State leaders to host town hall meeting on education
Assemblywoman Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), State Sen. Dede Alpert (D-San Diego) and other State Senate and education leaders will host a town hall meeting at UCSD to discuss cuts to California’s higher education systems in May 7.
Those in attendance will speak on the importance of the state’s investment in higher education and the effects of fee hikes and enrollment caps on its students.
The meeting will take place at the Institute of the Americas from 10 a.m. to11 a.m. on May 7. The event is free and open to the public.
Five UCSD professors to be honored for excellence
Five UCSD professors will be awarded for excellence in teaching, research and community service by the UCSD Chancellor’s Associates at an award ceremony on May 11.
The annual ceremony recognizes UCSD faculty members with an award and a $2,500 honorarium. The recipients are nominated by their faculty peers and selected by a committee of Chancellor’s Associates members.
Recipients of the 2004 Faculty Excellence Awards include Victor Ferreira, professor of psychology, for excellence in undergraduate teaching; Murray Goodman, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, for excellence in graduate teaching; Roger Tsien, professor of pharmacology, for excellence in research in science and engineering; Gary Cox, professor of political science, for excellence in research in arts, humanities and social sciences; and Hugh Mehan, professor of sociology, for excellence in community service.
UCSD to host high school summer residential program
UCSD will be the fourth UC campus to host the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science. C.O.S.M.O.S. is a four-week residential academic program in which high-achieving high schools students will follow a course of study that incorporates technology and engineering with math and science.
The program, administered through Jacobs School of Engineering, will begin with 80 students in the summer of 2005, expanding to reach a target of 150 students by 2007.
Students will study topics such as earthquake engineering, tissue engineering, computer visualization, plant genetics and prescription drug discovery.
For more information, visit http://www.ucop.edu/cosmos.
UCSD researchers discover ‘genetic time bomb’
Researchers at the School of Medicine have discovered a genetic abnormality that can cause heart failure or sudden death later in life. The condition, generally manifested through heart malformations, is currently treated with surgery. The study, published in the April 30 issue of Cell, shows that surgery does not fix the underlying molecular triggers that cause heart failure.
According to medical professor Kenneth Chien, the study’s senior author, the defect causes the heart to gradually fail and can sometimes result in problems with the heart’s electrical system, causing sudden death. The condition could affect patients with forms of heart disease other than heart malformation as well.
CSU teaching assistants to vote on potential strike
The union representing teaching assistants at California State University campuses announced May 5 that its members will vote whether or not to strike. The strike would be held in response to what the California Alliance of Academic Student Employees/United Auto Workers union calls the CSU system’s refusal to recognize the union as the official representative of over 6,000 teaching assistants, graduate assistants, tutors and graders throughout the university system.
The California Public Employment Relations Board verified on March 16 that a majority of CSU academic student employees have chosen CAASE/UAW as their union. Currently, UAW claims that CSU officials refuse to recognize or bargain with the union.
UAW represents over 20,000 academic student employees in the nation, including more than 11,000 throughout the University of California.
