TimesOC: Fleeing Afghan scholars could find an open door at campuses like UCI
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 8. I’m Carol Cormaci, bringing you today’s TimesOC newsletter with the latest roundup of news and events.
With the eyes of the world upon them, Afghans of all ages have been entering the U.S. after the withdrawal of American troops and the subsequent fall of their country. Around the nation these refugees are being embraced as they try to make sense of their situation and find ways to create new lives for themselves on these shores that are so very foreign to them.
One movement afoot is among California colleges, led by an initiative at UC Irvine, to help settle academics, lawyers, artists and journalists, along with their family members. A UCI comparative literature professor, Jane O. Newman, has spearheaded a drive to raise $250,000 in donations from university administrators for these refugees to continue their work in more peaceful surroundings.
Our colleague Sara Cardine interviewed Newman and others involved in the effort and learned the public is welcome to chip in too, via a crowdsourcing drive to raise an additional $150,000 to help meet the needs of the newcomers.
According to Cardine’s report, Newman is the chair of a UC-systemwide coordinating committee for Scholars at Risk (SAR), an international network that works to promote academic freedom, in part, by arranging temporary academic positions at member universities and colleges.
“There are many Afghan scholars, particularly women scholars, who’ve been getting PhDs for the past 20 years, and they’ve grown up with this possibility, but now it’s shutting down on them,” Newman said to Cardine last week. “If we just abandon these people, what do we think is going to happen to the U.S. in the world?”
Also set up to lend aid to scholars who have fled their homelands is the Institute of International Education’s rescue fund, an ongoing endeavor.
Those interested in helping refugees of all walks of life as they transition to their new homes here can find tips in this piece by L.A. Times staff writer Karen Garcia.
MORE NEWS
— The recall campaign against Gov. Gavin Newsom is not finding as many supporters in Orange County as might have been expected by local members of the Rescue California — Recall Gavin Newsom campaign who circulated petitions here earlier this year. Reporters Andrew Campa and Christopher Goffard share a byline on a story about a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California that shows 50% of Orange County/San Diego area voters oppose the recall while 45% are in favor of it.
— In other politically charged news, O.C. County Supervisor Katrina Foley, a Democrat who on Aug. 9 started holding frequent COVID-19 updates after the county dropped its briefings, was told by the chairman of the board of supes, Andrew Do, that she could no longer engage the time of county health personnel to provide those updates. Do, a Republican, claimed Foley’s reports were nothing short of political stunts. Foley says her briefings were to help counter misinformation being spread about COVID-19 as the Delta and other variants of the novel coronavirus began surging.
— Meanwhile, the Orange County Health Care Agency on Tuesday reported 1,651 new cases of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and 20 deaths from the disease. This includes data reported over the three-day holiday weekend.
— A 21-year-old Costa Mesa man was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and speeding after he lost control of his car, which careened off Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach and came to rest on an embankment at about 5:15 p.m. on Labor Day.
— UC Irvine announced Tuesday a five-year, nearly $11-million grant from the Jacobs Foundation for the creation of a collaborative network to help tailor digital technologies for children. According to UCI, young people represent one in three users of the internet globally, yet online spaces and tools are often not designed to offer children the types of support and opportunities for learning that they need, according to a report of the grant by City News Service.
— The scope of a bill by state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) that would have banned gun shows from operating on any state-owned property in California was recently narrowed so severely its prohibitions, if approved by the governor, will apply solely to Orange County, reports Sara Cardine.
SPORTS
— A field goal by Dieter Kelly in the final minute of the fourth quarter Friday night allowed Orange Lutheran to claim a 23-21 victory over Edison High School in a nonleague football game.
— Boswell Field at Westminster High was the venue Thursday when the Elsinore High School football team topped the Marina High Vikings, 30-28. Donovan Harvey turned 15 carries into 160 yards for Elsinore. He also returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown.
— Estancia High School’s girls’ volleyball team earned its sixth victory in a row to begin the season with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-20 sweep at Rancho Alamitos in a nonleague match on Thursday. “We got some girls who can bang the ball, and it’s just going to all come down to how much better we can get in serve receive and even passing as the season progresses,” Estancia coach Alejandro De Mendoza said.
— Fire crews from Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and the Orange County Fire Authority worked Monday to extinguish a Talbert Regional Park fire fueled not by wind but by heavy brush that extended
dousing efforts, officials reported.
LIFE & LEISURE
— Buena Park resident Dr. Natalie J. Graham, a prize-winning poet and professor of African American studies at Cal State Fullerton is the first poet laureate of Orange County, an honor bestowed by a panel of judges this summer at the behest of a joint effort of LibroMobile and Orange County Public Libraries. In addition to selecting Graham, the panel named 16-year-old Newport Beach resident Tina Mai as its youth laureate. Our colleague Gabriel San Román has the full story.
— Adiós, Laguna Beach Taco Bell. The third oldest Taco Bell in the world at the ripe old age of 53 rang up its final sale Tuesday night and will be replaced by a business that operates under the name the Taco Stand. “Moving from a national chain to a more boutique local business is a great move,” a Laguna Beach planning commissioner said during a hearing this summer on the new Taco Stand.
— Chef Shachi Mehra, owner of Adya Indian street food restaurants in Irvine and Anaheim, was recently interviewed by our colleague Sarah Mosqueda for a feature story on her line of Spice Girl Sauces. She’d made her idea for the line public in 2019 when she was a competitor on Food Network’s “Chopped” and was asked on the show what she would do with her winnings. She emerged that season’s champion and she was true to her words. “Well, now I just said it on national TV,” Mehra recalls thinking. “I better get this thing rolling.”
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