Last Thursday, Dec. 4, saw the first use of “Aggie Alert,” UC Davis’ new notification for fast-moving events on and around the campus. Aggie Alert supplements WarnMe notifications for serious emergencies.

WarnMe and Aggie Alert messages are sent by email and text to all addresses and numbers in the campus directory. Campus officials urge faculty, staff and students to add their personal addresses and numbers to the database — you can get to it here (click on “Edit my WarnMe information now!”).

“If you’re working or living on the UC Davis campus either in Davis or Sacramento, make sure your contact information — especially cell phone numbers — is in the database and up to date," said Nick Crossley, director of Emergency Management and Mission Continuity for the Davis campus.

Aggie Alert messages are used for timely notifications of incidents that may cause disruption to campus, such as flooding or utility outages, or, as was the case with last week’s alert, a protest that tied up traffic in the area of Richards Boulevard, Olive Drive and Interstate 80. It “may cause traffic delays or disruption this evening,” the alert stated. “Avoid the area if possible.”

WarnMe is used for emergencies that pose immediate threat to life and safety, such as an active shooter incident.

With a recent software upgrade, WarnMe and Aggie Alert will soon accept email addresses and phone numbers belonging to people who are not faculty, staff or students — say, for example, parents and visiting scholars, and contractors working on campus.

Veterans hold fundraiser for Travis' Fisher House

Veterans who have organized themselves into an official UC Davis constituency group are asking the rest of the campus community to join them in helping the Fisher House at Travis Air Force Base.

Fisher House is a home away from home for military families with loves ones who are hospitalized at the David Grant Medical Center.

There are two ways to help:

• Stop by the UC Davis Veteran Constituency Group table between the Memorial Union and the Quad, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today through Thursday (Dec. 9-11), weather permitting. Volunteers will be taking donations of money and/or household essentials.
• Make a donation on a gofundme.com website that the Davis veterans organization set up for the month of December.

The Fisher House wish list includes laundry and cleaning supplies, food and personal care items, plus calling cards, gift cards, hand-held electronic games, and recent, family-oriented DVDs.

Storage space is limited for the bulkier items, according to the people who run the house. Monetary donations, on the other hand, provide the flexibility to purchse items when they are needed.

Car jumps into the Redwood Grove

A car jumped a curb in a parking lot last week and wound up among the redwoods in the arboretum, police said.

No injuries were reported. The accident occurred at about 10 a.m. Dec. 3 near the southeast corner of La Rue Road and Arboretum Drive, after the driver pulled into Lot 5.

He told police he was attempting to park when his car unexpectedly accelerated. It traveled out of the parking lot, across Arboretum Drive (a walkway and bike path) and down the embankment along the arboretum waterway — stopping about 30 feet short of the water.

The car clipped a redwood tree but did not do any serious damage.

Unitrans officially opens new terminal

Rain fell on the Unitrans parade last week but nothing could keep the vintage double-decker RT 2819 from lumbering under an arch of red-and-white balloons at the rebuilt Memorial Union Terminal.

Unitrans held most of the Dec. 2 “Opening Celebration” under the Freeborn Hall canopy. Then people moved to the terminal to see ASUCD President Armando Figueroa, Mayor Pro Tem Robb Davis and Unitrans General Manager Anthony Palmere cut a ceremonial ribbon.

That cleared the way for RT 2819 — which runs on compressed natural gas — to go under the balloon arch. Shazib Haq, a student who works as the Unitrans operation manager, did the driving.

See a video here and a slideshow at right. Read more about the new terminal.

Did you license your bike in 2012? Time to renew!

Bicycle registration renewals are due by Dec. 31 for people whose bikes have licenses that were issued in 2012.

All bicycles on campus are required to have a California Bicycle License ($10 for a new license, $5 for a renewal). They expire at the end of the second year after issuance.

A renewal costs $5, a new license costs $10 — a small price to pay to be part of as registration system that could help you get your bike back, if it’s stolen.

“We’re dealing with as many as 20,000 bikes on this campus when the weather’s nice,” said David Takemoto-Weerts, coordinator of the campus’s Bicycle Program. “Dealing with that many bikes … being able to identify the owners is really handy.”

License information is stored in a database used by campus and city police, and if your bicycle is stolen, its information is entered into a statewide registry of stolen bikes, increasing your chances of seeing your bike again.

Licenses and renewals are available at Transportation and Parking Services from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. They also may be purchased downtown at Ken’s Bike-Ski-Board and the Green Bicycle Depot.

For more information, contact Takemoto-Weerts by phone, (530) 752-2453, or email.

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