To the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Community:
I hope you had a good summer and are excited for the start of the new academic year. You can already feel the buzz and excitement building on campus. Next week, LeShelle and I will help students 鈥渕oove in鈥 to their on-campus housing. It鈥檚 something we look forward to every year. 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis has been busy preparing for fall quarter, so there鈥檚 a lot to report this month.
Let鈥檚 stand together
I want to begin with an important note about recent incidents in which four masked men displayed antisemitic banners from highway overcrossings in our community, including the one we maintain for pedestrians and bicyclists over Highway 113 at the west edge of the main campus in Davis. I have condemned these actions as disgusting, cowardly and heinous.
We have no evidence to indicate that the perpetrators were members of the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis community or affiliated with the university in any way. But we do know that antisemitic incidents are on the rise and that these incidents have taken a real toll on our Jewish faculty, students, staff and extended community. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported earlier this year that antisemitic behavior has increased 34 percent from the previous year, with 2,717 incidents nationwide in 2021. These numbers are the highest the ADL has seen in nearly half a century.
When any member of our community is under attack, intimidated or left in fear or alarm, we must rally to support them and act where we can. Our guide us to value our differences and to foster a campus climate that honors dignity, equity, courtesy, sensitivity and respect for one another. These are the values that truly embody our campus community. Next week, we will meet with our 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Advisory Council on Jewish Life to continue to collaborate on ways to address antisemitism and provide support.
Required COVID-19 testing for students
With many of our students traveling back to Davis for the start of fall quarter, at a time when COVID-19 cases and variants are still present, campus is requiring every student to get tested for COVID-19 at least once between today (Sept. 9) and Oct. 7. This precautionary measure will help to identify asymptomatic cases and mitigate the spread among our community. If a student arrives in Davis after Oct 7, they should get tested within one week of their arrival.
The preferred testing option is through our high quality, saliva-based PCR testing at our free kiosk in the . Appointments are required via .
Or you can use an antigen test: Get one for free during a distribution to students starting Monday, Sept. 12, on the south side of the Memorial Union. Or use a test kit you have obtained elsewhere.
Students who test positive are required to notify the campus via . Affected students and their roommates, if applicable, should follow the .
COVID-19 booster requirement
On Sept. 1, the updated COVID-19 boosters from Pfizer (for ages 12 and older) and Moderna (ages 18 and up). The updated boosters are bivalent vaccines, meaning they target both the most recent omicron subvariants as well as the original COVID-19 strain. Our 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Health experts answer questions about the new vaccine in this video,
With this recommendation, the now requires all staff and students to get the bivalent booster, when eligible. Campus recognizes that the availability of the bivalent vaccine is currently limited, and as such, we will not be enforcing the booster requirement for employees and students until the vaccine becomes more widely available (via health care providers, retail pharmacies, etc.). Once we have additional information on the status of the vaccine supply, we will provide updates for how best to receive your shot.
Face masks
With students returning to classrooms, we recommend strongly that people wear masks indoors as this has been proven to reduce individual risk. 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis plans to distribute one N95 mask to every student and employee who wants one this fall quarter. For more information about the distribution, students should contact their major departments, and employees should contact their departments or units. N95 masks also provide protection from pollutants when wildfire smoke creates unhealthy air quality conditions. Remember that a proper mask fit is especially important for COVID-19 (to reduce your risk of contracting the virus and the risk that you could infect others) and wildfire smoke. To ensure a proper fit, refer to our .
indicates COVID-19 levels in the community and includes a downloadable flier recommending the wearing of high-quality masks indoors.
Monkeypox
As of this writing, there were three confirmed cases of monkeypox in Yolo County. Our new public health team at (SCHS) is working closely with Yolo County Public Health to support students at high risk of contracting the disease and to ensure they have access to vaccine, treatment and isolation housing if needed. A recent highlighted these efforts. For more information or to schedule a medical appointment, students can call 530-752-2349 or use the portal. Faculty and staff with similar concerns should contact their health care provider for possible vaccination. Counseling services are available to students through and to faculty and staff through the (ASAP).
As a follow-up to my August message, we have created an . It is important to note that anyone can get MPX, and viruses do not discriminate based on identity. While MPX is a public health concern for all, the current risk to the general public is low. We are dedicated to supporting those who are , and stand with our queer and trans communities against stigma and discrimination. The LGBTQIA Resource Center and SHCS hosted a to provide health information about MPX and highlight resources available to students.
New public health unit
Our last letter gave a preview of our new public health unit 鈥 and more information is now available in this news release. Part of Student Health and Counseling Services, the unit is geared toward keeping our community safe from public health threats like those we are dealing with now. The public health team is leading the way on prevention efforts, patient care and campus response related to infectious diseases and other public health issues. The unit includes an infection control physician, a public health coordinator and a public health nurse.
新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis continues to monitor COVID-19 in our community via wastewater testing, and we鈥檒l be updating our soon to allow our campus community to check results. The campus and city of Davis are also participating in Stanford鈥檚 Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network (SCAN), which has been monitoring for monkeypox weekly since mid-June. The datasets help inform our decision making.
Good news
We enter the new academic year with some very high rankings. We moved up to second nationally among public universities in Washington Monthly鈥檚 鈥2022 Guide and Rankings鈥 and retained our position as the No. 4 public university on Forbes鈥 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Top College List.鈥
We鈥檙e right where we should be 鈥 near the top. Beyond the rankings, our campus is truly being transformed to reflect our growing stature and impact as one of the nation鈥檚 best public universities. This coming year we will celebrate our , already open, a general assignment classroom building with capacity for approximately 2,000 students; and several other game-changing facilities: the at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Health in Sacramento, the and the . Not only that, but is going vertical!
I鈥檓 looking forward to another banner year of the kind of programming that makes our university a community, including dynamic exhibitions at the , and the .
are underway, including football, which has home games scheduled Sept. 17 and 24, the latter putting a spotlight on our first years as they make their way onto the field before the game. New and returning students will celebrate the new year during , Friday, Oct. 28 (rescheduled from an earlier date).
This is 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis exactly the way we like it: Vibrant in every way. Thank you all for your work moving 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis and our mission forward. Go Ags!
Sincerely,
Gary S. May
Chancellor