UC staff assemblies

The Council of UC Staff Assemblies' quarterly conference is scheduled Sept. 6-8 at UC Davis, hosted by the campus and UC Davis Health System staff assemblies. Meetings are planned on the main campus and at the medical center in Sacramento. The tentative agenda lists presentations by UC Davis administrators, members of the Board of Regents and a representative of the Office of the President. The council will recognize two Davis employees for outstanding contributions and-or achievements to Staff Assembly.

Shelter management

A Red Cross course on shelter management is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 12 at the University Club on the main campus. Valerie Lucus, the campus's emergency manager, said the course is for anyone interested in being part of a disaster response that might include setting up on-campus shelters. Participants need not have supervisory experience, though that is desirable. The class is free. Sign-ups are available at http://sdps.ucdavis.edu. Call (530) 752-1766 or e-mail sdps@ucdavis.edu for more details.

Biodefense application

The UC and 17 other applicants made the first cut in the competition to develop a new biological and agricultural defense center for the federal government. UC Davis is a major partner in the UC application, which represents a consortium that also includes the Irvine, Los Angeles and San Francisco campuses, as well as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. UC proposes to build the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, or NBAF, on the grounds of the Lawrence Livermore lab. The site will be named in early 2008.

Arboretum tours

Tours and music amid the trees are planned this month at the UC Davis Arboretum:

• Tour, Redwoods in the Summer Heat, 10 a.m. Sept. 2, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Free.
• Tour, All-Stars for Year-Round Color, 10 a.m. Sept. 9, Gazebo, Garrod Drive. Free,
• Folk Music Jam Session, noon-1 p.m. Sept. 22, Wyatt Deck, adjacent to the Redwood Grove. Campus and community folk musicians gather with their fiddles, guitars, mandolins, penny whistles, pipes, flutes, squeeze box, and more.
• Tour, California Native All-Star Plants, 10 a.m. Sept. 23, Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. Free.

Division I transition

The 2006-07 athletics year is UC Davis' last in the NCAA's Division II, as the university completes its four-year transition to Division I. For the football team, though, when the switch becomes official — scheduled in December 2007 — there will be no Division I to go to. Which means no Division I-A (for schools like Cal and Stanford) or Division I-AA, which is where UC Davis was headed.

Instead, the Division I board of directors decided last month to rename Division I-A as the Football Bowl Subdivision and Division I-AA as the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision. The subdivision titles signify schools that are eligible for traditional bowls and those schools eligible for NCAA championship games. Under the old naming system, NCAA officials said, the media and others often used I-A and I-AA incorrectly to describe other sports, such as basketball and baseball, when in fact football was the only sport with I-A and I-AA categories. For all other sports, there is but one designation: Division I, and that will remain.

So, yes, UC Davis is bound for Division I — but not in football. The Aggies will still have Division I status, but officially will be in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

Road closure delays

Major road closures at the main campus's south entry have been delayed again, until October at the earliest, according to the Architects and Engineers Office. The office previously announced a tentative schedule of closures and detours from July through December, to accommodate utility work, then pushed back the dates to September through March. Funding issues prompted the new delay, a spokeswoman said.

Medical center shuttles

Shuttle service between the main campus and the medical center has been extended further into the night. The last departure times previously were 6:10 p.m. from the medical center in Sacramento and 6:45 p.m. from Lot 53 in the health sciences district on the main campus. Now the last shuttle is scheduled to leave the medical center at 7:30 p.m.; this shuttle makes one stop only, in Lot 53 on the Davis campus. People can ride this shuttle to the medical center; the shuttle is scheduled to depart Lot 53 at 8 p.m. and arrive at the medical center at 8:25 p.m. More information: (530) 752-8277 or (916) 734-2687, or www.taps.ucdavis.edu or www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/parking.