Tag: UCDavis

Results of #UCDavis Faculty Resolutions released re: Katehi, Pepper Spray, #OccupyUCDavis

Just received the three emails below regarding results of three UC Davis Faculty Senate Resolutions regarding the pepper spray incident from November and thought they might be of some interest.  See this post for a little background.  

REPORT OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, RULES AND JURISDICTION

On December 20, 2011, a petition bearing the signatures of at least 50 members of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California was submitted asking that the following Motion Concerning Police Actions be voted on by the membership of the Davis Division (tenure/tenure-track faculty of the UC Davis Campus):


Motion:


Be it resolved that that the Davis Division of the Senate of the University of California hereby (1) condemns both the dispatch of police and use of excessive force in response to non-violent protests on November 18, 2011;
(2) opposes violent police response to non-violent protests on campus;
(3) demands that police deployment against protestors be considered only after all reasonable efforts have been exhausted and with direct consultation with Academic Senate leadership.


The Davis Division membership was notified on February 3, 2012 that on-line balloting was open and would be closed on February 17, 2012, at 5:00 PM.  The on-line ballot results were reviewed by the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction on February 17, 2012 after 5:00 PM and are reported as follows:


Total eligible voters:                               2,693


Required to pass:                               Majority


Vote received:
      Yes:                                                     635
      No:                                                      343


Invalid Ballots:                                             0


The Motion was therefore declared approved and the University of California, Davis Division of the Academic Senate does support the Motion Concerning Police Actions.


Respectfully submitted,


Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction
G.J. Mattey, Chair
James Fadel
Mark Grismer

REPORT OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, RULES AND JURISDICTION




On December 15, 2011, a petition bearing the signatures of at least 50 members of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California was submitted asking that the following Five-Resolution Vote of Confidence be voted on by the membership of the Davis Division (tenure/tenure-track faculty of the UC Davis Campus):


Resolution:


Be it therefore resolved that the Davis Division of the Academic Senate:


1)     Condemns both the dispatch of police in response to non-violent protests and the use of excessive force that led to the deplorable pepper-spraying events of November 18, 2011.
2)     Opposes all violent police responses to non-violent protests on campus.
3)     Demands that police deployment against protesters be considered only after all reasonable administrative efforts to bridge differences have been exhausted, including direct consultation with the leadership of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate.
4)     Accepts Chancellor Linda Katehi’s good faith apology.
5)     Expresses confidence in Chancellor Linda Katehi’s leadership and efforts to place UC Davis among the top 5 public universities in the nation.


The Davis Division membership was notified on February 3, 2012 that on-line balloting was open and would be closed on February 17, 2012, at 5:00 PM.  The on-line ballot results were reviewed by the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction on February 17, 2012 after 5:00 PM and are reported as follows:


Total eligible voters:                               2,693


Required to pass:                               Majority


Vote received:
      Yes:                                                     586
      No:                                                      408


Invalid Ballots:                                             0


The Motion was therefore declared approved and the University of California, Davis Division of the Academic Senate does support the Five-Resolution Vote of Confidence.


Respectfully submitted,


Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction
G.J. Mattey, Chair
James Fadel
Mark Grismer

REPORT OF THE DAVIS DIVISION OF THE ACADEMIC SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ELECTIONS, RULES AND JURISDICTION




On December 6, 2011, a petition bearing the signatures of at least 50 members of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate of the University of California was submitted asking that the following Motion Concerning the Chancellor’s Judgment be voted on by the membership of the Davis Division (tenure/tenure-track faculty of the UC Davis Campus):


Motion:  In light of the events on the quadrangle of the UC Davis campus on the afternoon of Friday November 18, 2011, in light of Chancellor Linda Katehi’s email to faculty of November 18 in which she admitted that she had ordered the police to take action against the students who were demonstrating on the quadrangle and said that she had had “no option” but to proceed in this way, and in light of the failure of Chancellor Katehi to act effectively to resolve the resulting crisis in the intervening days,


Be it therefore resolved that the Davis Division of the Senate of the University of California lacks confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Katehi, and


Be it also resolved that the result of the vote on this motion be communicated to the Board of Regents and the President of the University of California.


The Davis Division membership was notified on February 3, 2012 that on-line balloting was open and would be closed on February 17, 2012, at 5:00 PM.  The on-line ballot results were reviewed by the Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction on February 17, 2012 after 5:00 PM and are reported as follows:


Total eligible voters:                               2,693


Required to pass:                               Majority


Vote received:
      Yes:                                                     312
      No:                                                      697


Invalid Ballots:                                             0


The Motion was therefore declared defeated and the University of California, Davis Division of the Academic Senate does not support the Motion Concerning the Chancellor’s Judgment.


Respectfully submitted,


Committee on Elections, Rules and Jurisdiction
G.J. Mattey, Chair
James Fadel
Mark Grismer

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

EVE198 / EVE161 Microbial Phylogenomics Course Spring 2012

Image

EVE 198 – Spring Quarter 2012 – CRN 74485 – 3 units P/NP grading

Microbial Phylogenomics:  The Evolutionary Diversification of Microbes and their Genomes

Professor Jonathan Eisen

 

 

TR 1:40-3:00pm

Room 1344 Storer Hall

 Prerequisites for this EVE 198 / Jonathan Eisen course are BIS 2ABC (or its equivalent, for transfer students). (This course is moving through the course approval process, and will eventually be EVE 161!)

Wanted – input on voting for resolutions for the #UCDavis Academic Senate #OccupyUCDavis

Well today I am finally getting around to voting on some UC Davis Academic Senate resolutions relating to the Occupy UC Davis pepper spray incident.  For those not familiar with this – first – I offer you my undying love – second – here are some of my previous posts on the theme:

I wrote a lot about the pepper spray incident here and on twitter – I felt in many ways like I had to report on what was going on for the outside world.  Here are some of my key posts:

And then Winter break happened and things calmed down a bit at UC Davis.  Plus, I got busy and needed to go back to running my lab and doing some work.  Not that nothing happened during this time.  Lots did in fact.  The best place to find out about what happened is the Davis Enterprise which continued coverage of everything going on (see list on the right side of this page).

Catching up to today – now the issue (for me and other faculty/members of the Academic Senate) is that we have to vote on some resolutions regarding the pepper spray incident.

Below are the three for which I am supposed to vote.  I am asking anyone out there for input on these.  All of them seem pretty, well, lame to me and I am inclined to vote no on all of them.  But I am reserving judgement and looking for feedback from others out there.  Any comments / suggestions welcome.

#1 Motion Concerning the Chancellor’s Judgment



TO: Professor Linda Bisson, Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate


Dear Chair Bisson


The undersigned members of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate hereby petition you to put the following motion of non-confidence in the leadership of the Chancellor to a vote of the entire membership of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate at the earliest date that is feasible under Senate rules.


Motion:  In light of the events on the quadrangle of the UC Davis campus on the afternoon of Friday November 18, 2011, in light of Chancellor Linda Katehi’s email to faculty of November 18 in which she admitted that she had ordered the police to take action against the students who were demonstrating on the quadrangle and said that she had had “no option” but to proceed in this way, and in light of the failure of Chancellor Katehi to act effectively to resolve the resulting crisis in the intervening days,


Be it therefore resolved that the Davis Division of the Senate of the University of California lacks confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Katehi, and


Be it also resolved that the result of the vote on this motion be communicated to the Board of Regents and the President of the University of California.


Thank you for your attention to this matter.   


Yours sincerely,


View signatories

#2: Five-Resolution Vote of Confidence


To:  The Davis Division of the Academic Senate  
Re: Petition for Ballot on Issues


We, the undersigned members of the UC Davis faculty, petition the Davis Division of the Academic Senate to hold a vote on the issues below.


Preamble
Whereas non-violent political protest, free assembly, and free speech are constitutional rights valued at the UC Davis,


And whereas the response of the UC Davis Police Department to peaceful protestors on November 18, 2011 was appalling,  


And whereas in the UC Davis culture it is customary for representative(s) from the highest levels of the administration to engage in direct dialogue with demonstrators, 


And whereas prior to November 18, 2011 Chancellor Linda Katehi worked diligently to elevate the national and international stature of the Davis campus,


And whereas the presence of an accomplished scholar at the top post has helped UC Davis attract and retain outstanding scholars, including faculty members serving at the highest levels of administration,


And whereas in the last two years, Chancellor Linda Katehi developed a bold plan for campus growth that includes an aggressive fund-raising campaign that will alleviate the burden imposed by ever decreasing state financial support,


And whereas Chancellor Linda Katehi apologized to University community for the events of November 18, 2011,


And whereas Chancellor Linda Katehi publically stated that she will ensure that such events do not recur,


And whereas the events of November 18 transformed Linda Katehi into a Chancellor who engages in a full and open dialogue with students, staff, and faculty,


And whereas Chancellor Katehi moved expeditiously to replace the flawed communications in the two days following the events with a campus-wide dialogue through a series of town hall meetings with students, staff, and faculty,


And whereas a Chancellor with first-hand experience of the horrific events of November 18, 2011 is better qualified to deal with its aftermath,


And whereas dispatching police before engaging in a direct dialogue with protesters, while running counter to the UC Davis culture, does not outweigh the Chancellor Katehi’s impeccable performance of all her other duties,


And whereas Chancellor Katehi’s resignation would have devastating effects on the moral and academic standing of the campus, thereby making it highly unlikely that UC Davis could attract a Chancellor of her stature,


And whereas it is time to promote a constructive healing process rather than risk more harm by pressuring the Chancellor to resign:


Resolution:


Be it therefore resolved that the Davis Division of the Academic Senate:


Condemns both the dispatch of police in response to non-violent protests and the use of excessive force that led to the deplorable pepper-spraying events of November 18, 2011.


Opposes all violent police responses to non-violent protests on campus.


Demands that police deployment against protesters be considered only after all reasonable administrative efforts to bridge differences have been exhausted, including direct consultation with the leadership of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate.


Accepts Chancellor Linda Katehi’s good faith apology.


Expresses confidence in Chancellor Linda Katehi’s leadership and efforts to place UC Davis among the top 5 public universities in the nation.



View signatories

#3: Motion Concerning Police Actions


TO: Professor Linda Bisson, Chair, Davis Division of the Academic Senate


Dear Chair Bisson


The undersigned members of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate hereby petition you to put the following motion to a vote of the entire membership of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate at the earliest date that is feasible under Senate rules.


Motion: 


Be it resolved that that the Davis Division of the Senate of the University of California hereby (1) condemns both the dispatch of police and use of excessive force in response to non-violent protests on November 18, 2011; 
(2) opposes violent police response to non-violent protests on campus; 
(3) demands that police deployment against protestors be considered only after all reasonable efforts have been exhausted and with direct consultation with Academic Senate leadership.


Thank you for your attention to this matter. 


Yours sincerely,


View signatories

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Fun visit to the #UCDavis Bohart Entomology Museum w/ my daughter’s Daisy Troop (led by my wife)

Kudos to the UC Davis Bohart Museum of Entomology for the tour they gave to the Daisy Troop my daughter is in (which is run by my wife and a friend of hers). I got there a little late and embarrassed myself by thinking one of the dads was one of the museum workers and introducing myself (even though I know the dad pretty well).  Oh well, live and let learn.  The visit went great – the kids got to play with bugs, got to open the stacks and even pull out drawers of various bugs (note – the general term, not the Homoptera).  The museum staff were wonderful and the museum itself is very nice.  A great kids activity in Davis and good for adults too.  Always great to see passionate science education and outreach.

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Notes on #UCDavis Citizen Microbiology Meeting #UCDCitSci

We had a meeting at UC Davis on “Citizen Microbiology” from 1/23-1/24. It was a small meeting funded via my microBEnet project which itself is supported by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Fundation. The meeting was held at UC Davis – participants stayed at the new Hyatt on campus. We met in the new Conference Center. Participants at the meeting were me, David Coil (post doc in my lab), Paula Olsiewski (from the Sloan Foundation), Holly Bik (post doc in my lab), Darlene Cavalier (founder of ScienceForCitizens.Net), Dan Smith from Argonne National Lab, Denneal Jamison from UC Davis, Holly Menninger from NC State, Noah Feirer from CU Boulder, Josh Neufeld from Waterloo, Jason Bobe from The Personal Genome Project, Tom Bruns form UC Berkeley, Madhu Katti from Fresno State, Chris House from Penn. State, and Patrik D’haeseleer (from Lawrence Livermore National Lab).
Below is a “Storification” I made of the tweets and links from the meeting.

http://storify.com/phylogenomics/uc-davis-citizen-microbiology-meeting-ucdcitsci.js[<a href=”http://storify.com/phylogenomics/uc-davis-citizen-microbiology-meeting-ucdcitsci” target=”_blank”>View the story “UC Davis Citizen Microbiology meeting #UCDCitSci” on Storify</a>]

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Letter from Justice Cruz Reynoso to President Yudof regarding pepper spray investigation at #UCDavis

Just got this in email and thought it would be good to share

The text reads:

In an effort to keep you apprised of any developments stemming from the UCD November 18 Task Force, I am writing to inform you of changes to the original timeline that was established. These changes stem primarily from our negotiations with the Federated University Police Officer’s Association (FUPOA) for access to non subject officers. As such, I am targeting February 21, 2012 for the release of the report of the Task Force. It is my expectation that this meeting be held publicly on the Davis campus.
As you have charged, the timing of the release of the Task Force report is dependent on the fact- finding report from Kroll. The Task Force feels it is imperative to have the most complete view possible of the events that took place last November. This includes interviews from subject and non subject officers as well as students and faculty. While Kroll has conducted several interviews with students and faculty, as of the beginning of last week, Kroll had not had access to subject and non subject officers. Through several rounds of negotiation the General Counsel’s office has made an agreement with FUPOA for access to non subject officers. Interviews with non subject officers are taking place this week.
While the timeline for the release of the report has been delayed for a few weeks, I am very pleased that an agreement was reached for access to non subject officers as this is a critical component in understanding not only the frame of mind, but a complete understanding of the events that took place, including the view of police officers.
Sincerely, Cruz Reynoso
——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Draft post cleanup #21: Tracking progress on the vertebrate tree of life

Yet another post in my “draft blog post cleanup” series. Here is #21; from March 2010:

A very interesting paper came out recently from colleagues of mine at UC Davis:  Rapid progress on the vertebrate tree of life.  I did not know they were working on this but perhaps should have.  It has some fun/interesting analysis of the accumulation of phylogenetic knowledge over time.  For example see Figure 1

Cumulative phylogenetic information amassed for the last 16 years. The accumulation of sequences for vertebrates in GenBank (a), papers using the term ‘phylogeny’ or ‘phylogenetics’ in the Web of Science database (b) and phylogenetic resolution (measured as the proportion of nodes with at least 50% bootstrap support) in the vertebrate tree of life resulting from these research efforts (c). In all cases, the data are cumulative from the start of each analysis. Phylogenetic resolution is calculated as in Table 1. Trend lines are exponential in (a), and second order polynomial in (b) and (c).

The rest of the paper is worth a look.

And alas I stopped there … I think I wanted to get Brad Shaffer and Bob Thomson’s comments on the paper but never got around to it.  Two years later the paper still is worth a look …

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Storification of Tweets from talk by Jane Lubchenco at #UCDavis

Jane Lubchenco, head of NOAA, gave a talk at UC Dav is yesterday and I made a “Storify” version of some tweets from it. I am putting it below the “fold” here since it takes up a lot of space and I cannot figure out how to put the “click here for more” feature in the middle of a storify embed.
http://storify.com/phylogenomics/jane-lubchenco-head-of-noaa-talk-at-ucdavis.js[<a href=”http://storify.com/phylogenomics/jane-lubchenco-head-of-noaa-talk-at-ucdavis” target=”_blank”>View the story “Jane Lubchenco, head of NOAA, talk at #UCDavis” on Storify</a>]

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Letter from Chancellor Katehi to #UCDavis Community

Posting this email I received for those interested.  Not sure what will happen this quarter in terms of Occupy UC Davis actions and related issues … but will post as things develop.

Dear UC Davis Community,


Happy New Year! I am writing to welcome everyone back to campus and to share my thoughts about the coming year at UC Davis.



The many conversations we’ve had about the events of last November affirm that our pursuit of academic excellence can succeed only if our campus remains a safe and welcoming place for all voices and forms of expression.


As we work to ensure this, we must not forget the understandable frustration that has fueled protests. After repeated cuts in state support for California’s public universities and a near doubling of tuition the past four years, many of our students and their families have reached a breaking point. Rising student debt and a still-struggling economy have only made things worse. Students have every right to expect that we will stand with them in fighting to reverse these very troubling trends.


In the coming year, I will personally and persistently advocate for additional state and federal investment in our university to help ease this financial burden and make UC Davis more available and accessible to deserving students. We also will steward our resources wisely, seek to protect academic programs to the extent possible, and do everything possible to fund more student scholarships and fellowships.


Ours is a preeminent public university. As we all strive to enhance its many qualities and distinctions, let us be proud of what is taking place every day in our classrooms, laboratories, health centers and other centers of excellence. All of you, in some way, are benefiting our region, state, nation and world. All great universities place students at the center of their work. We cannot and will not rest until we provide our students the best learning environment and services possible.


I also am committed to focusing on the positive role of UC Davis in economic development and its positive impacts on communities, our state and beyond. A stronger regional, state and global economy will provide our graduates with the career and service opportunities they deserve.


In support of this goal, I have initiated an extensive effort involving faculty, students and staff to assess and evaluate our 2020 Initiative. Central to that task is our ability to convert this concept into a plan that is implementable, aligns well with and supports our values and principles as a land-grant university.


The 2020 Initiative can be a bold blueprint for UC Davis to meet its financial challenges while broadening access to California students and allowing our university to become an even more vital engine of economic development.


Much work lies ahead. We expect to receive in coming weeks the results of various inquiries regarding the events of last November. We will receive critical reports regarding the future of UC Davis athletics. And we will hear the concerns and ideas generated by the fifty faculty, staff and students helping to study and shape the proposed 2020 Initiative.


I look forward to sharing and discussing these important subjects with you.


Sincerely,


Linda P.B. Katehi

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Draft post cleanup #10: trip to LA artificially sweetened by Carolyn de la Peña

Yet another post in my “draft blog post cleanup” series.  Here is #10:

Went on a mini trip to UCLA for a mini meeting in November. It seemed appropriate that I brought with me to Los Angeles, land of empty pleasures – the new book from UC Davis Professor Carolyn de la Peña – “Empty Pleasures” on the history of artificial sweeteners. So I took a picture of the book overlooking part of LA from my hotel room:



The book is great read by the way …

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–