Community Briefs

Santa Cruz students protest letter grades

Give the students at UC Santa Cruz an A+ for their demonstration
against a proposed change from performance evaluations to letter
grades.

The students barricaded the entrances to a meeting and forced
the cancellation of a faculty vote on the matter.

Written evaluations instead of letter grades are part of the
university’s 35-year history. But in February, the faculty
tentatively voted to require letter grades.

At Wednesday’s protest, more than 200 demonstrators beat
drums and chanted down the proposed change, saying,
“˜”˜What do we want? Narrative evaluations! When do we
want it? Now!”

Students against letter grades say the evaluation method
provides valuable information about their individual strengths and
weaknesses.

But faculty members who support grades say graduate schools
expect them from applicants.

The vote will not be taken by the Academic Senate until the
fall.

Wen Ho Lee supporters gather in Silicon
Valley

Silicon Valley supporters of jailed physicist Wen Ho Lee held a
rally on his behalf, saying his jailing was an act of
discrimination.

Speaking out Wednesday in support of Lee were the former
chancellor of UC Berkeley, a mayor, a city council member and a
state representative.

Chang-Lin Tien, UC Berkeley’s chancellor from 1990 to
1997, said the turmoil over Lee’s imprisonment would have a
long-lasting impact on Asian American politics.

Lee, a Taiwan-born U.S. citizen, was arrested in December and
indicted for mishandling computer simulation programs used to
design nuclear weapons at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is
one of three national labs that are managed by the University of
California.

Lee made backup tapes of the classified material, some of which
have subsequently disappeared.

Several employees of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the
sister lab to Los Alamos, attended the rally in support of Lee.

Scientists propose test for anal cancer

Just as use of Pap smears has led to a dramatic drop in cervical
cancer, so screening for anal cancer among gay and bisexual men
would save many lives at a reasonable cost, according to a study
conducted at UC San Francisco and the Harvard School of Public
Health.

Anal squamous cell cancer and cervical cancer are similar
diseases, both caused by a sexually-transmitted virus called human
papillomavirus.

The study, led by Dr. Sue Goldie, assistant professor at the
Harvard School of Public Health, predicts that the use of a
procedure comparable to a Pap smear, would lead to detection of
pre-cancerous lesions among high-risk, HIV-negative men and allow
for early treatment.

A study by the same scientists last year reported similar
findings for HIV-positive gay men.

“No one knew that cervical cancer was preventable before
the use of Pap smears became widespread in the 1960s and cut the
incidence of the disease by 80 percent,” Dr. Joel Palefsky,
senior author of the study and a professor at UC San Francisco,
said in a statement.

“The hope is that a simple, early screening procedure for
HPV-induced anal cancer would lead to a similar drop in disease and
death,” he continued.

Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.