UCLA Runners Robbed at Gunpoint
The Daily Bruin
Feb. 7 – Two UCLA student athletes were allegedly robbed at gunpoint last Sunday while leaving their suite at the school’s Saxon dormitory. Three armed men forced Matt Bruno and Chris Dunbar back into the suite then tied the victims’ hands and ankles before stealing thousands of dollars in property.
The crime was reported to the UC Police Dept. on Sunday at 2:47 a.m. UCPD officers spent Wednesday knocking on residents’ doors, looking for any information about the crime or the suspects. A police spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing and no one, including UCLA students, has been ruled out as a suspect.
Neither Bruno nor Dunbar, both sprinters for UCLA’s track team, were harmed in the incident. Dunbar said the assailants were in the room for about 25 minutes, and that he and Bruno were shoved under their beds while the suspects stole clothes, shoes, cell phones, laptop computers and a PlayStation 2. Two friends delivering food to Dunbar knocked on the door as the robbery was taking place, but the assailants had Dunbar go to the door and tell them to return later.
A UCPD officer characterized the crime as a “home invasion robbery,” meaning the suspects studied the victims before the crime. Officer Andy Ikeda said that the suspects in an on-campus rape case had also hung around the dorms before allegedly raping a UCLA student. Ikeda urged students to report any suspicious activity.
UCSD Reports Big Revenues
UC NewsWire
UCSD reported $1.7 billion in annual revenues and a national economic impact conservatively estimated at $4.6 billion in its newly released annual report.
The report outlined a record $550 million awarded to conduct research, a 7.9 percent increase over the previous year. Also among the school’s biggest sources of revenue was $435.5 million from UCSD hospitals and clinics, $411 million from federal research awards and $356.7 million in funding from the state of California.
The report also detailed UCSD expenditures that directly impact the national economy, including $1.046 billion in goods and services purchased by the campus last year, $69.3 million paid in salaries each month and $76 million in student and visitor spending last year. The $4.6 billion national economic impact total is almost 13 times what the school received in funding from the state of California.
With a total employment of 21,226, UCSD is the third-largest employer in San Diego, following the federal government and the state of California.
UCLA Study of California Babies Finds Latino Majority
UC NewsWire
Researchers from the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture found that more than one half of all babies born in California in the third and fourth quarter of 2001 were Latino.
The study foretells the future makeup of the state’s student population, workforce and voting public. In fall 2006, the majority of children entering the state’s kindergartens will be Latino, and there will be a Latino majority entering high schools by 2014. The majority of new workers entering the labor force in 2017 will be Latino, as will be the majority of young adults eligible to vote in fall 2019.
More than two-thirds of Latino babies were born in Southern California, led by Imperial County, where 90 percent of the babies born in the time studied were Latino. Researchers compiled the data by examining the statistics for the 138,892 births reported in the third quarter of 2001 and the 132,482 births reported in the fourth quarter of 2001.
Manifesto Says to Let Market Forces Rebuild Power Industry
UC NewsWire
A group of professors from UC Berkeley, UCLA and Stanford, plus consultants and former regulators, have signed a new manifesto urging state policymakers to move quickly toward a market-based restructuring of California’s electric industry.
The “2003 Manifesto on the California Electricity Crisis” states that “while wholesale electricity prices have moderated and California no longer faces the risk of blackouts, in many ways the industry is in worse shape now than it was at the start of 2001. Electricity rates today are 40 percent higher than at the start of the industry’s restructuring, state regulation is increasing, and once-vibrant generators and utilities struggle for solvency.”
Experts in regulatory and energy economics organized under UC Berkeley’s Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization (IMIO) to author the manifesto.
This is the second such manifesto from the IMIO regarding the energy crisis. The first was published during the electricity price hikes and rolling blackouts in January 2001. The first document specifically warned against long-term contracts.
“California would be a lot better off today if our advice had been heeded,” David Teece, IMIO director, said.
The new document proposes that the state take steps toward recovery including vigorous development of competitive markets, creation of a functional set of electricity rules and policies and a creation of a system to allow unregulated producers to provide electricity generation.
Report Finds Unequal Latina Access to UC
UC NewsWire
A recent report found that Latina students in California lack equal access to academic enrichment programs in grades K-12, which accounts in part for the low percentage of Latina undergraduate students in the UC system.
The report, funded in part by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC), found that Latina students comprise a high proportion of total enrollment in California schools, but their numbers are disproportionately small in accelerated curriculums such as GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) and advanced placement.
“The educational system is letting gifted Latina students fall through the cracks,” Chon Noriego, professor of critical studies and director of the CSRC, said. “First they are denied access to these programs, and now outreach efforts are expected to be cut by 50 percent next year.”
Daniel Solorzano, professor and chair of the UCLA department of education, said the time has come to evaluate the methods by which students are identified for participation in enriched programs.
Solorzano and his team found that current methods are at the discretion of individual school districts, schools and teachers, with little or no state oversight.
“Without access to such enrichment programs,” Solorzano said, “Latinas are effectively gated out from later placement in upper-division math, science and honors and advanced placement programs.”
The report recommends further exploration regarding what kinds of academic enrichment programs are available at schools Latinas attend, what processes grant or deny Latina students access to these programs and how these enrichment programs affect college admissions by race, ethnicity and gender.
In addition, the report also recommends exploring policies that could be implemented to ensure increased Latina enrollment in academically accelerated programs.
-Compiled by Daniel Haier and Travis Hunter
