The U.S. Senate approved President George W. Bush’s nomination of Margaret Spellings to head the federal Department of Education by a voice vote on Jan. 20.
Spellings, a longtime adviser to Bush and one of the head shapers of the No Child Left Behind Act, will replace outgoing Education Secretary Rod Paige.
At the hearing, Spellings said the president’s second-term agenda would include additional state testing for high school students, higher academic standards for vocational programs and a revamping of federal financial aid to help nontraditional students, according to the American Council on Education.
Spellings will be the second woman to head the Education Department in its 26-year history. President Jimmy Carter appointed Shirley M. Hufstedler as the first woman to take the office in 1980.
State PIRGs opposes Bush’s Pell Grant proposal
State Public Interest Research Groups — a national organization representing individual public interest groups in each state — has criticized President George W. Bush’s proposal to increase the maximum Pell Grant award by 2.5 percent in each of the next five years.
The move would fail to keep pace with inflation over that period, the group stated in a press announcement.
After including projected tuition increases, the plan would reduce the percentage of tuition and fees that the maximum Pell Grant covers, from 79 percent to 54 percent, over the five-year period, it stated.
“Nearly half a million qualified high school students forego college each year because of the cost, and millions more take on huge amounts of debt to pursue higher education,” State PIRGs’ higher-education advocate Kate Rube stated. “Rather than turning the tide, the president’s proposal keeps us on the same downhill path.”
The organization has called on Congress to increase the maximum award by $450 this year, to $4,500.
UCSD ranks 13th in world in new academic listing
A worldwide academic index of 500 universities, released by the Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, has ranked UCSD as 13th in the world.
The ranking weighed academic and research performance, including the number of prestigious awards won by faculty and alumni, published citations and student performance.
The campus received its highest ranking for the number of citations regarding research conducted by faculty members on two science and social science indices, and its lowest score in the category for alumni achievement.
UC Berkeley was the only UC campus ranked higher, coming in at fourth in the world. Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge took the top three spots, respectively.
UCLA trailed UCSD as number 16.
A separate list of global rankings published by The London Times Higher Education Supplement in November placed UCSD in 24th place, two ahead of UCLA.
The Berkeley campus came in as number two in that index, trailing Harvard.
Rady School begins new building construction
The Rady School of Management has broken ground on the school’s initial building, the first at UCSD to be funded exclusively by private donations.
“The Rady School is a welcome addition to the UCSD campus and we are excited to be breaking ground on this building just four months after admitting the first class of … students,” Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said. “The Rady School facility will provide cutting-edge technology, giving students the tools they need to become leaders in the life sciences and technology sectors.”
Established in 2001, the school will serve business students interested in the fields of science, technology and life sciences.
The new facility, expected to open in 2006, will contain approximately 50,000 assignable square feet, including classrooms, conference rooms and common areas.
Researchers find way to transform stem cells
Three UCSD bioengineers have invented a process to transform embryonic stem cells into other specialized cells that they believe could someday provide treatments for dozens of diseases and health conditions.
In an article to be published in the February issue of the journal Nature Methods, the two professors and one graduate student explain how scientists may be able to use different combinations of proteins to trigger stem cells to differentiate, or mature, into other specialized cells that can repair damaged organs and tissue.