In the near future, freshmen won’t have to leave campus at the end of their first year to brave the distant Davis outskirts.

UC Davis has just put the finishing touches on plans for the West Village, a new housing structure for university students, faculty and community college students. Officials predict it will open by fall 2011.

“Back in 2000 we projected a growth of over 6,000 more students, and the city of Davis has a limited developmental capacity,“ said Karl Mohr, assistant vice chancellor of capital and environmental resource management. “West Village Housing will accommodate students and faculty and allow them to live locally.“

The new structure will house 4,350 people – 500 of which will be faculty and their families. The structure will be located west of Interstate 113 and will be serviced by Unitrans.

Resource Management and Planning (RMP) signed a ground lease for staff housing in early September, which gives ownership of the property to the university while allowing tenants to purchase the units. This enables the university to sell the units at a lower price, in hopes of attracting faculty and staff. What’s more, the ground lease will give the university power over who buys future units, ensuring permanent staff housing in designated areas.

“There will be three- to four thousand people living [in West Village] and that’s three- to four thousand people that don’t need to commute from Sacramento or Woodland every day,” said Paul Schwartz, facility planner for the RMP. “It will reduce traffic and emissions and will be a really positive addition to the campus.“

Groundbreaking is set for this spring on phase I, which accounts for 60 percent of the overall project and will cost approximately $2 million. RMP feels confident in the future success of West Village because their previous building project, Aggie Village, was so popular.

“A number of my new faculty who have been hired were really excited about Aggie Village,” said English department chair Margarete Ferguson. “The idea that there will be smaller houses is good because there aren’t that many small but nice places. So that’s another plus.“

West Village will also feature a community college center. RMP has worked with the Los Rios Community College district to make West Village housing available to its students as well, considering many also study on the UC Davis campus.

“We have a long-standing partnership with our local community colleges,” Mohr said. “A lot of them teach courses here so we wanted to offer this housing because of the program relationship and also as an amenity for the community.“

But the planning team promises to put UC Davis students first in their housing needs. The cost of renting a unit will be close to the cost of The Lexington apartments and will be similarly competitive, according to campus real estate services.

RMP is also planning a recreation field, fitness center, pool and lounge areas. In addition, they plan to make West Village environmentally sustainable, complete with photovoltaic panels.

The only opposition the plan has faced has been from residents who live along Russell Boulevard who are concerned about traffic. However, officials believe that the close proximity to campus will encourage residents to walk, ride their bikes or take the bus.

“I think West Village will energize the campus community,” Schwartz said. “Whenever you add more people, it improves the culture.“

More information can be found at westvillage.ucdavis.edu.

LAUREN STEUSSY can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.

2007-2008 Summary

The number of referrals to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs decreased in the 2007-2008 year, but this by no means implies that any less emphasis should be placed upon the issues of academic honesty and social responsibility. SJA handled 618 different academic cases. Sixty-eight different departments referred students for academic misconduct. English, math, psychology, chemistry, and history had the highest number of cases referred.

Two hundred and forty-one students were referred for plagiarism, or reusing work without the instructor‘s permission. Cheating on an exam was the second most common offense. One hundred and seventy-four students were referred for copying off of another student’s exam and 33 were referred for having a cheat sheet or other unauthorized material. Eighteen students were referred for having another person take an exam in their place. Of the 786 referrals for social misconduct, 37 percent of these were for Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations for illegally obtaining or sharing copyrighted material using an on-campus connection.

Most students came to an agreement on a sanction that allowed them to stay in school. Of those who did not, 59 students were suspended or had their graduation delayed, and 13 students were dismissed from the university, primarily for academic violations. Seven percent of students referred to SJA were found not in violation and received no disciplinary sanction.

The Campus Judicial Report is compiled by student members of the Campus Judicial Board. Additional information about SJA and the Campus Judicial Board may be found at sja.ucdavis.edu.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the California 2008-2009 state budget Tuesday – an action that meant mixed news for the University of California, which faces numerous budget challenges in the upcoming year.

While the finalized budget included the $100 million in UC funding that was on the chopping block earlier this year, state funding for UC remains essentially flat. The budget does not provide for increased costs due to inflation or growing enrollment. As a result, the UC system will still face a net shortfall of $100 million in state funding, according to a press release from the UC newsroom.

UC Davis will face a $28.2 million shortfall in funding – a number that could have been much higher, said Kelly Ratliff, assistant vice chancellor for budget resource management.

“It was a very real fear among UC that the new budget would not include the $100 million,” she said. “If that had happened, UC Davis would have had up to $40 million in budget cuts. It is difficult to wait for the state [to finalize the budget] so [UC Davis] began making plans for potential budget cuts early on in the year. Forty million dollars was a real possibility.“

To make up for the $28.2 million shortfall, executive vice chancellor Barbara Horowitz called for a 7 percent budget reduction in all administrative support and academic units.

“Every unit was assigned a budget reduction target of 7 percent,” Ratliff said. “However, this reduction excluded faculty and teacher’s assistant salaries. In addition, only a 3 percent reduction was applied to Shields Library so the reduction in academic units only ends up being about 2.5 percent overall.“

The reduction to administrative support and academic units will account for $16.8 million, leaving an $11.4 million deficit. The university will combat the remaining shortfall with funding from a variety of sources, including $6.8 million from student fees, Ratliff said.

Despite the large cut in funding, UC Davis students should not experience a significant change in their experience on campus, said Chris Carter, principal budget analyst for the office of resource management and planning.

“While many programs will experience budget reductions, I am not aware of any large programs that will be cut completely,” he said. “With a few exceptions, the budget cuts will be spread equally across different units and programs campuswide.“

However, students may not see an end to academic fee increases.

“It is an option that is on the table,” Ratliff said. “A normal budget process includes all sources of funding, and student fees are one of those sources.“

The UC Board of Regents already approved a 7.4 percent increase in students for the 2008-2009 school year in May.

“The student fee decisions are ultimately up to the regents,” Carter said. “But historically when state funding has been flat or reduced, it has caused more pressure to increase student fees on an annual basis.“

While the budget cuts will be applied equally to the 10 UC campuses, Carter said that some campuses will suffer more than others.

“Obviously, the different campuses are in different situations,” he said. “Campuses that are currently experiencing a lot of growth will feel the reductions more than those that are not.“

While UC upheld its promise to accept the top 12.5 percent of California high school students for the 2008-2009 year, it may not be able to continue to do so if the budget situation does not change, Ratliff said.

“The decision has already been made for this year to uphold admission for those students,” she said. “However, going forward, it will be very difficult to provide that [guarantee] to those students if the state does not provide adequate funding.“

ERICA LEE can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.

In a few months, you’ll be able grab an iced venti mocha or a cold sandwich right after working out.

The ARC will open a fully-licensed, Sodexo-operated Starbucks – with genuine Starbucks drinks, architecture and merchandise – on Jan. 5. ARC officials have been planning to introduce Starbucks for some time, though the move happens to come in a year when the 5-year-old facility has made several cost-cutting moves.

The Starbucks will occupy the space of the now-closed café at the ARC, which was also operated by Sodexho. Despite several attempts to appeal to students – such as introducing fruit smoothies and paninis – the popularity of the café never took off, said Paul Dorn, assistant director of campus recreation.

“The product line never met any appropriate expectations by the department or student populations here. As a result of fairly low revenue streams, Sodexho couldn’t keep the café open during ARC hours and that was a disappointment to us and to our patrons,” Dorn said.

The ARC’s Starbucks will be noise-proof and offer its signature lounge atmosphere, he said.

Though one might find irony in adding a restaurant that serves 300-calorie drinks in a recreation building, Dorn said that Starbucks will offer nutritional choices, and that the project has been vetted and reviewed through Student Affairs, the university administration and the Campus Recreation Advisory Board.

But even at the prior café, coffee was the hottest-selling item, Dorn said. With the new Starbucks, “the brand strength will allow it to have greater patronage,“ he said.

As with the prior café, Campus Recreation will get a share of Starbucks‘ profits, which will go into its general income line. Recreation officials project “much better patronage, which will yield much better revenue [to] pay student salaries and maintain equipment.“

The ASUCD Coffee House is not expected to be negatively impacted by the impending arrival of Starbucks, said director Sharon Coulson.

“The CoHo is a destination point itself and we already hold our own in the competition that surrounds us,” she said.

In another cost-reducing move, the ARC no longer rents locks, table tennis balls, badminton shuttlecocks and racquetballs. The latter three items are available for individual purchase at the ARC’s Pro Shop for $0.23, $2.50 and $1.50, respectively.

The cost of repairing, replacing, and administering the lease of the equipment became cost-prohibitive, Dorn said. The new policy will save the department approximately $1,000 per month, he said.

ARC officials say there have been no complaints about the new policy, and students don’t seem to be particularly angry.

“Though it is still an inconvenience for students who may only want to play at the ARC every once in a while and don’t want to buy the equipment, it is not a very drastic one,” said Erica Oropeza, an ASUCD senator and senior sociology major. “Considering that [the fees] are still on a relatively small scale, it can be understandable because these items may undergo continuous wear & tear and the replacement costs may just be too much for the ARC to withstand.“

But Anna Harris, a junior biological sciences major, said she rented locks and finds the new policy inconvenient.

“I think that if students are paying fees to use the ARC, they should be able to rent the equipment they might need,” she said.

According to ARC officials, last school year 1.1 million people visited the facility for fitness and another 1.2 million people visited the ARC to attend training sessions, workshops, commencements and other meetings.

PATRICK McCARTNEY can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.

Students now have another option for computing on campus.

The Department of Information & Educational Technology services recently opened their latest of eight open access computer labs on campus at 182 Shields Library, replacing the IT express help desk.

The project was initiated over the summer as a result of collaborations between Shields Library and IET Academic Technology Services, and cost approximately $55,000 of computer lab funds. said Liz Gibson, director of IET-ATS in an e-mail interview.

Shields 182 is the largest open access computer lab, and one of only three labs to be open until midnight Monday through Thursday during the academic year.

“There are actually 38 total computers” said computer lab assistant Jimmy Liang. “We have 21 10-minute standup stations – 19 PCs and 2 macs-and 17 sit down stations–15 PCs and 2 macs.“

The lab opened one day before the start of fall quarter and had its first client at 9:13 a.m. on Sept. 24, according to an article published by IET tech news.

“Although this lab will alleviate some of the pressure, we unfortunately anticipate that the computer labs may continue to experience lineups throughout the year, especially during peak demand times,” Gibson said. “We have already experienced some lineups at 182 Shields.“

Between its first day of operation and Monday, the computer lab has recorded a total of approximately 4,500 users logging on.

“The drive to do this came from a combined effort by the library and IET,” said Mark Stinson, manager of client services in Information and Educational technology.

IET services made the decision to replace the IT express help desk with the computer lab after receiving numerous requests for more computers in the library. The majority of help requests the IT desk received were for resetting passwords – a service that could easily be relocated.

“Since this was the primary service provided by the desk we decided that we could close down the IET express help desk,“ Stinson said.

Passwords can now be reset at 6 open access labs on campus and the remainder of the IT help desk’s services are now offered exclusively through telephone and Internet.

“Obviously with these things we’d like to have more space everywhere and a better budget so we could have the desk and more computer labs,” Stinson said. “But the help desk was very expensive because it had to be staffed, and now that passwords can be reset anywhere, everything seems to have fit together wonderfully.“

CHARLES HINRIKSSON can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.