Spare the Air Sept. 7: Free bus rides

Rides will be free Wednesday (Sept. 7) on Unitrans, Yolo Bus and several other transit systems in the region as officials encourage people on a Spare the Air day to get out of their cars and into buses.

The Sacramento region's air quality districts declare Spare the Air days to help reduce auto emissions, which, in combination with the region's high temperatures, contribute to extra poor air quality.

The threshold for a Spare the Air declaration is a reading of 151 or higher on the air quality index (measuring ground-level ozone) — with readings of 151 to 200 defined as unhealthy for everyone. The Wednesday forecast is 151, after an AQI reading of 106 on Tuesday (Sept. 6).

Wednesday's Spare the Air is the second such declaration since Saturday (Sept. 3). Officials forecast an AQI of 154 that day; the actual reading turned out to be 147, unhealthy for sensitive groups.

The only other Spare the Air day this season was July 5. Officials forecast an AQI of 161 that day, and it turned out to be 132.

Under a Spare the Air declaration, officials ask people to reduce their driving or take public transit, with the incentive of free rides on Unitrans, Yolo Bus and the North Natomas Transportation Management Agency Shuttle, as well as Auburn Transit, Lincoln Transit, Placer County Transit and Roseville Transit.

People who run errands in their cars are asked to do so in the morning hours when pollution levels are low. Similarly, if you are biking or walking, you should do so in the morning hours.

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Spare the Air

Moobilenetx upgrade planned

Do you use the Davis campus’s secure wireless network Moobilenetx? If so, as an existing “customer,” you may need to adjust your computer’s settings the first time you attempt to access the network after a system upgrade scheduled for Wednesday (Sept. 7).

Information and Educational Technology announced that it will be upograding the network to a more secure, AES-based encryption mode, starting at 8 a.m.

Step-by-step instructions are available online. The instructions vary by operating system, with IET describing the process as fairly straightforward for Apple and Windows XP, and a bit longer and possibly requiring manual adjustments for Windows 7 and Vista.

Some Moobilenetx users may want to consider taking notes or printing out the instructions beforehand; otherwise, you will not be able to use Moobilenetx as a way to see the instructions. (As an alternative, you could use Moobilenet — without the "x." It is a less secure campus wireless network, and will not be affected by next week's Moobilenetx upgrade.)

Resnetx, the wireless network in the residence halls, already uses the improved encryption method. However, Resnetx customers will need to accept the new security certificate, and IT Express has guidance for them, too.

Questions? Call the IT Express Computing Services Help Desk at (530) 754-HELP (4357); it is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays.

More about the campus’s wireless networks.

1,000 visitors: high school, community college counselors

Every now and then, the Davis campus will see an influx of people and cars associated with student recruitment efforts — and Undergraduate Admissions asks faculty and staff to please make our guests feel welcome.

The next such event is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 9, when more than 1,000 high school and community college counselors are expected for a daylong conference. It is a UC-wide event: with admissions representatives from all nine of UC’s undergraduate campuses, as well as the Office of the President.

Conference-goers are being advised to park in Lot 25, in front of the Activities and Recreation Center, with the west entry parking garage as the designated place for overflow.

Check-in is set to begin at 7:15 a.m. at Freeborn Hall. Judy Sakaki, the UC vice president of Student Affairs who formerly served as a vice chancellor at UC Davis, is scheduled to address the high school counselors at 8 a.m. in Freeborn.

Breakout sessions for high school counselors and community college counselors are scheduled from 9:05 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. in Freeborn Hall, 1100 Social Sciences and Humanities Building, and Wellman Hall.

An information fair, with tables for each of the UC campuses plus the Office of the President, is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Griffin Lounge in the Memorial Union.

Daily mail collection now available

With mail delivery and pick-up on the Davis campus down to two or three days a week, faculty and staff may need a quicker way to get items in the mail — either campus mail or U.S. mail.

As promised, Mail Services is offering a solution — via daily collections at seven mail drops around the campus. This new service began Monday (Aug. 29).

Mail Services installed five new boxes, khaki-colored, at the following outdoor locations: Memorial Union, Meyer Hall, Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, Surge II and Tupper Hall.

In addition, a drop box in parking Lot 3, on the west side of Mrak Hall, has been relabeled for campus and U.S. mail (this box had previously been limited to accounting mail). The seventh mail drop is in the Repro Graphics shop in 176 Hoagland Hall.

Officials said campus or U.S. mail deposited at any of these locations by 2 p.m. will be processed the same day.

Read more about the specific locations.

Poster calendar is here!

The 2011-12 UC Davis poster calendar is here!

UC Davis Stores (formerly UC Davis Bookstores) took delivery Thursday (Sept. 1), and the calendars went on sale immediately in the main store in the Memorial Union. Supplies were being delivered today (Sept. 2) to all the branch stores.

Delivery times vary to the branch stores, so call before you make a special trip. Otherwise, wait until Tuesday (Sept. 6), when the stores reopen after the Labor Day holiday. Or you can visit the downtown store, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. The downtown store is 630 Second St., at F Street, next to the Varsity Theatre.

Folded calendars are available at the main store and also will be sold in all the branches, with no preordering necessary. You can also order folded copies for delivery.

Flat calendars are available for pick-up only; you will find them in only two locations: the main store and the Sacramento store, 2270 Stockton Blvd. (Note, however, that the Sacramento store may not have its supply of calendars until this afternoon).

The cost is 90 cents apiece, or 81 cents with the 10 percent department discount. 

The new calendar features a nighttime photo of RMI North at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, with the Good Life Garden in the foreground.

Click here to order folded calendars (free delivery). Or send an e-mail to Sarah Brodberg, sabrodberg@ucdavis.edu, noting department name, contact name, phone number, delivery location (building and room number), quantity and DaFIS account or billing ID. Or you can also fax a departmental purchase order to (530) 754-7819.

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