By Tanya Perez

As Aggie Square moves from the planning stage into implementing those plans, construction jobs are moving from ideas to realities, as well.

In a recent conversation with Kevin Ferreira, executive director of the Sacramento-Sierra Building and Construction Trades Council, or SSBCTC, he shared the progress already made toward the goals of training and hiring local workers for building Aggie Square.

By John Marx

Faculty have a lot of questions about how Aggie Square is evolving. The most challenging ones come from faculty who are curious but may not see how exactly they fit into a new campus with the emerging themes of translational research, experiential learning and community engagement. 

The opportunity to work differently in some key area — whether research or teaching or service — is clearly a motivating factor for curious faculty who take me up on the invitation to explain where we are in the project’s evolution. 

By John Marx

Sometime in the spring of 2020, School of Medicine Dean Allison Brashear started using the term “Virtual Aggie Square” to describe the teamwork between UC Davis faculty and staff involved in COVID-19 research. That pathbreaking, cross-causeway collaboration captured the spirit of Aggie Square, since one of the project’s fundamental goals is making it easier for all of us to work across the university’s disciplines, departments and schools. 

The “Life Sciences Workforce Training Collaborative” will be a new feature of Continuing and Professional Education (or CPE for short) that takes full advantage of the university, city of Sacramento, and industry partners coming together to invent Aggie Square.