Campus News

I realized that I was not, in fact, pressing the computer’s buttons at all–the computer was pressing mine. — Scott Seguin SANTA CRUZ, CA–That comment, excerpted from e-mail written by a student in his Semiotics and Psychoanalysis class, was exactly what Earl Jackson Jr. wanted to hear. A literature professor at the University of California,…

Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance studies are traditionally taught as separate subjects–students in a classics course are likely to read Trojan Women, but usually won’t learn about Italian Renaissance painting or Medieval political systems without taking an art history or history course. A group of scholars at UCSC want to change that tradition and examine these…

Neferti Tadiar: Assistant Professor of History of Consciousness Neferti Tadiar comes to UCSC from the University of the Philippines, where she taught in the English Department for the past two years. Her areas of interest are race and gender in the Asia Pacific, Third World feminism, and cultural studies with an emphasis on contemporary Philippine…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Nicole "Coco" Medvitz has been named as the recipient of the 1996-97 Priscilla Newton Undergraduate Scholarship in Theater Arts, given annually at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Medvitz, who has appeared in numerous campus and community productions, is a UCSC senior majoring in theater arts with a dual emphasis on drama and…

MT. HAMILTON, CA–Public officials and law enforcement agencies plan to forbid parking on roads leading to Lick Observatory and other backcountry roads in Santa Clara County for three weeks beginning Friday, March 21, to help prevent hazardous traffic situations from developing during the peak period for viewing Comet Hale-Bopp. Astronomers at Lick Observatory regret that…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–The National Science Foundation (NSF) has renewed its support of a University of California effort to increase the number of science degrees awarded to underrepresented minority students. Called the California Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP), the initiative has drawn $1 million per year from NSF since its inception in 1992. Now, NSF has…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Seismologist Marino Protti, who received his Ph.D. from the UC Santa Cruz Earth Sciences Department in 1994, has won the National Prize in Science from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Costa Rica. Protti, a professor at the Observatorio Vulcanologico y Sismologico de Costa Rica (OVSICORI), shared the prize with a mathematician…

SANTA CRUZ, CA–Whether you’ve set sail in search of the Great White Whale or just an evening of fun, make sure to plot a course to "A Whale of an Auction," the largest annual fund-raising event for public education programs at Joseph M. Long Marine Laboratory of UC Santa Cruz. This year’s soiree, the twelfth…

Phokion Kolaitis, a UCSC professor of computer science, has faced a number of challenges teaching the 85 to 100 students in his Introduction to Computer Science course. Many of these challenges–attendance problems, lack of appreciation of the subject’s core issues, and a wide range of student skills and expectations–are common to gateway classes such as…

Harry Noller, Robert L. Sinsheimer Professor of Molecular Biology, received the 1997 Alumni Achievement Award in Chemistry from the University of Oregon, where he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1965. Noller joined the UCSC faculty in 1968 and now directs the Center for the Molecular Biology of RNA. He was elected to the National…

Developmental psychologist Campbell Leaper offers a first step for those who are concerned about gender inequality: Encourage girls and boys to play together. "If girls and boys don’t play together as children, how can we expect men and women to get along in the workplace or in love relationships?" asks Leaper. Leaper studies the role…

Dream expert Veronica Tonay was featured in an article in the Daily Herald, a Chicago newspaper. KUSP radio recently invited sociologist John Brown Childs to appear on the "Talk of the Bay" program. Childs, who was recently awarded a Fulbright Thomas Jefferson Chair award, is involved with the national urban youth antiviolence movement and Barrios…