They pick us up and drop us off, getting us to campus on time and getting us home after class or work, day in and day out, rain or shine. They are our friendly Unitrans drivers — and wouldn’t it be nice if all of us remembered to say “thank you” later this week on the occasion of Transit Driver Appreciation Day?

The official appreciation day is Saturday (March 18), but, because many of us ride only from Monday through Friday, feel free to express your thanks on Friday (March 17) or Saturday. And don’t forget the bus maintenance personnel and other staff behind the scenes — consider sending them an email or calling on the phone, 530-752-2877.

“This winter has been a particular challenge to operating a safe and reliable public transit service, but our drivers and support staff have certainly risen to that challenge,” said Teri Sheets, assistant general manager for administration for Unitrans, a partnership of the city of Davis and Associated Students of UC Davis.

Unitrans runs 49 buses on 18 routes carrying more than 4 million passengers a year (more than 23,000 on a typical day). The transit system employs 235 UC Davis undergraduates, of whom approximately 150 are drivers.

Related story: “Unitrans Eliminates Fares (and Stress) During Finals Week”

SmartSite ‘project sites’ can continue past June

If you own a project site in SmartSite and wonder what to do with it now that the service is going away, we have updates:

• Project sites can continue in SmartSite past spring quarter — but please notice the key phrase, “project sites.” As previously announced, the capability for teaching with SmartSite will conclude after June.
• Information and Educational Technology is assembling a team to help project site owners identify new locations for the project work they’ve been housing in SmartSite.

Project sites are typically managed by students, administrators or instructors for noninstructional purposes. Approximately 1,000 project sites have been active during the past month, and more than 4,000 have been used within the past 12 months. More than 5,000 additional sites exist, though many have not been used in years.

SmartSite’s replacement for instruction is UC Davis Canvas, which is more of a pure learning management system than SmartSite. Therefore, many SmartSite project site owners might conclude that other services are a better fit, for what they want to do, than Canvas is. If they need a site mostly so they can share nonsensitive work files, for example, then Box could be their best option.

Read more in this TechNews article.

Faculty members contribute to newly launched EconoFact

Four UC Davis economists have joined forced with colleagues across the country on a new online publication, EconoFact, to bring fact-based analysis to the national debate on economic and social policy issues.

“Experts matter,” wrote Katheryn “Kadee” Russ, associate professor of economics, in a recent EconoFact brief. “Highly trained economists are essential to the integrity and effectiveness of government reporting and policymaking.”

Russ was writing about the historic role of the U.S. president’s Council of Economic Advisers, which has been downgraded by President Donald Trump. But her summary could also be used to describe the mission of EconoFact.

Aimed at policy makers, journalists and the public, the site provides analyses written by leading academic economists in short memo style and everyday language. In addition to Russ, other UC Davis contributors are Giovanni Peri, Ann Huff Stevens and Marianne Bitler.

— Kathleen Holder

Carol T. Christ is nominee for Berkeley chancellor

UC President Janet Napolitano has nominated Carol T. Christ to be UC Berkeley’s next chancellor and the first woman to hold that position. She would move up from her role as interim executive vice chancellor and provost.

The Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on Christ’s nomination during a special meeting this Thursday (March 16), to be held during the course of the regents’ regular bimonthly meeting, March 14-16. See the agendas.

Christ, 72, a scholar of Victorian literature, joined the Berkeley faculty in 1970 — at a time when only 3 percent of the faculty were women. She was named vice chancellor and provost in 1994, and later became executive vice chancellor, making her the highest ranking female administrator on campus. She has earned a reputation as a tireless champion of gender equality and diversity; in her first administrative position at Berkeley she was the Title IX compliance coordinator and an assistant to the chancellor on issues involving the status of women.

She served as president of Smith College from 2002 to 2013, and two years later returned to Berkeley as director of the campus’s Center for Studies in Higher Education. In May 2016 she agreed to take up her former role of executive vice chancellor and provost on an interim basis.

Read the UC news release.

Student volunteers offer help with tax preparation

The nonprofit organization Students in VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) is back in action, offering free tax assistance for low-income people. “Our IRS-certified interns provide free income tax preparation to qualified households and individuals within the Yolo County area at weekly Davis tax sites,” the organizers said in a news release.

Here are the locations, dates and hours:  

• New Harmony Community Center, 3030 Cowell Blvd. — 5-8 p.m. Mondays and Fridays through April 15 (excluding March 20-31 during final exams and spring break)
• Mary L. Stephens Davis Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St. — 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays through April 15 (excluding March 25 and April 1)

Appointments can be arranged online and are highly encouraged as they are prioritized. Walk-ins also are welcome; however, please expect some wait time. What should you bring?

More information is available on the Students in VITA website. Questions? Contact Students in VITA by email.

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