UC Davis News: Students

Community center creates welcome at heart of campus

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Arms flung out, Erica Kelly twirled around in a lime green chair.

Kelly, a junior at the University of California, Davis, was relishing the bright new space for student life programs and academic resources in the $22 million Student Community Center that opened its doors this week.

"I have this elated feeling," said Kelly, who is a peer educator with the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center on the building's ground floor. "The center says we value the community and these student groups," added the food science and technology major from San Jose.

The almost 43,000-gross-square-foot center fulfills a vision of UC Davis students to build a facility to demonstrate and help the campus live out its Principles of Community — a commitment to being a learning environment that values diversity and is characterized by understanding and acceptance of all people. In referenda in 1999 and 2002, students approved paying additional fees for the purpose.

Located at a central intersection bustling with bicyclists and pedestrians, the two-story stucco and terra cotta building brings together student life programs that had been located in inadequate or out-of-the-way spaces. It fronts a planned pedestrian promenade between the main library and a bus terminal.

"We wanted to create synergy and collaboration," said Associate Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro of Students Affairs, who helped guide plans for the building. "It's a place to study and get connected and get involved with campus communities."

The large, welcoming lobby — open beyond the second floor to generous skylights — leads to the glass fronts of the LGBT Resource Center, the Cross Cultural Center, and the Student Recruitment and Retention Center. The upper floor includes a multipurpose room, computer classrooms and the Undergraduate Research Center. The building also includes outreach offices for ethnic studies programs and the Women's Resources and Research Center.

Features include an extended-hours study room, meetings rooms, open lounge and study space, a small café, a reflection room overlooking an exterior water feature, two outdoor balconies, traditional and gender-neutral restrooms, and a lactation room.

Coming soon will be murals at the community center's two main entrances. Malaquias Montoya, a professor emeritus of the Chicana/o Studies Program and Art Studio, will paint a mural that begins on the outside of the building and carries through its south entrance to the inside of the building.

Students in a Mexican and Chicano mural workshop will create a smaller mural, this one outside the north door. Malaquias Montoya's son, Maceo Montoya, an assistant professor of Chicana/o studies, leads the workshop.

Project funding — construction and operating expenses — is largely from student fees authorized by student referenda: 1999's Facilities and Campus Enhancement Initiative, or FACE, and 2002’s Campus Expansion Initiative, or CEI. The budget also includes student service fees and campus investment funds.

A ceremony to officially dedicate the building is planned for May 18.

Doors open to more than 2,000 students at first community college center on UC campus

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Sacramento City College and statewide college and university officials will gather today (Jan. 11) for the dedication of the newly completed Sacramento City College Davis Center at UC Davis West Village. The Davis Center will open its doors to more than 2,000 students on Jan. 14, and is the first community college extension built on a University of California campus.

While in recent years a nationwide trend had seen universities offering courses leading to bachelor’s degrees on community college campuses, this project marks a new direction for collaboration between higher education institutions in California. Last fall, about 160 students transferred from SCC to UC Davis.

UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi said the new center is emblematic of the ways UC Davis is working to make it easier for California community college students to transfer to UC Davis. "We want to build bridges," she said. "I know this center will become that bridge for more and more students."

SCC President Kathryn Jeffery said of the transfer possibilities for SCC students: “Our new center enhances educational opportunities for SCC students and creates a stronger likelihood that they will move more seamlessly into UC Davis or another four-year university.”

Phase one of the SCC Davis Center spans 20,000 square feet and includes a learning resource center, computer lab, classrooms, and administrative and student services spaces. Future phases of the SCC Davis Center will include additional classrooms, a bookstore and laboratory spaces.

UC Davis' Katehi said the center's place on campus "also underscores the strong spirit of partnership that helped create West Village as a model of sustainability and innovation."

UC Davis West Village is the largest planned zero net energy community in the country, designed to generate as much energy as it consumes in the course of a year. The community includes housing for students, faculty and staff; a recreation center; and commercial space.

“West Village offers a unique environment for students: close to the student culture and activities at UC Davis, close to the many exciting projects of the Energy Efficiency Center, and in the midst of a neighborhood that is itself a living laboratory,” said Don Palm, dean of the SCC Davis Center.

In addition to high-tech, sustainable spaces and flexibility for future programs, the SCC Davis Center is designed to LEED Silver certification standards. LEED certified facilities are designed, constructed and operated using a more sustainable approach.

Construction for the $7.4 million center is funded by the Los Rios Community College District with Measure A bond proceeds, as approved by Sacramento voters in the 2002 election.

The center’s strategic presence on the UC Davis campus comes as a timely homage to the California Master Plan for Higher Education, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. The 1960 document provided a framework for the concerted growth of community colleges as well as University of California and California State University campuses.

When galaxy clusters collide

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

A UC Davis graduate student who is leading a study of the collision of galaxy clusters 5 billion light years away will discuss the team’s findings today, Jan. 10, in a press briefing at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.

“A galaxy cluster is like a little universe, because it has the same matter composition as the whole universe,” said William Dawson, a Ph.D. candidate in physics. “By studying this little universe, we can learn more about our own.”

This “little universe” is formally called DLSCL J0916.2+2951 and consists of two clusters of hundreds of galaxies each, in the process of merging into one.

It is nicknamed Perry’s Cluster, after team member Perry Gee, a UC Davis research scientist who discovered it. It is similar to another merging cluster — the Bullet Cluster — but relatively further along in its development.

Perry’s Cluster comprises about 86 percent dark matter, 12 percent superheated gas and 2 percent actual stars. Those proportions are similar to the distribution of mass in the universe as a whole, Dawson said.

Dark matter is thought to interact very little, if at all, with “regular” matter and does not emit light. But it does exert a gravitational pull on light passing through or near it, distorting the image of distant objects — rather like looking through the bottom of a glass bottle.

Dawson and colleagues mapped the visible galaxies in Perry’s Cluster by using the Hubble Space Telescope, the 8-meter Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, the 4-meter Mayall Telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona and the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, and the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory for the super-hot gas.

And, with the Hubble, Subaru and Mayall telescopes, the researchers mapped the dark matter by observing distortions in light passing through the cluster from more distant objects — a method called weak gravitational lensing.

The map revealed that the two galaxy clusters within Perry’s Cluster had passed through each other — the spaces between the galaxies within the clusters are so vast that actual collisions are unlikely — and that most of the dark matter also had passed through without collision.

Not so with the gas clouds — they had collided and become stuck between the clusters, making a huge cloud of gas a thousand times hotter than the surface of the sun.

“Because these mergers separate the various matter components of the cluster, they provide astronomers with dissection of the cosmos that would otherwise be impossible,” Dawson said.

By comparing and contrasting the behavior of the dark matter to that of the galaxies and gas in the merging cluster, physicists can rule out some theories about dark matter’s properties.

The energy of these merging clusters is incomprehensibly large, Dawson said — a million-million times bigger than a supernova. Only a handful have been studied to date.

The cluster is the most advanced of these merging clusters yet seen, Dawson said. Every great advance in our understanding of the physical world is the direct result of understanding how things change with time, so the hope is that by observing clusters at different stages of merging, astronomers can gain insight into the physics involved, he said.

UC Davis colleagues who joined Dawson in his work include Associate Professor David Wittman; project scientist M. James Jee; Professor J. Anthony Tyson; postdoctoral researchers Samuel Schmidt, Paul Thorman and Brian Lemaux; and Assistant Professor Marusa Bradac.
Other team members: John Hughes of Rutgers University; Satoshi Miyazaki and Yousuke Utsumi of The Graduate University for Advanced Studies Tokyo; and Vera Margoniner, California State University, Sacramento.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration supported the work through the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center and through a grant from Space Telescope Science Institute.

UC Davis reaches $750 million fundraising milestone

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The University of California, Davis, announced today that it has raised more than $750 million from more than 85,000 donors — putting the campus three-quarters of the way toward the $1 billion goal set for its first comprehensive fundraising campaign.

“I am grateful to the generosity of the many thousands of donors who have shown their support, pride and trust in our great university for the benefit of our students, faculty members, researchers and innovative programs,” said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. “This support will help ensure that UC Davis can continue to grow its vision of excellence and remain one of the nation’s top public research universities in the face of uncertain economic times.”

The Campaign for UC Davis was publicly launched in October 2010 with a goal of bolstering student scholarships and financial aid, faculty support, research programs, campus facilities, patient care and other priority needs. The campaign is expected to last through 2014.

“I’d like to thank all those who have supported The Campaign for UC Davis,” said Shaun B. Keister, vice chancellor for development and alumni relations. “It is an extraordinary achievement to reach this milestone a little more than one year into the four-year public phase of this fundraising campaign. This important milestone gives us the momentum we need to reach our $1 billion goal by December 2014.”

So far the campaign has generated more than $100 million for student support, including direct financial aid, research opportunities and improved facilities and programs. The funds provide critical support that enables UC Davis to continue to attract the best and brightest students from throughout the region, state and world.

In addition, 43 endowed chairs and professorships have been established during the campaign.

More than 89 percent of the gifts received to date were for less than $1,000. More than 130 donors gave $1 million or more. The donors come from all over the nation and around the world.

The campaign’s philanthropic highlights include:

The largest single contribution to UC Davis was a $100 million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in 2007, received during the campaign's quiet leadership phase. This philanthropic grant launched the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, located on the UC Davis Sacramento campus, which admitted its inaugural class in 2010.
The largest alumni gift came from Maurice and Marcia Gallagher who contributed $10 million in 2007 to name Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. Hall, the home of the Graduate School of Management, and to establish an endowment for the MBA program. Gallagher, a 1971 graduate, is the chairman and CEO of Allegiant Travel Co., a commercial airline and travel company based in Las Vegas.
The largest endowment for student support was through the estate of Theodora Peigh, a Reno resident and animal lover. The $10.7 million endowment has created hundreds of scholarships for students in the School of Veterinary Medicine.
Overall, during the 2010-11 fiscal year, donors committed more than $117.6 million in philanthropic support to UC Davis, marking the fifth year in a row that contributions to the university exceeded $100 million. Kevin Bacon, chair of the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees, said the broad show of support demonstrates how many people recognize the importance of the work UC Davis is doing to improve the lives of all.

“The campaign is allowing the university to connect, engage and deepen relationships with thousands of people in a way that matters to them and benefits the future of California,” said Bacon, a 1972 graduate. “I’m extremely proud to be part of a campaign that is making the entire world aware of the tremendous contributions UC Davis is making to solve many of our most pressing problems.”

UC Davis offers innovative new majors, minors

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Responding to increased student interest in sustainability, UC Davis this fall introduced a new major, sustainable agriculture, and a new minor, sustainability in the built environment. The innovative fields of study are among an array of new undergraduate and graduate programs planned for the campus, which is known as one of the nation’s most comprehensive universities.

“UC Davis is innovating in response to the evolving interests of students and faculty in ways that will enable us to better achieve our mission of addressing society’s most critical issues,” said Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Ralph Hexter. “Our curriculum is dynamic and innovative — and will be even more so in the decade ahead, as we increase undergraduate student enrollment and add several hundred new faculty.”

Also new this fall: a minor in human rights and a doctoral program in communication. A master's degree in professional accountancy, now in the final states of review, is expected to admit students for fall 2012. And beginning in fall 2013, the university will offer new master’s and doctoral programs in the study of religion.

Meanwhile, the UC Davis Office of Graduate Studies is tracking proposals for about 15 additional new graduate programs.

"UC Davis is the most academically innovative campus in the University of California system, and one of the most innovative anywhere," said Jeffrey Gibeling, dean of graduate studies, who oversees proposals for graduate and professional degree programs as they move through campus and University of California approvals.

Today, UC Davis offers about 90 graduate programs, 100 majors and 108 minors.

But students don’t need to limit themselves to one field of study. UC Davis prides itself on its interdisciplinary programs, which give students the freedom to explore outside traditional disciplines and areas of research.

According to Gibeling, about two-thirds of the graduate programs at UC Davis are offered as interdisciplinary graduate groups, a greater proportion than at any other UC campus.

Patricia Turner, vice provost for undergraduate studies, said new academic programs reflect a need or interest among students, graduate schools or employers.

"Changes in curriculum signify our institution keeping up with what is going on in society," she said.

Proposals for undergraduate majors come through individual colleges and are vetted by committees of the Academic Senate as well as the Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors. In times of budget constraint, majors might be developed from existing courses, build on an existing minor or leverage external funding.

For example, a $180,000 federal grant helped build a Middle East/South Asia major in 2008 from a minor. This year, the program will establish its first visiting lecturer in Iranian/Persianate studies, a move that could be a step toward a minor in Iranian studies.

Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, said the newest undergraduate major, sustainable agriculture and food systems, reflects a change in how scientists think about food and agriculture. The major will provide students with a multidisciplinary understanding of issues facing modern farming and food systems.

The new undergraduate minor in human rights is a combined effort of the Department of History, the Religious Studies Program and other academic units. It encourages students to link their major fields of study with the history, theory, practice and promotion of human rights.

The sustainability in the built environment minor, offered though the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will educate those who will design and maintain human-made surroundings in the challenges and potential solutions for improved sustainability.

Frank Loge, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the UC Davis Center for Water-Energy Efficiency, helped create the minor.

"So much of sustainability requires people from different disciplines to work together," he said. "This minor creates the opportunity for an array of disciplines to come together to design things for the built environment."

A total of 32,654 students started classes at UC Davis this fall.

By 2020, UC Davis expects to add 5,000 additional undergraduates, part of a plan announced by Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi during fall convocation to achieve financial stability and bring 300 new faculty to campus.

UC Davis gets $4 million grant to create poverty research center

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The University of California, Davis, has received $4 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Center for Poverty Research — one of only three such centers nationwide designated to study the causes and effects of and policies aimed at addressing poverty in the United States.

The interdisciplinary center, led by UC Davis economics professors Ann Huff Stevens and Marianne Page, will promote research and education on poverty, with an emphasis on labor markets and poverty; health and education programs; the transmission of poverty from one generation to another; and immigration’s role in poverty. The grant, administered through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, will be spread over five years, with $800,000 distributed each year.

“We are facing some of the country’s biggest challenges since the Great Depression,” said George R. Mangun, dean of the Division of Social Sciences at UC Davis. “We have more people living in poverty now than at any time in almost 70 years. Yet, we have one of the most powerful economies in the world, and our country’s higher education system is the envy of the entire world. With centers such as the new Center for Poverty Research at UC Davis, we can transform society.”

Besides UC Davis, national poverty research centers are located at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"Being chosen to lead one of only three national poverty research centers in the country is a tremendous recognition of our faculty's intellectual capacity, and of the excellence and multidisciplinary breadth of their research," said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. "Their efforts will help to inform and guide research and public policy around this most urgent issue."

The center’s research will draw on the expertise of scholars across campus and involve faculty, graduate and undergraduate students. In addition to funding research and outreach, the grant will help establish a freshman seminar in poverty to encourage students early in their college careers to consider poverty as a field of study.

“UC Davis is home to an incredibly productive group of researchers working on poverty. The center will build connections across campus that further strengthen this research, support the training of students to continue this research agenda and provide an improved structure for sharing our critical findings with other researchers, policymakers and the public,” said Stevens, who chairs the Department of Economics and will direct the new center.

UC Davis was chosen because of its strength in research on poverty and related issues. Among recent findings:

Impacts of the Great Recession are not uniform across demographic groups — the recession’s effects have been felt most strongly by men, black and Hispanic workers, youth and undereducated workers.
Infant health improves when disadvantaged pregnant women have access to government assistance, such as supplemental nutrition programs or the Earned Income Tax Credit.
Providing information about college admission requirements to disadvantaged high school students early in their high school careers can substantially improve the odds that they apply to and enroll in college.
Long-term declines in real wages in the U.S. during the past several decades have made it significantly more difficult for the working poor to escape poverty.
In contrast to prior research, immigrants do not reduce the well-being of low-wage U.S. workers and may actually stimulate the economy.

The grant calls for the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research to fund poverty research projects at other educational institutions, as well as finance graduate and undergraduate poverty research and study.

The research of the center can help identify which anti-poverty programs work and what the long-term effects of high poverty are likely to be for future generations, Stevens said. The research will also help to inform policymakers, she added.

Stevens, who will direct the center, is chair of the economics department and has conducted extensive research on poverty and labor issues, particularly how job loss affects individuals and families. Her recent work considers the relationship among job loss, unemployment and health. The center’s deputy director, Marianne Page, served from 2005 to 2010 as director of Economy, Justice and Society, an interdisciplinary program at UC Davis involving faculty in the departments of economics and sociology, and the school of education. Stevens and Page are both research associates with the National Bureau of Economic Research.

“It is critical that we study the ramifications of this country’s increasing poverty so that we, as a nation, can create change for a healthier and more prosperous society,” Mangun added. “This new center will provide the knowledge and understanding we need to put the next generation ahead, as our parents did for us.”

Oct. 15 UC Davis West Village ribbon-cutting and open house

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Oct. 15, Saturday — UC Davis West Village, the largest planned zero net energy community in the United States, will hold an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate completion of its first 315 apartments, recreation center and village square. The celebration, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., will feature speakers, tours and a barbecue. All events are free and open to the public.

“UC Davis West Village is a tremendous achievement — something that all of us on campus and in our region can take great pride in,” said John Meyer, vice chancellor of Administrative and Resource Management. “It has been achieved with a network of open spaces, parks, gardens, pathways and courtyards that provide the high quality of place and community that Davis is known for. We invite everyone to come out and experience this remarkable community for themselves."

Phase I of the community's construction has generated some 300 jobs and created new apartments that currently house 846 students, faculty and staff. Phase I also includes the Sacramento City College Davis Center, the first community college satellite on a University of California campus.

The first phase provides 42,500 square feet of retail and commercial space as well. Tenants will include a planned campus energy "uHub," which will aggregate several campus research centers and help facilitate interactions with the private sector in the area of energy research.

Future plans for the development include single-family homes for faculty and staff, housing that will help the university to recruit and retain top employees who can live locally and participate fully in the life of the campus and community. A site is also reserved for a day care center.

The day’s events will begin in the UC Davis West Village Square, where tent exhibits will be on display. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 10:15 a.m., followed by remarks from representatives of the university and developer, among other speakers. At 11 a.m., the barbecue will begin, and members of the public can tour model apartments, the recreation center, observation deck and future retail space.

Throughout the event, participants will learn about:

The energy-efficient features that will help UC Davis West Village to achieve its zero net energy goal and allow residents to live not only sustainably, but also comfortably. Zero net energy means that the community will generate as much energy as it consumes in the course of a year.
The innovative public-private partnerships among UC Davis, West Village Community Partners and others involved in the creation of the community.
Sacramento City College Davis Center, which opens to its first students in January.

For more information, call (530) 754-2262.

Symposia: soap, health and the environment; bugs and breast milk

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The potential downsides of fragrances in personal care products, and microbes, milk and the infant gut, will be the topics of two student-run symposia at UC Davis in September. Both events, including nationally recognized experts, are the outcomes of yearlong collaborative research projects by student teams.

On Monday, Sept. 12, undergraduates in the CLIMB program will hold a workshop on “The infant gut microbiome: prebiotics, probiotics and establishment” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in room 1022 of the Life Sciences Addition on the UC Davis campus.

Recent research shows that healthy gut microbes are important for healthy babies. In fact, UC Davis scientists recently showed that one of the major components of breast milk does not directly nourish the baby but feeds a type of gut microbe, Bifidobacteria, which in turn produces nutrients that feed other microbes.

Speakers will include Ruth Ley, assistant professor of microbiology at Cornell University, and Professor David Relman of Stanford University as well as professors Jonathan Eisen, Bruce German and Mark Underwood from UC Davis.

The following Friday, Sept. 16, graduate students in the REACH training program will present a workshop on “Fragranced personal care products and environmental change” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., again in 1022 Life Sciences.

Use of fragrance chemicals in soaps, shampoos and lotions has become widespread in the past decade, but research on their impact on health and the environment has lagged behind. As part of their training, the students in the program have conducted a yearlong research project on how people in the U.S. perceive these products.

At the workshop, the trainees and experts from academia, government agencies, nonprofits and the private sector will discuss their perspectives on fragrance chemicals in personal care products and how to investigate other nascent environmental issues.

Speakers include Anne Steinemann, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and public affairs, University of Washington; Professor David Epel, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University; Dan Schlenk, professor of aquatic ecotoxicology, UC Riverside; Rik Rasmussen, Water Resources Control Board; and Rebecca Sutton, Environmental Working Group. Representatives from the Personal Care Products Council and Research Institute for Fragrance Materials are also expected to attend.

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the CLIMB (Collaborative Learning at the Interface of Mathematics and Biology) program exposes a small group of undergraduates in mathematics and biology to a wide range of tough scientific problems that draw on both disciplines.

The REACH program is an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, also sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It supports UC Davis graduate students studying scientific and social issues related to rapid environmental change.

Both workshops are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Carole Hom, clhom@ucdavis.edu.

Arming Middle Eastern college students with scholarship skills

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

As uprisings continue in the Middle East, a UC Davis professor plans to travel to the region later this year to train young Middle Eastern graduate students in how to advocate for change through research and public policy.

Suad Joseph, a professor of anthropology and women and gender studies, will lead a team of international scholars from six countries to train approximately 25 students a year during a two-year period to write proposals and learn scientific research methods. The course will begin with intensive workshops lasting four to five days. The training will draw students from Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine and will take place in Cairo and Beirut.

“This is truly an international effort. It’s very important, especially at this time in world events, to train these young people how to identify researchable questions, thoroughly formulate the plan for data gathering, then carry out the research and data analysis and finally to publish, disseminate and engage in policymaking,” said Joseph, who also is founding director of the UC Davis Middle East/South Asia Studies Program. “We need to bring these scholar-activists together to help them develop the skills for evidence-based analysis, which can inform public policy and change. This will help them have an informed impact on their countries and the world.”

Each student will be assigned a mentor from among the international group of faculty to guide them for one year through the proposal-writing and submission process and to help them carry out their research and write up their results. The second year, a new group of students will be trained, with some of the first-year students returning to mentor their fellow students.

Joseph said teaching research skills to future Arab leaders is critical now, as 60 to 70 percent of the population in Arab countries is 29 or younger. Students in the program will be trained in writing, problem-solving, critical thinking and proposal-writing — all in English — so that their work can be funded and shared throughout the world.

“We help them identify and develop a key idea: If you are well-trained in writing a research proposal, you have the skills to market an idea. Knowing how to market an idea with evidence-based research empowers the young to work more rigorously for change,” Joseph said. “We want to share this model of knowledge-making to help train young scholars and activists to become disciplined data-gatherers, sophisticated theory-makers and scientific change leaders.”

The project is a continuation of the work of 16 interdisciplinary scholars from six countries who make up The Arab Families Working Group, which focuses on expanding knowledge and research of the Arab world by working with families and youth, core institutions of the Arab world.

AFWG was founded by Joseph in 2001 and is co-hosted at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and UC Davis. UC Davis AFWG scholars include Omnia El Shakry, an associate professor of history, and two of Joseph’s former students — Nadine Naber, now an associate professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Zeina Zaatari, now program officer for the Middle East and North Africa, Global Fund for Women. Other AFWG members come from England, the Netherlands, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine.

In a greater effort to share knowledge of the Arab world, the research the students produce in the current project will be posted, along with past and current research and resources, on the AFWG website: http://www.afwg.info. Much of the knowledge, history and theories about the Arab world have been written in the western hemisphere, Joseph explained. “We are strongly committed to the idea that theory can and should be produced locally.”

The project is funded in part with a $150,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. AFWG has received more than $1.5 million in outside support since 2001, including grants from the International Development Research Center, the Population Council, UNICEF, the American University in Cairo and UC Davis.

Judge rules UC Davis did not discriminate against female wrestlers

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A federal judge today (Aug. 3) ruled that the University of California, Davis, did not discriminate against female wrestlers 10 years ago.

In a 147-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. rejected plaintiffs’ claims that the university eliminated a women’s wrestling team or treated female wrestlers unfairly. He also dismissed claims that four university leaders had discriminated against the women on the basis of their gender.

In regard to the athletics program in general, Damrell found that UC Davis did not meet all the criteria for compliance under “Prong 2” of the test used to determine compliance with Title IX, a federal law intended to ensure equal athletic opportunity for male and female students. Prong 2 calls for a history and practice of expanding intercollegiate athletic opportunities for women.

However, Damrell wrote that the university and its leaders “had the best interests of all their students at heart,” and properly handled the complaints made by plaintiffs in the spring of 2001.

The students had claimed that the university denied them the opportunity to participate in intercollegiate wrestling, in violation of Title IX and the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

“Plaintiffs were not cut from the men’s team because of their sex,” Damrell wrote in his ruling. “Rather, plaintiffs were cut … because, like the other male student-athletes who did not make the roster, they could not compete at the Division I, PAC-10 level in intercollegiate men's wrestling.”

In his decision, Damrell recognized UC Davis for its history of expanding opportunities for female student-athletes and complimented the expansion of the women’s program to include lacrosse, water polo, rowing, indoor track and golf.

However, he concluded that the campus should have more quickly replaced participation opportunities for women when it discontinued two women’s junior varsity teams in 2000-01. The teams were discontinued at the request of the coaches, due to lack of available competition.

The judge noted that the “Prong 2” issues were difficult to sort out, “particularly in light of the dearth of guidance in this area of the law.”

Nona Richardson, interim athletics director, hailed Damrell’s ruling. “We appreciate the court’s recognition of the challenges faced by universities in complying with Title IX,” she said.

UC Davis today is in compliance with the most rigorous Title IX “prong,” Prong 1, under which schools must provide athletic opportunities for men and women that are “substantially proportionate” to their undergraduate enrollment.

“Judge Damrell’s detailed decision reflects the complicated nature of the law in this area,” said attorney Nancy Sheehan of Porter Scott in Sacramento, who represented the university in the litigation. “Although he found the opportunities that were lost as a result of dropping JV teams should have been replaced sooner, overall his findings reflect what we all know about the UC Davis Athletics program: It is one of the best in the nation.”

“We share Judge Damrell's opinion that there are serious questions about plaintiffs' ability to prove they suffered any actual damages as a result of the Title IX claim,” Sheehan said.

Fred Wood, vice chancellor for Student Affairs, also praised the ruling. “We are gratified, after all these years, at this vindication of our record of supporting equality for all students,” Wood said “UC Davis has long been recognized as a leader in women’s intercollegiate athletics, and Judge Damrell’s decision affirms this.”

The case began in December 2003 with four plaintiffs who objected to having to try out for the wrestling team under the same criteria as male students. Three plaintiffs remained when the case finally reached trial on May 23: Christine Ng, who attended UC Davis from 1998 to 2002; Arezou Mansourian, who was a student from 2000 to 2004; and Lauren Mancuso, who attended from 2001 to 2006.

In addition to accusing the university of violating Title IX, the plaintiffs also leveled accusations of gender discrimination against four campus officials: Larry Vanderhoef, who was chancellor of the university when the plaintiffs were students; Bob Franks, who was senior associate vice chancellor for Student Affairs at the time; Greg Warzecka, former athletics director; and former Associate Athletic Director Pam Gill-Fisher, a nationally respected Title IX champion and member of the Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame.

During the trial, Sheehan argued that the plaintiffs’ demand to be allowed on the wrestling team regardless of their qualifications, based solely on their gender, amounted to a request for preferential treatment.

Christine Grant, one of the nation’s preeminent Title IX experts, had testified that such a demand is antithetical to Title IX.

“I think to say that a young woman has a right to be on a particular team simply because she is a woman is giving that young woman preferential treatment,” Grant, a former athlete and women’s athletic director at the University of Iowa, testified. “And Title IX is not about preferential treatment, it is about equal opportunity.”

Grant’s appearance marked the first time in her long career that she testified on behalf of a school in a lawsuit brought by students.

Between 1995 and 2004, UC Davis added three new women’s sports — lacrosse, water polo and crew — and increased funding for women’s indoor track. The campus later added women’s golf and women’s field hockey. Today UC Davis offers 14 intercollegiate women’s sports and nine men’s sports.

The campus has produced three NCAA Woman of the Year award winners, an accomplishment shared by only a handful of other universities in the country. And Sports Illustrated for Women twice named UC Davis the best NCAA Division II school for women athletes.

Youth support needed to secure future of California’s Capital Region, UC Davis report says

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Sacramento Capital Region can prosper and achieve its full potential only if it drastically improves education, health, civic participation and job opportunities for the region’s young people, according to a UC Davis study commissioned by the Sierra Health Foundation.

The study, “Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions,” is the first in the nation to examine youth health and well-being on a regional scale and across multiple issues, said study leader Jonathan London, a professor of human and community development and director of the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.

The study was released today during a presentation to community leaders and media at the Sierra Health Foundation office in Sacramento.

The two-year research project was funded by the Sierra Health Foundation with additional support from The California Endowment.

“The message we heard over and over again in this research is that there is no greater challenge and no greater potential opportunity for the Capital Region than coming together to care for our young people and for young people themselves to play leadership roles in this effort,” London said.

The report focused on young people ages 12 to 24 in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

It documents disparities in resources and opportunities available to the region’s youth based on their geographic location, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, immigration status and other factors, and offers a startling set of youth statistics for the region:

Graduation rates

Of the approximately 41,000 students who entered ninth grade in 2004, only 66 percent graduated in four years.
In 2008, 9,000 students in the region left high school without graduating, increasing costs for services to support these youth and decreasing their potential earning power.
The estimated lifetime cost for just one year’s high school dropouts in the Capital Region totals $480 million for state and local governments, and more than $1 billion for the federal government.
Cutting the region’s drop-out rate in half would yield $1.5 billion in savings to state and local governments.
Only 28 percent of Latino students and 31 percent of African-American students attend schools with high or very high graduation rates (schools in the region ranked in the top 40 percent for graduation rates).This contrasts with 57 percent for white students and 38 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students.

Higher Education

Among students who graduated from the region’s high schools in 2008, only 23 percent had completed the courses required to enter the University of California or California State University systems, compared with 37 percent statewide.
Only 39 percent of the region’s students entered a public college or university (including four-year and community colleges) within one year of graduation, far fewer than the statewide average of 55 percent.
Fewer than one in 10 middle school students reported high levels of adult encouragement to explore future careers or pursue formal education.

Employment

In 2008, one in five of the Capital Region’s 20- to 24-year-olds were neither enrolled in school nor employed.
Latino and African-American youth are underrepresented in high-growth and high-wage professions in health care and education and overrepresented in retail jobs.
Young people in lower-income areas reported a lack of adult counseling to seek jobs. Latino youths reported lowest levels of such support.

“We hope this study will provide the information needed for sectors throughout our region to determine where investment in young people is needed to ensure their health and well-being, which in turn will allow them to contribute to the region’s ability to remain competitive and prosperous in the global economy,” said Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet Hewitt.

London and his research team, which included faculty experts and graduate and undergraduate students from multiple disciplines, looked at a wide range of census, education, health, employment, voting and other data.

The team also surveyed middle-school youth and conducted in-depth interviews with “adult allies,” including guidance counselors, health providers, teachers and family members. In addition, the study drew on original research conducted by young people in the region.

“The future prosperity of the Capital Region will depend on our ability to prepare young people for success in a challenging and ever-changing economy,” said David Butler, CEO of Linking Education and Economic Development, a Sacramento-based coalition of business, education and government leaders focused on strengthening the region’s economy. “The Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions study is a clear, concise benchmark for the region to help ensure that all of our youth graduate from high school are prepared for the workplace and relevant post-secondary education.”

The 40-page report recommends a wide range of actions, but emphasizes that:

programs aimed at reducing school dropout rates, improving mental and physical health, providing sustained mentoring and increasing quality job opportunities must be better integrated and supported through more effective use and targeting of resources; and
Capital-area leaders need to convene a forum that would bring together youth and adults from across the region to help shape and coordinate regional youth strategies.

The report documents youths’ own commitment to improve community and regional conditions — whether by engaging in social and digital media storytelling, supporting their families and peers, or getting involved in their communities.

“Youth are an unrealized community asset, whose potential for this region is unlimited,” says Pat Fong Kushida, president and CEO of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce. “This study calls for us to take action now on youth-centered and youth-informed policy solutions to ensure our young people are given more opportunities to succeed. From an economic development standpoint, our region needs this more than ever.”

Vacaville Police Chief Richard Word, who reviewed the report and leads a community-based policing approach that emphasizes crime prevention for young people, emphasized the power of youth to improve their lot.

“I’ve seen the positive outcomes that can be achieved when youth are allowed to lead and are exposed to positive opportunities to express themselves,” Word said. “If we can engage youth, I know we can reduce truancy, improve classroom performance and ultimately improve our labor pool, which will result in less crime and safer communities.”

A key challenge facing the region’s youth is mobility, according to the study.

“Many people live their lives regionally as they seek jobs, education, services and recreation, and change their residence frequently as dictated by family crisis or opportunity,” it notes.

These frequent moves put young people at increased risk of dropping out of school, developing mental or physical health problems, becoming pregnant, engaging in crime, and experiencing unemployment, according to the researchers.

While crediting the Sacramento Area Council of Governments for its work to improve transportation planning in the region, the study also points out transportation challenges. The challenges include inadequate sidewalks and bike lanes.

Some youth interviewed for the study reported problems getting to school or work or accessing such services as counseling, health care, tutoring or babysitters in a safe and timely fashion.

Young people of all socioeconomic backgrounds also reported that expensive, infrequent or nonexistent public transportation can leave them socially isolated.

”Our collective research suggests that the Capital Region contains many of the elements necessary to uproot even the most entrenched problems facing young people today,” the report states. “While these young men and women spoke candidly about their doubts, confusion and fears for the future, they also described their deep desire and efforts — which in some cases are truly heroic — to be part of the solution.”

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The University of California, Davis Center for Regional Change is dedicated to producing “research that matters for the region.” To accomplish this, the CRC builds two kinds of bridges. One set is on campus among faculty and students from different disciplines and departments; the other between the campus and its surrounding home regions. These bridges allow us to bring together faculty, students and communities to collaborate on innovative research to create just, sustainable and healthy regions in California’s Central Valley, Sierra Nevada and beyond. Learn more on the center’s website.

Sierra Health Foundation is a private philanthropy with a mission to invest in and serve as a catalyst for ideas, partnerships and programs that improve health and quality of life in Northern California. The foundation is committed to improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities in the region through convening, educating and strategic grant making. Visit Sierra Health’s website.

The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. From 2010-2020, The Endowment will focus the majority of its resources on its 10-year strategic plan, Building Healthy Communities. For more information, visit The Endowment’s website.

UC Davis students, faculty and staff serve hundreds of young people throughout the greater Sacramento area and beyond each year, helping to prepare them for undergraduate school, graduate programs and professional schools. Here is a partial list of the university’s outreach programs.

UC Davis MBA programs to accept GRE or GMAT

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

MBA hopefuls applying to the UC Davis Graduate School of Management may now choose to submit test scores from either the GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test) or the GRE (Graduate Record Examination). The change makes the application process accessible to candidates from a wider array of backgrounds and interests as they consider graduate education.

The school is currently accepting admissions applications for this fall to the UC Davis Working Professional MBA programs in Sacramento and San Ramon in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the change takes effect immediately for prospective candidates considering applying for those programs.

The school will also accept GRE scores for applicants to its full-time MBA program starting with the entering class of 2012.

“For those considering a UC Davis MBA, there is now no need for them to take the GMAT if they have already taken the GRE," said James Stevens, assistant dean of student affairs. “We believe that both the GRE and GMAT are effective standardized tests measuring similar skills and knowledge. Either is just one measure we consider when we evaluate a candidate's ability to thrive academically in our MBA program."

Each fall, the Graduate School of Management welcomes a diverse entering class of about 200 full-time and working professional MBA students at its three campuses in Davis, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.

An increasing number of leading business schools have decided to accept GRE scores for their MBA programs, including Harvard Business School, the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton), Stanford, MIT (Sloan), Yale, NYU (Stern), Dartmouth (Tuck), and the University of Virginia (Darden).

The GMAT is the traditional assessment for candidates for graduate schools of business. It is designed to measure verbal and quantitative skills as well as proficiency in analytical writing, all necessary for success in business education.

The GRE General Test measures the same skills that business schools value in prospective MBA candidates: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills. It has been a standard admissions test for graduate study for those interested in the arts and sciences for nearly 60 years. Like the GMAT, it does not presume advanced knowledge in any specific content area, including business.

Visit the school's website for details on admissions and financial aid: http://www.gsm.ucdavis.edu.

About the UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Established in 1981, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management offers an interactive and collaborative learning environment distinguished by globally visible faculty renowned for their research and teaching, innovative and entrepreneurial students, a rigorous MBA curriculum, strong connections to the business community and prime locations in Northern California’s economic hubs. The UC Davis MBA program is ranked among the top 6 percent in the nation by US News & World Report. The Economist ranks the school’s faculty No. 3 in the world; and The Financial Times ranks UC Davis among the top 10 percent of accredited business schools worldwide. The Aspen Institute's Center for Business Education recognizes the school among the best in the world for integrating issues of social and environmental stewardship into curricula and research.