When did the Elections Council appoint themselves the Thought Police? Candidates who cuss in the upcoming 'Campus-Wide Candidate Speech Forum' are forbidden to say 'hate speech, vulgar/offensive language, and negative campaigning' and will be escorted out by SECURITY if they do so. It's Thursday at 5:30 in MLK.

The following are absolutely
forbidden: hate speech, vulgar/offensive language, and negative campaigning (aka trashing another candidate or party). I know the words "vulgar", "offensive" and even "hate speech" can be ambiguous. Let's put it this way: if you have concerns about what you want to say, you probably shouldn't say it. All inappropriate speeches will be halted immediately. Failure to follow these rules will result in your dismissal from the forum by security, and/or possible censures. Still not sure if what you want to say is okay? Email me ASAP (and not the day of the forum).

I don't think anyone is intending to say racial slurs. But since when does the Elections Council get to regulate the content of the election? They're an appointed body without any power to level censures or regulate what candidates say, much less prohibit 'negative campaigning.'

Needless to say, the laughable threat of 'possible censures' has no basis in the ASUC Constitution. The only possible legal basis to their threats is a prohibition on 'libel and slander' of other candidates, libel and slander being defined by the Judicial Council and punishable by 1 or 2 censures.

The idea of using 'Security' to throw out candidates is even more silly. And do they really think Candidates will get so out of hand they'll need to be policed?

I wouldn't care about silly rules in an unattended 'Campaign Issues Forum' if the Elections Council hadn't already threatened to keep 'vulgarity' out of the ASUC Voter's Guide and challenged Squelch! Candidates on more then one occasion about it. If they keep doing this we'll have to seek a J-Council order to force them to stop interfering with my candidates.Email This Post!

The Squelch! Party will (hopefully) be starting its campaign tomorrow. Look for us around noon till 2 for Wacky Vibrator Races!

Email This Post!

Without anyone quite realizing it, the ASUC entered yet another fiscal crisis. This time the apparent cause is a huge shortfall coming out of the Store Operations division.

All student groups have received a preliminary 15% cut in the just-released 2004-2005 budget. We'll see how the ASUC Senate deals with this fiasco... and why no one seems to have seen it coming. (Including the Daily Cal).

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The first event in the Squelch! Party publicity campaign will be Wednesday, March 31, at noon, with an encore at 2 PM. No revelations as to what it is going to be yet, but let's just say for now that it involves an elevated plane and C-Batteries. Come out and support your favorite Squelchers (who just happen to be running under the Squelch! Party). I promise fun and the opportunity for free candy!Email This Post!

A Berkeley student died on Thursday after a night of heavy drinking.

Thanks to Calstuff Correspondant APEmail This Post!

I walked around Sproul last night. There's three passageways through it: going up around Sproul/Barrows, going through Lower Sproul, and through a tiny passageway right outside of MLK, next to the construction. The MLK route, at its narrowest, can allow two students side by side or one person with a bike. 50,000 go through Sather Gate per day.

Most students will probably try and take the MLK route, which is woefully inadequate for the amount of traffic it'll probably be receiving in the next few months. It would help if MLK itself was opened up to traffic, but god forbid our student union actually have any students walking through it. It didn't look like that was being considered.

It's also obvious that putting student groups on Lower Sproul is inferior to the Wheeler/Dwinelle plaza area. I'm not at all sure why that wasn't considered. With some planning it would accomodate all groups without adding too much congestion.

Another neat idea that Calstuff Correspondant SBGE came up with: why are we throwing away the historically important pavement on Sproul? It's a huge piece of history! Put some in museums.. make sure Bancroft has a load... even consider selling it off in bags and donating the proceeds to some needy student service program. Look for revenue opportunities!Email This Post!

There's an interesting account of the Iranian Student Alliance in an Iranian News website. It depends on live.berkeley.edu's rankings for their claim to be the 'most active club in Berkeley,' which is kinda dubious.Email This Post!

Here's my Campaign Statement in the ASUC Voter Guide. What's REALLY embarassing is that the awful poetry I included is one of the LESS terrible examples from my High School years:

CANDIDATE NAME
Kevin Deenihan

CANDIDATE PARTY

Squelch!

CANDIDATE BALLOT NUMBER

59

CANDIDATE ISSUE-STATEMENT

In lieu of a statement, here is some totally awful poetry I wrote as a Freshman in High School:

Only the brave
(or stupid?)
will shoot themselves with fire
(Is it safe?)
To test themselves
(Will I stand?)
Aganist hardness and hate
(Is it too strong?)
And only the best
(Am I?)
Will come out unscathed.
(Will I?)

Calstuff.blogspot.com

CANDIDATE PHOTO




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This year marks the 4th and Last annual Daily Cal Endorsement Betting Pool

E-mail your picks for who the Daily Cal will endorse for the five Executive spots. Whoever names the most correctly will win the Grand Prize.

Since this is my last year, I'm putting up $25 of my own money to the winner, conditional on there being at least 15 contestants. Ties split the pot.

ked@removethis.berkeley.eduEmail This Post!

Brian Maxwell, the founder of Powerbar and prominent Cal Alumnus, died yesterday at the age of 51. His donations had renovated Kleeberger field, near Bowles, and renamed it Maxwell Family Field.Email This Post!

Since using a moral argument against the Bears-United potential-lawsuit has created confusion and bewilderment, I'll revert to an electoral argument that everyone will feel more comfortable with.

The essential fact about Bears-United is that they can, at best, only win a Senate seat. Mr. Kloberdanz's Presidential run is doomed to failure, as he's running without a full slate to bring votes to him. President Primm fell short when he ran, alone, for the first time, against ex-President Gabriel, and I doubt Mr. Kloberdanz is as popular as President Primm...

Knowing that, Student Action's goal should not be to disqualify Mr. Kloberdanz, but to incorporate him. Senator Leybovich should be trying to strike a deal to work with the guy-- in order to get every single second-place vote from him. (Offer him all your second-place votes-- why not? Promise to work hard on his issues. Would SA rather that CS won again?) Accomplish this and, suddenly, Mr. Kloberdanz's Presidential run is not a problem, but an asset. It's no wonder that ProgCal has been buttering up Bears-United all week. CalSERVE wants those second-place votes too.

So lets examine the scenarios for an anti-Bears-United lawsuit:

1. Lose the lawsuit. Bears-United is really teed off at Student Action and battles them all election. Takes votes from Senator Leybovich in Greekland, they don't transfer to Senator Leybovich when Mr. Kloberdanz drops.

2. Win the lawsuit-- Bears-United forced to change their name. Same as above, only with the marginal benefits of slightly less name conclusion.

3. Win the lawsuit-- Bears-United disqualified. Gain whatever votes from students who would've voted for Mr. Kloberdanz, but not Senator Leybovich second, but would vote for Senator Leybovich if Mr. Kloberdanz is not on the ballot. Lose whatever voters are teed off at SA for DQ'ing a party.

Speaking of CalSERVE, it's pretty funny that Progcal is doing his best to prove that CalSERVE tried not to cut the Greek Philanthropy Fund, and is hence Pro-Greek. The Greek Philanthropy Fund is pork spending at its worst, a slush fund cut off from general student use, so that Greek organizations can pursue philanthropy they're often mandated to do. If the Senate wants to pursue philanthropy, they should do it directly, instead of funneling student money into poorly-watched philanthropy efforts that only certain students can access. Student Action cutting the Philanthropy Fund was electorally brave, risking the support of its base for the fiscal soundness of the ASUC. So when ProgCal is proving that his party refused to cut the Philanthropy fund, isn't he just proving that his party is willing to pander for support? What does that accomplish?Email This Post!

Cal has more on the Bears United/Student Action lawsuits.

It'll be interesting to see if Rocky and Misha sign on to this kind of pre-election lawsuit. Sure, Unite - Greek has a pretty strong case. Sure, Bears United has a pretty similar name for a similar constituency. So Student Action will probably win their suit.... but we all know that students aren't stupid enough to confuse the two, and that Bears-United probably didn't intend to encroach on SA's name. The honorable thing to do would be to fight it out on the ballot.

Of course, ASUC Elections are not about honor. I don't know if I myself would keep from suing. But Senator Leybovich and Senator Gade were always self-conscious about holding to a higher standard.Email This Post!

Not to mention AAVP Candidate and Boalt Student Matt Holohan's campaign blog.
He is, I believe, the only married elections person. Unless you count the Elections Council members, who are wedded to the Church.Email This Post!

There's a new Cal Blog: Cal Elections.

It has the interesting news that Bears-United may be sued by UNITE-Greek for name stealing. Email This Post!

The Ballot is out. It'll be online tomorrow at election.berkeley.edu.. and here today. My notes are in bold.

2004 ASUC ELECTIONS BALLOT

President

20. JAKE “Klobber old ways” KLOBERDANZ – BEARS-United
21. Joe Jocson Reyes – Independent
22. MISHA LEYBOVICH – STUDENT ACTION/APPLE Engineering/UNITE Greek
23. DAN “!! EL GUAPO !!” FREEDMAN – SQUELCH!
24. FARAH “VOTE FOR FATTIE” FATANY – Independent
25. YVETTE FELARCA – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
26. JONATHAN LEWIS – THE SERIOUSLY WHAT HAVE THEY BEEN DOING WITH MY MONEY ALL THIS TIME? PARTY
27. VIVIEN “PALPATINE” LEE – Independent
28. RENITA CHANEY – CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)

Executive VP

30. MO BENNY – Independent
31. CHRISTINE “CLEE” LEE – STUDENT ACTION/APPLE Engineering/UNITE Greek
Clee?
32. Rebecca “ASUCOutOfMyUterus” Brown – SQUELCH!
33. KARINA SARABIA-DELGADO – CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
34. ALFRED TWU – Independent
Bezerk's Editor-in-Chief

External VP

35. DAVID “PARTY ALL THE TIME” DUMAN – SQUELCH!
36. LIZ HALL – CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
37. JOSIE HYMAN – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
38. PAMMY O’LEARY – STUDENT ACTION/APPLE Engineering/UNITE Greek
Why doesn't she show up on Regstat? I can't find her anywhere.

Academic VP

39. MIKE SHEEN – CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
40. ROCKY GADE – STUDENT ACTION/APPLE Engineering/UNITE Greek
41. Matt “The Boalt Student” Holohan – SQUELCH!

Student Advocate

43. RONALD CRUZ – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
44. CHAU NGUYEN – Independent
45. Zein Obagi, Jr. – BEARS-United
46. VIVIEN “PALPATINE” LEE – Independent
47. KEVIN “ALMOST QUALIFIED” DEENIHAN – SQUELCH!
48. DAVE MADAN (Incumbent) – Independent
CalSERVE and SA aren't running against him, which is a good thing... but he apparently decided not to run with them, which is probably a good thing. My #1 choice.

Senators

50. NICK “FOR ESHLEMAN HALL” STAHL - Independent
51. YANGHO CHARLES SHIN – Independent
52. Joe Jocson Reyes – Independent
53. Thomas P. “TPG” Geddes – Independent
54. JERMAINE “YOUR MAINE MAN” WALTEMEYER - Independent
55. TARYN JANG – Independent

56. Ben “MAGNUM-SIZED” Narodick – SQUELCH!
Vote Narodick!
57. Rebecca “ASUCOutofMyUterus” Brown – SQUELCH!
58. SIMON “A CRY FOR HELP” GANZ – SQUELCH!
59. KEVIN “ALMOST QUALIFIED” DEENIHAN – SQUELCH!
60. COOPER “POOPER-SCOOPER” NAGENGAST – SQUELCH!
61. DAVID “PARTY ALL THE TIME” DUMAN – SQUELCH!
62. Matt “The Boalt Student” Holohan – SQUELCH!
63. ANTHONY PAGANINI – SQUELCH!
64. Andy “i Vote Mullet!” Ratto – SQUELCH!
Also vote Ratto!

65. YVETTE FELARCA (Incumbent) – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
66. JOSIE HYMAN – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
67. RONALD CRUZ – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
68. Andrea Morales – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
69. Adi Hoag – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
70. James “El Capitan” Drake – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
71. Salvador Mendez – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
72. Alexi Charter – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
73. Alejandra “Ali” Cruz – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
74. Lisa Knox – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
75. John Adams – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
76. Ennio A. Nuila – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
77.
78. Tiffany North – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
79. James “Josh” Joshua – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
80. Joel Singh – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
81. Morena Loomis – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
82. **REDACTED 6/4/13 BY REQUEST**
83. Melissa Turner – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)
84. Jake Himmel – Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP)

85. LIZ SWANEY :) – GOD
She sorta-ran for Governor last semester, but failed to get enough signatures from registered Democrats.

86. CHRIS ABAD – APPLE Engineering
87. PETER CHUNG – APPLE Engineering
88. JUI-SHAN “GRACE” HSU – APPLE Engineering
89. IGOR “IGGY” TREGUB – APPLE Engineering

90. JENNA “just for students” PETERSEN – BEARS-United
91. Sara “The BOALTIE” WANG – BEARS-United
92. Alex Eiranova – BEARS-United

93. JOHN “LEAVE IT TO BEAV” HASKELL – “INTER” Cal Party
94. HOVANNES “CLAUDIA PAREDES” ABRAMYAN – LOS ANGELES AREA
Cal Blogger and Patriot contributor.
95. NARE AVAGYAN – FurgetDaBS

96. JENN CHON – STUDENT ACTION
97. EVAN “LET CAL” BLOOM – STUDENT ACTION
98. NATASHA PARACHA – STUDENT ACTION
99. JOHN WILSON (Incumbent) – STUDENT ACTION
100. MANUEL “MANNY” BUENROSTRO – STUDENT ACTION
101. ALEX “INT’L/TRNSFR. STU” RANDOLPH – STUDENT ACTION
102. ZACK “GO WITH THE FRO” HENDLIN – STUDENT ACTION
103. JERICO “JERBEAR” LAVARIAS – STUDENT ACTION
104. ANIL DARYANI – STUDENT ACTION
105. BENJAMIN LEE – STUDENT ACTION
106. JASON “HERE TO FIX EM” DIXSON – STUDENT ACTION
107. BILLY “FREE WILLY” WANG (Incumbent) – STUDENT ACTION

108. ADRIENNE LEONG – UNITE Greek
109. KRISTINA “Go for the Gold” NUGENT – UNITE Greek
110. ROBERT SHEN – UNITE Greek
111. KRISTIN GREENLEE – UNITE Greek

112. AMAURY GALLAIS – BERKELEY COLLEGE REPUBLICANS

113. NATASHA “IMAD AHMED” DANDAVATI – INTERNATIONAL AND OUT-OF-STATE STUDENT PARTY

114. BRENT “BRENT K” KASTENBAUM – CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
115. DORIE “WOMEN’S PARTY” PEREZ - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
116. RYNE DIDIER - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
117. MICHAEL TSIA - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
118. BRANDON SMITH - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
119. NOERENA LIMON - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
120. Ricardo Valencia - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
121. Taina Gomez - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
122. Gustavo “Make Your Voice” Mata - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
123. Kris “Aloha” Cuaresma-Primm - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
124. Anu Joshi - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
125. DENA TAKRURI - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
126. ALEX MADRID - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
127. MENGLY TAING - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
128. BETTY KIM DUONG - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
129. LAKSHMI “LABOR PARTY” SRIDARAN - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
130. GAGANDEEP SINGH RAJPAL - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)
131. ANNALYN TERRE - CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights & a Valid Education)

132. KATHERINE “Save Our Senate” ORTIZ – Save Our Senate Party

Compiled March 17, 2004 – Angel Symoon BrewerEmail This Post!

AP did an article on the budget crisis at Cal.Email This Post!

Where's the Correction today?

Commencement ceremonies will be held on May 14 at 4 p.m. at the Greek Theater.

From Seniors.berkeley.edu:

2004 Commencement Convocation

Date: May 13, 2004, 4 p.m. at the William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre

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Rally Com yell leader Kate Troescher is being featured on Nike.com's Team Jordan website as part of the College Insider, which covers the colleges supported by the Jordan College Program.

Along with a profile on Kate dealing mostly with basketball (for obvious reasons), there's a story on the "fab four" Cal basketball recruits, information on Cal's athletic programs and history, and pictures of the "Golden Bear Flows" basketball shoes worn by Cal players.Email This Post!

Kevin's Election Roundup Day 1:

Time to start the theorizing and matchups. I'm handicapped by not knowing any of the CalSERVE Exec Candidates at all, but at least that makes me no different from the rest of the student body. Rampant speculation!

Open Questions:

What does the 'Internal Drama' in CalSERVE actually mean for elections? Probably nothing, as CS can focus on elections once they have an enemy to concentrate on. On the other hand, a lack of behind the scenes unity could mean poor turnout and time wasted on internal squabbling.

What has Ms. Chaney done leadership-wise outside of the African-American Community? President Primm is in the Greek system, an athelete, and knew a huge amount of people from a wide variety of groups. Senator Leybovich is an Engineer, Greek, and Jewish. Both were already pretty well known campus wide. Is Ms. Chaney well-known outside of the Progressive/African-American communities? I am speaking here of groups that are non-political.

Is President Primm going to be involved? I believed and still believe that Kris Primm was the single most important reason that CalSERVE swept the Executive elections last year. It's not just his personal popularity, but the way he made huge inroads into non-traditional-CalSERVE territory. (Greeks... Res Hall...) If he pours time and effort into electioneering, he could still be a huge factor in this election. And he is running for Senate this year... or at least his name's on the ballot.

Will Senator Leybovich and Senator Gade 'fit' into the SA mold? And is that model still valid? SA usually goes with immensely strong campaigning and single-minded devotion to duty. Plus the ability to campaign as a slate and assemble huge cores of volunteers. Senator Leybovich has made a stab at that, but we'll see if Senator Gade can make a similar effort. Also, is the old model still the way to win elections? It was run last year without success. Maybe it's time for a new one.

Who's the other Student Advocate candidate? Speaking as Squelch! SAO candidate Deenihan, I'm surprised that the Office hasn't publicily come out with a candidate yet. Although this is probably just a measure of my outsider-ness this year. Will Squelch! win for the third time in four years? Will I turn the office into a personal fiefdom, writing cranky letters to the Daily Cal whenever they refer to the 'Four Execs?'

UPDATE: Advocate Madan is running again.

Will this BEARS-United thing turn out to actually be important electorally? SA is worried that they'll cut into Senator Leybovich's base. The easy way to figure this out is to ask how many volunteers they have, how much money they're spending per candidate, and how much time they intend to spend campaigning. If the answer is less then '50, $1000, Every Hour' then they aren't a factor.

If you're keeping track, here's the Ethnic/Gender breakdown of the Big 8. As usual, it's actually fairly representative of student demographics. Racial gerrymandering or heartwarming example of diversity, I don't know.

Male: 3
Female: 5

White & Jewish: 3
Indian: 1
Asian: 2
Latino: 1
African-Am: 1

As usual, the Squelch! slate is:

Male: 4
Female: 1

White: 5

More Outsider Speculation as it comes in!
Email This Post!

DEATH OF CALSTUFF... is nigh.

The scheduled end of Calstuff is drawing really, really close. Chances are I'll be keeping it going through Elections, but not necessarily.

This is the last chance to apply to take over the position of Calstuff Editor-in-Chief.



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The Commencement Speaker this year will be Ted KoppelEmail This Post!

Kudos to the Greek System for their superb sense of news management and publicity... getting upset not about a rape at a House during a party, but the news article about it. What this letter doesn't note is that there was actually a petition circulated around the Frats signed by numerous Presidents condemning the coverage. In the end it was decided not to send the petition to the Daily Cal with the signatures.

I am writing to express my deep concern about the article in The Daily Californian Tuesday March 10 "Student Reports Sexual Assault at Frat.”

Undoubtedly, articles that report such serious and heinous crimes warrant a spot on the front and center of the paper.

The Daily Californian has failed, however, to consider the serious implications of placing the word “frat” in the headline and “Sigma Chi” in its sub headline giving off the false impression that one of its members perpetrated the assault.

Furthermore, it fosters a rush to judgment that is difficult to overcome even after having read the entire article.

Barely to the paper’s credit, it included a sentence from the fraternity’s president denying that one of his members was the attacker.

In effect, The Daily Californian has all but convicted the fraternity and the rest of the Greek community of a crime of which they have not been accused. And why have they been blamed for this act by the Daily Californian? Because attributing the act to a “frat” is so much juicier and gets so many more students to pick up the paper than a less inflammatory headline such as, “Student Reports Sexual Assault.”

For those of us in the Greek community, this negative characterization by The Daily Californian comes as no surprise. For decades our houses have worked hard with a wide array of philanthropic organizations raising awareness and funds to support their causes. Yet rarely do lead articles paint a positive picture of Greek organizations despite the contributions they make to the community.

Finally, to the readers of Tuesday’s article: Sigma Chi fraternity did not commit sexual assault last weekend. Similarly, the university did not commit sexual assault three times in the dorms last year. The location of a crime does not automatically determine who is at fault. In each instance, it’s a vile individual who is responsible for sexual assault and that is exactly who should take blame for it.

Zein Obagi Jr.
UC Berkeley student

That the rape wasn't committed by a Fraternity member is not the issue. It's that while a party was going on, someone could go into a Fraternity room, commit (alleged) rape, and get away with it. For the thousands of people attending Frat parties, this is news we can use. Similarly, if a rape was committed in a Co-op or Dorm it would be reported as being in a Co-op or a dorm, since hundreds of students frequent these places and probably should know what's going on there.

In addition: the fact that the alleged rape took place at a Frat has really serious consequences for the Fraternity. There's trouble from IFC, the National, and possibly police; they may assume liability for letting it happen on their property. That's news.

Finally, the fact that the person responsible hasn't been caught means the paper should make some effort to help the police help catch the perpetrator. It's not very helpful if they write 'Somewhere on campus, an alleged rape occured. The perpetrator was medium-height.' The UCPD alert highlights that it happened at Sigma Chi.

So anyway, kudos to Mr. Obagi for making it seem like Frats are more concerned about their image then preventing rape.Email This Post!

Imagine my surprise when I see there's an article about the Squelch! party in the paper this morning.

The Squelch! Party unveiled its slate Wednesday night with a line of party veterans and a pledge to remove ASUC from the "collective uterus" of the student body.

"My uterus is already safe and you know, they don't really need to be there," said Rebecca Brown, a candidate for ASUC Executive Vice President.

Squelch!'s lineup includes Dan Freedman for ASUC president, David Duman for external vice president, Rebecca Brown for executive vice president, Matt Holohan for academic affairs vice president and Kevin Deenihan for student advocate.

The party has planned a campaign strategy that includes massaging voters, and tanning and parading on Sproul Plaza in costumes.

Brown said the ASUC can spend its time better by funding publications and student groups. The candidates will use coat hangers to dislodge the student government from the uterus, Brown added.

Another top issue for Squelch! candidates is removing the professor-student dating ban that was instated last year.

"I do have this one professor who is pretty hot," Duman said.

-Kim-Mai Cutler

...Interesting metaphor, Rebecca...

I guess Ms. Mai Cutler thinks I'm too cool to be called for comments these days.

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The practical problem posed by late slating decisions, for the newcomer, is the delays it introduces in

A) Building a campaign schedule
B) Building a campaign staff
C) Building campaign literature

For example, Senator Leybovich's kickoff was over a week ago, and even that was considered late. Now he has a committed volunteer staff of tens of people (hopefully) as well as the opportunity to coordinate his efforts with his fellow Student Action members. Whereas the CS person will have to scramble before everyone leaves for Spring Break.

The literature thing is also tricky. Essentially, every candidate has their lit and buttons and pickets all designed and ready to go. Then after the candidate's meeting, when numbers are assigned, everyone scrambles to plug in the final details and rush it off to production places. That gives them a turnaround of two weeks after the meeting, which is juuuust enough to get the lit in time for elections.

Caljunket posted the Squelch! Slate, but I'll put it here too:

President: Dan Freedman
External: David Duman
Executive: Rebecca C Brown
AAVP: Matt Holohan
SAO: Kevin Edward Deenihan

I'm thinking of running on a 'Nearly competent' platform. "My opponent was involved in the redrafting of the Student Conduct Code to better serve students. I was only one floor above him in the Squelch office while he was doing this."

And, of course, I hope to score the endorsements of two of the last three elected Student Advocates: Advocate Holohan and Advocate Schulman.



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Progcal is back for Elections.

As Progcal notes, the Daily Cal's election runup article is based on a lot of conventional ASUC wisdom but not a lot of facts.

CalSERVE draws its base mostly from recruitment and retention centers and underrepresented students, while Student Action relies more on the Greek and athletic vote along with larger campus organizations like the Asian American Association and UC Rally Committee.

AAA made a very conscious effort last year to disassociate from Student Action, after feeling it had gotten too involved with President Adeyemo. I would expect the same from AAA President (and Foothill Grad) Kristine Lee. The current Rally Comm Prez is Jon Locascio, who ran with APPLE several years ago. And Sean Byrne, big Rally Commer, endorsed President Primm last year. Plus, the article doesn't mention SA's biggest constituency of all: residence halls.

Indeed, relying on old notions of SA's 'natural constituency' is way out of place this election, after SA got rocked last year. Senator Leybovich is a far cry from a 'normal' SA nominee, as is Senator Gade. This year will see SA searching for a new coalition that can beat CS's fairly stable Progressive/Underrepresented core.

Email This Post!

The new Squelch is out. Hopefully there'll be a link later this afternoon. Until then, go to Sproul.

Sadly, my Al Gore piece was printed in first draft format, rather then my finished version. Oops.

We're proud to be 100% William Hung reference-free.Email This Post!

Student Action's Slate:
Prez: Misha Leybovich
AAVP: Rocky Gade
EVP: Christine Lee
External: ? (A non-Senator)Email This Post!

An improved solution I've seen to the drop-date deadline issue is to introduce some flexibility into the system. Start a system of gradually increasing fees starting in the third week. Casual overenrollers will be induced to drop out when fees are still relatively small, while the students with emergencies that really need the 8th week deadline will be glad to pay a fairly substantial fee to drop the class. This will shed the deadwood that impacted classes accumulate while still keeping open student options.

Thanks to Calstuff Correspondant BGE for the ideaEmail This Post!

Kudos to Columnist Stein for wading through the newest LRDP plan and extracting the relevant bits for students. Email This Post!

I guess it's nice that Calmail is taking steps to battle the Beagle worm, but shouldn't it inform students of the steps it's taking?

The campus's central email system, CalMail, is temporarily discarding, without notification, all messages received which contain ".zip" file attachments.

This action was taken to protect campus email users' computers from infection. Messages containing several recent variants of the W32.Bagel (or W32.Beagle) worm have been arriving in large numbers in campus email inboxes. These worms are using a new technique intended to thwart email virus scanners.

CalMail staff are actively working on measures to detect these worms. Updates regarding any status changes will be posted to the CalMail home page (https://calmail.berkeley.edu/).

People send a lot of regular .zip files. Important ones. What's the harm in sending a mass e-mail letting users know that they're disabled for a short period? Email This Post!

Chancellor Berdahl explains his reasoning on the Upper Sproul project on Bear in Mind. Regrettably, I can't hear the darn thing since I don't have sound here.Email This Post!

I'm off to Utah for the Annual Deenihan Family Ski Trip. Back Sunday.Email This Post!

Berkeley is under siege via viruses again, as is usual once a year. This version appears to be more severe then usual. It's the W32.Beagle virus.Email This Post!

The California Voice's new issue is online only.Email This Post!