SoCal Minds

Scribbles on a few notable matters for the weekend

From Loyola Marymount, the Japanese American National Museum, Zocalo & the Huntington

Because some domestic chores look as if they'll take more effort than expected, an abbreviated spin through the intellectual ferment around the Southland for today and into the weekend doings. But some stuff worth taking a look at:

• In Westchester, the disccussions of the university's 20-year master plan draws a crowd estimated at 350; how will the school burgeon at the same time it acts as a good neighbor, of course, is a key concern, as parties look to the future and worry about growth, traffic, pollution, digital signage, buffer zones and other important matters. 

• In Little Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, documentary film makers will show off their bio-pic that should prove greatly enlightening about a familar, comedic face from television and movies. The sardonic humor of veteran star Jack Soo, appreciated for his work in everything from 'Flower Drum Song' to 'Barney Miller' and 'Monk,' may have kept wider audiences from learning his fascinating life story, including his Japanese -- not Chinese -- ancestry. There's more, of course, on this path-breaking actor and his refusal to play to harmful ethnic stereotypes at the 'You Don't Know Jack' documentary site.   

• And if other diversions still are called for, there is, of course, a premiere of 'Countdown to Zero,' a powerful new film tracking the history and potential harm of nuclear weapons; the Zocalo-KCRW sponsored screening is free but reservations are required. And, of course, the folks in San Marino show off from their collections starting Sunday 'British Landscape Prints.'

Campuses take on Haiti relief, volcanoes, mercy

From UCSB, Pomona & Loyola Marymount

Across the region, campuses have taken on disaster release, the calamitous potential power of nature and a quality that may be far too strained in public life:

• In Santa Barbara, the UC system's response to the disastrous Haitian earthquake and its nightmarish, unending aftermath will be headquartered at the Center for Black Studies Research, which says that it is, after expertise in big metropolitan enclaves in Miami and Boston, one of the premier sites with scholarly knowledge about Haiti. Concerned parties from throughout the UC system conducted a system on this campus in the spring and set up a reconstruction organization and plans to work with academic counterparts, as well as government, nonprofit and community groups in Haiti to provide the university's top-flight expertise in key areas such as agriculture, arts and culture, education, economics, education, engineering and architecture.

In Santa Barbara, a headquarters for UC system's Haiti reconstruction efforts

Click here for more info on UC Haiti relief

• In Pomona, there's talk about the timely release of a scholarly tome that takes on mountains that blow up beneath us. Richard Hazlett, a geology and environmental analsis prof, got out his new text, 'Volcanoes: Global Perspectives,' just in time for huge swaths of the planet to be plunged into an air travel mess caused by the eruption of that wickedly named Icelandic volcano. For Hazlett, whose childhood fascination was piqued by tales of Vesuvius and Pompeii, an initial experience with a summer volcanic eruption in Hawaii since has been followed with eyewitness volcanology scholarship in Galanggung for a grey volcano, Kilauea for a red one and sightings in Japan, the Pacific Northwest, Aleutians, Italy, Kamchatka, Iceland and mainland Alaska. His book also discusses legendary explosions in Krakatoa and Santorini. The prof says he's not a thrill-seeker and concedes that to scrutinize the awe-inspiring power of volcano means taking risks.

From Pomona, a timely glimpse into global awe of volcanoes, eruptions

• In Westchester, a prof and his academic partner in Iowa have decided to delve into the fascinating question about a key happening at a crucial intersection of religion, philosophy and politics. When resources get scarce, the public's scared and policy making gets particularly rough in areas such as punishment for juveniles, amnesty for immigrants, reparation for much harmed people such as slaves or truth telling and reconciliation after large scale chaos and killing in a society, must the quality of mercy be strained, the profs ask? Besides considering this topic in classes they conduct, they're hard at work on a book, tentatively titled, 'The Death of Mercy,' which examines its role in public life.

In Westchester, seeing role for mercy at the intersection of politics, religion and philosophy

A higher-ed peoloton offers a look-see at SoCal minds

From Oxy

Phew, it's summer and an ostensible pause in the seasons of anxiety for collegiate aspirants. But some work never ends, and, for some fun-seeking college counselors, a work-vacation offers an opportunity to see up-close what's on SoCal Minds via a rolling, 400-mile tour of regional campuses. The folks over in Eagle Rock are hosting a stop on the bicyclist look-see, a grownups' peloton aimed at getting a personal-professional view of what's new at spots like the Claremont collective, the universities of Redlands and LaVerne, Oxy, Caltech. LMU and USC. So what, in hyper-conscious fashion, should the schools know about what the 19 visiting pros from 13 states have to say about them as they undergo their seventh annual cycling whistle-stop tour of schools? Because this is the age of blogging, the East Coast Gray Lady offers a big forum for the observations of group members...

College counselors cycling 400 miles in tour of area campuses 

Click here for NYT 'Choice' blog, with dispatches from biking counselors

A global outlook, with powerful possibilities, video, water

From Harvey Mudd, USC & LMU

Besides exposing them to big-time academics, serious scholarship and abundant sunshine, schools across the region have gone deep on steeping their students in global ideas, issues and concerns. And what results for young folks and their profs can be nothing less than nifty as separate, recent instances show:

• In Claremont, sophomore Alice Conant has synthesized a whole lot of different ideas and practices and hit on what many say is a potentially electrifying idea: She and her mentor, Harvey Rubin, a professor of medicine and computer science at Penn, have taken note of the ubiquity of cell phones globally, but especially in the Third World and even in some desperately backwards parts of the planet. Well, for the cells to work, they need antennas scattered across the landscape, each such tower connected, of course, to modern, dependable power supplies. So why not, the student has asked with a chorus of scholarly 'hallelujahs' behind, tap some of that cell tower electrical power for other life-saving uses. Like? Powering a few refrigerators that then could store vaccines against deadly diseases that otherwise would ravage undeveloped areas. Or maybe a little shared wattage could drive pumps and wells so potable water supplies would be available. Proponents say this plan, which is undergoing some testing this summer in Philadelphia, could prove to be a huge boon to the 3 million people who die annually around the world after drinking bad water or the 2 million who succumb to vaccine-preventable diseases.

Could cell phone juice zap disease, provide fresh water to world's needy?

Click here for blog post on how tapping cell tower power could provide vaccines, water

• In Exposition Park, some media savvy alums hope to make 10-10-10 not just a mantra but a globally memorable moment. They have built up connections and a campaign across the planet to get volunteers to work together to shoot videos that capture human lives as they exist this fall, and, by sharing them online, to contribute to greater global understanding and cooperation. The one day on earth project, its Trojan film-making proponents say, recognizes that video has become a universal means of communication and a kind of literacy that can build communities.

Get ready to record videos to make 10-10-10 a memorable date

• In Westchester, a grateful mechanical engineering prof from a small village in Bangladesh learned about a problem in his homeland that shocked him into action. Seems thousands in his native country suddenly were seeing drastic changes in the pigmentation of their skin. And they were dying. In fact, he found out, tens of millions of poor, thirsty folks imperiled their health and lives with a simple act that he had come to take for granted after he moved to this country, earned his advanced degrees and joined the faculty: drinking water. Officials in Bangladesh in the 1970s, it turns out, had sought to get people to stop consuming surface supplies, sipping from disease-ridden sources such as ponds. So they dug wells in tubes, tapping underground aquifers, which, for a time, provided sanitary, seemingly safe water. Only problem was that the tube wells were contaminated with poisonous arsenic. And now the wells provide the chief supply to tens of millions. The prof has won grants, set up a pilot program to purify supplies, helped spread the word and he has helped directly those poisoned and needing medical aid.

Prof seeks to aid homeland with dire drinking supplies laced with arsenic

How 'Seinfeld,' rap lyrics help teach today's teens

From Loyola Marymount & UCLA

The acid test of what occurs in any classroom, of course, occurs outside its four walls: How much do students learn and remember might decide the true effectiveness of any given pedagogical technique. Which is all to say, why not employ humor and rap if it gets students to master a topic, whether sociology or organic chemistry. In Westchester, a prof turns to 'Seinfeld' and tries to make serious points about modern society by asking his students to analyze the sometimes seemingly aimless but beloved silliness in episodes of the show. What do Jerry and the gang, as well as the acerbic humor of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' have to say about Jews in America? In Westwood, meantime, students say one of the most telling, memorable assignments they get in their organic chemistry class asks them to create a video about their term's studies. Guess it beats the practice in days of yore of pre-meds taking 'orgo' just to create lab quality drugs, eh? Anyhow, the resulting YouTube clips with rap lyrics have, students say, helped brand key concepts into their memory and three -- 'Chemistry Jock,' (shown below) '99 Problems' and 'We in the Lab (Ooo, ooo) -- are getting some online attention.

In Westchester, a course that plays it for laughs, seriously, about 'Seinfeld'

In Westwood, a positive reaction to video rap on organic chemistry 

A spotlight on campus comedy, vocalism, avant-garde art

From Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine & Pomona

Pack together a bunch of lively, smart, talented young people for the purpose of learning and who knows how entertaining it all can turn out to be?

• Who, for example, would have figured that Westchester can be a barrel of laughs? There's something hilarious about the Lions because a team of them have gotten to the finals of a televised, internet-based national comedy competition. They'll battle against students from Emerson College, the University of Florida and Xavier University after besting competitors from USC, USF and UC Berkeley.

• Meantime, in shades of the popular television show 'Glee,' singers and pianists from across the country are flocking to Malibu to participate in a month-long program, 'Breaking the Song Barrier,' which is what organizers have dubbed this year's version of the annual 'Song Fest' vocal training program. Participants will put on a number of concerts, and, yes, it's a mostly classical not a pop-oriented gig.

• Finally, the folks in Claremont have posted a magazine piece previewing a fall exhibit that tries to track back on what went down so It Happened at Pomona in the 1960s and '70s when a sleepy suburban campus suddenly became a cauldron of creativity for then young conceptual, light and space and performance artists. They went on to be now recognized art stars, including James Turrell, Peter Shelton, Chris Burden, Michael Asher, Judy Chicago, Ed Moses, Allen Ruppersberg, William Wegman and Wolfgang Stoerchle. A Getty grant underwrites the exploration how this scene flourished and vanished. It has something to do with an artist taking clothes off in a display too risque for the conservative community of the day.   

Bruins tap Latina as law dean; interim chiefs ascend at 2 schools

From UCLA, Loyola & Cal Poly Pomona

Let's take note of some top-level changes around town:

• She's wise,  a Latina -- and now a first to head one of the big law schools. The Bruins went north to nab a top legal scholar at Berkeley, naming Rachel F. Moran, an expert on civil rights, anti-discrimination, education and family law, to be the new law school dean in Westwood. She was a Stanford undergrad and was graduated from Yale Law School. She clerked for Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and worked for the San Francisco firm of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe. She was a founding faculty member at UCI's law school and has been a visiting prof with the Bruins, as well as at Stanford, Miami, UT and NYU. She was born in Kansas City, was reared in Yuma, Ariz., and succeeds five-year dean Michael Schill, who split to be dean at the University of Chicago.

Bruins appoint Latina scholar as dean at one of the big law schools

• In Westchester, a graduate of Oxy, Cal State Long Beach and Loyola Law is heading up the Lions' kingdom on an interim basis since the medical leave and retirement of Robert B. Lawton, S.J. Interim prez David W. Burcham, of course, is no stranger to top roles at the school since he was executive vice president and provost, as well as having served as senior vice president and dean of the law school. He has been deeply involved in the school's $380-million capital fund drive and its 20-year master plan. He's an an authority on constitutional law, clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice Byron White (1986-87) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for Chief Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert (1984-86), and was in private practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (1987-91). The Trustees say they will search nationwide until next summer before picking a replacement for Father Lawton.

EVP-Provost steps up as Lions' interim president

• As the folks out in Pomona conduct a nationwide search to replace Ed Hohmann after his 27 years as the engineering dean, Don Coduto (shown at right), a 26-year member of the faculty, will step up as interim. Coduto now chairs the civil engineering department, which is one of the largest such undergraduate programs in the nation. The Broncos boast that theirs consistently is rated as one of the top 15 undergrad engineering programs in the country.

In Pomona, 26-year faculty vet will be interim engineering dean

Top undergrads picked for Latino leadership initiative

From Loyola Marymount

Take 30 top undergrads from across the country, including a half dozen from Westchester, put them together with great profs from Stanford, Georgetown and elsewhere for a week of study at one of the nation's best known and most influential public policy institutions and what magic might result? A Lion law school alum and university trustee has high hopes that by teaching as many as 50 collegians annually about making decisions, negotiating and being aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as exposing them to top-flight mentors and following up with them that a new institute he has helped fund at Harvard's Kennedy School will launch a wave of new Latino leaders. Hmm, with all nine Supreme Court justices likely to be alums of just two Ivy institutions, guess it's inarguable why program benefactor Walter Ulloa, chairman and CEO of the Santa Moinca-based, Spanish-language media powerhouse Entravision Communications, went East and aimed for that Harvard cred when aiming to cultivate tomorrow's leaders among one of the nation's fastest growing demographic groups?

Lion alum and trustee helps launch new program -- at Harvard

Click here for more info from Kennedy School on Latino Leadership Institute

Take note: a cappella program, Catholic studies

From Pepperdine & Loyola Marymount

A couple of high notes to sound off about: Over in Malibu, they'll be celebrating the power of sacred music sung by the unaccompanied voice as the school hosts the a cappella symposium, the Ascending Voice II . The performers in the Wednesday through Friday program include the Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble, and Chanticleer, a Grammy Award-winning male a cappella ensemble. Meantime, in what might be a surprise on its face at a Jesuit scholarly institution, the folks in Westchester are touting the first graduate of a new program of theirs. The philosophy major is, they say, the first to complete their Catholic studies minor.

For journalism, a plan on subsidies, new software

From Loyola Marymount & USC

With 30,000 journalists kicked to the curb and major daily newspapers shutting their doors in the last two years in Seattle, Denver, Cincinnati, Albuquerque and Ann Arbor, what's in the future of the craft of journalism? Just catching up on a couple of interesting items...

• In Westchester, two authors have made their case for a radical plan for the U.S. government to step in and, for democracy's sake, to help subsidize media enterprises that make up the free press. They say such steps occur in other industrialized democracies around the planet and have been part of past, acceptable practices in this country. In their recent talk, the authors -- a U of I communications prof and a Washington correspondent for the Nation, that their idea is a difficult sell and would not be easy to carry out, particularly with public concerns that the media now focus excessively on trivial matters like Tiger Woods and his mistresses over big picture stuff like foreign policy.

An arugment for a radical step: government subsidies for the media

• In Exposition Park, the folks at the j-school have waded bravely into the world of software to tackle what has cropped up as a real obstacle to an aspect of online media coverage that many advocates say offers huge hopes for the future. As the school describes its new initiative with a student-designed software project called Stroome: This is a 'Web-based application that anyone can use to post, cooperatively edit, share and remix video. It’s also a social networking site, allowing users to exchange comments, build communities and find new collaborators.' For those unfamiliar with the guts of web sites, particularly media presentations, this project would be akin to YouTube for a creative, journalistic crowd. It attacks the time-consuming, technology-laden challenge that the corporate dunderheads ignored when they pronounced that media sites should be jam-packed with flashy video coverage. Problem was that this very different kind of report was to be put together by people untrained and often unskilled to tackle it, particularly in a production aspect that the gee-whiz goofballs in finance never thought about: how to edit, collaborate on and move video from point to point, as well as to find new talent and collaborators.

New venture seeks to remove roadblocks on video editing, sharing, collaboration