1. UCSD to place AI cameras in hospital patient rooms
UC San Diego Health plans to implement AI cameras in hospital patient rooms. Their stated purpose is to continuously monitor patient rooms for movements that often happen before dangerous incidents and offer proactive alerts to hospital staff.
The AI camera system at UCSD’s hospitals will be installed by the [word] company Artisight, which 90 hospitals around the country are already using, with an additional 400 under contract to implement the system. Artisight described the system to The San Diego Union-Tribune, stating that, while their system places a camera continuously-recording visual and auditory data in patient rooms, the video is allegedly not stored in long-term memory. Rather, the AI program immediately analyzes the pixels of the image to detect if there is any reason for concern, such as a patient being at risk of falling or a bed needing to be turned, before deleting the images permanently.
Posters are placed in every room with a camera to notify patients of the camera’s presence and purpose.
Artisight’s CEO Andrew Gostine addressed potential privacy concerns. “The image comes straight into the (graphical processing unit), we run this calculation, and then the images are gone forever, so there is never any storing of the video,” Gostine said.
According to Gostine, this process means that most of the cameras are not actually capturing video but are only running analytic programs that evaluate how the pixels in each frame change without keeping the video frames themselves.
While AI is being touted as an advancement in patient care for hospitals, there are severe risks when it comes to the theft and hacking of patient information, according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Journal. A Jan. 5 article in The Union-Tribune also notes that many healthcare companies that use AI have been vulnerable to hackers finding flaws in computer logic, causing breaches and leading to violations of HIPAA and patient privacy rights.
In response to these concerns, Gostine said that his company currently meets the highest standard of HIPAA compliance.
2. Taco Bell to open in Price Center
UC San Diego plans to open a Taco Bell in the dining area of Price Center, but as of now, a timeline for development is unknown. Students found an announcement by UCSD posted early December 2024 in the space that the dining establishment Rubio’s used to occupy.
The announcement reads, “We heard your plea r/UCSD adawghoney Taco Bell 2025,” referencing an October post on UCSD’s subreddit that reads, “UCSD please hear my plea. A Taco Bell on campus increases productivity!”
Second-year Alondra Mariscal expressed her enthusiasm about the addition of a Taco Bell in Price Center.
“Taco Bell is one of those late night cravings I know a lot of students will appreciate,” Mariscal said. “Our dining options on campus are not the best, in my opinion. I am more content with how affordable Taco Bell is compared to other Price Center options that are currently offered.”
In response to the announcement, students have shared their opinions in more than 100 Reddit posts.
“Literally the best news I’ve heard for a long time,” one Reddit post read.
Many students shared the same sentiment as Mariscal regarding dining affordability and diversity on campus.
“I always wanted a Taco Bell! Burger King was the only place I could go to for cheap, fast food,” a post read.
Others took to Reddit to share their disappointment with UCSD’s choice of restaurant.
“There’s way better choices than Taco Bell. We already have [Taco Villa] in the old student center anyway,” a student voiced on Reddit.
“I feel like the school needs healthier options,” another post read.
Students have also voiced their disappointment of losing the restaurant Taco Bell is set to replace.
“Rubio’s was elite compared to Taco Bell … I’ll miss it,” a post read.
The UCSD Guardian has not received a comment from the University as of Jan. 5.
3. Energy Prices skyrocket in La Jolla
National solar energy company EnergySage released data last updated on Jan 5. on the energy usage and consequent prices of energy bills of La Jolla residents, which reveals a bill price that is 97% higher than the national average. According to a February 2024 report from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the San Diego metropolitan area has the third highest energy prices in the country.
The data shows that La Jolla residents spend an average of $383 per month on electricity, with a usage of 793.00 kilowatt-hours. This results in annual energy bills totaling up to $4,596 and 9516 kilowatt-hours this past year.
Meanwhile, Find Energy reported that from Jan. 2 to Jan. 5, San Diego county had a peak outage count of 4,110. As of Jan. 5 at 7:30 pm, San Diego County currently has “the 2nd most power outages of any state.”
4. UC reaches Voluntary Settlement with U.S. Department of Education Office
On Dec. 20, the University of California Office of the President released a press statement announcing a voluntary agreement with the United States Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights to resolve complaints of harassment on the basis of national origin across the nine UC campuses.
While the majority of the Department of Education’s report focuses on allegations of discrimination in Spring 2024 at UCLA, the complaint also acknowledges instances of harassment at other UC campuses. “The evidence to date showed that UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Cruz all had widely reported incidents of alleged harassment against students based on their national origin, including shared ancestry, indicating that these universities also had notice of a potential hostile environment for their students of Jewish, Israeli, Palestinian, Muslim, and/or Arab ancestry,” the Department of Education wrote.
The University of California clarified its intention in addressing the discrimination complaints.
“The University enters into this Agreement without making any admission of wrongdoing, liability, or noncompliance with Title VI or any other applicable law,” the agreement reads.
The agreement establishes that the University of California will implement or continue its implementation of nondiscrimination policies and procedures, incident reporting requirements, annual investigator training, and public safety and campus police officer training.
Furthermore, the agreement permits involvement of the OCR in the University of California’s system-wide policies and nondiscrimination training protocols for employees and campus police.
“The University agrees to provide for OCR’s review and approval any proposed revisions to the University’s systemwide anti-discrimination policies, procedures, and guidelines,” the agreement states.
The agreement further asserts that the University will conduct an annual audit on the affected campuses for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. The audit is expected to serve as proof to the OCR of the University’s response to every complaint of harassment and discrimination.
Additionally, the University of California will initiate the investigations of and remedies for individual allegations of harassment and disparate treatment, along with campus climate assessments and analyses.
