After finishing first in NCAA Division II six times in 2003 and winning the NACDA Director's Cup 4 years in a row from 1999 to 2003, the UC Davis Aggies (or Ags) are currently in the four-year process of transitioning to NCAA Division I. (The Aggies will be
members of the Great West Football
Conference for football and the Big West Conference for other sports.)The official school colors are yale blue and gold, and the official mascot is a mustang. Students at UC Davis are referred to as Cal Aggies. This is in reference to their origin as UC
Berkeley's agricultural school. Unlike most colleges, there is a distinction between the name for students and the mascot. Many
people will call the mustang mascot of UC Davis an aggie, but this is incorrect. There was a movement to change to school's
mascot from the mustang to the cow, but despite student support, this was turned down after refusal from the alumni. The mustang
mascot dates to 1921 when the US Army brought a horse to UC Davis to supply stock for cavalry horses. The mustang was selected as
a mustang to honor the cavalry horse, and was named Gunrock like the horse.Another attraction of UC Davis is its student-run radio station, KDVS. The station began
operations on February 1, 1964 from the laundry room of the all-male dormitory Beckett
Hall. The station soon gained a reputation by airing interviews with Angela
Davis and a live call-in show with then California
Governor Ronald Reagan in 1969.
The station can now be heard on 90.3 FM.UC Davis also has a fairly active fraternity and sorority community. National fraternities in UC Davis include Tau Kappa Epsilon, Sigma
Chi, Chi Phi, Theta Chi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Alpha Epsilon
Pi, Sigma Phi
Epislon, and Alpha Gamma Rho. One of UC Davis' sororities was even featured on the first season of the MTV reality show
"Sorority Life."