Academic Senate polarizes campus The Academic Senate’s choice to condemn U.S. action in Iraq (“Faculty to take stance on U.S. war in Iraq,” News, April 14) is in distasteful disregard of the university’s responsibility to provide students with a safe learning environment. Read more...

If there was any doubt that North Korea, a country that claims to have nuclear weapons and has publicly threatened the United States, was a more serious threat than Iraq, it was cleared up when American troops marched into Baghdad, facing only pitiful resistance. Read more...

Though Gov. Gray Davis proposed to chop university outreach funding in half earlier this year, University of California officials are optimistic the final cuts will not be that painful. Read more...

The Student Initiated Outreach Committee will face a cut of a third of its funding next year because of statewide budget cuts. Now the SIOC worries that Chancellor Albert Carnesale will use state cuts to justify cutting the University of California Office of the President’s contribution to the committee, leaving the organization with less than 50 percent of its current budget, said SIOC chairwoman Leilani Downing. Read more...

Educational outreach has played an important role in creating diversity at the University of California for more than 40 years. But outreach programs have never been more crucial to maintaining the system’s commitment to diversity than in the past eight years, when the passing of anti-affirmative action policies resulted in a noticeable drop in minority enrollment. Read more...

A memorial service full of laughter and tears was held on Tuesday for third-year law student Peter Santos, who passed away in March. About 75 students and faculty members gathered in the UCLA School of Law courtyard to remember a friend and student whom Professor Laura Gomez referred to as “the funniest guy in the law school.” Poster boards with pictures of Santos and his friends lined the courtyard, as well as a photograph of Santos with the words of Mother Teresa: “Sorrow is not forever … love is.” Santos, whom Gomez described as a “devoted son,” died of natural causes while visiting his mother in his hometown near Sacramento last month. Read more...

Along with causing fee hikes, decreasing faculty salaries and increasing class sizes, budget cuts are expected to hurt the esteemed UCLA reputation. At a school known for being a research institution, budget cuts will mean professors teaching more and researching less ““ and less research means less visibility outside Westwood. Read more...