Campus announces 'West Village' name

UC Davis recently chose the name "West Village" for its new neighborhood west of Highway 113 and south of Russell Boulevard. Despite litigation filed against the campus Long Range Development Plan and its environmental impact report, the campus is continuing infrastructure studies and will soon be soliciting development partners to begin building the first phase of West Village.

"We have received a tremendous amount of interest about West Village from the development community," said Meyer. "We look forward to engaging development partners to begin implementing this innovative community."

Although a court date has not yet been set on the litigation, a decision on the lawsuit is expected sometime this summer.

Book project film to air

The Campus Community Book Project will host a viewing of the film Twilight on Wednesday, May 19. It takes place from noon to 2 p.m. in Room 2005 of the Plant and Environmental Sciences Building. Carl Jorgensen from the sociology department will facilitate the event.

The book selection for this year is Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith. The author interviewed nearly 200 individuals about the riots in Los Angeles in 1991 following the Rodney King verdict.

For details on the book project, contact Karen Roth at (530) 752-2071 or kmroth@ucdavis.edu.

Dynes to visit Davis, medical center campuses

Campus community members are invited to a Dialogue with Robert Dynes and performances by students and faculty in music and dance on May 27 as Dynes makes his first visit to UC Davis since becoming UC president last October. The free festivities run 1:30-3:15 p.m. in Mondavi Center.

Staff, faculty, students and community members will have an opportunity to meet the president and ask questions during the hourlong dialogue. Questions will be posed by members of the California Aggie editorial board from 1:30 to 2 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session with audience members from 2 to 2:30 p.m.

Afterward, music and dance performances will be offered by UC Davis students and faculty members, from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m.

Dynes' May 27-28 visit to the Davis and medical center campuses is part of his continuing statewide tour that kicked off in November. He has been meeting with alumni, students, staff, faculty, elected officials and business leaders throughout the state.

SARS symposium set

A "mini-symposium" on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) will be held Tuesday, May 18, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Mondavi Studio on campus.

Part of the Murray B. Gardner Research Series, the symposium will feature two presentations. "Coronaviruses: Molecular Biology, Pathogenesis and Evolution" will be presented by Kathryn V. Holmes of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

"Animal Models for SARS" will be presented by Kanta Subbarao, senior investigator in the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

A reception will directly follow the presentations. The event is sponsored by The Murray B. Gardner Research Seminar Fund, the Center for Comparative Medicine, the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, and the Division of Infectious Diseases.

For more information about the program, contact Anita Moore at (530) 752-1245 or by e-mail at amoore@ucdavis.edu.

Retirement plans to go completely online

The Office of the President recently announced a new online process for naming retirement and insurance plan beneficiaries.

By 2006, UCOP will only use beneficiary designations submitted using the new online process. Benefit forms at campus payroll offices will then become obsolete and will not be retained.

The new process allows employees to review beneficiary designations at any time, and to name or change them as necessary for retirement, saving plans and all UC-sponsored life insurance programs. For more details or to verify beneficiary information, see http://atyourservice.ucop.edu, select "Your Benefits Online" and follow the online prompts.

For employees who cannot use the online application, a new Designation of Beneficiary Form for Employees, Form UBEN 116, is available. Davis campus employees who have questions can contact (530) 752-1774 or (530) 752-1765. Medical center employees can call (916) 734-7021.

Campus holds 'festivity of bands' concert

The UC Davis Concert Band, Peter Nowlen, interim director, and the Davis High School Symphonic Band, Fredrick Lange, director, combine for a diverse offering of band music in the annual Festivity of Bands concert on Wednesday, May 26. The show begins at 8 p.m. in Mondavi Center.

For additional information, visit http://music.ucdavis.edu or call the music department at 752-0948.

Design sessions held

Repro Graphics will hold workshops May 18 on PDFs, digital photography and Adobe InDesign. Sessions will be offered from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 1 to 3:30 p.m. For details, visit http://www.reprographics.ucdavis.edu/openhousespring2004/.