Welcome for new students planned

For the 5,000 first-year students entering UBC this fall, the first day of
classes should be an enriching experience. Organizers of the university’s first
campus-wide welcome certainly hope so.

“Right now what new students get is a very, very large student number,” says
Alison Dunnet, a third-year political science student and co-chair of the planned
orientation day. “We’d like to give people a more personal connection with UBC
on their first day.”
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Feminist Legal Studies Centre founded

UBC will play a major role in advancing feminist legal scholarship in B.C.
with the creation of a new Centre for Feminist Legal Studies.

Both Senate and the Board of Governors recently approved a proposal to establish
the centre, which will focus on interdisciplinary research and teaching in the
areas of feminist legal theory and analysis, including equality, human rights,
family law, criminal law, taxation and mental health law.
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South American bird heading for market

Maybe tinamou doesn’t immediately come to mind as you scan the menu of your
favourite eatery, looking for something new to try. But Canadians may soon be
feasting on the tender relative of the ostrich and emu, thanks to a team of
UBC researchers.
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‘Cleaner air’ bus hits UBC roads for test runs

The 1981 GMC bus parked behind UBC’s Dept. of Mechanical Engineering looks,
sounds and performs like a regular diesel-powered transit coach with three notable
exceptions.

Powered by a unique natural gas injection system, the vehicle emits half the
pollutants and costs close to half as much to fuel as its gas-guzzling counterparts.
And then there’s the paint job.
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Interactive Web toolkit delivers courses on-line

Computer Science instructor Murray Goldberg has created a niche for himself
on campus–actually, on the World Wide Web.

Two years ago, Goldberg received a grant to put his third-year operating systems
course on the Web, complete with interactive exercises, on-line testing and
e-mail chat. Last term alone the site had 8,000 sign-ons.

Goldberg has since designed an interactive tool which allows teachers without
technical expertise to create sophisticated, web-based presentations of their
own courses.
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Scientists in hunt for new schizophrenia treatment

A UBC neuroscientist has received a $300,000 grant to take a new look at how
schizophrenia is affected by dopamine, the natural chemical that regulates brain
activity.
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Star athletes earn Big Block honour

Jenny Rauh and Bob Beveridge were named UBC’s top athletes for 1996/97 at the
annual Big Block Athletic Awards Banquet March 26. At the banquet, 130 students
were made Big Block members for having met the requirement of competing for
two years on a UBC Thunderbird team.
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Program seeks graduate interns

UBC is co-ordinating a six-month internship program in Asia for 30 university
graduates interested in sustainable development. The internships begin this
September.

Wayne Nelles, program director, said participants will be selected from diverse
academic backgrounds and should have a demonstrated interest in environmental
and international development issues.
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