Hog barn is Silo-bound
The campus's historic Hog Barn will be on the move Jan. 24-25. The barn is slated for relocation from its current home beside Crocker lab to the south side of the Silo complex, between the South Silo and Bainer Hall.
During the relocation effort, sidewalks between Kemper Hall and Bainer Hall at Bainer Hall Drive will be closed. Flaggers will be posted to redirect bicycle and pedestrian traffic in the vicinity. And parking and vehicle access at the rear of Engineering III, Hog Barn and Crocker Lab to California Avenue will be prohibited.
Built in 1913, the Hog Barn dates back to the days when UC Davis was known as the University Farm. After the relocation, the barn will be renovated to serve as a staff training facility. The campus's new Mathematical Sciences building is planned for the former site of the Hog Barn.
Beef is safe to eat, UC Davis experts say
In campus dining halls and restaurants, beef is still on the menu. And that's just fine, say campus experts on "mad cow" disease. Mad cow disease, or BSE, was discovered by routine testing of a Washington state cow on Dec. 23. But because the agent that causes BSE is not found in cows' muscle meat, like steaks or ground beef, people who eat these cuts are not at risk for being infected, say UC Davis scientists.
Since news of the first mad cow case in the United States broke, faculty members have been hard at work helping the news media better understand the science of the disease and its significance for consumers. UC Davis veterinarians, animal scientists, agricultural economists and consumer scientists have been quoted by newspaper, magazine, radio and television reporters from Seattle to New York and as far away as Taiwan.
Dean Cliver, an authority on food-borne illnesses and a national expert on mad cow disease in the School of Veterinary Medicine, told the San Francisco Chronicle that massive testing for mad cow disease now seems inevitable to reassure U.S. consumers and our nation's trading partners. He warned that such testing will be expensive and will likely come at the expense of surveillance for other food-borne infectious diseases.
Swift musical tribute set
A memorial concert has been set for April 18 to honor the life and works of the late Professor Emer-itus Richard Gene Swift. A composer and past recipient of UC Davis' Distinguished Teaching Award, Swift played a central role in founding UC Davis' Department of Music, its programs and curriculum, including establishing the artist-in-residence program. He died Nov. 8, 2003, in Davis at the age of 76.
The memorial concert begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 18, in 115 Music.
Swift composed more than 100 works for opera, orchestra, chamber ensemble, voice, solo piano, flute and guitar. He retired from the department in 1991. For more information about his contributions to scholarly work and teaching at UC Davis, see the Dec. 12 issue of Dateline online at www-dateline.ucdavis.edu.
Deadline nears for freshman seminar proposals
Faculty members' completed proposals to teach freshman seminars in spring 2004 are due by Jan. 16.
One-unit seminars are taught for a total of 10 hours during the first 8-10 weeks of the academic quarter, and 2-unit courses are taught for a total of 20 hours during the quarter's first 8-10 weeks.
Both 1- and 2-unit courses are letter graded, and enrollment is limited to 20 students per class.
To submit a proposal, see http://trc.ucdavis. edu/trc/frosh/FRSapp.html. Proposals should be directed to Janet Chambers, jachambers@ucdavis. edu, at the Teaching Resources Center. All proposals are reviewed by a faculty committee.
To acknowledge an instructor's contribution to the undergraduate educational mission, stipends of $2,000 and $1,500 will be offered for 2-unit and 1-unit seminars, respectively.
Additionally, instructors are eligible to apply for up to $500 in minigrant support to defray expenses that may be associated with conducting a class.
For further details, call (530) 752-6050.
Dynes names advisors in chancellor search
UC President Robert Dynes this week named a 17-member committee to advise him in the search for the next chancellor of UC Berkeley. Among the committee members is UC Davis professor of chemical engineering and material sciences Alexandra Navrotsky.
Last September, Chancellor Robert Berdahl announced plans to step down in the summer of 2004. He was appointed UC Berkeley's eighth chancellor in 1997.
Dynes hopes to bring a recommendation on a candidate to the UC regents by April. The committee will have its first meeting Jan. 28.
Also serving on the advisory committee will be: Catherine Gallagher, chair of the English department at Berkeley; Herma Hill Kay, professor of law and former dean the law school at Berkeley; William Lester Jr., chemistry professor at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Lawrence Pitts, professor of neurosurgery at UC San Francisco and chair of the UC Academic Council; Pamela Burnett, director of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley; Kris Cuaresma-Primm, president of the Associated Students at Berkeley; Jessica Quindel, president of the Graduate Assembly at Berkeley; Nadesan Permaul, president of the California Alumni Association at Berkeley; Dwight Barker chair of the UC Berkeley Foundation; UC regents chair John Moores; and regents Richard Blum, John Davies, Judith Hopkinson, Velma Montoya and Gerald Parsky.
State awards UC, CSU $12M to boost energy efficiency
The California Public Utilities Commis-sion has awarded UC and the California State University $12 million to implement energy-efficiency programs on their campuses. The funding will be split equally between the two university systems.
The award will help improve energy-efficiency, reduce costs and move UC and CSU toward greater environmental sustainability. UC and CSU will work with the Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas companies to implement the programs.
The campus-utility partnerships will be among the first of their kind in the nation.
The programs will remove more than 2.5 MW of peak electric demand and 15 million kWh per year from California's congested electrical grid. The programs will also conserve natural gas use by almost 700,000 therms per year.
Program elements are slated to be implemented in 2004. Programs funded include energy-efficiency retrofits to provide better lighting and lighting controls, heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrades; troubleshooting and tuning, which can save up to 20 percent of a building's energy use; and training.