News briefs

29 October 2003

UC, UPTE health care workers sign contract
After five months of negotiation, UC and the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) union have agreed on a new labor contract for 2,100 UC health care professionals. Key features of the contract, effective July 1, 2003, through June 30, 2006, include improved layoff benefits (giving employees the option of severance in lieu of preferential rehire, or a combination of reduced severance and preferential rehire rights) and improved professional development and educational-leave benefits, including home or Internet study.

Free first Thursdays at BAM/PFA
While the Berkeley Art Museum (BAM) is always free to faculty and staff, now it’s gratis, too, for off-campus friends and members of the public on the first Thursday of the month. In addition, Pacific Film Archive (PFA) is offering free admission to 5:30 p.m. screenings the first Thursday of the month, beginning in November. PFA kicks off the new program on Nov. 6 with a screening of The Good Wife of Tokyo, a 1993 British documentary, by filmmaker Kim Longinotto, about a Japanese punk rocker who marries her English boyfriend presumably to appease her mother — who proves, ultimately, to hold the truly rebellious attitudes about the institution of marriage.

UC campuses rank high on ‘best value’ listAll UC undergraduate campuses rank among the top public-education bargains in the nation, according to a recent survey by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

The magazine’s study of the 100 best values in public education for fall 2003 ranked UC San Diego 16th nationally, followed by Berkeley (17th) and UCLA (37th). UC campuses also got high marks as bargains for out-of-state students, with Berkeley ranking 9th.

Kiplinger’s study is based on freshman SAT or ACT scores and other measures of academic quality, as well as quality and cost components such as fees and tuition, room and board, the average percentage of need met by financial aid, and the average student debt upon graduation.

The study is available online at kiplinger.com/magazine/ archives/2003/11/colleges.html.

UCLA student named new student regent
The UC Regents recently appointed Jodi Anderson, a second-year doctoral student and teaching assistant in education at UCLA, as the 2004-05 student regent. She is the 30th student regent since the position was established in 1975. For the coming year, she will serve as regent-designate, and will vote on board decisions when her one-year term begins in July 2004. Matthew Murray, a Berkeley undergraduate studying architecture, is the student regent for 2003-04.