Thank you for the warm welcome this afternoon.  And thank you to the Academic Senate for this opportunity to share the current state of UC Davis.

As we come together today, I want to acknowledge all your support for our community. 

Despite a year of unprecedented challenges, UC Davis continues to prove why public universities are more vital than ever. 

We don’t just persevere. We don’t retreat. 

We lead. 

We are the engineers and creators building a more resilient future. We empower students of every background to lead, we drive discoveries that save and improve lives, and we honor our land-grant mission by building a world that is as sustainable as it is just.

And none of that work would be possible without the continued effort of the UC Davis faculty who drive innovation and empower students. 

For the next few minutes, I’d like to share the latest news and achievements from UC Davis and address the challenges we face. 

[Rankings]

UC Davis stands out as one of the most effective and influential universities in the world.

This fall, the Wall Street Journal named us the No.2 public university in the United States. It cited our impact on graduates' salaries, our efforts to ensure students graduate, and graduates' low debt levels.

In fact, among the Forbes Top 25 public universities, UC Davis students graduated with the least amount of debt.

That broad campus recognition extends to other honors as well. Once again, our School of Veterinary Medicine and College of Agriculture were recognized as the top in the United States.

And we were named the greenest campus in the United States for the tenth consecutive year. 

These rankings don’t just measure reputation. They measure outcomes. And UC Davis delivers.

[Faculty Honors]

Choosing which faculty to highlight is always the hardest — and best — part of this speech. Given the exceptional work receiving recognition across campus, it’s hard to identify just a few, but this small sampling highlights the power and breadth of UC Davis’s impact.

Professor Maceo Montoya won an American Book Award last fall for “Imaginative Possibilities: Conversations with Twenty-First-Century Latinx Writers.” 

In December, Distinguished Professor Carlito Lebrilla was elected as a National Academy of Inventors Fellow. He is a chemist who focuses on molecular compounds related to disease progression, diet and maintaining health.

Lynn Kimsey, a distinguished Professor Emerita of Entomology, was inducted last fall as a Fellow in the California Academy of Sciences. David Gold, associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, was also elected as a fellow.

Subhash Risbud, professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, was selected by the American Ceramic Society as Distinguished Life Member. It’s society's highest honor and recognizes eminent contributions to the ceramic and glass profession.

Each scholar represents the impact of our faculty across the state and the world.

[Faculty Engagement]

Connecting and engaging with faculty is one of the most rewarding parts of my role. I always appreciate your input and suggestions, whether in our formal group sessions or one-on-one conversations.

I hold office hours twice a year: once in the fall and once in the spring.

I also hold faculty mixers at the Residence each quarter. The next one will be on April 10th for Letters and Sciences faculty.

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming office hours and faculty mixers. I encourage you all to participate.

[Faculty Coverage]

Now, I’d like to put the spotlight on some faculty who received widespread media coverage.

Amanda Thomas, professor of earth and planetary sciences, was mentioned in over 200 news stories about her research into seismic activity. She authored a paper on how tiny earthquakes could predict larger earthquakes off the coast of Northern California. 

UC Davis forest ecologist Hugh Safford was quoted in dozens of stories about the “miracle” of fire management practices that helped to spare the Christmas Valley community from devastation during the 2021 Caldor Fire. His research was also featured in stories related to the high-altitude Jeffrey pine in the Sierra Nevada.

Over 30 news outlets covered research led by Professor Dario Cantù of the Department of Viticulture and Enology showing that Cabernet Sauvignon grapes carry a kind of molecular memory of their parents. Stories ran in publications ranging from trade publications to science outlets.

[Research Funding and Challenges]

Faced with a new funding and regulatory environment, our research mission continues to produce.

The good news is that research award dollars for this fiscal year are tracking closely with both last fiscal year and our three-year average.

Federal research appropriations remain relatively consistent nationwide in fiscal year 2026. Funding from the National Institutes of Health has increased by 1%, and funding from the National Science Foundation has declined 3%. 

Facilities and Administrative reimbursement rates are an ongoing concern. These indirect cost rates cover everything from buildings and utilities to the staff that keeps humans and animals safe.

All research depends on adequate, predictable funding for both these direct and indirect expenditures.

Working with the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and peer institutions, we are continuing to develop enhancements to the federal research funding mechanism, including the FAIR Model.

It’s a new approach that would create new trackable cost categories that are easier to understand, meet the needs of institutions of all sizes and locations, and increase accountability and transparency. 

Challenges remain for our researchers even as we work toward solutions.

The government shutdown last fall and reductions in the federal workforce are creating unavoidable delays in proposal reviews, new awards and renewals.

Fewer UC Davis researchers are getting support as reductions in new grants, particularly those from the NIH and NSF, are being approved.

We remain committed to helping our researchers find the support they need, and I urge you to continue working together and with the Office of Research to protect your work.

[Research Highlights]

While breakthroughs in research occur across our campuses every day, I’d like to share a few stories that demonstrate our success in building a healthier, more sustainable world.

UC Davis Health is launching a first-of-its-kind clinical trial offering a minimally invasive treatment for cardiac health. The work, led by Clinical Professor Shirin Jiménez and Assistant Clinical Professor Tai Pham, offers new hope to patients with heart failure.

Instead of major surgery, a catheter creates a small opening between two heart chambers, helping relieve pressure and potentially improving quality of life. This innovative approach gives new hope to patients who have had limited options, and UC Davis is the only Sacramento-area center enrolling patients.

UC Davis Health is also redefining how health research is done by training scientists to focus on people and place, not just numbers. Through the T32 ReACH program, led by Professor Leigh Ann Simmons at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, doctoral students are learning to study health equity by looking at real-world social and environmental factors that shape people’s lives and outcomes. 

This approach helps ask better questions and design research that uplifts underserved communities — grounding science in community context and lived experience.

Our research even extends beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers at UC Davis won a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to launch the Engineered Plants in Culture project. 

The project, led by principal investigator and distinguished professor emerita Karen McDonald, enables the development of low-cost, sustainable plant-based biomanufacturing systems that work in environments with limited resources, from rural communities to the International Space Station. 

This could democratize manufacturing here on Earth and enable self-sufficiency in space, expanding opportunities for exploration.

This is what public research looks like when designed not just to discover, but to serve.

[Philanthropy]

Now more than ever, philanthropy is vital to achieving our mission at UC Davis. I’m pleased to report that this will be another record-breaking year for philanthropy at UC Davis. 

The DEVAR team is hard at work developing the next fundraising campaign, so look for more details to come soon.

One major gift promises to transform the work of our College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

Led by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, Wonderful Nurseries is donating a major property in Wasco, along with $5 million in start-up funds, to advance agricultural research and sustainability in California communities. 

The land and the startup represent the largest single gift in UC Davis history, and, with the Resnicks’ $50 million investment in agricultural innovation, they set a new standard for impact.

[Vet Med Gift]

Another gift promises to expand our leadership in veterinary medicine and animal care.

We recently celebrated a transformative $120 million gift from Joan and Sanford Weill, the largest in the history of veterinary medicine. This extraordinary generosity is already propelling a new era at UC Davis. 

The gift allocates $80 million to build a new small-animal teaching hospital and $40 million to support fundamental and clinical research.

The gift will expand the facilities and infrastructure needed to recruit and train more veterinary students and specialists in high-demand fields.

It will boost our cutting-edge research initiatives for diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders and cardiovascular conditions affecting both animals and humans.

It is a powerful investment in discovery, service, and impact across species, and we are profoundly grateful for the partnership it represents.

[Washington Update]

This support comes as we face new challenges and uncertainty from our partnership with the federal government to support students and research for the common good.

We continue to closely monitor developments in Washington and work to minimize the impact on teaching, research, and campus life. Our Government Community Relations and Office of Research teams continue to lead the way in articulating the value of UC Davis and in following the ongoing changes.

This is a systemwide effort, and we continue to work with the Office of the President and all the universities in the UC system to ensure a coordinated response.

Federal action continues to affect international students and scholars. In January, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services finalized an increase to premium processing fees, raising the cost for employers and institutions. 

The change has a wide-ranging impact on international faculty, researchers, physicians and staff, increasing immigration-related costs while demand for timely processing remains high. 

The State Department announced a temporary pause in immigrant visa processing for nationals from approximately 75 countries. While this pause does not directly affect universities, it does affect employment and family-based immigrant visa processing abroad. 

We are also engaging Congress on the need to support the Professional Student Degree Act. It would ensure loan eligibility for students in programs such as law, nursing, public health and other fields.  

Failure to preserve students' ability to secure support for these loans will have devastating consequences for graduate and professional school enrollment, particularly first-generation students and those from historically underrepresented groups in these fields.

[How You Can Help]

In all our efforts, faculty support plays a vital role.

In the past year, we’ve called on you to tell the story of how UC Davis research is transforming healthcare, protecting the environment, and benefiting our communities. We’ve asked you to become ambassadors in your networks and champions for the power of inclusive opportunity.

And you have answered. 55 of you have been featured in our Labs to Lives series, which has demonstrated the power of federally funded research produced at UC Davis. 

And there is more to come.

If you are willing to share the story of your research or want to nominate another champion of UC Davis research, please visit the nomination form available on the QR code on the screen.

Those videos have generated over 500,000 social media impressions online and 1.4 billion news impressions.

We also know that they are being shared with policymakers in Washington and Sacramento.

You have helped us show policymakers and the public how our research touches the lives of every person in our country and across the world. We must remind them that when colleges meet their mission, they empower students to reach for the impossible and achieve it.

As our most effective ambassadors, your voices are the most powerful tool we have to demonstrate that the value of higher education isn't an abstract concept. 

It is a lived reality for the communities we serve.

[START Process/Recommendations]

We are continuing our efforts to deliver those results.

In a recent letter, Provost Mary Croughan announced that the Sustaining Teaching and Research Task Force (START) is winding down after nearly three years. Its purpose was to identify and propose ways to transform or enhance our education, research and service models.

39 recommendations have already been shared with the campus. A few more will be distributed this spring for review and input.

Provost Croughan will send an update to campus within the next week with the latest news on START recommendations, including several already being implemented and 8 new recommendations open for campus review and input.

Over 200 members of the campus community participated in START’s work. The provost and I are grateful for their hard work and dedication to excellence.

[Senate-Administration Workgroups]

Now, I’d like to share some brief updates on current Senate administration work groups. I appreciate these committees for working with administration on key topics. 

Joint Senate-Administration Task Force on Strengthening Research Administration: The Academic Senate identified nominees and forwarded them to the co-chair.

The Systemwide Research Cybersecurity Audit Report – Campus Reconciliation: The Academic Senate is working on identifying representatives.

IT Policies Update Committee: The Academic Senate identified four representatives, and their names have been sent to the committee chair.

UC Davis Cybersecurity Workgroup: This group concluded its meetings last quarter. The working group recommended establishing an information security oversight committee with faculty representation and recommended ensuring that subject-matter experts on the faculty are included. The committee will begin work by the spring quarter.

IT Accessibility Policy Program (ITAPP) Committee: This Committee is charged with providing guidance and resources toward new federal rules that take effect on April 24. The Academic Senate chair will join and serve on this committee for the remainder of this year.

UC Davis Artificial Intelligence Steering Committee: I convened this committee in 2024. It is co-chaired by the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Senate Chair, with representation from four Senate committees. Its recent report details proposed governance structures to support the responsible use of AI.

[Campus IT/AI Work]

Let’s turn to work and issues related to AI and IT.

In 2024, I established the Campus Artificial Intelligence Council to operationalize UC systemwide guidance.

We are investing in AI innovation designed to support faculty experimentation, improve student engagement, and ensure the responsible, secure use of AI in academic environments.

Our portfolio of tools includes ChatGPT, Gemini, Zoom, Copilot and Contractual data controls.

Regarding our campus wired network, we’re seeking funding to bring the network wiring in older buildings up to the latest standards. We are working with Design & Construction Management on costs and budget to improve the bandwidth needed for research and other needs.

Further, we continue to address connectivity issues with our wi-fi network and bandwidth issues with Zoom and Teams.

To address this, we are increasing bandwidth, streamlining architecture and updating configurations. We’ve since found that issues have reduced significantly, and we will continue to monitor.

[Enrollment]

Our enrollment remains strong as we continue to attract outstanding applicants, support them on campus, and help them cross the finish line to graduation.

Total enrollment, including interns and residents, was 40,617 for fall 2025. That represents a decrease of 622 students from last year, driven largely by students achieving their degrees more quickly and a small reduction in graduate students.

We exceeded our target for new California resident enrollments and saw record numbers of African American and Hispanic students in both the latest cohort and overall enrollment.

The strength and quality of the new class remain high, with robust academic achievement and continued demand: UC Davis received a record 120,131 applications and extended over 55,000 offers of admission. 

Business, our newest undergraduate major, enrolled 149 students in its inaugural year.

Over 40% of new undergraduates will be the first in their families to graduate from a four-year university. This is a powerful indicator of how UC Davis is expanding access to higher education for students whose families didn’t historically have that opportunity.

That is the promise of public higher education in action.

[HSI AND BSI]

We remain committed to supporting students from every background.  

UC Davis is in the inaugural class of California universities and colleges designated as Black-Serving Institutions, or BSIs, under a state initiative recognizing those that “excel at providing academic resources to Black and African American students.” 

The program awarded the designation in December 2025 to UC Davis and 30 other institutions across the state.

This designation signals to students and families that UC Davis is a place where Black excellence, Black history, and Black futures are celebrated and supported. 

With this new designation, we are moving into phase 1 of implementation: building broader campus engagement.  Look for more details as the program engages our community.

And for the second year running, we’ve hit the HSI designation threshold. 

In September of 2025, the Department of Education announced that it would end funding for minority-serving institutions, including HSIs.

But our commitment to students does not rise or fall with federal appropriations. It is a fundamental part of who we are.

[Budget & Revenue]

From a budget perspective, we are relieved to have 2025 behind us. Much of the year was marked by significant federal uncertainty, including threats to cancel grants, sharply reduce facilities and administration reimbursements, and cut funding. 

We are not immune to these national forces, but we are prepared, engaged and resilient.

While we still expect negative impact, legal action and strong advocacy across the research community have slowed both the pace and severity of these effects compared to what we anticipated a year ago.

For Fiscal Year 2025/26, we are planning for $945 million in research funding, combining facilities and administration plus contract and grant revenue. While a big number, it is a 3% decline from the previous fiscal year.  

Federal policy changes have also reduced the number of international students able to attend UC Davis. Among undergraduates in fiscal year 2025/26, we anticipate a revenue loss of approximately $22 million in tuition and the nonresident supplemental tuition international students pay.

While we are adjusting enrollment strategies to offset some of this decline in future years, barriers to international students studying in the US remain high.

At the state level, UC is in the fourth year of a five-year compact. Due to ongoing fiscal challenges, the State funded only 57% of the expected amounts over the first four years. 

Fortunately, the Governor’s provisional 2026/27 budget proposes to meet the commitment for year five of the compact and partially catch up on some compact and other state payments to UC from prior years. 

Some other state commitments remain deferred. This represents progress, but continued uncertainty and timing delays require cautious budgeting.

Our medical center continues to grow and now represents approximately 52% of our consolidated fiscal year 2025/26 budget. As you can see from the pie chart, our consolidated budget for fiscal year 2025/26 is $8.7 Billion, with $4.53 Billion of that from the medical center.  

The opening of two major clinics in 2025, the 48X and Folsom Medical Building, will support revenue growth this year and beyond. At the same time, the medical center is planning conservatively, given potential federal policy changes, including Medi-Cal reductions.

Finally, salaries and benefits remain our largest and fastest-growing expense. Improving efficiency and controlling costs remain central to our financial strategy.

[Capital Projects]

Now let’s focus on construction across our campuses. We are building the campus of the future with much-improved space for our students, researchers, and health providers.

These projects are not just buildings. They are commitments to the future.

Work continues at the Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation. We anticipate hitting our Summer 2026 completion date. It will open a new era of UC Davis leading the way in balancing food production with leading sustainability practices as we support local and global agriculture.

At the Weill School of Veterinary Medicine, we have kicked off the Small Animal Hospital project. The construction of this teaching facility will increase our capacity to treat animals by 20,000 annually while enabling more cutting-edge research and clinical trials that benefit humans and animals.

This year, we will complete a multi-year state-funded project that will bring seismic and safety improvements, address deferred maintenance items, and include other upgrades to six buildings across campus.

We have been improving exterior lighting and have several projects underway to enhance road safety. We are just starting construction on a new fire alarm reporting system that will provide greater reliability and faster signaling. 

Another exciting program effort we are delivering is teaching laboratory renovations. We had a similar program a few years ago to upgrade general assignment classrooms — including finishes, seating, and A/V systems — and now we are moving forward to do the same for teaching labs. 

At the start of February, we held the topping off ceremony for the California Tower in Sacramento. The $3.7 billion building is the final piece in UC Davis Health’s Vision 2030 campus plan. 

By 2030, UC Davis Health’s Sacramento campus will grow to over 7 million square feet of building space. This doubling of the campus in less than eight years is the largest health system capital expansion in the United States today.

[Deferred Maintenance]

Let me shift to the state of our deferred maintenance.

Our large, aging campus requires significant investment, yet campus funds remain insufficient to address our deferred maintenance backlog. Like public universities across the country, we face substantial renewal needs.

Many of our buildings are over 50 years old, and decades of limited state investment have compounded the challenge. At 5,300 acres, we’re also the largest UC in terms of area.

State funding for deferred maintenance remains periodic. The last allocation was in 2022, and no new funding is planned. 

Despite financial constraints, we continue to prioritize strategic campus investments that enhance instructional spaces, improve safety, ensure reliability and regulatory compliance of our utility infrastructure, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. 

Encouragingly, recent philanthropic support has strengthened the campus’s ability to move forward with the construction of some new facilities.

One of the most effective ways we are tackling both current and future deferred maintenance is through targeted investment in our utility infrastructure.

We are strengthening our water infrastructure. Investments in a new surface water treatment plant and related upgrades are modernizing aging pipelines, improving water quality, and reducing long-term reliance on groundwater. 

We have made meaningful progress. But given the scale of our infrastructure, continued prioritization, and internal investment, a sustained advocacy for renewed state funding remains essential.

For a more detailed breakdown of our efforts, I encourage you to visit our Facilities Management website.

[Aggie Square Update]

In Sacramento, our Aggie Square innovation district continues to flourish since the grand opening last May.

It is now home to our university’s Innovation and Economic Development Office, which supports student and faculty entrepreneurs. It further helps advance groundbreaking research through strategic partnerships, funding, and other initiatives.

About 350 scientists from the School of Medicine and affiliated centers will conduct collaborative studies in 75 state-of-the-art labs to improve patient care, quality of life, and public health.

The UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine is also expanding from the Davis campus to Sacramento. Its Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, renowned for its innovative animal DNA testing and genetic services, will accelerate life-changing discoveries and advance human and animal health on-site.

This fall, we welcomed students to our Master of Engineering in Medical Device Development. It’s the first graduate degree program designed explicitly for Aggie Square. Aggie Square is also now the home to the Graduate School of Management’s part-time MBA program.

Quarter at Aggie Square is seeing strong momentum, with total submitted applications increasing by 330% between 2024 and 2025. This growth demonstrates strong demand among undergraduate students for career‑aligned, experiential learning. 

Just a few weeks ago, our Aggie Square partners at Wexford Science & Technology announced that tenants representing research, healthcare innovation, workforce development, startups, investment, and civic and real estate innovation have joined Aggie Square in recent months.

Their presence underscores the promise of Aggie Square as a location where researchers can work side by side with companies and investors to bring UC Davis ideas to market and the communities that need them.

The site has also been a desirable destination for university, industry and community-led events. Since the May 2025 opening, Aggie Square has hosted over 400 events, bringing 13,500 attendees into the space for conferences, meetings, workshops, community gatherings and innovation-focused programming.

We are eager to welcome partners who want to co-create, who want proximity to world-class research and who want to tap into a robust pipeline of talent.

[Sustainability]

When it comes to sustainability, UC Davis continues to lead in both our research and operations. Here are a few examples of our commitment and progress.

UC Davis is developing its 2026 Climate Action Plan, which aligns with the UC system’s Sustainable Practices Policy. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2045.

The ongoing Big Shift is accelerating our campus operations away from fossil fuels. 

Through the Big Shift, UC Davis is modernizing its aging central heating and cooling system by replacing decades-old steam infrastructure with a more efficient, decarbonized hot-water network. 

The first district is complete, reducing fossil fuel use by 10%, and the second district is underway. 

With a project scheduled to go before the Regents for approval in March, we anticipate a roughly 40% reduction in operational fossil fuel use by 2027. 

And this is only the midpoint: future districts will build on this progress, positioning the campus to achieve up to an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions once the full transition is complete.

Faculty can sign up for the Big Shift newsletter and visit the website to stay updated on its progress.

I’m also grateful for the faculty involved in our committees and the Environmental Faculty Fellows and Scholars Program, which I encourage you all to join. This program supports faculty in collaborating on environmental justice and sustainability research.

[Leadership Updates]

Turning now to leadership updates. We’re excited that Dr. Mark Rosenblatt began his tenure as the Vice Chancellor of Human Health Services in January.  Dr. Rosenblatt is returning to UC Davis, where he began his career as an assistant professor of ophthalmology and vision science.

We are recruiting for three leadership roles.

We launched a search for a Dean of the School of Medicine, with recruitment beginning this month. I thank Susan Murin for her exceptional leadership.

We also launched a national search for the Dean of the College of Biological Sciences, as Mark Winey will step down from his leadership role and return to the faculty at the end of this academic year.

A national search is also underway for Dean of the Graduate School of Management, as H. Rao Unnava is returning to a faculty post as well.

Additionally, we anticipate launching the search for the UC Davis Health Medical Center CEO in the spring.

[Thank You]

Thank you all for joining us and for your sustained commitment to our community. I’m always grateful to have the opportunity to share how UC Davis continues to outgrow expectations.

While we still face many unknowns, this is certain: UC Davis continues to prove why public universities matter.

At a moment when some persist in questioning the value of higher education, the work we do here at UC Davis is the definitive answer.

We are an indispensable engine for empowering students and advancing the health of our communities. We are a leader in envisioning a brighter future and a partner in bringing that future to reality. 

And our partnership lies at the heart of that transformative work.

Thank you.

In our remaining time, I’d be happy to answer any questions.