Murphy announces resignation as mayor

In a surprise announcement on April 25, San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy told members of the media that he would resign from office effective July 15.

After a grueling re-election bid where Murphy received fewer votes than write-in candidate city Councilmember Donna Frye, but was announced the winner because several thousand voters did not mark the fill-in bubble next to Frye’s name, the mayor has faced controversy over the city’s finances and pension system. Earlier this month, Time magazine named Murphy among the three worst big-city mayors in the nation.

“When I ran for re-election, I had hoped that my second term would be as productive as the first,” he said at the press conference announcing his resignation. “But that now seems unlikely.”

Alluding to the city’s new “strong-mayor” structure, which was approved by voters in November, Murphy said the city needed a leader elected by a “solid majority and with a clear mandate.”

“A good leader knows when it is time to move on,” he said. “It is time for me to move and time for a fresh start of the city.”

Murphy said he would stay in office to finish next year’s budget. After he leaves, the position will be filled by the city’s vice mayor.

Instead of appointing his successor, Murphy called on the city council to hold a special election in November that can be consolidated with a statewide poll in order to reduce costs for the city.

Senate kills ‘Students’ Bill of Rights’

By a 6-4 vote, the state Senate Education Committee voted against approving a “Students’ Bill of Rights” that would have required university curricula to include “diverse viewpoints,” effectively killing the measure.

In December, the bill’s sponsor Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) said his proposal was a “new front” in the “war for academic freedom.”

The proposal reflected criticism from largely conservative students who had argued that they were being punished academically for having views that differed from those of their professors.

“There is a national movement to protect academic freedom on college and university campuses by promoting intellectual diversity and the free exchange of ideas, especially as it relates to student exposure to multiple points of view,” the committee’s analysis stated.

Faculty groups, including the American Association of University Professors, which said the plan would infringe on the ability of faculty to control its curricula, opposed the bill.

Though it was rejected by the Legislature, the University of California’s Academic Senate has already recommended changes to university policy that address some of Morrow’s concerns.

Legendary swimmer to speak at Geisel

Lynne Cox, an athlete who was the first to swim the Straits of Magellan and at age 16 broke English Channel swim records, will make an appearance at Geisel Library’s Seuss Room on May 5.

Free and open to the public, the event will begin at 2 p.m.

At the talk, Cox will discuss her new book and her various achievements. She has previously been named woman of the year by the Los Angeles Times and was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2000.

Campus awarded $17.2 million grant

The National Institute of Environmental Health has renewed UCSD School of Medicine’s grant to fund its environmental research and community outreach program. The five-year award totals $17.2 million.

First funded in 2000, the program has developed new tools for potential use in detecting toxic substances in waterborne hazardous waste. The new money will be used to refine the tools and fund outreach to local tribal communities and cross-border populations that are most at risk by hazardous waste sites.

Study: Glucose may stop brain damage

A natural, nontoxic byproduct of glucose may prevent the death of brain cells and other cognitive impairments in diabetics who experience severely low blood sugar levels, researchers at UC San Francisco and a nearby medical center have found.

The new study based on data gathered from rats suggests that the administration of the byproduct along with glucose after 30 minutes of a diabetic coma can prevent serious brain damage better than glucose alone.

Glucose is a form of sugar used as fuel by the body.