UC Berkeley to fund ideological groups
The Associated Student UC Senate (ASUC) at Berkeley voted last
week to allow student registration fees to fund political and
religious student groups.
The vote complies with and recognizes the recent Rosenberger vs.
University of Virginia Supreme court decision. That case reversed
the controversial 1993 Smith vs. Regents case which denied
politically- or ideologically- based student groups funds garnered
by mandatory student fees.
Berkeley is the first UC campus to recognize the Rosenberger
decision. UCLA policy currently upholds the Smith vs. Regents case,
which denies funds to ideological groups.
However, the University Office of the President has already
revised the guidelines regarding how mandatory student fees can be
used, said Karen Kenney, senate representative for UC Berkeley
Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien, in an interview with the Daily
Californian.
The Office of the President determines the ground rules for
allocations of mandatory student fees at the nine UC campuses.
Under the ASUC vote, individual students who do not want their
money to support certain groups may apply for a refund of that
portion of their fees which funds those groups.
Researchers to further pediatric AIDS work
UCLA AIDS researchers Yvonne J. Bryson and E. Richard Stiehm
will use a $5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases to continue the work of the Los Angeles
Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG).
The Los Angeles ACTG plans to design and conduct clinical trials
for prevention of mother-to-infant HIV transmission and treatment
of infants, children and adolescents with HIV.
The program will also help identify and recruit into clinical
trials HIV-infected pregnant women and adolescents from diverse
populations.
Funding for the project will cost about $1.2 million for each
year of the four-year project.
UCLA receives grant for dance group
The Pew Charitable Trusts have awarded a $1.5 million grant to
UCLA’s Center Intercultural Performance, part of the department of
World Arts and Cultures, for the UCLA National Dance/Media
Project.
The project is a national dance documentation and preservation
leadership and training program.
The 4 1/2 year grant is part of a national initiative launched
by the Pew trusts to preserve America’s diverse dance legacy.
Melnitz Theater renamed after donor
The UCLA School of Film and Television has recently rechristened
the former Melnitz Theater the James Bridges Theater after the
school received a $500,000 gift from the Bridges/Larson
Foundation.
The donation, together with a separate $75,000 gift from the
Cecil B. DeMille Foundation, will be used to upgrade the film
exhibition venue.
School officials plan to hold a six-film retrospective on
European director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, considered one of the
most influential and important post-World War II directors, in the
venue.
Report ranks theater program
The Gourman Report, which recently ranked UCLA’s undergraduate
film and television program first in the nation, selected the
theater undergraduate program second best in the country out of 401
programs in drama/theater.
Compiled from Bruin staff and wire reports