University Of California At San Diego

Sally Ride doesn't look like a woman outrageous enough to sit on top of a stack of enormous flaming rockets. There's absolutely nothing about her refined appearance or manner to suggest she has the grit to travel into the great, dark, airless abyss strapped to the seat of a hurtling piece of machinery. She's small, reserved, a reluctant heroine uneasy with eminence, a self-possessed but distant star who navigates her rarefied universe with quiet control.

University of California leaders Wednesday apologized to black UC San Diego students for recent racial incidents at the campus and proposed changes in admissions policies aimed at boosting enrollment of minorities across the system. UC President Mark G. Yudof and other UC regents acknowledged that the UC San Diego episodes, including an off-campus student party that mocked Black History Month, has brought attention to the low enrollment of African American students on the campus.

A UC San Diego student admitted Friday to hanging a rope noose from a campus library bookcase in an act that triggered more protests at a school already roiled by other recent racially charged incidents. Angry students responded to the incident by storming and occupying the office of UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. The sit-in continued for about six hours Friday and ended without arrests, and a sympathy protest at UCLA lasted about an hour, officials said. UC San Diego police confirmed that the student contacted them Friday morning and acknowledged responsibility for placing the noose the night before on a lamp fixture atop a seventh-floor bookcase in the campus' main library.

The UC San Diego student reportedly responsible for hanging a noose last week in a campus library issued a public, but anonymous, apology Monday and said she had no racist motivation. The noose's discovery set off protests at a school that is already tense from recent racially charged episodes and triggered condemnations from UC leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a letter published Monday on the front page of the UC San Diego student newspaper, the Guardian, the student wrote that the incident was "a mindless act and stupid mistake" and was not meant to recall the lynching of blacks.

The Manila folder, bulging with congratulatory letters and telegrams, sits proudly atop the desk. Plaques acknowledging her distinction cover the walls of her office at UC San Diego. A photo album from a recent reception in her honor sits nearby. Judy Sweet is reminded daily of her influence. Teen-age girls call her a role model. Professional women consider her a hero. Talk-show hosts seek her time. College and university presidents desire her friendship.

In a steel file cabinet in a storage room at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, an extraordinary case of research fraud unravels like a chilling detective story set in the laboratories of academic medicine. It begins with the curriculum vitae of Dr. Robert A. Slutsky, Wunderkind and heir apparent to the dukedom of cardiac radiology. The resume on file lists hundreds of publications, grants, awards, appointments--a startling prolificacy for just seven years.

None of the 196 black applicants to UC San Diego's School of Medicine has been accepted for the fall entering class, as compared with seven acceptances last year and 11 the year before, officials said Thursday. Twelve Latinos were accepted, down from 42 last year. But only five of those students plan to enroll in the 122-member first-year class--as compared with 16 who enrolled last year. And not one of the 27 Native Americans who applied was accepted, officials said.

The gig: Since taking the job as UC San Diego's first director of strategic energy initiatives in September 2008, Byron Washom has worked to turn the 1,200-acre campus into a model of sustainability, a "living laboratory." Projects include renewable energy, energy management, greenhouse-gas reduction, energy storage systems and greening the campus transportation fleet. The university generates 80% of its own electricity. "The only thing we're looking at, at the campus, are quantum improvements," he said.

Saddleback College has reached an agreement with UC San Diego guaranteeing that students who pass all classes with a grade of C or better will be allowed to transfer to the university. Saddleback students will not be guaranteed their choice of major at UC San Diego, however. Because UC San Diego has too many computer science and electrical engineering majors, Saddleback students who wish to major in those areas will have to compete for openings with the university's current students.

Women who work outside the home enjoy better health than women who stay home, according to a long-term study by UC San Diego researchers scheduled to be published today. The study showed that working women had significantly lower risk of heart disease, the nation's leading killer of women, than homemakers or women who could not find steady work.

A UC San Diego student admitted Friday to hanging a rope noose from a campus library bookcase in an act that triggered more protests at a school already roiled by other recent racially charged incidents. Angry students responded to the incident by storming and occupying the office of UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox. The sit-in continued for about six hours Friday and ended without arrests, and a sympathy protest at UCLA lasted about an hour, officials said. UC San Diego police confirmed that the student contacted them Friday morning and acknowledged responsibility for placing the noose the night before on a lamp fixture atop a seventh-floor bookcase in the campus' main library.

A student walkout Wednesday disrupted a UC San Diego teach-in that was intended to promote tolerance in the wake of two recent racially charged incidents. Many of those involved said the protest showed how difficult it will be for the beachside campus to overcome long-standing concerns about the small number of African American students enrolled there. More than 1,200 students, faculty and staff packed an auditorium in the student center for the teach-in, which campus administrators organized in response to the incidents, including an off-campus party Feb. 15 that mocked Black History Month.

UC San Diego leaders and civil rights activists have condemned a student party that mocked Black History Month with a ghetto-themed "Compton Cookout." Campus administrators said Wednesday that they were investigating whether the off-campus party, held Monday, and its Facebook invitation violated the university's code of conduct and whether its sponsors should be disciplined. Members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity were identified as among the organizers, but the fraternity president has criticized the event and said his club did not sponsor it. In an e-mail to students and staff, UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said the party showed "blatant disregard of our campus values."

The gig: Since taking the job as UC San Diego's first director of strategic energy initiatives in September 2008, Byron Washom has worked to turn the 1,200-acre campus into a model of sustainability, a "living laboratory." Projects include renewable energy, energy management, greenhouse-gas reduction, energy storage systems and greening the campus transportation fleet. The university generates 80% of its own electricity. "The only thing we're looking at, at the campus, are quantum improvements," he said.

Blake Cole, 19, of Redondo Beach emerged from the surf Saturday morning, longboard under his arm, and professed himself satisfied. "Having fun and doing science," he said. "That's what it's all about." Indeed, the essence of the Physics of Surfing, a 1-unit course for freshmen at UC San Diego, is to mix physical exertion and intellectual rigor.

With a dozen high-def cameras and a couple of camcorders, plus pens, notebooks, sketch pads and laptops, more than 40 people spent three recent weeks in a black-box theater on the campus of UC San Diego documenting what was occurring there. The object of their study was notoriously elusive: dance and the process of choreographic creation. What happens, they wondered, when choreographer Wayne McGregor creates movement on (through? with?

UC San Diego officials announced Friday that Dr. Ricardo H. Asch may have victimized at least five patients in a human egg-swapping scheme at the university, broadening the scope of the UC fertility scandal to as many as 40 women at three Southern California medical centers.

Months after a patient became dangerously ill from a medication overdose in a drug company-sponsored study, UC San Diego and Veterans Affairs officials have suspended research by a top liver specialist accused of violating regulations that protect volunteers. Dr.

It took two years of planning, a month of construction and then just four 30-second bursts of shaking. And from that shaking, academics and building-industry specialists hope to add to their knowledge about how to prepare California, and the nation, to withstand the killer earthquakes thought to be slouching toward us.

A La Jolla man was sentenced Monday to 15 months in federal prison for making hoax bomb threats to UC San Diego. Richard Sills, 55, conceded making the calls and planting a fake bomb in an effort to disrupt animal research on the campus. District Judge Larry Burns also ordered Sills to pay $10,419 in restitution to the campus and to a research firm targeted by his late 2007 hoax. -- Tony Perry