CalStuff Writer Has Op-Ed Published

As promised in earlier comments...

Relations Between ASUC And OSL Not Nearly Fixed

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Birgeneau to Arrive Earlier Than Expected

Berkeley Press Release

Chances are simply that Birgeneau just wrapped up his business at the University of Toronto early, and wants to get right into the swing of things at Berkeley. But, what would CalStuff be without the ability to speculate with quasi-success? So, the question of the hour is what would drive Birgeneau to get to Berkeley earlier? Perhaps it is so he can obtain the new issue of the Heuristic Squelch, which was distributed in record numbers today.

More likely, however, is that Birgeneau wants to get the current "loose ends" tied up early. These loose ends include:

- The current spat between the OSL and ASUC
- The general dislike of Dean of Students Karen Kenney
- The current vacancy at Athletic Director
- Firming up official UC Berkeley stances on issues like raising admission requirements, the renewal bids for Los Alamos and LNBL, etc.

In any event, it seems as if Birgeneau will be here in time for Cal Football's second home game. An acid test for future performance would be to see if he goes to more than just one or two games this season.

Edit: Chances are, Birgeneau won't be coming to many games. A former employee lashes out.Email This Post!

OSL Caves on $40 Student Group Fee

After meeting with various Administration higher-ups, ASUC President Leybovich secured an agreement to cancel OSL's $40 student group registration fee. As of tomorrow OSL will no longer charge student groups for registration and will fully refund the sixty or so student groups that already payed the fee.

Analysis: This is a major backdown by OSL and a big victory for the new student administration.

President Leybovich had threatened to run an ad in the Daily Cal that called on student groups to stop registering with OSL; the ad would have pointed out that the ASUC could deliver the most important services, such as securing classrooms for club meetings, that OSL had traditionally provided. Leybovich was also ready to sign an executive order which would have changed the ASUC by-laws to allow student groups to be sponsored by the ASUC even if they had no OSL Registration.

These efforts along with a publicity campaign launched during Calapalooza left OSL with little choice but to back down or face irrelevancy. Email This Post!

University Offers Real Network's Rhapsody Music Service to Students

As part of its strategy to reduce its liability vis a vis the music downloading litigation, the university is bringing students a discounted version of Rhapsody, Real Networks online music service.

This semester the school is offering a special promotion, free access until October 31st for undergrads, to get students to sign up for the discounted 2$ a month service.

Rhapsody is a decent compromise between making music widely available to internet users and the concerns the music industry has regarding intellectual property. For the 2$ a month you get access to the full Rhapsody library, listening privileges (you can essentially listen to any song at any time), and the ability to create playlists. If you want to go further and download a song you will have to pony up an additional fee of 79 cents a song.

The obvious here is that this is an attempt to wean students off legally dubious methods of downloading and acquiring music over the internet.

But I don't think this service will make a major effect on student downloading patterns for several reasons.

1. Similar services such as I-Tunes music store have been out for some time now... and this is purely conjecture but I think most of the people who were going to switch from downloading free music to paying for it have already done so. This is not to say that a lot of people won't use Rhapsody, but it is to say the availability of Rhapsody will not deter people from downloading music "illegally".

2. Rhapsody is currently only available to PC users. While this is not significant for the broader market it is somewhat significant among Berkeley students.

That said, I see the deal with Rhapsody as a positive step by the University in both addressing its own legal problems and the legal problems + happiness of its students.

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Taz Patel Potentially Abusing IFC Presidency

IFC President and Kappa Sigma brother Taz Patel allegedly told rushees of at least two fraternities that Kappa Sig would continue partying, immediately after shutting down other houses' parties and rush events Tuesday night. A rushee reported being invited to Kappa Sig's party by Patel himself while leaving one of the indicted houses.

Among the 10 houses put on social probation, at least one claimed to be cited for simply playing music. This is potentially one more black eye for the Office of Student Life, which oversees IFC, including the new $40 fee for student groups and the complete elimination of student publication funding. Additionally, ASUC-OSL relations could be better.

This is likely to make other Greeks accuse Patel of shutting down other houses' parties as a recruitment tool. Even if he's not actually using his authority as a rush tool, but merely neglecting to enforce regulations on his own house, the damage to IFC's reputation may be irreversible.

**Breaking***
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Major Crackdown on Greek Partying
IFC threatened 5 different Greek houses with social probation Monday night because of violations. A number of parties were shut down Monday night, and there were rumors that there were undercover officers being sent into parties and that students were being cited for MIP (minor in possession). At previous all-Greek meetings it was mentioned that there might be an attempt to send in undercover police officers to try to see if alcohol was being served to underage kids.

IFC was out in force again last night, with stops at numerous houses, more parties were shut down, and more houses were caught in violation of the rules. IFC officers could be seen patrolling on Piedmont. There are threats of an alcohol moratorium by the University. It is unclear as of yet how many more houses might have been found in violation of University regulations.

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A couple things struck me as odd in this Contra Costa Times article about freshman moving in to the dorms.

"I feel nervous and excited," said Tanisha Patel of Los Angeles, who moved into a suite Sunday with a cousin and a third woman. "We're so far from home."

It seems like they picked the wrong girl to add this sentiment to the article. LA is 5-6 hours away by car or a 40 dollar flight on Southwest. Couldn't the reporter have found someone from out of state to talk about how far away from home he or she was?

"It's scary," Pravina Patel said, picking listlessly at a swab of guacamole with a nacho chip and dropping it back on her plate.

A "swab" of guacamole?!

"Anything that hinders their academic performance, we'll expedite," said RCC Justin Wong.

"Expedite" means to "speed up the progress of". If my Residential Computing Center worker told me he would speed up those things that hinder my academic performance, I would be a little worried.

But moments later, having searched in vain for an elevator, [Lenny] Garfinkel said, "The nostalgia's getting thin," as he schlepped a computer monitor up a flight of stairs to his son's new home.

It's kind of cute that in describing the actions of a father with a rather Jewish name, the writer chose to use a little Yiddish slang.
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University of Toronto Students on Birgeneau
I recently attended the national convention of my fraternity, and I met a fraternity brother from the University of Toronto. I asked him about Birgeneau, and he told me some interesting things, so I asked him to talk to his friends at school when he got back and then e-mail what their impressions of Birgeneau were.

Here is what they had to say:

His name is pronounced "Bur, g as the "s" in asia, then say the letters N-O. Bur-ge-noh". Personally, I had been calling him Bur-geh-now, and I heard other people calling him that too, which is apparently a mispronounciation.

His nickname at U of T was "the Birg" with the same "s" sound as in Asia. [I like this, let's use it.]

Complaints
"Disconnected with student body- U of T has one of North America's unhappiest studentbodies, school spirit is nonexistent, everyone feelslike a number, classes of over 1000 people."

There was a rumor that his wife was being paid 60,000 dollars a year to host parties. I did an internet search and found this article, which seems to be the job that the rumor is referring to. The article mentions it is a staff position, but doesn't say how much the salary is. The work does seem to basically involve hosting parties.

Here is how Birgeneau's wife describes it:

The house is used for countless university functions. “Although we reside here, it is first and foremost the university’s house and should be used by the university,” she said. “I’m happy to be involved, helping out with the many events there. I’ve met some extraordinary people so far, from both inside and outside of the university. [emphasis mine]

Positives
1. Birgeneau was a good figurehead
2. he represented the university well
3. and finally, he's not a bad speaker

That is the opinion of those people who knew him up close at the University of Toronto. Managing PR is just as important as having good policies and ideas, and it will be interesting to see how Birgeneau defines himself in the coming weeks.

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Cal Continues Olympic Success
For those following the Olympics, here is a link to a description of how the Berkeley athletes are doing. Wonderswimmer Coughlin has won her second gold medal.

The Cal Bears Official website will have Olympic coverage throughout the rest of the games.
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UC Grad Students Win Big in Court
After UC tried to raise the cost for the professional schools, a number of students sued. Today, they received some good news. Here is the LATimes article, "Judge Puts UC Hike of Fees on Hold" on the subject:

A Superior Court judge in San Francisco has barred the University of California from increasing fees this fall for about 3,000 students enrolled in UC's medical, law and other professional schools.
Ruling in a lawsuit brought by students who said the fee hikes breached a contract with them, Judge James L. Warren issued a preliminary injunction late Thursday blocking the increases for the 2004-05 school year. They would average about 30%.
...
The judge's order applies only to those who enrolled in a professional degree program before 2003 and are still enrolled. Eisenman said it affects about 3,000 of the 9,000 students at the university's professional schools, which include law, medicine, business, dentistry, veterinary medicine and film.
At least for now, those students will not be required to pay fee increases for 2004-05 that would average about 30% — or from about $3,000 to $4,500 — more than last year.
...
Eisenman said it could cost UC about $15 million in lost revenue.

This was only a preliminary hearing, and now there will be a trial to evaluate the student's claims. The major argument in the suit appears to be a claim of breach of contract by UC, which according to the plaintiffs, claimed it wouldn't raise fees while students were obtaining their degree.
The Oakland Tribune article contains a quotation from our own Mo Kashmiri.

"That rocks," [Kashmiri] said Friday. "I think this is going to make a real difference in the lives of some folks that, like me, just didn't know where they were going to come up with the money."

For some commentary on this subject, I would recommend a post by Phil Carter, a former UCLA Law student. He says, in part:

I've been around the UC system for a long time, and I've seen cyclical trends and long-term trends. But today's fiscal problems beat them all, and make the financial crunches of the early and mid-1990s look small by comparison. By raising fees this much, and by changing its admission calculus to make ends meet, the UC Board of Regents has sacrificed its educational mission in order to make its bottom line. California will suffer for that decision.

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Cal Alum Natalie Coughlin Wins Her First Gold in the Women's 100 Meter Backstroke

She won her event in 1:00.37 after holding of a late charge from Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry. Coughlin, the world record holder at this distance and the only woman ever to go under a minute, had been a heavy pre-race favorite. She set the Olympic Record in yesterday's semi-finals. Coughlin has one more individual event remaining in the 100 meter freestyle, which she swims on Wednesday and Thursday night.

This is her second Olympic medal. She had already won a silver medal on Saturday night for her participation in the Women's 4X100 Meter Freestyle relay.

Another Cal Alum, Haley Cope finished 8th in the same event.

CalStuff congratulates Cal Olympian Natalie Coughlin on her Gold Medal achievement!Email This Post!

Commentary on Asian American Political Affiliations
Via Res Ipsa Loquitur, I came across a post at Gene Expression titled, "Origins of the Angry Asian American Left".

The author contends that older East Asians and South Asians are conservative leaning, while their children, just reaching voting age are not. He gives a number of reasons for this; freshman orientation information that is really Marxist indoctrination, male East Asian anger at the inability to get girls due to East Asian girls preferring whites, and campus diversity requirements which is really an excuse to force students to take leftist classes. Go read the whole thing, if this interests you.

He makes some interesting points, many of which probably play some role at Berkeley.

*Update* The post I linked to above was my first time over at Gene Expression, and I have been informed that some of the opinions held by the writers of that site might be considered offensive or on the fringe. CalStuff does not endorse the beliefs of the sites that we link to, I merely intended to provide a wider audience for that specific post, because it raised some interesting points.
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Daily Cal Considering Financial Changes
After speaking with a well placed source at the Daily Cal (who in proper gender neutrality, shall be called Alex), I have some interesting information to report.

Alex tells me that the Daily Cal is considering possible pay cuts next year for writers and staffers. This is in no way a formulated plan, just a trial balloon to gauge the reaction from those people who work for the Daily Cal. The basic issue is that the Daily Cal is currently using very outdated equipment (their computers are 5 years old), and that makes it quite difficult to put out a quality paper. They also cannot afford to produce a paper as "nice" as many other big schools, which incorporate more color and other features.

My feeling, echoed by the source, is that those people who write for the Daily Cal are not doing it for the money, and they are paid very little for the articles they do write.

The reason for this post is not only to make note of the financial situation of the Daily Cal, but to invite those who are involved with the paper to have your opinions heard.
*Would you work for free in exchange for new computers and a higher quality paper?
*Rather find someone far away from campus to move to, so you could get cheaper rent than the ASUC building and save money that way?
*Would a ten percent pay cut be acceptable for editor's positions, or is that too much?

Daily Cal staffers, make your voices heard. Feel free to post anonymously, and spread the word to all the writers and the editors that this is an opportunity for them to help direct the course of their paper. Anyone else with any opinions on the Daily Cal is welcome to comment here as well.
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Creator of the UCB Extension Fall Freshman Program Dies

Official UC Berkeley Press Release

While Linda Hahn’s death is unfortunate, it does warrant a review of the Fall Freshman Program. The Fall Freshman Program, for those of you who are unaware, is a program that is run by the UC Berkeley Extension Offices and based out of the American Baptist Seminary West at Dwight and Hillegass. It allows a few hundred students with deferred spring admission to take college-level classes at Berkeley. These classes are generally smaller than courses on the main campus, and are taught by professors from Berkeley and other area schools (Cal State Hayward and UCSF, among others). Students at the Fall Freshman Program get all of the same benefits as other Berkeley students with a similar tuition, though they are not guaranteed housing.

As far as can be seen, the biggest problem with the current status of the Fall Freshman Program is its current marketing to the public. As is, the FFP is seen as a consolation prize to Berkeley admission. This status is undeserved, as most students in the program do not seem to be the bottom of the bucket, as far as quality goes. The average GPA of students who go through the FFP is higher than the all-campus average. And, a rising amount of student leaders in the Greek system, IFC, and other campus organizations started their Berkeley years in the FFP.

So, the question is, can this kind of success, both inside and outside the classroom, be duplicated on the main campus at Berkeley? It is not as if the program is an entirely new idea. Duke University has had a similar program for years, separating its first-year students from the rest of the student population. Shuttles link the two campuses (about a mile apart), and the intermingling of the groups is allowed but limited. However, it seems like a shortage of both space and financial resources would prohibit a similar program at Berkeley. The FFP could be expanded, since it only occupies part of the American Baptist Seminary West. This would allow more students into Berkeley, let alone the FFP.

Another possible option is to turn the FFP into a secondary school to be applied to by all newly admitted students, making it an ultra-selective section of Berkeley. These gifted students would have the advantage of a special program to bridge the gap between high school and the main campus, breeding them to be the new leaders on campus. But, would the cost of the bureaucracy and administration of such a program be prohibitive? Probably. It’s just nice to think of a quasi-secretive elitist academy on campus.
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Regent Angry Over Birgeneau Salary
Today's Daily Cal contains a somewhat angry denunciation from Velma Montoya over the process used to select Birgeneau, as well as his salary. For more information on Montoya, see her biography.
Here are some of her objections, from the article (it's long, but worth reading the whole thing):

I voted against the compensation. Consider its backdrop: UC administrators could not find monies to admit 7,500 UC-eligible students, neither UC faculty nor staff have received cost-of-living raises for three years, and student fees will be substantially raised for the second year in a row.
...
UC’s Academic Senate reviewed UC administrators’ compensation and found comparisons of UC chancellor salaries with other public and private universities “problematic.” The Senate found comparison salaries are not always negotiated at arms’ length. Close relationships often exist between administrators and their governing bodies.
...
Higher education experts raise concerns about large disparities between the salaries of university leaders and their faculty. Harvard University president-emeritus Derek Bok warns that a great disparity between the salary of the top campus administrator and the faculty diminishes the top administrator’s effectiveness in leading the faculty, particularly in difficult times.

My reactions to her arguments:
1. Her main thesis, that we could have found someone within the system willing to accept a promotion to chancellor for less than Birgeneau seems plausable. The decision to pick Birgeneau seems like more and more of a gamble to me, especially with the questions about his fund-raising abilities (see the post and comments). So, not only is he a gamble, but an expensive one.

2. There has been a substantial amount of labor unrest in Berkeley lately. Compare Birgeneau's salary and an article like this, "UC Grants Five-Digit Pay Raises in Heat of Fiscal Crisis" with recent labor troubles such as "GSI Strike Set for This Week" and "Staff Condemn Layoffs, Hiring Practices at Protest". It seems like continuing the trend of massive salary increases for top administrators when our campus is facing record budget cuts is not something that should be done unless there are no other options, which there seem to be.
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Go Tedford, Go Bears!
Football fans are waiting with nervous anticipation to see if our beloved Coach Tedford can repeat his previous performances, or surpass them. A recent article in the Sacremento Bee, "The Jeff Tedford era: Awakening the Bears" is a definite must-read for anyone interested in Tedford or our football team.
Here are some choice quotes:

On expectations-
Until Tedford addressed a group of Cal boosters in Sacramento a few weeks ago and uttered the words "Cal football" and "national championship" in the same sentence. And nobody laughed.
On choosing Tedford for coach-
Marvin Lewis, now head coach of the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals, was the first person contacted by outgoing Bears athletic director Steve Gladstone.
While Lewis stayed in the NFL, Tedford was the No. 4 guy at the start of Gladstone's search, the least likely prospect in a profession of larger-than-life commanders of young men.
On growing up-
"I had an alcoholic father," Tedford said. "We didn't have any money. We lived in a little place, a shack. My mom didn't make a lot of money, there were problems between my mom and my dad, and academics weren't a priority in my house.
On revenue increases-
Cal's season ticket base has doubled in Tedford's brief stint, jumping from 16,000 to the expected 32,000. On Feb. 5, the first day they were available, Cal sold 1,500 season ticket packages, an all-time single-day record.
"People were calling us like crazy," said Matt Terwilliger, Cal's director of ticket sales and advertising.
Meanwhile, Cal's corporate revenue has increased from $2.8 million to $3.5 million to a projected $4 million this season, said Solomon Fulp, the school's director of corporate partnerships.

There is much more interesting information in the article itself.
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Another Murder Occurs in Berkeley
A couple of weeks ago, Ben wrote a post commenting on the recent murder that had occurred in Berkeley. Along with noting the murder, he wondered aloud if an apparent rash of other serious crimes was a sign of an increase in the crime rate for Berkeley. Responding to his aside that he suspected there would be more murders to follow, a number of people made some rather mocking statements in the comments to that post.

The Daily Cal has the information on the latest murder, of a man named Samuel Anderson. There is no description given of the suspect in the shooting, or of a possible motive. An SFGate article mentions a comment from Tom Bates, mayor of Berkeley, saying "he hoped the killings weren't related to a spree of retaliatory violence between drug factions in North Oakland and south Berkeley that plagued those neighborhoods last summer.”

These two murders could very well be connected, but not in the sense that the people involved in one murder were then involved in the second. Last year I was considering an internship with a member of the Berkeley City Council, and I ended up going in for an interview with Kriss Worthington. He asked me what my interests were, and I mentioned crime. He told me that he suspected we would be seeing an increase in crime soon.

His explanation was that whenever our economy has a recession, you tend to almost always see that followed by an increase in crime. Two murders, as opposed to one the year before, isn't statistically significant. On the other hand, there are a number of factors that could lead a bad economy to produce an increase in crime, and it's something that very well could be occurring right now. This scenario becomes even more likely when we take into account that our current economic upswing appears to be a jobless recovery.

In the coming months it will become clearer if these murder and the other serious crimes Ben noted actually represent a trend for the Berkeley area.
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More Super Cool Awesome Student Positions

Here are the apps for the ASUC Judicial Councial, Financial Officer, and ASUC Webmaster Positions. The applications are due August 11.

Good luck to all applicants!

asucfinanceofficerapp.doc
asucjcouncilapp.doc
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Birgeneau: In Need of Canuck Luck

(Note: Sorry for the delay in the publishing of this post. I was out of town on family business sans laptop or Internet connection. I am currently rehabilitating from this traumatizing set of events, and will be back to full capacity soon.)

Well, the new chancellor was finally announced, and the initial media probable for the job actually turned out to be the leading candidate. Robert Birgeneau, of the University of Toronto, will be Berkeley’s 9th chancellor. With just a few weeks until the fall semester begins, it seems like the process has come to a successful end, right?

Wrong. Birgeneau, in accepting the chancellor position at Berkeley, immediately enters a situation where the odds are stacked highly against any substantial success during his term. Here are the three main reasons why:

1) Birgen-who? After the months of delays and secrecy in the chancellor selection process, anticipation for the new chancellor inevitably led to higher expectations for Berdahl’s replacement. A big name from a big school was needed to make people forget that they had to wait so long for it. But Birgeneau is not a big name in any circle. The University of Toronto is generally not a well known school to the American public, and Birgeneau’s administrative career has been less than stellar, as the Canadian media has characterized him as often being more concentrated on his own research than his administrative duties. On top of that, Birgeneau is not a woman or a minority. Why are all these points relevant? Bottom line: Birgeneau is not news worthy. Compared to other chancellor searches, this one is an overwhelming bust. Birgeneau is immediately at a disadvantage, because pressure to prove himself as a strong and effective administrator independent of President Dynes immediately may conflict with a desire to form an effective agenda and long-term plan as Chancellor.

2) It’s the economy, stupid. The UC budget is in the worst state it has been in for years. There has not been a successful $1b + fundraising campaign completed at Berkeley for several years. And, this financial situation has arguably led to a significant deterioration in the quality of education at Berkeley, as well as all public schools. Of no fault of his own, Birgeneau is handicapped as to his resources to make progress at Berkeley. Not helping the situation is the fact that Birgeneau has never been known as a very successful fundraiser at the University of Toronto. Birgeneau will have to be conservative with his financial resources, but will this lead to a lack of activity or progress.

3) Berkeley First-Year. No matter how you look at it, Birgeneau has no experience at Berkeley, or even in a similar scenario. Heck, he has never even held a post west of the Rockies. He is unfamiliar with California politics, local politics, or campus politics. His connections to prominent community leaders, politicians, and faculty are extremely limited, if even existent. Yet, he is expected to take the reins of the university and lead it to success? Seems like a bit of a long shot to me.

Now, it is way too early to declare that Robby B., Part Deux will fail miserably, or fail at all, for that matter. I definitely hope for all the success possible for Birgeneau. But, the stage is set for public embarrassment, and ultimately Birgeneau and UC President Dynes may be the people who end up needing the most cover if/when the shit hits the fan. But, on the plus side, Birgeneau probably won’t be leaving Berkeley with any more hate-sites. (Berkeley students prefer vocal, more in-person protests.)
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More News on Bob II

[So um, does anyone else have a good nickname for him, by the way...?]

Interesting news in the Daily Cal on our new chancellor. Lisa Humes-Schulz and Dev Chatterji have an article on the "secretive" process involved in selecting Birgeneau. The system in place to select a chancellor, as well as Dynes actions made this decision very much top down, annoying some members involved in the process. Here are the details:

*Although individual committee members were not permitted to share their recommendations with each other, Dynes was aware of and took the recommendations into consideration before forwarding his decision to the UC Board of Regents for approval."
*Dynes is accused by anonymous committee members of only giving the committee four names, instead of the minimum of five required of him by the UC “Policy on Appointment of Chancellors”
*"The full committee spent between 16 and 20 minutes to discuss each of the four candidates, Quindel said. "
*Quindel, a student representative of the advisory committee and former president of the Graduate Assembly, accused Dynes of giving the position to Birgeneau because they have known each other for 30 years growing up in Canada together as part "an old boys network."

I am a big supporter of transparency in situations such as this, so I find the secretive top-down approach to selecting a chancellor troubling. On the other hand, the selection was months behind schedule, and Dynes may have decided on his man, and did not feel like wasting a couple more months holding hearings and consulting with the advisory committee if he knew he had the votes for Birgeneau.

The student input in this decision seems like the absolute minimal level required. I do not necessarily see this as a problem, though. I am not at all sure that undergraduate students would do a good job of deciding who among the possible candidates would do a better job. Holding a forum where students can express their opinion about what qualities they would like to see in the next chancellor, and then limiting their say in the actual decision seems like a good process to use.

It will be interesting to see if the various accusations contained in the Daily Cal article see any more light, or if this is the end of the story. Below, are my long overdue comments on our new chancellor.

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Thoughts on Birgeneau

1. I hate having to look up his name online every time I want to write about him.
2. The University of Toronto seems to be a school similar enough to Berkeley that there should not be a problem for him transferring here and adjusting to us.
3. The Univeristy of Toronto is apparently rather upset ("vexed") that Birgeneau is abandoning them. This is a great sign, except that part of their consternation over his exit is probably based on having to go through the process of finding a new leader for their school. Regardless of that, if they were not upset he was leaving, that would be cause for major concern on our part.
4. As tactless as it may be to point it out, Birgeneau being a white male reassures me about his competency. When a school that prides itself on its diversity selects a white male, then you know you don't have to worry about concerns over diversity motivating the selection of an inferior candidate. On the other hand, accusations that personal connections between Dynes and Birgeneau were responsible for his selection, are thoroughly un-reassuring.
5. His reputation is that if he can do one thing well, then it's raise money, which is sadly, apparently going to be very necessary in the coming years.
6. When the school year resumes and he eventually sets up shop in Berkeley, he will likely begin discussing his plans for his tenure and announce what some of his first initiatives shall be. When this occurs, I will have more to say about him.

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