Every summer, UC Davis employees roll up their sleeves to spruce up campus before the next school year starts. It’s the kind of work you might not notice unless it went missing.

This new video is a two-minute look behind the scenes at how this year’s summer maintenance was anything but routine — with more details and links below, if you're interested.

Making campus a better place

We opened new buildings, rebuilt old ones, and washed, polished and painted.

1. Replaced roofs: From a bird’s eye view, you can see we've been working on five new roofs across campus — including the Music Building and Green Hall — with a dozen more planned for next summer, all part of much-needed deferred maintenance work.
2. Opened new campus housing: We finished construction on Orchard Park in time to welcome students and their families to 1,500 new beds on campus — surpassing the campus milestone in our agreement with the city — and crafting the apartments around 40 heritage oak trees.
3. Expanded museum to showcase Native American artistry: We completed construction on the new location of the Gorman Museum of Native American Art, dramatically expanding the footprint of contemporary Native American art on campus, including an entryway with inspiration from a Patwin basket weaver.
4. Critical cleanup of campus details: We cleaned up outdoor spaces on campus, including pruning near intersections to improve safety and visibility — and washing windows with the help of drones for faster, cost-effective sparkle. Plus we launched AggiePark via the AMP Park app as the new campus parking app to pay for daily or hourly parking, with simplified parking zones for ease and flexibility.

Campus safety meets innovation

When it comes to campus safety, we’re leading with convenience and compassion, to make doing the right thing the easy choice.

5. New e-scooter rentals put safety first: New short-term rentals of electric scooters and bikes make it easy to glide across campus for a meeting, lunch or class — while following campus rules for slow zones and parking requirements. Find out how to get started, including a limited-time $10 promo code for Spin rides (GoAggs2023).
6. Delivering care to prevent a crisis: A new phone number, (530) 754-3434, connects campus callers with Health 34’s rapid response team who can help with minor medical issues, mental health and crisis prevention. This compassion-forward program has been in development at the UC Davis Fire Department for the last 18 months.
7. Updating systems for lived names: We’ve updated campus HR systems to better use lived names whenever possible — including for transgender, nonbinary, international and married professionals whose names at work differ from their legal documents.

Progress toward campus sustainability

From fossil fuels to financial stability, we’re converting Aggie ideas into long-term solutions.

8. Real progress toward becoming fossil-free: We drafted the UC Davis Fossil Fuel-Free Pathway Plan, which is a way to eliminate 95% of UC Davis’ fossil fuel use by 2040 (comments are welcome through Oct. 27). UC Davis leaders also endorsed funding for the next phase of the Big Shift conversion, which would eliminate about 80% of our natural gas usage once fully funded and completed.
9. Analyzed employee ideas to add up budget solutions: This summer, campus leaders worked to analyze thousands of IDEA$ submitted by employees to solve long-term budget problems and improve how UC Davis works — identifying top ideas for quick wins, financial impacts, continuous improvements and more. Over the summer, the provost also shared a five-minute budget explainer video to all employees about the core funds deficit.

We’ve taken maintenance from routine to welcoming, innovative, caring, clean and smart. Making campus a better place to live, learn and work — it’s all in a summer’s work at UC Davis.