EVP office takes part in week of action
The external vice president’s office of the Undergraduate
Students Association Council is demanding that congress
“build education and end criminalization.”
EVP staff members are participating in the United States Student
Association’s National Week of Action this week. USSA,
whose members lobby for increased financial aid and admissions
reform, is running the campaign on a national scale, with more than
50 schools participating.
“˜The decision to go to college should not be based on the
ability to pay,” EVP Evan Okamura said in a statement.
“All students deserve to decide if they want to continue
their education. Fear of high loan debt and fear of criminalization
should not be a factor in that decision.”
Students are urging congress to increase spending for higher
education and to pass legislation banning the practice of racial
profiling.
“The fact that people of color are disproportionately
stopped, questioned, arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned by the
criminal justice system is a real problem,” USSA President
Ali Fisher said in the statement.
College natural gas bills soar across state
California’s energy crisis could cause higher dormitory
bills, fewer night and weekend classes and sweltering summer
classrooms at the state’s public colleges, lawmakers learned
Tuesday.
Officials from the state’s three college and university
systems urged the Legislature to provide them with extra money in
the 2001-2002 state budget to keep their higher energy prices,
particularly for natural gas, from hurting education.
“˜”˜It’s impacting students, it’s
impacting learning, it’s impacting budgets and it’s
impacting planning,” said Ray Giles of the Community
College League.
The University of California paid $26 million for natural gas
last year and is expecting to pay at least $60 million this year,
said Mike Bocchicchio, UC assistant vice president for
facilities.
UC has not decided whether to raise dormitory rates to reflect
the higher cost of heating and cooling dorm rooms, he said. The UC
dormitory system is designed to be self-supporting, he added.
“˜”˜I don’t think it’s fair to say
we’re just going to pass the costs along to the dorm
residents,” said Assemblywoman Elaine Alquist, D-Santa
Clara, chair of the committee.
California State University’s natural gas prices are
expected to jump from $8.7 million last year to $27.6 million this
year, said Assistant Vice Chancellor Patrick Drohan.
Most of California’s public colleges and universities
currently have relatively low electricity rates because of
long-term contracts signed with Enron Energy Services.
The nine UC campuses get 58 percent of their electricity from
Enron through a contract tied to 1998 rates and lasting until
2002.
UC gets the rest of its power from federal or municipal power
agencies or from cogeneration plants at six campus locations, said
Bocchicchio
UCSC student to play role in genome project
Jim Kent, a UCSC graduate student in biology, designed and wrote
a computer program used to put together the draft sequence of the
human genome making new this week.
Kent presented his work at a symposium on Monday, February 12,
sharing the stage with Francis Collins, director of the National
Human Genome Research Institute.
Kent is not a typical biologist, having spent 15 years writing
computer animation software after earning his bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in mathematics at UCSC.
Compiled from Daily Bruin Staff and wire reports.