Mr. Mustard on his brush with fame.Email This Post!

Squelch makes good!

Two Squelchmen-- Monica Padrick and former Editor in Chief Sean Keane-- have this piece on Modern Humorist. Hurrah, I shall network with them and get jobs!Email This Post!

I talked to a friend in Afro House recently about the racist graffiti incident. Apparently the incident has been actually uplifting in the end, in the sense that the entire Cal community came together to condemn the graffiti and expose it as an isolated incident done by a coward in the night.

The sign alone was a prominent display of African-American creativity and culture at UC Berkeley. So therefore I say to the perpetrator(s) of this hateful action against the African-American community at UC Berkeley: Your motives are not being felt.

As I am an integral part of the less than 3.9 percent of the student population of African descent on this campus, I inform you that your intolerable ignorance has been displayed in a community that many consider to be the essence of liberalism and the embracing of diversity in this country. Furthermore, this mindless act has only further solidified the unification that exists among minority students.

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Mr. Sciortino's online voting system gets discussed in the Daily Cal. The article doesn't go much into the specifics of the new system, which Mr. Sciortino has made available to the public. The site brings up the small matter of $20,000 saved on expenditure, something the article doesn't.

Using the Online system is prjected to save the ASUC over $20,000 a year on elections. Savings are made through not having to hire a neutral third party to monitor the polls, ballot counting, and ballot printing.

The main concern is how this will affect turnout, naturally. Forget the talk about fraud. This is about a method of voting that could drastically change who has an advantage in elections.

Citing voter fraud and the impossible task of regulating campaign restrictions near polling places, opponents of the bill said it would take convincing before offering support to this proposal.

ASUC rules prohibit candidates from campaigning within 100 feet of polling sites.

For those not familiar with the strategy behind ASUC voting, turnout is a remarkably large part of the outcome. Since the difference between winning a seat and losing it can be as small as five or six votes, very small differences in turnout become the key to victory. After all, every candidate is confident before the votes are counted that 250 people or so told him/her that they would vote him/her #1. But how many actually did? 75%? 68%? 25%? That's why walking people to polls, having a lot of volunteers, and collecting names and phone numbers are such a crucial role in winning. There's a story where former APPLE Senator Mokalla ran across two friends right before the polls closed on the last day of voting. He walked them to the polls, and won a seat the next day-- by two votes.

So imagine a change that raises some candidate's turnout by 20% or so automatically. Specifically, those many candidates who live and campaign in the dorms. Most of them lose due to low turnout by their hall. But now they can walk down the hall and get everybody who promised to vote for them to actually do it. There's nothing to it. Candidates in the Greek system, or Engineers, don't get this bonus as much if at all.

That's what I consider the real question mark about online voting-- and not a mark against it, mind. A system that will raise overall turnout and that students want must be implemented, regardless of if the distribution of benefits is uneven. There's a big question mark about how it will affect the composition of future Senates, and no one knows what it'll really be.Email This Post!

Column.

In the original draft, I wrote 'Pilipinos' with the P. The Daily Cal changed it to 'Filipino.' It doesn't really bother me, but if that sort of thing makes you feel like Spanish Conquistadors are raping your culture all over again, tell them, not me.Email This Post!

Another thing about Morse's stupid column that several people pointed out to me:

At the graduate school of journalism, I told director of development Bruce Pickering that his building may be ripe for a takeover by Brown. Not because Brown hates journalists, but because it's the closest building on campus to Chez Panisse.

"That's true," said Pickering, "except that Orville (Schell, dean of the school) is pretty wired with Chez Panisse. He and Alice are good friends."

North Gate is the closest building to Chez Panisse? Preposterous! Chez Panisse is on Shattuck near Francisco, past the western border of campus.



There's an entire section of campus that is obviously closer to CP then North Gate. How did Mr. Morse go from North Gate to the corner of Oxford and Hearst without noticing the very large, campus-esque buildings there? What could Tolman be but a campus building, excepting a gate to the netherworld? Without actually calculating the distances, I'd call it plausible that VLSB and VLSB Addition are very close to being as far as North Gate is.




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The East Bay Express is the latest mainstream paper to take a nervous glimpse at the Berkeley Blogs. I can imagine the feeling... trolling us for new angles or missed stories most of the time, running short on real news, and deciding 'Eh, I'll do an easy, patronizing one on these guys.' I'll quote in entirety for easier deconstruction.

And now, the Berkeley blogosphere -- that collection of undergraduate insta-pundits who maintain Web logs where they gossip about university politics -- has put forth yet another candidate for bête noire in the marketplace of ideas.

Russell Wardlow, a Cal undergrad who runs the blog known as "Mean Mister Mustard," recently attended the introductory session of "Marxism and Fascism in the Far East," a course taught by political science professor James Gregor. Wardlow was surprised and amused to read Gregor's own syllabus. "The course will not be conducted in a politically correct manner," the professor cautioned, "which means that some students may find the treatment offensive. If you are among those who cannot tolerate alternative opinion, who feel that any departure from the prevailing folk-wisdom of Ethnic Studies or left-wing posturing is objectionable -- do not take this course."

In fact, Gregor suggested several types who might be too fragile to hear about the sins of Marxism: "If you are a Marxist enthusiast and believe that all the evil in the world is the product of a 'vast right-wing conspiracy' -- do not take this course," he wrote. "If you require medication to remain civil -- do not take this course."

Entertaining, yes. But Wardlow and the other Berkeley bloggers couldn't help but notice the similarity to Shingavi's controversial caveat. Is there a double standard at Cal when it comes to pouncing on intellectual intimidation? Does Gregor's syllabus qualify as Shingavi-esque? The blogosphere is predictably divided. "Your prof is saying that people with the above-quoted viewpoint shouldn't enroll," one poster argued, "just as Snehal said that people with a conservative viewpoint shouldn't enroll." Wardlow countered that Gregor's quote was aimed at ideologues -- like Shingavi, for instance -- who are unwilling to confront ideas with which they disagree.

Mr. Mustard never noticed any similarity to Snehal's class in his original post. He never even mentioned Snehal. It was Greenthinkthat picked the comparison up-- and posted about it on his own blog. The anonymous comment above is his as well.. if there's any controversy, it was almost purely Jeff's doing in catching the reference.Gregor says he's perfectly happy to have lefty students attend his course, but tiresome true believers are a waste of his time. "There are thirty courses about Marxism on campus; there's no exclusion here," he says. "I'm just telling them that if they don't want to talk about different ideas, this is not the course to take. It's honesty in advertising."

How many Marxism classes are there? I'm thinking the answer is 1 or 2, tops. (Excluding DeCals). Marxism is passe in classrooms. If he wanted to rail about Colonization theory, NeoSocialism, and so on, good show, but nobody teaches straight up Marxism anymore except as a historical departure point.

Still, the debate over Gregor's syllabus underscores just how surreal the university climate has become. We've now witnessed the emergence of the thought-police police, who scrutinize every faculty course description for evidence of intolerance. Somebody please wake us when the world gets back on its meds. -- Chris Thompson

Is this supposed to mean the Berkeley Blogs and associated commentators? Oh yes, I know McCarthy cackles in Hell whenever I put on my Thought Police Police badge and pick up a course catalog. Heck, to start a Berkeley Blog you have to sit on Sproul for 5 hours and circle the biases in the Socialist Worker.

I know it's a slow week for gossip, but I see little point in demonizing the Berkeley Blogs so as to come up with such a witty concept as 'Thought Police Police.' Darn, I thought about the concept for two seconds, now it's stupider. Policing the Thought Police is what the ACLU does.

Also, Mr. Thompson didn't mention Calstuff.





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One little-known fact about the uclink e-mail system is that names of eight characters or less are reserved for personal e-mail addresses, while names of 9-30 characters are open for mailing lists. By creating a "president [AT] uclink" mailing list and adding myself as the sole recipient, I now receive e-mails sent to that address. The subscribers to the "chancellor [AT] uclink" address have been known to receive invitations to fancy dinner parties as well as many more mundane requests. This is one way to get the (>8 characters) uclink address you've always wanted.Email This Post!

Rob Morse of the Chronicle visited campus, trying to do a humor piece on Willie Brown possibly starting a politics institute. He fails miserably, and is reduced to making jokes about the differences in dress code. Fortunately, witty Cal students are there with snappy one-liners to pull him out of the abyss.

If the Haas School of Business didn't work out, there's Sproul Plaza, where Brown would feel right at home. He would bring new and wilder meaning to free speech.

Tommaso Sciortino was busy passing out a magazine called the Heuristic Squelch when he was asked where Brown's institute should be. "I'm the editor of the campus humor magazine, so I have to come up with something," he said. "Let's see, the best place to put Willie Brown on the Berkeley campus is San Francisco."

Not bad. Funnier than "heuristic."

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The Time Magazine piece on the Patriot and BCR won't be online until Sunday... unless you know how to use LexisNexis. All students have access to this great utility for free, 20 years worth of magazine and news archives from hundreds of sources. You just have to set up a proxy server from home. But if you're still lazy, here's the whole thing:

SECTION: ON THE CAMPUS/UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY; Pg. 8

LENGTH: 650 words

HEADLINE: A Vigorous Voice from The Right--at Berkeley!;
A conservative magazine makes inroads in a bastion of liberal student activism

BYLINE: R. Tyler Hillman

BODY:
Ever since Mario Savio climbed atop a police car and jump-started the Free Speech Movement in 1964, the University of California, Berkeley, has been synonymous with liberal causes. So the California Patriot comes as something of a surprise. On the walls of its editorial offices in a small house near the campus, campaign signs for nearly a dozen Republican candidates sit alongside a large American flag and a massive poster of George W. Bush. In its pages, articles argue against abortion and for war with Iraq. "At Berkeley's campus, you can only hear one side of any political or social debate, and it obviously tends to be the liberal side," says Tyler Monroe, 22, who started the monthly with fellow conservative Kelso Barnett, 22, three years ago when they were sophomores. "We felt that without having a loud and powerful conservative voice, we couldn't have an intellectual debate on Berkeley's campus." Mixing an in-your-face style with right-of-center politics, the Patriot has courted controversy from the start: dubbing Berkeley Congresswoman Barbara Lee a "traitor" for casting the sole vote in the House against authorizing military force in response to the Sept. 11 attacks; calling for the bulldozing of People's Park, a local battleground of civil disobedience; describing the activities of a campus Mexican-American group as "Student Funded Bigotry and Hate." The February edition will celebrate Black History Month with an all-out assault on affirmative action. Says U.C. Berkeley political science professor Bruce Cain: "The right-wing kids come in with a chip on their shoulder. They're aware of being in the minority, and it provides motivation for them."

The magazine may represent a minority opinion on the Berkeley campus, but a recent survey showed that this generation of students is more conservative than their parents were, and the Patriot is having no trouble finding an audience. "I like reading the Patriot, but I don't agree with everything they say," notes local resident Devora Liss, 21. "They have an impact because there's a very large contingent of students they're appealing to."

Patriot staff members revel in their role as provocateurs. "The average person probably disagrees with some of the content," concedes current editor in chief Steve Sexton. "Hopefully, there's something in there that people are outraged to learn." The magazine seems to be getting its message across. When university planners of a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks elected not to distribute red-white-and-blue ribbons or display other patriotic symbols because they might alienate foreign students, the Patriot decried the decision. Its vigorous opposition helped bring national attention to the issue, setting in motion a controversy that pushed the administration to eventually reverse its decision. And when the Patriot endorsed a Republican student candidate, he won one of the 20 seats in U.C. Berkeley's student senate--exceptional for a candidate running openly as a Republican. Two more Patriot picks have since been elected to student government.

Because it carries barely any advertising and gives its 4,000-copy print run free to students, the Patriot has relied on donations from wealthy individuals and conservative foundations across the country. Its critics regard such contributions as an attempt by conservatives elsewhere to insinuate themselves into Berkeley politics. But Berkeley's leftist reputation has proved a boon to fund-raising efforts; donors view the Patriot as a beachhead of right-wing thought at a famously liberal university. "In a way, our legacy helps us," says Patriot co-founder Barnett. "People in Alabama may not necessarily be spurred to support a conservative group at Washington State, but Berkeley? They'll send a check."

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I'm on semi-hiatus until Thursday, when Rush is over.Email This Post!

CalStuff Trivia Challenge

Congratulations to Sarah Garber who was the first (of several) to respond with the correct answer to last week's trivia question: Where is Lawyers Memorial Hall, and what's in it now? She replied:

"As for the location and current contents: http://www.intemperance.net/berkeley/berkeley3.html explains "East Asiatic Library(208 Durant): Formerly the Lawyers' Memorial Hall, it now contains by far the largest number of books of any branch--more than half a million in 1989 (Moffitt had less than 200,000). This small, dark, mazelike room is crowded with ironwork balconies, bookshelves stretching to the high ceiling, desks with iron reading lamps, skylights, beautifully veined marble pillars and interesting hanging lamps. Four of these are shaped like ancient oil lamps, with glass bulbs shaped like flames and the Seal of the University of California on the bottom. Not recommended for studying, as it's small and cramped, but it's certainly worth a look."

Now for this week's question:

Instead of a question, this week presents a task. Since the Stanford Axe is now rback in its rightful home just outside of Heller Lounge, this week's winner will be the first to email me at caltrivia AT uclink DOT berkeley DOT edu with a picture of oneself next to the Axe.

Good luck, and Go Bears!Email This Post!

External VP Bryant urges students to fight the massive fee hike. He makes some good points about students being already overcommitted. But without offering an alternative method of financing UC's incredible budget deficit, what sort of proposal is he really making? This isn't about rhetoric, it's about a mandatory need to fill a budget gap. Where else can the money come from? Faculty budgets? Staff budgets? After taking some out of Administrative budgets, there's nowhere else to go but into student pockets. Or at least parental pockets.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want a fee hike. But for us to be a credible lobbying force, we have to be able to present an alternative plan. Raising state taxes? Borrowing? Hopefully these lobbyists that Mr. Bryant is sending will have a response ready to the question 'where else can we get the money?'Email This Post!

Why is the ASUC surprised the Graduate Assembly hasn't paid up? President Quindel was perfectly upfront about having no desire to pay for what she considered a shoddy elections season. She told me her intention to take it to a higher authority in December when I was working on the Hernandez column. Her position to take it to J-Comm is perfectly legal. I don't think the Graduate Assembly will win, but it's certainly the direction to go if you have no desire to finance the Senate's spending.
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Berkeley is holding a two day teach-in on how much children should hate the war. There's not much to do except roll ones eyes and shrug the head at a collection of educators struggling to inject propaganda into the schools. Ms. Heagerty does a nice job of getting the people involved to squirm around the issue of using two days to indoctrinate an unusual side to a controversial issue.

Boardmember John Selawsky, sponsor of the "School Days of Public Education on Peace," resolution, acknowledged the event's political charge.

"If we can't bring up moral and ethical issues in our schools, then where can we?" Selawsky said.

Student Boardmember Andy Turner said that the event would be an enhancement, not a detriment, to existing curriculum.

"Education is not relevant if it's not based in the times," he said. "Students are interested in having a school-sanctioned environment to discuss issues they, and teachers, are discussing anyway."

Issel said the event was not in line with the district's policy on controversial speakers, which requires "reasonable and balanced" presentation on potentially controversial subjects.

Other members of the board argued that, since the event will be run completely by district employees who are exempt from the policy, the policy does not apply.

This from a body of thought that has supposedly been on the front lines of keeping politicization out of schools.

That's what concerns me most, not two days of tedious agitprop in a school that already has let a semester's worth in with a wink and a nod. To oppose politicization of the schools requires an absolute fidelity to the cause. That moral authority has been dropped. What's stopping these administrators from blatantly allowing a cross slate of popular leftist causes to run the classes?

But oh well. It's kinda hard to get outraged about this, such a typical abuse of authority that it'd probably get A2 mention in the old Planet. It might be interesting if the national media picks this one up because it's Berkeley, while ignoring the larger Oakland teach-in.
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Do any GSI's read this? I have to assume they do.

If so, drop me a line and let me know how GSIs go about switching discussion times, and why you would do so. Your names and answers will be kept purely anonymous.

Thanks!Email This Post!

The Police Log contains this telling entry for yesterday:

3:42 PM - (FA-19-S) victim of an illness, Tang Center. To Herrick R. McAllaster Hospital via AMR.

Good old Tang. Where 'victims of illness' have to go to another hospital instead.
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CalStuff Trivia Challenge

The answer to last week's question of "What became of the copper on the LHS's cyclotron magnet?" is: after upgrading to a larger cyclotron, the magnet was sent off to another university. In time, it was considered obsolete and the LHS decided it require it for nostalgic value. Unfortunately, the magnet weighed too much for the small shipping and handling budget of LHS. So, it was decided to sell all of the copper off the magnet to 1) lighten the load and hence the shipping costs, and 2) raise the money to ship it. So thus LHS came to get it's magnet, and the copper was sold as scrap. We had no correct answers, but a few very interesting incorrect ones.

This week's question: Where on campus can one find Lawyers Memorial Hall and what's in it? Please email your responses to caltrivia AT uclink DOT berkeley DOT edu.

Good luck and Go Bears!Email This Post!

While I'm on the topic of Columnism, has anyone had the University abruptly change discussion/lab times right before class starts, in such a way that you were badly screwed over? Let me know!Email This Post!

One of the new Columnists makes her debut today, Ann Marinovich. She's handling the more thoughtful color pieces, like Josie last semester. Normally I bash color columnists because they have a tendency to talk about themselves as if all of Berkeley is on the same page. But this semester I'm competing with Andy Katz and J-Lo for covering the political/city/university beats, and the only thing I have that they don't is inexperience. So I can use the break in competition.Email This Post!

Debate rages on Greenthink and Mr. Mustard over a possible Right-wing equivalent to Mr. Shingavi's 'Conservatives need not apply' class. The syllabus of Professor Gregor contains the contentious lines

If you are a Marxist enthusiast and believe that all the evil in the world is the product of a :vast right-wing conspiracy" - do not take this course. While I am fully prepared to debate your opinions during office hours, acrimonious debate is not permitted during class time. Moreover, I do not want to create intrapsychic tensions among those who are irretrievably leftist.

and

If you are among those who cannot tolerate alternative opinion, who feel that any departure from the prevailing folk-wisdom of Ethnic Studies or left-wing posturing is objectionable - do not take this course.

Certainly a take no prisoners approach. But is it morally equivalent to the 'Conservative thinkers' line? I don't know! He certainly harbors a grudge against the left-wing, not something I would call conducive to enlightened and reasoned discourse. And the idea that left-wing thinkers are either: unable to change their opinions, prone to emotional class disruption, or learn something from a class that challenges their views, is paternalistic. (Certainly some do all of the above, but not every Marxist.) The 'Do Not Take This Course' because of your ideology is inflammatory.

On the other hand, he qualifies the above by stating that his goal is to avoid classroom disruption, which most Professors do quietly anyway. It makes clear that it is acceptable to not adopt his viewpoint, only that you must think critically about it. Mr. Mustard states the distinction thusly:

Snehal's stance was thus: "This is the ideological stance of the class. You should be in agreement with that ideology to take the class."

Whereas Gregor's position is: "You should be able to handle and mentally scrutinize ideas with which you do not ideologically agree in order to take this class."

And as for the debating-in-office-hours matter, that is a purely pragmatic decision in this case. This is a lecture class with over 350 students enrolled. It's not exactly the ideal setting for a roundtable discussion.

But is he also stating 'Leftists can't handle these ideas.'? Good question!Email This Post!

The Opinion page is Bates-heavy, which is nice. Usually the back to school Opinions page has that ancient, early December feel to it, but here it's entirely relevant. Most of the letters are anti-Bates, and one of the two supporting him is amusingly ill-informed.

While I do not condone the actions of Mayor Tom Bates, calling for his resignation and protesting and disrupting the first City Council meeting of Bates' term cannot and should not be viewed as effecting positive change in the Berkeley community ("Protesters Clash With Mayor at First City Council Meeting," Dec. 11).

If backtracking and wasting tax payer time and money by having to stage a recall election and not allow the elected mayor to do his job means positive change, perhaps I have given too much credit to the voters, students and citizens of Berkeley.

While Bates made a mistake (and it was a silly, reckless one), this does not mean our precious freedom of speech will be obliterated by Bates' term of office. Perhaps I'm just an old senior jaded to the Berkeley political process, but let's not protest just because it sounds cool and you thought that just was what mature Berkeley students were supposed to do. The real Berkeley protesters did it over international wars, not missing student newspapers.

Correction, the real Berkeley protesters did it over missing student newspapers, not international wars. Maybe I'm just an old senior jaded to historical accuracy, but Berkeley activism really got its start from disputes over freedom of expression issues, not Vietnam (that came later.) One of the great moments in Berkeley Protesting was the staff of the Daily Cal resigning en masse and starting an independent paper, leading to mass rallies in support. So student newspapers were missing.

The main other argument against destroying Bates is that we should not take him on until all the other, greater evils in the world are extinguished. Only once Bush is toppled, Cheney destroyed, and war ended can we take a look at him.

Since you are calling people's judgement into question: Did you ever call on President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney to resign for their serial drunken driving convictions? Bush for his admitted drug use? U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for his sexual harassment? John Poindexter for his illegal defiance of Congress and his defacement of the Constitution? Trent Lott for his openly expressed bigotry?

I mean, aren't there larger fish to fry to target a man of Bates' overwhelmingly good character and service to California?

I'd like to see a moment when Bates service to California conflicts with his service to himself.
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The Burger King at-- I think-- University and Shattuck has been replaced with an Indian fast-food restaurant. And I know you're thinking, 'who gives a damn?' This would maybe make page A3 of the Planet, and when I first read it, I skipped over it entirely, even though linking would take me all of five seconds.

And yet, as Jeff of Greenthink watched, CNN Headline News had

Indian fast food restaurant Curry in a Hurry replaces Burger King in Berkeley, CA.

On their omnipresent news ticker. All around the country!

They must've been thinking 'Berkeley is a trend leader in reaction against trends. This must be an anti-fast food backlash!' (Those who know the area also know that a McDonalds is alive and well across the street.) Or perhaps they're in Atlanta, Georgia chuckling over those crazy Berkeley people trying to help out the Indians. 'What're they gonna call it? The Wigwam? The Sioux? Hyuck!' Email This Post!

The Regents have made a complete reversal over the UC Labs fraud/theft fiasco. The fired auditors have been rehired as Consultants 'under extreme pressure from Congress,' the appeasing report that declared most items accounted for has been 'tossed out the window,' and it looks like a lot of senior administrators are going to get fired for instituting coverups.

We also get a better look at how such fraud could've occurred.

First, under the current system, the university conducts audits only for items that cost $5,000 or more, unless the item is "sensitive," such as a computer. Walp and Doran said the $5,000 threshold allowed employees to improperly order and steal less expensive items almost with impunity.

and

Second, Los Alamos only maintains an inventory on items whose purchase price is $5,000 or more, again unless it is a "sensitive" item, such as a computer or electronic organizer. Those items are tracked with computer bar codes attached to the property.

But only a fraction of the items at the northern New Mexico lab that were supposed to carry the bar codes did, according to the university's December audit. According to that audit, the investigators found in one random check that only 31 of 59 items of valuable lab property that were supposed to carry bar codes actually did. Without the codes, it is not clear if the items would show up on inventory lists or be traceable without extraordinary, time- consuming manual audits.

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The NY Times has another piece on Berkeley, an architectural stroll through some of the City's best buildings. It highlights some of our excellent church buildings, as well, somewhat surprisingly to me, Sigma Phi fraternity.

Typo alert:

any famous men and women have walked its streets — Ernest O. Lawrence, the remarkable physicist who invented the cyclotron; Clark Kerr, who helped develop the nation's best statewide system of higher education; Mario Savo, the leader of the radical Free Speech Movement during the turbulent 1960's; and in our own day Alice Waters, arguably the nation's greatest restaurateur.

Savio.Email This Post!

The UC Berkeley gag controversy-- one I've never been able to care about-- has winded to a quick close, with the Administration quickly backpeddling with all the grace it can manage. (Not much). For what seemed to me to be another unimportant Administrator/Faculty row over who had authority over fundraising efforts, this one had legs as a Free Speech issue. The University's official backing-out position is 'The Administration official who handled this was interested in more money, not pleasing Bush.'

Asked if the campus is now acknowledging a mistake, Cummins said, "There was a difference of opinion, obviously." Price "certainly didn't view it as a free-speech issue" but as "what's more appropriate in a fund-raising letter," Cummins said.

The Chron has a closing shot Editorial as well, which doesn't seem to get the facts right.

A campus official evidently feared the quotes, dating from 1915 and 1902, would be taken as a UC-endorsed attack on the Bush administration.

Was this really feared as pissing off the Bush administration? All indications are that VC Price was more afraid of pissing off everyone who received the letter, and perhaps attracting some negative press attention. He feared entering politics in general, not Bush in particular. This isn't some minor distinction. Fearing the wrath of Bush would imply that UC has become a servile, cringing beast of the Beast. Fearing using politics in ad copy is merely administrative heavy-handedness.Email This Post!

With the ASUC elections coming up, the Squelch! party has to make its slating decisions. I'll put it to the readers: what Exec position, if any, should I run for and why? AAVP is out. I could run for EVP on a 'Kick out the Daily Cal from Eshleman!' platform, then write a column attacking myself. I've always wanted to do something like that.Email This Post!

This week's Bear in Mind has

Berkeley sophomore Micki Weinberg tells the Chancellor why he ran for City Council, men's basketball coach Ben Braun shares the strategy behind the Bears' current winning streak, CITRIS director Ruzena Bajcsy explains what technology can do for — and to — society, and journalism dean Orville Schell talks about what's wrong with the news profession.

Next month: Look for a special, all-student episode — two students debating the Israel-Palestine issue, an amateur comedian poised on the brink of the big time, and the Student Regent-elect — to be recorded with a live student audience.

Quasi-minor celebrity that I am, I'm still hoping for an invitation as a way of validating my existence. Sad but true!Email This Post!

I was planning to attend the Regents meeting before I discovered that it involved waking at 7 and driving to SF. But it seems like I missed drama.

A delegation of workers from campuses statewide will speak before the University of California Regents meeting today on their demands for a fair contract and an end to unfair labor practices.

They will carry oversize blow-ups of a New York Times ad which appeared Jan. 13, where 49 members of the California Legislature were commended for their support of justice for clerical workers.

On Thursday, Mr. Peanut will distribute PayDay candy bars at the Regents meeting, urging Regents to demand accountability from administrators and more than peanuts for clerical workers. UC clerical workers earn an average of $30,000 per year, which the administration acknowledges is well below market rate. Last year, top executives received raises up to 25 percent. The University has previously offered clericals a net pay cut - cutbacks in medical care, increases in parking fees, and a raise of just 2.5 percent over two years.

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The Pacific Legal Foundation is appealing the Sea Scouts Marina decision. Regular readers may remember that appeals court rejected the assertion that the Sea Scouts had a right to use the marina free of charge as the policy was only changed to protest Boy Scout policy. This next step would take it to the State Supreme Court.

“The sole reason for the Sea Scouts being singled out for unequal treatment is their affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America, a group with whose value-based tenets Berkeley officials don’t agree. But the Constitution doesn’t permit viewpoint discrimination by government. If Berkeley is going to open its Marina to free use by nonprofits-which it has done-it cannot pick and choose who will get free berthing based on a group’s philosophy or associations. It can’t target a group and withhold the benefit only from that group merely to score a point for political correctness,” Johnson said.

Thanks to Res for catching the lawsuit.Email This Post!

UC is in deep trouble for alleged coverups of fiscal mismanagement of the major Labs it runs. After 4 million in materials went missing, the University declared an investigation to find all the missing stuff. And now they say it's all accounted for. Bullshit, say the fired investigators.

But the two investigators said the university still is engaged in a coordinated coverup of theft and abysmal accounting that involves far more money and goes far deeper than UC has acknowledged.

Even some UC supporters said that if evidence of a coverup emerges, the university could lose its historic contract for managing the nuclear weapons lab at Los Alamos, in New Mexico, a facility that ushered in the atomic age six decades ago.

"It is incomprehensible that you could (account for) as much as they say, with everything that I know is out there," said Glenn Walp, a former Pennsylvania State Police commissioner and the leader of the Los Alamos lab's Office of Security Inquiries until he was fired in November.

The Federal government is threatening to take out UC's lucrative and prestigeous contract to run the Labs if improprieties continue, and Congress is beginning several investigations into both the Livermore and Berkeley labs.

The most immediate question is: why did you fire the two investigators charging coverups? These are not random crackpots with some sort of axe to grind about UC. They're serious, intelligent people. And UC's official explanation is pathetic.

A lab official said at the time that Walp and Doran were dismissed because they had lost the confidence of other officials at Los Alamos they had to work with.

Walp said that within a month of having been hired last January -- a hiring that was part of the effort to toughen internal controls after the last scandal -- he began to hear about rampant theft and quickly collected evidence of problems. But once senior officials began to sense that the information might become public, threatening the university's contract, roadblocks were put up, he said. ...Walp said he and Doran were fired when he demanded that the investigation be turned over to the FBI.

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We're on the front page of the New York Times today, believe it or not, for a free speech controversy between Administration and Professors. To summarize briefly, a project on anarchist Emma Goldman almost sent out fundraising letters prominently displaying anti-war statements by the old rabble-rouser.

In an unusual showdown over freedom of expression, university officials have refused to allow a fund-raising appeal for the Emma Goldman Papers Project to be mailed because it quoted Goldman on the subjects of suppression of free speech and her opposition to war. The university deemed the topics too political as the country prepares for possible military action against Iraq.

In terms of free speech controversies, this falls somewhere around 'petty.' The University claims that any political statement in an official University solicitation is banned outright, and that this is only getting more attention because of anti-war publicity. The Professors claim that this is stupid, let us mail our letters, of course anything by Emma Goldman is political you dumb gits. And, by the way, fuck off.

Since 1980, the project's annual mailing for donations had included at least one quotation from Goldman, often with current events in mind, Dr. Falk said. After Sept. 11, the project sent out a bookmark with a one from 1912: "Out of the chaos, the future emerges in harmony and beauty."

Dr. Falk called the university's editing censorship and said it violated the spirit of Goldman's work, which emphasized freedom of expression. During a time when many universities depend heavily on government grants and contracts, she accused the Berkeley officials of worrying too much about crossing the Bush administration.

I dunno. The Administration has rejected several Lab projects because of Federal demands for secrecy and racial profiling. I doubt they're bending over backwards over a fundraising letter. (Although see above) This seems far more like ham-handed Administration attempts to win points in the ongoing Professor/Administration battles, still raging in the Academic Senate.

"It seems the administration is mocking freedom of expression by limiting it," Professor Litwack said. "The First Amendment belongs to no single group or ideology, but that message is often difficult to implement even at the University of California, Berkeley."

Dr. Price, the associate vice chancellor, said the central issue was not the content of Goldman's quotations.

"We are not saying these quotes should never appear anywhere in the publications of the Emma Goldman Papers Project, but that they are not appropriate in the context that Candace Falk put them in," he said. "She can disagree with us, but it is not a matter of the First Amendment."

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Calstuff Trivia

Welcome back from Winter Break. I hope you're back in studying mode as this week's question may require a bit of investigation:

One of the first things to greet visitors at our Lawrence Hall of Science is a giant magnet from one of Earnest O. Lawrence's early cyclotrons. This magnet, however, is devoid of all the copper wiring necessary to produce a magnetic field. So this week's question is, What happened to all the copper? Surprisingly, this question is in no way related to the LBL copper heist earlier this week, except as a source of inspiration.

Please email your answers to caltrivia AT uclink DOT berkeley DOT edu Good luck and Go Bears!Email This Post!

Playboy has a feature on College Sex Columnists, including our own Teresa Chin. (No pictures of her besides the usual Daily Cal one, pervs.)

Located in the ultra-liberal Bay Area, Berkeley has always been a salacious step ahead of other schools -- the college paper's immensely popular column, Sex on Tuesday, has been offering frank bedroom advice for the past five years. This year's sex scribe is Teresa Chin, who also gives incoming freshmen the, um, lay of the land as a campus women's health volunteer.

Oh yeah, great pun.Email This Post!

Here's something kinda lighthearted, at least:

2:17 PM - HANNAFORD, Roy (MW-56-L) reports the grand theft of 700 lbs. of copper, value $1,000., LBL-46. Under investigation.

How and why do you steal 700 pounds of copper? And who has 700 pounds of copper lying around?Email This Post!

Lots of troubling things on the UCPD website. On December 20th there was an attempted rape in the bathroom of the I-House.

On December 19, 2002 at approximately 5:10 pm, a male suspect entered an occupied first floor, women’s restroom at the International House. He waited until the victim was done using the restroom and when she opened the stall door, he grabbed her and forced her to the ground, choking her and sitting on top of her. The victim was able to escape only after her screams for help scared the suspect. He was last seen heading out of the northwest exit of the International House.

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Wanted: 2002 Big Game Fans

UCPD needs your help! If you can identify any of these fans, you can call their confidential tip line and tell on your fellow students. All they're just wanted for 'interviewing' at this point. One guy has the word 'identified' branded over his face. Ouch.

What is the incentive for those who rushed the field to identify these students? At least do us the favor of offering a monetary award. Perhaps someone would nail whoever rushed the security guards, but I can't imagine what students would tell on someone who ripped down the goalposts.Email This Post!

The object in the Marina was an anchor, not a pregnant woman. Email This Post!

The new DC for Unit 1 and Unit 2 is scheduled to be opening shortly. It looks fairly impressive on the website. Multiple dining centers. Large selection. Open late, with a cafe. Email This Post!

Davis released his latest budget proposals on Friday, including the dire cuts to the University of California. They're brutal.

With these proposals, the UC system's state-funded budget falls nearly $1 billion below the level the university had expected under its Partnership Agreement with the governor, an agreement that outlines the university's basic funding requirements. Since the beginning of the 2001-02 year, UC has taken $533.3 million in state funding cuts and has forgone an additional $423.5 million in expected Partnership funding for faculty and staff salaries and other cost increases, for a total shortfall of $956.8 million. UC's proposed state-funded budget is thus approximately $3 billion at a point when, under the Partnership, it was expected to be roughly $4 billion.

The fee increases that UC passed amidst much debate and student grumbling don't cover 20% of the gap.

The fee increases this year and next would net $179.1 million, representing less than 20 percent of the solution to the university's $956.8 million shortfall. More than 80 percent of the solution would come through cuts to university programs and through lagging salaries for faculty and staff, including the lower-than-expected salary increases they have seen for the last two years.

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Cal kicked no. 12 Oregon's butt in B-Ball last night.Email This Post!

What might be a body, possibly of the missing pregnant Modesto woman, has been found in the Berkeley marina.Email This Post!

The East Bay Express has a nice, gossipy piece on new Planet publisher O'Malley (last item)

O'Malley has big dreams for her little paper. She plans to dump all the Associated Press fluff that no one reads and replace it with freelance essays on gardening, architecture, pets, and other pursuits for overeducated Berkeleyans. Promising to model the Planet after journals like the Anderson Valley Advertiser and I.F. Stone's Weekly, O'Malley intends to beef up the op-ed page into a spread of as many outrageous screeds as will fit in each issue -- friends say she's a controversy junkie, loves nothing more than a good rant, and is convinced her readers will, too. "Controversy fills papers," she says.

Truly! The best part of the Planet was always the op-eds.. although it may be emblematic that cranky op-ed letters are the best Berkeley has to offer these days.

There's also some interesting City Hall gossip, if you're into that sort of thing.Email This Post!

KPIX has the best and most stinging coverage of the Bates plea. The last sentence is priceless.

Berkeley's new mayor will pay $100 for trashing a town paper.

An attorney for Tim Bates entered a guilty plea in court Tuesday to a petty theft infraction. Bates admitted to dumping copies of the Daily Californian, a student newspaper that endorsed his opponent in November's election.

In December, Bates was charged with the theft of numerous copies of the Daily Californian, leading many to call for his resignation.

An infraction is similar to a speeding ticket.

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As far as the world is concerned, the Bates Thefts controversy is over.

Tom Bates, the new mayor of Berkeley, pleaded guilty to petty theft and paid a $100 fine for tossing into the trash 1,000 copies of a newspaper run by students at the University of California that endorsed his opponent in the November election. Mr. Bates, 64, an assemblyman for 20 years, was easily elected on Nov. 5, a day after the paper, The Daily Californian, endorsed Mayor Shirley Dean for a third four-year term. When he took office last month, Mr. Bates apologized at his first meeting with the City Council.

That's from the NY Times, so at least a major paper took a parting shot at Berkeley's 'impetuous' mayor.

I figure I'm still gonna write a column about this, and be as vicious as possible. It's especially nice now because Bates' 'I apologize because I have to' tactics dovetail so nicely with the Trent Lott affair.Email This Post!

Athletic Director Gladstone will be announcing the details of the upcoming stadium reconstruction any day now. Having visited other UCs over the break, I have a newfound appreciation for the beauty of Memorial Stadium. Right on campus, great view, one of the best in the nation.

Although Cal athletic director Steve Gladstone had expected to announce construction plans for the renovation of Memorial Stadium by Jan. 1, he said Tuesday that it will be delayed indefinitely while his administration puts the finishing touches on the planning stage.

Gladstone said the project, which could exceed $100 million in order to improve the aging stadium while modernizing the university's training facilities, is right on schedule in all other aspects.

Looks like Coach Tedford got the updated training facilities he's been itching for.

Gladstone said he didn't want to discuss specifics of the renovation at this time. He did say the plans are about 75 percent complete. In addition to the stadium improvement, there will be new locker, weight and meeting rooms.

Unfortunately, while undergoing renovation the team will have to play elsewhere. Candlestick? Email This Post!

One of Cal's last football greats has died.Email This Post!

Details on the convicted Child Molester arrested by Cal Cops recently.Email This Post!

Green Day's lead singer was arrested on Telegraph for DUI.Email This Post!

Berkeley researchers are nervous about xenophobic research restrictions being imposed by the Federal Government. Any research being conducted has to reveal the names of foreign students involved in it, a violation of University policy.

"Our mission is the academic dissemination of information. We're a public entity and believe it's the right of the public who supports us to know what we're doing," said Joyce Freedman, assistant vice chancellor for research, administration and compliance at UC Berkeley.

The campus receives about $276 million in federal money each year and turned down a grant from the Army Corps of Engineers early last fall rather than name any foreign citizens who would be involved in the project. UC's own policy is to not release the names of anyone who is working on a research project. Foreign students make up almost half of all graduate students in science nationwide.

"We're not thumbing our nose at anyone or saying we're above anything, but those are our guiding tenets," Freedman said.

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I missed this on the 28th.. the LA Times had a piece on the Bates story. (User name/password 'laexaminer/laexaminer') Thanks to Res for seeing it.

New (to me, at least): The extent to which the Patriot tried to get mainstream sources to pick this one up.

She called Dean's campaign office, which said it wanted nothing to do with the story. A campaign staffer gave her a list of media contacts, Coyne said. She and friends then spent the afternoon at her sorority house calling radio, TV and newspaper outlets, none of which did the story.

"It was a huge story that fell into their laps at the homestretch," Coyne said. But the media "thought it was petty. I thought that's what made the story -- how petty [Bates] was."

Dean certainly dropped the ball. The story also goes over the Daily Cal's handling of the story, but we've already argued that one to exhaustion.

A nice collection of quotes from various Berkeley types, including new Cal professor Christopher Hitchens.

Writer, critic and raconteur Christopher Hitchens, a visiting fellow at the Journalism School next semester, called Bates' trashing of the newspapers "a metaphorical moment .... There's no intolerance like liberal intolerance."

Protesters objected recently when Hitchens spoke on campus. But the author said he hoped that Bates' action would confirm liberals' hypocrisy. "This is a good, flagrant, indefensible example," Hitchens said. He said Bates' attitude was: "We just have to win. We can be appropriately ruthless."

Then Hitchens inquired: "On behalf of what exactly?"

I don't think you can be a raconteur unless you have a cocktail in your hand at all hours.

The story misses the extent to which the police exposed the story, doing the footwork and inducing Bates to finally admit to the thefts.

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Cal has an Alternative/Left magazine again, the Berkeley Mic.

The premier articles include a series of tributes to the deceased poet June Jordan, a piece by Mr. Youmans on Israeli/Palestinian wars at Boalt, and poetry.

Poetry should pay the rent
Poetry should pay the rent
Poetry should pay the rent
leave your life so rich
everything becomes free
free cheese
free chez panisse
free college degrees
free profiled detainees
free parking
free to lay
free style
free wine & dine
free palestine
free students for justice in palestine
free minds
free behinds
free spoken word
free bird
free land for the kurds
free leonard peltier
free mumia abu jamal
free them all
free them all
free them all
& leave enough dough to bake bread for your lover

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Berkeley police have been busy this holiday season. They concluded a successful sting against a convicted child molester, which made national headlines.

The Berkeley marina is also being searched for the missing pregnant woman who disappeared from Modesto around Christmas.Email This Post!

Bears defeat Stanfurd, 72-59

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Happy one year Anniversary to Calstuff! I got started on January 3rd, 2002, promising to write on 'Leftist antics' and the upcoming ASUC elections. I'd say it's been great, except few of you ungrateful fool-ios have tipped me a dime for all the hard work I've put into this. I understand that's often because I'm attacking you, but nonetheless.

Now's your chance!

I'm on vacation in LA until the 6th.

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