INDEX
2005
November 8 , 2005
(Vol. 26, No. 5)
NEWS
BRIEFS ONLINE
STATINS MAY TARGET LEARNING DISABILITIES: UCLA scientists have discovered that statins, a popular class of cholesterol drugs, can overcome the mutation linked to the leading genetic cause of learning disabilities.... THE AFTERMATH OF A HURRICANE : Eliminating poverty in the United States has emerged among most Americans as a more important priority than fighting terrorism, building democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and rebuilding areas devastated by natural disasters, according to a multilingual poll.... FUTURE HOME : The UC Office of the President has selected a future 11-story building planned for a site at 1100 Broadway in downtown Oakland as the new headquarters for its office consolidation initiative.... DESERT RACE ENDS : A software glitch dashed UCLA’s chances of winning the last month’s robotic-vehicle race, but the university’s entry turned in fine performance nonetheless.... FATAL DISPARITY : HIV patients with a low socioeconomic status are more likely to die much sooner than patients with higher levels of wealth and education, a new UCLA study has found.... PARTNERSHIP PRIZE: The Center for Community Partnerships is accepting applications for the third annual Ann C. Rosenfield Distinguished Community Partnership Prize.... THE GENDER GAP AMONG BLACK COLLEGE STUDENTS: Over the past 33 years, black women have enrolled in four-year colleges at higher rates than have black men, according to the results of a new study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.... NEW POLICY FELLOWS: Former California Governor Gray Davis and former California State Senator Jim Brulte have been appointed Distinguished Policy Fellows at the School of Public Affairs for 2005-06.... NEW SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS: The School of Law is partnering with the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at the Anderson School in a joint venture that will be called the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, reflecting the growing interdisciplinary focus of the center and the university.... TWINS GO THEIR SEPARATE WAYS: One of two identical twin baby brothers waiting for heart transplants at Mattel Children’s Hospital has responded well enough to medication that he left the hospital.... WHERE ARE WE? You're in the Ahmanson Foundation Courtyard in the Tom Bradley International Hall.
SHORT TAKES
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE: Three UCLA professors are among the 64 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.... SETTING IT STRAIGHT : A credit line for the David Smith sculpture in the Oct. 11, 2005, issue should have said: David Smith, Cubi XX, 1964. Welded stainless steel. H: 111 in. Gift of David E. Bright, 1967, Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden.© Estate of David Smith/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.... A story published Oct. 25, 2005, should have identified David Gere as acting chair of the World Arts and Cultures Department.
FACULTY ISSUE ECO-WARNINGS
Southern California and the rest of the Southwest need comprehensive water-conservation and drought-management strategies to prevent a water-supply crisis that looms despite last year’s record rainfall, according to Institute of the Environment (IOE) researchers.
REVAMPED DONATED BODY PROGRAM UP AND RUNNING
Working closely with its sister institution, UC Irvine, UCLA has begun accepting bodies into its completely revamped donated body program, said Associate Dean Allen Nissenson, the administrator who represents Dean Gerald Levey of the Geffen School of Medicine in the day-to-day management of the program.
TAKING UCLA'S MESSAGE DOWNTOWN
Approximately 100 alumni, faculty, staff and students fanned out over downtown Los Angeles Oct. 26 to brief elected officials and their staffs on various programs run or supported by UCLA to assist their constituents.
WEIGHING IN ON OBESITY ISSUE
Is the obesity epidemic just bloated media hype? UCLA sociologist Abigail C. Saguy took a good look at more than 100 books and articles on the subject and interviewed researchers and activists. The study by Saguy and her co-author Kevin W. Riley, a graduate student in sociology, was reported in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.
PEOPLE
CHALLENGING THE INSANITY DIAGNOSIS
Ever since he moved from New York City to Los Angeles 12 years ago, Stuart Kirk has been commuting to campus on a 600-pound BMW motorcycle — one of the world’s most highly engineered bikes. Kirk, a professor of social welfare, doesn’t ride in from Westwood or Bel Air. He motorcycles from his home in Ojai three times a week, 150 miles roundtrip.
NEW PRESIDENT WANTS TO SERVE MORE STAFFERS
If you’re a UCLA staff member, Doug Padley’s name probably sounds pretty familiar. It’s only November, but Padley, the new president of UCLA’s Staff Assembly, has already been extremely busy, sending e-mails to staff to invite them to various free seminars.
APPLAUSE
Ellen Broidy, The Jules Stein Eye Institute, Donald P. Becker, TIES For Adoption Project
NAMES & FACES
Patricia Ganz, Oddvar Bendiksen, Nasr M. Ghoniem, Neal Stulberg
OUT & ABOUT
STONE CANYON CREEK: A NATURAL BEAUTY
Then you saw it, now you don’t. A once mighty creek that had the power to carve out a canyon on the west side of campus has all but disappeared. Decades later, it’s just a ribbon of clear water that flows behind the Collins Building of the Anderson School before it disappears underground through a storm drainpipe and worms its way toward the Wooden Recreation Center.
THE LEGACY OF OUTFEST
In 1982, a group of faculty and graduate students who were disturbed that gay and lesbian images were virtually absent from movie screens across America decided to take a bold step. With the UCLA Film Archive as a sponsor, they organized the Gay and Lesbian Media Festival and Conference at UCLA, the first of its kind in the nation.
NOT TO BE MISSED: "TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS"
“Two Shakespearean Actors,” a play by Richard Nelson, takes you behind the scenes of a bitter rivalry on stage and off between American actor Edwin Forrest and British actor William Charles Macready and their two competing companies. Set in the spring of 1849, this animosity erupts into a riot on Broadway, killing and injuring hundreds of people and resulting in the greatest conflict in the history of theater. Part of the Department of Theater’s annual season, the production, directed by Theater Professor Joe Olivieri, showcases the work of faculty and students. Performances are Nov. 10-12 and Nov. 17-19. Times vary. At the Little Theater, Macgowan Hall. General admission tickets are $17 and available at the Central Ticket Office at (310) 825-2101 or www.tickets.ucla.edu. See www.tft.ucla.edu for updated information.
WHERE ARE WE?
Walk into this courtyard and you feel as if you've stepped into an abstract painting. Think you know where this is? To find out, go to "Briefs" and look at the end of "Briefs Online."
VOICES
IDEOLOGY HINDERS AIDS EFFORTS IN AFRICA
Last month, the U.N. special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, and others declared that the administration’s policy of emphasizing abstinence-only programs and cutting federal funding for condoms has undermined Uganda’s HIV/AIDS effort. Sadly, Uganda is not alone.
BIASES REVEALED IN NEWS MEDIA
Do the major media outlets in the U.S. have a liberal bias? Few questions evoke stronger opinions, and it’s hard to think of a more important question to which objective statistical techniques can lend their service. So far, the debate has largely been one of anecdotes (“How can CBS News be balanced when it calls Steve Forbes’ tax plan ‘wacky’?”) and untested theories (“If the news industry is a competitive market, then how can media outlets be systematically biased?”).
PERSONAL JOURNEY: THE SOULFUL JOY OF SHARING MUSIC
Every Tuesday evening for the past 24 years, I have met Margaret Zamorano in room 1325 of Schoenberg Hall. She has been going to that room for 25 years and is the only charter member still singing with the University Campus Choir.
CARTOON BY MATTHEW HENRY HALL
CAMPUS
EXTENSION HELPS MEET DEMAND FOR SKILLED JOURNALISTS WORKING IN SPANISH-LANGUAGE MEDIA
Roger Perez’s lifelong dream started to take shape when he was only 5. While his friends were glued to the TV watching cartoons, he preferred to watch the news.
INSTITUTE BRINGS EAST ASIA TO K-12 TEACHERS
Brad Cheney probably knows more about Asian-American culture than most non-Asians. He grew up in multicultural Torrance with Asian-American friends. Today he works as a teacher at Jefferson Middle School, where more than a third of his students are of Asian descent.
PUNDIT PROF GETS NEW CHAIR
“Can I call you back? I’m on the phone with The New York Times.” |
