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Friday, January 31, 2003
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. Email This Post!
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.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! Thursday, January 30, 2003
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.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. Email This Post! Wednesday, January 29, 2003
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.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 ThompsonIs 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. Email This Post!
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.Email This Post! Tuesday, January 28, 2003
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. 8Email This Post! Monday, January 27, 2003
Sunday, January 26, 2003
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! Friday, January 24, 2003
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.
Email This Post!
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.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. Email This Post! Thursday, January 23, 2003
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. Email This Post!
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
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."But is he also stating 'Leftists can't handle these ideas.'? Good question!Email This Post! Tuesday, January 21, 2003
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).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'd like to see a moment when Bates service to California conflicts with his service to himself. Email This Post! Monday, January 20, 2003
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! Sunday, January 19, 2003
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.Email This Post! Friday, January 17, 2003
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! Wednesday, January 15, 2003
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.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.Email This Post!
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! Tuesday, January 14, 2003
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.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. Email This Post!
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."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." Email This Post!
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! Monday, January 13, 2003
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! Sunday, January 12, 2003
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.Email This Post!
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! Saturday, January 11, 2003
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.Email This Post! Friday, January 10, 2003
What might be a body, possibly of the missing pregnant Modesto woman, has been found in the Berkeley marina.Email This
Post!
Thursday, January 09, 2003
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.Email This Post!
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! Wednesday, January 08, 2003
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.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! Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Monday, January 06, 2003
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.Email This Post!
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.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."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. Email This Post! Sunday, January 05, 2003
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 rentEmail This Post!
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!
Friday, January 03, 2003
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. Email This Post! |
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