CalStuff Trivia Challenge

Whilst I sort out the myriad of responses I received to last week's question, I thought I should give you yet another guide to the Berkeley campus, this one less geological. The Loafer's Guide to the Berkeley Campus is perhaps the most comprehensive source of trivia regarding UC Berkeley on the web. In here you can find information on the origins of building names, history of campus development, and outdoor art. This art includes the answer I had in mind for last week's question, Interior Force by Ralph Stackpole, near Wheeler Hall. When I am done researching the answers submitted last week, I will post all correct answers (I think there might be a few) and pose this week's question. In the meantime do your trivia homework, read the Loafer's Guide, and Go Bears!Email This Post!

Beetle Beat has a great report on the scene of the Wheeler/Hernandez Protests. Go there.Email This Post!

Some people have asked where the puppies below came from.

The Deenihan household fosters puppies for Tri-Valley Animal Rescue. Great dogs. Some of the descriptions hurt your heart. Our current puppy batch isn't ready for adoption yet.. they still need to be neutered.Email This Post!

Berkeley Political Review's Senior Staff came up with a novel idea to increase the Daily Cal's advertising revenue: allow adult advertising. Open the floodgates and let a thousand escort ads flow.

Don't think I'm kidding. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Daily Cal's ad crunch is desperate. Adult advertising is a steady source of revenue, not affected by cyclical downturns, or possibly even counter-cyclical. I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to advertise directly to Cal's many Fraternity boys. Certainly the DC would face some flack, but when pathetically small papers are the alternative, I'd jump at this.

Speaking of the Daily Cal, would it kill them to put their Corrections online? Especially when they have an article that requires four corrections.

Here's a free story for them, too: The Bear's Lair is struggling financially, kept afloat mainly because it's owned by Jupiter's. Send some new reporter to get at the financial records and see just how bad it is.Email This Post!

Average Rental prices for Berkeley apartments. Interesting data.Email This Post!

The Daily Cal gives Mr. Bates the win in the first Mayoral debate.Email This Post!

School Board Nominee Sean Dugar, shown here looking smooooooth, does not impress in his run for School Board. He appears to be a single-race candidate with little experience in cross-cultural issues or the art of compromise. His candidate statement goes out of its way to attack the Superintendent. Even Berkeley's touchy-feel school board candidates feel free to call him a race-blinded candidate.

Some school board candidates criticized Dugar for his focus on African Americans in his platform.

"It's a sad remark of the nature of politics in Berkeley that you're supposed to represent a group of people merely because of the color of your skin," says candidate Lance Montauk.

His candidate statement is not inspiring. It has numerous grammatical errors.

As a school board member I would bring Berkeley back to setting national trends not following them. Such as forming diverse committees of students, parents, teachers and other community members that report directly to the School Board.

On his City form, he marks himself as both a Democrat and Non-Partisan.

All in all, yet another activist proves he can't be an administrator before the votes are even counted.




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The Daily Cal has more on the Committee Makeup problem for the Roberto Hernandez hearing.

Over the weekend eight UC Berkeley student nominees were trained by Student Judicial Affairs, said nominee Daniel Frankenstein

Too late to find out the names of these students, apparently. All we know are what kinds of people are appointing them: President Gabriel and Graduate AAVP Paster.

Oddly, the hearing will be at Clark Kerr, presumably to avoid the easy protesting venue of California Hall.Email This Post!

CALSTUFF EXCLUSIVE:

The Daily Planet and Daily Californian have been reporting that no students will serve on the Judicial Council ruling on the Wheeler 32.

The Student Conduct Hearing Committee, which usually consists of two faculty members, one staff member, one undergraduate and one graduate student, is currently made up of three faculty members and will make recommendations for sentencing the protesters.

Not true! A student will be serving on the Student Conduct Hearing Committee, one of eight trained over the weekend. This student, whoever it is, will sit on the Committee when it rules on the Roberto Hernandez case Monday at 1.

No word yet on which student will be on the Committee...

More on the Wheeler cases as they develop...
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No Column today. I wrote one, but it was crap, so I took a break when the Daily Cal offered it.Email This Post!

Unsurprisingly, the African American Studies Department at Berkeley High-- which nearly received the horrible fate of being lumped in with everyone else receiving budget cuts-- has protested its way free.

Protesting cuts to the African American studies department at Berkeley High School, scores of students, parents and teachers flooded the halls of last night's school board meeting in time to hear school board officials announce the department will remain intact.

The decision comes after negotiations between the teachers' union and school district officials consolidated smaller departments, including African American studies in a cost saving measure last month. They also eliminated all department head positions.

Mr. McKnight, head of the AA department, has changed his tune rather quickly. Just yesterday he was calling the decision

“I think it’s the manifestation of white supremacy at its zenith,” said Robert McKnight, a teacher and former chair of the department. “We are not going to just completely acquiesce.”

Today it's nothing more then

Robert McKnight, chair of the African American studies department, said this incident highlights weaknesses in the district's administration.

"The district needs to take more time to develop a process for decision-making that is more inclusive of the stakeholders," McKnight said. "They need to work closer with each school site."

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New ASUC Senator Ian Ackerman promises

his platform covers a wide range of issues.

So long as the issues deal with drugs, anyway.

Ackerman said he would like to "try to get the ASUC to lobby to the UC Regents to reject the federal Higher Education Act that prevents students with drug convictions from receiving financial aid."

"I also plan to support the Drug Resource Center and hope to develop that into an effective organization," he said.

I plan to develop a 'useless bill' index, giving a ratio of pointless rhetoric bills to bills with actual effects. Should be interesting.

There's also more on the continuing struggle to establish an insane subsidy plan for coffee growers that tries to ignore the basic economic fact of too much coffee = low prices.Email This Post!

Mr. Byrne points out a great overview of campus-- Geologically speaking.Email This Post!

The Daily Cal managed to royally offend everyone today, unusual on 'Science and Technology Day.' The back headline on an otherwise nice piece by Cal softball player Candace Harper is 'I'll be your intern, Mr. Bush' on top of a picture somewhat similar to the Clinton/Lewinski 'gazing into each others' eyes' thing.

I doubt this is intentional. It was probably a joke headline before the real one was supposed to be pasted. And somehow it was never pasted in. Still, pretty bad error.Email This Post!

Berkeley is on the Drudge Report again... but not because we embarassed ourselves! Hurrah!Email This Post!

From Boondocks.Email This Post!

Students for Justice in Palestine is looking hard for witnesses to the April occupation. I know someone who was there... she witnessed students crying because they couldn't concentrate on their midterm, and asshole protesters pointing their megaphones at the doors. Probably not what they're looking for.

Subject: WIntesses of the Wheeler Sit-In needed!

We need this info by 5pm TODAY!

If you witnessed the April 9, 2002 Wheeler sit-in from any angle at all, or were in class in Wheeler while it happened, OR if you know anyone who did:

Please send your e-mail and phone number to HOANG hgiaphat@socrates.berkeley.edu OR MIKE FROEHLICH: michaelrfroehlich@yahoo.com

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The Planet is very good today. Beetle Beat links to all the best stories.Email This Post!

The Deenihan family has several puppies up for adoption. Take a puppy!



Puppy attack!



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State of the Blogs 2002

The modern Cal Blog, in the 'Cal news and commentary on the news' vein, started last January with Calstuff. It grew quickly, albeit in spurts, between January and about May. Between Angry Clam, CalAnon, and myself, we broke over 20 news stories, killed and resurrected people named Dwight, and collected the ASUC and Daily Cal as regular readers. Angry Clam managed to attract over ten thousand hits in one day, and at peak we were running around 300 for the 'Big Three' with plenty for the other Cal Blogs as well. The Blogs also started to specialize, between political points of view, subject matter, and writing style.

At the time, my dream for the Cal Blogs was to establish them as a partial alternative to the Daily Cal. A loose-knit organization of 15-20 daily-posting blogs, breaking news on a fairly regular basis, and collecting the best in commentary on other news sources. Two or three 'Big Cal Blogs,' probably including Calstuff, would be a clearinghouse linking to all the blogs and working as a sort of Cal Blog Center. This, plus some publicity and word of mouth, would hopefully raise our hit count from 250 a day to over 500, from just insider ASUC/Daily Cal/OGB types to the rest of Cal.

This has not become reality. The Cal Blogs were devastated by summer and Graduations. Around 10 of them either ceased posting or posted very infrequently. CalAnon and Angry Clam, 2 of the three biggest, either stopped or moved away. Even those who still post largely post on National or ideological topics; certainly fine, but I can get posts of those types on the big nationwide Blogs like Instapundit or Volokh. They just don't interest me, and they're certainly not a new media type or anything.

Hits have stagnated, at least for me, around 200/day on weekdays. Few of the Cal Blogs are breaking stories, with the major exceptions of CalWatch and ProgCal. (Probably some others I'm forgetting, too.) In all, the Blog scene is in equilibrium. Steady readership, focuses, and posting rhythms. Fine, but not really growing.

This isn't to say there aren't bright spots. Comment systems have proven to be fun and informative. There are new, interesting Bloggers: ProgCal returned, CalWatch posts steadily, and Beetle Beat has become a must-read for any Blog Fan. There's others.

And this is mainly a bad thing just to me. I want more hits. I want to actually affect the Daily Cal's style book, instead of just shouting from the sidelines. But I think it's worth a shot for being useful and well-read by students. It's free, moderately brings students together in the 'we're all reading the same thing' sense, and is an easy meritocratic way for new writers to make their name in the Cal scene. I like to think the potential to break stories and make the ASUC/Daily Cal accountable to someone is there.

But the question is: how? Word of Mouth just isn't doing the job. Building Cal Blogs will require publicity, organization, money, and time.. things that Blogging is either bad at or that I just can't raise. And how to recruit? I managed to find 1 new guy through all of Welcome Week.

It's worth a shot. Nobody else is doing what we do.

More on how to build Cal Blogs later.




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Dancing Bear is back to his schedule of vicious satires. Today he's lampooning fellow Student Action Executive Tony Falcone.

I've never understood why Mr. Falcone is so loyal to Student Action. At the very best, they've never believed in him electorally. At worst, they've disrespected him and ignored him. I'd jump ship under those circumstances.Email This Post!

CalStuff Trivia Challenge

The winner of last week's question is the recently graduated Alex Kipnis. He correctly replied:
--
Andy Latham Smith’s two most famous quotes are:

“Winning is not everything; it is far better to play the game squarely and lose than to win at the sacrifice of an ideal.”

“We do not want men who will lie down bravely to die, but men who will fight valiantly to live”

The two quotes are engraved on a dedicated bench on the east side of the stadium.
--
For his CalStuff favor he has requested that Kevin or I "have to enter the “Drive-a-Field-Goal” contest at one of the home football games this season. If you are successful in getting the ball through the uprights, in addition to your free round of golf, you get to ask me to do a favor for CalStuff. If you are not, you have to write a song about me to the tune of Fight for California." We'll see what strings I can pull with the Athletic Marketing department to make this young man's wish come true.

Now on to this week's question. The past few weeks' have been a shade on the easy side for minds the caliber of CalStuff readers, so this one should prove a bit more interesting. On a recent tour of northern San Francisco for a geography class of mine, we stopped by to view the murals of Coit Tower. The name of one of the primary artists on this WPA project rang a bell in my head, and it took me awhile to figure out why. It turns out this artist has a piece of art on the Berkeley campus. So this week's question is:

Which Coit Tower muralist has a piece of art displayed on the Berkeley campus, where is the art, and what is it called?

Should this prove too difficult, I shall post a clue later this week. Send your answer to stbyrne@uclink.berkeley.edu. In the meantime, as always, Good Luck and Go Bears!


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I received my first 'Gordon Wozniak for City Council' literature yesterday, in the mail. Mr. Wozniak is the Moderate candidate for City Council, running against Mr. Katz's Progressive/Student coalition thing.

I'd never seen Mr. Wozniak before. He's a very sexy man, in a political way. Definitely got the white bearded 'wise man of the woods' look to him that works so well. They have a cute dog, too. Although not as cute as my dog.

As far as issues goes, he's running on the same bevy of neighborhood improvement issues that Mr. Katz is pushing. No rhetoric about Berkeley being a 'beacon of hope' or a 'light for the nation--' everything is centered around the simple 'making Berkeley a better place to live' theme. It's a good idea.

Nothing in this mailer about students. Mr. Wozniak must figure that he can win without trying to leech them away from Mr. Katz. He's probably right. The list of endorsements on the back is 'Berkeley Neighbors for Gordon' plus a quote from Ms. Armstrong.

Mr. Wozniak also has an impressive website. Very slick campaign.Email This Post!

Many of you may have seen the marijuana protest stands on Sproul lately. Hate to say it, but after the 9/11 debacle (both of them - remember a year ago?), I doubt students from Berkeley will lend that much credence to the movement. Email This Post!

Just in case anyone missed the Berkeley Reps bashing Berkeley.
And to think I was going to join. Email This Post!

While Kevin may give you insightful investigative reporting, I on the other hand give you...

Freshman killing each other.


Karma returns.
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Good letter in the Planet today.

It's amazing how much better the Planet has gotten in the short while since Ms. Walker's abrupt and unlamented departure.Email This Post!

Especially strange that Snehal is worrying about a single website 'blacklisting' him, when President Atkinson is insisting that the Academic Senate ensures that classes like his never reach the light of the Course Catalog again.Email This Post!

It amazes me that people who trumpet the tired 'Berkeley is a beacon of freedom and dissent,' line can turn around and push for this authoritarian, freedom-reducing measure.Email This Post!

Mr. Frankenstein embarasses himself with a 500 word op-ed about himself and unnecessary personal attacks on Ms. Rafeedie. This follows Mr. Yang embarassing himself with personal attacks on Mr. Frankenstein. Why the Opinion page is letting these two degrade themselves in public is beyond me. It stopped being about how the Office is helping students about halfway through last Friday.

This low-level spat between SAO and Mr. Frankenstein-- based on a single, poor article about SAO's 'intentions' towards the Wheeler 79, is pathetic. There's no proof that SAO is supporting SJP too much, although it's very easy to suspect it. There's no proof that Ms. Rafeedie is doing a poor job, although it's possible. Email This Post!

The Engineering Joint Council has a big fear of being 'like the ASUC.' Of course, this is selective. They hate the occasional partisanship and debate, as well as transparency of funding, that is part of the ASUC. But they love how the ASUC can hide where the money goes and use Executive offices to stifle dissent. Their arguments for hiding where the money goes are alternately whining and Orwellian.

Lowry said he does not support posting the council's budget online, citing his fear that it may result in public confusion over council spending policies.

"If people don't understand things they see online, they make things up," Lowry said. "People want issues."

Former Treasurer George Chao said posting the budget online "is too much work for one person."

'People might start questioning our expenditures and making us act like an accountable governing body.' Oh no!
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There's a new website promising to 'monitor' all the silly, vaguely anti-semitic stuff that goes on at Berkeley and other campuses. Predictably, all the Professors or GSIs it goes after for stifling freedom of speech accuse it of... stifling free speech!

"(Campus Watch) doesn't pretend to be a debate or conversation," Shingavi said. "It just says these professors are a problem."

"If they produce blacklists of individuals then this is a very dangerous development that will affect people outside the circles of Middle East (scholars) eventually," said history professor Beshara Doumani. "It is designed to harass and intimidate free speech, and it should be a concern to anyone who values academic freedom."

Silly Professors, blacklists are for Governments. This is a media and activist outlet, and the idea that it equates a 'blacklist' is an insult to the Professors that faced real Blacklists back in the day. Snehal is being facetious, as well. His own organizations aren't about 'debates' and 'conversations;' why should the opposition live up to a standard he sets but doesn't care about?

Not to mention that CampusWatch does nothing but link to legitimate news organizations' reports on the controversies-- reports that almost always include the opposite side to the debate.


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My Column.

The Daily Cal's stylebook insists on referring to the ASUC as 'ASUC.' In other words, they would rewrite the last sentence as 'insists on referring to ASUC as 'ASUC.' The reasoning is that ASUC is a Corporation, and we don't refer to 'the Enron' or 'the General Motors.'

I find it silly. Common usage is 'the ASUC,' and preferring strict adherence to a silly style rule over the readability and actual language of readers is stupid. So whenever you see an 'ASUC' without a 'the' in front of it, say a silent prayer for that ease of reading 'the' killed by Daily Cal inflexibility.Email This Post!

EVP Han Hong in Kiplingers Magazine:

3 | University of California at Berkeley
By Han N. Hong
junior, communications
Every penny I pay is worth it -- not only because I'm able to learn from the best professors and people that are at the top of their field but also because of the experience I'm gaining. Cal provides students with the opportunities to make the most of their education beyond lectures, textbooks, and exams.

On any given Friday during the school year at Berkeley, you'll find a band performing, a rally or dance group performing in front of Sproul Hall, the Men's Octet or some other a cappella group singing near the front gate. And any day of the week, you'll find a plethora of student groups distributing fliers for their upcoming events (students sometimes take a different route to class to avoid being bombarded by paper). Culturally, I've become more aware of what's out there. Before I came here I didn't know the difference between Korean and Thai food. Now I can tell you the different types of kim chi.

Even though Republicans are the obvious minority on campus, you'll find them to be one of the most vocal, organized, and effective groups on campus. Where else other than Berkeley could you find a Squirrel Fishing Club? There's at least one rally every week.

But as dynamic and as politically charged as our campus may be, it also has the ability to come together as a community. The morning of 9/11, our senate chamber was filled with administrators and students from all different groups discussing how we were going to mobilize and deal with the situation at hand. A vigil was organized that night (by students), a blood drive was organized a couple of days later, a safe haven for students who felt unsafe was created, money was given to students from New York who had to fly home, and the list goes on.

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My hits seem to have decreased by 2/3rds.. problem with my hit counter, or something far more sinister?Email This Post!

Greens outnumber Republicans in Berkeley.. although perhaps it's more surprising that this took so long to happen.Email This Post!

Pagstuff points me to the results of the big 'undergraduate life' survey that Berkeley did last Spring. The results are very interesting. There's tons of stuff there worth commenting on. How about the 30% of students with 'no interest' in a romantic relationship? That a shocking 13% of students identify with Conservatives, especially against 34% who cheer on Liberals? 3 to 1 is pretty good for Berkeley.

60% strongly don't identify with Fraternities/Sororities, suggesting either an ethnic barrier or an image problem. There's the 1 person who prays/meditates 21-30 hours a week. Many students want to work with Faculty on Research or Projects, but rarely get a chance to do so. The survey only has four options for 'how much do you think you should've studied?' More, much more, much much more, and 'just enough.' 50 people have never heard of buses/transportation services. 40% don't belong to a single club or organization.

Here's the political ID stats:

Far left 253 (5.7%)
Liberal 1807 (40.6%)
Middle-of-the-road 1842 (41.4%)
Conservative 516 (11.6%)
Far right 32 (0.7%)

Lending proof to my 'Moderates are a plurality' theory about Berkeley.

Only 20% of students had all four grandparents born in the US. (I'm in this category, but barely.) Income distribution is surprisingly broad, except for a big lump at the 100K mark. Less then 10% of students were some form if 'dissatisfied' with their time at Cal. 22% will graduate with less then five friends they'll stay in touch with.

Lots of great stats. Take a look!














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There's a new publication at Cal, the California Voice. It's here to 'act as a forum for a mosaic of thought.'

Whenever I hear something's a forum, I reach for my pillow.

True to form, it's a bit boring. A collection of thoughts from various representatives of organizations on campus rarely seems to create interesting reading. It turns into a collection of thoughtful but uninteresting press releases. I've seen everything they've said before. On the other hand, the staff has assembled a fairly impressive group of people to post. The Editor-in-Chief's name is Patrick Hogan. That doesn't ring a bell.

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Mr. Yim's piece in the Daily Cal today is pretty good. It also originally ran in the Satellite a year ago.Email This Post!

As could be predicted from Mr. Meyer's column on Monday, when the candidates can't fight over the issues they find other things to fight over.

This is a fairly sad salvo. A complaint about a possible financing charge reported the wrong way? Even worst-case scenario for Dean, it was a accounting mistake and hardly malicious. But I guess we're starting, at least.Email This Post!

East Bay Express runs a Seven Days piece on the month-old Starbucks invasion, strangely. Also about Berkeley: the continuing struggle of artist vs. landlord.Email This Post!

I upgraded the commenting system. It appears some of them got lost in the process, but everything should work okay now.Email This Post!

There's a seminar on Journalism Blogging tonight at 6:30 at North Gate.

I was not invited, nor was Andrew. And if we're too opinionated for them, surely Mr. Sexton is a perfect case of an online publication making big headlines. But no, we'll learn much more from a bunch of managing editors and old-school bloggers who haven't been out on the streets in years.Email This Post!

Today is comment on Kevin's Column day.Email This Post!

CalStuff Trivia Challenge

In honor of our current football successes, I pose a question that, to the loyal fan, should prove easier than beating a Top 15 team:

Cal's greatest football success came not under famed 1950s coach Lynn "Pappy" Waldorf, but rather under 1920-1925 coach Andy Latham Smith. During these years, Cal went largely undefeated and racked up some national recognition (and championships). In addition to being a brilliant tactician, Coach Smith was also quite the philosopher on the sport. So I ask: What are Andy Smith's two most famous quotes and where are they engraved on campus? As always, email stbyrne@uclink.berkeley.edu with your answer. Good luck and Go Bears!Email This Post!

The new Satellite is out, albeit not online.

It's pretty good! High points to the cover illustration. The video game spread is both focused and relevant. Even the 'Token Penis Article,' seeming to promise a good bit of Satellite navel-gazing cultural studies, is well-written.

The only thing I didn't like was the opening Editor's Note, a sneering elitist article about how those damn blogs are 'setting the agenda,' and the stupid public is joyfully letting them.Email This Post!

Mr. Worthington waxes poetic on the KPFA movement, or lack thereof. Very nice, although

The departure of Pacifica from Berkeley was the single biggest loss that the city has experienced in my years in office.

sounds a bit like hyperbole to me. The single biggest loss? Even in Berkeley it had low ratings. Not to mention the various firings and fiscal crises Berkeley has faced.. wouldn't the closing of a public elementary school rank a little higher?Email This Post!

The Planet semi-scoops the Daily Cal on the fate of the Wheeler 79. Although it's possible that the Daily Cal is waiting for something more substantial then 'We reached an agreement, and won't say what it is.'Email This Post!

Trivia Contest winner Danny Grace asked us to do this:

take the attached document, and print no less than 10 copies of it.

Next time you are on campuse disctribute the flyers to your fellow students.

Extra points are awarded if you take special care to give flyers to the especially sad looking students.

That is all,
-Danny

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Freshman. More fun then a barrel of monkeys.

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Dancing Bear returns. Surprising in many ways.Email This Post!

Semi-Cal Blogger who doesn't like the Patriot.Email This Post!

NBC-11 reports that Cal will be ranked 23rd after beating Michigan State. How'd we become a football powerhouse, again?

UPDATE: Here's the new rankings. Email This Post!

GO BEARS!

AP's account...
Photos...

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My column.

Something I thought would be fun: changing the picture based on my mood in the column. This is a fairly pissed-off column, and yet I'm smiling at the world. A 'Scowling Kevin' would be much more appropriate.

Another happy thing: there's no tagline this time.Email This Post!

ProgCal returns from hiatus.. and he's not happy about BCR and the Patriot. The crusade resumes.Email This Post!

Daily Cal Editor in Chief Ron Lin shows an unimpressive understanding of Free Speech.

It was chilling to see how easily intolerance and hate could come from Americans who disagreed with other Americans' opinions. Free speech, the most American of values, was disregarded.

Berkeley has been vilified in the some media as un-American. But in its dissent, Berkeley has proven itself to be a beacon of hope that the nation will retain its tradition of tolerance and open debate.

And yet Mr. Lin cannot find more 'silencing of dissent' then the torrent of angry e-mails and letters that Berkeley received after it did lots of unpopular things. E-mails sent almost entirely to Opinion Pages and Elected Officials. How can this possibly be construed as violating Free Speech? If a government disagrees with a government, why shouldn't I have the power to argue against whoever I want? I should hope I have the freedom to think government decisions are stupid, and to express my opinion about that.

Even those people who stepped over the line-- the Death Threats and possibly the Treason people-- did nothing more then send some stupid e-mails from Kansas and Orange County. To claim that putting these e-mails in the 'trash' bin is morally equivalent to standing up to Cops in Sproul Plaza is laughable.

The Boycott is another example of Free Speech.. even if Mr. Lin doesn't see it so. Citizens have the right to not support whatever they don't want to support. I hope Alabama didn't claim their Free Speech was violated when MLK organized the bus boycott. 'We're dissenting against the national atmosphere of Black-loving,' said Alabama Congressmen Pig Fucker, 'These Africans showing nothing but intolerance and hatred of our decision.'

All in all, Freedom of Speech does not mean Freedom from being Disagreed with. One person out a hundred saying one thing does not prevent the other 99 from disagreeing with him. Nor does it prevent the one person from being the stupid one.. 'dissenting' just indicates where the majority is, not who is right. It's not a value judgement. Berkeley doesn't know that.

Mr. Lin also refutes his own statement that Berkeley is still a beacon of Free Speech.

Berkeley has been vilified in the some media as un-American. But in its dissent, Berkeley has proven itself to be a beacon of hope that the nation will retain its tradition of tolerance and open debate.

..And then admits

Admittedly, Berkeley has had its own problems practicing tolerance. In April, a lecture series moved out of Berkeley, weary that city police would be unable to guarantee security to protect their events from crowds of protesters. Those protesters shut down a talk by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two years ago.

I'd add the Patriot thefts, storming the Daily Cal's offices, burning the Patriot's books, the SJP Protests, and the attacks on Jews last year.

Berkeley is a leader in intolerance. It dissents a lot. That's not necessarily a good thing.

Calstuff.. biting the hand that feeds it since 9.12.02

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Happy 51st Birthday, Dad.Email This Post!

Calstuff Correspondant D8 passes on that the Alcohol Moratorium proposal passed, albeit not unanimously. But he only knew of Chi Psi dissenting.Email This Post!

The Ribbons that launched a million angry e-mails are here. There's 5000 of them, to be distributed at tomorrow's now-farce of a remembrance service. I'll be there to count news cameras.



Me sporting the ribbon on my backpack.



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Just something of interest: hardboiled, the campus API magazine, claims in their constitution to exist to "instill confidence in one's identity through our articles and activities." Where did this fit in?Email This Post!

PotatoChucker notes that the 2002 'Top Activist Campuses' list is out. It's not a very impressive group this year. MoJo even writes

But students had barely settled into their dorm rooms when the attacks of September 11 shook the nation, putting a damper on dissent.

BS. Many of the protests on this list are 9.11 related, and the ones that aren't were hardly shot down by 9.11 police state hysteria. But it's a nice fig leaf to cover the general decline of worthwhile dissent on American campuses.

Berkeley is #4 for the SJP protest.

4. UC Berkeley: To denounce Israel's occupation of the West Bank, a group called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) established a checkpoint on campus and organized an April rally, drawing more than 1,000 protesters. SJP also staged a classroom sit-in to demand that the university divest $6.4 billion from businesses with ties to Israel. The protest disrupted midterm exams, led to the arrest of 41 students, and sparked counter-protests by Jewish groups, who accused SJP of anti-Semitism. When the administration suspended SJP's right to operate on campus as punishment for disrupting classes, the American Civil Liberties Union admonished, "The university's reaction to the sit-in has a chilling effect at a time when freedom of expression is so critical to our democracy." The university reinstated SJP after 200 members flouted their suspension by rallying at Sproul Plaza, the former stomping grounds of the Free Speech Movement.

Does it count that few of the 1000 protestors and 200 countercounterprotestors were students?Email This Post!

Patriot Reporter Steve Sexton will be appearing on O'Reilly tonight at 5. Regrettably, no 'White Ribboners' have been found to debate him.Email This Post!

Is it August 19th again?

UPDATE UPDATE: They are totally fired. It appears the drinking incident was a party during RA training. UPDATE: I have confirmation on the two Bowles RAs being fired. No confirmation on the other three. It may be they just received probation. **CALSTUFF EXCLUSIVE** **BREAKING NEWS** Five Resident Assistants have already been fired as the Semester gets underway. Two of them are in Bowles, and were fired for giving alcohol to minors. No word on where the other three are, or what they've done. Word on the street is that the Resident Directors aren't fucking around this year, and are making an example of offenders. More as it develops... More sources being searched for...

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Nukees, which is only properly read online, actually references being at Berkeley again!

The main characters are in Etcheverry, home of the Nuclear Engineering Department. They decide to travel to Soda, home of EECS, which is only... one door away!

Since this joke hinges on knowing the locations of various Engineering Departments and their proximity, I award it a Calstuff Trivia Award.
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Mr. Meyers' support of Free Markets is a little...conditional...

Basically, they wish to let the free market operate as it may, which is the right thing to do, when the free market wants to build apartment buildings. But it's the wrong thing to do when it wants to build office buildings.

But is it? Mr. Meyers assumes that Berkeley has a chronic need for housing regardless of Geography. This is certainly true in Southside or North Berkeley. But the proposed office developments are for West Berkeley, a slumming Industrial area.

Here, there's good arguments for office developments. Office parks will turn a poor industrial center into a modernized industrial center. It'll replace job creation centers that produce high pollution with ones that are low pollution. Transit-wise, West Berkeley is a short hop from I-80 already, and will be less of a burden on major Berkeley streets like University and Telegraph. In terms of housing, West Berkeley is already a high-pollution, high-noise industrial area, hardly desirable for housing. Indeed, Progressives opposed the office buildings on fear of gentrification and lack of artist workspace, not really for housing reasons.


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UPDATE: Ms. Hong writes that Brian Kennedy simply didn't have the time for the job.

CalWatch writes that the Executive VP Han Hong still needs a webmaster for ASUC.org. There's probably a bigger story behind this, since I was told on the 27th of August that Mr. Brian Kennedy was the new one.

Ms. Hong's behavior on this has been uninspiring. One fully qualified applicant I know applied more then once, met with her in person, and she still didn't even remember his name afterwards. Now it may be a month before a webmaster is found. Bill tracking has not been updated. Neither has anything more significant then Senator e-mails, and only that because Ms. Hong received complaints.

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Albatross points out this intriguing new DeCal course:

ANGRY JACK

English 98/198, 1-4 units
Th, 4-6, room:TBA
Course Description: Have you ever fantasized about writing for The Squelch and then realized that you're neither funny enough nor male? Have you ever thought to yourself, " O'gee Satellite's pretty cool but I just can't afford that third pair of Converse?" Same here. Enter Angry Jack, a class oriented towards learning the writing, editing, and publication processes, culminating in the distribution of a Brave New Publication whose diverse content will be shaped by an all inclusive staff and whose only agenda is creative expression. But, you
know, funny.
Faculty Sponsor: Jeffrey Knapp
Course Coordinator(s): Elena Mack, Lily Moallem, readangryjack@yahoo.com

The inference here seems to be that Squelch is A) All male and B) not 'all inclusive.' News to me!

Other interesting DeCals: Senator Primm is sponsoring an ASUC class entitled 'THE ASUC HAS A 20 MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET' Squelch has their own DeCal, entitled 'Comedy Writing' and run by David 'Praglib' Duman. The Male Sexuality DeCal returns with brave Faculty Sponsor Kurt Cuffey, not to mention the Internationally famous Simpsons DeCal course.


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Just to emphasize something below: Mr. Gabriel must be burning up over how this controversy made him look like a complete tool. Both the Chancellor and the Graduate Assembly President have been basically ignoring him, as has the Press. One ASUC insider remarked that Jesse should fire his PR people. Especially since the 9.11 plans have really been heavily planned by his office, including the ribbon decisions, and now the Chancellor is making all the decisions in order to avoid possibly embarassing decisions by the ASUC.

It strikes me that President Gabriel needs a nickname. I've already dubbed the previous two Presidents. Wally is Cutter W, after the infamous Clinton Tickets fiasco. Teddy Liaw is Randy, after his relationship infidelities were sent around to everyone in the ASUC and AAA. That leaves the new guy. It doesn't have to be a mean nickname, just accurate and witty. Comment above.Email This Post!

I'm sure everyone missed this morning's MSNBC, but

Be sure to watch Patriot Staff Writer Steve Sexton square off with Graduate Assembly President Jessica Quindel on MSNBC Saturday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 am.

Damn, forgot to set my alarm clock.

What a sad, pathetic controversy this 'white ribbon, RWB ribbon' imbroglio is. In the end, both sides of the eternal Patriotism fight won their own battles. BCR got plenty of publicity, stuck it to the Left, and embarassed their campus yet again. Quindel and Co. got on MSNBC, made Jesse Gabriel look like completely ineffectual, and got good and riled up.

In the meantime, actual students have to face yet another spate of news stories about how stupid Berkeley is, and find their resumes damaged by just that much more.

When did embarassing your own campus become such a useful sport for BCR? And lets not kid ourselves: they jumped on this intending to drag it before Matt Drudge from the very start. Yet if the issue was red/white/blue ribbons, it could've easily been handled through quiet diplomacy or internal pressure. Get President Gabriel to stand up to Quindel in some meaningful way. Sponsor a bill. Or at the very least, make clear that it's a very small subsection of this campus that's pushing for 'remembrance' and 'non-patriotism.' Instead, BCR continually chooses to peddle the self-serving myth that they are the defenders of freedom and patriotism on this campus, and everyone else has to be shamed into doing so.

I used to be a big fan of BCR, and I'm a big fan of red/white/blue ribbons. But if their tactics continue to be self-serving media blitzes bent on perpetuating an old stereotype of a uniformly anti-American campus, then screw them. I'm tired of being a pawn in this old BCR/CalSERVE game.Email This Post!

CalWatch has been blogging up a storm in the past day. Lots of links to 9.11 Controversy related things, the Daily Cal's response, and so on. Go there.Email This Post!

Chancellor Berdahl's response to the Patriot article.Email This Post!

From quasistoic.com, found this nice schedule maker on OCF.Email This Post!

UPDATE: Drudge just linked to the story. Bottom left.

The Patriot has a long account of the 9.11 anti-Patriotism efforts. Very nice.

There's also KG Barnett's speech to the ASUC Senate.

This speech was delivered to the ASUC Senate Wednesday night by Patriot Publisher Kelso G. Barnett

Recent statements by ASUC Officials stating that the Pledge of Allegiance is divisive, that red white and blue ribbons to be distributed on September 11th should be replaced with white as to not offend, and that patriotism should have no place in memorial ceremonies next Wednesday are not only shocking, but paradoxically, just as offensive and divisive.

By bending over backwards to appease a small element on this campus that finds fault with our country's heritage and symbols, this body ends up offending the vast silent majority of Cal students from all different backgrounds who are proud to be Americans. We also end up squelching the spirit of unity that emerged soon after our generation's day of infamy. There is much more in this country that unites us than divides us-- Black or White, Christian, Jew, or Muslim, etc… we are all Americans first.

The groundswell of patriotism that came about after 9-11 wasn't by government mandate, rather it was a spontaneous, individually initiated phenomenon that reached every corner of this country. Even Berkeley.

It's important to remember that when we support, advocate, and demand patriotism to a part of this campus 9-11 remembrances, we don't advocate a blind patriotism- it's not "my country, right or wrong." Rather, it's as Edmund Burke said, "to make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely." He suggests by this that the genuine patriot loves his country not only because it is his, but also because it is good.

Why is it good? As Dinesh D'Souza wrote in his recent book, America is the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for our world. History will view America as a great gift to the world, a gift that Americans today must preserve and cherish."

You have a responsibility to our fellow students, our surrounding community, and to rest of our country to allow patriotism - a patriotism that isn't blind- and a patriotism exhibited by vigorous debate- to be an integral part of next week's commemoration.

Patriotism, the Star Spangled Banner, and our flag aren't political objects- rather they are common threads that represent a country that gives us the freedom to speak freely. I strongly urge this body to support memorial services that not only pay tribute to those lives lost, but to the country whose founding ideals and principles were attacked. If you don't, we will.

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Went to the IFC meeting on the Moratorium.

Pretty sure I can write about this... it was a public meeting and I didn't identify myself as writing for the Daily Cal. Still working out what I can and cannot do.

Anyhoo, copies of the final Moratorium proposal were distributed. Mr. Barron of the Daily Cal will probably have the details on them tomorrow; suffice to say the system is a reasonably flexible tiered punishment system. Kenney mainly wants a few rewordings and slightly tougher language on a few minor issues.

The IFC vote on the proposal will be on Tuesday. If it passes with no trouble, the Moratorium could be lifted by next Friday.Email This Post!

A few pictures from the BCR sponsored speeches at the Senate meeting tonight. The lighting is a bit dim.. sorry.



The Flag side.



Patriot Founder KG Barnett speaks his mind.Email This Post!

Content Junkie on the new Columnists...

Annoying thing #2 is the Daily Cal columnists. My reflex is to begin any criticism with "Of course, I have no room to talk but..." This is because I don't want somebody to think they're making some great revelation when they point out to me that I cannot do a better job of writing than the Daily Cal columnists. If I could, wouldn't I have applied for the job? Wouldn't I have gotten the job the one time I did apply for it? But I am going to suppress that reflex this time.

For one thing, I don't have any real criticism of the Thursday or Friday columnists. I liked the Thursday column a lot. It's not like the college != movies thing hasn't been pointed out before, but the writing style makes this one work. I won't say anything bad about the Friday column because Lia would kick my ass. The Monday column wasn't badly written. I learned later that there were a couple of factual errors, and I wish that the guy would be clearer about his biases, but I figure he'll do better next time. I hope he focuses entirely on politics because it's an important year for that and all.

The second reason I am not going to be all self-deprecating is the Wednesday columnist. The reason for this is because I could be a better writer than this guy. I am a better writer than this guy, and I don't have anyone (including myself most days) to edit my writing. Don't think I'm getting arrogant here: monkeys on typewriters could do a better job than this guy. For example, I found his column last week so boring that I never read it all the way through. Every time I sat down to do so, I found my eye wandering over to the advertisements nearby. Now, this might not seem remarkable to you. But I read pretty much anything. I read Salar Jahedi's column faithfully during the summer. I read online journals. I even read message boards.* If anyone can handle boring, incoherent material, it's me. Yet I could not bring myself to sit down and actually read all the way through last week's column. I was better today, and I actually managed to read this week's column in its entirety. All I can really say is that if I wanted to hear stuff like this, I'd go to more parties. And that Mark Pilloff (scroll down) should have his own column.

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The final proposals on the Greek Alcohol moratorium have been collected and will be passed out at the IFC meeting tonight. From what I've seen, the finalized plan is fairly flexible and innovative, getting beyond the 'Hey, lets tighten things' mentality of the usual reform effort.Email This Post!

Students for Justice in Palestine-- who're having their weekly meetings in Wheeler this semester-- are ready to fight Administration charges.

They plan to meet with representatives from Student Judicial Affairs in the next two weeks to determine if a settlement can be reached between the students and the university. If no settlement can be reached, case-by-case hearings will be held for the students.

Members of the group will be represented by the National Lawyers Guild and UC Berkeley's Student Advocate Office.

But many of the group members accused of violating the conduct code do not want a settlement with the university and may prefer holding a full hearing, said group member Hoang Phan.

Strangely, the article quotes Student Advocate Rafeedie extensively but never mentions that she's been involved with SJP in the past. It's not a conflict of interest, but it is newsworthy.Email This Post!

Calstuff Trivia Challenge

Congratulations to Calstuff reader (name withheld) for being the first eligible person to respond that the Humphrey Go-BART was the name of the old campus-BART shuttle. You have one week to claim your prize. Also thank you and congratulations to the record number of people who replied with correct answers. Now on to this week's question:

With Cal's 70-22 victory over Baylor this past weekend, the California Victory Cannon fired an amazing 15 charges. All of that excitement would not have been possible had one graduating class of Cal students not pooled their money to purchase the cannon for Cal. Which graduation class donated the California Victory Cannon to the students of the University? Email me your answer at stbyrne@uclink.berkeley.edu Good luck, Go Bears, and Beat the Aggies!

PS: On an athletics/blog note, the official page of Cal Women's Volleyball has started having lone senior, outside hitter, #25 Leah Young keep an online journal. Perhaps that news is not as interesting if you don't have a crush on her.Email This Post!

Speaking of Labor Trouble, the Claremont one is dragging on.

Unlike the CUE/Lecturer strike at UC, which is between the forces of good and the forces of fat administrative salaries, Claremont is a nasty battle between Labor and Capitalist that boils down to nothing more moralistic then the ninth round of a backroom boxing match.Email This Post!

The nationwide embarassment to the Left that is the Pacifica management struggle continues into its third year.Email This Post!

Calstuff predicted back before the Clerical strike that the real action was in Sacramento, and so it is.

Perhaps the most powerful force, which emerged on the side of the strikers last week, is the state legislature.

Last week, 42 members of the state assembly signed a letter to UC President Richard Atkinson expressing their concern over allegations that UC is misappropriating public funds earmarked for UC employee salaries.

"Continued labor dissension forces us to consider active participation in reviewing employment practices at the university," the letter stated. "We have to consider our responsibility to ensure that public funds are being used as intended."

The article predicts more, and more severe, strikes in the future. But interestingly, especially for a column I'm working on, has almost nothing on student reactions to the strike. Mostly anecdotal evidence of a few students picking up picket signs.
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Meh.Email This Post!

Went to Hearst Mining Building today, only the fourth class to see it open. Very nice building; you owe it to yourself to check it out.





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I missed the AOII/DU 'Trading Spaces' show, but Pagstuff caught it.Email This Post!