Campus News

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…

Gwendolyn Mink, professor of politics, received the Victoria Schuck Award from the American Political Science Association for her book The Wages of Motherhood: Inequality in the Welfare State, 1917-1942 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995). The Schuck Award recognizes the best book on women in politics published during the previous calendar year. It was presented…

Construction crews made good use of the summer months to push ahead on UCSC’s building projects. Several projects–providing additional performing arts facilities, disabled access, seismic safety, and new pathways and bike lanes–will be finished before the next quarter begins. The following is a list of the major projects planned or under way this year: Music…

Earth sciences A peculiar type of seismic wave has unveiled a major surprise deep within the earth: The base of the planet’s mantle, long assumed hard as a rock, instead may be partially molten. UCSC researchers studied seismic waves that skim along the sharp boundary between the earth’s outer core and lower mantle. Under the…

Imagine documenting a year’s worth of your household purchases, down to every last vending-machine snack. Not an easy task, right? Now imagine tackling that task for all your friends, with a computer program that you’re still learning how to use–and that’s still being tinkered with. A number of UCSC staff lived such a scenario this…

"Headliners" Highlights Recent Media Coverage Involving Members Of The UCSC Community. It was a busy summer for composer and inventor David Cope. Cope’s EMI was featured in Discover magazine’s special October issue on creativity, and his new book, Experiments in Musical Intelligence, got column space in the Los Angeles Times. Cope also spoke about EMI…

Karen Holl comes to UCSC from Stanford, where she spent two years doing postdoctoral work in southern Costa Rica. Holl, who is interested in understanding how ecosystems function and applying that knowledge to public policy, studied the factors limiting the recovery of land that had been cleared for grazing, and she researched methods for restoring…