Fall Convocation next week

All members of the campus community are invited to attend the annual Fall Convocation. This year's event will be held Wednesday, Sept. 26, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Its theme is "Finding — and Being — the Inspiration."

The chancellor will be joined at the podium by five members of campus who will share brief personal stories about those who helped shape their lives and how they may be approaching the idea of recognizing the favor and "paying it forward." UC Regent Odessa Johnson will serve as welcomer and emcee, and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra will perform specially selected music.

Immediately after the program, a reception featuring the Cal Aggie Marching Band-Uh will be held at the Mondavi Center's Corin Courtyard and Sconyers Plaza for everyone in attendance.

Osher senior learning program receives endowment boost

UC has received a $1 million endowment grant from the Bernard Osher Foundation to provide continued support for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute — the university's lifelong learning program serving local seniors. UC Davis is one of only 26 colleges and universities in the country to receive this prestigious foundation endowment.

Managed by UC Davis Extension in partnership with a volunteer board of directors, the member-driven OLLI program offers a diverse array of continuing education opportunities each quarter for our regional community.

"UC Davis Extension is proud to be the home of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and to work with community volunteers in presenting educational classes and events for seasoned adult learners in Davis and the surrounding region," said UC Davis Extension Dean Dennis Pendleton. He said the endowment will help underwrite the operation of the program and enable Extension to keep membership costs and class fees low.

With the endowment, UC Davis joins a national network of Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes.

Clean-air bulldozer at landfill

The campus landfill became a little "greener" earlier this month with the delivery of a new bulldozer.

"This is a big step forward in positioning our construction fleet to meet new clean-air standards, particularly in reduction of particulate matter," said David Klippert, manager of Civil & Industrial Services, part of the campus's Facilities: Operations & Maintenance.

Particulate matter at the landfill includes dust as well as particles from the exhaust of diesel-powered heavy equipment.

Klippert said the new dozer, a Caterpillar D6N-XL that cost $215,000, will put out an estimated 69 pounds of particulates annually, compared with 228 pounds from the dozer that the new one replaced — for a reduction of about 70 percent.

"To place this in perspective, this reduction is comparable to the amount of particulates released by 556 passenger vehicles annually," Klippert said.

The dozer works even better at cutting down on nitrogen oxide emissions, a contributor to smog and believed to be a factor in global warming. The new dozer puts out 79 percent less nitrogen oxide than the old dozer, Klippert said.

New name for IET unit

Mediaworks and Classroom Technology Services, two areas of Information and Educational Technology that merged last fall, have a new name for the combined department — IET-Academic Technology Services.

The choice follows discussion and careful planning, both in and outside the department, with options reviewed by faculty and people from the campus library and the Teaching Resources Center. The naming committee wanted a choice that was logical and intuitive to the community, had a broad definition, and would still work if the department expands or changes its services in the years to come.

IET has started to revise its brochures, signs and other material to remove the old names, and has acquired the Web domain name of ats.ucdavis.edu. For questions or information about the name change, contact Jennifer Winning at jtwinning@ucdavis.edu.