News Briefs 3-9-2023

Written by Theresa-Marie Wilson

Theresa-Maria Wilson has been a journalist covering the North Coast and South County area for over 20 years. She is also the founder of Cat Noir CC and is currently working on a novel.

March 8, 2023

Advisory Board Seats Open

The City of Morro Bay has a few openings on its advisory boards and anyone interested in serving has until the end of March to apply.

The City has an opening on its Citizen Oversight/Citizens Finance Committee and needs an alternate representation for the Commercial Fishermen’s Organization for the Harbor Advisory Board. 

Application deadline is March 31 and applications are available by calling the City Clerk’s Office at 805-772-6568, email to: cityclerk@morrobayca.gov. More information is available on the City website, see: www.morrobayca.gov/advisorybody.

The oversight committee tracks expenditures of the Measure Q and E-22 sales tax monies, and the spending on the Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) Project, which is nearing its conclusion.

The HAB advises the Harbor Department on issue related to the harbor, boating and waterfront issues and facilities.

Advisory board positions are in general for registered voters living in Morro Bay except that some seats on the harbor board can be filled by someone living outside of Morro Bay if they meet the qualifications. That would include the commercial fishing representative and alternate.

Council interviews with applicants are scheduled for April 11.

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Addis Named Chair of Select Committees

Central Coast Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) was recently appointed chairperson of two select commtties by Speaker Anthony Rendon. Addis will lead the Select Committee on Offshore Wind Energy in California and the Select Committee on Serving Students with Disabilities. 

“Both committees will focus on policies that need legislative attention and I’m ready to bring a Central Coast perspective and my experience to the work ahead,” Addis said in a news release.

Last December, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) completed lease sales for five offshore wind farm areas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off central and northern California — three off Morro Bay and two off the coast of Humboldt County.

Addis’ experience as a special education teacher will inform her role on the Select Committee on Serving Students with Disabilities. She holds teaching credentials in elementary education, secondary education and special education and is fluent in Spanish.

Assembly select committees are authorized for a two-year legislative session. Thus far no one else has been named to the commitees.  Speaker Rendon will approve the full membership of the committees at a later date. 

Poly’s Dean of Ag to Retire

Andrew J. Thulin, dean of Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES), will retire at the end of the 2023 calendar year.  

Thulin, a Cal Poly alumnus, joined CAFES in 1998 as head of its Animal Science Department and has led the college for the last 10 years.  

“My love for Cal Poly runs deep, and I am honored to have spent the last 25 years alongside those who work tirelessly to prepare our graduates to address these global issues,” Thulin said in a news release. “I can retire knowing that the future is in good hands.”  

During his 25-year tenure, more than $230 million was raised for numerous new laboratories and the construction of a new Beef Center, Animal Nutrition Center, J & G Lau Meat Processing Center, Oppenheimer Family Equine Center, Boswell Ag Tech Center in the William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation, and the $22 million Justin and J. Lohr Center for Wine and Viticulture, which has been recognized as the largest donor-funded project in California State University history. 

A strong believer in diversity of thought and respect for others, Dean Thulin initiated the college’s first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and has encouraged and funded innovative programs to support first generation and underrepresented minority students. 

 Poly Named a Top Producer U.S. of Fulbright Scholars

Greg Domber (center) with family members at the Kościuszko Mound in Krakow. Photo submitted

Once again, Cal Poly was named a top producer of U.S. Fulbright scholars by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 

Three Cal Poly faculty were awarded grants for the 2022-23 academic year: Greg Domber, lecturer in the History Department, and Mira Rosenthal, associate professor of English, are teaching and conducting research at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; and Nishanta ‘Nishi’ Rajakaruna, professor of biology, is teaching and conducting research at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. 

Domber and Rosenthal are a married couple who met in Poland while pursuing Student Fulbright Scholarships as graduate students. Domber’s research focus is a digital history project to better understand the influences of American exchange programs on Poland’s negotiated transformation away from communism in 1989. 

Rosenthal has focused on translating a selection of poetry by Zuzanna Ginczanka, an interwar Polish poet of Jewish heritage who was murdered at the end of World War II. Her work fell into obscurity until the last 10 years. Since then, there’s been a concerted effort to rediscover her poetry and establish her legacy. 

The couple has seen some of the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most notably the Poles’ support of their neighbors. Domber and Rosenthal began volunteering at the Jewish Community Center of Krakow, a group that houses about 350 Ukrainian families and provides access to a food bank.

In South Africa, Rajakaruna embarked on five-week field expedition studying gypsum ecosystems, gave multiple keynote addresses at regional conferences in his field and was awarded for his Exceptional Contribution to Research Excellence from the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University. 

Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Since its inception in 1946, more than 400,000 participants from all backgrounds and fields — including recent university graduates, teachers, scientists, researchers, artists and others, from the U.S. and over 160 other countries — have participated in the Fulbright Program. For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org/.

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