UC Davis: Tree Campus USA

UC Davis, with 10,000 trees and a new designation as a Tree Campus USA, is partnering with the city of Davis and TREE Davis for an Arbor Day celebration April 22 at Central Park, Third and C streets.

The free program starts at 4:30 p.m., with children’s activities and tree education activities running from then until 7:30 p.m. A ceremony is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. and a tree planting at 5:45 p.m.

The Arbor Day Foundation started the Tree Campus USA program this year—with 29 U.S. universities and colleges on the list.

“These schools have made a major commitment to protecting, caring for and adding to their campus forest, and the results of this commitment will have a lasting, positive impact not only on campus but in the overall community,” said  John Rosenow, the foundation’s chief executive and founder.

Two other California schools made the inaugural list: UC San Diego and California State University, Fresno.

Small fires doused

The campus Fire Department doused a couple of small fires at a south entry construction site on April 4.

The fires, which officials said appeared to have been deliberately set, resulted in some minor scorching to small areas on two floors of the building that will house the Graduate School of Management.

The call came in just after 3 p.m., and the fire crew extinguished the flames by 4 p.m. Officials said the fires burned in piles of construction debris; officials were investigating the specific cause of each fire.

The GSM’s new home (40,000 square feet in three stories) is one part of a project that also includes a two-story building with 42,000 square feet for university offices, a conference center and restaurant.

Groundbreaking took place in December 2007, and work is scheduled for completion this fall. The construction cost is $34.5 million.

Anyone with information about the fires is asked to contact campus police, (530) 752-1727.

Connexxus for travel

The UC Travel Management Council has created a new online portal for booking university travel.

Called Connexxus, the portal enables UC travelers to book airfare, lodging and rental cars through BCD Travel, Orbitz for Connexxus or the UC Travel Center (a travel agency at UCLA).

Connexxus will be available to UC Davis and the UC Davis Health System in May, through mytravel.ucdavis.edu.

When booking through Connexxus, UC travelers automatically receive the university’s negotiated discounts — which range from 5 percent to 15 percent.

Connexxus accepts payments through Central Travel System accounts, corporate cards and personal credit cards, and, for UC Davis users, the charges are exported directly to MyTravel.

UC Davis’ Accounting & Financial Services announced a training session from 9 a.m. to noon May 14 to assist campus travel planners in using Connexxus. Enrollment can be arranged online: lms.ucdavis.edu (find the Connexxus training in “Financial Management,” under Business and Operations).

Webinar training sessions also are planned, and information will go out via the My Travel-Info e-mail list. Sign up for this e-mail list at accounting.ucdavis.edu (click on “E-mail Lists” under About A&FS).

Questions about Connexxus can be directed to the My Travel help desk, mytravel@ucdavis.edu.

Soaring to New Heights

Soaring to New Heights, the Davis campus’s annual celebration of diversity, is scheduled for April 14 in Freeborn Hall. Ticket sales ended April 3; no tickets will be sold at the door.

Doors are scheduled to open at 11:15 a.m. for an information fair. An international lunch will be served from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The program, sponsored by the Office of Campus Community Relations, also includes the presentation of diversity awards and the Calvin E. Handy Leadership Award.

Senate meet postponed

The Academic Senate has postponed its spring meeting, which was to have been held April 13.

Gina Anderson, the senate’s executive director, attributed the postponement to a conflict with the Council of Deans and Vice Chancellors retreat. The senate’s Representative Assembly will instead meet from 2:10 to 4 p.m. May 7 in MU II at the Memorial Union. The agenda will be posted in advance at academicsenate.ucdavis.edu (click on “Representative Assembly”).