Public Affairs

Banff Festival of Mountain Films, showcasing some of the best mountain and outdoor productions of the year, chosen from over 200 entries–everything from ice climbing in Patagonia to dog sledding in the Iditarod Race–will be held on Saturday, March 1, at 7 p.m. in Classroom Unit 2. Tickets are $8/general and $6/students; the event is…

A new policy that limits off-road bicycle riding to designated areas on the UCSC campus is expected to be implemented during the upcoming spring quarter. In order to communicate the specifics of the new policy, campus officials have scheduled a public workshop for Tuesday, March 4. The workshop will take place from 7 to 8:30…

Forty-four volunteers from UCSC are currently serving in the Peace Corps and approximately 400 have served since the university’s founding, said Patti Garamendi, associate director of the global volunteer organization. More volunteers have come from UCSC this fiscal year than from any other UC campus. Garamendi awarded UCSC a plaque for its contributions to the…

Interdisciplinary, Intercampus Project Receives $300,000 Grant From Pew Charitable Trust SANTA CRUZ, CA–Following Spanish invasions in the 16th through 18th centuries, Christianity emerged as a dominant religion in South America. The general assumption has been that Spanish missionaries brought the religion to natives who then adopted it in place of their own religious beliefs. But…

Message from Chancellor Greenwood To the Campus Community: The campus is considering a number of alternatives for space allocations, including how to make best use of Natural Sciences 2. This building has been undergoing earthquake repairs and is now ready for re-occupancy. Over the past months, several space allocation scenarios have been discussed by the…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The University Library at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has received an important gift of books, letters, and other materials from the estate of the late Alan and Beatrice Parker of Carmel Highlands, California. Included in the collection are rare editions of the works of James Joyce and Kenneth Patchen and a…

Or, can supersymmetry save the Standard Model of the universe from itself? From a butterfly’s wings or a daisy’s petals to the cyclical repetition of the seasons, nature often shows a delicate, measured regularity. A cursory glance at the cramped equations scrawled all over the whiteboard in Michael Dine’s office suggests not the slightest trace…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The UC Santa Cruz Farm and Garden is looking for volunteer docents to help teach the principles of organic farming and gardening to visitors who tour the Farm and Garden. Farm and Garden docents participate in a range of activities that include tours, public education programs, and other activities that support the Farm…

Chemist Joe Konopelski basked in his 15 minutes in the spotlight, and much more, for attempts in his lab to synthesize a potential cancer-fighting compound from a marine animal that divers can no longer find. The San Francisco Chronicle carried the story first, followed by an Associated Press article and photo that hit the front…

This is not your father’s solar system About two years ago, astrophysicist Douglas Lin recalls, speaker after speaker at an astronomy meeting in Hawaii deplored the lack of convincing evidence for new planets outside of our solar system. Lin then arose to state that making planets is incredibly easy. Researchers weren’t finding them, he said,…

The UC Santa Cruz Farm and Garden is looking for volunteer docents to help teach the principles of organic farming and gardening to visitors who tour the Farm and Garden. Farm and Garden docents participate in a range of activities that include tours, public education programs, and other activities that support the Farm and Garden.…

Easy: When eternal inflation ended and ordinary inflation began in our corner of the cosmos Time and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. –Plato, Timaeus Many questions in cosmology appear…