.

Consideration of old legislation

Senate Bill 12, authored and introduced by Rombi and co-authored by Justin Gold, Ho and Hannah Kirshner, to allocate $2,484 from Senate Reserves to fund development of a new unit, The Pantry, passed unanimously.

Senate Bill 14, authored and introduced by the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, to allocate $215 from Senate Reserves to refund the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission’s budget shortfall of said amount, was tabled. Until the senate votes again, Zwald’s veto stands.

Senate Bill 15, authored by Megan Frantz, co-authored by Daniel Fontaine, Ho, Lee and Thongsavat, and introduced by Ho, to allocate $7,984.67 from Capital Reserves to purchase a variety of equipment for AggieTV to upgrade ageing cameras and computers, passed unanimously.

Consideration of Urgent Legislation

Senate Bill X, authored and introduced by Ekhator and co-authored by Christina Ortiz, Amanda Gonzalez and Tiana Brawley, to allocate $1,000 from Senate Reserves to Aggies of Color for the Students of Color Conference on Nov. 19 to 21 passed unanimously.

Senate Bill B, authored and introduced by Rombi and co-authored by Gold and Mark Ling, to purchase three locking storage cabinets for $481.35 from Business Supply and Capitol Reserves for the California Aggie Archives, passed unanimously.

Past Meeting Minutes

Approved

Public Discussion

Many individuals at the senate table were disappointed with Wednesday’s ASUCD Coffee House Senatorial Candidate Debate as far as the questions that were asked, the format of the debate and the moderator’s behavior.

Ekhator in particular was angry about the fact that the candidates were able to cross-examine each other’s platforms. It led to cat fighting, mudslinging and scrutinizing, and the Senate’s objectives are not to make headlines about a catfight at a debate, he said.

Some at the senate table expressed worries about passing Senate Bill B and X because it will set a precedent for future bills.

UC Davis beat California State University, Sacramento in the Causeway Classic blood drive by 140 people.

Meeting adjourned at 11:43 p.m.

JASPREET BAHIA compiles the senate briefs. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

After a series of extensive renovations, the Gunrock Pub, centrally located in the Silo Union building, has come to symbolize something far greater than itself – the collaborative achievements of a rich community.

Through local partnerships, the full service restaurant and bar embodies the very essence of UC Davis innovation, bringing focus once again to local success in agriculture.

“While we were modernizing the restaurant, we also wanted to give it more of an infusion of the campus,” said Robin Clement, projects and marketing director for Gunrock Pub. “We focused on local and campus foods to showcase the achievements of the community.”

In fact, the Gunrock Pub has partnered with UC Davis Olive Oil and now displays their collection both on the menu and in label designs framed along the walls.

The pub also revamped its own logo to mimic the artwork found on the labels of the UC Davis Olive Oil collection.

“The partnership first originated between us and the Grounds Department and turned into one with UCD Olive Oil,” Clement said. “We now proudly serve their olive oil with vinegar and French bread alongside every meal.”

Gunrock Pub has also ventured into partnerships with the Animal Science Department and Growers Collaborative to offer dishes with meat from the meat lab and produce from the student farm.

“Most of our food is local, but all of it is composted,” Clement explained. “We work very closely with R4 Recycling to make that happen.”

However, despite the last of these renovations that took place January of 2009, the on-campus pub still remains relatively unknown amongst the student body.

“The Gunrock Pub is one of the best kept secrets on campus, especially from the students,” Clement said. “We hope that these renovations appeal to more students and becomes a special place for them to enjoy.”

Unfortunately, Gunrock Pub is only open from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. due to its previous lack of business past those hours, Clement explained.

One of ASUCD Senatorial Candidate Darwin Moosavi’s platforms is to turn the Gunrock Pub into a sports bar by extending hours, lowering prices, and showing popular sports games. At Wednesday’s candidate debate, Moosavi said this was because the pub’s business is poor and that he’d be meeting with a Gunrock Pub representative soon. Moosavi could not be reached for comment.

Nevertheless, many students still happily embrace Gunrock Pub for what it was originally built to be – an on-campus pub.

“It’s always nice to be able to get out of a midterm and have to walk only 10 feet for a beer,” said Kevin McCully, a senior economics major. “They have a really good selection and always have seasonal and local brews on tap.”

Other students find the full salad and soup bar a quick and healthy alternative to the fast food offered at the Silo.

“I love their salad bar,” said Michelle Rossi, a junior psychology major. “They even offer it for take-out when you’re on the go.”

EHSUN FORGHANY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

The University of California has invited faculty members UC system-wide to participate in a pilot project that will assess the quality and aptitude of online courses.

Led by the UC Office of the President, the project allows for up to 25 courses in a wide array of disciplines at each UC campus to be developed and tested by faculty in an online format.

“The pilot is looking for a way to develop online courses that still maintains the student-faculty interaction and student-student interaction that make the UC a good place to go to school,” said Dr. Keith Williams, a senior lecturer in the Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior department and faculty associate of the project program. “It has the potential to provide other opportunities for students to get into their classes.”

The project is focused on lower division courses, namely courses that many students need to take, Williams said. The basis behind the project is to provide a means for more students to enroll in the core classes, as well as to accommodate for financial limitations in the state budget.

Part of the preliminary stages of the project is to define the key ingredients that constitute a UC-quality course and how to transfer those elements into an online format, Williams said.

“It [the format] would probably be a variety of things,” Williams said. “Taped lectures, learning modules and activities that illustrate concepts … mock laboratories that show data and ask for interpretations … The faculty is going to decide what works best.”

The objective of the project is to determine whether certain courses can be converted entirely into an online format, one without face-to-face interactions, Williams said. Courses that are entirely online could include chat rooms and video chats that take place instead of discussions and office hours.

However, a “blended” course may offer the best of both worlds, Williams said.

A blended course would deliver the content of a course online, but still provide a time for students and faculty to meet face-to-face to further discuss and analyze the material, said Liz Gibson, director of the information and education technology’s academic technology services at UC Davis.

“The content could be online … but when students and faculty meet, that time is spent in discussion of the content they learned online already,” Gibson said. “It’s an opportunity for faculty to bring their research into the classroom so students can see what they’ve learned as an application to life, as opposed to something learned in a textbook.”

A blended course is likely the form of online courses that will be seen in the early stages at UC Davis if Chancellor Linda Katehi and the Academic Senate support an online program, Gibson said. At this point, the chancellor and the Academic Senate have yet to indicate that they are interested.

However, no course at UC Davis would solely be offered online, Gibson said. There may be sections within a course offered entirely online, but there will always be at least one section offered in a classroom.

Still, some material could be better taught online, Gibson said.

“I think there are some courses that their content area is conducive to being online,” she said. “There are tools online that you can use to create a sense of community in those courses – anything from blogs, forums and chat rooms to collaborative writing through Google Docs.”

Math and statistics are examples of content that is easily adaptable to an online format, Gibson said. Students could manipulate graphs and equations through simulations that would help develop a thorough understanding of the material.

Even though the UC Board of Regents has ultimate authority, the faculty at each UC campus will decide the extent to which online courses will become prevalent at their respective campuses, Williams said.

“The faculty will decide whether [an online course] works or not,” Williams said. “Any class that is taught for credit at the university has to be approved by a courses committee as part of the Academic Senate that’s made up of faculty. If that course isn’t approved, it can’t be taught as part of the curriculum.”

Already, about 1,200 fully online courses were offered through the UC Extension program in 2009-2010, according to a UC press release. However, the courses provide transferable credit that only count toward elective credit and not UC credit that could contribute to a student’s major, Williams said.

MARTHA GEORGIS can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.