How's UC Davis? Do you like it there?

evencycle
Sun, 18 Mar 2012 15:32:47 +0000

Davis has been hit and miss for me.

My professors have been good. In general they are clear with the material and expectations and have been approachable. They all very smart and well informed on their material. Whenever I go to office hours with a question, I come back with not only the answer, but other knowledge to ponder. There seems to be a culture of good feedback on assignments. At other schools, some assignments are only spot graded.

There are a lot of student organizations on campus. Many not only give you social interactions, but can help you develop your skills and career. Look into some of those and you won’t be bored at Davis.

If you do get bored with Davis, Sacramento is a (free) bus ride away and San Francisco is doable on the weekends by Amtrak + BART.

I had a couple really bad experiences with some of the staff in an office most students will have to deal with at some point. They sent unprofessional emails. They treated me like dirt. Their attitude screamed ‘we don’t like students and we think they’re all liars.’ After a couple months of trying to get things resolved, I went to the next highest authority and got things straightened out (though no apology from the bad office). Since budget cuts have been bad, I think some staff members take it out on everyone.

However, there are also some really good staff members. Some are running great programs that can help you with your career. There’s a lot happening on campus in this regard. I suggest everyone make the most of the available seminars and professional development. Sure, some goes over my head or isn’t useful now, but I think it will be useful in the future.

In addition to the activities I’ve mentioned above, there are a good number of companies that come to campus to recruit. I encourage everyone to make good use of these opportunities.

As many of you know, there have been incidents in the past with the UC police. Currently the UC police union and the university have been working out in court what parts of a private, independent report will be released to the public. While I was not involved in these incidents, I’m upset about how they have been blocking this report. It was a third party report, they gave minimal participation and then they used it to block the release of the entire thing.

After the pepper spray incident, within the next few days, I saw a police officer on campus bragging about how his laser sight somehow still had batteries–as if he would have been using it in the pepper spray incident. I thought this was callous given what had just happened. A few days after that, I saw a group of police officers about 100 feet away from me. I was minding my own business, but one came up to me to question me about whether I had a camera. (It was just my bike light.) I just don’t feel like I can trust the police on campus to protect my safety, just themselves. (This is another reason I like having a bike on campus… when it gets dark, I can get off campus in a hurry and feel like I spend less time being a target. This is extra important when you feel that the police aren’t there to help.)

There have been some serious hate-bias incidents on campus over the past several years. People have spray-painted swastikas, created nooses, paper Klan hoods, lynched a female-statue in the women’s center, graffiti at the LGBT offices… What’s most disturbing is that the administration’s response to these incidents has been scaling back. It sends a message that this is commonplace rather than something the whole campus should stop and condemn (as it is when Chancellor Katehi address it). Being a representative of some of these maligned groups, it’s tough some times.

The campus is quite bike-able. There’s lots of bike parking near every building. I can almost always get bike parking at the building I’m entering. If not, i can park my bike at the next building over. Most of the businesses in town I need to go to have bike parking as well. Unfortunately there are a lot of people out there who don’t obey traffic laws, so that can be hard to deal with. Bike theft is an issue (as it is on just about every college campus), so invest in a good lock and always lock your bike. You’re in pretty good shape with a midrange Ulock as long as you don’t leave your bike out overnight.

Davis has a wonderful agricultural program, so yes, sometimes there are areas of campus that have a unique smell. This doesn’t bother me too much but if you have a sensitive schnoz, you should take this into account. It doesn’t seem to permeate the buildings, if that helps.

There Davis city residents are also all over the map. I’ve met some really nice people shopping at Trader Joe’s or the food co-op or in the bike shops. However, there is a segment of the population with a strong dislike for students. You’ll get that in most college towns, but this is the worst I’ve seen it. Yes, some students are annoying, drunk and/or loud… but these residents seem to typecast every student like that and then use that stereotype to justify being jerks to students. It’s a downer on the days I’m unfortunate enough to be subjected to it. I used to argue on behalf of the overwhelming majority of polite, hard-working students but I’ve given up.

In particular, be careful when renting. There’s a reason students have wanted an updated version of the Davis Model Lease. My landlord tried to deny me heat. The free legal services on campus and the Davis city housing mediation services are no more due to budget cuts. I ended up needing a lawyer and some didn’t want to work with me because I’m a student and some because landlords have the upperhand.

Lastly, Davis does have an incredible resource known as the Davis Wiki. The content can get a bit biased sometimes, but in general it’s a great resource for finding anything in the city and learning the ins and outs. Not only is it perfect for looking up simple things like store hours and phone numbers, but there’s a lot of ‘the way things work here’ or ‘pitfalls to look out for’ written there for everyone. I highly encourage everyone to spend some quality time on it. You’ll find answers to all the questions you’ve asked and more: [Davis Wiki - The definitive resource for Davis, California](http://daviswiki.org/)

In summary, I feel pretty mixed. I’m grateful to have access to the wonderful professors and opportunities, but some of the other stuff going on is quite unfortunate and there have certainly been many times I regretted my decision to come here. Hopefully everyone who chooses to come will have a much better experience than mine.