UC Davis graduate Mary Horton first began attending UC Alumni Associations day at the state capitol about 10 years ago. Back then the state was in a full-blown recession, and UC, with a budget at stake, needed all the lobbying help it could get.
"The pitch was made that the more people who showed up, the more seriously we'd be taken," Horton said.
And she truly bled Aggie blue and gold. Not only did she receive two degrees from the campus, but Horton also has been working as a staff research associate in the animal science department for 38 years.
Over the years, as the state economy blossomed and state Sen. Maurice Johanessen and Assemblywoman Helen Thomson entered office, the task of the campus lobbyists grew easier, Horton recalled.
"We didn't have to sell them anything," she said of the lawmakers who represent the UC Davis area.
Horton was back for another UC Day March 19, as one of 500 alumni, students and other "friends" of the UC campuses who gathered at the Sacramento Sheraton Grand Hotel to receive lobbying tips, then headed to the capitol. This year, the stakes were again fairly high; lobbyists were charged with promoting school and university construction bonds as well as the impact that UC research has on the state economy.
Alumni such as Evan Anderson Braude of UCLA said they were up to the task. Braude joined UC graduates for a visit to Assemblyman Allen Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, and other Los Angeles-area lawmakers. The stepson of former lieutenant governor and U.S. Representative Glenn Anderson, Braude is himself a one-time Long Beach city councilman.
"(Visiting with legislators) is the best way I can serve the university," said Braude, who studied at UC Davis before transferring to UCLA. "I want to give back what it has given me."
UC's participation in the event was critical this year, said Matthew Hargrove, advocacy director for UC Davis. Two days after UC Day, the Assembly voted to put $25 million of construction bonds before state voters and authorized $279 million in lease-revenue bonds for several UC projects.
The bond measures passed 71-6 - five more votes than needed.
"This margin of victory is due, in no small part, to all of the UC volunteers who met with legislators to communicate the importance of this measure to the state," Hargrove said.
During the days following UC Day, legislators and Gov. Gray Davis got a chance to glimpse at the work of 17 top undergraduate researchers from eight UC campuses. David Cao, an environmental science major, and Emily Beighley, a classical civilization major, were chosen by the UC Office of the President to represent UC Davis for the event.
Posters - first displayed at the Sheraton, and later moved to the capitol - offered a snapshot of the UC students' studies on topics as diverse as the courts' role in hip hop culture to lightweight bridge design and new treatments for the tropical disease dengue.
UC Berkeley senior Sarah Tom showed a poster with her research on the self-reporting of disability in the Asian Pacific Islander community in America. She's found that because of cultural stigmas, they are less likely to report their disabilities - and less likely to receive government support.
"I really wanted to do this research because I want to get the word out about the issue," Tom said. "I'm not planning to change the world with my poster, but I wanted people to talk about it and think about it."
Special legislators are helping UC and its students make a difference with their support of research and teaching programs, said officers of the UC Alumni Associations. For their contributions to the university, the associations named state Sen. Bob Margett, R-Arcadia, and Assemblyman Joseph Simitian, D-Palo Alto, Legislators of the Year during a lunchtime reception at the Sheraton.
Both were lauded for their votes to fund the California Institutes for Science and Innovation, the four private-public UC research institutes launched over the past two years.