Volume 30 · Number 4 · Summer 2013
Letters: From the editor
Kathleen Holder
(Photo by Karin Higgins/UC Davis)
If I had to pick my favorite spot on this beautiful, sprawling campus, I’d choose the Memorial Union — and not only for the Coffee House’s tasty food. I love it for the generous slices of campus life it serves up. Visit any weekday around noon during the academic year and you’ll find laptops and books open at nearly every table and counter, students studying (and a few with heads buried in their notebooks, catching up on sleep), students and faculty talking in a variety of languages about a multitude of topics. Look out the window at the patio and the Quad, and you may see students raising funds for a favorite cause, singing a capella, juggling bowling pins or debating politics, religion or sports. The scene is always changing, vibrant, overflowing with creative ideas and full of potential — students ready to make their mark on the world, and established scholars who already have or are doing so now.
You can find many other windows into the university. Some, like the MU, are physical locations like Shields Library, the Silo Union, its many classrooms, research laboratories and test fields, human and veterinary medical clinics, athletic venues, performance halls and museums. Others are intellectual spaces — the books and academic journals where faculty, staff and student researchers publish their discoveries. We offer another window with this issue of UC Davis Magazine, which focuses on some of UC Davis’ many trailblazers. One is a physical place, a destination-to-be: “Museum for the 21st Century,” presents the winning design for the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. Another feature, “Driving Innovation," looks back at creative thinkers from throughout UC Davis’ century-plus history. “The Young and the Inventive,” looks forward and introduces seven Chancellor’s Fellows, young faculty members who are on the cusp of creating innovations of the future.
This issue marks UC Davis Magazine’s 30th anniversary. Beginning with the first issue in summer 1983, the magazine has been sharing the accomplishments of both the campus and the growing ranks of Aggie alums — more than 200,000 strong. Have a new milestone in your life? Please send us your news for Class Notes. And thanks for reading!
Kathleen Holder
Managing editor