UCLA Today: archive 000111

BUREAU BRIEFS
Cancer Research – The National Cancer Institute has designated the prostate cancer program at UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center and the Department of Urology as a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE), making UCLA one of a few institutions nationwide tapped to improve prevention, detection and treatment of a disease that will kill 30,000 American men this year. … University of California – The proportion of underrepresented students enrolled at the University of California’s law and medical schools increased significantly this year. … Physics and Astronomy – An international team of astronomers reports the first strong evidence for the existence of massive planets on wide orbits — like those of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — around many stars.

CHANCELLOR ASSESSES UCLA'S FUTURE
Now beginning his sixth year at the helm of UCLA, Chancellor Albert Carnesale talked with Karen Mack of UCLA Today about the state of the campus, his vision for UCLA’s future and the special challenges posed by a lean budget environment.

A PLEDGE OF PARTNERSHIP AT L.A. CITY HALL
A delegation of nearly 100 alumni, faculty and students paid a visit Oct. 15 to L.A.’s City Hall with an important message: UCLA is firmly committed to cultivating strong community partnerships.

GET READY FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT
When Open Enrollment begins next month, University of California employees will be seeing higher costs for health care in 2003, but also new options from UC Benefits to help employees cope with them.

DATELINE UCLA
Salary Increase — For 2002-03, funding from the state allows for a 1.5% staff salary increase program, effective Oct. 1, as well as for fully funded faculty merit increases under the July ’02 program, according to Campus Human Resources. ... Computers on the Cheap — Thanks to a new agreement between UCLA and KST Data, faculty, staff and students can now purchase computers and peripherals for their personal use through KST Data at the same deep discounts offered to campus departments. … Book Award Finalist — Harryette Mullen, an associate professor of English and African American Studies at UCLA, has been selected as a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award in Poetry for her latest collection, “Sleeping with the Dictionary.” … Too Close for Comfort — People who live, work or travel within 165 feet downwind of a major freeway or busy intersection are exposed to potentially hazardous particle concentrations up to 30 times greater than normal background concentrations found at a greater distance, according to two studies recently published in the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association and in Atmospheric Environment.

DID YOU KNOW?
UCLA’s first Homecoming Parade took place in 1933 and featured 52 floats. The parade was canceled during World War II, but revived in 1944 — in miniature. Tiny floats paraded across the Royce Hall stage. After the war, the parade returned to full size.

PROFS, PUNDITS WEIGH OPTIONS ON IRAQ
Policy experts, professors and pundits speaking at an Oct. 16 forum at Kinsey Hall characterized Saddam Hussein as a crazed dictator who presents a genuine threat to international security. But how the Bush administration goes about dealing with him is the key question.

UCLA, VERACRUZ SET UP EXCHANGE
UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center and the University of Veracruz in Mexico have started a cultural and research exchange program that will bring together professors, students and artists from both universities.

YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW – Faculty Fellow — PricewaterhouseCoopers has endowed a Faculty Fellowship in Accounting at The Anderson School. … Legacy for Library — UCLA has acquired the papers of Rafael Lorente de No, a Spanish-American physiologist whose pioneering work on mechanisms of nerve-cell communication and the anatomy and physiology of the cerebral cortex earned him international acclaim. … Holiday Cards for Hospital — Purchase holiday greeting cards now and help Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.

LGBT DIRECTOR RAISES FACULTY, STAFF AWARENESS
In addition to teaching a course through the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies’ Teacher Education Program, ED 405, which focuses on identity and culture in education, Ronni Sanlo conducts sensitivity training sessions for faculty, staff and — indirectly — students through the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center.

NAMES AND FACES
Applause: Steven D. Schwartz; Edward R.B. McCabe; Ben Zuckerman.
In Memoriam: Mia Slavenska

UC, UCLA MAKE CUTS, BUT STRIDE FORWARD
As the California Legislature ended its summer stalemate and approved a state budget for 2002-03, it left the University of California $354 million below the level expected in the Partnership Agreement. To find out what challenges lie ahead for the campus, UCLA Today Senior Writer Marina Dundjerski talked with Steven A. Olsen, UCLA’s vice chancellor for finance and budget.

COMMUNITY BULLETINS — Get with the Beat — “The Beat,” an art and literary journal of the David Geffen School of Medicine, is accepting submissions for its 2003 issue. … Free Antivirus Software — The Internet is an exciting place to be, but also a dangerous place with computer viruses, worms and hackers all poised to infect your machine and cause loss of documents, data files and e-mail. … Cancer Studies — The Jonsson Cancer Center seeks to recruit thousands of people in two unrelated studies that promise to advance the fight against cancer. … A Broader Vision — Want to be part of UCLA in LA? Join the Jules Stein Eye Institute Affiliates. … Global Business — The Anderson School and Doshisha Management School will host their first-ever joint business conference Nov. 1 in Kyoto on leadership strategy and corporate governance for Japanese companies.

SHRINKING TRAUMA NETWORK IS DANGEROUS
If federal officials in Washington, state officials in Sacramento and Los Angeles County administration cannot collaborate to provide substantial financial resources to help reduce the system’s anticipated $300-million deficit next year the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote on Oct. 29 to change the public health system in drastic ways.

TAFT-HARTLEY NOT THE ANSWER
There was a time when most Americans understood what Taft-Hartley meant. Shortly after World War II, a wave of major strikes resulted in significant wage increases and benefit improvements for union members who had delayed achieving their aspirations to further the war effort. Raving that labor had become too powerful, big-business associations demanded that the Republican-controlled Congress provide them with legislative relief, the Taft-Hartley Act.

WHAT'S ON MY MIND:
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Curbing the misuse of disabled-persons parking placards is a top priority at UCLA Transportation Services. In the last decade, UCLA began working closely with the Department of Motor Vehicles in coordinating “stings” on campus to determine whether placards were being used lawfully.

OUR WORLD by MATT HALL

CLOSEUP

CREATING AN ATLAS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
Brain researchers are frustrated by differences in human brains that confound their attempts to compare data from several subjects. But, after nine years of study, a comprehensive brain atlas is nearing completion at UCLA.