Cultural acne cure-all

Name-changing has become a busy business at San Diego’s two state-sponsored universities. At UCSD it’s been announced that the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies is being renamed the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, or GPS for short. “Effective July 1, the new name reflects the increasingly broadened scope of the school’s research impact worldwide,” according to a statement by chancellor Pradeep Khosla. “The school will continue to leverage UC San Diego’s interdisciplinary and collaborative academic environment with the goal of breaking traditional research barriers to make leading-edge discoveries that make a positive impact worldwide.”

Across town at SDSU, university trustees have renamed the newly created Brazil program the J. Keith Behner and Catherine M. Stiefel Brazil Program. The Rancho Santa Fe couple gave $2.8 million to fund the venture. Part of the deal includes provision for an archive donated by the Brazilian Consulate General in Los Angeles that “includes 40 years of radio interviews and performances featuring major Brazilian artists.” There also will be “stronger exchange programs with universities in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and student internship agreements with the Brazilian business sector.”

As a teenager, Behner lived in Brazil for four years, according to the school. Stiefel, who graduated from San Diego State in 1992, is a wealthy heiress to the Stiefel Laboratories fortune; the pharmaceutical company made a bundle on acne cures before it sold out to GlaxoSmithKline in 2009 for $3.6 billion. She was a vice president at military contractor Science Applications International Corporation from 2001 to 2006.