Over the past two decades, the University of California, Davis, has evolved into an academic powerhouse. It is a campus that nationally and internationally respected experts in agriculture, biotechnology, veterinary medicine and many other disciplines are proud to call home. Now, the university has a prime opportunity to add to that expertise, to further burnish its reputation and boost the regional economy, all the while providing a crucial public service to California and the nation.

UCD is one of five finalists to host a national biocontainment laboratory to study highly infectious diseases. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will choose one or two of the finalists and provide up to $150 million to fund construction of the high-security labs.

Recent outbreaks of SARS and monkey pox, the growing threat of West Nile virus and hantavirus, and the terrorist spread of anthrax have made the country's need for greater preparedness glaringly obvious. At present, blood samples and microorganisms must be sent for analysis to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. In the instance of future outbreaks, the Western states may not have the luxury of that kind of time. The need for a West Coast Bio Safety Level 4 lab, which would be known as the Western National Center for Biodefense and Emerging Diseases, is clear.

Few if any of the lab's opponents argue that point. What they dislike is the idea of the presence of the lab in their own community. The lab would be located on campus near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Highway 113. On a visceral level, that opposition may be understandable. But from a broader, more civic-minded perspective, it is both cynical and shortsighted.

Having a world-class university in the middle of your vibrant, lovely town -- which is, of course, one reason that the town is so vibrant and lovely -- isn't just a privilege, but a responsibility. Because of its research expertise, UCD is an ideal candidate for this facility.

The university has gone to great lengths to ensure tight security at the proposed site, from guarded checkpoints to fences to earthen berms to prevent truck bombings. The lab would be constructed as an airtight "box within a box within a box." Similar safeguards have ensured that the CDC, in the middle of an affluent enclave of Atlanta, has never suffered a public health problem of the kind that local opponents apparently fear.

When NIH representatives visit the campus today to consider UCD's application, they will likely get an earful from those who don't want the biolab in their backyard. But the visitors should be just as mindful of the broad local, regional and statewide support for bringing the facility here. That support comes from elected leaders in Woodland, Sacramento and both Yolo and Sacramento counties, and from the UC regents, the Associated Students of UCD and a statewide coalition of 53 county public health officers, who voted unanimously to support the effort.

The lab would enhance UCD, not threaten it. And NIH couldn't find a better home for it.