Highlander Highlights UCR Alumni Association April 2003 UCR Home Page Update Your Information Calendar Free Lifetime e:mail Contact Us

In this issue:
David H. Warren Will Receive the UCR Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
The Press Room
Highlander Highlights Receives a Makeover!
Last Chance to be Highlighted in the Alumni Directory!
Travel the Globe and Expand Your Horizons
Did You Know?

David H. Warren Will Receive the UCR Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
Retiring from the Executive Vice Chancellor position at the University of California, Riverside, David H. Warren will be honored with the UCR Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award at the upcoming UCRAA Annual Meeting on May 29.  This award is reserved for faculty and administrators who have volunteered their time and service to the Association.  

The UCRAA Annual Meeting is open to the public at a small cost of $25 for non-members and $20 for members.  To join us as we honor Dr. Warren, or for more information about the UCRAA Annual Meeting, contact the UCR Alumni Association at (909) 787-4511 or (800) 426-ALUM.

The Press Room
Gov. Davis Appoints UC Riverside Vice Chancellor to California Student Aid Commission
Governor Gray Davis has appointed UC Riverside Vice Chancellor James W. Sandoval to the California Student Aid Commission, effective immediately. The Commission's grant programs provide students, many from traditionally underrepresented populations, with opportunities to continue their education beyond high school. The Commission also administers a loan repayment program for prospective K-12 teachers and a state work-study program. Members do not receive a salary.

Today the commission administers over $2.4 billion in grants and loan guarantees and provides financial aid policy analysis and leadership in partnership with California's colleges, universities, financial institutions, and financial aid associations.

UC Riverside’s A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management Gains AACSB International Accreditation
University of California, Riverside Chancellor, France A. Córdova, announced today, April 16, 2003, that the University’s A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management (AGSM) has gained accreditation from AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

“I am both pleased and proud of this recognition for our business school. I congratulate the faculty for its commitment and leadership during this process,” said Chancellor Córdova. “Accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in management education.”

Head of Teacher Education at UC Riverside appointed to State Commission on Teacher Credentialing 
Athena Waite, director of teacher education at the University of California, Riverside, has been named to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the public body charged with the preparation and certification of the state’s teachers. 

Waite represents the Regents of the University of California on the commission. Her term will be open ended. The commission certifies and regulates teacher credentialing, develops teacher preparation and performance standards, proposes policies on teacher credentialing, conducts research and oversees disciplinary procedures involving the state’s public school teachers. 

UC Riverside Track Star Gains National Honors For Scholarly, Athletic, Community Achievements 
"Black Issues In Higher Education" magazine has named University of California, Riverside senior sprinter and long jumper Nathan Irvin the male 2003 Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar of the Year, besting a field of athletes-scholars from about 600 colleges and universities nationwide. 

Irvin received the honor for “exemplifying the standards of scholarship, athleticism and humanitarianism,” according to a press release from "Black Issues In Higher Education." Irvin is featured in the April 10, 2003 edition of the national news magazine dedicated to minority issues in higher education. University of Tennessee, Knoxville senior Kara Lawson was named female sports scholar of the year. 

California Newspaper Project at UC Riverside Lands $800,000 In Grants to Complete Statewide Cataloging and Preservation Work
The Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research (CBSR) at the University of California, Riverside, which has spent more than a decade locating, cataloging and preserving the state’s more than 10,000 known newspaper titles, has received an $800,000 grant to complete the work.

The latest grant also continues a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and UC Riverside entered into in 1991. The partnership charges CBSR with identifying every existing newspaper title going back to the beginnings of the state, cataloging them and in many cases, preserving their pages on microfilm. The effort is part of an ongoing national drive conducted at the state level.

Cost-benefit Analysis of Gasoline Additives & Environmental Effects
Responding to the California State Legislature's request, through Senate Bill 521, Environmental Economist Linda Fernandez of the University of California, Riverside conducted a cost-benefit analysis, along with physical scientists who conducted environmental impact assessments, of fuel blended with MTBE. The analysis was used by the Governor to decide to ban the MTBE additive, phasing it out by 2004.

The cost-benefit analysis included scientific data generated from physical scientists to which valuation methods could be applied to derive monetary values of costs and benefits of environmental and economic impacts of using different fuel additives. The analysis concluded that there was no significant reductions in air emissions due to MTBE-blended fuel as compared to non-oxygenated alternatives, but that MTBE presented significant public health risks and costs associated with water contamination. 

Highlander Highlights to Receive a Makeover!
This summer, we will be working on a new look and layout for the UCRAA Highlander Highlights electronic newsletter.  We hope to streamline access to information, current events, alumni news, and opportunities for involvement for our readers.  Do you have any suggestions?  What items would you like covered each month?  If you have any comments or suggestions please let us know!

Last Chance to be Highlighted in the Alumni Directory!
The last chance to be listed in the UCR Alumni Directory, 50th Anniversary Edition, to correct your directory listing and/or to be a highlighted alumnus/a will be May 5, 2003. Alumni Association members receive recognition and Life members receive an additional designator. To update or confirm your personal profile, please contact the Bernard C. Harris Publishing Company at 888-825-6082. For more information about this project visit www.alumni.ucr.edu.

If you haven’t done so already, joining the Alumni Association is easy and there is a special discounted membership offer available for a short time only as part of the Directory project. In addition to the substantial discount, there is a unique gift for alumni who become paid-in-full Life members – your diploma etched on polished metal and mounted on a handsome walnut plaque. Please check our Web site for details about the offer and for information about membership benefits, privileges and discounts. Membership in the Alumni Association supports scholarships and student programs. You can join online 24/7 or call our office to join over the phone at 909-787-4511 or 800-426-ALUM. Don’t forget: Join by May 5, 2003 to be sure that you are highlighted with other successful UCR alumni!

Travel the Globe and Expand Your Horizons
Alumni and friends are invited to join an extraordinary travel opportunity, the Alumni College on the Fabled Island of Sicily. Once known as the cultural melting point of the entire world, today Sicily is renowned for its beauty, architecture, Greek and Roman ruins, delicious cuisine, and friendly people. Participants will discover all that this Mediterranean island has to offer on an exciting ten-day travel adventure. Taormina, located on Sicily's northeast coast will serve as the perfect base from which to explore Agrigento, whose Valley of the Temples is one of the most impressive classical sites in all of Italy; Piazza Armerina, the home of the Imperial Roman Villa del Casale, a stunning Roman country house; Mount Etna, one of the largest and highest active volcanoes in Europe; magnificent Syracuse, known for the Old Town of Ortygia and the exceptional ruins at the Archeological Park; and Reggio di Calabria, where the National Museum houses the Warriors of Riace, two of the greatest works of Greek sculpture. The program is scheduled for October 25 to November 3 and is priced at $2,595 per person, double occupancy. Contact the Alumni Association to request a brochure or to be placed on the Association’s travel list.

Did You Know?
Former Bio-Agricultural Library Named "Noel T. Keen Hall"
Noel T. Keen, a Distinguished Professor of Plant Pathology and the holder of the Johnson Endowed Chair in Molecular Plant Pathology at the University of California, Riverside until his death in 2002, was honored with the naming of the renovated Bio-Agricultural Library in his memory on Friday, April 18, 2003.  Dr. Keen was a world class scientist who was devoted to scientific agriculture and to solving the vexing problems of disease that account for a loss of approximately 25 percent of all crop production. 

The building houses advanced instrumentation for research involving genomics and related disciplines, areas of research that had direct relevance to Keen's own scientific investigations into the mechanisms plants use to recognize disease agents or pests.