Applicants

Intent on fighting a teacher shortage, nearly two dozen Stanislaus County school districts have organized a nationwide recruitment drive that has brought hundreds of applicants from across the country this weekend. The county Department of Education received calls from nearly 300 teachers who planned to attend and resumes from 350 more who could not come in person. "This place has been like a travel agency," said Byron Gavrilis, the department's personnel administrator.

Strong swimmers with good eyesight and a knowledge of first aid are invited to assemble on the beach at Newport Pier on Feb. 23 in a qualification test for jobs as Newport Beach lifeguards. Those selected after the tests will go through training March 22-28, after which the top performers will be offered lifeguard jobs. Trainees will be offered positions based on a point score amassed during training, and applicants 18 years old and older will be given preference.

The county Board of Education says it will seek applicants for a vacancy created by the death last month of veteran board member Frances Murphy. Mrs. Murphy, 66, of Garden Grove died Feb. 13 while on a trip to West Germany. She had served on the board for 8 1/2 years and had been reelected to a third four-year term last June. At its meeting Thursday in Costa Mesa, the four board members voted to appoint a replacement rather than call a special election, which would cost about $100,000.

Re "How many blacks are enough?" Opinion, June 21 Has UCLA failed to increase black student matriculation? The answer is a definite yes. Is this due to being lax or because white elitism has always depended on black marginalization? Absolutely not. Having served on the UCLA dental school admissions committee for 20 years, I can say that we were always trying to have a diverse student body to serve all Californians. We looked for reasons to accept students rather than reject them.

So you want to go to Stanford. You've made a 4.0 grade-point average. You've shown yourself to be a well-rounded person with your exhaustive list of extracurricular activities. You've submitted your application to the admissions office, including a creative essay that reflects your exceptional skills. But wait. There are 16,135 applicants for the 2,500 freshman slots at the West Coast's most prestigious university. And there are more than 2,500 applicants who also have a 4.

The City Council will interview 19 applicants for a seat vacated by former Councilman Joe V. Harris and could make an appointment tonight. Harris resigned Sept. 23, saying he wanted to spend more time with his recently widowed father. The new council member will serve until November, 1994, when Harris' term was to expire. The council decided last month to fill the vacancy by appointment rather than holding a special election.

UC Riverside, long considered a consolation prize by students not admitted to more coveted campuses, registered the biggest increase in applications this year among the University of California's nine undergraduate campuses, officials announced Friday. The Inland Empire's surging growth in applicants in the last two years prompted officials there to announce that it would no longer accept referral pool students ? those eligible to attend UC but who fail to win admission to their preferred campuses.

The Social Security numbers, home addresses and phone contacts for at least 300 students who applied for admission to Cal Poly Pomona six years ago were unintentionally disclosed online, according to the university. The personal information remained on the university server and was accessible to the public for about five years, school officials said. The applicants were notified last week and urged to contact credit reporting agencies, school officials said. The personal information, which did not include financial data, was "mistakenly put in a publicly accessible folder on a university server in November 2003, and Google and other search-engine companies mined the data," according to a statement released by Tim Lynch, senior media communications coordinator for Cal Poly Pomona.

United Colors of Benetton has a habit of launching controversial ads. Remember the campaign last year showing world leaders such as President Obama and the pope lip-locked with each other? This time, the clothing brand is focusing on the unemployed - specifically those younger than 30. Its newest ad campaign will feature portraits of suit-clad young people without jobs who also aren't in school or training. The company is also launching a competition dubbed “Unemployee of the Year,” inviting unemployed applicants ages 18 to 30 to submit proposals for projects to cause “concrete social impact in their community.” The hope?