Chancellor Gary S. May sent the following letter to the campus community today (April 12):

•••

Dear UC Davis community,

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and I are announcing today that we have chosen the UC Davis Health Campus in Oak Park as the location for the first phase of an innovation hub called Aggie Square.
 
We also released the findings by the Aggie Square Working Group, which we established in December to explore potential sites for housing the hub in Sacramento, transportation options between Sacramento and Davis, and potential city and state funding sources to support the overall effort.
 
Aggie Square will serve as a collaborative technology and innovation campus that leverages the university’s strengths to become a catalyst for economic change, create jobs for our graduates, and help spur the economic vitality of the broader Sacramento region. It will serve as a model public-private partnership, increasing technology transfer and creating equitable opportunities for residents in the community and region.
 
For UC Davis’ part, Aggie Square is a tremendous opportunity to leverage our strengths in fields of clean transportation, clean energy, public policy, the arts, agricultural and food technologies, and more.
 
Aggie Square will give our students easier access to companies for internships and employment — and make it easier for companies to collaborate on research with our faculty, post-docs and graduate students.
 
This hub will also open up more learning and job opportunities for our undergraduates. They could even live in Sacramento and commute to Davis, using electric vehicles that would take them across the causeway, emitting no more pollution than their bicycles.
 
We look forward to working side-by-side with community leaders and a range of public and private partners in the region to bring a new wave of economic development and new jobs and housing to Sacramento.
 
You can watch the 1 p.m. press announcement streamed live on UC Davis Facebook and Twitter and read more about our announcement and the Aggie Square Working Group’s findings here. We've developed a web page to post updates on Aggie Square, including a brief video (above) about what we’re creating and why.
 
As we move forward with Aggie Square, our commitment to building a stronger, more vibrant community will be a priority, including making sure we create economic development and jobs for the local community.
 
While we’re expanding our presence in Sacramento, Davis remains our primary home. We will continue to invest in our Davis programs, people, ideas and infrastructure, building on our reputation of excellence and leadership.
 
Gary S. May
Chancellor