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Special Projects

UC Davis Graduate Studies leaders and staff members are engaged in numerous special project activities. Learn more about our special projects below. 

  • Graduate Studies Anti-Racism Initiative 

  • UC Davis Graduate Studies opposes racial bias in any part of graduate education and training, and yet acknowledges that racism has shaped the development of academic research, methods of training graduate students and postdocs, and the make-up of faculty, students, and postdoctoral scholars.  Such bias has limited who has access to the development of human knowledge and has placed limits on that knowledge. In 2020, Graduate Studies launched its Anti-Racism Initiative in order to re-envision graduate education and training that actively rejects racist assumptions and structures.

  • Graduate Studies Mentoring Initiative

  • Graduate Studies recently launched Graduate Mentoring Initiative (GMI), a new mentoring program designed at fostering an engaged culture of faculty-graduate student mentoring across all academic disciplines. The mission of the new initiative is to develop and sustain a faculty mentor training program that showcases lived experiences and resources at UC Davis, as well as to promote our own recognized and renowned mentors as campus leaders who can engage with their colleagues in promoting the value and impact of positive mentoring experiences.

  • Orchard Park Family Housing Redevelopment

  • Graduate Studies advocates for the needs and priorities of graduate students by participating in the Orchard Park Redevelopment Project Advisory Committee. Consultation and inclusion of graduate students is part of the project planning, consistent with the leadership-endorsed recommendations of the Student Family Housing Redevelopment Committee. 

  • UC Graduate Student Experience Survey (UCGSES)

  • The University of California Graduate Student Experience Survey (UCGSES) is an online survey administered at UC Davis and each of the other UC campuses. It asks students for their input around a broad range of academic and non-academic experiences.

  • Graduate Studies Administrative Services Survey

  • The purpose of this annual survey is to solicit constructive feedback on the effectiveness of the administrative services provided by Graduate Studies and understand the ways in which Graduate Studies can improve its campus partnerships.