Students protest fee increases, term cancellation

About 33 students at California State University, Stanislaus took their grievances with the canceling of the Winter Term session next year to the hallways and quad on Thursday. Beginning at 9 a.m., the students held signs and shouted phrases such as, "When they cut we bleed," "No hikes, no fees, education should be free," and "What do you want? Winter term! When do we want it? Now!"

New natural reserve at UC Merced

The University of California, Merced's Yosemite Field Station has been named part of the UC Natural Reserve System, giving the University its first natural reserve site.

Locals awarded CSU Stanislaus scholarships

Twenty-four California State University, Stanislaus students have been recognized as 2009-2010 Mary Stuart Rogers Scholars. The nine graduate and 15 undergraduate awardees were selected for their academic talents.

Making it official

Denair Unified School District board members and Superintendent Edward E. Parraz cut the ribbon Wednesday to "officially" open the new Denair Middle School. The construction started in October 2008 and finished last month for a total of $1.6 million to build the new middle school.

Stadium renovation costs increase

The potential costs and benefits of renovating Turlock High's Joe Debely Stadium was the number one topic of discussion at Tuesday's Turlock Unified School District Board of Trustees meeting.

Outgoing TUSD board members give their take on the election

Tuesday night's Turlock Unified School Board meeting was an emotional one for at least three trustees. Timm LaVelle, Tami Muniz and Felica Renshaw attended their last board meeting as trustees on Tuesday, as they were voted out of office in the Nov. 3 election. At the next meeting, Bob Weaver, Lori Crivelli and Josh Bernard will take their places.

Pitman student known for his love of agriculture

Ethan Alvares can be seen showing his steer with the Pitman FFA or throwing down tackles Friday night for his school's football team. But what really characterizes Alvares, is his desire to help others, his leadership skills and his sense of humor.

Top Livermore Lab scientist to speak at CSU Stanislaus

John P. Knezovich, science and technology principal directorate at Laurence Livermore National Laboratory, will present a lecture entitled "Carbon Dating: Applications to Forensic Science" at CSU Stanislaus on Wednesday.

Student journalists rack up awards

Modesto Junior College journalists garnered five awards from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges of Northern California for work on the Pirates' Log, their student newspaper.

Grant to assist Hispanic education

Hispanic education will receive a boost locally, as the U.S. Department of Education awarded a $230,000 grant to CSU Stanislaus.

UC Merced uses sun to go green

The University of California, Merced welcomed a new 8.5-acre, 1-megawatt solar array this week. Almost 5,000 solar panels will track the sun to provide 20 percent of the campus' annual electricity needs, rising to two-thirds of the campus' energy on sunny summer days.

CSU Sacramento seeks applicants for government fellowships

Four California State University, Sacramento fellowships offer a chance to work as a full-time staff member in the California State Assembly, Senate, Executive Branch or within the California court system.

National Guard visits local elementary school

Brown Elementary School celebrated Veteran's Day on Friday with the help of the California Army National Guard who landed a UH60 Black Hawk helicopter right on campus. Along for the demonstration were an LMTV truck and a high mobility multi-wheeled vehicle. All of this was possible with the help of kindergartner Bradley Williams parents' Major Douglas Williams and Catalina Williams, who are both active in the Army. Each student got to sit in the vehicles ...

Keyes Elementary breaks ground for new classrooms

Third grade students learned a new vocabulary word for the week, "concrete," as the foundation for the new classroom buildings was being set on Tuesday.

TUSD pursues funding for sidewalks, safety training

Students who walk to school in the Turlock Unified School District could soon be a little bit safer, thanks to the Safe Routes to School program.

Pumpkins pop up at Cunningham

The Kiwanis Club of Greater Turlock delivered 650 Halloween pumpkins to Cunningham Elementary School in Turlock on Friday. For the past 22 years the Kiwanis Club of Greater Turlock has been delivering the pumpkins. This year's batch was donated by Kiwanis members Ron and Karen Macedo, owners of Ram Farms.

Drug-free life

It was Red Ribbon Week last week in Turlock as schools all over town celebrated living a drug-free life.

Pitman High band kicks of Washington D.C. fundraising with free concert

The Pitman High School Band, known as the "Marching Pride" was recently invited to the 2012 National Independence Day Parade in Washington D.C. following a recommendation from Governor Jerry Brown. The Marching Pride hopes to raise $100,000 in order to make the trip to the nation's capital. Tonight the band will celebrate its nomination and kick off its massive fundraising effort with a free concert. The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. ...

THS Symphonic Band places 4th at Foothill Review

The Turlock High School Symphonic Band finished fourth overall out of 17 bands during the Foothill Band Review held Saturday at Amador Valley High in Pleasanton. The THS Symphonic band consists of 38 students who play an ensemble of percussion, wood and brass instruments. Only 38 students of the 100-member THS band participate in the symphonic section. At the review THS placed second in the concert class of schools. Band Director Daniel ...

Spooky fun at Chatom

It was a spooktacular engagement at Chatom Elementary School on Saturday afternoon. The country campus was filled with hundreds of ghostly sights and scary sounds.

Local schools to compete in Spelling Championship

Top local elementary and junior high spellers are scheduled to compete in the Stanislaus County Spelling Championships in the coming weeks. The top spellers in grades four through six from Chatom, Denair, Keyes, Sacred Heart and Turlock Unified School District elementary schools will compete with schools from throughout the county on Nov. 2 at Gregori High School at 5 p.m. Mountain View, Denair Middle, Sacred Heart and Turlock Junior High will compete ...

Migrant preschool program earns top honors

The Central California Migrant Head Start Program, operated by the Stanislaus County Office of Education, was recently named a "Center of Excellence" by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Locally, the Migrant Head Start Program operates the Turlock Child Development Center, which serves 150 children from low-income, agricultural-income based homes. Since 1965, the program serves 8,000 children in a seven county area and it was ...

Stanislaus AD resigns, joins staff at Simon Fraser in Canada

Strong Character at Crowell

Crowell Elementary in Turlock capped off its Character Counts Week celebration with a presentation of students who scored a perfect 600 on their California Standardized Testing on Friday. Throughout the week the school held assemblies to promote strong character amongst students and even held a professional dress and career day for sixth graders.

Farhadian named Love of Learning scholar

Isaac William Farhadian, of Turlock, a graduate student in History at CSU Stanislaus, was chosen as the Love of Learning award recipient by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Farhadian completed his undergraduate at CSU Stanislaus in 2010. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a double-major in History and Political Science and received the J. Burton Vasché Award. He has also received the Miriam V. and John L. Keymer Student Leadership Award, ...

UC Merced names first Alumni Association Board

Now with more than 1,200 alumni to its name, University of California, Merced on Thursday announced it has established the first-ever board of directors for its Alumni Association. Christopher Abrescy ('09), Uday Bali ('08), Josh Bolin ('07), Jason Castillo ('09), Efferman Ezell ('09), Sam Fong ('09), Jose Godinez ('11), James Kirby ('10), Jacqueline Miramontes ('10), Elizabeth Perkins ('11) and Yaasha Sabba ('09) will serve as the board's founding members. The board will ...

Kamali named dean of CSU Stanislaus College of Natural Sciences

Reza Kamali, the current dean of the School of Science and Technology at Cameron University in Lawton, Okla., has been named the new dean of the CSU Stanislaus College of Natural Sciences.

Merced College president retires

Merced College President Benjamin T. Duran will retire at the end of the academic year, he announced Tuesday. "I have contemplated this move for the last year or so but could never find the right time to make this life changing decision," Duran said. " … After reflecting on this and talking with my family for the last few months I came to the conclusion that there is never a right time to ...

Stanislaus to offer first accredited online MBA in state

California State University, Stanislaus will be the first institution in the state to launch a fully online Master of Business Administration degree program which is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. "The fully online MBA represents an exciting opportunity for increased access that allows each individual to study anytime, anywhere in pursuit of their graduate business degree," said CSU Stanislaus President Hamid Shirvani. "We are extremely proud to offer ...

A garden gala

Julien Elementary School held its 13th Annual Garden Celebration on Friday. The garden has been a focal point of instruction for the school in science and nutrition. Julien Garden Coordinator Janet Wheeler said students have learned a solid foundation for later horticulture and environmental interest through learning about how the food cycle works, soil, insects, worms, nature and nutrition. This year the garden has produced chard, kale, carrots, radishes, lettuces, beets, edible flowers, poppies, ...