Reggio to speak at UCSD convocation on May 5
Independent filmmaker Godfrey Reggio will give a talk titled “The New Terra Firma: The Technological Environment” on May 5 as part of a weeklong UCSD convocation. Reggio is noted for directing the Qatsi trilogy, which provides insight into the development of human society and its impact on the environment. The talk will take place in Price Center Ballroom at 7 p.m.
The week of convocation events will begin with showings of the Qatsi trilogy from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m at Price Center Theater on May 3. “Koyaanisqatsi” and “Naqoyqatsi,” the first two films in the trilogy, will also be shown at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively, on May 5 at Price Center Ballroom. On May 6, the film “Anima Mundi,” a combination of music and images of nature by Reggio, will be screened at 3 p.m. at Hojel Hall at the Institute of the Americas. Reggio will lead a panel discussion titled “Sharing the Planet: When Art, Technology, and Ecology Converge” following the screening.
The week will also feature an exhibit of student projects from Sixth College’s Culture, Art and Technology sequence from May 3 through May 7 in the Sixth College Dogg House. An outdoor film festival featuring work by Sixth College and visual arts students will take place on May 6 at 7 p.m. in the Sixth College quad.
The week will conclude with the screening of “Evidence,” another film by Reggio, and a follow-up discussion.
The event is sponsored by the Department of Communication, the Department of Visual Arts, the Division of Biology, UCSD Film and Video Library and the Committee for World Democracy.
For more information, visit http://convocation.ucsd.edu
UC ranked high for low-income student enrollment
Six UC campuses enroll the most low-income students out of schools listed in the U.S. News and World Report top 50 universities, according to a study by Tom Mortenson of Postsecondary Education Opportunity. The study examined the number of federal Pell Grant recipients each university enrolled, among other factors.
UCLA ranked the highest of the UC campuses, with 35.1 percent of its students coming from low-income families, followed by UC Berkeley with 32.4 percent, UC Irvine with 31.5 percent, UC Davis with 28.5 percent, UCSD with 28.3 percent and UC Santa Barbara with 24.8 percent. According to the university, the other two UC undergraduate campuses, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz, also enroll a large number of low-income students, but did not rank within the U.S. News and World Report top 50.
UC officials attributed its success in enrolling low-income students to a strong state grant program, a past policy of returning one-third of all fee increases to financial aid, past academic outreach programs and a focus on California residents through the California Master Plan for Education.
Recent budget reduction proposals targeting the Cal Grant program, the amount of fee increases applied toward financial aid programs and academic outreach programs threaten the university’s ability to service low-income students, according to the UC Office of the President.
Speakers to discuss future of Middle East Democracy
Muqtedar Khan, a member of the Washington, D.C., political think tank the Brookings Institute, and Genieve Abdo, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, will discuss the future of democracy in the Middle East at 8 p.m. on May 3 in York Hall room 2722.
Khan is currently the chair of the political science department at Adrian College and the author of “American Muslims: Bridging Faith and Freedom” and “Jihad for Jerusalem: Identity and Strategy in International Politics.”
Abdo has served as a correspondent in Iran for British newspaper The Guardian and is a contributor to The Economist and the International Herald Tribune. She is currently a Nieman fellow at Harvard University. She is the co-author of “Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First Century Iran” and the author of “No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam.”
The event is sponsored by UCSD Muslims for Democracy and Peace. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
Hispanic Magazine ranks UCSD 15th-best university
Hispanic Magazine ranked UCSD the 15th-best college in the United States in 2004. For its ranking, the magazine considered universities that were “superior centers of higher education” where Hispanics were also thriving.
The study analyzed data from the universities, Hispanic scholarship organizations and the U.S. News and World Report’s annual special edition of America’s Best Colleges.
