Faith Harder, widow of former UCSB Director of Athletics Theodore “Spud” Harder, died Wednesday at the age of 99.

Harder moved to Santa Barbara with her husband in 1934 when he took the positions of Director of Athletics, football and baseball coach. She was a member of the Faculty Women’s Club and volunteered at Cottage Hospital in her spare time.

According to John Keever, chairman of the Gaucho Order, Harder was a devoted wife and assisted her husband throughout his tenure at UCSB.

“I think for every great leader, there always has to be a great partner that helps them along the way,” Keever said. “Faith was that great partner in his life as a leader at UCSB.”

Riley Jimison, a fourth-year global studies major and great-grandson of Faith and Theodore, said Harder loved spending time with her family and members of the campus community.

“Faith was a wonderful woman who was very generous to me and the rest of her grandchildren,” Jimison said. “I will always remember how she loved having her family around during the holidays, how she missed Spud through all the years and how UCSB always remained close to her heart.”

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A memorial scholarship is being planned to commemorate the life of Lucas Ransom, the third-year chemical engineering student who died in a shark attack last month.

Ransom’s mother, Candace Ransom, proposed the scholarship to the Office of Development last week. The fund is still in the early stages of development, but is planned to benefit students in the chemical sciences.

Chris Pizzinat, deputy director at the Office of Development, said the Ransom family intends to aid students with similar interests as Lucas.

“Lucas Ransom was a chemical engineering major, although apparently he was in the process of changing it to chemistry,” Pizzinat said. “His mom felt that since this was his passion area, she would like the scholarship to potentially benefit students in both of those departments.”

Furthermore, Director of Development for Financial Aid & Scholarships Michael Miller said the grant will also contribute to students in need.

“Lucas’ mom … knew that Lucas would want to help students who were in his same situation,” Miller said. “He was struggling to figure out how to pay for school and he was lucky enough to receive some grants and scholarships to assist him.”

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The Voter Registration Volunteer Coalition misplaced a box of voter registration cards last week, temporarily rendering 200 registration forms void.

The missing forms have since been discovered, boosting the campus’ total number of registered voters to 8,095 — the highest number of registrants from any junior college, California State University or University of California campus in the state. However, the documentation was submitted late to the Santa Barbara County Elections Office as cards must be turned in to the county three days after completion.

According to Associate Dean of Students Debbie Fleming, first-time registrants of Santa Barbara County can still vote in the mid-term elections if they file a petition with the Santa Barbara County Elections Office by 8 p.m., Nov. 2. Students are encouraged to take their voter registration stub to the office when completing paperwork.

“For people who were registering for the first time in Santa Barbara County, they would have to go down to the elections office to fill out a petition,” Fleming said. “Once they have done that, then they can vote provisionally.”

Voters will be able to cast a provisional ballot, which will be reviewed by a judge one week after the election to determine the validity of the vote.

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UCSB’s Gold Surf Team nabbed its 12th national title during last month’s annual National Scholastic Surfing Association collegiate championship.

The team garnered a total of 100 points to defeat Cal State San Marcos, Point Loma and 14 other teams. The four-day competition consisted of a women’s, longboarder’s and men’s division, with the former two divisions both yielding wins for the UCSB surfing team.

Fourth-year global studies major, winner of the women’s division and next season’s team captain Lipoa Kahaleuahi said ideal weather conditions placed her in the right mindset to claim the title.

“The moment that I stepped off of the sand and into the water I knew I was in a different world, but it was a world that I was raised in and that I belonged to,” Kahaleuahi said. “The waves were good and the weather was beautiful, so it was anybody’s win.”

Additionally, Cole Robbins, a second-year real estate major at Santa Barbara City College, won the longboarding championship while fellow teammates Kevin Osborne and Rachel Harris placed second in the longboarding and women’s divisions, respectively.

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UCSB researchers have discovered that the human mind is capable of estimating another person’s physical prowess solely by hearing the sound of that person’s voice.

Along with a team of academics, Aaron Sell — a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB’s Center for Evolutionary Psychology — recently released the results of an experiment on human mechanisms that assess an opponent’s fighting power. The experiment, which was part of a broader study on the neurocognitive architecture of the brain, revealed that humans possess an instinctive mechanism that uses vocal cues to determine a potential enemy’s physical power.

Of course, Sell said, simply looking at an opponent has historically been the most relied-upon way of sizing up an enemy.

“The easiest way to estimate fighting ability is to look at the body,” Sell, the lead author of the experiment on auditory assessment mechanisms, said. “The size of the body and the shape and muscularity of the upper body can indicate a lot about how physically strong someone is.”

Nevertheless, Sell said, due to the difficulty in judging the fighting ability of a heavily clothed opponent or when situated in a dark setting, the ability to process non-visual cues became a necessary evolutionary step.

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Although the University of California implemented enrollment waitlists for the first time in system history this year, only UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis actually ended up offering a spot to the waitlisted applicants.

Seven UC campuses decided to execute a waitlist for 2010-2011 to cope with the system-wide surge of freshman applicants for Fall Quarter. UCSB and UC Davis in particular accepted wait-listed students after failing to meet enrollment quotas in their first admissions cycle, and placed a combined total of 1,866 out of 10,700 applicants on waitlists.

According to UCSB’s Director of Admissions Christine Van Gieson, fluctuating admissions offers in recent years have increased the need for waitlists.

“Lately our yield on admission offers — the percentage of students that take us up on our offer — has fluctuated wildly,” Van Gieson said. “For a long time, it was pretty constant and we could bank on a certain percentage of students accepting our offers. But in the last couple of years, it has been all over the map for not only UCSB but for many of the other UC campuses as well.”

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From carrot ice cream to carrot hummus, sustainable student chefs battling in “Kitchen Stadium” last night concocted a range of seemingly questionable, yet delectable cuisine.

The quarterly Green Chef contest attracted 30 to 35 food enthusiasts who had a green cook-off with the “secret ingredient” of carrots. The aspiring Food Network stars, who prepared their dishes in advance, were judged in the categories of sustainability, taste, creativeness and visual appeal.

While Peter Bufete, a third-year UCSB student, reigned supreme in the taste category for his carrot and chickpea teriyaki stir-fry, Lillian Edwards, a third-year art and environmental studies major, out-greened the competition for the title of sustainability queen with her vegan carrot cake ice cream. Additionally, Megan Dawe, a second-year environmental studies major, was awarded most creative entrée for her handmade carrot jam while Michelle Gerigk, a third-year microbiology and business economics major, and Winny Mau, a third-year economics major,  teamed up to win the most striking creation with their carrot barley soup served in bread bowls with flower-shaped carrot cutlets.

Associated Students Environmental Affairs Board Sustainable Foods Chair Amy Elvidge, a fourth-year environmental studies and Spanish major, said the contest gave students culinary insight as well as an opportunity to work with organic and locally grown ingredients.

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Instead of putting on sofa weight and developing carpal tunnel in their thumbs, gamers can now apply their digital leisure time towards maintaining a healthier lifestyle.

This weekend, the Apps for Healthy Kids competition invited game developers, graphic artists and students from across the nation to assemble in eight cities and design the perfect video game prototype for promoting physical activity. The competition — a joint initiative between the Games for Health Project and Health Games Research Program — awards $60,000 to teams that can create the most engaging game from scratch within a 48-hour period. Headquartered at UCSB’s Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research, HGR sponsors 21 research projects across the U.S. that work to develop interactive and healthy video games that combat childhood obesity.

HGR Director Debra Lieberman, a communication researcher at UCSB, said competitors incorporated recent research from the field to create efficient video games capable of altering children’s eating and behavioral habits.

“We are just trying to improve the quality of health games any way we can, mainly through research evidence to understand better how to design them, how people respond to them and what the needs and abilities are of different kinds of people,” Lieberman said.

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UCSB recently received three awards from a statewide college energy efficiency competition honoring the success of the university’s sustainability projects.

The Best Practice Awards for the Energy Efficiency Partnership Program recognize the achievements of the University of California, California State University and California Community College campuses in 11 categories of innovative energy efficiency projects and effective sustainable practices. UCSB was acknowledged in the categories of best student sustainability program, sustainable foods service, water efficiency and site water quality.

According to Matthew St. Clair, Sustainability Manager for the UC Office of President, the awards are designed to encourage environmentally conscious efforts while highlighting the importance of adopting energy efficient projects and practices.

“There are several reasons why it is important — one of which is for colleges and universities to demonstrate leadership in reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions,” St. Clair said. “Part of that is in modeling sustainable practices for students so they can learn about ways to combat climate change and take that knowledge into their careers with them.”

Because the two campuses’ programs were not directly comparable, St. Clair said both UCSB and UC San Diego were recognized for the Water Efficiency & Site Water Quality award.

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Student representatives from UCSB participated in the fifth annual Transgender Leadership Summit and Advocacy Day at UC Davis this past weekend in an effort to promote recognition of transgender rights.

The conference, which featured prominent members of the transgender community, focused on strengthening transgender allies’ leadership skills. Participants also had the opportunity to meet with California legislators during the very first Transgender Advocacy Day yesterday in Sacramento.

Society for Accessible and Safe Spaces — a new UCSB student organization — organized the trip for two of their own members, Charlie O’Hara and Salvador Ramirez, to represent Santa Barbara county and UCSB at the summit. Keynote speakers included California State Senator Mark Leno, celebrity transgender activist Chaz Bono and long-time transgender rights activist Miss Major, who discussed the importance of leadership development.

Founder of S.A.S.S., Carina Ruiz-Aguilar, a third-year Spanish major, said there are select issues that need to be addressed in order to reach concrete goals.

“S.A.S.S. is a new organization on campus that strives to address the problems that heteronormativity and ableism create within our communities,” Aguilar said in an e-mail. “People who transgress the gender-binary and people labeled with disabilities are often cast out by physical, social and educational environments that are treated as neutral.”

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Today’s forecast calls for sunshine, rainbows and the 20th annual Queer Wedding ceremony in Storke Plaza.

The event, scheduled to take place from noon to 2 p.m., will feature over 100 couples embarking on wedding rites. The wedding — which includes cake, rings, certificates and a walk down a lavender aisle for groups ranging from two to six people — is one of the premiere events of Queer Pride Week. Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Michael Young will oversee the wedding, as he has done in past years. The Queer Student Union organized today’s ceremony and invites anyone to participate.

According to QSU Co-chair Hazel Putney, the mock wedding is intended to recognize the beauty in relationships of all types.

“We want people to be open and proud of the relationship they are in and not hide the beauty of the relationship from anyone,” Putney said.

The Queer Wedding is one of the longest running events hosted by the Queer Student Union. QSU Co-chair Sevasti Travlos said the annual QSU event has had added significance since the passage of Prop 8 in Nov. 2008 banning gay marriage in California.

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Isla Vista businesses will contribute to sustainable initiatives throughout the week in an effort to increase environmental practices.

This year’s Green Business Week will feature five local businesses — the I.V. Food Co-op, Java Jones, I.V. Market, Chino’s Rock & Tacos and Keg N’ Bottle — that have volunteered to donate a day’s worth of profits to support “green” practices. CalPIRG organized the week to encourage local businesses to adopt more responsible production methods.

CalPIRG member Sieva Kozinsky said each weekday highlights an eco-friendly business in Isla Vista.

“Possible steps the business could take or have already taken are installing solar panels, waterless urinals, fluorescent light bulbs, etc.,” Kozinsky said. “The business in turn will donate a percentage of their hourly profits to a green initiative of our choosing.”

The I.V. Food Co-op donated 10 percent of a portion of yesterday’s proceeds to local farmers and Java Jones will contribute 20 percent of today’s revenue toward a solar panel investment. The coffee house will also feature a special “4-20″ menu today, offering lower prices on select items and special promotions on others.

Java Jones co-owner John Lewis said he is trying to create a business model and paradigm that is different from anyone else in the area.

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World-renowned musician Elvis Costello will grace the stage of Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre tonight at 8 p.m.

Promoting his critically acclaimed album Secret, Profane and Sugarcane, Costello will take the stage to perform his latest songs as well as the old favorites. Tickets cost $28 for UCSB students who present a valid student ID and prices range from $42 to $89 for the general public.

According to Arts & Lectures marketing director Colleen Debler, it took great effort on behalf of the program to add UCSB to Costello’s North American tour sites.

“Our executive director, Celesta Billeci, has been trying for about four years to bring him to Santa Barbara,” Debler said. “It is an achievement not only for the community, but also for UCSB students to host such a musical icon.”

Costello, who will be greeted by a nearly sold-out crowd of 2,000 people, has recently been nominated for the 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame. His success began in the late 1970s with the release of his debut album My Aim Is True, which landed on the Billboard Charts the following year.

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