The University of California, San Diego will host a special tribute to James Avery, the late acclaimed actor, poet and UC San Diego graduate of 1976, on Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m., at the campus’s Mandell Weiss Forum. The event, which is open to the public, will include an afternoon of theater, live music, personal reflections and poetry readings in Avery’s honor. Best known for his portrayal as the charismatic Uncle Phil Banks on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Avery was a classically trained UC San Diego actor and scholar. He died on December 31, 2013, due to complications from heart surgery. He was 68.
The competition has officially begun to see which vice chancellor area, or the chancellor’s office, can inspire the most participation in supporting the annual UC San Diego United Way/CHAD Campaign. Running from Feb. 13 through April 11 this year, the campaign is a call to action encouraging campus staff and faculty to play a role in strengthening the San Diego community.
A memorial to honor student activism for peace was recently unveiled at Revelle College. The idea for the memorial was spurred by a group of students in Thurgood Marshall College’s Dimensions of Culture (DOC) program after they learned about the history of UC San Diego student activism during the Vietnam War.
The papers of physicist and inventor Leo Szilard chronicling the birth of the nuclear age and the work of the Manhattan Project will soon be digitized by the UC San Diego Library.
Five winners have been selected to receive two free tickets to attend Eastbound: Home, a special concert at UC San Diego, featuring world-renowned jazz bassist and alumnus Nathan East, ’78 on Feb. 1. The 10 contest tickets were donated by Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla.
The University of California, San Diego will honor the history and accomplishments of African-Americans during the university’s annual celebration of Black History Month. The theme for 2014 is “Recognizing the 50th Anniversary of Civil Rights: The journey is not complete, we can and must do more.”
