Education

Community college center to be first on a UC campus

Construction of the Sacramento City College Davis Center at UC Davis West Village marks another milestone in a long partnership between the Los Rios Community College District and UC Davis. And it is being built as the three higher education systems in California -- community colleges, state universities and the UC system -- work to smooth the path from two-year colleges to four-year universities for greater numbers of students.

The Davis Center is located on the Village Square at the heart of UC Davis West Village, an innovative mixed-use community that is the largest planned zero net energy development in the United States.

Don Palm, dean of the Sacramento City College Davis Center, said taking classes at a center on the UC Davis campus will be a “fantastic opportunity” for students who aspire to transfer to a UC campus or other four-year universities. "They will be immersed in an environment that will allow them to see how degrees and certificates from SCC blend with the programs and activities at a university.”

Students from UC Davis benefit, too. They have the opportunity to take college courses that UC Davis doesn’t currently offer, such as Farsi and Korean. And they will be able to take classes, such as accounting or computer-aided design, to supplement their UC Davis coursework.

About the center

The 20,000 square-foot college center (the first of three planned for the UC Davis West Village site) will house 11 classrooms, a computer lab, an art studio, a career technology center, administrative offices and counseling space. It has been designed to earn silver certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, a program of the U.S. Green Building Council.

The Los Rios Community College District is funding the construction of the $12.4 million center with bond proceeds approved by Sacramento voters in 2002.

Completion of Phase II and III, which would bring the center to a total of approximately 75,000 square feet, is contingent on state bond funding and continued enrollment growth. Los Rios has rights to the land through a 65-year ground lease with the university.

A partnership

The partnership between UC Davis and the community college district has pioneered previous programs that have become models for other UC campuses, including a transfer program that gives qualified community college transfer applicants written guarantees of admission to UC Davis.

About 150 students transfer from Sacramento City College to UC Davis each year, more than from any other single institution. Sacramento City College has offered classes in leased space in the city of Davis for more than a decade.

More than one-third of new undergraduates enrolling at UC Davis in fall 2011 are transfer students, and most of them will come from community colleges.

The campus expects to enroll about 350 students from the broader Los Rios Community College District toward a total of 2,810 new transfer students, according to Palm and a June 15 enrollment projection from UC Davis.

About the college district

The Los Rios Community College District serves more than 90,000 students in Sacramento and El Dorado counties as well as parts of Yolo, Placer and Solano counties. It includes American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake and Sacramento City colleges with major centers in Placerville, Davis, West Sacramento, Natomas and Rancho Cordova. The colleges offer a path to study at four-year colleges and universities as well as associate degrees and certificates in more than 70 career fields.

Said UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi: "This new education center is emblematic of a new spirit in higher education: one that recognizes the very real and great challenges we face; that forges a more promising path toward the future; and that reflects our common interests and goals in providing higher education to the people of the state of California, efficiently, effectively and resourcefully."