One More Step Closer To Foothill Bridge

After years of stalling and bureaucracy from both the city and university, the Berkeley City Council has finally approved the plans for the Foothill Bridge Project, a pedestrian walkway to provide safer access for students walking between the Foothill and La Loma residential areas. The plan had been opposed by a small force led by a handful of city residents who claimed that their view of the Bay would be partially obscured by the project...Email This Post!

University Medal Awarded
People Around Campus Ask, "They Give That To History Majors?"

This year's University Medal goes to Alejandra Dubcovsky, a history major who has specialized in analyzing and writing on letters composed by American slaves. She actually seems like an interesting person...

- Moved to California from Argentina in the 9th grade (Is this still such a problem?)
- Volunteers as a tutor at Emerson Elementary School
- Has a fiance (eh, you can't sustain a social life on this schedule)

Unlike last year, Berkeley NewsCenter didn't profile the other finalists... it's unfortunate because you really don't get a grasp of how difficult the award is to win without looking at the competition.

Update: From Allen Profiles of the other finalists will be coming the following days. Here is the one for Tanguy Chau.

In any event, Dubcovsky will speak at convocation, which puts her in competition with featured speaker Benjamin Barker for the most interesting person on stage.Email This Post!

Another Delay In Release In Election Results

I'm too disappointed/lazy to write any more about Zach Liberman and election delays. It's just getting boring. Get the scoop (today only!) at CalJunket and Cal Patriot.Email This Post!

The East Bay Express today compared Judicial Council proceedings involving the Graduate Assembly Referendum in this year's ASUC elections to federal politics.

Tom DeLay isn't the only one bitching about activist judges lately. UC Berkeley graduate students have been targeting the campus judiciary with similar claims following a fiasco involving this month's student government elections...

For years the grads have longed for full autonomy -- they hardly need the supervision of their younger peers, they argue, to handle their own affairs and $400,000-plus budget. They were poised to get their wish this year via an autonomy referendum on the campus ballot that was reportedly favored to win -- at least until the Judicial Council, the student equivalent of the Supreme Court, yanked the initiative off the ballot mere hours before the polls opened.

Previous Coverage
* Mike Davis Sues Graduate Assembly, Judicial Council Freezes $90,000 in GA Money
* Davis Wins An Injunction Keeping the Two Referendums Off the Ballot
* Election Odds and Ends
* Davis Wins Suit Against the GA Referendum, Language Ruled IllegalEmail This Post!

A nifty little camera trick by one of the Relay for Life photographers.

(Picture from Flickr)
Email This Post!

Here's another round of "C-span for college," brought to you by the Cal Patriot Blog. The most newsworthy proceeding in this meeting would be Jessica Unterhalter's impeachment decision. All of them are Real Player format and are hosted by Our Media.

* Part 1, 36.9 MB
* Part 2, 41.7 MB
* Part 3, 27.5 MB
* Part 4, 42.4 MBEmail This Post!

Help Save a Life
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So a few weeks after the national Pi Kappa Phi office suspends them, UC Berkeley has formally suspended the fraternity after shooting a student with a airsoft or BB gun 30 times. He has declined to press charges, and yet police say they may still pursue the criminal charge of assault with a deadly weapon.

From Inside Bay Area article:

Police said the student, whose name was not released, was stripped to his T-shirt and underwear and grilled about the whereabouts of other pledges. Fraternity members allegedly tried to force the teenager to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana, but he refused, police said...

The campus Student Judicial Affairs Office... also continues to investigate possible student conduct charges against the three suspects, ages 19, 20 and 23, who police said were involved in the apparent hazing...

The UC Berkeley chapter of Pi Kappa Phi has been disciplined four times between October 2000 and June 2004 for fighting, dangerous conduct and other offenses, according to the national office's Web site.

Previous Coverage
* Pi Kap Suspended over Hazing Incident
* More Odds and Ends on the Pi Kappa Phi Hazing Incident
* Pi Kapp Saga Continues - Three Members Expelled From FraternityEmail This Post!

Continuing a Calstuff Tradition, Andy Ratto and myself were down at the Relay for Life last Saturday, 4/23. The event raised nearly $50,000 $60,000 (thanks Joon), so props to the students. Just in case you didn't know what we looked like, here's a picture:


If you were there in the morning or afternoon, you may recognize me as the guy who passed out paper clips and ran the jail (and may have shot you repeatedly with squirt gun). There was also a more somber lumanaria and tree of life ceremonies. All in all, it's a good event to be a part of.Email This Post!

Striking Workers Appear to Have Reached a Deal
I'm not quite sure why this didn't make bigger news (or did everyone hear about this except me?). Here is the Press Release from the UC Office of the President:

UC REACHES TENTATIVE CONTRACT AGREEMENT WITH SERVICE WORKER UNION

University of California officials announced today (Wednesday) that UC has reached a tentative agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees on a new, three-year labor contract for UC's 7,300 service workers...
Once ratified by AFSCME, the agreement will be effective from the date of ratification through Jan. 31, 2008.

Highlights of the agreement include:
Wages: 3 percent across-the-board wage increases, effective Oct. 1, 2005; 3 percent across-the-board increases in year two; and a 4 percent increase in year three of the contract, consistent with the university's budget compact with the governor and subject to final state funding appropriations in each year;

Health benefits: UC will maintain its current salary-based approach to health insurance premiums through 2009;

Professional development and training: Expanded employee development and training resources, including 24 hours per year of paid career development, and the establishment of a labor-management committee to identify career paths and promotional opportunities;

Parking rates: AFSCME-represented employees will receive the same lowest parking rates as other represented staff at the same location with the same parking access.

Sounds good to me.Email This Post!

Not exactly news, but it's always kind of surprsing where people link to Calstuff. Apparently, those videos I made of the ASFMCE Strike made it on to BlogTelevision.net.

BlogTelevision.net mines over three five million blogs daily to find videos for your entertainment. We find and highlight the videos that people are talking (read: blogging) about! Nothing is censored and we update numerous times each day so check back frequently.

Here are the both video's pages:
* Kandy piper Interview
* Tom Bates Address CrowdEmail This Post!

ASUC Outstanding Teacher Award: Darren Zook
An Ideal Last Lecture given by Professor Darren Zook: "My ignorant bliss: A lecture on things I don't know and probably never will"

Tuesday, April 26th, 7:30PM, Anderson Auditorium, Haas
Admission: Free

Professor Darren Zook will be honored with the ASUC Outstanding Teacher Award on Tuesday, April 26th, in Anderson Auditorium, at Haas. He will be delivering the first annual Ballonoff Memorial Lecture. This lecture is sub-titled, "An Ideal Last Lecture", that is if you had one last lecture to give, what would you choose to talk about?

Also, be sure to check out the details below on the brown bag event occurring tomorrow with the Dean of Boalt Law School.Email This Post!

SQUELCH! makes the New York Times
An article on visiting college campuses:

Parents are supposed to hang back and let their children ask the questions. My job was to keep notes that would let us sort through impressions at a later date. I tried to get the pulse of each place by reading the campus newspaper.

The picture on the front of the Berkeley paper showed three male students staging a vibrator race, sliding the bullet-shaped sex aids down a plywood incline.

[Link may require NYTimes login.] Also, the article is descibing last year's race, as this year the picture featured a male and a female. [Thanks CalStuff reader C.C.]Email This Post!

Physics Prof. Charlie Schwartz has released an initiative before the Academic Senate to look into the effects of private donations on the University. Namely, is the university becoming more private (and as the Contra Costa Times seems to assert more like Stanford)?

One person who supports further privatization is Boalt Dean Christopher Edley, who sites examples of Virginia's and Michigan's law schools improvements after going private (see One post). He'll be talking more about this at the Brown bag lunch tomorrow, April 26th at Noon to 1 PM in the Senate Chambers (1st floor Eschelman Hall). Email brownbag@asuc.org for more info.

Update: The initative was defeated in the academic senate. From Rocky Gade:

just so you know this initiative did not pass because faculty members thought it was poorly worded and presented in a flawed manner.

interesting concern brought up by one faculty member was that they were afraid that this committee creation would look to outsiders as the University is looking in privitization. When in fact, it is really just a committee to analyze the effects of going private versus not going private, etc.

Email This Post!

Update: The article seems to have disappered from ABC News. Weird.

Another Update: Google's cache saved a copy of the article. Take a look at Page 1 and Page 2. (Thanks Miles)

So I guess the blogosphere's interest in Professor Rine's laptop speech was enough for ABC News to do a story on it.

Due to the importance of this data, Rine says he has begun to bring down the wrath of federal agencies ranging from the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The professor "exaggerated" — as Bob Sanders, a university spokesman, politely put today — about having contacted the agencies and some of the methods being employed to track and nab this pilferer.

According to campus officials, the parties involved with the data aren't too concerned because the data in the e-mail on that machine can't be deciphered by most of us...And while the professor would appreciate the laptop back, Rine has all but resigned himself to the reality that the laptop is gone.

Previous Coverage
* Laptop Theft results in Webcast of a Pissed off Professor
* Text from the Pissed off Professor After His Laptop was Stolen
* Comic strip inspired by Prof. Rine's displayEmail This Post!

Le Chateau Troubles Continue
House Closing During Summer For Renovations... Maybe Longer

The Daily Cal is covering the continuing ramifications of Le Chateau's loss in court last month. The co-op will undergo extensive renovations during the summer and perhaps into the Fall 2005 semester. The details of the project show a shift towards grad student housing. While this is a lofty goal, the death of the old Le Chateau seems to be way too high a price to pay for it.Email This Post!

Good News / Bad News

Good news: UCLA has gotten itself a humor third party, the Bruin Liberation Movement. The SQUELCH! Party is cited as the guiding light for this party, so to speak. From the article:

---

The Bruin Liberation Movement, whose candidates turned heads at the campaign orientation meeting Tuesday in chicken suits and pumpkin costumes, said they intend to bring fun and spirit to the elections...

Despite their humorous antics, Campos stressed their concrete goals such as small-scale low-cost programming and unifying the student body.

Presidential candidate Jake Strom said the Bruin Liberation Movement supports erecting a ski lift to transport students from Sproul Hall to Bunche Hall, free kettle korn on Thursday afternoons, replacing Murphy Hall with the world's largest bounce house, and presenting the option for faculty members to be paid in arcade tokens...

UC Berkeley's Squelch Party, a joke slate loosely affiliated with a campus humor magazine, has been successful in recent years at having candidates elected to Berkeley's student senate.

"They typically don't really run to win – they run to bring some sort of humor or perspective to the campaign," said Misha Leybovich, president of the Associated Students of the University of California.

Elected Squelch Party members have tackled serious issues while serving on student government.

"The humor I think helps the association," Leybovich said.

---

So the movement is spreading! President Leybovich is wrong about one thing: you can run for fun and to win simultaneously.

Bad news: there's also a "Bruins United Party" down there too. They, however, don't seem to have the more marginally crazy element, so maybe it's not so bad.

(Hat tip to CalStuff reader PR)Email This Post!

Not exactly news, but it's always kind of surprsing where people link to Calstuff. Apparently, those videos I made of the ASFMCE Strike made it on to BlogTelevision.net.

BlogTelevision.net mines over three five million blogs daily to find videos for your entertainment. We find and highlight the videos that people are talking (read: blogging) about! Nothing is censored and we update numerous times each day so check back frequently.

Here are the both video's pages:
* Kandy piper Interview
* Tom Bates Address CrowdEmail This Post!

Pi Kapp Saga Continues - Three Members Expelled From Fraternity

The Daily Cal reported on Friday that the three members involved in the alleged hazing incident of April 8 have been expelled from the fraternity. In the absence of firm action from IFC (who chose to refer the case to its Judicial Committee on Wednesday) and news from the university regarding their investigation, it is good to see that some action is being taken on some front.

Regarding IFC, the Presidents' Council overwhelmingly rejected, by a 4-20-2 vote, a motion to suspend Pi Kapp and its officers until IFC's investigation was complete. This opens a massive opportunity for the university to intrude on the remnants of Greek autonomy. How can IFC claim to self-govern without enforcing its own rules and policies on hazing? Look for this decision to come back and haunt Greek leaders next semester.

We at CalStuff will also buy dinner at Henry's for the first person who can confirm the identities of the three who have been expelled for the incident. There's no reason that their names should continue to be hidden from the public.Email This Post!

Election Results Delayed... Again

A last-minute lawsuit was filed before the deadline last week against CalSERVE senate candidate Josie Alvarez for using ASUC resources in her campaigning Facebook group (check her picture). This suit was apparently filed by Andrew Quinio of Cal Patriot fame...

There had been some miscommunicaion between the 4th floor of Eshleman and the Judicial Council, but the suit did make it in on time, and the JCouncil will probably hear the case next week.

Election results were supposed to be released on Tuesday, but hopefully everything will be certified and ready to go by Friday, April 29.

(note: make sure you are logged onto the thefacebook before clicking the above link.)Email This Post!

Aaron Rodgers Packing Up

Aaron Rodgers has been drafted in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers (24th Overall Pick). Rodgers is the second QB picked in the draft, as Alex Smith of Utah was the #1 pick and went to the struggling 49ers. This begs the question: is Rodgers to be aging Brett Favre's replacement? Can he fill those shoes? The reality of the matter is that Rodgers is a perfect fit for the Green Bay passing system: he's strong in the pocket, has a great arm, and has pinpoint accuracy. With some improvement, Favre will have a strong replacement in a couple of years.

Look for J.J. Arrington to go in the third round of the draft to a team needing a LaDanian Tomlinson-esque back (Oakland, San Francisco, Arizona, Cincinnati).

Update: J.J. Arrington is picked up in the second round by the Arizona Cardinals. A great fit for him. We'll keep you updated as more Cal players get drafted.

Update: From Allen- WR Chase Lyman was selected in the 4th round by New Orleans along with S Matt Giordano who was drafted by Indianapolis. For more updates on which Cal players get drafted, check out ESPN.com's Drafttracker.Email This Post!

Both the Cal Patriot Blog and Res Ipsa Loquitur have coverage of an anti-military recruitment protest held yesterday being quickly met with a counter-protest by Berkeley College Republicans. Quite surprising that we don't have more of these, isn't it?

Patriot Blog provides a link to the liberal newspaper IndyBay's article while Res Ipsa links to BCR member Mike Taylor's account.Email This Post!

University Giving 30,000 Dollars to a 1,000 Point SAT Scorer?
The PatriotBlog noticed something that also struck me as odd. Here are the details from the Chron article:

Kenny Zepeda, 17, a Latino senior at Mission High School in San Francisco who moved from Guatemala just five years ago, was admitted to UC Berkeley and won a $30,000 annual scholarship from the campus. He had a 4.16 grade point average and a score of 1,000 (out of 1,600) on the SAT, he said.

Anyone know what scholarship this is? And why we are letting in people who score a 1,000 on the SAT? And why we are giving that scholarship to those people?Email This Post!

Yesterday, we posted the video with Prof. Rine's scary speech after his laptop was stolen.

Well some people have been inspired by this video footage for other endeavors, such as this comic strip:



Funny, but it's not quite the movie Mike Davis suggested.

(via Waxy)Email This Post!

She Lives!
The vote was 13-7, one shy of the 14 needed to impeach Judicial Council member Jessica Unterhalter.Email This Post!

Text from the Pissed off Professor After His Laptop was Stolen
Here is the transcript of the rant that we posted on previously. A sample:

You are in possession of proprietary data from a pre-public company planning an IPO. The Securities and Exchange Commission is very interested in this and I don't even know what branch of law enforcement they use.

Your academic career is about to come to an end. You are facing very serious charges, with a probability of very serious time. At this point, there's very little that anybody can do for you.

Email This Post!

We're Getting Our Impeachment On!
The trial is ongoing at the moment. It's been dragging on, and people are tired, Senators seem like they are getting more and more worn out, and EVP Lee just announced a ten minute recess because everyone needs a break.

The prosecution's case largely seemed to revolve around presenting evidence that JCouncil member Unterhalter did things that were "shady", but weren't actually a violation of any rules. Two examples: Unterhalter issued the emergency preliminary injunction that overturned Leybovich's EO without consulting Leybovich!!! (but according to the judicial rules of procedure, she doesn't have to) and secondly, Unterhalter called Elections Council Chair Brewer telling her to pull the referendums off the ballot before an injunction had been issued, but she is allowed to verbally issue that injunction before she writes it out.

P.S. We'll post the Senate's decision on the impeachment, as soon as it is available.Email This Post!

More Odds and Ends on the Pi Kappa Phi Hazing Incident
My more lengthy thoughts on "what this means for the Greek Community"/"what we should do now"/etc. will be posted over at "Frat"-life, which is the only premier website for news and views on the Greek Community here at Berkeley. [As a side note, I think blogs are so fucking amazing at facilitating discussion, disseminating information, provoking dialogue, and communicating to people in positions of power or authority. You should all get one.]

Some quick thoughts on the whole hazing mess.
1. Every single student I have heard from (some who claim to have some level of inside knowledge) say that the weapon involved was an air soft gun, while every newspaper report I recall seeing described it as a BB gun. Whichever it was, this was an unacceptable act of hazing, but those are two entirely different guns, and it would be useful if we could clarify which it actually was.

2. Tonight is the IFC meeting where this incident will be discussed, and I have heard people saying that they think nothing will happen to the chapter or the two IFC officers from Pi Kapp (the President and VP of Risk Management), while others think that the officers should be impeached and the chapter suspended or expelled from IFC. My guess about what will happen, and my own feeling about the best way to resolve this, is much closer to the latter than the former.

3. The school has seemed remarkably laid back about this whole thing. My guess would have been that they would have been leading the charge over something like this, pitchforks unsheathed. Potentially, the school's interest in preventing bad publicity over this incident has led them to do their best to minimize the perceived severity of the incident (as a lax response would communicate).

More to come later...Email This Post!

If you were in Biology 1A on Friday, April 15th, you saw Professor Jasper Rine make a scary speech about the theft of his laptop by a student, marking another episode of computer theft at Berkeley. The class is webcast so you can watch the speech (scroll to about 48:50) even if you're not in the class (or at Berkeley for that mattter).

The video is making it's rounds in parts of the blogosphere starting with UCB Livejournal and working it's way to Boing Boing, to which the editor says "Hell, I'm 500 miles away from Berkeley and I'm scared after watching this." Digital Detritus poses some interesting questions about the aftermath:

* Since it is now public knowledge that the laptop was stolen what will this do to the professors reputation?
* Now that some information about the professors research is public what will that do to the research and those involved?
* Why was this only copy of the data? And what will that being public do to the pre-IPO company that he mentions?

Meanwhile, we're also left wondering about the outcome of the student involved. Did he return the laptop? What will be the consequences of this for him? Finally, did he honestly think he could steal a test from a laptop and not get in serious trouble?

Update: Boing Boing has it now on Quicktime (via Bittorent) and an MP3 (with only the speech).

Another Update: Fark.com posted a link to the video as well. In their forums, one of the GSIs replies with some details on the incident.

Just a couple quick points:
-he [the professor] didn't really leave his computer out- he turned around to erase the chalkboard, and that's when it was taken.

-there's a few eye witnessed from the class that came in afterwards

-they have some video footage (albeit poor) that was cut-out of the webcast the day it was taken (since it wasn't part of the lecture).

-the test wasn't even on the computer (they would have re-written it if it was).

And just a few thoughts from me.
-He's not lying about the possibilites, but how much he's exagerating is definately in question.

-if a student has to steal a computer to try to get a test for an introductory biology test, he's probably not going very far in life anyway.Email This Post!

Jewish Bone Marrow Registry Screening at Berkeley
Who: AEPi, working with the Gift of Life Foundation and the Jewish Student Union.

What: A screening to add more Jewish donors to the nationwide bone marrow registry. At the time of the screening, a participant would fill out paperwork, answer questions about their health history, and swab the inside of their cheek with a Q-tip to gather some cells that would be used to type their bone marrow. There is no blood or needles involved, although people wishing to participate should be willing to donate bone marrow or have stem cells harvested from their blood in the future if they turn out to be a life-saving match for someone.

Where: Hillel, located on Bancroft right below Piedmont, across from Boalt Hall.

When: Wednesday, April 27th, from 11 to 5. People wishing to participate can schedule an appointment by e-mail calratto@berkeley.edu or drop in next Wednesday. Participants should be prepared to spend up to an hour, depending on how busy it is (although it will almost certainly take less time).

Why: Jews suffering from diseases like leukemia who are need of a bone marrow transplant have had a much more difficult time finding a suitable match. The Holocaust severed many bloodlines and left many Jews without a large base of relatives to rely on, the best people to turn to when in need of a bone marrow transplant. To overcome the difficulty faced by Jews facing life-threatening diseases, Gift of Life has been sponsoring bone marrow drives in order to get more Jews signed up on the registry. Gift of Life cooperates with other national registries when someone is in need of a donor, but they specifically try to get more Jews to become donors because of the historical difficulty that Jews have faced in finding a match, and because with the expenses involved with screening someone, they are only able to target a limited population.

Anyone seeking more information, please see the Gift of Life website, or e-mail me with any questions you may have. If you would life to schedule a time to join the registry, please send an e-mail with the time on Wednesday you would like to stop by, and a phone number that you can be reached at.

A very heartfelt thank you to everyone who particpates in this, or passes on word to some Jewish friends.Email This Post!

Statewide Day of Action on Education Tomorrow
I happened across a facebook advertisement earlier today that had the following information:

STATEWIDE DAY OF ACTION
Defend Education March & Freedom School
April 20 11AM Begin @ People's Park & March to Campus
STUDENTS DEMAND ACCESS, AFFORDABILITY AND QUALITY!

I couldn't find much more information on google aside from this press release describing the efforts that will be taking place at UC Santa Cruz:

Students all over California are walking out of class, marching and participating in direct action on April 20th, a day of action to tell Schwarzenegger and his puppets in the UC administration that we will continue to build our resistance until our demands are met!
- No more budget cuts/fee hikes in Higher ed!
- fully fund Prop 98 (funding for K-14)!
- More aid to all college and university students!

Sounds good to me! I'll be at work tomorrow until around 2, so I guess I'll miss the fun, but I'm sure some of the Berkeley bloggers will have a report.Email This Post!

For Today's Episode of "Oh, That's Why..."

... check out this article from the Harvard Crimson to explain, "Oh, That's Why UC Berkeley Doesn't Throw Foam Parties."

My Choice Quote: "'We don’t like that people got a rash,' he said. 'We’ll work to prevent it next year.'"Email This Post!

Impeachment of JCouncil Member Unterhalter Tomorrow
The Senate is planning on holding the impeachment trial of Jessice Unterhalter at their meeting on Wednesday. As of yet, I have seen no evidence warranting her impeachment, and a lot of evidence that this is motivated by reasons other than the belief that she violated any rules in an egregious enough fashion to be impeached.

That being said, this is a very serious issue, not only because it relates to a single person's position, but because it goes to the heart of the balance of power in the ASUC, and whether or not we can have a free and fair Judicial Council able to check the actions of the executive and legislative branches. Senators who do not treat the proceedings with the weight that they deserve should be publicly shamed.

And although it is impossible to ascertain an individual's reason for voting the way that they do, one thing I expect of every member who votes in the impeachment is that they have read the statement released by Unterhalter explaining her actions. Therefore, any Senator who takes part in the impeachment and shows a flagrant disregard for Unterhalter's statement on this matter, or a fundamental lack of understanding about the Judicial Rules of Procedure and the other governing documents is tremendously irresponsible, and undeserving of being a senator. I plan on calling any guilty parties an idiot on CalStuff, so those who don't have the time or interest in attending the hearing will be sure to know who the guilty parties are, and depending on how severe their ignorance is, I may have to call their party idiots as well, and possibly the voters who voted for them, too. I hope this impeachment is handled well, and that the Senators show this proceeding the respect that it deserves.Email This Post!

Note To Daily Cal: Turn Down The Suck

Given, we haven't done this in a while, and Beetle is better at it than we are, but today's edition of the Daily Cal is Horrible (that's right, with a capital "h"). I would not be fulfilling my duty to all of you if I failed to rip on their excessive mediocrity.

The huge marijuana bust, the only thing remotely interesting or new in the paper, isn't even on the front page. It combines city law, federalism issues, and forty pounds of marijuana - how much better can it get? But the article reads like a boring police report... as opposed to a regular police report. Where are all the cool pictures, like from last semester's drug bust? A visible lack of effort.

This is the worst Sex on Tuesday by Sari all year. "Best Pop Quiz Ever" = cheapest cop out ever. Additionally, it looks like one of those stupid chain letter quizzes that clog your email account because your lame friends send them out when they get bored in class. Besides, if I wanted to take more tests, I would drop my political science major. Give me an essay prompt next time.

Speaking of the opinion page, last time I checked, a political cartoon is supposed to be a little subtle - that way, you actually think about it. In this cartoon, Jessica Rifkind decides to use a sledgehammer to get her point across, then takes a laser engraver to tattoo the mark onto your mind. Not entertaining, not thought-provoking, not acceptable.

On to the actual editorials... the "Outside the Budget Box" piece gets the "No Shit Award" for claiming that the ASUC budgeting process is uber-competitive, biased, and handled improperly. You'd think the paper hadn't been around since 1871. Got any better ideas? Send them this way.

Additionally, the Greek-bashing piece was expected (and somewhat deserved), but shows the complete lack of comprehension that the Daily Cal Editorial Staff has of the Greek system here. IFC meets on Wednesday nights to take action, which means that on Tuesday, it should be no shock that action has not been formally approved yet. My discussion with chapter leaders suggests that active discussions are being fostered to propose solutions for the problem. Additionally, there are police and university investigations ongoing - surely, IFC will follow. Finally, singling out Lauren Karasek's comments for sorority silence to the media is ludicrous. Not only did her actions slow the vicious rumor mills that distorted the facts of the incident, but the equation of media silence = inaction is just stupid. I would have loved to see the Daily Cal try to justify quoting a sorority member on the facts of the Pi Kapp incident.

Speaking of justification, I guess I can't blame the Daily Cal for their "Letters To The Editors", but those were kind of lame as well.Email This Post!

Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s!!!
Tuesday, April 19 from 12-8 PM.

The store is conveniently located next to campus:
2128 Oxford Street
Berkeley, CA 94709

(via Cal Patroit Blog)Email This Post!

What: Relay for Life
Who: American Cancer Society
When: Saturday, April 23 from 10 AM to Sunday, April 24 at 10 AM
Why: Because you like helping a good cause
How: Participate or Donate (preferably to me)Email This Post!

No Press Is Bad Press...

... and I'm not complaining, but how did Calstuff get linked on thinkRED2008?

Interestingly enough, we get linked on a lot of different sites from time to time, so we've gotten some interesting referrers before. Quick question: who here links to us on their website? I've always been curious as to where/how new readers hear about us.Email This Post!

Monday Morning Questions: Where to go?
I haven't been doing this in a while, but it's a quick and easy post, and I'm curious about the answer to the question. Seeing all the people up here for CalDay, I considered briefly whether or now I would hesitate in telling someone to come to Berkeley, and whether or not I regretted coming here instead of another school (my other choices were mostly other UC's). I came to the conclusion that any minor regrets are vastly outweighed by how great an experience Berkeley has been.

What about all of you? Anyone wish they had gone to another school? Anyone warning freshman to stay the hell away from here?Email This Post!

Fellating Cal Rugby

Earlier this afternoon, in their last home game of the year, Cal Rugby destroyed the Tennesee Volunteers by a score of 65-3. Additionally, if any of you missed the SIOC article on the team and its extremely successful past, it is online.Email This Post!

Verdict From EBE: We Love SQUELCH!

The East Bay Express has run a piece featuring its top six candidate statements from the recent ASUC election. Props to having 5 of 6 being SQUELCH!ers.Email This Post!

Talk Is Cheap, And The Acronym Still Stinks

This Daily Cal editorial tries to reconcile an attempt to lead a research project on technology security with the not one, but two massive identity thefts on this campus within the last six months. The Daily Cal says that upon further examination, the irony is not quite as overwhelming. Here are the CalStuff facts:

While UC Berkeley isn't the only school to have information management issues, is it really the best of the UCs? I certainly hope not... I applied to half of the other schools in the system, and they'll probably keep that information until I go onto Social Security.

The budget for the project is $19 million. Have the researchers tried installing "locks" on the doors to the computer storage areas?

This project, of course, is not solely focused on security. It also is aiming to increase technolgical knowledge levels among minorities and women and investigate "cyber culture". How is this project going to accomplish all three of its goals on such a relatively small budget?

Ultimately, the only glimmer of hope is that all this press might just motivate the UC Berkeley administrators to get up and do something about developing an appropriate IT infrastructure for the 21st century. I'll believe that when I see it.

CalStuff verdict: the irony is still ripe and full of humor.Email This Post!

The national office of Pi Kappa Phi has suspended chapter activities for their Berkeley chapter over an alleged hazing incident that happened last weekend.

Apparently the victim "was shot at least 30 times in the chest and arms with a BB gun". He was then taken to a local hospital and a nurse called the BPD. No information has been released yet regarding the victim.

Choice Quote: "Essentially, they are just a boarding house right now," said Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity Chief Executive Officer Mark E. Timmes from headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. "They can have their meetings, but nothing in terms of any social activities."

Their suspension is pending the completion of a police investigation.

Some Analysis: Well they haven't said yet whether the guy who got shot was a member of the fraternity, pledge, etc... But if the national organization is willing to suspend their chapter over the incident then you can imagine its pretty bad. This is the second time Pi Kap has been in the news this week. Their other news mention involved a fight between a Pi Kap member and his friends versus members from another fraternity.

The University will almost certainly crack down very harshly. It is definitly not a good time to be a Pi Kap...Email This Post!

ASUC Budgeting Season

So, the Daily Cal has finally caught on to the living hell that has been budgeting this year. Discretionary funds have dropped from $1.7 million to $1.5 million, leading to massive cuts for several groups. A few thoughts:

- SUPERB's complaining in the Daily Cal article is ridiculous. This "group" is receiving a $30k cut, but of only 18% of the budget - on the low scale of things this year. Additionally, this is a group that proposed to give out $30k in stipends alone for the 2005-06 school year, has lost money on several shows and spent extravagant amounts on others. (Note: the Cook show apparently reached a total cost of $80,000.) They should be cut more, and resources given to student groups that can put on SUPERB's projects cheaper and more efficiently.

- Despite the budget shortfall, some executive office budgets have increased, and government line-items consume a greater percentage of ASUC finances than last year.

- Publications have received a massive cut this year... again. At their current level, many publications WILL FOLD this year. There is no reason that such an important aspect of our campus community should receive less than 3% of the budget.

This budget is nowhere near complete, and I urge you all to make your voices heard on these issues.

ASUCBudget200506.pdfEmail This Post!

More on the Protest
1. I made an online slideshow with about 80 photos from the strike yesterday. You can view the slideshow, or see the collection of individual photos. (The black and white photos were taken by Jesse Arreguin.)

2. The PatriotBlog catches a UC spokesman calling the strike illegal, at the same time that Birgeneau offered his support by wearing a button in support of the strike.

3. The Daily Cal has an article on the strike, although it doesn't contain any resonably shocking or surprising information. The LATimes has a story that covers the strike at all of the UC's, and it includes this interesting information, "Campus officials said that many union workers crossed picket lines, and that managers filled in for striking employees. Professors sympathetic to the walkout canceled no more than a few classes, officials said." Not sure if I believe that or not.

4. The newscenter link that Allen provided earlier has statements from the UC Office of the President, Berkeley, and AFSCME.

I'll have more comments later on the effectiveness of the strike, suggestions on where money might come from for higher wages for these workers (it was sad hearing them call for higher fees), and the role of the Palestinian folk in the protest. For now, here are some of my favorite photos from the strike photos I took yesterday (click for large view):

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In case you missed it (I know I did), rhetoric Professor Daniel Melia won his second round match yesterday in the Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions. According to TvGameshows.net, Melia dominated in a "Ken Jennings [like] performance," winning $37,600, bringing his total winning from tournament to $57,201. He will be competing once again sometime in May.

(Thanks to Calstuff reader Miles for the catch)

Calstuff previously covered his first round appearance in February.Email This Post!

Following up our last post, here are some pictures of the strike outside of campus at around 5 PM.



Both Mayor Tom Bates and chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who are both at odds over development and tax issues (see this Calstuff post), showed their support of the union. I managed to get video (MPEG, 1.22 Mbs) of Bates speaking to the protestors.

I also interviewed Kandy Piper, a service worker at Albany Village. Here's her account (WMV, 256kbs) of what happened early today.

More pictures and coverage can be found at Calstuff extended and on Newscenter.Email This Post!

STRIKE!!!!!eleven!!!1!
I haven't left the house yet today, but allegedly the workers are getting their strike on around campus. I'll be heading out to campus right about nowish to take some photos, but feel free to leave comments if you saw anything interesting today (and especially, leave comments of what the workers have been chanting).

Someone downstairs was saying over and over again "UC, You're no good, get out of our neighboorhood," but striking workers couldn't have actually been saying that, right?Email This Post!

Shit Going Down in the Greek Community (SJA vs. Judicial Committee, Phi Tau vs. Pi Kapp, IFC vs. the University, plus a new Greek Social Code in the Works)
1. Judicial Committee is a body of the Intra-Fraternity Council responsible for enforcing the rules of the Greek Social Code. Recently, the Judicial Committee has been punishing Greek houses, and then those same houses have been brought in front of OSL's Student Judicial Affairs, and prosecuted again for the same offense based on it also being a violation of the Student Code of Conduct. Due to this apparent double jeopardy, the Judicial Committee voted overwhelmingly to stop hearing cases until an agreement with SJA is reached to prevent cases from being heard twice, a member of JCommittee told me. That meeting, with Neal Rajmara, the head of SJA, is planned for Thursday. Also, the chair of the Judicial Committee is currently facing impeachment charges on Thursday. The chair informed me this was due to a misunderstanding he had with a member of IFC.

2. There was a recent fight involving members of Phi Tau and Pi Kapp that ended up with partipipants receiving minor injuries such as stiches or a broken nose. *Update* Someone in comments claims that it was only a single member of Pi Kappa Phi, involved in the altercation.** A member of Phi Tau was arrested for a violation of Penal Code Section 243(d), battery that leads to serious bodily injury. The arrest report is the fifth one listed in this PDF report of police citations.

3. IFC is currently trying to rewrite the Greek Social Code, in order to come up with regulations to govern the Greek Community so that there will be some chance Greek houses can actually follow the rules (as opposed to the present situation, where holding legal parties is cost prohibitive). I will have more information on that proposal after the meeting tonight, where it will be discussed. At the moment, my previous concern about a major showdown between the University and Greeks seems likely to occur, and members of Fraternities at Berkeley have continually acted in an irresponsible manner, helping to bring about this crackdown. That being said, I still think the University has been acting in an overly punitive manner, and ignored constructive ways to manage alcohol in the Greek Community.

P.S. I know this post is long... just pretend it's three separate, posts instead of one. Also, expect more information about these three stories in the coming days. Finally, I think that there is a distinct lack of transparency and information about the Greek Community available to its members. I think blogs are a powerful way to facilitate discussion and help get out information to interested community members. Regarding that, I will begin posting over at Frat Life within the week, as we engage in a discussion of these and other issues, targeted at bringing about positive improvements in the Greek Community.Email This Post!

Day of Silence (Talking is So Heterosexual)
Today is the national Day of Silence, a day that is "a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in collaboration with the United States Student Association (USSA), is a student-led day of action where those who support making anti-LGBT bias unacceptable in schools take a day-long vow of silence to recognize and protest the discrimination and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT students and their allies."

I don't actually know anyone who is going to be participating this year, and as far as I can tell, publicity at Berkeley has been almost non-existent, but if you see anyone who isn't speaking or has tape over their mouth, this is probably the reason. More info at the link above.Email This Post!

Tenants’ Rights Week [Guest Post by Jason Overman]
[Note from Andy: Jason Overman is a sophomore at Berkeley and became the youngest city elected official in Berkeley’s history this past November when he was elected to the Rent Stabilization Board. He ran on a platform of protecting tenants rights, pledging to fight for affordable and habitable housing for students, low-income community members, seniors, and disabled tenants in Berkeley.]

One of the most dreaded times of the year-apartment hunting season-is upon us. For many students, this is the biggest hassle of college life: spending hours on end searching craigslist and going from building to building in search of an affordable apartment that is also habitable and reasonably close to campus.

And so, Tenants’ Rights Week could not have come at a better time.

The landlord lobby has spent a lot of time trying to convince people the market has “softened,” and that housing has become affordable in Berkeley.

They can tell us how affordable housing has become, but as the group seeking out the housing that is in highest demand, we know that affordable, habitable, and close rarely appear in the same sentence.

And we all face the same issues—how to find something that is affordable; how to find something that is habitable; how to handle that security deposit that my landlord won’t return; what to do when my landlord tries to increase my rent; what to do when my roommate leaves and my landlord won’t let me find a new one to cover half the rent.

But the beauty of Berkeley is that while prices might be outrageous, we have rights as tenants—and when we have a good grasp of what they are, we’re in control. You have the right to:

• Earn interest on the security deposit your landlord is holding
• Not be evicted without a substantiated, “good cause”—and there are only 12 legal justifications by which you can be evicted
• A stable rent that will not change as long as you live there, except for an annual cost-of-living increase
• Safe and habitable conditions, and a rent reduction if your landlord is unresponsive to your request to fix problems

Many of us are first- or second-time renters, but we don’t have to be vulnerable and powerless if we know our rights and use them to assert ourselves when landlords try to evict us, raise our rents arbitrarily, fail to return security deposits or the interest earned on them, or fail to fix habitability issues that negatively affect our living experience.

Just as important as knowing our rights is knowing what resources are available to us when a situation becomes unclear. The City of Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board has full-time housing counselors that can answer any question that you could think of—and who can help you assert your rights when you’ve been wronged, including guiding you in filing a petition against an unresponsive landlord with the Rent Board.

So this week, in honor of our frustrating and stressful apartment-hunting experience, is Tenants’ Rights Week, hosted by the Rent Board, the ASUC Office of External Affairs, and Renters’ Legal Assistance. Stop by our tent on Sproul Plaza with any questions you may have between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

We may only have a cool tent two weeks a year, but you still have rights the other 50. So whether you go on the Rent Board’s website, our office (2125 Milvia St.), call a housing counselor (510-644-6128), or stop by Renter’s Legal Assistance on the third floor of Eshleman—arm yourself with the knowledge you need to take control of your apartment search.Email This Post!

The American Cancer Society is putting on Relay for Life at UC Berkeley on Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24th at Edwards Stadium. Relay for Life is a race to raise money and awareness about cancer. It's a fun event, so if you can sign up.

I'll be participating, so if you want to sponsor me, click here. If you do, I'll post your name like Kevin did last year.Email This Post!

Narodick v. Senate Dismissed

The Judicial Council has gone back on its previous decision and dismissed Narodick v. Senate. The decision is a result of efforts by senators to "elaborate" on their charge against Assistant Chair Unterhalter... that "elaboration" has increased the number of charges from one to five.

It's unfortunate that the Judicial Council has to worry about shortsighted politics with Senators looking to make an example of people who get in the way of their own agendas. Even more unfortunate is the fact that their decisions are very vulnerable to political pressure, but that is nothing new.

The date of the hearing is up in the air, but it will either be this Wednesday or the next. Hopefully this won't become a lynch mob, but I will be bringing ropes and torches if the situation arises.

EDIT: By request, here are the charges:

JRP 1.1: Failing to Properly Execute the Duties of the Judicial Rules of Procedure
JRP 1.2: Failing to Adhere to the Spirit of Equal Protection in the Judicial Rules of Procedure
JRP 3.3: Failing to Recuse Herself When Having A Conflict Of Interest
JRP 3.8: Failing to Properly Execute a Preliminary Injunction
Title XXI, Section 2.2: Illegally Campaigning While A Member of the Council

My take is that each one of these charges is a giant stretch at best and a poor excuse at worst, but we'll see how the Senate deals with the situation.Email This Post!

Tsunami Relief Coalition Finally Makes Donation
A press release from the folks behind the Tsunami Relief Efforts:

HISTORIC COALITION DONATES $10,284.46 TO TSUNAMI RELIEF
BERKELEY, CA, MARCH 28, 2005: The Tsunami Relief Coalition (TRC), an historic corroboration of over 40 student groups on the Berkeley campus, donated the fruits of their Tsunami Relief Week efforts to UNICEF earmarked for Tsunami Relief. The coalition sent a check for $9,074.46 to UNICEF to be joined by $1,210.00 donation that the coalition had already forwarded to the University of Illinois.

Efforts to continue to raise funds are expected to continue as a benefit concert is still in the works. [CalStuff note: I've been told plans for the benefit concert have in fact been canceled.] Additionally, some conversation has arisen around reconvening the coalition each year until the massive devastation in the effected areas is repaired, an effort that could go on for ten years or more.

My first question is, does anyone know the total cost that went into the Tsunami Relief Coalition's efforts? What was the total for flyers, food, supplies, renting space, and any other expenses? My initial reaction to the TRC was to be wary of trying to do something like this, because the ASUC, by its very nature is a large, cumbersome, beaurocractic, slow-moving, often-times ineffectual organization. Now that isn't always a bad thing, but it just made me think that the ASUC might not be well suited to take a lead role in organizing Tsunami relief efforts, but I guess $10,000 dollars raised over the course of a week isn't that bad.Email This Post!

EAP Voting Update

After all the hubbub revolving around EAP voting, logistics have gotten in the way of this voting outreach program.

Communications between President Leybovich, EC Chair Brewer, and EAP administrators failed to yield the SID numbers needed to follow through with Executive Order 6, failing the security requirements needed to complete the program. Additionally, the new voting method was never publicized to EAP students, meaning that turnout will be limited to the couple of EAP students who read CalStuff and felt motivated to find a ballot.

It's too late to file another injunction at this point, but hopefully the ASUC finds a way to make some sort of system work for next year.Email This Post!

Berkeley's Retention Rates - How Good Are We?

So, I've been critical for a while of Berkeley's Recruitment and Retention Centers, simply because I've always seen there to ostensibly be much more emphasis on the former than on the latter. Personally, I feel that the retention should be much more emphasized, especially when considering the drop-out rates on this campus.

That being said, this Washington Post article claims that UC Berkeley is "number one in its peer group" with a 85.4 percent graduation rate. Closer look at the actual numbers shows a great disparity between Under-Represented Minorities and the campus average - only 75% of URMs graduate within six years on this campus. In fact, Native Americans bottom out the scale at 54.2%

Honestly, I understand that there are other variables involved in this process, including rising student fees - but it is obvious that more focus must be put on retention than recruitment at this point in the game.

Interestingly, the same numbers show women having higher retention rates than men on this campus. This doesn't surprise me too much, since I guess we get into more shenanigans than the other sex.Email This Post!

Debate Team Victories
Wins Best Overall Season Performance Award

During the ASUC Elections, even important stories sometimes fall through the cracks. However, the Cal Debate Team has been overlooked for quite a while, even during non-election season.

This Daily Cal article really doesn’t do justice to a group that has been working hard for years on this campus, but has received attention only through the budget cuts it has been hammered with. This is unfortunate, and we here at CalStuff congratulate the Cal Debate Team on their numerous victories this year.Email This Post!

Indians Take Their Complaining to the Pages of the Daily Cal
The Angry Indians vs. SQUELCH! Party saga continues... I figured that after elections were over the Indian community here at Berkeley would have something more pressing to worry about than a silly little campaign poster, but I guess I was wrong. (I speak of the community as a whole, because I was talking to people in Indus about this on Thursday, and they said they had got word about the posters, and AAVP Rocky Gade called the Daily Cal last week to complain about the poster, so this column is merely one part of a larger response.) Here is an excerpt from the Daily Cal column, published today:

People passed out multi-colored handbills and glossy-print fliers urging every student that happened to walk by to vote some number for some position. But amid all the blue-and-white and green-and-black literature from the major parties was a collection of fliers from the SQUELCH! Party that began “Ghandi (sic) fucked your mom … ”

When I first saw the flier, I was irked, even slightly appalled. I suspect that this aspect of the SQUELCH! campaign strategy might not have been as effective as they might have hoped. As I stepped out of the fliering zone, I threw the stack of handbills I had collected into the recycling bin and made sure not to cast a single SQUELCH! Party vote.

Since I am not a SQUELCH! Party signatory, chair, or spokesman, I have no comments at this time, although I'm sure the SQUELCH! party will have a response to the charges in this column. Beetle has read through the column and offered some responses.... here is an excerpt (a quotation, and his response):

In contrast, Andy Ratto said on the Web log Calstuff, that "if the Indian Community think (sic) they can get some type of apology, I wish them good luck ..." The SQUELCH! Party couples their offensiveness with arrogance.

Arrogance is thinking that just because you were offended, the offending party must offer an apology, even though the reason you were offended is because you are easily offended.

P.S. I love that the way the Daily Cal got around to mentioning CalStuff was in a hit piece at the SQUELCH! Party.Email This Post!

It is that time of year again when people are starting to look for new places to live (mostly the freshman leaving the dorms). Craig's List is great, but it's a little plain. So someone put together a website that takes Craig's list classified listings and puts them all of the locations onto a Google Map. So now you can really see if that apartment really is "close to campus" as the ad says.

Shame there's no link to the Satellite Map, though.

*Update: My colleague Andy suggested I post an image to better illustrate the usefulness of this tool.


(via Waxy)Email This Post!

The Cal Patriot Blog is testing out what it calls "CSPAN for college" by making a video (Realplayer, 72.4 Mbs) of last Wednesday's (April 6th) ASUC Senate meeting. Very cool idea guys.Email This Post!

Anything Interesting Happen Lately?
The Narodick and I have been off communing with Nature, out of touch of the internets for the last 48 hours or so, but now we're back and so posting should recommence later tonight or Monday morning. We'll do our best to get you up to speed on our lawsuits (his against the Senate for their impeachment of Justice Unterhalter, me against the Judicial Council for accepting Ben's lawsuit in violation of the restrictions the Constitution places on their jurisdiction). We'll also do a round up of all the other suits filed against candidates and/or parties for violations of the bylaws. (Nathan Royer has been a busy little Attorney General, and candidates are about to feel his wrath.)

I ditched the candidate clean-up, but I don't feel bad because I never posted a single flyer or distributed a single piece of literature promoting my candidacy. My main method of campaigning was to send a facebook message to everyone in Jason Dixson's AAVP facebook group telling all of those people to vote for me instead.

CalStuff will be shifting out of ASUC mode back into general Berkeley coverage, so if anyone has any links to stories that have happened recently or tips about events to cover, feel free to leave a comment as we get back up to speed on what's been going on 'round here.
Peace.Email This Post!

Harrassed Anti-ASUC Students; Saturday the Tables Will Turn
I've heard from plenty of students who don't appreciate the constant flyering/chalking and pestering candidates that accompanies election season (with the exception of SQUELCH!, which brought nothing but hilarity and good will to students across the entire campus, except for the Indians, of course). And if any of you election haters feel like being vindictive, then this event will be an excellent opportunity. (I, of course, could not condone shredding some of the ubiquitous campaign flyers and tossing the confetti in front of ASUC candidates as they wander about the campus picking up their detritus) :

Per the ASUC Election Bylaws, the mandatory election clean-up day is this Saturday, April 9th.

Failure to participate will result in one indidual candidate censure. The crew will be meeting at the north side of Eshleman Hall (adjacent to Lower Sproul) at 9:30am. If you cannot be there, you may avoid receiving a censure by sending a "proxy" to clean-up in your place. The Elections Council will hand out trash bags, assign teams and locations, and wait for you to return with the trash. A proxy may complete clean up duties for more than one candidate; he or she will simply need to complete one assignment per candidate.

I'm totally going to be there doing my part to help clean up all the ASUC election crap.
(Anyone actually believe that...?)Email This Post!

Grad Turn-Out Down Over Referendum Being Pulled from Ballot?
I've heard from some people that e-mails went out the first Tuesday of voting informing Grad students that the autonomy referendum had been pulled from the ballot. In response, I heard that Grad voting levels were way down, and when Grad students heard their referendum had been pulled by a last second injunction they didn't vote out of protest. I was wondering if our Grad student CalStuff readers have any information on this. Did any of you receive any e-mails aboutt the election... and do any of you have any idea what turnout was like this year? [The obvious implication of this is that Grad students tend to be CalSERVE voters, and seriously depressed turnout could be bad news for CS.]Email This Post!

Davis Wins Suit Against the GA Referendum, Language Ruled Illegal
Justice Unterhalter's last minute decision to overturn President Misha's Executive Order was vindicated, as the Judicial Council agreed with Mike Davis that the ballot question was improperly worded. Any impeachment attempt directed at her is now silly, and obviously based more on vindictive spite than the merits of her actions.

If graduate students (and others) are angry that she kept the referendum off the ballot, they must now reckon with the fact that even if it had been voted on, it would have been ruled illegal by the Council anyway, if it passed. In true statesmanlike form, Judicial Council Chair Bobby Gregg took responsibility for the actions of the Council at Wednesday's Senate meeting, and all but invited angry people to try to impeach him instead of going after junior members of the Council.

Between Ben's suit, this ruling on the GA referendum, and the end of elections and hence lack of pressure on Student Action to engage in craven political stunts or get bullied (hard to say which they were up to on Wednesday, or which would have been worse), expect this impeachment attempt to be dead.

Here is the explanation from the majority opinion of why they ruled the GA referendum illegal:

It was agreed upon by all participating parties, that this referendum is not intending to grant the Graduate Assembly complete autonomy. Thus, the alternative understanding is that we are dealing with degrees of autonomy... However, when dealing with the word recognized, it is our opinion that the question that stands is inaccurate and partial, as it implies that at the present moment degrees of autonomy are not recognized. In actuality, the Graduate Assembly’s autonomy is recognized by the Constitution, in Article V, Section 1 and 2... By inaccurately implying that there is not current recognition, voters could be potentially swayed and influenced to vote a certain way, hoping to grant recognition to the Graduate Assembly, when in fact, recognition already exists.

Secondly, the referendum question in its present form implies that the current “functional autonomy,” as defined above, is the same autonomy that will be formalized with the passing of the referendum. However, when looking at the proposed Constitutional amendments, it becomes apparent that the “formalized autonomy”’ sought would change the nature of the Graduate Assembly autonomy in a manner not necessarily expressed in the ballot question... Therefore, in order for the question on the ballot to comply with Bylaw 4.10.3 it must incorporate and communicate that the constitutional amendments sought would increase autonomy beyond its preexisting form.

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Impeachment Injunction-ated! (JCouncil Calls Up the Second Judicial Council)
When SQUELCH! Senator and "Voice of Reason" Ben Narodick filed his intial suit against the Senate for what he felt was an illegal move to impeach Jessica Unterhalter, BAD said: " The balance of powers whines are going to fly when the Judicial Council orders an in junction on the senate trying to impeach a Judicial Council member for overruling an executive order that overrode a Judicial Council order. "

The Judicial Council, being a major source of conflict in recent days, happily obliged and has halted the impeachment attempt against Unterhalter. I'll upload the actual injunction later. [For the now hideously outdated take on this, the Daily Cal has an aticle up about the initial impeachment of Unterhalter by the Senate.]

So the Judicial Council decided that Ben's suit had enough merit to procede, but since a member of the Judicial Council was a party to the suit, obviously it would be a massive conflict of interest for the JCouncil to hear the suit. So they have turned to plan B, which is called the "Emergency Second Court". I have no idea how exactly this trial works, or even how they pick the people for this court, but I assume that there will be information over the weekend from Attorney General Mike Davis and/or JCouncil Chair Gregg on what the hell is going on.

And as a disclosure, I think Ben's suit is almost entirely without merit, except considering that his suit is based around rather convoluted interpretations of how the bylaws and Constitution contradict each other, I have approximately zero confidence that a bunch of newbies unversed in ASUC ins and outs will be able to figure this out. This election long ago jumped the shark, and has been hovering somewhere between farce and tragedy for some time now. Expect more suits before this all gets sorted out.

P.S. When do I sleep? :-)Email This Post!

Charges Filed Against ASUC Senate
Senator Narodick Tries to Improve 0-1-1 Record

Whatever your position is on this year's referenda and their delayed balloting, the impeachment procedures against Associate Jessica Unterhalter have gone through a very flawed process. As a result, I have filed a charge sheet for a restraining order against the Senate, halting any impeachment trials until a specific charge and evidence is presented. As many of our readers may be interested in the result of this, I will keep you all posted as to scheduling.

charge%20sheet%20040805.docEmail This Post!

IMPEACHMENT! Senate Begins Impeachment On Judicial Council Member
Ten members of the Senate signed on to begin impeachment proceedings against JCouncil member Jessica Unterhalter. That means they will attempt to have the actual hearing at next week's Senate meeting.

A contingent of grad students showed up to the Senate meeting tonight, and were pissed off. They railed against due process violations, claimed the Judicial Council abused its power, and in a remarkable showing of bipartisan unity, Student Action and CalSERVE came together to support this impeachment effort. (SQUELCH! Senator Narodick, oftentime the lone voice of reason, opposed this effort, most obviously because no specific charges were mentioned, and no justification was given as to what Unterhalter did that warranted the impeachment proceeding.)

My guess is that anger over this dissipates over time, and the Senate realizes the horrible precedent it would set to remove a justice for making a decision they disagreed with. [If there is more to the impeachment than what was brought up at the meeting (general discontent over Unterhalter's last minute decision to prevent Misha's EO from taking effect), then I will reevaluate my tentative support to keeping Unterhalter on the council.]Email This Post!

Professors Unhappy with Wireless Laptops in Class
Some professors are concerned that students are checking their e-mail and otherwise goofing on in class instead of taking notes, reporteth the Daily Cal. Students protest that they are just multitasking, and one professor says that wireless is great because students can pull up information about a lecture topic and then offer dissenting viewpoints that they have found. (Has anyone ever seen this happen in class, ever?). But the real reason that I bring this up, is because while normally I make fun of the Daily Cal when CalStuff scoops then by a day or two on a story, here is something that I reported on, in the Squelch magazine, last year. Take it away, myself:

Not a Single Laptop Being Used to Take Notes
Andy Ratto, His Is a 10, Vol.13 Iss.5

A recent campus-wide study has revealed that not a single laptop is currently being used to take notes in class.

The leading uses reported for laptops were playing card games, Minesweeper, that one pinball game, and surfing the Internet. “Anyone can take notes,” said Ethan Adams, owner of a laptop. “But with my computer in class I can just tune out Snoozy McLearno up there and go to ratemypoo.com.”

“I think it's wonderful seeing all these laptops,” said Randolph Starn, Professor Emeritus of History. “I'm just thrilled that students enjoy my lectures so much that they would want to hold on to them into the far distant future.”

The rest of Starn's remarks were drowned out by a tide of laptop typing and mouse clicks.

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Excuse Me While I Fellate Myself
Kind of ironic after someone said in comments earlier this week, "It's always better to let someone else say you are great than to shout it yourself." just days before someone says how great we are. Here is the article, from today's East Bay Express:

Least Sanctimonious Cal Student Blog: CalStuff

Ahhh, those crazy UC Berkeley kids with their "ideals" and "goals." It used to be that if you were nowhere near Sproul Plaza at noon and kept out of earshot from a rally bullhorn, you could avoid the quixotic ramblings of the post-pubescent. Not so anymore. Thanks to the proliferation of blogs, Cal students have flocked to the Internet -- replacing free porn (well, almost) with two-bit opinions. The Berkeley bloggers range from left (Cal Patriot Watch) to right (Res Ipsa Loquitur). But in between is the Goldilocks standard of Berkeley blogs, CalStuff. Former Daily Cal columnist Kevin Deenihan launched CalStuff in 2002 and has since passed on the brand name to a new generation of writers who lean left while maintaining a healthy disdain for political correctness as well as an actual sense of humor (a couple of the new guys are contributors to Cal's humor mag, Heuristic Squelch). One of the blog's newbies is running for student senate as Andy "BIG GAY HOMO" Ratto -- take that, PC police! The site is devoted to documenting student life and gossip and does a pretty damn good job of it. It's not just political posts about the ASUC elections, the topic du jour, but also goofy kid stuff like the annual vibrator race and pictures of co-op dwellers who nailed their furniture to the wall to create an optical illusion.

Email This Post!

The Indian Community Might be Angry with the SQUELCH! Party
Here is a conversation I had a moment ago, with an in the know, ASUC type fellow:

xxx: ghandi fucked your mother?
xxx: is that one of yours
AndyDRatto: mmhmm
xxx: there are flyers that say: ghandi fucked your mother and stopped eating for a while
AndyDRatto: yup
AndyDRatto: that's us
xxx: IC
xxx: the indian community is very upset and is planning something
AndyDRatto: you've got to be kidding
xxx: nope
xxx: I am serious
xxx: my told me
xxx: and one of her professors got so mad
xxx: that he ran through dwinelle
xxx: and ripped them down
AndyDRatto: I can't believe that
xxx: and said that this is disgusting and someone should do something about this
xxx: so she decided to take it back to her community
xxx: just letting you know
xxx: nothing might happen
AndyDRatto: do you have any contact for people in the indian community?
xxx: yeah
xxx: I will ask some other people and see whats up
AndyDRatto: alright, thanks for the information
xxx: she was very upset

First of all, the flier was quite hilarious in the broader theme of "Blank fucked your mom". Another example, "Seinfeld fucked your mom and yada yada yada, now she's pregnant." But regardless of the humor element, if the Indian Community think they can get some type of apology, I wish them good luck...Email This Post!

Go Read Rebecca's Column
Click the link, and when you're done, you can wander back here. Seriously, I'll just be chilling while you go read the funniest shit ever. All done with that? (If you just kept reading without skipping over there to read the column, this is your last chance.) Here is a snippet of her interview with ASUC insider Lisha Meybovich:

RCB: If I’m on my way to class and some fellatio starts aggressively shilling herself to me, how should I react?

LM: Ask her why she is running for the position. Don’t ask what she wants to do in the ASUC, because that will change. It’s the motivation behind the campaign that indicates the true character of the candidate.

RCB: I was hoping you’d say pepper spray. Anyhow, if you could do it all over again, what would your campaign slogan be?

LM: Lisha Meybovich: A chicken in every pot, and a cock in every ass.

P.S. Now go vote for Rebecca for President, and all the rest of us SQUELCH! kids too.Email This Post!

Election Odds and Ends
1. The Mike Davis suit against the Graduate Assembly proceeds, with no date set for a hearing. He's demanding $90,000. Here is the Daily Cal article for the details.

2. The suit against the Graduate Assembly autonomy referendum is tentatively scheduled for tonight at 10, although that might be changed. If it doesn't get shot down for more illegal language, it will be dead for not having followed the proper procedure (Davis filed another suit because the real Attorney General allegedly did not approve the language like he should have.) I'll post the brief on this tomorrow.

3. The No Bullshit folks were out today with posters and whatnot, and as far as I can tell they were making fun of non-SQUELCH! ASUC candidates and urging people not to vote.

4. Can we all just agree not to do any more referendums until we make some changes? The current system is farcical, and we should really not be enacting legislation, especially things like fee increases, through the current, deeply flawed referendum system.

P.S. CalStuff coverage to the contrary, there is actually all sorts of exciting interesting things occurring around here. And on Friday, I'll return to posting on things that aren't douchey ASUC related. [A professor I had freshman year has died, a strike seems imminent, the new SAT is getting the predictable reviews, we're the patent kings, I ran across an amazing sounding scholarship program that even haters of affirmative action should love... and much more]

P.P.S. So what are the drinking plans for Thursday night?Email This Post!

Student Voice Referendum Language Ruled Illegal, Future (Online?) Election Ordered
Attorney General Mike Davis won his argument, that the use of the word "include" did leave enough ambiguity as to whether there would actually be a fee increase. For some more background on the back and forth about this case, the Daily Cal (finally) has their article up, and they have a nifty timeline that documents the late night/early morning back and forth that took this referendum on and off the ballot multiple times.

The much more interesting part of the judgment was the remedy that they issued. The Judicial Council, in their own words:

In regard to the referendum’s vote in the future, the Council acknowledges that this referendum was proposed using the appropriate political process, and thus must be put to a vote. We hereby order the Elections Council to begin preparations for a second week (three days) of voting, during which time both contested referendums will be considered by voters. The exact dates of the election will be left to the discretion of the EC, but must be conducted within the coming two weeks. The manner in which the EC conducts the election is also up to the discretion of the EC, but we suggest the use of an online voting system to minimize additional expenditures.

Online elections!!!!eleven!1!!one! (I'm a big supporter of online elections, for the record). I can't imagine Election Chair Angel Bewer would even consider holding three more days of on campus polling, which almost assures that we will do this vote online. And for those people interested, here is the ballot question, and the reasoning as to why it was illegitimate:

“Should the ASUC mandatory fee include $4.50 per semester to fund membership in the UC Student Association at $1.50 per semester, fund other local, statewide, and national lobbying efforts at $1.50 per semester, and include $1.50 per semester return to financial aid?”

It is our opinion that the word “include” does not properly elaborate on the fact that student fees would be increased as a result of this referendum’s passage. We believe that the typical voting student may be at risk of not understanding the proper intention of the word “include”, and thus may be misled into thinking this would be an allocation rather than an increase in student fees. We suggest that the phrase “an additional” be placed after “include” in order to prevent any confusion.

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