EDUCATION UC Irvine students celebrate Cinco de...

EDUCATION

UC Irvine students celebrate Cinco de Mayo

Students at UC Irvine celebrated Cinco de Mayo with dances, music

and Mexican food. The holiday marks the Mexican army’s victory over

the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Members of the Sigma Pi fraternity at UCI, who were accused last

week of racist behavior, met with members of the university’s Chicano

community on Tuesday to resolve the conflict. The success of the

community forum, which was mediated by a university ombudsman,

remains to be seen.

The fraternity distributed fliers and wore T-shirts that were

considered offensive. One of the items deemed highly offensive on the

fliers, which the fraternity made to promote its Cinco de Mayo party,

“Drinko for Cinco,” was the promotion of the fraternity’s “Dirty

Sanchez Look-a-like Contest.”

Vanguard University will offer its first women’s studies minor for

the spring 2004 semester.

The new minor, offered through the school of humanities, will

focus on women’s roles in literature, history, leadership and

religion. It will be offered as an interdisciplinary minor.

The Harbor Council Parent Teacher Assn. hosted an meeting for

parents in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District to discuss drug

and alcohol use and abuse among teenagers and the ways parents and

the school district should respond. A variety of speakers gave

parents different perspectives on the issue.

* CHRISTINE CARRILLO covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at christine.carrillo@latimes.com.