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Community members are invited to help make the holiday season a bit brighter for the pets of Sacramento-area homeless people by donating toward holiday gift baskets that will be prepared by volunteers at UC Davis' William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.
Each year as the winter holidays approach, committee members associated with the hospital’s newsletter and veterinary student officers for the Mercer Clinic fill some 130 gift "baskets" with gifts for the pets of the homeless. The baskets, which are actually decorated boxes, are filled with canned and dry food, treats, toys, leashes and pet-care products. The boxes will be provided to the homeless clients and their dogs and cats who visit the December Mercer Veterinary Clinic for the homeless, located next to the nonprofit Loaves and Fishes facility for the homeless in Sacramento.
The holiday pet baskets will be assembled from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, at the veterinary hospital and distributed Saturday, Dec. 12, at Mercer Clinic.
"During these unusually difficult times, we especially need monetary donations that can be used to purchase pet toys, which are a real source of joy for both the animals and their owners," said Eileen Samitz, a clinical microbiologist at the veterinary teaching hospital. She noted that pet supply companies provide the pet food and some of the other items for the holiday baskets, but other donations for toys and treats come from the community.
Donation checks for the holiday pet baskets should be made out to "VMTH-Mercer Holiday Pet Baskets" and sent to Financial Services, attention Debra Nelson, Room 102 VMTH Administration Annex, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616. More information about the holiday pet basket project is available online at: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer/donation_holiday.html.
Since 1995, the staff of the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital's newsletter, "The Voice," has organized holiday pet boxes for Mercer Clinic, which was started in 1992 by UC Davis veterinary students. Samitz annually uses vacation time to coordinate a team of volunteers that carries out the longtime holiday pet basket tradition. More information can be obtained from Samitz at (530) 756-5165.
Mercer Clinic provides the pets of homeless individuals with basic veterinary care, access to emergency care and pet food, all free of charge. It is open on the second Saturday of each month, staffed by faculty and private veterinarians who volunteer their time and supervise the veterinary students.
In addition to the seasonal holiday pet basket program, donations are welcomed year-round by the clinic, which relies entirely on donations and small grants for funding. All donations are tax deductible. Donation checks can be sent to Mercer Clinic for the Pets of the Homeless, P.O. Box 297, Davis CA, 95617. More information is available at the Mercer Clinic Web site at: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/clubs/mercer.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and transforms the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from five professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
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A recently completed survey of California’s super-high-density olive sector, prepared by the UC Davis Olive Center, paints the picture of a young but vibrant industry, well positioned to develop olive oil into one of the state’s major agricultural commodities in the coming years.
"Super-high-density" refers to the relatively new practice of dramatically increasing the density of olive tree plantings.
“The super-high-density olive sector has achieved impressive growth in just a decade,” said Dan Flynn, executive director of the olive center. “This survey, the first conducted exclusively of this sector of the state’s olive industry, highlights grower practices and suggests areas in which the University of California might be able to provide assistance.”
In old, traditional olive production systems of the Mediterranean region, olive trees were grown in nonirrigated orchards, with trees planted as much as 60 feet apart or at a density of just 12 trees per acre. During the 1980s in Spain and Italy, the introduction of irrigation systems and improved methods of training trees enabled growers to move toward much denser plantings.
Dense planting of olive trees using such methods began in California in 1999. In just a decade, density rates in the state have increased to as high as 908 trees per acre, according to the new survey. This method of trellising olive trees eventually resembles a hedge that can be mechanically harvested, dramatically decreasing production costs.
The survey found that 12,127 acres of super-high-density olive trees were planted in California as of the end of 2008, with 78 percent of the acreage planted between 2005 and 2008. Most of the growers reported that they decided to venture into this sector because it offered “favorable income potential.” Most of the new olive plantings replaced permanent crops or row crops.
The survey, mailed to 69 super-high-density olive growers throughout California, had an 87-percent response rate. It found that Glenn and San Joaquin counties dominated the industry, in terms of planted acreage. Glenn County had 4,227 acres, or 35 percent of the state’s total super-high-density olive plantings, and San Joaquin County had 3,713 acres, or 31 percent of the total. They were followed by Butte County, with 1,128 acres of super-high-density olive orchards, or 9 percent of the total.
The survey also found that:
• The Arbequina, native to Spain, was the olive variety most commonly planted in the super-high-density system, accounting for 78 percent of the state’s acreage;
• Planting densities ranged from 453 trees per acre to 908 trees per acre, with a statewide average density of 662 trees per acre.
• 2008 was the first year of harvest for 13 percent of the responding growers, and 69 percent of the respondents had not yet harvested as of the fall of that year.
• Those growers who had harvested reported that the first day of harvest ranged between Oct. 10 and Oct. 29, median olive yield was 4 tons per acre and median olive oil yield was 40 gallons per ton.
• Almost all super-high-density growers used drip irrigation, with 64 percent of them relying on well water to irrigate their orchards, 24 percent using irrigation district water and 10 percent using surface water.
• Less than half of the respondents provided information on how much irrigation water they used. Among those who did provide information, the average annual water use for super-high-density olive plantings was 21 inches per year.
“This may be an area where University of California scientists and farm advisors can help growers calculate water usage in inches,” Flynn said.
When asked to identify particular areas of interest or concern, survey respondents mentioned that they would like to learn more about converting to or further developing organic production practices, would like to see more olive oil mills in Northern California, and would like to convert further acreage to super-high-density plantings. Moreover, some expressed a desire to discontinue super-high-density plantings but continue traditional planting methods. Others noted that they were concerned about loss of acreage due to frost.
The complete survey report, prepared by Nicole Sturzenberger, Dan Flynn, and Elizabeth Clow, is provided online by the UC Davis Olive Center at http://www.olivecenter.ucdavis.edu.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and transforms the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — and advanced degrees from five professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
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Photography by Cheng Saechao / UC Davis News Service
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Following a sometimes noisy forum with campus leaders, protesters marched across the UC Davis campus today for a sit-in at Dutton Hall. About 100 demonstrators remained on the ground floor of the building until 6 p.m., when they left voluntarily.
The protests were in response to the UC Board of Regents' Nov. 19 decision to increase student fees across the 10-campus system.
Today's demonstrations followed a sit-in yesterday at Mrak Hall that resulted in 52 arrests. (See story in Dateline).
At the Dutton Hal sit-in, police arrived just before the building's usual closing time and asked protesters to leave.
One protester, Laura Mitchell, stood up to argue that if the crowd left peacefully, the Yolo County District Attorney might be more willing to consider dropping charges against those arrested at Mrak Hall.
Dutton Hall houses student-related administrative offices, including the Financial Aid Office and the Cashier's Office.
Today's protests started with an 11 a.m. rally on the Quad. From there, some 60 protestors marched through the rain toward the Activities and Recreation Center, where campus administrators had scheduled a noon forum to address student concerns. The march eventually grew to more than 200 people.
Fred Wood, vice chancellor for student affairs, led the forum, with Kelly Ratliff, associate vice chancellor for budget and resource management, Jason Murphy, director of state government relations, Lora Jo Bossio, associate vice chancellor for financial aid, and Annette Spicuzza, chief of the UC Davis Police Department.
Some audience members called on campus leaders to pressure the Yolo County District Attorney to drop charges against those arrested at Mrak Hall. Others asked why the protestors had been arrested, rather than being allowed to stay in the building overnight.
State government relations director Murphy applauded the audience for the energy in the room, saying that he wanted to turn that commitment and energy towards the state Legislature and governor. He pointed out advocacy efforts by the University of California, including the UC for California and Aggie Advocates, which students and other supporters of the university can join.
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Despite decades of public pressure to shatter the so-called “glass ceiling,” women remain a distinct minority in the boardrooms and executive suites of California’s 400 largest companies, according to a University of California, Davis, study released today.
Men still hold roughly nine out of every 10 top management and board positions, a ratio that has remained largely unchanged in the five years that the UC Davis Graduate School of Management has conducted its annual Study of California Women Business Leaders.
For the first time, the report also starts to explore the consequences of the gender inequity and cites preliminary findings that suggest companies with women executives and board members may be more socially responsible.
“Our findings paint a disappointing picture of corporate gender equity in California, the world's eighth-largest economy,” said Steven C. Currall, dean of the Graduate School of Management. “When we released our study each of the past four years, it was met with intense interest by the business community, state legislators, policymakers and the media. Yet, overall, little has changed.
“In today’s global marketplace, where diverse backgrounds, skills and experience are critical for strategic and operational decisions, having more women involved at the highest levels of business management and corporate governance is likely to result in more profitable and well-managed companies,” Currall said. “Our aim is to enhance diversity at the top of the corporate hierarchy.”
The study, the only one of its kind in California, relies on information that publicly traded companies must report to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It included reports filed up to May 15, 2009.
The survey found that women hold just 10.6 percent of board seats and executive positions in California’s largest 400 firms. That figure represents a slight decline from 10.9 percent in 2008. The number was 10.4 percent in 2007 and 10.2 percent in 2006.
“The business world is in dire need of a greater number of connected, empowered and effective women leaders,” said Wendy Beecham, chief executive officer of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives, a Silicon Valley organization that partners with UC Davis to produce the study.
The census found that nearly a third of the state’s biggest companies — 118 of the 400 — have no women at the top, either on their boards or in their executive offices. Such companies included National Semiconductor, Callaway Golf, Hansen Natural, Quiksilver and Synnex.
In contrast, there was not a single company in the top 400 with no men in top management positions.
Only 15 of the top 400 have a woman CEO, up slightly from 13 a year ago. One of those is Bare Escentuals, a cosmetics company based in San Francisco. With five women on its board, Bare Escentuals finished atop this year’s list and was the only company with women holding half of its top management and board positions.
The ranks of women are thinnest in corporate boardrooms. Women occupy 320 of 3,252 board seats in the top 400 companies — just 9.8 percent. Almost half of the top 400 — 46 percent — have no women directors; another 34 percent have just one.
Women held 321 of 2,770 executive offices in the top 400 — just 11.6 percent. But essentially half — 49 percent — of those companies had no women executives. Only 79 — less than 20 percent -- had two or more. Executive officers include, but are not limited to, CEOs, CFOs, chief operating officers and chief information officers.
The top 25 companies with the greatest number of women in executive suites and boardrooms included some of the state’s most prominent companies: Jack in the Box at No. 5; Edison International in a tie for eighth place; Clorox at No. 14; Peet’s Coffee & Tea at No. 18; Health Net at No. 19; and Disney at No. 22.
San Francisco city and county had the highest percentage of women executive officers — 17.3 percent — among counties with 20 or more firms in the top 400. Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, had the most companies — 117 of the 400 — yet the lowest representation of women — 8.2 percent — in boardrooms.
“The results show that we have a lot more work to do,” said Jacqueline Jaszka, a UC Davis MBA student who worked on the study. The annual survey was a factor in Jaszka’s decision to apply to the UC Davis business school.
“It’s disappointing, in such a progressive state with so many businesses and such a variety of industries, that women still are vastly underrepresented in leadership positions,” Jaszka said.
With the statewide numbers little changed, researchers began this year to seek answers to questions raised by the survey.
“These data do not tell us why women occupy such a small minority of the board and top management positions in California’s largest firms,” Donald Palmer, an associate dean and management professor, wrote in this year’s study. “In all likelihood, it is not because very few women enter the managerial ranks.”
Women earned more than 20 percent of business and management masters’ degrees nationally as early as 1980, and their share of such degrees has increased steadily since, reaching 40 percent in recent years, Palmer noted.
“Whatever is driving this, it’s certainly resistant to change,” he said.
Researchers have begun to examine the consequences of the stark gender imbalance at the top of large corporations. Several studies indicate that companies with more women on their boards and in their executive suites perform better financially.
Companies with women leaders also may be more socially responsible, according to Palmer.
Palmer, who directed this year’s research, used the latest census data to conduct an additional analysis of the possible effect of women leaders on a company’s commitment to environmentally responsible practices.
His analysis focused on 62 of the state’s top 400 companies that were included in a September 2009 Newsweek magazine study of the environmental performance among the top 500 U.S. corporations.
Of the 62 overlapping companies, those that had no women directors or executives had the poorest environmental performance, Palmer found. Firms that had both women managers and directors had the best environmental performance.
Palmer's additional results are preliminary and based on a small sample. Nonetheless, “taken together with our other census findings, they suggest that not only do California’s largest firms admit fewer women into their boards and top management teams, but their corporate social performance suffers as a result,” Palmer concluded.
For more information and to download the full report, visit http://www.gsm.ucdavis.edu/census. To hear a recorded press briefing about the report, visit http://urelations.ucdavis.edu/media/audio/womens_study.mp3.
The full census includes appendices of all 400 companies ranked by percentage of women directors and executive officers; the 400 companies listed alphabetically; and companies listed by county.
About the Graduate School of Management
Established in 1981, the Graduate School of Management has enjoyed national prominence for more than a decade. It has been ranked among the top 50 public and private business schools by U.S. News & World Report for the past 14 years.
The school has 120 students enrolled in a daytime MBA program at Gallagher Hall on the UC Davis campus and more than 450 working professional students at campuses in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.
About the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives
Founded in 1993, FWE&E describes itself as the definitive community in the Bay Area for accomplished women thought leaders and decision makers. The organization connects more than 500 women leaders with people and ideas to enhance businesses, communities and the world. The forum will conduct a seminar, including a panel entitled "Moving the Needle — A Dialogue About Diversity in the C Suite and on Boards," on Thursday in East Palo Alto. For more information, visit http://www.fwe.org.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and transforms the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — and advanced degrees from five professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
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In a massive survey of genetic diversity in maize, also known as corn, researchers across the United States, have developed a gene map that should pave the way to significant improvements in a plant that is a major source of food, fuel, animal feed and fiber around the world.
The new map, a special type of gene map known as a haplotype map, charts genetic diversity and recombination across the genome of 27 inbred lines of maize. The research team, led by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists at Cornell University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York and including plant scientist Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra of the University of California, Davis, will report its findings in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Science.
“We are hopeful that the information that this haplotype map reveals about the genetic diversity of maize will provide a foundation for efforts to understand maize evolution and the genetic basis of complex traits that may prove key to maize improvement,” Ross-Ibarra said.
Maize (Zea mays L.), with its genome of an estimated 30,000 genes distributed along 10 chromosomes, is about 70 percent the size of the human genome. In constructing the haplotype map, the researchers identified several million genetic variations — or polymorphisms — in the DNA sequence among the 27 maize inbred lines, as well as 10-fold to 30-fold variation in the rates at which genes recombine.
“This approach yielded evidence that points to hundreds of regions in the genome that were probably involved in the domestication of maize and-or geographic differentiation among various lines of maize,” Ross-Ibarra said.”
The research team also included scientists at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Funding for the mapping effort was provided by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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A synthetic bone matrix offers hope for babies born with craniosynostosis, a condition that causes the plates in the skull to fuse too soon. Implants replacing some of the infant’s bone with the biodegradable matrix could eliminate some of the operations currently used to treat the condition.
“The remarkable thing about this is the finding that the composition of the matrix changes what the cells around it do. Cells begin producing natural drugs to drive bone healing in direct response to the composition of the bone matrix,” said Kent Leach, professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis.
The material is currently being tested in experiments with rats. Human trials will depend upon the success of tests in animals.
The human skull is not a smooth dome, but a patchwork of fused bones that resembles a soccer ball rather than an egg. At birth, the skull contains 45 separate pieces, joined by connective tissue, that slowly fuse together into solid bone. In most babies, this process keeps pace with brain growth, resulting in a normally shaped head.
However, one in every 2,000 babies is born with craniosynostosis, where the plates fuse and the skull becomes rigid. This leaves less room for the brain to grow, leading to developmental disabilities, and cranial and facial deformities.
In the standard surgery, surgeons remove fused bones, break them up and reposition some of the pieces along the edges to protect the brain. This usually slows the bone growth and allows the brain to grow. Nevertheless, 6 to 8 percent of babies will need a second operation and 25 percent of those will need yet a third operation.
Leach believes that the environment surrounding the cells might be sending the wrong instructions, causing cells to grow wrong. Leach’s biodegradable implant is impregnated with stem cells from bone marrow and a synthetic version of hydroxyapatite, a chemical produced naturally in the body to stimulate bone growth. Once implanted, bone-forming cells enter the matrix. Leach’s research with rats shows dense connective tissue, suggestive of bone formation, only eight weeks after implantation.
Leach hopes that his new matrix will encourage the growth of healthy tissue and eliminate the need for second and third surgeries. “The matrix will resorb over time, leaving only the child’s own bone,” he said.
Leach's work is funded by a grant from The Hartwell Foundation.
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A workshop on "Neuroeconomics and Endocrinological Economics," to be held Nov. 20 and 21 at UC Davis, will be the first to bring together experts in neuroscience, economics and hormone physiology in one event, according to organizers.
Neuroeconomics has emerged as a new field in recent years, as both economists and neuroscientists have used brain scanning technology such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate how people make decisions.
"Economists and neuroscientists have been coming at similar problems but from different directions," said workshop organizer Burkhard Schipper, assistant professor of economics at UC Davis.
By having volunteers play simple games involving risk and reward while in a brain scanner, researchers have been able to see which areas of the brain are activated as people make economic decisions. However, economists have lacked a body of theory to connect what happens in the brain to wider economic theory, Schipper said. This new area -- neuroeconomic theory -- will be one of the topics of the conference, he said.
Another new area -- endocrinological economics -- studies how hormones such as testosterone and estradiol affect economic behavior. At the workshop, Coren Apicella, research fellow at Harvard University, will discuss how testosterone levels affect risk-taking tasks. Schipper will talk about his recent work on how the menstrual cycle influences risk-taking in an auction-bidding game.
Workshop participants will also address how genetics contribute to economic decision-making, including a presentation by graduate student David Cesarini, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on pension investments by identical and non-identical twins.
The workshop is supported by the UC Davis College of Letters and Science, the Department of Economics and the Institute of Governmental Affairs. It is co-sponsored by the Levine Family Foundation of Greenwich, Conn. The foundation, established by UC Davis alumnus Jay Levine and his wife Tammy, provides funds to support the mission of the Department of Economics, including visiting speakers and workshops.
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The University of California, Davis, this fall enrolled its largest number of transfer students even as UC budget constraints reduced the size of the freshman class.
New students who transferred from a community college or university number 2,219 this fall, compared with last fall's 1,914, for a 15.9 percent increase. The 4,412 new freshmen coming directly from high school represent an 11.3 percent decrease from last fall's 4,972.
In all, record fall enrollment of 32,153 represents an increase of about 2.3 percent from last fall's 31,426.
Frank Wada, executive director of Undergraduate Admissions and university registrar, said the changes among new undergraduates are in keeping with a UC Board of Regents vote in January to curtail enrollment for UC's freshman class and increase the number of transfer students.
In the long term, UC Davis is planning to increase the proportion of transfer students in the entering class, currently about 33 percent, to about 35 percent by fall 2020.
Wada said UC Davis recruiters and advisers worked closely with community college advisers and students to achieve the increase in transfers. For fall 2009, UC Davis wrote almost 20 percent more agreements guaranteeing admission for California community college students who fulfilled certain academic conditions. Additionally, UC Davis guaranteed housing to transfer students for the first time in years.
This year's freshman class is one of the strongest ever at UC Davis, Wada said. "Even though our enrollment targets for freshman students were reduced and the number of applications increased more than 4 percent from the previous year," he said, "we were still able to retain student diversity and increase the proportion of students who are from families with low incomes."
Among freshmen who reported parental income, 38.4 percent are considered low income (their family size and income level make them eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch through the National School Lunch Program); last fall, 36.3 percent were from low-income families.
The average grade point average of the freshman class is 3.85, compared with 3.79 in fall 2008. The average SAT score of enrolled freshmen is 1791, up from the average score of 1764 in fall 2008.
Among transfer students, the average GPA for college studies remained constant at 3.32.
By ethnicity
A total of 4,344 of the 4,412 new freshmen are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and among them, more than 20 percent are from traditionally underrepresented groups.
Among the 2,085 transfer students from the United States, 364, or 17.5 percent, are from traditionally underrepresented groups.
Among all 29,696 students from the United States, 16.2 percent are from traditionally underrepresented groups, compared with 15.4 percent last fall. (This count excludes medical and veterinary school interns and residents.)
Overall enrollment
The number of new and continuing undergraduates (including teaching-credential students) increased by about 1.8 percent, from 24,209 last fall to 24,655 this fall. The number of academic graduate students increased by 3.2 percent, from 4,085 to 4,215. The number of professional students increased from 3,132 last fall to 3,283 this fall, for a 4.8 percent increase.
Looking only at the Davis campus, the student population is expected to average 27,740 across the three quarters of the academic year.
Men account for 44.7 percent of the student population, and women 55.3 percent. About 92.2 percent of students are California residents. (These numbers exclude interns and residents.)
For the general campus, 5,076 students are classified as freshmen; 4,483 as sophomores; 6,722 as juniors; 8,230 as seniors; 144 as teaching-credential students; 3,943 as master's or doctoral degree candidates; and 1,278 as professional students.
In the health sciences, 272 are designated as master's or doctoral degree students and 2,055 as professional degree candidates.
Here is a comparison of fall quarter enrollments from last year to this year:
Fall 2009
Undergraduates 24,655
- Agricultural & Environmental Sciences 5,493
- Engineering 3,044
- Letters & Science 10,658
- Biological Sciences 5,316
- Teaching Credential 144
Graduate Academic 4,215
Professional 3,283
- Graduate School of Management* 547
- Law 623
- Medicine** 1,353
- Veterinary Medicine** 652
- Graduate Division 108
Total 32,143
Fall 2008
Undergraduates 24,209
- Agricultural & Environmental Sciences 5,283
- Engineering 2,936
- Letters & Science 10,594
- Biological Sciences 5,260
- Teaching Credential 136
Graduate Academic 4,085
Professional 3,132
- Graduate School of Management* 506
- Law 589
- Medicine** 1,291
- Veterinary Medicine** 651
- Graduate Division 95
Total 31,426
* Figures for the management school include students in the MBA program for working professionals: 431 this fall and 396 last fall.
** Numbers for the medical and veterinary schools include interns and residents. The medical school has 805 this fall compared with 749 last fall; the vet school has 101 this fall compared with 109 last fall.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and transforms the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from five professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
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California Indian song, bustling tours and quiet, personal moments were all part of the dedication on Nov. 14 of a new outdoor reflective space honoring the Patwin who once lived on the land that would become the University of California, Davis.
The Native American Contemplative Garden is part of a larger UC Davis project -- believed to be the first at any public university in the nation -- to honor the land's original inhabitants and to educate the campus and its visitors about them.
Among those attending the ceremony were Patwin Elder Bill Wright; Charlie Wright, tribal chair of the Cortina Rancheria; Larry Myers, executive secretary of the California Native American Heritage Commission; Martha Macri, professor in the UC Davis Department of Native American Studies and holder of the Rumsey (Yocha Dehe) Endowed Chair in California Indian Studies; and UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi.
'A work of spirit'
Inés Hernández-Avila, a professor of Native American studies and person of Nez Perce and Chicana heritage who collaborated on the garden, calls it "a work of spirit." Under the guidance of Patwin Elder Wright, she said, work on the garden is fostering healing after campus construction projects disturbed native remains.
"The land that UC Davis sits on is ancestrally Patwin land," said Hernández-Avila. "This contemplative garden is a reminder that the connection still exists for the Patwin people who themselves are a living presence in California."
"This recognition is a gift to the campus, to the native community and to everyone," she added. "It's a gift that a lot of people had a part in."
Garden features
The garden sits on the bank of the historic Putah Creek channel and within the UC Davis Arboretum, a living museum with 100 acres of gardens and plant collections known internationally as scientific and horticultural resources.
The garden features naturally shaped basalt columns representing the Patwin people and their strength and resilience; trees and other plants used by the Patwin people; a curving path representing the flow of the creek and the flow of time; and a spiral seating area designed after the coiled start of a Patwin basket.
The columns include age-old statements of Patwin philosophy, which have survived the mostly unacknowledged history of genocide in California. One of them beckons visitors to "Try to imagine this place with no buildings, no sidewalks, no roads … . " At the heart of the garden is a column engraved with the names of 51 local Patwin men, women and children who were removed by Spanish soldiers and missionaries from the village of Putoy and taken to missions from 1817 to 1836.
About the Patwin
The Patwin people lived not only in villages along Putah Creek, but in hundreds of villages lining the creeks from Glenn County to San Francisco Bay, according to Tammara Ekness Norton of Far Western Anthropological Research Group. As a people, they were decimated by disease and forced relocation to missions, she wrote in the project plan. Today, only three federally recognized Patwin (Wintun) Indian rancherias remain.
The garden includes about 34 varieties of plants -- many identified by their Patwin names -- that were used by the inhabitants for food, medicine, basketry and much more.
It is the first phase of a project that will include 10 other markers along a campus walking tour to tell the story of the Patwin ancestors and the continuing presence of Patwin people in the region. It is also part of the UC Davis Arboretum GATEways (Gardens, Arts, and the Environment) project, a masterplan in which the arboretum will welcome visitors to the campus and showcase the work of UC Davis scientists and scholars.
'A common purpose'
In the garden's vista, across the creek and through large trees -- including a 400-year-old oak -- is the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. During the building's construction 10 years ago, an excavation crew uncovered 13 Patwin burials. All remains were subsequently reburied in an undisclosed location.
A committee including representatives from UC Davis, its staff and students, and the Patwin community worked together to develop the plan to honor the Patwin heritage of UC Davis, the Department of Native American studies, and all Native Americans at UC Davis and in the region. The project also serves to mark the Patwin's spiritual connection to the land and their ancestors.
"Where there was once anger and distrust, there is now respect, trust, a common purpose," said committee member Sheri Tatsch, who graduated from UC Davis with a doctoral degree in Native American studies and is a native language consultant.
Patwin Elder Wright has said the new reflective area offers encouragement to American Indian students, telling them that they belong here, that they belong in higher education -- and they can say, "I'm a part of this."
UC Davis enrolled its first students in 1908. The Native American studies department, one of only two in the nation to offer a Ph.D. in Native American studies, is celebrating its 40th anniversary as an academic program and the 10th anniversary of the arrival of its first graduate students.
The arboretum, including the new contemplative garden, is free and open to the public seven days a week.
To view a slideshow about the garden, including historic photos, visit http://ucdavismagazine/issues/fall09/garden_slideshow/.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and transforms the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from five professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
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A $1 million gift from Trinchero Family Estates, a family-owned wine company in the Napa Valley, will help the University of California, Davis, build new facilities for a program that provides disease-free rootstock to California nurseries and is of critical importance to the grape and wine industries.
The donation was presented to the university Nov. 12 at a meeting of Foundation Plant Services, a program of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences that produces, tests, maintains and distributes premium plant materials.
“We are delighted with the Trinchero family’s decision to help us expand our facilities for Foundation Plant Services,” said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. “Their generous gift helps California grape growers maintain access to healthy planting stock, which is essential for a competitive and economically viable industry.”
“For decades, UC Davis has educated many top industry leaders in the wine community and we have benefited from the winemakers, viticulturists and scientists who have studied in UC Davis halls,” said Bob Trinchero, board chairman of Trinchero Family Estates. “Foundation Plant Services has helped shape our industry by providing state-of-the-art technologies and services for growing the finest grapes. Our decision to make this contribution to UC Davis and its Foundation Plant Services was based on our exceptional experiences with the university and its profound effect on the wine business.”
Grape rootstocks are one of the principal horticultural crops supported by Foundation Plant Services. In 2008, the program released five new grape rootstocks with resistance to nematodes and phylloxera — two of the most damaging vineyard pests.
In 1994, the unit moved into the university's National Grapevine Importation and Clean Stock Facility located west of the Davis campus. Since then, its programs have more than tripled, necessitating expansion for new staff and information technology needs.
The Trinchero Family Estates gift will support construction of a planned $3.8 million, 5,600-square-foot new building adjacent to the current facility. The project aims to achieve LEED silver certification with a variety of sustainable design features, including water and energy efficiency. It will include a meeting room for hosting classes and stakeholder gatherings.
“I’m extremely grateful for this gift and overwhelmed with the Trinchero family’s generosity,” said Foundation Plant Services Director Deborah Golino. “This new building will help us build greater capacity to better serve the California grape and wine industries. And we’re thrilled that it is in the process of being named the Trinchero Family Estates building.”
About Trinchero Family Estates
Trinchero Family Estates is owned and operated by the Trinchero family, who came to the Napa Valley in 1947. Immigrants from northern Italy in the 1920s, the Trincheros purchased an abandoned 19th-century winery named Sutter Home in St. Helena. For the next quarter century, the family ran Sutter Home as a small mom-and-pop winery.
Second generation winemaker Bob Trinchero, son of founder Mario Trinchero, was the creator of Sutter Home White Zinfandel, a wine first sold in the winery tasting room in 1973. The wildly successful white zinfandel allowed the Trinchero family to expand their winery portfolio to include 23 different wine labels, including Sutter Home, Trinchero Napa Valley, Napa Cellars, Terra d’Oro, Montevina, Trinity Oaks, Folie à Deux, Ménage à Trois, and the alcohol-removed wine, Fre. The company also imports Angove Vineyards and Little Boomey wines of Australia, and markets and sells the Three Thieves and Joel Gott brands. Trinchero Family Estates also produces luxury-class single-vineyard wines from the family's estates in prime growing regions throughout the Napa Valley. Their 13-acre sustainably farmed cabernet sauvignon vineyard brings the family's Napa Valley vineyard holdings to more than 200 acres.
About Foundation Plant Services
Foundation Plant Services is a self-supporting unit of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. It is dedicated to the distribution of disease-tested, true-to-identity plant materials that are produced by UC researchers, improved by UC researchers, or valuable to California’s agricultural community. It is responsible for clean stock programs for grapes, strawberries, deciduous fruit and nut trees, roses, and sweet potatoes; a hybrid pistachio rootstock seed program; and importation programs for grapes, strawberries and chestnuts. These programs have played a key national and international role in distributing new crop varieties and healthy planting stocks.
It takes many years to establish the healthy live plant collections that are the core of clean stock programs. Clean planting stock programs use disease detection, pathogen elimination techniques, and isolation strategies to produce, maintain, and propagate healthy planting stock. Clean plant programs must use state-of-the-art technology to ensure that producers stay competitive in the global market. Collections must be continually protected from infection, monitored for disease, farmed, and documented.
About UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and transforms the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges — Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science — and advanced degrees from five professional schools — Education, Law, Management, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
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