A Sampling of Clips for July 15, 2011

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Loss of Predators in the Food Chain Can Alter the Ecosystem
USA Today, July 14 -- Take away the predators at the top of the food chain — the lions, tigers, wolves and cougars — and entire ecosystems start to change. A paper in today's edition of the journal Science suggests that humans' destruction of these top predators is causing reverberations worldwide in ways not apparent even a decade ago, including changes in the landscape and even increases in wildfires. (Quotes Paul Dayton, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.) More

Similar story in
KPBS
La Jolla Light

UC Tuition Hits $12,192 - A 9.6 Percent Increase
San Francisco Chronicle, July 14 -- University of California regents voted Thursday to raise tuition by 9.6 percent — on top of an eight percent increase already approved for this fall. This fall, undergraduate tuition for California residents will rise to $12,192, more than 18 percent higher than last year's $10,302 — a level that prompted violent student protests. With a mandatory campus fee that averages $1,026, a year at UC now costs $13,218 before room and board. Graduate tuition will also rise by 9.6 percent. Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of UC San Diego, said rising fees for graduate students make UC less competitive. "We're starting to lose students," she told the regents. More

Similar stories in
Los Angeles Times
Business Week

Biggest Coal Company and Coal Country Collaborate on Mega Mine
New York Times, July 14 – (Opinion) A newly announced partnership between the world’s biggest private coal mining company and coal-burning country cuts against recent efforts to paint China green because of its push on manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels. All of its efforts on renewable energy come atop ongoing expansion of its use of coal. David Victor, UC San Diego political science professor and author of “Global Warming Gridlock,” noted some subtler aspects of the announcement that point to ever more efficient coal use in China, but also unrelenting growth in coal use — and carbon dioxide emissions. More

Can Your Car Be Hacked?
Car and Driver Magazine, July 2011 -- Not too long ago, securing a car meant popping the faceplate off the CD player, slapping a Club over the steering wheel, and locking the doors. As vehicles’ electronic systems evolve, however, automobiles are starting to require the same protection as laptop computers and e-commerce servers. While there are no reported cases of cars being maliciously hacked in the real world, in 2010, researchers affiliated with the Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security (CAESS—a partnership between UC San Diego and the University of Washington) demonstrated how to take over all of a car’s vital systems. More

Less Academics, More Narcissism
City Journal, July 14 – (Opinion) California’s budget crisis has reduced the University of California to near-penury, claim its spokesmen. “Our campuses and the UC Office of the President already have cut to the bone,” the university system’s vice president for budget and capital resources warned earlier this month, in advance of this week’s meeting of the university’s regents. Well, not exactly to the bone. Even as UC campuses jettison entire degree programs and lose faculty to competing universities, one fiefdom has remained virtually sacrosanct: the diversity machine. Not only have diversity sinecures been protected from budget cuts, their numbers are actually growing. UC San Diego, for example, is creating a new full-time “vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion.” More

Urban Squash is Big Hit at Preuss
San Diego Union Tribune, July 14 -- There Reyna Pacheco and William Quan were, two teen athletes on a Saturday afternoon, sitting on long-legged stool chairs at the San Diego Squash Academy in Mira Mesa. Excitedly, they discussed their grades, college plans and potential careers. Pacheco, 17, and Quan, 16, attend The Preuss School UCSD, which Newsweek magazine named in June the No. 1 “miracle high school” in the country. More

UCSD Proposes to Spend $10.5 Million on Chancellor's Mansion
San Diego Reader, July 14 -- With UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox on her way out the door, University of California regents are grappling with costly plans to restore the old chancellor's house. Earlier this week, a university contact tells us, the regents' Committee on Grounds and Buildings approved a Phase 1 site remediation budget of $1.5 million, to be paid for by donated funds. The old chancellor's house has been vacant for years, ever since a plan to redevelop it as a mansion cum ceremonial conference center ran into fierce opposition from everyone from neighbors to preservationists to Native Americans. More

Why Is Contemporary Art Addicted to Violence?
New York Times, July 14 – (Book review) Maggie Nelson has her laments about violent representations, but in “The Art of Cruelty” she refreshingly aims them largely up the cultural ladder, at the fine arts, literature, theater — even poetry. (Mentions Grant Kestner, associate professor, Visual Arts, UC San Diego.) More

Exploring "Seasons" with Roger Reynolds
Columbia (MO) Tribune, July 14 – (Interview) I recently enjoyed the opportunity to converse with [UC San Diego professor of music] Roger Reynolds, an eminent, Pulitzer-winning composer. Any attempt to plumb the depths of Reynolds' remarkable career, either in that conversation or this space, would be futile. But I wanted to share a few more of his incredibly perceptive, fascinating thoughts both on his composition, "Seasons," and the seasons of modern music he's observed. (Mentions UC San Diego professor of music and Grammy-winning soprano Susan Narucki.) More

Locals Students Play Harry Potter’s Quidditch
KPBS, July 15 -- Lead actor Daniel Radcliffe tells the Hollywood Reporter there's a lot he'll miss about playing Harry, but one of them is NOT Quidditch. In the books and movies, Quidditch is the sport that young witches and wizards play. The San Diego Devil Snares is a community team made up of UC San Diego students. More

* Subscribe with In the News and receive our clips automatically