Uc Irvine

In a push to simplify mortgage modifications, federal regulators announced a streamlined process that doesn't require borrowers to prove a hardship. "This new option gives delinquent borrowers another path to avoid foreclosure," Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a statement announcing the modifications Wednesday. The new modifications, however, would not include reducing the loan balance, a move promoted by housing advocates and others but resisted by DeMarco, who says it would end up costing taxpayers money and would encourage defaults.

A UC Berkeley senior who majors in social welfare and has been active in student government and Mideast issues is expected to become the next University of California student regent, joining the board that sets policies for the 10-campus system. A special regents committee has nominated Sadia Saifuddin, 21, of Stockton to be the student regent in 2014-15. Confirmation by the full Board of Regents is expected next month. For the next year, Saifuddin would be a regent-designate, able to participate in all discussions but without voting rights until her one-year term as a fully empowered student representative begins in July 2014, officials said.

Field scientists and students who rough it in UC Irvine's Steele/Burnand Anza Borrego Desert Research Center in eastern San Diego County will soon be settling into a new laboratory, apartment building and dormitory thanks to $2.8 million in Proposition 84 funds awarded by the California Wildlife Conservation Board. The lab, four-unit apartment complex and dorm with room for 24 students will support research by biologists, astronomers, anthropologists and others in the heart of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park's stark landscape of dry washes, palm groves and cacti.

Jason Dietrich always wanted to put on Cal State Fullerton pinstripes. He cheered for the Titans baseball team as a teenager, and visualized himself as a player jogging onto Goodwin Field to an ovation one day. That dream didn't materialize. But at 39, Dietrich is finally wearing those pinstripes and has played a major behind-the-scenes role for a Fullerton team that is among college baseball's best. As pitching coach, Dietrich guides one of the game's stingiest - and youngest - staffs.

The new industry of large-scale online education will garner an important measure of academic respectability Thursday when the American Council on Education announces that four courses of the Mountain View, Calif.-based Coursera organization are worthy of college credit - if anti-cheating measures are enforced. It is now up to colleges and universities to decide whether to allow their students to replace traditional courses taught in classrooms with low-cost online courses that enroll many thousands of students worldwide and involve little direct interaction with instructors.

UC Irvine's chancellor pledged Wednesday to find and discipline whoever slipped a racist note into a black female student's backpack last week. The student found the note, which read "Go back 2 Africa slave," while she was in the science library on May 7, according to UCI police. The department is investigating what it is calling a hate incident. "When apprehended, the responsible individual(s) will face appropriate sanctions," Chancellor Michael Drake said in a statement on UCI's website.

A UC Berkeley senior who majors in social welfare and has been active in student government and Mideast issues is expected to become the next University of California student regent, joining the board that sets policies for the 10-campus system. A special regents committee has nominated Sadia Saifuddin, 21, of Stockton to be the student regent in 2014-15. Confirmation by the full Board of Regents is expected next month. For the next year, Saifuddin would be a regent-designate, able to participate in all discussions but without voting rights until her one-year term as a fully empowered student representative begins in July 2014, officials said.

MEN at Seattle 82, UC Irvine 81: Charles Garcia made two free throws with 16 seconds left to give the Redhawks (6-5) their 14th consecutive home victory. Garcia had 29 points to lead all scorers. Michael Hunter had 23 points for the Anteaters (5-4), but he lost the ball as he was trying to get off the final shot and Garrett Lever scooped it up for Seattle and ran out the clock. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 73, at South Dakota State 66: Lorenzo Keeler had 21 points and Kyle Odister added 17 for the Mustangs (3-5)

MEN at Pepperdine 72, UC Irvine 62: Lorne Jackson scored 28 points for the Waves (3-2), who held the Anteaters to 34% shooting. Daman Starring led Irvine (3-4) with 25 points off the bench. Texas State 81, UC Riverside 69: The Highlanders (1-6) lost their third game in a row at the Great Alaska Shootout as the Bobcats (3-3) made 11 of their first 12 shots and raced to a 20-2 lead. Chris Harriel led Riverside with 16 points. at Alaska Anchorage 83, Loyola Marymount 77: The Lions (3-2)

Cal State Fullerton 72, at UC Irvine 61: Gerard Anderson and Orane Chin had double-doubles as the Titans (12-11, 6-5 Big West) completed a sweep of the Anteaters (10-15, 3-8). at Cal State Bakersfield 60, Cal State Northridge 57: The Matadors (9-15) made only one of 13 three-point attempts and fell to the Roadrunners (6-17). -- Associated Press MEN'S SCHEDULE Pepperdine at San Francisco...7 p.m. Loyola Marymount at Santa Clara...7 Long Beach State at Cal Poly SLO..

As University of California patient care workers returned to the picket lines Wednesday, hospital administrators said they were gratified that so many others chose to come to work. More than three-quarters of union members who had been scheduled to work Tuesday did so, said Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for the UC office of the president. Hospital officials said they expected a similar turnout Wednesday. "The [union] leadership is engaged in this game of brinkmanship," Klein said.

Irvine grew faster than all but seven other large U.S. cities between July 2011 and July 2012, with its population vaulting to nearly 230,000 last year, new census data show. The pace of growth was nearly five times as fast as the Southern California average. The increase continues a pattern for Irvine, where population climbed an average of 4.8% annually between 2000 and 2010. It rose 3.4% the next year and 4.2% last year, according to census data released Thursday. City officials see the numbers as proof that its meticulous planning has worked.

Earlier this month, USC students and alumni were gloating about how their school had hired two top neuroscientists from UCLA, and UC system officials said they were upset by the loss. This week, however, UC announced that it has wooed away a prominent USC faculty member and former administrator at that campus. Howard Gillman, a longtime USC political science professor and former dean of the university's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, has been appointed provost and executive vice chancellor of UC Irvine.

A massive walkout of University of California patient care workers that began Tuesday could cost the system's medical centers up to $20 million, officials say. The walkout is expected to last two days and involve more than 12,000 UC workers from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The strike, which began at 4 a.m. Tuesday, involves respiratory therapists, nursing aides, surgical technicians and other patient care workers. It is scheduled to run until 4 a.m. Thursday at five medical centers -- UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.

UC Irvine's chancellor pledged Wednesday to find and discipline whoever slipped a racist note into a black female student's backpack last week. The student found the note, which read "Go back 2 Africa slave," while she was in the science library on May 7, according to UCI police. The department is investigating what it is calling a hate incident. "When apprehended, the responsible individual(s) will face appropriate sanctions," Chancellor Michael Drake said in a statement on UCI's website.

A second racial incident in less than a month is roiling the UC Irvine campus. Police said Friday that someone put a note in a black student's backpack that read, "Go back 2 Africa slave. " The female student discovered the note while she was in the science library Tuesday, UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said. UCI police Sgt. Mark Arnold called the note a "hate incident. " "If it's a criminal matter then it would go to the courts," he said. "If it were an internal discipline issue the university would handle that.

A  UC Irvine  fraternity has volunteered to suspend itself after it was blasted for a member-produced video that featured a student in blackface. Lambda Theta Delta announced Wednesday that it would cancel all major events and stop operating as a UCI-sanctioned organization until fall 2014. "This decision is mainly due to the abhorrent, insensitive and highly offensive 'blackface' video created by our members that has been circulated widely on the Internet," members of the Asian fraternity said in a  statement on their Facebook page . Lambda Theta Delta  came under fire  toward the end of April for the video on its YouTube page that showed four of its members lip-syncing to the Justin Timberlake/ Jay-Z  song "Suit and Tie. " The student playing Jay-Z wore blackface in the video.

Officials at UC Irvine have launched an investigation after a public outcry over a recent video produced by students from a fraternity that showed a person in blackface . Thomas Parham , UC Irvine's vice chancellor for student affairs, said Thursday that he was notified of the video earlier this week and that it involved four students who were doing a parody of a song that included mimicking performers like Justin Timberlake ...

In the second racially charged on-campus incident in three weeks,  UC Irvine  police said Friday that they are investigating a note found in a black student's backpack that read, "Go back 2 Africa slave. " The female student discovered the note while she was in the science library Tuesday, UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said. UCI police Sgt. Mark Arnold called the note a "hate incident. " Campus police routinely investigate similar incidents to determine whether they rise to the level of a hate crime, he said.

UC Irvine became the first team since UCLA in 1996 to successfully defend an NCAA men's volleyball title, defeating top-seeded Brigham Young in straight sets, 25-23, 25-22 and 26-24, at Pauley Pavilion on Saturday night. The second-seeded Anteaters won the first set on a disputed kill by Kyle Russell. BYU players vehemently disagreed that any of them had touched the ball, which went out of bounds. Irvine had been behind by as many as three points in the opening set. BYU had an 8-1 run to take command in the second set with an 11-4 lead before Irvine's Connor Hughes had a resounding kill to begin a run by the Anteaters.