Meredith J Khachigian

While state lawmakers called for investigations into charges of favoritism in UCLA admissions, Chancellor Charles E. Young on Saturday acknowledged his staff may have "acted improperly" by showing preferences to applicants sponsored by UC regents and other public office holders.

Re "It's a Mathematical Certainty That Saturday Classes Are Paying Off," Orange County Voices June 13: These days I try to be hopeful about the "warm and fuzzy" innovative educational reforms proposed and implemented by various professionals and levels of governance, but I can't let Meredith J. Khachigian's praises for the University of California's outreach program pass without comment. If I am understanding this quantum leap of progress correctly, the UC Board of Regents has budgeted $144 million a year to teach ninth-grade algebra on Saturday to students from public schools.

As members of the Legislature reconvene following the summer recess, I would like to urge careful examination of a bill that has significant negative implications for tens of thousands of public university employees in California, including many in Orange County. SB 645 would impose an "agency shop" at the University of California and California State University. Under this legislation, employees in a bargaining unit represented by a union would be required to either join the union and pay its dues or have a substantial "fair share" fee deducted from their paychecks.

The event: The UCI Medal Ceremony, held Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Irvine. The gala dinner, presented by the UCI Foundation, awarded Donald R. Beall, Joan F. Beall, George E. Hewitt, Meredith J. Khachigian, R. Duncan Luce and William F. Podlich with the UCI Medal in recognition of their dedication to the university.

Jess Bravin's commentary of Nov. 24 misrepresented the phrase "UC Means Business." It is the title of a report that explores the many economic contributions the University of California makes to the state and the nation. It is not about privatizing UC. UC, through its contributions to the state's economy, its job-generating capacity and its research developments, has been instrumental in helping California's recovery from the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. Among the report's findings were: UC generates three times as much money as the state invests in it. The university contributes to local economies, supporting neighborhood retailers, restaurants, hotels, construction firms and other businesses.

UC Irvine student activists seeking campus housing for gay, lesbian and unmarried couples took their 2-month-old protest to the University of California Board of Regents meeting in Los Angeles Thursday and won a qualified commitment to study the issue. About a dozen placard-waving UC Irvine students, joined by an equal number of UCLA students, had stationed themselves strategically between the regents' meeting hall and a nearby luncheon area.

As the search for the next president of the University of California gets under way, the Board of Regents was urged Friday to give students and its own members more of a say in choosing the next leader of the nine-campus system. More than 140 candidates are currently being considered for the position by the seven-member search committee, Regent Roy T. Brophy told a regents meeting at UCLA.

University of California officials said Thursday they are optimistic that federal officials will extend exclusive UC management of two national nuclear-weapons and energy-research laboratories rather than seek competitive bids. William R. Frazer, a senior UC vice president, told members of the Board of Regents meeting at UCLA that the university and the Department of Energy have a better understanding of each other's positions after meetings this week.