Wednesday, April 29, 1998
Community Briefs
Grad students given bargaining rights
A state labor board ruling bolstered the campaign of academic
student employees (ASE) for collective bargaining rights.
The Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) found that teaching
associates, readers and tutors at UC San Diego are employees and
upheld their collective bargaining rights.
"This decision bodes well for UCLA and all the other campuses,"
said Anthony Navarette, spokesman for the Association of Student
Employees/UAW at UC San Diego.
"We are thrilled that PERB has affirmed our position. We think
the reasoning used in this case will render a similar outcome for
all ASEs across the nation," he added.
This decision upholds a previous ruling by Judge James Tamm.
If the university fails to voluntarily recognize the UCSD
Association of Student Employees/UAW, an election will be conducted
to determine whether the union will be certified as the collective
bargaining representative.
Most corporate money aids research
In a report released earlier this month, almost half of all
university researchers who receive gifts from companies said the
donations come with strings attached.
Researchers from Harvard University and the University of
Minnesota polled 3,397 research scientists from the top 50 national
research universities, said the Journal of the American Medical
Association. About 2,200 scientists responded.
The report found 43 percent of the respondents received gifts of
money, trips or laboratory equipment from corporations. Two-thirds
of the recipients said the donations were valuable to their
research.
"There is never enough funding," said Karen Seashore Louis, a
co-author of the report. "Funding from industry is clearly
significant to some researchers."
Louis said the report, which is part of a larger ongoing study,
examines the changing relationship between university research and
industry.
"There has been a tendency over the past 10 to 15 years for
university administrators to support outside funding," said
Louis.
Schools may have a vested interest in researching topics that
have commercial applications, Louis said. Since universities hold
all patents from their researchers, there is potential for
financial gain for the schools.
"Of course, universities are increasingly concerned about large
gifts (from outside sources)," she said. "Some gifts designed to
facilitate a research relationship are difficult for the university
to trace."
Through stars, UCLA finds more on planets
Pictures have been obtained by the astronomers at the Joint
Astronomy Centre (JAC) in Hawaii and at UCLA that just might
suggest that other planets in our galaxy may be more common than
scientists previously believed.
These findings are based on the observations of three well-known
stars in our Milky Way Galaxy – Vega, Fomalhaut and Beta
Pictoris.
The history of our own solar system begins 4.5 billion years ago
at our sun’s formation. Jupiter and Saturn are believed to have
formed 10 million years after the sun. Cleaning out our solar
system of many of the comets and asteroids that bombarded it, these
two planets served as the "garbage men of the solar system."
Similar occurrences, much like those of our solar system, are
being found on Vega, Fomalhaut and Beta Pictoris. Dust that has
normally surrounded these planets has apparently disappeared from
the stars’ inner region.
The explanations are that the dust might have come together and
formed planets, or it was absorbed by the stars or simply blown
away.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire and staff reports.