10 JAN 2001

UC to extend eligibility for top 4 percent

The University of California will offer eligibility for fall 2001 admission to students who applied to UC and met the requirements of UC's new "Eligibility in the Local Context," or "4 percent" program but whose schools did not forward the transcripts necessary to include them in the program.

Judson King, UC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said the university still needs the cooperation of local high schools. Schools that did not participate in the program this year will be given until Jan. 26 to provide UC with a list of the top 4 percent of students in their senior classes, based on grades. Among that 4 percent, students who are not already UC-eligible under the university's statewide eligibility criteria, who met the course requirements of the program and who applied to UC this fall will be guaranteed a space in the UC system, though not necessarily at their campus of choice.

It is unclear how many students are affected by this decision, though UC officials estimate they may number a few hundred.

Approximately 84 percent of California public high schools submitted transcripts by the deadline.

Now, UC will write to the 134 California public high schools and 97 accredited private high schools that did not participate and ask them to forward a list of the top 4 percent.

Search committee for new athletic director announced

Chancellor Berdahl and Vice Chancellor Horace Mitchell have formed a 13-member search committee to help select a new director of athletics and recreational sports.

Those appointed to the committee are: Associate Vice Chancellor Ron Coley, Assistant Vice Chancellor Matt Lyon, Vice Provost Christina Maslach, Faculty Representative Bill Lester, Catherine Koshland, an associate professor in Public Health, and Robert Spear, a professor in Public Health. Spear will chair the committee.

Others on the committee are alumni Grant Inman, Wally Haas and Bob Smiland, ASUC President Theodore Liaw, former Business School Dean Bud Cheit, Associate Athletic Director Chris Dawson and director of Cal Crew Steve Gladstone.

Two alumni join Bush's cabinet

Two Berkeley alumni -- Norman Mineta and Ann Veneman -- have been appointed by President-elect George W. Bush to cabinet positions.

Mineta, currently serving as President Clinton's secretary of commerce, will become secretary of transportation in the new Bush administration. As a California congressman, Mineta chaired the House Transportation and Public Works Committee in the early 1990s, leaving that post in 1995 to become a transportation industry lobbyist.

He received a bachelor of arts in business from Berkeley in 1953 and was the first Asian American to serve on a presidential cabinet.

Joining him is California agriculture official Ann Veneman, a 1971 graduate of the Goldman School of Public Policy, who has been named to head the Department of Agriculture.

An accomplished attorney, Veneman was the first woman to hold the top agriculture post in California.

She was the highest ranking woman in the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1989 to 1991, when she was deputy secretary for international affairs and commodities programs during the administration of Bush's father.

Call for teaching, learning, technology proposals

The Office of the President is seeking proposals that expand the use of instructional technologies to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning. Grants are available to support inter-campus partnerships involving at least two UC campuses or intra-campus collaborations involving at least two faculty members across disciplines on a single campus.

There are two kinds of grants. Feasibility/Planning Mini-Grants (awards up to $5,000) have two deadlines. Round one must be received by Feb. 1; round two must be received by April 18. Full-Scale Implementation Grants (awards up to $75,000) have a deadline of April 18.

See www.ucop.edu/acadinit/tltc for information. For guidance on project proposals, contact Barbara Davis at bgd@uclink.berkeley.edu or 642-6392.

Conference to explore homelessness issues

A day-long conference to address homeless solutions will be held Jan. 22 in Alumni House.

Held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Urban Homelessness & Public Policy Solutions: A One-Day Conference, will explore homeless population dynamics and policy implications, economics and housing, as well as health, legal and political issues affecting the homeless.

Sponsored by the Institute of Governmental Studies and the Goldman School of Public Policy, the event is free and open to the public.

See http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/homeless.htm for information.

Psychology clinic offers marital counseling

The Psychology Clinic is offering 12 sessions of therapy to a limited number of couples experiencing marital problems. Sessions will focus on communicating openly, resolving disagreements positively, and coping with negative emotions.

The Psychology Clinic is open to all Bay Area residents and offers affordable fees. For information, call 642-2055.

Marcy to lead experiment on new astronomy mission

Astronomer Geoffrey Marcy has been named a principal investigator on NASA's upcoming Space Interferometry Mission, an innovative space system that will hunt for Earth-sized planets around other stars and provide new insights into the origin and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy.

Marcy will lead a team of scientists on an investigation called "Discovery of Planetary Systems," which will survey deep space in search of new planets around nearby stars and other regions of the sky where planets are thought to lurk.

Correction

An item in the Dec. 6 Berkeleyan on "Even in Sweden," a new book by Geography Professor Allan Pred (University of California Press), mistakenly referred to "a falling euro currency" and its negative impact on immigrants in Sweden. The book discusses the impact of falling real income, not a falling euro currency.