Bathroom graffitti hate incident reported to UCSDPD
UCSD Police received a report of hate speech written in the first floor men’s bathroom at Chemistry Research Building on May 11. The report stated that the comments, written in black marker in a bathroom stall, were derogatory toward Islam and Muslims. Physical Plant Services has since removed the graffiti. According to Detective Doug O’Dell, the incident has been classified as a hate crime.
O’Dell said that police have no leads or witnesses, and there have been no reports of similar events.
Rally to include civil disobedience on May 18
The San Diego Stop the Cuts Coalition is planning its largest rally yet for May 18, days after the May revision of the state’s budget is released. The rally will also protest the “compact” agreement between the governor and the UC and CSU systems announced on May 11.
The rally is scheduled to begin at Price Center Plaza at noon and evolve into a march to the intersection of Villa La Jolla and La Jolla Village Drive, where participants will take place in acts of civil disobedience. Details of the acts have not been made known.
Organizers plan to respond to the new proposal by urging the state legislature to declare a state of emergency for higher education and to raise new revenue to solve the state’s fiscal crisis, according to a May 12 statement from the coalition. The coalition also stated its support for proposed legislation to create new revenue, including state treasurer Phil Angelides’ plan to close certain corporate tax loopholes and a bill proposed by Assemblywoman Wilma Chan (D-Oakland) to raise taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent for the next five years.
Campus events will mark anniversary of Brown case
Several UCSD events on May 17 will highlight the 50th anniversary of the Brown v.s Board of Education landmark 1954 decision to desegregate schools.
On May 14, attorney Mary T. Hernandez will give a talk called “A Look at School Segregation in San Diego and Orange Counties.” Hernandez is currently working at the California Association of Bilingual Education as a program coordinator and at Project Inspire, a parent information resource center funded by the U.S. Department of Education aimed at providing resources and information about the No Child Left Behind act, the California Accountability System and other education rights topics.
The talk, sponsored by Earl Warren College, will take place from noon to 2 p.m. on May 14 at Price Center Gallery B.
On May 17 at 7 p.m. and May 18 at 8 p.m., the theatre department will put on a short play titled “The Haunting of Jim Crow.” The play, written by theatre professor Allan Havis, will blend the Brown decision with the story of Strom Thurmond’s daughter.
Featuring professional actors and master of fine arts students, each performance of the play will be followed by panel discussions.
UCSD engineers honored for help in Bay Bridge design
Jacobs School of Engineering Dean Frieder Seible and structural engineering professor Chia-Ming Uang will be awarded for their contribution to the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The two authored a paper which describes research to improve welding details on the self-anchored suspension bridge currently being constructed to replace the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge East Span. The 2004 Leon S. Moisseiff Award will be given by the American Society of Civil Engineering on May 25 at the 2004 Structures Congress and Exposition in Nashville, Tenn.
Seible and Uang, both UCSD alumni, used large-scale testing to reveal unexpected and previously unobserved brittle failure. The engineers also used element analysis to demonstrate ways to avoid high-stress concentration points, research that can be of use to the new bridge’s construction. The existing bridge was damaged during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.
In 2001, researchers from the Jacobs School of Engineering tested structural elements in the main tower supporting the new suspension bridge. The self-anchored suspension bridge’s main tower was built based on concepts developed by Seible. The new bridge is designed to withstand high magnitude earthquakes. The large-sized links, which have never been used for bridges before, are designed to stiffen the tower and prevent it from swaying excessively during earthquakes. Any damage to the links would be quick to replace without significant repairs to the entire structure.
