Former student pleads no contest

A former UC Davis student pleaded no contest last week to all charges stemming from his arrest Jan. 21 across the street from the central campus, where city of Davis police said they caught him with an assault rifle and a shotgun, both loaded.

Nicholas Benson hopes to avoid prison time with the pleas he entered April 28 in Yolo County Superior Court in Woodland.

At the time of his arrest, the 25-year-old was a senior communication major. Privacy rules prohibit the university from commenting on disciplinary action. In an earlier court proceeding, Judge Timothy Fall ordered Benson to stay away from the campus.

With his no-contest pleas, Benson did not admit guilt but said he would offer no defense to a felony charge of possession of an assault weapon and misdemeanor counts of carrying a loaded firearm in a public place, and resisting arrest.

He faces a prison term of 16 months to three years on the felony conviction. He would avoid prison if the judge, after reviewing a psychiatric evaluation, concludes that probation is an acceptable alternative. Even so, probation can include up to a year in jail.

Benson is due back in court on June 30 to hear the judge’s decision. If the judge chooses to sentence Benson to prison, rather than probation, Benson can withdraw his no-contest pleas and go to trial.

We’re on eduroam!

UC Davis has joined a confederation called eduroam, whose members — including faculty, staff and students — receive free, secure Internet connectivity at other participating universities and research institutions around the world.

From its roots in Europe, eduroam is now spreading to the United States — where UC Davis, UC San Diego, Tulane and Georgetown are among the first dozen or so institutions to sign. UC Berkeley, UCLA and the UC Office of the President are among some three dozen sites that are testing or considering eduroam.

UC Davis’ Mark Redican, director of Communication Resources for Information and Educational Technology, noted how eduroam saves UC Davis affiliates from going through “special hoops” to gain wireless access at other institutions, and does the same for scholars, staff and students who are visiting our campus.

Anyone at UC Davis with a Kerberos account can use eduroam, simply by using his or her UC Davis log-in name with this addendum, “@ucdavis.edu,” when signing in to the wireless network at another eduroam institution. For example, if you are a UC Davis affiliate who logs in as "schan," you would enter schan@ucdavis.edu to log in via eduroam.

Eduroam uses the same wireless equipment and support services as MoobileNet and MoobileNetX, so the cost of providing the service is minimal. The campus even saves a little on administrative costs, because eduroam users who visit UC Davis need not go through the process of obtaining a UC Davis guest account.

More information, including U.S. and international maps of eduroam members.

Read the complete news release from Information and Educational Technology.

Decision day for transfers

UC Davis is once again advising faculty and staff of a run on parking spaces, as the campus hosts its second Decision UC Davis recruitment event for prospective students and their families.

The next Decision UC Davis is next Friday, May 13, for newly admitted transfer students. Officials said they are expecting a crowd of about half of the previous event, but it will still involve more than 3,000 people — and about 1,200 cars in the west entry garage and Lot 25 (in front of the Activities and Recreation Center).

The transfer program is set to begin at 7 a.m. in The Pavilion at the ARC. Transfer students have until June 1 to submit their statements of intent to register.

UC Davis held a similar event for newly admitted freshmen and their families on April 22, hosting upward of 7,000 people.

Vice Chancellor Fred Wood, who leads Student Affairs, acknowledged some inconveniences for faculty and staff, “but we appreciate your understanding and support for these important campuswide endeavors.”

Freezer Challenge under way

This month, like every other, graduate students, lab managers and researchers will open up any of 1,000 ultralow-temperature freezers and retrieve some very, very cold research samples of biological materials.

So, how is this May unlike any other? This May marks the debut of the Freezer Challenge, a national contest pitting UC Davis against other universities in a monthlong competition (through June 3) to save energy and improve sample management. Therefore, expect to see some freezer "spring cleaning" under way as contestants vie for cash awards, rebates, and, of course, bragging rights.

Allen Doyle, sustainability manager at UC Davis, conceived of the Freezer Challenge as a way to introduce a variety of laboratory cold storage techniques, ranging from cleaning out and defrosting freezers to creating inventories of frozen samples to adjusting freezer temperatures and retiring old, less efficient freezers.

Doyle and his student assistants — who call themselves the Energy Team — are using the Freezer Challenge to roll out Store Smart, an innovative and comprehensive campaign of strategies to improve cold storage management.

Read more and the Freezer Challenge and Store Smart, and check out the Freezer Challenge Facebook page, where  participants can post before and after photos of the "gnarliest" (frostiest and messiest) freezers.

Learn more about Store Smart at lunchtime presentations (with free pizza): noon today (May 6), 2342 Storer Hall, and Monday, May 9, 1207 RMI South.

Retiree Center open house

An office warming party if scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. today (May 6) at the Retiree Center’s new home in the Conference Center at the campus’s south entry. The Retiree Center is in Room 1001 near the elevator on the first floor.

The Retiree Center, serving the Davis and Sacramento campuses, supports the work of the Emeriti and Retirees associations, plans social and educational programs, connects retirees with campus volunteer opportunities, provides information and referrals, and assists with preretirement planning.

The center had been located in Everson Hall. The move to the Conference Center is temporary, pending the center’s finding a permanent new home.

The phone number is the same: (530) 752-5182.

Older Americans Month

Two Davis campus units are presenting a pair of talks in conjunction with Older Americans Month, which is now under way. The co-sponsors are the Retiree Center, and Staff Development and Professional Services and its WorkLife component.

The presentations are scheduled from noon to 1 p.m. in the Cabernet Room, in the Silo. Admission is free, with no reservations required.

• Friday, May 13 — “The Myths and Gifts of Aging,” in which Elizabeth Bell aims to impart “a hope of a future that you can create.” Bell, who holds a doctorate in nursing science, has had an extensive career in health care as a practitioner, researcher, educator and administrator. In 2009, she founded the Elder Wisdom Initiative, engaging in conversations that generate conscious and positive aging.

• Friday, May 26 — “Memory, Brain and Aging: The Good, Bad and Promising,” presented by UC Davis’ Beth Ober, a developmental psychologist and a professor of human development. She will discuss the aspects of memory and brain function that change, versus those that remain stable, in middle and older adulthood. She also will address the beneficial effects of physical and mental activity on memory and brain function, and offer tips for optimal brain functioning.

'The House We Live In'

“The House We Live In,” episode 3 of the documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion, is scheduled for presentation on Thursday, May 12. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Campus Community Book Project presented episodes 1 and 2 earlier this year, in conjunction with the 2010-11 book selection: Beverly Daniel Tatum’s Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race.

Race: The Power of an Illusion came out in 2003, as a project of the nonprofit organization California Newsreel. The documentary “questions the very idea of race as biology, suggesting that a belief in race is no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the Earth,” according to the California Newsreel website.

The website continues: “Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn’t exist in biology doesn’t mean it isn’t very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.”

The concluding episode asks: If race is not biology, what is it? “This episode uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics and culture. It reveals how our social institutions 'make' race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status and wealth to white people,” the website states.

The presentation is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Shields Library Instructional Lab (first floor). Episode 3 runs for just under an hour, and a discussion afterward will continue until 1 p.m.