The Office of the University Registrar is holding an open house in the registrar’s new location this Friday (Oct. 2).

The office moved out of the Mrak Hall basement and into 3100 Dutton Hall earlier this month.

The open house will be from 8:15 to 9:45 a.m. “Enjoy some treats and tour this new space,” an announcement states.

The registrar’s office joins these other students services in Dutton Hall: Financial Aid and Scholarships, Student Accounting and the Cashier’s Office.

“This will streamline services to students as they often found themselves running from Student Accounting in Dutton to the registrar’s office in Mrak Hall and back,” the announcement states. “Now all financial and registration services are centrally located.”

‘Planning for Retirement’ seminar this week

UC’s Retirement Administration Service Center will present a “Planning for Retirement” seminar from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday (Oct. 2) in the Conference Center Ballroom.

The presentation is designed for employees planning to retire within the next five years. Reservations are not required; seating will be on a first-come, first-seated basis. 

If you’re unable to attend, this presentation has been previously recorded and is available online.

Questions regarding the presentation should be addressed to the Retirement Administration Service Center by phone: (800) 888-8267, Option 4.   

‘Crawl’ into the university archives

The University Library’s Special Collections unit is among 23 Northern California institutions and organizations participating in the fifth annual Sacramento Archives Crawl, this Saturday (Oct. 3). There will be no “crawling” at our library, but Special Collections will nevertheless be sharing some of its materials.

Only four institutions will actually be open for the crawl — all are in downtown Sacramento — and they will host representatives of the other participating institutions and organizations. You’ll find the UC Davis library delegation, collections manager/archivist Sara Gunasekara and map assistant Dawn Collings, at the California State Library, 900 N St.

The annual crawl, which celebrates National Archives Month, gives the participating institutions the opportunity to showcase rarely seen holdings. Each host location will also offer behind-the-scenes tours.

The UC Davis representatives “will be bringing a laptop with digitized images from our Eastman Originals Collection as well as reproductions of materials from some of our agricultural technology collections as they relate to this year’s theme of ‘Powered by the Past,'" Gunasekara said. “We’ll also be highlighting images of the UC Blackwelder tomato harvester.”

The other Sacramento Archives Crawl locations are the California State Archives, 1020 O St.; Center for Sacramento History, 551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.; and the Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, 828 I St. Free transxportation will be provided between all locations; visit at least three and you will receive a set of limited-edition commemorative coasters.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at all four locations. Admission is free and open to the public. More information on the Sacramento Archives Crawl, including the “History Scavenger Hunt” for kindergarten- through 12th-grade students.

Sociologist’s topic on AC360: Teens and social media

Robert Faris, associate professor of sociology, will be among the experts joining CNN’s Anderson Cooper for his special report, “Being 13: Inside the Secret World of Teens,” on Monday (Oct. 5). Faris is an expert in bullying and youth aggression.

This episode of Anderson Cooper 360 will focus on a research project in which child development experts followed hundreds of eighth-graders on social media — with the students’ permission — tracking their conversations. The study also included surveys, completed by the teens and their parents, asking about social media’s impact on families. 

This program is a follow-up to AC360’s special report, “Bullying, It Stops Here,” in which Faris also participated. A child psychologist will join Faris in the analysis on next week’s program.

More information is available online.

TECHNEWS: Cyber Security Survey returns

Remember the campus Cyber Security Survey? If you’ve spent at least a few years in campus technology, you probably do. It assesses the current state of information security at UC Davis.

The survey is returning this fall after a few years’ hiatus, and if you help manage technology at UC Davis, you could be asked to help complete it.

Information and Educational Technology will send the survey to deans and vice provosts in October, and ask them to delegate the task of completing it to the appropriate people in their areas. IET sent an advance copy of the survey to the Technology Support Program listserv this month.

IET will ask the deans and vice provosts to ensure the survey is completed and submitted by Dec. 1.

Read the complete article in TechNews.

IN MEMORIAM: Rand Schaal, lecturer and benefactor

Rand B. Schaal, an alumnus who became a lecturer in geology, and who teamed with his father, Ted, on a generous donation to UC Davis, has died at the age of 64.

Rand Schaal’s lively teaching style inspired and entertained thousands of undergraduates. They bestowed on him the nickname “Moondude” for his love of planetary geology, a moniker he enjoyed greatly, said Professor Dawn Sumner, chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

After a stroke forced his early retirement from teaching in 1998, Schaal wrote and self-published The Radon Trilogy, inspired by his research on moon rocks and the Earth's mantle.

Rand Schaal '73, a member of the swim team, joined his father in 1998 in donating $1 million for the development of the Schaal Aquatics Center, and $400,000 to assist the geology department in funding the Ted and Rand Schaal Auditorium in Giedt Hall. 

Read the complete obituary on the College of Letters and Science website.

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