SoCal Minds

Does research back dire Ariz. immigration law?

From RAND

It's unsurprising for a nationally known research organization to call for more research on a hot-button topic on which it also happens to have conducted a great deal of research, right? Well, without excessive cherry-picking of provided information, there's still a huge, head-scratching, 'Huh?!' to the recently enacted, incendiary, draconian Arizona immigration law, at least according to stuff put out by the folks from the Santa Monica think tank. At minimum, they urge policy-makers to ponder unintended consequences from their race to action. Think about this: In Maricopa County, Arizona and federal officials in 2007 struck an immigration enforcement deal under which 16,000 illegal immigrants were found among 106,000 jail inmates over three months. But get this: the detection process was so costly it ran up a $1.3 million debt for the program, even as the cooperating sheriff's deputies saw declines in the number of crimes they had solved and an increase in their response times to citizen calls; a civil lawsuit also was filed against authorities with claims of racial profiling. And, yup, they called the whole deal off. By the way, the researchers say there is a clear issue in immigration that needs resolution. But their work shows that, based on information that the feds readily supply about their existing caseloads, budget and resources, that just to clear the current backlog of already entered deportation orders would take 15 years and $5 billion.

Politically popular policies of moment carry unintended consequences, researchers warn

Click here to get full RAND study

A $10 million pledge to assist student learning

From USC

For Trojans with dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other learning challenges there's impressive new assistance coming around the corner as part of a $10 million pledge for a new center in the student affairs area funded by a family with one student now studying in Exposition Park and a second kid headed there this fall. Walter and Marcia Kortschak, parents of Trojans Andrew and Sarah, have made what the school calls its largest ever donation to student affairs and one of the largest gifts ever from non-alumni moms and dads for the new center for learning support. It will not supplant but instead will expand research and aid for students who learn differently, bringing in outside professionals including educational psychologists, occupational therapists and neuropsychologists, as well as faculty and other experts from across the institution to assist young folks and expand the understanding of their difficulties. Walter Kortschak is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist.

Photo: Kortschak clan with President-elect Max Nikias / Ziva Santop

New center will boost help for Trojans with dyslexia, ADD, other learning issues 

For fun: bands, talks, readings, movies, exhibits

  From USC, Zocalo, the Getty & the Autry

OK, so surprise, there will be abundant sunshine and fine weather this weekend in Southern California. So what to do? Well, how about striking up the band and joining the fund-raising revelries to honor Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, (shown in illustration at left) aka the 'Man on the Ladder' or the distinguished, distinctive musician and educator who has led the Trojan Marching Band for four decades. Or perhaps it's worth the while to get downtown tonight at 7:30 (reservations required) to hear journalist Joe Matthews dig into the fiscal and other complexities and challenges facing the Golden State with John A Perez, the first openly gay and Latino speaker of the California Assembly (shown at right above).  Or maybe what appeals is something literary and auditory, a relatively inexpensive chance ($20) to listen in at the gorgeous digs at the palace on the hill as some big name acting stars read Selected Shorts 2010 for later airing on National Public Radio. Or maybe after a stroll in the always luscious Griffith Park, this would be the weekend to get ahead of potential Mother's Day crowds to see an exhibit recognizing the role of and honoring How Women Made the West. Of course if getting outdoors in all that sun doesn't work, there's always the change to dive into the big LA Asian Film Festival. Whatever. Enjoy!

4 million report sexual and physical violence

From UCLA & Cal State Dominguez Hills

Geez, after billions of years of evolution, one might think that the human species would have finished its struggles with and perfected one of its most basic, primordial drives and functions: sex. But Bruin researchers, based on scrutiny of one of the nation's largest health surveys, offer some deeeply disturbing news on how partners do some pretty brutal things to each other in relationships, straight and gay, with some 4 million Californians reporting they were victimized with physical or sexual violence by a spouse; 1 million said they were forced to have sex. More than a quarter of the incidences of 'intimate partner violence' involved gays and lesbians. Women suffer from it more than do men and those who are divorced and widowed are at high risk. Physical and sexual violence between partners is a bigger problem for African Americans, though Latinos are seeing it as a growing issue; it is lowest among those of Asian descent. Hmm, maybe if parents started early in talking with their children about sex, relationships and other deeply personal issues, would violence and other thorny concerns be eased? A Dominguez Hills researcher has won a state grant to study whether text messages to kids and parents might prompt some important talk about birds and bees and more.

Grim snapshot of sexual, physical violence in relationships

*Updated 9-9-201: a working link to info on texting, parents, kids, talk about sex

Can texting help parents talk better with kids about sex?

What to do on Fed, financial reform, economy?

From the Milken Institute & UCLA

Fascinated or flummoxed by the push for financial reform, the still-faltering U.S. economy and the ins-and-outs of national and international economic policies and practices? Well, there's still lots of intellectual feasting for foragers of the considerable output of the now concluded, three-day Beverly Hills gathering of bigs from business, finance, politics, policy-making, the arts and more. Among the materials worth a read is a summary of the session with institute's founder and patron and Nouriel Roubini, the economist who gained much national attention for his calls about the economic crash and what he sees as its causes. And, if financial reform, the Washington cause for the clamor of the moment, doesn't have enough heft and chew in it already, Roger Farmer, the head of the Bruin economics department advocates adding a new layer of complexity: He says the Fed should create its own super index fund akin to the Russell 5000 as a means to better put a regulatory paw on the stock market (as opposed to what he calls the 'palsied' hand the monetary regulators now possess). Details? Yup, he's got a book full of 'em.

Click here for more info, videos from Global Conference

Why a Bruin economist wants a Fed-run stock index fund

For Broncos, arts bust, $30-million business boom

From Cal Poly Pomona

Duly noted: a day before the folks out in Pomona break ground today on a $30-million complex of buildings for their business school, they also broke the bad news that the school's fine arts program, part of the art department, is on the path to demise. The program has 79 active students, two tenure-track faculty and seven lecturers, the school says, noting they will continue on as the formal, academic process goes on to shutter this study option, which was unfavorably reviewed inside and outside the institution. While the current state budget crunch was cited as one factor in the fine arts decision, the school notes that it has sought for a decade to get in one place all its healthy, well-received business programs. The 70,000-square-foot complex (seen in artist rendering above) will take two years to build, will include two auditoriums, areas suited to teaching by the case study method, the latest high-tech bells and whistles and flexible workspaces to accommodate group and team projects.

Fine arts program heading to its finale

Ground breaking for $30 million business education complex

A focus on Asian food, music, poetry, emigres

From UCLA, Claremont Graduate University & UCSB

With their proximity to the Pacific Rim and the huge populations of people with blood-ties to the region, hallelujah for all the scholarship that area schools devote to matters Asian. In Westwood, for example, the Bruins recently brought to campus on completion of his massive masterwork Ko Un, (shown at left) a Korean peace activist and onetime dissident who also happens to be a most prolific bard and Buddhist monk; his literary place in his native land, scholars say, has been secured with, among other things, his 25-year, 30-volume, 4,000 poem epic, dubbed in English, '10,000 Lives.' And for those who love eats from the Far East, better secure a spot in line now for the Sunday program on 'Asian Cuisine, LA style.' Reservations are required for the day-long session, which will include a $10 Banchan bento lunch and a chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Jonathan Gold. For those who might wish to mind their p's and q's, not just while dining with them, but to better understand their U.S. lives, Xiaojian Zhao (shown at right in photo by Rod Rolle), a scholar in Santa Barbara has a new book out examining considerations of class, economics and hierarchies among the Chinese in America. And for those more musically inclined, there's interesting news out of Claremont, where the Drucker folks, led by executive director Rick Wartzman,  have teamed up with the Vietnam National Academy of Music, Southwest Chamber Music, the Riordan leadership crew and the Colburn School for a novel venture. It will feature not only premieres across the U.S. of Vietnamese concert works (including one such performance Friday at the downtown conservatory across from the Disney Hall) but also a push for arts management training for Vietnamese cultural administrators and leaders.

A big day of Bruin eating focused on Asian cuisines

For Korean literary figure, it's 25 years, 30 volumes and 4,000 poems

Class, hierarchies and economics in 'Chinese America'

A major exchange of music, management know-how between Claremont, Vietnam

On campus, attention to plight of foster kids

From USC, Pepperdine & Fullerton

The grim statistics about their fates after they leave state custody and the grisly headlines about their tragic, sometimes abusive and even fatal treatment while in it give huge pause to anyone who considers what happens to the estimated half-million or more youngsters in foster care almost anyplace in the nation. So it's good to see that: the Trojans will bring together at 6 tonight a panel of experts to ponder why kids get placed in foster care; the folks in Malibu have spotlighted Aaryn Pratt (shown at right), a master's degree holding alum, herself once a child struggling out of foster care, who won a $50,000 grant for her employer, the retailer Gap Inc., to boost the work of court appointed special advocates for foster kids with special e-training; and, finally, that in Fullerton, university President Milton A. Gordon (shown above) has been honored for his advocacy on behalf of foster kids, particularly in pressing for his commitment to the schools unique program to assist such youngsters in earning college degrees.

SoCal scholars garner high honors in science, arts

From UCLA, UCI, UCR, USC, CalArts & UCSB

For scholars across Southern California, more honors in the sciences and the arts, as they are selected for membership in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences and win noteworthy Guggenheim fellowships. West Coast researchers, particularly those in the UC system, fared especially well in this year's elections of 72 new members of the honorary sciences organization, which has counted as peers such eminences as Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright and Alexander Graham Bell. There were 180 Guggenheims awarded this year, chosen from 3,000 applicants and representing 59 disciplines and 65 different academic institutions. By the way, though there aren't links to institutional posts about them, there's a CalArts Guggenheim and a Trojan science academy selection this year, an eyeballing of the respective lists shows.

In Westwood, three Bruins elected to sciences academy

In Irvine, it's a trifecta for a top scientific organization

Plant cell biologist a pick from Riverside for science academy

In Santa Barbara, two chosen for elite science group

Two Guggenheims in Riverside

A Guggenheim for an engineer in Santa Barbara

Click here for full list of newly elected science academy members

Click here for list of 2010 Guggenheim recipients

Outlook for higher ed by SoCal university czars

From USC & UCR

For Trojan President Steven B. Sample, now a retiring educational titan, the nightmares of building endowments during horrible economic times, drastic cutbacks in government support for higher education and all the other pressing issues of running a giant educational institution, well, they'll be someone else's problems soon. But for a few hours this afternoon and evening, from 4 to 7, in fact, he will join UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, UCI Chancellor Michael Drake and Caltech President Jean Lou Chameau for a free, open and public program on the future of higher education from a Southern California perspective. Reservations are required and tickets may be obtained online. 

Click here for info, to RSVP for higher ed program

• In Exposition Park, other Trojan administrators also are looking to the future, in particular, what thematic approaches to education might prove most valuable to students in the college in 2020. After research and study, 18 proposals were submitted for consideration this year and $1 million was awarded for the next three years to two plans to boost scholarship aimed at a greater understanding of: climate change and how it affects Southern California; and why certain individuals, groups and societies do not take up mass violence and can resist genoicide. 

A focus on future scholarship on climate change, resisting genocide

• For those focused on the challenges of community colleges, meantime, mark May 13 on the calendar and consider getting to Riverside, where the California Community College Collaborative plans to put on a program on such schools' embattled finances.

In Riverside, a planned spotlight on troubled finances of community colleges