Students provide tips on getting around Davis’ confusing campus

Navigating campus can be difficult as a new UC Davis student. Roundabouts are confusing and dangerous, everyone is in a panic to find their new classes and buildings seem nearly impossible to find across the vast campus. Quarter after quarter, it becomes easier to make your way around campus, but veterans of this initial struggle gave advice to make your transition in navigating campus for the first time a bit easier.

“I primarily utilize Google Maps to find my new classes,” said Katelin Hermone, a fourth-year design student. “To get around campus, I type in the name of the hall on Google Maps. I would usually go to the classroom the day before I had the class so I wouldn’t have to be navigating on my phone on the day of. I also try to remember where main landmarks are to help me navigate, like remembering where certain streets are. I made a mental note of where California Avenue is because it’s a major road where I happen to have a lot of my classes too.”

Other popular landmarks to note or familiarize yourself with include the Silo, the Memorial Union and Peter J. Shields Library, as many classes and buildings are near these central locations on campus.

Hermone noted that navigating campus when new students arrive has always been stressful and difficult due to the general confusion of most new students who were unfamiliar with the main landmarks of the campus.

“I normally bike around campus to get around,” Hermone said. “But during the first few weeks I avoid biking in busy areas because I know that bike accidents are more prone to happen when people are confused or lost.”

Andrea Tong, a fourth-year psychology major, noted how she continuously utilizes efficiency apps on her phone to help her get around campus during her time in Davis. UC Davis’ campus spans over 5000 acres and different spots on campus can continue to be confusing to find throughout a student’s time at UC Davis.

“I kind of cheat to navigate around campus,” Tong said. “Normally, what I do – especially if I’m concerned about finding my classes on time – is have a picture of a campus map on my phone. This is so helpful when I’m figuring out my schedule so I have enough time to get to my classes. I look at where each of my classes would be on the map and visualize the distance between my classes.”

Tong added that, while it can be confusing at times to navigate the campus at UC Davis, it did get easier over time.

“Everyone at Davis is really helpful and you can always ask around for help or directions,” Tong said. “After your first year at Davis, you definitely get the hang of what kind of classes you’re going to get. If it’s the same kind of class, they usually stay in the same building and that definitely makes it easier to find later on.”

Kris Lee, a fourth-year economics major, also relies on a digital application to help him navigate campus when finding different locations becomes confusing.

“The thing that worked for me the best was the UC Davis campus map,” Lee said. “You just input the building name onto the campus map, and it would use landmarks to help you navigate to your location. Know your landmarks, like the Memorial Union or the Silo. The campus map would help to navigate you to your location based on its proximity to another main building on campus.”

Being a returning student, Lee provided some words of encouragement to individuals who may be concerned about the maze that is the UC Davis campus.  

“Make sure you look both ways before you cross bike paths,” Lee said. “Getting around campus definitely gets easier; it might take some time to get used to things, but once you do, navigating campus becomes easy.”

Written by: Alyssa Hada — features@theaggie.org

Students offer a variety of suggestions for joining the right organization during the first few weeks of school

When coming to campus, many students may hope to find organizations and communities that best fit their professional and personal interests. Almost every student is involved in some form of an organization on campus, and joining an active community can be one of the best ways to grow accustomed to UC Davis.

With over 800 clubs and organizations on campus, it can be difficult for students to find an organization that best fits their interests and needs. Through the Center for Student Involvement, many students find a community and a home in an organization that they invest their time into while at UC Davis. So joining the right organizations can be an extremely important decision for many students and the methods to finding clubs can be crucial.

Mansi Jain, a second-year design major, offered some unconventional methods for finding out more about what organizations UC Davis has to offer. She suggested using social media, as most organizations on campus have Facebook pages to help convey information to those who want to be involved and to create upcoming events to share with the wider public.

“Facebook is one good way to find informational meetings or events coming up,” Jain said. “If you already have a lot of friends at Davis and someone clicks ‘interested’ or ‘going’ on a Facebook event, that shows up on my newsfeed.“

Professors who are involved with or provide resources for clubs can also aid and support students that may be interested in getting more involved.

“Some professors do mass email lists specific to a college or major,” Jain said. “Especially for the design major, we often get emails from professors or advisors that say we have x, y and z clubs with events this week or suggest open positions in clubs that can be applied for.”

While Jain mentioned that she finds information on many upcoming events organically, she emphasized the importance of word of mouth as well. Students that have more experience at UC Davis can offer helpful insight to those that are getting introduced to the community for the first time. Such students have gone through much trial and error to find the organization that fits their needs the best through their time at UC Davis. They can offer more insight into what the community vibe is like.

“I ask a lot of my friends who are involved in clubs for advice on getting more involved, too,” Jain said. “I talk to one of my roommates about this a lot; she’s involved in a lot of business specific clubs on campus, like DWIB [Davis Women in Business], because that’s the field that she’s interested in. I hear a lot about different upcoming events from her. I also ask my friends what kind of clubs they’ve been to and what their experience is like, and that helps me narrow down orgs [siq] that might be interesting to me.”

Alyson Evans, a second year Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior major recommended taking advantage of resources that UC Davis provides to its students in finding out what organizations are available on campus.

“I would definitely go to the club fairs, where a lot of organizations ask you to write down your email to contact you about future events and meetings. If you do you receive emails about upcoming meetings, you should definitely show up,” Evans said. “I also went on one of the UC Davis websites, and typed in keywords that I was interested in like ‘dance.’ From there, I went to their Facebook pages to find more information on the club and to see if they had any upcoming events or meetings.”

Wesley Yu, an UC Davis alumnus, agreed that utilizing unconventional methods on social media can help students find organizations on campus. The social aspect of the different pages has increased communication among students and has allowed streamlined information from interest organizations to reach the general student body.

“A lot of organizations publicize their clubs and events on class pages,” Yu said. “Coming into college as a transfer student, there was a lot of information about upcoming informational sessions on my transfer page. That’s how I initially got involved in the orgs [siq] that I joined. Sharing your interests on social media can also help UC Davis clubs find you. I have a photography account on Instagram with ‘UC Davis’ in the bio, and some of the officers DM’d me to let me know about the organization and to invite me to join.”

Finding and joining an organization sometimes means finding a community, which can feel like a daunting feat. With so many resources offered by UC Davis, and an abundance of students eager to help one another, individuals can definitely find a place where they can grow, either personally or professionally, for the rest of their college careers.  

Written by: Alyssa Hada – features@theaggie.org