New (Undergrad) Student Community Center at UC Davis Campus Opened

An almost 43,000-gross-square-foot center is to fulfill a vision of UC Davis (undergraduate) students. The new building will centralize and therefore facilitate campus live from its Principles of Community – a commitment to being a learning environment that values diversity and is characterized by understanding and acceptance of all people (except any post-graduates, but that on the side). The building was paid from additional fees that were approved in 1999 and 2002 via referenda.

to build a facility to demonstrate and help the campus live out its Principles of Community — a commitment to being a learning environment that values diversity and is characterized by understanding and acceptance of all people. In referenda in 1999 and 2002, students approved paying additional fees for the purpose.

The new building is located at a central intersection next to the Silo (eatery), on campus bike shop, the bus terminal, and the Shields Library.

The large lobby leads to the glass fronts of the LGBT Resource Center, the Cross Cultural Center and the Student Recruitment and Retention Center. The upper floor includes a multipurpose room, computer classrooms and the Undergraduate Research Center. The building also includes outreach offices for ethnic studies programs and the Women’s Resources and Research Center.

No specific services are available for graduate students at UC Davis. There is currently talk within the administration to create a similar center for graduate students (and post-docs?). Several buildings are scheduled to be renovated, including the building next to the new Undergraduate Student Community Center, Walker Hall. Just as previously for undergraduates, the current services available to graduate students are scattered across campus, including child support, day-care centres, and financial aid. The best thing we, as a graduate community at UC Davis, can do is to let the administration know that there is a need for such a community center for graduate students as well. This would be a place where we come together to blow of some steam after a failed experiment by playing fusball or table tennis. Where we could come together to meet and discuss important issues or have study groups, including a conference center for the Graduate Student Association‘s meetings. The Office for Graduate Studies already has plans to move to the second floor of Walker Hall after its renovation. This would mean that Walker hall could become a true Graduate Student Center. Let’s make this happen and contact the administration to make it happen.

Link to UC New article.

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