:: UCLA TODAY Home

©2004
The Regents of the University of California
 

bureau briefs

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

UC President Robert C. Dynes has asked a 17-member Eligibility and Admissions Study Group to examine the undergraduate eligibility and admissions implementation issues that UC will face through 2010. “From its inception, the mission of the University of California has been to enroll a student body that both encompasses the most academically qualified of California’s high school graduates and that reflects the broad diversity of the state’s population. ... Never before in the university’s long history has this mission been more challenging or important to fulfill,” Dynes told the study group in a letter. In addition to unprecedented challenges brought on by budget cuts and a rising student population, UC’s admissions policies recently have been the subject of analyses by UC Board of Regents’ chairman John J. Moores. The study group includes Chancellor Albert Carnesale and regent-designate Jodi L. Anderson, a UCLA graduate student. Comprehensive review remains in effect. For more information, see www.ucop.edu/news/archives/2003/oct31art1.htm.

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Refuting 30 years of scientific theory that solely credits hormones for brain development, UCLA scientists have identified 54 genes that may explain the different organization of male and female brains. “Our findings may help answer an important question: Why do we feel male or female?” said Eric Vilain, assistant professor of human genetics and urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Mattel Children’s Hospital. “Sexual identity is rooted in every person’s biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome.” Since the 1970, scientists have believed that estrogen and testosterone were wholly responsible for sexually organizing the brain.

RESIDENTIAL LIFE

Students living in UCLA’s residence halls played ghosts and goblins Oct. 29 to help 2,400 children, ages 5-10, trick-or-treat in a safe environment during the 15th annual All-Hill Halloween. The youngsters were bused in from community centers and elementary schools from communities throughout the Los Angeles area. Residents on the hill prepared goody bags, acted as tour guides to haunted houses they created and entertained their young guests with games and face painting.