Volume 55, Number 34    May 19 , 2008         

Teaching change
In a May 12 San Francisco Chronicle Open Forum article, Professor of Elementary Education Daniel Meier stressed the need for new teachers in the public education system. "Our public schools have never been more complicated places, and we need a critical mass of new teachers to sustain the challenge of school reform today and change over the long term. Those who answer the call of teaching dedicate themselves to a profession that ennobles the mind and enriches the heart," Meier said. "Educational change and reform is not a future endeavor - it should have happened yesterday, last year, 10 years ago - and we need a new wave of bright and dedicated teachers to carry on this effort."
 
Planting answers
A May 7 San Francisco Chronicle article explored the mystery of an unclassified -- and maybe "extinct" -- manzanita tree with the help of Biology Professor Tom Parker and Biology Lecturer Mike Vasey. "We didn't have any idea what it was. The morphology didn't match anything,” explained Parker, who is working with Vasey to name a similar plant from the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. "The San Francisco plant could be the Santa Cruz species or something totally new. [This] may [be] a relic of some other time period that exists only as genes in other plants. Given its probable age, roughly 30 if it's a small species or 20-plus if it's a faster growing larger species, it's not likely to have been planted."
 
Disaster-prone
In a May 6 CBS 5 Eyewitness News broadcast about the recent cyclone in Myanmar, Professor of Meteorology Jan Null explained why some countries are vulnerable to natural disasters. "This portion of the world sees these types of storms on a semi-regular basis. You have these low-lying areas where there are main rivers and delta areas. That's a primary means of not only commerce but transportation," Null said. "And with people living at sea-level, when you have a huge flooding event like this, then you have this great inundation."

For more media coverage of faculty, staff, students, alumni and programs, see SF State in the News.

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Last modified May 19, 2008 by University Communications.