Washington Monthly ranks UC Davis 10th in the nation, up from 17th last year, among "national universities," in the magazine's second annual college rankings that use a new methodology: Universities should be engines of social mobility, they should produce the academic minds and scientific research that advance knowledge and drive economic growth, and they should inculcate and encourage an ethic of service. MIT was first, UC Berkeley second, UCLA fourth, UC San Diego fifth and Stanford seventh.

UC Davis figures prominently in Sacramento Magazine's list of the "50 Most Powerful People in the Sacramento Region," the magazine's July cover story. "They move things. They shake things. They have the power to get their calls returned, their projects approved and their voices heard," a headline reads. Columnist Ed Goldman describes the 50 men and women on the list as "doers," and he presents brief profiles of each of them. The UC Davis contingent includes Larry Vanderhoef, chancellor; Claire Pomeroy, vice chancellor for Human Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine; and artist and professor emeritus Wayne Thiebaud, pie painter extraordinaire. …

Sacramento Magazine follows its "50 Most Powerful People" with a list of 15 people on a list titled "Who's Next?" Included is UC Davis' Peggy Shannon, associate vice provost for University Outreach and Engagement, as well as a theatre and dance professor, and artistic director of the Sacramento Theatre Company. …

Ann Davies-Nesbitt, alternative transportation coordinator for the main campus, says consultants previously declared that UC Davis was not a vanpool school. Clearly, they were right: While UCLA has 138 vanpools, or one for every 142 full-time employees, UC Davis has only 10, or one for every 1,449 full-time employees. Davis had nine vanpools until Aug. 1, when one more went into service. The new van is the second one running between North Natomas and the main campus. The medical center in Sacramento continues to work on establishing one or two new vanpools to serve Elk Grove.

— Dateline staff