Bike sweep next week

Do you have a bike somewhere on campus, locked up, and which you have not ridden in a while? Then, chances are, it is going to be hauled away next week, May 23-27, during a sweep for abandoned bicycles.

In the days leading up to the sweep, Transportation and Parking Services personnel are tagging bikes that look abandoned: flat tires, bent wheels, rusty chain, cobwebs, missing parts.

If you see a tag on your bike, then you are advised to move it or repair it, said David Takemoto-Weerts, coordinator of the TAPS Bicycle Program. He and his staff offer a free lock-cutting service, if you have lost your key or cannot remember the combination, or if the lock does not work.

TAPS picks up abandoned bicycles year-round and makes a concentrated effort to haul them away during the May sweep. They are removed, Takemoto-Weerts said, to free up parking spaces, and because abandoned bicycles are unsightly and present tripping hazards.

TAPS checks all confiscated bicycles to try to determine if they have been reported stolen, and attempts to contact the owners of licensed bicycles. Most unclaimed bikes go up for public auction, and some are donated to charitable groups and organizations.

For lock-cutting service, call the Bicycle Program, (530) 752-BIKE (2453). The Bicycle Program website includes a link to the campus’s policy on abandoned bikes.

Repro Graphics recertified as forest-friendly

Repro Graphics has been recertified as a provider of paper originating in forests that are managed in accordance with the policies of the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

The campus printer purchased nearly 134,000 pounds of such paper from May 2010 through April 2011, said Brian Wadell, director.

The independent, not-for-profit Forest Stewardship Council and the independent, nonprofit Sustainable Forestry Initiative evaluate forest management companies to ensure that they are running their businesses in an agriculturally sustainable way, limiting carbon dioxide emissions, and respecting the rights of employees and indigenous people, among other criteria.

The certification process also extends to printers — such as Repro Graphics — to ensure that when a customer asks for paper from a certified forest, that the printer is giving them the real thing.

More information is available from Repro Graphics, (530) 752-COPY (2679) or reprographics@ucdavis.edu.

Faculty director sought for Academic Technology Services

The campus’s chief information officer, Peter M. Siegel, is recruiting a faculty director for Academic Technology Services, saying "it is time to have an Academic Senate member leading the efforts and helping to identify the highest priorities in this area," especially in light of today's budget constraints.

ATS provides educational technology services in support of teaching and learning, in the classroom and online.

The new position will be a 50 percent appointment, effective this September.

In a letter today (May 20) announcing the recruitment, Siegel wrote: “A key emphasis of this position will be to ensure effective coordination with the faculty community on all aspects of educational technology investments and priorities, recognizing the remarkable integration of the use of technology in teaching and the critical role technology plays in support of our campus aspirations for excellence in teaching and research.”

Read Siegel’s letter.

Election set for pension advisory board

An election is scheduled to begin Monday (May 23) to fill two staff seats on the UC Retirement System Advisory Board. The board meets three times each year to discuss issues pertaining to UC's retirement plans and shares ideas with the university president.

The ballot lists seven candidates from the Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles and San Diego campuses, plus the UCLA AIDS Institute and the UCLA Medical Center. The candidates are vying for four-year terms.

The electorate comprises all active, eligible UC Retirement Plan members who are not part of the Academic Senate. Notice of the election will come by e-mail to voters with UC e-mail addresses, by mail to those without.

Voters with e-mail addresses will be directed to the online ballot; voters who are notified by regular mail will have the option of casting their ballots online or by mail. Voting will close June 17.

More information, including a list of the candidates (with excerpts from their candidate statements).

New Merced chancellor: Dorothy Leland

The Board of Regents this week approved Dorothy Leland’s appointment as the next chancellor of UC Merced. She is due to take up her post July 1, after stepping down as president of Georgia College and State University.

Leland, who holds a doctorate in philosophy from Purdue University, becomes Merced’s third chancellor, after Carol Tomlinson-Keasey and Steve Kang. UC Merced opened in September 2005, becoming the 10th UC campus.

Read more.

UC Davis' Herbert moves up to staff adviser

UC Davis’ Penny Herbert moves up to staff adviser to the Board of Regents in 2011-12, and UCLA’s Kevin Smith becomes staff adviser-designate, effective July 1.

President Mark G. Yudof announced Smith’s appointment this week. Smith will serve as staff adviser-designate for one year, working alongside Herbert, before moving up to staff adviser in 2012-13.

Similarly, Yudof announced Herbert’s appointment a year ago, and she has served since last July 1 as staff adviser-designate alongside Juliann Martinez, director of Gift Management at UC Berkeley.

With Herbert's transition to staff adviser, Martinez’s two-year term as staff adviser-designate and then staff adviser will come to an end.

Herbert is the manager of the Department of Clinical Operations in the UC Davis Health System. Smith is the chief financial and compliance officer in the UCLA chancellor's office.

Read more about Herbert.

Read more on Smith’s appointment.

Meditation in the arboretum

If you wanted to do some meditation on campus, where would you go? The arboretum comes quickly to mind — and, in fact, it is the venue for a pair of meditation programs:

• Meditation on the Green — Denise Lichtig will lead this workshop, free and open to the campus community, from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 24, on the grass at Lake Spafford (east of Mrak Hall). Participants are advised to bring towels or mats to sit on.

Meditation on the Green is another free program from Aggies on the Move, a collaboration of the WorkLife unit and the Physical Education Program.

Of course, Aggies on the Move events are not normally as slow-paced as meditation. Nevertheless, the organizers said, apart from being of benefit to your mental well-being, meditation can also improve your physical well-being.

• Walking Meditation in the Oak Grove — Amie Diller leads this free, hourlong program, starting with brief instruction, followed by silent walking with occasional brief instructions, and concluding with a chant. 8 a.m. Saturday, June 18, starting at the gazebo.