Friday, May 22, 1998
Community Briefs
University of California accused of fake billings
A federal lawsuit brought against the University of California
accuses the UC of billing the government for millions of dollars in
research contracts to compensate for tuition costs for graduate
students.
The suit states that at six out of nine UC campuses some
graduate students were given free tuition, and that the campuses
made up the costs by billing the federal government for research
contracts. It continues to claim that the University made an
estimated $100 million in illegal tuition billing over the last
decade.
Allegedly the UC offered free tuition as a way of attracting top
graduate students to its human health, space science, chemical
engineering and other departments. The lawsuit says the UC told
federal officials that tuition costs collected through federal
contracts served as a direct compensation for the work of the
graduate students.
UC vice president Ellen Switkes said that she was confident that
no laws were broken.
It is still unclear what type of damages the plaintiff is
seeking. The suit does not apply to UCLA.
Clothesline Project comes to UCLA
The UCLA Women’s Resource Center is establishing its
first-annual UCLA Clothesline Project.
A Clothesline Project is a display of color-coded T-shirts that
represent the different types of violence that women experience.
Survivors of sexual or gender violence are encouraged to design a
shirt commemorating their survivorship, the survivorship of someone
close, and/or "in memory" of someone who has died as a result of
domestic violence.
The Clothesline Project was developed in 1990 in Massachusetts
by grass roots women’s organizations. It has since grown to
approximately 500 local, state and worldwide projects. The first
National Display took place in 1994 in Washington D.C. where 10,000
shirts hung on the mall in front of the Washington monument. UCLA
is joining forces with the National Clothesline Project to
establish its own UCLA Clothesline. The shirts are displayed
periodically as a tool to raise awareness and educate communities
and individuals about the realities of the war against violence
against women.
The display is scheduled for June 2, 3 and 4 at Schoenberg Quad
followed by a "Take Back the Night March/Rally" June 4 at 6:30p.m.,
beginning at Westwood Plaza.
Zero Awards highlight lack of diversity at OSU
Presented by the Oregon Students of Color Coalition (OSCC), the
Zero Awards recognized and displayed the departments that have
successfully recruited zero full-time faculty members of color.
"The point of the Zero Awards is to encourage the faculty and
administration to discuss this issue of diversity and faculty,"
said Saji Prelis, co-chair of OSCC.
Mainly, the focus of the Zero Awards is to increase awareness
and to encourage the entire campus community to participate in
addressing this problem. Currently, Oregon State has 21 departments
with zero full-time faculty of color and only five departments with
five or more full-time faculty of color.
However, while the Zero Awards may, to some, seem rather
aggressive, organizers argue that they are by no means a way for
the OSCC to degrade specific departments that lack full-time
faculty of color.
Along with the awards, OSCC brought forth a list of demands that
they presented to the president of the university. Seven demands
were made involving advertising outreach, the balance of
student/faculty representation on hiring committees, the inclusion
of non-traditional qualifications and methods in hiring decisions,
the increasing of faculty compensation, sensitivity training and
funding for the difference in power and discrimination courses.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.