Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

Spring quarter 2020 has been a challenge for all of us, with a pandemic in full swing, the difficulties of teaching, learning and working online, and most recently, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the resulting protests nationwide.

I have struggled to find the words that express my shock, anger, sadness and despair. As an African American mother of an adult son, watching the George Floyd video on television triggered feelings of fear, distress and worry for all my family members.

The one word that keeps coming to mind as we collectively reinvent our day-to-day lives is resilience. While these changes to our world were brought about suddenly, our college is adapting well and remains flexible in our efforts to educate our dedicated students, conduct essential research and engage the public in new ways. Even though we are all sheltering in place, our spring remains incredibly busy and full of online activity.

These last few weeks have brought about a lifetime of change for many of us. We are living through an unprecedented time, and I want to thank each of you for your extraordinary efforts and incredible resilience.  

One of the things I enjoy about the start of a new year is the sense of renewal and regeneration that surrounds us here at UC Davis. This year, that includes a new campus-wide marketing and rebranding effort to bring greater public attention to our accomplishments and to our vision for the future.

As 2019 comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to look back on the year captured in images. The efforts of our faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends really do make a difference in keeping the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the forefront of the issues facing our rapidly changing world. Please scroll down to enjoy some of the highlights from this past year.

November is one of my favorite months. The softer light of day, colorful displays of fall foliage and the sound of migrating waterfowl overhead always make me pause and reflect on the many reasons to feel grateful.

I am occasionally asked, “Just what is human ecology?” For an answer, I turned to our new Associate Dean for Human and Social Sciences, Patsy Eubanks Owens. She is a landscape architect who joined the UC Davis faculty nearly 30 years ago with her passion for getting communities engaged in the design process. 

Welcome to the start of a new school year. As students and faculty return to campus, we are preparing for a busy year of academics and transition. Fall is a season of change, and one big change we’ll see this year is in how we do business. After many years of planning, preparation and training, we are in the midst of transitioning to UC Path, a system-wide solution to modernize how we deliver payroll, benefits and personnel services.