• National Engineering Academy Elects 3 More UCSB Professors
  • Documentary May Lift Visibility of Flying 'A'
  • Development, Culture Topics of 2 Conferences
  • Academic Senate Votes 82-4 to Oppose War in Iraq
  • Researchers Opening Oceans' 'Black Box'
  • Ballet Brings Fun to Residency
  • Capps Center Seen 'Coming to Life'
  • Campus Contract and Grant Awards
  • Campus Notes
  • Calendar
  • Credits
    •

    Capps Center Seen 'Coming to Life'

    Greeting Capps Center undergraduatate interns Kate Pollack and Miguel Morton at a Department of Religious Studies reception were Wade Clark Roof, left, center director and chair of the department; Rep. Lois Capps, center back; and Dale Kunkel, UCIDC director.
    Last month, the UCSB-based Capps Center for the Study of Religion and Public Life welcomed back its first undergraduate intern, Kate Pollack, from Washington, D.C., and announced that its second intern, Miguel Morton, will go to the capital in the spring quarter.
    The interns as well as the public events–Pentagon Papers protagonist Daniel Ellsberg will speak on Iraq, terrorism, and nuclear war on March 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Victoria Hall–are the center's most visible current activities. But Director Wade Clark Roof, professor and chair of religious studies, is also in the middle of organizing a May public conference on the topic "Religious Pluralism in Southern California" and another, invitation-only conference in August.
    Congresswoman Lois Capps, with whom Morton, a political science major, hopes to work, and UC/DC Program Chair Dale Kunkel told the faculty and staff audience that it was a challenging but exciting time to work in Washington. Kunkel, a UCSB professor of communication, said he oversaw 30 interns in his program and they were all initially "overwhelmed, but enthusiastic."
    Rep. Capps, in whose husband's memory the center was launched in 2002, spoke warmly about the program and how "we need every bit of strength and resources" that can help the nation get through the current peril. "The Capps Center has come alive," she concluded.