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bureau briefs

ACADEMIC SENATE

Professor Eli Yablonovitch of electrical engineering and Professor Karen Orren of political science will be the 99th and 100th Faculty Research Lecturers respectively in 2005-06, the Academic Senate announced recently. Yablonovitch, who directs UCLA’s Center for Nanoscience Innovation for Defense, has done pioneering research in many fields, including nonlinear optics, laser-plasma interactions and strained quantum-well lasers. His advances inform nearly all telecommunications lasers, laser pointers and DVD players. Orren has earned an international reputation for her work on the development, structure and operation of the American polity. She has also served on UCLA College’s Executive Board, the Legislative Assembly and several key Senate committees.

ACADEMIC COUNCIL

With a 17-0 vote, the systemwide Academic Council decided June 22 that standing in the National Merit Scholarship Program should not be used to determine UC admission or to decide who should get merit-based scholarships at UC. Chancellors of the six campuses that participate in the gpram, including UCLA, will meet next month to decide on the issue. The council agreed with the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools that the PSAT, the test used to select National Merit Scholars, has never been validated for that use. The vote does not disparage scholarship winners, explained UCLA Professor Clifford Brunk, who sits on the council as vice chair of the Universitywide Academic Senate. "All this is is a heads-up from the faculty, to say that we are uncomfortable with this."

GOVT. & COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Los Angeles Mayor-Elect Antonio Villaraigosa has named two alumni to his senior staff: Senior Adviser Carolyn Webb de Macias and Deputy Chief of Staff Marcus Allen. Also a Bruin, Villaraigosa formed an 81-person transition team to help him fill city posts. The team included Chancellor Albert Carnesale; Mary Nichols, director, Institute of the Environment; Larry Frank, staff director, Downtown Labor Center; Julie Mendoza, co-director, California Opportunity Indicators Project for UC ACCORD; and Denise Fairchild, president/CEO of Community Development Technologies, who lectures in the School of Public Affairs. Also on the team were three community leaders who served as Senior Fellows in the school.

SUMMER HIATUS

We will be back on August 16 with a new issue. The UCLA Today staff wishes you a glorious summer.