Campus News

Oakes 104 isn’t your typical UCSC classroom, and the students who attend classes there aren’t typical university students. They’re not even college students–yet. Oakes 104 is the academic home of Delta School, a bold experiment in education that opened its doors in January 1995. Delta represents a second chance for high school students who have…

A two-month cruise off the Pacific Northwest this summer was a slam-dunk success for UCSC hydrogeologist Andrew Fisher and a team of researchers aboard the 470-foot JOIDES Resolution, flagship of the international Ocean Drilling Program. Fisher, the expedition’s cochief scientist, and his team drilled into the seafloor near the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the…

Private services were held last week for Gail Ellen Rich, a former UCSC staff member who died Saturday, October 5, of a pulmonary embolism. She was 45. Rich worked at the Performing Arts Public Events Office from February 1984 to June 1994. Most recently, she had been helping her domestic partner, Neal Hellman, run Gourd…

It seems that everyone is interested in consciousness these days, prompted in part by the release last spring of philosopher David Chalmers’s book, The Conscious Mind. The book, which instigated lively debate in mainstream newspapers and scientific magazines, continues to draw coverage in the U.S. and abroad, notably, in the Economist, the Times Literary Supplement,…

Marc Mangel Professor of Environmental Studies Marc Mangel comes to UCSC from UC Davis, where he was director of the Center for Population Biology. Mangel focuses on the ecological implications of natural variation within populations of organisms. "It’s essential that natural scientists and environmental scientists work together to solve environmental problems," says Mangel. He has…

Long Marine Lab is recruiting new docents to give tours to the general public and help conduct classes for schoolchildren. A two-month series of docent-training classes begins in early January. Registration deadline is November 27. Lab educators will hold an orientation session for interested applicants at 6 p.m. Monday, October 21, at Long Marine Lab.…

Q: Why does Long Marine Laboratory need a new Visitor Education Center? A: When UC Santa Cruz opened Long Marine Lab in 1978, its directors chose to focus on public education as well as groundbreaking research in the ocean sciences. This dual purpose makes Long Marine Lab unique among marine-research facilities in the state. Indeed,…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Compost piles can be magical or mystifying. When made correctly, they heat up and decompose into a dark, crumbly, woodsy-smelling soil amendment. But when they don’t work, you’re left with a heap of ingredients that refuse to break down. If you’ve ever tried and failed, or if you’d like to perfect your composting…

In January of this year, the Academic Senate Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) recommended that the campus consider changing the nomenclature employed at UCSC to denote departmental-like entities from the present "Board of Studies" to the more standard and universally recognized "Department". After consultation with the Committee on Planning and Budget, which endorsed the proposed…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Two assistant professors of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have been appointed co-chairs of the Pepper-Giberson Chair in Environmental Studies. Daniel Doak and Daniel Press have been selected to hold the chair for the next six years. Doak and Press are the first appointees to the chair, which was…

Dan Doak and Daniel Press, both assistant professors of environmental studies, have been appointed co-chairs of the new Pepper-Giberson Chair in Environmental Studies. Doak and Press will share the appointment for the next six years. Doak and Press are the first appointees to the chair, which was established just over a year ago by a…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Four professors in the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, were honored today (Wednesday, October 9) for their excellence in teaching. The recipients of the Division of Social Sciences 1996 Distinguished Teaching Awards are: John Borrego, associate professor of community studies Mark Harmon, assistant professor of politics Avril…