May and administrators discuss the growth of the student population, sustainability, updates on the recent strike and the effects of the Trump administration on campus life
The California Aggie’s Editorial Board met with Chancellor Gary May, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan, Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff Carl Engelbach, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Dana Topousis, Vice Chancellor of UC Davis Finance, Operations and Administration Claire Shinnerl, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Renetta Tull, Chief Campus Counsel Mike Sweeney, UC Davis Police Department Chief Joseph Farrow and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Pablo Reguerín on Feb. 26.
Below is a transcript of the meeting that has been edited for length and clarity.
The Editorial Board: In light of the new presidential administration’s policies around cutting government spending, how does the university plan to ensure the continuation of critical funding for students here at UC Davis? Specifically with the Department of Education being downsized or completely dismantled, are there plans in place, at UC Davis or the UC system as a whole, to compensate for losses in funding, financial aid, equal access to education, among others?
May: You know, every day is an adventure. We’re really in unprecedented times, everyone is very anxious and there’s stress and worry enough to go around for all of us. There are several different presidential actions and executive orders that have come through. I’m just going to talk about a few of them, and feel free to follow up with questions on others if I don’t hit the ones you want to talk about. Starting with the Department of Education and the ‘Dear Colleague’ letter that pertains to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), mostly, the university is still analyzing the impact there. Legal is doing a really thorough evaluation of programs and activities in that area, and will give us some direction. I will say that California has had Proposition 209 since 1996. We don’t have any racial preferences in admissions, hiring or procurement or anything in the university. So in that respect, I think we’re compliant with federal law and ‘Dear Colleague’ letters are not law or policy. We’ve been communicating closely with the Office of the President on these issues, as well as the other campuses, because we’re all facing the same sort of issues. The goal, though, is to ensure that we operate and respond consistently across the system and speak with a unified voice and a unified approach across these challenges. We’re dedicating significant time and resources to these matters, all with the support, health and success of our students in mind. So that’s first and foremost in all of our activities. Now there have been some other executive actions, like the cap on indirects. I’m not sure if you’re as interested in that one as you are the one I just talked about, but I’m happy to talk about that too.
The Editorial Board: Has the UC Davis or the UC system as a whole begun to discuss compensation for losses to financial aid funding, equal access to education funding, that kind of thing?
May: So I’ll say we’ve begun. We don’t know enough to have anything definitive yet. So Mary, if you want to say something?
Croughan: It’s more complicated than just the new administration, and how much are they going to put into financial aid or federal aid? What are they going to do with the Department of Education? What’s their approach? This is all layered over all the changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application last year, which were ostensibly made to make the whole system easier, and I’m going to try to be as factual as I can in these next statements, but I actually do have very, very strong personal opinions on it, so it’s a little challenging for me. They eliminated several aspects of FAFSA that have been there since it was originally developed, like, ‘Does your family have your own business or a farm?’, ‘How many children are you supporting in college?’, ‘How many kids are in the family to begin with?’ There was a workaround for whether or not you had to include a social security number for everyone. So mother, father and the student. None of those things are included now or considered. So I will let you come to your own conclusion about what populations you think are probably most adversely affected by those changes in the FAFSA form. As a result, there were fewer students who applied to UC Davis and every other university in the United States. As a result, you get less financial aid coming to your campus to begin with. So that was already the situation we were facing, and now we lay on top of that the Department of Education and an administration that’s a little less favorable to Pell Grants and student needs in certain populations.
I said I would not editorialize. This is the best I can do. Be kind to me, please when you transcribe it into an article, but that’s the reality that it was. It’s going to go from bad to worse. There are grant programs the Department of Education has. There’s teacher credentialing programs they fund. There are all kinds of programs they fund that take people from other occupations and mid-career and retrain them to be teachers. They put them in a classroom with no training, and they learn on the job being mentored. It’s almost like an apprenticeship model. Those programs are incredibly effective in places where you’re probably not going to recruit somebody from a general School of Education to go work. Think of very rural areas or very poverty-stricken areas. So we don’t know what the outcome will be of those kinds of programs at this point. We care and we’re paying attention, but we don’t know.
The Editorial Board: Just a follow up to that, we really appreciate the straight answer there, but obviously, on such delicate issues, it is hard not to editorialize, and we were just wondering if this is just because you’re representing the UC as a whole, that you’re trying your best not to editorialize, or this is a concern because there’s censorship from new powers that be?
Croughan: All my colleagues could tell you, I am not worried about censorship. Mike gave me a moniker that I actually repeated to my kids: ‘Oh, no, you’re a Street Fighter. You’re gonna just take this on.’ And that’s true. I come from a long line of family labor union organizers who went to jail all the time and things like that. So no, I’m not worried about any repercussions for me personally. This is just a challenging time because there’s other forces at work that are a little hard to challenge with each action they take.
The Editorial Board: In the recent November election, the city of Davis passed Measure Q, which increased sales taxes by 1%. What actions does the university plan to take moving forward to ensure an affordable cost of living for students here in Davis?
May: Well, I think you know that the university has no way to influence local tax policy, but I think that part of that affordable living is housing, and I think we have a pretty good story here at UC Davis on housing. If you allow me to go back a little bit, we’ve been working with our city and government partners over the last seven or eight years since I’ve been here. We have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city that involves keeping our housing numbers commensurate with enrollment growth and affordability is a part of that. Since 2017 we have opened up 6,266 new apartments and residence hall beds, including places like Orchard Park, Yosemite, The Green and Shasta Hall […], and some of you may live in some of those places. We now house a little over 15,000 students on campus, and that meets the terms of the MOU I just spoke of that we have with the city. At the same time, in regards to simple economics, you increase the supply, the cost goes down. So two things have happened: Cost has gone down a little bit, and the vacancy rate in Davis when I came was less than 1% and now it’s about 4%. When there’s more availability, the competition for the residents drives the cost down. We also are not stopping. We have a current project, Segundo Infill, that’ll be another 500 beds, and there’s 250 beds at Aggie Square. So you know, about 7,000 beds in seven years. For me, I’m pretty proud of that. In terms of affordability, there are subsidy programs that allow students with need to have their rent subsidized. [Reguerín] might be able to say more about that, but we do keep that in mind. The regents actually require new construction for housing to have 20% low market affordability, so we adhere to that and sometimes exceed that.
Reguerín: We just said last year, I believe it was about roughly $800,000 we gave out for a needs-based rent subsidy program. Also these properties, since they’re considered on-campus for financial aid purposes, there’s a higher amount of grant aid that goes in. The Green was consistent with many of our properties and had over 70% of the residents on some form of financial aid. As Gary mentioned, adding inventory is a really critical part to getting to affordability. So that’s our first step.
The second step, of course, is targeted programs. We have through Aggie Compass our rapid rehousing program. If someone is unhoused and we need to address those issues, students are also involved at Aggie House, a different set of tools that we use in trying to make housing affordable. Inventory is very, very important, and then the impact in the local community, with the vacancy rate going up, and then the escalation being at a low point, I think it’s 1.6% for the upcoming year. So all those things together are going to be critical. And then we still want to encourage students to use Aggie Compass. It’s called compass, so that you’ll have a starting place, and we get them support in a variety of different areas. One way everybody can contribute to the inventory, supply and demand issue, that I like to remind everybody of, including our students, is if you share a room and you have two people in a room and we have more density, you have more inventory, more availability. So, that also helps as well.
Croughan: And lower costs.
The Editorial Board: On Feb. 3, protesters marched through downtown and on campus — including in front of Mrak Hall. Those gathered protested to show support for undocumented and immigrant communities following President Trump’s ongoing mass deportation order. According to reports from protesters, you (Chancellor May) spoke to the group. A quote from a protester claims: “Chancellor Gary May came out and showed his support and gave some of his words to us,” the protester said. “He said that he was supporting from his own side, and there’s some websites and resources that he’s gathering for immigrants and students at UC Davis.” What was your impression of those protesting in front of Mrak? How was the conversation between you and the protesters? Finally, could you share what you said to the protesters?
May: First, I just want to say, we certainly support the people’s right to protest and free expression. That’s a core value here at UC Davis, so there was nothing untoward about that, and they were very polite, and expressed themselves very forcefully, but very politely. So I got a phone call in my office, and it was my good friend, Vice Chancellor Reguerín, and he said, ‘Can you come down here? Some students want to talk to you. They’re protesting.’
So I went down there, and there were about 50 to 75 students, and they shared their concerns. I reassured them that we are committed to our values at UC Davis, and our values include support of our undocumented community. We have not reduced the amount of support for the AB540 center or other aspects in the way we support students. We talked about the ‘Know Your Rights’ note cards that we’ve distributed, about 5,000 of them, and I listened to some of their questions and concerns and tried to respond. I think we had a good conversation. It wasn’t a long conversation, but I think at the end, they were somewhat satisfied. They gave me a Mexican flag to put in my office, so I took it back to my office with me. So I guess we had a good outcome.
The Editorial Board: Do you know what specifically you did say to the protesters, or does it just kind of encompass what you just said?
May: I just said, ‘Our values at UC Davis are immutable. We will continue to support this community and other marginalized communities, as we have always done since I’ve been here.’ Despite what you may have heard or read or seen elsewhere, UC Davis has principles of community that we adhere to, and you can be assured that we will continue to work like that.
The Editorial Board: As discussed in previous interviews, the University of California has enacted new protesting policies including: the banning of camping on campus grounds, blocking the movement of people on campus and the restriction of masking when with the “intent to intimidate any person or group, or to evade or escape discovery.” Have any of these rules/policies been enforced by law enforcement and/or the Division of Student Affairs staff since the last time we spoke? Have there been any concerns about a rise in upcoming protests and the usage of masking following the development of our current political climate?
May: Yes, let me just clarify — two of those policies are not new policies. There’s always been a policy against camping and a policy against blocking access. The only thing that’s somewhat new or revised was the masking. And to clarify that one, you are allowed to wear a mask for religious reasons or for health reasons, and you are also even allowed to wear a mask if you’re protesting, as long as you’re not violating policy otherwise. You can’t conceal your identity for the purpose of violating policy. To the best of my knowledge, we have not, in Student Affairs [and] certainly not law enforcement, had a case where a student or another community member was wearing a mask and was either arrested or disciplined otherwise. [Farrow] or [Reguerín], you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ve had any cases like that.
Farrow: We have not. In fact, the university did have a protest that was over at Shields Library where some members of the public wrote a letter claiming that people were masked
and they were intimidating. And that was one that we were actually there, watching the whole thing, and said, ‘That’s not true. That didn’t happen. It didn’t happen the way [the letter said it] did.’ We really kind of realized from the support of the protesters that they were abiding by policy and by law, and what they were doing was fairly within the rules. We have taken no action on any students, on any protest.
May: Did I get the policy right?
Sweeney: Yeah, that’s right. I’ll just say, although it’s a new policy, it’s actually always been a state law — you can’t conceal your identity while committing a crime.
The Editorial Board: Several UC Davis faculty were recipients of the presidential awards for excellence in STEM mentoring and research announced by the White House. What do you make of this prestigious accomplishment and can you share a bit more about the work that the recipients were awarded for?
May: These are tremendous national accolades. I’m very proud of our faculty members. I’m proud of all of our faculty, but when they do things like that, it’s just really gratifying for me, personally and, I think, for the entire university leadership team. So I’ll just highlight a couple of those who received these awards: Professor Aldrin Gomes received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. By the way, I got that one once upon a time. Also very proud of him for joining that club. He’s received many awards over his career, both here at Davis and from his professional society and other organizations, but his work in mentoring underrepresented students in STEM fields has been really exemplary. We’re really proud of Professor Gomes. Associate Professor Joanne Emerson got the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and she works in ecology and biogeochemistry, soil and plant and other ecosystems. That’s a really prestigious award as well. I mean, a very small fraction of national scientists and engineers get that. In both of those cases, you get a trip to the White House and you meet the president. That just kind of shows you the level of prestige that those awards represent. This is one of the best parts of being at UC Davis and getting your education here: You’re working with the top minds in the country and in the world, and these are two examples of that.
The Editorial Board: The federal courts have blocked the Trump administration’s plan to cut nearly $4 billion in overhead costs for research at universities and medical centers. For many institutions, this could significantly affect their ability to sustain any research and may result in closing entirely. How does the university plan to adapt to this and what changes, if any, can we expect if the budget cuts are carried out?
May: We’re very concerned and certainly disappointed with the proposed level of indirect costs that has been proposed, a 15% cap. Let me just first explain what indirect is, because I don’t think everybody generally knows what it is. I just like to give a simple analogy: You go to the grocery store to buy some milk. The milk, that’s your direct cost. Your indirect cost is your refrigerator. You have to have something to put it in, otherwise it spoils. Both of those are necessary, otherwise you can’t drink your milk. We have direct costs that we charge for the research. We have indirect costs, which is keeping the lights on, the infrastructure, the buildings, some of the staff that have to do some of the compliance and regulatory work for the research. Those are the indirect costs. For UC Davis, that number currently for National Institutes of Health (NIH) is 62%. Going from 62 to 15% is a drastic amount. [Shinnerl] was just about to say for us, had the 15% cap been in place this year, that would have been about $70 million lost to the university and our research and our medical research. All the campuses across the UC are actively collaborating with the Office of the President to present a unified front. It’s not just the UC, our AAU partners (the American Association for Universities) which encompasses all the top 70 research universities in the country, are involved in litigation to have the administration reconsider that cap. I’m actually on the AAU task force for that activity. We don’t know where things are going to land. I would say that the advocacy efforts will be strong, and we hope to get close to where we were, but I don’t know that status quo will be where we land. I suspect there’ll be some adjustments made. It’s really still young. I mean, [Sweeney], can you just explain what’s happened with the courts and the litigation?
Sweeney: A week and a half ago, the courts granted what’s called a temporary restraining order that holds the status quo until there’s a hearing on the merits for what’s called the preliminary injunction. There was a hearing on the preliminary injunction and I think we’re waiting for the ruling from that. We anticipate it will be granted in some form. We characterize it as chaotic. It is really hard to follow what is happening coming out of Washington. This is one of the rare places where there’s somewhat clarity. We anticipate the unilateral decision to reduce it to 15% cap will be stopped in its tracks, pending what happens next, but that’s the status.
May: So we’re involved in two lawsuits. One is the different 22 state attorneys general suit, and then the AAU and Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and American Council on Education, these are national educational organizations. We’re involved in that suit as well.
The Editorial Board: This past fall marks the highest-ever number of undergraduate applicants to UC Davis, including increases in the proportion of applicants from historically underrepresented groups. Is UC Davis planning on making changes to acceptance rates following this trend? What resources are in place to make sure all students can succeed financially, academically, (and in other aspects like housing)? Are there any overall plans to ensure incoming students have a smooth transition into the university?
May: We’re always doing that. I just want to say, do you guys remember the movie Lady Bird when we were not mentioned in a positive light? So all that’s changed. Now we’re the place to be. You know, we got 120,000 applications for Fall 2025, and this is for first-time freshmen, it doesn’t include transfers. It’s the first time we’re over 100,000 applicants in our history. The last class, we had nearly 400 extra students beyond the previous year. Total enrollment across both of our campuses, including medical students and residents and interns was at 41,000 or 42,000 applicants, something like that. Things are looking positive in that respect, but you know, it’s not just coming upon us to get the students here, we have to make sure that they’re successful. That includes housing, space, their experience in the classrooms and co-curricular activities. We’re really focused on graduation success rate, and just went through a round of re-accreditation by the WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. They just changed their name, but WASC is much easier to pronounce. We passed with flying colors, so that’s another 10 years of accreditation. It all speaks to some of the higher profile that the university has now, the interest that students have in coming here to UC Davis. We’re really excited about that and proud of that. We have a pretty rigorous orientation program, and you’ve all been through it once. Student Affairs and others did an excellent job in getting new students used to what it takes to be successful at UC Davis. Various efforts for undergraduate research, our first-year program and our mentoring program for students who are the first in their families to go to college, all those sorts of things.
Croughan: I can add a little bit on the admissions side of it. Two years ago, we launched a new major in data science, and then for this fall, we’re launching a new major in business. Students have been asking for this business major for about 30 years, and I’m thrilled we finally have it off the ground. It’s joint between the Graduate School of Management, who will be the lead and because it’s not just graduate students they’ll teach anymore, they’ll change their name. The Economics Department in the College of Letters and Science and agricultural and resource economics and managerial economics in the College of Agriculture. It’s a partnership across those two colleges, one school and three different departments. Effectively, it’ll be an amazing program, quite different, honestly, from UC Berkeley and UC Irvine and UC Los Angeles and so forth, much stronger economics and quantitative. We had almost 9,000 applicants for 175 spots, and this was the first time you could apply. That probably also helped to that 120,000 applications right there.
The other thing we did this year, for the first time, is have a human biology major. We’ve always had biological sciences, molecular and cellular biology, lots of other versions, but the human biology major was second only to the business major for new applications. If you look at, ‘Are we meeting the demands and interests of students?’, our top five applied majors are all things that have been launched relatively recently, and so I think that’s a really good sign as well.
Reguerín: Our orientation program, that we revise based on the feedback and the outcomes that we see from the prior year, has a big focus on an important aspect of orientation, which is ensuring students feel a sense of connection. If they get a sense of belonging early on, they are able to develop connections socially and academically. There’s a part where, based on their major and their college, they’ll get kind of an induction into the academic area. 93% of our incoming students live on campus or in one of our residence halls, so we have a lot of programming going on there, but it’s really about making a connection. We also have revised our orientation program to be transfer-specific, and then also freshmen-specific. We’ve seen higher participation in a shorter number of days, rather than what used to be five days in person. Aggie 101, starting online, really tries to think about the elements that students need just at this point in time because it can be information overload, as you know, going through that process. We also had this last year — through a committee that [Croughan] has charged our executive advising work group with — working across the colleges, Student Affairs, undergraduate education, enrollment management around the advising experience overall, holistically for students. The program also invested in about 24 new advising positions.
Croughan: $2.3 million and 24 advisors.
Reguerín: The goal of that was to increase appointment time and reduce wait time, so all that work is also continuing. I’m also happy to share that last summer, we did a refresh to our academic assistance and tutoring space at the library, in partnership with Shields Library. If you ever go to tutoring and you’ve checked out the space you saw it looks really different, it feels really different, and there’s better capacity. That was one of the other ways we were really trying to encourage students to use our different academic support services. We’ve added a number of case managers, therapists and just all the kinds of mental health resources with our Aggie Mental Health Initiative as it continues to move forward. So a number of different ways we’re trying to work on supporting students as our population grows, but also success across different groups.
The Editorial Board: UC Davis is one of the top institutions in the nation regarding sustainability — what efforts by the university have contributed to this success? How does UC Davis ensure the university continues to have high sustainability rankings in the coming years?
May: So just to correct the question, you said ‘one of the top’; We’ve been No. 1 for nine years in a row now, according to the University of Indonesia GreenMetric, the organization that ranks campuses, and we’re the No. 1 campus in the U.S. and I think No. 5 in the world. This comes because we make this a high priority, not just in research and education, but in our campus operations, academic programs and everything we do. We think about sustainability when we build new buildings, we can be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified, all sorts of things.
In 2022, we released a Fossil Fuel-Free Pathway Plan to get us 95% free of fossil fuel use, using 2018 or 2019 as the baseline year, before COVID-19, to get us there by 2040. We’re a leader there, being the first campus in the UC system to release such a plan. In fact, the system then followed up with a fossil fuel pathway plan for the rest of the system. Our target was much more ambitious than you see and state policies dictated. We have a big project that’s ongoing called the Big Shift. You may be familiar with the Big Shift — that’s our move from steam to water heated by electrical means, so we don’t use the fossil fuels to heat the water vapor anymore. That project shrinks our carbon footprint by 80%.
Shinnerl: We’re finishing phase two, and we’re starting on phase three.
May: We’re working with our local partners in Davis and Yolo County to make transportation more sustainable. There’s a Moving Forward Together plan with the city that addresses sustainable transportation and reduces the carbon footprint of our vehicles and things like that. All this campus operation stuff reports to [Shinnerl], so I’ll let [Shinnerl] add anything I may have missed.
Shinnerl: I think that it’s really part of the culture, part of the way we prioritize things. I think you nailed it. I’ll just add: In Sacramento, we have a really big campus out there, too, and they’re part of our Fossil Fuel-Free Pathway Plan. We have a lot of goals — the same goals that the Chancellor just mentioned apply to the Sacramento campus.
Croughan: Do you want to say something about the BioDigester? It’s not exactly the same as fossils, but super interesting, I think, and we are the only ones [who have it].
Shinnerl: When you eat your food in the cafeterias, your leftovers go to the BioDigester. It’s different from composting, it’s actually a specific machine like a big belly. [If you visit it], bring your earplugs and nose plugs and all that. It hasn’t been producing anything, but now we have a grant that will eventually fuel the Unitrans buses. We are taking it to the next level with the grant. It’s been biodigesting, but not actually using the fuel that comes from it. We partnered with Raley’s and others, and they pay us to take their food waste.
The Editorial Board: With the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and a rising Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence, are there plans in place to protect undocumented and immigrant students within the UC system? Are there any guarantees you can offer for students who are worried about their futures at the university?
May: I alluded to some of this before when we talked about the protest, but I’ll just say we have FAQs and a website that guides our immigrant population on what enforcement activities may or may not happen on our campus. I don’t think we have had one thus far, although there have been rumors — I look on Reddit sometimes. Anyway, that hasn’t actually been true. There was a gentleman arrested in the city of Davis last week or the week before, but none of our students have been impacted by anything like that. We take great care to keep students informed about what their rights are. We make sure we’re mindful of privacy concerns and safety considerations. UC employees are not required to affirmatively assist federal immigration authorities to grant permission or access to facilities or dorms or anything like that without a warrant. So we don’t do that, and we advise our staff accordingly. [Sweeney], do you want to say anything about the campus?
Sweeney: UC employees do not have authority to grant access to private space, and they have been informed that they do not have authority. So if somebody is in a private space, an immigration officer doesn’t have access to that space, and the employee shall not grant that consent. Chief Farrow can speak more specifically to this, but our officers are prohibited from engaging or assisting in immigration enforcement matters.
Farrow: The existing state law prohibits any use of any local law enforcement, state law enforcement, county law enforcement, in assisting ICE and the performance of their duties. That’s currently an existing law we have up there. Our policy then echoes that statement. We won’t prohibit or prevent, but we can’t stand in the way and we won’t assist. [Sweeney] is really right — I think that’s really, really important about this mass deportation and people coming on campus to do these things — they have to follow the law, they have to have arrest warrants, they have to have very specific things that they’re going to look for. This does not allow them access to the private space dormitories and that sort of thing. I think it’s important for your readership to understand that there are a lot of protections out there right now, and ICE or whoever comes on campus has to involve some very strict guidelines.
May: Just to add one more thing, we don’t release immigration status information or confidential student records without the students permission to any federal agency. So that’s another concern people have about doxing and things like that. We don’t release that information.
Reguerín: I’ll add a little bit more in that we also have our UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. Our Davis students have our own designated immigration attorney, and then they work, of course, as a team. So we’re working closely with them, with our Undocumented Student Resource Center, I’ve also met with the student team, the interns, and they’re planning a town hall, so just staying in communication as well as to what’s changing, what’s happening. We’re also going to be partnering with our California State University and California Community Colleges colleagues. There’s a Northern California group around college university, to see what we can do, learn from them, they can learn from us, etc. One piece of information I would love to make sure you all share with your readers is that our UC Immigrant Legal Services are not only available to students who are undocumented, that are undergraduates and graduates, which I think people know, but also for the students and their immediate family members. So you might be a citizen, but let’s say your mother is undocumented — they also have access to those legal resources. Sometimes you have a hard time reaching students with mixed-status families, and so they are available for those services. I appreciate your help in getting that word out so people know that there are really phenomenal legal services. They do have to triage and prioritize cases, so they do get a lot of requests, but that’s a really important resource that we have here and they’re based out of the UC Davis School of Law.
Croughan: We serve not just our campus; we serve the entire University of California, except for UC Berkeley, which does have their own. Friday was our Foundation Board Event. We have a lot of alumni who are graduates of UC Davis School of Law and very DEI-focused, [and want to address] undocumented and documented students’ concerns. Several of them came up to me and said, ‘I would like to provide pro bono services to the immigration clinic.’ So I think we are going to be able to expand, and hopefully [Reguerín] will not have to triage as much and ensure everyone can receive services. It was one of those proud Aggie moments with our own alumni.
The Editorial Board: A Donald Trump executive order aims to threaten college students who are “Hamas sympathizers” and anti-Israel with deportation. With students worried that activism for the Free Palestine movement will result in potential deportations, what is UC Davis planning to do to ensure students’ rights to freedom of speech?
May: I would just say that students should not worry. We have our freedom of expression policy that states, and I will just quote it, “All members of the university community have the right to express and debate their views, to voice criticism of existing practices and policies and to protest against laws, policies, actions and opinions with which they disagree.’ That’s our policy, and everyone has the right to protest no matter what the topic is and no matter who agrees or disagrees with it. That policy remains unchanged. We support students who exercise their right to free speech in accordance with our time, place and manner restrictions on campus, so students should not be worried about that.
The Editorial Board: As UC Davis prepares to be the first university to earn the Silver STEMM Equity Achievement Change Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, what new initiatives or strategies do you plan on implementing to further foster and enhance DEI on campus, especially in light of recent national shifts in these policies? How does the administration believe that this university will be impacted by the removal of DEI programs and funding?
May: Let me just say about the award — we already got the award. A couple weeks ago, I was in Boston accepting the award with Vice Provost Phil Kass. The award is given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and they give these awards categories: bronze, silver and gold, but you have to earn the bronze first, to get the silver, to get the gold. So it’s a process. We were the first and only university to get the bronze, and now the first to get the silver, so we’re really proud of that and we accept the award proudly and loudly. In terms of what we’re going to be focusing on going forward, maybe let [Tull] take that question.
Tull: So one of the things that we’re doing is that we already have a lot of really good programs on campus, and so the key is that we’ve always been in compliance with Prop 209, and we’re making sure that we continue with that. We’re making sure that we are in line with the Constitution, with the Civil Rights Act and all of those things. And so we want to make sure that we’re continuing to have our programming, our community book project focused on principles of community, making sure that our faculty have support to take on great research and have great teaching for all of our students who are here. We’re just going to continue to move in that direction. We don’t look at it as taking away anything from DEI, but striking it based on making sure that we’re staying in compliance.
May: We are fully in compliance with state law, the Constitution, federal law and everything like that, and we will continue to use that as our guide post.
The Editorial Board: In May, philanthropist Maria Manetti Shrem pledged more than $20 million to fund arts programs at UC Davis, prompting the creation of the Manetti Shrem Arts District from the Ann E. Pitzer Center to the art building. What are the implications of such a large donation to the arts/humanities, and how does UC Davis plan to best utilize this increase in funding?
May: So I’ll go off script a little bit. I’ll just tell you a little about Maria Manetti Shrem. I think you’ve heard that name, you see the signs but you don’t know who she is. Mainly, she brought the Gucci brand from Italy to the United States many years ago. There’s a reason why you can buy a Gucci purse at Macy’s or whatever. So that’s how she made her fortune. She is a wonderful woman, brilliant business woman, big personality and very Italian. So this gift is a $20 million estate gift, but it’s already changing the face of our campus. I should say, not just the $20 million estate gift, but it’s also $800,000 a year until she passes. So it may wind up being, you know, 30 or more million. It’s the largest gift in the history of the College of Letters and Science and the largest gift ever for the arts at UC Davis. [Shrem] likes to say she wants to bring UC Davis back to prominence and leadership in the arts. We have former faculty members and famous artists like Wayne Thiebaud and Lori Emerson and others, too many to name, but we want to get back to the status where UC Davis is known for fine arts. She wants every student to have access to the arts. So it’s not just for students who are majoring in those disciplines, but other students as well. It’ll fund three endowed academic chairs in that program. Two will be in the Manetti Shrem art studio programs, the third will be in the Department of Design. Obviously, she’s affiliated with Gucci so she’s got an interest in design as well. It’ll also support professional funding for the California Art Studio, Maria Manetti Shrem Institute for Sustainable Design, fashion textiles and supports the Art and Art History Visual Resources Library. So lots of things get supported by that gift. We are pretty proud, you know, we had just completed our campaign, the Expect Greater Campaign, and we were able to get at least three, maybe more, eight-figure gifts in that campaign. This is one of those three.
Croughan: She’s also donating her entire clothing collection. You can imagine, with Italian designers and the people she’s worked with throughout her life, and even now, I’ve never seen anything twice like jewelry or clothing, unlike me. So we’re getting all of it along with the funding that it takes to keep it in good shape, but that way our students can study it, learn from it and so forth in the design program and arts.
May: Anybody see the movie ‘House of Gucci’? So one of those people was her in that movie. I can’t remember which character played her, because it changed some of the names, but yeah, one of them was her.
The Editorial Board: Many UC Davis students commute to the university for work, class attendance and sports participation. The cost of on-campus parking currently ranges from $2 to $20.50 depending on the lot, with parking tickets for on-campus parking lots currently set for $17. How does the university set the pricing for parking? What is the reasoning/motivation behind an increase in parking costs, and how are you addressing affordability and accessibility concerns for commuting students?
May: So I have a goal every day to get through the day without anyone mentioning the word parking; hasn’t happened yet. First, on campus parking ranges from $2 to $5.60 for campus residents. These rates are reviewed annually according to a strategic plan, in coordination with all the campus partners, various stakeholders, parking visits, student government and all the academic units in consultation when they make these plans. I think this is year, maybe, three of a five-year plan. Transportation Services is funded by parking revenue, and a lot of the parking lots and things that you see have to be serviced, and that service is funded by these revenues. It helps us to maintain a safe and sustainable transportation infrastructure. This also reports to [Shinnerl], so maybe I’m gonna let [Shinnerl] take the lead.
Shinnerl: At all the University of California campuses, parking is supposed to be a self-sustaining operation. We’re not supposed to knock on the door for funds, so it has to be self-sustaining. So that’s No. 1. The other thing is it does a lot more than parking, right? I mean, just these parking structures require maintenance and a lot of work. That’s part of what you’re paying for, but also the whole biking infrastructure that we have here such as the whole Bike Program and bike training [it] is way bigger than just pure parking. We are just basically trying to cover our costs. I don’t have it in front of me, but we are still one of the very least expensive UC campuses. I think Merced might be a little bit less, but that’s kind of it.
May: Do you want to say something about Spin?
Shinnerl: Sure, I’ll say something about Spin. Have you used it? Have you used Spin? The little orange bicycles and scooters? It’s a joint contract with the City of Davis, but the goal is to increase mobility without use of cars between the city and UC Davis. It’s gotten really popular and a lot of people use it; especially the scooters are super popular, more so than the bikes. The first year, we started off with too many bikes, now we added more scooters, but it’s going very well. Just a little tip on that: You may have noticed that if you use Spin, it controls the speed where you are, which Joe Farrow loves, so that we don’t have them racing through populated areas. There are certain zones. So it’s really great from a safety perspective.
May: Last point on parking — to dispel a rumor, everybody on campus pays for parking, including the Chancellor.
The Editorial Board: Article 26 Backpack — a UC Davis Universal Human Rights Tool for Academic Mobility — aims to aid young people whose education has been impacted by war, conflict and economic conditions in planning and structuring higher education, training and career pathways. Does UC Davis utilize any federal funding to support this tool, and, if so, given potential federal funding restrictions, will this tool be impacted? Does UC Davis have any plans to support students who depend on the usage of this tool for educational purposes?
May: Yes, we’re very familiar with that program. Professor Watenpaugh is a good friend of the campus and a good ambassador for the campus. No direct funding from UC Davis goes to Article 26 Backpack, that funding comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as other grants. I think last year, they got a $250,000 grant from USAID, which was canceled for now. There’s some litigation going on with USAID, as you may have heard, in addition to some of the other federal litigation. So we’re not sure whether that gets restored or not. We will continue to try to support the program and the students in other ways as best we can, because we think it’s a good program, and we advertise and write stories about the program all the time because we’re so proud of it.
The Editorial Board: Previous contracts between the UC and labor unions expired last year, with negotiations beginning after. Two unions, AFSCME 3299 and UPTE-CWA, representing 50,000 workers combined, are temporarily striking, alleging “unfair labor practices.” Protests are happening across all UCs, with multiple campus dining services closing during this time. Do you know the status of negotiations? Have you heard from any union representatives at Davis?
May: So all union negotiations are done through the Office of the President, local campuses don’t have a role. We are informed, and we often provide input to the negotiations. The two unions that are on strike now, the contracts expired, I think one in October. The ASK ME contract that’s being negotiated going forward is for another five years. I don’t know if I can get into the specifics of what’s been offered and where the negotiation is. The one for UPTE-CWA 9119 is a three-year contract. All I can say is that we hope that we can reach a resolution soon. I think we are bargaining in good faith. We have a really strong bargaining team at the Office of the President that is trying to do the right thing by not just the unions, but by all of us, because those contracts affect campus budgets pretty heavily, actually. So I think that’s about all I can really say.
Shinnerl: Yeah, I can just add one thing that I think is public — an independent fact-finder considered our offer very favorably. So it’s unfortunate that it wasn’t accepted, but it was reviewed.
The Editorial Board: And then, did UC Davis contribute any advice or recommendations to the University of California Office of the President?
May: So all the chancellors, we have a monthly Council Chancellors meeting, and this is always a topic — labor negotiations. So in that context, yes.
Shinnerl: Because I’m a bean counter, I made mistakes and I just want to correct something. Chancellor May asked me about the NIH cap, and I started down the wrong path so I just want to clarify that all of our federal contracts have the same facilities and administrative rate, and it’s currently 61%, so I just wanted to make that clear. So we’ve been tearing up over the years. It was 58%, 59%, 60% and as of July 1, 2024 it’s 61%.
Engelbach: We said 62%, so we were wrong by 1%.
Shinnerl: And I said something completely wrong about something else. So yes, just to set the record. And all of our federal agencies have the same rate. Nothing different for NIH.
Croughan: It’s a really detailed, really challenging (in terms of the amount of work you have to do) documentation of exactly what our costs are down to: the number of light bulbs, what’s your Pacific Gas and Electric bill every month and breaking it down. It’s a little frustrating that you go through that every three years. It takes a lot of time and effort, and then now they’re trying to discount it.
The above transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Written by: The Editorial Board
