Currents (June 9, 1995; Vol. 5, No. 17)

              News
Storms rage in Shakespeare
Santa Cruz's 1995 season, with
The Tempest, King Lear, and
Ronald Harwood's The Dresser.
Pictured: Paul Whitworth in
last year's The Rape of Tamar.
See caption, page 4.
i     ™
IIeIII
Calendar
A film by the late Argentine
film director Maria Luisa
Bemberg will launch a film
festival at Oakes College. The
festival focuses on depictions
of gender in Latin American
films. Page 3-
Digest
Staff members will vote this
month to fill a position on the
California Retirement System
Advisory Board. The board
advises the president of the
university on UC retirement
plans. See Benefits, page 2.
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,   SANTA   CRUZ
CURRENTS
VOL. 5, NO. 17
Published every two weeks by the Office of Public Information for the campus community
June 9, 1995
Conference features
work of two popular
Victorian novelists
Novels by two of the Victorian
era's best-known writers will
be the focus of the fifteenth
annual Dickens Universe,
taking place July 30 through
August 5 at UCSC. The annual
gathering, which is open to the
public, is designed for university,
college, and high school teachers;
students; and anyone who enjoys
reading the works of Victorian
novelists. Along with lectures by
world-renowned scholars, the
weeklong event features Victorian
teas, dramatic readings, film
screenings, sherry hours, and a book
fair.
This year for the first time the
Dickens Universe will focus on
two books—Great Expectations by
Dickens and Jane Eyre by Charlotte
Bronte. "What will make this year
interesting is that, not only are we
discussing two novels, but one of the
-XvvM/
Young Pip speaks with Miss Havisham
in Dickens's novel Great Expectations.
novelists is a woman," said Robert
Tracy, associate director of the
Dickens Universe and a professor
emeritus of English and Celtic
studies at UC Berkeley.
Great Expectations tells the story
of Pip, who aspires to be a wealthy
gentleman despite his working-class
toots. Jane Eyre is the story of an
orphan who becomes a governess
and falls in love with her employer,
Mr. Rochestet.
"Taken together, the two books
See Conference on page 4
Five professors and lecturers honored for
excellence in teaching
The Committee on Teaching
of the Academic Senate has
selected the recipients of
the 1994-95 Excellence in
Teaching Awards. The committee chose five professors and
lecturers from nominees submitted
by students and faculty.
The awards are meant to
emphasize UCSC's commitment to
excellence in teaching and encourage
faculty to assess regularly the
effectiveness of their efforts inside
the classroom. They are considered
an important act of peer recognition
for professors and lecturers whose
work as instructors is exemplary and
inspiring.
The awards, which include a
framed certificate and $500 in
professional development funds,
were presented May 31 at the final
Academic Senate meeting of the
year. Afterwards, the senate hosted
a reception to honor the recipients.
The Excellence in Teaching Award winners (l-r): Troy Boone, Anatole Leikin, Marta
Navarro, Dan Doak, and Bakthan Singaram
The names of this year's recipients follow below, along with the
wording that appears on their
certificates.
• Troy Boone (lecturer in
literature) for passionate dedication
to the study and teaching of
literature, meticulous attention to
the craft of writing, and genuine
devotion to students' well-being
within and beyond the classroom.
• Dan Doak (assistant professor
of environmental studies) for
remarkable breadth and versatility
in teaching disciplinary and
interdisciplinary courses at all levels
in environmental studies and for
motivating students to embrace
and appreciate the complexity,
See Teaching on page 4
Senate expresses
concern about
Prop. 187 mandates
In two resolutions adopted at
its May 31 meeting, UCSC's
Academic Senate spoke in opposition to provisions of Proposition 187 that would—if ratified
by court rulings—require faculty
members to identify undocumented
immigrants and report suspected
violations to federal officials.
The first resolution was authored
by members John Lynch, Robert
Meister, Helene Moglen, Marra
Morello-Frosch, and Judy Yung; the
second, by member Joel Yellin.
Any requirement that UC's
administration and faculty "take a
direct role in investigating and
reporting suspected violations by
students of federal immigration laws
would conflict with the educational
responsibilities of the faculty, limit
academic freedom in the classroom
and in the university community at
large, and undermine the relationship of trust between faculty and
students," the first resolution stated.
The second resolution, similar to
the first, called such a "police role"
for faculty "inconsistent" with their
"responsibilities as scholars and
educators."
See Prop. 187 on page 4
Long Marine Lab's 'Window to Discovery' provides
young students with a view of ocean science
The second graders wiggled
with excitement as they
gathered at UCSC's Long
Marine Lab, one of the nation's
premier marine-research
centers. It's a place where scientists
test the hearing of sea lions and
measure the heartbeats of dolphins,
and kids love it. "I've been here a
million times," said Shay Baldwin,
eight. "This place is cool."
Shay is one of over 10,000
students who have visited the lab
as a part of "Window to Discovery,"
an innovative program that lets
children see marine science in
action. Only a year old, the program
is ready for a growth spurt. When
a planned $4.4 million Visitor
Education Center is completed,
many more children will flood the
labs, and even adults will join
in the fun.
The program already captivates
visiting students. High school
students tour research labs while
kindergartners hold sea stars at the
touch tanks, and they all get to see
the dolphins and sea lions. "We
tailor the program for each age
group," says Dorris Welch-Burman,
the lab's public education director
and creator ofthe program. "We
really want to spark an interest in
basic biology."
For the second graders on a
recent visit, the program provided
nonstop fascination. Guided by
Le Williams, one of 40 volunteer
docents in the program, the children
inspected the 100-foot skeleton of a
blue whale. The whale's heart, she
told them, was as big as a Volkswagen. The tongue was 20 feet long.
Whales are mammals. No, it is not a
dinosaur. Two children picked up
a flipper bone, and they all touched
a piece of baleen.
Afterward, Williams showed the
children a fishbowl filled with live
hermit crabs and sea urchins. "I
want you to use your eyes, not your
fingers," said Williams. Several
little fingers hit the water at once.
Latet, the children peered into
the aquariums and fought
See Discovery on page 4
*'   *
High school students from the Central Valley tour the marine invertebrate lab at Long
Marine Laboratory as part ofthe "Window to Discovery" education program.
Coming in July:
On-line financial
information system
CSC staff will start using the
SCT Banner Financial Information System (FIS) next month,
according to Ed Coate, vice
chancellor for Business and
Administrative Services.
SCT Banner is part of the
campuswide Business Process
Redesign (BPR) effort to make
work more efficient and more cost
effective by updating computer
systems and improving business
operations. When the system goes
on line, it will mark the first majot
milestone in the process, which has
taken two years of intense effort by
many staff members and administrators at UCSC.
As of July 5, roughly 200 service
center employees and cenrral office
staff will begin to use the SCT
Banner computer system for
purchasing and retrieval of financial
information on line, said Linda
Kittle, BPR manager.
"We want to encourage people
to be as understanding and supportive as possible for the months of
June and July," said Kittle. "Fiscal
close will also affect all the people
who are involved in the Banner
See Banner on page 4
Currents /June 9, 1995