Presidential candidates debate today
The Daily Bruin will hold its annual Undergraduate Students
Association Council presidential debate today at noon in Meyerhoff
Park.
Participating in the debate will be Elizabeth Houston and Jason
Lautenschleger ““ both independent candidates ““ and
Katynja McCory, a member of the Praxis slate.
Berky Nelson, director of the Center for Student Programming and
USAC’s administrative alternate, will moderate the
program.
USAC elections for president, as well as for 12 other offices
and two student fee referenda, will take place Wednesday and
Thursday at polling sites around campus.
UC San Francisco nurses call in sick
Forty-nine nurses called in sick for work Friday at UC San
Francisco, causing doctors to call off some elective surgeries.
It is believed that the nurses were drawing attention to
negotiations for a new labor contract, said Jane Hirsch, the
hospitals director of nursing and patient care.
About 20 elective procedures had to be postponed because of the
lack of nursing help. Extra staff also was brought in to help
out.
“Everybody pitched in and did a fabulous job,”
Hirsch said, “but it was a major inconvenience to patients
and families.”
The university’s current contract with the California
Nurses Association ““ which bars work stoppages ““
expires May 15. Contract talks are scheduled for next week.
David Johnson, a union spokesman in Los Angeles, said he is not
aware of any orchestrated sickout at UC San Francisco or any other
facility in connection with the contract talks.
UC San Francisco has a total of 1,109 staff nurses or full-time
equivalents. The statewide contract covers five hospitals and four
student health facilities, employing a total of about 7,500
union-covered nurses.
UC offers adventures as part of education
For a week or two, ordinary people can turn into marine
biologists or archeologists in exotic locales as part of a travel
niche that combines academics and adventure.
Such research expeditions, open to students and non-students,
give participants a taste of scientists’ work in far-flung
places.
They can join eminent university researchers in projects as
diverse as helping save the Orinoco geese in Venezuela, examining
the intelligence of dolphins or digging in the ruins of
Pompeii.
The University of California is offering 21 different two-week
expeditions this year that will include about 200 people.
The trips include studies of hunters and farmers in Spain at a
cost of $1,495, weavers in Laos for $1,685 and reefs in Australia
for $1,495.
“They’re interested in seeing new cultures and new
places. They’re also interested in becoming an archaeologist
for two weeks or being a geologist for two weeks,” says
Melissa Gibson of UC’s University Research Expeditions
Program, which has been running research tours since 1976.
Marge Brown of Philadelphia, a policy analyst with a research
company, spent two weeks last summer digging in a 12th century
church in Ireland.
“I loved it,” says Brown, 52. “I’ve
always had an interest in archaeology and I love Ireland and it
looked like a good combination.”
She enjoyed her UREP trip so much she’s joining its
expedition to study hunters and farmers in Spain this summer.
“I can feel confident I can go somewhere where I
don’t know the language and still have a good time,”
she says.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.