Just as Time magazine named the Protester as its person of the year, so did unrest shape much of 2011 for the University of California.

Reverberations from January and February's anti-Mubarek protests in Egypt were felt halfway around the world, as UC took emergency measures to evacuate 30 students, faculty and staff enrolled in a study abroad program and taking part in an archaeological dig.

Talented minority college students need access to great career-building opportunities, and California needs those students. That was the message University of California representatives, elected officials and African American community leaders delivered Tuesday (Jan. 24) as they unveiled a landmark partnership between UC and historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Crystal Denmon was raised by a single parent in South Los Angeles, where gangs were common and graduating from high school was not.

Starting in second grade, she woke up at 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus that took her an hour across town to school, where she was often the only African-American student in her class.

UC Board of Regents chair Sherry Lansing says in a video statement that she is "shocked and appalled" by the images of police actions during recent student protests at UC Berkeley and UC Davis.

Lansing supports UC President Mark Yudof's effort to review systemwide procedures so that students can engage in peaceful protests.

"We regents share your passion and your conviction for the University of California," Lansing says. "We want all of you to know that we fully and unequivocally support your right to protest peacefully."

Long before UC Berkeley author Michael Pollan told us omnivores had a dilemma in books that questioned the industrial food complex, college students were at the forefront of a movement to rethink what we eat.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, when organic was a foreign word to most Americans, students at UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz were part of a wave of environmental activism that sought alternatives to agricultural methods that distanced people from farms and relied on heavy use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.