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May 5, 2003
Awards and Honors
Theater arts lecturer Gregory
Fritsch voted Good Times 'Best Professor'
Gregory Fritsch, lecturer in theater arts (drama) and a fellow of Porter
College, was voted "Best Professor" in this year's Good
Times Best Of section, in the professionals category. Fritsch is
a two-time recipient of UCSC awards for excellence in teaching.
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Francisco Hernandez
named to national board for online learning
Francisco Hernandez, vice chancellor for student affairs and an early
champion of virtual schooling, has been named to the board of directors
of a new national council for online K-12 education.
Hernandez is executive director of the University of California’s
College Preparatory Initiative (UCCP), which offers online advanced
placement and honors courses to high school students. The UCCP was established
three years ago to increase opportunities for students from school districts
that have "underdeveloped college preparatory curricula."
With funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the North American Council for Online
Learning (NACOL) was formed in response to the growth in online K-12
learning and teaching initiatives. NACOL, in collaboration with the
Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET), will
focus on providing high-quality online teaching and will support expanded
research in the field.
Hernandez is among the pioneers of online K-12 education selected to
join the board of directors, which met April 15-16 to develop a strategic
plan and begin the process of hiring an executive director.
"NACOL will provide a national forum for online learning, and
I am pleased to participate," said Hernandez, who developed UCCP
to "level the playing field" for students from high schools
that offer few, if any, AP courses. UCCP uses a combination of Internet,
CD-ROM technology, and textbooks to offer its courses.
UCCP this year broadened its services to offer AP exam review in 14
subject areas and free online SAT and ACT test preparation to all California
students. UCCP also supports teachers by hosting online teaching and
learning institutes in the summer.
"It makes sense for the university to invest in today’s high
school students. They are tomorrow’s university students,"
said Hernandez. "The university has the expertise to help develop
virtual schooling. Our faculty and staff are involved with the development,
delivery, and evaluation of online learning. It’s a smart partnership."
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Historian Bruce Levine to
use NEH grant to study a Confederate policy that would have armed slaves
Professor of history Bruce Levine has been awarded a summer research
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for his project
"Confederate Emancipation? Southern Plans to Free Slaves During
the Civil War."
Most historians today hold that the Civil War’s central cause
was slavery and that the Confederacy’s central purpose was to preserve
human bondage. But a surprising chapter in southern history suggests
a different analysis. Particularly during the last six months of the
Confederacy’s existence, its leaders and journalists debated whether
to arm slaves to fight against Union troops and to reward those who
agreed to do so with their freedom. By the war’s end, a version
of this proposal had, in fact, become official Confederate policy. Levine’s
research attempts to clarify the meaning of both this startling policy
and the debates it provoked for the history of the U.S. South, the Civil
War, and postwar relations between whites and blacks.
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Vice Provost Talamantes
appointed to national advisory council
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Frank Talamantes
Titangos Photography Studio |
Frank Talamantes, professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology
and vice provost and dean of graduate studies, has been appointed to
serve on the National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council.
The council, with 18 members appointed by the Secretary of Health and
Human Services, advises the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS). Of the 18 appointed members, 12 are selected from
among the leading representatives of the health-science disciplines,
especially in the areas of toxicology, pharmacology, epidemiology, biochemistry,
public health, and behavioral and social sciences. Additional members
represent the fields of public policy, law, health policy, economics,
and environmental justice.
Talamantes, a leading endocrinologist, has received many awards and
honors for his pioneering work on hormones and hormone receptors. The
term for his appointment to the advisory council will end in November
2006.
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