Tom Parker has made an unusual find. In California forests and shrubland that burned in 2008, he has spotted Manzanita seedlings sprouting in tight clusters, suggesting that the young shrubs emerged from underground stashes of seeds. But how did they get there?  Read the rest of this SF State News story to see how tiny footprints are leading the professor of biology to a very interesting answer.

Alumnus Cleve Jones, founder of what is considered “the world’s largest art project,” discusses his life and AIDS Awareness in this Forest Grove News Times article.

According to new research by SF State Assistant Professor of Psychology Ryan Howell, working to accomplish your goals may cause you stress in the moment, but will increase your overall happiness.

August Coppola, who taught literature and served as dean of creative arts at San Francisco State University from 1984 to 1992, has died at age 75.  He was the brother of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and father to actor Nicholas Cage.

Alumnus John Handy is receiving the San Francisco Jazz Festival’s Beacon Award for lifetime achievement  7 p.m. Sunday at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Tickets: $20-$50, 866-920-5299, www.sfjazz.org

SF State’s MBA program has again been recognized by the Aspen Institute as one of the world’s leaders in socially responsible business education.

The University’s MBA program is ranked No. 23 in the U.S. and No. 29 in the world in the Institute’s 2009-10 Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey, which measures how well institutions prepare students for environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business.

Want to learn more about business ethics? Clear your calendar Nov. 2-6 for the fourth annual Business Ethics Week with classroom instruction, discussion and guest speakers in more than 90 business classes, and corporate speakers from Genentech and All About the Future. This year’s focus is the importance of business ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainable business. For more information, visit http://cob.sfsu.edu/ethicsweek/

Professor of Management Sally Baack participated in a recent panel discussion on the role of ethics in business on KQED. Take a listen here.

 Just received this e-mail:

I am Laura Amador’s brother Paul Amador. After Laura graduated from SF state, class of 2007, we entered a kidney paired exchange program because we are not a blood compatible match. The 06/25/09 U.C.S.F. operation involved me donating a kidney to a stranger so my sister would receive a life saving kidney from another stranger, an altruistic donor. The donor chain has extending to 20 kidney recipents.

Since the surgical operation, as of 10/20/09, we are all feeling fantastic.

FYI: As an SF State transfer student, junior year, Laura was diagnosed with kidney failure. I immediately volunteered to donate a kidney but the fact that receiving a transplant would require a year of rest was not acceptable to her.

She made a decision to put the kidney transplant on hold, in order to continue her education at SF State while undergoing dialysis three days a week. Laura Amador [recalls], “Just walking to class was extremely physically exhausting. Looking back after graduation, I do not know where the will power came from to stay in school, but it was there and real.”

Only after graduating from SF State, she accepted a kidney transplant.

Since the kidney transplant, her health has exponentially improved. Her determination to receive an education has remained steadfast. She will apply for SF State’s master program in counseling. She ultimately wants to help dialysis patients cope with the hardships.

You can read about these determined and caring siblings and find out how you can become an organ or tissue donor on their Web site: www.dancefordonors.org

We wish both Laura and Paul continued good health and much success in their quest to spread the word about the importance of organ donation!

SF State alumnus Mourad Lahlou, chef and owner of Aziza restaurant in San Francisco, is fresh off his record-breaking victory on Food Network’s Iron Chef America—and the exciting news keeps coming. His restaurant is now among the starred restaurants in the latest edition of The Michelin Guide. Aziza is one of just 34 restaurants, including Boulevard, Chez Panisse and Michael Mina, to receive the prestigious one-star status.

Next year be on the lookout for Lahlou’s return to television. He will soon host a 13-part series for public television that explores the food of Morocco. Each episode will begin in Marrakesh before returning to Lahlou’s home in San Francisco.

After chatting with President Barack Obama during his latest visit to San Francisco, SF State alumnus Willie Brown wrote in his San Francisco Chronicle column that the visit “was a far cry from his first fundraiser here in 2004. He was just a state senator from Illinois running for the U.S. Senate…Being from the age when Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and lots of other blacks took on Muslim or Africanized names, my first question when he called to ask for my help was, ‘What’s your real name?’

‘It IS my real name,’ he replied.

‘Nobody named Barack Obama is going to get elected to anything,’ I said.”

According to fellow Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik, “Litquake’s annual Barbary Coast Award was bestowed Wednesday on Amy Tan at Herbst Theatre ‘braising’ (combined roasting and praising) rites. Able emcee [SF State alumnus] Ben Fong-Torres said he’d known Tan ‘before she turned Chinese again.’”  (SF State Creative Writing Professor Toni Mirosevich was among the readers at the weeklong literary festival. She was featured as part of the fifth installment of the BANG OUT Reading Series at Lit Crawl. The series is the brainchild of Kevin Hobson and Amick Boone, both of whom earned their MFAs at SF State.)

Also in the Chronicle is Yumi Wilson’s thoughtful reflection on a Louisiana justice of the peace’s recent refusal to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple. Wilson, an assistant professor of journalism at SF State, writes, “Every child, short, tall, skinny, chubby, shy, too loud, goofy, geeky, awkward, etc., struggles to fit in. Every child comes home to his or her parent, wondering why he can’t be faster, smarter, tougher, cooler. These desires and questions don’t change just because your parents are from different racial backgrounds. And they certainly don’t get easier if your parents are from different faiths, different parts of the world, different … you name it.”

Bay Area bibliophiles: Mark your calendars for the Fall Book Club Mixer at Kepler’s Books, (1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA), Saturday, Nov. 8. SF State alumna Gail Tsukiyama will be among the speakers discussing their best book club picks of the season.

“Ramparts stands with a handful of 20th-century American magazines — Playboy, the Harold Hayes-era Esquire, Rolling Stone, Spy and Wired — whose glory days continue to influence editors. Each of these magazines not only grabbed the zeitgeist but shaped it. If you’ve never heard of Ramparts or have only vague awareness of its significance, Peter Richardson’s compact history, ‘A Bomb in Every Issue,’ will assure you of its place in the magazine pantheon.”

So begins the positive review of lecturer Peter Richardson’s “A Bomb in Every Issue” in The New York Times. The book also received a literary thumbs up from  The Los Angeles Times.