UC Davis supporters have a new way to show their Aggie Pride, thanks to a new fan page on the social networking site, Facebook (www.facebook.com). The UC Davis fan page boasts the addition of nearly 800 new subscribers in three weeks — and is growing every day.

Current Facebook users can become fans of UC Davis by visiting the campus's Facebook page or entering UC Davis in the search field of any Facebook page. New members can register with the site for free.

The UC Davis fan page keeps subscribers informed of recent campus news and UC Davis quick facts, and provides links to UC Davis Facebook groups, videos and announcements. UC Davis fans can also participate in the community through discussion boards and posting their own UC Davis photos to the page.

Lisa Lapin, assistant vice chancellor for University Communications, said the page will also serve as another channel for communicating emergency information.

"It would not be the only way we communicate in an emergency, but it would be one of the vehicles we would absolutely use. That could be helpful for people such as parents, or others interested in campus news, to get that information when they are not part of our regular campus emergency networks," Lapin said.

Founded in February 2004, Facebook has 70 million active users (users who have returned to the site in the past 30 days). The UC Davis network on Facebook has nearly 41,000 members.

Scott Hildebrand, a Web developer in University Communications who worked on the site, said he hopes the UC Davis fan page serves as another way to engender some friendly competition.

"Stanford has just over 1,600 fans on its Facebook page. We at UC Davis need to show that we can beat them at this game the same way we can destroy them in football," he said.