UC Regents Approve School of Management at UC San Diego

The University of California Regents recently approved plans for a new graduate school of education expected to open its doors in Sept. 2003at UC San Diego.

On Oct. 17, the Regents voted on preliminary plans for the construction of a building to house the new school, to be funded entirely by philanthropic gifts.

The new school will offer a variety of full-time, part-time and executive programs leading to a Masters of Business Administration degree, as well as a Ph.D. program linked to faculty research emphases. UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, School of Medicine and Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies will all offer joint degree programs with the School of Management.

“The Management School will respond to the growing needs of California industry for personnel with strong management skills in the high technology and biotechnology sectors,” UCSD Chancellor Robert C. Dynes said.

Peter Cowhey, chair of UCSD’s School of Management steering committee, said UCSD would begin recruiting a dean and faculty this year for the new school. UCSD envisions enrolling 100 full-time and 50 part-time students and executives in fall 2003. By 2011-12, the school will enroll 600 full-time students, 500 students in the part-time and executive MBA programs, and 50 students in the Ph.D. program.

New Admissions Program Proposed at UCLA

UCLA admissions officers expect to change their admission policy to conduct a more expensive, more comprehensive review of their 42,000 applications, despite a proposed 15 percent budget cut.

Although the state budget provides $750,000 “to support campus efforts to move toward comprehensive assessment of freshman applications,” UC spokesman Brad Hayward said this might not be enough to fund the new program.

The proposed policy calls for applicants to be evaluate d in terms of life challenges, academic and personal achievements, with no specified ratio for any category. If the Academic Senate approves the plan at its Oct. 31 meeting, the Regents will vote on it in November.

In July, the regents approved the dual admissions proposal, which would grant provisional UC admission to students who graduate in the top 4 to 12.5 percent of their high school class, but the program was put on hold last month after funding was cut from the state budget.

UCLA is also looking to hire between 20 and 25 part-time workers, at a total cost of $100,000, to read applications.

Rosa Pimentel, an admissions staff member, said she can read 200 applications a day looking at only GPA and test scores, but can only read 100 under a comprehensive review.

UC Med Centers May Not Be Prepared for Health Disaster

Anthrax scares across the country have left many people fearing a health disaster, which UC medical centers are unequipped to handle because of understaffing, members of the University Professional and Technical Employees Union say.

“The University of California Medical Centers are one act of bioterrorism – one outbreak of epidemic – away from a public health emergency with which we may not be able to cope,” UPTE members said in a draft of a letter they plan on sending to UC President Richard Atkinson.

UCLA officials said the union is using the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a scare tactic in an attempt to tag the Medical Center as unprepared to respond to a disaster. Michael Karpf, director of the UCLA Medical Center, said UCLA is not ready to respond to UPTE’s claims.

“We will rise to the occasion to face whatever challenges are presented to us,” he said. “I have the utmost confidence in our staff that they will respond to the best of their ability.”

Officials at the hospital said the Medical Center is not as understaffed as other hospitals.

UPTE is bargaining with university officials for salary adjustments and equity wage increases.

“Because of short-staffing, workloads are doubled [and] employees are tired and burned-out,” Wendy Mullen, chief negotiator for the bargaining team said. “There’s an increased risk for mistakes – which could put patients’ care at risk.”