INDEX 1996

DECEMBER 20, 1996 (Vol. 17, No. 8)

 

This index page is for reference only; stories in this issue are not available online. Print editions may be found in the periodicals stacks of the Charles Young Research Library.

 

AROUND CAMPUS – Chancellor Charles and Sue Young have been given the Hugh O'Brien Youth Foundation's Albert Schweitzer Leadership Award in honor of their demonstrated leadership and notable contributions to America and its youth. . . . The College - Capital Programs' efforts to preserve the elaborate ceiling in the Powell Library main reading room has received a 1996 Governor's Historic Preservation Award, awarded to agencies and organizations whose contributions demonstrate outstanding commitment to excellence in historic preservation. . . . Arts and Architecture –The School of the Arts and Architecture has been given a $500,000 gift by Albert Peskin in honor of his late wife, Ruth.

 

ASTRONOMER TOP SCIENTIST FOR $484M PROJECT- UCLA physicist Eric Becklin has been appointed chief scientist on a new $484.2 million NASA project to use an airborne platform to study the infrared radiation thrown off by planets, stars and galaxies. Other UCLA scientists also will play prominent roles in NASA's Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) project.

 

YOUNG CHARTS COURSE FOR UCLA'S FUTURE RISE - When Charles E. Young took the helm as chancellor 28 years ago, his design was to move UCLA from the middle level of good institutions to the ranks of the very best. Now, as he prepares to leave in July, he has set forth his vision to elevate the university to the foremost tier of the nation's top schools. In an wide-ranging 11-page statement of "what is important to secure a strong future for UCLA" circulated to provosts, deans and vice chancellors, Young detailed his philosophy for a university "that is old enough to have traditions but young enough to be nimble and responsive to opportunities and challenges."

 

EMPLOYEES PLAY SANTA TO FAMILIES IN NEED - One corner of the UCLA campus where adversity and misfortune wreak havoc with people's everyday lives is getting a special sprinkling of holiday cheer, thanks to the generosity of UCLA employees and volunteers. An 18-year-old single mother with a child on kidney dialysis, a mother of three with pancreatic cancer and a family with a terminally ill teen-ager are just three of more than 60 households being "adopted" by 45 employees and departments in the Center for Health Sciences. Each donor is providing gifts of food, toys, clothing and household items to brighten the holidays for patients and their families in need.

 

NEWS IN BRIEF – FEMA Funding - UCLA announced today that it will receive a total award of $432 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for earthquake-related damage to the UCLA Center for Health Sciences/Medical Center. . . .Kobara Signs Off - . . . .Rhodes Winner - Olympic gold-medalist Annette Salmeen has been named a 1997 Rhodes Scholar, UCLA's first female student-athlete to receive the prestigious award. She is the ninth Bruin to be so honored and the first since 1973. . . . Getting It Straight - In the Profile section of the Nov. 22 issue of UCLA Today, the new-faculty listing for the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics was included under the School of Medicine. The department is within the College of Letters and Science. In the listing for the School of the Arts and Architecture's Department of Music, Walter Ponce received his DMA from the Julliard School of Music and his previous institution was SUNY, Binghamton.

 

RESEARCH FUNDING HITS RECORD $403.6M - UCLA faculty attracted a record $403.6 million in contract and grant funding for research in 1995-'96, up nearly 11% from the previous fiscal year. Funding increased from all sectors: Private-industry awards jumped 38%, to $25.7 million; support from foundations and other sources increased 28%, to $65.8 million; and support from federal, state and local governments increased by 6.3%, to $312.1 million.

 

UCLA is sixth in the nation for federal research funds, according to 1994-=95 statistics from the National Science Foundation. There are more than 5,000 funded research projects under way on campus at any time.

 

UCLA HOSTS WORLD EDUCATION LEADERS - Leaders in higher education from 25 countries recently convened at UCLA to define key concerns that transcend institutional, geopolitical and cultural differences and to hammer out an agenda of shared objectives for which they can advocate with one global voice. From Thailand and South Africa, Argentina and the U.S., members of the Administrative Board of the International Association of Universities (IAU) came to Sunset Village Commons to build on the worldwide solidarity that has been the hallmark of this unique organization since it was founded in Nice, France, 46 years ago under the aegis of UNESCO.

 

DID YOU KNOW? - One of every 170 Californians has a UCLA degree. In total, UCLA has more than 280,000 alumni. Nearly 75% of living alumni have received diplomas from Chancellor Charles E. Young, the longest-serving chief of any major American university.

 

ACTRESS TRADES ROLES TO TEACH DIRECTING - Take Delia Salvi to the movies at your own risk. A professor of film and television internationally renowned for her pioneering courses on how to direct actors still is ranting about a recent viewing of director Ron Howard=s "Ransom." She praised Mel Gibson=s credible performance as the outraged father of a kidnaped child, but declared herself appalled by what she deemed as Rene Russo=s nearly emotionless interpretation of the mother and an over-the-top Delroy Lindo as a supposedly dispassionate police detective. Yet Salvi considers the actors blameless.

 

NAMES AND FACES – Notables – John Bishop, Sen Hea Ha, Alfredo J. Artiles, Lynn Doering. . . .Honors – Elizabeth Carter, Henry Kelly, Chon Noriega, Mariko Tamanoi, Carol M. Mangione, and Ram Raj Singh. . . .In Memoriam – Evelyn Hooker.

 

HE'S A K-9 CRIMEBUSTER - Everyone knows that a dog is man's best friend. Tommy is a policeman's best friend. A 4-year-old Dutch Malinois, Tommy is partnered with UCPD Officer Larry Luther. Currently, he's the lone police pooch in UCPD's K-9 corps, a program that dates back to 1978. Luther went through a six-week training class with Tommy, and now spends close to 80 hours a week with his four-legged crime-fighting companion.

 

WHO'S NEW – David Rawlings

 

CULTURE WATCH – Picasso Prints - Nineteen works by Pablo Picasso, from his early etchings and drypoints of saltimbanques and dancers to his bold linocuts of the 1960s, are on exhibition at the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum until March 2, 1997. . . . Oscar Loves Cates - Gilbert Cates, dean of the School of Theater, Film and Television, will return to the Shrine Auditorium to produce his seventh Oscar telecast for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. . . . Singer's Gift - Renata Vanni, a singer and actress who immigrated from Italy to New York in the 1930s, recently donated to the Music Library's Special Collection 237 items, including popular Italian sheet music, manuscript and dance music and lyric sheets, mostly published in Italy in the 1930s and brought to America by Vanni. . . . Daumier On Art - French caricaturist Honore Daumier satirizes art gallery visitors for making pompous or outlandish comments about the works they are seeing while poking fun at an artist's life in a selection of 50 lithographs now on exhibition at the UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum until March 2. . . . Traveling Music - A $190,000 gift from the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation will enable Department of Music students to gain critical performance experience at local schools, centers for the elderly and other public venues with the establishment of the Gluck Fellows Program. . . . Japanese Cinema – The art of Kenji Mizoguchi, who captured top awards at the Venice Film Festival with three of his films, will be highlighted in a series hosted by the UCLA Film and Television Archive at Melnitz Theater Jan. 11-Feb. 2.

 

DEAN ENVISIONS SCHOOL AT L.A.'S CULTURAL CORE - While a student of the violin and anthropology, Daniel Neuman became enthralled by the musical culture of India. That led him to the field of ethnomusicology, and today UCLA's recently named dean of the School of Arts and Architecture is internationally recognized in the field.

 

'ROUND AND ABOUT – Doubly Sweet - Just two weeks after the UCLA football team defeated USC in a dramatic double overtime come-from-behind heart-stopper, the men's water polo team won its second consecutive national championship by upsetting the Trojans 8-7, at UC San Diego's Canyonview Pool. . . . Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? - Applications to participate in the annual Dinners for Twelve Strangers program, sponsored by the Student Alumni Association, are due Jan. 24. . . .Armenian History - The G. E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies has received a $50,000 gift from the Papazian Family of New Jersey to support the study of the Armenian Genocide through scholarships, conferences and related activities of the Armenian Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History, currently held by Professor Richard G. Hovannisian. . . . Prized Builders - Campus Architect Charles "Duke" Oakley and Capital Programs have been given a Merit Award by the Westside Urban Forum for the seismic rehabilitation projects "in recognition of their preservation and restoration of the campus historic fabric," according to the organization. . . . First Anniversary – The UCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve celebrated its one-year anniversary last month, having been visited more than 2,700 times by researchers, students, teachers, agency representatives and community members during its initial year of operation under UCLA. . . . Hotline – UCLA has a new hotline number for employees to hear up-to-date bulletins in the event of an emergency such as an earthquake or fire.

 

CAMPUS BEEFS UP SECURITY AT PARKING STRUCTURES - In an ongoing effort to improve security in and around campus parking structures, Parking Services and the UCLA Police Department are working together to increase patrols by community-service officers, install emergency call boxes and broaden communications with the campus community.

 

STORE USHERS IN NEW ERA IN CAMPUS RETAILLING – Christmas came a week early for ASUCLA, which quietly celebrated the opening of its new UCLA Store and the start of a new era in campus retailing that directors hope will trigger a financial turnaround for the student-run business.

 

CAMPUS DIVERSITY WILL SURVIVE PROP. 209 - The campus community was diverse before Proposition 209, and it will continue to be diverse in the aftermath of Prop. 209. But as we await the outcome of various court challenges, the question now facing the campus is how will UCLA continue to recruit and retain a diverse workforce and student body while leveraging its diversity in support of the university's mission of research, teaching and public service. As UCLA enters a post-Prop. 209 environment, I think there are several major challenges and opportunities facing us.

 

THIS HOLIDAY, GIVE A GIFT OF LIFE – My initiation as a blood donor began with a life-altering event: It was my very personal contribution to my mother's fight to extend her life as she underwent cancer surgery. The extra years I had with my mother until her death in 1989 were so precious that I was encouraged to continue donating blood in the hope of helping others. So when I began working at UCLA, it was a pleasant surprise to find the UCLA Blood & Platelet Center in my own backyard. Now is a critical time for the center; the period between late November and the end of January historically is one of shortage as people focus on the holidays. But making a blood donation -- a process that takes no more than 90 minutes and for which UCLA employees accrue four hours of administrative leave -- is perhaps one of the most precious gifts one can give during this holiday season.

 

IS MARIJUANA THE BEST RX? LET THE DOCTOR, PATIENT DECIDE - The election is over, the dust has settled and life goes on, sort of. As I write this, I'm informed by the paper that the state attorney general says we now have post-215 "legal anarchy." The U.S. Drug Czar has warned California's physicians that they still face arrest under federal law for suggesting that any of their dying patients might benefit from marijuana!

 

"I LIKE HOLIDAYS BECAUSE WE GIVE LOVE" - Through children's eyes, holiday traditions take on special meaning that extends beyond the amassing of presents, although that remains for most a central, immutable theme. Still, there are the long-awaited visits to gramma and grandpa's house, which may include a wintery dip in a hot Jacuzzi, the soft glow of candles in a menorah, a festive table groaning with the family's favorite fixings and home-decorating, in one child's words, with "a thing on your door called a wreath." To capture children's colorful perspectives on the holidays, teachers and students at Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School allowed UCLA Today to reprint some children's drawings and comments about what the season means to them. So from Hannah, Mari, Jake and all the littlest Bruins on campus and our staff, we wish you all the season's best.