World Food Center to Sacramento Not a Done Deal Yet
Chancellor Announces Advisory Group, No Decision Made on WFC – UC Davis, less than a week after…
Analysis: Davis to Lose World Food Center?
A few weeks ago the buzz starting to leak out was that the World Food Center was…
UC Davis Vice Chancellor John Meyer to Step Down
Late on Monday, the Vanguard learned that UC Davis Vice Chancellor John Meyer will step down from…
Details Emerge of Alleged Hate Incident, Police Misconduct in March 6 UC Davis Arrest
Last night at the Davis Human Relations Commission meeting, students expanded on a police incident that occurred…
UC Davis Whistleblower Case About to Go to Trial After More than Four Years
It was September, 2009, when the Vanguard first published the account of Janet Keyzer, who filed suit…
Report: UC Davis West Village Sets the Standard
By UC Davis News Service
The University of California at Davis, West Village, the nation’s largest planned zero net energy community, racks up an impressive list of achievements in its initial year of review. The first formal analysis of West Village shows that, even in its initial phases, it is well on the way to the ultimate goal of operating as a ZNE community.
The report released today from UC Davis, and its partner West Village Community Partnership LLC, outlines major milestones including West Village producing 87 percent of the energy it consumed in a one-year period — well in advance of the project’s full completion.
Roger Beachy To Head New World Food Center At UC Davis
by UC Davis News Service
by UC Davis News Service
Charged with linking transformative research with partnerships to address challenges and opportunities at the intersection of food, agriculture and health, acclaimed plant biologist Roger Beachy Thursday was named founding director of the new World Food Center at the University of California, Davis.
Mr. Beachy, internationally known for his scientific leadership and groundbreaking research related to disease-resistance in crops, will assume the new position Jan. 1.
Commentary: Workers’ Compensation Award of Pike Much Criticized
When former UC Davis Police Lieutenant John Pike received a workers’ compensation award that was greater than the payout to his victims, the Vanguard wrote that the payout makes both a mockery of the system and the incident.
The Vanguard was not alone in its indignation.
My View: Civilian Police Review Should Not be a Four-Letter Word
It is interesting that this month saw both the culmination of the worker’s compensation process for former UC Davis Police Lieutenant John Pike, as well as the presentations last week of the UC Davis Police Oversight Plan, which are part of the outgrowth of the pepper-spray incident that has its dubious second-year anniversary coming up in just under one month.
“At UC Davis there has been a serious breach of trust between the UCDPD and the campus community,” the report on the oversight plan indicates. “The establishment of oversight is an important step in working to build a bridge to restore trust between the police and the campus community. To have credibility, oversight must be visible and must be a strong, effective model.”
Commentary: Pike Worker’s Compensation Payout Makes Mockery of System, Incident
Apparently an administrative law judge has taken the old adage – this hurts me more than it hurts you – to a new a level when deciding to award Lt. John Pike 38,056 dollars. Lt. Pike filed a worker’s compensation claim in which he claimed depression and anxiety brought on by threats and criticism he and his family received following the infamous November 18, 2011, incident on the UC Davis Quad.
On the other hand, 21 students settled their claims against the university, related to Lt. Pike’s decision to pepper spray protesters on that November 18 day, for a mere $30,000 each. The university admitted to no wrongdoing in that dispute. They deny and “continue to deny each and all of the claims alleged by Plaintiffs in the Litigation. Defendants contend that they acted reasonably and in good faith.”
UC Davis Unveils Police Oversight Plan
In the wake of the pepper-spray incident in November 2011 and the subsequent settlement of the lawsuit with pepper-spray victims, UC Davis in the last week has released a report and a plan to implement a two-part program modeled on other successful police oversight programs across the country. This would be “comprised of an oversight board with members selected from the UC Davis community, and an independent civilian investigative division that will investigate complaints of misconduct filed against UC Davis police officers.”
This differs somewhat from the program that the city of Davis implemented in late 2007 with the hiring of Police Auditor (originally designated as Police Ombudsman) Robert Aaronson.
UC Davis Officials Investigating Incident as Hate Crime
Limited details are available at present in an incident that happened on Sunday morning on the UC Davis campus. Officials are describing it as “a series of crimes that range from vandalism to breaking and entering.”
“To date, we are aware of seven campus facilities and several parked cars that were damaged, including 31 broken windows,” Chancellor Linda Katehi wrote in a letter to the “Campus Community.” She noted, “In the course of these acts, a hateful racial slur was written on a blackboard.”
Commentary: UC Just Can’t Help Itself
Here we go again. UC Davis officials are once again putting symbolism over substance. Reeling from a string of PR hits, the university is now making a very expensive investment in improvement of their image. This week, they announced the hiring of Luanne Lawrence, formerly of the University of South Carolina, as associate chancellor for strategic communications.
The Sacramento Bee on Monday reported that her salary will be $260,000 – which is more than any other campus communications chief in the entire UC system.
Garamendi Reluctantly Voted For Student Loan Compromise
A few weeks after allowing a deadline to pass that would have substantially increased interest rates – from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent – on July 1 for student loans, a bipartisan bill was introduced that supporters say will reduce the cost of borrowing for millions of students.
The legislation will link student loan interest rates to the financial markets. That means lower rates for students right now, but higher ones down the road. The measure passed the house 392-31 and will head for President Barack Obama for his signature.
Commentary: UC Remains Tone Deaf and Blind on Salaries
University of California students might be forgiven if they are a bit cynical. After all, for years now they have been asked to pay an increasingly larger share of the burden of their education. Much of that money will be repaid later severalfold as students struggle under an avalanche of debt that the leadership in Congress has failed to address and has at times made worse.
Still, I think that most students could probably understand that, as the natural outcome of the worst recession since the Great Depression, this is a state that continues to teeter on the brink of budget crisis and overall malaise – if only that burden seemed to be shared evenly across all comers to the UC System.
Pike Filed Worker’s Compensation Claim For Pepper-Spray Incident
Former UC Davis Lt. John Pike filed a worker’s compensation claim for injuries suffered on November 18, 2011, during the incident in which he doused protesters with pepper spray on the UC Davis Quad.
While much of the information remains confidential, protected under privacy and other rights, the form indicates that the impact was “psychiatric” and affected the “nervous system.”
Court Orders Release of Pepper Spray Officer Names Arguing Not Covered Under POBR
In May of 2012, following the release of the Kroll Report and the Cruz Reynoso Task Force report with the names of police officers redacted, the Los Angeles Times and Sacramento Bee argued that the public and press interests were not represented in the agreement to suppress the names of officers who were involved.
In a case that is likely destined for the state’s Supreme Court, the First Appellate District, Division Four, ruled in favor of the newspapers and ordered the release of the names of 12 officers named in the two reports commissioned by the University of California Regents.
Analysis: Mixed Reaction to Napolitano’s Appointment
While the public and the activist class has weighed in on the appointment of former Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano to become the next president of the University of California, the major newspapers in California are split, sometimes within themselves, on whether it was a good move, a desperate move, or a disaster.
One area of concern was the process, with the LA Times asking how we can tell if this is a good choice or not, based on the limited search process that went on.
Board of Regents Formally Appoints Napolitano to Be UC’s First Woman President
Controversial and Polarizing Figure Set to Head Largest Public University System in Late September – The UC Board of Regents on Thursday formalized the move that was reported first last week by the Los Angeles Times and sparked a wave of controversy in both progressive and conservative circles, appointing Janet Napolitano, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a two-term governor of Arizona, as the 20th president of the University of California.
Ms. Napolitano, the first female president in UC’s 145-year history, succeeds Mark G. Yudof, who steered the university through the depths of California’s financial crisis that led to sharp cutbacks in state support for public higher education.
Napolitano to Become New UC President, Resigns as Homeland Security Chief
The Los Angeles Times is reporting this morning that Janet Napolitano, “the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona, is being named as the next president of the University of California system, in an unusual choice that brings a national-level politician to a position usually held by an academic.”
The appointment would mean that a woman would head up the nation’s premier public higher education system for the first time in its 145 year history.