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©2004
The Regents of the University of California
 

bureau briefs

STUDENT AND CAMPUS LIFE

UC police are following a major lead and hope soon to wrap up two cases of vandalism against UCLA’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Campus Resource Office. Staff members discovered Sept. 13 that someone had thrown a chunk of concrete through a window of the ground-floor office in the Student Activities Center. The next night, other office windows were broken, and someone took the office’s California rainbow flag. In a prepared statement to the campus, Chancellor Albert Carnesale emphasized UCLA’s commitment to remain “a beacon of tolerance.” He then visited with students and staff at the office to assure them that everything was being done to secure their safety. “It was a very tender and gracious talk,” said director Ronni Sanlo, who received numerous e-mails and calls of support. To put the negative vibes behind them, the office hosted an upbeat party. “We called it our ‘They can break our windows, but not our spirit’ party,” Sanlo said.

PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS

UCLA has suspended 2004-05 fee increases for roughly 400 professional school students as a result of a preliminary injunction issued in a court challenge to UC in San Francisco Superior Court. But administrators warn that the fee hikes may be reinstated if UC prevails in the court battle. Issued in August in a lawsuit titled Kashmiri v. Regents, the injunction prohibits UC campuses from raising professional school fees for current students who first enrolled in 2002 or earlier. At UCLA, the suspension affected about 200 dental students, 150 film and TV students, 20 theater students and 15 studying management. UC maintains that fee hikes were forced by state budget cutbacks. The lawsuit heads back to court this fall.

UC BOARD OF REGENTS

Jodi Lynette Anderson, a doctoral student in education at UCLA, recently took her seat on the UC board as student regent for 2004-05. On Sept. 22, the regents appointed UCLA graduate Adam R. Rosenthal, 25, who is now a UC Davis law school student, a regent-designate. Rosenthal will serve as student regent in 2005-06 and a voting member of the board. As a UCLA history major who minored in Hebrew/Jewish studies, Rosenthal was president of Hillel and the co-founder of UCLA’s first Arab-Jewish dialogue group. Before entering law school, he taught with Teach For America and ran a summer camp for underprivileged middle-school students in Oakland.