2008-2009 GSA External Chair

MAY 19, 2009 BALLOT MEASURES

MAY 19, 2009 BALLOT MEASURES GSHIP TESTIMONIALS LOBBY ASSISTANT CURRENT NEWS UC DAVIS GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOICATION EXTERNAL CHAIR 2008-2009 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 Letter from Brent Laabs December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 Stacey and I went to the Plan Green Conference March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 City-UCD Student Liaison Commission October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 Sustainability Sub-Committee COMMITTEES SHIP HFOC Student Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee

Election Results

Propositions

GSHIP TESTIMONIALS

I have been working on enhancing our health care for the past year. One of my specific focuses has been dependent health care. This work has been featured in the Aggie paper on December 5, 2008 and most recently on June 2, 2009 with the GSHIP testimonial campaigns.

A representative from UCSA will be on campus May 2nd to record video GSHIP testimonials for the campaign for system-wide insurance for graduate students to reduce the cost of the plan and add benefits (such as dependent care). If you are interested in filming your own testimonial what you can do is set up something on an individual laptop and we can upload it onto a website like this one, http://vimeo.com/channels/theedit.

If you decide to do this, please contact Filiberto Nolasco Gomez @ UCSB GSA filiberto@umail.ucsb.edu for additional information.

Some guidelines for filming GSHIP VIDEO GUIDLINES.pdf. You can also complete a written testimonial at GSHIP Testimonial. Please email me if you have any additional questions about this process.

CONTACT ME AT <gsaexternalchair AT ucdavis DOT edu>

Your UC Davis Lobbying Team! From NAGPS Legislative Action Days September 2008 Washington, D.C. Brent Laabs, James Hodgson and Marrah Lachowicz-Scroggins

Marrah in the California State Capitol during UC Day March 2009

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LOBBY ASSISTANT

We've hired Stephanie Guan, 4th year pre-law student (managerial econ major) to fill the position of GSA Lobby Assistant. If you see her around the GSA office, please make sure to say hello!

CURRENT NEWS

Don't forget to vote & join the GSA Facebook!
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22379644840

Marrah Lachowicz-Scroggins, GSA External Chair
Phone: 530-752-5547
FAX: 530-752-5423
Email: gsaexternalchair@ucdavis.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
P: 530.752.6108
F: 530.752.5158
E: gsa@ucdavis.edu
W: gsa.ucdavis.edu

UC DAVIS GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOICATION EXTERNAL CHAIR 2008-2009

Created to keep the UCD GSA up to date with the External Chair activities for 2008-2009 elect, Marrah Lachowicz-Scroggins

June 2008

I went to Arizona State University and met with their external chair to discuss common issues as well as forming a connection through NAGPS. I strongly encouraged them to come to Davis for the NAGPS Western Regional in March 2009. Of the issues we discussed one hot topic was trying to find additional funding resources for travel and research, by asking for local industry & business support.

July 2008

We were denied entrance to the 2008 UCSA Student Congress as we are no longer due paying members. We tried to attend as non-voting observers to make connections with current GSA officers on other UC campuses. However, we were told we were not allowed to participate as attending congress is a privilege of due paying members. During these communications, there was not address to our previous grievances or why our entire campus has decided to leave UCSA... simply put, all they did was ask for our dues.

NAGPS is currently updating the 101 GSA/GSO document, email if you have suggestions for this document.

August 2008

I was appointed the interim CIO/Secretary by the NAGPS Board of Directors. Plans are underway to make the most of NAGPS Legislative Action Days in Washington D.C. next month; September 10-12, 2008.

September 2008

NAGPS Legislative Action Days was this month. Brent Laabs, James Hodgson and I went to D.C. and lobbied on behalf of UC Davis Graduate students by visiting the offices of your local representatives in the house and senate. We also made visits to the house representatives sitting on the immigration and education committees in order to lobby for a national platform allowing more student visas as well as changes in the government student loan structure (lower interest rates and longer borrowing time to match current time to degree).

October 2008

The GSA will supported the efforts of Yolo County to provide early voting on campus. This event was held October 27-31, 2008 in the MU Old Post Office from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM daily.

• Early voting was a total success! We had 2210 voters, up from 1440 in the 2004 election!
  

• Thanks again to all of the graduate student volunteers who assisted in early voting.
  

• A special thanks to Adam Costanzo, the GSA-COD, for helping me with this event & being the GSA point of contact while I was in Minneapolis!

James Hodgson and I attended the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students 22nd Annual Conference, 10-28 to 11-2 at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. James Hodgson will be serving as the Legislative Concerns Coordinator thus primarily responsible for our legislative platform and lobbying activities for the next year. I was "officially" elected as NAGPS Secretary/CIO for the 2008-2009 year by the member schools present at the meeting. With that I am a member of the national board of directors and an officer of the executive council. As Davis is a member school, you can access this information to find out what events we participated in during the meeting and learn more about NAGPS. As NAGPS Secretary/CIO I am working on the conference proceedings which will be complete and available at www.nagps.org once I receive all of the other materials from the NAGPS officers.

Brent and James streamlined the NAGPS Legislative Platform; which is available under GSA Advocacy.

As mentioned in July 2008, NAGPS was currently editing the 101 Ways to Build a GSA/GSO/Have a successful organization. The new version came out at the national conference. If you'd like Ideas on how to build your departmental GSA or would like to look for ideas on how we can improve in this pamphlet, please let us know.

Also at this meeting we finalized the date for the NAGPS Western Regional Conference to be hosted here by the Davis GSA, April 2-4 2009. I am looking to start a planning committee for this event. Please contact me if you are interested.

• PLEASE REMEMBER THAT AS AN NAGPS MEMBER SCHOOL, YOU HAVE ACCESS TO UHC INSURANCE.
  

• THIS IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT TO THOSE WHO CANNOT ENROLL IN SHIP: YOUR DEPENDENTS!!!!

November 2008

James and I are working with California Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (CASFAA) to give a presentation at the annual Graduate & Professional Forum sponsored by the CASFAA Graduate & Professional Issues Committee next month, in Anaheim. If given an opportunity to speak, we will focus on the financial aid portion of our national legislative platform as well as address issues specific to California students during our current state-wide budget crisis and cuts to education funding.

UCSA has a bit on their homepage about how many students were registered to vote. They failed to mention UC Davis and the efforts made here which actually broke student voter registration records, making news. I emailed the office about this a few days ago to remind them that accolades to all UC schools should be placed on their webpage. I don't think that our membership by paying dues is necessary to reflect the wonderful work our undergraduate and graduate students are doing to mobilize awareness about the political effort, primarily as this is good advertisement to bring prospective students to our campus.

NAGPS adopted the 4th Ed of 101 Ways to Build an Effective Graduate‐Professional Student Organization, 101 Ways.pdf

Letter from Brent Laabs

Greetings all,

A major poll, "Californians & Higher Education", was released today by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan non-profit think tank. It has a whole lot of survey data about how Californians feel about the state of the university system. As this can provide some good data that we can use in our state legislative platforms, I thought I should share this with you as soon as possible.

As noted in the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert: "Almost three out of every four parents of children ages 18 and younger say that students have to borrow too much money to go to college and that they're very or somewhat worried about being able to afford a college education for their youngest child. " ... "More than four out of five Californians worry that the state budget crisis will lead to significant cuts in funding for higher education. But more than half of those polled are unwilling to pay higher taxes or increase student fees in order to avoid such cuts."

I'm also noting a few other statistics:

• For each voting bloc - democrat, republican, or independent - the most important issue facing higher ed is rising tuition and fees.
  

• 78% of all Californians believe that a racially diverse student body is very or somewhat important for public colleges and universities (55% very)
  

• 82% of all Californians believe that a economically diverse student body is very or somewhat important for public colleges and universities (57% very)
  

• Over 2/3 of voters believe that college is necessary to be successful, but over 2/3 believe that many do not have the opportunity to attend college.

So there you have it. The PPIC poll is attached, so you can find all of the numbers there. The original source is: http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=848

PPIC higher Ed.pdf

I hope this help you all as you assemble talking points for your California campaigns.

Brent Laabs
Legislative Chair
National Association of Graduate-Professional Students

December 2008

Hired new lobby assistant Stephanie Guan, please see her page for updates on what she has been working on. December was a short month on GSA business due to the holiday/winter break. Mostly working on details for the western regional NAGPS conference. We booked rooms in the MU and we are pricing out block rates at local hotels for our out of state guests.

January 2009

In charge of our special elections committee to fill our executive vacancy(s). Also working with Stephanie, Lobby Asst, to make appointments for lobbying in DC for NAGPS Legislative Action Days which will be the first week in March. Will be starting registration and call for presentations for the western regional NAGPS conference this month. Looking for a few volunteers to assist me on a conference planning committee.

February 2009

Our Lobby Assistant, Stephanie and I have been actively working on planning the Western Regional Conference. I've negotiated a room block and attended the Plan Green Conference on campus to learn about how to plan an eco-friendly event. We have put out a call for proposals through the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students website and Facebook. Francis Hsu generated a conference website to streamline the review process of these proposals as well as student registration. We are looking to finalize our conference schedule in March with the hopes that our campus centers will be able to participate as well as R4 to help teach other graduate student leaders about "green campuses." Next month Erica McKenzie and I will attend the NAGPS Legislative Action Days. Stephanie has spent a majority of this month scheduling our visits to our senators as well as key CA representatives in the house that sit on the education, healthcare and immigration committees in order to focus on issues relevant to graduate student issues both in California and nation-wide.

Stacey and I went to the Plan Green Conference

Stacey with another conference attendee Here we are being Green!We are attending separate sessions to maximize our time and investment

March 2009

NAGPS-Western Regional planning is.... well, going. We've had some issues with our budget and the cost of the room at the MU, which have finally been resolved. We have a great schedule coming along with guests from Teach from America, Interfolio and BetterWorldBooks coming to present. We also plan to feature some of our campus centers to address diversity issues on regional campuses. We plan to give a "Plan Green" seminar to pass on the success of our campus to other schools. Finally, we will have a workshop on mentoring. Registration is still open to all graduate students and we are still accepting proposals.

Erica our GSA Treasurer attended NAGPS-Legislative Action Days March 3-7, 2009. For some key issues we lobbied for on behalf of graduate students, please see LAD 2009 Lobbying.doc for full details. There were roughly 20 students present from all over the country and we had over 70 appointments with representatives from the House and Senate. I also arranged a meeting on our first day with the Committee for Education Funding to discuss relevant issues for higher education funding and discuss possible partnerships for our move forward on some language for the "time to degree" issue.

Team-California scheduled 15 appointments during our 2 lobby days!
(2 reps from UC Davis and 2 reps from Stanford)
CA Senator Barbara Boxer
CA Rep. Ann Eshoo
CA Rep. Jerry Lewis
CA Rep. Dan Lungren
CA Rep. Mary Bono Mack
CA Rep. Zoe Lofgren
CA Senator Diane Feinstein
CA Rep. Mike Honda
CA Rep. Doris Matsui
CA Rep. Joe Baca
CA Rep. Pete Stark
CA Rep. Linda Sanchez
CA Rep. Adam Schiff
CA Rep. Buck McKeon
CA Rep. Howard Berman

We also had 5 unscheduled cold-call visits!

Stephanie, Malaika and I attended UC Day March 10, 2009. We had a delegates meeting in the morning to discuss the budget issues relevant to how the UC system is funded by the state government. We were given lobbying packets and set appointments for the day to meet with legislative staffers. This year, the UC's were asked to keep the appointment groups small therefore Stephanie and I were only assigned to two lobby visits. During these visits we were requested to focus on the budget. If you'd like to see any of the materials given to us, please email me or see UC Day Highlights. We also attended a lunch with a speech given by President Yudof emphasizing the importance of the UC system to the state of California and a dinner with an excellent speech by Chancellor Vanderhoef who was awarded by many local and national legislators for his service to UC Davis.

Stephanie (GSA Lobby Assistant) and Marrah on the steps of the California State Capitol UC Day 2009

April 2009

The NAGPS WRC went fairly smoothly; we had about 25 registrants and 6 western regional schools attend. The presentations were excellent and we've filled all of our regional officer positions for NAGPS.

We announced the EC elections at the general assembly meeting at the beginning of the month. We hope that many students will run for the executive council for the 2009-2010 year. We have created a campaign website on our wiki to allow students to introduce themselves and discuss what they'd like to do if elected.

For the month of April I will be looking into our current lawyer contract as well as making contacts on the education and healthcare committees for our state legislators. We need to establish these contacts to start making local lobbying visits regarding graduate-professional students concerns. Stephanie will assist me with this.

Malaika and Karinna tabled at the Wellness Carnival. There were not many graduate students in attendance. However, we plan to generate a survey on graduate student healthcare on our campus which I hope to share with the Regents to help them facilitate their information quest for the UCSA agenda item of investigating graduate student dependent healthcare.

The GSA tabled at Picnic Day. Despite being in a high traffic area, we didn't see a lot of graduate students at our table. Next year we have decided to open the GSA office rather than table in the Quad. This way students who have never seen the lounge or GSA offices will have chance to visit.

I will serve as the HFOC rep on a subcommittee generated by student affairs to discuss the current campus budget. There will be two meetings this month and more in May. I will report what I am able (pending confidential issues). We've generated a page for your comments and sent out a survey for your feedback on areas you feel we should try to protect from budget cuts. Additionally, we are holding an informal dialog session to hear your thoughts.

I was interviewed by a researcher from California Forward. They are trying to determine what issues student advocates are working at the campus and state level, to see if some of these areas are mirrored by the goals of this group. If you would like more information about this group please see California Forward.pdf.

I have heard that our campus submitted the most testimonials and surveys to UCSA regarding the issue of dependent health care. Rumor has it that they may be in contact with me regarding coming to campus for testimonial interviews (video). Please email me if you are interested in sharing your testimonial.

May 2009

I was the MC for the afternoon talks at the 14th IGS. It was an awesome event but I think the rain kept some people home. If you would like to see photos from the event, please email me so I can share the Kodak Gallery album with you.

I was invited to speak to the Graduate Student Association at UCLA to discuss their decision to leave UCSA as well as forming potential lobbying partnerships. They would also like to hear about the benefits of being an NAGPS member school. A report will come soon.

I was at the UCSA meeting.doc at UC Merced on May 9th. A proposal for ratification of the charter was presented, UCSA Charter Edits.pdf and voted on at this meeting. The executive council has drafted a letter in support of these changes UCSA Charter Letter of Support.doc. However, during the meeting these changes were submitted to the bylaws rather than the UCSA charter. The justification for this action was the UCSA board can immediately approve bylaws changes but a charter change requires approval of 2/3 of the UCSA member schools; within two months of the vote from the board. As it is at the end of the academic year, they felt that it would be difficult to get this 2/3 approval. UCSD GSA has indicated they still intend to make some formal changes acknowledging the needs of graduate students next year. I made a statement at the meeting that the changes submitted in the bylaws are a step in the right direction; but as the bylaws can be suspended (as they were this year) to prevent a graduate action item this isn't good enough to ensure the voice of UC graduate students is heard and made a priority of UCSA. A report of the meeting is here UCSA Merced May 2009.doc. I am also on a fact finding mission to determine more about how much it cost to be a member, why we would want to be a member (again) to keep a record of the information provided to me directly from UCSA rather than our previous word of mouth records. I find that it will be important to have this information available for future GSA reps and executive council officers.

Malaika and I sat on the Mentoring in the Sciences panel for Cynthia's GSADC project. It was a small crowd but we heard some concerns from students in the sciences.

• Should you have a personal relationship with your mentor?
  

• What types of mentoring should you expect for a masters program?
  

• When is the appropriate time to leave a bad situation/not a good mentoring match?
  

• Other types of mentors besides PI/Major Professor?
  

• Lack of peer mentoring in the sciences

Malaika, Erica, Stacey and I went to the TGFS picnic. It was nice to see so many staff enjoying themselves. Photos coming soon!

I will be chairing a subcommittee on Sustainability for the City-UCD Commission. Right now I've set up a Google groups site to start brainstorming for the next year's commission. I will likely create a wiki page on our site once we get stuff going.

I received an email from the ASUCD External Affairs Commission reminding me of our ex officio spot on the commission. I responded that this was the first I've heard about it and would have certainly been involved this previous academic year, if I was notified. Meetings will be weekly on Tuesdays and I hope that the External Chair, or some appointed graduate student on behalf of the GSA will be actively involved in the commission next academic year.

UCSA was on campus at the GSA office recording testimonial from graduate students in Davis on May 27th. See the GSHIP testimonials section of this page for more information.

June 2009

I will be running the GSA elections at the June assembly meeting. I am also working on our lawyer contract. Finally, the state committees on education and health care will be meeting in June and July to discuss the budget issues in these areas. I will try to make some meetings in the next month, to see where the budget is going and how it will continue to impact higher education and health care in our state.

I've been contacted by the ASUCD University Affairs Director about meeting to discuss ways we can consolidate our lobbying efforts in the next academic year. I explained that we've attempted to do so by sending Stephanie, our lobby assistant, to LobbyCorps meeting with not much success. However, this seems like a new avenue to investigate and a great potential partnership. Stephanie and I will try to meet with her some time this month, update to come later.

City-UCD Student Liaison Commission

To see the function of this commission and for full meeting minutes and agendas, please see City - UCD Student Liaison Commission - Agendas and Minutes

October 2008

Quorum was not reached, no meeting

November 2008

• 2008 Davis Neighbors Night Out: survey results available, contact me if you are interested
  

• Voting on campus: early voting was very successful, with 2200+ voters in 5 days up from 1135 in 2004 for the early voting event. Due to the overwhelming response more graduate students came to volunteer on Friday (13 total) to meet the voting demands. Also, the MU generously made arrangements to move the voting stations from the old post office to the east conference room so they could have a total of 16 booths on Election Day (9 were available for early voting). Yolo County would like to continue this relationship but will only hold large elections on campus.
  

• City verse Campus voting issues: there are 28-32 ballot types for early voting for Yolo County, it would be hard to accommodate all of these at more than one location thus MU was a good location. The problem with Election Day is that only one precinct can vote on campus (primarily students who live on campus) and many students were confused about their Election Day voting station.
  

• Renters Sub-Committee Update: developing a survey to determine the primary issues affecting voters; last survey primarily had demographics from undergraduate/1st year students. Need to expand the data to other student renters; offered to get the survey information to graduate students when it was available
  

• Citywide Safety Walk: report issues of safety (lighting, potholes, etc) to the city any time you see them. Plan on skipping the week of safety in exchange to promote continual reporting (stickers? flyers?—in the works)
  

• West Village Project: hoping to get the annexation agreement finalized soon, planning on spring 2009 groundbreaking
  

• SPAC registered groups can get a 25% reduced rate for booking community facilities for their events (Vets Memorial, city maintained parks/greenbelts, Community Chambers, Senior Center) contact the city for more information
  

• Voter Registration: very successful campus drive, on the last day 10/20 300 additional people registered in the last hour!

December 2008

Police/Student Relations – UC Davis Police Chief Annette Spicuzza gave a briefing of crime activity on campus for the period of January 1 – October 31, 2008:

||Arson-1

• UC Davis PD recently caught a bike thief, this person was responsible for a large amount of campus bike theft and hopefully it will be reduced.
  

• UC Davis has developed an active shooter program. They are currently presenting the program to UCDC in Washington D.C. Other campuses are requesting the program be presented to them as well. If you would like to learn how to implement this program into your building on campus, please contact them.
  

• Chief Spicuzza stated UCDPD has a citizen’s academy. It is 9 weeks at 2hrs a week. Students receive 2 credits for completion.
  

• Chief Spicuzza is developing a program to focus on the dangers of driving while fatigued. The program will be given to parents and students.

Captain Darren Pytel, Davis Police Department gave a briefing of crime activity in the city for the period of October 2-December 2, 2008:

January 2009

Lighting/Safety Issues – Bob Weir, Davis Public Works Director, summarized the Dark Sky Ordinance. He stated Julie Partansky was the driving force behind the Ordinance. It applies to commercial and city facility lighting. The original objective was to aid Astronomers and Observatories in viewing the night sky. In addition, it reduces light glare. It does not dim the lights, it focuses the light down to illuminate the ground and not other objects. The Ordinance governs light pollution and not the number of lights. The Ordinance went into effect in 1998 and the following year the City started retrofitting city facilities. City Hall was the first to be retrofitted. The Howard Reese bike path and Putah Creek bike path have also been retrofitted. The Public Works Department budgeted $25,000 per year for retrofitting, funded with Construction Tax revenue. However, due to budget issues, the funding was discontinued last year.

February 2009

Carbon Footprint Reduction – Mitch Sears and Kim Vincent, City Sustainability, and Sid England, UC Davis Sustainability.

Mitch Sears detailed the City’s Sustainability program. The program was built on decades of sustainability related programs including alternative transportation programs, land use - smart growth principles, energy conservation, renewable energy production – PVUSA, agricultural mitigation, Farmers Market, and Co-Operative Housing. The program takes advantage of existing programs and builds towards a balance between ecology, economy and social equity. The local strategy includes, climate change, reducing emissions the City can directly affect (City operations), developing a long-range GHG emissions reduction plan for the community, including adaptation strategies, engaging the community and University, and initiating a community dialog on sustainability.

The Davis Experiment was implemented 30 years ago. It set principles on living in Davis including energy use, building codes, solar houses, solar dryers, swimming pools, fences and hedges, working in the home, streets, recycling, shade trees, bicycles, and buses. Many communities are just starting on initiatives the City of Davis implemented 30 years ago. The City is in the midst of a low carbon diet challenge which includes 100 families in Davis.

Sid England, stated UC Davis is focusing on:

Green buildings-New projects will exceed Title 24 standards by 20% and all UC buildings will be LEED 2.1 Certified. Building renovations will include sustainable measures.
Clean energy standards-UC campuses are striving to achieve 20% of grid-provided electricity purchases from renewable sources by 2010.
Climate protection practices-reduce greenhouse gasses by 2014 to 2000 levels and by 2020 to 1990 levels.
Sustainable transportation practices-increase percentage of low or zero-emission vehicles in campus fleet by 50% in 2009-10.
Sustainable operations-waste diversion goals 50% by 6/30/08 and 75% by 6/30/12.
Environmentally preferred purchasing practices.

UC Davis is implementing a new Department of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability. This Department will have a policy level advisory group to the Chancellor. S. England stated there are 2,400 labs on campus and there is a fume hood in every lab. A fume hood uses energy equal to 3 single family homes. UC Davis is working on educating students and staff on how they can save energy on campus. The West Village project will only allow students or UC Davis employees. Only renters or people outside of Davis will be allowed to purchase a home. Residents will not be allowed to buy a parking permit on campus.

UC Davis is working on educating students when they transition out of student housing into private housing. All incoming students receive a canvas bag for convenience shopping, a reusable beverage container, a brochure on sustainability and how to apply the principles when the leave campus housing. S. England sees a disconnect when students move off campus. They may follow a vegan diet while on campus and then they move into an apartment with roommates and do not know how to cook vegan meals. He asked if the Commission thought students would be interested in a sustainable cooking class. The Commission thought it would be a good idea, also to include how to buy local organic produce and easy recipes. M. Johnston stated that Sodexho does cooking classes in the residence halls. Student Health also provides an eat well series. M. Sundstrom stated students would be more likely to take a class if they got a unit for it. The Commission also suggested a class on sustainability. S. Lee stated a low carbon diet for students in student housing would be beneficial.

Safe Party Initiative Grants Results –C. Valencia and M. Johnston, UC Davis Student Health, provided the following results:

The Safer California Universities Project included 14 CSU & UC campuses. It evaluated the efficacy of a “risk management” approach to alcohol problem prevention and reducing intoxication and related harm.

The Universities included:

Intervention Sites

• CSU Chico
  

• Sacramento State
  

• CSU Long Beach
  

• UC Berkeley
  

• UC Davis
  

• UC Riverside
  

• UC Santa Cruz

Comparison Sites

• Cal Poly SLO
  

• San Jose State
  

• CSU Fullerton
  

• UC Irvine
  

• UC Los Angeles
  

• UC San Diego
  

• UC Santa Barbara

UC Davis intervention strategies for off-campus parties include a Social Host Safe Party Campaign, Joint Patrols and DUI Check Points, increased visibility of enforcement (media), good neighbor activities such as Davis Neighbors’ Night Out and educational and promotional materials.

Overall Project Outcomes

• Approx. 6,000 fewer incidents of intoxication per university at off-campus parties in fall quarter
  

• Approx. 4,000 fewer incidents of intoxication per university at bars/restaurants in fall quarter

• The percentage of students who stated they consumed alcohol in the past 30 days has dropped since 2003.
  

2003 - 62.4%


2005 - 58.8%


2007 - 55.3%

The grant has ended. However, Student Health is continuing the program and looking for a new grant or other funding mechanism.

March 2009

Quorum was not reached, no meeting

April 2009

Meeting focused on local parking issues. Sgt. Ton Phan, Traffic Enforcement, and Sheri Kolb, Parking Enforcement Officer (Davis Police Department) provided information on parking in Davis. S. Kolb stated the parking enforcement vehicles are now outfitted with a camera that takes several pictures of license plates per second and recognizes up to 7 characters on the plate. As the Officer returns to an area, and new pictures are taken, if the same license plates come up the Officer is notified. They confirm the vehicle and plate and issue a citation.

• Police Department provided some general information on towing downtown. S. Kolb stated Davis Waste Removal cleans streets downtown two times a week. The streets are posted as tow areas during the street cleaning period. However, in general, cars will not be towed unless they are blocking a driveway. They will receive a $35 citation.
  

• Information on visitor permits downtown: S. Kolb stated most areas downtown are covered by timed zones and require a permit to park on-street. If visitors need to park longer, there is a pay lot at E Street Plaza. The E Street Plaza lot is $0.25 per 15 minutes with a 4-hour limit. This limit may be extended to 8 hours. S. Kolb stated the biggest problem with the lots is using the pay kiosks. Many times, parking enforcement stops by to educate and help out with the kiosks. The kiosks accept credit/debit cards and cash, but do not issue change.
  

• On campus you receive a warning before a citation. What is the City’s policy? S. Kolb stated the sign postings are the warnings, no other warnings are given.
  

• Common parking problems? S. Kolb stated that parking around the campus is all permit parking, as the majority is in a residential area. Areas have different times and permit requirements. Some students believe that the UC Davis parking permit works in the city limits. It does not. Sgt. Phan stated there are many issues related to bicycles. The biggest problem with bicyclists are running stop signs downtown, riding on the wrong side of the road, no light at night and no helmet on under 18 riders. Bicycle citations are between $100-200. C. Valencia asked about biking under the influence (BUI). Sgt. Phan stated that the Police Department issues 1-2 BUI’s a month. The citation cost for a BUI is $250. It does not go on your driving record. Sgt. Phan stated abandoned bicycles are confiscated on a complaint only basis. There is a 24-hour warning, and then the bike is taken to the Police Department.

May 2009

Oeste Manor Neighborhood Association (OMNA) came to the meeting to address rental housing issues. They submitted an Oeste Manor Neighborhood Association Proposal: “Rental Housing Safety Ordinance” (attached). The proposal requires the City to maintain a database of residential rental property information, make the information available to the public, hold landlords financially accountable for their property, and require landlords to have a City business license. OMNA is proposing the City charge a fee to register in the database and issue a fee for complaints issued on the property for noise, zoning or health violations.

Mitch Sears and Kim Vincent (City of Davis) suggested three areas that students can focus on to improve sustainability efforts:

1. Transportation-biking or carpooling outside of Davis to campus

2. Waste & consumption – recycling, end of year large furniture items

3. Energy – sustainability rating for apartments

Sustainability Sub-Committee

I volunteered to head a subcommittee for the next year's commission to address some of these issues to see what areas students can partner with the local community in sustainability efforts. I started a Google-Group as an electronic forum to brainstorm and bring back to the commission. I will also meet with some groups on campus and in the city over the summer to compile a list of current sustainability efforts in Davis.

COMMITTEES

I am serving my first year on the SHIP committee and second year on the HFOC committee. To see the purpose and function of these two committee in charge of our health care costs/plans please see Health Center Committees

SHIP

SHIP bylaws.doc

• November 2008 meeting: Chuck Auchterlonie presented a summary of the Request for Proposal for the Medical and Dental Insurance Programs. He provided a background of the student health plan and explained that SHIP is funded by premiums paid by students. In addition, Saylor & Hill Co. has provided analytical and other insurance consulting services to Student Health Services and was asked to conduct a REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) process for SHIP medical & dental plan. Medical – Aetna Student Health, Anthem Blue Cross, United Healthcare Student Resources (UHC) were the only three vendors that responded to the RFP. The reason being that student health insurance is a specialized niche market. Most insurers do not have the information systems or account management personnel to successfully manage student health insurance accounts. The committee was given the vendor responses. A motion was made and approved by all voting members that the current arrangement with Anthem BC is competitive in terms of price and service. Given the cost, student communication required, and uncertainty involved with changing medical vendors – there is no compelling reason to make a change from Anthem BC. Dental – Aetna, Anthem BC, Delta Dental, MetLife, UHC responded to the RFP. The members were given the responses from the vendors. Based upon the bids, MetLife provided the most competitive total premium cost, however MetLife’s network of dentists in the Davis area required further evaluation. A decision regarding Dental vendors will be made in the next meeting. The committee requested more information like the provider network from Anthem BC and MetLife. Saylor & Hill will be requested to further review the MetLife total premium cost bid and review the MetLife network providers as compared to Delta Dental.

• December 2008 and January 2009 meetings: discussed our potential bids for health insurance and dental. We voted on staying with our current healthcare provider, Anthem, as it was the most fiscally reasonable option. We reviewed other dental plans in detail; although Delta Dental is slightly more expensive, we determined that it was best to stay with this provider as they have a proven history and more local providers in the Davis area than our other options. Right now, we will finalize our health care package within the next 1-2 meetings. We are to review potential additions (change in chiropractic care and transgender benefits) as well as some potential cuts/changes which may reduce the cost of our premiums. Please contact me if you have any areas of the health care plan you'd like the committee to evaluate

• February 2009 meeting: SHIP Renewal 2009-10: Chuck Auchterlonie presented the projected SHIP Renewal Premium Rates for 2009-10 academic year. Medical claims experience for undergraduate students in 2008 increased significantly over the prior year in both number of claims and dollar amount of claims. This resulted in a projected 21.5% increase in the premium rate for 2009-2010 for undergraduate students. Graduate students experienced a modest increase in total claim dollars from the prior year and are projected to have a 5.1% premium increase for 2009-10. The projected annual premium rate renewal without any changes to the current benefits would be $1,949 for Graduate students and $1,043 for Undergraduate students. The following medical benefit additions were discussed by the committee to determine whether or not they should be added for the 2009-2010 academic year. Chiropractic from a $100 maximum to 10 visits @ 80%-50%, Transgender benefits up to $25,000 per year (a new benefit), Addition of academic or educational testing (previously excluded). Discussion centered on the need for possible medical benefit additions versus the cost of these benefits. Both chiropractic and transgender benefits were discussed in detail. Academic testing which was previously excluded can be included as a benefit at no additional premium cost. The committee unanimously voted to approve the addition of all three benefit changes for the 2009-2010 academic year. The committee requested that the transgender benefit description be clearly documented in student communication materials to avoid any confusion about how this benefit will be accessed and claims paid.

• March 2009 Meeting: As the insurance plans are pretty much finalized for the next academic year, this was a business meeting to discuss proposed waiver guideline changes and a review of SHIP Bylaws to see if they needed modification. Some language changes were suggested. I have agreed to serve on this committee again next year.

HFOC

• January 2009 meeting: mainly debriefed new members of what the committee does & past actions. We will have another meeting in March to review the Health Fee(s) and determine what is necessary in order to maintain service integrity in our current budget crisis.
  

• June 2009 meeting: this was the final meeting of the year; we went over the 2008-2009 Cowell budget, which was close to the projected budget for the fiscal year. Despite some mid-year budget cuts, Cowell was able to meet their expected reserves amount to raise what they feel should be sufficient funds to buy equipment for the new facility (which was not built into budget for the CEI for the new health center). Projected move-in may be a month sooner than projected, possibly starting in March 2010. The 2009-2010 budget was presented and some general assumption were made about potential budget cuts based on proposals sent to Cowell before the May 19th election. However, these cuts may change in the next few months thus requiring a revision to the Cowell budget. This is a new concept for Cowell, as they are typically very close to their projected budget annually and may have difficulties in the next few years adjusting to continual budget cuts. Last year the HFOC committee suggested possibly charging students for "no show" appointments as a deterrent; as some students could be denied appointments filled by "no-shows." As the new e-Health-Messaging is being used to give reminders to students about their appointments via email a day before the appointment, "no shows" have decreased to less than 5%, better than last year. Therefore, there is no real reason to implement the "no show" fee in order to recover revenue. In light of the current budget crisis, however, we may need to investigate cost-saving plans or ways to generate more income for Cowell next academic year. I have agreed to continue serving on this committee next year.

Student Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee

Erica McKenzie GSA Treasurer, Cynthia Degnan GSADC and I are currently serving on an ad-hoc committee to evaluate the student affairs budget for 2009-2010. We've created this page Student Affairs Budget for you to leave your comments. We've had several meetings in the past two months and more updates will come soon. Please see Erica's page for more details as she has provided some detailed information in this area as she also serves on SFAAC.

• Concerned about the UCD budget? Get the latest UC Davis budget information on Budget News. If you are interested in the general University of California System Budget, please see the following document UC Budget Myths and Facts
  

• May budget revise causes another mid-year crisis for UC funding for more information UC May Review and for information on how the state schools are affected see CalState May Review