Public Affairs

"Democracy and Civil Society in South Africa: From Revolution to Multi-Ethnic Nation Building" is the title of a talk by Ari Sitas, professor of sociology and dean of social sciences at the University of Natal at Durban (South Africa), on Tuesday, November 18, at 12:30 p.m. in the Stevenson Fireside Lounge. He will be available…

UCSC employees have until Friday, November 21, to make changes to their benefits packages during this year’s Open Enrollment. Any changes employees would like to make to their health, vision, dental, DepCare, and TIP plans can only be made once a year, during the Open Enrollment period that started November 1 this year. Changes take…

The campus will hum with construction activity later this school year, as a number of major projects get under way in the upcoming spring and summer. Nine projects, including a new fitness center, apartments for students, improvements to the arts facilities, and a graduate commons and expanded bookstore, are under way or are scheduled to…

Sorority members will deliver 35 empty barrels to UCSC on November 12, heralding the start of this year’s Second Harvest Food Bank food drive. "We look forward to a most successful season, as the need continues to grow every year to put food in our neighborhoods’ food pantries," said Carol Lacey of the Chancellor’s Office.…

The University Library’s online reference site, Cruzcat, received a major nod from the New York Times in a story about using online libraries as research tools. The author mentioned problems with the older systems at UC Berkeley and UCLA and then noted, "A more modern example of a university Web library system can be found…

For the first time in campus history, UCSC is offering an undergraduate degree in business management economics. Responding to strong demand from current and prospective students, economics faculty proposed the new bachelor of arts degree program last fall. It was quickly approved by campus administrators. Students will be able to declare the new major officially…

![Melanie DuPuis][2] Melanie DuPuis: Assistant Professor of Sociology Sociologists of development tend to specialize in foreign countries, but Melanie DuPuis focuses on economic development in the United States. Assistant professor of sociology DuPuis’s work on the industrialization of the dairy industry integrates agricultural, industrial, environmental, and consumption studies. Her recent edited volume (with coeditor Peter…

For the third time in the past six years, Meredith J. Khachigian has been chosen by her colleagues to chair the University of California Board of Regents. The Regents elected Khachigian by a unanimous vote in a special meeting conducted by teleconference at the end of last month. Her appointment as chairman of the 26-member…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–In the rarefied world of high-energy physics, researchers at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) at UC Santa Cruz have earned reputations as premier makers of tools to detect the smallest bits of matter. Now, their work on some of the most innovative physics experiments of the next decade has earned…

Over the past three summers, more than 90 students from Monterey County middle schools have studied science, math, and English at UCSC in a challenging summer program. These students–former participants in the Summer Session/Seaside Junior High School Math/Science Institute–resumed their extracurricular studies last month in a tutoring program sponsored by Summer Session and funded by…

Would your child get a kick out of a pregame clinic with a UCSC coach? A chance to meet college athletes? Attend UCSC sports events with other kids? Sounds like fun? Then sign up your son or daughter for the Junior Slug Club. Kids will receive a Junior Slug t-shirt, a membership card, and free…

Several years ago, when UCSC implemented the holiday campus closure, we were told that this was being done to save costs through payroll savings and energy use reduction. I think it is time that the administration reconsider forcing staff to take this time off with the options that are given. 1) The majority of staff…