Nine Sacramento nonprofit social services agencies have design problems that 112 University of California, Davis students enrolled in Design 2 hope to solve. The dining room at the Sacramento Emergency Housing Program, for example, sounds like an echo chamber and needs some acoustical adjustments. The Centro Guadalupe needs a mural to make it a more inviting place. The students have just a few weeks to visit the Sacramento sites, assess the problems and design their solutions. They will treat the agencies as clients, for whom they must draft proposals by March 16. This is the first time UC Davis design students have cooperated with nonprofit agencies to solve design problems, according to Be Herrera, design assistant, who came up with the idea for the Design 2 students. She embarked on the projects after having worked as a volunteer at one of the agencies. Most of the agencies are involved in food distribution. "I knew there's always a need for volunteers. I knew students are interested in food, and I knew the agencies were having to cut back," Herrera said. She called the agencies and found they wanted to work with the students and so she set up the project. Sylvia Villalobos, director of Centro Guadalupe in downtown Sacramento, says she is "delighted" the students can help design a mural. Those who use the center's emergency food and referral services "have depressed lives. And we're in an old school, where the walls are white. So I thought a mural would be uplifting. When people sit and wait in the old oak pews, they could look at the mural." Other Sacramento area agencies involved with the projects include the North Sacramento School District Food Service Breakfast Program, California Indian Manpower Program, Episcopal Community Services Emergency Food Closet, Sacramento Emergency Housing Program, Women's Civic Improvement Club Senior Nutrition Program, Meals A la Car, The Mustard Seed, and the Sacramento Area Community Kitchen. Students will present their proposals for the agencies at 8 a.m. Friday, March 19, at the Recreation Hall on the UC Davis campus. News media are welcome to attend the presentations, which will include graphics showing the steps involved in considering solutions, the costs involved and the recommended solutions. The Design 2 class is an undergraduate class that teaches students about the mental and visual processes used in creating new forms, images and environments, and is part of the Design program in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.