:: UCLA TODAY Home

©2004
The Regents of the University of California
 

campus briefs

CUTTING OUT THE FAT

The California Performance Review Commission, which is holding public hearings around the state on controversial and wide-ranging recommendations to increase efficiency in state government, includes some familiar faces. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger selected UC Regent Joanne Kozberg as co-chair and UCLA Vice Chancellor for Finance and Budget Steve A. Olsen as a member, along with Peter Taylor, past president of the UCLA Foundation and the UCLA Alumni Association, and former UC Regent Russ Gould. The commission is comprised of 21 leaders and experts from academia, business, labor, local government and the public policy arena.

THE WEST'S BEST FOR 15 YEARS

UCLA Medical Center ranks as the best hospital in the western United States for the 15th consecutive year, according to a U.S. News & World Report nationwide survey of 2,550 board-certified physicians. The medical center ranked in the top 20 in all of the specialty areas, including being No. 1 in geriatrics for the 13th straight year. In psychiatry, the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital ranked No. 5 in the country and best in the West for the 13th consecutive year. Additionally, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Jules Stein Eye Institute were judged best in the West, with national rankings of No. 8 and No. 5, respectively.

TOP PICK FOR BERKELEY

Robert J. Birgeneau, an internationally distinguished physicist and current president of the University of Toronto, has been tapped to be UC Berkeley’s new chancellor. Appointed by the regents from a pool of 298 candidates, Birgeneau, 62, has headed the Toronto university since 2000 and was previously dean of the School of Science at MIT, where he spent 25 years on the faculty. He is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, has received many awards for teaching and research, and is one of the most highly cited physicists in the world.

EDUCATIONAL INEQUITIES

Fifty years after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education ruling, many Los Angeles students continue to attend racially segregated schools that lack the resources necessary for student learning, according to a new report by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access (IDEA). To give L.A.’s students a chance to present their own views, research, videos and artwork on the impact of the historic court ruling, IDEA hosted the third annual Youth Summit June 11. Presentations were made by students from 99th Street Elementary School, Bethune Middle School, Farmdale Elementary School, and Glendora, Roosevelt and Santa Monica high schools. To see their work, go to IDEA’s online journal at www.teachingtochangela.org.