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October 3, 2002

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby 858 534-7404


UCSD TO HOLD OPEN HOUSE OCT. 19 ON LA JOLLA CAMPUS; THOUSANDS EXPECTED FOR TOURS, LECTURES, ACTIVITIES


From tips on homeland security to hormone replacement, from funk rock music to readings by the state’s poet laureate, from exploring the inside of a life-size gray whale to learning how to get into college, Open House at the University of California, San Diego, on Oct. 19 promises a colorful assortment of activities for all interests and all ages.

The free community event will begin with Preview Day tours for perspective students and their parents led by UCSD students. The popular tours will depart every half hour beginning at 8 a.m. from Library Walk at Center Hall and continue until 2 p.m. Also available for parents and students from 9 a.m. to noon will be informational sessions about freshman and transfer student admissions, financial aid and housing.

All attendees will be greeted with free bottles of water and directions to various locations for children’s entertainment, lectures, food and displays.
The four headline lectures in Center Hall, Room 101 are :

• 10 a.m. Homeland Defense: UCSD and the San Diego Region. Faculty member Mark Thiemens will discuss UCSD's scientific work to improve detection of potential bioterrorist attacks and development of the San Diego Regional Network for Homeland Security.
  
• 11 a.m. Word! Journey Toward Excellence. Quincy Troupe, first Poet Laureate of the State of California and a UCSD faculty member, will tell how a knee injury short circuited his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player and landed him on the road to becoming an award-winning poet and writer.
  
• 12 noon. Hormone Replace Therapy: What to Believe and Why. Dr. Elizabeth Barrett Conner will review results from recent clinical trials with HRT drugs and explain findings that have confused physicians and their patients alike.
  
• 1 p.m. Scripps Centennial: 100 Years of Global Discoveries. Kevin Hardy will discuss how, since 1903, UC researchers at Scripps Institution have taken an ever-expanding look at the oceans, Earth, life and the heavens.

Meanwhile, moving from the educational to the fun and funky, “Common Sense,” billed as San Diego’s own reggae band, will perform in the Price Center Plaza. Also scheduled on the Price Center Plaza Stage are the Campus Crusade Band, the Preuss School Choir, the Daughters of Triton a cappella group and the Rabbinical School Dropouts klezmer funk band.

A wide variety of dances—Indian, ballroom, hip hop, step--also will be presented on the Plaza Stage by the Ballroom Dance Club, the Bhangra Team Indian dance team, the Lambda Phi Epsilon step show, the Kappa Zeta Phi Dance team and the 220 Dance hip hop dance team. Off stage, the Society of Creative Anachronism will present their medieval sporting jousts.

At “Kids-ville,” a heavy schedule of entertainment on Sun God lawn planned especially for children includes a “goo table” staffed by students from the Jacobs School of Engineering; bookmark making by staff from the Geisel Library; fish painting taught by staff from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Aquarium-costumed characters, and such other big time draws as bungee jumping, rockwall climbing, or designing and building your own hat.

Visitors can enter the mouth of an inflatable life-sized California gray whale and learn about these magnificent marine mammals by exploring the whale’s skeleton, vertebrae and internal organs, including the heart, kidney and intestines. The Planet Earth Express van with live marine specimens also will be on hand.

For youngsters and their computer-savvy parents, hands-on-displays and tours of the San Diego Supercomputer will be ongoing throughout the day on the hour and the half-hour, 9:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m.

On a quieter note, librarians from the Geisel Library will present Story Hour readings from Dr. Seuss books, while livelier counterparts may choose a “Cat in the Hat” astrojump. The library also will offer tours throughout the day.

On the health front, adults can get computerized assessments of their fitness, including coronary risk and a stress profile, or check for asthma and emphysema at a pulmonary function lab set up along Library Walk. The Ratner Children’s Eyemobile will give away sun glasses, and the UCSD Cancer Center will offer complimentary message boards, magnets, rulers and pencils.

UCSD alumni will gather at noon on RIMAC Field for a beer garden hosted by the Alumni Association and a no-host barbecue, while Homecoming games for alumni sponsored by the Athletic Department will be held from 8 a.m. to noon in water polo, soccer, tennis, swimming and volleyball. At 2 p.m. UCSD will host Humboldt State in a Division II women’s soccer game on RIMAC Field.

Additionally, the Alumni Association will hold its annual “Awards for Excellence” gala the evening of Oct. 19 at the Birch Aquarium. The event recognizes alumni who have made contributions to society and the University, and honors a faculty member for distinguished teaching and undergraduate scholars.

More than 30 food booths set up around campus will feature every kind of food from Korean and Thai to hot dogs, smoothies and hamburgers. An Oktoberfest Food Garden will be offered outside the Faculty Club.

All events are free, as is parking. For more information call (858) 534-1577 or visit http://openhouse.ucsd.edu.