Budget Gap Threatens State's Master Plan for
Higher Education, UC President Tells Regents
The $1 billion budget gap the University of California faces could constrain the system's ability to meet the growing demand for a UC education, President Mark Yudof told the Board of Regents Wednesday. "We can maintain excellence and keep our tuition levels relatively low, but we can't do this and continue to expand access to meet the state's needs," Yudof said. More

Staff Advisors to UC Regents Provide Inside Look
at UC Budget and Retirement Crises at Staff Forum
Budget cuts, retirement benefits, recruitment and retention were the focus of a public forum held by Staff Advisors to the UC Regents Thursday at the Student Services Center. The discussion featured a presentation by the two staff advisors to the UC Regents, as well as a question and answer session. More

UC San Diego's Conference Makes Strides
to Enhance Diversity, Social Justice and Equality
UC San Diego will mark the campus’s efforts towards building a diverse community Thursday at the Teaching Diversity Conference, an educational event where participants will share strategies for teaching diversity in university classrooms. “Diversity is an integral part of UC San Diego's excellence and this event helps illustrate the university's commitment to social justice and equality,” said Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. More

Campus Receives Record Number of Applications
UC San Diego has received 70,474 freshman and transfer applications for Fall 2011, the second highest number of applications received by a UC campus. Freshman applications were up 12.1 percent with a total of 53,455 applicants. Transfer student applications showed an increase again this year, up 19.9 percent from 2010 with a total of 17,019 applications, reflecting a record number of applications from both transfer and freshmen students. The mean high school grade point average (GPA) is 3.77; the average GPA among transfer students is 3.29. More

Regents Committee Endorses
Single-score Holistic Review
The UC Board of Regents' committee on educational policy endorsed a resolution Wednesday calling for the use of single-score, individualized holistic review of each applicant as the expected admissions method at all UC campuses. Holistic review—the admissions method currently used by UC Berkeley and UCLA as well as most highly selective universities—consists of a thorough, individualized review of each applicant, in which an application reviewer or reader takes into consideration a wide range of academic and nonacademic achievements, in the context of the opportunities available to each student, that results in a single score. More

Older Driver Screening Program
Expands to Other Counties, Law Enforcement
Keeping older drivers safe behind the wheel is the goal of a successful program at the School of Medicine now expanding into additional counties. A team of experts from the school's Trauma Epidemiology and Injury Prevention Research Center has received two grants to expand the program, which focuses on interventions to assist older drivers who may be at risk for a crash due to age-related health impairments. More

Stroke Rate Rises for Patients with HIV Infection
While the overall hospitalization rate for stroke has declined in recent years, the numbers have jumped dramatically for patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), suggesting they may be up to three times more likely to suffer a stroke than people uninfected by the virus that causes AIDS. More

North Korean Refugees Highly Skeptical
of Government, Support Unification with South
A path-breaking new book about North Korea by Stephan Haggard, a UC San Diego professor of Korea-Pacific Studies, and Marcus Noland, deputy director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, concludes that North Koreans hold their government in low regard and are far more skeptical of official explanations of their misery than is generally supposed. More

San Diego Science Festival
Announces 3rd Annual Event in March 2011
The San Diego Science Festival, the largest celebration of science on the West Coast, returns this March with content-rich, interactive learning experiences for kids of all ages. Bringing together hundreds of innovative local organizations and individuals, the San Diego Science Festival demonstrates that careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) are accessible and exciting pathways to a better future. This weeklong exploration of science, engineering and technology will begin March 19 and culminate with EXPO DAY at PETCO Park March 26. More

CineGrid Takes Digital Cinema Into Next Dimension
For the members of CineGrid, who assembled recently at UC San Diego for their fifth annual conference, experimenting with “extreme” digital media has increasingly become a finely tuned balance of “3D in support of collaboration, and collaboration in support of 3D.” More

China Relations Expert Attends Official
State Luncheon for China President Hu Jintao
Last week after lecturing UC San Diego students in her Chinese politics course, Susan Shirk boarded a plane for Washington, D.C. to lunch with China President Hu Jintao and most of his cabinet officers at an official state luncheon at the U.S. State Department. The lunch was co-hosted by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and included most of the Obama administration cabinet and other dignitaries and Chinese-American civic and business leaders. More

IR/PS Dean Named to State Science Council
Peter Cowhey, dean of UC San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS), has been named the new vice chair of the California Council on Science and Technology. Cowhey, the Qualcomm Professor of Communications and Technology Policy and dean of IR/PS, has also served as senior counselor to the U.S. Trade Representative on strategy and negotiations. More