Legislature rejects immigrant tuition bill
A state Assembly bill requiring public universities to charge illegal immigrants out-of-state tuition failed to receive even one vote in the Assembly’s Higher Education Subcommittee, with six members voting against it. A similar bill was defeated earlier this month in a state Senate committee, with eight senators in opposition and two backing the measure.
Introduced by two Republican lawmakers, the legislation would have amended a 2001 statute that allowed universities to offer resident tuition to certain students.
Current law allows students to pay the cheaper in-state fees if they attend a California high school for at least three years and meet several other criteria.
Backers of the new proposal argued that California taxpayers were wrongly subsidizing the education of nationals from other countries at a time when the state faced a massive budget crisis. However, critics of the bill contended that, unlike out-of-state students, illegal immigrants continue to pay state income and sales taxes.
A more omnibus constitutional amendment that would deny illegal immigrants most state services, offered by Assemblyman Mark Wyland (R-Del Mar), is still being considered by the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee. If approved and signed by the governor, it would go before a statewide vote.
Two dozen UC scholars elected to academy
Twenty-four scholars who work for the University of California — including five UCSD professors — have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
This year’s inductees, among 213 new fellows from around the world, include UC Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs M.R.C. Greenwood.
The organization, created more than 200 years ago, honors individuals for influential contributions to their field of study and to society.
UCSD tied UC Berkeley for the most elected scholars in the university system this year.
The new UCSD fellows include electrical and computer engineering professor Jack Keil Wolf, cellular and molecular medicine professor Ajit P. Varki, mathematics professors Linda Preiss Rothschild and M. Salah Baouendi and physics professor Michael L. Norman.
They join 76 current AAS fellows who are UCSD faculty members.
Restrictions to sex education defeated
Members of the state Assembly’s Education Committee voted 9-2 earlier this month to reject new restrictions on sexual instruction that state-funded schools can provide to their pupils.
The bill forbid schools from speaking or counseling students in first through sixth grades about specific sexual practices and would have required all other students to receive written parent approval. It listed practices “relating to beastiality, bisexuality, cunnilingus, fellatio, homosexuality, lesbianism, masochism, masturbation, necrophilia, orgies, pederasty, pedophilia, sadism, sodomy, transexuality, transgenderism or transvestism,” according to the committee’s analysis.
Its author, Assemblyman Dennis L. Mountjoy (R-Monrovia), said the measure was needed to protect young kids from exposure to inappropriate and controversial sexual practices.
“Schools need to teach biology and not behavior,” he stated in a written document backing the bill.
Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union, had argued that the proposal restricted the ability of teachers to provide students with comprehensive and unbiased information.
Giant bear to be added to Stuart Collection
A giant bear, sculpted by artist Tim Hawkinson, will become the 16th addition to the university’s Stuart Collection.
The bear will arrive on campus on May 10 and will sit in the new Jacobs School of Engineering courtyard .
Measuring more than 20 feet in height, the bear will be assembled for permanent placement through the end of this month. It will be made of eight granite boulders. The largest rock, used for the torso, will be moved at night with police escort on a 16-axle truck, the type of vehicle used to transport space shuttle parts.
Study: Diet, exercise helps overweight kids
In a study presented at the American Heart Association’s conference, UCLA researchers have reported that diet and exercise can improve a wide range of biomarkers linked to heart disease.
The study is the first to show such wide benefits and was based on observations of overweight kids, ages nine to 15.