INDEX
2006
August 15, 2006
(Vol. 27, No. 1)
NEWS
NEWS IN BRIEF
Come on board, Stein ends agreement with VSP, Rewards of the road
BRIEFS ONLINE
UCLA among the “New Ivies”, New hope for epileptics, UC rules, They're finally going home, Warning for Westwood residents, Come tailgate with friends, co-workers, UC Libraries partner with Google to digitize books, Gender differences in genes, Don’t take a vacation from fitness, First on the West Coast: Training in Rare Books, Lifestyle change key to losing weight, Approved Stem Cell Line Inferior, Stem cells in human fat become smooth muscle cells, Multi-tasking hampers learning, Emotional trigger, Diabetes care, Fairness in auto insurance premiums, Effects of gene mutation
Today on the Web
UCLA ADDS $30,000 TO REWARD TO SOLVE ATTEMPTED FIREBOMBING BY ANIMAL RIGHTS EXTREMISTS
UCLA has doubled the reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the attempted firebombing of a faculty member’s home June 30.
Today on the Web
PROFESSOR WINS ONE OF MATH’S HIGHEST HONORS
Terence Tao became UCLA’s first mathematician to receive the prestigious Fields Medal, often described as the “Nobel Prize in Mathematics.”
Web Exclusive
LAW STUDENT HELPS SOMALI TERRORIZED BY TRIBAL MILITIA WIN ASYLUM
It’s not often that a law student gets to argue before a judge — and win. Brady Dewar, a third-year law student at UCLA, not only did both this summer, but saved a life in the process.
FUTURE TECH: LESS IS BECOMING MORE
They make it look easy, but the staff who manage information technology for your department have a daunting task: Keep computers running; e-mail flowing; calendars scheduling; research, education and business systems humming; and a whole lot more. Multiply this by 100 units campuswide, and one gets a sense of the vast resources entailed in keeping the campus IT-enabled.
CLINTON RALLIES SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL WARMING INITIATIVE
UCLA was center stage August 1 for the launch of a global initiative by former President Bill Clinton, working with the mayors of 22 of the world’s largest cities, to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in an urgent attempt to slow the pace of global warming.
RABID BRUIN FOOTBALL FANS GATHER FOR OPENING-DAY PEEK AT TEAM
To death and taxes, you can add a third inevitability in life: On the first day of Bruin football practice, diehard fan Jim Brunet will show up wearing a blue-mesh UCLA cap with a furry bear’s head on the visor. It’s just one of the quirky sights you will see on opening day of Bruin football practice, the first chance for the public to preview the might of this season’s team.
PAYCHECKS WON'T CHANGE INITIALLY
The UC chief of human resources and benefits released more details about the planned restart of contributions to UC’s retirement plan (UCRP), slated to begin July 1, 2007.
NEW NAMES ON SENIOR LEADERS’ ROSTER
UCLA recently announced a number of changes to its campus leadership.
ROBBERIES BUMP UP CRIME RATE
Violent crime on campus and the surrounding Westwood area rose 9% in 2005 from the previous year, largely because of an increase in robberies, from 7 to 13 incidents. But overall, crime statistics looked relatively flat for 2005, according to a UCPD spokesperson.
TRAVEL ASSISTANCE
The UCLA Travel Center is offering to assist customers who are traveling during the heightened terrorism alert and must deal with changes in security procedures enacted after British authorities uncovered a plot to detonate liquid explosives onboard multiple commercial airlines.
PEOPLE
A WINNER IN THE LAB AND AT HOME
Without setting foot in Las Vegas, Shelly Gable has already hit the jackpot twice this year.
STAFF LEADER’S A ‘CHEERLEADER’ AT WORK
Cheerleader … mother … student … dragon boat racer? Implausible as it sounds, UCLA Staff Assembly’s new president, Shelley Brown, is all that and more.
APPLAUSE
Marc Suchard, assistant professor of biomathematics and human genetics, and former graduate student Benjamin Redelings have won the 2006 Mitchell Prize, jointly sponsored by the American Statistical Association’s Section on Bayesian Statistical Science, the International Society for Bayesian Analysis and the Mitchell Prize Founders’ Committee.
IN MEMORIAM
James E. Bruno, Guillermo E. Hernández, Mazisi Raymond Fakazi Mngoni Kunene, Charles H. “Tom” Sawyer, George Wetherill, Cathleen Wells
OUT & ABOUT
YOUR TICKET AROUND THE WORLD
Armchair travelers: Rejoice and sit back. Starting this fall, cultural tourists can embark on a world tour without leaving the venerable seats of Royce Hall and the Freud Playhouse.
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING THIS SUMMER?
By now, faculty and staff have eased into that slower-paced rhythm of life that comes only in the summertime when the livin’ is easy, as the George and Ira Gershwin tune says. Or maybe not. UCLA Today’s Daniel Hernandez found out what a few Bruins have been up to.
CULTURAL TREASURES
From India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and parts of the U.S., 18 artists came to UCLA this summer to share their gifts and cultural heritage through the annual Asia Pacific Performance Exchange.
22 YEARS AGO
The eyes of the world were cast on UCLA in August 1984. That’s when the campus hosted the 1984 Olympic Games gymnastics competition at Pauley Pavilion and the tennis event at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Some 4,300 athletes from 62 countries took up temporary quarters at an Olympic Village that UCLA built in the northwest campus.
NOT TO BE MISSED!: UCLA FOOTBALL VS. UTAH
Last season, the UCLA football team surprised many with an impressive 10-win season, the seventh such record in the university’s history. The team ended its run with a win over Northwestern in the Vitalis Sun Bowl and came up with a No. 13 ranking by USA Today/Coaches and No. 16 by AP. See what the Bruins can do at their first home game of the new season at the Rose Bowl against the Utah Utes. Saturday, Sept. 2 beginning at 4 p.m.
VOICES
RAISE MINIMUM WAGE TO CHECK ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The issue of illegal immigration blows hot and cold in American politics. Right now, the issue is hot. Various proposals have caused a congressional deadlock. Some are pushing for a wall along the Mexican border and other tough enforcement measures. Others want some form of amnesty with more enforcement of the approach adopted in the mid-1980s: control at the level of business hiring and employment.
WHY I’M RETURNING TO SAUDI ARABIA
Americans have a hard time understanding why, after living in Southern California for four years and graduating from UCLA in June, I want to return to my native Saudi Arabia, even if it’s just for a year before heading back to the states for graduate school.
IT’S KELLY VERSUS RICHTER, OR EARTHQUAKES FOR DUMMIES
The Richter Scale was developed by Charles Richter of the California Institute of Technology in 1935. A lot of people know that as the numbers go higher on this scale, they represent earthquakes of more severity than one would think from just looking at the bare figures. I decided to come up with a scale that tells the layperson precisely how bad things really are.
CAMPUS
FUTURE DESIGNERS LEARN LESSON ON ACCESSIBILITY
It looked innocuous enough to the uninitiated, but to students in Michael O’Brien’s UCLA Extension landscape architecture class Aug. 8, it was literally “the abyss” — eight formidable steps leading down to the Murphy Sculpture Garden that had to be bypassed by those in wheelchairs.
SHORT-TERM EMPLOYMENT, LONG-TERM GAINS FOR YOUTH
Bijoux Perkins joined the staff of the UCLA Registrar’s Office on July 10, but she doesn’t plan on staying long. She has more important things to focus on — like starting high school.
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