March 12, 2001
Largest gathering of UC alumni group attends UC Day
By Mary Spletter
UC Office of the President
The largest-ever delegation of University of California alumni--more than 400--gathered March 5 and 6 for the annual UC Day in Sacramento to demonstrate their support for the university and honor faculty, students, and legislators who have made outstanding contributions.
"You can convey our messages more ardently and powerfully than any group in UC," university Senior Vice President Bruce B. Darling told the alumni, who gathered from every region of the state.
"Our goals are to provide an excellent education and opportunity for every student in California under the guidelines defined by the Master Plan. As the research arm of the state, we want to focus on K-12 education and continue to ask what we can do for the state," said Darling, who is senior vice president of University and External Relations.
Darling told the alumni group that to accommodate UC's tremendous growth of students this decade, there is a critical need for a new state bond issue of $1 billion to fund facilities at community colleges, state universities, and the UC system.
He added that the California Institutes for Science and Innovation--chosen last year by Governor Gray Davis--are vital partnerships between UC campuses and industry throughout California. These institutes will advance research at UC, inspire economic innovation, help create new start-up businesses and thousands of jobs for California's citizens, said Darling.
Speaking for the UC system as well as for their own campuses, the delegates spent Tuesday (March 6) taking their messages to the state's 115 legislators and their staffs.
The annual event, which this year featured the theme, "On the Threshold of Opportunity," is sponsored by the Alumni Associations of the University of California (AAUC).
The delegates attended a breakfast meeting during which they honored two Legislators of the Year, state Senator Joseph Dunn and Assembly Speaker Robert M. Hertzberg; and 19 undergraduate researchers from the UC campuses (see story about two from UCSC).
Setting the tone for the event, Sue Johnson, chair of the Board of Regents, said, "Our university and our state are on the threshold of opportunity. For UC, our opportunities range from the building of a 10th UC campus that will expand educational opportunities in the Central Valley, to opening the doors to the 60,000 additional students who will attend UC over the next decade. We have an opportunity to assure that UC is more accessible and affordable to future generations."
Senator Dunn (D-Garden Grove) and Speaker Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys), cited as UC Legislators of the Year for their distinguished service and dedication to higher education in California, received awards from the Alumni Associations of the University of California.
The 19 undergraduates representing eight of UC's campuses "are our future leaders in research that will impact the lives of California's citizens," said Mark W. Kohn, vice president of the UC alumni group and an Alumni Regent.
The students presented posters on their research projects that will remain outside the Governor's Office for a week. Their projects included research into noise pollution near airports, computer crime, and pediatric diabetes.
One third of UC's undergraduates--some 57,000 students--work with faculty on research projects while they are attending the university, Kohn noted.
The students expressed the value of research in their own words in a booklet that accompanied their presentations.
The morning program concluded with a quote from UC President Richard C. Atkinson read by Irene T. Miura, AAUC president and an Alumni Regent: "Education is the single most powerful answer to the question of how to build a democratic society that works."
