Currents (April 2, 1999; Vol. 9, No. 7)

              News
The environmental review
process for a proposed parking
structure on Science Hill
moved forward last month
with a public hearing at
Classroom Unit 1 on the
project's EIR. Page 2.
Digest
The Career Center recognized
its on- and off-campus partners
recently for their support of
UCSC students. JoAnne Dlott
1 (seated) of the Santa Cruz
|   Seaside Company was among
2 those honored. Page 7.
UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA,    SANTA    CRUZ
J
Calendar
The Paul Taylor Dance
Company brings Taylor's latest
work, Piazzolla Caldera, to
UCSC April 20. The dance
performance is set to a tango
score by Argentinian composer
Astor Piazzolla. See page 5.
VOL. 9, NO. 7
Published monthly by the Office of Public Information for the campus community
April 2,1999
Banana Slug Spring Fair coming April 17
CSC will host the Banana Slug
Spting Fair on Saturday, April
17. UCSC alumni, current and
prospective students and their
families, and all friends of the
campus are invited to the annual
celebrarion, which features presentations, arristic petfotmances, facility
tours, and alumni reunions. The
campus open house begins at 9 A.M.
At this year's fair, UCSC will
celebrate its first 30-yeat reunion.
UCSC's "pioneet class," who
attended the campus when it fitst
opened in 1965, will celebtate
throughout the weekend. In
addition, "The Writing Life/Life on
the Page" conference will feature
prominent and emerging alumni
writets of fiction, nonfiction, and
poetry, and UCSC lirerature and
writing faculty. Readings and a panel
will be held beginning Friday night
at 7 P.M. and continuing on Saturday
at 1:30 and 3 P.M in the Kresge
Seminar Room, 159 Kresge.
year's Banana Slug Spring Fair, Calisse Donathan and t.
the Banana Slug Spring Fair program before starting their day.
father, TimmTreview'
Tours will take place at the art
studios, UCSC's eight individual
colleges, Long Matine Laboratory,
the UCSC Farm and Chadwick
Garden, the Arboretum, and facilities
for physical education and recreation.
Reunions include a luncheon for
all alumni, with special recognition
to classes celebrating 5- to 30-year
See Fair, back page
UCSC receives $1.
5 million gift
to support Jewish
studies
Chancellor Greenwood. "Their
generous gift constitutes the
cornerstone of a major effort to
By Barbara McKenna
111 ithagift of $1.5 million, a
111 San Francisco Bay Area
build Jewish studies at UCSC.
If II   couple has established an
Because of this endowment we will
1 1   endowmenr for Jewish
be able to offet expanded and
I  1   studies at UCSC. The gift is
ongoing courses, graduate study
the largest ptivate donation ever
and research opportunities, and
received by the Humanities
othet academic and public
Division.
activities in Jewish studies."
The gift comes ftom Helen and
"Through the endowment,
Sanfotd Diller of Woodside, Calif.
UCSC will be able to bring a series
Named the Helen and Sanford
of distinguished visiting professors
Diller Family Endowment in
to campus fot up to a full academic
Jewish Studies, the donation will
yeat," explained Jorge Hankamer,
'*"SQp"p6fTand"substantially expand
dean of UCSC's Humanities
UCSC's intetdisciplinary program,
Division, which will oversee rhe
which focuses on modern Jewish
endowmenr acrivities.
histoty, life, and cultures.
"These visiting scholats will
"We are honored that the
round our UCSC's current
Dillers selected UCSC as the
offerings in Jewish studies by
home fot this endowment," said
See Endowment, back page
Endowment will honor slain alumnus
By Jennifer McNulty
n honor of Terence Freitas, the
UCSC alumnus who was
recently murdered in South
America, an endowment is
being established to support
the research of undergraduate
students in environmental studies.
Relatives and friends of the
Freitas family have pledged
$10,000 to create the fond.
The pledge comes from
Michael and Patricia Gold and
theit three children, who were
close friends of rhe Freitas family,
and Freitas's grandparents, Dr.
and Mrs. J. Joseph Shelley of Los
Angeles.
The Terence Freitas Award in
Environmental Studies will be
based on need and merit, and
preference will be given to
undergraduate environmental
studies students who are working
See Freitas, back page
Regents adopt new admissions plan
UC Office of the President
he University of California
Board of Regents approved
changes in freshman eligibility
last month that will make the
top 4 percent of srudents from
all California public high schools
eligible for UC.
The new criteria ensure access
to the university and academic
excellence among the pool of
students eligible for enrollment at
UC's eight general campuses.
UC faculty developed the new
ctiteria following more than a year of
analysis and considering ways for the
university to increase the number of
UC-eligible students, in order to
meet its obligation to enroll from the
top 12.5 percent of California high
school graduates and continue to
maintain academic quality.
Granting eligibility to students
who rank in the top 4 percent of each
high school class based on UC-required
courses will make nearly 3,600 more
students eligible for the university.
www. ucsc. edu/currents/98-99103 -221
four.percent.htm
National Science Foundation considers funding
Center for Adaptive Optics at UCSC
By Tim Stephens
committee from the National
Science Foundation (NSF)
visited UCSC last quarter to
evaluate a proposal to create a
national Centet fot Adaptive
Optics on campus. The centet would
coordinate the effotts of researchers
across the country wotking in the
exciting new field of adaptive optics,
which has majot applications in
asttonomy and vision science.
Adaptive optics is a method to
actively compensate for changing
distorrions that cause blurring of
images. Turbulence in the earth's
atmosphere causes blurring of
astronomical images obtained by
ground-based telescopes. Similatly,
internal imperfections and small
motions in the eye result in blurred
vision and also interfere wirh efforts
to study the living human retina.
UC astronomers are leaders in the
development of new astronomical
instruments, including adaptive
optics systems for relescopes. Jerry
Nelson, professor of asttonomy and
astrophysics at UCSC, would direct
the Center for Adaptive Optics and is
spearheading the effott to obtain
NSF funding.
The adaptive optics system at Lick
Observatory on Mount Hamilton uses a
laser beam to measure turbulence in the
atmosphere.
"Fot astronomy, adaptive optics
on latge telescopes promises
spectacular improvement in
resolurion, making images 10 to 30
times sharper," Nelson said.
Adaptive optics is also a powerful
tool fot understanding the structure
and development of the human
rerina and may enable early detection
of tiny retinal defects before they
become latge enough to threaten a
person's vision.
Bur rhe complexity of adaptive
optics has thus far prevented its
routine use. Several highly advanced
technologies must be melded to
create an adaptive optics system,
including precision optics, sensors,
deformable mirrors, and lasers.
High-speed compurer hardware and
sophisricated software systems are
needed to integtate and control these
technologies.
First-generation adaptive optics
systems have been developed and
are being used for astronomical
observations at Lick Observatory and
other sites. But the field is still in its
infancy, Nelson said.
"To bting this technology to
matutity and make complex AO
systems practical tools for science will
require a coherent national ptogtam
that btings togethet scientists and
engineets with very differenr areas of
expertise," Nelson said.
This is the type of interdisciplinary challenge that NSF's
Science and Technology Centers are
meant to address. NSF is expected to
fund eight to ten new Science and
Technology Centers this yeat. Out of
43 proposals from a broad range of
fields, the Center for Adaptive
Optics was among 16 serious
contendets chosen by NSF for site
visits and furrher evaluation.
www. ucsc. edulcurrentsl98-99103 -151
nsf.htm