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By Dave Jones

City and county leaders stood with Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi this week to endorse �ٺ���Ƶ’ 2020 Initiative — a plan to grow enrollment and jobs — as a good fit for the region, especially in this time of economic stress.

“I don’t fear a big backlash,” said Rochelle Swanson, mayor pro tem on the Davis City Council, who joined Katehi at a news conference Sept. 21 after the chancellor unveiled the initiative at the Fall Convocation in the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Swanson said she is enthusiastic about having “a robust conversation” about how the 2020 plan can benefit the city.

“We have an incredibly engaged community,” said Swanson, a �ٺ���Ƶ graduate (political science), who noted that she had observed a “paradigm shift” in the city’s view of the university’s development, with people coming to see it as vital for the city’s economic well-being. “This is how we can sustain our quality of life.”

Swanson and Michael Bisch, co-president of the Davis Downtown Business Association, said the city has the housing and the retail space to accommodate the 2020 Initiative’s goals of an additional 5,000 undergraduates and 300 tenure-track faculty positions.

Bisch described Davis’ downtown as low density, with plenty of opportunity for in-fill development. “The chancellor’s plan goes hand in hand with that,” he said.

More business equals more tax revenue, Bisch and Swanson said, to help the city pay for vital public services.

Addressing the news conference, Bisch said Katehi’s convocation speech was “right on the mark.”

“In times of economic uncertainty, you have two choices,” he said. “You can retract and operate out of fear. Or you can gather your resources and move forward. The course she has set is the right way to go.”

Former Davis Mayor Don Saylor, who is now a member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, added his support: “I applaud the tone that was set today … and I pledge ongoing support from Yolo County.”

Rose Cholewinski, vice chair of the Davis Chamber of Commerce, also attended the news conference.

Job opportunities

Swanson said increased enrollment at �ٺ���Ƶ will not change the city: It will still be a compact, urban community with a small-town feel, and a place where greenbelts matter.

However, the city’s residents will have more opportunities for employment, perhaps with start-ups or companies doing research or manufacturing — drawn here by a university with a renewed focus on technology transfer, as Katehi envisions �ٺ���Ƶ’ future.

�ٺ���Ƶ graduates are likely to be among the entrepreneurs who set up shop here, Bisch said.

“There are 1,000 other Marks on campus,” said Bisch, referring to another convocation speaker, Mark Otero, a �ٺ���Ƶ alumnus who opened a yogurt shop in Sacramento and subsequently co-founded KlickNation Corp., the Sacramento-based social media gaming company — 70 employees strong and growing.

They may not do frozen yogurt, Bisch said, but they may start other retail businesses — or maybe the next KlickNation.