7,000 visitors expected Friday

Upward of 7,000 visitors are expected on campus Friday (April 22) for Decision UC Davis, a day of programs and tours for newly admitted freshmen and their families.

It is one in a series of events designed to encourage newly admitted students to enroll at UC Davis. Freshmen have until May 1 to submit their statements of intent to register.

UC Davis announced earlier this week that it had admitted 21,074 students out of the 45,825 who applied for freshman status in fall 2011. Read the news release.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to provide information about our excellent academic programs, describe our outstanding student services, showcase our beautiful campus, and allow our nearly 6,000 guests to engage with faculty, students and staff,” said Vice Chancellor Fred Wood, who leads Student Affairs.

In a message to faculty and staff, Wood said: “Please be advised that we expect our guests to require approximately 2,500 parking spaces throughout the campus.”

The visitors will be directed to three parking areas:

• The south entry garage and the nearby Lots 1 and 2, in the vicinity of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts (where the main Decision UC Davis event will commence at 7 a.m.)
• The north entry garage, for the Regents Scholars program starting at 8.
• The west entry garage and Lot 25 (in front of the Activities and Recreation Center), for overflow parking.

“We realize there may be some inconveniences, and we appreciate your understanding and support for this important campuswide endeavor,” Wood said.

Decision UC Davis for transfer admits is scheduled for Friday, May 13. The campus expects more than 3,000 people for that event — and about 1,200 cars in the west entry garage and Lot 25.

The transfer program is set to begin at 7 a.m. in The Pavilion at the ARC. Transfer students have until June 1 to submit their statements of intent to register.

No-contest plea in embezzlement case

Jennifer Beeman pleaded no contest April 14 in Yolo County Superior Court to two felony counts of embezzlement and keeping false accounts, in connection with her former employment as director of the Campus Violence Prevention Program.

With a no-contest plea, a defendant does not admit guilt, but offers no defense, and is subject to the same punishment as if he or she had pleaded guilty or been convicted.

Beeman's sentencing is scheduled for June 2. District Attorney Jeff Reisig said she faces a maximum of four years in state prison and an order to pay restitution of about $10,000. The district attorney's office dropped all other charges against Beeman, pursuant to her plea.

The charges stemmed from Beeman's administration of funds for educational and outreach programs. The campus Police Department and the U.S. Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General investigated the case jointly.

Beeman served as director of the Campus Violence Prevention Program for 16 years until December 2008, when she was placed on administrative leave. She left university employment in June 2009.

In September 2009, UC Davis announced that Beeman had exaggerated the numbers of forcible sex offences reported under the Clery Act in 2005, 2006 and 2007. UC Davis corrected those figures in 2009 and has taken steps to improve the oversight of the collection of Clery Act statistics.

Brown bag on water crisis

The Center for Watershed Sciences has organized a brown bag session with three of the UC Davis authors of the new book Managing California’s Water: From Conflict to Reconciliation.

The brown bag, free and open to the public, is scheduled from noon to 2 p.m. Monday, April 18, in MU II in the Memorial Union. The program includes a question-and-answer session.

In announcing the brown bag, the organizers said: "California’s water management system is deteriorating — on both economic and environmental fronts. Ambitious and comprehensive reforms are necessary to develop a sustainable strategy for managing one of the state’s most precious resources"

The book is a collaborative effort of specialists in geology, fish ecology, engineering, economics and the law, from UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC Hastings College of the Law, Stanford University and the Public Policy Institute of California.

The brown bag organizers said these UC Davis authors will participate: Richard Howitt, professor and chair of agricultural and resource economics; Jeffrey Mount, professor of geology and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences; and Peter Moyle, profssor of widlife, fish and conservation biology. The organizers said the fourth UC Davis author, Jay Lund, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is unavailble for the brown bag.

C-STEM Day, April 30

Registration is under way for C-STEM Day, a free program for kindergarten-through-12th-grade educators, students and parents — to learn about the challenges of teaching the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math) and the possibilities for success in those fields.

C-STEM Day is scheduled for Saturday, April 30, with registration at 8:30 a.m. and the program starting at 9.

The sponsors are the College of Engineering and UC Davis' K-14 Outreach Center for Computing and STEM Education, or C-STEM Center for short. The center works for better instruction in computing, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in formal and informal programs for kindergarten through grade 14 (second year of college), and to inspire these students to pursue C-STEM careers and post-secondary study.

"We use computers, robots and technology to engage students in mathematics,” said Harry Cheng, a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and director of the C-STEM Center. “Many students don’t naturally gravitate toward mathematics. However, they are often extensively engaged in math-derived technology, including video games, smart phones, computers, and robotics. Our goal is to use the computing technology to engage students, especially at-risk students, in mathematics and science coursework to close the achievement gap”

The C-STEM Day program includes:

• UC Davis Secondary School Programming Competition — In which students demonstrate their fundamental computer programming skills in the STEM subjects.

• Symposium on Computing and STEM Education in the 21st Century — Offering an overview of the challenges of teaching STEM subjects to K-12 students, insight into successful approaches — and providing an opportunity for K-12 educators to share their needs for instructional support and successful experiences. Registration due by April 25.

• Robot demonstrations and lab tours.

• Awards — For the Secondary School Programming Competition, and for C-STEM educators in northern California.

Registration and more information.