The season of gratitude is upon us, and we have so many reasons to feel joyful this fall. We are thankful for the campus’ approach to managing COVID-19 and the diligence applied to keeping us safe through vaccinations and accessible testing. Our vaccination rates are at 98 percent with a positivity rate of 0.06 percent for the past 30 days.

A UC Davis alumnus is gifting $4.5 million to support the Department of Animal Science’s Horse Barn and related programming.

Richard “Dick” E. Jorgensen, who graduated from UC Davis in 1960, spent his senior year as a student herdsman living at the barn, feeding horses at night, keeping an eye on mares ready to foal and occasionally riding the black stallion Araza.

“You got to live in the barn,” he said. “That was the best prize of all.”