Los Angeles Times to Publish Sept. 12 Commemorative Special Section Profiling California Higher Education

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 7, 2006 – The Los Angeles Times on Sept. 12 will publish a 36-page section showcasing 125 years of California higher education history, from the groundbreaking education master plan that helped shape the state’s future to the Free Speech Movement that lit up campuses in the 1960s to the colorful rivalries and lifestyles that define campus life today.

This is the fifth in a series of eight special or themed sections marking The Times’ 125th anniversary covering Southern California.

An online version of the section will be posted at www.latimes.com/highered, and will feature an extensive collection of photo galleries, message boards, photo albums and favorites listings.

Section Highlights

• A Master Plan – Nearly half a century after it was signed into law in 1960, California’s bold, utopian master plan for higher education endures. The plan helped shape not only California’s renowned, tiered public-college system, but also the state itself.
• Patt Morrison – To compete against its East Coast industrial rivals, California needed a higher education system that could do the same against its Eastern academic rivals. Times columnist Patt Morrison notes that California, home to more Nobel laureates than anywhere else, has built exactly that kind of a system.
• Campus Unrest – The Free Speech Movement of the 1960s left a lasting legacy for many California college campuses. And, thanks to widespread media attention, the movement resonated nationally and provided a basic blueprint for the student demonstrations that became common over much of the next decade.
• Golden Inventions – The nicotine patch…Google…the Hepatitis B vaccine…music synthesizer chips…computerized war games…and a really tasty strawberry. The common thread? They are among the thousands of inventions born on California college campuses that are now making the state’s academic centers among the nation’s most productive – and well-rewarded.
• Film Schools – The Los Angeles area has three of the most powerful and prestigious film schools: UCLA, USC and California Institute of the Arts. A look at the unique strengths of each: writing/directing at UCLA, producing at USC, and animation at CalArts.
• Future World – Television-based courses were cutting-edge when they were introduced in the late 1970s. Today, they pale in comparison with the newest gizmos – complete with state-of-the-art videogame or artificial intelligence technology – that are now on their way. In the future, some colleges may be adventurous enough to use devices capable of monitoring students’ brainwaves.

Latimes.com Interactive Features

The special section website will feature:

• an interactive “celebrity yearbook” where users can research celebrities who attended California colleges; and
• a “Campus Eats” message board where users can nominate their favorite California campus eatery.

Using latimes.com’s recently launched online photo community, “Your Scene,” users can upload photos, create their own photo albums and email those collections to family and friends. Two collections will be offered:

• a protest pictorial where users can share their personal campus protest photos; and
• a campus fashion review where users can share their favorite photos of campus fashions, past and present.

Upcoming Features

In October, The Times will publish a sixth anniversary themed section, which will cover 125 years of Southern California fashion. The November section will profile the people who have made Southern California what it is today. The series will end in December with a broad look at the pervasive influence that Los Angeles has had on the world.

About the Los Angeles Times

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of nearly 2.2 million and about 3.3 million on Sunday. With its media businesses and affiliates – including latimes.com, TheEnvelope.com, Times Community Newspapers, Recycler Classifieds, Hoy, and California Community News – the Los Angeles Times reaches approximately 7.6 million or 58 percent of all adults in the Southern California marketplace every week.

The Los Angeles Times, which this year marks its 125th anniversary covering Southern California, is part of Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB), one of the country’s leading media companies with businesses in publishing, the Internet and broadcasting. Additional information about the Los Angeles Times is available at www.latimes.com/mediacenter.

Contact:
David Garcia
213-237-4715
david.garcia@latimes.com