Word on the street is that the results of the Michael Grey investigations come out this week, and rumor is they'll be pretty shocking and big. The Daily Cal has promised to report on them.

Looking forward to it...
Breaking hard this week...Email This Post!

Over a month after the end of ASUC Budgeting, and still the Final version hasn't been posted on asuc.org.

I'm sure looking forward to EVP Gomez taking over. Email This Post!

I'm a Senior now, and the thoughts of Seniors always turn towards giving back to their University. Especially because, at Berkeley, chances are they'll never ever give anything else back again.

That means Senior Class Gift ideas. These come in two basic varieties: the endowment and the construction project. I'm told the Senior Committee manages to collect 50,000 to 60,000 each year. The construction project is more exciting because you can't come back in twenty years and say 'I endowed that undergraduate research assignment.' On the other hand, Berkeley is so built up and regulated that a construction project is a huge hassle.

Ideas:

1. Undergraduate Publications Endowment. Publications have always been underfunded on this campus. But they cover a lot of ground: most ethnicities, majors, and just about every other interest has a related publication currently printing on shitty quality paper. A big monetary boost could make the difference between tiny print runs and reaching the entire campus. Or terrible quality paper and good quality. Pubs only got 50,000 total this year.

2. Renovation of Bechtel Terrace. Bechtel Terrace is a possible very nice hangout area, with a grassy area, nearby cafe, and handy access by Engineers. But it's limited to a few nasty bench/cubicles and ancient tables. Time for a renovation.

3. Lighting project. Berkeley is still badly lit, despite numerous reports detailing exactly which sections need new lights. This could improve safety at a go.

4. Better toilet paper. Hear me out! Berkeley currently uses this horrible see-through stuff. I can think of nothing else that reaches across all barriers, all ethnicities, all classes, like funding the purchase of better quality toilet paper.

Send in your ideas!Email This Post!

No one answered last week's Calstuff Trivia Question correctly... heck, no one even tried... so here's an easier one.

Who is this person, where is he, and who took the picture?. Answer all three first for the victory!

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So what happened to Michael Grey, alleged assaulter of a 'white Fraternity?' It's been a couple of weeks. (The head speaker at the ASUC Senate complaining about the Daily Cal story attacked Pi Kapp as a 'white fraternity.' Here's their directory. Plenty of Lopezs, Gonzales, Ortizs, Durazos, Mendozas, etc. I don't really like Pi Kapp because I suspect them of throwing a toilet in my Frat's pool, but they're possibly the most multicultural frat around.)

I don't know how to contact the District Attorney, who would presumably decide whether or not to charge Grey with assault. But I can say with certainty that I'll know if Grey was charged with assault. How? If there's nothing about him the entire summer!

Stay with me on this one.

If Grey isn't charged, what's the implication? It means there's not enough evidence to charge him. That means that the police arrested Grey, held him for a week or so, and mentioned him as their prime suspect, based on almost no evidence. Then the Daily Cal ran a picture on him, got heavily protested + paper thefts, all implicating this football player-- wrongly-- as a thug. Huge scandal! If I was the African-American community and the Daily Cal doesn't run a story on him being cleared of charges, I'd be pissed! The only possible conclusion is that Grey being cleared must be in the Daily Cal... and if it isn't, well, we can draw conclusions from that, too.Email This Post!

I'm back, so lets catch up on stuff. First off is the final tally of the embarassing SARS backtrack. The South China Morning Post has a good piece on a high-level delegation that UC sent to repair ties with Hong Kong. Registration required, so I'll just post the summary paragraph.

Within two weeks of announcing that students from Sars-affected regions could not attend its summer programme due to start next week, a high-level delegation headed by vice-chancellor Professor Donald McQuade, was in Hong Kong, to say sorry. The businesslike team also turned a credibility crisis because of a global rebuke into an opportunity. Furthering academic links became a natural part of the Hong Kong agenda. With so few leaders from overseas universities daring to set foot here, McQuade was assured of a warm reception. "What was at stake was our academic integrity," said McQuade, explaining why the team so quickly flew across the Pacific for the four-day visit. Berkeley has an image of being a particularly liberal institution. It was sorely stung by suggestions that it could now be taking the lead in discriminating against young Asians. "Forty four per cent of our students have an Asian heritage," McQuade said. There was no question of Chinese-looking people being unwelcome on campus as an outcome of Sars. Berkeley was criticised by the World Health Organisation, the Hong Kong government, the media, and even its own alumni for turning the students away. It quickly backtracked, discovering previously unavailable accommodation on campus to isolate any students who developed Sars-like symptoms, allowing it to take up to 80 students from Sars countries for the summer programme. "To meet with students who were enrolled and will come to Berkeley at the beginning of next week was our highest purpose, to express our regrets for any misunderstanding and confusion caused as a result of the announcement," said McQuade of the reason for the visit. He also met with alumni, but denied that the possible impact of the image crisis on fund-raising was a motive: "It was not a question of finances but what everyone understood to be the integrity of Berkeley's academic mission and identity," he said. He insists that all Berkeley had been doing was following the Centres for Disease Control's guidelines, but that it had unfortunately been the first to do so because its summer programme started before those at other universities. Its initial decision was based on the fact that it did not have suitable accommodation for isolation: which involved students having their own rooms, separate ventilation and separate bathrooms. It is now setting aside about 20 rooms in a conference centre of this.

Meanwhile, an op-ed in the New York Times criticized the ban as racist.

The university's actions have had particular force for many Asians, in large measure because California has historically been home to the oldest and most virulent strains of anti-Chinese sentiment. As long as the university maintains criteria for exclusion based on nationality, not sound medical diagnosis, it will continue to face charges of anti-Asian prejudice. After all, SARS is a global disease. A blanket ban on Asians isn't protection against the virus — it is simply discrimination under a different name.

Not a very good op-ed. It depends on seeing the reaction against fake 'Asian' diseases in old California as the same thing as a reaction against a real disease centered in Asia. SARS is not a global disease; obviously so if there aren't any cases of it in California. It's in Asia, and hopefully, it won't spread. It also associates some good points that made Berdahl reverse himself-- this isn't a good way of stopping the disease, it's not based on medical theory, etc-- with the more head-scratching idea that what Chancellor Berdahl really fears is them slanty-eyed foreigners what are building the Transcontinental railroad. I find it much more likely he fears people with a deadly and communicable disease.

It was quickly followed up by several letters pointing out that Universities in China have much stricter restrictions on movement, and no one criticizes them as racist.

In the last month, there have been no reported cases of SARS in Fujian Province. Yet Xiamen University, where I am a Fulbright lecturer, has adopted draconian rules for all university members who leave the city.

Students and faculty members alike are forbidden to leave Xiamen without permission of the university's anti-SARS committee. They may re-enter campus only after a medical examination and a 10-day quarantine, regardless of their health.

This week we were told that the quarantine facility is full. Anyone who leaves will not be allowed to return until further notice. This means that my Chinese students can't interview for jobs, apply for visas to visit the United States or even visit their families. There is also discussion of canceling the summer holiday and requiring students to remain on campus.

The history of anti-Chinese racism in the United States is sad, but the SARS threat is real. Berkeley may have initially overreacted, but to equate its actions with racial discrimination does not help make appropriate and reasonable policies.
Gerald N. Rosenberg
Xiamen, China, May 21, 2003

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Greenie is on trial

Mallory Moser was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of blocking traffic April 22 during a large demonstration outside the Lockheed Martin facility in Sunnyvale. About 50 others were arrested on similar charges during the protest, but Moser remained in jail because she refused to give her name to authorities or to pay $100 bail. Moser called herself ``Greenie.''

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Found out who the Friday Columnist is: Michelle Myers (note corrected spelling) is the current Editor-in-Chief of Onyx Express.

BallsyEmail This Post!

New Columnists have been chosen... lets see what we can find out.

Monday is Mehammed Mack. Probably going to be the controversial Columnist: a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and Berkeley Tikkun.

Another panel participant is second-year philosophy major Mohammed Mack, an active member of both Berkeley Tikkun and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and a co-organizer of the May 4 event. Half-Saudi, with work experience at the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, D.C., in his background, Mack has shifted in his beliefs about the Middle East conflict over time. Until relatively recently he saw Israel as the aggressor in the conflict, he says. That viewpoint, to some extent, stimulated his decision to join SJP at the start of the fall 2002 semester, though it didn’t keep him from attending a Berkeley Tikkun meeting some months later as well.

On SJP, Mr. Mack says

Mack says: “Despite the stereotype on campus that they’re a bunch of hooligans, SJP is a very principled, nonviolent group. Its members, for the most part, are calm individuals who are willing to talk, not just scream at you. I maintain my membership in both groups to show that things are not irreconcilable between them It doesn’t bother me that the exact political ideologies of SJP and Tikkun don’t align; I’m more interested in doing joint teamwork in the areas where they do align.”

Tuesday says 'A.C.D,' whatever that means. Probably some lame acronym for someone afraid of their parents finding out. Wimp! I'll have your real name in minutes.

Wednesday is Faith Stein. Hey, I know her! She's currently Director of Cal Housing in the External VP office. No idea what she's doing next year. She's also Jewish, so we'll see how Monday and Wednesday balance out.

Thursday is David Mourra, pictured here at his Rescomp job in Clark Kerr. (Small world: that's my Cousin on the far right.)

David Mourra [2nd from left] is currently a second year Bioengineering major and he's still trying to figure out what that is. He enjoys bad modern art, hanging out near bars he can't get into, and sometimes, just kicking back with a good herbal laxative.

Michelle Meyers is on Friday. A google search doesn't reveal anything about her, unless she's a staff writer for the Hayward Daily Review, in which case she wrote this.Email This Post!

Calstuff Trivia Question

More of a Scavenger Hunt then a Trivia Question, but here goes.

We all know who Clinton Miller is. He's immortal! But what you might not know is what a striking young man he was. So the first person to find his portrait in the 1898 Blue and Gold and tell me whose portrait is to his immediate left wins a Big Calstuff Favor!

UPDATE: Here's something that just occured to me. The standard version of the Axe story goes as follows:

When they reached the ferry they found a number of Stanford men accompanied by several policemen, waiting for them. They stopped to consult. When almost at their wit's ends, a young lady friend of Miller's passed the group. With a sudden inspiration, he said good-bye to the others, walked up to the young lady, and passed through the ferry gate with her without being questioned. The others kept the policemen busy talking, finally making an unwilling admission that the ax was in Golden Gate Park.

Great story! But who is the lady friend? She played a big role in the salvation of the Axe, and yet her name has been apparently lost in history, described as 'a Berkeley co-ed' or 'woman aquaintance.' Damn this malecentric society! Anyone who tells me her name (and biography, hopefully) gets another Calstuff favor.Email This Post!

Calstuff Trivia Answer

Congratulations to Mike Heath, who was the first to answer that Ronald Reagan was the VIP at a very special dance on May 22nd, 1970.

During Spring quarter of 1970 the Gay Students Union announced that they were sponsoring a dance in Pauley Ballroom on the evening of May 22nd — the first openly-gay dance ever held on the Berkeley campus. News of the landmark event reached the press, and a KQED reporter earnestly asked Governor Ronald Reagan his reaction to the idea of homosexuals dancing in a University facility. Caught off guard by the question, Reagan ad-libbed, “I haven’t been invited yet!” As soon as Reagan’s comment reached the GSU, a form letter was mimeographed and handed out in Sproul Plaza. Gay students were encouraged to sign the form and send it to Sacramento:

Mr. Heath was the first to send in his answer. Reminder: answers will be graded first on completeness, then on order of entry. In terms of completeness, copying and pasting from your Google Search is not complete. Information from outside Google sources is best.

No one got the second half of the question right. The Tarantula picture is outside of Memorial Stadium, on the little road between it and the I-House.

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New Editor-in-Chief Schewe's intro Editorial wrote

Though the practice of journalism operates within the limits of the availability of sources of information and deadlines, there is no excuse for not pursuing the most complete story that exists.

No? Then why did the Daily Cal deliberately keep out the races of the perpetrators of last week's anti-Muslim hate crime? They knew what the races were, and every single crime story prior to this one described the alleged attackers using color as a criteria. Here's the description:

One of the attackers is described as a male, 20 to 25 years old who was wearing a green crew-neck sweatshirt.

Another was described as a 20 to 21-year old male wearing a brown baseball cap, brown shirt, khaki shorts and a wallet chain.

If he takes off that baseball cap, we'll never find him! Here's the Police description:

Suspect #1: A black male age 20-25, 6'01", 195 lbs, with short black hair, a dark complexion, wearing a green crew-neck sweatshirt.

Suspect #2: A Hispanic male age 20-21, 5'08", 150 lbs, wearing a brown baseball cap, brown shirt, khaki shorts and a wallet-chain on his right side.

I don't think anyone can seriously deny that the Daily Cal self-censored itself in order to avoid writing a 'a minority person probably did this' during touchy times. The question is whether this is either a one-time decision to smooth over relations before going back to normal journalistic practice, or whether it's a leap into a brave new world where nothing bad happens if a minority did it. Probably the first one, but we'll see.

This was a bad test story to take out racial information. It's a hate crime, which is inherently based on race relations and cultural differences. Giving 'full context' requires access to all relevant contextual information. And there's a big difference between two Asian boys beating up a Muslim student, two African-American students, and one Hispanic and one African-American. It's like leaving out that the Birmingham firebombers were white! Not to mention the one-sidedness of going over the race and religion of the victim but not who did it. It's like saying to the victim 'we're happy to describe you and what about you makes you a target, but the identifying characteristics of your attackers, that's right out.' Or saying that it's perfectly okay to describe minority victims, but not when attackers happen to be minorities.

In any case, a self-defeating idea. Now readers, deprived of context, will fill in their own particular bias when they see a carefully undescribed crime perpetrator. I'll bet a lot of readers assumed ' Oh, they're covering for the two black men who committed that attack.' Now, that's an improvement in race relations...Email This Post!

A well known Berkeley homeless man was brutally and grusomely murdered in prison. Kevin Lee Freeman was serving a short jail term in the psychiatric ward for public drunkenness; his cell mate was there for attacking a stranger with a knife. Activists are upset that the city jails alcoholics next to violent criminals rather than provide treatment.

Picture here for a little while.Email This Post!

Who would've thought?

Rakish Berkeley: Women's Wear Daily awarded UC Berkeley the No. 10 spot in its "America's Most Fashionable College" issue, which came out this month. Who was No. 1? New York University, and no surprise there, given where the paper is published.

Of campus chic at Cal, the trade paper said the style takes in a bit of "effortless" vintage chic, indie rocker, skater girl, grunge and granola looks. You are fashion-forward at Cal, the paper says, if "your iBook matches your Converse All-Stars." Happy graduation, and may all your fashion statements be as beautiful and individual as the campus you are leaving behind.

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Calstuff Exclusive: the final version of the ASUC budget! Not available on asuc.org or anywhere else.. just here. Email This Post!

Yesterday's Regents meeting report.Email This Post!

Commencement is today at 4 in the Greek Theatre. Economics Professor Martha Olney-- great Professor!-- will be the keynote Faculty speaker. (Good choice, Seniors!) We'll also find out which gift won the voting.Email This Post!

Cal was rated in the bottom five of 'promoting Internet freedom. No explanation given for why, tho.Email This Post!

The Governor's May revision to the budget is out. Governor Davis proclaimed it an education-friendly budget, which means no more cuts to the $360 million already taken off.

The press release is mighty depressing.

Programs across the University are being cut, many in the range of 20 percent to 50 percent, and many are planning for layoffs. Essentially every program area outside of student instruction — including administration, libraries, research, student services, Cooperative Extension, and many others — is facing significant cuts. Faculty salaries will lag UC's comparison institutions by about 9 percent, and UC faces similar challenges with respect to staff salaries.

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Ombudsman Ostrem is critical of the Daily Cal's handling of the football player article, claiming that it creates a perception of an attack not backed up by the facts.

After a few initial facts, the article reads like an "attackers vs. victims" story. At first, those involved in the fight are called "combatants." But later, those on the football player's side, now perceived as African American thanks to the photograph of the football player, are referred to as "attackers." This characterization follows a fraternity member's account of what happened, quoting him saying that "it was an unprovoked attack."

So far, the perception is this: A group of African-American high school and college students attacked a group of fraternity members. But the newspaper did not include sufficient evidence to warrant this perception. Including only the fraternity member's side of the story slants the entire account.

First, how does this create the perception that it was a solidly black group that attacked the Fraternity? The sole reference to race is that the football player happens to be black-- and that in a picture, not stated. The only way to generalize this is to assume that if one of the attackers was African-American, they all had to be-- a more telling bias then anything in the article. If Mr. Ostrem thinks an African-American would only be involved if everyone else was black as well, that's one thing. But he's assuming every reader shares the same perception about black self-segregation, which is fairly insulting.

Also, what's wrong with the article's facts? Mr. Ostrem isn't quoting the Fraternity's version of events, he's quoting the police's.

'Police are not sure what precipitated the fight, but it appears to have included a mixture of high school and college students, (Berkeley Police Sergeant) Odom said.'

All the Fraternity member said was that 'a large group of people tried to enter the house' and 'it was an unprovoked attack.' Both of these are factually obvious. When Mr. Ostrem objects to the phrase

A group of African-American high school and college students attacked a group of fraternity members. But the newspaper did not include sufficient evidence to warrant this perception

he's, first, projecting a very shaky reading of his own onto their ethnicity, and two, claiming the cop's statement doesn't have 'sufficient evidence.' It's standard newspaper practice to trust police statements.

Mr. Ostrem also misses the section of the article that probably pissed off the protesters the most-- the profile of Grey in the bottom of the article. Considering he had just been arrested, wasn't charged with anything, etc, it was definitely premature to overview his ties to the football team and call Cal Athletics for a comment. And if that section hadn't been in, maybe the photo wouldn't've run, etc.

Mr. Ostrem's article closes with a call for more 'diversity' and 'understanding' between African-Americans and the Daily Cal, which presumably means coverage of positive black events. I'm skeptical. This means, in practical terms, hiring a black reporter who knows the community well. But whoever that is is probably working for Onyx Express already, Cal's perfectly good African-American student newspaper. And, having read Onyx, there doesn't appear to be much 'hard news' to cover. It's a small community, and nothing much earthshaking seems to happen. The Daily Cal could try making an agreement with them, where they could temporarily write for the Daily Cal when some big news story comes up that should come out right away. Worth looking into.

Other then that, tho, any 'dialog' is bound to founder on the rocks of mutual distrust and incompatible goals. Every community, especially the leaders, want positive feature stories on them without much criticism. Barring that, they just don't want critical news stories. And they want monitors in place to warn them about upcoming negative coverage. Since both of these violate journalistic norms, everyone's better off not making the attempt.

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Now's your chance to paint Memorial Stadium.Email This Post!

My Columnist Application for next Fall was rejected, so that Graduate Assembly one will probably be the last one I write. New Opinions Editor Kapp would like me to contribute on occasion, so we'll see if that works out. No word yet on who the new Columnists will be.Email This Post!

Calstuff Trivia Returns!

Two questions for loyal Calstuff Readers out there. Whoever gets the closest to getting both right by next Monday night earns a Calstuff Favor. E-mail me with your answers.

Q1: Who was the VIP invited to a very special dance in Pauley Ballroom on May 15th, 1970?

Q2: Where on campus was this picture taken?

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CalWatch has most of the material on the Gray case, including some discussions from people there and the article in the Planet revealing that Gray has not been charged at this point.

The Protesters don't know how to hold on to moral authority. First their leader denies stealing the Daily Cals.

James Drake, a spokesman for the student group, denied that anybody associated with the group had anything to do with the missing papers.

Then he claims that 'actions will continue' until an apology is extracted.

“We’re going to continue taking action against the Daily Californian until they run a front page apology.”

He said actions would include demonstrations and possibly contacting advertisers to discourage their purchasing advertising space in the Daily Californian.

The thefts only have any moral capital if you own up to them. To lie about involvement demonstrates you know it's illegal and morally indefensible.
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Mr. Henchman analyzes the voting results.. of my 566 votes for Executive VP:

105 to Ms. Gomez
104 to Mr. LaFata
79 to Mr. Lee
278 went no further

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UPDATE UPDATE: Today it's in the International Herald Tribune, Mercurcy News, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong's premier newspaper), Agence France Presse, and the Montreal Gazette.

UPDATE: The reversal made it in the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Associated Press, Reuters, and Chron. Not bad!

Chancellor Berdahl has backtracked after his SARS ban ignited a media firestorm and criticism from the World Health Organization. Not to mention charges of racism from mainstream Asian organizations. The University claims they are now allowing students because

The campus was able to modify that policy for two reasons. First, it worked aggressively to put special housing in place should students from areas hard hit by SARS develop a cough, cold or fever. Second, by limiting the overall total number of students arriving from SARS-affected areas, it can better manage necessary precautions.

Here's the Chancellor's exact comments.Email This Post!

BusinessWeek has an expose on Affirmative Action-related turmoil at Haas. It's not available online, so I'll quote in full from Lexis.

The University of California at Berkeley campus has been the center of many a political imbroglio, and the recent split of UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business from the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management is no exception. New B-school Dean Thomas J. Campbell finds himself at the center of controversy after he ordered an internal review of the school's affirmative action programs. The review found that the school's partial funding of fellowships sponsored by the consortium, a nonprofit that helps minority MBAs, and faculty representation on the consortium's board violated Proposition 209. That was the 1996 ballot initiative that banned the consideration of race as a criterion for admission into the California university system.

The timing of the review and decision is raising eyebrows on campus, say students and faculty, since Prop 209 compliance was never considered problematic under previous deans Laura D'Andrea Tyson and William A. Hasler. A former GOP congressman and California state senator who backed Prop 209, Campbell insists in a statement that his personal politics weren't behind the moves. He declined to comment otherwise. University lawyers say Prop 209 remains binding no matter what the Supreme Court decides in two University of Michigan suits.

Whatever the case, the pressure still might have been political. Last summer, two students denied admission to Haas sent letters asking the university for details about the school's racial and gender makeup and admissions procedures. ''Dean Campbell was under the impression that this was preparation for a potential lawsuit against the Haas School,'' says Jay Stowsky, an associate dean. That led to the review and forced resignation of faculty member David Downes from the consortium's board last December.

The moves angered Haas students, whose reaction to the split was ''quite negative,'' says one professor. Campbell has since been on a public-relations blitz about the school's diversity efforts. And he led a town-hall-type student meeting on Apr. 21 -- a ''very emotional'' scene, say students who attended. Their beef: Diversity seems a low priority for Campbell.

Still, the outcry has engaged the dean in dialogue with students about diversity -- something that students claimed had been missing previously. And the hubbub has galvanized student opposition to Prop 209, which already had slashed minority enrollment from 14% before, to just 5% today -- and falling.

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Lighter Side reports on some budget details.
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More thefts yesterday... also arrests. Email This Post!

Calstuff Correspondant Dave sends word that the ASUC Budget Meeting just adjourned... after 24 and 1/2 hours in session hammering out the budget. Squelch ended with 13,000, 2000 below our budget last year but 3000 above where we were worried about ending up.Email This Post!

The Daily Cal's article on the paper thefts today is defiant, concluding with

Daily Cal editors decided not to apologize for the article or the cartoon.

From a tactical standpoint, the protesters have made apologizing the last thing any Editor should do. An apology, after all, is not what the protesters really want. It stands as a proxy for power and control issues-- having 'representation' on the Daily Cal, it being 'sensitive to the Black Community,' and their particular prism of interests and sensitive spots, and so on...

"The Daily Cal is not my newspaper," said UC Berkeley graduate student Cintya Molina. "There needs to be a mechanism for accountability."

An apology is not an ends-- it's a means to start taking over editorial control. (This leaves aside the arguments about journalistic integrity, pursuit of the truth, etc.)

As the comments note below, the activists at the ASUC Senate last night repeatedly referred to Pi Kapp as a 'white Fraternity,' despite a large Latino and Asian membership. The Fraternity President, who had 'a) multiple facial lacerations b) eye swollen shut c) 6-10 staples holding his scalp on,' stated that the Saturday attack was revenge for being turned away from a party his Fraternity was throwing. Which, as anyone in the Fraternity scene knows, is because they're High Schoolers and Freshmen, not because of race.

We also still don't know what happened to the incarcerated football player. Email This Post!

UPDATE: There was a second round of thefts of the salvaged papers around 4 PM.

The Daily Cal suffered paper thefts and an attempted newsroom invasion today by protesters upset about two separate-- racially charged-- pieces. Yesterday the Daily Cal was invaded by about 50 protesters, who roamed room to room searching for reporter Nate Tabak, then yelled at him for awhile. This was in response to Mr. Tabak's article about the arrest of a Cal Football player for allegedly invading a Fraternity House and fracturing the skull of a Fraternity member. The assault left seven with serious injuries. The Protesters claimed the article negatively stereotyped blacks as violent + misrepresented Gray. (Here's the Editor-in-Chief's response).

Today those protestors linked up with others upset over a cartoon of North Korean ruler Kim Jong that ran on April 25th. The cartoon had Kim Jong dressed in a cheerleader outfit rah-rah-ing nuclear warheads. The protesters, mostly pro-affirmative action group BAMN, had claimed it caricatured Asians much like Japanese caricatures of the 1940's.

Today's Daily Cal, which included an article on the newsroom invasion plus a defense of policy by Editor-in-Chief Rong-Gong Lin, was thrown away on Sproul Plaza between 9 and 10:30. Many were recovered from the trash.

After gathering in Lower Sproul, around 30 protesters walked up to the sixth floor of Eshleman Hall, where the Daily Cal is located. They were stymied by a locked door. Still waiting to see what they'll do next.

(Regulars: I'm writing this to fill in Instapundit readers in case I get linked to).
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Word on the street is that the Daily Cal is being protested over either the Gray story or the Editorial Cartoon. Maybe both. This lends credence to the rumors that the papers today have disappeared. More as I hear about it.Email This Post!

From Student Advocate Rafeedie to the SAO staff...

Hi Everyone:
I'm writing to let you all know that the first appeal we filed on Bryant's behalf was rejected by the judicial council. This is not the last thing we can do. We can appeal again, or take it to the Alameda County court. If all these efforts fail, Bryant will likely be appointed Student Advocate by the next President (Richard Schulman is a graduating senior). If the paper reads that Bryant didn't win, don't worry. We are going to proceed with all our activities as though he has. This is not over, and I am confident that it will come out just fine, with Bryant as our Student Advocate.

Thanks everyone,
Salam

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So why did Student Action get their butt kicked?

It seems to me like a combination of two factors. First, CalSERVE ran a campaign at least as organized and energized as Student Action's. SA seemed lethargic this year, too long in power without a serious challenge to bring everyone alive. CalSERVE had plenty of volunteers out there at all times, top-notch lit production, etc.

But this doesn't explain why CalSERVE won all the Execs. The exact same message could be said of last year, but Mr. Gee and Ms. Holland still lost conclusively. And that's largely because of a lack of ties to some of the biggest vote centers on campus: Greeks, Dorms, Engineers, Whites & Asians to some extent. Their base is energized and reasonably large, but never quite big enough to beat Student Action.

I blame the Primm factor: Mr. Primm ran the most effective vote-getting campaign anyone on this campus can remember. He not only turned out all the voters he picked up last year, but successfully integrated all the CalSERVE voters. And in exchange he provided what no CalSERVE campaign has ever been able to do: 1. Substantially increase the size of the base and 2. transfer votes between Executives. Look at the numbers: Kriss ended up with some 4200 votes before dropping other candidates, almost exactly equal to CalSERVE's vote last year + Primm's vote. All the other CalSERVE Execs ended in the low 3000's. If half of Primm's voters voted for the other CalSERVE Execs, it would push them over the top. I expect it was this Primm effect that gave the rest of CalSERVE, with the probable exception of Mr. Mata, what they needed to win. And, of course, the voters that they gave to Primm gave him a comfortable victory and the ability to campaign for transfers.

The Senate figures seem to bear this out. With the exception of Mr. Kashmiri, who had Boalt behind him to an unprecedented degree, CalSERVE did not do exceptionally in this year's Senate. They got what the size of their base usually gets them-- 5-6 people. Since Mr. Primm was not pushing CalSERVE Senators, it seems like the Primm effect extended to Execs but not Senate.

I haven't looked at the numbers, so this is all conjecture. But, if true, it suggests that CalSERVE has a couple of new priorities if they want to maintain dominance. The first is to continue to keep an eye on an Executive slate that transfers between each other well. The other is to find charismatic candidates from outside of the Party core that have proven they can bring in big new bases that will vote for the whole slate. The big worry is probably that that figure won't be Progressive enough, but Primm has probably proven that isn't necessarily true.

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The Daily Cal was occupied yet again yesterday by supporters of alleged Pi Kapp skullfracturer Michael Grey. Alleged alleged alleged. The occupiers proved their commitment to dialogue and stopping negative stereotypes by roaming room to room searching for reporter Nate Tabak so they could yell at him.

Was it Gray? We know that multiple people wearing football jerseys invaded Pi Kapp. Presumably some of them were African-American. Since the police are still holding him, there's probably enough evidence to do so: bloody knuckles, lack of alibi, knows lots of local High Schoolers, or something else. It's unlikely he's being held because he's Black and was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Students objected to what they said depicted the predominately white Greek community as victims because they, as minorities, already felt like outsiders on fraternity row.

They were depicted as victims because they got the shit beaten out of them for no good reason. That's the reason this is such a big story: a fight at a party is one thing. Even a fight this big at a party is quite another thing. But a premeditated, massed attack is both A) scary and B) three times as illegal. Email This Post!

The ASUC got all the attention, but this is the bigger news: yet more student fee increases resulting from yet more budget cuts in UC.

With a state Assembly bill poised to slash $80 million more from the cash-strapped UC budget next year, UC officials said yesterday they may have to raise student fees higher than already planned.

The bill could force the UC Board of Regents to revise a vote next Wednesday set to raise undergraduate student fees $785. The proposal also includes a hike in graduate and nonresident fees by $100 more.

If students were to pay for this new cut at the same ratio as the old one, we'd be paying about $170 more...Email This Post!

The Complete Senate list, courtesy of Mr. Henchman:

1. Mo Kashmiri (124-CalSERVE)
2. Christine Lee (88-Student Action-UNITE)
3. Peter Gee (139-CalSERVE)
4. Alicia Criado (122-CalSERVE)
5. Adnan Iqbal (58-Goatmilk) (incumbent)
6. Misha Leybovich (60-APPLE-Engineering) (incumbent)
7. Devin Andre (114-Student Action)
8. Gene Chung (94-Student Action-BECS)
9. Imad Ahmed (93-International Student Party)
10. Ricardo Valencia (123-CalSERVE)
11. Paul LaFata (140-APPLE) (incumbent)
12. Olivia Layug (137-CalSERVE)
13. Miya Keren (110-Student Action)
14. Sun Lee (66-Rice)
15. Charles Chen (87-Student Action-UNITE)
16. Rocky Gade (64-Fresno)
17. Bahar Khanjari (134-CalSERVE)
18. Alina Azizian (108-FREE WEED!)
19. John Wilson (109-Student Action)
20. Lauren Hubbert (119-Student Action)

21. Yvette Falarca (144-DAAP)
22. Suken Vakil (96-Student Action-BECS)
23. Billy Wang (116-Student Action)
24. Alex De La Riva (47-Independent)
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Senate Results:

Seven Student Action/UNITE/BECS
Six CalSERVE
Two APPLE
One Fresno/APPLE/Squelch! Party
One International Students Party
One Goatmilk
One Rice
One FREE WEED

Alternates (in order)
DAAP
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CALSERVE SWEEPS
Four Executive spots... look set to win heavily in Senate...

CalSERVE swept the ASUC elections today, winning all four of the major Executive spots. Kris Primm won the Presidency by a decisive 1500 votes, quota-ing in the first round. Mr. Mata won Academic Affairs, and Ms. Gomez and Ms. Joshi won EVP and External by narrower margins.

Squelch! candidate Schulman won for Student Advocate.

Early returns for Senate looked favorable for CalSERVE.

Breaking... Email This Post!

A Cal football player allegedly attacked and critically injured a member of Pi Kappa during an unprovoked attack.

UC Berkeley freshman Michael Gray, 20, an offensive lineman, allegedly committed the assault during an 11:30 p.m. melee in front of Pi Kappa Phi at 2908 Channing Way that involved as many as 50 combatants who used baseball bats, chairs, fists and bottles.

This sounds odd. Was it really a random attack? The article makes it seem that way, and I wouldn't be surprised, but there must've been some reason to target Pi Kapp. Another question: was Gray really the only Football Player involved in this? The post from Calwatch indicated multiple people in Cal Football jerseys.

others allegedly wearing Cal football uniforms

Was anyone else arrested or pointed out for this attack? I don't think this is the end of this story.Email This Post!

Berkeley is turning away International students from SARS-hit areas. The story made CNN and will probably go from there.

The ban will apply to students traveling from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, as well as mainland China.

The Chancellor has been quietly taking big steps to make sure SARS doesn't hit Cal. We're probably the most likely outbreak spot-- on the West Coast, center of International travel and Asian travel in particular, lots of people in enclosed spaces for long periods of time.Email This Post!

Vote counting is a go for tomorrow night at 7, lawsuits aside. I believe that Mr. Sciortino will simply rewrite the program so the Student Advocate stuff isn't tallied.

Mr. Schulman has pledged both to serve as SAO and reform the office over the summer, especially if it looks like Mr. Yang would be appointed by the Senate. Email This Post!

Cal Watch has the scoop on a massive fight at Pi Kappa Phi last night.

Last night at Pi Kappa Phi a group of Berkeley High students and others allegedly wearing Cal football uniforms tried to rush into the fraternity house, hearing that there was a party there. While there was an event scheduled there earlier, the event had long been over by about 11:30 pm, the time when this incident allegedly took place. Two people got severe injuries and were taken to local hospitals, while a small unknown number of others received minor injuries and were treated on the scene. The alleged cause for this was because they heard "girls" in the building and wanted to meet them, said a witness who was on the scene.

This is an honest-to-goodness massive home invasion. It wasn't even like a party was going on. Teenagers are breaking into houses and sending people to the hospital. Considering I live next door, I'm pretty concerned.Email This Post!

UPDATE: Mr. Yang will be appealing the decision. This should push the Ballot counting back.

**BREAKING**

Bryant Yang, Student Action and APPLE's candidate for Student Advocate, has been disqualified from the election following a successful lawsuit by Squelch! Candidate Richard Schulman. Mr. Schulman's case was that the font Mr. Yang used in his campaign literature was the same font used in official SAO documents, creating the appearance of it being an official endorsement. I don't know the details of how he was removed.

I'm as surprised as anyone.. Mr. Schulman filed the lawsuit on his own, and no one I've talked to thought he had a chance, (including me.) Case observers said Mr. Bryant's defender, Student Advocate Rafeedie, did a bad job defending him before the J-Council.

If Mr. Schulman decides not to serve, the election of the SAO goes to the Senate, as it did for Mr. Kipnis. No word yet if Ms. Torres would throw her hat in the ring in that case...Email This Post!

Cal Rugby lost in the national championship semifinal round to Air Force.

"In an historic upset, Air Force beat Cal Berkeley 46-28; this is the first national championship that California has not won in 12 years, and the first defeat they've suffered [to an American team] since 1996."

Cal will play Army tomorrow at noon at Stanfurd for 3rd place, while Harvard and Air Force will play for the national championship at 4pm.Email This Post!

The Daily Cal vs. ASUC wars have entered their hundreth year. The Office of the President is hopping mad over this review of the recent student group festival, particularly the parts that strongly imply it was a corrupt deal between AAA and Student Action.

The Asian American Association, closely aligned with the Student Action party, and at least one fraternity will get a portion of the profits....

"I think the event was definitely successful," said ASUC President Jesse Gabriel, a member of Student Action. "In an event like this, everyone wins."

A member of the Asian American Association, who works in Gabriel's office, recruited the group for the event.

A couple of years ago the charge that AAA was owned by SA would hold water; Presidents Liaw and Adeyemo were both AAA members and involved in the group. But recent leadership has tried to get AAA out of politics. Nowadays it'd only be accurate to say that Student Action has a lot of Asian support, as does AAA, and the two really overlap, but there's hardly any evidence of dealmaking between the two.

I'm left confused about the money parts, too. How much did the event cost? $1500? Or was that just for the restaurants part? Did this come from OP's budget, or from another source? What were profits like?

On the flipside, Presidential Candidate Frankenstein complains about the Daily Cal's coverage.

However, a student disengaging from the ASUC is only the partial fault of ASUC officials. The rest of the blame falls on The Daily Californian, which consistently reports misinformation about the ASUC with sensationalist headlines and makes rash judgments about ASUC officers.

Certainly there's been faults in the part, but 'consistently?' and 'sensationalistic?' The major ASUC events this year that made the Daily Cal were: Budget Crisis, battles with the Graduate Assembly, and Elections fiasco. The Budget crisis was kept largely secret, so the Daily Cal had no choice but to depend on leaks and partial information for an important story. The Graduate Assembly stuff had two sides saying different things. The Elections crisis was covered just fine.

To a large extent the ASUC will always have a negative light to the Daily Cal in an inevitable and desirable way. When there's a screwup or controversy, it's very public and lots of information comes out about it. It also tends to affect student groups immediately and directly. By contrast, the successes are either spread out over several years or secret entirely. AAVP Falcone devoted his entire life to the ASUC this year and had numerous-- secret-- effects on Administration policy. I have no idea what they are. If ExVp Bryant succeeded in convincing 10 legislators to vote our way in private meetings, who'll know about it? By contrast, everyone knows when the bus breaks down...

The Daily Cal's biggest fault is being behind the times in current political intrigue: ie assuming APPLE is still the standardbearer for ASUC reform or that old political rivalries and alliances still flourish. But to assume they're malicious is silly.
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Some May Day craziness last night, as about 150 people tramped around downtown Berkeley denouncing stuff. More pics here and here. Doesn't look like too many were actual students. This salvaged what had been a fairly sad May Day up to that point. Here's a picture of the May Day Rally at 12:05



What you didn't see was a group of Republicans take to the barricades at Telegraph and Bancroft around 8:45. They had been drinking at the Bear's Lair, saw protesters go past, and decided to hold the line. After awhile it became apparent no one was coming their way, and they left. Still, kudos for producing five American flags and placards within minutes.



Presidential Candidate Frankenstein just happened to be walking by with me and was hugged into the photo for kicks. In the middle is BCR member Kelly Cloyne, then Patriot EIC Sexton. Sexton also has an op-ed against Mr. Thornton's kinda pointless column on Wednesday about the stupid 'Peace = Nazism' sign. Email This Post!

Calwatch caught it first, but a jailed war protester in Santa Clara is Cal student Mallory Moser. (Although a search of the registry shows she's not presently registered, nor was she registered last semester.) Email This Post!

From the Elections Council:

The ballots for the 2003 ASUC election will be tallied tuesday night at 7 on the 7th floor of Eshleman. Everyone is welcome to attend. Also, note that the council will not wait for candidates or signatories to begin tallying. This date is subject to being pushed back due to J-council hearings but we expect all case to be heard before then.

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Some parts of Cal lost power today. From da Newscenter:

Many parts of the UC Berkeley campus lost electricity for about an hour Thursday morning (5/1) as the result of a switching problem during routine maintenance operations. Campus police reported that power had been restored by 9:25 a.m.

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