Education
As of 4/11, Gayle Beebe is officially Westmont’s eighth president. Beebe, who took the position last July, was officially inaugurated by the school with the blessings of Westmont staff, students, and Forbes magazine editor-in-chief Steve Forbes, who spoke at an honorary breakfast immediately preceding the inauguration ceremony at the Westmont campus. Both Beebe and Forbes spoke of the importance of students taking advantage of every academic opportunity at college.
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Of its 47,025 applicants for fall 2008, UCSB accepted nearly half for undergraduate enrollment, making the class of 2012 its largest yet. Accepted applicants boast a 4.03 grade-point average slightly higher than the 3.98 GPA of last year’s class. Of the 23,140 accepted undergrads, 5,246 come from underrepresented minority groups.
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Concerned about the possibility of violent repercussions, UCSB’s Muslim Student Association (MSA) members called an emergency meeting following the release of an advertisement in the university’s newspaper, the Daily Nexus, alleging the group’s association with terrorists. Paid for by the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s Terrorism Awareness Project, the half-page ad claimed the MSA was a front for a “jihad.” MSA members explained that the group encourages peace and refuted the ad’s various assertions.
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Automotive giant Toyota pledged $400,000 to UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management that the greenie mecca will use to launch a professor-in-residence program, new internships, and a fellowship program designed to attract elite masters and PhD students. Toyota, whose support of the Bren school began in 2001, stated that it recognizes the need for environmental education.
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Dos Pueblos High School beat out eight other high schools to win the 2008 Economics Challenge State Finals. The contest, sponsored by the San Bernardino-based California Council on Economic Education, awarded the victorious four students savings bonds as well as paid trips to New York City to compete in the national finals.
