Professor files lawsuit

A medical professor is suing UC Davis' chancellor and the former dean of the medical school for retaliation after he filed a whistleblower report two years ago regarding alleged irregular practices at the university's primary care clinic. In the lawsuit filed May 4, Robert Szabo, an orthopedic surgeon, alleged that Joseph Silva, dean emeritus of the medical school, relocated Szabo's surgical and clinical practices and his academic office to the UC Davis Health Systems' Carmichael clinic, hindering his ability to perform his work in the School of Medicine.

Heart disease screening

Free vascular disease screenings for people 59 and older are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the UC Davis Medical Center. Participants must have a history of smoking, or one or more of the following conditions: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia and cardiovascular disease. For an appointment, call (916) 734-6249.

Blogging from Iran

Nicole Woolsey Biggart, dean of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, is off to Europe and the Middle East on a 21-day trek that has her teaching organizational behavior in Sardinia for a week and attending an international deans conference in Paris. Her trip will include a three-day whirlwind visit to Iran, where she will visit Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. Biggart is writing a blog on her travels — read it at http://gsmdean.blogspot.com.

Black Family Week

UC Davis will hold its 36th annual Black Family Week from May 15 through 20. This year's theme is Building Legacies and Cultivating Knowledge. The week begins with a kickoff event on Monday from noon to 1 pm. The faculty luncheon takes place noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the International House. The Black Family Day celebration will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 20 on the quad. For more details, visit spac.ucdavis.edu/programs/bfw or see page 4.

CAES faculty meeting

The 2006 Annual Spring Faculty Meeting of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, June 8, in the AGR Room at Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. For more information about the college, visit http://caes.ucdavis.edu.

Prof chosen as adviser

Renee Newton of the UC Davis School of Education is serving on the statewide Advisory Committee on Before and After School Programs. Newton is director of the school's Center for Community School Partnerships and is principal investigator and convener of the newly established California Statewide After-School Network, based at UC Davis.

Jack O'Connell, state superintendent of public instruction, appointed Newton to the advisory committee, which will make recommendations to him, the secretary for education and the state Board of Education on policy and funding issues affecting before- and after-school programs. The new UC Davis network is improving after-school programs and making them accessible to all schoolchildren in the state.

Regents eye compensation

The UC Board of Regents meets May 16-18 at the UC San Francisco-Laurel Heights campus, 3333 California St.

The May 17 meeting will be dominated by sessions on compensation matters, including presentation of the university auditor's internal audit of senior managers not covered by the previous audits; a follow-up presentation by PricewaterhouseCoopers; a presentation by President Bob Dynes on his views on the compensation issue and possible reforms; and possible policy actions by the Board of Regents.