This week’s test of the UC Davis WarnMe system is still on, but will not include the Sacramento campus as originally planned.

The rest of the timetable remains intact: 10:50 a.m. test Wednesday (Nov. 20) for the Davis campus and other facilities (excluding the Sacramento campus). A separate test had been planned that night for the Sacramento campus, but that test has been postponed until after Thanksgiving.

UC Davis emergency officials urge faculty, staff and students to check that their contact information, including personal email addresses and cell phone numbers, is registered with WarnMe and up to date. Text messages reach recipients most quickly.

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Recruiting for police cadets and Citizens Academy

The campus Police Department is taking applications for its cadet program (students) and Citizens Academy. The deadline for both is Dec. 13.

• Cadet program — Officially, it’s the VIPS (Volunteers in Police Service) Cadet Program, which is recruiting its second class after a successful launch last year. The program is for students with a demonstrated interest in law enforcement, and who are seniors on track to graduate by June 2014.

The program, which runs from January through May, offers police academy-like training and experience, and rewards the top graduate with a full scholarship to attend an academy anywhere in California — and, after that, a job in the campus department. Two other cadets also receive academy scholarships.

The free cadet program has space for 20 students.

• Citizens Academy — Interested in learning more about the campus Police Department? This free, nine-week course gives you an insider’s view. The program covers such topics as arrest, search and seizure procedures; defensive tactics; lethal and nonlethal force; and evidence collection and processing; and also includes jail and coroner’s office tours; and a mock jury trial.

The Citizens Academy will meet from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays, Jan. 9 to March 6 at the Police Department.

There are no special requirements for taking the course, but a Police Department Livescan background check may be required.

Enrollment is open to all UC Davis students (who can earn 2 units of credit), staff and faculty, as well as citizens in the community (subject to space avaiulability) who wish to learn more about law enforcement at UC Davis.  

Applications and fliers are on each website.

Garamendi addresses Emerging Leaders

Rep. John Garamendi, whose district includes UC Davis, spoke recently at the first meeting of Emerging Leaders in Policy and Public Service, an initiative by graduate student Amandeep Kaur in collaboration with GradPathways and the Policy Insititute for Energy, Environment and the Economy.

Kaur is graduate student assistant to Jeffery C. Gibeling, vice provost of Graduate Education and dean of Graduate Studies, and Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi.

Garamendi talked about his service in the Peace Corps and how he got involved in public policy, and offered guidance to graduate students interested in service. He especially encouraged the science graduate students in the room to spread widely what they know to be true in a format that is understandable to the broader country and encouraged law students to fight for civil rights and voting rights.

“You will be the intellectual foundation for what happens in the years to come,” Garamendi said. “I’m not going to let you off the hook. My grandchildren depend on the bright minds in this room to rise above the noise, identify the big problems in our society, and solve them. Our future rests on your shoulders.”

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